Help me check DTP Forum availability

[ktinkel]

We just moved the Desktop Publishing Forum (http://desktoppublishingforum.com/bb) to a new host. I thought the DNS had propagated — some of us can view the HTML front page (http://desktoppublishingforum/) — but not the vBulletin forums.

I have cleared the caches of all my browsers, repeatedly; rebooted the computer. No Forum.

Anyway, if anyone has a moment, will you try to follow the link(s) above and let me know what you see. All I get is a blank page for the first link (which should take me directly to the vB front page). For the second, I see our HTML page, but the Discussion link (which goes to the vB) also produces a blank page.

Thanks.

[Dan in Saint Louis]

I thought the DNS had propagatedThe domain name is fine, DNS points to it very quickly; but the /bb folders that have the "bulletin board" must be missing.

[EDIT: Now I can't see the front page either!]
[EDIT AGAIN: Yes, it works if you include the ".com" after the name! It's missing in your link.]

[sidney]

We just moved the Desktop Publishing Forum (http://desktoppublishingforum.com/bb) to a new host. I thought the DNS had propagated — some of us can view the HTML front page (http://desktoppublishingforum/) — but not the vBulletin forums

I get ip address 72.249.26.6. If that's correct then the DNS has propagated here. Although that isn't saying much, because it is unlikely that the DNS server I am using here had the old address cached. When I tried it, it would have had to go fetch the address and would have received the latest one.

I also see the blank page, however I also tried

http://desktoppublishingforum.com/bb/index.html

which gave me the same blank page, and then tried

http://desktoppublishingforum.com/bb/index.php

which gave me a page about a database error.

It looks like you have two problems: First, the directory contains both index.html and index.php files with the web server set up to give priority to index.html when no file name is in the URL. Either change the preference order if you can, or more simply delete the index.html file. Secondly, your vBulletin configuration file is not correctly specifying the MySQL database information (host, db name, db user name, and/or password is/are wrong).

-- sidney

[ktinkel]

The domain name is fine, DNS points to it very quickly; but the /bb folders that have the "bulletin board" must be missing.

[EDIT: Now I can't see the front page either!]
[EDIT AGAIN: Yes, it works if you include the ".com" after the name! It's missing in your link.]Ouch. I am obviously in a state. The non-vBulletin front page link is http://desktoppublishingforum.com/ and that should give you that HTML page.

The vBulletin page is the one we cannot view. And our host is telling us that everyone there can reach the page. Sounds like an impasse to me.

Thanks for trying.

[ktinkel]

I get ip address 72.249.26.6. If that's correct It is correct.

I also see the blank page, however I also tried

http://desktoppublishingforum.com/bb/index.html

which gave me the same blank page, and then tried

http://desktoppublishingforum.com/bb/index.php

which gave me a page about a database error.That’s interesting. I didn’t understand why I sometimes got the error (the generic MS error, not our custom error) and sometimes just the blank page.

It looks like you have two problems: First, the directory contains both index.html and index.php files with the web server set up to give priority to index.html when no file name is in the URL. Either change the preference order if you can, or more simply delete the index.html file.I deleted the index.html in the /bb directory (it is empty), and still got the blank page, even after clearing the cache, in Firefox and in Safari. (I have been clearing caches all day, rebooted, rebooted the cable modem, etc. None of it has any effect at all.) Furthermore, last night before changing the nameservers, working locally, I got that blank vB page as well.

Secondly, your vBulletin configuration file is not correctly specifying the MySQL database information (host, db name, db user name, and/or password is/are wrong).We have asked them to check it, and fiddled with it ourselves, but it makes no difference. I will quote you to the host, see if it triggers something useful.

Thanks very much. I will go do more battle. This is likely to put us out of business! :( :mad:

[sidney]

I deleted the index.html in the /bb directory (it is empty), and still got the blank page, even after clearing the cache

That is strange. I can see that index.html no longer exists and I consistently get the database error page when I access the bb directory now.

If you want me to look at it directly, email me the user names and passwords to access the files, the MySQL configuration information including db host, db name, db user, and db password, and user name and password and URL to access whatever control panel thing the host gives you to work with.

-- sidney

[davidh]

The link "Forums" on the front page at http://desktoppublishing.com is:

http://desktoppublishing.com/boards/default.asp

going that way did not seem to have problems for me.

Maybe it's all fixed now.

