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The site's not dead--just not reachable via the normal DNS (Domain Name Server) resolution function of the internet. Somehow it's screwed up for ASSTR, possibly reminiscent of what I kind of mention in my "Kevin and Denise NiS" story. (Or see at the bottom of this post for another possibility.)
Anyway, there's a geeky fix to help you access the site. The following is courtesy of Chris Haily, transmitted by Tim Merrigan, with additions by Y Lee Coyote:
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The ASSTR server is indeed alive, but the host name is not resolving to the IP address. Why, I'm not sure, but it is definitely the case.
The IP address is 64.71.155.222. In my experience, if I just put this IP in my browser, I get a 403 error. However, if I add the IP address to my hosts file, BAM, access.
This isn't all that helpful for people who are unaware of the magic trick, but it does work, for those of you who might want to try it. The windows hosts file is at c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts, Linux is /etc/hosts, I don't know about mac or how to do this on phones at this point, but open the hosts file in a text editor and add the lines:
64.71.155.222 www.asstr.org
64.71.155.222 asstr.org
64.71.155.222 sftp.asstr.org
64.71.155.222 status.asstr.org
And you will be able to access ASSTR again. You will most likely get a security warning because the certificate is out of date, but there's no harm in clearing that and proceeding to the site.
Those of you who are interested, you can also FTP into the site using this IP address.
A couple of points:
1- You must be in administrative mode
2- Make sure you have write access to the file
3- ZoneAlarm, for one, "locks" the file so under the firewall, go to settings and advance settings.
Further info from "B S":
The registrar (google) has added a "Server hold" to the domain (https://icann.org/epp#serverHold). ...
The domain also seems to have "serverRenewProhibited", "serverTransferProhibited", "serverUpdateProhibited", and "serverDeleteProhibited" on it. It's possible that there's an innocuous reason for them, but in combination with the hold it's also possible that there's some legal or law enforcement action that led Google to lock it down.
I've been working on this one for about three months and it's currently with my beta readers. Hope to have it back in a week or so. It's about 20 chapters. I think it's different from any other one in the entire universe.
Question: Which is better for posting? All at once or a chapter every (name a time period: two days, week, etc).
I can't promise that I'll follow everyone's wishes, obviously. Hey, I might not even go with the majority. Not fair? You're right.
I've heard that a few readers had some difficulty reading my written rendition of the Cockney and Birmingham dialects. I agree; it's not so easy to read. So to help future readers in understanding the dialog, I've added a supplement to Chapter 9 giving the "translation." Hope it helps you.
I'm wondering which of the very creative authors on this site will be the first to write a tale using the theme of a story thief who scrapes free sites and sells stories written by others.
Gentlemen, start your engines... Wonder who'll get into pole position. It's a new story universe in the making!
Just kidding... but maybe not!
I'll weigh in with yet another posting supporting the comments in Jay's blog entry on story feedback. I recently got an email where the writer crowed that he gave one of my SOL scribblings a "1."
He said, in part, "Having given my first and only 1 rating, I assume you may wonder why. This is not a rating for the NiS universe. This was my opinion on your..." and he goes on to tell me why he so strongly disagrees with the material I wrote!
Fascinating, irritating, but in a way, rewarding. Why is a "1" rewarding? Well, I chose to look at his comments in a positive way. Apparently my writing engendered such passion in this reader that he felt compelled to react so strongly that he voted the story down and then wrote me about it. Isn't that a writer's dream? To evoke such a strong passion in a reader--positive OR negative--that he has to communicate that passion to the author?
In a way, that's one of the best compliments an author can receive. Knowledge that one of my writings so strongly affected a reader. Pretty cool.
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