False Alarm May 31, 2009
Posted by ismywebsite in general.Tags: backups, costs, cpanel, dynamic, expires, node 3, node 4, offline, oshs
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I have excellent news. Node 3, managed by OSHS, which has now only had one instance of downtime, will continue as normal for the time being. After prolonged discussion with the company for the last half of this month, we received the following reply:
Thanks for your long messages.
We confused your account with another account so our apologies for that.
For the time being you can remain [here]. Should any problems arise we will keep you informed.
Thank you for your business. It is much appreciated.
So, in short, the final result is an even faster and more reliable service, now that the server has been cleaned of a full third of all accounts there, and we have planned a further clean out of another third of the accounts, all of which are either from the system we used prior to November last year, or appear to be under construction.
Node 4 is still being dropped, and interesting enough, the company has now decided to triple the costs as well. So it’s a good thing I’m leaving when I am. We have backups taken already, and the new server is just about ready with your new cPanel accounts. We encourage you to still take regular backups if the contents of your site are dynamic, and/or to warn users that content over the next few days may be lost. The old cPanel will not be destroyed, but will eventually go offline on the old host after our term expires.
Nodes FAQ May 15, 2008
Posted by ismywebsite in development, features, uptime.Tags: 100MB, account, direct, domain, email, faq, features, finished, instructions, ismywebsite, ismyws, isnumberone, nameservers, nodes, offline, page, php, proper, redirect, response, subdomain, system, this, website, working
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I’m getting a lot of questions about how the nodes system will work. Here it is, in a nutshell:
- You visit http://this.ismywebsite.com/ (or any other subdomain)
- One PHP page will process the address you visit and send the right response.
- If there’s no interest in that subdomain, no account has been created yet, or the account is offline at that time, the appropriate page will be displayed.
- Otherwise, you will be redirected to another domain (for example http://this.ismyws.com/ or http://this.isnumberone.org/)
- This ‘node’ will display the proper website.
Here’s a quick FAQ:
Will my domain be the same?
Your website will be hosted on a similar but often shorter domain, with the same subdomain. (For example, instead of this.ismywebsite.com, it would be this.ismyws.com). However, this.ismywebsite.com will always function as a redirect to that site.
How do you choose my node?
Most of them have already been chosen. I am assigning people to nodes where they fit, in the order hosting was requested.
How do I access cPanel?
Generally, you just go to http://yournode.com:2082/ and login. You will receive all your login details by email once we know things are working.
What features will I get?
There is no plan to change the features. One of our nodes is run by HostGator, which refuses to enable overselling, so if you need the full 100MB from that node, just request it. Over 95% of our clients don’t use it all. (On that note, if you need more than 100MB on any node please ask as well. You earned it through your patience.) On top of this, some of the nodes have different extra features so there may be some pleasant surprises.
What happens if my site goes offline?
We are monitoring all the nodes and if the downtime is for an extended period, a temporary error page will be displayed on the IsMyWebsite subdomain.
Do domains still work?
Yes. However, the nameservers are going to be different depending on your node. You should also receive those instructions by email when your account is set up.
I’m using another host now. Can you set up a redirect?
Sure, just tell us where to direct it to. And remember, you can still place our ads on your site and use our toolbar.
Do I still need to place ads?
Now more than ever. And you should place them well.
When will things be finished?
Right now, it’s looking to be 4 days before the first accounts will be completely ready to go. (So 4 days plus whatever time it takes to build all the accounts before yours.) We are going as fast as we can.
Advertising ‘Solution’ May 10, 2008
Posted by ismywebsite in development.Tags: ads, adsense, advertising, bottom, commercial, configuration, dozens, evil, fantastico, google, ignorant, layout, million, offline, perfect, place, problem, seconds, selfish, solve, space, website
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Imagine, for a moment, you were subliminally told you were an evil, selfish, and/or ignorant person because you didn’t place ads and that you had to or your site would go offline!
