NEWS ALERT

[Deb]

As soon as I finalize some numbers and facts I will be posting some VERY IMPORTANT news to this forum.... keep your eyes (browsers) open to this forum over the next 24 hours and beyond. The news WILL be posted within a couple of hours...

But because of simple excitement I am going to give you a hint... consider this link http://www.ci.keene.nh.us/library/intspeed.htm an educational tool for the 'real news post' that will follow soon after http://www.aota.net/ubb/wink.gif

All sites on the TAZ server will NEED this information first http://www.aota.net/ubb/wink.gif All other sites... soon after.

(Yes, this will work into an email to everyone on TAZ so no worries there...)

Ok.. so enough hints http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif I've got an announcement to write up http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

Deb
p.s. if anyone was wondering where Andrew and I were all day... we were in meetings working on making the post I'm about to make a reality http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

[Armand]

I want see a 64 mile wide highway!!! That'd be amazing to see literally. Okay not picky as long as we're not talking anything smaller than a 4 lane highway.

[Deb]

hehe We're already on 4 lane highways :P Time to grow, hope a 16 mile wide highway is ok http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

We have been tossing hints and promises around about a new OC-12 NOC being built in Orlando that FutureQuest was planning on moving into. During the 'waiting period' as you all know we have continued to grow and quickly began saturating our current NOC. At this point, Andrew and I realized that we could not afford to wait much longer and over the past month have been doing much leg work trying to find a permanent solution that we could implement immediately, as we have no positive dates on the OC-12 yet.

During this search we have met many interesting people/companies along the way and have entertained a number of options that were laid out before us. The goal though, was to find a permanent home. The fear was finding a temporary home while continuing to wait to move into the OC-12 NOC. What we were not wanting to repeat, were the situations we had when we moved TAZ from the Ocala NOC to the Gainesville NOC and SIX into the UUnet NOC... all the while knowing none of these were final resting places for the servers. We have our sights set high, and until we found that location, there would be no rest.

Today Andrew and I secured the location that will fit our needs for a very long time into the future. SIX, TAZ, and the new servers will finally be able to sit next to each other (and wake each other up when needed <grin> ).

There is an OC-48 (MAJOR NOC) in Kissimmee Florida that is owned by Times Warner Telecommunications. We, obviously, are not able to hook directly into this NOC, but feel what we have managed to find is about as sweet as it gets. We have found a company that just happens to have a DS-3 'laying around' that hooks directly into the OC-48 NOC. When standing outside of the DS-3 NOC you can practically toss a rock and hit the OC-48 NOC... that's how close we are http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

All of the current FutureQuest Servers, and all of the servers to come will be placed within this NOC. The foundations are laid and ready to roll. The plans are already in position for adding more lines as needed. Both us and the company we will be located with (no they are not a hosting company nor a co-location business) have our goals set high and we believe we will be able to work well together in such a way that will create a win/win situation for everyone involved.

We are working dilgently with this company and UUnet, in an effort to secure more C-Blocks of IPs in addition to the rock solid lines and bandwidth that we have secured today. The bottom line is this:

All FutureQuest servers, within the next two months, will be sitting directly attached to a DS-3 that is directly connected to the OC-48 (one hop from the OC-48) and none of them will have anything to do with Sprintlink! The main lines are all UUnet laid http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS IS FANTASTIC FOR EVERYONE INVOLVED!!!!!!!!!!!! But --- there are two things that must be done.

1. TAZ must move.

2. SIX must move.

Due to the fact that SIX is (now) a solid server and on a solid connection all of the sites on the SIX server will sit as they are while we work on TAZ. SIX will move sometime in May.

Due to the fact that TAZ is on Sprintlink, and the siteowners on TAZ have been ever so patient while we work on all of this, yet also begging to get off Sprintlink, and because we desperately want to drop that Sprintlink connection... we will be moving TAZ immediately. This is not going to be easy... but worth it.

Here is what will happen.

