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The importance of Alpha aware hosting

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    #31
    Re: The importance of Alpha aware hosting

    Steve --

    Free is better yet! I didn't really want to get into this type of business anyways, I only made the offer to prove a point :-)

    Pertti

    Comment


      #32
      Re: The importance of Alpha aware hosting

      This is what your Ping Test setup page looks like. Firing the PING and getting the results are pretty easy, managing the Up/Down and sending email/text message only at appropriate times is what took a bit more time. Not everyone will know what their "domain" is and that will cause some support requirements. The tool has the following features:

      Ping Test (beta) - Process and Limitations
      • Limited to two (2) domains and Alpha Five MUST BE running at the domain*.
      • Checks your domain every 5 minutes - your site could be down up to 5 minutes before you receive a notice.
      • If your site is up, we simply update our database with status.
      • If your site is down, you will receive ONE email and/or text message based on your entry for Notify Email/TextMsg# for each domain.
      • When your site is back up you will receive ONE additional email/text message.
      • This is beta, use at your own risk.


      Ping Basics
      • Enter your DOMAIN under Domain, not your website URL.
      • If the Test Site button says your site is DOWN, then either 1) your site really is down, 2) your firewall prevents PING, 3) you did not enter a proper domain name.


      * I could increase the allowed domains, but I would still want to ensure Alpha Five is running on the server because this is a free service to that community.
      Attached Files
      Steve Wood
      See my profile on IADN

      Comment


        #33
        Re: The importance of Alpha aware hosting

        Thanks Steve, I think this is great.

        I do have a question about what happens if the ping site goes down. My suggestion is to place the same program on another server, with the sole purpose of pinging the original program. If you don't have a second server available, I assume people here would offer to host the extra ping. (I would if I had a server, but I'm not there yet.) Also having the original ping the single purpose program the server is on means they are monitoring each other.

        Just a thought.

        Comment


          #34
          Re: The importance of Alpha aware hosting

          Redundancy with free stuff !!!! Give an inch take a ?
          Chad Brown

          Comment


            #35
            Re: The importance of Alpha aware hosting

            Thanks...I did finally get things up, I had set up a web page in IIS with same domain and it was conflicting with my Alpa server...or at least I know that when I deleted the IIS web page everything worked fine.

            As for FTP... I picked up the idea from a few posts and a video, of just installing the application builder on the server and publishing to the server root from it...works like a charm. So I don't fight getting the FTP working now, I build the application on my "home" computer then zip the file, copy and paste into the windows server with RD, extract and publish. I close the a5 application program down and start the standalone a5 server when I am done.

            Originally posted by nlights View Post
            #reignpanel: I had a lot of trouble getting FTP to work after I changed servers. My server guy finally pointed out that you sometimes need to delete the FTP service and re-create it, and while doing it make sure you check the "Do not isolate users" -option as you go through the setup wizard. Once you've set the site up, you can't change this option (I' don't think you can even SEE how it was set.)

            As for A5 up/down notifications, I've found AlwaysUp to be an invaluable tool. Even more than notifications, I really, really, REALLY like the fact that AlwaysUp will very reliably start the A5 server if the main server reboots for some reason. This way I will can rest assured that my A5 server is up as long as the rest of my server is up. Money well spent on that one. I still use another external monitoring service (such as freewebmonitoring.com) to alert me if the file server goes down and doesn't come up.

            Pertti

            Comment


              #36
              Re: The importance of Alpha aware hosting

              Thanks Steve ! Very nice... just tried it and like it

              Any chance you'll add an IVR function in the future so it also makes a phone call to whatever phone number the subscriber provides ? IMO that would be an extra benefit especially since we don't read emails and texts 24x7 (aka sleeping)

              Comment


                #37
                Re: The importance of Alpha aware hosting

                Dave, I remember working with a client that used a email-to-voice service that would work. It takes an email just like the text message service, makes the call, does the routine to verify the receiver is the right person or able to transfer the information, then takes acknowledgement as in "Press 1 to acknowledge...". Then it shoots back a POST to my website indicating the call was made, someone answered (or not) and the person acknowledged (or not). Voice is nice because I can use a clip from the late Sam Kinison to say your site is down.
                Steve Wood
                See my profile on IADN

                Comment


                  #38
                  Re: The importance of Alpha aware hosting

                  Originally posted by The Mage View Post
                  Thanks Steve, I think this is great.

