Wiki is down... again...

[RWSmith]

The wiki is dow right now; Optimist hsas been notified.

[pipestone1991]

Thanks for the notification.

[optimist]

Tech support has been working to resolve this for several hours. The wiki appears to be up but I have a dozen web sites on that server and there are still problems with some of them. Until all of them are back operating correctly, repairs on any of them may affect the others (this has already happened once). Keep your fingers crossed.

[RWSmith]

Thanks, boss.

[RWSmith]

Wiki is up.

[scubascout]

sweeeeeeeeeeet

[optimist]

It was the weirdest thing... It was kind of like there had to be at least one site down at all times. It just kept switching sites. All of them are back up and running now so hopefully there will be no more problems.

[optimist]

Yes, its back down... Working on it

[evmori]

Is it possible the server is going?

[optimist]

Is it possible the server is going?

That's always a possibility but I don't know. What I do know is the collective computer technology IQ in India is 60... 65 tops

[evmori]

Anything I can do to help?

[optimist]

I think I finally found someone at tech support with half a brain. He acknowledged that it is a server side issue, something the first person simply didn't understand. I put up a couple of test pages to illustrate my point. They are:

http://www.meritbadge.org/test.htm

http://www.meritbadge.org/config/test.htm

These are both the exact same page simply copied into the two different locations. Their existance is easily verified using FTP on my end and whatever client software they are using on their end. However, if you click on those addresses, the first one shows the message "Hello, this is a test" while the second one shows the 404 error page. It does not matter what files you place in the /config directory, you always get an error message, either a 300 or a 404. The server is not properly handling that directory for some reason.

[optimist]

I may have spoken too soon. Here is their latest message to me:

Thank you for contacting us.

This is in regards with the conversation we had earlier about the file
(test.htm) under config folder for the domain meritbadge.org. Based on
my researched , i think that the config folder is define in your wiki
application that complicates the system. For testing pusposes, i rename
the config folder to config1111 and If you kindly go to this address
http://meritbadge.org/config1111/test.htm, it will pull up the test
site. If the config folder doesnot have anything to do with the things
you wanted to accomplish, kindly rename the config folder.

He thinks changing the subdirectory name will solve the problem. He would be right if I knew how to completely rewrite MediaWiki to compensate for the change in directory names

And he went right back to the previous person's position -- the problem is with MediaWiki, not with their server, totally ignoring the fact that the test.htm files I created are not part of MediaWiki and MediaWiki is not currently operational

[RWSmith]

FWIW, here's what I'm getting now:

MediaWiki 1.11.1
Please set up the wiki first.

(I intentionally left the link out, so as not to leave it here.)

[optimist]

The wiki can temporarily be accessed at the following address:

http://meritbadge.org/mborg/index.php?title=Main_Page

They still say it is all the wiki's fault and not their problem. That won't wash. I'm more than willing to work with them if the problem cannot be fixed but I'm not willing to work with someone who simply points fingers and says it's not their fault.

[optimist]

Wow! It's worse that I thought. Here are some links that will show you what I discovered:

http://www.meritbadge.org/config/
http://www.meritbadge.ws/config/
http://www.scoutwiki.net/config/
http://www.bsatroop108.org/config/
http://www.bsacrew108.org/config/
http://www.bsapost108.org/config/
http://www.bsaship108.org/config/

All of the above links go to my domains on this service. However, instead of taking you to the web sites, these links will all take you to the control panel login screen.

So....

This is a service they are providing to give their users easy access to the control panel.

And....

This is the directory used when installing and upgrading MediaWiki.

And....

All of the problems I was experiencing while trying to upgrade MediaWiki were related to accessing files in this directory.

AND....

After hours of discussion and several emails exchanged with tech support, they never mentioned this -- I discovered it on my own.

Based on the above, I can only conclude that they were completely unaware of the services their company provides.

[wagionvigil]

I see it is back up and running but I had to change my bookmark

[optimist]

I requested that they remove the config override from my web sites. The service is totally unnecessary since the web site control panel can be accessed several different ways. They haven't responded yet.

There is a work around. Come hook or crook, the web site will be returned to its base address. I'm just giving them time to correct the problem since it will make future site upgrades easier.

[RWSmith]

You go, man!

[evmori]

Thanks for all your hard work optimist!