NOTE: THIS IS HAPPENING TONIGHT - 6th NOVEMBER 2008!

I'll post this now, before it happens, and i'll also be blanket emailing all registered users shortly.

During this comming week (w/c 3rd November 2008) some changes will be happening to the DNS entries for the various URL's that ultimately point to the HRMS Aces website.

For a while now we have been experiencing 'odd' happenings (usually linked with registering and logging on). These have (in the main) been caused by the fact that the top-level domains actually point to a different URL. This seems to cause problems with cookies etc.

So in an attempt to clean it all up we will be resetting the URL forwarding and moving the site so that it sits with dot-co-dot-uk URL. The dot-com site will be reset to redirect to the UK site.

What does this all mean (i hear you ask)?

Well it could impact any saved bookmarks that you have that take you to certain pages on this site.
It may also mean that any saved autologin cookies will expire so you will need to re-login.

When will this happen?
The aim is to do the updates on Wednesday 5th November. As the servers are hosted in the UK the updates should ripple through the UK DNS servers fairly quickly. I would expect the updates to ripple across the internet over the following 12 hours or so, although i have been warned that it could take up to 24 hours to update every DNS entry.
It is just possible that you may experience connection issues during this time.

Why are you doing this?
Simply because things are a bit of a mess underneath the surface of hrmsaces! The original site (the old blue-coloured site that some will remember) still exists and actually occupies the .co.uk url. Hence we have a redirect in place. This will be removed. We also still have redirects in place from the very old original site ex-hrcon.com. This too will be removed (with a view to not renewing that domain at the next renewal date). We also want to ensure that the hrmsaces.com site seamlessly points to the correct place (at the moment it goes via a redirect).

The ultimate aim will be to move everything across to the oracleaces.com url. Currently this houses a temporary part-built site that acts as a placeholder. The aim will be to establish this site as the main portal.

In the mean time, we need to sort out the current mess before the server software upgrade can take place, as an earlier test upgrade fell in to a big wobbly heap due to URL issues!!

This will also provide us with an ideal opportunity to perform housekeeping tasks on dormant accounts (that was supposed to have happened back in January!).

If you have any questions or concerns then please ask away.

Regards