Author Topic: withgusto Networks - Status Updates and Discussion (Read 58759 times)

alberthrocks · « **Reply #30 on:** March 03, 2014, 05:15:27 pm »

Just a quick status update:
Current Status:

Status last changed: 3/2/14 (this is NOT the post update time, just the time I last worked on the migration!)
Time spent: ~6 hours.
ETA: ∞ - ~6 hours.
Next step: Small scale local testing.
TODO: Large scale local testing, code integration, large scale production testing, deployment, and completion of backup.
Further TODO: Copy data backup to new server, re-do system backup, write system backup restorer, write data backup restorer, run data backup restorer, run system backup restorer, start ZNC on new server, update DNS, do "user migration period", move ZNC config, terminate old server

Completed tasks:

Data program - Completely rewrote logic for data backup. Incomplete. [2/12]
Data program - Continued to rewrite logic for data backup. Fixed some bugs here and there, still needs another look. [2/17]
Data program - Finalized logic for data backup. Still untested, but it should be ready for integration. [2/19]
Data program - Wrote verification code to ensure that complete backups are made. [3/1-3/2]

Progress Bar:
[███ ] 30% _^^^^^^^^^^

alberthrocks · « **Reply #31 on:** March 04, 2014, 09:23:00 am »

Looks like we had a HARD 2 hour downtime (with the VPS actually being turned off) - sorry for the inconvenience! (This may be due to something on the VPS provider's side, dunno...)
This means that any bots or things that were running before have been turned off, and you may need to start them up again.
ZNC was disconnected but has started up again.

Again, sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused!

alberthrocks · « **Reply #32 on:** April 01, 2014, 01:18:35 pm »

withgusto has closed!

Due to the owner having no more time to work on the website, and loss of funds from paying off bills, withgusto has now shut down and will no longer operate from 4/1/2014 onwards. All shell accounts have been closed. Donations at withg.org/donate are no longer funding the website and will only fund the owner's debt.

Our website has been updated to reflect this unfortunate news. If you log in now, you will see this message instead:

Due to the owner having no more time to work on the website, and loss of funds from paying off bills, withgusto has now shut down and will no longer operate from 4/1/2014 onwards. All shell accounts have been closed. Donations at withg.org/donate are no longer funding the website and will only fund the owner's debt. We are deeply sorry for this inconvenience. 2014-04-01 13:15:10 | Uptime: CLOSED | Last update: April 1st, 2014 EDT 00:00:00

We are deeply sorry for this inconvenience.

EDIT: I am still accepting donations! http://withg.org/donate/

EDIT 2: April Fools!

No worries, we're not ready to shut our doors that fast! (Actually, not even close!) withgusto will live on for as long as it can, so no worries! Post-4/1 post to follow soon.

alberthrocks · « **Reply #33 on:** April 02, 2014, 01:51:51 am »

"Hey! So now withgusto has officially closed, I would like to say a sincere thank you to anybody (heck, everybody) for helping withgusto become what it had become. It's gone now, but I hope that its legacy will live on, maybe in another hosting community..."

...is what I hope I will NEVER have to say!

Our closing is an April Fool's joke! Some people did seem very concerned, so it looked like it worked pretty well... though honestly, I must apologize for that! The April Fool's joke was a little too dark, and I think I might have caused some people to have heart attacks when they saw this! (I couldn't reveal the joke to you guys (except for admins) because I couldn't tell whether you guys were genuinely concerned or just trying to get me to spill the beans!)

Rest assured - withgusto is NOT going anywhere anytime soon. I will do the best of my ability to ensure that it lives on forever.

I did try to give some hints though! For instance, in the HTML source of withg.org, there's a small HTML comment that looks like this:


I'll admit, I was being a tad bit deceptive. It's NOT a hash. It's just a hex encoded string. Going to a website like this will give you this:
this is totally not an april fool's joke

...which, if you found this, should hopefully keep your mind at ease.

