Official JWFAN Status Updates

All updates on the return of JWFan will be posted here. Only Andreas, Jason and I have access to this thread.

Thanks,

Ricard

NOTHING NEW FOR THE MOMENT. JUST A LITTLE REMINDER OF THE LATEST UPDATES:

Wed Sep 07, 2011 4:17 pm

Ghost Pirate LeBlanc wrote:GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!

The original JWFan site will be back up in 14-50 hours, all history and message board posts intact.

It turns out Jack did in fact attempt to pay the bill with my paypal account on September 5th (I was looking at the wrong screen), but the reason it didn't work is because there are two outstanding balances, and because of the frequency of missed payments and the time passed already since the last outstanding balance, the current outstanding amount was passed on to a third party collector. Jack gave me the collector's info and I got on the phone with them and paid the bill myself with my own credit card, and the lady told me that they would get the money to 1&1 by the close of business today (UK time obviously), and that 1&1 would then restore the site(s) in 12 to 48 hours.

It's almost over folks, the site will be back up before you know it.

Thu Sep 08, 2011 3:42 pm

Ghost Pirate LeBlanc wrote:Just got a re-confirmation that the original site should be back up sometime today, or tomorrow at the latest.

Thu Sep 08, 2011 3:51 pm

Ghost Pirate LeBlanc wrote:Jack is currently the only person with access to all of JWFan's data (main page and message board). He has promised he will assist Andreas in transferring everything to him, which cannot happen until the site comes back online.

No complaints, please. Just wait for a new update.

For any questions or comments you can contact me at rbefan@gmail.com, Jason at jayleblanc@gmail.com, or Andreas at Rohezal@gmx.de

Thanks,

Well folks, I don't know what to tell you.

On Wednesday (my freaking birthday, of all days) I paid Jack Chapple's outstanding balance with a 3rd party collection agency that 1&1 had hired since he has missed payments so often with his 1&1 account. The lady at this collection agency told me they would give the money to 1&1 by the end of business day, and 1&1 would restore the account in 12-48 hours.

Shortly thereafter my credit card company called me to make sure it was me who made that payment (since it was in the UK I guess). But the lady told me the amount was for only $26.50 I let Jack know and he called the the collection company:

Just rang them. They said the payment was taken fine and it's cleared, and they've informed 1&1 that it has cleared. Not sure what that small payment amount is about but it seems like it's on track still to become active today or tomorrow.

Thursday and Friday came and went without the site being restored. I asked Jack to call 1&1 and he said:

Hey. I called them earlier. Don't know why it's taking so long but they said it's still processing. Tomorrow hopefully!

Since then 2 1/2 more days have come and went without the site being restored. I have no idea what's going on. I messaged Jack yesterday and asked him to call 1&1 again, but he hasn't gotten back to me.

Something is up somewhere but I don't know what. If I was Jack I'd be busting heads trying to get everything restored if I know the bill had been paid in full (Don't forget, its not only JWFan that's down, but also his personal website www.jackchapple.com ). So either there is more to the story Jack is not telling me/us, or 1&1 and/or the collection agency (Arvato LTD) are colossal fuckups.

Jack just wrote me:

Hi,

I don't know why it's taking so long. I've rang 1&1 twice and have been told that the balance was cleared with Arvato. I'm not sure why the amount they charged you was so small? Are you sure they didn't take the payment in separate segments or something?

The account is still locked, but 1&1 have opened a ticket with the technical department yesterday to try and get the account re-opened. I just called them again and the ticket is still open so I'm just waiting for the response from the technical team now.

So I think there are 2 options:

1. Arvato paid 1&1 in full but is charging me in installments for some reason, and the site hasn't been restored because 1&1 are colossal fuckups

2. The site hasn't been restored because 1&1 still hasn't been paid the 2 months of backpay Jack owes them. They only had Arvato collect $26.50 for some reason and the 2 months of backpay is still owed.

Another update:

Well the thing is that every time I have rang 1&1, I have double checked that they have been told by Arvato that the outstanding amount was paid in full. And they have confirmed twice that they have been informed by Arvato that the balance was paid in full... I don't know if Arvato screwed something up in our favour, but it doesn't seem like the issue is the amount any more... just 1&1 actually taking their time to unlock the account.

1&1 said today that they will email me by tomorrow with an update. Until then, I'm not sure there's much we can do...

FYI, I'm currently rebuilding the website from scratch (which I was going to do anyway, since we are changing to a new system), so the main site will be ONLINE before the weekend, at the old address or at a new one, regardless of anything else.

Hopefully you will like what you'll see in a couple of days.

Hello,

we will relink jwfan.net and jwfan.com to the new v-server in the next 24h.
When Jacks server comes back online in the next few days, we can transfer all data to the new website. But personally I do not have much hope, I think we lost everythink. I hope I'm mistaken.

Hope that all members start a new beginning.

