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85 Comments
- wakasm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I really wish there was something more I can do than ask Digg.
I have used Vizaweb for 2 years without too many problems. The only real problems was their response time and this past September when they were hacked. I thought this time it was just another overnight downtime... but... it's been way too long. Their website is down. No one picks up the phones. Who would I even contact to complain when the company itself is just gone?
I do have a lot of things backed up. However I helped people build sites, they use my reseller account for the hosting. The amount of spent time here is not able to be repaired. Sure now I have reason to rebuild some websites that I build when I knew barely nothing and what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. It just seems like something should be done or could be done.
What is worse I do not even know if they are "gone". Maybe they are upgrading.
Any ideas? Anyone? - blognc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I'm Nathan Weinberg, and I run the InsideGoogle and InsideMicrosoft blogs, two very popular blogs that supported me and my wife. I am a writer, not very technical, and I was never able to backup my data. If Vizaweb has cut and run, I am out of a job and livelihood. Please, if you know anything, write here or IM me (AIM: blognc).
- Lostcosmos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5It could have been in her browser's cache.
- jamesspelt, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7The negative number corresponds to how stupid you are.
- dpicella, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4No, VizaWeb is gone, I am relatively sure of it. They can still do the right thing, however, and help guys like you and me get our data. That is what they should do. The data is held at theplanet ... so it is not gone! Personally, I would like to get my data back. I am like you, I have some backups. Unfortunately not enough... but nothing worth committing suicide over. But worth at least a couple hundred bucks if I have to put it up and I will.
Take a look at my other post and see if you are interested in taking a pledge to get some help from somebody. I think it is a good idea. Spread the word.
http://digg.com/tech_news/Is_VizaWeb_Down_For_the_Count#c3762800
As soon as my new web site is up I will post a list of people making a pledge.
VizaWeb, if you are reading this, you are welcome to contact me also. I am sorry about what happened. There are a lot angry people and folks that are just as screwed as you think you are. People want to sue and they probably will, but if you want to contact me I would be happy to help by taking the pledge I am talking about. If there are enough of us, perhaps we can forward some cash on your behalf -- at least enough to open up the servers for a while so that we can get our data. That would make a lot of folks happy. Please contact me - I am picella.com on your service.
Thanks. - fac3less, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4http://hostjury.com/reviews/vizaweb/
It looks like someone is doing their best at initiating a class action lawsuit against them.
With that said -- I wouldn't say they're gone just yet.. something is up though. - chance1376, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I tried sending an email to info@theplanet.com so far no answer but maybe if enough people email they might give a response. It doesn't look pretty though I did a trace route on my domain and vizaweb.com. Both make it to The Planets data centers before failing. I would assume any hardware issues would be taken care of before know.
The strange thing is before the September incident support actually got better. Support tickets started to get handled outside of normal 8-5 business hours and on weekends. Plus the server my site was on actually ran smoothly with little downtown. So hopefully this is something fixable or at least we can get ahold of our data. Like others I have backups but would love to have the latest data back. - Aiwanei, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4My girlfriend signed up for VizaWeb after seeing Leo Laporte touting it, when his sites used to be with them. Upto recently even, Leo was sponsored on their site about being a supporter (probably was past comments.) So I feel if Vizaweb did let us down, Leo let us down :( Also once Leo did promote it, is when I heard vizaweb really went down hill since their customer base grew ten fold. Here is to hoping viza web either comes back, or gets us the backups.
- Matty2Jay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3How come this isn't on the main page?
