Server Status: Up

Server Notes

Lumpy urgently needs a home, or we need someone to host a slave record for the NQIG DNS entry. If you can help with either of these two things, let me know!

Also, we've got a new homepage, but we also need new member data! So get on the ball and give me your desired member info!

Whew! Been a long time since we had a home page update. Not that too many people beyond myself ever see it, but it IS technically the primary representation of us to the world, so we should take at least some effort to make it look nice ^^;

Server Status: Amalla Up, Lumpy Up (for now)

Server Notes
Well, the phpBB2's visual confirmation SUCKS.

So, I've hacked it a little and made it a little better/worse. The important thing is that it's different now. That means that the spammers should have serious trouble getting their bots to work with out forum since it's heterogeneous from the primary source base.

Not fool proof, and also not easy for humans to read... SO if you're having trouble with creating your account, just give me a holler, we can hook you up no problem. ^^

As a side note, Lumpy is currently looking for a home. He doesn't need much bandwidth, or even guaranteed uptime. Just a static IP and ports 22, 25, 53, and 3306 open for incoming traffic.

Lumpy's old home is about to kick him out so I need to work on finding him a new home. Silly as it may seem, Lumpy's been an invaluable asset to the proper functioning of the NQIG webmail system. However, we may consider moving the E-Mail over to Go-Daddy's servers to improve it's reliability or just dropping the NQIG mail system altogether and depending on other servers for mail delivery (like g-mail) since it seems that the only person with any serious use for the NQIG mail system seems to be me ^^;;;

Status Nominal

Server Status: Amalla:Up Lumpy: Up

Server Notes
Everything continues to operate exactly as specified. There is no currently scheduled downtime.

Amalla seems to miss incoming connections every once-in-a-while. No clue why, but it would not be hard to convince me that the virtualization process is responsible. It's not crippling, but it's not exactly "perfect" operation.

I may consider switching to a lower level of service sometime in the future (i.e. drop the "server" altogether) since they offer plans that include server-side scripting and databases, which is really the whole reason I started running my own server several years ago. But at that time, most scripting languages weren't safe enough to have strangers running code on your servers. A lot has changed since then, so servers that offer PHP support are now a dime a dozen. But that won't be an issue for another 6 months, so we'll look at it then.

Just be aware that if I do that, all NQIG member sites will have to find their own hosting. The .nqig.net domain, however, will still remain, so things like jtc.nqig.net are very much possible (For that matter, those names already work ^.~)

Motoko is Offline

Server Status: Amalla/Up Lumpy/Up Motoko/"Down forever"

Server Notes
Motoko is no longer online. Amalla and Lumpy are fully functional and service will continue uninterrupted.

*sniffle* She's gone. I've finally totally offlined Motoko. I mean TOTALLY offlined. She was "offline" for a while, (no access but technically still on.) but now she doesn't exist anymore.

That doesn't mean I didn't come up with something to do with her body. Motoko's parts (Except for her video card which was replaced,) where turned into a Windows Media Center PC called Izumi.

Izumi's doing fine and has been happily recording all the cool TV shows for some time now, so I can't complain. But I still miss Motoko sometimes... *tear*

Oh, I know! I'll setup a Virtual PC on Izumi and install Linux on it so Motoko's name and final purpose can continue uninterrupted. I'll need to set it to low priority and no hardware acelleration though ^^;

GoDaddy and Outgoing E-Mail

Server Status: Amalla/Up Lumpy/Up Motoko/Up

Server Notes
Outgoing E-Mail service has been repaired. Any messages sent in the last 5 days will be delivered as usual. Any E-Mails sent before that will need to be resent as they where tossed from the queue.

GoDaddy has a nifty anti-spam plan, but because of this I can't actually just set my e-mail server to operate as an e-mail server should. I have to set a "Smart Host" (which is where Amalla is supposed to send all of her outgoing e-mail to.) There is technically a 1000 e-mail per day limit, but I don't think that will be a problem. We'll see. I know there's no reason we should ever exceed that number (Hell, I only noticed because I had a message to Loki get stuck at the server and I send about 1 e-mail a month) but we'll see.

Amalla is Online, Motoko will be offline by, well soon.

