Jump Room. (Backup website if forum server down or offline?)

[Tony]

Jump Room.

I was wondering if for some reason we could not connect to this forum, because it was being blocked, whether an alternative site could be made ready, or some system to keep communications open.

I have read that some hotels block access to alternative media site.
We'd need a code name....Trilateral Commission sub-division Havaloan?:rolleyes:

Any thoughts?

[Sebastion]

As soon as that is set up might I apply to Avaloan for ten gold bricks please, interest free of course with a 99 year payback term?

[panopticon]

G'day pie 'n' eal,

The direct IP address for the project avalon website is: 67.212.160.12
This means you could directly access the site via IP if it has not been blocked aswell (ie http://67.212.160.12)
Unfortunately the entire site redirects to the domain name (uses absolute paths) so I think you would be only able to view by constantly inputting the IP address in the link instead of the domain name (ie removing www.projectavalon.net and replacing it with 67.212.160.12).
This might also mean not being able to post or login due to session (or cookie) issues but I haven't checked.
I don't know much about vBulletin so maybe Paul or Ilie might be able to check the settings (or find a way around this by using a relative root directory instead of an absolute one in the config) but some CMS systems use absolute paths only.
As for being able to communicate if the site disappears, many here use farcebuck and tweener (I value my privacy however) so depends on what sort of problem you're anticipating:

Full scale shut down (by Nation State or EMP) and there's no solution (obviously),
IP blocking, off the top of my head you might be able to use anonymous proxy or anonymising service though they can cause problems (for example with sessions/cookies) in using some sites,
Domain name blocking, as above.

I've used JAP (http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html) in the past. Almost a decade ago there was a whole mess of OS anon applications and this was my favourite as it was simple, worked and I had no problems with it (I'm actually just downloading the latest version now to see how it's going).

I did a quick guggle and this page (http://www.a3webtech.com/index.php/view-banned-websites.html) or this one (http://www.rfa.org/english/about/help/web_access.html) seem to be on target. http://proxy.org is also a good resource.
I also keep a stick with portable apps (http://portableapps.com/) on it (like opera portable (http://www.opera-usb.com)) and another with a bootable linux distro (thanks to Li Li (http://www.linuxliveusb.com/) it's easy to create a bootable usb stick and I don't have to look like such a tech haw :biggrin1: ) so I can use and abuse "where aire I go" without fear or favour.

Anyone else got any suggestions?

Kind Regards, :yo:
Panopticon

[ThePythonicCow]

G'day pie 'n' eal,

The direct IP address for the project avalon website is: 67.212.160.12
This means you could directly access the site via IP if it has not been blocked aswell (ie http://67.212.160.12)
Unfortunately the entire site redirects to the domain name (uses absolute paths) so I think you would be only able to view by constantly inputting the IP address in the link instead of the domain name (ie removing www.projectavalon.net and replacing it with 67.212.160.12).
This might also mean not being able to post or login due to session (or cookie) issues but I haven't checked.
I don't know much about vBulletin so maybe Paul or Ilie might be able to check the settings (or find a way around this by using a relative root directory instead of an absolute one in the config) but some CMS systems use absolute paths only.


In the rather unlikely event that your normal DNS provider (*) stopped resolving "projectavalon.net", then you could put the following line in your local hosts file (details vary for Windows, Mac or Linux). You could then can use the "projectavalon.net" domainname in your URL's normally, and it should all work just fine. Well, actually, I know it would work fine, as that's what I've been doing for most of this year, for other reasons.

67.212.160.12 projectavalon.net
If you don't do that, it will be very limited and clumsy, the forum pages will look quite plain, forum links won't work, and login will not be allowed.

(*) For almost all users, your "normal DNS provider" is just your local Internet Service Provider (ISP) which in the US at least is usually either a cable or phone company.

[ThePythonicCow]

I was wondering if for some reason we could not connect to this forum, because it was being blocked, whether an alternative site could be made ready, or some system to keep communications open.
If the forum web server itself is down or off the web, then you'll just have to wait until we admins can get it back up and online, at least enough to display a status page. As you can see from our Record of Server Outages (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?24002-Record-of-Server-Outages), we have had two outages since April 2011 (both outages in June 2011, due to technical issues on the server.)

If your local internet service or your government is blocking access to the forum, then you'll have to explore the various proxy options available on the web. As many people in China can tell you, this will take some learning.

If your DNS provider is not resolving projectavalon.net to its IP address of 67.212.160.12, then you can do that manually in your hosts file, if you know what your doing, and if you still have some way to remember or recall that IP address. See my previous post just above for slightly more on this case.

[panopticon]

In the rather unlikely event that your normal DNS provider (*) stopped resolving "projectavalon.net", then you could put the following line in your local hosts file (details vary for Windows, Mac or Linux). You could then can use the "projectavalon.net" domainname in your URL's normally, and it should all work just fine. Well, actually, I know it would work fine, as that's what I've been doing for most of this year, for other reasons.

67.212.160.12 projectavalon.net
If you don't do that, it will be very limited and clumsy, the forum pages will look quite plain, forum links won't work, and login will not be allowed.
(*) For almost all users, your "normal DNS provider" is just your local Internet Service Provider (ISP) which in the US at least is usually either a cable or phone company.

Thanks Paul,

I'd forgotten all about the local hosts file!
I was thinking from the server perspective not the user. :ballchain::smash:

Kind Regards, :yo:
Panopticon

[vibrations]

Very nice from you guys, I just paste it in my Yojimbo library, just in case.

[Cidersomerset]

Thanks Lads glad to see we have some 'Star Tekkis' keeping an I eye on things.......

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/113/315385916_c235d39406.jpg