Well, I’m back up… shame the server wasn’t.

About two weeks ago, the server company I go through (iwebserv.com.au) had an “incident”… one of the hard disks on the main server died. This caused an extended outage (almost a week), and a total loss of data. For one reason or another, iwebserv have not been able to resurrect the data on the server yet.

The impact on me for this is that I had to recreate my blog site, reloading the entries via cut-and-paste from a backup copy I had locally. During this process, I trimmed out posts that didn’t seem worth keeping, so if you notice something gone for some reason, that’s why.

I also no longer have any comments on my pages; when and if I get my old data back, I’ll look into transferring them.

Finally, I’ve reverted back to the default MT look-and-feel. I will fix this sometime in the next month.

Needless to say, I’m not happy with iwebserv. If this had been a commercial site instead of just a hobbyist place, I would be suing, I think. I know of some people who are. I will also be looking for new hosting when my contract runs out (I don’t see the point of shifting before then; after all, that would just mean that iwebserv get the reminder of the contract term for nothing).

If anyone can recommend a decent host, let me know. My requirements are: At least 200MB of hard disk space, 2+ MySQL database instances, Perl/PHP or JSP/Servlet (both would be great; I’ll settle for one or the other), all for less than AU$100/year.

*Update, April 2005* Okay, it’s been four months now. The promised backups never materialised; “apparently” they only did backups to other drives on the same site, and “apparently” the hosting provider they were reselling were refusing them access. Of course, iwebserv don’t respond to any questions about this (or anything else). They haven’t even updated the notice on their support site, for crying out loud.

I’ve noticed that this page gets in the top 10 for google searches for iwebserv, so I thought I’d expand more on this here. To put it bluntly, this company is crap.

I’ve decided to self-host, most likely; it will give me flexibility, and while I can’t ensure five 9’s reliability, I can at least be sure that my backups work.

Author: Robert Watkins

My name is Robert Watkins. I am a software developer and have been for over 20 years now. I currently work for people, but my opinions here are in no way endorsed by them (which is cool; their opinions aren’t endorsed by me either). My main professional interests are in Java development, using Agile methods, with a historical focus on building web based applications. I’m also a Mac-fan and love my iPhone, which I’m currently learning how to code for. I live and work in Brisbane, Australia, but I grew up in the Northern Territory, and still find Brisbane too cold (after 22 years here). I’m married, with two children and one cat. My politics are socialist in tendency, my religious affiliation is atheist (aka “none of the above”), my attitude is condescending and my moral standing is lying down. View all posts by Robert Watkins