DH

[ndebord]

We just moved the Desktop Publishing Forum (http://desktoppublishingforum.com/bb) to a new host. I thought the DNS had propagated — some of us can view the HTML front page (http://desktoppublishingforum/) — but not the vBulletin forums.

I have cleared the caches of all my browsers, repeatedly; rebooted the computer. No Forum.

Anyway, if anyone has a moment, will you try to follow the link(s) above and let me know what you see. All I get is a blank page for the first link (which should take me directly to the vB front page). For the second, I see our HTML page, but the Discussion link (which goes to the vB) also produces a blank page.


Thanks.

Kathleen,

I get this error message:

"Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, ktinkel@optonline.net and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
Apache Server at www.desktoppublishingforum.com Port 80"

P.S. this is off of the first url, the second http://desktoppublishing.com/boards/default.asp works ok.

[sidney]

The link "Forums" on the front page at http://desktoppublishing.com is:

http://desktoppublishing.com/boards/default.asp

going that way did not seem to have problems for me.

You really had me going for a while trying to figure out how vBulletin, which is written in PHP, could possibly work with ASP file name extensions. Then I finally noticed that you are looking at the wrong web site: desktoppublishing.com is not the same as desktoppublishingforum.com :)

[Mike]

I'm getting the database error at 9:28 PDT.

[ktinkel]

That is strange. I can see that index.html no longer exists and I consistently get the database error page when I access the bb directory now.

If you want me to look at it directly, email me the user names and passwords to access the files, the MySQL configuration information including db host, db name, db user, and db password, and user name and password and URL to access whatever control panel thing the host gives you to work with.Thank you! I will. I have to do something. I sent you a private message here.

With luck, by the time you are up and about, this mess may have been fixed. I hope.

[ktinkel]

The link "Forums" on the front page at http://desktoppublishing.com is:

http://desktoppublishing.com/boards/default.asp

going that way did not seem to have problems for me.

Maybe it's all fixed now.

DHUnfortunately not. You are looking at another domain (one I wished we had). Thanks for looking.

[ktinkel]

Thanks, Nick.

I get a slightly different error message (without my e-mail address in it), which is odd, but the message is the same. I have repaired the DB a couple of times, and it shows no errors. So I will go on trying to figure it out.

(The second address, as you have read, is for a different domain altogether, not ours.)

[ktinkel]

I'm getting the database error at 9:28 PDT.Thanks, Mike.

I will continue doing what I can. Sidney has offered to step in, so I have high hopes of at least opening again. Not sure how long we will stay at that host, though; we don’t seem to be a good fit. :(

[Jeff]

We just moved the Desktop Publishing Forum (http://desktoppublishingforum.com/bb) to a new host. I thought the DNS had propagated — some of us can view the HTML front page (http://desktoppublishingforum/) — but not the vBulletin forums.

Noon, Mountain Time, Wed. Went to the 1st, got the DPT banner and:

'The forum is moving, and may be unavailable for some time, perhaps as long as 24 hours.

When you next see it, the forum will be in its new home.

Sorry for the inconvenience — but we expect this change to make the site speedier and more reliable.

We look forward to seeing you after the move."

Went to the 2nd, and got "The page cannot be displayed"

- Jeff

[ktinkel]

Thanks. I just got in, finally. They said the database table prefix in config file was wrong, so they fixed it.

But now it is no longer UTF-8, which is why we have the entity artefacts.
Groan.

But it is running. Try the DTP forum (http://desktoppublishingforum.com/bb) again, if you will.

[ktinkel]

Well, it seems to be running again.

The tech there says it was an error in the database prefix; he found what may have been a typo in the config.php (?? I did re-edit a fresh copy and upload it this morning, so who knows?) I also asked them to re-upload the data to the MySQL. The tables looked identical to me (same sizes, etc.), but who knows? I am mostly just relieved.

The problem now is that the encoding is screwed up. We keep the domain and the database at utf-8, but now I am seeing a lot of junk. I will dig into that; he may not have preserved our utf-8 in the DB when he restored the data.

I think you are saved. Maybe just threatening to have you help jerked the thing into (fairly) good order!

Thank you.

[Mike]

Now I'm getting the "this forum is being moved" display, but it's from within vBulletin.

Progress... :-)

(Quite funny, but I actually had tried to get into the forum before seeing your note here, and when I couldn't get past the error message, I popped in here to alert you to the problem. That's when I saw you'd already posted here!)

[ktinkel]

Now I'm getting the "this forum is being moved" display, but it's from within vBulletin.

