Written by:Rip Rowan
Monday, July 30, 2007 2:36 PM

By now you've probably been wondering where we've been. To tell the truth, so have we.

Well, ProRec's demise is a powerful testimonial to the importance of a robust data backup strategy. After over eight years of uninterrupted service, our main web server experienced a (third) failure of its RAID array, and the entire contents of the server were utterly corrupted.

Normally, this would not have been such a disaster. Because, over the same eight years, I maintained a live mirror of the site at another location. The mirror - updated every 15 minutes - was an exact replica of the main site. In just a few hours following the complete loss of the main site, I could have the DNS redirected to the mirror server, and ProRec would magically come back online.

However, as is often the case, Murphy had other plans.

A Perfect Storm

It's really amazing how events conspired against us this time. Because, as it turns out, the mirror site was temporarily unavailable. Worse, it was undergoing a one-time rebuild - and its mirrored contents were temporarily erased with the intention of rebuilding them from the main site. So when the main site was lost, there was no mirror, and no way to restore the mirror.

It was a total loss.

We did have an (old) archive of the articles, which are now back online for the most part. It will be a while before all of the broken links are restored, and a few articles did not survive the data transfer and will have to be manually restored from the Wayback Machine. The discussion forum - that outstanding resource of over eight years of questions and answers from some of the best in the industry - was lost.

After the demise of the old server, and the loss of the site, I decided that when ProRec was rebuilt that instead of using the custom applications that ran the old site, I would convert the content to DotNetNuke - a very popular open-sourced content management system. This would also make it easy to find a better hosting provider, since the old ProRec had unusual hosting requirements. And a proven CMS hosted with a managed provider would require a lot less maintenance.

Network SOLutions

In the early days of the Internet, domain names were handed out by a government agency known as the InterNIC. As the dotcoms took off, and it became obvious that there was money to be made in domain names, the InterNIC was spun off as Verisign, which soon took the name Network Solutions.

Back in the days, doing business with the InterNIC was a harrowing process. There was a Byzantine system of forms which had to be copied and pasted into text-only emails with particular codes and subject lines filled out, then sent back and forth until you were utterly confused. It was truly one of those processes where you wonder how someone could have invented the complexity.

In 2003, Network Solutions rolled out their new account manager, and users had to transfer their old accounts into the new system with yet another harrowing process of forms and emails. Well, apparently, in the transfer, the Primary Account Holder (the individual with the complete authority to make changes to the domain) was transferred to some other individual, and my company name was changed to "MTI". I was still listed on the accounts, so I continued to get reminders to renew the domain name. And since no changes needed to be made on the account for several years, I was blissfully unaware of the mishap.

After ProRec's demise, however, I discovered that I had lost control of the domain, and couldn't move it! Network Solutions proved remarkably obstinate. Understandably, they cannot just transfer a domain to just anyone: the opportunity for fraud is overwhelming. However, I had a mountain of paperwork, emails, and years of payments on my side.

Lawyers got involved. Tempers flared. Time passed. More and more money was wasted. Homicide was contemplated. Then I decided to get busy. By creating a fake company that matched what Network Solutions had on record (which was a bogus company to begin with) and typing up a fake letterhead, I was able to submit paperwork to get the domain back. Amazingly, this worked without a hitch.

In short, I had to commit fraud to get my own domain back.

There's a special place in Hell for the people I had to deal with. I look forward to seeing them there.

Project Phoenix

And so the project to bring ProRec back from the Dead was undertaken. The contents of the old site were converted and loaded into the new CMS. Pages were built. The discussion forum was set up. So far the project has taken months, but ProRec is now back and limping along. I'd say we're at about 70%.

And, coming up, we have some great reviews and interviews in store: reviews of products from Manley, Universal Audio, Brett Averill, and Telefunken. Interviews with producers. And a Point-to-Point article featuring a well-known band and their return to the studio.

I'm glad to be back. Please keep an eye on our site, because we'll be making a lot of improvements around here.

Thanks for visiting!

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