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Newer status reports.
Thanx much for a really fine Rust 1998. The RHF and the IRF were fantastic, and it was really great seeing 2/3 of Neil's shows this year with a bunch of y'all. And for those that I couldn't hook up with in person, it's also been real nice hanging out with you folks here in cyberspace.
It's been heartwarming watching the new arrivals here on Rust become part of the family. And seeing old timers continuing to contribute is always nice. As so many of you folks have expressed here from time to time, Rust is the finest damn group of folks on the Internet.
With a dearth of Neil input this year, it's gratifying that we have continued to find interesting and fun topics to discuss and have been able to organize our own events so successfully. But it'll be REAL nice to get a little help from Neil in 1999.
Looking forward to a GREAT 1999 with you all!
. . . RE*AC*TOR
I haven't gotten any posts saying they saw double posts (other
than manual ones, like catman's :-) since I mentioned that I
thought it was fixed last night. If these posts from THIS
MORNING are still doubling up for anyone, let me know.
. . . RE*AC*TOR
Okay, somehow apparently most everybody BUT me is getting
double Rust posts. I'm pursuing that. I also just got back a
massive error message from AOL who rejected the last digest,
due to a mismatch in the envelope's domain name -- turns out
that a config file had a typo, and that affects spam filtering.
I'll be resending the digest manually to everyone to make
sure they all get it. Sorry for any duplication...
. . . RE*AC*TOR
As you've probably noticed, Rust is back up and running. The "rust unknown -- no relaying supported" thing has been fixed (damn spam avoidance requirements....) And Rust mail is flowing.
There's still a chance that the digest won't go out cleanly. That'll be tested shortly, when the next one is generated. Of course if you're a digest subscriber and you're reading this right now (in the digest) it worked. Cross fingers....
Sorry about the hassles -- hopefully the new improved server
where Rust runs will give real good service (and maybe pump
out the digests faster, bandwidth permitting....)
. . . RE*AC*TOR
The replacement of the Rust server happened
without warning :-( and has caused problems.
For one thing, mail bound for Rust using "rustlist.org" will bounce.
And there appear to be a few other problems I'm looking into.
This will be fixed as soon as possible. I'll keep you informed....
. . . RE*AC*TOR
Just a bit of Rust transmission info to consider or ignore...
Rust bandwidth is running at a peak right now, averaging more than 5 digests a day for the last few days. All the excitement over the Bridge shows and the IRF have definitely got us all talking, and for the most part it's been good stuff. Lots of Neil content, plenty of good NNC stuff, etc.
For the most part the load has been well absorbed, with fewer mailbox overflows than during similar periods of such load in the past. This probably reflects improvements in mail systems and networking over time. In general, I haven't had a lot of extra transmission problems to deal with. Just a few extra. There have been a few more unsubs than usual, but I'm sure some were just folks who wanted to keep up with the Bridge stuff and are now moving on. So overall I'm not really concerned about the extra bandwidth happening right now. I see it as a GOOD thing.
But I would like to ask that folks take one thing into consideration: during periods of high load like this, it would really help if large posts that are far removed from Neil or music or current topics of discussion be held onto a little bit, and submitted when things slow back down a bit. It only takes a few such posts to drive out another couple of extra digests a day, pushing the current high load well into the "red zone". I'm not saying DO NOT post them, just please try to hold onto them a bit until the extra load subsides a bit, if possible. Decide for yourself if it's something that really needs to get out quickly or not...
One other thing -- the number of posts with complete unedited previous posts attached has risen dramatically. I'm sure that some of these are from newer folks not used to the common practices involved (which is to edit the copy of the post you're replying to down to the main thought that your response applies to). But plenty of them really appear to be cases of "I'm in a hurry so I'm just going to forward the whole thing (even though I'm just replying with a sentence or two)". If fewer posts have so much repeated material like that, there's that much more room for new discussion without major bandwidth overload. Please think about it...
Any efforts to help keep the load managable will be greatly
appreciated. By me, and by all those Rusties who's mailboxes
are filling up so fast, and by those who can barely find the
time to scan through all this Rust mail. Thanx!
. . . RE*AC*TOR
The server Rust is running on has had a few problems lately. It's been down briefly a couple of times (but quick fixes may have kept you from even noticing). If a problem develops that can't be fixed quickly, I'll post here. If you think something's wrong, be sure to check here.
