Mod Squad site troubles?

[raybee1970]

Hey guys,

First off...I hope Karl and all you guys don't mind me posting this here.I figured since alot of Heat guys also stop by here, it might be a good place to get information from those of you here too.

Anyways...in the last few months,I've had some problems accessing The Mod Squad site.I'm one of the admins there, and have still had troubles at times with connecting to the site.I figure if I'm having troubles, other are too.And I've received a few PM's in regards to it,a few emails and also seen some posts from time to time at BHMS too about it.

So to try and gather enough information to determine what we can do to get it fixed...I figured I would ask in a thread here, to see if any of you ever have problems...and if so, what are any details you can give about the problem?

I have long thought that our domain host (uni.cc) is part of the problem...but have been told that our server is also a culprit (123BuildaSite.com).

So if you have problems now, or can remember any problems in the past few weeks, please let me know so I can pass any of this along to those who can help fix it.

Thank you all.

[Administrator]

It's a little weird sometimes with your site

only about 10h back, modsquad site was loading without any trouble for me, but then I was trying to answer to a post there - and got no reply anymore from site. Same then on reloading mainpage

So it was from "just fine" to "nothing goes" within 10 minutes
Wasn't first time that way

[raybee1970]

Hey Karl,

Yeah...just a little while ago,the site was working fine.I was there posting for Smoke about his track release (since he can't connect to the site right now)..and then within 10 minutes,it had stopped working for me.

But at that time,I also tried our domain host's site:
www.uni.cc/

And then I tried TWChad's mirror site for the COT addons:
www.teamwestside.uni.cc/downloads/COT_Platinum_2008.htm

And neither of those were working at the time.Then 10 minutes later...all were working again.

So yeah...it's a weird problem.I have gotten a PM from both Smoke and Trucky over here about the site...and while Trucky's PM was from awhile back...it still seems to be causing folks troubles.

Also...here is a post left at BHMS:
www.bhmotorsports.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=45856

So while the site works ok for some of us sometimes, there is others that it won't work for at all.

But one thing is for sure....we need to track down the cause and get it fixed.I've been away for some time recently (at least as far as the site,editing and all that)...but when users who want to come to our site can't get there...something needs to be done.

We've had troubles with folks downloading large files from The Mod Squad site (Invalid data errors in the installs) and just general problems like that...which is why we'd set up a mirror for the COT addons.But I don't think we need to release anything anytime soon,until we get the site issues resolved.That way,if folks want to come download something,they can.I just don't like it when folks want to come to the site and look around...and can't get there when they try.It will literally makes folks mad to where they leave and never come back (or think we've closed up shop for good or something - which isn't the case whatsoever).

Also...some folks may have been reported as being "banned" from the site.Most likely, that is from a scripting error that has to do with Nuke Sentinel...which is a pretty high powered hacker security system in our site.It's just an error (most likely)...as I can't even remember the last time we actually, physically banned someone other than some hackers/spammers.It was probably 2 or 3 years ago for an actual legit user.

And again...I hope you don't mind me posting this here.I figured with the guys who come here, they've probably have visited the Mod Squad too at some point,so they may have some input that can help us get it fixed.

[Administrator]

Sept 23, 2008 9:55:58 GMT 2 raybee1970 said:

Also...some folks may have been reported as being "banned" from the site.

That's probably only some certain people... havin reason to suspect getting banned ;D Other ones would have asked if there'd been some problem

Sept 23, 2008 9:55:58 GMT 2 raybee1970 said:

And again...I hope you don't mind me posting this here.

Not at all

[raybee1970]

;D

I can say with all honesty, that I've only banned a kid named Racerboy who was cursing up a storm on our forums a few years ago.He was already banned from BHMS,Sim Racing Connection and some other sites before we ever banned him.The others I've had to ban...signed up with names like "jhgsthrus" and odd unreadable names like that, which are usually spammers/hackers.

I didn't ban any other legitimate users though...no matter what they write in magazines.

Hehe...some folks are a little quick to assume things and jump the gun on other things. ;D

But anyways...thanks for letting me post this here.This way I can direct TWChad over here, if it's something I can't explain with the site....and in case neither of us can get to the Mod Squad to read PM's too.

I just hate that folks are having so much trouble with the site.

[jaremko]

The problems i have now is that it loads verry slow(using my new username).
With my old username(trucky) ididn't see any posts in the forum anymore,it was just a empty forum.
That was fixed with my new username.
Also Ray,you can delete my old username,won't use it anymore.
U can contact me under Jaremko here and at the Modsquad.

