Life's a Beach? Last Week at Christogenea...

[wmfinck]

Actually, Melissa and I had just left Panama City Beach and on the way back to Bristol we arrived in the beautiful mountains of northern Georgia to visit with Bruce Bohn and his lovely family. After we got settled in at the Bohn residence, enjoyed a wonderful meal and some good conversation, I checked the status of the servers which run Christogenea.org (there were six of them at the time, and I will explain the reasons for that later). It was late Wednesday evening (well, perhaps it was very early Thursday morning).

It was then that I noticed that the server which I called Delilah was down, and I could not reach it in order to reboot it remotely. (All of my servers have names, and of course Delilah was a counterpart to a server named Samson.) I sent a support request off to the Internet Service Provider asking them to investigate the matter. Delilah was the server where kinsmanredeemer.org and israelect.com were located, along with a few other sites.

The following afternoon, around 5 PM Thursday, sitting on Bruce's porch I was once again checking the remaining servers, with a specialized app on my android tablet, and planning to send another email to my ISP because Delilah was not yet in service. It was then that the remaining servers hosted there, Phoenix, Attika and Ithaka, disappeared before my eyes. All of Christogenea.org was now offline.

Nine days earlier, just after Melissa and I had first arrived in Florida, I had received an email from the same ISP (on the 13th). They announced that they were relocating to a new facility, and that on August 16th my servers would be down for about three hours during a 6-to-8 hour window. But on the 16th the servers never went down.

Therefore when all of my servers went offline on the 22nd, although the window was much longer, I nevertheless assumed that the relocation was finally taking place and that they would be available again shortly. I was upset, however, that the servers would be down on what is a usually busy weekday evening. Why did they not plan their move in the quiet hours of the early morning? Well, Delilah going down the night before, perhaps they did, and ran into trouble. I watched for the four servers to come back online throughout the evening. They never did.

Friday morning I was up at 6 AM, and seeing that my servers were not yet online, I was determined to immediately move Christogenea and the other sites I host elsewhere. They were moving regardless of whether my servers were back online, because by this time I was thoroughly disgusted with the poor planning and ability demonstrated by the ISP.

I already had two servers (Lakedaimon and Makedonia) with another company, and had planned to migrate parts of the operation there after the vacation. But they are not large enough for all of Christogenea. They were also already running Christogenea.net, FGCP.org and a few other websites. Christogenea.net is where the voice-chat server is located, among a few other things.

I also had already chosen another ISP which I had been considering, and Friday morning I ordered a server from them. That took a few tricks, since not having a scanner I had to print off forms on Bruce's computer, and upon completing them took pictures of them and my personal identification with my tablet, emailing them back, but it worked rather well in the end. Sometimes it does pay to be a gadget nut. The android tablet and Skype bailed me out a few times, since I had fried my phone in the Gulf of Mexico and wouldn't have a replacement until I got back to Bristol. That first server with a new ISP was delivered (electronically) to me for my use early that same afternoon, so I ordered a second server from that same company immediately. Thusly I was replacing my original four servers at the first ISP with two newer, much larger and faster servers.

We arrived home in Bristol at 5:30 PM Friday, and unpacked the car. I really wanted to get the main Christogenea.org site online immediately, but I had a program with Clifton scheduled for 8PM and configuring a new server takes a little longer than that. Instead I was only able to make a few DNS changes and put up a quick single-page website, managing to at least redirect people to Talkshoe for the program. Google Analytics later told me that nearly 300 people saw that single page before I took it down and got Christogenea back online.

Tired after the program, I was up at 6AM the following morning, which was Saturday, and had the main Christogenea.org website and eight subdomains (including this forum) up by 9AM on the first new server (also called Phoenix). They had been down for approximately 40 hours. I then engaged in some of the many clerical tasks involved in website hosting until I could receive delivery on and configure the second new server, which happened that afternoon.