Note that sometime in the next month or two the server will
be replaced. This, too, could cause some outage time if
the change-over doesn't go smoothly. I made sure that this
change-over didn't happen until after the Bridge/IRF so that
it wouldn't interfear with that discussion if a problem does
arise. I'll post info to everyone when that switch-over is
about to happen. (Note that you need not do anything other
than watch to see if it goes smoothly.)
. . . RE*AC*TOR
Rust's server needs to be rebooted but I'm having a bit of trouble raising someone who can do it. It "froze" last night about 10:30pm EDT. Hope to have it back up later this morning....
(Came back at about 11:00am...)
. . . RE*AC*TOR
Rust's server went down again last night and very likely won't be brought back until tonight... :-(
To make matters worse, I could not update (this) News on HyperRust or receive any mail until late this afternoon, either! But here it is, now.
Try to take a little vacation and everything goes to shit...
(Came back at about 7:00pm...)
. . . RE*AC*TOR
Went off-line again this morning at about 2:00am EDT. double-sigh!
Came back at about 2:00pm...
. . . RE*AC*TOR
Went off-line again this morning at about 5:00am EDT. sigh!
Came back at about 11:00am...
. . . RE*AC*TOR
Apparently went off-line about 2:00am EDT. I'm looking into it...
Came back at about 10:00am...
. . . RE*AC*TOR
It was back, as of about 10:00am this morning, but was gone again by 10:30! #*%$@!!! I hate it when that happens... :-(
Came back at about 11:00am...
Problems with access to the domain where RustList.org sits AGAIN! Apparently
went out at about midnight (EDT), just after I'd made my last look-in last
night. I'm not sure who the blame goes to just yet, but this is getting
to be SUCH A PAIN. I doubt Rust will make it past 1000 digests on
this system, with al these hassles....
. . . RE*AC*TOR
So ATT finally (9pm EDT) got their line into the domain where the
Rust List server sits working again. About good goddam time.
Over 13 hours down. Too damn many outages over the last several
months for my taste. I may have to start looking to relocate
"rustlist.org" again....
. . . RE*AC*TOR
The folks who run the domain where the Rust server sits say that ATT's
lines into their domain have been down all day and ATT won't give them
an expected fix time. As of 8pm EDT tonight, it's been down over 12
hours. Sorry about the delay in getting this notice posted -- when I
saw the problem earlier today I was assured it would be fixed shortly,
so I didn't take the time to post status here. This evening I get back
to checking on things and find it's STILL down, dammit.
grumble grumble grumble sheeeeee-it....
. . . RE*AC*TOR
As before, the name is back in the DNS and things are flowing
again (as of about 1pm EDT). My apologies....
. . . RE*AC*TOR
Same problem as a little while back.
Sigggghhhhh....
. . . RE*AC*TOR
As of about 11:00am, multipro.com is again visible on the net
and Rust has started flowing. I apologize for the outage....
. . . RE*AC*TOR
The "multipro.org" domain where the RustList server sits is
unreachable this morning. No servers within that complex can
be reached, causing all number of problems -- including the
appearance of "Unknown Host" for "RustList.org". When the
connections to multipro.org are fixed, I'll post here.
. . . RE*AC*TOR
There have been several problems with the DNS (dynamic name services) relating to the rustlist.org and the machine it sits on, since yesterday evening. That delayed mail to a lot of people, and mail from a lot of people that was bound for Rust. For some people, on systems with the over zealous spam prevention methods that reject (rather than just delay) such mail, some rust mail was lost.
I hope it's okay now...
. . . RE*AC*TOR
A Rustie wrote:
> She-it! We got T1's T3's T-for-2's all kinds of stuff > linked into the spine of the net, and Rust spits me > out regularly, it appears to be way more sensitive > than others listservers that I'm on.Next time your system starts bouncing all of your rust mail back to my mailbox again (which makes it REAL hard to ignore, unlike those "other listservers" where the errors are apparently routed to the bit-bucket) I'll save the hundred or so bounces a day for as long as I can stand having to keep fielding them, and forward them all to you after your system's mail problems clear up.
