Finland for Thought is back online! for now…
In the past six days, I think I’ve aged about about six years. Here’s what’s happened…
On Wednesday evening, the DNS server on my dedicated server stopped connecting to other DNS servers. My web host, APlus.net (I’m calling them AssPlus from now on), claimed it was a problem with my domain registrar, GoDaddy.com – and of course, GoDaddy.com said it was a problem with my web host.
On Thursday Neil (owner of Finland Forum) was investigating the problem, on Friday he put me in touch with a friend of his who was absolutely sure it was a problem with my web host. He e-mailed all his findings to my web host. (Big hat tip to Neil & Florian for all their help!!)
On Friday AssPlus admitted it was a problem on their end, and they were fixing it. On Saturday I phoned them up, bitched them out, and found out that they have the weekends off (so much for 24/7 support) and will continue on Monday.
Saturday night I began a new contract with Go Daddy for web hosting. Everything was finalized Sunday morning and I began making the transfer.
On Monday morning (I was up till 5:30am watching football & working on the server) I had the sites up and running (but with some problems). On Monday afternoon, the sites went down, and I discovered that GoDaddy had suspended my account. I called GoDaddy, it appears they gave me an IP address from a previous client who had been receiving a DoS attack – the client had left but the DoS attack continued.
So now’s it’s Tuesday afternoon, it appears that AssPlus has fixed their problem (only took them six days) and I have pointed all the DNS entries back here to AssPlus until I get GoDaddy worked out. Then I’ll slowly migrate them over.
It’s been a big long nightmare. Thank you soooo much for being patient while I figure this out. This is all obviously a plot by the welfare state to shut me down. 
My addiction to this site didn’t go away in six days. Damn.
Welcome back!
Comment by Pave — Tue, Jan 23rd, 2007 @ 2:53 pm
I was wondering where the hell you were.
Comment by Väinämöinen — Tue, Jan 23rd, 2007 @ 3:30 pm
GoDaddy has been good to me. Welcome to the dark side.
Comment by gopha — Tue, Jan 23rd, 2007 @ 5:42 pm
The problem with IP address can even hit a home computer. My last ISP provided a new IP address every three days. One day when the number switched I got hit with a huge amount of traffic. Apparently the last machine to have the number was some sort of ‘zombie’ and all the computers it infected were still trying to communicate with it. three days later it became someone elses problem. It was a couple years back and it only happened once so I guess that they not have software to prevent this from happening again.
Comment by Fred Fry — Tue, Jan 23rd, 2007 @ 6:57 pm
It was a couple years back and it only happened once so I guess that they not have software to prevent this from happening again.
I believe typically, you keep the same IP unless you don’t signon for a 2-3 weeks, so if you use the internet everyday you’ll have the same IP forever. This way, it’s easier for them to track what their clients are doing.
Comment by Phil — Tue, Jan 23rd, 2007 @ 8:10 pm
GoDaddy has been good to me. Welcome to the dark side.
I chose Godaddy cause..
1. They’re a reputable company. They have TV ads in the states.
2. No more blaming anything on my domain registrar, cause they ARE my domain registrar
3. I’ve been using them as my domain registrar for many years, anytime I’ve needed help they’ve been courteous and competent.
…however so far, they’ve been shit. All I need is a new IP, and after like 30 hours, I still don’t have it.
Comment by Phil — Tue, Jan 23rd, 2007 @ 8:11 pm
…however so far, they’ve been shit. All I need is a new IP, and after like 30 hours, I still don’t have it.
I had my space and everything within a day. It took them about 48 hours or so to give my domain an IP. Be patient.
Comment by gopha — Tue, Jan 23rd, 2007 @ 10:19 pm
“I believe typically, you keep the same IP unless you don’t sign on for a 2-3 weeks, so if you use the internet everyday you’ll have the same IP forever. This way, it’s easier for them to track what their clients are doing.”
Might be for some operators, but RCN in DC assigned IP addressed that expire in three days regardless of activity. Kind of makes sense otherwise you would need many more IP addresses if people kept them while only using them once a week or so.
I have Cox cable now and the IP address is only assigned for 24 hours. It was possible to order a static IP address, but it cost extra. So if for no other reason, it is one way to get more money out of you.
As for tracking, that is no problem as the IP addresses are assigned to the operator. He just has an extra column in his data table to keep track of who had what address at what time. Then all your activity is logged under your customer number. Simple really;)
Comment by Fred Fry — Wed, Jan 24th, 2007 @ 3:59 am
Speaking of hosting providers, anyone have an opinion of 1&1 Internet?
Comment by Fred Fry — Wed, Jan 24th, 2007 @ 4:04 am
Welcome back Phil
Comment by Rick — Wed, Jan 24th, 2007 @ 4:55 am
Nice to have you back! I have missed my daily annoyance…
Comment by mjr — Wed, Jan 24th, 2007 @ 5:20 am
Damn that stinks. I was wondering why I couldn’t pull up your site. Glad to hear that you haven’t died on us or something. Welcome back, Phil!
Comment by Mo — Wed, Jan 24th, 2007 @ 3:48 pm
“This is all obviously a plot by the welfare state to shut me down.”
Could be
It’s good to have your site back on as I was starting to suffer from withdrawal symptoms 
Comment by Blah — Wed, Jan 24th, 2007 @ 6:23 pm
hi,
welcome back. was just wondering what went wrong in here!
Comment by prakas — Wed, Jan 24th, 2007 @ 6:54 pm
Welcome back. I did wonder what happened to you.
Comment by iJusten — Wed, Jan 24th, 2007 @ 7:58 pm
Great, you’re back. I began to have serious withdrawal symptoms
Comment by Passer-by — Wed, Jan 24th, 2007 @ 9:55 pm
Terve! Phil..great to see FFT back online…I was afraid that Phil might have had a midnight visit by Finn computer thought police,because of various politically incorrect rants and crazziness by different characters visiting this blog…..(including infinndel)
Phil…you mentioned that you are going to use godaddy for webhosting
of FFT.Since the godaddy server is physically located in USA does this
insulate your blog from restrictions on free speech issues in Finland?
What is your take on this Phil?
Would this blog have difficulty with free speech issues, if it was hosted by a Finnish webhosting company?…just curious
Comment by inFINNdel — Thu, Jan 25th, 2007 @ 12:11 am
“Would this blog have difficulty with free speech issues, if it was hosted by a Finnish webhosting company?…just curious”
No as Finland is number 1 on freedom of the press while USA is number 50 or something
Comment by Anonymous — Thu, Jan 25th, 2007 @ 4:08 pm
Would this blog have difficulty with free speech issues, if it was hosted by a Finnish webhosting company?…just curious
We’ll be just fine, unless we mention Chechnya…oh shit.
Comment by Freeridin' Franklin — Thu, Jan 25th, 2007 @ 8:27 pm
“Would this blog have difficulty with free speech issues, if it was hosted by a Finnish webhosting company?…just curious”
Yes. Last I heard, the Finnish tourist board is trying to get FFT closed.
Comment by mh — Sat, Jan 27th, 2007 @ 10:36 pm