As many of you are aware, some time ago the forum experienced a lot of disruption due to problems at the server. Though our Hosting Service (Webado) battled the issues and brought us to a place of reasonable stability, Webado themselves were knocked off line for many hours yesterday, resulting in the forum being down again.
Today I have been advised by Webado of their intention to transfer their entire business platform to a new server. This may (probably will) result in some periods of downtime again. It isn't necessary for you to read the attached notice from Webado, but I provide it for anyone who is interested.
Dear clients,
Given the recent issues with my server and the potential for more of the same, I have decided to copy all accounts over to a new server at a new hosting company.
All sites will be copied in the next 24 hours to a new server. At least in theory this ought to be transparent for you.
Once the copy is complete (to the extent that I can verify it myself), I will change the nameservers' IP's to those of the new hosting (with my registrar).
At that point there may be a few hours or a day or two of unstable access, perhaps concerning email (sometimes the IP of the email server is cached in your email client and it requires flushing).
There is also the possibility that the server configuration may not be exactly identical to the current one, so that this may require adjustments to .htaccess files. I will do all I can as quickly as I can to insure a smooth transition. But there may be a bit of downtime.
Please try to take notes of specific configurations you may have. Test your sites frequently.
Also it would help, for those who have forums if you warned your users of this move. Ideally the forum would be closed prior to the move, but I realize this may not be totally possible, as I don't know the exact time the move will take place. Thus there may be some lost/dropped posts while propagation takes place.
Those using blogs and CMS software may help by either keeping track of content they post in the next couple of days so they can repost it if need be, or by not posting until it's all settled.
I am very sorry to expose you to this new hurdle but I'm afraid that it is necessary, since I cannot guarantee the current server remaining operational for very long. There are some troubling rumors of financial trouble for my current wholesale hoster and I want to avoid a sudden collapse if at all possible. It might all be a false alarm, but we all need some peace of mind.
If you wish to cancel your hosting account at this time, please let me know and I'll see what needs to be done about eventual refunds for the unused portion remaining on your annual invoice, if applicable.
Thanking you for your trust over the years,
Christina Soochan
www.webado.net I want to conclude by stating that I have absolutley no intention of changing our Hosting Service and will be remaining loyal and supportive of Webado.net. Christina will be doing everything in her power to make the transition as painless as possible for all of her clients and the best way for us to help is to be patient and tollerant of any issues we experience during the switch over. Christina is taking this step to provide us all with a better, more stable internet environment.
If you have any questions or concerns please post them and I'll do my best to answer them.