Since a recent update to Weather-Display software the Twitter post at about midnight seems to no longer work in that it asks for manual authentication every time.
That's not going to happen so I'll probably turn it off until the issue (probably) gets resolved in further updates.
Previously I might have rolled back to an older version but there's an important change in the latest software which makes the program work normally with more secure SFTP uploads.
SFTP has been enforced by the Hosting company and otherwise needs a somewhat unreliable FTP bridge program running alongside WD.
Weather topics related to the main weather site - www.weather.westerdale.info
Sunday 31 July 2016
Tuesday 21 June 2016
1and1 Hosting problems
On the 14th of June 1and1 decided to make it only possible to use SFTP rather than FTP to upload files, this is a more secure protocol which is all very well but settings need to be changed - yet they didn't think any need to warn in advance.
It took several emails to support to establish why uploads were getting scrambled or not getting through at all.
The new settings worked for 24 hours then stopped again!
After several more emails they said there was an issue with FTP altogether and this was not resolved until today 21st June!
If that wasn't enough it transpires that the Weather Display software doesn't have the latest required SFTP options and won't work with it.
After a bit of hunting round I found a stand alone FTP program, which will bridge to the newer SFTP protocol - https://www.bitvise.com/ssh-client
For now this is working quite well but will need manually restarting alongside Weather Display if it ever stops.
Hopefully eventually the developer will update the inbuilt SFTP add-on.
1and1 were truly hopeless through all this with a range of goofy responses, and what seemed like deliberate mis-understanding of the problem I described in great detail - presumably so they could tick a box and move on.
It seemed to take 2 or 3 days before they believed it wasn't me that had made a mistake with the settings.
Unfortunately I only paid a year's hosting in May or I'd be switching ASAP.
As it is I'll probably change anyway as I can get a better deal for similar cost from others.
You would think it might be worth sticking with a big company because if anything went wrong they'd be onto it in hours - this shows different with 7 days of almost no proper service, and the most unhelpful support imaginable.
It took several emails to support to establish why uploads were getting scrambled or not getting through at all.
The new settings worked for 24 hours then stopped again!
After several more emails they said there was an issue with FTP altogether and this was not resolved until today 21st June!
If that wasn't enough it transpires that the Weather Display software doesn't have the latest required SFTP options and won't work with it.
After a bit of hunting round I found a stand alone FTP program, which will bridge to the newer SFTP protocol - https://www.bitvise.com/ssh-client
For now this is working quite well but will need manually restarting alongside Weather Display if it ever stops.
Hopefully eventually the developer will update the inbuilt SFTP add-on.
1and1 were truly hopeless through all this with a range of goofy responses, and what seemed like deliberate mis-understanding of the problem I described in great detail - presumably so they could tick a box and move on.
It seemed to take 2 or 3 days before they believed it wasn't me that had made a mistake with the settings.
Unfortunately I only paid a year's hosting in May or I'd be switching ASAP.
As it is I'll probably change anyway as I can get a better deal for similar cost from others.
You would think it might be worth sticking with a big company because if anything went wrong they'd be onto it in hours - this shows different with 7 days of almost no proper service, and the most unhelpful support imaginable.
Monday 6 June 2016
Webcam surprise
This owl has been around a lot for months, but this never happened before!
By chance the saved still caught it very close to the house.
By chance the saved still caught it very close to the house.
Tuesday 26 April 2016
Sunday 31 January 2016
The indestructible Samsung NC10
The weather station netbook started missing uploads this morning which suggested it needed a reboot - it was last restarted in July and had logged well over 8 million bits of data since then.
All seemed well after reboot and some kind of forced Windows 7 update.
It did all take most of half an hour though!
It runs a disk monitoring software which should send an email if it's in trouble.
It also counts the hours it has been running and it's on 46,896 - about five years.
Having highlighted this I expect something will happen to it soon!
I have another old PC on W7 can step in at a moments notice, and it does daily backups online and to a memory stick so won't be a disaster - but could take a day or two to get everything up and running.
Trouble is after a lot of tinkering with the weather-display software during the first year or so I've hardly touched it for years and it would require a bit of re-learning to set up on another PC.
Most of the settings can be transferred from the backup, I did actually move it to that PC then back again when the NC10 was updated from XP to W7.
When on XP it seemed to gradually choke up and slow down much quicker - and needed a reboot about once a month.
W7 must be much better at managing that side but still succumbs eventually.
All seemed well after reboot and some kind of forced Windows 7 update.
It did all take most of half an hour though!
It runs a disk monitoring software which should send an email if it's in trouble.
It also counts the hours it has been running and it's on 46,896 - about five years.
Having highlighted this I expect something will happen to it soon!
I have another old PC on W7 can step in at a moments notice, and it does daily backups online and to a memory stick so won't be a disaster - but could take a day or two to get everything up and running.
Trouble is after a lot of tinkering with the weather-display software during the first year or so I've hardly touched it for years and it would require a bit of re-learning to set up on another PC.
Most of the settings can be transferred from the backup, I did actually move it to that PC then back again when the NC10 was updated from XP to W7.
When on XP it seemed to gradually choke up and slow down much quicker - and needed a reboot about once a month.
W7 must be much better at managing that side but still succumbs eventually.
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