TrackMania Nations Forever, the sequel to the original TrackMania Nations, is now available as a free download. Grab it now and get into the race!
AusGamers Hosting! AusGamers Hosting provides FREE hosting for gaming enthusiasts looking to create their own gaming website.
PHP and MySQL Your free website supports PHP and comes with a MySQL database, two of the most popular web technologies in the world.
AusForums.com Create your own forums using AusForums and add them to your site, allowing anyone with an AusGamers account to quickly and easily contribute!
Modders and Mappers We are particularly keen to help Australian talent make their game mods and maps available to a wider audience.
The hosting server is back online. At this stage we have no plans to bring the sites back up. This is for a number of reasons, the most important being that we simply do not have the time to devote to managing a service of this size or complexity any more.
If you would like your site contents back to arrange alternate hosting, please contact us - we are happy to provide your data on a first come, first serve basis (as we're available to).
All AusGamers hosted sites are offline until further notice while we try to resolve some issues. Apologies for the inconvenience.
We are able to bring some sites back, either back online temporarily so you can retreive your data or in some cases back online to their normal status. Please contact us to find out what can be done.
We are having regular problems with old, unmaintained sites running insecure scripts being exploited - usually to send spam. As a result, we are embarking on a vigorous cleanout of old sites that are no longer being used.
Any sites that are found to be being exploited will be shut down and deleted immediately. Any sites that look old and unused will similarly be removed. Sites that have no index page will be removed.
Please note that our previous support contact email address (support at hosting dot ausgamers) has been discontinued. For all support inquiries relating to AusGamers Hosting, please use the 'Contact Support' link on the left side menu of the Hosting website.
We've (finally) revamped the AusGamers Hosting website, moving it into the main AusGamers website templates. Please let us know if there are any problems!
PHP has been updated to version 5.0.3 recently to fix some gapingly huge and disgusting exploits. If you are having problems please let us know by posting in the comments.
The AusGamers Hosting server has been updated to PHP v5.0.0 now that it has been released. You may need to change some code if you have any problems - please check out the PHP website for more information about the changes.
As many people have already noticed, hosted sites are currently down and will be until further notice. Apologies for the inconvenience; we have no ETA for a fix at this time.
Update: for the people that think we're not saying anything because we like keeping you in the dark, this is obviously not true and I'd like to think that by now people know that if we're not saying stuff, its just because we have nothing to say. As yet we don't know exactly what the problem is - its just one of those stupid computer issues that even crops up on server hardware. We hope to have it resolved soon.
Update #2: The box has been restored thanks to aragawn's hard work and normal services should be back tomorrow.
Apologies for the extended downtime; we restored services briefly over the last 24 hours for a while but have since shut them down again as we migrate some stuff around. We have no ETA for normal service restoral just yet, sorry - please don't ask, because you'll just be referred to this post. We haven't lost any data or anything, we're just not able to get it all back up again immediately.
Please note, we don't take very kindly to people coming in and abusing us for the service being down. We invest a lot of personal time into this thing and get nothing out of it - it is a free service and we make no guarantees to uptime for your site. If you find this arrangement doesn't work for you, then you're welcome to take your site elsewhere and pay for hosting.
We believe we offer some of the best free hosting you're ever going to get, and a few days of downtime is a fairly small price to pay. We are working on it and hope to have normal service restored shortly.
We are slowly making our way through the hosting issues. If you are still having problems with anything, please email us at hosting@ausgamers.com and we will respond as soon as possible.
Please note that CGI issues will be addressed as soon as possible - it is not necessary to email us about them!
We will be re-enabling hosting once we have worked through the backlog of support issues.
As many people have noticed, the majority of the hosting services are back and working again. There are a few things that are still not working, one of which is CGI access. We have disabled CGI scripts while we investigate some associated issues with running them. Apologies for any inconvenience (but you should be using PHP anyway! :)
All the outstanding hosting requests have been processed. As usual, most of them were denied, generally because of no AusGamers button (or having the AusGamers button but in the wrong place - it needs to be visible at the top of the page!). If your site was denied, don't take it as a personal insult - just read the hosting terms and conditions and apply again. We should be able to get back to you faster this time.
This is a VERY important notice for all AusGamers hosted sites. We have had problems recently with hosted sites running insecure mail scripts, such as FormMail.pl. Spammers have been using these scripts to send out a lot of mail, which obviously gets us in trouble with all the anti-spamming fanatics.