On late Fridady night April 30th (choosing the late Friday because all of the sites seem to have the least amount of traffic on the weekends) we will be physically unplugging the server and driving it down to the new NOC to plug it in. The IPs will change. Before you get too scared... note that we now have experience with this icky situation. We know exactly what steps will be taken before, during, and after.

What you can expect for your web site over that weekend is:

1. Downtime - this is unavoidable as we will be unplugging and driving it down to Kissimmee. (four hours tops for the entire physical move)

2. DNS Propagation -- could take up to 24 hours.. this means for those who do not propagate quickly the site may seem down for up to an entire day.

We have already begun lowering the DNS timeouts to help facilitate this situation.

It is going to be a VERY busy couple of weeks around here as we work toward this move. Once your sites are in the new NOC you will surely see why it is so worth it to get this done.

I realize this is short notice, but it is also something we've been gearing up for, for a long time now. We finally have a perfect location for the servers, that should (I would have to assume) make everyone quite happy.

I'll (after rest) be posting the information to the Current Status page, obviously keeping this thread up-to-date, and answering questions as best I can for any of you that may have some, along with getting an email notice out to everyone on TAZ asap. (probably within the next two/three days).

So ummm that's that http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

Deb

[Paul]

SSSSSSHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhMOKIN http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

[Terra]

After looking over the above post, and the reference link - a DS-3 is equivalent to a T-3...

They are both pretty much the same...

For your hardcore information needs please view:
http://whatis.com/thespeed.htm

The DNS propagations, for many, will be updated as soon as we flip the switch at the new NOC, others will take longer... We are estimating around %70+ will be 3 - 4 hours or less...

One more thing, our power is fed from the Hospital Grid, so power outages will be almost Nil... http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

--
Terra
--Give me bandwidth, or give me death--
FutureQuest

[meikel]

Hi,

What shall I say????

I don't know the right words for it, but in short graphics, it looks like: http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

Greetings from a happy site owner
[nbsp][nbsp]Meikel Weber
www.meikel.com (http://www.meikel.com) www.tickerland.com (http://www.tickerland.com)

[Rich]

Excellent news! Congratulations (POP - fizz)

One more thing, our power is fed from the Hospital Grid, so power outages will be almost Nil...

Always comforting to know Professional help is so close at hand, too. (running and ducking for cover)

So, should the next new server be christened RoadRunner?

Rich
--Plug it in, plug it in--

[Deb]

Rich, we have a special POTS line out in the back yard just for you ... you did want a dedicated solution right? <evil grin>

[DB]

Alright... speed thrills. Is there a URL we can ping to get an idea of how the new location will respond?


------------------
--Tom aka DiamondBack
http://diamond-back.com

[Mandi]

FANtastic!!!!!! I am myself moving 14 hours away (by car) from here about the same time - will be glad to know that I am not *suffering* alone, hehehehe! You may be ready to thunk that server down and not pick it up again for years . . . but I am *guaranteed* another move in 12 months :-\!! Life in the military . . .

[frankc]

I can only say "WOW"! I am in awe...

(once again, he realizes he made the right decision to have the church website hosted HERE!)

Thanks...and congrats! We're proud of you and your success.

------------------
Frank

Hosanna! Lutheran Church www.hosannachurch.com (http://www.hosannachurch.com)

[Tom]

Neat!

Email will be shaky for a while too?

Tom

[Deb]

Is there a URL we can ping to get an idea of how the new location will respond?

Many of you should be able to see http://nine.FutureQuest.net there is only a test server there right now... so there is no telnet or ftp or anything like that.. nor is the IP on it permanant ... but for "basic ideas" this should do the trick.

Email will be shaky for a while too?

Yes, everything. The Server will be unpluged and moved. As Terra said... Over 70% of the people who view/work on sites that are on TAZ should only experience 4 hours tops... but there will be delayed propagation for others (depends on their ISPs) that shouldn't be longer then a day.