After the Saturday evening program, I was able to get the KinsmanRedeemer and Israelect.com websites up and running on the second server (which I called Sparta). On Sunday I restored nine Christogenea subdomains On Monday I restored nine other websites and subdomains. I put two idle Christogenea subdomains which I had hosted for others into storage (the Sojourner and Vandal websites), and for diverse reasons they will probably not be back up.

The original servers from the ISP where, until last week, I had hosted Christogenea and the other sites mentioned here are still under contract to me, are paid for through various dates in September, but are not yet back online. If I had waited for them, I would still be sitting on my hands.

The only reason why Christogenea is up at all is because of some valuable lessons which I learned when my original ISP, 1and1 Internet, unceremoniously canceled my accounts and the four servers I leased from them last year. First, a critical server crash which I suffered in September of 2011 taught me to always have double the online capacity that I need. At that time, I had two servers minimally large enough to host all of my websites and data, and when one crashed I had nowhere to relocate the websites it held for several days. That is why for the past year I have had five servers (and a sixth which was planned to replace two of the first five) when three would probably have been more than sufficient.

When 1and1 dumped my accounts, I had also learned the hard way that I should never put all of my internet eggs into one basket. So I moved all of my domain name registrations to one company, all of my DNS services to another, and used two other different companies for web hosting services.

But there is more. There are two additional servers on another continent, which I lease mostly for one purpose: the nightly data backups which I automated last year. These are relatively inexpensive, and I also host some sites on them which are unrelated to any of our Christian Identity endeavors. If it were not for these, Christogenea as we know it would be no more, since it would take many months to upload all of the data from my home computer (where I keep another full backup). In contrast, it only takes a few hours (twelve for my main Christogenea server) to transfer files from one ISP to another. After my Friday program, I initiated the data transfer for Christogenea, and it ran all night, so that I could have the site up Saturday morning. In essence, Melissa and Samson (yes, I named my backup servers after my wife and my dog) saved the websites.

Why all of the effort? Because my work and Christogenea.org are sustained by a community of good and like-minded brethren who believe in our message and who want to see that it is propagated among all of our worldly brethren. We shall never be popular, but we only seek to be effective, by giving all White men and women the opportunity to hear our message. Therefore I feel that I have an obligation to those brethren, and to all of the others in our Christian Israel community, to do all that my ability affords in order to keep it up and running. If Yahweh God gives us the ability, we sure as hell better use it. That is why I do what I do.

While I truly do not seek worldly rewards, all of these efforts are indeed rewarded. Currently 600 to 700 different people visit Christogenea.org every day, nearly half of which have never seen the site before. The site typically gets 700 to 800 visits a day, and 90% of them visit the main website as well as particular subdomains. As I write this, Christogenea is ranked 168,407 in the world and 27,160 in the U.S, out of literally hundreds of millions of websites. Since we only seek to be effective, we are certainly achieving our goal. And while on the grand scale of things 25,000 visits a month is not a great number, every year we do better than the previous year, and we know not how far we can go, but we are surely going to keep running the race.

Downtime costs visitors, because it lowers a sites ranking, which lowers its visibility in search engines. When Google attempts to crawl a site and it is not there, it penalizes the site in future search results. Christogenea typically gets 25% of its traffic from search engines, and most of that is from Google. Furthermore, people are unlikely to come back to a website that is down a few times when they visit it, regardless of the value of its message. Therefore I do my best not to allow any downtime.

In order to accomplish the goals which I set for Christogenea.org when I started the website in 2009, I knew that in order to be effective I needed not only the best content I could produce, but also good tech in order to present that content in a way that makes people want to look at or listen to it. That again is why I do what I do, and especially because nobody else is going to do it for me. I am constantly searching for ways to improve both my message and its presentation

I also thank Yahweh our God for you all, who help in one way or another to make Christogenea.org what it is.

Is this a coincidence? Last year when I made a two-month trip through the South, my camera broke on Panama City Beach and when I got home (after a few additional stops) I had to replace all of my servers. This year, visiting Panama City Beach, I once again lost a camera - along with my cellphone - and when I got home I had to replace all of my servers. If John Wade Moore will have us back next year, we will be there. However if lightning strikes again, Melissa had better not be disappointed when we go somewhere else in 2015.

