Fencer: Maybe those "certain users" think that sending annoying complaints is the only way to make you talk?

Fencer: Well what can we do then? Can we contact our local ISPs and complain to them? Somebody somewhere must have an answer?

MadMonkey: Perpetual complaints posted by certain users (not you) are annoying as well. We must live with many annoying things and I am sure that intelligent people cope with it.

Czuch: I never said that BrainKing was blameless. But there are problems which cannot be solved by us because it is not technically possible.

Czuch: I just typed that into my Notepad, yours is worded better though lol

True, i do not get how people from every continent, can all have a site problem with the same site at the same time, yet it is nothing to do with the site

Something weird and VERY annoying i know that

Fencer: Well, if you are paying them for a service, you certainly have a right, and a duty to complain when their service isnt up to standards!

I personally dont understand, and I am sure I am not the only one, the technicalities of what we are talking about.

But it seems logical that if it isnt something being done wrong by brainking, and it is a problem with local ISPs or other local companies, then how can it be that we all have problems at the same time, when we are all on different ISPs and the like?

Are we talking semantics here?

For example, if brainking keeps changing something and the local companies have a hard time keeping up with these changes, then yes, it is not technically a brainking fault, it is a local companies problem, but you cannot really say that Brainking is blameess, can you?

Czuch: I am experiencing a permanent bad performance of PayPal or eBay and I just accept it as a fact, being a direct consequence of the web structure. And I don't complain anywhere about it.

Jason: It has to be very bad luck for sure, that out of the thousands of web sites, it is Brainking which gets the unlucky poor performance by all of our local companies

Jason: I am glad to see you smiling when accepting the truth.

Fencer:

Fencer: oh lol
Well i have 17 players signed up ready for when you do

MadMonkey: Nothing like that has been implemented yet. Most likely it's just a buggy side effect of some other improvement.

Hello world
Can any other Big Bosses see a Random Team on there Team lists in Fellowships now
I have one, but it just appeared, i did not have to set it as a Team like normal.
Now i have had a couple of people ask me where to find it.
All i can say, is that it appeared after i set up a Random Tournament for the madhouse

Do you know Fencer ?

Fencer:
ah okay thanks

"Snoopy": I don't think it should be called "so much" because, as my stats page says, the site was down for 3-4 hours, which is not a tragedy, compared to a recent Skype's 4 days continuous downtime, regarding the fact that BrainKing is maintained by two persons, while Skype is owned by eBay, a really big company. Well, to answer your question, the new BrainKing rack contains 4 machines (+ a switch) and it's not an easy job to configure and finetune such a pool of servers, especially when BrainKing is not the only service which runs there. It is necessary to survive a couple of downtimes, which will finally produce a better, safer and more robust system.

why was there so much down-time yesterday

Jason: If you mean the situation when your browser says that it doesn't know the brainking.com domain, then yes. That's a problem of local DNS resolving and cannot be affected by us.
However, there is still a chance to try any other domain (brainking.cz, brainking.de, brainking.es etc.) and switch to your language. In some cases, it can work.

Fencer: so for people who dont want to try and work out what you just said , you said it isnt BK that hasnt any problems but it is our ISP providers ............

Actually, I have some free time today, so if someone wants to ask a question (which would not be off-topic at this board), feel free to do it. Of course, nobody guarantees that a satisfactory answer will be provided.

coan.net: Yes, that's true. ISPs are obliged to keep their DNS lists updated and the only thing we can do for that is to broadcast the up to date information and "ask them" to accept it. There is a RFC describing this problematics and all serious ISPs should follow it. If not, I hate to say it again but it's really not our problem if some ISPs don't accept the general rules of the web.
Actually, I can improve BrainKing's detection system to switch to IP-encoded image paths when someone is accessing the site using IP address instead of domain name.
Generally said, it is an important performance improvement to separate images to another server and it's what we want to keep. I have recently implemented a smart detection system to BrainKing and the site recognizes when the image server is down, then it switches to internally handled images, until the image server becomes alive again. It is to ensure that BrainKing will always show images, no matter if the image server is running or not. However, it cannot handle DNS problems of users, of course.

