The server outage

[Bob]

I cannot express how much of a total nightmare this has been for me. Here's what happened:

A friend of mine operates servers in New Jersey and contributes space on one of them for several of my web sites, including the SRC web site. That server crashed just over a week ago...while that friend was on vacation in Florida. He had someone look into it and he found a component had fried. To make matters worse, it was some kind of "custom" component that could not be replaced. My friend will probably have to replace the entire server, which is something he will have to handle personally. He said he was returning from vacation last night, but I doubt he can obtain a replacement server on a Sunday. So, tomorrow would be the earliest that server could possibly come back up, but frankly I'll be surprised if it happens that soon.

I moved a lot of those web sites to another server I lease in a professional data center in Dallas. Moving web sites is a huge undertaking. It changes parameters of lots of different things, making for a myriad of details to chase down. One of those was the SRC message board. I thought I had it up and running again, but found that some really old data files had been transferred, so the latest posts were 6 years old. I also found that the posting function was broken. Once that other server comes back up I can retrieve the data files and bring that much up to date, but after hours of work I was unable to fix the posting issue. I finally decided to create this full-featured forum in its place.

So it was the week from hell. Not only did I have to deal with this mess, but this happened to be the time I had decided to change my own ISP after 11 years. That turned into an ordeal as they kept messing up my order. I had to place the order 3 different times. Then, after all that, it was difficult to get online with the new system. I finally did and not have some real high-speed broadband!

Hopefully the smoke will clear and the dust will settle during the coming week. I do not want to have a week like this again!!

[Bob]

It's turning into the "more than a week" from hell.

Since I can't use my e-mail address at SRCwebsite.com, and confirmation e-mails from this forum should come from some address that's recognizable as being associated with this site, I tried creating such an address through my new ISP. I'd created addresses before, but now their web site is not redirecting properly. That means, even though the address was created, I can't get past the initial setup stage. I hope they fix it soon.

One thing I didn't mention: I publish a calendar and sell it online. Calendars came back from the printer right in the middle of the whole mess with the server outage and the ISP change. That meant shipping out all the advance orders, plus orders that come in every day.

WHEW!!!!!!!!!!

[Bob]

Well, I thought the guy was a friend. Maybe not so much. He stopped communicating with me totally. He did nothing to restore anything he had hosted for me. I had to move everything to other servers, a daunting task.

After almost 3 weeks of working day and night, things are almost back to normal now. It's been a real nightmare.

I've learned the hard way, many times over the years, not to trust people I know only from the internet. Every time I do, I end up regretting it. This is another such case.

Nothing like this should ever happen again. All my web sites, forums and mailing lists are now on professional web hosting services and/or data centers. I will never rely on "friends" or contributed hosting ever again. It's saved me some bucks over the years, but it hasn't really been worth it. You get what you pay for.

I'm in the process of restoring this web site under the SRCwebsite.com domain as I write this.

[scl second guitar]

All of this is so far above my low-tech head. Thanks so much, Bob, for all that you have done, and are now trying to do, in straightening up this mess.

[Bob]

All of this is so far above my low-tech head. Thanks so much, Bob, for all that you have done, and are now trying to do, in straightening up this mess.

Leaving out the technical stuff, someone I considered to be a trusted friend for years let me down big time. It cost me almost 3 weeks of work and a few hundred bucks to put things back together again. It also cost the old SRC message board and everything that had been posted there. This former friend will not even communicate, let alone furnish the 2 data files it would take to restore it.

Live and learn.

[michaelb]

What a terrible story you told, Bob. I was at Steve's house this morn and he showed me your dillemma. People that engage in that activity are NOT "friends".

[Bob]

What a terrible story you told, Bob. I was at Steve's house this morn and he showed me your dillemma. People that engage in that activity are NOT "friends".

The good news is that I have now set everything up so I don't have to depend on anyone but myself. I will never rely on contributed web hosting by "friends" ever again. This is not the first time I've been burned.