BT.net articles - Anyone want to help?

Count Zero · Tennis legend

RE: BT.net articles - Anyone want to help?

Sheddie · administrator

I have just been speaking with the webs support.....transferring it is quite easy but it seems that the site has been locked by WWD.

I have contacted WWD and asked them to unlock it....will hear back by the morning

steven · Tennis legend

SMC1809 wrote:

As if in a time warp, I'm now unable to access the BT.net stats page! Using the same browsers, same URLs but not able to access.

I wonder if you were just getting a cached version - when you were able to see it, did it seem to be up to date?

steven · Tennis legend

The Shedman wrote:
hi guys just caught up with this....unfortunately the email address I had on there was not the one I regularly use now so haven't got any info freewebs/webs may have sent on it.

If you need to contact me use: dcwriter89@googlemail.com

Looks like you need to get the default email address on freewebs changed too - perhaps they sent an email about all this and you didn't get it.

Hopefully it can get sorted out now you've contacted them and if it had expired, they won't try to charge to an arm and a leg to buy it back! It seems odd though that it could have expired on a date that wasn't the anniversary date.

SMC1809 · All-time great

Re cached version, I thought it could have been that too, but I was able to see versions as soon as they were updated, e.g. could see update after the first set of Bath results came in.

steven · Tennis legend

SMC1809 wrote:

Re cached version, I thought it could have been that too, but I was able to see versions as soon as they were updated, e.g. could see update after the first set of Bath results came in.

It gets stranger and stranger ... smile

Has anyone else been getting "Are you aware that ..." type pms from people about his btw? If people are picking random mods to complain to the other mods are getting as many as me, that would means a lot of people expressing concern!

I've also had a 'is it time to panic yet' type pm from a mod on AM.com saying "you do realise there's a pick 'em due to start in a few days" LOL - don't I just, and yes, there's already a contingency plan in place.

-- Edited by steven on Thursday 18th of March 2010 01:29:30 AM

steven · Tennis legend

Going back to ...

Domain Name: BRITISHTENNIS.NET
Registrar: WILD WEST DOMAINS, INC.
Whois Server: whois.wildwestdomains.com
Referral URL: http://www.wildwestdomains.com
Name Server: NS1.PARKED.COM
Name Server: NS2.PARKED.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientRenewProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 16-mar-2010
Creation Date: 02-feb-2007
Expiration Date: 02-feb-2011

... just noticed that anniversary date (2 Feb) was exactly 6 weeks before the "updated date" when the problems started - my guess is that the domain name did expire on 2 Feb and that freewebs will have sent an email reminder to the address Sheddie doesn't use any more (but forgot to tell them about) and they cancel the registration (or inthis case move it back to themselves) after 6 weeks grace has expired.

Hope it's not too difficult to get it back!

Josh · Challenger level

But why does using the freewebs.com/britishtennis give access to the home page but none of the other pages on the site. Is it possilbe to access them on a different URL than the links on the site are connected to, eg instead of http://www.britishtennis.net/gbtop25f/2010wk11f.htm you could instead use freewebs.com/....

steven · Tennis legend

Josh wrote:
But why does using the freewebs.com/britishtennis give access to the home page but none of the other pages on the site. Is it possilbe to access them on a different URL than the links on the site are connected to, eg instead of http://www.britishtennis.net/gbtop25f/2010wk11f.htm you could instead use freewebs.com/....

Because virtually all the links have www.britishtennis.net in them and yes, you can, e.g. you can get to what would normally be at http://www.britishtennis.net/gbtop25m/current.htm if you go to http://www.freewebs.com/britishtennis/gbtop25m/current.htm

As a stop-gap (and in case something like this ever happens again, even if it gets resolved quickly this time), I've just changed all the links on the home page, stats page and competitions page to to relative links, e.g. http://www.britishtennis.net/stats.html to just stats.html.

This means that if you start off at www.britishtennis.net (when it's back up) and click on the stats link, you'll still go to www.britishtennis.net/stats.html

BUT the good thing about this change is that if you start off at http://www.freewebs.com/britishtennis while the domain name isn't working and click on the stats link there, you'll end up at www.freewebs.com/britishtennis/stats.html, which should show you the correct page.

Summary

- if you start off at http://www.freewebs.com/britishtennis then all links from the home page, stats page and competitions page should now work

- however, it's not possible to set up relative links in Excel, so links between top 25 tables (e.g. previous week and following week links) and links between pick 'em tables won't work until www.britishtennis.net is back up (though if the problem persists for a few days, I might make change those links to all go to the freewebs/ ... version of those pages)

- you will be able to get to the following pages from the home page but some of the links from within these pages won't work because I have only amended the home, stats and competitions page - if you are urgently need to use the links on one of the pages below, just let me know and I'll change the links there too

NEWS ARCHIVE - INTERVIEWS - TOURNAMENTS - LIVE SCORES - PROFILES - DAVIS CUP - SCHEDULES GUESTBOOK LINKS CONTACT

- this also won't solve the problem of people who don't read this forum (and hence don't find out about the freewebs version of the address) being unable to access the www.britishtennis.net home page, but there's nothing we can do about that until the Shedman has sorted out the domain name issue

Phew! yawn

Sheddie · administrator

I have heard back from WWD and its bad news:

Apparently the domain name expired on 2nd Feb 2010. It has since been purchased by the current owner.

I will try contacting them to see if we can buy it back.........

otherwise, we'd have to buy a new name which would not be good for the site given that we'd then lose the site's google ranking which has been built up etc and everyone knows it as britishtennis.net

Sheddie · administrator

have just checked britishtennis.net again and it is back to normal ???????

Can't access the whois page for the site either ?

Count Zero · Tennis legend

whosi is muckign around it seems, BT.net page is still the other one for me.

the old whois showed the new owner having around 700+ domain names so i assume they would be after a profit to sell it back.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

whois info is back up.

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

I would suggest once this is all sorted out, you transfer the domain name to a responsible registrar. If you are with a trustworthy provider:

1. When your domain expires you will get a few days grace period in which to do a late renewal. 5 days is normal.

2. It then enters a redemption period where the name server records are removed or pointed the reigstrar's holding page. 30 days is normal. This means your site drops off the net 30 days before anyone else can buy the name so you know something is wrong even if you don't receive any emails. However, there is a surcharge for renewing during this time because the people that own the top level domains charge the registrant a holding fee that they have to recover.

3. Only at the end of the redemption period is it marked for deletion and others can buy it.

If the current registrant left the site working right up to the point someone else could buy the name, they are clearly cowboys and I wouldn't be surprised if they are in league with the companies that buy up such domains.

P.s. If in the interim, you want to get the site fully working you can edit the hosts file on your computer.

Windows:

1. On Windows Vista / 7, right click on Notepad and choose "Run as Administrator". On older Windows run notepad normally.

2. Open the file C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts. Note: this file has no extension - you need to change the filter from *.txt to *.* to see it.

3. Add a line to the bottom of the file:

204.2.183.2 www.britishtennis.net

4. Save it and close all open browser windows. When you reopen your browser, you should then be able to see the site using the real name. Don't forget to remove it once this is resolved in case the site moves web server.

Mac/Unix: the file is /etc/hosts and you have to root to edit it.

-- Edited by RBBOT on Sunday 21st of March 2010 09:52:42 PM