website gone tits up

cant get hold of the hosting company

and now found this titbit ont tinterweb

As an existing customer of Webmania I have had huge problems over the past 6 months with their billing mistakes, domain registration failures and inability to reply to any second level enquiries. The live chat and helpdesk are still operational (supplied by a third party), but the UK side of the company seems to have disappeared.

I can only assume the owner has either gone bust or something unfortunate has happened to them.

After a lot of work I have finally managed to get my domains released from Webmania and transferred over to a reputable host.

If you are in a similar position, read on.

How to transfer your domains and hosting away from Webmania
Webmania is a reseller of OnlineNIC. If you have tried and failed to resolve your problem with Webmania directly, go to OnlineNIC.com and register within their support section before opening a new ticket, explaining the issue. They are getting pretty sympathetic to Webmania customers now, and usually help.

You need to specifically ask them to do the following:

UNLOCK each domain. This is a setting Webmania enabled to stop unauthorised transfer of domains away from them.
Change the administrator email address to your own email. Without this, all domain transfer requests will go to Webmania, they wont respond and your transfers will fail. Can you tell I tried this several times before realising?
Provide the EPP codes. Your new host will ask for these to initiate transfer.
Note: for .co.uk domains, you should bypass OnlineNIC and go straight to nominet.org.uk who will help you out in a similar way.

Now, register with a new host. I highly recommend Netmotivated. They now host all of my sites (this blog is about to transfer as I write this), and I know the operator so can vouch for their business standards. All support request are dealt with quickly and by UK staff.

Now dont know what to do 😥

What’s the question? Are you asking for a reputable hosting company?

UnitedHosting have been very good in the past.

The question is I know sfa about websites and hosting and now am in a jar of pickle wanting an angel to help me out so I can get back to playing in the workshop

Oh right, I see.

Do you have a copy of the website (which the original developer gave you?). How complicated is it – shopping cart, etc?

Could be a 5min job, or it could be a longer one…

I dont have a copy but might be able to find one from the guy who helped out .it was a wordpress thingy which I was supposed to learn how to do stuff on it

its not that complex

If it’s wordress, you will also need a copy of the database behind it – if you want the latest data, you need to get this from your old webhosts, Webmania. Otherwise, you will end up with a blank canvas….

Unless you/website person have a recent backup?

Open an account with Heart Internet – http://www.heartinternet.co.uk – I rent 4 servers with different hosting companies (inc the above mentioned United Hosting – who TBF are pretty good), having dealt with dozens of hosting companies over the last 10 or so years, and they are by far the best.

Before transferring any domains / updating nameservers then get hold of a copy of the website and database, plus make a note of any e-mail addresses you use.

Then setup the website and e-mail addresses on the new server, and then change the nameservers so they point at the new website.

At this point now apply to move the domain names to a 3rd party such as 123-reg.co.uk to give you more control over them.

Hope this helps

I have no backup and have mailed the person who may .

I am not that bothered about the site data really that can I assume be redone or a new one built I dont want to lose the domain though

@ joeydecon

Website stuff is simple for us IT bods – I don’t think the OP is in the same boat as us.

Another trick you might be able to use is to contact the new hosting provider, and tell them you want to move over to them. They’ll probably have a step by step guide, they might even contact the old provider on your behalf, and in some cases (if you’re lucky) will actually setup your old website/database on the new server free of charge.

Xiphon is correct

give my a V8 in bits and I could rebuild it

inventing and making stuff comes easy

any type of floorcovering I can put it anywhere floors walls ceilings .

IT is gobbledegook and Voodoo

Trout: You should be able to login here regardless of your domain names status – http://www.web-mania.com/cgi-bin/control/login.cgi – login and see if you can back up your website and access your domains etc – if you want send over your login details and I’ll see what I can do. info (at) tech designs dot co dot uk

There are plenty of IT bods on STW – perhaps put a wanted ad up…. someone will come along 🙂

I’m a bit rusty on domain stuff, but I’m sure we have a couple of web people on these forums, who will know exactly what procedure to follow to ensure:

1. You don’t loose your domain name.
2. Your website is 100% intact.
3. Your email addresses work properly.

Hi Joey

yep can get on the control panel no problem
but cant get at any of my stuff .

been in a phone que for an hour and waiting for their live help for 2

email on its way Ta

Had similar with same co.

I believe that if you approach nominet then you can force webmania to pass the domain along to another host.

Nominet will not be surprised to hear from you.

