MPADC Web Hosting Blog

talktalk Nightmare!

2008-02-11T14:23:00.001-08:00

Salams

Been a while since we updated this blog - but thought id start somethign with a rant

One ISP in UK TalkTalk all of a sudden decided to 404 any websites hosted on our Server as well as several servers hosted by our main datacenter liquidweb.

Why this happened all of a sudden is beyond me! Since we have several customers in the UK who use TalkTalk as their phone line these customers found that they could not longer access nothing! Their Website nor the Main MPADC Website!

Checking the web logs it went down in the morning - decide to come back on again briefly for about an hour or so then down again then up again until kicking the bucket around 2pm!

So after spending the last 8 hours trying to figure this out still t he site is inaccesible

Since im Using Virgin as the main ISP everything is working fine and cool!

After having several discussion with our techies as well as the Systems administrators (The Top guys over at our Datacenter) There was absolutely nothing wrong with our servers or network despite being convinced it was our firewall blocking this ISP out - this wasnt the case since the server must have gotten checked through by atleast 4 different people!

So we ring talktalk after being on hold for 30 mins then someoen appeared on the other line for about 30 seconds then she vanishes again and returns back after 37 minutes and say "Problem at our side, will check with our security company will call you back"

Now whether they call back is another mystery since in past experience talktalk have been awful!

Do a google on Talktalk reputation and you see how awful they are.........

So now we are left with several stranded clients who cannot access their website or anything

time Will tell..keep reading this blog for updates...................

Backups..........Backups.............

2007-11-09T15:12:00.000-08:00

Someone asks us.......

"What are your backup methods"

We have 3 backup retention methods

Daily (Runs everynight)

Weekly (Runs once a week)

Monthly (Runs once a month)

These backups are done within the same Datacenter

+ Once a month we do an offsite backup to a totally different Datacenter

We backup everything the full account…files/databases/emails etc

However we would still recommend people do their own backups as well just incase anything goes wrong,

New Products finally ..........launched!

2007-11-09T15:11:00.000-08:00

Salams

This blog post was sent out in our Monthly Email to all our customers - for your benefit too!!!

1) We have created a blog for ourselves http://mpadc.blogspot.com - we will regularly be posting things on there that may or may not be relevant to you including a bit more about who we are, how we work and operate and any other updates including technical issues and tips and tricks and any other thing which we feel that maybe interesting! So do check up on it often and feel free to leave your comments!

2) We have launched 2 new hosting products

* Non Cpanel Hosting
This is basically same as normal hosting we provide however there is no Cpanel on this server. This is ideal for static websites or if you wish to use it for personal use, we dont provide emails with this account all you get is FTP access and MYSQL databases. Prices are similar to our domain hosting plans, however you get much more webspace
see http://www.mpadc.com/hosting and click on the "Shared hosting No CPanel" link halfway down. Prices are typically 500MB Webspace for $20 Per year (Including Domain Name)!

* Web Streaming
This will allow you to stream audio from your PC across the Internet - in other words it works out the same as an Internet Radio Station. You can broadcast from your own home PC using Winamp software and you connect via our servers and your listeners can hear you across the Internet! You can play audio or present live shows or lectures!
see http://www.mpadc.com/hosting and click the "Web Streaming link" halfway down for more information! To Order this please contact us

3) Please ensure that any software you run on your website is LEGAL, we dont allow any cracked or pirated software or unlicensed scripts to be run on our servers. Anti-Piracy companies can track you down for this and they dont take things lightly either! So please ensure that any scripts such as forums are legal! Likewise with Mp3 and Image Hosting! We have had clients who have been hosting copyrighted images on their website only to recieve a C&D letter through their post and being fined £1000's so it is your responsibility to make sure that anything you run is LEGAL and Not copyrighted!

New Products and New Services Coming Soon...

2007-10-27T13:59:00.000-07:00

Assalamu alaykum

We are due to launch to NEW Products Soon Inshallah

1) Web Audio Streaming

2) Non Cpanel Accounts

Web Audio streaming is basically a service which allows you to stream Audio through the internet a bit like having your own radio station and allowing listeners to listen to audio through their Computer. You can setup your own radio station with shows or you can simply use it to stream audio (Live!)