Deb

[ChrisH]

Great news! I feel like Slim Pickens
on the bomb in Dr. Strangelove!

And thanks for the advance notice.
That gives me time to notify the users.


ch

[Charles Capps]

And this is in FLORIDA!? I'm in California... 9 hops. http://www.aota.net/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.aota.net/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.aota.net/ubb/biggrin.gif

*sigh* I wish I had signed up earlier so I could have gotten on TAZ. http://www.aota.net/ubb/biggrin.gif

------------------
"Okay, so I'm not "SANE" so to speak, but uh... I'm the lovable kind of psycho"
http://solareclipse.net/

[Moonlight]

That is great news indeed http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

I did some tests comparing trace routes of my actual route vs the one of Nine.FutureQuest.net.

Here are the results :
[Ucode]Tracing route to www.togrc.com [205.244.185.200]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 24 ms 20 ms 20 ms modemcable001.192-231.mmtl.videotron.net [206.231.192.1]
2 10 ms 6 ms 7 ms modemcable001.3-113-216.mmtl.videotron.net [216.113.3.1]
3 34 ms 6 ms 9 ms ia-tlpt-gw01-fe9-1.videotron.net [207.96.164.26]
4 11 ms 9 ms 9 ms ia-tlpt-bb01-fe1-0-0.videotron.net [207.253.253.2]
5 26 ms 20 ms 20 ms sl-gw11-pen-9-0-T3.sprintlink.net [144.228.164.17]
6 27 ms 23 ms 20 ms sl-bb11-pen-2-2.sprintlink.net [144.232.5.81]
7 22 ms 19 ms 19 ms sl-bb12-pen-10-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.5.158]
8 275 ms 19 ms 18 ms sl-bb10-rly-5-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.8.153]
9 28 ms 21 ms 24 ms sl-bb7-dc-4-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.7.182]
10 24 ms 21 ms 22 ms sl-gw3-dc-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.228.20.12]
11 78 ms 77 ms 78 ms sl-mbs-1-0-T1.sprintlink.net [144.228.122.14]
12 76 ms 70 ms 72 ms www.togrc.com [205.244.185.200] [/quote]

Now for the Nine.FutureQuest.Net :[Ucode]Tracing route to Nine.FutureQuest.net [208.243.19.100]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 24 ms 11 ms 15 ms modemcable001.192-231.mmtl.videotron.net [206.231.192.1]
2 14 ms 8 ms 6 ms modemcable001.3-113-216.mmtl.videotron.net [216.113.3.1]
3 28 ms 15 ms 25 ms ia-tlpt-gw01-fe9-1.videotron.net [207.96.164.26]
4 14 ms 20 ms 10 ms ia-tlpt-bb01-fe1-0-0.videotron.net [207.253.253.2]
5 12 ms 11 ms 5 ms ia-piex-gw03-fe5-0-0.videotron.net [207.253.253.51]
6 21 ms 18 ms 20 ms sl-gw4-nyc-5-1-0-T3.sprintlink.net [144.232.171.13]
7 20 ms 20 ms 16 ms sl-bb10-nyc-2-1.sprintlink.net [144.232.7.45]
8 45 ms 39 ms 38 ms sl-bb10-chi-3-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.8.202]
9 43 ms 45 ms 43 ms sl-bb3-chi-8-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.0.158]
10 45 ms 45 ms 43 ms Hssi4-0.BR1.CHI1.ALTER.NET [137.39.250.5]
11 49 ms 44 ms 44 ms 101.ATM3-0.XR2.CHI4.ALTER.NET [146.188.208.6]
12 47 ms 43 ms 46 ms 194.ATM3-0.TR2.CHI4.ALTER.NET [146.188.208.230]
13 51 ms 46 ms 47 ms 106.ATM7-0.TR2.ATL1.ALTER.NET [146.188.136.9]
14 55 ms 44 ms 44 ms 298.ATM6-0.XR2.ATL1.ALTER.NET [146.188.232.105]
15 70 ms 64 ms 73 ms 194.ATM9-0-0.GW2.ORL1.ALTER.NET [146.188.232.221]
16 90 ms 72 ms 68 ms siggraph-gw.customer.alter.net [157.130.64.94]
17 71 ms 68 ms 68 ms Nine.FutureQuest.net [208.243.19.100]

Trace complete.[/quote]

No wonder I sometime find my connection slow, my ISP is using Sprintlink it seems http://www.aota.net/ubb/frown.gif.