- blognc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Okay, everyone, I have been doing a lot of digging with some smarter bloggers, and there's this great program called Warrick that trolls the Google/Yahoo/MSN caches and the Internet Archive, and rebuilds your entire site structure on your hard drive. It is by no means a perfect solution, but if you have no good backups, it is your only solution. It runs under Windows or Linux, is relatively easy, and has been very effective for me the last few hours. I'm still holding out hope Rick is just avoiding calls while he fixes technical problems, but if he isn't, you want to do whatever you can.
http://www.cs.odu.edu/~fmccown/research/lazy/warrick.html
Also, simple instructions for running Warrick under Windows:
http://www.cs.odu.edu/~fmccown/research/lazy/warrick-windows-install.html
Finally, location where you can get the Google API key you'll need to avoid getting your IP blocked:
http://api.google.com/createkey
Please, do whatever you can to save your data, and post any solutions that work here. I suggest we all keep coming back to this page to trade info and plans. - speedfoot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I've been using VizaWeb and never had a problem. The support guy (Support always came from Rick Mueller) was always fast. Couldn't they have sent out an email saying that they were going to have an outage? or something? I just am so angry. I just recently updated my website, so it's a good thing that I have a local copy of my site, or else I would be so much angrier at them.
If someone could please contact me, that would be great.
Thank you. - pengas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i guess it's high time to emphasize how important a backup is.
no one can imagine their hosting service going out of business and not notifying their clients.. if your Internet business is large enough, u have implemented a disaster recovery plan and a backup policy. otherwise - you are f***ed...
ouch - fac3less, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Nathan,
Keep frequent backups! :(
Never rely on a provider to do it on your behalf.
If you provide me with your domain name I'll see if I can help you get into your panel to retrieve a backup. - dpicella, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I've already called them. The only thing they can do to say that they have the vizaweb servers. They are the data center. I asked the guy at theplanet if this happens a lot and he says it does. It doesn't surprise me that hosting services go out all the time, but VizaWeb wasn't all that small (I don't think). I know they were not very big either. I always liked them. I also asked theplanet if people usually get their data back. He said he didn't know because he never gets to talk to people after they make the call. I know for a fact that there is a way to get these web sites back. They are not gone. They are at theplanet. The planet is the datacenter. As posted above, if anyone has an inside contact at theplanet that is the best option. Don't bother with FTP or trying the IP address. It is not a DNS issue. It is a blackout. Everything stops at theplanet.
AIM: dpicella - blognc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2blognewschannel.com
And thanks, fac3less. I need any help I can get. - blognc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Same here. As angry as I am, and as much as I'm thinking "Sue!", I just want my data, and will leave them completely alone if they let us get at it. I'll even settle for mostly recent backups.
- Streyeder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Throwing my hat in the rink. I have my personal site and my parent's business site with them. Ugh....
- Matty2Jay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah, that's why Vizaweb is gone. Grow up kiddo.
- blognc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1My data is important and valuable enough to me that if they were in financial trouble I would have bailed them out!
- Neilyos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I would recommend canceling and moving to GoDaddy. their service is superb, 24/7. (I wouldn't recommend if I didn't personally use their hosting)
- knighttime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Even if VizaWeb do get going again, I will definately be moving web hosts.
- KnockKnock, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm in the same boat, blognc. Not a tech person, no data backup.
- burbankphil, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It seems like this Digg story is one of the top hits when searched "vizaweb down" on google. So this will probably become homebase for disgruntled vizaweb customers out there searching for answers. Hopefully other people will find this posting and collectively we can find out what is going on with Vizaweb. First, does anyone out there have any contacts with any employees at "ThePlanet"? I'd also like to try to find Rick Mueller for some answers. If anyone wants to add me to their aim chat my screen name is "dadbalto". I think there are enough of us out there that we can get some answers quickly.
- alexmm01, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is crazy. I have been with Vizaweb for two or three years. Never really had a problem. This is very scary and I think they may have just cut and run like everyone seems to fear. Good thing I made a backup of my current site a week or two ago. Feels like I just dodged a bullet. Some loss is better than total loss.
- nicktripp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm in the same boat as everyone else except that, back in the day, when Leo was pitching this site, I talked several friends into signing up with them. So now, not only is my site gone, six of my friends' sites and data are gone as well.
It's not so much my thee year old blog and all of that data that I want back as it is access to my email address, which was my primary. I mean, being able to transfer my domain would be nice too, but it's the email that's killing me right now.
