Last Thursday evening our websites www.nandyala.org and www.nandyala.org/mahanandi got suspended by our web hosting provider. The action was sudden and there was no prior communication or email from them about any problem. We were painfully shocked at the loss of control over our site and there was no way we could let you know about what was going on. They took total control of our site and posted a cheap sounding message on it.
After almost 4 hours of trying to find why, they settled on the reason that our website was consuming too much processing capacity on the server. And it took another 2 hours on the phone with these guys for us to realize unless we upgrade the account, we wouldn’t gain access to our site. So from shared hosting, we moved to dedicated server. And it took almost 48 hours to find and to transfer database files. Mind you, we are totally clueless about these things and we had to learn everything quickly. A total 4 days of constant worrying and work, Mahanandi is here again. Thankfully we did it without losing a single word.
Even though I can understand their reason for suspending our account, I still wish they could have at least sent us an email notice beforehand. Suspending accounts without notice – is this a common practice in web hosting business? What a merciless, ruthless bunch these web hosting providers are. Even the Shakthi, the natural force that created us all would be more merciful, at least She would hint through symptoms and signs that we are not taking good care of ourselves before suspending our lives. No such mercy from website hosting providers I guess.
One pleasant thing I had done during this ordeal was, I launched a food blog forum for us Indian food bloggers, mainly to talk about issues like this and also to share and exchange ideas and tips related to food blogging and food photography. Website name is Dining Hall. You can find more details about it – Here. Manisha of Indian Food Rocks is the co-administrator.
I have to say thanks to all of you who wrote emails, offered help and sent good Karma our way. Also many thanks to Inji Pennu of Ginger and Mango for responding to my request and posting a message about Mahanandi. I greatly appreciate it!
Update on March 1st, 08:
The Dining Hall forum is closed permanently on March 1st, 2008. Time constraints, busy personal life, and lack of passion made the closure inevitable and unavoidable. Sorry for the inconvenience.
– Indira
