We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th
 

Welcome back my friends! I've missed you all. a LOT.

Well, as you all remember, our server was getting blue screens of dead (BSOD) and finally failed late last year. And
I had a friend let me borrow his old motherboard. (a 2.4Ghz Pentium 4 I think it was) Anyway, on Feb 12 and 15th, I
awoke to see the router's 'server' light blinking real fast--too fast--constantly. I turned on the monitor, and the screen was
frozen. had to hard boot both times...

No OS errors or anything.. It wasn't the router either.

Now it's February 18th.

I wake up, and same thing. So i hard reboot it. nothing. Power supply is on, but the motherboard won't even POST.
(means booting--showing how much ram ya got, hardware, etc). tried 2 days to figure it out.. Nothing.

I'm stressing out bad, KNOWING I have no way to buy a new motherboard etc until we get our tax return (which was due any day)
but I'm also in bad pain, (for those that don't know, I have chronic back pain/hips--real fun stuff). So that
just makes it worse. Totally defeated I feel like just giving up, saying I don't know what to do..

So I call Donna at work, (Wifey) :) and tell her the bad news.. She then informs me we got our tax return!!!! (electronic deposit)
I was like "OMG". Freaking amazingly good timing. But she says I can only spend $500. (We have most of the $ spent for bills and crap already)
So I go to Newegg.com and price out:

A new Motherboard eVGA
2.666Ghz CPU
4Gig Ram (The backup server had only 512mb btw)
Hard drive (old one was OLD.. and IDE)
Video card (old Motherboard didn't use PCI Express) (got a Geforce 7800 500mb ram for 35$!)

So it came 5 days later, then I realize the motherboard didn't have a floppy connector.. um... and you
MUST have one for raid drivers during Windows 2003 Server install. I found out a USB floppy works.

So I go buy one. another $40. (BTW, Office Depot was selling one for $99!!!!!! I told them about themselves and left. :P
So I get home, dropped in the motherboard, began hooking everything together, and started hooking
the power supply to the motherboard except...... NO FREAKING 8 PIN CONNECTOR!

I dropped everything and just looked into the air... you know that dead stare, like "you're f'ing kidding me. RIGHT"

* I actually totally forgot about that. AND the fact the old power supply wasn't even powerful enough to handle
the new hardware. So I bought a new PSU.. 750watt.. ANOTHER $120.

So I'm at like $900 now.. lol, and Donna is pissed off. says 'there better not be anything else!' hehe I felt the same way....

Feeling good, but now thinking "Will the freaking PC Case be evil and warp its metal so I can't connect the motherboard to it?
Naa.. lol. It all went in like a charm, connected everything up. Hey, at least the bloody DVD Burner was ok. HA!

I decided to do a fresh install of Windows 2003 Server, took a few days with it, tweaking everything even better than
before!

And now here we are, 3am, and the payoff is AMAZING! Notice how insanely fast the pages load?
NOW I can begin again my plans for upgrading Ironworks Forum! (decided to put it on hold with the really slow hardware, as the updates will tax it more)
And now it can handle it... TIMES 100! :D


What I REALLY need is some help, Remember I began a 'server donation fund' bar but it took it down--I put it off. Guess I shouldn't have!
I spent nearly $1000, but I talked with Donna, and said if I could raise $400 we'd be OK. We just can spend any more.

But we have a ROCK SOLID Killer, state of the art server now. with multiple cores, and will last us for many years. I thought you all were worth
that. And I love having Ironworks Forum here. I've known MANY of you for more that 10 years. (That's so awesome)

If you can send a donation to help out, It would be extremely helpful, and please the Wife.. (there are benefits with a happy wife, eh?) :D :D :D
I'll throw up the donation meter in a bit.. Then I'm gonna go watch Ax Men, and pass out. It's 3am here hehe.. Night!


PS: I'm making a video in a few days of the new server--showing ya what we had, and what we HAVE! It's a beauty!

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th
 

Woohoo!!

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th
 

I second that!!!

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th
 

Yay! :D

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th
 

Great to hear, I was getting worried. Finally get internet access back in the house, and I couldn't get IW to load up.

