Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?

Subject: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Scrump
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 10:56 AM

Is it just me, or have others found it difficult to get into Mudcat the past couple of days? It seems to have been down for long periods.

Just want to know if there's been a problem with it, or whether it's something to do with my network or whatever.

Anyway it seems OK at the moment...

Keep up the good work Mudcat webfolk!

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 10:58 AM

It's been off!

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 10:58 AM

I've had trouble getting pages to load or comments to go through. The problem has been intermittent over the last couple of weeks.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Leadbelly
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 10:59 AM

Scrump, this happened to me twice this morning.

Manfred

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 11:00 AM

Usual situation when deep site work is in progress. Dunno if that's it, but one can always hope.

~S~

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 11:08 AM

I had problems yesterday and today.

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 11:13 AM

Ditto

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 11:14 AM

Double Ditto

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 11:26 AM

I've noticed it down a couple of times late at night over the last week - too late in Max's time zone for me to call get him to reboot - and then it's been up the following morning.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Scrump
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 11:57 AM

Thanks folks - it's good to know it's not just me.

The frustrating thing is that when it's down you can't use it to ask what's happening.

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 12:17 PM

I was getting spoiled.

But Mudcat was down at least a couple of times this week, including this morning.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Carol
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 12:41 PM

Same here and I miss it!

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Gulliver
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 01:27 PM

I was just about to start a thread with the same subject! I could get into Mudcat only once today--I didn't know whether it was Mudcat or my system...

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Cluin
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 01:40 PM

It's been down completely, sometimes it's been slow and a lot of post submissions lost.

The hamster is getting old and tired. Time to pension him off and get a new young one on the wheel.

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Mooh
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 02:47 PM

It's a sign from heaven. Seriously, God is telling us to get off line and play some music. He won't be happy if you don't comply.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: able
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 03:37 PM

me to. Changed all the batteries did all the resets. Worst part is I threw all the batteries away, I am definitely not computer literate.

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: eddie1
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 04:51 PM

I too have been having problems with Mudcat over the last 3/4 days - particularly in the morning (UK time).
This itself is no bad thing for me. I've actually been able to get some work done. It's too easy to sit at the pc and think, "I'll just have a quick look at Mudcat" then 2 hours later, "Ah well, it's nearly lunchtime!" and so on.
Sadly, I discovered I could log straight on to the Threads page with no difficulty.
When do I get some work done?

Eddie

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 05:11 PM

Hackers overwhelm key Web computers

Attack is one of the most significant against the Internet since 2002

By Ted Bridis
The Associated Press
Updated: 4:01 p.m. CT Feb 6, 2007

WASHINGTON - Hackers briefly overwhelmed at least three of the 13 computers that help manage global computer traffic Tuesday in one of the most significant attacks against the Internet since 2002.

Experts said the unusually powerful attacks lasted for hours but passed largely unnoticed by most computer users, a testament to the resiliency of the Internet. Behind the scenes, computer scientists worldwide raced to cope with enormous volumes of data that threatened to saturate some of the Internet's most vital pipelines.

Experts said the hackers appeared to disguise their origin, but vast amounts of rogue data in the attacks were traced to South Korea.
The attacks appeared to target UltraDNS, the company that operates servers managing traffic for Web sites ending in "org" and some other suffixes, experts said. Company officials did not immediately return telephone calls from The Associated Press.

Among the targeted "root" servers that manage global Internet traffic were ones operated by the Defense Department and the Internet's primary oversight body.

"There was what appears to be some form of attack during the night hours here in California and into the morning," said John Crain, chief technical officer for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. He said the attack was continuing and so was the hunt for its origin.

[endquote]

Although the news clip said it was over briefly, at about 05:00 this morning the web traffic report showed 8 (of 50) US servers and I believe 3 or the half dozen Euro ones offline.

This doesn't mean the 'cat wasn't off for other reasons, but the "whole net" seemed a bit sluggish all night last night.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Scrump
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 05:12 PM

Maybe someone could have a different website where we could just ask if Mudcat is down or something like that? A kind of fallback forum, just for that purpose. Any ideas folks?

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 05:23 PM

Help Forum used to BE that place.

~S~

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Scrump
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 05:48 PM

Where's that, WYSIWYG?

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 05:53 PM

"Help Forum used to BE that place."

That's only useful if the problem is just the main Cat offline - when the hassle is a net DOS attack like in the last few days, then having another machine in the same net domain is usually of little use.

Various people have come up with various ideas, including external chat groups, Yahoo lists, etc. But now with the various obnoxious anonymous idiots clogging up the help forum, as well as the regular spam attacks on th emain forum, I tend towards the idea "ah - can't get thru, is there something useful I can do with my life right now?", as I am loath to encourage the hostile selfish idiots currently trying to trash Mudcat, from moving on to other Mudcat related places - they must be getting just as frustrated losing their favourite place to be obnoxious, as do the people who wish to use the Cat in a socially cooperative manner.

