Website not working

[Ian S]

Hi all,

I am one of the people who can't access much of the RTOC website including the committee boards, hence posting here.

I've been onto Iomart since Saturday.

They tried to reboot but at 9am today when I rang them the highest level tech support couldn't access our VPS either and assumed it was not responding and again tried to reboot.

By mid-day they'd found a fault with the node that precedes our VPS are are trying to fix it.

I just reported to them the weirdness with only Sky broadband (and me with BE, now owned by Sky) not being able to access. Iomart still can't access it and just now were sure the server was down so were very surprised to hear that it's up and being posted on.

They are now going run some tests from the RTOC website.

[R5MJH]

i had problems all day sunday trying to access from my ee mobile and my virgin home account its working atm but i thought the server was down as it seems intermitant ian

[JRP]

Thanks Ian.

[mingblus3]

The website is blocking all Sky users. I have checked this from a technical standpoint and the reason this is occuring is due to blacklists from what I can tell.

My IP address is a dynamically assigned address from the ISP SKY. When I run this IP agaist a blacklist tool my IP is listed. This will be the case for hundreds of sky users etc.

I have no knoweldge of the backend of this website but the website host should have sorted this ages ago.

This is a SKY issue and a RTOC issue. RTOC should not be banning/blocking users based on IP reputation. SKY should not be allowing their IP subnets to land on internet blacklists.

[Fordy]

Had this issue today with my iPhone on 02's 3G connection so it's not isolated to just sky broadband

[Penfold aka The Dealer]

The website is blocking all Sky users. I have checked this from a technical standpoint and the reason this is occuring is due to blacklists from what I can tell.

My IP address is a dynamically assigned address from the ISP SKY. When I run this IP agaist a blacklist tool my IP is listed. This will be the case for hundreds of sky users etc.

I have no knoweldge of the backend of this website but the website host should have sorted this ages ago.

This is a SKY issue and a RTOC issue. RTOC should not be banning/blocking users based on IP reputation. SKY should not be allowing their IP subnets to land on internet blacklists.

RTOC has not banned an IP address for atleast 6-8 weeks, we don't do it often, rarely do we ban regional IP address (mainly china and India is banned due to so many 100's of spam accounts being made)....

[Higgy82]

RTOC has not banned an IP address for atleast 6-8 weeks, we don't do it often, rarely do we ban regional IP address (mainly china and India is banned due to so many 100's of spam accounts being made)....

I work offshore in Australia when i was in Darwin before i departed offshore my IP address was blocked. I emailed admin and it was unblocked! all sorted

[Logg]

My BT internet now stopped working with then site.

Now stealing WiFi from next door.

[Penfold aka The Dealer]

I work offshore in Australia when i was in Darwin before i departed offshore my IP address was blocked. I emailed admin and it was unblocked! all sorted

Yeh Ian told me about that today... Ur IP address used to go via a Chinese Internet provider..

[robx1r]

mines grand but then again i'm irish so i wouldnt expect different............

[Higgy82]

"Yeh Ian told me about that today... Ur IP address used to go via a Chinese Internet provider.."

yeah strange! but when i get offshore its fine its not blocked so god knows where my IP is coming from when im in the middle of Timor Sea

[LeeR5GTT]

I can't log on at all on mobile or laptop, I'm only here now cos I'm using a site called hidemyass.com which hides the I.p address or something

Hopefully everything will get back to normal soon thanks for chasing this up Ian

[Ian S]

Re: a black list issue.

I did get an email problem with spam Barracuda blacklist. I contacted them and completed and form which unblocked RTOC. A few weeks ago. I think the block was about the old windows server being hacked and spamming the internet.

Had a problem trying to contact GG when we migrated to them that was the same barracuda block list that was interfering with GG and the RTOC. I wonder if that's issue now.

It not easy for me to use this page, I have to keep logging in over and over and only sometimes does it show this page or allow a post.

Currently I have no cursor in this edit window!

[Ian S]

I checked with this site: http://whatismyipaddress.com/blacklist-check my home PC IP address, that I can't get onto the site properly with, and it shows it's not blocked

There is a configuration issue with the VSP node at Iomart as tracert rtoc.org shows what would appear to be another site, britishblades.com, a cutlery site, with the same IP as rtoc.org; 91.215.180.207

I saw that a long time ago when my email virus scanner connected and I presumed that blades was related to a name used for servers by Iomart, our web host. But no, it's another site. And the trace times out after that. Doesn't find rtoc.org.

[Guybrush]

Unsuccessful traceroute snippet


Successful traceroute snippet


Bottom line is that it's iomart's problem to fix, not SKY's.
There's no blacklist issue.

[JRP]

Unsuccessful traceroute snippet


Successful traceroute snippet


Bottom line is that it's iomart's problem to fix, not SKY's.
There's no blacklist issue.

Changed your tune.

[Guybrush]

Changed your tune.

Yeah, well

[Adey aka Ewok]

how long till they sort it? getting a pain to log in everytime i click a button on the site. cant access alot of the site either.

[Trevhib]

how long till they sort it? getting a pain to log in everytime i click a button on the site. cant access alot of the site either.

How long's a piece of string. There will be an SLA, like 1, 3 or 5 days for someone to 'look at it'. From there it will take as long as it takes them to work out what the issue is and resolve it. Hopefully it will be something obvious and easy.

[JRP]

How long's a piece of string. There will be an SLA, like 1, 3 or 5 days for someone to 'look at it'. From there it will take as long as it takes them to work out what the issue is and resolve it. Hopefully it will be something obvious and easy.

Nothing's brief with you trev.

Yes.

No.

Maybe 1-5 days.

