Erik

This is the topic to discuss any questions you may have about the upcoming changes to our download section. Before the complaints start, we are changing our download section as the announcement says. Free downloads will be disabled at midnight tonight 27 December 2024. Our paid subscription accounts will not be affected. Please pardon our dust while we make some changes and thank you in advance for understanding. Erik

Hello all! As you know it is one of my jobs to make sure things are working as they are supposed to here at CombatACE. One of the biggest concerns I'm asked about is our download section. So that we can clear up the confusion and help each of you get the best out of our services I've put this together for everyone's information. I hope it helps. DAILY DOWNLOAD LIMITS Yes we have them. As a file repository we are faced with the very real issue of bandwidth and equipment costs. We maintain a robust community of equipment and services with multi-point redundancy that provide minimized potential for loss of site content or stored files, speed, and safety that our members use daily. We maintain two separate connectivity points to provide users the best experience possible when downloading content or using our various services. Why daily download limits? That's a good question and simply answered it's a function of the internet and a commonly accepted belief that the internet is free. In our past experience with an unlimited download service we have found it encourages excessive downloading (hoarding), most often referred to as "kids in a candy store" mentality. We hope you understand that our position is taken with great care and concern. We certainly can provide unlimited downloads to everyone but we won't be around very long operating under that business model. We have chosen, therefore and to the ultimate benefit of the community, to limit the daily file count while still providing free downloading to all members. We have also included the option of removing download restrictions by purchasing a subscription account. TURN OFF DOWNLOAD ACCELERATORS We recommend that you remove, disable, or uninstall any browser download accelerators while using our service. These programs or add-ons include releases like but not limit to Download Accelerator Plus, Get Right, Download Them All, SpeedBit, etc. Our download service by default supports the file pause and resume features for pausing downloads which may be the only convenient feature of a download accelerator. Most browsers have these features built into their stock releases so installing a download accelerator is not necessary to use them. Download accelerators open multiple download requests for the same file, often called segmenting or ranging. We do not support ranging at this time because it interferes with your daily download limit count. If you would like to read more information about download accelerators it can be found here: Download Accelerators. Our top four browsers used on this site for downloading files are below. Your can click on the links provided to download the latest version of these browsers. 1. Internet Explorer 9.0 2. Google Chrome 3. Firefox 4. Opera Statistically the top four browsers used to download our content. STOCK BROWSER INSTALLATION: To verify our software I have downloaded and installed each of these browsers. Personally I use Google Chrome. I like it's features, how it integrates with my Google products, the speed and performance, and the overall ease of use. After testing the stock installations of the above four browsers here is what I found. The stock installations of Internet Explorer 9.0, Google Chrome, Firefox, and Opera all work properly with our download section. Please check your browser add-on and extension settings to determine if you have a download manager accelerator installed. Our site is confirmed to work best with Internet Explorer 9.0, Google Chrome, Firefox, and Opera, other browsers may work but have not been verified. Stock browsers download test. Above after installing the various browsers I checked to determine how many connections each stock browser was making to determine if download accelerators were installed by default and in use. As you can see all of the browsers above worked as intended by opening a single request for each file. Download Accelerators are often a software add-on for browsers and can be deactivated in your browser settings. To check and disable your browser add-ons follow these simple steps. INTERNET EXPLORER 9.0 - > Tools > Manage add-ons > From the popup screen you can view installed and active extensions, add-ons, and accelerators. Disable or remove as needed. GOOGLE CHROME - > Settings (wrench) > Tools > Extensions > From the new tab you can view installed and active extensions, add-ons, and accelerators. Disable or remove as needed. OPERA 9 - > Opera Menu > Extensions > Manage Extensions > From the new tab you can view installed and active extensions, add-ons, and accelerators. Disable or remove as needed. FIREFOX - > Firefox Menu > Add-ons > From the new tab you can view installed and active extensions, add-ons, and accelerators. Disable or remove as needed. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to ask or offer your input. Thank you for reading this post and please enjoy your community here at CombatACE. Erik Thompson CombatACE.com

@KJakker There are too many variables to base subscriptions that way. Designing a system to fairly account for such restrictions would be mind-numbingly obscene.

Ouch, some drones are quite expensive and not meant to be hitting utility poles. The video quality makes me think of the old training drones we had ten years ago.

This is the problem concisely. If you put an obstacle in front of people, they will use every means necessary, thought of and not, to circumvent that obstacle. I call it rat in a maze syndrome if that's even proper terminology. Just like the southern border wall in the United States, if you build it twenty-five feet tall there will be a store that opens on the other side selling twenty-six feet tall ladders. If you build the same wall with a footing ten feet deep, someone will tunnel eleven feet under it. If you build the same wall fifty feet tall with an unscalable surface constructed out of concrete and rebar, someone will grow a giant sequoia tree next to it, wait fifty years and use it to scale the wall. There is no obstacle that can't be overcome, that is the genius behind brain cells.

