One of our database servers became non responsive, which affected other servers and caused an hour's downtime this evening.  We are investigating the causes of this in order to prevent it happening again.  Prior to tonight, we had had no downtime in months and we aim to continue providing excellent service levels in the coming months.

Thank you for your patience!  If you have any queries, please contact us via the Helpdesk.

For those of you who want a free, easy to use image banner for your server statistics, check out our new handy monitor!  Find it under the "Server Monitors" tab of your server info page

What's special about our new handy monitor is that it's vertical - so it will nicely fit into nuke sites and other pages with a side bar.  In addition to displaying player count for the past 24 hours, it will display a map pic for map the server is currently running, as well as a pic of the next predicted map.  Did I also mention how beautiful it looks?  See for yourself!

We have identified an issue which has been affecting some server statistics in the past week.  We are taking corrective action and the statistics should be representative from today.  Please contact us via the Helpdesk if you notice any ongoing issues.

We have added full support of COD4 this week - go ahead and set up your monitors, or find players and servers on our search tool.  Happy Gaming!

We have identified and corrected some issues that may have caused some intermittent downtime.  Please contact us if you notice any issues.

We were experiencing a few issues with scanning Enemy Territory: Quake Wars since the patch was released this week; this problem has now been resolved.  Anyone still experiencing problems, please contact us via the Helpdesk.

Since our database issues last weekend, we worked around the clock to get everything back up and running.  We have replaced hardware and added in some extra redundancy this week to prevent this issue from happening in the future.  Thank you to all subscribers for your patience and understanding during this time!

We are pleased to announce that all services are now fully functional, and have been for a couple of days.  If you noticed your ranks looking a bit suspicious this week, they should now be looking correct.  If anyone is continuing to experience any issues, please contact us via the Helpdesk. 

Yes, it's a bad as it sounds!  Luckily, we have multiple database servers and take regular backups, but unfortunately this still resulted in us losing 2 weeks of data... read on to see how this affects you.

Been a subscriber since 2003 and made no changes in the past 2 weeks?  Congratulations, no need to worry :)

Registered to the site in the past 2 weeks?  Sorry, you'll need to re-register to the site

Upgraded your account in the past week?  Please contact us via the Helpdesk with your Paypal email address, and we will upgrade your account to a complimentary subscription.  That's right - you won't need to pay us again for your Exclusive account!  (it's our way of saying sorry!)  Remember to cancel your Paypal payments.

Registered AND upgraded to an Exclusive account in the past 2 weeks?  Please re-register as above, and then contact us with your payment email address so that we can cross-reference your payments and upgrade your account to a complimentary subscription.

Made or edited any monitors in the past 2 weeks?  I am sorry, you'll need to go and recreate/re-edit those monitors.  Our apologies!!

Please contact us via the Helpdesk if you have any concerns.  Happy gaming!

The Ventrilo Monitor has been updated so it will show the correct channel order, and not just display them alphabetically.

In addition, it is now possible to use custom icons on the Ventrilo Monitor - contact the Helpdesk for more info if you'd like to use this feature.

If anyone has been having issues with ranks or unique player counts not updating, this should be fixed now.

Also, we were experiencing some intermittent uptime issues with the website which should now be resolved.

Please contact us via the Helpdesk if you experience any issues!

We have noticed an issue that a couple of people who's accounts renewed on 28th September didn't register on our system, and their account started showing as a free account.  This may be more than a coincidence, so if anyone else is experiencing this issue, please head to the Help Desk and let us know!  We'll get it fixed for ya.

We have added support for Quake World and Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45.  These are untested on our system, so in the unlikely event that you run into an issue, please contact us via the helpdesk with details so we can fix it.

Also, a reminder that we added support for TF2, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and Unreal Tournament 99.  Again, let us know if you have any issues with these games when you create monitors.

There are other games we're planning to add, so if you have any special requests, now is the time to ask.  When you put forward a request, it's really useful for us to have an IP, Port and Query Port for a server so that we can run tests, so please include this information for one of your servers when you ask for a game to be added.

Happy gaming!

