maws down???

[FALSE]

Anyone know why Maws is down or when it will be back up?
It says "account suspended", I hope they didn't get shut down or something.
Wasn't there another site or program similar to maws that let you search through all the games in different categories?

[BobA]

It is also mame world that is suspended.   Seems to me this happens every year when they forget to pay.

[Hoopz]

BobA is spot on as usual.  A couple alternatives include:

mamedb.com
Romlister - http://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/

[southpaw13]

I have been in this hobby for over a decade.  The site goes down on an annual basis.  It will be back up eventually.

[Haze]

Apparently (according to actual admin there) the MAWS scripts were used to hack the server, and use it for sending spam.

Due to the severity of the hack the hosting company have kicked them (the whole of Mameworld) off as a result, it isn't just a case of non payment this time.

It's gone, possibly for good.

Note, given that MAWS isn't just a generic piece of software running on the server like the forums or wordpress were this would have had to be a deliberate targeted attack against MAME / MAWS not some generic attack relying on outdated installations.  That's probably another reason the host pulled the plug.

[BobA]

Too bad.  That would be a great loss to the community.

 

[codefenix]

RetroCPU is a fairly similar site.  It has snaps, marquees, flyers, and rom info.  It's been my go-to site since the last time MAWS went down.

[Haze]

There's also

http://www.progettoemma.net/

which is in Italian, but serves the same purpose, and might get an english translation if MAWS doesn't come back

and

http://www.progettoemma.net/mess/

which does similar for MESS (still work in progress)

both are more closely connected to actual MameDev / MessDev than MAWS ever was.

[BobA]

It is not just MAWS.   Mameworld is also down with the same message.

[BadMouth]

It is not just MAWS.   Mameworld is also down with the same message.

MAWS is hosted on Mameworld.  It's all the same.

There were a crazy amount of other sites hosted there as well.
Not just MAWS & the forums, but Mr Do's artwork & compiling, twisty's sound samples....

Thanks for the info Haze.   

I thought something else might be going on since it wasn't long ago that they had their annual shutdown for non-payment.

[Haze]

I imagine the majority will end up coming back once they find a new host (although I think all the SOPA stuff is going to make some hosts paranoid about emulation sites)

MAWS, being the attack vector, obviously can't come back unless it gets some serious security fixes, and given the guy running it barely has time to do the minimal required updates these days I don't see it happening.

[Well Fed Games]

It's gone, possibly for good.

Yikes. Some people waste their hours on Facebook... I use MAWS. Hope it returns!

[FALSE]

I had been spending about 90% of my computer time flipping between maws and creating various gamelists for mala.
I was making such good progress the past couple weeks.
Really hope that the site isn't lost for good.
It's been invaluable to me.  I would NOT have gotten this far in my setup without maws.
Gonna try out some of the links you others posted.

Is there anything the community could do to help?

[Howard_Casto]

It is not just MAWS.   Mameworld is also down with the same message.

MAWS is hosted on Mameworld.  It's all the same.

There were a crazy amount of other sites hosted there as well.
Not just MAWS & the forums, but Mr Do's artwork & compiling, twisty's sound samples....

Thanks for the info Haze.   

I thought something else might be going on since it wasn't long ago that they had their annual shutdown for non-payment.

What you said. 

I sure hope their policy regarding hosting sites has changed since back in the day.  I remember when I was starting on the Raging Dragon fe that they offered me some webspace but it was something crazy like I wouldn't have direct access to the server.  In other words I would never be able to backup my stuff. 

I sure hope all the child sites have backups because I doubt they'll get anything back from the hosting company. 

[FALSE]

Apparently there host has agreed to unsuspend there account if they get there security issue resolved. YAY!

[BadMouth]

MAMEWorld is back up!!! 

MAWS will not return until the security issues can be addressed.