Killer Shrike Posted February 26, 2007 Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Just a general announcement: Im in the process of switching web hosts to a provider that supports ASP.NET 2.0 w/ AJAX for ASP.NET. This is a massive PITA, but while my previous / current web host is good and stable and supported a lot of different technologies they've been dragging their feet on .NET 2.0 for a while and finally got back to my inquiry about AJAX for ASP.NET after two weeks to say that I would need to pay for a dedicated server if I wanted it. I got a good (bitter) laugh out of that and promptly switched providers this weekend. Things are moving along, but there is a major snag. I used SSI / SHTML heavily in the existing site, handy for composing dynamic pages from modular package deals and the like. However, the new provider does not support that technology. I wrote a little application to roll thru the site and rename / relink .shtml to aspx as the .NET run time will render the pages if they have the appropriate extension. (I originally tried defining an shtml MIME type that behaved like an aspx page but it didnt fly). I've got the site working with this hack, but the bad news is all the links to something.shtml strewn across these boards will no longer resolve to anything. Also, some of the more complex resources like the NCM Template maker and dynamic Spells page will need rework / replacement to function under the new arrangement. Mid to long term Ill look into intercepting incoming shtml file requests and reroute them appropriately, but in the short term those of you who use the site please be patient and Ill get it up and running again as soon as I can. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted February 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Re: Killershrike.com temporarily offline Almost forgot; another side effect of this is I have the fantasyhero.com and fantasyhero.net domains, which I pointed to my High Fantasy HERO site for several years, but this year Ive been pointing them to the HERO Boards. My current provider supported remote domain forwarding, but the new provider only supports root forwarding. So, I'm going to leave those two domains in place on the current provider until the account runs out, and after that Ill likely let them go to limbo and they wont point anywhere any longer. So, in the unlikely event that any of you use them, you might want to stop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted February 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Re: Killershrike.com temporarily offline Ok, http://killershrike.com is working, but strangely http://www.killershrike.com hasn't propagated yet. Those who use the site can feel free to use the http://killershrike.com path for now, but some links that use absolute paths to http://www.killershrike.com won't work until the DNS finishes flushing out. You'll also likely notice some quirky layout here and there that ill need to go back and tweak. So, caveat emptor and all that. And oh yea, I got the NCM, Spells, Psionics, and other classic ASP bits re-wired and working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted February 26, 2007 Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Re: Killershrike.com temporarily offline Wow, in looking up the difference between the two types of forwarding I came across this neat service. Basically, shrtn.us allows you to input any wordy URL, such as a Google map, and shorten it to something you can easily type into an email or a webpage. You could even use it to make a personal shorthand, or to mask a URL that might contain private info such as a username or password. shrtn.us is basically a free redirect library. Keith "Got so distracted I never did find the answer to my original question" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted February 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Re: Killershrike.com temporarily offline Thanx for the thought but theres no way im going to go thru and do that for the thousands of pages on my site. I should be able to write something in a custom 404 page to intercept and forward...when I have the time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted February 26, 2007 Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Re: Killershrike.com temporarily offline I wasn't suggesting it as a solution for your problem, just mentioning a Cool Thing. Keith "Still don't know the difference between remote domain forwarding and root forwarding" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starwolf Posted February 26, 2007 Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Re: Killershrike.com temporarily offline ...but strangely http://www.killershrike.com hasn't propagated yet. It seems to have propogated, and is working now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted February 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Re: Killershrike.com temporarily offline I wasn't suggesting it as a solution for your problem' date=' just mentioning a Cool Thing.[/quote'] tinyurl is similar and perhaps better known, if you are thinking about trying it out. Keith "Still don't know the difference between remote domain forwarding and root forwarding" Curtis root forwarding just points a domain name to the root of some other domain name on the same account. So, http://www.killershrike.com would be my root for instance, and any other domain names I happened to have and wanted to host on that account would have to point to that root. remote domain forwarding, or unqualified domain forwarding if you want to get down to it, allows you to basically point your parked domain names at any page on any domain. Thus the arrangement I had on my previous host where I had a couple of domain names parked on my account, but pointed to some other website (herogames.com). I also had a couple of domain names that pointed into specific places on my site for non gaming stuff like my resume and my wifes family picture gallery; using a frame I was also able to mask the real URL which was handy. When my wife pointed her chick friends to the copious baby pictures she didn't have to explain wth "killershrike.com" means for instance. (to appease her in this move, she actually has her own full domain now, which worked out ok anyway since her pictures collection has grown over the years to take up almost as much space as my extended gaming site; thus splitting her off into a seperate account didnt cost much more than upping my storage and bandwidth would have in the long run ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted February 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Re: Killershrike.com temporarily offline It seems to have propagated' date=' and is working now [/quote'] Yeah; this one went pretty fast. Last time I switched providers it took the full 3-4 days to propagate thoroughly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CourtFool Posted February 26, 2007 Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Re: Killershrike.com temporarily offline Thanks for keeping us in the loop. There would have been hell to pay had I accessed your page during this change over and gotten a page not found error. Scramble the fighters! