People don't appreciate us computer guys! *ahem Shlomo*

[White Israelite]

I know that a few of the members here are into webdesign or perhaps even webhosting, I myself run a webhosting company as well as a server company. I know JTF has had problems in the past with their hosting company such as with the harddrive and we all know how crucial backups are.

I first got involved in the hosting and server industry in 2001 and 2003 was my first large scale company, used a company called ethr.net which was quite expensive at the time as they were located in California and using top of the line bandwidth from XO located in the XO datacenter it's self. Good service, good tech support, and very flexible.

When I got back into the webhosting industry in 2005, all our equipment including the fiber was inhouse, it was a hassle because the building it's self wasn't really a "datacenter", but it did have necessary security with lockpoint, CCTV, camera systems, and key card access which was secure enough. While I never had any problems with the facility it's self, as we grew, I always promised ethr.net that if we ever made it big, we would return to his company.

Well that day came when a large client signed on with us. Went to ethr.net website and called their phone number, no answer, so I figured ok it's early in the day. Tried to contact the main guy there Jay on AIM, then I finally reach him on his cell phone. We strike a deal for a Dual xeon server/4 cores (2 core per CPU), 4 gigs of ram, and premium bandwidth with redundant support from Savvis/Level 3/AT&T. On top of that, we decide to buy another redundant server for this large scale site we plan on running, all our eggs in one basket.

Alright so red flag number 1, the server is hacked within 2 days of being put online, i'm working to secure it that night and all of a sudden the root password is changed and I'm like "WTF!", mind you this is a Linux Fedora Core 7 server which was quite up to date at that point. I contact Jay with a ticket and it takes him a few days to set it up, no big deal, customers a little irritated as they wanted to launch.

The server is resetup but hacked the second it's put online before I even access it, Jay is confused and tells me that they will install CentOS (public version of Linux Redhat enterprise). Servers up and working, finally we get our large client on the server. Latencys not that great since I'm in Florida and servers in California but the load times are excellent since theres so much processing power and more memory than I'd ever need for 1 site.

Well over a period of 3 months, the guy doesn't bill us but I was getting invoices, however I am not the financial officer. Over time, things get iffy, Jay disconnects his cell phone and support tickets aren't being answered.

I order another server to move our webhosting because we want to get rid of fiber in our building, it's a waste of money and hurricanes are a serious threat to the building and important data although we managed to run the server for 2 years without any problems. Jay sets up the server and it's the wrong partitions so theres not enough space on the drive after specifying to run standard CPANEL partitions listed on their site. So a day later, and the server is reconfigured but it's the same partitions, Jay tells me he's getting new servers in with the new dual core single processors which I can swap the other Dual Xeon server I had just ordered and I agree, but our timelines getting tight because we were supposed to cut our fiber connection in the building in July.

Well finally the servers setup with the 160 gig SATA drive, and I transfer all our files over, mind you this is taking forever transferring to california and our fiber line at work is a 3 mbit line so it's literally taking 20 hours just to transfer some sites one at a time.

So anyways, about 3 days ago, we're charged all our invoices at once for some 1300 dollars, my boss is furious about the whole thing. A day later, ethr.net router stops broadcasting and their entire network goes down, everythings out including their main website. No way to email them, no one answers their phones nothing. I think the company has gone out of business. People are posting on the webhosting forums like "WTF my servers down", no response from Jay or management. My clients are ticked off and saying "what happened to this redundancy you promised us?!", gee so much for that redundancy that we were promised by our provider, makes us look like the bad guys.

Well my boss urges me that we should consider getting out of the datacenter. So last night, I'm changing our main webservers dns to California so I can at least route our servers there so we can cut fiber and then transfer them out at a later date. This morning I come into work and all the employees are saying how their emails aren't working and chunks of sites aren't working despite doing updates. I log on to the server and the load is huge, somethings up with the processor. I try to kill the applications, no go. Things are unresponsive so I reboot the server and it doesn't come online. The IP address is pingable but no go. I log into our backup remote APC unit to cut power remotely and it still doesn't turn on. Peice of drek.

I call ethr.net, and no damn answers, wtf!?

I pretty much say 'deleted it' and change our DNS back to our old servers.

Oh the best part, found this new server company called liquidweb, they are based out of Michigan and they say how they have 100 percent uptime guarantee (it's impossible but whatever, they credit you if they have downtime so what do I have to lose?), they have good support 24/7 which is definitely a positive. Well within an hour of my server being up, I get this brand new quad core server with 2 gigs of ram and a RAID 1 configuration with 2 160 gig harddrives on a 100 mbit port. I'm doing apache configuration and changing our SSH ports to avoid random hack attacks, my SSH isn't responding so I contact a tech to reset the ports, I see the machine go offline thinking the tech rebooted it or something and he responds in a ticket saying the machine is failing to boot up, wonderful! Well within 40 minutes, I get a ticket saying the power supply on the machine failed (this is a brand new machine custom built, but meh, hardware fails, right?) anyways they get another machine and swap the drives and everythings savvy.

