PodcastAlley.com Going Down for Upgrades

[theFerf]

Time for us to look under the hood a little bit, and to do that, we are going to need to shut down the site for a while. We are moving to a new server (a few of them actually) in phase 1 of the Podcast Alley upgrade process. During this downtime, we will be moving the databases, files and the entire website to a new location and the site will not be available for up to a few hours. So what are you going to do with this free time...


(coming soon to a podcast alley near you)

[theFerf]

the server is back up and running for testing purposes. please report errors to info@podcastalley.com asap. thanks :)

[Patrick]

Phase 1?

That's a joke, right? If this is phase 1, what have the last 5 months been? Dress rehearsals?

I live ya, Chris, but it appears to me the site may actually be slower. Just being honest.

[theFerf]

Patrick:

you are accurate...it is slower. but the reason is that im switching operating systems on the server, so i just need to work out the kinks. plenty of processing power, plenty of ram, just need to fix some mysql/php issues.

[Patrick]

Good deal. I'm a loyal Podcast Alley-an...alien?

For the record it's asking me to login any time I go to any page in phpBB on the site. Might be a cookie or session issue.

[Fil]

Hey, I'm impressed. It's certainly a lot faster accessing it here in the UK. I no longer have the chance to grab a drink between pages.

Nice work!

The only downside is that some of the avatars are a little screwed up now!

<------

[docsnavely]

like greased lightning! This is the alley i remember.

now hitt, jim and jack can fight it out in almost real time! :twisted:

[charleyw]

except Patrick is right about the logging in situation.


Charley

[theFerf]

yeah, the logging in thing is still a mystery. i will be looking into this issue next as it is quite a bitch to deal with. the site is like there is no one on it (lets hope thats not true).

i will see what i can do about the avatars.


chris.

[theFerf]

BAM!


ok. as you can probably see now, the sessions (and logins) are working again. for those of you who care, here is why...

i had been setting the cookie name for the session info as "PodcastAlley.com" and apparently it does not like the period. I change it to just "PodcastAlley" and life seems to be good again.

please report any more freak errors you see to info@podcastalley.com or post them here. thanks!

[jeffoest]

Great golly - it's ALIVE.... Nice job Chris and THANKS!

[roadrageradio]

Great golly - it's ALIVE.... Nice job Chris and THANKS!

Just curious ... what time zone is the forum in now?

It used to be GMT -5 (Eastern Standard) but then it was more like GMT -2
(somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean -- the Azores?)

Now it seems to be somewhere else -- further west?

I'm just guessing from the timestamps on forum messages.

It would be helpful for it stay put for a while, so people can figure out what's new.

[Version3]

It's in CST.

[theFerf]

my appologies. due to the configurations of the server i needed to switch the configurations a little bit. i hope this did not cause too many problems.

[volwrath]

Wow it is fast. Congrats! and hope it stays this way!

[theFerf]

thanks....and me too!

[joelthecomic]

I think the URLs have changed both for direct access to podcaster details and to the forum. For example: http://www.podcastalley.com/podcast_detail.php?pod_id=2680 used to be the link to our show detail on PCA. Now I get a 404.

This is now the page: http://www.podcastalley.com/podcast_details.php?pod_id=2680 . See how there's an "s" on the end? That screwed up the link on our main page.

It's OK, but anyone with a link to your direct page on PCA should update, I think.

[jeffbearer]

I'd have to say that the new servers are DEAD SEXY and fast too.

Saw the RHEL test page the other day. at least you have bang up support now. Don't hesitate to call Redhat with questions that you aren't sure they will answer, I've been surprise several times when I've called them.

[roadrageradio]

Just curious ... what time zone is the forum in now?

It used to be GMT -5 (Eastern Standard) but then it was more like GMT -2
(somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean -- the Azores?)

Now it seems to be somewhere else -- further west?

I'm just guessing from the timestamps on forum messages.


Hmm. Just posted a message at 14:22 EDT and the time stamp says 1:22 pm.

Looks like the forum is on Eastern Standard Time = Central Daylight Time = GMT - 5

[theFerf]

The forums configurations are set to GMT -7 Hours.... make sure you update your personal preferences if needed ( you have the option to change your time zone in your preferences to reflect post times accurately in your zone.)

[Hittman]

The new speed is a welcome improvement, but I’ve got two problems I haven’t had before.

It won’t remember me, and log me on automatically, like it did before. And when I log in manually, all the tags that show where new messages have been posted are missing, so it looks like nothing new has been added since my last visit.

Cookies are working find on other PHP boards. I’ll try finding and deleting the PA cookie and see if that makes any difference.

[RevTim]

Chris, I gotta say, it's really working well for me in the SF Bay Area! Thanks for the ONGOING improvements. I can see it will only get better!

[kevdo]

The new speed is a welcome improvement, but I’ve got two problems I haven’t had before.

It won’t remember me, and log me on automatically, like it did before. And when I log in manually, all the tags that show where new messages have been posted are missing, so it looks like nothing new has been added since my last visit.


Same here. On both my work PC and home Mac.

[Hittman]

And deleting the cookie didn't help.

[anotherquizshow]

PodcastAlley is definitely loading more consistently now.

I hated getting that "site down" page or even nothing at all. I haven't experienced that lately.

Good work!

Michael