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gojira Posted February 26, 2007 Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Re: Killershrike.com temporarily offline root forwarding just points a domain name to the root of some other domain name on the same account. ...remote domain forwarding' date=' or unqualified domain forwarding if you want to get down to it, allows you to basically point your parked domain names at any page on any domain. [/quote'] Any more technical info on how this works? It sounds a bit to me that root forwarding is a virtual host on the same machine (usually done with Apache config). The remote domain forwading sounds like something you'd do with the DNS server config itself. But I was too lazy to even open a manual to see if that's correct.... P.S. Keith: I tend to use http://tinyurl.com also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted February 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Re: Killershrike.com temporarily offline Any more technical info on how this works? It sounds a bit to me that root forwarding is a virtual host on the same machine (usually done with Apache config). The remote domain forwading sounds like something you'd do with the DNS server config itself. But I was too lazy to even open a manual to see if that's correct.... P.S. Keith: I tend to use http://tinyurl.com also. Yeah, Im a developer not a network engineer. I really don't know the mechanics of it, but I could probably get around it directly via IIS by setting up a virtual if they gave me that much control. However, this is actually part of the providers policies -- its directly stated (up front even, no digging around in faqs necessary) -- that they DO NOT support it, period. So I guess they have a specific reason for not wanting to do it. It really isnt a big deal for me; its one of those convenience things thats cool when its available but that I wont lose any sleep over when its not. Basically the .NET 2.0 w/ AJAX for ASP.NET support is worth the minor inconveniences for me. Also, this provider is specifically marketed towards ASP.NET developers and implements new advances in the technology very fast, whereas my other provider has been going more and more towards linux / php over the years and their windows support as dropped off markedly. I've been waiting for them to get back up to speed, and have held off on doing various more advanced things on the site because I didn't want to have to basically write new legacy code just because the provider was behind the times. With the release of AJAX for ASP.NET though it came to a head -- I really want to use the features in it, and I don't what to have to write my own in pure javascript to do it all. I experimented with that a bit and got some stuff to work, but it took too long -- as I've mentioned previously I dont want to spend my hobby time developing code, I want to spend it developing content and having fun. Its supposed to be a hobby, not an outlet for doing the same things I do at work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted February 26, 2007 Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Re: Killershrike.com temporarily offline Looks like I have a bunch of conversion links to update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted February 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Re: Killershrike.com temporarily offline Looks like I have a bunch of conversion links to update. You might want to give me a week or so to find the time to see if I can code around it first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted February 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Re: Killershrike.com temporarily offline I tried something a little fancy and wrote a custom HTTPHandler to remap all shtml files to aspx, and it works locally, but turns out the provider is specifically blocking the .shtml extension altogether so it fails to launch on the server. Ive got a ticket in. If they can work around it for me, we'll be in business on the redirects with no fuss. Otherwise Ill have to roll up my sleeves and try to brute force it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted February 26, 2007 Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Re: Killershrike.com temporarily offline tinyurl is similar and perhaps better known, if you are thinking about trying it out. P.S. Keith: I tend to use http://tinyurl.com also. See, I find something I think is cool and it's old news to everyone else. I missed the memo. root forwarding...snip remote domain forwarding,...snip Thanks, It sounds like remote forwarding is what my Brother in Law set up for me on his server for savageearth.net. I purchased KACurtis.com and used GoDaddy to point to a directory (/CCD) within savageearth.net wherein I keep my portfolio stuff. That doesn't work so well. Calls to KACurtis.com look fine, but if I post a URL to a graphic hosted therein, it appears broken, and must be listed as savagearth.net/CCD/image.jpg. I know my Brother in Law could fix it in a minute or two, but he has been so incredibly generous with the server space that I only bother him when something is actually broken. Keith "Living off the intelligence and beneficence of others" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted February 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 Re: Killershrike.com temporarily offline Ok, I was able to get the provider to map shtml to the .NET isapi, and my HTTPHandler is working. So, that means that the links here on the boards and other sites should resolve correctly now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted February 27, 2007 Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 Re: Killershrike.com temporarily offline I got mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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