Done

[Ian S]

I just spoke to Iomart again, they have their top staff working on it now.

Two directors travelled down to Manchester data centre from Glasgow. And they have their best networking and other experts on it.

They have 22 servers not working.

They seem to have confirmed it's a networking issue and was 'flagging up' for some time before it went wrong but they didn't know how to fix it.

[car.crash]

Have they tried turning it off and back on again?

[Trevhib]

I think a lot things in life are worth considering more carefully Jon. Though you are right, being too long-winded is definitely a charge I have to answer

[Trevhib]

They have their best networking and other experts on it.

[andybond]

I just spoke to Iomart again, they have their top staff working on it now.

Two directors travelled down to Manchester data centre from Glasgow. And they have their best networking and other experts on it.

They have 22 servers not working.

They seem to have confirmed it's a networking issue and was 'flagging up' for some time before it went wrong but they didn't know how to fix it.

Seriously ?

So lets get this right. They had an issue identified to them 'some time ago'. Its flagged on 22 boxes and they dont know how to fix it.

Ill be honest Ian, them having their best networking and other experts on it isnt filling me with confidence.

[Adey aka Ewok]

Lol not sure if its fixed but I'm logged on fine using an aol BB connection right now

[Guybrush]

Nah, still broken on my EE 3G connection

[TopCat]

Yeah still not working and its effing annoying.

[Tim B]

I'm with sky. I can only get on here via a VPN link to work.

[gttjames]

I can use this site from home, but it wont load on my work computer at the moment

[SCHWARTZ]

Fine through virgin WiFi but EE 3g wont work

[R5MJH]

Fine through virgin WiFi but EE 3g wont work

im on ee now gaz but i have my favorite set to come straight to the live page but this wasnt working at the weekend and is now

[Ricardo]

Works on my phone with O2 3g but doesn't work on my laptop using WiFi with Sky

[R5MJH]

dont work on ee mobile, dont work on my mums virgin but works on my virgin ive got a cable modem still, its really annoying i cant understand why its started doing this i understand all the blocking etc but why??

[Ian S]

I phoned Iomart again just now and was told there is no change in the status, ie, they best staff are working on it but still don't know how to fix it. They know that it's a wider problem with servers being affected seemingly at random.

I asked about migrating RTOC 'sideways' from the legacy Global Gold VPS to a new Iomart VPS, this may be a bit slower as it may have higher contention of 100:1 but does give us an occasional useful admin control panel that we don't currently have. The salesman created a 'custom solution' for us with the same spec and price and cancelled the migration fee due to the circumstances, but then he got a reply from the technical team that it couldn't be done by them as they couldn't get the data off the faulty server.

So we're stuck then.

[Ian S]

I also asked about a 'cloud server' with them, as then we'd have no hardware issues I presume.

Problem is the price for storage space, they want about £80 per month with 20GB where we'd get 160GB with a normal dedicated server for that price.

[Guybrush]

he got a reply from the technical team that it couldn't be done by them as they couldn't get the data off the faulty server.

So we're stuck then.

When was the last good backup?

I think you should consider losing the last week of data in order to bring up a fully functioning site. Any missing data (new users) could be done manually?

This would also be a great test of the backup service that the club's been paying extra for.

[Penfold aka The Dealer]

for the 1st time in a week I am able to access via Sky broadband... fingers crossed its fixed

[Ian S]

Me also.

[R5MJH]

working EE too

[Ian S]

When was the last good backup?

Don't know! It might be every Sunday though, going by what the salesman said this week.

[Guybrush]

working EE too

And for me on EE

[Alex]

I'm on via the works computer and I've not been able to do that all week. It seems to be running well too. RTOC still doesn't appear on Google......

[Scoff]

Can GG / Iomart not pull this database from the server ? I just checked, I have root access to the server through ssh. The database could be dumped that way if there is enough HDD space.

[Johnp]

I always access rtoc via google and it has been fine all week on the hotel wifi but now your search on google for 'rtoc ' and it cant find anything

I'm on via the works computer and I've not been able to do that all week. It seems to be running well too. RTOC still doesn't appear on Google......

[andybond]

Can GG / Iomart not pull this database from the server ? I just checked, I have root access to the server through ssh. The database could be dumped that way if there is enough HDD space.

Does Vbulletin not have access to a backup tool inbuilt ? 4 does ( not that it is much help ! )

Couldnt phpmyadmin be installed / hacked about to let the DBs be download?

[Ian S]

Can GG / Iomart not pull this database from the server ? I just checked, I have root access to the server through ssh. The database could be dumped that way if there is enough HDD space.

Iomart, however, didn't have access to the RTOC server! I already asked them this morning to move the site to a working Iomart server from the faulty GG server.

[Ian S]

Together with 30 other RTOC emails I got this from Iomart sales:

Hi Ian,

That’s the issues now resolved and we do not expect a repeat. Again please accept our utmost apologies for the problems you have faced. If the server environment proves robust moving forward I would discourage you from moving to the iomart VPS platform as the migration could prove very difficult. I had a word with our senior techs who would potentially be carrying out the work and they suggest performance would not be improved. It down to you of course.

[Scoff]

Does Vbulletin not have access to a backup tool inbuilt ? 4 does ( not that it is much help ! )

Couldnt phpmyadmin be installed / hacked about to let the DBs be download?

Neither can handle the size of the database Andy, the only reliable way I had was to dump it to file at command line.

[Guybrush]

Does Vbulletin not have access to a backup tool inbuilt ? 4 does ( not that it is much help ! )

Couldnt phpmyadmin be installed / hacked about to let the DBs be download?

Can we pay someone to upgrade vbulletin?