Forum problems

[MikeD]

As I am sure you have noticed, the forum has been offline for the last 82 hours.

Sunday morning around 7AM both Tom Tweed and I noticed (almost at the same instant) that the forum had been hacked. The hackers deleted almost all the database contents and replaced the forum index with a very ugly page. At that point I turned the forum off until the data could be restored. Simple task, right? Should only take an hour or so, you may assume? Well, I spent the better part of the last 82 hours on the phone with, via email, and via chat trying to get our hosting company to restore the database. I would say "communicate" but I do not think they know what communicate means.

Anyway, that is over. We have lost some of the valuable data our members post here and I am deeply regretful and sorry for that. It is my fault since I was lazy in keeping up with the patch level of the software.

But rest assured I have not stopped working on this issue. I have already established a relationship with a new hosting company. This hosting company allows ME to control the backup and restore process. I am also in the process of downloading and upgrading the software. You may still notice small outages here and there, but it should not be as serious as this ever again.

I am do everything I know how to make sure this never happens again.

My deepest apologies,
Mike Dougherty
PCA SDR Web Team

[MarthaMc]

Mike,
Thank you so much for all the time and effort you give to the club - most of which is invisible. I really appreciate your dedication.
Martha

[ttweed]

As I am sure you have noticed, the forum has been offline for the last 82 hours.

Yah, Mike, we lost a lot of smack-talk opportunities for the last 3 days!

Thanks for all your work in getting it back up.

TT

[RickK]

Wow, Mike thanks for all your hard work. It always sucks to be under the gun like that, I'm sure you felt us all breathing down your neck for all 82 hours.

[Chris Huck]

Thanks for all the hard work Mike. You're awesome!

Chris

[Otto]

Mike:

Don't feel bad. If it wasn't for your diligent work, the Forum would still be out of commission. We thank you for fixing it and all the hours you regularly spend looking after it.

[bernieb1]

Ditto what everyone else said. thanks for all the work.
Bernie

[Bob McLaughlin]

Mike, Thanks so much for your conscientious work on behalf of our club! I greatly appreciate the high level of integrity and effort you put into all you do!
Bob

[MVZ944T]

Mike,

We all appreciate your work and dedication to keeping the site up and running. Sorry that you were saddled with all the extra work due to some meat head hacker. I am sure you had other things to do.

Merry Christmas

Mike VZ

[Jad]

Awesome forum. Thanks for all the time and effort you always put into it. Plus it was good for me to go cold turkey for a few days with no forum or trash talk....its proof I don't have a problem or need a 12 step program

[ajackson]

Jad: I had the opposite reaction. All the shakes for the past few days made me realize how much I NEED it. On the bright side, I've been much more productive at work.

PS. Just kidding -- thanks to those who spend so much effort keeping the forum going though. I know how time consuming fixing computer problems can be.

[gulf911]

If you lost my post of Jad in the SS Waterpumper I will be getting a lawyer....

[MikeD]

Thanks for the compliments guys and gals, I really appreciate it. Not sure I deserve it, but I appreciate it.

Thanks.

[kary]

Thanks for the compliments guys and gals, I really appreciate it. Not sure I deserve it, but I appreciate it.

Thanks.

Mike, many thanks for your efforts. It is well deserved!

[Dan Chambers]

Great job, Mike! Thanks for all the time and effort. We're all very grateful!