It's important that our forum stay up to date, and so your PCQ&A staff has decided to upgrade our forum server. Not only does this provide us with better hardware performance, we will have updated Linux operating system software. The result will be faster performance, greater storage capacity, more memory, and we will be able to offer more forum features in the future. We have had both the old and new servers running in parallel for several days, and measurements have shown that the new server backs up the forum (a daily process) in about 1/3 the time it takes on the old server for the same amount of data, and without slowing down other activity.

A new server also means a new IP address. Some ISP's update their IP lookup files faster than others, so there may be one or two days of propagation delay before all your ISP's get caught up, during this period you can use our new numerical IP address to reach the site. The new IP address of the server is 72.3.131.19

If you wish to have full access to the site while the DNS is in transition you can add a line to your hosts file in your operating system.

In Windows NT/2000/XP, this file would be:

%systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

(where %systemroot% is your windows directory, for example c:\windows or c:\winnt)

In Windows 9x, the hosts file is:

c:\windows\hosts

It may not exist by default, you may have to create it.

On Unix systems, the hosts file is

/etc/hosts

In all cases, it is the following line that you would want to add:

72.3.131.19 www.pcqanda.com pcqanda.com

You should clear your browser's cache and exit and restart your browser to ensure that it's still not using the old records that it has cached. On Windows 2000 or XP, it may also be a good idea to issue the following command:

ipconfig /flushdns

If you do not wish to do this, you can just wait until the DNS starts working for you. It may be a matter of a few hours, or at the extreme worst a few days. This depends on how long your ISP is caching DNS records.

We plan to cut over to the new server at 00:00 hours UTC on May 4, 2006. DO NOT use the new server until the change over, if you do your posts will not appear in the active forum, and will not be carried over to the new server when Grogan does the final update from the old to the new server immediately before the change. If we all do this right there will be no lost posts.

The new server uses an AMD Athlon 64 CPU, 120GB Seagate Baracuda hard drive, 1GB of DDR Memory, and has greater bandwidh
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 15
model : 47
model name : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 2003.463
cache size : 512 KB
Motherboard : ASUSTeK Computer Inc. A8V Deluxe


The old server has an AMD Athlon CPU, a 40GB hard drive, and 512MB of PC133 DRAM.
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 6
model : 7
model name : AMD Duron(TM)Processor
stepping : 1
cpu MHz : 1311.723
cache size : 64 KB

Shelly

Nice! Thanks for the info.

thanks

Question..

I know little about servers. But with the 40GB hard drive the server is on now, does that mean all of our posts and everything fits on that hard drive? If so, how much space does this site take up?

Visit the Basement

Right now we fill about 20GB.

Shelly

There may be some confusion created by my post since 00:00 hours UTC is actually the start of Friday from the Prime Meridian west, but will fall in Thursday east of the Prime Meridian.

Shelly

Yeah! That should really speed up searches too. Thanks guys!

Behind every good computer... is a jumble of wires 'n stuff.

We have tested searches and it is much faster.

Shelly

I can vouch for that!! I just did a search on the new server. I think I blinked and missed it loading!!

Visit the Basement

It seems to be up to 500% faster for searches. Of course, no one is using it yet either.

Shelly

Yes it searches very fast.Tried that just now but unable to access the next search pages listed!

The site will not work correctly if you just go there by IP address. You must create that hosts file entry and access it as www.pcqanda.com or pcqanda.com because the cookies will not work. (the cookie domain is .pcqanda.com) Yep, the search needs to use a cookie for the session because the search navigation link commands don't otherwise know anything about your search query.

Grogan

Thanks for the info.Yes,now it works

I added that thing to hosts file and can't log into the new site but can log into the old site and if I post on the old site it is on the new site...How can that be?







Dell Dimension 4550,Win XP Home SP2, 2.4 GHZ P4, 512MB DDR PC2700 Ram, ATI Rage 128(32MB),Cable
Dell Inspiron 5160,XP Home SP2,2.8 GHZ,512MB Ram,32MB Video

And now it doesn't..What am I doing wrong? I added the hosts file and if I try and sign on to new site still cookie problem? Yeah I read the instructions.

You're on the new site

Grogan

How can I be when I go to new site this post isn't there?







Dell Dimension 4550,Win XP Home SP2, 2.4 GHZ P4, 512MB DDR PC2700 Ram, ATI Rage 128(32MB),Cable
Dell Inspiron 5160,XP Home SP2,2.8 GHZ,512MB Ram,32MB Video

This is the new site. The post is here

Grogan

I have booked marked the new server site and want to know when this site will be taken down so I will not visit it when I click my shortcut for PCQ&A.
Daylilydayzed
Daylilies are the Lord's smiles, new one every day.

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

Use the converter to find the time at your location

marti

Thanks Shelly!

Adirondack Girl

>You should clear your browser's cache and exit and restart
>your browser to ensure that it's still not using the old
>records that it has cached.

Thanx, Shelly. In Firefox, would that be Tools/Clear Private Data?

