Reserve Your Seat Today July 7, 2008
Posted by ismywebsite in features, innovation, insane, uptime.Tags: 2.5 Ghz, 3323, addition, antony, bad, bandwidth, cgi, clients, company, continue, core2quad, cpanel, crissic, cron jobs, dedicated, delivery, dell, discount, enterprise, fantastico, features, finished\building, future, good, highest, hosting, improving, income, incredible, instructions, intel, ismywebs, long-term, mysql, news, node 8, offerings, perl, php, powerful, private, profits, quadcore, rails, relationship, reputable, review, ruby, ruby on rails, rv site builder, server, servers, skylar, solid, solutions, storage, top-notch, upgrade, virtual, vps, xeon
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:
- Have finished building your website.
- Have placed proper valid ads on your website.
- 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.
Node 7 Suspension June 18, 2008
Posted by ismywebsite in conflict, downtime, insane.Tags: 703, accounts, company, decision, free, hosted, hosting, involving, iwhic, mess, node, prohibited, service, seventh, suspended, terms, visitors
2 comments
It’s a mess involving 703 of our websites, all of who are hosted on the seventh node. The company behind the node, Iwhic, which originally promised us they would allow free hosting, has reconsidered. Our access to manage the accounts hosted there has effectively been removed, with the suspension of our account.
They have now given us 2 weeks to move all data over to another node. On a positive note, this means all of our node domains will now be more consistent. There is sufficient storage on nodes 10 and 11 to fit all of these accounts with still extra room.
Site Back Online May 28, 2008
Posted by ismywebsite in development, uptime.Tags: 750, access, accounts, clients, company, control, cost, developing, domain, felwebs, file, free, host, hostgator, hosting, infernowrestling, ismyhost, ismywall, ismywb, ismywe, ismywebs, ismyws, isnumberone, make, manage, nameservers, netxservers, nodes, online, opportunity, package, panel, refund, reseller, smokyhosts, status, superbhost, support, tornadogaming, website
2 comments
I brought the main website back online today, although a lot of client websites still aren’t online. I’m looking forward to the day when all websites will be online. Here’s the current status of all nodes:
Node 1 – SmokyHosts
This is the present location of most of previous websites. Due to SmokyHost’s inability to change the domain name we are now stuck abandoning this node and moving all accounts over to the other nodes. It is still being debated whether we should drop SmokyHosts altogether or request that the reseller be reset to use a different domain.
Node 2 – IsMyHost.com
Hosted by NetXServers, this is our most prestigious node, with the most freedom for those hosted here. Although we had difficulty with nameservers, everything was online up until yesterday. (I’m still getting the full story, but I’m sure Mike would have alerted all of you and backed up data if he could.) Haloclan.us domains are hosted here.
Node 3 – IsMyWs.com
750 websites are successfully hosted here, and there has been no trouble since their creation. Despite being a relatively new company, TornadoGaming has proved a valuable reseller to use, being both affordable, fully working, and providing helpful support.
Node 4 – IsNumberOne.org
The massive hosting company HostGator is behind this node, bringing with them much experience in stability at the expense of restrictions on the hosting itself. Overselling could not be enabled, and thus accounts created on this node have to request every extra MB they will be using. We are looking into upgrading to increase the available resources.
Node 5 – IsMyWe.com
This node is currently using FelWebs, and successfully working. All 750 accounts were created smoothly and are now fully working. Reasonable support is also provided.
Node 6 – IsMyWb.com
This is one bad investment, however discounted it was originally. URL file access is disabled, and any request to Nixism to enable it or get a refund went completely ignored. It would be possible to manually create and adjust all accounts, or more likely just choose a different reseller for this node.
Node 7 – SuperbHost.us
Despite the undesirable name, this node has functioned surprisingly well, with almost all accounts now successfully created. This will be finished soon.
Node 8 – IsMyWebs.com
At this point, just a fantasy. InfernoWrestling is looking into helping us purchase this additional expansion with a better hosting.
Node 9 – IsMyWall.com
Reusing an existing domain name (for our donation wall) with a good reseller. The search is on to find the right company.
Node 10 – Your Name Here
This is a great opportunity to run a free host without having to worry about finding new clients, developing a main website, establishing a working support sytem, or finding a control panel to manage accounts – at the same cost. Just choose a hosting company we’re not using and order a good quality reseller package able to fit over 100 accounts from them.
One way or another we will make it through this. If you have doubts, please email me so I can address them. I would really like some strong-willed people to help us make sure this never happens again.
Be Right Back… May 2, 2008
Posted by ismywebsite in downtime.Tags: 99.9, blog, communicate, company, hosting, nodes, progress, propagate, resellers, smokyhosts, subdomains, surfwebhost, uptime, weekend
4 comments
At this point, no further word from SmokyHosts about any progress. In an effort to bring the site back online I have purchased paid hosting with SurfWebHost which will redirect to this blog for the time being.
The plan I purchased comes with a guaranteed 99.9% uptime and unlimited subdomains. I have talked to one of the owners of the company to ensure they will allow us to utilize those subdomains as a redirection to accounts hosted elsewhere.
Once the main website has been re-established, we can start creation of new websites on ‘nodes’ – reseller accounts which will each hold a selection of client websites on a similar domain. (IsMyWs, IsNumberOne, and a growing number of others.)
The advantages of this setup include:
- No dependance on any one company or server to maintain the site.
- Should one of our ‘nodes’ go down, the others will remain up and, more importantly, we will still be able to communicate with the client.
- Each ‘node’ can have individual management, without revealing any of the main website code, client passwords, or potential threats to the main website.
- This setup allows clients upgraded to resellers or with their own servers to host certain clients without sacrifice to everyone else. (Of course we will be only allowing select clients this privelege.)
- Should the main site go down, everyone’s websites will still be safe (minus the redirection).
- Hosting the database and main site on another server is a separate layer of security from hackers.
- Our more trusted clients can be hosted on more reliable servers to keep them away from the new clients who could potentially cause damage.
For the time being, I am still waiting for the domain to propagate and slowly reconstructing the site starting this weekend.
IsMyWebsite Free Hosting Development Blog 
$190 Donation (Not Kidding) June 7, 2008
Posted by ismywebsite in features, insane, volunteer.Tags: $100, $190, accepted, addressed, average, backup, balance, bartlett, blog, bryan, clerical, comment, community, company, crash, customer, databases, deleted, designer, domain, donate, donated, earth, efficiency, email, environment, error, exchange, files, folded, foundation, free, hosting, ismywall, ismywebsite, large, months, node, nodes, paid, payments, paypal, permanently, problem, professional, professionalism, purpose, queue, responding, satisfaction, scripts, service, sql, supported, test, unobtrusive, valareos, vanished, website, year
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:
Bryan Bartlett, username Valareos, issued the following statement about why he donated:
This is the first donation to ring through in months, and I really hopes it stirs up more. Donate like Valareos here.