I'm going to start blogging about this and I don't plan to stop searching and working until I get an answer. Here's the link, if anyone's interested in keeping up with it: http://guardyourpants.blogspot.com/
I'll also try to keep posting here as well. - wakasm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Just spoke to a rep at The Planet. They are not the back-up to VizaWeb.com, they just rent out servers to companies like Vizaweb and it’s all on Vizaweb how they handle the servers from there.
The Planet does not have a back-up of anything that was hosted by vizaweb.com
Are we scewed? We might be. But Vizaweb will be big time screwed when the lawyers get through with them. "
Just a comment from the blog. I don't think he knew of the digg story. - wakasm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1if you can do this... then help me too. This is why i went to digg. Someone here is gonna know whatever i don't. And it's appreciated.
It's not that i don't back up... but with soo many websites on a reseller account, it's just not as easy as it sounds. I would just be upset if i lost my data. That isn't the case. I lost my hosting, help, all accounts, databases, statistics, and probably visitors and customers too seeing i couldn't even warn them! - dpicella, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Here is a link to Rick's blog on MySpace... I've already tried contacting him there but you might give it a shot
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=108982822 - fac3less, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Doublecheck your domain via www.whois.sc -- if you notice something along the lines of 'registration sponsored by enom' or another provider you can contact them to get migrated.
- fac3less, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2If you can provide me with your domain name I'm fairly certain I can get something done.
- muyuu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Let me see if I'm getting this straight. Not only you're not going to sue or ask for any reparations, but you are offering them "hundreds" of dollars?
Wow I want to host your site :) - nicktripp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Did anyone else notice this story isn't showing up on digg searches for "vizaweb"? Hmm.
- DasPitchfork, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm another victim. This is ridiculous. Vizaweb's main site is still down and they're not answering emails or phone calls (on two different customer support lines -- one of which is apparently a cell phone). Worse still, it's more or less impossible to get your domain name back since it's technically the property of Vizaweb.
What awful business practices. What Vizaweb's doing doing is inexcusable -- at best. At worst, it's criminal.
What burns me up most is the fact that it came completely without warning. All of a sudden, Vizaweb and everything on its servers gets vaporized. No heads-up, no explaination -- and anybody who could be held accountable or answer questions is already long gone.
I've given up hope of the servers going back up. What I'm hoping for now is somebody to track down Vizaweb's proprietor and initiate a class-action lawsuit. He simply cannot be allowed to get away with this. - blognc, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I make a living blogging. I have a wife, and we support ourselves from my site. I made good money, so I can survive a few months, but I can't rebuild my audience, regain rss readers and backlinks. I need this back, or I'm completely screwed. I'm an idiot for not learning more about the backend and how to do regular backups, and for being too afraid to switch hosts, and now I'm afraid we're all paying for it. I don't care what happened, there is a solution for it, but we're all relying on this Rick guy to do the right thing.
- blognc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1VizaWeb Inc
Rick Mueller (domains@vizaweb.com)
6380 Tahoe Rd
Woodbury
MN,55125
DasPitchFork, if I don't hear from him soon, and get my backups, I'm in. - Wreckk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I had the same exact situation.. I was in the area of 3-4k a day... after the sept incident I was down like 1200-900 a day.... and now this....
Talk about learning a lesson... I can somehow some way get some back ups. - dasunst3r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I had this problem with HostingWired. All my blog posts and stuff were wiped out just like that.
- Wreckk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is awesome...
I run Gearcritech.com so well over 1000 posts, tons of reviews and not to mention the insane damage that all this down time is doing to our traffic...
THANKS VIZAWEB!!!! - Wreckk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1*if i can somehow some way get some backups, it won't be as bad...
is what i meant....
It was down for longer the last time in Sept, at least for me... hopefully the servers will be back up.... - YupRules, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's back up it's back up!
