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How I Got My Free Domain Name June 18, 2010

Posted by daglock in features, general.
3 comments

Hello, my user name is Glock. Most of you know me. I just received my first domain almost completely from forum posts. after going through about a dozen other hosts I had doubts about it IsMyWebsite.

By using their support (mainly the chat room) I had my site up and running in no time. When I started posting on the forum I saw that my credits started to go higher and higher. Wanting a domain, I posted and was as active as possible. In my experience the more you post and the more active you are the more credits you will receive.

I do believe the system works. I now have 3000 credits from posting 500 posts and am awaiting my new domain. It’ll be online shortly here: http://battlefieldmax.com.

I really enjoy IsMyWebsite and plan to continue using them.

Glock

Top 10 Problems To Solve In June June 17, 2010

Posted by ismywebsite in features, general, innovation.
7 comments

1) Support Delays
My opinion is that 15 minutes is too long! It’s simple: The right people, the right attitude, and the right tools. We need all three.

2) Working Credit Store
People are pretty impatient. I get it. I think we have about three partially completed versions. Can someone finish it?

3) Better Upgrade System
This system could use a re-evaluation to determine if it’s still applicable or how to work things.

4) Use Of Sessions/Cookies
It’s right there ready to be implemented. I’m just hoping someone else will beat me to it, but it hasn’t happened yet.

5) 500 Internal Server Errors
These are nasty, but they stem from such a simple cause – incorrect default permissions on index.php.

6) cPanel Creation Failures
Yes they still happen from time to time (1% of accounts). We need a better creation script to bring this to 0%.

7) More Client Guidance
The steps to get an account set up should be clearly outlined and new clients should be kept in the loop if any action is required.

8) Advisor Improvements
The Advisor system is still quite incomplete. Timezone, resignation, and a solid OO back-end would be great!

9) Clearer Department Setup
It should be easy to understand who is responsible for what, so not just staff but anyone can know.

10) Better Bug System
So bugs are sent straight to development, who can track, credit, and fix them ASAP.

Reserve Your Seat Today July 7, 2008

Posted by ismywebsite in features, innovation, insane, uptime.
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8 comments

I’ve just talked to Skylar from Crissic Solutions, and I’ve got some good news and some bad news. First, the bad news:

“We cannot get your Core2Quad from Dell.”

Now, the good news:

“That means we upgrade you free to a Quadcore Xeon.”

Quadcore Xeons are exactly the same high-end servers originally promised to us by Antony. Of course, we only have one of them instead of 5, but this one is offered to us by a reputable company, with a solid delivery date of 2 weeks.

Here are all the features our server comes with:

Intel Xeon Quadcore 3323 (2.5Ghz)
4GB DDR2 RAM
500GB SATA II Hard Drive
2000GB Bandwidth on a 100MBPS full duplex line
4 IP addresses

If you look at the dedicated server offerings for Crissic Solutions, you’ll see the highest server as ‘Intel Enterprise’. This is a server not even typically offered by them. Just to give an impression of how powerful this server is, Skylar typically runs 20 VPSs (Virtual Private Servers) with just one of these servers. Skylar has mentioned that this server could run all, or nearly all, of our current accounts.

Because of our long-term relationship with their company, we are being offered an incredible discount for the server, however this is still a greater cost than our income. As most of you know, since I’m sure I’ve said this so many times, our earnings could be an estimated 9 times as high if everyone placed valid ads on their site. (We could afford 3 of these servers with that.) I think it’s only fair to provide our top-notch server to those clients who are doing their part to make sure we can continue hosting long into the future.

The conditions are not at all tough:

  1. Have finished building your website.
  2. Have placed proper valid ads on your website.
  3. Have submitted your website for review on our forums.

In addition, if you do the above, your account will be on the Improving stage with lots of extra features, 5 times the storage and bandwidth, Ruby on Rails*, and even more on top of what you already have.

Check your account’s ‘Hosting’ section for a new ‘Upgrade’ page. Websites on the Improving stage or higher will be moved ot the new server when it comes online.