This is a one-and-only warning for hosted sites running any mail scripts - make sure they are secure! Anyone found running FormMail or another untrusted, dodgy mail script will have their site closed down immediately. If you are not sure whether your mail script is secure, take it down immediately and ask for some advice.
A few people have asked about the hosting situation - yes, we're still accepting applications! However there is a longer-than-normal delay in processing them while we work some kinks out of the system. Please be patient and rest assured we'll get to your application as soon as possible. In the meantime, I strongly advise you to make sure you've read the hosting terms and conditions to make sure you're aware of what you can and can't do, and also what you need to do to make sure your site gets hosted!
We've processed another bunch of applications (and are doing some more now). As always, most are being rejected for non-compliance with the terms and conditions (hint: AusGamers button). Some are being deleted because people have applied more than once for no good reason. Just apply once - applying more than once will result in longer processing times or your application just being deleted.
Not all the applications have been processed - if you haven't received an email one way or the other, then your request is still in the queue. DO NOT reapply, DO NOT email us asking about it - just be patient and we'll get to it as soon as possible.
In addition to the CGI limitations that we automatically have in place on the server, there is also one that we've decided to clamp down on - CGI-based IRC scripts. These things can cause problems for a variety of reasons, so we request that people don't run them. Checks will be made regularly and common CGI IRC clients will be automatically deleted.
A large number of hosting applications were processed tonight, many of which were, for various reasons, rejected. If your site was rejected for hosting, don't despair! You still have a chance to resubmit. Here is a quick list of the most common reasons applications were rejected:
The supplied link to your concept site was broken
The concept site was broken
The concept site was 'under construction'
The concept site was a simple forum with no real design
The concept site had no 'hosted by AusGamers' button
The concept site had a non-skippable Flash intro that took ages to load
The concept site was really, really ugly
The concept site was for some sort of weird, non-gaming personal site
You had a fake address
You had multiple reports under the same name with different addresses that were close enough to look suspicious - please just make sure you put your real address and don't get creative
You had multiple requests all for the same site with different concept sites
You had multiple requests for different sites with the same concept site
They are the most common reasons. It will really help your application if you have the AusGamers button featured prominently on your site. If you want to have a forum on your site, you'll get extra points if it is an AusGamers Forum. If you have an AusGamers Forum, you'll get extra points if you've taken the time to work on it so it doesn't have the standard skins.
Apologies to all those who missed out in this batch; please note there are still more in the queue so if you haven't heard from us yet one way or the other, your application is still in the queue and will be processed as soon as possible. If you did miss out, please do not just blindly mail us asking why - check the above list and see if you can figure out why your application was rejected first before doing so. If you've carefully checked everything in the list and you're still at a loss, post a comment to this item and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
We're currently running a small competition for AusGamers Hosted sites - check out this post for more information on how you can win a new Ratpadz Mousing Surface!
Important! This is extreamly important news for ALL current hosted sites of AusGamers.
For the first time in over a year, we have modified the terms and conditions which set out the rules by which you agree to by being hosted by AusGamers. This change will effect all 1600 hosted sites effective as of now.
There is a new requirement for hosting with AusGamers, that is that you MUST display the 'hosted by AusGamers' image on all pages of your site. Failure to do this, may result in the removal of your site from our servers, as set out in the hosting T's & C's.
An additional added segment is the ability to apply for hosting based on an Active Ausforums powered forum. And to clans we are now applying preferential treatment to clans with forums hosted using the triumph engine. However they must be active. A clan with a forum hosted by AusGamers is more likely to get hosting by us than a clan with either their own forums or Gamers.com forums. Simply because ours are better than both in terms of resources to the servers, and feature wise in most cases.
Please check the Terms & Conditions for AusGamers hosting if you have a site with us, be it a .ausgamers, .qgl, .shafted, or anything else for that matter. And ensure that your site conforms to these conditions.
So many things that have been under development are getting pushed out for you the gamers today, first it was ausxbox.net, now its AusFourms.com, and we have one more coming…
AusForums.com is one of the most exciting developments that we have been trying to build since late last year, and after a brief but painful hiccup late last year, Nathan and Alex here at AusGamers HQ have been working tirelessly to make sure that AusFourms become a reality. Being pretty busy on other developments which we cant talk about during the day, they have both had to work on AusFourms during their weekends and late at night when they get time.
AusForums isnt an attempt to compete against other networks who create forums for clans and all sorts of other things relating to youth media for their own communities, its something completely different.
