I've made what I think may be a mistake by using a different SSL certificate provider as it has been a royal pain getting the new certificate. The chosen provider has a very stiff approval and verification process before a certificate can be issued.

Anyway, these motions are almost complete and I hope to have the certificate either later tonight or tomorrow. Once it arrives it'll get installed and then the site will finally switch over.

Needless to say, I am looking forward to finding out whether the new server will be enough and the connection problems thus finally become a thing of the past. It's been a long bumpy road but we are almost there.

One thing I've noticed is that all recent server stoppages have been happening at around 10AM, though on random days. I don't know whether there is anything in that or not.

Funny , I could not get on all day,
Then at around 7pm I reset my modem and then I could connect ?
Perhaps a coincidence? I dont know

Pete

Okay. The good news is that I finally have the raw test for the certificates though I have to hand-make them in Notepad. It's not a hard job but there is some stuffing around with it.

I am going to do all this at about 04:00 on Saturday morning as there will need to be a disruption to the site and I don't want anyone posting to the forums whilst it is all happening or comments may get lost whilst I switch between the servers during the testing phase.

For the next two days I will watch the site a bit closer and reboot where necessary to keep things running.

Perhaps a coincidence? I dont know

Not a coincidence, just good timing.

One thing I've noticed is that all recent server stoppages have been happening at around 10AM

Yes, I noticed that, too.

I've noticed it can take a couple of days to do its thing.

There's a link by GTC on page 2 of the My Holidays thread which still has not been converted, and it's been at least a week.

I just did that one manually. It happens rarely but even a correctly formed URL can be missed. Whether that is to do with the timeouts or not I don't really know.

The forum's spam filtration system prevents me from making the software convert the links in real time. That part of things was never really done properly which is why ZScan exists.

Yes, it's been good for me, too, and in saying that I hope I haven't spoken of the devil.

You can expect a similar attitude from me on Saturday. I won't be talking anything up. I've made that mistake too many times.

Yes, and I have at times noticed others scattered here and there, though not necessarily mine.

On the subject, it has crossed my mind that some run amok automated process on the server might be tying up all of the resources, but I guess Brad has checked that out.

which is why ZScan exists

Who supplies ZScan?

Happens at 10am!
Maybe its just not a morning person! I can relate to that!

I thought about that though I discounted it when I first discovered that the other sites I host (three others with very low traffic and I probably should scrap them anyway) are not affected. It is something unique to the account this site is on, or an issue with the software itself.

I don't know if anyone recalls though I even got desperate enough to roll back to a version created two year prior for a week or so in March and it didn't improve anything. This leads me to discount that the forum software is to blame. The only thing I don't think I've tried is rolling back the database - not possible as it'd create version clashes with the content within.

One of the jobs on Saturday will involve shifting the data to a new database file. It may help and it may not. Whilst I know the basics, I'm not really a trained expert with that sort of thing - unfortunately. More knowledge would certainly help though at the end of the day one cannot do it all, try as one might.

It'll be good to go back to improving the site instead of merely just keeping it afloat.

What's the latest on the server upgrade?

The site feels sluggish tonight, for me at least. Haven't had a 500 type error for some days, though.

You pretty much sum things up.

The Net, for me at least, is slow and has been all afternoon.

The good news is that the new server went online at 06:30 on Saturday morning and aside from a typo in a site modification I made at around 11:30 that morning (and duly corrected soon after) the site has been up since then (so I am told anyway). I was going to keep an announcement on this until the 7th day but I think now may as well be the time to declare the new server a success.

Hopefully the connection speed will come back to normal.

Good to know.

Hi Brad, since Sunday I have had no 500's or log in fails.
The site now seems to work smoothly and does not hang between requests.

I'll bet that jinxed it!!!!

One small thing my "Vouge" restoration has disappeared from the Tutorial list, may have something to do with that list linking to a 2014 update as the "Vouge" was later?

Fred.