PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

At 10:00 pm pacific time, the forums will go down for some DB maintenance. Total down-time should be 30 minutes or less.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Looks like access to the forums is broken due to a network filter configuration issues in an external device. I do not have access to that, and can't fix it. We'll have to wait for someone else to look at it.

The host is working. pics.defcon.org is working, and an old instance of the forums being used for testing new settings is working. Heck, I've even got a tunnel working to post to the forums (this post) so the forums are working, but people just can't access them from the internet over http or https.

[Dark Tangent]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Hmm.. works for me.. any more specifics?

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Hmm.. works for me.. any more specifics?

They started working again. I sent you an e-mail shortly after they started working again, but I forgot to update this thread.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Forum User "G Mark" and "Winn" have been added as Forum Leaders/Organizers to the Hacker Jeopardy contest forum, joining "NickFarr" for a 3-part HJ DreamTeam. (Realize that all three were involved in HJ at DC14 and you should also know that winn and G Mark have been involved with HJ for a long while.)

Welcome!

If you want official announcements on the forums about HJ, they would come from any of these three users. Their user accounts have been verified, forum registration verified, everything checks out! :-)

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Access to the forums was recently blocked:
The forums box is still up, and has been running, but network access to them was limited earlier today. (Access to http://pics.defcon.org/ was still live.)

I've been told a temporary fix to avoid this problem has been added, but the cause will be examined later.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

I've been told a temporary fix to avoid this problem has been added, but the cause will be examined later.

Either there is another issue, or some variation of the original problem. Access to the forums sometimes get blocked for an hour or two, then comes back.

This is not in my control. Each instance I've noticed included an e-mail to the person/people that would need to know about it.

The forum box continues to run. The web server and DB services are running. Even access to https://pics.defcon.org can still be found to work (same box) while the forums seem down.

Sorry about these periods of unavailability. If you notice a pattern (time, duration, etc.) feel free to post it here for the person that is looking at this problem; maybe something will help him.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

EThis is not in my control. Each instance I've noticed included an e-mail to the person/people that would need to know about it.

A new person has been added to the mix. (Someone with access and a location to better examine this problem.)

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

A new person has been added to the mix. (Someone with access and a location to better examine this problem.)

The network device that is causing loss of availability of the forum box is still having problems. We are averageing one or two 2 hour periods each day, often in the evening.

If you find the forums are unavailable, just try 2 hours later.

We may have to wait for the person in-charge of the network device returns, before this problem is fixed.

Also, some time over the next 2 weeks, we're going to schedule some maintenance on the forums that is unrelated to this problem. This maintenance may include new features. More on this later.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

It has been a while since we've seen the 2-hour window of forum unavailability. That's good news.

Also: Added support for new markup tag for posts called "event"
Sample:
[event=95]1970 *NIX Epoch, Jan 1, midnight[/event]

[converge]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

It has been a while since we've seen the 2-hour window of forum unavailability.

ah ha! .. thought you could keep your forums running I see!!!

Tonight around 7pm or so I'll be upgrading the forums to the new vBulletin revision in queue. Downtime could take a little bit because previous templates have to manually be parsed for changes due to distance between versions, but I'll keep it to a minimum.

[converge]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Forums went down around 7:30pm PST .. or so, and have been restored as of this post. The upgrade appears to be clean and successful.

Issues with counters being lost has been resolved, as well as several 'missing' icons/buttons.

Please bring any other issues to the attention of your local mod/admin. Gracias

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

A bug has been reported. Expect a downtime this morning from 2:00am pacific time until 3:00am pacific time, though service may be restored earlier.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

A bug has been reported. Expect a downtime this morning from 2:00am pacific time until 3:00am pacific time, though service may be restored earlier.

Maintenance window complete.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

A user reported that the image-based verification for new user registration was broken. It's been busted since the 13th, but none of us caught it until now.

Thanks for the report. This is now fixed, and should be working.