Server Status: Amalla Up, Motoko Up (but not for much longer), Lumpy Up

Server Notes
The changeover has been completed. Services will continue uninterrupted (Except for you oni. Deal with it ^.~) Motoko will soon be going offline so please be sure to switch to the Ventrilo server on ventrilo.nqig.net. (This name will be mapped to whatever server is hosting ventrilo from now on.) Nothing else needs to be changed to continue using Ventrilo.

If you notice a feature that is missing please inform me and I will make every effort to bring it on to the new server. Also note that there was a 1 day period where mailboxes became disjunct. If you're worried that you may have lost an e-mail, contact me and I'll give you a copy of your mailbox that was made shortly after the disjunction was repaired.

Unlike all the times in the past, your passwords have NOT been reset. This was accomplished by me bopping myself in the head and just copying your password hashes over to the new server. They're not as strong as the server's native password hashes (Amalla natively uses MD5 hashes and Motoko used libcrypt hashes,) but if I've done my job right there shouldn't be much of a difference in security.

The swap to the new provider was much easier than I had expected. There where a few minor glitches associated with having two fully functional servers online at once (and having two very different impressions of the domain settings, (Jim's Lesson Learned: Don't forget to update the serial number on your zone records when you change them)) but overall things went rather smoothly (MUCH more smoothly then they have gone in the past, but this may also itself be related to the fact that Motoko was kept online during the switchover so I could copy files as I needed them.)

All in all I'm happy with the switch. Go Daddy's server seems to run pretty well (though it does ocassionally chug a bit) and it DEFINATELY shows the value of the Virtual Server concept.

Maybe one day when I get the chance I'll add Virtual Server hosting to my business , since the cost of running 2 1-cpu systems is much higher than the cost of running 1 2-cpu system is much higjer than the cost of running 1 8-core-4-cpu system. I think I could make a decent profit leasing them for much more than they cost me to operate and still be offering them for a decent price. (Since I would also be able to aggregate the bandwidth between them.)

But that's a topic for my personal space ^.~

Motoko's Services are Being Moved to a New Site

Server Status: Up/Down

Server Notes
Motoko, our faithful servant now for almost 6 years, will be brought completely offline in the coming month to allow for us to cancel the DSL and get Comcast Cable internet service. For those of you who come over to my house it will be a VERY good thing as we'll be getting the 6 Meg up, 768K down kind, plus we know that the DSL SUCKS in the wind or rain, so we'll pick up stability, which is a huge plus.

"But what about my email/website/ventrilo server?! What will happen to it?" you ask.

Well, fear not. Though I'm not going to pay comcast some $30 a month to make it so that Motoko can sit on the cable line and make a lot of noise at my house and eat power and need cleaning and all those other annoying things that Motoko does, I WILL pay $25 to an offsite hosting company (www.godaddy.com) to host all of Motoko's services.

Enter Amalla. Amalla is the off site "Virtual Dedicated Server" that will host NQIG and all of it's affiliate sites. (The irony is that I was thinking about offering Virtual Dedicated Servers for you guys ^^; )

Soon, 5-10 days I suspect, I will complete bringing all of Motoko's services (Except for yours Oni. Sorry.) over to Amalla. After which Amalla will be about 80% functional, lacking only a few minor aspects of Motoko's functionality associated with DNS support (because I can't update the DNS records till they transfer. Oh ya, I'm transfering those to Go Daddy too because they're charging like 30% of what Network Solutions was.)

When the DNS services are complete, Motoko will be moved from primary functionality to secondary until we fully cancel the DSL service, after which time her hardware will be liberated for whatever devious means we might want to use it for. (Maybe add a vid card and make it a guest computer or something? No clue. I'm still working on that. She's only a Athelon 2000+ so she's kinda weak.)

There is an important note though: For the next week, I'm offlining the forum and recommending that if you actually want to see your data end up on Amalla, you resist uploading anything until I give the go-ahead. Since I'll be copying the data by hand, there's no promise that I may miss something you upload after I copy.

I may finish the copy today, or it may take me a week; I don't know. But I will make all reasonable effort to be prompt with the changeover to minimize the disturbance to services.

This is going to ROCK, but it's kinda scary. Never had a whole SERVER hosted in another location before. But I suspect things will go well.