We current provide streaming to various Radio Stations

www.ummahradio.com (One which We currently Run - To listen to it click here http://www.ummahradio.com:8007/ then click on the listen link

www.radioreality.com (A uk based Radio station broadcasting during Ramadhan)

www.1ummahfm.co.uk (Same as above)

and second product is non cpanel accounts for very basic websites who dont need any of the fancy cpanel / email or anything this will be dead cheap packages with lots and lots of space :-)

Keep your eyes peeled!

What happens when the sites and server goes down!

2007-10-21T09:28:00.000-07:00

Salams

Thought id write a bit about what happens when sites and server goes down - as with any webhosting company this tends to happen!

All of our servers at the moment are monitored 24X7 which means basically someone is watching it - not literally but it is being watched by a system and that system is being watched by humans!

The monitoring services are PING and HTTP

Ping is basically the protocol which determines to see if the Server is online!

HTTP is the protocol for your websites which keeps then running

If ping goes down then nothing nada will work because with ping going down it usually means that the server has fell off the network, someone has unplugged it or the network is down then it means we start to panic!!!

if HTTP is down its not the end of the world - well for clients it maybe as its their website but luckily from a techician view its not because if ping is working then we can login remotely to the server and restart http service

Soo what does this have to do with anything?

Alot - If our servers or services goes down we are automatically notified, it could be 9am in the morning or 2am on a sunday morning servers are unpredictable it can go down anytime for unknown reasons at times!

Soo the server goes down we are notified we being to panic...once we know about this we are aware of the problem the next thing is to rectify the issues

our core network technicians are based in the states.

So if the server goes down....we either get an email (if we are online) or get a text message if we are asleep.....then next thing is to figure out the problem

once sites are online we tell customers to allow us atleast 1 hour to get the server back up - 99% of time its up within 15mins but sometimes the problem may be a bit more complex which requires alot of thinking of whats gone wrong and what to do next..sometimes there could be powercuts, network failures! or sometimes it could be simply that someone has decided to do something crazy on the server like send out 10000s of emails at once or run this dodgy script on their site which takes the server down.

Soo if the server goes down or your sites not working you can do the following:

1) try accessing www.mpadc.com or www.muslimdot.com

if that works and you can view those sites and not yours open a helpdesk ticket
http://support.mpadc.com

If none of the websites work or open then if you have someone else you know on a different network then get them to try it, if it works from there end then there is something wrong with your network connection contact us on helpdesk incase its a firewall issue that has blocked you out on the server or wait around 30mins to see if it resolves itself

if no luck with any of the above then go for a Pinnnnnnng!

Try pinging the box
Start > Run type in cmd

then type
ping mpadc.com, if you get something like the below then the server is online but http is down

We are aware of this by now and will just restart the http server

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\>ping mpadc.com

Pinging mpadc.com [69.16.237.199] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 69.16.237.199: bytes=32 time=119ms TTL=46
Reply from 69.16.237.199: bytes=32 time=118ms TTL=46
Reply from 69.16.237.199: bytes=32 time=116ms TTL=46
Reply from 69.16.237.199: bytes=32 time=117ms TTL=46

Ping statistics for 69.16.237.199:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 116ms, Maximum = 119ms, Average = 117ms

C:\Users\>

If you dont get any of the above then the server has been dropped from the network - and yes we are aware of this and are working on it!

Give us 1 hr and see if we can sort it out - if not then give us a call on the number provided to you in the welcome email - you can ring us anytime of the day night we are always around on that number!

If there are any major issues we will try and email you or post on this blog!!!

The First Post!

2007-10-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

Assalamu alaykum All!

Since quite a few Web hosting companies have their own blog we at MPADC have decided to create our own blog and join in the hype!

Aim of this blog is to keep our Clients and any Potential clients uptodate with regards to our Webhosting Services.

Here we will post any updates, issues, new things, old things, whats going on and what not and anything and just everything relevant and useful inshallah!

Anyway I thought since this is our first blog post i would post a bit about what we are who we are!