It can be best compared to Gamers.com forums, we give you the user, the ability to create forums, name them what you want, then directly edit the look and feel of the forum by allowing you to modify and upload your own header, footer, and CSS files to our servers. So you can create rich creative forums in the same look and feel of your existing web site, while at the same time making your forums easier to use for your sites visitors by taking advantage of the 40,000 registered users of AusGamers.
To create a forum to discuss your favourite game, or for your clan, you simply need to head on over to Ausforums, login then goto http://www.ausforums.com/admin, this will give you the option to decided where to create your mountpoint, what folders you like, and how many forums you want! You can add passwords to forums for private conversations, and modify the look and feel.
Check out these examples of how you can modify your ausgamers forums QGL Lan, Dylan, and AusAnime to name but a few examples of what you can do if you want to.
All hosting applications that we received up until yesterday have now been processed. If you have not heard from us regarding your application, you will need to re-apply. Also as a general reminder to everyone who applies, it's almost guaranteed your application will be deleted if:
-- You don't fill out the application form correctly (if you don't trust us with your full name and address, then we do not trust you).
-- Your site isn't current or accessible, we are actively checking sites to make sure that they ARE current, if you have a clan site that hasn't been updated for 2 months, a simple forum might be better for you.
-- Your site isn't finished or actively working. We are not interested in being your development bed, we are a premium hosting service. There are plenty of third rate hosting services out there to develop and get your sites running on.
-- You aren't from Australia.
If you wish to apply, head over to AusGamers Hosting. Please be sure to read the hosting terms and conditions, as well as the news.
If you've applied for hosting and are wondering what the heck is going on, please email hosting@ausgamers.com and state clearly what you applied for and we'll push it through rather than trying to get thru the entire queue.
An enourmous percentage of the applications we process are never even used once anyway so setting aside the time to go thru them all will be a huge waste of not only the time it takes to go thru them, but also the server resources that even an unused vhost uses. This way should be better for everyone who still wants their hosting.
If you are having problems with your hosted site, please note we are aware of most of the problems and are working on them. If you're having problems with FTP, we know about it - no need to email us. We'll have it working again as soon as possible. Please note there is no lost data or anything on the hosteds sites, there are just some outstanding configuration issues that need to be taken care of. Apologies for any inconvenience and we'll have it all up and running again as soon as possible.
The transferral of our hosted sites' data completed at about 3am this morning so you should see the same thing regardless of whether your DNS sends you to the old server or the new.
If you can't ftp in, try connecting to syd2.ausgamers.com instead for now - once your ISP's DNS has updated, you can go back to using ftp.ausgamers.com. You can check this yourself periodically over the next week or so.
If there are any hassles with your site, please email hosting@ausgamers.com for best results, or post on the forum
Few things you should know about if you're using our hosting system - we're in the process right now of moving the latest copies of your data to the new server (it's already been moved once, but many of you have made changes to it since then and reports of old data are coming in) so we've shut down the ftp server to prevent any more changes being made for the next couple of hours while we shift the 13gig of hosted sites from the old server to the new.
We've only just changed the DNS entries to point to the new server tonight anyway, so most of your visitors will be still going to your existing site rather than the new, although there are definitely a few people already being directed to the new server, and seeing slightly older copies of their sites - and some becoming quite concerned - take this guy for example ;)
Im fuckin amazed
You jump in and edit out the admin button, and part on the bottom of
each page on the Sutherlan site, and not to mention the POTD!
u have NO FUKIN RIGHT TO EDIT THE PAGE I CREATED!... NO GAWD DAMN RIGHT!
your problems with me and SGL have nothing to do with Sutherlan u
fucksticks!... and as for ur MYSQL performance.. its giving me the
impression that u dont want any sites using both PHP, or CGI scripting
on your hosting!....
one last thing before i go
i changed to SGL cause of 3 reasons!..
1 ur hosting is ghey, if it aint down .. its almost fuckin impossable to
not time out!
2 AGN is fucked.. and everything that the upcomming monopoly on gaming
servers is yet to achive . i HATE!
3 I refuse to use any guidlines that u specify!...and ur Fourm code is
FUCKED
We've posted some articles on the main AusGamers site regarding hosting - rather than duplicate them here and possibly spawn off two seperate reply threads, here's a link to the article instead. Please read it, and check back each day for updates if your site is hosted with AusGamers (including shafted, qgl, wonderlan, mpu, etc)
We're going to move the hosted databases to another server to remove some of the load from the main hosted server. Currently you're using 'localhost' as the server to connect to, but rather than get you to start using the ip address of the new server, we've added a 'mysql' entry to the system hosts file. This way we can change it as necessary in future with no further changes to your scripts required, and you need only specify 'mysql' as the server to connect to.