But 5 hops more isn't the end of the world in my case http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif.

Moonlight

[LeafWind]

Right on!! Woohoo!!

Mandi: You sure won't be the only one "suffering" with moving then -- Shaytar and I (of LeafWind Web Design) are moving to a new appartment on April 30/May 1, too.

We should all have a big FQ housewarming party the week after!

Really glad you're not moving six, then, though -- our launch date for chiroforlife.com (on SIX) is May 1st, at our Chiropractor's annual patient appreciation party . . .

http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

Bekariso

------------------
www.LeafWind.com (http://www.LeafWind.com)
Growing web sites that thrive in the winds of change.

[SneakyDave]

Right On, Solid, and Far Out!
--Radio DJ from KNUT Radio on Cheech and Chong's First Album.


Sneaky...
(I knew there was an FQ/Cheech and Chong connection!)

[zeegraf]

Right On, Solid, and Far Out!
--Radio DJ from KNUT Radio on Cheech and Chong's First Album.


Man, don't get started on Cheech and Chong... http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

"C'mon, men, I need some volunteers. Last week when I asked for volunteers to clear out that marijuana patch I d@mned near got stampeded." --The Vietnam captain


------------------
Don Z.
www.zeegraf.com (http://www.zeegraf.com)

"To poldly mow air moebius
gumby four" --Kirk on Novacaine

[flowersource]

Deb,
I'm confused, the post in this forum says that six is not moving on April 30th, but later, sometime in May.

The e-mail that I received from fquest does not specifically say that six is moving at a later date.

I guess that I am not moving April 30th, right?

Mike

[Justin]

Correct - SIX will be moved later on in May.

------------------
Justin Nelson
FutureQuest Support

[ugarfie]

Just glad Futurequest is looking after us. What other Web service thinks down the road to keep their customers satisified. Good Job !!

www.psalmus.net

[Bi4Be]

expired general discussion post
[This message has been edited by Bi4Be (edited 02-16-01@9:46 pm)]

[Deb]

Yes it'll start in the middle of the night/early morning..... EST it would be technicall May 1st....

The DAY time hours of Friday will be ok... but once the prime time ends we'll begin..

Deb

[BJ]

Ok, tech support, living here in the black whole of the world as I do, I found when we transferred to this great server, I, the webmaster was the absolute last server that seemed to catch up with the new DNS. It took near a week for me to see it while others saw it within hours. Im mainly concerned about my email and have no problems waiting to catch up with the other parts. I guess as a preventive measure it might be smart for me to change my email to an alias directing it to my isp email acct and if there is a delay at least my email will be forwarded from the server until I catch up????

[Bi4Be]

If the servers down and I set up a forwarder on my root e-mail address to forward to my ISP would it work?
[This message has been edited by Bi4Be (edited 02-16-01@9:47 pm)]

[Deb]

While the server is down.. mail is not going to go anywhere regardless of how you have it setup. What happens when mail is sent to a server that is not responding it is put into a deferral queue and the mail servers keep trying for a day or three depending on how they are setup (ours will try for up to a week).

Once the down server comes back up then the mail is delivered. If you have a forward setup for the account then at that point it would be forwarded. But it can not deliver nor forward email while it's down.

