I have been unable to reach V-R for a few hours tonight. Has it been down?

The account that this site is installed at on the web server looks like it's stuffed. Not sure why as the problem is also preventing error messages showing.

I have shifted the site to my test domain, http://plutopup.net/ until I can spend some time working things out. Due to Xmas being only a few days away, there is probably no chance of the site being restored on its correct account for several days as I just can't seem to locate the issue.

I've got a new web server on test at the moment but it is not due to go live until the second week in the new year. That might get fast forwarded a week if the time permits. Once I confirm that all is well with the new server I will purchase the SSL certificate for it.

As for the current server: bad problem and very bad timing. At least the site is still up and working correctly, even if not in its proper home. The link to here will remain on the holding page until all goes back to normal.

Thanks. Weird how such crap often happens going into long weekends, etc.

Good to see you have a hotswap 'Plan B' that works, plus the ability to publish a redirect notice. Many sites would be down for the duration with no reason known.

I'm going to have another crack at fixing it tomorrow night and I am hoping I get lucky. The same files on the VR account are in use here so I can only assume it is the server itself playing up. It's quite old now and should have been retired a year ago but work commitments have been getting in the road.

All this does make for a night with less sleep, that is for sure.

Regarding the redirect notice, it is just a static HTML webpage and the VR account is hosting them just fine. It is when the server tries to run ASP scripts that things go pear-shaped. Again, strange that it works on every account I have on this server except the one it's supposed to work on.

Back in the 'old days' I used to run nearly a dozen sites with early versions of this site software. I am still trying to work out where the hell I got the time from and why I was lucky enough not to suffer more dramas.

PS: Yes, members will have to log in, even if they previously set the site to remember their login, due to the different domain name.

I guess something about the account in question is corrupted. Is there an account integrity checking tool available?

Most likely. The server was about five years old when it went into service on my network, although it received a new hard disc, fresh format and OS install. I reckon even if I manage to get it going correctly before Xmas I will still fast-track the replacement. The new server is new in the true sense of the word and has that lovely 'new equipment' smell about it.

I am not sure about tools to find this sort of problem. If it was an issue with HTML or ASP code then there's plenty of choice there though I usually spot issues which are usually just typos or bad habits.

According to the server logs the last access to the site before the disaster struck was 13:39.

I am gunna hit the hay now as I need to be at work at 06:00. I wish tomorrow was Xmas eve as I always get a half holiday - no such luck with tomorrow only being the 23rd.

Okay, still issues, so the redirect now points at the narrow site, until whatever is going on can be found and rectified.

I can't make any promises that things are now right but I've just made about 30 changes to the server's settings and am hoping this will make a difference. We'll soon see.

I noticed the narrow site had died with error 500, then later the message removed reference to it.

Looks like things are ok now though...

Yep. The site's been back up since 16:38 today. Still too early to claim victory though.

Meanwhile, there's a strange message being displayed at http://plutopup.net/

Haha, Yes. I put that message there about ten years ago, back in the days when this server was a very busy place with around 25 active websites humming away. It was a time when I and a mate ran many forums and weblogs covering everything from current affairs to politics to vintage radio to search engine optimisation to the Big Brother television programme.

That page with the orange text is a holding page for that domain. The last surviving function hosted by Plutopup is my mail server. It will become a thing of the past in 2017 as I wind things down a little further and shift mail to an e-mail provider. I also host my own DNS service on the tinytater.net (named after Edgell Tiny Taters) domain and it too is being shifted to an outside service. This has been underway for the last week or two.

I will continue to keep the web hosting in-house though. Despite being problematic on the odd occasion (and admittedly at these times I sometimes wonder why I bother) I do enjoy it and hosting the remaining sites in-house gives me a lot of choice over functionality that I would be paying hundreds of dollars a month for on a commercial webhost. With that, there's no risk of VR being shifted or disappearing altogether.

The consolidation process will also allow me to cease paying for numerous domain names that are no longer fully utilised.