At some time between Monday, 10th September and Friday, 14th September this site will not be accessible as it is moving to a new Internet connection. The outage is not likely to last for five days but the outage will occur during this time.

Whilst this is occurring, the downtime will also be used to carry out annual maintenance on the servers and this will ensure that the Christmas break will not suffer a separate disruption.

A thanks to Brad for creating and persisting with this site, having just been hospitalised ( heart failure ...again!) and now ordered to limit workshop activity its nice to have a means of keeping up with the hobby when you cannot physically participate.

Fred.

Brad,

Actually I have had no real problems accessing the site for a few weeks now so something you have done has smartened the web site up.

When it has stumbled it simply would not respond as I attempted to log on so I would go off elsewhere & do other stuff & return to find it up and going OK.

To echo Fred, Thanks for your patience in keeping a great site going.

Lindsay

Actually I have had no real problems accessing the site for a few weeks now so something you have done has smartened the web site up.

No such luck for me I am afraid. I think there has been some more good patches of late but I am worried that the ISP is secretly putting QOS (quality of service) restrictions on Ports 80 and 443 to discourage the utilisation of home servers. If that was happening, it'd explain the HTTP errors. I won't know that until after the switch though.

The change of connection is more of a preparation for a later change to the NBN though. My current provider does not support static IP addresses on their FTTB or NBN plans, so basically, they can get nicked. The new provider will carry me over to the NBN, mid contract if required, with no fees and the same IP address. Nothing for me to complain about there.

I am worried that the ISP is secretly putting QOS (quality of service) restrictions on Ports 80 and 443 to discourage the utilisation of home servers

Would the amount of traffic on V-R warrant that? I wouldn't have thought so.

However if that's what is going on, then the quicker you're out of there the better!

Fred: take it easy.

GTC, I doubt they are doing it though VR isn't my only site, though it will be soon. What remains of a digital empire is no longer used and even the test beds I once used for development are no longer linked via URLs. VR will soon be the final frontier.

Fred, I did errr by not saying a few words along the lines of hoping that you are better soon. Despite being a bit younger, I know what it's like to be close to the brink and to be forced into a position where one has to think about ways to 'stay afloat'. I sincerely hope you are on the mend.

Hi Brad, cheers mate, appreciate.
Fred.

For the benefit of the new members and as a reminder to those who have already read this notice, next week there will be a loss of connection to Vintage Radio whilst a change of connection takes place. This outage is likely to last for a few days but the site will definitely be back - so during the outage, just keep trying to come back every day and you will eventually find your way back once the site's new connection is enabled.

It appears that I was prudent by not promising when the announced connection upgrade would take place, as I am still waiting for the new ISP to move on this. All I can do at this stage is keep everyone reminded that very soon there will indeed be a loss of access to Vintage Radio for up to a few days whilst the transition takes place. The actual churn should go smoothly but yes, I am still waiting for the process to begin.

Brad
I noticed that my browser, Chrome, shows the site as not secure, seeming to have lost the "https" prefix.
Was this accidental or something involved in the proposed change?
Cheers
Harold

G'day Harold,

On many pages inside the site, the "Not secure" banner will show in all browsers. This occurs when some of the content on the page is from a non-secure source. This is usually a member's avatar which is still located at a standard "http" address. Avatars hosted here or on the Gravatar service are from secure locations though.

When you visit the home page or are signing in or out, your connection is still protected by the "https" protocol on port 443.

Problems in paradise lie ahead.

In a phone call to my ISP today, they explained that they were not prepared to fault-find and repair the connection to this server because the NBN and FTTB were now available. When I asked if a static IP address was available with the new service they said no. So I had a war of words with them and told them that I would not agree for the service to be shifted unless they could guarantee I'd be provided with a static IP.

So they basically have a choice of whether to get off their quoits and repair the connection or cut me off when the expiry date for changeover passes. Naturally, they have not advised me of this date so I will ask for this in a follow-up e-mail tonight.

Please be advised, however, that tugs of war with phone companies never usually end well and this site may well disappear from the radar screen un-announced. If this happens I will endeavour to have a new connection arranged as soon as I can - with a new phone company.

Kevin Rudd - this is all your bloody fault and I am glad you are no longer in politics.

I should add, and this is partly the cause of all of the above, that neither the Commonwealth Government, NBNCo or my phone company has ever advised of the cut-off date for changeover. So now I am stuck with doing a lot of leg work at the 11th hour.

When I asked if a static IP address was available with the new service they said no.

So how does TPG support* customers with web servers?

(* given that it's TPG, I use the term support very loosely.)

OK, I just looked it up and I see that they only provide static addresses for NBN Business plans. If the cost of a business plan is too high, then definitely give TPG the boot.

I can't use the NBN yet unfortunately, as those I live with are occupying the cable service on a Bigpond Cable plan which eats the NBN alive for cost and speed. Peaks of 115Mbit at 3/4 the cost of a maxed NBN plan, I can understand why they don't want to shift until the last minute.

I've posted a question on Whirlpool about companies that resell TPG's FTTB service. That is also an option if a static IP is on offer. As I mentioned in the posting on Whirlpool, TPG, in their infinite wisdom, don't offer a static IP on FTTB or NBN (I didn't realise they had business plans, I will sus those out tonight).

This is where things get really complicated. The person I spoke to today mentioned that my line has already been chopped by Telstra. The fact that the site is still up proves that is a load of cobblers. Helpdesk staff at every ISP I've ever used are zombies that just peddle BS and I am convinced at the earliest stage that many ISPs (won't mention any particular one for obvious reasons) just hire 457s and give them flipcharts to read from in whatever language that is convenient at the time. Great customer service, it isn't.

Update: TPG offers a small office fibre plan which sounds great until the price is read. $400 a month doesn't exactly fit into the budget of a non profit site. It's a bit rich when their fibre already runs past the premises.

The help desk staff at companies I used to work at were frequently backpackers, many from Ireland. They'd stay for a couple of months and move on. They always reminded me of the old joke: "Yesterday I couldn't spell engineer. Now I are one."

I've seen Exetel mentioned in questions about static IP, but I gather they don't have a good reputation.