So anyways, this liquidweb, yeah it's frustrating having 2 servers fail in a day but at least they have damn tech support who does drek. Anyways, now i'm in the process of going through another lengthy process transferring all our drek.

Us computer guys are way underappreciated, people don't understand the stress and crap involved with this, it's really a 24 hour job and it's really a pain in the donkey. People blame us for problems that aren't even related to us when in reality, it's something like hardware or a incompetant provider.

Those of you considering going into the computer industry, get used to this garbage, because you will be sitting there like zombies with your eyes half closed sipping caffeine like a crack whore on heroin.

On a sidenote, ALWAYS set up some sort of RAID configuration or redundant DNS if you ever plan on hosting a large scale site, it will save you lots of money and moaning.

Bah, i've ranted enough, i'm going to sleep.

[angryChineseKahanist]

I know that a few of the members here are into webdesign or perhaps even webhosting, I myself run a webhosting company as well as a server company. I know JTF has had problems in the past with their hosting company such as with the harddrive and we all know how crucial backups are.

I first got involved in the hosting and server industry in 2001 and 2003 was my first large scale company, used a company called ethr.net which was quite expensive at the time as they were located in California and using top of the line bandwidth from XO located in the XO datacenter it's self. Good service, good tech support, and very flexible.

When I got back into the webhosting industry in 2005, all our equipment including the fiber was inhouse, it was a hassle because the building it's self wasn't really a "datacenter", but it did have necessary security with lockpoint, CCTV, camera systems, and key card access which was secure enough. While I never had any problems with the facility it's self, as we grew, I always promised ethr.net that if we ever made it big, we would return to his company.

Well that day came when a large client signed on with us. Went to ethr.net website and called their phone number, no answer, so I figured ok it's early in the day. Tried to contact the main guy there Jay on AIM, then I finally reach him on his cell phone. We strike a deal for a Dual xeon server/4 cores (2 core per CPU), 4 gigs of ram, and premium bandwidth with redundant support from Savvis/Level 3/AT&T. On top of that, we decide to buy another redundant server for this large scale site we plan on running, all our eggs in one basket.

Alright so red flag number 1, the server is hacked within 2 days of being put online, i'm working to secure it that night and all of a sudden the root password is changed and I'm like "WTF!", mind you this is a Linux Fedora Core 7 server which was quite up to date at that point. I contact Jay with a ticket and it takes him a few days to set it up, no big deal, customers a little irritated as they wanted to launch.

The server is resetup but hacked the second it's put online before I even access it, Jay is confused and tells me that they will install CentOS (public version of Linux Redhat enterprise). Servers up and working, finally we get our large client on the server. Latencys not that great since I'm in Florida and servers in California but the load times are excellent since theres so much processing power and more memory than I'd ever need for 1 site.

Well over a period of 3 months, the guy doesn't bill us but I was getting invoices, however I am not the financial officer. Over time, things get iffy, Jay disconnects his cell phone and support tickets aren't being answered.

I order another server to move our webhosting because we want to get rid of fiber in our building, it's a waste of money and hurricanes are a serious threat to the building and important data although we managed to run the server for 2 years without any problems. Jay sets up the server and it's the wrong partitions so theres not enough space on the drive after specifying to run standard CPANEL partitions listed on their site. So a day later, and the server is reconfigured but it's the same partitions, Jay tells me he's getting new servers in with the new dual core single processors which I can swap the other Dual Xeon server I had just ordered and I agree, but our timelines getting tight because we were supposed to cut our fiber connection in the building in July.

Well finally the servers setup with the 160 gig SATA drive, and I transfer all our files over, mind you this is taking forever transferring to california and our fiber line at work is a 3 mbit line so it's literally taking 20 hours just to transfer some sites one at a time.

So anyways, about 3 days ago, we're charged all our invoices at once for some 1300 dollars, my boss is furious about the whole thing. A day later, ethr.net router stops broadcasting and their entire network goes down, everythings out including their main website. No way to email them, no one answers their phones nothing. I think the company has gone out of business. People are posting on the webhosting forums like "WTF my servers down", no response from Jay or management. My clients are ticked off and saying "what happened to this redundancy you promised us?!", gee so much for that redundancy that we were promised by our provider, makes us look like the bad guys.

Well my boss urges me that we should consider getting out of the datacenter. So last night, I'm changing our main webservers dns to California so I can at least route our servers there so we can cut fiber and then transfer them out at a later date. This morning I come into work and all the employees are saying how their emails aren't working and chunks of sites aren't working despite doing updates. I log on to the server and the load is huge, somethings up with the processor. I try to kill the applications, no go. Things are unresponsive so I reboot the server and it doesn't come online. The IP address is pingable but no go. I log into our backup remote APC unit to cut power remotely and it still doesn't turn on. Peice of drek.