[wmfinck]

Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2013 22:31:35 -0400 [08/13/2013 10:31:35 PM EDT]
From: VolumeDrive Info <info@volumedrive.com>
To: wmfinck@xxxxx.com, bill@xxxxxxxxxxxx.net
Subject: VolumeDrive Server Maintenance Window August 16th 2013

Dear William Finck,

VolumeDrive is pleased to announce that our brand new facility in Dunmore, PA is ready for the relocation of your current server(s). We would like to schedule the move on August 16th starting at 9AM EDT. This move will cause some downtime for each server while it is being relocated. The relocation window is set for 6-8 hours, however, approximately 2-3 hours is a good estimate as to actual downtime. The move will be performed in phases, and downtime will be kept to an absolute minimum. This move will NOT require any changes to your IP space or DNS. The typical relocation scenario for each server will include a graceful shutdown, physical move (only 3 miles away), cabinet installation, and then server boot. We will have additional personnel on-site to oversee the relocation process, as well as to help facilitate the transition as smoothly as possible.

The new facility is a high end, state of the art data center, at our same traditional low pricing. If you are a reseller, you should find that this is a more attractive draw for prospective new clientèle.

If you are interested in upgrading your package, this would be a great time to do so. We are focusing on revenue growth for the new facility, and our sales team can offer very competitive pricing, for any upgrade processed during the relocation process.

VolumeDrive thanks you for your understanding and patience during this necessary maintenance window, as well as for your continued business.


-----------------------------------------------

Best Regards,
VolumeDrive Support.

General: info[at]volumedrive.com
Support: support[at]volumedrive.com

Twitter: @volumedrive

[wmfinck]

Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 10:32:53 -0400 [08/16/2013 10:32:53 AM EDT]
From: VolumeDrive Info <info@volumedrive.com>
To: wmfinck@xxxxx.com, bill@xxxxxxxxxxxx.net
Subject: Re: VolumeDrive Server Maintenance Window August 16th 2013

Due to some minor technical complications, our migration process will begin this afternoon. We expect slightly longer maintenance windows as well. We apologize for any inconvenience.
-----------------------------------------------

Best Regards,

General: info[at]volumedrive.com
Support: support[at]volumedrive.com

Twitter: @volumedrive

Well, "this afternoon" came over a week later, and evidently it is still "this afternoon"!

[wmfinck]

Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2013 23:21:33 -0400 [08/26/2013 11:21:33 PM EDT]
From: VolumeDrive Support <support@volumedrive.com>
To: wmfinck@xxxxx.com, bill@xxxxxxxxxxxx.net
Subject: Facility Migration Status

Dear William Finck,

We appreciate your understanding during the lengthy migration process. Our new facility is operational and we are restoring services gradually. This new facility will allow us to provide better network performance compared to our previous location. This migration gives us the opportunity for added growth while maintaining our competitive pricing.

If you have any questions, concerns or requests for account credit, please contact our support department at support@volumedrive.com. Our support staff is busy bringing services back online, so your patience is greatly appreciated.

-----------------------------------------------

Best Regards,
VolumeDrive Support.

General: info[at]volumedrive.com
Support: support[at]volumedrive.com

Twitter: @volumedrive
VolumeDrive.com reliable, high-performance hosting

My understanding? I have not filed my official complaint yet, LOL. Wait until I tell them how I really feel.

[wmfinck]

A bill for two servers that I have not seen in a week!

Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 00:02:13 -0400 [08/27/2013 12:02:13 AM EDT]
From: VolumeDrive Billing <info@volumedrive.com>
To: wmfinck@xxxxx.com, bill@xxxxxxxxxxxx.net
Subject: VolumeDrive Invoice
Images have been blocked to protect your privacy. Show Images? | Show this HTML in a new window?
Please login to the Client Portal to view and pay this invoice.
Aug, 27th 2013
96439 Due: Sep, 01st 2013 (NET 5)
FROM


VolumeDrive
US


TO


William Finck
wmfinck@xxxxx.com

96439
Qty Description Price Total
1.0 Service
Server ID: CL-665
CPU: Intel Xeon X3450
Memory: 8 GB DDR3
Hard Drive 1: 250 GB SATA
Hard Drive 2: 250 GB SATA
Raid Controller: Software RAID 1
Control Panel: Plesk 30
OS: CentOS 64

74.95 74.95
1.0 Service
Server ID: CL-690
CPU: Intel Xeon X3450
Memory: 8 GB GB DDR3
Hard Drive 1: 250 GB SATA
Hard Drive 2: 250 GB SATA
Raid Controller: Software RAID 1
Control Panel: Plesk 30
OS: CentOS x64

74.95 74.95
Subtotal: $149.90
Total Due: $149.90

These people have as much chutzpah as Joe November! Think my language was colorful in Shiils, Part 2???

[Kentucky]

We salute you for your perseverance and technical know-how.

Mark

[wmfinck]

This letter I received makes it apparent that Volumedrive skipped on their rent. I already had my own contingency plan put into action long before Burst.net contacted me.

Guy Hopkins <GuyH@burst.net>

Aug 23 (5 days ago)

to me

Hello,

Unfortunately, due to a recent situation with VolumeDrive, your server is likely currently offline. BurstNET may be able to assist you in the matter, if by chance we still have your server in our possession, or can set you us a rush delivery replacement server.

VolumeDrive was scheduled to relocate to our brand new facility here in PA, moved about 20% of their stuff in, put the rest of their stuff in another truck, and never showed up with the remainder at our facility. We tracked them to an office building about 20 miles away, and we assume the rest of the stuff is relocated there, and we saw all their cars and staff outside the building to confirm it. After 24 hours, they do not even have their own website online, so we question whether they will get anything online at all, and how they are going to explain the 300+ servers they left down in our facility with live clients on them.

We do have a percentage of the servers they hosted, that they simply left behind, and are more than happy to accommodate you if possible. Even if we do not have the physical server we would be happy to rush build you a new machine and have it online as soon as possible, running in a company that has been in the industry for 23 years, and is not going anywhere soon. The first step in getting your server back online would be opening a ticket to sales@burst.net in which we will provide you with the steps for transferring service to us. We empathize with the inconvenience this has caused you, and want to do whatever we are able to get you, and your end clients/users/visitors, back online as soon as possible.

Please contact sales@burst.net ASAP, and we will do our best to assist you in your time of need here...

Thank you for your time.

Thinking back, three Christogenea servers went offline just about an hour before Volumdrive.com website went down (that one is back up as of the evening of the 27th), If servers remain with Burst.net, I would bet that our three are among them.

[brucebohn]

Is this a coincidence? Last year when I made a two-month trip through the South, my camera broke on Panama City Beach and when I got home (after a few additional stops) I had to replace of my servers. This year, visiting Panama City Beach, I once again lost a camera - along with my cellphone - and when I got home I had to replace all of my servers. If John Wade Moore will have us back next year, we will be there. However if lightning strikes again, Melissa had better not be disappointed when we go somewhere else in 2015.

The wife and I also noticed this "coincidence", as this was the second visit
to our home that saw you so concerned, with a sense of urgency that compelled
you to leave in such hurried manner! [ Nancy was afraid it was her cooking,lol]
But, in all sincerity Bill, we are all indebted to you for your tireless effort,your
Love and concern for truth, your brethren, your lovely wife and all those close
to you! You are, of course, always in our prayers.......... Yah bless.

[Nayto]

Bill send me your resume, you sound much better than the niggers who care take the systems at my place of work, LOL.

[wmfinck]

Bill send me your resume, you sound much better than the niggers who care take the systems at my place of work, LOL.

Well, since due to the circumstances of my life, Christogenea is my only resume, I imagine all that prospective employers would say is "LOL"!