Aisle Seat HOST CHANGE

[AndyDursin]

just wanted everyone to know I am pulling the plug on my unreliable internet host and switching to a new group.

This will take a couple of days most likely and I guarantee you there will be some outtages for sure.

So just be prepared -- hopefully when it's done it will be smoother sailing on the board end of things.

Thanks!!

[Eric W.]

That's great and frankly overdue news there.

[Eric Paddon]

I'm still having the same old problems of logging in so I hope that the new place will let me stay logged in for a change!

[AndyDursin]

Incredibly the switch has already happened and everything is working -- except the message board, and moving this board over is, naturally, where the complications start. The website, my emails, everything has been moved over. took a couple of hours and that's it!

Right now I am banging my head against the wall trying to figure out how to export the database of this board over though...I've been through myphp apps, moved the data off, but the new site won't take it for whatever reason. Maybe it's corrupted and that's the reason for the constant issues? I have no idea, but it's really irritating!

Would anyone be opposed to a brand new board without the old posts? I plan on giving it a few more hours but that's gonna be it.

[Eric Paddon]

I would really hate to lose the old posts. I still enjoy revisiting things I wrote a while back and sometimes there's a need to even resurrect those threads when its appropriate.

[AndyDursin]

I'm working on it Eric, we'll have to see.

[AndyDursin]

That's great and frankly overdue news there.

I should add that the reason it's overdue is because I signed up for a 2-year extension in 2008, and truth be told I didn't feel like shelling out a few hundred to get out early. That said, that provider really has gotten worse over the years...I don't ever recall this many board issues previously. And the outtages were more frequent. What's worse, last week they told me the board problems were because there was too much traffic and I would have to upgrade to their more expensive "Business plan" -- and I responded with a "yeah, right," and thought, hey, the "lease is up, let's get out of here!" lol

This time I signed up with Bluehost, which is not only less expensive, but their reviews are exemplary AND they have live 24-hour chat support, which I used a great deal yesterday. Everything has already migrated including my email and the main board, the pictures, all the articles -- everything except this board. It only took a few hours for all of my contact info to change over to them. I was really, really impressed and prepared for the worst, but it was smooth sailing!

What I did last night was FTP the database of THIS board (which is the only thing still sitting at Netfirms, the old provider) to them. They're going to try and install it themselves so I can then direct a new PHPBB board to it -- thereby preserving everyone's posts, log ins, etc. etc.

That however is easier said than done. I have a fair technical knowledge of working with my PC but PHPBB scripting just never works as it's supposed to. I've tried updating this board in the past to correct the problems myself, but was never able to do it. I don't know if it's because the current database is corrupted or whatever, but nothing seems to work.

Hopefully they can fix it. If not I will use a different board altogether and we'll start over. I'd obviously rather not do that, but the flip side is you wouldn't have all the issues you currently have here.

The good news is the Netfirms (old provider) contract expires on September 3rd, so we've got a few weeks before the plug is pulled here...I decided to move ahead of time in case there were any issues (like this). I'll keep everyone updated. It will likely be a few days before I hear back from Bluehost on them trying to migrate this board's database themselves.

[AndyDursin]

...and here we are!

Remember to use the NEW URL to post -- if you post on the old board, it won't show up...

http://andyfilm.com/mboard/

[Eric W.]

LOL, WOW, what a night and day improvement. Finally! Bravo!

[AndyDursin]

Thanks Eric!

Not only do we have the same database, but we're upgraded now to PHPBB 3.0 instead of 2.0...so you can already see the enhancements! From a technical standpoint it's also MUCH easier, not to mention more secure. To do mods, change themes (which I'll look at eventually, etc.), they made it so much easier to go in and fool around instead of FTPing files back and forth. In time I'll go through it, but this is what I've wanted to do for months and it's exciting it actually worked!!

Note that I tried to do this months ago, but it was an exercise in futility dealing with the old provider.

And even here it was a massive pain. Really was. This time, I had to upload the SQL database of the old board to the tech people directly so they could import it (I couldn't do it). The first try didn't work. Then I went back in, looked at the old database and saw it had parts of a botched re-install there. I redownloaded it minus those parts, installed PHPBB 3.0 fresh on the new server, then they added the old database after I FTP'd it -- this time it worked! And it converted from 2.0 to 3.0 flawlessly on top of it!

I will say this hosting provider is fantastic. Awesome customer support, FAQ's, instruction -- and I think I'm paying under $7/month. The fact I could actually get answers and in a timely fashion was terrific.

Overall I think we'll enjoy the new format and stuff. Even better, I'm good to go 24 hours after deciding to do it. Not bad!!

[mkaroly]

Looks great Andy!

[Eric W.]

I don't know what I'm going to do with myself to be able to come here and have no freezes, no errors, no locks, no glitches...

[John Johnson]

Intrada has this new look too.

[AndyDursin]

I don't know what I'm going to do with myself to be able to come here and have no freezes, no errors, no locks, no glitches...

I know, so far so good right?

[AndyDursin]

Intrada has this new look too.

They probably updated their board to this software's newest version also. It has a host of enhancements both aesthetically (lot more you can do now with colors, post editing, etc.) as well as in terms of technical (security) elements.

I do want everyone to know, again, I tried -- several times -- to update this board and move the database into a new version months ago. In hindsight it's probably my provider and some other technical aspect that prevented it from happening before, but whatever, it was beyond frustrating because I kept doing what I was supposed to be doing....it just never worked. We were stuck on the old board because I couldn't export the data into this newer version of it.

I apologize for the lock outs and errors but they were beyond my control. Switching providers though -- I can tell you it's already been WELL worth it! Not just because I got the site out of there (as they've gone progressively downhill), but also because I managed to finally upgrade this board as well.