PixSpot Website

[Kristine]

D70 Members

RE: PixSpot Website

As I am sure everyone is aware, the PixSpot website has been down since Saturday. The problem was due to a hard drive failure on the server (which Scott and I own). The company responsible for the management and support of the server failed to follow the maintenance procedures as per their contract (i.e. maintain regular back-ups for the server) and because of this, when the hard drive failure occurred, a back-up of the PixSpot website was unable to be re-loaded.

The server is a high-end, fully redundant system which cost almost $10, 000 a few months ago. The server uses a raid 5 configuration (which uses four hard drives) so this should not have happened in the first place. Scott is still astonished that this has occurred.

Scott and I have gone to great expense in the attempt to have the data on the hard drives recovered; as of writing this, all attempts have been unsuccessful. Basically, this means that all accounts that were created and any images that were uploaded to PixSpot no longer exist. Scott and I would like to apologise for this; I am sure you can imagine how bad we both feel that this has happened.

The past few days have been quite hectic and crazy for us. We have had to spend a significant amount of time in an attempt to resolve this matter. This evening, a new version of PixSpot is online. Any member wishing to upload images to PixSpot will need to create a new account – then you can upload images immediately. The PixSpot website is now backing up to a new off-site server (daily back-ups), so that we can be assured that something such as this will not happen again (we will have the off-site back-up of the site should something happen).

Once again, I am very sorry to those members who had images uploaded to PixSpot. I hope that all of the above makes sense as I am typing this as it comes to me and I tried to make it as brief but as informative as possible.

Cheers
Kristine

[Onyx]

Kristine, thank you for providing such a service to our community. It sucks when things go wrong, and I don't believe you need to apologise as the events were out of your control. I'm sure everyone understands, the loss of images are a minor inconvenience compared to the headaches you must have endured in attempting to recover the data and fix the damage done. I'm sorry things happened the way they did. If there's but one silver lining, I hope you and Scott are able to put all this down to a learning experience (albeit what must be a very expensive learning experience).

[JordanP]

Wow, Kristine & Scott very sorry to hear this. Members have certianly missed this wonderful service you offer.

Please don't feel bad as what happened was totally out of your control (these things happen) - and thank you both for the huge effort you have put in to attempt to recover the data. Creating another account and uploading pics again is no bother (for me anyway)

The free image hosting that you offer members is brilliant - we all appreciate it. I for one am just glad it is back up and running and hope it will not cause you any stress in the future.

Looking forward to re-creating my account and uploading images again.

Thanks for letting us know,

[darb]

being in the IT game myself and a data centre also all i can say is, ouch.

The raid failed? how many drives went? if only 1 went out of 4 you should have been fine (albeit alerted and getting a replacement drive asap.)

No backups? doh! I presume youre having stiff words with westnet (presuming westnet, they own the IP that your www entry resolves to.)

sorry to hear it

[Kristine]

being in the IT game myself and a data centre also all i can say is, ouch.

The raid failed? how many drives went? if only 1 went out of 4 you should have been fine (albeit alerted and getting a replacement drive asap.)

No backups? doh! I presume you're having stiff words with westnet (presuming westnet, they own the IP that your www entry resolves to.)

sorry to hear it

Hi Darb

Server is in WestNet data centre; the contract for maintenance and support is with another company that has access to the data centre.

Scott (my other half) is still in shock; he has really learnt a big lesson here and measures have been put in place so nothing like this will happen again.

Thanks everyone for understanding about PixSpot.

Cheers
Kristine

[Greg B]

Kristine, sorry to hear about all that, especially when it all revolves around a service you are generously providing the forum gratis.

FYI - I am still unable to get into PixSpot as at 6:30 am eastern

Regards

[Kristine]

Hi Greg

Try it now - I had the site registration disabled...

Cheers
Kristine

[Greg B]

Kristine, no joy as yet.

Is it still

http://www.pixspot.com

?

[Kristine]

Greg

I just created a test account there no problems; if you are having problems, try this link and let me know how you go.

http://www.pixspot.com/register.php

Cheers
Kristine

[birddog114]

Greg

I just created a test account there no problems; if you are having problems, try this link and let me know how you go.

http://www.pixspot.com/register.php

Cheers
Kristine

Kristine,
Thanking very much for all your efforts to put it back.
Still can't access the site.

