[Hosting Server] 19/07 Hosting Service Update

[Richard]

As you will be aware Hosting has been offline for a number of weeks. We have had a serious of technical problems, the latest was a hard
drive failure.

We have been doing our best to get as much of the data on the hard drive back as possible, but fundementally the time and resource a free host has is VERY limited.

We are doing our best to resolve this as quickly as possible, but the earliest we believe this may be resolved would be early next month (August). It may still take longer than this. But we are saying it will still be a number of weeks before its sorted out.

If you feel you are unable to wait this long, we suggest you move host to an alternative.

We have never made any guarantees about our service as it is free, but we feel it is better to give you an indication of the length of time it will take.

Yours in Scouting

[Riseley]

Hi Guys,

Like the majority of Scouters posting about this issue, I have a complete site backup at home. I do not need anything else. I can rebuild the Riseley Scouts site from scratch, including re-enabling the email routing. Currently all of our emails are being lost or bounced.

Please just commission a server and I can be back up in a day. So far I have said nothing, because I know it's a free service, but 8 weeks is a significant amount of downtime. I do not care about any of my old data you may or may not be able to recover, I just need the site up and email re-routing to function.

Best regards,
Riseley Scouts

[Chris Lambert]

Originally Posted by Riseley

I do not care about any of my old data you may or may not be able to recover, I just need the site up and email re-routing to function.

Pay for some hosting then!

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Riseley

Hi Guys,

Like the majority of Scouters posting about this issue, I have a complete site backup at home. I do not need anything else. I can rebuild the Riseley Scouts site from scratch, including re-enabling the email routing. Currently all of our emails are being lost or bounced.

Please just commission a server and I can be back up in a day. So far I have said nothing, because I know it's a free service, but 8 weeks is a significant amount of downtime. I do not care about any of my old data you may or may not be able to recover, I just need the site up and email re-routing to function.

Best regards,
Riseley Scouts

I'll just get that spare £100 a month out my back pocket to 'commission another server' I don't think so.

Action 1: Buy a domain (around £7 for 2 years) if you havent already got one

Action 2: purchase some webhosting

Action 3: Point nameservers to said host

Action 4: Install data from your backups onto host

Action 5: Inform people that you now have a new web address and email addresses (If this step is required).

Hope you found that guide useful!!

[big chris]

Originally Posted by Riseley

Hi Guys,

Like the majority of Scouters posting about this issue, I have a complete site backup at home. I do not need anything else. I can rebuild the Riseley Scouts site from scratch, including re-enabling the email routing. Currently all of our emails are being lost or bounced.

Please just commission a server and I can be back up in a day. So far I have said nothing, because I know it's a free service, but 8 weeks is a significant amount of downtime. I do not care about any of my old data you may or may not be able to recover, I just need the site up and email re-routing to function.

Best regards,
Riseley Scouts

if you have 60 kids... budget £1/head for hosting

[boomer_ie]

Originally Posted by Richard

I'll just get that spare £100 a month out my back pocket to 'commission another server' I don't think so.

Action 1: Buy a domain (around £7 for 2 years) if you havent already got one

Action 2: purchase some webhosting

Action 3: Point nameservers to said host

Action 4: Install data from your backups onto host

Action 5: Inform people that you now have a new web address and email addresses (If this step is required).

Hope you found that guide useful!!

I have to back up Richard on this, webhosting is very expensive having ur own server and expecting them to pay out of their own pocket for another is madness.

[ASLChris]

Originally Posted by Riseley

Hi Guys,

Like the majority of Scouters posting about this issue, I have a complete site backup at home. I do not need anything else. I can rebuild the Riseley Scouts site from scratch, including re-enabling the email routing. Currently all of our emails are being lost or bounced.

Please just commission a server and I can be back up in a day. So far I have said nothing, because I know it's a free service, but 8 weeks is a significant amount of downtime. I do not care about any of my old data you may or may not be able to recover, I just need the site up and email re-routing to function.

Best regards,
Riseley Scouts

It is a free service... therefore be happy with what you get! Don't like the service? Take your custom elsewhere!

Yes it may be annoying, but when it's being given free out of the goodness of peoples hearts - on top of their other Scouting commitments - then take what you get and be happy with it!

[Bloory]

Quick update from the data centre:

Hi Jon,

HDDs I replaced developed a fault - corrupted /boot partitions when I tried booting the box back up. Faulty batch of drives I'm guessing.

I've replaced both drives at the DC and I'm transferring data over again from the original drives. Once the transfer is complete I'll give you a shout.

Once again, I'm extremely sorry for the delay on our end!

They've gone out of their way to help, thanks again Dedishack

[kempy234]

Can I just give my thanks to Jon, Richard and the escouts team for all work they are doing to resolve the issue as soon as possible. I was on the web team for Eurojam & the World Scout Jamboree in 2007 so I know how frustrating these problems can be with servers and hard drive failures.

I'm sure they are doing there up most to resume a normal service as soon as possible.

Once again thank you escouts team for all your efforts!

[shiftypete]

I'd like to add my thanks to the Escouts team our website is not critical,especially over the summer, so I am happy to wait a month or whatever later

[big chris]

without escouts, i would not have developed a scout website.

the template came from richard, the hosting came from all of you (esp jon, i believe*), the help with mistakes came from the forum (and esp from gavin on facebook chat). when i started an explorer site, i used the wordpress template from matt2501 who helped me make it work with help from rich willars when it went tits up...

you guys got me started and it all cost me sweet fa... that is an awful lot of normally very expensive support...

i am now planning to pay for my hosting

so stop fuffing moaning... crap happens. you were told a gazillion time to take back ups and if a web presence is that important to you, pathfinder will get you online for about £40 and lemonstorm will do it for £45

if you go the lemonstorm route, gavin is incredibly sympathetic to polite people who ask for his help for scouty stuff... pleases and thank yous will get you an awful lot more tech support than any normal company.

i have never used pathfinder so cannot comment...

but seriously, all of you... shut up and pay. £40... that is nothing... it is proper dirt cheap...

*mods... edit as appropriate... i didn't mean to slight anybody by giving JB the credit here

[Richard]

What we are saying, if you are able to wait, we should be able to restore the service, with most of the data.

If on the otherhand your getting fed up of the wait, you have a DC or GSL nagging in your ear, please feel free to move (and ask them for the cash).

The Escouts Community et all will help either way.

We are not demanding anyone pays up, we just didnt want to hold people up, and it be several weeks later.

In 2010 we of all people understand how important hosting is for Scouting.

[big chris]

Originally Posted by Richard

(and ask them for the cash).

always! it is up there with any other bill.

[jelly]

If your domain is set up separately to escouts (eg. www.mygroup,org.uk) then your domain provider will probably have some basic email and web forwarding options.

For our district site I have taken control back to the domain provider - which was an option on their control panel - then set up web forwarding to a basic wordpress site - again you should be able to find somewhere to put a temporary site.

If you have an escouts name (eg. mygroup.escouts.net) then you are pretty stuck. Perhaps you could buy a new name from the 123.reg banner above - it will cost you about £6 and will help to support this site.

[polaris1]

I have a quick question.
If I take control of my domain again how easy will it be to point it back to escouts once the servers are back up?
Thanks.
Robin