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Network Talk
For discussions about network-wide site topics, announcments, etc.
Server issues.
staff_Jim
Staff MemberPublisher
KITMAKER NETWORK
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New Hampshire, United States
Member Since: December 15, 2001
entire network: 12,571 Posts
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Posted: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 - 08:15 AM UTC
As some of you have probably noted the server has been a bit unstable over the past 3 days. This is due to some suspicious usage by overseas (China) IP addresses and we are working on resolving the problem.

We expect the server to be offline for up to 5 hours later today while a new external firewall is added. It should go down after 6PM PST.

Advertisers will be getting a 2 day credit for recent downtime that should be done later today also.

Thanks for your patience.

Jim
Tarok
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Victoria, Australia
Member Since: July 28, 2004
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Posted: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 - 11:51 AM UTC
Thanks for the heads-up Jim. Good luck with the implementation.

Guess I'll have to do some work today
staff_Jim
Staff MemberPublisher
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New Hampshire, United States
Member Since: December 15, 2001
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Posted: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 - 09:10 PM UTC
Gawd....that was a nightmare. But we once again have a Cisco firewall appliance.

I am going to bed now.

Jim
jaypee
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Scotland, United Kingdom
Member Since: February 07, 2008
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Posted: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 - 09:14 PM UTC
Take a well earned rest, I know how stressful problems like that can be. Looks sorted now.
Glad to have kitmaker back
JP
AndyD
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New South Wales, Australia
Member Since: December 01, 2004
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Posted: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - 12:06 AM UTC
Good to see it's all sorted out.

Jim I work in the field of networking and security, I'm the Aussie ops manager for a large international service provider. Please feel free to drop me a line as I'm happy to assist where I can.

I take it you have deployed a Cisco ASA as your internet facing firewall? They are not bad box's - although overpriced when compared to the likes of the Juniper SSG or Fortinet fire wall appliances.

We tend to use them as the 1st Firewall (we always deploy a minimum of two in-line) and then use something more application aware in the secondary firewall role.
Cheers,
Andy.
grayghost666
#021
Member Since: August 02, 2007
entire network: 2,458 Posts
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Posted: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - 01:37 AM UTC
hello Jim,
i do not know if this is important,but for the last 20+ hours i have been getting this message when i try to sign on:
Great Success! Apache is working on your cPanel and WHM server.
just thought you should know.
cheers,
Bruce
thegirl
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Alberta, Canada
Member Since: January 19, 2008
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Posted: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - 03:48 AM UTC
Have yourself a nice long one Jim . It's great to have the site back even with a few bugs here and there I'm sure you shared the same frustrations as we did . Nice to have the site back , I was lost with out !

When you wake up here's a few .....................

Cheers mate x by the members here !!!
milvehfan
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North Carolina, United States
Member Since: June 26, 2007
entire network: 2,116 Posts
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Posted: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - 04:35 AM UTC
Hi, I have been getting the same message as Bruce. Tried to log on here at 3am till 5am EST. Thanks for the heads up on this. milvehfan
Owsi
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Maryland, United States
Member Since: September 24, 2005
entire network: 39 Posts
KitMaker Network: 3 Posts
Posted: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - 11:12 AM UTC
I am also getting the same reply as Bruce and milvehfan when I visit through my Firefox browser, whereas in IE the site comes right up. Thought you all should know.
Grumpyoldman
Staff MemberConsigliere
KITMAKER NETWORK
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Florida, United States
Member Since: October 17, 2003
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Posted: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - 11:22 AM UTC
Was dreadful this morning, but seems to be up to speed this evening.
Tomcat31
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England - North East, United Kingdom
Member Since: November 18, 2006
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Posted: Thursday, April 16, 2009 - 10:31 AM UTC
Nice to see the network is a little more stable now


Quoted Text

Jim I work in the field of networking and security, I'm the Aussie ops manager for a large international service provider. Please feel free to drop me a line as I'm happy to assist where I can.

I take it you have deployed a Cisco ASA as your internet facing firewall? They are not bad box's - although overpriced when compared to the likes of the Juniper SSG or Fortinet fire wall appliances.

We tend to use them as the 1st Firewall (we always deploy a minimum of two in-line) and then use something more application aware in the secondary firewall role.
Cheers,
Andy.