- KnockKnock, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Thanks jamesspelt...I just dugg you + ;)
- dangerboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Its back. I am packing my bags and looking for a more reliable webhost or one that atleast has a phone number to call and get an answer when a problem arises. This is totally unprofessional - how can you have no contact with them for over 48 hours while you sit and spin?
I imagine many others are going to do the same. Get out while you can before it goes down for go with no explaination as always. - chance1376, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I can get back into my site right now as of 10:30 am Eastern Time. Downloading current DB as we speak :)
- chance1376, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hmmmm...think we can get a group rate at a new host.
- Wreckk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1BACK! and BACKING UP and BACKING OUT!
- KnockKnock, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I've been with Vizaweb for a year or so and haven't been terribly disgruntled over the downtimes or lack of customer service...until now.
Before today:
My websites were down several times a day, every day...when I'm editing my sites I'll get disconnected or they just vanish from the web for several minutes at a time. Sometimes the email doesn't work, sometimes it's the websites, sometimes it's both. I've stayed with them through their server issues and didn't get upset when there was no response, at all, to my request for assistance with MySQL (several weeks worth of requests, no response).
However, my sites are "gone"...I can't transfer to another host because VizaWeb's FTP ports are closed...can't get to my domains (registered through another company)...there's no C-Panel, no VizaWeb site, either. There's nothing. It's all just vanished.
Now, something similar did happen a few months ago, with my site, at least. I don't know if it affected anyone else. My sites were down for about 24 hours. I emailed support. My sites were up before I heard anything from support, but they apologized for the problem and that was that. I'm not one to hold a grudge.
Then the site got hacked and the servers were down for a day or so. Could happen to anyone. They did send out emails to urge us to change our passwords, and I did. No big deal.
My site has just started to make money. No much, but it's a PROFIT! I've had to refund my advertisers, cancel subscriptions, etc. This is quite discouraging.
I'm not ready to say that VizaWeb has shut down, packed their bags and run away...but it's not looking good. No one knows anything and we are all desperate for some information, to know what's going on. I'm glad I found this forum...it feels good to be able to vent my frustrations a bit. Thank you for
e-listening. - KnockKnock, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Are these the IP addy's?
unix1.vizaweb.com [69.93.28.162]
and
unix2.vizaweb.com [69.93.32.162] - UberGiant, on 08/23/2008, -0/+0Problem solved after 3 months of trying to get the authcodes from them. I'll post how I got them here to help others.
I contacted several people who had the problem of getting away from vizaweb by seeing them on digg. I found their websites, contacted them, and several of them said they were able to get away from vizaweb by vizaweb eventually answering their support requests and giving them the authcodes. Well I kept trying using various tactics and finally got the authcodes.
The successful ticket that got me what I want involved acting dumb. I asked what the domain password is in ModernBill to which they replied:
You should get the password in your welcome mail. If you don't have the passwod, we can reset it for you. Pleas get back to us with the last 4 digits of credit card number for the verification purpose.
After some dumb replies and transfers between departments (I can see them emailing the ticket to the guy sitting beside them), they finally sent the authcodes. - burbankphil, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This has been an interesting process. I'm trying to move the domain off Vizaweb (to Godaddy) Godaddy has been extremely helpful, but Vizaweb now says I need an authorization code to complete my domain transfer request. So I just e-mailed support at Vizaweb. Also I received an e-mail from "The Planet" today, it sounds like someboby picked up Vizaweb's hardware - here's a copy of the e-mail.
Phil,
VizaWeb (currently listed as an inactive customer) has no hardware associated with their inactive account record. This indicates that their hardware has already been reclaimed.
You are not our customer so there is really no further information I can provide you in this regard.
Chris Interrante
Client Relations Advocate
The Planet - EV1 Servers
214-782-7890 direct & e-fax
- UberGiant, on 08/15/2008, -0/+0Has anyone been able to transfer their domains away from Vizaweb? How'd you manage to perform this miracle? I can't retrieve my authcode from vizaweb. Any help is welcomed!
-
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