UNRV went *poof*?

[Praefectusclassis]

Have I gone gaga or has UNRV ( http://www.unrv.com ) upped and disappeared? Trouble with their host?

[Tarbicus]

I noticed that too last night. Seems very dead to me. Big shame, and hopefully PP has a copy of the members' email addresses, and an archive.

[Jeroen Pelgrom]

The website seems to work again.

[Praefectusclassis]

Not for me though

[hansvl]

Hi,

It works perfectly for me.

Hans

[Jeroen Pelgrom]

Not for me though

hmm, if i enter the adres: [url:1fxz9mlu]http://www.unrv.com/[/url]

i'm getting a result, no problem... but then i use IE6

[Praefectusclassis]

Not on FF or IE 6.0 here. Maybe a down version is still on the university cache.

[Robert Vermaat]

No problem on IE 6.0

[Praefectusclassis]

No probs at home either. Weirdness...

[Chris Heaton]

Hello all,

We (unrv.com) were having some problems with our domain and hosting renewal (processing of our payment) about 2 weeks ago, resulting in a temporary outage of about 8 hours. After some ridiculous incompetence (I suppose all incompetence is a bit ridiculous ) on the part of our host, they realized that we had paid our fees and everything was good once again.

Until... we realized two weeks later that after we paid, they failed to code our account as 'paid in full'. Apparently in the melee between us and our hosting technical department that followed, we discovered that they had actually sold our domain to a 3rd party some time prior without ever giving us the details. That 3rd party decided that our domain had not been renewed despite our payment directly to our site host and coded our account as expired. After much consternation (and a good bit of yelling which I will spare the detail) everything seems to have been corrected.

As for why the site works for some and not others, its all about DNS settings with individual ISPs. At my home the site worked fine and was only down for a few hours. At my office it was down for 2 days. Each individual ISP 'refreshes' these DNS settings on their own timetable and because our domain was technically expired it takes time for every internet provider to update. (anywhere from a few to 72 hours as I understand it.)

Sorry to ramble on about it... but I hope it serves as a simple warning to other site admins out there. A good rule of thumb that most experienced admins adhere to is to separate domain hosting and web site hosting. Also make sure that you have access to control both things and are not dependent upon a hosting agencies technical support dept. to access your accounts.

Cheers!
Chris
www.unrv.com

[Praefectusclassis]

Thanks for the explanation Chris. And welcome to RAT.

[Tarbicus]

Chris Heaton - Is that PP? Jimbow here. Welcome aboard!

[Chris Heaton]

I was actually registered here some time ago, but my account was deleted in the inactive member purge. I find it hard enough to keep up with one site, but I do still lurk around here... hence finding this topic

Cheers,
Chris
www.unrv.com