OMG, You're back!

[alec4444]

Welcome back!

[Frank Petronio]

Congrats. Is there some redundancy now?

[Jim Rice]

Yay!!!

[Ralph Barker]

Thanks. Yes, it's nice to be back online.

As to the redundancy issue, we may need to raise the dues to get a couple of backup, auto-switch-over Sun E10000 servers. ;)

Seriously, as Tom noted in the "News" thread, Brian Reid, our server and bandwidth benefactor, did install a RAID system on the replacement server. But, when the motherboard gets toasted, as was the case here, RAID will only reduce the data recovery effort.

[Mike Boden]

So help me out here...is someone hosting this website on their own server or something out of their house? Or is it being hosted by one of many companies that specialize in the business of web hosting? If the latter, I find it surprising that there wasn't a back-up server already in place.

I don't mean any disrespect. It's just that I'm curious as to how and where this site is hosted.

[tim atherton]

It's hosted "privately" (and for free as I understand it) by Brian Reid:

http://justus.anglican.org/reid.html

That being said, being hosted by such a company as you mention is no guarantee at all. In the last 6 months, four professional groups I am involved with who pay a good sum for their hosting w have had the servers blow up and they have lost their communications for a number of days....

[Mike Boden]

It's hosted "privately" (and for free as I understand it) by Brian Reid:

http://justus.anglican.org/reid.html

That being said, being hosted by such a company as you mention is no guarantee at all. In the last 6 months, four professional groups I am involved with who pay a good sum for their hosting w have had the servers blow up and they have lost their communications for a number of days....

True...there's no guarantee. But now that I understand it's hosted "privately", this all makes sense, and I sympathize a heck of a lot more about the immense amount of work put in over the last several days. WOW! With the amount of computer knowledge that I do have, I can totally imagine what just happened and what it's taken to get things back online.

I hope everyone involved with the resurrection is breathing a sigh of relief right now, patting themselves on the back, and drinking an ice-cold beer! They certainly deserve it! Thanks again for everything.

[Jim Rice]

Or something a little stronger, befitting their dedication.

[Ralph Barker]

Tim is correct that Brian Reid provides both our server space and bandwidth - gratis. (Thanks, Brian). Being back online again is a combination of Brian's efforts in replacing the server and getting it reconfigured, and Tom's efforts in getting the forum database back up to snuff. As noted in the FAQ, we're an all-volunteer operation.

[Capocheny]

Good to have "the forum" back up and running!

I, for one, felt the absence! :)

Cheers

[Bob Gentile]

Many thanks and sincere appreciation to all involved with the recovery.

[Greg Miller]

So help me out here...is someone hosting this website on their own server or something out of their house? Or is it being hosted by one of many companies that specialize in the business of web hosting? If the latter, I find it surprising that there wasn't a back-up server already in place.

I don't mean any disrespect. It's just that I'm curious as to how and where this site is hosted.


Being hosted by a web hosting specialist does not in any way imply having backup servers on hand. At best it means the hardware vendor will promise to show up in x number of hours (the actual repair time can take significantly longer). Look at any hosting plan from a generric provider and it will generally not make any guarantees as to up time. That includes their "corporate" plans.

If you need guaranteed up time it will come at a significant cost. Among other things the added cost may cover load balanced web servers and clustered database servers. This generally puts you into the category of having a dedicated environment with deidicated servers, network, firewalls,... THis will cost many $1,000s per month.

[Mike Boden]

Hi Greg,

The following is the policies in place by my web hosting service, Pair Networks (http://www.pair.com):

Uptime and Reliability
Our network is monitored and maintained 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Our server and network uptime is well in excess of 99.9%. Your data is backed up daily to ensure full recovery in the event of a disaster. Our entire facility is protected by multi-stage security, FM-200 fire suppression systems, Powerware battery backup systems, and a 750,000 watt diesel generator that can run indefinitely. Your data is always safe with pair Networks.

Redundant Systems
pair Networks keeps your Web site online through redundant network systems. Our diversely connected network ensures that your Web site will be available on demand regardless of most network problems or circuit failures. Your data is protected by multi-stage security, fire suppression systems, on-site and off-site data backup systems, and a 750,000 watt diesel generator that can keep your Web site up and running indefinitely. Our systems are designed to always stay online.