The other more subtle (but ridiculous and slightly NSFW/NSFL) hint is found on the donation page:
http://withg.org/donate/

This is what it showed:

Quote

Albert Donations
Support Albert by donating today!

Hello there!
Do you use Albert every day? Do you depend on it? Or do you just love the services he offers, for free? Support him with a donation!
His services may be free, but he isn't. He is losing money every day, and the person paying for it isn't going to last long!
His monthly goal? $24 each month! (This month, he has raised $0!)
Show your appreciation - donate every month!

His Goal: 0% done

The Donor List - Folks Who Showed Their Support
Albert is pretty cool. You should throw all your money at him.

-Juju http://juju2143.ca 2014-01-15 15:41:06

I seem to be paying more than everybody else... Come on guys, catch up!

-Nathaniel van Diepen http://eeems.ca 2014-01-15 11:41:16

I love Albert more then that other Nathaniel guy.

-Nathaniel van Diepen http://eeems.ca 2013-11-21 18:17:52

Thanks for the great services

-Parker http://withg.org/parkerlreed/ 2013-10-30 00:37:45

I love Albert!

-Nathaniel van Diepen http://eeems.ca 2013-09-21 15:13:49

The sheer weirdness and craziness of the donation page should hopefully tip people off.

However, people fell for it, and there is a little scary truth in it that probably convinced people instantly. What is it?
It's true - I am footing the bill pretty much for the server costs, and am losing a lot of money for it. As a college student, this only makes matters worse.
(My estimate: $15/mo [withg.org], $7/mo [backup2.withg.org], $12/mo [backup service for withg.org], $16/mo [new server to migrate to], $25/yr -> $2.10/mo [backup.withg.org] = $52.10/mo)
As a result, I usually have to keep transferring from my savings account to support withgusto. I had initially thought that paying for this would motivate me to work on this faster, but I've come to realize that college is a full-time occupation. (There's a reason why "Student" is considered a job!) So no matter how long time goes by or how much money gets sucked out of me, I won't work any faster.

I really, really hate to ask for money, especially when I haven't offered you guys anything. Your accounts are still locked, and it's not the most productive server out there.

Nevertheless, I don't foresee myself getting this done soon, and I don't want to continue hemorrhaging money, so let's do something about it!

Effective soon (TM), the following will occur:

User accounts on main withgusto will be unlocked. backup2 will also be unlocked.
The new server will be terminated. A full backup will be made and frozen in time until one day we are ready to move.
New account requests will be re-opened. Actually, if you're reading this, go make a request right now! This also applies for ZNC as well - let me know in the proper thread, and then go here.
Get-This-Installed-Get-This-Configured requests will be re-opened. If you want to install something, go ahead! If you wanted me to setup some entries for a website for you, go ahead and ask away! (*cough* Deep Thought *cough*)
Anything else that was closed or modified to do the migration will be reversed.
Community contributed donations will continue as usual.

That's it! Hopefully this will tide you over from the pretty horrible April Fool's prank! (Next time I'll announce a merger with Google or something...)

Juju · « **Reply #34 on:** April 02, 2014, 01:54:53 am »

I knew it. *rolls eyes*

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #35 on:** April 02, 2014, 02:47:49 am »

I totally missed this one

. Nice, though

TIfanx1999 · « **Reply #36 on:** April 02, 2014, 07:33:21 am »

Knew it. Didn't take the troll bait.

Streetwalrus · « **Reply #37 on:** April 02, 2014, 12:02:30 pm »

LOL when I read this post I knew it was fishy. Nice try but you can't get me with April fools pranks.

Sorunome · « **Reply #38 on:** April 02, 2014, 03:24:25 pm »

Dang it, I totally fell for it >.<

Streetwalrus · « **Reply #39 on:** April 02, 2014, 04:20:19 pm »

* Streetwalrus laughs at Sorunome

* Streetwalrus runs

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #40 on:** April 05, 2014, 02:45:25 am »

Quote from: Sorunome on April 02, 2014, 03:24:25 pm

Dang it, I totally fell for it >.<

To be honest I can understand, though, with the constant threat of a permanent shutdown in the past three years or so due to lack of funds. (although I can understand since it costs money to run servers)

alberthrocks · « **Reply #41 on:** April 08, 2014, 04:40:55 pm »

Just a quick update!