Looks like the server is running again. Just start playing again.

jryden: ? the ip address I got for the img.brainking.com was 89.187.130.22 not .20
Could this be the problem? (One of them anyway)

coan.net: I have figured something out!
It is definately a site problem in that certain items display and others do not. (for me) And only by entering through the ip address and not the domain name. (rem I can't get on through the domain name)Yes it may be related to the pointers and if so the question is... Who is in charge of making sure that the pointers are updated? Not me.
The ip address is the same for http://brainking.com and http://www.brainking.com as it is for http://img.brainking.com which is: 89.187.130.22 as you supplied to me. (I verified all of these at whatismyipaddress.com)
Yet the image of a smiley: smiley #1 for example...

http://89.187.130.22/images/smileys/1.gif will display for me and...
http://brainking.com/images/smileys/1.gif will NOT display for me and...
http://img.brainking.com/smileys/1.gif will NOT display for me.
The information is not being sent to me from BK to be displayed and eventually times out on my end.
These images are stored at BK and either the servers are not working right or the html code is not pointing correctly. Being that some people are able to see all of the images and some are not leads me to think that it is possibly a communication/time out issue at BK. I am using dialup through the att.net network and someone else might be using a faster network like dsl or cable (they may be on a faster network even if they are on dialup). It would be interesting to know who is getting on and what they are using and who is not and what they are using.
I hope that Fencer is working on this (I am making the assumption that he is and it is a difficult fix for him) and that he gives us and update asap.
btw... the ip address for brainking.info is 89.487.130.20 and I can NOT access that area at all.

coan.net: I had noticed the missing images too but I failed to make the connection.  I haven't cleared my cache in a while so I suspect most game images are in my cache which is perhaps why I'm doing okay.  This is definately a DNS problem.  I'm honestly not sure who is actually responsible for fixing these kinds of problems.  I don't know a lot about how you register new IP addresses.

Anyway, I think lmhosts might be a UNIX/LINUX thing.  Windows has a "hosts" file in the windows directory.  Mine is
c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Open the hosts file in notepad and add these following lines:

89.187.130.22   brainking.com
89.187.130.22   www.brainking.com
89.187.130.20   img.brainking.com

These will help...I suspect linux is similar.  I know nothing about MAC.  Someone else will have to help out here.

As a business owner I would think Fencer would be all over this.  If he is not, it's his business, he'll be the loser.  I suspect however, he may be busy working on it.

James

Mighty Orion: Well Fencer I'm sure will continue to say that is not his problem - since it is up to the ISP's of the world to update their DNS list. (which the change was caused when Fencer moved the site.)

But going to the IP address, it takes you directly to the site - unforntatly the site is configured to show images to the hard coded address of brainking.com - instead of the IP address.

I did some quick looking, but my memory about this is bad. (Maybe someone else can find something and help) - but I remember you could at once hard-code it in your PC (in a file like lmhosts or something) to always go to the IP address 89.187.130.22 whenever brainking.com is called for - but I can't remember the instructions (nor is it something you would want to do if you don't have to - since if the site ever changes again, things would be messed up.)

Again, maybe someone else can help.... I can't seem to remember much right now.

or2ak.com: I guess you wont sell that lap top?  

I have mentioned this B4 and dont understand why, but...
I dont think its always a BK issue or a ISP issue. 
I have trouble sometimes with BK (not at all this last 2 weeks as others have complained about which is weird)  but I only have trouble on my desktop PC.  I can boot up my laptop and NEVER have an issue with BK.   I dont know why, its very strange.

Sometimes I will be on my laptop playing here and the wife gets on the desktop and cant log on BK (strange? I think so)   So I dont think its always a BK issue or ISP.   So is it my PC?   Hmmm  well, that means lots of us have the same issue with our PCs (whatever it is  LOL)   But, like I said, how come I never ever have a problem when using my laptop?    If its a BK or ISP issue, I shouldnt be able to get on here like most everyone else.  

Mighty Orion: you are getting the same as the rest of us LOLOL..........

After a while I find it is far better to play at ItsYourTurn.com, or find other sites. This site was the best at one time but has gone drastically down hill over the last few months. At one time you could talk to Fencer in PM, or on the boards, but these days it seems to be beneath him to even lower himself to answer you most times....

