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Does anyone know anything about that? How long will this take? Does this affect ALL repositories? If not, how can i change the repository (it won't work from the Package Manager)?

Thanks!

Edit: I can't choose / change a repository, because in the respective menu i instantly get the error that Matt posted below. Also, I wasn't aware that this platform isn't intended to be used for "temporary" issues, sorry for that!

Edit 2 - my attempt to rephrase the question: For the past 6 hours I am not able to download packages via MiKTeX, as it tells me that the repository is down for maintenance. When I try to switch to a different repository the message box informing me of the maintenance pops up. The repository list to choose from is not populated (1 line says "Connecting...", if I choose this line and click Finish, MiKTeX crashes), so I am not able to choose a different repository.

Does anyone know of an announcement for this maintenance that states an estimated time frame? Is there a way to switch repositories via configuration files? Or is there something like a "root repository" that is down at the moment generally preventing MiKTeX repositories from being used?

Mike
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    This question appears to be off-topic because it is too localised in time (no enduring value). – jub0bs Apr 08 '14 at 16:22
  • Which repository? There are many, so no answer can be given. – egreg Apr 08 '14 at 16:27
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    What is happening under this question!? Mike, David, Nabil, Matt, all members for few minutes, all writing something which is not an answer, trying to response to something which is not a question! This post needs moderation attention. – Pouya Apr 08 '14 at 16:40
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    While the question doesn't seem to be a good one, I don't see why it deserves a score of -4?! The fact that it is off-topic might be a surprise to someone not familiar with SE system, and the quality of the post would be easily improved. – yo' Apr 08 '14 at 16:58
  • @tohecz, I'm one the persons that have serious problems with stackoverflow for their hostile attitude toward new incomers. I also personally don't down-vote, however, I did it for this particular question (and I think it was my first down-vote in TeX.SX). What you don't see here, are three answers, all saying they have the same problem (not real answers) and all were from accounts that were created today. I don't want to sound too cynical but situation sounds a little fishy and I think this raised a little bit of sensitivity. Otherwise, within two years, I had never seen a -4 in this site. – Pouya Apr 08 '14 at 20:30
  • @Pouya I see the answers since I have 20k+ rep, and I voted to delete them. However, as long as there's no direct connection between the question and the answers, any reasoning based on the answers is wrong and illogical. Moreover, the only ones who can detect whether the posts have a same origin are the bots and SE staff. However, I doubt it: such events as repos outage tend to bring a lot of attentions from lots of people, and remember that TeX.SX is currently the highest-rated LaTeX-related site in Google search. Therefore the down-votes for the question seem unjustified to me. – yo' Apr 08 '14 at 20:39
  • @tohecz, I think after all, I sounded a bit cynical :D. I have no doubt on the sincerity of the OP. I also completely agree that those serverfaults (pun intended!) can result in such rush here. My point however, is that *I guess* those answers made some of the users a bit susceptible. – Pouya Apr 08 '14 at 20:47
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    Maybe this question could be rephrased as a generic FAQ about repository outages? What does it mean, how long does it last, what should I do, etc? Similar example for reference: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/53107/package-repository-down-how-to-relocate – T. Verron Apr 08 '14 at 21:02
  • Thanks for the constructive criticism, although not all of the criticism is. I rephrased the question and hope that it is more expressive now.

    I think it is ridiculous to believe that those answers in the manner of "I have the same problem" were written by me. A sudden outage without notice of a service is bound to involve a small rush and as there is no info on miktex.org, clicking its community link to get help seemed appropriate. I hope that the >650 views of this topic within 6 hours confirm my point.

     – Mike Apr 08 '14 at 22:14
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    @Mike A temporary outage can certainly be annoying, but six hours is not an enormous amount of time. I would worry if the outage lasts more than one day. Hardware (or software) maintenance is necessary, at times. This morning, for instance, the Internet connection from my office was cut off abruptly and the interruption lasted almost a couple of hours. Well, I didn't call the system administrators, knowing that probably they had something more useful to do for fixing the issue than answering calls from annoyed users. ;-) Be patient. ;-) – egreg Apr 08 '14 at 22:26
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    I should also add that the maintainer of MiKTeX is not a TeX.SX member, but he links questions tagged [tag:miktex] on http://miktex.org. The page http://miktex.org/alert/update-problem-5210 bears news about the issue. – egreg Apr 08 '14 at 22:30
  • @Mike, Since I felt some hard feelings in your comment above, I think I beg you a clarification and an apology. What I wrote did not mean you are an abusive user. It was just a possibility about the reasons that resulted in -4 score for your question. It did not mean that it is your fault or anything. If my comment offended you in any ways, I apologize and assure you it was not my intentions. Have a nice stay in TeX.SX. – Pouya Apr 09 '14 at 05:49
  • egreg: Thanks for the link, how did you navigate there? I know that maintenance is required from time to time, I just thought it would be odd that there is no notice/announcement about that anywhere. Also, I thought there might be a way to bypass the problem from my side (e.g. by switching repository).

    Pouya: I wasn't offended by your comment. In fact I found it to be helpful to understand the negative ratings. There is absolutely no apology needed. Thank you for your help, too :).

     – Mike Apr 09 '14 at 07:07

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