                  I do have a question about what happens if the ping site goes down. My suggestion is to place the same program on another server, with the sole purpose of pinging the original program. If you don't have a second server available, I assume people here would offer to host the extra ping. (I would if I had a server, but I'm not there yet.) Also having the original ping the single purpose program the server is on means they are monitoring each other.
                  Not necessary. I would know immediately if the server went down. It is monitored by pingdom.com and I have clients that would call me anyway. If the "ping site" went down, and then back up, it is unlikely to cause any problem -- the Ping Test feature would fire back up and start Ping testing immediately.

                  BTW, if interested how it works:
                  • You add your domain and contact information to my table.
                  • I run an A5W page using CURL.EXE fired every 5 minutes using CRON.EXE. That A5W page takes the list of domains to test each using the PING() function.
                  • If any PING() returns as FAILED, it looks at the current status for that domain in the table. If the site is already down, there is no need to inform the site owner because they were informed when it was first detected as down. If the status in the table is UP, that means it has failed just now, and the site owner is notified. I reset the status to DOWN and send email/text message to the site owner.
                  • Same in reverse when the site comes back up.
                  • But 99.99% of the time it just updates the domain table with status and time of last test.
                  • I arbitrarily limit it to 2 domains because I don't want it to get ahead of me, not really sure how it affects my bandwidth, but I could easily make that 100 domains per user.
                  • CRON and CURL are all running under AlwaysUp so they will fire back up after a server reboot.


                  Just FYI, I used to have an Alpha Five-based product called iTaskMan that worked essentially the same way, except instead of PINGing, I was launching complete tasks on the other guys computer, running reports, etc. No one was interested in the service and I took it down.
                  Steve Wood
                  See my profile on IADN

                  Comment


                    #39
                    Re: The importance of Alpha aware hosting

                    Thanks Steve ! Very nice... just tried it and like it
                    Thanks for trying it Dave. Your entry showed me I need to also include the Port as part of the "validation" that the user actually has Alpha Five running on that machine. You provided an IP and A5W page number, but since it was not on port 80, the "test page" did not show you have A5 running. I guessed at the A5 port and found an Alpha application.
                    Steve Wood
                    See my profile on IADN

                    Comment


                      #40
                      Re: The importance of Alpha aware hosting

                      Originally posted by Steve Wood View Post
                      Voice is nice because I can use a clip from the late Sam Kinison to say your site is down.
                      Too funny... for the message confirming the site is back up you could use Gene Wilder from Young Frankenstein ... Alive... It's Alive... IT'S ALIVE !

                      http://www.moviewavs.com/php/sounds/...file=alive.mp3

                      Comment


                        #41
                        Re: The importance of Alpha aware hosting

                        David, thanks for that laugh today. I even shared the IT"S ALIVE link on my Facebook cuz I thought your idea was hilarious.
                        Carol King
                        Developer of Custom Homebuilders' Solutions (CHS)
                        http://www.CHSBuilderSoftware.com

                        Comment


                          #42
                          Re: The importance of Alpha aware hosting

                          Most interesting in Davids link page was the qr-code.
                          I think that even Google is investigating if you could log in gmail with qr-code.

                          Maybe some day in Alpha too..

                          Comment


                            #43
                            Re: The importance of Alpha aware hosting

                            Hello Steve,

                            I just join IADN but did not see a MyAccount link. I see: Home, help, search, ...
                            What did I miss?

                            Comment


                              #44
                              Re: The importance of Alpha aware hosting

                              Ed,

                              You joined the IADN Forum (similar to this message board but mostly for Developer-supported applications). The IADN website is an easy click on my IADN-Member icon in my signature below.
                              Steve Wood
                              See my profile on IADN

                              Comment


                                #45
                                Re: The importance of Alpha aware hosting

                                Dear The Mage,

                                I am also considering using 1&1 for server hosting. They are offering 3month free for their dynamic cloud server, and I am wonderiing what your experience is using 1&1. Does their system allow you to install the Alpha 5 App Server easily and publish easily?


                                Thanks for sharing in advance.


                                Delta Force.



                                Originally posted by The Mage View Post
                                I have heard almost nothing but good about Zebra Host here.

                                But I am planning on going with 1&1 myself. They do use Plesk, and have wondered if I should attempt to learn it, and use it, or to disable it.

                                They include an iphone and android app for server monitoring that alerts you if a service has a "status change". I hope this means of WAS stops. (I am seriously thinking about going with Always Up here also.)
                                They sometimes offer the first 3 months free, (with a 12 month commitment,) though it is not being offered right now for VPS, but if it isn't being offered by the time I sign up, I assume if I call them up, their sales staff will give the the deal.

                                If my site works out, by the time I actually have to pay for it, I hope to have it paid for by my users.

                                But if I do have issues with them, I hope I can live with it for a year.

                                Comment

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