The hangup getting the bugs fixed has been that I needed to set up another server in my office (a "development" server) to replace the server I had to move to the ISP to replace the fried server. I have no way to test bug fixes without a development server, other than installing the software on the public server and praying, something I'm loathe to do. (Installing untested code on a live server, I mean...like all agnostics, I'm not above praying now and then just to cover my bets.)

[Warning: GeekSpeak™ ahead]

I've been going through the familiar nightmare of trying to put together a computer out of odds and ends. First I tried to rehabiilitate an ancient 200MHz Pentium (no number, just "Pentium"), spent a day fixing it up and loading Windows 2000...then it croaked. So I did some research and found a local computer surplus place had the same motherboard as the one that fried (for a third what I paid for it originally...those places can break your heart sometimes); it's a very good motherboard, and so I was pretty jazzed. I schlepped across the Valley to buy one. Got it home, didn't work. Turned out, after much dinking around and more research, that it was a very early model, and only supported Pentium II, not the Pentium III that I have. More research, and figured that a BIOS upgrade might fix it...but I could only do that by installing a Pentium II to make the board run. I don't have any Pentium IIs. So I schlepped back up to the surplus store and convinced a tech to install a Pentium II and do the upgrade for me. Great. Schlepped it home again all excited...well, the BIOS test worked, so the upgrade must have taken, but it stopped and beeped 1,3,4,1. Had to track down that beep code, and discovered it means bad memory.

Here's the kicker: The power supply in the old server was bad, but I'd tried the old motherboard with another supply to see if it worked. It failed with 1,3,4,1 and after swapping around memory cards I figured it must mean that that board was really fried, probably a bad memory controller. I had a sickening thought having to do with human fallibility...went down to Fry's and bought a brand new 128 meg memory card and tried it...and the old board worked! Arrggghghghg!!!!! I could have repaired the old server with a new powersupply and 512 megs of memory! Waaahhh!! I didn't have to go buy another motherboard! Damn! I didn't even have to refurbish my development server to make it the public server! Double damn!

So...I now have the new/old/whatever server up and running, and I'm loading stuff and configuring it. Updating Windows is tedious: I count 29 "critical updates and bug fixes" to bring Windows 2000 into the new millenium. I expect to be able to try out the fix for the big problem that nukes boards by tomorrow, and if it works I'll install it on the public server. Then I can turn to the myriad other little problems that are driving y'all (and me) crazy. The site should be much more solid by the end of the weekend.

Thanks for all your patience and help identifying the problems. I'll get it straightened out soon, I promise!

--Robert