What is happening to Node 8?
Node 8 will be moved to be hosted on the server, however it will still use the domain ismywebs.com. No new accounts will be allowed onto Node 8 in the future.

What do I do to upgrade?
You can just go to the ‘Hosting’ section of your account and click the ‘Upgrade’ button. Follow the instructions there.

How do I transfer to the new server?
Transfer will happen automatically once the new server is online. You earned it.

What happens to people not on the server?
Nothing at all. Your account will still have the same relative reliabiliy, and be subject to whatever company manages your node. With the server from Crissic, we will have more control over how it is set up and your accounts.

What will my domain of the new server be?
This server will use the domain ismywebsite.com. For those who use their node’s domain when advertising their site, it is good to get back into the practice of using yoursite.ismywebsite.com. This domain will almost always work to access the site.

What happens to new accounts registered now?
New accounts will still be created on one of the nodes. Once they meet the above requirements, they will move onto the big server. Empty accounts will be removed after 30 days, and accounts with content after 150. (I should think 5 months is more than enough time to complete the above.) Once you are on the new server, there will be no account removal unless requested by the client.

Does the new server have cPanel, Ruby on Rails, PHP, MySQL, Fantastico, RV Site Builder, CGI, Perl, Cron Jobs, or any other feature?
It should have all of those except for RV Site Builder, which will be available once we are making a profit exceeding $30/mo again.

Should I still back up my site files on the new server?
We have a back up system in place, but the answer is still yes. Always have a backup, even if you’re hosted with a reliable company like Crissic Solutions in a datacenter guaranteeing 99.999% uptime.

How many accounts will the server fit?
More than enough for everyone who wants to meet the above requirements.

*Ruby on Rails is not available on all nodes. If you require it, you can request to be transfered to another node.

What’s New At Crissic Solutions? July 3, 2008

Posted by ismywebsite in conflict, downtime, features, uptime.
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3 comments

Several hours yesterday were spent in heated discussions regarding our future with them. A short 2 weeks ago, there were discussions regarding the Crissic banner design competition, as well as a reduction of $2/mo off our hosting cost to show up as a donation on our donation wall. However, three days ago, the following email came in:

“I am sorry to say that we can no longer support the bulk accounts that you have placed on our server. The amount of accounts you have placed on the server is causing the shared server much stress, causing FTP, HTTPD, and other services to fail on a regular basis. Last night we had downtime in excess of 25 minutes due to these issues.”

110 accounts were terminated immediately. (These had been already moved to other nodes.) On top of this, it was requested that we move 150 further accounts off the server to bring the level to “keep it around 650-700 accounts TOPS”. We selected approximately 350 accounts that would be moved to Node 10, lowering the number of accounts to 505. This is the official statement released by Skylar from Crissic:

“We had to pull out due to the amount of strain the amount of accounts had been placing on the server. For IsMyWebsite to run correctly, they need a medium-sized cluster of dedicated servers. The reasoning behind the time constraint on asking clients to move their data in one week is because the issues that are being caused are too large. FTP and HTTPD are constantly failing, causing outages for hundreds more paying clients with Crissic Solutions. For the sake of our paying clients, holding [the] additional clients that are free clients with IsMyWebsite is not worth [what] Matt is currently paying us. We have [also] received a few isolated cases from the free clients that include warez forums, spam email, and a few other items. The never-ending risk of a free client potentially rooting into the server, or another hacking incident that happened a short few months ago with IsMyWebsite is too large to risk for our paying clients. We wish the best of luck to all at IsMyWebsite, and hope that your future endeavors are successful.”

Skylar MacMinn, Crissic Solutions, LLC

Despite additional attempts at a settlement, the final verdict was reached.

“You have until the morning of the 8th of July to move all data off. Regardless if you are transferred off or not, all remaining accounts will be deleted.”

Skylar has stated that all data currently on the VPS may remain, and we are looking into the potential purchase of a dedicated server with them. As Mike puts it, “I am pro-Crissic is because the servers are fast and reliable and we are getting a good deal”.

The new server wont be here for another 1-2 weeks. Skylar has promised your data will be safe for this time.