Yep, seriously. I thought the topic was something more relative to CA so I clicked it only to find out it was about another game you've been watching YouTube videos on. I laughed and typed "click bait" with a thumbs up emoji. You then send me a PM telling me to delete your account. SMH

click bait

The current count is: 3,631 accounts on this site have more than one account. 715 of those accounts have more than 5 accounts associated to them. Our top offender has 44 accounts associated to them.

That is the greatest and wildest story I've ever heard, but how neat is that? Personally, I don't know a single person who could ever claim they have an entire drop tank in their basement.

I appreciate your input, and I understand your concern. Here's the problem more directly so hopefully everyone can understand it. The 5-file download limit per day does not work. Because free email accounts exist people go to the furthest extremes possible to beat a system put there to prevent unlimited free downloads. There are no options for us. We either switch to fully free downloads which is financially destructive, or we go to a pay for content model. It will not matter if we put an age restriction on the accounts, we'll end up with the same burden just one or two years down the road. I have believed in the honesty and integrity of people for over 23 years doing this. I have supported them financially and I have believed that they would get their fill and things would calm down. Today CA delivers over three terabytes of data every month and that number continues to climb. Then there's the other side to managing the multitude of accounts people create to download, it takes me hours every single day to weed through them, 365 days per year no breaks or no time away. I pay to work here. To make things worse it's only making those people mad when their accounts get suspended. They go out onto the internet and talk trash about what we do and how horrible we are, but they never once look at it from our perspective. I challenge each of those people to make a luxury sized car payment, a mortgage payment for some, every single month to work at a place where you're the enemy while you're paying for their download content. The change is here.

This is a permanent change. All the options aren't rolled out yet so this is by no means a finished product.

Next time send a PM, posting email accounts and such in a public viewable space isn't the best option. Thank you.

I think we should discuss this in the Modder's forum where everyone can have some input. Can you post your question in the topic over there where we're discussing the download changes? Thank you, Erik

Modders will not be affected by any of the changes. Erik

Yes, AdSense has been making huge changes and cluttering sites globally with horrible ad placements. As advertisers we can no longer place most ads. AdSense places them on our site based on a bunch of factors for visibility. I have been submitting support tickets for months trying to get this cleaned up but when they fix one thing, they break something else. If we didn't need the ad money for the site, I'd pull AdSense completely until they fix it. I'll send you a PM but thanks for letting me know. Erik

No takers on the traceroute?

Data center is asking for trace routes from all your machines to us. Post them here or send them to me via PM. DC claims the issue was resolved earlier today but if their upstream is still having issues they need detailed reports.

There's something going on with the routes overseas but it's out of our control and our data center's control. The data center knows about it, but they are helpless to do anything as it has to do with long haul fiber carries. Remind me in a week if it hasn't improved and I'll bug them again. Until then sorry about the load time. E

Y'all are a bunch of newbies, fresh as a baby's backside. Thanks for sticking around so long, not sure where the time has gone. Cheers

Makes you wonder if a Tinder profile seeking women whose prior husbands owned a CNC Machine and it's gathering dust in the workshop would get any traction. I mean the number can never be zero right?

With a little desire, a few miscellaneous items, a 3D printer, a CNC machine, a room dedicated to your new build, and a fresh divorce you too can build your dream. Trying to be helpful of course. https://openhornet.com/

1994's version of the family grocery getter, what a smoke show that was back in the day.

Finally, someone who speaks their fucking mind.

Thanks for the notes, you can all breathe now. Our security certificate expired and needed to be renewed. I would have done it sooner, but we needed to change providers, and I couldn't begin the process until today. If you have an issue accessing our site, you have a stale SSL Certificate. To fix it, clear your browser cache, restart your browser, and re-open the site.

Sorry for my late reply, I'm doing a bit of traveling and access to the internet has been far and few between even now I'm having to proxy around the globe to get back to the USA. Isn't 2024 fun? Rhetorical question. Anyway, we don't offer any auto renewing subscriptions. You must manually approve every subscription before it is deducted or charged to you. I do this because I don't want to have any complaints about auto renewing subscriptions. In your case you had generated two invoices for the trial membership and they were both unpaid. I have removed them both from your account. You can verify this by clicking on the "Store" tab > Manage Purchases, your page should be blank. You can start a new purchase at any time but if you stop in the middle of purchasing a subscription go to the Manage Purchases tab to resume instead of starting a new purchase. I hope that makes sense. If there's any issues you can always contact me directly or here on the forums like you did. Erik