p4tm.com

Login with your regular P4TM Creds. Let’s see what happens?

Not sure if the constant barrage fucked it more but the P4TM database is having problems too so I think it’s time.
But lets not start saying our goodbyes just yet. I am not going to approve comments to be shown here but I can see the comments you make in the admin here, so please feel free to give feedback.

I don’t think I can bring the old P4TM back. What I am trying to do is to create a new forum install using updated forum (MyBB) and server software on one of the other domain names. I seemingly was able to import the vB USER DB tables over to it. So we would have a fresh new forum and your old P4TM user/pass should work. You might have to do a password reset at worst. It also appears that I was able to import all Private Messages from the old vB backup. I can’t see other folks messages but it seemed to work for me. I tried for days to import threads/posts but the whole thing is either too incompatible with the merge system (we had a TON of mods) or the database is just too corrupted.

This new install should run just fine on a VPS (virtual private server) and the one I picked up is running $50/mo instead of $178/mo that the current dedicated costs. I am still ironing out some DNS issues to get domains to resolve properly to the new VPS so keep an eye out here. Within the next day or two I will post here asking for some of you to try logging in to the new forum install and see if the user merge worked. It will legit be an empty board but it will still be our place and we can make it what we want.

It won’t happen overnight but if y’all want it, I will try to make it happen. I am super busy with real life this week so it might take a few days but keep an eye out here later in the week.

The minuite I opened the site back up today it was flooded again, I saw over 10,000 guests at one point. I have no idea what is actually going on either. It’s an old install running on old versions of server software and probably has a million vulnerabilities at this point. I don’t know if it’s a nuisance thing or an attack thing and any real “fix” would certainly involve updating shit and cause the site not to run. And I was never an IT guy to start and I have long forgotten how to do much of anything with servers and coding that I had at all.

I am currently blocking all IP addresses except my own which seems to block the bots fine so far. I might “suspend” it again too so don’t be surprised if you see that. I will update again probably tomorrow. =/ -Chef

@ 1:40am EST, Still having issues and I can’t imagine having thousands of “guests” hitting the site is just a coincidence. Even with the forum turned off it was still fucking up. So I “Suspended” the hosting account in the hope that they will move on. I will reinstate the account tomorrow around Noon time EST. -Chef

EDIT@ 9:30pm EST: I don’t really know what’s up. It works fine for a minute then shit lags and times out. But the server isn’t stressed in any way I can see. Then I notices the “Who’s Online” showed over 2500 “guests” so I figured it was some kind of bot fishing attack? But again, it’s weird because the server is not “busy”. I even blocked all IPs but my own and even then it was still happening off and on. Again, I dunno. I stopped blocking all IPs and a bunch of “users” showed up again so I just turned the forums OFF for now. In a few hours I will check it out and see what’s going on. But I don’t know what to do with it. -Chef

Juan reported database errors and non-loading pages. The server itself seems fine as other sites on it are loading fine. I am going to try running some optimize/repair routines on the database and a reboot and we will see how that goes. -Chef

Shortly before midnight the site went offline. They are saying it’s not a server issue but a “known network issue” and they are working on it. Tech said it could take through the morning to resolve.
EDIT: It’s 2:30AM EST and the issue appears to have been resolved.

-Chef

The server company is physically moving the P4TM server from one location to another. The day is May 21st, 2025 and they expect the server to be unavailable for up to 12 hours beginning around 7AM EST.

I will communicate here if the server is not back online by 7PM. Thanks!

Ok, I opened the gates. We are as we were on 4/20/2021. Please report anything odd or broken. There is still some work to do but let’s see how this goes. -Chef

I decided to tackle the task of trying to fix the forums on the new server. I really have no clue what I am doing but I figured if I fucked anything up too bad I could just reup the backup and try again. Was able to change some of the software and after a few changes, bam. Shit just started working, mostly. I am still getting some minor errors and weird intermittent 503 errors that I can’t explain so I am leaving the board off for now. I have some shit to do tomorrow but I will work on this when I can and hope to open it back up for everyone to test tomorrow evening? I hope?
Remember, we still lost almost two months of posts. The board should be like it was on 4/20 so it’s not all high fives and ass grabs. Sorry about that. =| More soon. -Chef

Plan A was to clone the drive. The hard drive is apparently clicking away and won’t boot so that it out of the question. My April backup is good but my May backup was fucked up. And all this happened while doing my July. So at best I MIGHT be able to restore from April 20th, 2021. Maybe.

So on to Plan B…I was able to secure a “new to us server” today. She is pre-owned, but much newer than our old one. Old one was a 4 core/4 thread 2.6GHz, 4GB RAM and a SATA drive. New one is 4 core/8 thread 3.5GHz, 16GB RAM, and it’s an SSD. It is also $30/mo cheaper. So server is up and running. I did a test restore of http://www.fundp4tm.com from a backup and it seems to be working so the basic IP propagation and shit should be working. Feel free to give that site a real world test. I am going to need it if I can pull off step two below. =P

I appear to also have restored the P4TM account as well, I think. It is broke as fuck but I swear (I think, lol) everything is there as it was on 4/20. Database appears in tack at that point. But to be honest that all was the easy part. Now I have to find a person trustworthy and discreet enough for me to allow root level site and server access and is a server / vBulletin expert willing to get us running in exchange for legal tender. I will be honest, as much progress as this all is, it still might not work if we can’t find the right guy/gal that can do this….or if it can be done at all.

Plan C hurts bad. That would be, if enough wanted to, starting a new, updated and much simpler/condensed vBulletin. I think I should be able to at least import the “USER” table so it would be like a new forum but all your accounts would be there, I think. It sounds like it would work. lol I know. Proper fucked, but P4TMv2 would live.

Plan D would be to call it. After nearly 16 years it would be weird. =/

I know it’s a pain to create an account here but go ahead and chime in with a comment. Your comments will require approval before showing up but right now I am here checking often and will approve them. I want to know what y’all think on it all. If you have the means, hit fundp4tm please. I promise if don’t end up spending it on the site I will give it to charity or something. 😉 -Chef