Just a little helpful trick if you find accessing these boards difficult. Won't help you access them, but will let you know if it's the web site or your connection:
For non-Windows 2000 users: open up a DOS-prompt (Start > Programs > MS-DOS Prompt). Type in (without the quotes) "ping
www.ultimatemetal.com" and press enter. This sends a small amount of data to the website, which should then respond to you. If you are successful, it will reply 4 times, with messages on weather it was successful or 'timed out' (ie no data was sent). If it doesn't work, try to ping again, but type in some other website (eg
www.opeth.com). Try a couple of different sites. If they respond, the UM boards are down, if they don't, it's probably your connection. It's also good, if you're having problems, so you don't sit around waiting to see if the page loads. Ping should only take a few seconds. If it fails, try again in a few minutes. Beats waiting around for the page to time out.
For W2K users: Start > Run, then type in "cmd" (without the quotes), press enter. Follow the above steps. Does the same thing.
Good trick also when you download stuff, and you aren't sure if the connections gone down.
For non-windows users, I have no idea
Do you guys have DOS?
yourdeadgroom, the computer guru (yeah, right.........)