Sid

.
Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

I believe that to be different.
I would simply close FF & restart.

Probably, but I am not familiar with FF.

Shelly

Just clear cache, not private data.

Tools >> options >> privacy >> cache >> clear cache now

marti

Clear private data is just a convenient way to clear all browsing data, not only the cache. There are checkboxes for the data you wish to clear, so you could do it through that interface as well.

Grogan

Much obliged, guys (Marti, that's a unisex term to me and definitely includes you).

Marti, thanx for pointing my nose where to goes (poetic license )

.
Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

jbmcmillan said on the new server:

Grogan

Seems like there is always someone who doesn't understand the memo.

Shelly

Seems like there is always someone who doesn't understand the memo

So you are telling us that you are not guilty of never,never not understanding any type instructions,memos etc?

No conceit in your family because you have it all.

if it wasn't for the large obscene salaries this forum's moderators make i would almost feel sorry for the unmerciful pounding they take at times..

Take your meds bill.

Shelly

Lol No I understood the memo but as it said you just updated was wondering if the switchover was going to lose a couple of days as I had been to the new one a few minutes before and hadn't seen the post.I was just trying out the hosts file entry and have it commented out until the actual switchover.

I understood...just played to see if I could cornfuse myself but I've been hanging out here long enough to get it through osmosis.

Nice work guys...the new hardware and your efforts are greatly appreciated!

It is now 23:30 UTC. Switchover to the new server will occur in 30 minutes!

Shelly

We are on the new server and it appears everything is cool.

Shelly

Yeah, It's cool. Just checking in.

You are the second to post since the changeover. I wonder if people are blissfully still posting on the old server.

Shelly

Probably. I couldn't log in here until I added the hosts file entry. I got the "Page cannot be displayed: cookie problem" error.

>You are the second to post since the changeover. I wonder if
>people are blissfully still posting on the old server.

Hmmm... are the post counts advancing? Looks like the are staying the same.

very cool, works like a damn, thank for the upgrade.

I'm aboard Captain

LilJoe

I can feel the speed! HA HA!

DNS updates just kicked in on my end of the internet. I had made the hosts file change on one PC, but left another one unchanged so I could look at the old server. Just noticed that the PC without the hosts file change now sees the new server.

Behind every good computer... is a jumble of wires 'n stuff.

Just did a search. Made my old box act like a new build. I guess I'm on the new server?

You are on the new server. Welcome to the new faster forum.

marti

Me, too!!!!!!!!!

Yarddaawg

"Only two things are infinite, the universe
and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

Albert Einstein
(1879-1955

Yeah!!!

marti

Everything does seem alot snappier!

Way cool.

Visit the Basement

Definitely faster. I notice that posts with a lot of replies used to load up a bit slow and now things are flying.

The DNS does not reside on your computer, it is at your ISP. All websites have a numeric address, ours is now 72.3.131.19 that is our REAL address. People can't remember thousands numbers, so each site also has a name, ours is pcqanda.com. The DNS lookup table associates our real numeric address with our name. The DNS tables are updated daily and made available to every ISP for download. Some ISP's are more diligent than others about updating frequently.

Now you know how the internet works.

Oops, responded to the wrong post!

Shelly

72.3.131.19

Well done guys.

Hi

Managed finally to login to the site thru FireFox browser.Had been trying since morning to login using IE6 but did not succeed.Can anyone tell me what setting needs to be checked in IE6 to avoid Cookie problem error?

Regards
Chari

You probably need to do what Shelly listed above: Delete the current pcqanda cookie(s), edit the Hosts file and do the Start>Run ipconfig /flushdns. Be aware that certain anti-malware programs will overwrite this with their lists should you reboot - which means you would have to do Hosts and ipconfig /flushdns over again.

Jim.

Thanks.Did all that but still could not login using IE6.As a last resort.I thought of logging in thru Firefox browser and it worked.
Cookies are not getting registered in IE and I dont know how to add the PCQ&A cookie in IE6

If you haven't already, place pcqanda.com into the Trusted Sites zone in IE. This should allow a new cookie to be placed, even if you have all cookies blocked in the Privacy setting.

Jim.

I'm noticing intermittent latency this morning (10:41 EST).

Mmm - was a little laggy for me this morning and is lagging really bad right about now.

Hell, I can barely get in! Taking almost a minute to load. I don't have that much patience.

Very slow for past 2 hrs here .

Jane

I just got back from work, and the load average on the server was very high. Google and yahoo slurp.

Things are back to normal at the moment.

Grogan

And so it is thanks Mike

Jane

I took a directive out of our robots.txt file last night thinking we could just let them have their way with us on the new server, but nOOooo. I've put it back now. It'll take the bots a while to pick that up again.

Grogan

testing : am i here ?????

priscilla


i-MAC newbie out of training

Great job on the new forum.. the server and all that goes into this.

A big thank you to all those who do so much to make this forum happen.
Round of applause to all the effort put into this great forum.

cheers

Garbru
Garbrus PC Specs