h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Since it apparently is imperative that we have a bbc logo on each page, why does the beep not put an h2g2 logo (or at least a link) on the front page (www.bbc.co.uk) ?

I searched there a few minutes ago and got 'no results' (searching entire bbc site for 'h2g2') ... in fact, I did this several times, and also searched on 'DNA, Guide, hitchhiker and galaxy, all producing the same results (except for dna which of course, brought up an article for dna, the biological variant).

From reading the ace mail I realize that today that is due to some weird errors that have been plaguing the network, but my original suggestion/request still goes. A reciprical link from them to us would be nice.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/categories/ - h2g2 is listed as a category of its own.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/communicate/ - there's always a dedicated h2g2 section here.

Both these are one click away from the frontpage (as well as *every* other page on bbc.co.uk thanks to the toolbar).

The issue with search is a technical one. Our search is only done by our servers, which are separate from the main BBC servers. The BBC search (currently) only searches content on the main BBC servers. Plans are afoot to integrate h2g2 into the site-wide BBC search in due course, but this was impossible to do in the time before the BBCi launch.

Hmm.. That's odd.. because the way I finally got in (just before posting the originator of this thread) was to try searching again, and guess what.. h2g2 brought up the h2g2 front page.

Oh.. and I was using the BBC's front page.

While I'm PSing I might mention the other odd thing. While I was unable to get to anything related to h2g2 (I kept getting the errors reported on the aceforum as 'the netscape error' though I was using mozilla), I ran a trace on www.bbc.co.uk to see if maybe there was a router somewhere between us that might be causing the problem, maybe even close enough to you to explain why some were able to get in and some not. Got there fine, which is why I tried going to their front door to get to ours, which was when I started the search things. It was all very odd indeed. I'm only mentioning all this in the hopes you can shed some light on it?

Hi Nonnie

If I remember correctly (and if not Jim will put me straight no doubt )

The Beeb have a web proxy server in New York, so while your ping probably went to the main BBC servers in the UK, any web pages are probably coming from the proxy.

What I don't know is whether h2g2 is carried by the proxy, and being in the UK it's not going to appear in any trace from me.

Yesterday there was a severe network outage between the location hosting the h2g2 servers and the New York BBC servers. Thus, although the standard web content on bbc.co.uk would be served properly (because the New York servers have a complete copy of everything on the site) any dynamic sites (like h2g2 or mybbc) would not work because the NY servers couldn't send your requests on to the h2g2 servers in the UK.

This wasn't resolved until late last night (our time) which is why you couldn't get in. It didn't matter what URL you used or where you linked from - it would only have started working once the link between london and New York was restored.

It's not a BBC plot to keep us from you, honest. The BBC are currently upgrading the servers we run on, giving us about 4 times our current serving capacity. I'm hoping this will happen next week (and yes, it *will* require downtime, I'm afraid). So the BBC are interested, honestly. I wouldn't still be working here if that wasn't the case. I built h2g2 from the ground up, and could think of nothing worse that seeing it languish through lack of interest.

I'm glad to hear that, but I really didn't think it was a plot. I was just curious. I didn't realize the Beeb had a proxy in NYC for the UK site. Would have never thought of it, actually.. BBC-America (ugh) maybe. That does expalain things, though. Well.. almost.. It seems that several people over the pond (from me) were also having trouble getting in.. That was one of the things confusing, and why I ran a (BB, now listen closely ) traceroute (not ping, BB ). The first thing I thought of was that blasted cross-atlantic link, but for that....

Oh.. And I figured once I got in it was because you'd fixed it. Someone had already mentioned you were on it, they just didn't quite explain what 'it' was.

Anyhow.. I'm glad it's all sorted now. G'luck with the new stuff, too.. just don't let me see the machines.. I have a bad enough case of puter envy now.

"traceroute (not ping, BB )."

Of course, traceroute is implemented using ping, so in a way...

And a traceroute would end at the New York proxies. You don't see the transatlantic traffic because that's done server side across a private link (which is the one that went down).

And the new machines are *very* nice. Twin CPU 1GHz P4s in 1U racks. Mmmmmmm. Bandwidth.

That's good to hear Jim.

A whole series of pings with TTL increments to you Nonnie


Jim

Now thats what I call a good use of my TV licence money

Yes, Dear.