Imagine you are a typical, standard human being with a million other things you’d rather do at this particular moment in time, and you are now forced to add commercial content to your website, which you already painstakingly made perfect. Essentially going out of your way to contribute funds to somewhere you don’t know or even care about.
When you get this communication, after ‘Who?’ and ‘What?’, your first question is ‘Why?’, with the obvious answer being something like ‘because we’re in charge and we can shut your site down if you don’t’. Followed by ‘When?’, which means you’ll have to put off one of your million things for another day. Then ‘Where?’. Well, there’s some nice space at the bottom here somewhere… Finally ‘How?’.
‘How?’
Let’s say, for example, you built your site with Fantastico, the very easy, ‘single-click’, installer of dozens of ready-to-go scripts. It took you all of 5 seconds to get online. And now, you are faced with the challenge of sifting through hundreds of configuration files to find the exact one the edits the right part of your layout to insert the ads, which you don’t want there to begin with.
Finally, before you pull all your hair out, you locate that there is a section of the forum to help you and it does have the answer you’re looking for. Mustering up the courage to trust the resources provided by another user where you have no idea what you’re doing, you set out…
Not shown: The wait for Google AdSense to be generated, what happens if your script is not covered on our forums, what happens when you don’t get the email about this, and of course, any inkling of a patriotic duty to your free host to place proper ads.
Apart from the idea above, which keeps popping up and I almost went through with, does anyone know what can be done to solve our advertising problem? We don’t need ads placed. We need ads placed well!
Regarding The Latest Downtime April 28, 2008
Posted by ismywebsite in downtime.Tags: administrators, april, backup, data, downtime, fixed, hack, hackers, issue, offline, program, script, security, server, smokyhosts, sorry, weekend
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On Friday April 25th at 3:50 PM, I received the following email from SmokyHosts:
“As you’d already have realised, the server … is currently down. We already know about this and our server administrators are working on it to fix the issue.
The actual issue and the reason … is concerned with the server security.”
The following day at 10:09 AM:
“The server … has been down now for about 22 hours. We are extremely sorry for the downtime, but hope you understand that it was very much necessary.
About 22 hours ago, … somebody is trying to hack into the server. At that very instant, we took the server offline so that we can keep all the data protected.
The hacker had launched some infected script/program onto the server! On further thought, … we will instead move all the data to a newly installed hard-disk on the server. And since it was a weekend, we finalised that it will be a wise decision to take down the server and secure the data.
At this very instant, the data movement is in progress and we are working hard to finish the task as fast as possible.
At this time, as we sense it could take about another 12 hours for the task to finish.”
Finally, Sun, Apr 27, 2008 at 12:08 PM.
“Now this is … a weeked which we wish never repeats!!
Let us assure you that your data is perfectly preserved and you will be receiving your account and data as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, due to an error … we are having to redo the complete task which has actually made us break our previously given ETA. As of right now, half the hard-disk transfer is already completed and the remaining half is there which we expect would take atleast another 8 hours.”
The latest word at Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 12:56 AM:
“After repeated trials, … we are planning to restore the server to the latest backup of all your data that we have, which will be dated to the 17th of April 2008, which ofcourse will be after a few more hours of trying to remove the infected files.
Keeping our fingers crossed, we will still put up few last ideas in order to get the server back to normal and will let you all know before resorting to the latest available backups.”
And 1 hours later:
“The damage has been caused upto an extent that whichever method we follow to transfer the data to the new hard-disk, the infected files also get transfered! So the only final resort is to restore the backups of last weekend i.e. 17th of April 2008.
Keeping in mind that your data is indeed quite important, we will selectively agree to move your data from the infected hard-disk (as that hard-disk is still with us and connected to the server).
As an appreciation to your patience during all this downtime issues, we will be offering compensation to all of you once this issue is completely resolved.”
New accounts are already planned to be created on our newly acquired servers, however the data to create them is also down with the server. Let’s hope that SmokyHosts can get us back online soon. It will be good to have the security fixed, and the compensation will help us get through the next month for sure.