Notice of possible hosting problems...

Daychilde

New member
Hate to say it, and I'm just gonna come out and say it because I'm pretty depressed right now...

I may lose my server in February. Or, to be more precise, I may have to refrain from renewing in February and get myself something like a VPS, which would mean I'd need to desperately cut back on what I host...

There is a chance my finances will turn before then, but at this point, I'm not hopeful. I've finally used up all the safety margin available, and if I choose to renew, it may be at the expense of things like eating and electricity; i.e., I may not be able to do it.

I'm saying this now so that arrangements can be made...

Basically, the deal is that I have ADHD, so I find it difficult to hold down a regular job -- at this point, Ritalin helps, but the problem is that between my job history (read: shit) and now Diabetes (read: I'm a bit out of shape for manual labour), I can't find jobs that I can do where someone will hire me. So I've been trying to get my own business going - I do websites, I do hosting, I do computer repair (it's the latter that I think will get me going here locally, as I have a very very small client base, and word is spreading at a glacial rate)................................

Point being, I'm about to have trouble even paying my monthly bills, much less being able to afford a server... although since I have business clients, I'll have to take care of them and make sure they pay their own way (as I'd done a couple of them to help build my portfolio, a couple of them are free - but they should do fine on a cheap shared account, and that should work out).

Sorry. Rambling. I feel bad about this, so I'm unconsciously doing everything I can to avoid the issue, while consciously trying to explain.

The good news is that, even in the worst case, I pre-pay for the server on a yearly basis, so it's mine until February. And frankly, if I can get money coming in, I really would like to retain my server, and still continue to host these projects like kolmafia.us. OTOH, will people continue to trust me after this message? I cannot predict - and at the moment, I cannot say I'll have a server, so it may be correct. :-(
 

macman104

Member
I don't see your battles with your job and ADHD as any indication of your trustworthiness. If something does come up and you need to taken down kolmafia.us, hopefully we'll be able to at least back all of the information up somewhere so we don't lose everything. Hopefully things work out for you.
 

Daychilde

New member
[quote author=macman104 link=topic=1288.msg5956#msg5956 date=1193324999]
I don't see your battles with your job and ADHD as any indication of your trustworthiness.
[/quote]

Damn, I'm **that** untrustworthy?!? ;) ;) ;)

But seriously -- if *nothing* else, I will make damned sure we have backups and/or otherwise are able to not lose anything...

There's time yet to figure it all out, but by late December, I should have some sort of solid plan in place...
 

MagiNinjA

New member
Haha, BAD MAC! :p

Good luck on your endeavors Daychilde...I think I can speak for everyone (or less. >.>) in giving our thanks to you for being a gracious host for so long.
 

kain

Member
I'll second (or is it third by this time) the thanks that have been expressed for hosting.

I also want to wish you the best of luck as you find your perfect and ideal job. It will happen.
 

holatuwol

Developer
They're teasing you, macman -- since you used the possessive "your" to describe the untrustworthiness, it could be interpreted as saying that daychilde is untrustworthy, but the whole ADHD thing is only the tip of the iceberg. ^.~ Though we all know you meant differently, it's still fun to tease.

Good luck with everything, daychilde. And if push comes to shove, don't worry about dropping the server -- at the end of the day, taking yourself is the most important thing, and if hosting gets dropped, we can migrate elsewhere if necessary. :)
 

Veracity

Developer
Staff member
Actually, I think they are teasing him because he said:

[quote author=macman104 link=topic=1288.msg5956#msg5956 date=1193324999]
I don't see your battles with your job and ADHD as any indication of your trustworthiness.[/quote]

...although he probably meant to use the word untrustworthiness.

I agree with holatuwol's comment: take care of yourself first and we can find alternate hosting, if necessary.
 

Daychilde

New member
Thanks mucho for the well wishes. :D

A small update:
1. Nothing has been decided - solutions will be put into place around Januaryish (i.e. well before February, at least)
2. Thinking I'll get a reseller account somewhere, which *should* allow me to copy this account over, and have everything intact.

