A little update, folks:
Yes, Session #3 is up. However, we have been having an on-and-off problem with our Flash server, Google. Yesterday, it would not take the
Compound Cuts segment. We managed to post
Compound Cuts today, but in the process the segment on the Overarm Router went astray. Sorry; we're working to get it back. A brief catharsis: Teaching woodworking in person was much simpler. All I had to do was get out of bed in the morning and feel my way to the shop. No error messages, no blue screen of death. No wondering which camera I should talk to.
As for the bigger problem -- why we were unable to get online on Saturday:
After looking at all the logs, it appears as if we were being attacked by a hacker after e-mail addresses. Every so often, someone hits our web site with a program that tries to get around our firewall and into our customer files to steal e-mail addresses. Almost all companies that do business over the web have this problem; the aim is not to go for credit card information which is usually protected nine ways from Sunday, be to get into the less-protected files, extract customer information, and sell this to other companies in the same business. For example, if this attempt last Saturday had been successful, you might have found yourself receiving e-mails from another woodworking company a few months from now. These guys didn't get through, but they did cause another problem. Their pirate program contained a password generator that ate up all the bandwidth. That's why the Shopsmith web site was "slow" on Saturday and why we couldn't get on line.
Occassionally, we also also hit by someone who downloads our entire web site so they can have a "local copy." This does the same thing; it ties up most of our bandwidth and nobody else can get in or out for hours. This, too, could happen to us some Saturday and prevent our webcast from reaching you.
So...after a round of meetings and some vigorous head-scratching, we have decided to lease a second line with an unpublished address and use it
only for uploading webcasts. That way we'll always be able to get online, and we can deliver on time when we're conducting a class for money.
Our current goal is that Sawdust Session #4 will come to you over a brand new service, and we're hoping to have enough bandwidth to upgrade the quality of our video. If you'd like to see what we're planning, go to
http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/Sawdust_Sessions.htm.
And by the way, Ron, the OverArm Router IS discounted. Or it will be soon. We decided that in one of our head-scratching sessions.
With all good wishes,
