Servers back online

NighthawkPlayer updates

All servers are back online, but many are not at their intended destination because of flooding throughout Sydney. The flooding may not subside for 1-2 weeks. I’ve had to use alternate hardware and locations because the original servers are stuck in transit. At this stage I’m not sure if or when they’ll arrive, because they may be damaged. Covid (actually governments) has kept many casinos locked down so most of you can’t play anyway. The situation wont last forever though.

Because the hardware is different, there may be some differences, such as screen resolutions, and custom port-forwarding rules for VPS bypasses. I can’t apply custom port rules for now.

The only servers on are those with 24/7 access. You’ll need a booking to have your server online. But for now I only have limited hardware, and need to restore backups – so I will need 48hrs notice to switch a server on.

If your server is online, please test it and let me know any issues you have.

Everything will be back to normal soon, but please be patient as the flooding is very serious for Sydney and it’s not something we could have predicted.

Expected server downtimes

NighthawkPlayer updates

Some servers are moving to Perth (far Western Australia), which benefits players in Europe. And some to Sydney (East coast), which benefits players in North & South America.

The ping improvement will be between 70-100ms depending on where you are. It isn’t much difference for prediction times. But it should significantly improve remote desktop connection quality.

The whole migration process will take around 2 weeks. It will depend on variables beyond my control, like data center staff schedule. I expect the downtime will be around 10th – 20th March.

Responses for next 7 days

NighthawkPlayer updates

Responses to emails and support tickets will be delayed for the next 7 or so days. Almost all emails are responded to anyway, but I’m aware some issues have been outstanding for a while. This is because some things are on hold until others return from vacations. There are always delays this time of year. I appreciate everyone’s patience.

Hybrid phone camera app

NighthawkPlayer updates

I’ve received the latest Hybrid camera app. So far it works with the common external cameras, but I still have more testing to do. I’ll release it for everyone’s use, but remember I haven’t fully tested it yet so there may be issues. I expect to fully test maybe at the end of next week. And you can revert to the old version if the latest one doesn’t work with your hardware.

Email me via encrypted mail for the download link.

Hybrid/Uber phone software updates

NighthawkPlayer updates

If you’ve purchased unsupported hardware (phones) for the main phone app, you might find it doesn’t work properly. For example, you might not be able to select suitable video resolutions with external cameras. As the phone operating systems change, we update the phone apps. The programmer starts work today on these updates.

Unfortunately it might mean after the update, the new version wont work properly on older phones. So there may be multiple versions.

I don’t yet know when the programmer will be finished. It depends on a variety of factors.

Hybrid & Uber updates

NighthawkPlayer updates

I’ve just updated the servers, but the remote desktop access details have all changed. I’ll send everyone new access details. If you don’t receive them, let me know. If you wanted changed carried over from the old server to new, let me know. I still have the older versions saved.

The changes are nothing to do with the Hybrid/Uber software. They are related to remote access and firmware.

Getting faster responses to questions & support tickets

NighthawkPlayer updates

When I see a huge email or support ticket, I’ll almost always “leave it for later”, and address the shorter tickets first. This is because more people get timely responses. I don’t always have time to address the longer tickets too, so they may sit unanswered for longer.

So you get responses in less time, please keep tickets short and concise. Please ask clear questions.

Also in most cases, the questions are already answered in the support documentation anyway. You might get irritated if I haven’t responded for days, but chances are you never even needed to ask many questions anyway. Please carefully read support documentation before asking questions. Whenever there are common questions, I update the support documents to save everyone time.

I’ve been busier than usual for the last 2 weeks, but my mid next week, things will be easier.

Uber/Hybrid server connectivity

NighthawkPlayer updates

The servers have been down for half the day in attempt to resolve intermittent connection issues. It turned out to be an IP conflict, which affected only a cluster of servers. Or at least I found the conflict, and assume it caused the problems. But I wont have enough time to do proper testing to see if all issues are resolved. I’ll finish on Monday. At least for now everything appears to be working fine.