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We just wanted to post this message to let every one know of a few service related changes that are going to be affecting your BlockNews accounts.

It was decided some time ago that a new system was going to be constructed in a new datacenter. Being that it would have taken an incredible amount of work to move the existing systems from Atlanta, Georgia to Ashburn, Virginia, there really seemed to be no other choice but to construct a new system. With this new system comes better reliability, greater redundancy and in the not to distant future, increased retention. So all around, this move will put BlockNews in a better competitive position.

At any rate, we will be cutting over to the new server system on Saturday Morning September 27th at 8 AM Eastern Time via DNS change. The one and only change that customers will need to do is if you subscribe to specific groups and download headers, you will need to resubscribe and redownload your headers once again. The new system has different article numbers compared to the old system. Failure to do this will cause "Article Not Found" Errors and the like. NZB users will need to do nothing differently.

Another added feature of this new system is that article numbering will be standardized across both the US servers and the EU servers. Essentially this means you will be able to download headers from one, and download the articles from the other without issue. Something that was not possible before.

With this new system we have also decided to change the server address of the SSL server to help prevent confusion that some users had experienced. If you use the SSL server, please change the current address of secure.blocknews.net to ssl.blocknews.net in your newsreader. The old address will still work for the forseeable future, but may disappear at any given time.

Available port options also have been changed. Please review the new port options below:

news.blocknews.net and eunews.blocknews.net may connect via ports 119 or 443 ONLY.

ssl.blocknews.net and eussl.blocknews.net may connect via ports 563, 80 or 81 ONLY.

The whole migration process is expected to be seemless for all users, however with any DNS change, it could take several hours to propagate across the internet. Should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact support via the helpdesk located at http://support.blocknews.net Also, we have currently posted a status message regarding this event on our status page located here: http://faq.blocknews.net If any issues or new information becomes available, we will post the updates there.

We want to take this opportunity to thank you all for your loyal patronage and all of us here at BlockNews hope you enjoy the new service enhancements that will be coming down the pipes in the near future.

Kind Regards,

The BlockNews.Net Team

• 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.

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.

UPDATE 1-25-08 Afternoon - The problem which was causing this issue has been fully identified. A faulty load balancer was the culprit and took quite awhile to isolate. At any rate, this load balancer is being replaced Friday afternoon into the weekend and things should start to return to normal in due time. Once again thank you for your patience and have a great weekend. -- Edited for clarification 1-26-08

UPDATE 1/21/2008- Engineers are still working on the issue non-stop (until they ask for food that is). Scripts are being run on various pieces of equipment to better pin-point the location of the issue, and then take action accordingly. Again, this issue is affecting very few users, which makes it more difficult to locate. We want to clarify that this issue is NOT the same as what was going on towards the end of last year with the SSL system, which was a capacity issue. The other two systems remain unaffected. You will see continued updates here as they become available. Thanks again for your patience.

UPDATE 1/17/2008- Being that this issue is only affecting certain/random users, it is taking longer to track down than it would if the entire userbase were to be affected. In addition to possible network issues, we are analyzing the front ends to see if there is issues with only certain groups on certain front ends or a combination of SSL gateways and news server front ends. The process is essentially trying to narrow down to the key cause which can prove to be a long and tedious process. We hope, just like you guys, it will not take much longer. We appreciate your patience.

The Following Issues Are Still Being Addressed Accordingly:

Currently, users are reporting on two issues for the SSL server:

• Certain articles, while they do exist on the server, are coming up as non-existent to the end user.

• Slow speeds

UPDATE- Still working out the kinks on this issue. It seems once things are fixed, they go down hill again. The standard server still remains usable, however several of the alternate ports will either provide failed connections or slow speeds. If you choose to use this server, please use port 119 or you may use the SSL or EU server.

UPDATE- It seems as though the SSL server is not affected by this as originally thought. However the standard US server seems to be only accepting connections using port 119. If you use this server, please attempt to use port 119 until the issue is ironed out, or you may connect to the SSL or EU server in the meantime.

Some users are experiencing intermitent connection issues to the US server farms (SSL and standard US server). Should you choose to use these servers, you will need to attempt to use different ports to gain connections. The EU server remains unaffected. Thank ytou for your patience.

***UPDATE-- Light at the end of the tunnel? IF things go as planned, most, if not all of the issues still being seen with SSL, should be resolved by early weekend. Again, this is if things go smoothly between now and then. On the bright side, improved connectability to the standard US server should be seen at this point.

**UPDATE-- Users may still experience connection and disconnection issues during peak usage times which are typically evenings, the good thing is, these issues are not occuring during "off-peak" times like they once were (pre-hardware upgrade). Therefore progress IS being made, check back here for the latest updates. You should continue to use whatever port works the best for your connection and if your newsreader supports it, enable "auto-reconnect". Thank you for your continued patience.

*UPDATE-- New hardware has been added to the SSL system to further increase its capacity. However, with the hardware that has come in so far, it is not enough as there are still some issues from time to time. Additional hardware is still on order/has been ordered and is installed and put into production as it comes in. This will be done until the SSL server is up to a satisfactory state. Please know that as hardware is added, there may be times where all connections will fail so equipment can be rebooted. Please continue to use alternate port 443 OR you may use the newly added alternate port of 8080. The Europe server (eunews.blocknews.net) remains unaffected. BlockNews thanks you for your patience through this time.

We are currently experiencing connection issues for the SSL server causing some users to be unable to connect. One workaround is to try using a different port. Instead of 563 you may use 443. Work is continuing to be done on the SSL system and improvement should be seen in the near future. Thank you for your patience.

The issue has been resolved, however certain articles from Sep. 8 - Sep. 11th can not be recovered.  This will cause incompletes for some groups.  These are available on the US and SSL server.  Thank you for your patience.