I'm in but the site won't send me enough information to make moves on any of my games.
Aaaarrrrrggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!
My page times out and all I get are pretty little X's.
All over the page! Lucky me! (NOT!)

coan.net: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
It has been over a week since I started having problems. Like FStop said, I've tried countless times getting to... http://www.brainking.com and http://brainking.com to no avail. Although one night, (after the bk server switch over) I got in only after linking to a non english bk site from google... linking to another non english bk site from that site and then linking from there to the brainking.com site. It only lasted for an hour and that way and it never worked again. I tried clearing cookies and temp files on 3 different computers with no luck. And then finally calling att.net (my provider) and after 24 minutes with them they informed me it was a problem with the web site and not their system. They said it is a web site problem with the route that the information takes to get to my ip address and the web site not communicating properly. Anyway, I'm happy to be able to catch up on the games and that I had vacation days. So, what if I didn't have any days available and I timed out. Wouldn't it be easier to have suspended all timing on all games until this issue(s) gets resolved?
Anyway... thanks for your help! Very much appreciated!

Rose: thank you for response Rose. Maybe if we all yell loud enough someone will hear us and tell us when things are going to improve? We can but hope. There is strength in numbers.

ruby2shoes: I understand your anger. Its as frusterating as anything to have he site as bad as it has been and every one daily asking what is wrong and met with complete silence.  You are not the only person wondering what is going on. We are all in the dark here.

I have played on here for several years but if the site does not buck up soon - or we get a good explanation - I will be deserting the sinking ship - does anyone else feel the same?

rod03801:
it would be useful to everyone if we still got the message at the top of main page telling us exactly when the 24 hrs is up so we can get out of negative time-outs

joshi tm: It appears timeouts are already suspended. I have a ton of opponents with negative time left

Fstop: If you talk to your friend, tell them to go to : http://89.187.130.22

That is the IP address of the site, and if they are having a DNS problem - the IP should work. (if the IP is not working, then it is possible a site problem)

it has been down here as well..but then Im getting used to it.........it is down more than up these days.......I know Fencer says that we all shouldnt go on and on about it, but it is bloody annoying and I, like everybody else feel we should at least get an explanation as to what is going on......
OH............that is right..............IT ISN'T A BK PROBLEM......sorry .....silly me

Dear Fencer,

Looks like the image server is down, since I and every other player can't play any games, please could you suspend all the games until the server is running?

Hey Fencer...why dont you send an email to ebay and ask for help. Ebay works all the time, even the images :)

jryden:My friend MightyOrion is having that same problem ( can not get to the site at all/be able to log in)..... his ISP is through ATT & he called them today , they say it is a Brainking problem & is not a problem on thier end ...... he has been calling me 2 or 3 times a day to see if the site is up or down .... any ideas how to fix this for him?..... I hope Fencer is awhere that there are people that can not get onto the site .... let alone be able to log in ...... he can not even email this problem  because he can not get on the site  or even the blog site . I hope this problem gets resolved soon this is a great site & I would hate to see people lose faith in the service here ..... there are great people here & great fun for all!

alanback: Yeah, I have had these problems too. But this is different. The site is up, I can access with the IP address. I just can't resolve brainking.com. Did the IP address change during the recent maintenance. Perhaps not all DNS servers were correctly updated with change.

ScarletRose: The only thing in settings is to activate AutoSave, I think.
If it tells you it's being saved, it should allow you to restore it if you're gone from the page without posting...

Give it a go - start typing something, wait for the "Saved" message to appear and then go to another page without posting. Then come back to the page you typed the message in - it should display the "restore message" option...

jryden:  It happens frequently that I cannot access the site for brief periods, and it always has, but nothing that would interfere with making timely moves in my games.  But then, I don't generally play games with time limits more restrictive than 2 days/regular weekends/regular vacations.

MadMonkey: where??

MadMonkey: It's a side effect of something. Not purposefully.

Fencer, did you know that it will not let you create Tournaments from the drop box in the new Random Teams.
Do not know if its a bug, or you have not coded it yet

Wooohoooo something new in Fellowships, Random Teams

pauloaguia: Hmm.. I have always seen the red line that comes up to say it has saved the infor.. but, I don't believe I have yet seen a link.. Am I supposed to ticker something on the settings page perhaps?

Many of my available DNS servers have had periodic trouble resolving brainking.com.  The problem seems intermittent and worse on some servers than on others.  (for examples I have had only a few issues with my DNS providers at the office but my home ISP can almost never resolve it). 

I have also noticed that many of my regular reliable opponents have started to time out which makes me wonder if they are having trouble accessing the site too.  (I'm sure to anyone that doesn't know otherwise, it would appear that the site is down and they may think timeouts have been suspended)

Currently I am accessing the site directly via the server ip address. (89.187.130.22)

Anyone else having this problem?

James