[jaremko]

Well a time ago my dad visited you're site and he immediatly said to me PHP is good but sometimes there are troubles with it.
Didn't talked about it with him because i thought what should i do with that info but i will ask him what problems he knows about PHP.
Maybe there's something that could help you.
But i don't think it has something to do with PHP.
More a problem with you're operator i think(slow downloading of you're site i mean,about the other problems i don't know).

Edit:Link to modsquad doesn't work anymore,maybe you guys are working on it.

[Harding Jr]

I have been having problems also (from NZ connection and everyone else's it must be a provider problem) sometimes I get to load the home page then when I click forum its all gone most times I cant even get that far.

Just a thought I don't know exact terms so please bear with the blabbering on . does the site/server have a shut-off time when it just drops the request after it hasn't loading anything for a few secs? maybe the site/server is running slow because of whatever (bad weather) and because it is taking so long to load it drops the request to load the page.

I hope it makes some sense

[raybee1970]

To be honest, I don't know how the server works exactly.I do know it shouldn't be doing what it's doing though.

You see, about a year ago, we got the site shut off due to a phishing scheme being found on our site by the server dudes.It turns out, that in our comments section for News releases on the main page...some dipstick had posted a link to some site (porn,advertising...whatever it was) and we simply didn't know...due to us not checking the comments all that often.Needless to say though...the server folks shut us off until we found it and removed it (which we did).Subsequently...we also disabled anyone from commenting on those news articles.

We were then told afterwards, that we had a number of large files (mods and such) that were a problem on the bandwidth and space....which was actually a lie they told us.We had NOT gone over bandwidth use,and certainly weren't near are space capacity (32 Gigs) ,so Tazmaniac (our owner) had some conversations with them and got it sorted out...and even paid them extra to get the FULL package for space and bandwidth so it'd never been an issue again.To date...we still only have a little over 6 gigs on there.Here is our current stats:

Service In Use Available
MySQL MB 57.62 192.38
Traffic MB 86689.3 413310.70
Storage MB 6271.09 33728.91
Files 15965 184035

So as you can see...with the current package we have, we're no where near our limits for the month...nor have we ever really been in a violation of that.We could put plenty more on there..and it should not be an issue.Tazmaniac (with the help of some donations of course) always put the money back into the site for paying our server bills.

But here is the thing that got me.Right before we upped the space and bandwidth (space was previously at 20 gigs,bandwidth was at 300 gigs)...we were told that we should probably move our files over to a place like RapidShare or some other file hosting service.

Uh...hello.That is what we'd paid you morons for (server guys)...so it hit me the wrong way.Why should we pay them for a site with all that space and bandwidth...and not be able to put our files there?That was the whole point of getting that server anyways.

But anyways, I think after that little incident, they moved us to a different server box.We're on sc301 now...where I think it was sc101 or something before.Of course this was about a year ago.

It's just been the past month or two,that the major problems with connecting has popped up.And I still don't like the fact that the server/site/whatever doesn't let folks get the full downloads we have without having to use a download manager.I can get them off the FTP just fine...so why folks can't get them off the site (which is basically the same link) is confusing.

But TWChad and I are talking about what to do...and when we come up with a plan,we'll talk with the owner (Tazmaniac) and see what can be done.If the server guys can fix it....great.If not...we may have to move to a new server elsewhere...maybe even getting a new domain name and site name too.I don't know yet.We've been "The Mod Squad" for over 5 years now...and would hate to change names and all.But what happens, happens, I guess.We'll see how it goes.

But rest assured...we are trying to find a solution without pissing too many folks off.

[raybee1970]

Oh...by the way.At one point, we were offered the domain name "NASCARHeat.com" by a friend of ours who bought the domain name from Atari.

Since "TheModSquad.com" or .net etc can't be used...maybe we could go with NASCARHeat.com?

I don't know though....it would just seem so odd to use that name.But then again...it's (Nascar Heat) what our site is about mostly.

We'll keep talking though.

[Administrator]

Was just checking ModSquad site

Initial Load .... fast, without touble
Load of forum post ... fast
Login... fast
reply to forum post... no reply
attempt to reload main page .. no reply

To me this very much looks like your provider only allows for a certain, very low, number of loads per IP in a certain timespan. If you exceed this number of loads, you'll be blocked for next minutes

[sucahyo]

If it's decide that server will be moved. I think it would be best if the forum software changed too. If it's mybb, I can help customizing a little like what I do to heatfinder.net.

[bdford]

14th and 15th this month (October) cannot connect AT ALL these past 48 hrs.

Raybee, where are you?

You guys all right over there?

Concerned

Bubba

[oldnslow]

sounds difficult, i have been unable to get on for weeks, do some others have this problem?

[Administrator]

When trying to reach ModSquad, I get

(111) Connection refused

Dunno since when, but for sure at least since wednesday