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Explosion Takes Out AtariAge [Updated]


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I sense that someone is planning an "AA server exposion" 2600 hack. What game would be the ideal candidate?

I'd pick Yar's Revenge. :D

 

I pick Kaboom! Just print a large picture of a computer that you can tape to the bottom of your screen.

I sense that someone is planning an "AA server exposion" 2600 hack. What game would be the ideal candidate?

I'd pick Yar's Revenge. :D

That might work! Someone will need to hack the AA logo for the yar and the Planet logo for the qotile.

 

Here's the story: Al has moved the server away from The Planet. AA's server then tries to hack through their firewall, and once in, the server summons others to launch a DDOS attack to bring them down. Occasionally The Planet will try to send a bunch of packets back your way, but you can either reroute your server or cause a packet collision.

 

I call it... Yarusso's Revenge.

I just read the latest update from theplanet:

 

June 6 – 1:00pm CDT

 

We've been working to get all servers back online as fast as possible. For the majority of our customers, this involved a simple reboot once power was restored. For some, there has been severe damage to their hard drives as a result of the power loss in the H1 data center.

 

To assist customers whose drives have been affected, we have arranged to ship the devices to Data Recovery Systems (DRS), a leading provider of hard-drive recovery services. DRS will attempt to recover the data. Once this has been done, we will reinstall the drive.

 

We have no idea how many customers will want us to do this, and we have no idea how long it will take DRS to recover what they can. For customers who would like for us to proceed with this process, please submit a ticket and we will begin taking action tomorrow.

 

Our goal is to stand by our customers during this difficult time. As such, there will be no charge to customers for this service, and The Planet will absorb the costs.

 

http://service-update.theplanet.com/

 

Ouch!!

"exploring other options" ??? Erm' it was an accident dude, and you're gonna drop the hosting company? No wonder why things re as messed up as they are!!

The accident isn't the problem, but the bad reaction.

"exploring other options" ??? Erm' it was an accident dude, and you're gonna drop the hosting company? No wonder why things re as messed up as they are!!
I'm sure The Planet did not blow up their electrical room on purpose. But, accidents are often caused by negligence.
"exploring other options" ??? Erm' it was an accident dude, and you're gonna drop the hosting company? No wonder why things re as messed up as they are!!

There's no way to know if this "accident" was caused by poor maintenance on their part. Given their reaction to the situation, the fact that their first "backup generator" failed and it took them over a half a day to get another one in place, and then the additional outage today, I'm not very impressed.

 

..Al

June 6 – 1:00pm CDT

We've been working to get all servers back online as fast as possible. For the majority of our customers, this involved a simple reboot once power was restored. For some, there has been severe damage to their hard drives as a result of the power loss in the H1 data center.

 

To assist customers whose drives have been affected, we have arranged to ship the devices to Data Recovery Systems (DRS), a leading provider of hard-drive recovery services. DRS will attempt to recover the data. Once this has been done, we will reinstall the drive.

 

We have no idea how many customers will want us to do this, and we have no idea how long it will take DRS to recover what they can. For customers who would like for us to proceed with this process, please submit a ticket and we will begin taking action tomorrow.

 

Our goal is to stand by our customers during this difficult time. As such, there will be no charge to customers for this service, and The Planet will absorb the costs.

Bold text above is my editing.

 

Last time I checked, data recovery houses charge borderline extortion fees for their work. They better pray that very little data was lost or they'll be selling the company to pay the data recovery guys. I'm guessing they do have fault tolerant setups out there, but the customers who demand satisfaction will cost them dearly.

 

Glad you're mostly up and functioning again Al. Now grab some popcorn everybody and watch the train wreck from a minimum safe distance.

 

Hex.

[ if (Power Rangers == Train Wreck){ watch_in_Horror (eyeballs, spoon); }else{ what_areyou_Thinking (hammer, noggin); } ]

For such a large and well-known company, the lack of off-site redundancy is disappointing.

 

AA is normally rock-solid, but I guess that you really find out who your friends are when things go wrong.

 

It's particularly galling for them to make a big deal of not charging their clients for (possibly) recovering data that they themselves lost!

It's particularly galling for them to make a big deal of not charging their clients for (possibly) recovering data that they themselves lost!

