Hello Racers.
Most forum readers already know about this but I'd like to state it in a new thread, now that we have got past yesterday's confusion.
The long version :
The master server has moved home. It was previously located on a "small business" type of internet connection. Now we have moved it to one of our real web servers. Although it was mainly reliable before, this should provide even better reliability because there are backup generators in the event of a power failure and we won't need to reboot the cable modem, router and server occasionally.
If you have patch U30 or V you shouldn't need to do anything because the new versions use a DNS lookup to find the master (master.liveforspeed.net). However, DNS lookups are done at your local ISP and these can take time to update across the globe. Most of them are already updated now as it's 24 hours since we changed the DNS. That means you should see the correct master server when you click on "List of Games".
The "old" master is still running temporarily during this switchover period but now has less hosts listed (mainly old "U" versions and a few "V" versions whose ISPs are slow to update their DNS). The statistics system is disabled on the old master.
If you don't see the new master's list of games, and you only see the old master server, with a smaller list of games that doesn't match what you can see at LFS World, then don't worry, your DNS will soon be updated. But if your ISP is delayed and you absolutely must get on the new one in a hurry, you can edit your "hosts" file in Windows (a sort of fake DNS system on your computer) adding the line :
213.40.196.103 master.liveforspeed.net
If you have a version earlier than U30, your version is no longer supported and you really must upgrade to V.
The short version :
If you have U30 or V, that's fine.
If you have S, T, U or U20, it's time to upgrade!
Most forum readers already know about this but I'd like to state it in a new thread, now that we have got past yesterday's confusion.
The long version :
The master server has moved home. It was previously located on a "small business" type of internet connection. Now we have moved it to one of our real web servers. Although it was mainly reliable before, this should provide even better reliability because there are backup generators in the event of a power failure and we won't need to reboot the cable modem, router and server occasionally.
If you have patch U30 or V you shouldn't need to do anything because the new versions use a DNS lookup to find the master (master.liveforspeed.net). However, DNS lookups are done at your local ISP and these can take time to update across the globe. Most of them are already updated now as it's 24 hours since we changed the DNS. That means you should see the correct master server when you click on "List of Games".
The "old" master is still running temporarily during this switchover period but now has less hosts listed (mainly old "U" versions and a few "V" versions whose ISPs are slow to update their DNS). The statistics system is disabled on the old master.
If you don't see the new master's list of games, and you only see the old master server, with a smaller list of games that doesn't match what you can see at LFS World, then don't worry, your DNS will soon be updated. But if your ISP is delayed and you absolutely must get on the new one in a hurry, you can edit your "hosts" file in Windows (a sort of fake DNS system on your computer) adding the line :
213.40.196.103 master.liveforspeed.net
If you have a version earlier than U30, your version is no longer supported and you really must upgrade to V.
The short version :
If you have U30 or V, that's fine.
If you have S, T, U or U20, it's time to upgrade!