[Greg B]

Hi Kristine

Still getting a "Could not connect to remote server" message.

Have to hit the shower and go to work now, I'll try from there later

cheers

[birddog114]

Hi Kristine

Still getting a "Could not connect to remote server" message.

Have to hit the shower and go to work now, I'll try from there later

cheers

Too hot isn't it? that why you need a shower

[pippin88]

Kristine, I'll echo the sentiments of others as say thank you very much for supplying a wonderful service for free.

It is a pity that this happened, but the blame is obviously not yours. I hope you can get some form of compensation out of the company that should have been maintaining backups, from the sounds of it they broke the contractual agreement, and you consequently suffered financial loss (the cost of data recovery, and the time spent dealing with the problem). I'd think you should be able to get something out of them for this?

[Marty]

Hi Kristine,
I am very sorry to hear of the problems you had with your server.
I would like to thank you for the opportunity to post images on your site.
I wil re-register and up-load my images again.
Thanks again.
Marty

[mudder]

G'day Kristine,
I'd like to echo the sentiment and appreciation of your work...

Being in the IT industry I can understand how frustrating it is when paying for a service not rendered, hopefully there's some form of Service Level Agreement with penalty clauses in force with the company that *used to* provide your maintenance and archiving etc...

Thanks again for your work, and I think we would all understand how stressful and frustrating this time would be for you...

Cheers,
Mudder

[gstark]

Kristine,

I can only echo what everyone else has said here.

Glad that that worst of it is over now, and that you can get back to more normal operations again.

[the foto fanatic]

I am still unable to access these spots this morning:

http://www.pixspot.com/
http://www.pixspot.com/register.php

[Greg B]

Fully operational 8:23 am eastern.

In the words of Basil Fawlty (Health Inspector episode)

"Hooray, hooray, the cat lives"

Well done Kristine and thanks.

[Geoff]

Hi Kristine,
It's been said in all the above messages, but I have been thinking of you and Scott in this 'hour of need'..well 'days of need'. ..hehe. I have now re-registered and all seems to be good. Thanx again for your time and persistance in the matter and we all hope nothing like this ever happens again for your own sakes .


Geoff.

[MHD]

wow... I hate hard drives... the one in my laptop went a month ago and my system is still not up again yet (supply probs)

you get a good system going and then wham!

[W00DY]

I just created my account....

I don't think anyone here can complain as the service you are offering is outstanding.

Cheers,

W00DY

[wile_E]

Hi Kristine, I'd just like to echo everyone else's thoughts here.

I hope that you and Scott get some form of compensation from the company (westnet?) that was supposed to be maintaining the data.

At least its now all sorted, so you and Scott can relax a little!

Cheers

[sirhc55]

To Kristine and Scott -I believe that everyone on this forum who has had a major crash will appreciate the pain and frustration you have suffered in the past days.

I echo the sentiments of those before me in thanking you and Scott for the wonderful service you provide.

Chris

[Mj]

Ditto the above here...

The sites not pingable at the min... so it looks like your not outa the murky waters just yet. As has already been suggested, keep a log of all the time spent sorting this out and seek sompensation from your (I assume) X maintenance provider.

Michael.

[digitor]

Ditto the above here...

The sites not pingable at the min... so it looks like your not outa the murky waters just yet. As has already been suggested, keep a log of all the time spent sorting this out and seek sompensation from your (I assume) X maintenance provider.

Michael.

I can't get to it either atm - although it was ok earlier from work - DNS issue? My ISP's DNS is telling me it's 202.72.181.192 - does anybody know if this is correct now?

Anyway, thanks for all your efforts Kristine, much appreciated.

Cheers

[meicw]

Kristine, I would like to add my thanks for the service that you provide. Sorry to learn about the additional expense that you occurred because someone was unable to perform their duties properly.

Regards
Meic

[Mj]

ok... what gives guys... is pixspot up or down???
reading various posts here gave me the impression that we were all go...
I have a number of pics that might be of interest and cannot share!!!

Now... having got that off my chest... don't take this as any form of attack on Kristine... just a little frustration on my part is all...

Michael.