User accounts on main withgusto AND backup2 are now unlocked. You can now use withgusto as usual again!
We are NOT affected by the OpenSSL heartbeat bug (aka "Heartbleed"), since we use an older version of OpenSSL. Seems like older is better... who knew? (All our servers except the new one use OpenSSL 0.9.8. The new server that no one has started using yet has the affected OpenSSL version.)
Please donate! Every donation helps!
New account requests are re-opened! Actually, if you're reading this, and don't have an account, go make a request right now! (See first post for more info!) This also applies for ZNC as well - let me know in the proper thread, and then go here.
Installation/Configuration/Web Setup requests are re-opened! See this form to make a request! (*cough* Deep Thought *cough*)

From last time, effective soon (TM), the following will occur:

The new server will be terminated. A full backup will be made and frozen in time until one day we are ready to move.

alberthrocks · « **Reply #42 on:** April 17, 2014, 12:48:47 am »

Just a quick update!

[NEW!] The new server has now been terminated. It will "officially" terminate on April 20, 2014 per VPS support, so if there's anything you may remotely need, let me know ASAP! The IRC server was terminated at 12:08 AM, with the server shutting down around the same time. A full backup has been made and saved until one day we are ready to move.
[NEW!] Now that we are no longer paying for the new server, the server bill is $16 less, making it $39/month! (And yeah, please donate!)
==============================================================================================================================
Old updates (but still important ones) follow!
==============================================================================================================================
User accounts on main withgusto AND backup2 are now unlocked. You can now use withgusto as usual again!
We are NOT affected by the OpenSSL heartbeat bug (aka "Heartbleed"), since we use an older version of OpenSSL. Seems like older is better... who knew? (All our servers except the new one use OpenSSL 0.9.8. The new server that no one has started using yet has the affected OpenSSL version.)
Please donate! Every donation helps!
New account requests are re-opened! Actually, if you're reading this, and don't have an account, go make a request right now! (See first post for more info!) This also applies for ZNC as well - let me know in the proper thread, and then go here.
Installation/Configuration/Web Setup requests are re-opened! See this form to make a request! (*cough* Deep Thought *cough*)

Other than that, that's it for now! Stay tuned...

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #43 on:** April 17, 2014, 03:30:23 am »

I hope this doesn't mean Omninet will close eventually. It started at 4-5 servers and now it's down to 2, right?

Sorunome · « **Reply #44 on:** April 17, 2014, 06:11:10 am »

Have you updated to the latest OpenSSL version by now, though, as there may have been some other bugs?

Author Topic: withgusto Networks - Status Updates and Discussion (Read 58759 times)

alberthrocks

Re: withgusto Networks - Status Updates and Discussion

alberthrocks

Re: withgusto Networks - Status Updates and Discussion

alberthrocks

Re: withgusto Networks - Status Updates and Discussion

alberthrocks

Re: withgusto Networks - Status Updates and Discussion

Juju

Re: withgusto Networks - Status Updates and Discussion

DJ Omnimaga

Re: withgusto Networks - Status Updates and Discussion

TIfanx1999

Re: withgusto Networks - Status Updates and Discussion

Streetwalrus

Re: withgusto Networks - Status Updates and Discussion

Sorunome

Re: withgusto Networks - Status Updates and Discussion

Streetwalrus

Re: withgusto Networks - Status Updates and Discussion

DJ Omnimaga

Re: withgusto Networks - Status Updates and Discussion

alberthrocks

Re: withgusto Networks - Status Updates and Discussion

alberthrocks

Re: withgusto Networks - Status Updates and Discussion

DJ Omnimaga

Re: withgusto Networks - Status Updates and Discussion

Sorunome

Re: withgusto Networks - Status Updates and Discussion