| Author | Message | ||
     Jeff Martin Frequent User Username: jeff_r_1 Post Number: 607 Registered: 07-2018 |
I don't think it's been working for a while, it doesn't load and eventually says "cannot reach this page" | ||
| Jeff Martin Frequent User Username: jeff_r_1 Post Number: 608 Registered: 07-2018 |
Now its working...? | ||
| RR Forums Administrator Board Administrator Username: admin Post Number: 121 Registered: 10-2002 |
The rrtechnical.info site has been hosted for many years on a server that is now outdated. This server has recently started to misbehave and is going off the air frequently and without warning. It will therefore be decommissioned ASAP and most of the sites on it moved to a new, updated server. Until that is done, you can expect the site to periodically be unavailable until the server it is on is detected as being down and then rebooted. There is no plan to migrate the rrtechnical.info site to the new server. Richard Treacy is the notional operator of the site and agreed back in 2021 to take over the hosting as well. In July of 2023 he obtained a complete snapshot of the contents in preparation for loading onto a new service he will own, operate and pay for. He has not yet done this. If you want the rrtechnical.info library to continue to work reliably, or be updated in any way, you need to encourage Richard to get moving on it. | ||
| Jeff Martin Frequent User Username: jeff_r_1 Post Number: 609 Registered: 07-2018 |
Sounds like he needs a "Go-Fund-Me-Page" Thanks | ||
| Alan Dibley Frequent User Username: alsdibley Post Number: 400 Registered: 10-2009 |
I suspect that I'm not the only one who would willingly contribute to that. | ||
| Brian Vogel Grand Master Username: guyslp Post Number: 3355 Registered: 06-2009 |
I haven't had issues with it loading. I just tried it again now and it loaded fine. While there may be "on again, off again" problems, which I don't doubt, the site is not permanently offline, at least not yet. Brian | ||
| Jason Watson Experienced User Username: crikeydawn Post Number: 119 Registered: 07-2023 |
Reckon I'd be up for contributing to that, or encouraging at the least. How do you contact Richard Treacy if not a member. | ||
| Brian Vogel Grand Master Username: guyslp Post Number: 3356 Registered: 06-2009 |
Richard Treacy is a member, but one who has not been actively participating on these forums in some time. You have the option of finding any one of thousands of his messages, clicking on the link that shows his name, then sending a private message from his profile (which sends an email) or you can go to his business website, and send an email to the sales address noted there. https://www.spurparts.com.au I have no idea which is the more effective way to reach out to him. Brian | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 4259 Registered: 04-2003 |
The other possible alternative would be to contact the Australian Sir Henry Royce Foundation to see if they are prepared to support this forum with additional help from other international Rolls-Royce/Bentley Groups/Foundations/Clubs. The only other option would be to pass the website on to an organisation named Onefora who specialise in forum hosting including the VW Eos Club forum for which I am the Administrator. https://www.onefora.com/ https://www.vweosclub.com/forums/ . | ||
| Jason Watson Experienced User Username: crikeydawn Post Number: 120 Registered: 07-2023 |
ahh thanks Brian, you have joined some dots. I have chatted with Richard before over parts. To David, one would think perhaps a united approach to preserve such a data base is a way forward. It's probably too big a juggernaut for any one club, organisation, or entity to carry; but the loss of such data is like a valued club member passing. Gone for good, sadly missed, and very hard to replace. I have no idea what a united effort would look like but I'd be happy to put some funds towards it. | ||
| RR Forums Administrator Board Administrator Username: admin Post Number: 122 Registered: 10-2002 |
David, you may recall that onefora.com rejected this forum as being of no interest to them. I'm stuck with it for now. The rrtechnical.info site is, of course, entirely distinct from this forum. It's even hosted on a separate server (the one that's going to be decommissioned). | ||
| Brian Vogel Grand Master Username: guyslp Post Number: 3357 Registered: 06-2009 |
