Steam4me access ????

[rufuskins]

Er . . . I still can not access Steam4me! Does anyone know what has happened?

Ruf

[glasgowworks]

Er . . . I still can not access Steam4me! Does anyone know what has happened?

Ruf

Steam4me is still down for over a week now and nobody knows what happened, which is a terrible shame. I heard that some users recived the virus warning, so it may be that Steam4me is hacked.

Is anything you need from Steam4me at the moment, Ruf?

[Easilyconfused]

Please don't spread unsubstantiated rumours - that does not help. The moderator team are trying to establish what is going on but it does appear the the railpage site is down too and I believe they are co-hosted.

[jbilton]

Hi
In the mean time you can try using Google caching facility

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q= ... d=0CAoQ2AQ

Clicked the cached links.

Cheers
Jon

[BrianB]

..................it does appear the the railpage site is down too and I believe they are co-hosted.

It's a bit more than that - the main server hosts Railpage Australia, but also on the same servers are not only 'Steam4me' but 'Coals to Newcastle' as well - so, three of the main Australian sites are all down, and have been for 11 days now. Whatever the problem is, it must be serious to be down for so long.

[steam4me]

I have noticed that when Railpage 'goes down' it takes S4M with it, as they seem to be on the same server - and it used to take CTN out with it as well, although I believe that is now on a different server.

The other thing (but I can't verify it) is I think the Railpage/S4M/CTN servers must be located in a 'business' office somewhere that is not attended over the weekend - over the past X years - SNIP - but when it is free, you take whatever service the operator is willing to give you.

The steam4me site has been on a different (commercial) server to the rest of RP for a few years (since 09/2007). The last outage of note was Oct 2009 when the site was moved to its own (brand new and fast) server due to the bandwidth demand. ISTR s4me was down for a couple of days, CTN, VR, Locopage were down for a couple of weeks. Prior to that, the site had very few outages and since then none until last week.

The server racks are located in a large, secure multi-storey Telstra facility in Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne (http://tinyurl.com/ya6z3te). After-hours access has always been an issue.

It would appear that this outage is MUCH more serious as it has taken down the whole of Railpage - even my site which should be insulated from "normal" fallover issues. The host's site, http://www.omni.com.au, is down as well and emails to the CEO at omni.com.au bounced back with the ominous message "Domain <omni.com.au> does not exist (in reply to RCPT TO command)".

In addition, the DNS entries for these 2 sites (omni and railpage) have gone missing.

I've also tried to contact two of the original RP coders, but their I have only their PM addresses which are dead in the water.

Emails sent to digitalriver.com.au (the ultimate owner of these sites) and to their support desk have gone unanswered. RP moderators who have rung DR are told that someone will get back to them, but no-one has. One moderator tells me that Brian Evans, CEO, is on leave and has "out of office" contact settings.

The steam4me site uses about 600-1,000G of bandwidth per month: I can't find any hosting that offers anywhere near that volume without significant cost that could never be recouped by pop-up ads or subscription (just ask Mike Simpson how MSTS users love to contribute donations<g!>) .

I will post when I have anything further to report.

[Tonysmedley]

Yuri,

You have our deepest sympathy. It is a deeply disturbing picture, which we all hope can be resolved in good time.

Tony.

[steamnut44]

What a shame, this site must be one of the bests sites around for Tutorials, It would be nice if UKTrainsim could host these tutorials as well, but I doubt that this would happen. These Tutorials are an asset to learning how to get the best from MSTS and associated utilities.

Geoff

[Easilyconfused]

Speaking unofficially - I am sure if Yuri talks to Matt something can be done about the tutorials. The download content is potentially a bigger issue since Yuri indicates that bandwidth bill is significant.

<edit> Having had a quick word with Matt tonight he is very open to hosting the tutorials to help Yuri out.

[CaptainBazza]

Incidentally, Elvas Tower's file library has problems too. Unable to upload or download files.

Cheers Bazza

[rufuskins]

The steam4me site uses about 600-1,000G of bandwidth per month: I can't find any hosting that offers anywhere near that volume without significant cost that could never be recouped by pop-up ads or subscription (just ask Mike Simpson how MSTS users love to contribute donations<g!>) .

I would certainly subscribe to Steam4Me.

Without it and UKTS - and to a lesser extent TrainSim - I would never have kept on with MSTS.

It is fervently hoped that all the issues are resolved soon, especially as I seem to have mislaid the tutorial on Alpha Channel Creation!

Ruf

[gremlin1812]

G'Day Ruf, is this the one you are after, "Alpha Channel Generation Using the TGATool", if it is PM me with an e mail and I will send it to you.
Regards
Barrie

[paullad1984]

Great shame as i was wanting to download the puffing billy route and rolling stock after having found on youtube a show i watched as a kid that had it in. hope it does come back, greatly missed!

[NeutronIC]

Yuri,

If there's anything I can do to help, please let me know.

Fingers crossed it will be back soon but in the mean time, as I say, let me know if I can assist.

Matt.

[andejong]

Friends,

It seems that more Australian sites have a problem.

On this Australian site http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-re ... 77065.html I found information.

These meens that Steam4me will be long of line possible.

Who have more information about it, every one will be greatfull.

Regards,

A.N. de Jong