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: catspaw49
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 05:59 PM

Just try to relax Gang. The 'Cat has had this kind of problem off and on for assorted reasons over the years and it can be kinda' weird and all, wondering if it is you or the 'Cat. But if you can surf elsewhere, it probably isn't you.

The HELP Forum is no longer available as Wyzzy pointed out and in the main it has become a troll den where the trolls all piss and moan because they aren't getting as many kicks anymore because their posts often get zapped! Makes for a lighter and friendlier forum, but clogged up the Help forum. If you have a problem though, still take it there, just click HELP on the header bar (when the 'Cat is up).

A lot of us use Jon's Annexe as a meeting point when this joint is down but generally things will be right within a few hours. I have no idea what the problem is this time but Max will let us know if it gets worse or looks to continue long term.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Scrump
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 06:55 PM

I think the outages in the last 2 days would have affected European users more than US users, as it was mainly in the morning and early afternoon, our time, which I would guess is mostly before US Catters are up.

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 07:12 PM

Just a suggestion, but how about a "mudcat is down" place that only Joe and his team can post to to tell us there is a problem and don't panic. It could be accessed by regulars who would then know the latest state. Is this overkill?

I still have room on my site for such a thing.
Does that idea work?

Andy

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 07:18 PM

As long as the Trolls can't get there, and the Mudcat Team are prepared to keep it up to date, it would be up to those contributing their time & resources as to whether they think it worth while - doubtless many Catters might think it a good idea - if they can remember where this 'info' site is!

:-)

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 07:22 PM

Scrump -

The news report said that the attack (and implied that the outages) lasted only about 3 hours, but there were still an "unusual number" of mainline servers offline 8 hours later.

Traffic Report shows:

North America has 50 servers, and the same 8 are still shown as offline or at very low performance. It's not unusual for two or three to be shut down, but this is a bit more than normal.

Europe has 25 servers, with 5 still down.

Australia has 7 servers, with one down.

The North American group is the only one of the five regions still at 80% capacity, although the regions are all above 60%.

It can take quite a while to get back to full usefulness after a significant attack of the kind this appears to have been, and sometimes the most heavily hit servers may decide to just stay down for a while to avoid repeats or until they work out better defenses.

With alternate routings available, it's not likely that the net attack was the main reason for the 'cat being lazy, but Max will have to tell us what happened - if he feels he needs to.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Mooh
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 07:43 PM

Divine intervention, I'm telling you. Meatworld is so much more real than cyberworld.

(Oh, then, what am I doing here?)

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Alba
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 08:48 PM

Sure now if The Mudcat didn't leave us now and again how would we ever know how much we would miss it....!

Jude

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Scrump
Date: 08 Feb 07 - 02:57 AM

Just a suggestion, but how about a "mudcat is down" place that only Joe and his team can post to to tell us there is a problem and don't panic. It could be accessed by regulars who would then know the latest state. Is this overkill?

I still have room on my site for such a thing.
Does that idea work?

Andy

I would have thought a very simple 1-page html website on a different server (e.g. www.mudcatnews.org or something) where we could check when the real Mudcat is down, might be woirth considering. Then the Mudcat 'Masters could just post a simple message if there are problems, and we 'catters could check there iof we can't get in as usual.

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Feb 07 - 03:22 AM

If there's a problem that will last a while, I try to post something at folkinfo.org and rec.music.folk. If the delay will be less then half a day, I don't bother. My Mudcat e-mail is [e-mail], but that's often down when Mudcat is down. Many of the "regulars" know my chief e-mail is joe-offer[at]msn.com - or I'm listed in the phone book in Colfax, California.
The Help Forum used to be on a separate server, so it would stay up when the regular forum went down. Alas, the second server is no more, so both forums are on one server and both often go down at the same time.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Scrump
Date: 08 Feb 07 - 04:04 AM

Thanks Joe - I'll check those newsgroups next time, just in case.

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 08 Feb 07 - 04:51 AM

Folkinfo is worth visiting even if Mudcat is up and running. It tends to have less trivia than the cat, but is a good resource for traditional song and tunes. Jon and some other members (often also mudcatters) have been trying to get accurate references (earliest printed copy, documented recordings etc.) attached to songs and tunes posted there.
He also has collections of tunes in ABC format.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Tech: Has Mudcat been down a lot recently?
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 08 Feb 07 - 07:01 AM

Folk news groups are probably the cleanest answer. Although not everyone can access newsgroups.
I have also remembered that my site is actually hosted in Seattle so could well suffer at the same time as Mudcat, although I haven't noticed any downtime.
I did like the comment though along the lines of " You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone"

A