I call ethr.net, and no damn answers, wtf!?

I pretty much say 'deleted it' and change our DNS back to our old servers.

Oh the best part, found this new server company called liquidweb, they are based out of Michigan and they say how they have 100 percent uptime guarantee (it's impossible but whatever, they credit you if they have downtime so what do I have to lose?), they have good support 24/7 which is definitely a positive. Well within an hour of my server being up, I get this brand new quad core server with 2 gigs of ram and a RAID 1 configuration with 2 160 gig harddrives on a 100 mbit port. I'm doing apache configuration and changing our SSH ports to avoid random hack attacks, my SSH isn't responding so I contact a tech to reset the ports, I see the machine go offline thinking the tech rebooted it or something and he responds in a ticket saying the machine is failing to boot up, wonderful! Well within 40 minutes, I get a ticket saying the power supply on the machine failed (this is a brand new machine custom built, but meh, hardware fails, right?) anyways they get another machine and swap the drives and everythings savvy.

So anyways, this liquidweb, yeah it's frustrating having 2 servers fail in a day but at least they have damn tech support who does drek. Anyways, now i'm in the process of going through another lengthy process transferring all our drek.

Us computer guys are way underappreciated, people don't understand the stress and crap involved with this, it's really a 24 hour job and it's really a pain in the donkey. People blame us for problems that aren't even related to us when in reality, it's something like hardware or a incompetant provider.

Those of you considering going into the computer industry, get used to this garbage, because you will be sitting there like zombies with your eyes half closed sipping caffeine like a crack whore on heroin.

On a sidenote, ALWAYS set up some sort of RAID configuration or redundant DNS if you ever plan on hosting a large scale site, it will save you lots of money and moaning.

Bah, i've ranted enough, i'm going to sleep.

I'll buy whatever it is you're selling.

[AsheDina]

Meir- I 100% APPRECIATE you, and EVERYTHING you do. 
 

[Shamgar]

God bless the computer guys.  Just out of curiosity since you have worked with the intertnet for a while did you work with Al Gore at all???

Think all this computer and internet stuff is just a passing fad.....


 

[White Israelite]

G-d bless the computer guys.  Just out of curiosity since you have worked with the intertnet for a while did you work with Al Gore at all???

Think all this computer and internet stuff is just a passing fad.....


 

Al Gore invented the internet like the black man created penut butter.



Anyways, hopefully everything is a bit more smooth today.

[White Israelite]

Anyways, I been working with computers since I was born pretty much. My dad worked for Abbot Labs in Chicago as their network administrator and I was using a computer before I could walk. I just became so used to them that they are 2nd nature to me. I'm a fast typer (about 155-160 wpm) with no need to look at the keyboard although I have to admit the new keyboards aren't very good, I prefer the oldschool IBM keyboards that were metal.

I've been online at least since 1994-1995 which I used dialup BBS and later LAN modem to connect online.

Started my first business when I was 16 in the webhosting industry which was 2000-2001, good time to get involved and it was easy to get customers, nowadays most of the market is local customers and good support/service.

I've got plenty of experience with networking, computer repair, system administration (both windows and linux), hardware swapping, soldering, a little bit of PHP coding and HTML, etc.

[Ulli]

Anyways, I been working with computers since I was born pretty much. My dad worked for Abbot Labs in Chicago as their network administrator and I was using a computer before I could walk. I just became so used to them that they are 2nd nature to me. I'm a fast typer (about 155-160 wpm) with no need to look at the keyboard although I have to admit the new keyboards aren't very good, I prefer the oldschool IBM keyboards that were metal.

I've been online at least since 1994-1995 which I used dialup BBS and later LAN modem to connect online.

Started my first business when I was 16 in the webhosting industry which was 2000-2001, good time to get involved and it was easy to get customers, nowadays most of the market is local customers and good support/service.

I've got plenty of experience with networking, computer repair, system administration (both windows and linux), hardware swapping, soldering, a little bit of PHP coding and HTML, etc.

I type the whole work-day too.

I like the old keyboards. The new ones are too thin and are "springing", so you make more mistakes.

I have actually a MITAC-keyboard. It is a monster, but types very well. 

[muman613]

Anyways, I been working with computers since I was born pretty much. My dad worked for Abbot Labs in Chicago as their network administrator and I was using a computer before I could walk. I just became so used to them that they are 2nd nature to me. I'm a fast typer (about 155-160 wpm) with no need to look at the keyboard although I have to admit the new keyboards aren't very good, I prefer the oldschool IBM keyboards that were metal.

I've been online at least since 1994-1995 which I used dialup BBS and later LAN modem to connect online.

