Exiftool Website appears to be in flux

Tveloso · December 02, 2021, 01:23:25 AM

While using the links in this post by Mario:

https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=9506.msg67296#msg67296

...I found that the link for Exiftool gives a hosting company page saying that "exiftool.org is almost here".

The Wikipedia page now lists the official ExifTool website as being at SourceForge:

http://exiftool.sourceforge.net/

Perhaps Phil is in the process of changing hosting companies?...

I didn't want to pollute Mario's post about donations, with talk of Exiftool URL issues, so I thought I'd post here about that.

It looks like the above SourceForge site is the full Exiftool site (including the option to make a donation)...

Mario · December 02, 2021, 10:06:08 AM

I've noticed a few days ago that the ExifTool.org domain has either expired or was somehow stolen and parked on a new host.
Let's hope that nothing has happened to Phil, or else the entire metadata mess will become much more unbearable again.

I don't know anything about the SourceForce fork, but the official ExifTool repository was always on GitHub: https://github.com/exiftool

There is a related discussion here: https://github.com/exiftool/exiftool/issues/104

digedag · December 02, 2021, 12:39:20 PM

Quote from: Mario on December 02, 2021, 10:06:08 AM
[...] Let's hope that nothing has happened to Phil [...]

+1!

Tveloso · December 04, 2021, 07:23:31 PM

Most folks probably know by now, but Phil has resolved the issue with the exiftool.org site...here are his comments:

https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=13078

Mario · December 04, 2021, 08:01:03 PM

Phew!
I was quite a bit worried and evaluated potential avenues for replacements. Unfortunately, there are not many (one I know of) and it uses the GPL license, which makes it impossible for me to use it (since IMatch is considered commercial)

I've had two switch my sites and services several times between large German hosting companies because their services and support sucked big time.
Now I'm hosting my sites on smaller German hosting company (ALL-INKL) and I had not a single minute of downtime in about two years!

Taking a site off-line just because it is attacked is not a good behavior for a hosting company (Dreamhost in case of ExifTool). It's their job to deal with attacks.

loweskid · December 04, 2021, 11:27:26 PM

Phew indeed!

When I first saw the headline I thought Phil might have been a victim of The Flux......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlVyV5ylNcU

Tveloso · December 05, 2021, 02:39:28 AM

Quote from: loweskid on December 04, 2021, 11:27:26 PM
Phew indeed!

When I first saw the headline I thought Phil might have been a victim of The Flux......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlVyV5ylNcU

Haha...yes, thank goodness he wasn't!

Jingo · December 06, 2021, 01:59:41 PM

Quote from: Mario on December 04, 2021, 08:01:03 PM

I've had two switch my sites and services several times between large German hosting companies because their services and support sucked big time.
Now I'm hosting my sites on smaller German hosting company (ALL-INKL) and I had not a single minute of downtime in about two years!

After 8 years with my hosting company, I "decided" to switch to a new host this month when my renewal was due. My old host wanted to charge me 5x my last renewal rate for a 3yr renewal... and wouldn't budge even after multiple attempts to persuade them to keep me. I was even willing to pay 2x the last renewal just to save some effort and time during my busiest time of year. No dice!

I signed up with a new host after doing research, transferred my sites over via FTP, re-set my email addresses, imported my SQL databases, repointed my DNS, saved 7x the money (new host had an amazing 4 year initial Black Friday rate)... and it only took about 24 hrs to get things squared away... I think hosting companies are bonkers!

Mario · December 06, 2021, 02:23:06 PM

Hosting companies are under heat coming in from the big cloud companies, especially AWS and Microsoft.
Much of the small and medium corporate hosting has moved from individual hosting companies into the cloud.

Amazon AWS (albeit a big overwhelming to configure) offers very packages for small and medium demands, e.g. WordPress + MySQL + Web + Traffic. Starting at US$ 3,- per month.
With 3 to 6 months free for testing and getting used to how things works.

Wordpress.com starts at US$ 4,- per month, including your own custom domain name. Good SEO marketing for free on top.

For users in the EU with our higher privacy standards, things are more complicated. US-based companies like AWS or Microsoft are not considered safe for hosting data of EU citizens anymore, so we prefer EU-based hosting companies. Which is why I run my web sites, this community included, on servers in Germany.

Jingo · December 07, 2021, 02:24:36 PM

Agree.. it is cheap.. 4 yr with cancel anytime is about $3 a month! I believe the company is in Lithuania... but the servers are US hosted so good speeds for FTP and such. Impressed with the 24/7 chat support thus far... the heat seems good for us consumers $$$-wise!

Mario · December 07, 2021, 02:47:30 PM

If you only need a LAMP stack and you don't have massive traffic requirements or face problems with DoS attacks, the cheaper the better - good service of course mandatory.

A hosting company like Dreamhost (in the actual case with ExifTool) or 1und1 (in case of the old photools.com site) which take your site off-line without warning and then require you to do all kinds of crazy shit to get your domain back online is a no-no.