Jack, I hope that you finished this "game" now. What is wrong? Give us answers and access to all data. Otherwise, you are responsible, that you destroy the greatest and oldest John Williams website in the world wide web!
No more excuses, give us your account information on the 1&1 website and the server. We will protect your privacy, but jwfan.com is not your webseite and don't use it as a hostage. Time is over NOW!

Andreas

Hello,

I relink jwfan.net and jwfan.com to the new server.
Will install a new mainpage in the next hours.

The new messageboard comes in the next few days.
We are still waiting for the miracle!

When Ricard send me a message to install a new, empty
messageboard it will be ready in max. 24h.

Andreas

I can confirm that the main site will be back online in just a few hours. We'll keep using this forum until we know for sure what happens with the old data.

Check back www.jwfan.com or www.jwfan.net later during the day!

I have news!!! Not sure if its good new or bad news....

1> Jack's 1&1 package has possibly been turned back on: http://www.jackchapple.com/ is now live again. And it appears to have retained his old data. So hopefully that means 1&1 didn't wipe out anything. However, it could also mean that Jack backed up his personal website himself, and he has found new hosting, and 1&1 still hasn't turned anything back on. Does anyone know how to find out if 1&1 is serving that page up, or another hoster is?

2> the IP address of JWFan when it was hosted by Jack - http://82.165.145.141/ - now points to a mostly empty page that just says "Oh hai". This could mean that:
a> 1&1 erased all the data so there was nothing to put there, or
b> 1&1 repurposed this IP for some other user that actually paid their bills, and JWFan info is now up at some other IP.
c> Jack has the data but purposely turned the website off
Or possibly something else, I dunno. Any other ideas?

Of course, I have asked Jack all these questions and he hasn't responded to me...

Oh fuck, its work. I see the complete website with all postings!

OK I write Ricard a mail with the question to relink jwfan.net/com back to Jacks server.

You can display the website with a trick.

Windows only:

GO TO:

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\
Edit the "hosts" file and enter this
-------------------------------
82.165.145.141 jwfan.com
82.165.145.141 www.jwfan.com
-------------------------------

Save it and you can display the website.
Delete it when we transfer the messageboard to the new server.

Windows use the "hosts" file first, after that the DNS server from your provider!!!

Save so many data as you can!!!

Andreas

Yes, good news everyone. JWFan is back - the original, full site as it existed just before 1&1 turned off Jack's account.

HOWEVER, since today Andreas updated DNS so that www.jwfan.com and www.jwfan.net point to the new page Ricard was building instead of the original site, its not easy to access the site!

Andreas is changing the DNS back, so shortly all you will have to do to view the site again is use your old bookmarks; In other words

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/

Will work fine. In the meantime, if you want to get access to the site, here is how you can gain access if you are using Windows 7:

1. Go to Start, Accessories.
2. Right-click on notepad and select "Run as Administrator"
3. Notepad will launch. File, Open, "C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc". Change "Text Documents (*.txt)" to "All files (*.*)".
4. Click on Hosts to open that file
5. At the bottom, paste in the following:

82.165.145.141 jwfan.com
82.165.145.141 www.jwfan.com

6. Save the file.

7. Browse to http://www.jwfan.com/forums and you're in!!!!


If your bookmarks use www.jwfan.net instead of www.jwfan.com, you can also add:

82.165.145.141 jwfan.net
82.165.145.141 www.jwfan.net

to your hosts file.







The only problem with doing this is that when all the data is transferred to Andreas' server, you will have to take those lines out of your hosts file so that www.jwfan.com points to the new server again for you.

Hello,

we relink www.jwfan.net and www.jwfan.com back to Jacks server.
The website is not migrate to the new server yet.
We waiting for some access informations from Jack.

I only create a small emergency backup from the messageboard database,
but we need many more files from the webserver to start
a migration.

Hope we can change the server in the next few days.

I will post status updates in this and the the original jwfan.net messageboard.

Thanks.

Andreas

OK, I recieve a download location for the complete backup of jwfan.com and will begin
to transfer the website to the new server soon. I think we need up to 12h to complete.

I hope the next status update in this board is only:

FINISH!

Andreas

I have downloaded it as well, so already a current backup of site exists in at least two places.

Only remaining steps are to confirm that backup he made for us contains EVERYTHING we need, and then for Andreas to import it all onto the new server.

Andreas is currently copying the files up to the new server.

Targeting 3-6 hours to have the site back up and running on the new server!

A snafu with the backup of the messageboard data that Jack made slowed things down a bit. But Jack has made a new backup and Andreas is testing it now. Due to the time zone he's in the site might not be back up before he goes to bed, but everything is proceeding well overall

The main page is not available yet, but the forums are up on the new server:

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/

DNS is slowly spreading, which means that link could still bring you to the version on Jack's server that is still shut down depending on how quickly your DNS is updated. You can edit your hosts file to get there now if that is the case by putting in this line:

85.214.148.140 jwfan.com

While the new main page is being finished up, the old front page is available at

http://www.jwfan.com/old

New home page is up!

http://www.jwfan.com/