But for this one occasion we'll have to get you to change your scripts from 'localhost' to 'mysql' wherever you specify 'localhost' as the database server to connnect to. You can make this change right away, it's still pointing back to localhost at present anyway so it won't break.
We're going to move the databases in 7 day's time - this should give everyone plenty of time to update their scripts. We'll be shutting down mysql for the few minutes while the database files transfer to prevent changes being made during the move, so all data will remain intact.
If you don't understand what we're asking, please email hosting@ausgamers.com for help, quoting your username subdomain/domain name. (remember not to send your in html format or it'll bounce right back)
While we are still currently accepting hosting applications, we will not be processing any new sites for a while. This is due primarily to the fact that we now host over 800 sites, and the load is becoming a bit too much for a single server. We're working on optimisations and may be able to get some more out of it; keep an eye on this page for more details.
We'll also be deleting accounts that have been created and not used for 2 months or more since being created. As they are deleted, we'll process some new applications in the order in which they are received.
The hosting Terms and Conditions have been updated. Even if you are an existing user, please make sure you read these terms and conditions, because they apply to all users of this service.
If you have any questions or comments, please let us know either by mailing hosting@ausgamers.com or responding to this post in the comments.
Some of the databases were coruppted today when the server was hard-reset from a lockup this morning. Since MySQL uses a literal database to hold users and permissions in and many of you were not able to login, I imagine this database was one of the ones corrupted.
I've just downed the server and reparied all the databases so it should be fine now. Sorry for the inconvenience.
We've imposed limits on cgi scripts on our hosting server because of the load spikes that we keep seeing. These limits are on cpu time, memory allocated, and actual number of processes per user.
CPU time is limited to 5 seconds per process, memory is limited to 9000000 bytes per process, and the number of simultaneous processes per user is limited to 5.
If your cgi script/program exceeds these limits, it is killed off by the server automatically. Depending on how your script/program is written, this may result in a 500 response - Internal Server Error.
We've tested these new settings with new installs of UBB and Newspro and they work fine. If your previously working script now fails, chances are it's too greedy on system resources.
I've installed the phpMyAdmin web interface to MySql because people seem to be getting lost without a point-and-click interface ;)
Visit http://mysqladmin.ausgamers.com and login with your username and password. This interface is not perfect by any means, but it's not too bad for doing most things with MySql. If you find you can't do something with it that you want to do, use Php to send your sql statements directly to your database yourself instead. See the documentation at http://www.php.net/manual for help on how to use MySql with Php.
I thought you might be interested to know that we've hosted over 240 new sites since we opened this section of the AusGamers network in early December. There's about another 80 or so in the queue waiting to be approved with between 5 to 10 requests coming in per day, so that number will hit 300 before the end of the week. There's also about 400 sites that signed up under the QGL banner and about 100 or so under the Shafted banner before we formed the AusGamers system, bringing the total to around 800!
For those of you experiencing login problems with your mysql database, please double-check the documentation of the scripting language that you are using to try and connect to mysql with, and once you're certain that your syntax is correct and it is in fact a login problem, please email your username and password to hosting@ausgamers.com so we can quickly and easily fix the problem.
Also, a couple of people have asked me what to use as the hostname of the database server to connect to. Use 'localhost' (without the quotes)
I didn't think to include this in your site activation emails - sorry about that. I'll be doing up an exstensive help system that covers the most often asked questions when I get a chance - hopefully this will make things easier for you all.
Text based counters for AusGamers hosted sites are now available, adding one to your page is as simple as including the following bit of code in your page, making sure that you replace yoursitename with a name for your counter,
<? readfile("http://network.ausgamers.com/counter.php?name=yoursitename"); ?>
Welcome to the new AusGamers hosting site. If you're looking for somewhere to host your Australian gaming-related site on a fast connection free of charge, you've come to the right place. AusGamers not only has a variety of gaming subdomains for you to choose from, but can also host your already-registered domain name too.
We're currently taking hosting applications even though only a small part of our intended feature set is ready, so keep an eye on this page for announcements regarding new features. You can apply for hosting by following the 'Apply' link on the left menu.
