OPINION/OP-ED
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Trying to stay POSITIVE
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Team, I know that some of you are like me, you either dislike interesting content that comes blaring out of the speakers of whatever device your receiving this on. OR you just aren't typically in a location where you can have audio playing, therefore for every video you find on YT, you will also find a TEST version here. Sometimes these will be exactly transcriptions, but for the moment there will be some differences, as I will record the videos and THEN write the test version. I don’t really work from prepared speeches.
That being said, you may have come across a video recently that just didn’t seem to fit the idea of ‘Stay Positive’ and “we only want Drs you like.” but I really feel like this needs to be said. We went live in Jan. 2024, after quite a ramp up in 2023. and much to my dismay in Feb 2024 I found the site was offline. Calling customer support for the ISP, and that's always a joy, after an hour I found a Tech who understood enough to be able to direct me to somewhere in their control panel where I could correct the issue. For SOME reason the DNS (numerical address for the site) had been changed. In an effort to make sure this didn’t happen again I repeatedly asked the tech HOW this happened, so I could prevent it. He mumbled something about security and that was that.
Afterwards I started doing what I could to research and find out how this could have happened, this particular ISP has 2F authentication so it would not have been easy to “hack”. BTW I wont usually name names and get specific so lets just say that this particular ISP has a huge advertising budget, often has as during the Superbowl and has a name that rhymes with SLOW BADDY. I’ll let you take it from there. Apparently they spend so much dazzling the public with their ads, they figure they can afford to hire the cheapest tech support available.
A week later, I was posting some new Merch to the store and lo and behold, the sites off line again. Since I KNOW how to fix it I’M not in as big of a hurry, so I change it back and then go about my day. Later that night I had someone email me asking why the site was down? Once again I logged n, made the needed change but this time called tech support and kept moving up-line, until I could find someone who seemed to know how to SPELL ISP. See this time I had noticed something. Anytime the address changed it changed to the SAME address.
When I told Tech#3 on Call#2 this I was told whose IP address that was, and suddenly it seemed as though perhaps I had done something to set this all in motion. OK Ive been in IT over 20 years, I get it. So I ask the tech, if you were in my shoes, how would YOU resolve this? So he gives me some tips, that I write down I thank him and go follow up his suggestions. These were perfectly logical steps I just didn’t know how to do it, and trying to get ANOTHER help-desk up to speed was not something I wanted to experience.
This Friday it happened again. I fixed it, was about to call support, and it reverted AGAIN. SO I watched it. For 6 hours I would correct the address and within an hour it would revert back. OK, it wasn't my doing this time, So I called tech support AFTER “chatting” with their AI-bot for an hour only to be told, I believe we should connect you to a higher level tech. You mean a human. So they did. I gave this tech all the info from the first 2 calls plus where he could look in his logs to see the transactions that went on today! He never even blinked, or looked, he just said “Well it looks like what you need is this.” OK THAT sounded reasonable, but wait, is there a cost for this? Everything has a monthly fee now a days. Reply was fast and aggravating. “Yes $259.”
Hold up, you want me to spend ANOTHER $250 with your company to support a site that cant stay up an hour? His reply was very positive, to him, “Oh no sir, if you’d only like to subscribe for 1 year we can cut that in half” So $125? Still not sitting right. Are you sure this will resolve my issue? “It should? Not what I asked. OK Will it tell me what caused the issue? “That I cant really say.” Of course you cant, you never bothered to look to see what the problem might be! I was rather cross at the moment. I told him I’d have to consult with some folks and get back to him.
Now Ive been building and hosting sites for over a decade, I have ½ a dozen live sites now. The first thing I did was go back to my initial hosting company to see what it would cost to move the site. First off their monthly fee was $20 less, they gave me step by step instructions on how to move the site, all of which would be manual, sigh. SO I began the process, BUT they cant transfer it right now, looks like the site is busy. Oh you mean OFFLINE, yeah that's way I want to change it. So for the next 3 hours I would fix the site address, refresh everything, switch to the new ISP and hit transfer. FINALLY after dozens of attempts it catches the site UP, and initiates the transfer.
I have done a lot of different things in my IT career, but network support was always a small part, so although I do have certifications in that area, their so old I don’t even pretend to know anything anymore. But if you tell me, I’ll write it down so you don’t have top tell me again! One of those things is that iof I arrive at the door to an ISP and say “Hey I want to start a website” and I already know everything I want, NAME, type of address, traffic load, etc. I can have the site up and running within an hour. Apparently things aren't exactly as simple when your transferring a site.
Now I understand safety,. And I know there are some bad actors out there, last year alone I was issues $18,000USD in bad checks from companies that passed all superficial checking, but when they started to pay me things got fishy. Three separate occasions I was given a check drawn on the account of a business OTHER than the one I did work for, That;s kind of flakey. The third Time I got so mad I went to MY bank locally, because the check was going to be deposited there, but also originated from a branch of that bank in Wi. The manager was VERY excited and immediately called the FBI, it being across state lines wire fraud. I don’t know what happened there, but I then looked up the company whose account they were TRYING to draw from, called their home office and let them know someone has all their information. The manager thanked me and said they suspected who it might be, but thanks. Last I ever heard of any of it….
So, I'm on my decades old ISP account having all kinds of fun getting things setup and I get an email saying they received all their confirmations and therefore the NEW site should be online within the NEXT 10-14 days. OY VEY! Not happy. Worse part is I HATE duplication of efforts. It doesn’t matter if its online, walking in the mall or having to make a U-Turn because you drove past Dunkin Donuts. Didn't your dad teach you NEVER to pass up a donut? Mine sure did.
Moral of the story is, before you do something that could effect whats important to you, do your research. Like most folks I just figured that since they ha been around for all those years and had spent all that $ on advertising than SURELY they cant be that bad! Well actually, YES they can, and don’t call me Shirley!
Peace Love and Plaster!
PS: I was out in the backyard with the dogs just before bed last night and I heard my 2 neighbors behind me “discussing” something over the fence. IN my neighborhood, this means that at least one of them has their cell phone out and talking to one person, on speakerphone, while hollering to the other neighbor for additional support. I don’t speak Spanish, but did recognize the name of the company they were talking about, Yup 23:27 and their having support issues with SLOW BADDY….
PPS: And to make matters worse, NOW that I have started the transfer process the site has been up and running….solid.