But, as someone who's a tech geek for a living, I have to say that picking up an entire website, no matter how elaborate, and plonking it on another server is not all that difficult when it's a "plain vanilla website," and rrtechnical.info is just that. There is no forum, there is no dynamic content, there is no point of sale component, etc. You really can take a complete snapshot, dump it on the new server, and repoint the DNS records to the new server and away you go. I don't know what the volume of data involved with rrtechnical.info actually is, but it is entirely within the realm of possibility that it might fit on Amazon's free tier of its S3 service (which is where I have had my own website for well over a decade now) or be hostable there at very minimal ongoing expense. It's easier to move something like rrtechnical.info than it is to move a forum from one underlying system and storage layout to another, that's for sure! Brian | ||
| RR Forums Administrator Board Administrator Username: admin Post Number: 123 Registered: 10-2002 |
You are correct, Brian. Richard has been made aware of this on several occasions. He already has the data snapshot and just needs to get his act together and set up the hosting. | ||
| Jason Watson Experienced User Username: crikeydawn Post Number: 121 Registered: 07-2023 |
Well, it appears a will of time and money. Perhaps those who have the will have no time, or whatever combination of will, time, and money it is. Is raising the money to pay someone who does it for a living a worth while approach. And if ? does not want to host the site then there has to be another dozen who will. Could a Go Fund Me page as Jeff suggested be just the vehicle. RR-B are international cars, and I know rrtechnical as to this site are often referred to on the US RR site. I'm betting the troubled sites also have their fair share of UK visitors as well as others from afar. A few strategically placed help posts, and a few bucks from many may see a successful and quite liberated site created that may have avenues to pay for its keep while remaining free to users. Also think Henry Royce would be quite chuffed with building something better. | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 4260 Registered: 04-2003 |
If I was 20 years younger than my 3/4 of a century, I would have taken on responsibility for this forum.. The only drawback is this is not feasible as the current problem would return when I "fall off my perch". Until recently, my son was Chief Architect for Amazon Web Services based in Seattle and is now Managing Director of an international specialist web service company with responsibilities and demands on his time that preclude me from even thinking about asking for his advice let alone help. Brian's suggestion re the Amazon service is interesting but my intuition is twitching that the current free service would be monetised some time in the future; most likely earlier than later and our current situation would return with a "sting in the tail" concerning ownership of our forum archives held by them. I am leaning towards the possibility of the various Rolls-Royce Foundations around the world considering sharing the funding of this forum to preserve its priceless archives. Whilst doing this, I am fully conversant with past issues where local "prejudice" has ruled over the greater good of a free and comprehensive website open to all without requiring Roll-Royce and Bentley Club membership. This has been the altruistic strength and value of this forum and the future loss of this priceless service is something I would see with great regret and sorrow. . | ||
| Brian Vogel Grand Master Username: guyslp Post Number: 3358 Registered: 06-2009 |
David, If one uses above the traffic or space of Amazon's free tier, even then the fees compared to many hosting venues are very, very small indeed. I've had my website running under Amazon's free tier since 2008, but I don't come close to the amount of traffic nor the amount of space they give at no cost. I also have no idea how the free tier terms of use may have changed over the years. It was just an idea I threw out because of both my personal experience and research at the time in looking for a "hosting home" for my website. While I'm only approximately 2/3 of a century old, I'm no longer willing to take on major projects that would require years of dedication. I, too, could "fall off my perch" in the foreseeable future and also just don't want to be adding any long term work, but am trying to jettison same. It's time for the next generation to begin backfilling. Brian | ||
| Geoff Wootton Grand Master Username: dounraey Post Number: 2344 Registered: 05-2012 |
The Technical Library is essentially static, so would require very little administrative effort. It's 3.57Gbytes in size - Brian, would that come within Amazon's free tier specification. In the worst case scenario, of losing this valuable resource, it could just be left there with pointers to it from the various forums. I know we have all probably downloaded the relevant sections for our cars, but I'm thinking of future owners. | ||
| Brian Vogel Grand Master Username: guyslp Post Number: 3359 Registered: 06-2009 |