This information and more is available here (http://www.pair.com/about/popup_advantages.html).

Also, their pricing (http://www.pair.com/services/web_hosting/) ranges from $9.95 to $49.95 a month. Very affordable IMHO.

I only offer this because at one point I was running my own server at the house, and I gotta tell you, it was waaaaay too much work for me to deal with. I eventually got to the point where it really made sense to use a professional web hosting service.

So...is there something that I'm missing here? I understand that things go wrong, but Pair Networks seems to be offering what I'm talking about.

[Greg Miller]

Hi Greg,

The following is the policies in place by my web hosting service, Pair Networks (http://www.pair.com):

Uptime and Reliability
Our network is monitored and maintained 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Our server and network uptime is well in excess of 99.9%. Your data is backed up daily to ensure full recovery in the event of a disaster. Our entire facility is protected by multi-stage security, FM-200 fire suppression systems, Powerware battery backup systems, and a 750,000 watt diesel generator that can run indefinitely. Your data is always safe with pair Networks.

Redundant Systems
pair Networks keeps your Web site online through redundant network systems. Our diversely connected network ensures that your Web site will be available on demand regardless of most network problems or circuit failures. Your data is protected by multi-stage security, fire suppression systems, on-site and off-site data backup systems, and a 750,000 watt diesel generator that can keep your Web site up and running indefinitely. Our systems are designed to always stay online.

This information and more is available here (http://www.pair.com/about/popup_advantages.html).

Also, their pricing (http://www.pair.com/services/web_hosting/) ranges from $9.95 to $49.95 a month. Very affordable IMHO.

I only offer this because at one point I was running my own server at the house, and I gotta tell you, it was waaaaay too much work for me to deal with. I eventually got to the point where it really made sense to use a professional web hosting service.

So...is there something that I'm missing here? I understand that things go wrong, but Pair Networks seems to be offering what I'm talking about.


Pair Networks is offering nothing. They mention 99.9% availability historically but make no guarantees about future peformance (if your site is dwon for weeks you have no recourse). They mention redundant networks but nothing about redunadnat/failover web servers or database servers (only networks and circuits). 99.9% for any given server means 1.5 days down per year (they are quoting an average for all servers in their environment).

This is very typical of this type of operation - They guarantee absolutely nothing with their statement. I use a company like this too for several sites I manage so I'm not condemning them - they are perfectly fine for wat they are.

[Mike Boden]

Pair Networks is offering nothing. They mention 99.9% availability historically but make no guarantees about future peformance (if your site is dwon for weeks you have no recourse). They mention redundant networks but nothing about redunadnat/failover web servers or database servers (only networks and circuits). 99.9% for any given server means 1.5 days down per year (they are quoting an average for all servers in their environment).

This is very typical of this type of operation - They guarantee absolutely nothing with their statement. I use a company like this too for several sites I manage so I'm not condemning them - they are perfectly fine for wat they are.

Thanks for the information. So I guess what I should do is call Pair Networks and ask them point blank what they guarantee if I really want to know.

However, I have another question for you if you don't mind, and please correct me if I'm wrong. If Pair Networks does have a server failure, isn't it their responsibility to fix the situation, not mine? Yeah, it would totally suck that I'd be down, but at least I wouldn't have to rebuild the server myself. That's one of the main reasons why I stopped hosting my own site. I got tired of dealing with backups and server maintanence.

[Greg Miller]

Thanks for the information. So I guess what I should do is call Pair Networks and ask them point blank what they guarantee if I really want to know.

However, I have another question for you if you don't mind, and please correct me if I'm wrong. If Pair Networks does have a server failure, isn't it their responsibility to fix the situation, not mine? Yeah, it would totally suck that I'd be down, but at least I wouldn't have to rebuild the server myself. That's one of the main reasons why I stopped hosting my own site. I got tired of dealing with backups and server maintanence.


Yes, PAIR would be have the responsibiltiy of fixing the situation if a server ever fails.