Over the last week, we have been dealing with the worst business crisis Autonerdz has ever faced.

Last Thursday morning our web hosting company, Earthlink Web Hosting, gave us an 'upgrade' and moved us to a new server.  They totally botched the process and killed our forums.  That was only the beginning.  We could have fixed that.  But..they screwed it all up so bad that it was impossible to edit or move any files to the new server.  

So, they destroy the site and then make it impossible to fix.  I don't think that could have been executed any better had it been a deliberate plan to sabotage.   :o

So, we had no choice but to find a new host for the site.  I had never done anything like this before having been with Earthlink since day one fifteen years ago.

Once we set up a new host, we had to transfer data.  To give you an idea of what that involved....Just the folder the the attachments on this board was over 5 billion Bytes and took seven hours to move.

Then the repairing of the site could begin.  I was lucky to locate a YaBB forums support member and server geek to help reinstall and restore the boards.  I hired him to do in a few hours what it would have taken me several days to do.

Great thanks to Jon Baker for his diligence and working into the wee hours of this morning to get the boards functional.   [smiley=thanksmate.gif]

There may still be a few rough spots as we iron out any bugs, but we are back.  And better than ever, this sever seems way faster huh.   :)

Tom, Brian, Jon Baker, and others involved,

Congrats on a job well done!!

[smiley=thanks.gif]

I got my LSD fix  [smiley=jump.gif]

Thanks,

dave

Tom Roberts wrote on Jun 15^th, 2011 at 7:51am:

And better than ever, this sever seems way faster huh.

Yes this server is much faster.

I mainly use Opera as my browser and the pop-up progress bar is now showing the pages are loading in 1 to 2 seconds and the old one would take around 11 seconds on a good day to load.

dave

Wow, the new server is really fast !

Great to see the site back up.

Sam

The new site runs much faster  [smiley=arms.gif]  They do a great job at IMH  [smiley=smileys-winner-903068.gif]

Glad to see  that its fixed.
I was sick without it :)

I must say that Inmotion Hosting has been fantastically helpful with this process.  There were lot's of questions and we needed some special server tweaks to get things the way we wanted.

They were courteous, knowledgeable, responsive and efficient.  All I can say is wow.

I call them up and say something isn't right.  They say give us about ten minutes.  Bam.  Done.

http://www.inmotionhosting.com/

Thanks for all your work and effort in getting it going again.  :)

Earthlink was blowing it.

Woohoo. We're back.

Last Thursday my wife said "Well look on the bright side, all around the world nerdz will start communicating with their partners again".  ;D ;D
"Shoot, where did you come from?."

But now I can get my LSD shot again. Well done Jon. And thankyou Tom. Great stuff.
"Mmm..Yes dear."

nobbyclrk wrote on Jun 15^th, 2011 at 2:56pm:

Last Thursday my wife said "Well look on the bright side, all around the world nerdz will start communicating with their partners again".

LOL!  same here  :).  


thanks tom, i was expecting a week or two more without LSD  :(.  glad it's up and running  [smiley=vrolijk_26.gif]

Tom, Brian, Jon Baker, and anyone else in on the fix not mentioned:
Thank You, Thank You, and Thank You again! I think it's fair to say
that if it was possible to PayPal beer the lot of you would be too
drunk to type on this forum! Thanks again, a nerd at hunched over his keyboard is a happy nerd! :)

DON'T CUSS CALL THE JERKWATER BOYZ..!!

---

Great work guys!!!!!!!

Yeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :exclamation [smiley=smiley-face-groupwave.gif]

that was quick!!!, if i was craving  lsd the days i didnt have it does that mean im addicted? :-/ ;D  

Being happily unemployed and no autonerdz to troll brought me down a notch.  So glad it's back up!!!!  And on a side note, the new host seems to be much more friendly torwards me blackberry using this site too!!!

brandonb wrote on Jun 15^th, 2011 at 6:04pm:

that was quick!!!, if i was cravinglsd the days i didnt have it does that mean im addicted?

I am glad I am not the only one, I have been wondering the same thing.. :-?  ;D

Yeah its definitely good to see it back up - you dont know how much you miss something till its gone! I agree this server is much better.
I dont understand why they couldnt have transferred us to a different server(node) and avoided all the catastrophe. What a mess it must have been.
Did you lose any hair Tom? :)

Quote:

Did you lose any hair Tom?

Very funny.  I would have, if I had any left.   [smiley=hairpull.gif]

This is for you Earthlink...
[smiley=ShotGun5.gif]

Hi Tom,

Great news, glad  it's all up and running and in such little time too.

Great job guys..

Regards,
Nige

Hi Tom,

I was so depressed no nerd and coffee, now its a good day

Gary Zar

YES! we are back thanks for the hard work getting it going again  ;) I emailed earthlink to tell them how unhappy i was >:(
Didnt know what to do when I couldnt browse autonerdz.
Now where is mick with his misfire posts

Hi Tom,
 Thanks everyone for your hard work getting the site up and running so fast.
  Sure good to get my daily shot of LSD again, this place sure is addictive.
        Cheers Nick

Good job.  

I'm really glad you all appreciate the behind the scenes efforts here to keep all this going.  That is what keeps us going.   [smiley=happy.gif]

Got a call from Earthlink today in response to our very bad review of the service when they requested feedback for one of our many support requests.

After explaining the issues as I saw them politely and that we had no need for any Earthlink web services any longer, we were ending the conversation when the representative said, 'is there anything else we can do for you?'

I said  no, there really wasn't but I could do something for the representative in the way of some good advice.  I said that, if Earthlink has done this to more than a few customers in this whole mess, that the they might want to take time to update their resume' because they will be seeking employment when Earthlink Web Hosting goes out of business.   ::)

The response was    [smiley=dankk2.gif]

Tom Roberts wrote on Jun 20^th, 2011 at 3:06pm:

Got a call from Earthlink today in response to our very bad review of the service when they requested feedback for one of our many support requests.

I didn't get a phone call/email following my feedback.
Not that I expected one,had my grumpy face on  [smiley=angry.gif]  

NathanBirch wrote on Jun 15^th, 2011 at 6:31pm:

Being happily unemployed and no autonerdz to troll brought me down a notch.So glad it's back up!!!!And on a side note, the new host seems to be much more friendly torwards me blackberry using this site too!!!

Ever consider a move to Australia Nathan ?
I need a good fella...   :-/