I found my access was intermittent but managed to ftp a copy down in one of the uptimes.

Good luck

joeydeacon – ftp access didnt work most of the time either so Trout may not be able to get access, I spent two days not being able to get on, then got lucky during a temp up time

Gee-jay
is that recent

my site has been up and down a few times this last month

Yup, Thurs/Friday last week

Luckily I was just hosting there, domain was owned by 123-reg so just moved there. There was talk about them going down so I approached nominet just in case and got this back :-

Web mania had been experiencing some technical difficulties, we had a few reports come into us yesterday regarding this.

I am pleased to advise that this morning I have been informed they are back up and running as usual.

It looks as though if problems are on-going

Yup contact Nominet they’re very helpful and will tell you what the can do to help and let you know where you stand.

Can’t go through Nominet as it’s a .com domain – nominet only handle UK domains.

We’ll need Web Mania’s co-operation as they put their e-mail addy down as the administrative contact for the domain – so they’ll have to authorise any transfers unfortunately.

FTP works, but only through their FTP server – have got in ok – got a copy of the database and am currently downloading a copy of the website – will get these across to ya.

I guess it they don’t give the ok the only thing is to get another domain – troutie.co.uk or other suffix (if thats right word for a following bit) – a right royal PITA 🙁

Can’t go through Nominet as it’s a .com domain – nominet only handle UK domains.

A small but rather important issue.

Hope you get sorted soon as I’m after getting my Lumi converted to LED if you still do that. I’m too lazy and dangerous with a soldering iron to do them myself. Although I did manage to solder the wires back on the lamp and switch on Friday.

Cheers Joey

Drop my a mail sometime I wouldnt mind a chat .

had a good google and it seems quite a few folks are having issues with web-mania

Drac still doing the lumi can conversions either diy or send to me
I dont need the web site for that side .

No probs Trout.. did you get the e-mail ok with the website’s files? Let me know when you’ve downloaded them and I’ll delete it from my server.

Cheers

Joey

Deleted. Hopefully not relevant.

Cool troutie I’ll send an email reference to it.

update .

been onto onlinenic and they have been very helpful and swift
I now have control of my domain name for ever ( well until I forget to renew it )

also opened a paypal dispute to try and get my money back .

and Joey got the data off their servers ( thanks Joey )

I have to say, this story has renewed my belief in the good-heartedness of the members of this forum. No longer shall we argue unnecessarily about random tripe…from now on, we shall all band together and help out other members in trouble and strive to make this forum a better place, for our generation and for the generations yet to come!

We are a band…a band of brothers (and sisters) HOO RAR!

LOL at bwoolymbr

IT detectives needed again
right getting hold of my domain is cool and onlineNIC now say that the parked bit is nothing from their end .

I cant get into the WP admin on the site do you thing that troutie.com has been kidnapped by a hacker .

Further update .

had an email from paypal to say the dispute has been resolved .

WHAT TF so logged in to paypal and my money has been refunded 😀

I guess now there is no way I will get the site going on their server now
just been on the control panel and I have been deleted 😯
now sitting twiddling thumbs wondering what to do next .

Probably something like this
1) Find a new service provider that can host your new site (I’m sure someone here can recommend one)
2) If you’ve got both the database and the files, upload these to the new host via ftp or through their control panel

or create a web new site and upload to the new host if you don’t have a backup

Haha! You used Webmania!

Been there, done that. Transferred my final site away from them last year. They used to be good for cheap hosting with php/mysql, but have become pretty useless the last few years, and there’s far better options now.

It took me several weeks to get OnlineNIC to release the domain to my control (they had their own process to follow, which included allowing time for webmania to respond to requests, and me to provide proof I owned the domain).
I’m guessing the speed at which you got control of your domain, they’ve since given up trying to get a response from webmania.

Best bit though, is webmania are still sending me emails saying the domain is due for renewal, and expecting me to pay them for the privilidge of renewing it 🙂

Trout – sent ya a mail earlier re: next steps – hopefully should help

Cheers Joey appreciate it
stumbling along in leaps and bounds now got a hosting co sorted
and got troutie.com pointing at it now got a blank canvas .

decision time do I upload the old stuff which I dont really trust to be safe anymore.

or try and find a good web designer to do me a nice professional site
preferably one who wants a light. instead of money .

another question WordPress or Joomla or something else

I may be able to help you out, I’ve sent you an email! 😉

I love a bartering system. Hope it all gets sorted soonest, trout.