If you have submitted an email Helpdesk query recently without reply, please resubmit your problem.  We were performing some server upgrades and unfortunately we lost some of our support mails.  Sorry for any inconvenience! 

There have been quite a few updates since the last blog entry, so here's a summary of changes:

- A new monitor is in development.  This monitor is perfect for small spaces, especially on nuke sites, but will complement anyone's page.  It's called the Dynamic Monitor, and there will be a free and Exclusive version.  Exclusive users will be able to edit almost any aspect of it, including size, colours, background images, and most importantly, auto-refreshing options.  See an example at Battlefield Brothers website!

- The new Handy Monitor has been released, and is a massive improvement on the old style.  Live server info is included as before, with some usage graphs.  The monitor links back to the server info page for more detailed info.  The look of the Handy Monitor is more up to date too.  Coming soon is a larger version of the handy monitor with more info in it - stay tuned for more news on this!  Find your Handy Monitor under the Free Tools tab on your server info page.

- The search tool on the home page has been improved, with a slightly different layout which should be more intuitive.  More importantly, the search results show more info in a different layout, which is a big improvement.

- New games supported are TF2, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and Unreal Tournament 99.  More ganes are coming soon!

- Countless bug fixes!

Stay tuned for more news coming soon.

From midnight 23rd July to 3am 24th July (Pacific time, GMT-8), our server host is scheduling some maintenance to perform switch upgrades.  This may cause downtime of 10 to 30 minutes, but hopefully no more than this.  Thank you for your understanding and patience during this maintenance!

Some people may have experienced their Flashy Monitor skins not loading for a few hours - this has now been fixed.  Our apologies for any inconvenience!

We have been informed that some users may have experienced some downtime with the site and monitors.  We tracked this down to an upstream DNS issue and it should now have been resolved.  Please let us know if you still have any problems. by contacting the helpdesk.  Happy gaming!

Some of our users may have had problems accessing the website and services today, due to some network issues affecting some ISPs.  These issues were intermittent and only affected some locations, and should now by and large be resolved.  Please ntofiy us if you're still experiencing any issues through the Help Desk.

Currently experiencing some intermittent issues with the Player Tracking and Player Info Pages.  We're looking into it, and it should be fully operational again within 24 hours.

We have started the first of many changes to the server info pages.  Keep your eye out over the next week or two for new changes!

As you can see below, the server name section has a new design that includes the game logo.  Below the map pic image, we have also posted new statistics to show you the number of unique players tracked on the server in the past 7 days, as well as the number of player hours tracked.

Another big new addition on the server info page is the server ranking percentile bar.  This shows you how your server ranks compared to the other servers running your game in your country.  If you're ranked in the 99th percentile, only one percent of servers are ranked above you.  If you're ranked in the 25th percentile, 75% of servers are ranked above you.  Cool, huh?!

As you can see in the screen shot below, Exclusive Subscribers don't see ads on the website, not that you need another reason to upgrade! 

 

As always, we welcome feedback, suggestions and questions.  Please contact us via the helpdesk to add in your two cents' worth!

To find your server info page, just hit the homepage at www.serverspy.net and use the search tool to find your server.  Click on the "View Detailed Stats" link - simple as that.

Our new search tool on the front page now features a Quick Search feature!  If you know the name of the person, server map etc that you're seeking, use this feature to speed up your search.

Remember that the search tool is still in beta and we really welcome all feedback on your experiences and suggestions with this product.  We do listen to our users and enjoy making products that you guys want to use!  Use the "contact us" link on the helpdesk to send your messages.

Anyone using a hotmail email address is unlikely to receive any emails from us.  If you have registered with a hotmail account, please email us to change it to a non-hotmail address.  If you are planning to sign up to our service, please use a non hotmail account!  Feel free to contact hotmail and complain about this....

Check out our exciting new Player Rankings feature.  We have now made it possible for you to view not only the past 7 days of stats, but also to view any of the past months stats for the previous year!  Settle arguments, present awards, or just view your own player history.  However you want to use the information, it's now available!

You can see from the example below that the Player Ranks table now has a dropdown menu so that you can select which period you want to view. 

See this example live here.

