Hosting Server Move Information

For those of you whose accounts I have moved to the new hosting service, here are some important links for you during the transition time.

EMAIL INFORMATION:
All your settings will remain the same (I even tried to get most of your passwords copied correctly, after you sent them to me). You can login and correct any errors using the information below (login to the new server). But your mail server settings will remain:

incoming/outgoing mailservers: mail.[yourdomain]
username: your full email address
pw: your password

[NOTE: Some ISPs require that you use their mail server to send mail. If you have trouble sending, check with your ISP to see if this is the case. Also, you may need to set the outgoing port to 26, rather than the default 25. I found this to be the case with one account, but no others so far.]

NEW SERVER LINKS:
cPanel (settings like email accounts and passwords, redirects, databases, etc):
http://basicwebdesignandgraphics.com/cpanel

OLD SERVER LINKS:
cPanel (to check/retrieve any old settings not correctly transferred, email, auto-responders, databases, etc):
http://bwd-graphics.com/cpanel

Webmail (to retrieve any mail incorrectly directed to the old servers, which can sometimes happen during the name server change):
http://bwd-graphics.com/webmail

Your cPanel login should be the same as it was before. And to check mail on the old server, just use your email address(es) and the associated passwords. If you need me to send your login information to you, just send me an email to the address in the left sidebar here.

IMPORTANT: Accounts will be on the old server only until July 31st. They will be deleted shortly after that.

Very sorry for all the issues over this past month. I am hopeful that there won't be anything like this ... ever again! :-)

Thanks for your business.
Greg Campbell
Basic Web Design & Graphics

Continued Server Issues

As you may have noticed, there was another good chunk of time that the [old] BWD servers were down/inaccessible today. That will be the last straw. About 40-50% of the BWD accounts were moved to a new hosting service over the past several weeks. Tonight and the rest of this week I will move ALL accounts to a new hosting service.

Ideally you will not notice the change. If you have changed your email password since I created it for you then I will not be able to set that up for you. That will be a simple password "change" once the domain is pointing to the new server. You will not miss any mail. I will send you a link to check mail on the old server in case any does get directed there.

(In fact, I'll post it here: http://bwd-graphics.com/webmail ... login there with your email address and password to get any mail sent to the old server once the domain points to the new server.)

I'll send an email to everyone once all have been officially moved.

So sorry for the past month of at best inconvenience, at worst giant headaches. (I know I have one...)

Thanks for your patience.
Greg Campbell
BWD

Server Downtime [Conclusion?]

The hosting service has decided that the problem is a hardware issue that is not repairable, and are currently moving ALL of their accounts (including all BWD accounts) to brand new servers. This will result in a bit more downtime this weekend, but by Monday, all should be smooth sailing.

Here is their message in response to a support ticket yesterday:

I am transferring your sites now... Your nameservers for ns1.bwd-graphics.com / ns2.bwd-graphics.com will be updated towards the end of the transfer. Please note that it could take some time for propagation, and it will probably be a rough transition as a result of the old server occasionally going down, but when it's all done it should be very nice.

Because of this, I have suspended any migrations that were in process to the other hosting service. Probably about 20% of BWD accounts have been moved from the company who has had the hardware trouble for three weeks now to the new hosting company. You have been notified if yours was one of these accounts.

I will be watching very closely over the next week to see what will happen with the current hosting company (on the new hardware). If there are still issues, I will have to continue moving accounts.

If you would prefer me to move your account anyway, just let me know. Use the email address in the left column of this page.

Thanks.
Greg Campbell
BWD

UPDATE:

FYI, as of this afternoon (Jul 10), All BWD accounts have been moved to the new hardware (but with the same hosting company, except for those mentioned above who have been individually contacted about being moved to a new hosting company). There may be some domain name server propagation issues (being directed to the wrong server) but overall it seems the switch has been made and this should resolve all of the downtime and slowness issues. Please contact me if you're still experiencing problems after Monday. (A couple of days to make sure any name server issues are resolved.) Thanks.

Increase In Spam

If you have experienced an increase in spam in the past few days to a week, it's likely due to your account being moved to a new hosting service. I discovered that they do no have SpamAssassin enabled by default. (I was unaware of this initially.) I have not turned it on and given it a setting of 5, the default setting. This should catch/eliminate most spam.

If you'd like to adjust your spam filtering settings, simply login to your control panel:
[yourdomain]/cpanel

Navigate to the SpamAssassin page and set the auto-delete number. Lower means it will delete more messages, higher means it will allow more to pass through. You can also enable a "Spam Box" if you'd prefer not to have SpamAssassin auto-delete. (Though I have found it does do a very good job of determining which messages are spam and which are not.)

This will not eliminate spam entirely, only greatly reduce it. One way to eliminate it (almost) entirely that is built into your hosting service is Box Trapper. Box Trapper requires authentication of every email address that sends you email. Once authorized, mail will be sent through normally, but the user must authorize their email address on the first attempt to send you a message. It works really great for me. I highly recommend.

If you're having any issues with spam, please try these solutions, and then contact me if the troubles persist.

MAJOR Issues Continue - Moving Accounts

The main BWD hosting company has not resolved the issues that have plagued the servers hosting most BWD hosted websites and email accounts, and though we have a long-standing and excellent relationship with this company, it has been nearly a week of intermittent connectivity (plus a day where the sites were inaccessible for a couple hours just before this past week) and many times the sites and email have been completely down for even hours.

This problem does not affect everyone, but the highest-traffic sites are being moved over and configured so that you will experience very little (or no) server move related downtime. Hoping to have all such sites moved to a new hosting service by the end of this weekend.

If you are having issues, please contact me using the alternate address in the left sidebar.

So sorry for the past week of very sub-par service. Looking forward to using the new faster, more reliable service.

Thanks for your patience, and your business.

Greg Campbell
BWD