I work as a network technician for my local NHS trust (Health care)and we use Watchguard for our firewalls across our 120 sites working in a COIN and we have have had no issues for the last 4 years of use. they also come out top in most independent security reviews.
Owsi
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Maryland, United States
Member Since: September 24, 2005
entire network: 39 Posts
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Posted: Thursday, April 16, 2009 - 12:02 PM UTC
Jim or anyone else who knows,

As I said earlier in this thread, I can not access the site through Firefox. Is this an issue that others are having or is it just me? Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom anyone may have.

Matt
grayghost666
#021
Member Since: August 02, 2007
entire network: 2,458 Posts
KitMaker Network: 163 Posts
Posted: Thursday, April 16, 2009 - 12:33 PM UTC
hello all,
i am also having a hard time E-Mailing to the staff members.they are being returned as undeliverable.did the staff get new address?
i am still getting the Apache message during the early morning hours(between 2am to 4am).
i am not sure why,unless the site is doing a update/maintenance time period during that time,
cheers,
Bruce
staff_Jim
Staff MemberPublisher
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New Hampshire, United States
Member Since: December 15, 2001
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Posted: Thursday, April 16, 2009 - 02:44 PM UTC

Quoted Text

hello all,
i am also having a hard time E-Mailing to the staff members.they are being returned as undeliverable.did the staff get new address?
i am still getting the Apache message during the early morning hours(between 2am to 4am).
i am not sure why,unless the site is doing a update/maintenance time period during that time,
cheers,
Bruce



Our email accounts are powered by Google servers, so...

For the record we were having outages and problems from Sunday thru Wednesday, but so far today no server crashes or restarts. That's not to say we are out of the woods. I need to learn how to configure the Cisco firewall we now have to ban IPs and such. But just having it has stopped some of the mischief I think.

Jim
CMOT
Staff MemberEditor-in-Chief
ARMORAMA
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England - South West, United Kingdom
Member Since: May 14, 2006
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Posted: Thursday, April 16, 2009 - 02:44 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Jim or anyone else who knows,

As I said earlier in this thread, I can not access the site through Firefox. Is this an issue that others are having or is it just me? Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom anyone may have.

Matt



Matt I use FireFox and could not get on the site yesterday with armorama.com, however I was able to access using armorama.kitmaker.net. Today I can access the site using either address.
staff_Jim
Staff MemberPublisher
KITMAKER NETWORK
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New Hampshire, United States
Member Since: December 15, 2001
entire network: 12,571 Posts
KitMaker Network: 4,397 Posts
Posted: Thursday, April 16, 2009 - 02:46 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Jim or anyone else who knows,

As I said earlier in this thread, I can not access the site through Firefox. Is this an issue that others are having or is it just me? Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom anyone may have.

Matt



Hi Matt,
Based on what I know about how Internet tech works, your issue sounds like a 'client' probelm which would almost certainly have something to do with cached files or cached DNS settings. We did move our sites from one IP address to another on Tuesday, so that might have caused some problems for any cached DNS info.

Thanks,
Jim
thegirl
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Alberta, Canada
Member Since: January 19, 2008
entire network: 6,743 Posts
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Posted: Thursday, April 16, 2009 - 06:33 PM UTC
Everything is working great ! No trouble on login in this morning or this evening and the gallery is back . Thank you Jim for all of the hard work and time so we can have our home back !!!!!
grayghost666
#021
Member Since: August 02, 2007
entire network: 2,458 Posts
KitMaker Network: 163 Posts
Posted: Thursday, April 16, 2009 - 07:32 PM UTC
hello Jim,
thanks for your hard work in getting the site fixed.so far no problems here in frigid Colorado.
thanks again,
cheers,
Bruce
05Sultan
#037
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California, United States
Member Since: December 19, 2004
entire network: 2,870 Posts
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Posted: Friday, April 17, 2009 - 04:18 AM UTC
It's a sunny day on the web again! Jim, u da Man!
Cheers!
Owsi
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Maryland, United States
Member Since: September 24, 2005
entire network: 39 Posts
KitMaker Network: 3 Posts
Posted: Saturday, April 18, 2009 - 02:39 AM UTC
Jim,

Thanks for the tip. I ended up deleting my bookmarks and clearing the cache and I am now able to access the site through Firefox, which means I can stop using IE which, at least in my book, is a very good thing. Thanks again.

Matt
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