Hosting, Computers and Other Irritants.

I have mentioned this on my Facebook Page already, but I thought I'd come over here to elaborate a bit.

Last Friday morning, I wanted to write a post on one of my sites, Influx Marketing. When I tried to log into my admin panel, I noticed the log-in page would not load. I got a 404 error message on a page from my hosting provider. Assuming it was something I had done, I spent the next couple hours trying to figure out what was going on.

It gets worse. I learned hours later that there was an ongoing cyber attack against all Wordpress sites(you can read more about this attack HERE). As of today, this attack has been expanded to include sites built on drupal and joomla as well.

So, i spent the rest of the day trying to backup and restore my sites, all to no avail. Then, with the help of my friend Jason Jersey, I was able to determine that it was not my site installation at all, but rather an issue on the host's end. So, I file a support ticket. Now I"m wishing I had done this in the first place, but regret is a wasted emotion (so is worry by the way).

Apparently the hosting service, in an attempt to protect its users, disabled all WP-Login.php files hosted on their servers since this is where the attacks were being targeted. Proactive you say? Maybe, IF they had announced it to their users. A simple email to their subscribers could have saved a lot of headaches for a LOT of people.

Also on Friday, I got a phone call saying to be expecting a death in the family very soon. I have a grandmother who is in her final days now.  Add some other drama with extended family, and I was jstu ready for Friday to be OVER!

So, Friday was a bust. it was Monday before I learned what the host had done with the sites. In the meantime, other issues crept up. Gremlins got into my Hard Drive on my laptop and it decided to crash. I was in the middle of a task when the machine shut off without warning. it restarted, but was acting odd, so I rebooted it again. This time, it was not coming back on. Just as the first "Windows" screen was almost done, it flashed a blue screen for a microsecond, then restarted. It was hung in an endless reboot loop.

After several attempts to remedy the problem, formatting was the only option left, prior to replacing the drive. That worked for about two days, although not completely. The machine would run, but had continuous issues. Eventually, it decided again to hang in that reboot loop. Thank goodness the hard drive is under warranty. I am now awaiting an RMA number for it.

On a positive note, our new church started on Sunday evening. The River started to flow, and it was an amazing thing to witness. If you are anywhere near The Colony, Texas, and looking for a church, You seriously need to come see what we are doing. We had 118 people turn out for that first service. We were only expecting about 80, and were over capacity on the room. We had to set up chairs in the corridor outside the meeting room to accommodate everyone ( we are currently meeting in a hotel ballroom). It was great to watch God's work be done there that night. I cannot wait to see what else He has in store for us.

In spite of all the challenges, irritants, and frustrations, God remains in control. Praise Be to God! The glory is all His!