Progress... :-)

(Quite funny, but I actually had tried to get into the forum before seeing your note here, and when I couldn't get past the error message, I popped in here to alert you to the problem. That's when I saw you'd already posted here!)Yeah. And it got worse before it got better.

The weirdest part: DTP finally appeared, and there were no forums. Not just none displayed, but none listed in Forum Manager. Until Ann had the brilliant idea to try to create a new one. Then they all popped up, as they had been.

Now I want to get out of this house for a little while, then come back and explain to the forum members. Three days offline; that's a lot.

[ktinkel]

If you get a chance, please take a look at the DTP Forum (http://desktoppublishingforum.com/bb).

It’s up and running again, but with an encoding problem. We want utf8; and we had achieved it last year, though I cannot for the life of me remember how.

vBulletin messes with encoding somehow. Anyway, we were so relieved to get it back that we decided to let the encoding problem go. But I do remember that we were able to fix it without changing the records and tables in the MySQL — but I have forgotten what we did.

And then we were on PHP4; now it is PHP5. I think that may have an effect.

We really need to be on uft8; international crowd; typesetters. Any thoughts?

[Mike]

Three days offline; that's a lot.
Not to worry--people will persevere. :-)

[ndebord]

Thanks. I just got in, finally. They said the database table prefix in config file was wrong, so they fixed it.

But now it is no longer UTF-8, which is why we have the entity artefacts.
Groan.

But it is running. Try the DTP forum (http://desktoppublishingforum.com/bb) again, if you will.

Kathleen,

Looks fine to me now. Congrats on a successful, if stressful move!

[Mike]

Thanks. I just got in, finally. They said the database table prefix in config file was wrong, so they fixed it.
Is it running ok now? I just tried to access, and when I first enter, I see a list of no forums. If I use a "Get Posts" option, I get an error message, "Invalid Forum Specified." I can't seem to find any messages.

[ktinkel]

Is it running ok now? I just tried to access, and when I first enter, I see a list of no forums. If I use a "Get Posts" option, I get an error message, "Invalid Forum Specified." I can't seem to find any messages.Sigh. That was a consequence of the cure for the entity crisis. (The same thing happened yesterday, after the big move.)

I just fixed it, and hope it works properly for you now. (Had to create a new forum; then they all returned, as if by magic. I feel as if I have slid into Wonderland sometimes! Dratted computers. <g>)

[ktinkel]

Kathleen,

Looks fine to me now. Congrats on a successful, if stressful move!Thank you. I hope this host works out as well as advertised, that’s all I can say! :)

[Mike]

Yup... seems to be ok now, and I've been able to read messages to me and reply.

[sidney]

Thank you! I will. I have to do something. I sent you a private message here.

Sorry for my slow response. I've been checking my email often, but didn't check the forum yesterday. I've now enabled email notification of private messages so that doesn't happen again.

Let me know if anything still seems wrong. Now that I have all the password information I can jump in to help if needed.

If you are dissatisfied with the ISP and want to move, I am always willing to help with a migration to Sonic.net if their plans make sense for you.

-- sidney

[ktinkel]

Let me know if anything still seems wrong. Now that I have all the password information I can jump in to help if needed.

If you are dissatisfied with the ISP and want to move, I am always willing to help with a migration to Sonic.net if their plans make sense for you.Thank you. Right now, we are okay. I think.

I don’t think we are dissatisfied with the host (United Hosting, the U.S. servers). The move was horrendous, and there were a couple of snags I could attribute to them but we probably made most of the errors. It is a reseller account (I am moving several small personal sites in as well as DTP), which posed new mysteries for me. That was certainly part of the problem.

They have been responsive, all in all. One tech went out of his way to restore our MySQL to utf8; somehow it got set to Latin1 and made a real mess of some of our posts. That was above and beyond, I think. And they do seem to be well-organized, with capable first-line techs, which is unusual in my experience. They also do not oversell, which is also unusual. OTOH, that means they are very strict about the allocations — no overages allowed, so monitoring usage is important.

Anyway, I never say always when it comes to web hosts. This is our sixth since leaving CompuServe in 2004. I sure would like to stay put for a while!

The honeymoon is hardly over. We’ll see how it goes. Kelvyn swears by these people (he has dozens, maybe hundreds of accounts on their U.K. servers).

[ktinkel]

Yup... seems to be ok now, and I've been able to read messages to me and reply.Yay! (Whew.)