Deb
p.s. EVERYONE on the FutureQuest server has their DNS timeouts set to every 2 hours right now.... about a week after the move we will bump it back up to a day. This means once the server is moved into the noc, plugged in, and running, everyone who is connecting from an ISP that does not have a broken DNS configuration will be able to see the sites within 2 hours w/o a problem (Windows users may need to reboot to clear their cache). Those connecting from ISP's that do have fubared DNS configs... will either have to wait for their ISP to catch up or give their ISP a nudge and a phone call. (NOT very many should be in this catagory at all)

NOTE: When I say "2 Hours"... if you try to view your site 1 hour and 59 minutes after the last DNS update and pull the old info... then you have 2 more hours to wait before it will time out... If you are not constantly trying to view your page on Saturday you shouldn't have a problem. But if you are reloading your page every few minutes to see if it works yet you are only prolonging the process :P

[This message has been edited by Deb (edited 04-23-99).]

[Charles Capps]

Deb - Will there be a place on SIX we can view with the latest status on the TAZ move, when it's happening/after it's happened?

------------------
"Okay, so I'm not "SANE" so to speak, but uh... I'm the lovable kind of psycho"
http://solareclipse.net/

[Deb]

I'll do my best to keep the "Curent Status" page on the FutureQuest web site updated during that time.... http://www.FutureQuest.net/Status/

I *might* also sneak in a lil bland forum script onto my HostHelp.com site as a place to communicate ... not sure on that one yet.. but if I do... it'll be linked from the Status page for reference.

Deb

[kteicher]

Naive question... does this move mean our pages will load faster?? Noticeably?

[Terra]

1) Depends on your routing
2) Depends on the health/status of the internet backbones (UUnet/SprintLink/Digex/etc...)
3) T-1('s) == 1.544 Mb/s (Current)
4) DS-3 == 45 Mb/s (Orlando)
5) OC-48 == 2.5 Gb/s (Orlando)
6) T-3 backbone connection will result in lower latency

In short: yes http://www.aota.net/ubb/wink.gif

--
Terra
--Things that make you go, Hmmmmmm--
FutureQuest

[Bi4Be]

Will my the auctions on my web site be okay?
[This message has been edited by Bi4Be (edited 02-16-01@9:48 pm)]

[Justin]

I would personally suggest informing them of the times that we will be down, as I don't know what would happen. I know that it will not finish any process that is started before shutting down - this will involve shutting down the server, unplugging it, moving it and powering all back up...

That's what I'd do, at least so nobody is surprised when your site is down.

------------------
Justin Nelson
FutureQuest Support

[Bi4Be]

Does anyone know (for sure) what will happen?
[This message has been edited by Bi4Be (edited 02-16-01@9:48 pm)]

[Charles Capps]

Perhaps you should consider not only informing them of the downtime, but pulling down the site for a few hours before and after the move - this would totally avoid any chance of anyone getting their auction cut off, though it might get some users more annoyed than it would otherwise...

------------------
"Okay, so I'm not "SANE" so to speak, but uh... I'm the lovable kind of psycho"
http://solareclipse.net/

[Bi4Be]

Probably a stupid question but how do I &quot;pull down the site&quot;?
[This message has been edited by Bi4Be (edited 02-16-01@9:49 pm)]

[Charles Capps]

Ouch... Scratch that reccomendation.

------------------
"Okay, so I'm not "SANE" so to speak, but uh... I'm the lovable kind of psycho"
http://solareclipse.net/

[Justin]

How are these auctions closed? Is this done via cron job? If so I recomend editing the cron to do it's work at a time you know the server will be back online... I'm not sure if cron jobs make themselves up later if the server isn't online when the cron is supposed to run...
------------------
Justin Nelson
FutureQuest Support

[Terra]

I'm not sure if cron jobs make themselves up later if the server isn't online when the cron is supposed to run...

If time leaped ahead or skipped a beat, would you know it?

--
Terra
--The answer is no--
FutureQuest

[Bi4Be]

No cron jobs. I use a heavily modified version of everyauction.

expired general discussion post
[This message has been edited by Bi4Be (edited 02-16-01@9:50 pm)]