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[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

Last Friday, I rebuilt the website on a new server.

On Saturday, near midnight, the website failed.  I think some of my fooling around may have contributed.  44 hours after I asked for help, our ISP said that the hard disk failed and that no data was left on it.

On Monday, I rebuilt the website on a new server.

On Tuesday, the website failed.

Our ISP said that the hard disk failed and that no data was left on it.  No backup had been made by their backup system, either.

On Wednesday, we found a new ISP.

I am rebuilding the website now, even as we speak, for the third time in seven days.  I'm getting pretty good at some parts of the process.  This time, I installed our security certificate before connecting SMF to the database.  Digicert says its working.  I'm going to play with the server settings now.  ...

OK. Clicking the little icon next to tighar.org shows the website identity and tells me that I've visited here 34,179 times.  I'm not sure who is counting.

I am now going to play with the wiki, one of my favorite parts of the website.  Before I bring it back up, I will upgrade the software from 1.16.5 to 1.19.2.  I'm getting moderately good at that maneuver.   

TTYL.

[Chris Johnson]

All digits crossed and Marty, your a star 

[Monte Chalmers]

Looking good at the moment.  I was sorry to see you were having trouble when I tried it this morning.  Yes, practice makes perfect.   

"Our ISP said that the hard disk failed and that no data was left on it.  No backup had been made by their backup system, either."

That means we lost something?

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

That means we lost something?

Yes.

When I first re-opened the Forum last Saturday, there were a lot of new posts made.

If the disk drive hadn't failed, I could have retrieved those posts.

The site was open a shorter time after a second rebuild.  It was only about five hours from the time I exited my SSH terminal, thinking things were looking good, until I tried to log in again and found that a second disk drive had completely failed, leaving no data on it.  And the backup system had not yet run on the website, so there wasn't anything left to work with.

That's when we decided to try another ISP.

And here we are again.   

[Jeff Lange]

What would we do without you Marty! Thank you for you diligence.

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

What would we do without you Marty!

You would pay some professional professional rates--and probably not go through this kind of rigamarole in the first place! 

[James G. Stoveken]

You had it pretty easy Marty.  At least you knew what was going on.  We were in limbo for a week (or was that purgatory?) not knowing where the forum was. 

Thank you for your hard work.  It must have been very frustrating for you but please know how much we appreciate all you do.

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

You had it pretty easy Marty.  At least you knew what was going on.

Well, sorta.  I was in agony for 44 hours, waiting to find out whether the work I'd done was on the backup disk.  I had no idea it would take that long.  I slept one or two hours at a time, hoping to be able to accelerate the process.  It was weird.

We were in limbo for a week (or was that purgatory?) not knowing where the forum was. 

Definitely Purgatory.  Limbo is a permanent condition of perfect natural happiness.   

Thank you for your hard work.  It must have been very frustrating for you but please know how much we appreciate all you do.

I enjoy it very much myself--when it works! 

[C.W. Herndon]

Well Marty, at least we are up and running again. While I can't speak for everyone, I, for one, am proud of your perseverance and success.

Keep up the good work.

[Hilary Christine Olson]

As Always Thank You Marty ,
I was able to sign in to forum last night for a few mins but  when trying to write post here  I was redirected to the home page. 
I just got back from a 10 day visit to Italy as my son Geoffrey and his now terrific wife Rebecca were married in Tivoli .
Despite tumbling down steps at the Forum in Rome, mugged in Naples and my husband ,Bob, losing his credit card in Sorrento ,we had a great time . So much history still being discovered there.
So glad to have this old friend back .
Again Thank you Marty.
Hilary

[John Balderston]

Marty, it is such a great pleasure to find the forum - indeed the entire website - up and operating.  Thank you so much for your efforts!  Sincerely, John

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

I was able to sign in to forum last night for a few mins but  when trying to write post here  I was redirected to the home page.

I hate when that happens!

I may have been running a database maintenance routine when you tried to post.  I probably ran a dozen different cleanup-paintup-fixit routines in the admin area--every one I could see, in fact.

I just got back from a 10 day visit to Italy as my son Geoffrey and his now terrific wife Rebecca were married in Tivoli .
Despite tumbling down steps at the Forum in Rome, mugged in Naples and my husband ,Bob, losing his credit card in Sorrento ,we had a great time . So much history still being discovered there.
So glad to have this old friend back .
Again Thank you Marty.

It's truly my pleasure.   

We got our outgoing e-mail service running this morning.

Things seem to be heading in the right direction.

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

... indeed the entire website - up and operating.

We're not whole yet.

Stuff on the front end seems to be working OK (HTML, wiki, Forum).

There is a lot of backstage work still to do.  I've got nine items on my to-do list.  The implicit tenth item is to search for my other to-do lists.   

[Monte Chalmers]

Marty, maybe something to add to your list of things to correct.
Once in awhile, I forget to log out of the site.  In the past,  I haven't been concerned because the system drops me out due to inactivity.
But tonight, I've been gone for hours - and here I'm writing this without signing in. 

[john a delsing]

IMO
  When the history books are being closed on the computers of the 20th / 21st century's, three names will stand out:  Gates, Jobs, & Moleski,,,,,     and not necessarly in that order !