In the webconfig file, if you select to have errors sent to an email address, is should tell you about the HTTP time out.

I think its usual for licensing to be done by webservice. However it can be a pain if the license server is down.

But with my forum, never got errors - just took 5 to 10 minutes to bring up any page.

The page would eventually come up - it would just take forever and really messed up being able to be used by any forum user.

- Joyce

I understand and agree (I'm a Software Developer myself) that a Software Vendor should be able to protect their Intellectual Property, but sounds like other solutions should be explored.

I'm so sorry for our recent problems. We have had a little down time over the weekend and yesterday due to a problem with our host.

InstantForum.NET will check against our activation server for the domain you’re currently using to access the software however it will always cache this result. If our activation server is down it should cache this and not perform the check again for at least another 48 hours. This ensures that even if our servers are down you should still be able to access your installation without any issues or performance hit.

We've had a few reports that due to our site being down installations have been a little slow. I'm looking at this as I compose this message. At first glance it appears to be working as expected and caching the result if the server is down and then skipping this check for the duration the result is cached. I'll continue to look at this to ensure everything is correct.

We've addressed a few small issues with v4.1.4 over the weekend and once we've looked into this further and ensured it's working as expected we'll be updating the v4.1.4 downloads. At this stage we won't be offering a v4.1.5 release as the fixes are quite minor and we would at least like to offer some new features with the next point release.

If anyone is having any issues with there installation due to any problems with our site please don't hesitate to contact me on ryan@instantasp.co.uk or via MSN messenger on sales@instantasp.co.uk.

We will certainly issue a temporary license to ensure your installation does not need to communicate with our activation server. 

I've been working with our hosting company since the moment we were notified of the problem via our monitoring software on Sunday morning. Please be assured this is very rare and this is the first downtime I can recall this year. I'm told by our hosting company that everything is back to normal now and they are investigating what caused this.

Sorry for any problems or inconvenience, I'll keep this topic updated. 


Kindest Regards,

Ryan Healey
Director / Developer

Explore our products...
http://demos.instantasp.co.uk/

Thank you for posting here, but I am confused as to what issue you are referring to

Your posting seems to imply this only affected new installations? That wasn't the issue here, nor with the sites that I checked with on Sunday. Please note this was extreme slowness (not a "little" slow - EXTREMELY SLOW).

On Sunday evening I did a search for other Powered by InstantForum sites - about half responded as mine - 5 to 15 minutes to bring up a page. By their dates, they also had been running for a while - in my case, a year. Also note I browsed a combination of different versions 4.1.2, 4.1.3 and 4.1.4 to see if the version made a difference - about half of each version reacted as mine, others appeared ok.

You also state about issuing a temporary license so that when performing an installation, we won't be affected.

Again, my site and the others I checked were not new installations - or are you using the terminalogy "installations" to refer to any installation - new or existing? And if so, why would a temporary license address this issue?

From trying to attach to the other InstantForum sites as well as yours and mine, it appears that the 48 hour cache only worked with some sites, not all. Will you be identifying and addressing why that occurred with some InstantForum sites and not all?

And I'm not sure by your wording if you mean that a replacement 4.1.4 update will be re-released that will ensure that if your host is down, our sites are not affected - or that this upcoming replacement release addresses other completely different issues?

Please clarify. Thank you

- Joyce

Are any of the questions posted to Ryan above going to be answered or expanded on?

- Joyce

1)  We are paying customers and had to put up with 4.1.3 problems for quite a while.

2)  Beginning December through sometime last month or two, you guys rarely responded on issues and could very little support...if any at all.

3) We got the new version 4.1.4 with full of promise.  I spent so much time trying to figure out what the problem was when it would take FOREVER to bring up the page.  I went to IF support and your site wouldn't come up.  I can't believe the software is dependent to your server and raise a big issue for your customers when you're down.  This tells me that if you close your shop, which with the way things are going I can certainly see the potential, all your customers are out of luck and left hanging.

----------------------------------------------
Scott Rupp

GreatTalents.com - Creative People. Together. (TM)
Entertainment Industry and Talent Community.

That to me would provide confirmation that they have addressed this issue.

Ryan states in his posting that even if the license host is down for 48 hours, our forums should not be affected. So I am saying why not settle the fears of their licensed users?

So at minimum that should set it up to confirm this to us.

But so far no reply.

- Joyce