Geoff, 4 GB is almost literally nothing. Easily covered under the Amazon Free Tier. There's 1 TB of free data tranfer out per month in that tier. That's 1000 GB, or the entire rrtechnical.info content 250 times. I doubt the site is anywhere near to that busy. It serves an important role, but to a niche community. Random passersby are not likely to find the site, let alone download much from it. For those who want to see the free tier pricing for the necessary service/storage: https://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/pricing/?nc=sn&loc=3 I specifically use the S3 service free tier for hosting my website plus other content (5GB permanent free storage): https://aws.amazon.com/free/storage/s3/ I downloaded the entire Post-War library not long after discovering rrtechnical.info just because I didn't want to risk its disappearance. If someone else (preferably an RROC-Australia member) wanted to retain long-term ownership of the site/content, I'd be willing to get the current content migrated, if I can. I'm just too old to be a long term custodian and I don't think that custodianship should leave "home." Brian Brian | ||
| Jason Watson Experienced User Username: crikeydawn Post Number: 122 Registered: 07-2023 |
Brian, who actually owns the tech library? Who owns this site? You would think RROC-A would be first preference over an individual. As its harder for a club with national membership to fail over an individual. The cars and data should be timeless, it's the custodians that pass. To my mind If RROC-A was the owner perhaps a small fee could be added to membership to keep the data alive and safe. Access remain public but really its members who use the data and cherish it for most part. Personally I think it needs to be public as renewing interest in these cars is too small to close doors. If the transferring of sites and management were catered by a third party it relieves persons of responsibility regardless of age or knowledge. RROC-A just pays the fee each year for management but retains ownership. This would allow club members who wish to be moderators and the like to do so without site burden. I imagine most club member's pay to have their cars road worthy so they can enjoy them, a web site is no different. Not sure how many members there are nationally, but you would think $1-$2 per member may get the job done. Even if its $5 then its one coffee per year and hardly a blip in the bank compared to the cost of ownership. However if that is too much to ask, then a site with advertising appears to be the path. Users accept the advertising or pay to have it removed. I imagine that will be more than $1-$5 though. For punters like me who are not in a club, could be asked to pay a yearly user fee of X after Y number of visits. The scabs will re-join via another user name, however for most I believe they would just pay as the benefits of access would surpasses the cost. Alternatively they just join the club if access with if free for members. This is something that third party management sets up and is part of the annual fee to who ever owns the sites. Sorry if I have asked any of you good men doing a good job to suck eggs. | ||
| Brian Vogel Grand Master Username: guyslp Post Number: 3360 Registered: 06-2009 |
Jason, I have no idea who owns all the bits and bobs that are rrtechnical.info. That appears to be the RROC-Australia just based on the banner that is at the very top of the first page. But, that banner could also mean that they funded its creation, but not that they actually own/control it. My main point, though, is that no "club" administers its IT assets. They either pay someone to do it, or have specific club members who do it, and who those "someones" are can and does change as the years move on. Torches are passed. As Geoff has noted, rrtechnical.info has effectively been in steady state with static content for some time now. Years, in fact. It's not that content could not be added, but it would be nothing like the push in the early days to get things digitized and put on the site. And, no insult to the folks running rrtechnical.info intended, as I have valued their work for years, but now that Bentley Heritage has put up much (not all, but much) of the same material that was Crewe Official documentation on their site, I'm not quite as worried about single source as I once was. rrtechnical.info got there first, that's for sure. I only wish that Bentley would get off the stick and release IETIS through the Seraph-Arnage eras, at a minimum, to the DIY community the way they have done for most of the Workshop Manuals, etc. There have been complete bootleg copies available for many years now, but they should make it official and legal, and rrtechnical.info cannot do that, only they can (even if they told the folks at rrtechnical.info that they could be mirror hosts for IETIS). The rrtechnical.info site does not seem, to me, to ever have been intended to "carry