Site (domain) outage update

By Steven P.
in Site & Forum Issues

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Grand Master

Steven P. Administrators

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  • Administrators
Posted

Nothing to report yet. The domain was pulled due to one of the many email addresses attached to our account not working and it relates to this http://community.discountasp.net/threads/new-icann-rule-could-lead-to-the-suspension-of-your-domain-name.21196/ it was an email address I used to create the account in 2000, but it wasn't used as a technical or administrative contact address for the whois, it is however the contact address for the account, which is where ICANN had an issue with :/

 

Changing the email address is not an easy thing to do where our domain is located, due to all the safeguards added to the account as well, but I have initiated a change of email request and am currently waiting on documents from our accountant that prove to them who we are, because it's the weekend this isn't going to be resolved until the working week starts. I have been contacted by our domain registrar but haven't received a response since I contacted them back yesterday morning with the information they requested to get the domain moved back into our account and unsuspended.

 

Hopefully they will unsuspend the domain quickly without the need for the change of email on our account (which takes between 5 and 7 days) because those two things are separate, so it could happen today but it might not.

 

I don't know anything more than that, and when I do I will post it on Twitter/Facebook and here, in the meantime you'll have to be patient, just like me.

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https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1199001-site-domain-outage-update/
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Grand Master

Charisma Veteran

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  • Veteran
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thanks for the update. Oddly, I've had zero interruption of anything here. Then again, I don't go to the front page as often, usually just the forums. But I understand this is a big problem for a lot of our users :/  Hope it's sorted out very soon!

Grand Master

firey

Posted
Posted

I think... It's a good chance for the site devs to fix anything that is hard-coded to neowin.net.  Like the front page logins, etc make them all relative.. then domain issues don't affect regular function.


thanks for the update. Oddly, I've had zero interruption of anything here. Then again, I don't go to the front page as often, usually just the forums. But I understand this is a big problem for a lot of our users :/  Hope it's sorted out very soon!

The issue is on the forums too.  Can't access neowin.net or neowin.net/forums... basically anything with neowin.net in the url.

Grand Master

Charisma Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

Maybe some VPN? I don't know how this looks here, but I know that few forums use VPN for Mods/Admins.

 

I use Hosts method to get forum on normal adrress.

Hmm, possibly. I'm sure it will stop working tomorrow, now that I've mentioned it and jinxed myself ;)

Grand Master

+BudMan MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

"It's kinda weird that ICANN never warned anyone about the changes before implementing them"

 

Oh I am sure they sent many an email to the email account listed on the account that if hey you don't answer this email you domain will be taken down ;)

Grand Master

riahc3

Posted
Posted

Hello,

Just to add some things:

http://neow.in does work but it has issues:

1: Login does not work or fails:

ldqHoH8.png

The login system's certificate seems to be for "neowin.net" so wont work correctly.

2: Images broken.

Images rely on domain name that you visit ( As a example (even if it works) http://neowin.net/images/pegasus/logo.png may work but http://neow.in/images/pegasus/logo.png wont ). There are very few of these so thats thanks to the great coding of the staff.

The solution right now is editing the hosts files by adding this line (besides flushing DNS entries on your PC):

 

74.204.71.245		neowin.net
I would make this frontpage as it affects us in waves (it didnt affect me yesterday but today its down for me)
Grand Master

DaveLegg Developer

Posted
  • Developer
Posted

The login will work fine if you accept the certificate mismatch. This happens because for obvious reasons, the certificate is for neowin.net. We're not going to buy a new one just for a couple of days of downtime. If you go to the forums, then login (accepting the certificate), it will work fine. There is no need to add anything to the hosts file, and doing so is a bad idea for a number of reasons.

Grand Master

Steven P. Administrators

Posted
  • Author
  • Administrators
Posted

The login will work fine if you accept the certificate mismatch. If you go to the forums, then login (accepting the certificate), it will work fine. 

^

 

Hello,

Accepting just reloads the page but you are not signed in.