Started my first business when I was 16 in the webhosting industry which was 2000-2001, good time to get involved and it was easy to get customers, nowadays most of the market is local customers and good support/service.

I've got plenty of experience with networking, computer repair, system administration (both windows and linux), hardware swapping, soldering, a little bit of PHP coding and HTML, etc.

I type the whole work-day too.

I like the old keyboards. The new ones are too thin and are "springing", so you make more mistakes.

I have actually a MITAC-keyboard. It is a monster, but types very well. 

Shalom,

Im a software engineer and my entire day is spent typing or writing on a white board. I develop software tools for debugging and developing software for my companies DSP audio/video decoder chip. Ive been in the software engineering profession since the late 80s {88 to be exact}. Ive seen so much change in this industry. When I started Microcomputers were just considered Hobbyist machines. I started with Apple II {I currently still own 6 Apple IIs}. I have a computer museum in one of my bedrooms with all sorts of antique computer equipment {from 300Baud modems to 5Mb Harddrives }.

I appreciate those who maintain the datacenters. It must be grueling business. I enjoy what I do and they need me {I support a team of 6 programmers}.

muman613

PS: I started as a computer whiz kid in 1984. I was written up and on TV {interviewed by Geraldo Rivera when I worked at computer camp at age 16}. In an interview I prophesied there would be people like White Israelite. I am quoted as saying "If you think I am young to be involved in computers, there will be people younger than me making greater advances than me within 10 years."... that was in 1985.

[Shlomo]

Yes, it can be very stressful working in the computer field. Programming also has it's challenges along with administration. I have to relax and remember to be thankful for what Hashem blessed me with.

[muman613]

Yes, it can be very stressful working in the computer field. Programming also has it's challenges along with administration. I have to relax and remember to be thankful for what Hashem blessed me with.

Yes Stress is the major villain in my business. I think in a previous posting I revealed that I drive 70 miles in each direction to go to work. Thats 140 miles driving a day, 2 1/2 hours total. But I just got a raise { a puny one, but a raise none the less } and I love working in Silicon Valley. I grew up in Stamford, CT on the east coast and at the time the center of the universe , computer wise, was Silicon Valley. So now I have realized one of my childhood dreams. I have a wonderful car {Ford Mustang GT} and a wonderful house with loving pets. I am able to support myself, my girlfriend {who works too}, and a roommate who has become my slave {he is unable to pay}. I let him stay and he does all chores in the house. He is a handy-man by trade and is able to repair my plumbing and roofing.

But I work long hours and stress is always a problem. You can imagine how hard it is not to drive over the speed limit? I have gotten enough tickets. I try to stagger my hours so I miss rush hour, I go in at 10:30 and work till 8:30 {earlier when Shabbas starts earlier}. They allow me to wear my tzittzits out and my kippah on all day. But my boss knows not to ask me to work on Shabbos.

Ive been rambling again... Hope you have a good afternoon...

muman613
 

[White Israelite]

One of the benefits (which I admit is a plus) is the ability to work from home, it is beneficial because my work does not really require me to be at work on a certain schedule, we can make our own schedule. The toll free lines can be forwarded to cell phones, and access the servers and what not from a home computer. If there is an issue with a server down (that is not physically related), we can reboot through remote APC units which allows remote cutting of the power. Billing and what not is all webbased so they can be accessed anywhere.

I remember when I ran my old company, I was on a cruise in the Carribbean and the ship had satellite internet access, there was an issue with a database and I went down to the netcafe each day with my laptop on a wireless card and would check email. I could also bypass the expensive phone bills on the ship (which were about 9 dollars a minute if I recall) by using stanaphone (VOIP) though it was a bit laggy and check my voice mail. Years ago, jobs required you to be onsite, nowadays, it's not much of a hassle exceptin the case of physical hardware failure. Companies are getting to the point that they are able to hire someone to hotswap harddrives to a new server (if their on raid) and just continue running as if nothing happened. Redundant servers help a lot as well.

The great thing about webhosting is that there is still a lot of domination in the American market. You can't just outsource webhosting to the 3rd world, believe it or not, it actually costs more money to buy a server overseas because they don't have the infrastructure like the US does, also the latency is worst because your connection has to go through undersea optical cables and bounce back which results in bad latency. Webhosting/IT is a big industry for Americans. It's also supplying a lot of jobs, this datacenter we have our new servers at in Michigan just build a brand new building which will supply about 600 new jobs. The benefit in my area is that there are very few webhosts so competition isn't too big of a deal, now on a national level it's a little different. It's all about taking it one step at a time to reach the top.

[Shamgar]

Technology is great. I got one of the new iPhone 3Gs and can now VPN into my office access drives and apps and restart boxes. There are now even VOIP apps for it so you can talk international for free. I understand Skype is coming out with a client for the iPhone too. It is great to be connected.