...but it's not settled yet. :)
 

Daychilde

New member
Some unfortunate news.

After much research and pondering on options, the best option I've come up with for my needs was to obtain a very very cheap dedicated server.

I'm going to have to shed off everything that I don't have to host, and that, unfortunately, includes all KoL-related projects.

If there is someone who can take over the project, I'd be glad to allow kolmafia.us to be transferred (as well as kolpage.com and kolhome.com, which have something like 5-6 sites total). Otherwise, I'll let them expire when they come due...

I've been hosting websites for nearly ten years; this is the first time I've been forced to do this. That's one reason it upsets me.

Oh, nearly forgot: If someone wishes to take over the hosting of this instance of the forum, I highly recommend getting cPanel hosting. I've had marginal success moving large databases; the only decently reliable method I've seen work is to let cPanel copy an entire account from one server to another...

I have this server through January - not sure of the exact cut-off date. So technically, no action has to happen before then.

I will be moving other sites from my present server to my new server, and I will be doing that on an IP-by-IP basis. I estimate about two weeks before I do the big move... I am freeing up an IP to leave on the present server until January; I may have to move certain sites to that IP address to give them until January on this server; if I have to do that, it will mean 12-48 hours of not being able to reach the site (this is not on my side; rather, how DNS works - it takes time for IP changes to propagate through the internet... some will see the change in a few hours, for some it may take a couple of days) (It is possible I might have a method to overcome this problem, but I'm not sure whether or not it works. I hope to test it, and if it works, this might not be a problem, except for maybe a very small percentage of users who, for some reason such as their ISP cacheing DNS for stupid length of time)
 

fewyn

Administrator
Staff member
[quote author=Daychilde link=topic=1288.msg6184#msg6184 date=1196201242]
Some unfortunate news.

After much research and pondering on options, the best option I've come up with for my needs was to obtain a very very cheap dedicated server.

I'm going to have to shed off everything that I don't have to host, and that, unfortunately, includes all KoL-related projects.

If there is someone who can take over the project, I'd be glad to allow kolmafia.us to be transferred (as well as kolpage.com and kolhome.com, which have something like 5-6 sites total). Otherwise, I'll let them expire when they come due...

I've been hosting websites for nearly ten years; this is the first time I've been forced to do this. That's one reason it upsets me.

Oh, nearly forgot: If someone wishes to take over the hosting of this instance of the forum, I highly recommend getting cPanel hosting. I've had marginal success moving large databases; the only decently reliable method I've seen work is to let cPanel copy an entire account from one server to another...

I have this server through January - not sure of the exact cut-off date. So technically, no action has to happen before then.

I will be moving other sites from my present server to my new server, and I will be doing that on an IP-by-IP basis. I estimate about two weeks before I do the big move... I am freeing up an IP to leave on the present server until January; I may have to move certain sites to that IP address to give them until January on this server; if I have to do that, it will mean 12-48 hours of not being able to reach the site (this is not on my side; rather, how DNS works - it takes time for IP changes to propagate through the internet... some will see the change in a few hours, for some it may take a couple of days) (It is possible I might have a method to overcome this problem, but I'm not sure whether or not it works. I hope to test it, and if it works, this might not be a problem, except for maybe a very small percentage of users who, for some reason such as their ISP cacheing DNS for stupid length of time)
[/quote]

I have plenty of space that can host the forums and wiki just feel free to prod me here or ingame.
 

fewyn

Administrator
Staff member
[quote author=Duffkiligan link=topic=1288.msg6223#msg6223 date=1196651505]
How much are you paying for hosting?

What all do you have hosted?
[/quote]

I'm in the process of moving all hosted files currently to my server should have it up and running in a few days then we'll transfer the dns servers (nothing should be lost hopefully).
 

fewyn

Administrator
Staff member
[quote author=Duffkiligan link=topic=1288.msg6233#msg6233 date=1196739273]
Mmkay.

'cause I get my server/web address for like $28 a year.
[/quote]

I pay a bit more than that but I also use it for work stuff so it's always going to be up for a long time to come.
 
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