Unsubs for other than mailbox overflow or obsolete ID are fairly rare on Rust. I always give the bouncing mail a while to see if it's going to fix itself, before I unsub it. This isn't a capricious act. If you get unsubbed, there IS a problem at your system. Check with your mail admins for details.
(In your particular cases, it's generally been where the system where your mailbox sits has been inaccessible to your gateway machine -- and instead of queuing it -- like MOST systems -- it's just bounced it immediately.)
Also note that there are a lot of mailing lists where ONE SINGLE
BOUNCE will activate an automated force-unsub. Rust isn't one of
them. There's a human being (me) dealing will all the bounced
mail, and I do try hard NOT to unsub unless really necessary.
. . . RE*AC*TOR
Today (and the digest this post appears in) marks a couple of landmarks for Rust:
These statistics don't really MEAN anything, but some may find the "hard numbers" about Rust load interesting...
**** Rust "Load" Statistics *****
Volume System Dates Digests Meg
======== ================== ============= ======= ===
Volume 1 death.corp.sun.com Fall92-940618 460+ 10*
Volume 2 fish.com 940618-960730 2219** 38
------------- ---- --
subtotal: 46+ months 2679+ 48
Volume 3 pobox.com 960803-960919 228 5
Volume 4 novia.net 960924-970828 1030 25***
Volume 5 listmail.com 970828-980402 742 17+
------------- ---- --
subtotal: 20 months 2000 47+
=========== ==== ===
GRAND-total: 66+ months 4679+ 95+
* Rust ran with a fairly light load and no digests for
about 6 months prior to Volume 1's first digest. I've
added 2 Meg to the Vol 1 total size to cover that period.
** Many of the digests in volume 2 were generated at
about half the size of the current average digest
(which is at about 700 lines, or a little over 20
kilobytes), inflating the digest count a fair amount.
*** Novia digests (volume 4) were generated at 750 lines
(usually at just under 25 kilobytes) decreasing the
digest count a bit.
Got lonely talking to myself on Rust for the last 12 hours and decided to let y'all all back in.... :-)
Sorry about the server outage. Blame it on El Nino... ;-)
. . . RE*AC*TOR
As of 10:30pm EST, the server where Rust runs from isn't visible on the
net, and apparently has been gone for about 3 hours already. I'm pursuing
a correction...
. . . RE*AC*TOR
The machine where Rust sits came back at about 11:00am EST.
Once again I apologize for the outage... :-(
. . . RE*AC*TOR
The machine where Rust sits is off-line right now (8:00am EST).
I'm not sure what the expected up-time is -- will report here
when I know more.
. . . RE*AC*TOR
As of about 2pm EST, a work-around has Rust visible again. But this
could happen some more before a real fix is found. Please bear
with us...
. . . RE*AC*TOR
As of about 7am EST today the same problem as over the weekend
(see below) is again cursing us. (shite!) I'm on it...
. . . RE*AC*TOR
As of about 11am EST the problem has cleared. I'm still trying
to track down why this keeps happening, so if you see the problem
again in the next day or two ("RustList.org unknown") you can
assume I'm still working on it. :-(
. . . RE*AC*TOR
As of about 8am EST today the same problem as yesterday (see
below) has reoccurred. (sigh!) Looking into it...
. . . RE*AC*TOR
By 4pm EST today the RustList.org domain was restored to the DNS
(Domain Name Service) and things are flowing smoothly again,
as far as I can see. Sorry about that, once again...
. . . RE*AC*TOR
As of about 2pm EST today the "RustList.org" domain that you send Rust posts to, isn't visible on the net. So any posts sent to Rust@RustList.org right now will either be delayed or returned. I'm working on getting that resolved ASAP.
Unfortunately the new "anti-spam" stuff on many mail systems
will prevent or delay a lot of you from seeing earlier Rust
mail that was already on the way to you, too. Many systems
won't accept mail from a non-resolvable sender. Too bad the
damn spammers have forced such measures into place, further
compounding this kind of problem.
. . . RE*AC*TOR
Finally managed to get someone to kick the server.
As of about 3pm EST, it's back on-line. Really
sorry about that!
. . . RE*AC*TOR
Though Rust's server is visible on the net right now, it's
not accepting mail (or other connections) at this time
(as of about 10am EST). I'm pursuing it...
. . . RE*AC*TOR
Newer status reports.