wraggster
February 12th, 2008, 17:38
via pdroms (http://www.pdroms.de)
Ste, maintainer of one of the largest iPhone download repo's, has finalized the move to a new server. Package updates are still lacking, but he should catch up later this day.
Quote:
Back on January 19th, I told you that my site was in trouble and was in danger of being shut down. Things went from bad to worse, as the days went on, but I managed to keep the site going, in spite of the problems. Yes, there were troubles with refreshing my site and downloading packages, but while lots of people encountered those issues, just as many didn’t.
Then, Freeit4Less.com and Polar Bear Farm Ltd stepped up to provide me the resources I needed to not only save the site, but make it faster and better than ever. They had the technology. I could rebuild it. (+10 if you get the reference) They each provided me with a dedicated server (no shared hosting, no VPS) and oodles of bandwidth. I have spent the past week setting them up, configuring them, testing them and putting them into service. As of about two and a half hours ago, I finally finished. They are done. Yay!
They are fast. They share the load (via round-robin DNS). Each is capable of carrying 100% of the current traffic, by itself, should the other server go down. (Note: there would be issues (about 50% of refreshes and downloads would fail) because of the down server, but as soon as I knew it was down, and likely to stay that way for more than a few minutes, I would remove its entry from DNS. Within 30 minutes of my doing so, service would be back to normal, and coming entirely from the other server.)
One thing I have noticed, as my site has moved around in the past, is that huge numbers of people refuse to update their Installer.app and Community Sources packages, so that they point to and can use the new location. I have had to accommodate those people by putting redirects on the old sites, that point to the new sites, so that things still work for people. No more. I have gone to all the old servers and deliberately broken their configurations so that they will no longer work. You must upgrade to at least Installer.app 3.0 and Community Sources 3.4, to get access to the new site and to be able to use it. Yes, people paying attention will note that, technically, Installer.app needn’t be at 3.0, but since more and more packages will use features only found in that version, you’d be wise to upgrade to it if you haven’t yet. Additionally, just as I broke my old sites, I may configure the new one to ignore requests from versions of Installer.app that are less than 3.0.
It didn’t make sense to put out package updates while the site was having so many issues. Consequently, there is a huge backlog of them, some of which have been waiting since January 26th. Now that the servers are done, all that’s left to do is get these packages out the door to all of you. It’s late here (nearly midnight), so I am not going to start them tonight. I’m tired and I don’t want to mess them up. So, when I get up in the morning, I’ll start in on them and will work all day and into the evening, if need be, to get them all released. If I run into any problems with a package, I’ll email the developer right away. As soon as we resolve the issue, their package will get done. I apologize to all of them - they have been patiently waiting for me to get to this point. Once caught up, I’ll get back to the daily (or nearly so) updates of the past.
Be sure to check out the sites of my sponsors, please. Between them, they are paying $1,200.00 a month to keep this repository alive. When you are at their sites, check out their products. If you think they might be useful (hell, even if you don’t, heh), buy them. And don’t forget to donate to me, too - I’m still out of work and perilously close to being out of money. Your donations go directly towards keeping a roof over my and my three cats’ heads, and food in our stomachs. Many of the developers, whose apps I host, also take donations. Try to spread a little love their way too, so they keep writing and updating these apps we all love. Every little bit helps, and no amount is too small.
Let the fun recommence! :)
-ste
UPDATE: I forgot to mention that the URL to the RSS feed for my packages changed. If you were subscribed to it, you should unsubscribe and resubscribe . -ste
UPDATE: There *is* another way that you can help, besides donations, but since I’m not allowed to even talk about it, I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out. -ste
http://blog.psmxy.org/2008/02/10/the-repository-move-is-complete/
Ste, maintainer of one of the largest iPhone download repo's, has finalized the move to a new server. Package updates are still lacking, but he should catch up later this day.
Quote:
Back on January 19th, I told you that my site was in trouble and was in danger of being shut down. Things went from bad to worse, as the days went on, but I managed to keep the site going, in spite of the problems. Yes, there were troubles with refreshing my site and downloading packages, but while lots of people encountered those issues, just as many didn’t.
Then, Freeit4Less.com and Polar Bear Farm Ltd stepped up to provide me the resources I needed to not only save the site, but make it faster and better than ever. They had the technology. I could rebuild it. (+10 if you get the reference) They each provided me with a dedicated server (no shared hosting, no VPS) and oodles of bandwidth. I have spent the past week setting them up, configuring them, testing them and putting them into service. As of about two and a half hours ago, I finally finished. They are done. Yay!
They are fast. They share the load (via round-robin DNS). Each is capable of carrying 100% of the current traffic, by itself, should the other server go down. (Note: there would be issues (about 50% of refreshes and downloads would fail) because of the down server, but as soon as I knew it was down, and likely to stay that way for more than a few minutes, I would remove its entry from DNS. Within 30 minutes of my doing so, service would be back to normal, and coming entirely from the other server.)
One thing I have noticed, as my site has moved around in the past, is that huge numbers of people refuse to update their Installer.app and Community Sources packages, so that they point to and can use the new location. I have had to accommodate those people by putting redirects on the old sites, that point to the new sites, so that things still work for people. No more. I have gone to all the old servers and deliberately broken their configurations so that they will no longer work. You must upgrade to at least Installer.app 3.0 and Community Sources 3.4, to get access to the new site and to be able to use it. Yes, people paying attention will note that, technically, Installer.app needn’t be at 3.0, but since more and more packages will use features only found in that version, you’d be wise to upgrade to it if you haven’t yet. Additionally, just as I broke my old sites, I may configure the new one to ignore requests from versions of Installer.app that are less than 3.0.
It didn’t make sense to put out package updates while the site was having so many issues. Consequently, there is a huge backlog of them, some of which have been waiting since January 26th. Now that the servers are done, all that’s left to do is get these packages out the door to all of you. It’s late here (nearly midnight), so I am not going to start them tonight. I’m tired and I don’t want to mess them up. So, when I get up in the morning, I’ll start in on them and will work all day and into the evening, if need be, to get them all released. If I run into any problems with a package, I’ll email the developer right away. As soon as we resolve the issue, their package will get done. I apologize to all of them - they have been patiently waiting for me to get to this point. Once caught up, I’ll get back to the daily (or nearly so) updates of the past.
Be sure to check out the sites of my sponsors, please. Between them, they are paying $1,200.00 a month to keep this repository alive. When you are at their sites, check out their products. If you think they might be useful (hell, even if you don’t, heh), buy them. And don’t forget to donate to me, too - I’m still out of work and perilously close to being out of money. Your donations go directly towards keeping a roof over my and my three cats’ heads, and food in our stomachs. Many of the developers, whose apps I host, also take donations. Try to spread a little love their way too, so they keep writing and updating these apps we all love. Every little bit helps, and no amount is too small.
Let the fun recommence! :)
-ste
UPDATE: I forgot to mention that the URL to the RSS feed for my packages changed. If you were subscribed to it, you should unsubscribe and resubscribe . -ste
UPDATE: There *is* another way that you can help, besides donations, but since I’m not allowed to even talk about it, I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out. -ste
http://blog.psmxy.org/2008/02/10/the-repository-move-is-complete/