PriusChat Outage - The Inside Scoop

Discussion in 'PriusChat Website Questions' started by Danny, Dec 6, 2004.

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    Danny Admin/Founder

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    As most of you know from trying to visit us Saturday through this evening, PriusChat has been down for an extended period of time. Yes, I payed the server bills, yes, I fed the gerbils that keep the server going this month. Unforunately, this outage was completely out of my hands.

    I was awoken Saturday morning by a call from our host (1&1) letting me know that they had pulled the server off of the backbone switch due to a security threat coming from our server. Apparently someone was using the server to start a Denial of Service attack against other servers. In plain english, our server was being naughty and our host had to put it in the time-out corner.

    I've never had fear spread through my body as quickly as when the tech support guy said they needed me to fax in a letter stating they can re-image the server. "Wait," I said, clamming up. "Will reimaging it erase all of my data?" I already knew the answer. "Yes," I was informed by 1&1. "We need to reimage the server to eradicate any security holes that may have opened up." Now, I keep backups, but was never prepared for catastrophic data loss.

    After I got my wits back about me, I called 1&1 back and asked if there was anyway I could retrieve data from the server. "Sure, we'll set it up in safe mode." Fabulous, I can get all the data off and we'll be good. "It won't let me log in via FTP, what are my other options?" I asked with more of a 'I'm pissed off and want to get to my data' tone than a polite question tone. They then semi-instructed me how to do it (by the way, Google is the best tech-support desk known to man) and I was off.

    That's when I realized how much data there is on this server. We share this server with a associate of mine who runs a photo website. Well, the combination of our sites (PC & a few others I'm working on stay tuned) is a size of over 25 gigs. Uh, it takes a long time to download 25 gigs. Especially on a cable modem. Especially when you're freaking out because you want to get a site back up that you've worked a year on.

    So all day Saturday & all day Sunday I was downloading, downloading, downloading. Finally this morning I was ready to have 1&1 reimage the server and back at square 1 we began. You think it takes a long time to download 25 gigs via cable modem? Try uploading it back. This time I was smart. I burned everything to DVD, opened up 3 various transfer utilities at work and remotely connected to my home PC and uploaded from there as well. So if something's missing, don't worry, it'll be back, it's just uploading at like 40 k/b per sec. Uggg.

    So I get into PriusChat - yay! - but there are problems - oh no! - that I won't bore you with - thank god! - that are now rectified.

    I'm happy to report that PriusChat is now back up without any data loss. I appreciate the kind emails that were dropped my way (if you sent them between Sat & this afternoon my email was down but now you can resend them :) ) and the great things said about PriusChat around the Net the last few days. Your patience & loyalty make all of this work worth it.

    Thank you all.

    Danny
    Danny, Dec 6, 2004
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    efusco Troll Slayer

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    So glad you're back Danny...I know the kind of torture these kinds of problem are...make you wanna go back to chiseling messages onto stone tablets before you touch another keyboard again!!

    Great work and I'm glad we're back.
    efusco, Dec 6, 2004
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    Sufferin' Prius Envy Platinum Member

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    Waiting for PriusChat to go back up . . . the second most painful Priish wait situation.

    Good job Danny!
    Sufferin' Prius Envy, Dec 6, 2004
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    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North

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    Yay!

    Thanks Danny
    Tideland Prius, Dec 6, 2004
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    Jerry P New Member

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    Glad you got everything back! Prisuchat was missed by a lot of people and we are all grateful for all the work you went through to bring it back. May the 'computer gods' smile on your efforts and reward you with an especially nice holiday season! :D
    Jerry P, Dec 6, 2004
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    Speedracer New Member

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    Thank you Danny,
    Specialy busy holday season instead spending your valuable time to fix the problem.
    Speedracer, Dec 6, 2004
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    Anonymous Guest

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    as always, Danny....THANKS
    Anonymous, Dec 6, 2004
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    GeoffM New Member

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    Glad you're back up Danny. Hope someone did some forensics work to determine how you got rooted before they reimaged the box, otherwise you can pretty much be assured of deja vu all over again.

    Geoff
    GeoffM, Dec 6, 2004
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    V8Cobrakid Green Handyman

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    :)
    V8Cobrakid, Dec 6, 2004
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    Hytec New Member

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    Danny, Thank you for your dedication and perserverence!

    Thank the Lord that it was over a weekend when you had some time.
    Sorry it was over a weekend and you lost all of your personal time.

    Again, Thank You VERY MUCH!!!! :clap:
    Hytec, Dec 6, 2004
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    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    Thanks a lot Danny. Evan was keeping folks informed over at PriusOnline, so I knew what was going on. I'm just glad it wasn't me having to do all that.

    The internet is a great tool, but gawd help us if we ever become really dependent on it.
    daniel, Dec 6, 2004
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    jkash New Member

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    PriusChat was sorely missed over the weekend, witness to the conversation over on PriusOnLine. Thanks for your dedication to the site Danny. I have said it before, and I will say it again, IMHO, PriusChat is the best Prius site available.
    jkash, Dec 6, 2004
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    GT New Member

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    Thanks for all your hard work Danny.

    I didn't know how much I would miss it untill it was gone.
    GT, Dec 6, 2004
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    MarinJohn New Member

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    Danny, Much Aloha from the Hawaiian Islands! When I learned that you must be having conniptions it made Christmas in the islands a litttle bit colder. Many thanks from one of the warm sides of the country. FYI I have seen only TWO Prii on Maui! where gas is almost $3/gal. You and your baby PriusChat were missed!
    MarinJohn, Dec 6, 2004
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    wb9tyj 2004 2009 prii dual owner

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    Thanks for all the head-ache work you do...i know keeping things running can be a pain at times ...but this site is the best...thanks
    wb9tyj, Dec 6, 2004
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    Danny Admin/Founder

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    Update: I know about the speed issues, I'm going to look into it. It's good to see we have 50 people online right now. And I was worried no one would want to come back to PC!
    Danny, Dec 6, 2004
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    harryg New Member

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    Danny,
    I too want to thankyou for all your hard work! Great job bringing
    PC back!

    Harry
    harryg, Dec 6, 2004
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    FloridaShark New Member

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    Danny.
    Glad you are back, I got freaked out when I couldn't get my
    fixes of PC. It is like a drug you know. :lol:
    FloridaShark, Dec 6, 2004
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    syd New Member

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    If I only had known :), I could have walked across the hall and handed them the cd/dvd to restore. Their offices are across the hall from mine.

    I wondered why I got the domain name is reserved. Shame it took you down, but they do offer backup services for data, I think, and you could back it up there. (of course that costs)....
    syd, Dec 6, 2004
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    jamarimutt New Member

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    Danny: Thank you very much, muchas gracias, merci beaucoup. Now, move the site to Hostway.com and this won't happen again; they've hosted our company's website for four years and we've always been online.
    jamarimutt, Dec 6, 2004
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