Lazeez's Corner

More beta stuff and site accessibility

This was a frustrating weekend.

Inexplicably, still, some people are unable to access the site. The servers are online as usual. The DNS entries for the site are configured correctly. So why some Comcast, then Earthlink and now MSN users are unable to access the site? I don’t know, and can’t figure it out yet. Most of the problem areas were cleared yesterday about 1 pm – as evidenced by a sustained usage spike on the site; and for a period I thought the problems were cleared. However, today, when I got to work and checked my email, there were several messages still complaining about the inability to reach the site.

To help with this problem, I’ve added two links on the left of this blog. For a long time now, since 2002, I’ve owned the domain storiesonline.xxx, but since.xxx is not supported by the ICANN, normal DNS servers don’t lead you to the site if you simply typed ‘http://storiesonline.xxx’ into your browser’s address bar. The company selling those domains, New.net has instructions on how to access their DNS servers. But, since it requires the installation of a plugin for Windows users, I never made it public (Mac users can just type ‘new.net’ into the search field of the network control panel and gain access to the whole new.net network, including storiesonline.xxx).

However, on the weekend, it was brought to my attention (thanks cmsix) that anybody can use http://storiesonline.xxx.new.net to access the site without any need for plug-ins.

The second link is the direct link to the site’s main IP address. Accessing the site at this URL bypasses any DNS servers. However, if the site were to move to a different IP address, that URL won’t be valid anymore, so don’t bookmark it.

The two links are now permanently linked at the left, so if you bookmark this blog, you’ll always have alternative ways to access the site, if the need arises.

A side effect of the problem is that the site should be slower for everybody. To accommodate the new links I’ve temporarily redirected the stylesheet links (.css) to the main server, instead of the offload server at storiesonline.org. So the stylesheets would be served from the same server as the other pages and it should work for any URL that you use. But that puts a great strain on the site’s main line (an extra 100k hits per hour) slowing access for everybody. 24 hours after I stop getting complaint about the inability to access the site, I will redirect the .css links to the bandwidth offload server at storiesonline.org.

By the way, for those who experienced the inability to connect to the site, before you try the new links, flush your browser’s cache before trying one of the new links. Sometime browsers cache the error pages and keep displaying them even when it can connect to the site with no problems.

Another topic is the ongoing beta.

So far, response to the new layout has been positive in general. So as soon as some of the new features are tested extensively, the beta period will be officially finished and the new layout will replace the old one permanently.

Some of the new features added and changes made yesterday:

– The ability to center the stories’ text in the window — with purple bars on both sides instead of just on the right. By the way, this is one feature that few have noticed. The Story Style Page allows you to almost completely customize the look of the stories’ display for your eyes’ comfort — font size, background color, text body width; all can be customized.

– The ability for premier members/authors to bypass the confirmation of deletion from the library and bypass the extended info form for the addition of bookmarks to the library. The default is like before: to confirm everything. To set the new preferences go to the library’s preference page.

– Renamed the ‘Read’ link to ‘Home’. I received the most complaints about the lack of ‘Home’ link.

<geek>

Privacy

A topic that is near and dear for everybody that I know is personal privacy. A while back, I found a new tool that helps personal privacy greatly. It’s called ‘tor’ from EFF.org (Electronic Frontier Foundation). It’s a proxy server that needs to be installed on your system, and once it is, it can reroute all the internet traffic that you initiate from the computer you’re using through a maze of anonymizing proxy servers. So no one watching your traffic can tell where you’re going and sites can’t tell where you’re coming from.

I’ve added the link to tor in the blog’s links on the left.

It’s a good tool. Although, it’s bad for services offered by your ISP like usenet access. Most ISP-run NNTP server for usenet rely on the IP address to allow you in or deny you access, so if you use tor to access your ISP’s news server, chances are that you will be denied access.</geek>

Lazeez

11 responses to “More beta stuff and site accessibility”

  2. Just my experience. A few (several?) days back I could not access the site. Just as a test I cruised the web a bit. I could not access playboy.com either. I contacted my isp and was told that a time-warner router was having problems and until they fixed it I would not be able to access some sites.

  3. you wrote:
    The Story Style Page allows you to almost completely customize the look of the stories’ display for your eyes’ comfort — font size, background color, text body width; all can be customized.

    If this were to be true, it would be a great thing. Unfortunately, it is not quite accurate: only light, bright backgrounds are available, and only in a limited range of color ratios. Not having looked at the code related requirements, I wonder if making the color scheme truly customizable is feasible at this time.

  4. If this were to be true, it would be a great thing. Unfortunately, it is not quite accurate: only light, bright backgrounds are available, and only in a limited range of color ratios. Not having looked at the code related requirements, I wonder if making the color scheme truly customizable is feasible at this time.

    Check the page now. Many options have been added.

  5. Just a note — Some lousy stinkin’ idjits thought they’d have fun and launch an attack on the DNS servers of several large ISPs, from what I’ve been told.

    Among those affected were Comcast, which would explain why Comcast users were having issues.

    Personally, I have my work’s DNS servers on my box in addition to my ISP’s DNS servers. That way I have an extra source for DNS lookups.

  6. I’ve just noticed a small problem with the “story updates”. Seems like the dates are mixed, and no chapter numbers are listed. I’ve opened a couple of “updates” due to the lack of chapter numbers only to find that I’ve already accessed them. Is it possible to address this or is it an incompatability with Firefox 1.0.3?

  7. This blog is not the place to report bugs with the site.

    Use the Webmaster link on the site to send a bug report.

    And as far as the updates page, as far as I can tell, it’s working properly in all the browsers that I have, including firefox.

  8. people having problems accessing storiesonline.net may be having issues with their own isp’s dns servers. using a third-party dns server won’t “hide” your identity like tor does, but it might do the trick. it has solved a few strange instances of not being able to access specific web pages here.

    granitecanyon runs public dns services. see http://soa.granitecanyon.com/faq.shtml#q10 for info on their services and the names of their dns servers (you’ll need to look up the current ip addresses of those servers).

    in winxp it’s pretty easy to setup. right click the network connection used, select properties, go to the properties of tcp/ip and enter in the ip addresses for the name servers listed at the link given above. (‘ping’ them from the command line or at a place like http://www.dnsstuff.com)

    if you can’t fetch those for some reason, as of this writing, the ip’s are: 205.166.226.38 and 69.67.108.10. leave your own ip address (usually ‘server assigned’ or ‘dhcp’) alone.

    to ease their own server load, i would recommend using their free dns servers only if it is necessary.

    if it is a blocking issue at your provider or uplink, then tor would be the route to go. the instructions for windows installation are very straightforward. it will take you longer to download tor and privoxy than it will to install and configure them. you don’t even need to reboot windows.

  9. I have never had problems accessing the site. I use WinXP and FireFox 1.0.4, as well as IE occassionally. I am able to access all of your domains successfully, even the .xxx one. Thank you for pointing out this new tool, TOR. I have not seen or read anything about this and it is exactly what I am looking for. Also, I love the new layout for SO.net 😉

  10. Hay!!! bossman I can’t get in to storiesonline!!!!!We had a problem and my good wife earsed all the cookies,and i Had a my passwords on a sheet and that is missing .my e-mail address is jimac3669@hotmil.com what is my password???THanks jimbo!!

  11. June 10 cox.net started having problems finding SOL. Looka ok now but it’s still early.
    pn1jim