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Monthly Archives: December 2005

mIRC.net Back Online

“I’d just like to let you know that www.mirc.net is back online again,” mIRC.net admin Magic told me yesterday in a privmsg.

Magic was finally able to retrieve the files from the original server. “We have made backups of the entire script/file archive, all web files and the entire mysql database, compressed the site+file archive was over 750Mb and the database was 26Mb,” Magic said to IRC-Junkie.

The entire website is back online as it was when it went down. Only one exception: the project updates are disabled for now.  “We have disabled the project updates so no new files can be uploaded or updated until we have moved the entire site to a new server,” Magic explains. “The reason why we decided to disable the project updating was because we do not intend to make yet another backup of the archive and all files until we have moved to the new location. We will only make backups of the mysql database until we have moved to our new home.” Decisions about a new location are expected within a week as Magic is considering offers made by companies wanting to host the website.

To prevent this from happening again, additional to the daily backups of the MySQL database which already took place, offsite backups will take place more frequently now.

Undernet's Website Online Again

The website of the Undernet IRC network is back online. We asked one of the members of the webteam, Magic, why it took so long to get it back online: “It’s been down for about 2 month now, the reason it went down has to do with that the person who hosted it for over 4 years changed job and that seems to have effected the Internet connection he had from the ISP he worked for.”

Magic is also the webmaster of mIRC.net, which was hosted on the same machine, and is offline since then as well. We reported about that on the 10th of October, and in a comment Magic explained that the Undernet website was hosted on the same machine.

“[...] we have had problems contacting him, he changed email and such and he also seemed to have a lot to do at his new job”, Magic explained the long absence.

Most of the website is back up online now. There has to be a few DNS entries updated still, and the forum is pending a phpBB update before it is back up online.

We asked Magic if the webteam has anything new in store. “Well, it’s soon christmas and you have to wait for Santa  to see what he brings you ;-) ”

Finally, Magic hopes he will be able to contact the previous hoster soon so that mIRC.net can be put back online soon as well.

Edit: Both mIRC.net and www.Undernet.org were hosted by the same person, not the same machine. Excuses for the mixup.

BitchX.com in Third Party Hands

“So that everyone is aware, BitchX.[com] is not a trusted domain and nothing coming from that site should be trusted”, Sin announced on BitchX’s official website.

In a reaction to IRC-Junkie, Sin explains the several domains including BitchX.com were all owned by singular individuals to prevent third parties to abuse the domain. Sin explained: “The former owner of the .com became disenchanted with the project and certain persons such as myself taking the initiative to revive the project, website, and other aspects because he was not in control over the core web content nor the FTP sites.”

Initially, the .com domain pointed to the .org domain. “Since he no longer cared about or for the project Mhacker decided to sell the domain or allowed it to expire”, Sin explained.

“It looks like the ultimate intent is to use it as a advertising space or for possible porn sites.  Nothing that comes from that site can or should be trusted” Sin continued. No contact has been made with the current owner of the domain. Generally it is believed people should always download from the original website only as third parties could include unwanted ‘features’ such as ad- and spyware or worse. Sin explains: “The code has not been checked by anyone directly related to the project. Regardless of the state of the code on his site, it should not be trusted as bitchx.org is the primary and only FTP site that assures the source file to be authentic.”

IRC-Junkie made several attempts to contact the owner of the BitchX.com website, but over the course of 5 days have not received a reply.

The BitchX project itself has gotten new life and planning takes place for BitchX 2. The website also made an announcement it is looking for a lead developer for the new project.