If anyone's having problems connecting to our site at the moment (originally set up for Digital Spy users) then I apologise but it appears our host, Plusnet, have taken their CGI servers down for a while for maintenance.

They said it would take two hours, but do far it's been down for seven.

We are expecting the hosting back in the next few hours, so please bear with us and accept my apologies for this break in service.

This is a one off event that should be over soon.

Thanks

(I don't think I've broken DS rules with this post as it's informing users of the free service we built for them having problems. I am not promoting our site here and not posting a link. Apologies if this causes issues, but there are many on here that benefit from this site and many still to sign up etc.)

Sorry about this, we are still offline

This is due to our hosts, Plusnet, having some quite serious issues with their hosting.


As soon as Plusnet have fixed their CGI hosting server we shall be back!

The good news is that the MYSQL tables are all still there and working fine, so we haven't lost any users information.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Make sure you backup MYsql

We take regurlar backups, but at the moment no one can access the MySql database at plusnet due to their hardware failures.

They're still not back up and running yet and I apologise for this to all our users.

I will be contacting their support shortly to try and get an idea of when things will be resolved.

Your website is returning 404 now, doesnt look good

One host I had accidentally had everything erased and didnt tell me.

They are still down

Sorry about this everyone, there's not much we can do until Plusnet sort themselves out.

what is the web site for the sim cards?

Why don't you change the hoost of your web site to http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ I build my web site from this site all ways on line never gose down.

There aren't any free sim card offers on at the moment, unless you mean our Free Sims List site?

@ Uri Gellar, I am not sure that the host you suggest provides hosting with support for CGI or MySql which is required for our site.

If this does become a long term issue I will move the whole thing to another host, but at the moment I am still hoping that Plusnet sort themselves out.

Sorry Uri Gellar, misread your link and thought you were on about their free hosting.

Please remember that this site for the sims list is a voluntary site that we run, so there's no income on it at all, meaning I don't really want to be paying out for hosting for it.

Just check for you dose take MySql, PHP and Perl have a look http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/webhosting/faq.php#11 number 11.

i have a bit of webspace available if you want to use it while your site is down.

im happy to give you 50mb space and a subdomain

PM me the name of your site and i will get you all set up.

this assumes you have a backup of your current site of course.

my server supports php cgi mysql pearl frontpage extentions ect ect.

do you know how to use FTP?

Let me know if your interested

Dinger

.....................................................................................

Thanks for the kind offer Dinger.

I have a few options that I am looking at at the moment, but I will keep this in mind.

I have just sent Plusnet a contact us ticket asking if they will restore the site themselves or if I have to do all this from my own local files.

And yes, I keep backups. Lukcily I have worked long enough as a developer to realise the importance of backups, even for voluntary projects like this.
(some of our customers at work don't keep backups believe it or not! It's most amusing when they call panicking because the server they never look after has died and they don't have any backups )

ok just send me a pm if you want and i will get you all set up.

Dinger

hope you sort the systems out!

good luck

Plusnet have now fixed or replaced the server, but they have informed me that the free sims list site (as well as all other sites on that server) are completely lost and not retrievable due to their problems!

This means I have to restore the site from the backups I had.

The site itself isn't a problem, but there are several different scripts involved in the running of the site that I must now set up again.

This may take some time so please bare with me.

Also I am unable at present to get access to the plusnet server to upload the files. I suspect this is because of the mass demand as all their other users upload their lost files too.

I will keep you posted and thanks for your support.

what is the url of your free sims list
Leo

http://cgi.afmoore.plus.com/

http://cgi.afmoore.plus.com/sims

But it's not back up yet.

How big is the database?
You are welcome to use my hosting & SQL database if you require it. I have 1GB of space + unlimited bandwidth.

Its currently hosting this site:
http://www.linuxapproved.co.uk/

but I never got chance to finish it.

The site's fixed and we are open for business again!

(of course it's still free, so it's free business )

If you need a reminder of the address it's http://cgi.afmoore.plus.com/sims

Remember if you spot an offer we haven't seen or alerted you to please use the contact us page to tell us about it.

Thanks all, and enjoy.