[stubbsy]

Michael

I couldn't access it from home around 6pm, but tried just now & got there fine.

Maybe there are some intermittent probs still to be ironed out.

Edit: One possibility is that were monstering it as we all try to setup and upload our pics

[digitor]

I can't get to it either atm - although it was ok earlier from work - DNS issue? My ISP's DNS is telling me it's 202.72.181.192 - does anybody know if this is correct now?

Anyway, thanks for all your efforts Kristine, much appreciated.

Cheers

Looks like it was a dns refresh problem all right - I can get to Pixspot now ok, my ISP's dns gives 202.72.181.180.

Cheers

[BBJ]

Ok seeems to be working my way again, only i see my albumn has gone and well looks like will have to register again.
Seems like they lost some stuff working out the problems.
If this is right i will register again or are we going to wait till all ioned out?

[fozzie]

I have managed to register on PixSpot a short time ago.
I must be a jinx, no sooner had I completed that, then the D70Users.com site crashed.

Cheers,

[stubbsy]

If this is right i will register again or are we going to wait till all ioned out?

Go to the top of this thread. In a nutshell Kristine says she lost everything and we need to register and start clean

[BBJ]

Thanks stubbsy, I sometimes think i have read them all but i guess i miss a few now and then. Glad she is getting it sorted.
Cheers
John

[sirhc55]

Crikey - just had a thought. If the D70 forum was lost as Pixspot was there would be heaps of people hitting the Zoloft or Valium or Callum Park

Chris

[Geoff]

Hi all,
I know everyone has given Kristine our collective 'best wishes' on here but I've just been speaking with her and the poor thing sounds extremely stressed out, they have had a lot of bad luck in the last few days and it's affected them significantly. I'd just like to pause (again) and send through the 'everything will be ok' vibe and know that we're thinking of her. Thanx.


Geoff.

[stubbsy]

Geoff

That's just terrible. I hope none of the stress is caused by any concerns about negative vibes from D70 users about the pixspot side of things since all I see and feel here are positive ones. Like many here I work in IT and know pretty much how she must be feeling.

Most important things is that our best wishes are with her and we all understand that the problems are not of her making. Hopefully her paying clients are smart enough to understand this too.

[Kristine]

Hi all,
I know everyone has given Kristine our collective 'best wishes' on here but I've just been speaking with her and the poor thing sounds extremely stressed out, they have had a lot of bad luck in the last few days and it's affected them significantly. I'd just like to pause (again) and send through the 'everything will be ok' vibe and know that we're thinking of her. Thanx.


Geoff.

Geoff

Thanks for your kind thoughts - again, sorry for sounding stressed out on the phone (you probably thought I was a mad woman!); I am not normally like that - it is amazing what virtually no sleep for five days and major problems like this can do...

Geoff

That's just terrible. I hope none of the stress is caused by any concerns about negative vibes from D70 users about the pixspot side of things since all I see and feel here are positive ones. Like many here I work in IT and know pretty much how she must be feeling.

Most important things is that our best wishes are with her and we all understand that the problems are not of her making. Hopefully her paying clients are smart enough to understand this too.

Stubbsy, the members here have been great. I am not stressed because of the forum members (it is because of business reasons). I just feel bad that members have lost their uploaded images. As I have stated previously, this will not happen again (please trust me)!

Just to clarify, WestNet is not responsible for this, the server was merely located in the WestNet data centre. Another company (we will call company "X") is responsible for the maintenance and support of our servers (which they failed to do), and yes, legal counsel has been sought regarding this matter due to the high-cost loss involved.

I also did switch the IP address on the site today from 202.72.181.192 to 202.72.181.180. I apologise if members had any problems during the switch over. I can confirm that PixSpot is now safe and fully functional, and will be available via the forum shortly...


Cheers
Kristine

[Raydar]

Stubbsy, the members here have been great. I am not stressed because of the forum members (it is because of business reasons). I just feel bad that members have lost their uploaded images. As I have stated previously, this will not happen again (please trust me)!

Don’t worry about us mate, we should have had the images backed up so all will be good.
I wouldn't worry about it happening again, we can just upload them again, not a prob.
What you do for us here is more that enough so just take a deep breath & take us out of the equation.