MPADC.com (aka Muslim Programmers and Designers Community) Yeh long and obscure name i know! But done for Search Engine Purposes in a way long complicated Stuff... we started back in April 2003, Just a small discussion forum...why it was created well we just decided that the internet was missing a community for muslim web designers to unite and discuss! Something we could not find anywhere but thought why not give it a crack and start something up worth a shot!

This was what our page looked like back in April 2003
--------------

MPADC.com

Muslim Programmers and Designer Community

You are being directed to the forum now if you have to wait longer then 5 seconds please click here

This was what our page looked like!! Just a few lines of Text

Then few months down the line we decided to move on to something a bit more "cool"

http://web.archive.org/web/20031022143649/http://www.mpadc.com/

AT that time were were providing Webdesign, Tutorials and Graphics stuff basically a bit like a reference

Then We decided to go all Orangy

http://web.archive.org/web/20040327001752/forums.mpadc.com/

There is a host of other Weird and Fancy Screenshots you can see here

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.mpadc.com

We Then Went into the Web hosting business around December 2003, Starting off buying a reseller account then selling webhosting from there! Once we outgrew a few months later we then moved on to a VPS Server then eventually moving on to a dedicated server 1 year later. Hefty but Scary move for us!

But alhumdulillah it has been all good we have encountered many problems as of course being one of the Very few Muslim Webhosts and back many years ago when Political issues was red hot may people thought that they could host their extreme Jihad material on our servers simply because we were muslim and that we had to follow their views! So Unfortunately Several Websites manage to find their ways on to our servers without us knowing about it, which now all have been shut down...

Yes we do believe in people able to air their views but there is a limit when it becomes too extreme! Besides we were not in a position to let down our "Genunine Clients" ! But those were the days we got by..........

but now nearly 5 years on well Nearly I say April 2008 we will be 5 years on alhumdulillah have progressed on quite well with Several dedicated servers hosting 100's of Websites!

We also host alot of Non Muslim Oriented website, just because we Have "Muslim" on our name does not mean it is for Muslims only! Hence the name Muslim was there originally targeted at Muslim Webmasters! But if you have a Website that is non Islamic or if you are a non muslim you are more then Welcome to host with us, give us a go and we wont let you down :-) Actually having said that 40% Websites hosted on our box are not of Islamic Nature meaning they are Business Websites or Personal Sites!

Anyway Now who is who behind MPADC..ever wondered who that mysterious person is that replies to your helpdesk ticket 2am in the morning...or who is the one that is up all night restoring the servers if it has suffered a crash......We have only had 2 Major Crashes but alhumdullilah we got through them well. Will post more on crashes on another post later on inshallah as well as other things and useful hints and tips about your account and a host of other stuff...feel free to comment here if you want!

Here are the Team Members and Roles

Sajid - (Yup the one that made this first post) - What i do well i just sit down and oversee things making sure everything is ok on a daily basis...assisting with strategy and development and new products...and also staying up all night incase the server crashes and main point of contact for any customer issues

Mazoor A (The one with the Eid Gifts) - Mazoor been with us for a good few years now the one that deals with the sales enquiries and occasional Support when he can help and if he can help! Also the one that if you be really really nice to him he may give you a free upgrade or a good plan!

Mohammed Sabil Razali - Co-ordinator of MuslimDot.com our other network and does some of the budgeting stuff (when his not travelling around)

Imran Syed - Technical administrator - helps with the technical aspects of the Server

Ibn Batutah - Our Graphics design guy! All those flashy Graphics you see on the website done by him

Moazzam Khan - Our Chief PHP Programmer - the one that if you give him a notepad and a bit of code he turns it into something!

Abdul Basit - Works on Helpdesk the nice polite guy that helps you if you have any issues

and of course those of you with helpdesk ticket you will find a mysterious character called

"Staff1" - lets just say he likes to stay anonymous for now :)

We are based in UK, Gloucestershire to be precise. Part of our team members are based around the globe, We have servers located in USA, Canada and UK

Anyway thats all for now will post more later on Inshallah keep an eye on this blog for more stuff!

Wassalam
Sajid
MPADC.com!