its own weight" as far as financing goes. It's been underwritten, and there is no mechanism on it even to allow something like donations by PayPal. That sort of thing could be added, certainly, and I think that many people would donate. I know that these forums are not, in any way, shape, or form owned or managed by RROC-Australia unless something has changed that I was never made aware of. And taking a quick look at the main page, http://au.rrforums.net, nothing seems to have changed. When I first joined here it was because I severed my relationship with the RROC-US and their forums are members only. No other RR Forums existed that were accessible to the public, and some, like the US Forums, were so heavily laden with purists who insisted that using anything other than OEM parts was anathema, that they drove away those who owned cars who had neither the means, desire, or both to do that. A few years after I arrived here, RRForums.com came into existence, and I was one of their early members. That site has grown in scope and activity over the years, and I'd personally say that they're the forum in the forefront for any of the Goodwood era cars or post-split RRs and Bentleys. And that's not to detract from these forums, which remain valuable, but things do shift and change with time. The format of these forums, which I happen to like since I am "old school" in the computer tech world, is not enticing to most youngsters who are accustomed to forums that support HTML formatted messages, full color, and a host of other improvements. It would be really, really nice were this massive archive, a treasure trove of information, be able to be ported to a modern online forums platform lock, stock, and barrel. Brian | ||
| RR Forums Administrator Board Administrator Username: admin Post Number: 124 Registered: 10-2002 |
The RROCA has no involvement in rrtechnical.info. It's been privately run and funded since its inception, alongside this forum. The current RROCA executive is almost certainly completely unaware of its existence and would - for various reasons - probably be uninterested in taking over its hosting. The rrtechnical.info site has not been updated for ten years and in that time the internet has rather moved on. It's likely that most or all of the content on rrtechnical.info can now be found elsewhere, so the site is probably redundant. I have reached out to SHRF Trustees to gauge whether they are in a position to assist. Early signs are encouraging but we'll see. | ||
| michael vass Frequent User Username: mikebentleyturbo2 Post Number: 807 Registered: 07-2015 |
Hi all I do hope this can get running again! so much info for our old cars. Mike | ||
| Brian Vogel Grand Master Username: guyslp Post Number: 3367 Registered: 06-2009 |
I have not had any issues accessing rrtechnical.info in some weeks now. I'm not doubting there may have been issues, or that there could be issues in the future, but lately it is loading for me just fine. Brian | ||
| Larry Kavanagh Frequent User Username: shadow_11 Post Number: 847 Registered: 05-2016 |
It has been loading for me too but now I can only get as far as the index but no farther. | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 4261 Registered: 04-2003 |
Larry, All i can suggest is to log out from this thread and then the forum, shut down and then reboot your commuter, log in with your usual username and password and see if this solves your problem. Otherwise,leave your existing login intact and create a new forum identity and password and see if this fixes your problem. | ||
| Martin Webster Experienced User Username: martin_webster Post Number: 56 Registered: 09-2018 |
David, For information ,the library is working ok for me at the moment with no hitches. | ||
| Brian Vogel Grand Master Username: guyslp Post Number: 3368 Registered: 06-2009 |
David, I'm confused here with your advice to Larry, and am seeking clarification for myself. He appeared, to me, to be saying that rrtechnical.info at the top level has been loading fine for him, but as he attempts to "drill down" he can't get to the actual documents. Your advice seems to me to apply to the RROC Australia Discussion Forums as opposed to rrtechnical.info, and the two are not connected in any way, to my knowledge. As a general aside to folks having issues with virtually any website you can name, cache corruption in your web browser (and it always happens, eventually, even if it's only once every couple of years) can cause some really, really bizarre problems. If you suddenly have inexplicable misbehavior for any website you use routinely, I suggest clearing your browser cache, and clearing it "for all time," not just the last hour or the last day. This has no effect on your cookies that keep you logged in, it just clears all cached content and forces pages to reload from scratch the next time you visit them. A web search on your browser's name with the phrase "clear cache" will bring up more step-by-step instruction sets for doing this than you could ever read. Brian P.S. rrtechnical.info is working for me, including drilling down to the actual individual documents level, with no problems at this time | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 4262 Registered: 04-2003 |
