BlockNews.Net Support and FAQ's

We are happy to announce that we have a new SSL server system that has been under development. After some time of private testing and such, we are opening the beta test even further by letting those users who wish to try it, to do so. This SSL system is located in Europe, however we have seen great speeds from all different parts of the world, US included. Being that this is a beta test, and certain features are still being worked out, the following conditions will apply:

• Posting is NOT enabled at this time for this server. You WILL receive errors if you try to post.
• The ONLY port that is currently available for use is SSL port 563.
• Being that testing and features are still being worked on, **This server may be unavailable at any given time, with no specific warning, this does include slow speeds and such at certain times**
• With that said, limited support wil be available for this server until beta testing has completed.

You may connect to this server using the address: eussl.blocknews.net using port 563.

 

Comments have been enabled for this news item so please feel free to leave feedback and comments as you see fit regarding this new server.

There is an issue at this time affecting the US Standard and SSL servers. Errors will be given if users attempt to connect. Engineers are on site and will have things back up and running shortly. The EU servers remain operational in the meantime. Thank you for your patience.

This issue was fixed last week *phew*   Thank you once again for the patience you have given us the past several months while this issue was worked on.

 

In order to prevent confusion, we are condensing the information that was here, down to a more manageable read.

 

In short, there is currently a piece of software that is deployed on the US servers (SSL included) that is causing issues with posts. The software essentially tells your newsreaders that the post does not exist (Post Not Found, Post Not On Server, or some other related error depending on yours news reader). This will be fixed with a new software version, but the reason why it is happening with the current software version has to be found first so the appropriate changes can be made. If you experience slow speeds, this is also a result of this issue...it seems if a user is connected to a front end and begins to exihibit this behavior, it will affect all of those connected to the same front end. In extreme cases, the software will truncate entire newsgroups, but this has been very rare in occurence. This does not affect ALL users, it seems to be random at best. The good news is, retention should begin to increase in the future once this issue is ironed out.

 

What can you do to get around this issue?- If you are experiencing post do not exist errors, you can use a newsreader that supports multiple servers. Set the SSL or standard US server as your primary server and put the EU server as a backup or "fill" server. By doing this, if an article not found error is generated from the US systems, the news reader will automatically go to the EU server to retrieve it. This is due to the EU server being a completely separate system. Users who are experiencing more severe issues, please contact support for additional options.