Looking towards production....

It got a little crazy for a day or two, but the new system is starting to stabilize. It will probably take a month or two to work out all the bugs with all of the options that are available. There are still some bugs in the server push for "On The `Spot" support, but that will take a little time to work out because testing is slow.

This weekend i will be cleaning up publicip.com with some of the changes to copy on the site that have been discussed in mailing list and in blog comments. Hopefully by early next week i will be removing the htaccess from document root and be in a "beta production mode". Meaning that there will be a few bugs, but the system is stable enough to support users.

The BETA99 code will be valid until September 1. After that it's full price.

Release the hounds!

I actually have "butterflies in my stomach" as i type this... It's ready! Ready enough anyway... I know we will be finding a lot more things to fix but it's time for you guys to start helping ;-)

http://www.publicip.com/

The document root is "protected" with htaccess. I dropped an htaccess in document root to protect anybody from stumbling onto the site and making a purchase before the system is ready for actual production use.

User: beta
Pass: beta

Use coupon code BETA99 when you select a service. This will give you a %99.9 percent discount. Service will cost you a penny or two.

Thanks to everybody for the support over the last 6 months. This has been a long road, but i am afraid the journey has just begun... when your ready check it out and let me know what you think! (remember to use the mailing list for questions during beta)

Sorry, almost forgot (ok, not almost i did).
heres the iso: http://www.publicip.org/mirror/dists/beta/

ZoneCD_1.0-0.iso (skipped to version 1.0)

No Go

I had to call it quits at 2:00 am. I ran into a bug last night with the queue system. I had to move the data to a ndb table and change a few programs. Then i had some problems with foreign keys on the slaves. Then decryption stopped working for the downloaded files on the zoneCD.

I am pretty bummed-out. I really thought i would be posting info for access to the new site for beta testing. I guess, check back tommorrow.... There is no "sign-up" for beta testers. I will post details when the time is right.

On your mark, get set....

All that remains is writing a few cron jobs and a final round of testing and it's a "go". I just need to make it from new account setup -> order -> master config -> zone setup -> zonecd boot -> wireless login without an error interrupting me.

After beta testing is complete i will be setting up a ticket system for support. But while we are in beta, lets use the old mailing list for QA:
http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/publicip-testers

Please submit bugs here:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=add&group_id=98792&atid=637601

These links are also available in zone control.

All beta testers will get a major discount. You will get a %99.9 percent discount on the first month subscription... why not free? I hate saying it, but I need to test billing too.

I will post the coupon code for the discount along with the url to the new public ip, and the url to the new zonecd tomorrow.

Almost Done!

I played hooky from work on Friday and went at it all weekend. I had a few problems adjusting to RH9 and tweaking the NDB setup, but i am still happy with what i have done. I have the master server, three authservers, and two ndb servers setup and ready to go. Rsync, replication, ssl certs - done.

However, i am still working out the kinks in the authserver programs... specifially the dg download. There are about 7 files that get downloaded from the server and i use Archive_Tar to bundle them together... Anyway, with any luck that problem and any others i uncover will be fixed tonight, but i really don't see that happening. Not since i somehow locked myself out of my home network again today (doh). Hopefully by Wednesday we will be ready to rock.

Building production servers.

I started to build the 6 servers required to run the new system this morning. So far things are going smooth... We might actually be beta testing early next week!!

Screenshots

I have bundled together some screenshots of the new interfaces. You can get them here http://www.publicip.org/mirror/images/zone_control_screens.tar.gz

I friggin lost power at my house for 2 hours last night. I had to shutdown everything (UPS) and go to sleep. When power came back up, i went at it for a couple hours then called it a night around 1am, but not before squashing a bug or two.

The time is almost here... I am pretty sure that i will be making the server purchases tommorrow.

Debugging and Designing

I'm back... i took a little time off from my j-o-b and even a little time off from public ip to clear my head a little before taking the plunge into the new server setups. Turned out to be a really good thing... after removing myself from the chaos and coming back into testing and designing, i found about 20 bugs and added a few little things like a "net send" message to clients five minutes before Internet access is cut-off. So things are improving and I am still getting closer to the moment when i say "that's it? I'm done?!"

Anyway, I really hate this part of development... all the testing and repetitiveness.... I especially hate building the www site, only because it is difficult to separate myself from the programs and explain how to use the system from your point of view and I always feel like i am wasting time when i am playing with colors and font sizes. But, I need to get this 99% done before committing to building the new system infrastructure and beta testing... I won't have the time to do anything else once we get started with all that.

Back to work.......