PANIC (long)

[gramme]

Thanks to all who responded to my sub web and hosting issue. Let me update you and asked for some EXPERT advise, I am in a VERY DIFFICULT situation now and haven't got a clue who to talk to or what to do.

This is a copy of most of a letter that I sent to ONLINENIC, INC about our problem. It pretty much tells what has happened.
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To Whom It May Concern:

We are not sure if you can help us or not but we just don’t know where to go or who to talk to.

We are having a SERIOUS problem with one of your customers who is a reseller.

IPowerWeb.com was a hosting service that we move to on the 18th of this month. We previously had been with a company for 4 years. We have owned this domain for 4 years and never moved until we upgraded our program that we use to maintain our website and our hosting company would not support the upgrade.

We decided to move to iPowerWeb.com and was told that they supported Front Page and sub webs. The move went fine and we choose to change registrar’s and changed to iPowerWeb who we now understand is a reseller of your service “Onlinenic” as twocows or something like that.

This is what is happening to us. We uploaded our web to their server and our sub web would NOT work. They were NOT able to correct the problem and we had done everything they asked us to do on our end.

After several days of this problem they tell us that they do NOT support sub webs! After talking with the technical supervisor we decided to ask for our money back and move somewhere else where they would support our sub web. They agreed to credit our credit card for the year that we had paid for up front.

We found a new hosting company that day and called them to change DNS numbers because we were told they did NOT have an administrative account for us to do it because they were resellers and it was like being one customer so we gave them the DNS numbers to put in. By the next afternoon it was pointing to the new server but with problems. There were DNS numbers in for the new server and the iPower servers as well. We called them about this and by now we was quite angry with all this down time and their lack of help to resolve this issue.

They said they would correct it and instead of taking out their DNS numbers they took out the new DNS numbers and put their numbers BACK IN! When we called them about this they said they had resubmitted the change the day before and everything would be working the next day. Well, instead of it working ALL the new server numbers were removed and everything was back to iPowerweb DNS numbers.

We also requested at the time of the move to change registrar to Easycgi.com and we have received both letters requesting us to approve. This had been done three days ago. When we called iPowerWeb back about the DNS numbers being changed back to them we was told they couldn’t do anything because the service was LOCKED and there was nothing they could do for us! Our site has been down since the 18th of May when this all started. The move to Easycgi.com was initiated on May 23, 2003 and everything is still pointing to iPowerWeb and the registrar were told is LOCKED! Please can anything be done to expedite this matter?

We believe because of how angry we got they are doing this deliberately. It is hard to believe that they could make these kinds of errors and cause this long of a delay. They have TOTAL control over peoples domains and leave people without a way to correct the problem.

Please could you advise us on how to get this resolved so we may have our domain working once again.

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We have NOT heard anything from this company either. I tried to telephone them the phone rang about 30-40 times then a continious beep! I tried to fax them this and when the fax answered it didn't send my report said "fax was out of paper".

I found a site called : "National Arbitration Forum" and faxed them a copy of this letter with all the DNS number involved that was this morning. I am at a LOSS for what to do. This company iPowerWeb is ANTI Bill Gates and FP and I really believe they are doing this intentionally....Does anyone have any suggestions of what I can do? Sure would appreciate any input or guidance. This has just been a nightmare that never seems to end. Site has been down now since May 18th!
Thanks
Donna a.k.a. gramme

[justjay]

I am not sure I understand why you are asking a 3rd party to change your DNS information or anything to do with your Domain. If you are the owner why are you not signing into your Domain Manager (with the party you registered your domain with) and make the changes yourself. Perhaps if I had a better idea as to why this has happened I would be in a better position to lend a thought or two....

[gramme]

JustJay,
Thank you for your response, I understand what you are saying and that was my thoughts as well! We were shocked when we were told by iPowerWeb (who was the registrar) that they did NOT have an administration panel or access for anyone as they were resellers and it was set up as one account! All the contol was theirs!!! What a very bad position to be in and I sure have learned a very hard lesson. Since my last post and PANIC I decided to write another email letter to OnlineNIC that was the registrar for iPowerWeb. Since iPowerWeb was a customer of Onlinenic I thought they may be able to help me. I sent the letter via email again as I was NOT able to get them on the phone or by fax. The next day I called iPowerWeb back on the phone and spoke with someone in the transfer department. I did my best to keep my cool as I had been losing it every time I spoke with them. I did have a person on the line that seemed to be sympathic and when I tried to explain the story he said that it wasn't necessary he had notes and as a matter of fact he had one from OnlineNic that said "HANDLE THIS" it took a total of 8 hrs for the transfer and less than 1/2 hrs for my new hosting company and registrar to change DNS numbers! This all happened at 4:14 am and by 11pm that evening it was all propagated! We are up and running once again and we have learned to NEVER go to a registrar that does not give you control of changing your own domain information.
Thank you so much for your response and offer of help. Everybody else who has read about my mess and considered helping. It give me comfort to have this place to come to. I read all the posts and someday hope to be knowledeable enough to help others.
Later
Donna a.k.a. gramme
www.barefootbay.net

[justjay]

I am happy to see you are happy....

it was all propagated!

keep in mind that it may be propogated for your DNS but may not be all the way around the world....but its on its way to getting there

[no_mac_jack]

That's great to hear! I was just as amazed as you about your story, but I guess persistence pays off. It's all downhill from here... :D:

~no_mac_jack

[bud]

Fantastic news... It is good to hear that you were able to get a hold of a real person...

:up: :woohoo:

[awasson]

Wow,

That's some story!!

It looks like it clear sailing ahead now. I was just amazed at the amount of mistakes that were made in resolving the problems. The whole sub-web bit and musical DNS settings.

I've got a couple of domains registered with OpenSRS or Tucows and I also have the loggin to make any changes at any time. I don't think there are any domains that I manage without DNS control.

I totally understand your frustration. Good that you were able to find someone with the brains to get it resolved.

Andrew

[gramme]

Andrew, it really was a nightmare. Sure am a happy camper today. I am with OpenSRS or Tucows now and happy to have control over our domain once again.

As for the original problem that started this whole mess, a sub web, the new hosting company Easycgi.com corrected the problem immediately. It was a single file fix! Seems as though when Front Page extensions were upgrade to 2002 there was a file that FP created in my 2000 version that keep getting put on the server causing the double images and not reading the image directory. Once they did the fix they told me to publish from their server to my local machine and then delete the old files I was using. Don't know what they did but it worked.

I am using FP2002 now and so far I love it. Really haven't had time to go through all the features but will soon.

You all are just so supportive here and I apprecaite all of you.
Donna a.k.a. gramme

[awasson]

Yup,

I think we have a great group of people here.

It's kinda fun when you get half a dozen folks trying to be the first to help.

I'm glad it worked out for you. I was astonished that it would have taken that long to straighten out.

Well it's fixed and you won't have to worry about that again.

Cheers,
Andrew