How did you survive the big STORM2K outage of May 2007

[tropicana]

well i almost broke my computer 100 times trying to get onto the website that I have come to love and rely on on a daily basis, over and over again throughout the day, even from work.

And so glad storm2k is back... i was wondering... how did everyone survive without having this all-important website in their lives?

-justin-

[kevin]

Time to look for another tropical weather forum. This is inexcusable.

Find different servers. I've seen enough people with the supporter tag, if each of them gave $5, you'd have had more than enough.

But enough is enough.

[Dionne]

Time to look for another tropical weather forum. This is inexcusable.

Find different servers. I've seen enough people with the supporter tag, if each of them gave $5, you'd have had more than enough.

But enough is enough.

I strongly disagree. This is a good site. So there was some down time.....big deal! I have sent money twice and would do it again if required. Possibly you should consider joining the slackers at weather.com?

[Chacor]

This wasn't in any way s2k's fault, it was the main server which went down. Come on.

Back on topic: The chatroom helped.

[kevin]

Pay for a better server?

[kevin]

Time to look for another tropical weather forum. This is inexcusable.

Find different servers. I've seen enough people with the supporter tag, if each of them gave $5, you'd have had more than enough.

But enough is enough.

I strongly disagree. This is a good site. So there was some down time.....big deal! I have sent money twice and would do it again if required. Possibly you should consider joining the slackers at weather.com?

Another community I'm in funded this forum http://www.rantsnraves.org/index.php in less than 20 hours with just a few hundred dollars. Bought the software. Bought hosting. Its around as active as this forum. Got more than enough money and it went into an interest producing account.

I'd like to see the breakdown of where Storm2k spends its money before donating my $20.

[Meso]

I know OTown was apparently having severe withdrawal or some such ;p Good thing there is a chat room (IRC)

[brunota2003]

You can have the best servers in the world, if the main server goes down, there is nothing you can do but wait for it to be put back online...I remember it happend to my site about a year or so ago...and it turned out some bonehead on a backhoe decided to run over an underground line with his blade...

[mf_dolphin]

Kevin I feel your frustration but the forum you posted is hardly a fair comparison; 80 total members, Most Users Ever on-line 38, Total Posts - 5400. S2K has 8100+ members, 1,3 million posts and has had over 400 on-line users. If you think that the costs for the 2 sites are anywhere comparable I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you. In the early days of S2K we started on a free site then went to 100.00/year site as we grew and exceed both the storage and bandwidth of that site. We are currently spend 180.00/month for a nearly dedicated server and 39.00/month for the HamWeather software on the site. Thanks to Chad, he was able to negotiate the HamWeather costs down from 140.00/month last year. To same some head calculations, that's $2,628.00 a year. Not a penny goes anywhere except directly into the site.

We are rapidly approaching a point where even a fully dedicated server won't be able to handle our load. In the peak of the season now we should be in a dual server (web-site and database) however we haven't made that move yet due to cost concerns. Eventually we'll need to be in a multi-server setup with 2 web-servers and a server dedicated to just the database. As administrators of S2K, we try to be good stewards for the S2K donations. Our members have always risen to the financial challenges of this site and we're grateful.

What just happened was neither an issue with our board software or our database. Due to a human failure at our hosting company a technician left a firewall shut off and our server got compromised/hacked. Someone was using our server to host pirated movies and to send literally thousands of SPAM e-mails. During the corrective action our hosting company screwed up by the numbers. Failure after failure to provide professional and timely technical support took what should of been a few hours of downtime into days. As many of you know, DrOliver (Steve) is who we contract with for the S2K server. This was not his fault and he has worked long hours to help us get back on-line.

As always, we will take the time to look at the downtime and see what can we do to prevent the same type of thing from happening in the future. Today we'll really start that process on this incident. I do apologize for the downtime but rest assured that when we're down there are people busting their butts to get us back on-line.

[TexasStooge]

I went to a few back-up weather forums, and even written a few articles on Wikipedia.

[angelwing]

When there is a problem at the main host there is nothing you can do, you cannot blame S2K, they work their hardest to get everything back on as soon as they can and you cannot blame them for something that is out of their control.

I will continue to support S2K, it is a valuable resource and the people here are great!

Mary

[gtalum]

I spent the entire time curled up in the fetal position.

Seriously, I understand that there are often problems running a major site, and I truly appreciate the fact that you guys work so hard to maximize the uptime. Good job!

[gtalum]

Time to look for another tropical weather forum. This is inexcusable.

Find different servers. I've seen enough people with the supporter tag, if each of them gave $5, you'd have had more than enough.

But enough is enough.

I think you're being too hard on S2K. Large forums cannot have 100% uptime, ever. Stuff happens.

[O Town]

I know OTown was apparently having severe withdrawal or some such ;p Good thing there is a chat room (IRC)

I really was. The first day and a half was the worst. And the chat room helped alot, but still wasn't the same.
Hallelujah everything is back up and running!

Thanks to Marshall, Chad and all the others who were working hard to get us back on line ASAP I know you guys were getting aggrovated waiting, knowing it took longer than it should have. It wasn't easy for us, but I know it had to be worse for you guys. Thanks again!!!!!

[Aquawind]

That technician at the hosting company should loose his job.. Leaving a firewall off in a server enviroment is like leaving the front door open to the bank over the weekend. Storm2K and IPR should be getting paid by the hosting company for the time they used to mend it..

Thanks for suffering over the holiday weekend gentleman!

[CajunMama]

Thank goodness for chat!!!!!

[mf_dolphin]

That technician at the hosting company should loose his job.. Leaving a firewall off in a server enviroment is like leaving the front door open to the bank over the weekend. Storm2K and IPR should be getting paid by the hosting company for the time they used to mend it..

Thanks for suffering over the holiday weekend gentleman!

I hate to see anyone lose a job but it definitely fell into the "Aw Sh?T" category. Steve has requested compensation but we're waiting to hear their response.

[feederband]

poop happens.....I belong to several forums and they all go down from time to time... It wasn't like there was a major storm out there...Drink more Mountain dew and worse case senerio and I'm talking worst case turn on the Weather Channel...

[dizzyfish]

Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you

You should get compensation for the time the site was down. I hate to see someone loose their job too - but - can you imagine what being down would have caused if we had a hurricane knocking at someone's door?

A lot of people depend on the information this site gives (myself included). Can we get the same info on our own? Sure we can - however -it is a lot easier to get it all from one place and enjoy the friendships we have built here.

Oh yeah - one more thing ----- Thanks Bunches!!

[AnnularCane]

I visited other weather sites (is that a cardinal sin?). I still missed this site and went through withdrawal. Is there a self-help group available?