Want to set these up on your site?  Exclusive Subscribers can go to the Server Monitor page and click on create/edit a monitor. 
Just click on the "rankings" link next to your Server Monitor listing, and follow the instructions! 
Contact us via the Helpdesk if you need any help.

The server info pages on ServerSpy.Net now auto-update every 10 seconds, allowing you to view real time information easily - even watch a clan match from the website!

In due course, this feature will be available on our Server Monitor tool for webmasters, so keep your eye out for this exciting development.

Create your monitors and view your stats now for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl - this game is now supported!  Exclusive Subscribers can create their own custom skins for this game with the flashy monitor, so subscribe today.

Below is an example of a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. monitor - you can see it live here

Also, don't forget that you can find a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. server or look up your S.T.A.L.K.E.R. player ranks on our new search tool. 

The new ServerSpy.Net search tool is here!!

After much development, the server and player search has today been launched.  Go to www.serverspy.net to check it out!

Search for servers by game, country, and also by the number of slots free - an incredibly useful and intuitive way to find your next game.  You can also find players by name, by game and whether they're online... so whether you're out to view your own player stats, or whether you're trying to find your clan members to play with, its quick and easy.

This new service is in beta, so if you have any questions, comments or problems with the search, please contact us on the helpdesk.

Happy Searching!

There may be some short intermittent periods of downtime in the next hour or so as we perform some server maintenance.  We will work hard to keep this to the absolute minimum to avoid disruption.  Many thanks for your patience!

We apologise for the inconvenience some of you are experiencing this morning with our Player Ranks - the problem is related to our database, and we have all resources working to fix the issue right now.  We appreciate your patience while we resolve this!

Update: System is now back up - we are conducting some tests to make sure all is ok.

We've now added support for Battlefield 2142!

The one service that has yet to be support is Gamlauncher - however we plan to provide launcher support later this week.

We will be scanning the master list for the main game when it comes out (not the demo).  However you can use our monitors for a demo server, but the player ranking etc are will come to life the moment the game goes live.

Feel free to contact us should you notice any possible bugs or if you're having difficulty setting up your services.

We're going to have a slight blip in uptime tonight at 10pm EST. This is due to a switch replacment due to last weekends flooding.

Update: New switch is in place and everything seems to be working well.

I've uploaded some of the photo's of the power room flooding.

http://dev.blog.serverspy.net/blog/Photos/PowerRoom

To think we were only down for 6 hours! Needless to say, although we have great redundancy in terms of servers etc, we still only host at one location. We're looking into developing a backup cluster of servers in London, UK, to try and avoid a similar problem in future.

Update: We should now appear fully up and all services should be running at full speed.

Our apologies for today's downtime.

We've been informed by our colocation provider that their power room has been flooded by 20feet of water! This has caused the whole building and infact that grid of the city to be without power now for several hours.

The backup generators did activate but due to the flooding of the primary power room, there were obvious problems in relaying the power. The fire department have worked hard to find and fix the cause of the water and the power company (after having to get a BOAT in the building) managed to switch off and relay the primary power distrobution system to allow the generator to work.

Staff are now on hand cutting live wires and relaying the generator power through the servers and we hope to be back up as soon as humanly possible!

I'll post pictures of the damage as soon as i get them.

I appreciate your patience during this issue.

If you created a flashy monitor in the past week, you may notice that your flashy monitor skin is no longer working, or indeed you may have problems with your monitor loading.  If this is happening to you, please recreate your monitor again and this will resolve the issue.

This should only affect people who have created a monitor in the past week.  If you continue to have problems after you recreate your monitor, please contact us via the helpdesk to help you.  Our apologies for any inconvenience caused!

Thank you to everyone who took part in the BF 2142 Beta Key competition. We'd have loved to give everyone a key, but we only had 9! The winners are:

Jordan Cox, US
Eric Brady, UK
Todd Norris, US
Gregory Hale, US
Lewis Baxter, US
Doug Mather, US
Christopher Xiao, Canada
Josh Sznaps, US
Rivr Styx, US

Congratulations! You'll all be receiving an email with your beta testing instructions - if you don't hear from us today, please contact us via the helpdesk!