Hi Brian, Unfortunately I do not have administrator/moderator access to the rrtechnical forum and, as such, I cannot help out with any problrems that arise. I live in hope the Australian Sir Henry Royce Foundation will take responsibility for the Technical Library and appoint Administrators and Moderators to ensure its future existence and supervision. Until that happens, the present situation will continue or the Library and its archives will will be lost to posterity. Unfortunately due to advancing age, it is probable I will be less likely to be able to participate full time in the future with any degree of certainty. . | ||
| Brian Vogel Grand Master Username: guyslp Post Number: 3369 Registered: 06-2009 |
David, I doubt I'm the only person who has downloaded either the pre-war, post-war (me), or both technical libraries from rrtechnical.info. I did so for the post-war content precisely because I know that there is always a chance of any given website suddenly vanishing. It's happened before, and it could happen again. Now that I am using Microsoft 365 that content is hosted on my own OneDrive, and I would be happy to share root folder access for that material should it become necessary. Like you, I'm getting older, and I know that while "the sun is not likely to go down on me" in the very near future, I am no longer at an age where I can think I'm going to be around for what feels like an indeterminate amount of time. Brian | ||
| RR Forums Administrator Board Administrator Username: admin Post Number: 125 Registered: 10-2002 |
All control of the domain <rrtechnical.info> was handed over to Richard Treacy weeks ago, at his request. He also has a complete copy of the site data, yet appears to have done nothing about setting up new hosting for the web site. Emails to him on the matter have gone unanswered. The server the site is currently on frequently crashes and has to be manually rebooted. Since it cannot be repaired it will be decommissioned after 2024-05-05. It is entirely up to Richard to ensure that a replacement web server is running in time. If he fails to do this, the site will be unavailable after that date. The SHRF has expressed interest in hosting the site's data but they won't be in a position to do so for some months. If you value the site data I suggest you do as Brian has and download anything you want to preserve before the 2024-05-05 decommissioning. | ||
| Geoff Wootton Grand Master Username: dounraey Post Number: 2349 Registered: 05-2012 |
Re: "If you value the site data I suggest you do as Brian has and download anything you want to preserve before the 2024-05-05 decommissioning." It is very easy to make a local copy of the entire website to your local hard drive. It will occupy just under 4 Gbytes of storage. There are numerous free website copiers out there e.g. HTTRACK. Given that rrtechnical.info will close in 6 weeks time it would be a great idea for us all to take copies and not lose this valuable resource. Note that rrtechnical also contains Bill Coburn's Tee-one topics. It would be criminal for this resource to just disappear into the ether or re-emerge as a subscription only website. | ||
| Brian Vogel Grand Master Username: guyslp Post Number: 3370 Registered: 06-2009 |
See this post from me on rollsroyceforums.com: https://www.rollsroyceforums.com/threads/workshop-manual-illustrated-parts-manual-and-related-documentation.29143/post-225268 Brian | ||
| Darryl Watson Frequent User Username: inox Post Number: 207 Registered: 04-2015 |
Brian, Useful link thank you. I have downloaded the files that may be useful to me in the future. Would it be a good idea for the administrators post a note in each of the revalant forum sections about the demise of the website and a link to this page or the files? I only found this set of postings while idly sifting through the forums. Darryl | ||
| Mark Aldridge Frequent User Username: mark_aldridge Post Number: 868 Registered: 10-2008 |
Brian, thank you for the link and your contribution to this forum. I have downloaded the files also. Mark | ||
| RR Forums Administrator Board Administrator Username: admin Post Number: 126 Registered: 10-2002 |
It appears that the <rrtechnical.info> domain is currently being moved to new hosting. This means it may well come back online soon. | ||
| ChuckSimmers Unregistered guest Posted From: 174.26.240.84 |
Any updates pertaining to being back online? (Message approved by david_gore) |