Cheers
Ray

[birddog114]

Kritine,
Thanks again! make yourself comfy with the new setup.
It's a stress in IT, no doubt about it, i wish you're nearby, so I can take you and Scott out for a perfect dinner and fresh bubbly, so you can let all the trouble RIP. You can take a rain check of this offer and we will soon meet you in the near future.

[skippy]

Hi Kristine, I feel for you, I really do. I think all of us in IT have had at least one all-nighter - it's practically an initiation. It sounds like you had a few years' worth in one go though, so hopefully you can take a few days off to recover. Sleep, relax, take photos!

I'd like to reiterate what's already been said, too. Recreating the account and reposting the images is trivial. I'm very glad I didn't have to deal with your side of it!

On another note, is the box on a SAN? Redundant paths all the way to and from your data add a lot to your relaxation levels...

[Manta]

I'm sorry to hear of Kristine's and Scott's situation and I'm pleased they have things back on line.

I have had no trouble re-registering but I can't upload any images. I tried to upload 3 images (all JPEGs between 900-980k) and the site went through the upload process for several minutes before finishing up with the message "0 Uploads Successful". I then tried with a single image (970k) and got the same response after 60 seconds or so of 'upload' time.

Are others having the same problem or does anyone have any suggestions? I had no trouble uploading images prior to the 'crash'.

Thx.

Simon

[sirhc55]

[quote="Manta"]I'm sorry to hear of Kristine's and Scott's situation and I'm pleased they have things back on line.

I have had no trouble re-registering but I can't upload any images. I tried to upload 3 images (all JPEGs between 900-980k) and the site went through the upload process for several minutes before finishing up with the message "0 Uploads Successful". I then tried with a single image (970k) and got the same response after 60 seconds or so of 'upload' time.

Are others having the same problem or does anyone have any suggestions? I had no trouble uploading images prior to the 'crash'.

Thx.


Initially I had a problem but I switched from Safari to Explorer and managed to upload the pics. After that (for some strange reason) Safari was quite happy to upload.

Chris

[Manta]

Initially I had a problem but I switched from Safari to Explorer and managed to upload the pics. After that (for some strange reason) Safari was quite happy to upload.

Chris

Thanks Chris, but I don't have Safari.
(I assume it's an internet browser - excuse my ignorance.)

[digitor]

I also did switch the IP address on the site today from 202.72.181.192 to 202.72.181.180. I apologise if members had any problems during the switch over. I can confirm that PixSpot is now safe and fully functional, and will be available via the forum shortly...

Cheers
Kristine

Hi Kristine,

No need to apologise - the change rippled through in a very short time. Thanks again for your generosity and hard work!

Cheers

[sirhc55]

Initially I had a problem but I switched from Safari to Explorer and managed to upload the pics. After that (for some strange reason) Safari was quite happy to upload.

Chris

Thanks Chris, but I don't have Safari.
(I assume it's an internet browser - excuse my ignorance.)

You are right Manta - Safari is a browser applicable to Macintosh computers

Chris

[darb]

I also did switch the IP address on the site today from 202.72.181.192 to 202.72.181.180. I apologise if members had any problems during the switch over. I can confirm that PixSpot is now safe and fully functional, and will be available via the forum shortly...

for any of you windows based users having trouble due to the IP change, go to a command prompt (start , run , "cmd") type "ipconfig /flushdns" and then exit. Should sort you out.

[ru32day]

I know this is a bit after the fact, but i've not been reading the forums in any depth lately - only went searching for this post after I couldn't access my pixspot album.

Just to reiterate what others have already said. We're grateful for the service you provide, sorry for the difficulties you have encountered and hope that everything comes good for you very soon.

I do believe that collective positive vibes can help, so am sending ours with the others in the hope that you spring back from your troubles better than before.

Kind regards

Ru32day (Mr and Mrs)

[leek]

Hi Kristine...

I'm not sure about the capabilities of Coppermine, but is it possible to enable options for users to customise the 'look' of their pages???

While I (and I'm sure many others) thoroughly appreciate the free service that you provide... the ability to change the look of the pages would greatly increase our artistic licence???

Just to give you an idea of what I might like to do, pls see Matt K's pages at http://www.pbase.com/matt_k/image/39040085 i.e. black background...