Forum availabilty

andycarter · Post by **andycarter** » 25 Sep 2003, 01:19

Is it my ISP playing up or does this forum go offline occasionally?

Post by **Jon** » 25 Sep 2003, 02:35

Very very rarely.
It went down for a short period last yesterday afternoon due to a server problem beyond my control (some problem with the MS SQL server that drives the Forum) but after an email to Tech support was back up after approx 35 mins.
Since March this year when I took responsibility for the hosting, I think that we've been "down" about 3 times, no longer than 40 mins due to either upgrades at the Hosts, or some small tech problems. Out of interest, Andyspares Forum (unlike GSFcarparts.com) is hosted in North America, and the hosting is supported by me, and the other Administrator, David from Interwired (www.interwired.co.uk)independantly. Considering the bandwidth that we use here, things go pretty well most weeks.

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andycarter · Post by **andycarter** » 25 Sep 2003, 03:38

Thanks Jon,
I sometimes get 'connection reset by peer' messages from my smoothwall box - today it was several minutes before I could connect and post the original question.
Also my POP3 email server was unavailable at the same time.. Hmm
Might be cynical but maybe it's NTL's crafty trick to try and make their customers buy broadband by blocking peoples most regularly accessed sites.
Andy

Post by **Jon** » 26 Sep 2003, 03:23

Yes, that message sounds like a problem with your ISP.
Based on the experience of my neighbour who has NTL Broadband, (I look after her PC)I wouldn't go down that road either!!! Their engineers visited twice because she could not connect, and in the end returned and told her it was her PC and she needed to reload Windows. She did not, and strangely it worked OK after I reinstalled the drivers for her NTL modem box. Weird. We have 2 NTL connection boxes at my house but use a BT phone and Freeserve Broadband!! Enough said.
Writing this just now at my in-laws place in Bucks and dialling up through a modem via Freeserve anytime, it ain't quick but it works fine!!

)I always use Freeserve or BT Openworld if I'm setting up an ISP for someone as these are the only companies that let you use their SMTP server to send mail from any domain. At home I have a gsfcarparts.com address on my PC, the POP3 is the gsfcarparts one and the SMTP is the Freeserve one.They kindly send my gsfcarparts email for me.

BonceChops · Post by **BonceChops** » 02 Oct 2003, 01:46

Freeserve? Pipex is cheaper for ADSL and very reliable/good tech support