ANYWAY at the risk of asking a dumb question, aren't you already logged in?

 

For those that didn't read the posts on the Neowin Facebook page, you will need to login on the forums, because logging in from main doesn't work, and also accept the certificate as Dave pointed out. Or you can just wait until this is resolved.

Grand Master

riahc3

Posted
Posted

Hello,

ANYWAY at the risk of asking a dumb question, aren't you already logged in?

This is on another PC.

I go to http://neow.in/forum

I click the "Login" button

I type my username and password

The page refreshes and still the login button appears...

I try browsing, making a topic, replying, but it says I am not logged in.

Tired on IE and Chrome (didnt use Firefox in case any extensions got in the way, I have none on my home PCs)

Grand Master

DaveLegg Developer

Posted
  • Developer
Posted

Hello,

This is on another PC.

I go to http://neow.in/forum

I click the "Login" button

I type my username and password

The page refreshes and still the login button appears...

I try browsing, making a topic, replying, but it says I am not logged in.

Tired on IE and Chrome (didnt use Firefox in case any extensions got in the way, I have none on my home PCs)

 

We know it works, as other people have managed fine. You could try the full login form, rather than the one that pops over the page? https://neow.in/forum/index.php?app=core&module=global&section=login

Grand Master

Phouchg

Posted
Posted

The login will work fine if you accept the certificate mismatch. This happens because for obvious reasons, the certificate is for neowin.net. We're not going to buy a new one just for a couple of days of downtime. If you go to the forums, then login (accepting the certificate), it will work fine. There is no need to add anything to the hosts file, and doing so is a bad idea for a number of reasons.

 

Can I have any of those reasons? Because it appears the most convenient way, provided that one isn't so irresponsible as to:

* not remove the entry if the address stops responding

* not remove the entry when the domain gets reinstated and re-propagated

Grand Master

DaveLegg Developer

Posted
  • Developer
Posted

The most convenient way is to use what we have setup to work during the downtime: http://neow.in.

 

The issues are

a) People will forget, and not remove the line once we have the issue resolved - causing problems down the line if we change IP

b) We have three servers, people have only been adding the first to their hosts files, this means that our round-robin load balancing is no longer effective, as more traffic is going to that server than would be normal, which may slow things down in busy times.

c) If we need to do maintenance on one of the servers, we would drop it from the DNS, so the requests are shared by the other two while that one is offline, then bring it back up, and move to the next one. If someone has the IP locally in their hosts file, they won't benefit from being redirected to the relevant servers which are online, and will see the site as offline while the work is carried out.

Grand Master

Brandon H Supervisor

Posted
  • Supervisor
Posted

The login will work fine if you accept the certificate mismatch. This happens because for obvious reasons, the certificate is for neowin.net. We're not going to buy a new one just for a couple of days of downtime. If you go to the forums, then login (accepting the certificate), it will work fine. There is no need to add anything to the hosts file, and doing so is a bad idea for a number of reasons.

i did accept the cert and it still just looped me back like a didn't log in

Grand Master

riahc3

Posted
Posted

Hello,

We know it works, as other people have managed fine. You could try the full login form, rather than the one that pops over the page? https://neow.in/forum/index.php?app=core&module=global&section=login

Went to that page, logged in, it too kme to the main forum page (logged in), I clicked on this thread in the minispy and again it showed the login button.

I am glad it is a problem on my side, not on Neowin's

Grand Master

Phouchg

Posted
Posted

I'd avoid overstating new domain being the most convenient way when people are having problems logging in and experiencing certificate errors when I haven't had none of the sort. Neow.in keeps referencing neowin.net in several places, slowing page loading down. I'm still unsure of the cause, but that's not convenient at all.

 

One must learn to take responsibility for one's personal convenience. If something stops working, I always see if it's not my own fault before assuming somebody else's.

Round-robin load-balancing not working anymore is a valid argument, however.

 

It's hard to decide if my personal convenience shall potentially result in certain inconvenience for the rest. And the other way round.

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