 

Given that the web hosting companies I've looked at disclaim any liability for lost data, regardless of the reasons for the loss, what exactly is disagreeable about offering to shoulder the costs for an attempted recovery?

 

I would agree that larger servers should have off-site backups, but I would think that for a variety of reasons the best way to ensure that data is backed up is to do it yourself or hire a separate company to do it. Among other things, even if a web-hosting company has off-site backups, the demand for those backups is going to be very high following a catastrophe (since all the customers will want their data restored at once). By contrast, if the customers happen to use a variety of different backup companies, the load would be more moderately distributed.

It's particularly galling for them to make a big deal of not charging their clients for (possibly) recovering data that they themselves lost!

 

Given that the web hosting companies I've looked at disclaim any liability for lost data, regardless of the reasons for the loss, what exactly is disagreeable about offering to shoulder the costs for an attempted recovery?

 

I would agree that larger servers should have off-site backups, but I would think that for a variety of reasons the best way to ensure that data is backed up is to do it yourself or hire a separate company to do it. Among other things, even if a web-hosting company has off-site backups, the demand for those backups is going to be very high following a catastrophe (since all the customers will want their data restored at once). By contrast, if the customers happen to use a variety of different backup companies, the load would be more moderately distributed.

It's certainly a good idea for the clients of the hosting companies to back up their own data, and I'm sure that Al did just that. I'm not sure that such a disclaimer would hold up in court, and, if it's true that most hosting companies have these disclaimers, there is a gap in the market for a company that takes its clients' data integrity seriously.

...and, if it's true that most hosting companies have these disclaimers, there is a gap in the market for a company that takes its clients' data integrity seriously.

 

If I buy a painting for $1,000,000 and pay to have it transported, I would declare the value with the shipping company and pay them a fee in relation to the declared value. If they lose it, they pay me. There isn't any particular question about how much they should pay me--if I bought it for $1,000,000 and the declared value is $1,000,000, then they pay me $1,000,000.

 

Data is much harder to price. I would expect that one could find hosting companies that are insured against data loss, but if one's data is worth much the extra cost of the insurance will substantially exceed the cost of backing up the data oneself.

I would agree that larger servers should have off-site backups, but I would think that for a variety of reasons the best way to ensure that data is backed up is to do it yourself or hire a separate company to do it. Among other things, even if a web-hosting company has off-site backups, the demand for those backups is going to be very high following a catastrophe (since all the customers will want their data restored at once). By contrast, if the customers happen to use a variety of different backup companies, the load would be more moderately distributed.

But while leave the burden to the individual customers?

 

Why not cooperating with other web-hosting companies for such a case? It is very unlikely that all of them get hit by an accident at the same time, so the load is automatically well distributed.

 

Insurance companies are doing this for their risks for ages now.

"exploring other options" ??? Erm' it was an accident dude, and you're gonna drop the hosting company? No wonder why things re as messed up as they are!!
I'm sure The Planet did not blow up their electrical room on purpose. But, accidents are often caused by negligence.

 

Either way, it doesn't really matter who's to blame or how hard they're trying. If a hosting company can't provide reliable service and it's going to take weeks to stabilize, then some of their customers might find it more expedient to relocate. For this reason, you can't expect the host to reveal how long problems might drag on.

No need to be overly loyal - it's a business relationship, not a friendship. (I have no opinion about what AA should do though)

It's also not about lost time and lost data. It could very well also be about lost revenue. What if you run an Internet business that depends on web sales or contacts or communication or God Knows What. Each day your site is down, money is coming out of your pocket. If AA was less of an informational/social source and Al's primary bread-and-butter were, say, game sales, hardware, or something similar through this site, he would've lost days of sales plus the possibility of more if the servers are still unstable.

Why not cooperating with other web-hosting companies for such a case? It is very unlikely that all of them get hit by an accident at the same time, so the load is automatically well distributed.

 

I'm sure most hosting companies have some sort of backup plan. That does not mean, however, that they accept much liability in case something goes wrong. The contract may specify that customers receive some compensation in case of problems, but such compensation would generally be along the lines of a month or two worth of service fees.

 

Internet hosting companies have plenty of reason to try to make their service as reliable as possible. Nonetheless, bad things do sometimes happen.

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