LP Members... Bet you all were wondering what happened to LP over the weekend.
So were we.
We just got some really bad news from our service provider. The company our provider contracts shared space with, "Host Remote" is going belly up.
A new company (name unknown at this time) in Pennsylvania will be coming in to take it over, and they are requiring a lot more money, a firm contract for X years, and other sundry items some time around 12-5 to 12-7.
What does that mean for LP???
Since we are not a business, it means we have to scramble FAST to find a new service provider, or go dark for a time in order to get back up again.
We've been told it's cheaper and faster to lease space on another server, called "cloud" computing rather than have our own server (which we own).
We are now running in vastly expanding circles trying to find a place to port LP and data.
We have another problem (HUGE)...we need to pay our bill with our current provider, and need about $1500 over and above that for new start up expenses.
This is a real challenge. While under these poor economic conditions, and the upcoming holidays, we need to ask you for money.
We need $3000 no later than Saturday Morning.
Why then? Because the people who have been hosting our server will be going into the locked secure data center to clean out all the servers currently hosted there.
We will go dark sometime on Saturday if they can gain access to the room to remove the server.
If not, Saturday, we will go dark on Monday 12/7/09 for certain. That won't be good, because it means our server will still be at the data center, locked away by the new provider.
I would love to be able to tell you how long LP will be dark. Since we just got notified this morning of these events, I've been on the phone trying to get more details.
Our priorities are:
1. Pay our bill in full
2. Retreive our server
3. Backup all data on the server to a remote location
4. Have startup funds for new host
5. Find a new location to plug into, or
5a. Find a server to upload LP on to
6. Restart
I can give you info on 1 through 3 as it occurs.
Item 4 is up to LP members who want to see LP back online.
The Bottom Line is $3000. Any less and we are dead in the water. I am unemployed (again), so I cannot provide funds this time to bail LP out: I'm living on unemployment. [Last time, I used nearly $1500 personal funds to get us back up and running.]
Items 5 and 6 will be updated when changes occur on the below noted website:
www.freewebs.com/lpstatus