Got Us A Deal! June 11, 2008

Posted by ismywebsite in features, insane, volunteer.
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9 comments

I just finished talking with Skylar from Crissic Solutions, the company behind our 8th node. There were two phases to this deal. The first:

  1. They are willing to donate $2/mo off our bill to get their name up on the IsMyWall.
  2. They want us to help design banners for their site through a competition. They are willing to provide free Standard Resellers to the winners for a year. They are also willing to upgrade us to the Standard Master Reseller in exchange for our efforts here.

So, anyone with graphical skills can start thinking of what they will be designing. We are going to need banners in 88×31 and 125×125 dimensions. What does everyone think of this? More information as it comes…

$190 Donation (Not Kidding) June 7, 2008

Posted by ismywebsite in features, insane, volunteer.
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9 comments

I didn’t actually believe this would go through. (In fact, I was recently promised another $100 donation that has yet to be paid.) But here it is, actually sitting in my PayPal balance. $190.

It started yesterday with a tiny comment on the blog:

Hmm… Tell me, what is the average cost of your nodes?

Depending on the price, I may be willing to donate enough for 1 year on 1 node, in exchange for waiving of ad requirements for my 1 site, provided that the money goes to a new node to help grow. Contact me on my email to discuss, please.

Bryan Bartlett, username Valareos, issued the following statement about why he donated:

The true value of any company, of any service, is not how they react when everything is running at 100% efficiency, but when a problem arises that shakes the very foundation of that company or service. What IsMyWebsite has went through these last few months could have been the end of the community entirely.

I joined IsMyWebsite just a few days before the great crash. In fact, I was in the queue to have my website accepted. My entire purpose was finding a free hosting service that supported SQL databases so I could develop my scripts in a test environment before going live on my paid hosting account. I was also going to use this service as a backup for all my files.

When the site suddenly stopped responding for days, I assumed that they just folded up, and vanished off the face of the earth. I continued to look for a different service, every so often checking back to see if perhaps the site would come back. Finally, the blog appeared, explaining everything. I waited, I watched, and I was amazed how quickly IsMyWebsite addressed the problem, fixed the problem, AND worked to ensure the problem didn’t repeat itself.

As I was waiting for IsMyWebsite to finish their nodes, and give me domain space, my original host deleted my entire website. Why? Clerical error caused them to show me a year behind on payments. There was nothing I could do. They offered to give me a year free service, but all my files were permanently gone, and there was no backups to go to.

So what did that show me? That IsMyWebsite, a relatively small, free hosting service that is supported by unobtrusive ads placed where the designer wants them handled a crisis with more professionalism, and more care for customer satisfaction than a large “professional” company.

It is for this reason, and many others, that I have donated $190 CDN, to pay for a full year hosting and domain for a new node, to help this community grow.

Thanks, and keep up the good work.

This is the first donation to ring through in months, and I really hopes it stirs up more. Donate like Valareos here.

Stuck With Unlimited On DeiseHost June 5, 2008

Posted by ismywebsite in conflict, features.
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5 comments

I’d like to apologize on behalf of DeiseHost’s strict ‘no overselling’ policy. As you will see here, hosting with Overselling Enabled was not only initially requested, but at the top of our list. Dan from DeiseHost has replied offering their services.

http://freewebspace.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2208334

Unfortunately I received a recent email. (Delayed I may add.)

I am sorry but we do not allow Overselling.

Regards,
Dan

Now we’re stuck with unlimited hosting (the default) for all our clients and there’s no way to change that since no matter what move we take, we’ve still exceeded our allotment by infinity. Here’s a follow-up:

May i firstly like to quote what dan actually said to you in this post.

“Hello,

DeiseHost.Com can offer you the following:

5 GB Disc Space
50 GB Data Transfer
cPanel/WHM 11
Fantastico De Luxe
Unlimited Features
Host Unlimited Accounts
24/7 Dedicated and Friendly Support

Monthly Price: $8.99”

no where in that did Dan offer you overselling. Therefore you chose to select this offer on the basis of what Dan offered you here.

Kind Regards,
Neil Hickman.

