HotKeyNet server down, so software inoperable

[CommanderChaos]

Have I wasted countless hours bringing up a team using this software?

[zanthor]

Outages happen. I'm sure Freddie is going to get it up and running asap.

[Gorthu]

This is the problem with authentication methods like this.

[Freddie]

Nobody sent me an email about this or posted in HotkeyNet's forum about this, and this is the first notification I've had from anyone that there's a problem.

I just started HotkeyNet on my PC and it started fine.

I'll take a look at the authorization servers (there are two, at two different data centers) and see if there's anything wrong with them.

P.S. People often ask me why there needs to be authorization in a free beta. This is an example of why the authorization process needs to be tested during the beta like every other part of the code. If there is a problem with the authorization system, it's better to find it now, before anyone is paying for the software.

[Gorthu]

I didn't send you an email, because I thought this was an internet problem beyond your control. I have been using it all morning. It actually stopped working. I received a message it couldn't access the internet. I figured this wasn't a Hotkeynet problem.

As of 3:22pm, Central - it says it can't authenticate. However, it goes and starts up.

[Freddie]

The primary authorization server is down. Thank you for notifying me. The data center is fiddling with it now.

The secondary authorization server seems to be working fine. What happens in this situation is that HotkeyNet automatically contacts them one after the other. However it's displaying an erroneous error message in between contacts to the two servers saying it can't start. If you click past that message, it should contact the second server and start fine. At least that happens on my PC.

[Owltoid]

The primary authorization server is down. Thank you for notifying me. The data center is fiddling with it now.

The secondary authorization server seems to be working fine. What happens in this situation is that HotkeyNet automatically contacts them one after the other. However it's displaying an erroneous error message in between contacts to the two servers saying it can't start. If you click past that message, it should contact the second server and start fine. At least that happens on my PC.

Unfortunately, for me, it doesn't work after the second server either.

[Gorthu]

yeah, i just noticed that it started up after i got the error message, when i click passed it.

[Freddie]

I just got off the phone with the data center ... it appears that the registrar's domain name servers are knocked out .... they belong to eNom.com, one of the most respected registrars in the world ... I'm just amazed. I have to admit, I never planned for this possibility ... I never imagined eNom's name servers could get knocked out. I'm calling them now.

[Freddie]

I'm embarrassed and I feel terrible.

I thought I made the authorization system totally redundant, but I used eNom's domain name servers for both authorization servers. It never occurred to me that eNom's domain name servers could break. Just never crossed my mind. I figured they had ten sets of them scattered redundantly all over the world. Apparently I was wrong. :(

Needless to say I will change this immediately as soon as I can get into my eNom account ... which I can't do because their site is down.

[Shaitan256]

ARGH!!!
Why did I close HKN ?!

ARGH!!!!111

Just tested HKN with Runes of Magic and I love it, just wanted to take a look through the forums, just should have paused it.

btw: :thumbsup:

[Freddie]

Everything's normal for me again -- anybody still having a problem?

I've been on hold waiting to talk to eNom for 20 minutes -- thousands of customers are probably calling them right now.

Before the weekend is over, I promise, I'll find out exactly what happened and change things so this can't happen again.

[Shaitan256]

Can't get in, says unable to connect to the internet I meant Server of course. Maybe your firewall is blocking...
Closed my Firewall but nothing happened.

[Freddie]

Their name servers are working erratically.... at least their website is up again. I'm still on hold waiting to talk to them.

There's nothing I can do without talking to them or getting into their website, but I'm afraid to change the DNS info on their website while it's working erratically.

[Freddie]

I just talked to eNom. They confirmed that their DNS servers are experiencing problems. I told the woman who took my call that this is the worst failure I've seen in my ten years of operating websites and that they just lost a good chunk of my business. She told me, "Well, sir, this is affecting us too," as if that made it any better. Then she said, "I've seen this happen before. It happened when I worked at GoDaddy." As it happens, HotkeyNet's main server is hosted at GoDaddy, so I called them next and happened to get a tech who has been at GoDaddy almost since the beginning. He laughed and told me it had never happened at GoDaddy since he had been there and that he has never heard of it happening anywhere in the industry.

Can you imagine eNom's whole DNS system going out? I think they claim to have about 7 million domains. That's 7 million websites that are down or operating intermittently right now due to one failure.

I apologize for this. Before the end of the weekend, HotkeyNet's authorization system will be much more robust. I need to think about it a little bit but I'll probably add a third authorization server. There will be three separate registrars and three separate DNS systems. And of course separate data centers, but that was already the case. If anyone has any other suggestings for making this bulletproof, please let me know.

And I'll fix the buggy error message in the HotkeyNet exe.

Once again, my apologies.

[keyclone]

hey freddie, check your PM

[Owltoid]

That sucks for you, Freddie. Everything is working ok now, but I can't imagine how frustrated you are. I know you went to the trouble to have a back up authentication and still got burned.

[CommanderChaos]

Things are working here now too. Thanks Freddie, it's actually very reassuring that you had redundancy to begin with (glad I wasn't so cheeky as to suggest it ;)) You were on it within a half hour of this posting. I'm glad I won't have to give up HotKeyNet for multiboxing, since it's by far the slickest tool for it out there. Thanks again!

[Shaitan256]

Working for me too, CotT Status = (lolz) Flightmaster still alive^^

[baelord]

It's still not working for me, been trying all day, is it still down? :[

[Freddie]

They've been working for me for about five hours. It might take longer with some ISPs or some regions before things are working ... I'm not sure.

Can you log into HotkeyNet's website? If you can then you should be able to start the program.

[olipcs]

Hi, good I wasn't at home this weekend ;)
...nevertheless, I tryed recently: - no problems of starting hkn :) (just to let you know, no idea how urgent this is...)