English Chess Forum

The main ECF site is down/suspended if anyone is watching?

Hacked again or what?

Carl Hibbard wrote:The main ECF site is down/suspended if anyone is watching?

It's a Zen Internet holding page, who I think are the ECF's service providers. Perhaps the ECF haven't renewed their membership or whatever the equivalent is to keep a web page running.

(edit) The grading site is down as well. Would a hacker be likely to get at both sites, as the domain names aren't really connected? (/edit)

Roger de Coverly wrote:

Carl Hibbard wrote:The main ECF site is down/suspended if anyone is watching?

It's a Zen Internet holding page, who I think are the ECF's service providers. Perhaps the ECF haven't renewed their membership or whatever the equivalent is to keep a web page running.

None members cannot access the site

Do you think the ECF could let us know what's going on? They could put a statement on their...

...oh.

David Sedgwick wrote:People I've spoken to in Kent are upset and unhappy with the ECF.

What did the ECF expect to happen.

JustinHorton wrote:Do you think the ECF could let us know what's going on? They could put a statement on their...

...oh.

They could always ask for a statement to be put on the SCCU website. John Saunders once memorably described the SCCU as the organisation which exists to tell us what's going on in the ECF.

Roger de Coverly wrote:

Carl Hibbard wrote:The main ECF site is down/suspended if anyone is watching?

It's a Zen Internet holding page, who I think are the ECF's service providers. Perhaps the ECF haven't renewed their membership or whatever the equivalent is to keep a web page running.

(edit) The grading site is down as well. Would a hacker be likely to get at both sites, as the domain names aren't really connected? (/edit)

As a matter of urgency, the ECF should set up a three-person Committee to look into this.

Hopefully it will be sorted soon. Just tried to look up something about the British Chess Championships, and that site is down as well.

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: Just tried to look up something about the British Chess Championships, and that site is down as well.

If you just want to see who has entered, that's on the Tournament Director site at

http://results.tournamentdirector.co.uk ... &Year=2013

ECF has Facebook and Twitter pages so why no update about the site which has been down now for over 12 hours?

We could, of course, just wait for the ECF webmaster to get into work in a few minutes time and start his day by ascertaining exactly what the problem is.

John Philpott wrote:We could, of course, just wait for the ECF webmaster to get into work in a few minutes time and start his day by ascertaining exactly what the problem is.

Where's the fun in that?

All appears to be well.

The following statement has now appeared on the ECF website

Website is back …
… as you can see. Discussions are in progress with the hosting company regarding a ‘spike in memory usage’ (their words) at about 18.15hrs last night 19th June – the reason has yet to be established. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused

No doubt lots of county captains checking on eligibility of their players, and bused in GMs renewing their memberships in time for the county finals...

Zen is my ISP and they're very reliable.
Funny thing is, I know of two emails which were sent to me yesterday which didn't arrive...