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th
 

I was so worried! Glad we're okay.

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th
 

JUST got done! (I am now re-editing my original post in this thread) check it out! :)

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th (Need some help with donations)
 

We've missed you too!!!

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th (Need some help with donations)
 

Thanks Ziroc, you rock!

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th (Need some help with donations)
 

I'm gonna take a day off, and relax... wow. worth it though! Really was!
It's so fast, I can now add so many new goodies! I'm excited now. :)

I need to upgrade the forum software later this week, so don't worry if you see something odd
(But report it to me via PM) ;) Gonna update the games, maybe add new ones as well.

I'd REALLY like to do a radio show again as well. That was cool.

More soon!!!

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th (Need some help with donations)
 

Glad to see this place back up again. :) Oh and yeah I loved listening to the IWs Radio when I was able to, with Yorick's intro, then the 80s music, and then some weirdo talking like Fat Albert, I dunno LOL. :hehe:

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th (Need some help with donations)
 

*bows to the meow*. You can never keep a good man down, Ziroc. Top work. :)

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th (Need some help with donations)
 

Still don't get why you run it from home - but nice effort!

FYI, you have to upgrade to vB 4.0 - which costs several hundred dollars, so unhappy wife in your future. :/

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th (Need some help with donations)
 

Glad to see IW online again! :D

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th (Need some help with donations)
 

Why I run it from home? Ease of use, run the NWN Game server on it. Requires resets. Can control all aspects of the server... Anyway, I already have tgeweb hosted elsewhere. (That site doesn't need maintaining like IWF does).

As for vB 4.0... I don't have to upgrade to 4.0l. I have the last version before 4.0, and will use it. I'll worry about v4.0 later. I may not even use vB in the future... IPB may be an option..

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th (Need some help with donations)
 

Yipeeee!

got serious shakes from not having IWF to rant on - my boss was ready to kill me cause I took all my geek-talk to work and made my colleagues a living hell of fantasy and RPG books-games-etc.

Ziroc - Can I donate by bank transfers - I kinda scissored my visa after I spent 2k in the local book store ( hey I got a collectors edition of Robert E. Howards Conan, all the books from Rob hobb and even a feisty little thing from Neil Gaiman called stardust - a bit skinny book though.

Point is I just got my year bonus and my taxrefund ---> 10k so should be able to donate a bit on the 1st april. ( despite the fact that I need a new kitchen and am poor as a church rat ) - besides I am sitting home untill Monday doing absolutely NOTHING - got a nasty infection in my right lung and have to do penicillin to get rid of it Gaaaah...

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th (Need some help with donations)
 

Good to see the forums are back. I saw hints of it during the month leading up, as I would occasionally get the old "time-out" issue from the dns.

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th (Need some help with donations)
 

Thanks man, it will help out a lot. I wish I was rich, and didn't have to ask for a penny!!

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th (Need some help with donations)
 

Yeah, I was hoping it was a cable issue early on, but we were on such a slow backup motherboard as it was.
BTW, my friend said 'dont worry about it' --it was his backup motherboard, so I thanked him a bunch. He said
it was old as it was.. :)

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th (Need some help with donations)
 

I'm going to post a seperate 'donations' thread. Just to get the word out, as I REALLY need to get this paid back.

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th (Need some help with donations)
 

Trust me I am NOT rich - but as long as I am without children and living alone ( no woman is gonna spend my money - big words now - just wait till I fall in love som day ) - I can spare some for IW.

ANyWay...you did not answer my question mate - how do I make a transfer?

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th (Need some help with donations)
 

My bad :), You click on that paypal link (http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/noncgi/donate.shtml) and you enter the amount you wish to donate, and it'll walk you through the process--like pay by credit card or debit card.

Or you can send a check (address is on the URL above).
Let me know if you need any help on it.

Re: We are back! The backup server died on Feb 18th
 

Sparhawk if you're in Denmark you can transfer the funds to my account, and I can paypal 'em for you.
Should save a bundle on banking fees.

Hej til en anden dansker! Lille verden!