Speaking of which, no other company does mention that they offer overselling or even PHP URL access. Isn’t it odd how all the others just had these features or else checked my requirements before replying. But, I guess, you are right. No where did you actually say you offered overselling.

The Node 4 No Overselling curse lives on. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Kudos To Corex June 3, 2008

Posted by ismywebsite in development, features, uptime.
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2 comments

Hi everyone.

I must apologize for not having a lot of time to post lately, but as you know – making sure things work for my clients is almost a full time job. However, as of late the number of actual problems has been swamped by a new epidemic – confused clients not knowing how to access their sites.

I want to say this once (even though I know I’ll have to say it again elsewhere), the cPanel button in your ‘Hosting’ section works. Trying to access through ismywebsite.com doesn’t and will only frustrate you! You can also get FTP connection details with the ‘FTP Info’ button. On past request, I have upgraded the system to a more secure button with passes an encrypted phrase (which doesn’t even match your password) to verify you. So it’s more secure than anything else right now.

Regarding the Kudos mentioned in the title, the Wildcard DNS was broken for the last 12 hours, and as anyone who’s dealt with that type of thing, it’s a real pain to have to fix. But rest easy because after some hard work they fixed it successfully – so all your redirects are fully working now!

Another Node Status Report May 31, 2008

Posted by ismywebsite in features, uptime.
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14 comments

Work continues on virtually all nodes.

Node 1 – SmokyHosts
Still preparing to send a mass email regarding the transfer, and possible upgrade the ‘Hosting’ section to also display this (as a button to the ‘Old cPanel’). I’m hoping the button and email can be finished tonight, perhaps sent through the virtually unused SmokyHosts server.

Node 2 – IsMyHost.com
We’re giving away hosting for 2 more days on the top node, which you can just reply to get. We have just installed Installatron, so you can do some installing of your favourite scripts. (It’s like Fantastico.) Also upgraded all accounts to the top stage yesterday, since with the recent trouble I thought everyone deserved it.

Node 3 – IsMyWs.com
Not much to say. Still working well.

Node 4 – IsNumberOne.org
We will be switching to another hosting company here for sure. All accounts in queue for creation on this node are being moved to our new Node 9. All accounts already created will be transfered to the new server when we move. Due to the restrictions in place on this node, we cannot enable extra features of any kind, but it is possible to switch to a new node once all the old accounts are successfully created.

Node 5 – IsMyWe.com
Nothing’s changed… Still great, working node.

Node 6 – IsMyWb.com
We are running into the same trouble with PHP URL file access. Except now, Nixism wants me to send it to their technical department. It’s already been a whole month’s worth of hosting down the drain. Should I switch or continue pursuing this?

Node 7 – SuperbHost.us
Starting to feel a strain. I’ve also received word that Mike wants to get a VPS in place of his reseller with the domain ismyhost.net, which will be great. So given those two factors, all remaining accounts are being created on Node 9 for now.

Node 8 – IsMyWebs.com
Remember the company that originally hosted us on a VPS for a short period earlier and was also originally going to host IsMyHost.com. Well, now they’re back to hosting a reseller for us. Everybody welcome Crissic Solutions, run by Skylar.

Node 9 – IsMyWall.com
I’m reusing the domain name of our donation page simply because it’s already registered. I thought it fit the part fairly well, and it might attract more donations if it’s used for something. Anyways, this domain is going to host the remainder of accounts from IsNumberOne.org and SuperbHost.us.

Node 10 – IsMyHs.com
Just registered 7 new domains, this being the first one, with plans to build 7 new domains. I have found a small company to host this one, which is new to reseller hosting but confident in their ability. (The plan is to host a low number of accounts here to start.)

Node 11 – IsMyHt.com
Another domain seeking a server.

Node 12 – IsMySe.com
Node 13 – IsMySi.com
Node 14 – IsMySt.com
Node 15 – IsMyWi.com
Node 16 – IsMyWt.com
All seeking a reseller. I have a number of companies in mind, that I will be utilizing as we need them for future expansion. (Could be you who hosts them if you want to.)

So just a few hundred accounts left to build, and they are actively being created throughout the day.