Today I became the slave to my domains.
By the way, in case you didn’t know, this is what it looks like when I’m frustrated:
(side note: this is also what it looks like if my laptop were filled with flour and it exploded while I was sighing.)
I did a boo-boo on 40+ of my 100+ domains and didn’t know it until today. Metalmom asked me a question about an email she received about her domain last night. The email itself puzzled me a little, and just for grins, I checked her website from my blackberry while riding the bus this morning and I couldn’t reach it.
Then I tried another one of the websites I host, http://jennefer.net, and it had the same problem. And another site? Same problem. Even simple redirects to Blogger/Blogspot sites like I do for Sourpuss was hosed.
As I checked them, I discovered that all had “parking pages” on them, not the blogs or redirects I had so lovingly set up. Then it hit me – a couple of days ago. I was in my 1 & 1 account cleaning up my domains. I had specified for the domains to not be auto-renewed, but what I didn’t know at the time was that by doing so,
- 1&1 would change the DNS settings to their own parking pages
Result: breaking whatever sites I had on them at the time - Domain registration would be set to Public vs Private
Result: my personal information such as home address, phone, email, etc would be revealed in WHOIS - I would lose the ability to manage the domain from my control panel
Result: I would panic because I couldn’t fix it myself, and instead I have to wait on 1&1 Billing personnel. Metalmom remains whimpering in a fetal position while her blog is “down” for some.
This is very frustrating.
To be fair, the “cancel auto-renew” process did alert me at the time that I would lose private registration, but I thought that would be for when the domain period expired, NOT immediately. And they absolutely did not indicate whatsoever that they would be changing all my DNS settings for these domains to a parking page, which is the Big Bad Part.
However, even after four phone calls to support and billing, the requirement is upon ME to fax them with my customer ID, contract ID, package name, PASSWORD (what tha?) and the list of domains I want put back on auto-renew. I still have no idea how long it will take for them to fix the problem, but I at least was able to fix Metalmom’s site, and hopefully it won’t take too long for DNS to propagate through teh internetz.
I’ve sent the fax and am now waiting for them to fix the problem.
Waiting.
Waiting.
I’m glad you aren’t handling my site
I still love you….*smooches*!!
metalmoms last blog post..Chattin’
I’m not a fan of 1&1 anyways, but mainly because of their horribly obtrusive advertisements.
Avitables last blog post..Dear 13 year old Avitable
Hunh. I didn’t notice anything funky with my site. But I’m glad you got it all worked out. Quite frankly, I’m surprised your brainiac self even made the “boo-boo” in the first place.
So, why do you keep the flour in there?
marilyns last blog post..Yes, but do you ever think about MY needs?
Both my blogs are with 1and1, which in the past (and even currently) they have been good. Price wise, they are hard to beat and their CS agents have been good. But I want direct access to my MySQL databases… they don’t support that. And I know at some point in the future, my traffic needs will grow.
They normally are good about getting things fixed and at least they are always reachable.
Ugh, sorry, dude. That bites. Sounds like some pretty piss-poor communication on the part of 1&1.
Karls last blog post..Dear Dr. Freud…
I used to use 1&1 to when I hosted my old wordpress blog. They were always a pain in the butt to work with. Sorry you’re going thru this – I hope they get it all sorted out soon!
Evil Geniuss last blog post..Lick My Lolly!
I took winterheart.com from 1and1 and put it on Host Ultra which is where I have 3 other domains. The domain for my blog and Motley’s I have with Jester mostly because, at the time, I was frustrated with WordPress. At Host Ultra I have full access to my MySQL databases. I don’t have my domains registered through them though. I use a friend’s reseller account for those. Everything is so easy, and I have full control of it all. I will not go to anyone else unless Host Ultra’s prices go through the roof. At the moment, I pay $20/yr for hosting each domain. I can sympathize with your probs though. Motley’s dad has had those issues in the past.
Winters last blog post..Not a Mommy Blogger
Robin, whimper
metalmom, as long as that’s the end result, all is well with the world.
Avi, yeah. Not unlike a special Postcard for a particular kind of pump, eh?
sourpuss, I cannot tell a lie. It’s all 1&1′s fault.
marilyn, it’s what keeps my laptop humming.
martymankins, in general, I’ve been happy, especially for what I get and what I pay. But you can see all my posts about 1&1 and I’m usually complaining about them when I do post.
Karl, you *get* me.
Evil Genius, I must say they’re usually not great to work with from a support perspectve.
Winter, I personally don’t need direct access to MySQL – I’m curious to you and marty as to what you do need it for? I pay $7/yr for the domain (I have 150+), and I pay $9.95/mo for 300GB space, 5 free domains, 4TB of transfer, 4000 email accounts at 1GB each, 200 subdomains, unlimited aliases, 100 100MB mySQL databases, web creation designers, and a bunch of other features I don’t even use or need.
[hugs] Oh, Dude! [/hugs]
Dragons last blog post..Cherry & Peach Sour Cream Muffins