Do not rely on one Web RSS reader

All my RSS feeds are saved inside Newsgator Online that I synchronize with FeedDemon for offline reading.

Unfortunately, Newsgator Online has been down since morning and I haven't been able to access any of my daily subscriptions.

The lesson I learnt here is to always backup RSS subscriptions on another reader like Bloglines or Google Reader. Though it means extra work and you will come across items that you already read, you at least don't feel frustrated.

Incase the Newsgator engineers like to analyze, here's the error that I get:

Server Error in '/' Application.
Timeout expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding. Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Timeout expired.
The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding. Source Error: An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

Stack Trace: [SqlException: Timeout expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.] System.Data.SqlClient.ConnectionPool.GetConnection(Boolean& isInTransaction) +484 System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnectionPoolManager. GetPooledConnection(SqlConnectionString options, Boolean& isInTransaction) +372 System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.Open() +386 ngslib.AuthenticationInfo.GetUserName (Int32 userId, Boolean& expired, Boolean& cancelled, Int32& serviceLevel, String& orgCode, Boolean& ngosallowed, DateTime& lastAuthenticated) in c:\Build\ngonline_v1\ngslib\ AuthenticationInfo.cs:343 ngweb.Global.Application_AuthenticateRequest(Object sender, EventArgs e) in c:\Build\ngonline_v1\ngweb\Global.asax.cs:123 System.Web.SyncEventExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication +IExecutionStep.Execute() +60 System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep (IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously) +87

Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:1.1.4322.2300; ASP.NET Version:1.1.4322.2300

Reader Comments

a strange problem...has been down for about 5 hours now...

ping www.newsgator.com
PING www.newsgator.com (64.78.155.105): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 64.78.155.105: icmp_seq=0 ttl=115 time=124.698 ms
64 bytes from 64.78.155.105: icmp_seq=0 ttl=115 time=125.574 ms (DUP!)
64 bytes from 64.78.155.105: icmp_seq=0 ttl=115 time=125.583 ms (DUP!)
64 bytes from 64.78.155.105: icmp_seq=1 ttl=115 time=126.094 ms
64 bytes from 64.78.155.105: icmp_seq=1 ttl=115 time=126.106 ms (DUP!)
64 bytes from 64.78.155.105: icmp_seq=1 ttl=115 time=126.115 ms (DUP!)
64 bytes from 64.78.155.105: icmp_seq=2 ttl=115 time=125.085 ms
64 bytes from 64.78.155.105: icmp_seq=2 ttl=115 time=125.099 ms (DUP!)
64 bytes from 64.78.155.105: icmp_seq=2 ttl=115 time=125.108 ms (DUP!)
64 bytes from 64.78.155.105: icmp_seq=3 ttl=115 time=125.843 ms
64 bytes from 64.78.155.105: icmp_seq=3 ttl=115 time=125.856 ms (DUP!)

Newsgator homepage now displays a more reasonable error though I really don't believe in what they are saying:

NewsGator Online is currently down for maintenance. We expect to be back online shortly

Down for maintenance since morning ? Can Newsgator folks please speak the truth and tell us what exactly is happening to their servers ?

If not, I am switching to Bloglines tonight.

Very un-NewsGator like behavior. If it was scheduled maintenance, why was no notice given to suscriber's - even on their own blog? If a problem occurred unexpectedly, at least provide a meaningul explanation.

As of the time I post this: 10:42 a.m. MT (GMT-7), the web sire claims they will be operational by 12:00 noon MT. I've had intermittent success getting a few feeds updated in the last few minutes but things are still not right.

I work in NewsGator tech support. Our service is back online as of 10:30am MST.

We don't have any more details on the outage at this time, but will update our forum announcement when it's available:

http://www.newsgator.com/forum/ shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=22&MessageID=16794

It wasn't maintenance...the page was inaccurate (totally my fault, I typed the message on it at 2:30am). Anyway, I wrote more about the problem here:

http://www.rassoc.com/gregr/weblog/archive.aspx?post=808

i have a similar setup as yours, using bloglines as the primary and rojo and google reader as my secondary readers, and it surely helps at times.

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