What happend to The Cosmos?

Good luck, Alli.

I'm afraid that sounds like crappy service from a host.

Hi Alli. I would also suggest you move to a different company, that sounds like unacceptable behavior to me.

Good luck.

Alli your database sql file must be huge, are they letting you export it? It's really important to get that export file asap because you don't want to lose all those threads and accounts. If they're not letting you get that, I hope they're willing to do the backup and send it to you.

Wish I could be more help, I haven't worked with phpBB in ages.

Alli Bee said:

...What I find unacceptable is the suspension of the account without warning and then on top of that they are saying that they will only keep the Cosmos files for 15 days.

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This certainly does not bode well for their affiliate program if they treat their existing clients this way. Best of luck, Alli. We shall patiently await better news.

Houston Tootsie

Bonnie: No need to worry about their affiliate program. There are no shortage of people willing to push crap to make a few extra $s.

Alli Bee said:

Hi all,

What I find unacceptable is the suspension of the account without warning and then on top of that they are saying that they will only keep the Cosmos files for 15 days. At the moment I've managed to sweet talk them into being a bit more helpful and they have given me a very long list of things to do to try to get things up and running again as normal. Unfortunately, with the time difference between me and Bluehost plus the fact that I have a full time day job, it's going to take longer than just a couple of hours to fix.

I'll be working on it this evening (GMT) and hopefully will be up and running again soon.

phpBB for Dummies anyone??

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Sorry about the host, Alli. I know you've moved servers in the past and it's a ton of work. Glad to see your post here on the UU. Many of the Cosmos faithful read and post here, too. Ric

PHPBB is notorious for security problems. It's a GPL package that has oodles of features and has been creatively-cooperatively coded by a large online community, but it has been subject to waves of DOS and spam attacks over the years.

That's not unique to PHBB, but is generally more prevalent among open-source boards than commercial ones.

I started a forum on PHPBB a few years ago, but after a local server using the same system got trashed and had to shut down, I switched to Invision board (IPB). It's had its own share of problems, but has managed to react to security issues much faster. Ali might be able to get a translator to port over to a different system if the software's the problem.

But I appreciate the bandwidth problem. While my forum is much smaller - about 1,500 members - it sometimes caused problems for the local host. Later least year, I ended up switching to a larger, outside server who could handle the traffic better.

Yes, the files must be huge! My own board exports the full MySQL database at about 120-130 MB and growing - the Cosmos must be several times that. I had a few hiccups making the switch to another server, but got it running with relatively few issues. Having a good admin panel on the server helps.

I don't think anyone could have predicted the space and bandwidth requirements would become so large when these boards started appearing in the late 90s. The sheer popularity of some communities has demanded massive infrastructure - something that hosting fees (competitively priced) can't accommodate.

I also tip my hat to anyone who runs a board. Not only can it be time-consuming, it can be expensive. If not supported by advertising or corporate sponsorhip, the owner has to pay for the hosting and any bandwidth charges, software, etc. on his/her own. So donations are always welcome.

Alli, if throwing money at the problem will make it go away let us know. I can throw a little.

John Kavanagh said:

Alli, if throwing money at the problem will make it go away let us know. I can throw a little.

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ditto for me.

my internet security says something about a trojan

yep same here phil

Went to UC to see if they fixed their Trojan problem from Sept. New site, but can't log in or register, tells me to contact the admin, no link to the admin?? Is this site dead? If it is, I'll take the link off my site. Anyone know?

I've just checked Cosmos. There doesn't appear to be anything wrong. It works fine.

Those of you getting all sad and despondent over its demise, and experiencing warm and fuzzy nostalgic feelings about how great a site it used to be, can stop worrying.

Those who can't access it are maybe not logged in.

The other thing I would suggest is to go to Google, type "ukulele cosmos" and click on the top link. i know it sounds complicated, but believe me, it works.

I've been there every day these last few weeks, it is up and running.

By forum standards, this is an ancient thread somehow revived. Cosmos is fine.

It was me, after I posted there was a message in my e-mail from them with a link to unlock my account. I haven't been there in six months so it appears they made some changes. Funny thing is I still haven't logged in, I was just bored last night and thought I would check them out.