Lots of people could be having trouble getting to this site, and are confronted by a “Page Not Found” error or a “Apache server is set up…” page. I know—this is not a good time for this to be happening particularly in light of the closing, then re-opening, of the forums etc.!
Here’s the scoop:
I bought a new SSL security certificate for this web site on Friday May 6. Without getting into details, SSL is what makes it possible to make transactions like financial contributions, using absolute security—where you see the 
locked padlock symbol. The “certificate” is simply an added layer of comfort to you, proving that we have met all sorts of security tests and everything is on the up and up.
But that new certificate required me to buy a new IP address for this site—that’s the number you never see—64.207.212.162 is our new IP Address. (You should be able to type that number in your browser’s address bar—that and nothing else—and get to our site.
An extremely astute regular visitor (”2sheds”) read the explanation below and it immediately caused his eyebrows to rise. I know that means something because my physician raised his eyebrows when he looked at my cholesterol blood test report, and now I’m on medication for high cholesterol.
He (the regular visitor) did a little fancy computer footwork and figured out that of the two “nameservers” that the web site has, only one nameserver had its IP Address changed from the old to the new—that explains the sporadic nature of the accessability.
I’ve asked the server people to look into this immediately and this problem could then be resolved.
Well that caused a problem which is inherent in the internet itself. I think Al Gore is to blame. You see, every time you come to this site, your request traverses along a complicated path using dozens of computers and components along the way—even if you’re 3 blocks away from our server. Most of those machines have our IP address stored in their cache—this makes surfing faster. But they don’t renew their cache all at the same time nor at the same frequency. So lots of machines still have our old IP Address in their cache, making it send you to a site which in effect no longer exists—thus the error page. And that also explains why it doesn’t happen every time to all people—every time you come here a slightly different path is chosen by the internet’s machines, and so not all the machines along the way will necessarily be up-to-speed on our new IP Address. Even your own computer stores IP Addresses this way.
It should work itself out over time for everybody—days or weeks. For some it won’t ever happen and you’ll simply think I’m drunk, telling you all this.
The end result is simply that you won’t see any warnings or errors when go to the PayPal page (for example) to make a contribution—which may in the past have been scaring people away.
We’ll lose lots of visitors as a result of this—which is unfortunate. People will think the site is dead, and that’s that. I might have to invest in some advertising to try to regain the numbers.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
Contact Mr. Johannesen about this article using this form. Please refer to article's title.
FOLLOW @JoelJohannesen ON X!
- Say something. - Friday October 25, 2024 at 6:03 pm
- Keep going, or veer right - Monday August 26, 2024 at 4:30 pm
- Hey Joel, what is “progressive?” - Friday August 2, 2024 at 11:32 am
