Smolderforge Connection Issues
Posted: 18 Jun 2009, 23:01
There appears to be some trouble connecting to Smolderforge at the moment. We've looked into the problem and it seems that the IP has not changed. However, we're unable to connect to the server itself. Hopefully nothing has happened, but the only explanation is that the server itself is malfunctioning. It's a bit strange that it would, but it's almost been running for an entire year without turning off for more than 10 seconds(simple reboots), however it's built for that. It never gets over heated and it's an Energy Star brand.
I find it a bit ironic that we were suppose to have gone dedicated ~4 days ago, but due to issues with people influencing our decision to move to a dedicated server and promising to contribute to the server, then backing out (about 3 people I won't name at this time) we were unable to go dedicated currently. Ironic, that on the day it would have taken Smolderforge's data to all be copied over to that server, Smolderforge itself goes down. If we had gone dedicated, in now approximate time, we would be on that dedicated server right now. But things never working they way they should it would just so be that all 3 people that promised to donate to start Smolderforge going dedicated would all not donate causing a delayed response in the movement of Smolderforge to a dedicated server, to result in the real Smolderforge possibly to have broken hardware. And if that hard drive is broken, all 140,000 characters will be gone. I have a backup of the database world and accounts from like 1.6 weeks ago on my computer -- but not characters, characters are backed up on the server itself.
Now, hopefully, not assuming the worst, something simple has happened. Who knows, the ISP representative could have lied and they are having trouble and Smolderforge will pop back online in a few hours, or maybe something requires my physical assistance (which might be over a week since I'm at the beach and won't be going to the mountain house for some time).
All I can really say is, if Smolderforge did in fact experience a failure and these characters are lost. I will probably close Smolderforge. Though, I could bring the world database back, all the inconvenience it would cause players would be more that I'm willing to deal with. I don't want to have to tell 45,000 people what happened. Only about 500 have made forum accounts (not including the 200 I pruned a few months ago) and only about 50 people check these forums weekly.
If the hardware is damaged and I have to pay extensive money to even get it fixed, I might not. I really don't have the funds to go out and pay for it all to be fixed while trying to raise money to go dedicated while paying for the Internet, web server, etc.
Like I've said before, I apologize and I'll try to do what I can, but I can't make any reassuring promises at the moment.
I find it a bit ironic that we were suppose to have gone dedicated ~4 days ago, but due to issues with people influencing our decision to move to a dedicated server and promising to contribute to the server, then backing out (about 3 people I won't name at this time) we were unable to go dedicated currently. Ironic, that on the day it would have taken Smolderforge's data to all be copied over to that server, Smolderforge itself goes down. If we had gone dedicated, in now approximate time, we would be on that dedicated server right now. But things never working they way they should it would just so be that all 3 people that promised to donate to start Smolderforge going dedicated would all not donate causing a delayed response in the movement of Smolderforge to a dedicated server, to result in the real Smolderforge possibly to have broken hardware. And if that hard drive is broken, all 140,000 characters will be gone. I have a backup of the database world and accounts from like 1.6 weeks ago on my computer -- but not characters, characters are backed up on the server itself.
Now, hopefully, not assuming the worst, something simple has happened. Who knows, the ISP representative could have lied and they are having trouble and Smolderforge will pop back online in a few hours, or maybe something requires my physical assistance (which might be over a week since I'm at the beach and won't be going to the mountain house for some time).
All I can really say is, if Smolderforge did in fact experience a failure and these characters are lost. I will probably close Smolderforge. Though, I could bring the world database back, all the inconvenience it would cause players would be more that I'm willing to deal with. I don't want to have to tell 45,000 people what happened. Only about 500 have made forum accounts (not including the 200 I pruned a few months ago) and only about 50 people check these forums weekly.
If the hardware is damaged and I have to pay extensive money to even get it fixed, I might not. I really don't have the funds to go out and pay for it all to be fixed while trying to raise money to go dedicated while paying for the Internet, web server, etc.
Like I've said before, I apologize and I'll try to do what I can, but I can't make any reassuring promises at the moment.