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Right - I regret to announce that the constant heckling and unreasonable behaviour of the cable believers here has made the forum not worth my time and effort anymore so in a few days time Zerogain.com will cease to exist.


ONLY KIDDING


Seriously though, there will soon be a hiatus in the forum's presence for rather irritating technical reasons. I'll try and explain:

The hosting company where the forum is currently hosted, oneandone.co.uk, has been pretty good to me. The forum has always been fast and uptime has been excellent. Unfortunately, the size of the forum's MySQL database is now getting close to 100Mb which is the absolute and unmovable limit that oneandone.co.uk set on any MySQL database in any of their shared hosting packages. The only solution is to upgrade to a dedicated hosting package (very expensive) or move to another hosting company. I've chosen to do the latter and, thanks to a recommendation from Isaac Sibson have opted to go with 34sp.com.

The problem is that it's not entirely straightforward to move the whole domain, forum and database to another host. I've done a trial run and now know the steps and I'm about to do it for real. I've already requested a "domain release authorization" from 1&1 and I've already setup the database, forum files, DNS information etc at 34sp.com, just waiting for the domain transfer to actually happen. Of course when it does the forum database at 34sp.com will be out of date (because it's a backup I took a couple of days ago).

What's unfortunate is that there's no knowing exactly when the domain transfer will happen. So, in order that the forum doesn't suddenly appear to have rolled back a week it will be in a closed state at the new host where only I can access it. As soon as I notice the domain transfer has happened I will backup the database on the old host, move it across to the new one, open up the forum again and then hopefully everything will be in order again.

It's really only possible for me to do this transfer malarkey whilst I'm at home in Portugal and not during my 2 weeks each month in London because here is the only place I have broadband and all the tools to do it. If it looks like I can have it all done and dusted by the end of this weekend then I'll aim for that. Otherwise I'll only kick it all off the weekend of 8th/9th May when I'm next back at home. I'll reply to this thread to indicate which it will be. When it happens there will inevitably be some time, possibly 24hrs or so, when the forum will be unavailable. Hopefully you'll all be able to survive without it for a few hours

Michael.

 

After a bit of tinkering last night I realise that I can do the transfer at any time and don't need broadband access so it will be going ahead within the next few days.

I'll put a post here when I've requested the domain to be transferred at which point it could happen any time in the following few days. If necessary I'll put a post on the Pink Fish off-topic forum to update you all with status.

For anyone who cares about the technical aspects, I realised that I could backup the database, gzip it up and ftp it to the new host all from an SSH session on the old host so the huge backup file (22Mb gzipped) doesn't have to go via my PC

Michael.

 

Do you know if the transfer is instanst or not? When I changed my DNS settings on fasthost it happened immediatly and the only outage was when transfering all my files.

Good luck with it anyway. I am sure nobody will mind a few days of this forum not been in use as its not a commerical website like HFC.

The bigger hosting companies seem to be in the habbit of letting you in cheap and then charging you a fortune to upgrade. The 100mb limit seems quite poor as its nothing these days.

 

If it was merely a nameserver transfer it would be pretty quick but I want to transfer the domain registrar aswell because 1&1 don't let you edit the DNS zone information whereas 34sp.com do. Once 1&1 have "authorized" the transfer (should be today) then I'll get 34sp.com to request the transfer which, in theory, should only take 48hrs or so but because it depends on two competing companies co-operating with each other it inevitably takes longer

The 100Mb limit was only the DB limit. In terms of webspace for files I have 1Gb . I had assumed that the size of my DB would just eat into my webspace limit but unfortunately that's not the case with 1&1.

Michael.

 

that's not how 34sp work either, you get your 50 gig webspace, or whatever, which you pay for, then you get the database additionally on top, which is not charged, and does not count towards your 50 gig

(or at least if its small, they don't charge - you should check with them what they do with larger db's. your db is a lot larger than mine, cyrusunofficial runs to about 3mb if memory serves, though it may have grown since last time i looked).

 

I know on my ISP the MySQL is on a different server to the webspace I am not sure if its the same with 1&1 but that would explain the size limit.

This is just a classic of case of hosts trying to fleese money out of people. My uni depertments hosting account (just for my course) £500 + domain charge bill a year for unlimitted accounts from fast host (all inclusive) is more like £5000 a year now because of silly extras.

I guess hosting it yourself is not an option as you live in two locations and it would require a much better connection than 512kbps so its just not practical.

 

I checked with 34sp.com before deciding to use them and they said they have no limit on the size of the DB. Clearly though they must have some contingency for people with HUGE databases.

Michael.

 

Yep its in the small print usualy, you will probably find it says however if the size of the database affects the performance for other account holders we have the right to terminate the account or somthing. However I am sure this is only a problem if the database got to somthing like 10gb which will never happen.

 

OK - domain transfer requested. 34sp.com say it takes a minimum of 5 days . We shall see...

Michael.

 

I think that the domain transfer should happen anytime now so the forum is likely to go offline sometime today or tomorrow. Whilst I'm at work (I'm in London at the moment) I can't do anything about it but the first evening after noticing it's gone I should be able to resurrect it.

Michael.

 

I think I speak for everyone when I say - thank you Michael! We all appreciate the effort you put into running this site.

And speaking for myself, if you ever need a hand with anything just let me know.

Dunc

 

Thanks Dunc

Michael.

 

Seconded. Thanks, Michael.

 

OK, looks like we're all back in business again. The database has been transferred to the new host and everything appears to be working well

Michael.

 

Well done Michael and, I think I speak for all, it's much appreciated by everyone here .

Let the influx on ex-Mana Forumites begin .

 

wot voodoo said (except for the bit about the Mana )

Just read the other thread, now I know what voodoo was referring to

 

Congrats on the move, Michael.

Today was a bit nervy with no ZG for aggravation but it looks like everyone survived. As far as I know no one cracked and posted that ZG was down in any other place.

Anyway, I'm glad that the forum's back.

 

Mike, following from the email, thought I'd let you know I'm now able to get on.

Anyone else have problems?

I'd still been getting the message about the forum being down while the host transfer took place.

 

If they did then they wouldn't see this message so wouldn't be able to reply :JPS:

Michael.

 

Nice one Michael. Appreciate your provisions!
G