Roberta @ Grassfrog?????

[James E. Braun, CMI]

Thanks for all that you do, Roberta!
Whenever you get totally caught back up, can you post us some information on how to back up our sites? It would be greatly appreciated.

[dbelmont]

As I've opined in the past. If you allow you're website to be hostage to any developer or service provider you have only yourself to blame when the inevitable problem happens (Note this is a when and not if situation).

Right now I could restore my website myself to any version I've had for almost 3 years. Because I make backups every time there's a change. I use GoDaddy for hosting but being able to restore my websites does not rely on them in any way. If they disappeared tomorrow I could reload my sites to a new server in minutes.

It's easy to think it's not a big deal. But a website or websites could represent an investment of thousands of dollars. So not having backups you control and not having access that you also control is similar to leaving a $10000 thermal camera on the seat of your unlocked truck. Sooner or later you will lose it.

Everyone should take the lesson and get control of your website right now. Download full backups and make hard copies (cd). If a developer or service provider controls your access then start the process to change that as well. You should have the master password and then give any developer access that you can revoke at any time. Not the other way around.

[rmaday]

Originally Posted by jbraun

Thanks for all that you do, Roberta!
Whenever you get totally caught back up, can you post us some information on how to back up our sites? It would be greatly appreciated.

Dominic offered some backup advice...

Originally Posted by dmaricic

Guys, jump on Google asap and type in site:www.yoursite.com so you can see Google's cache (click the cache button next to each page) and copy your content to Word or another program. Get each back that isn't a stock page so you have a copy before Google scans your site again and replaces it or removes it from their cache. I helped Russ Spriggs with this earlier and his site was scanned Friday before the cache so he was able to see his old content. Save any images too by right clicking on them and saving them to your hard drive.

Roberta uses The Planet for at least some of her servers which is a major data center but hardware failures will happen no matter what you do. I've had brand new hard drives fail the first day I put them into use!

I believe you can also right click on your site - veiw source and copy and paste the code.

Kudos to you, Dominic, for providing assistance (again) even for your competitors customers.

[Billy Boerner]

Any host should be doing backups daily. Some do it multiple times per day such as Dom. I know I've asked him and he stated his servers do automatic back ups every five mins. I have no clue how often Roberta has hers set up for maybe she will chime in. Point is when choosing a host ensure you inquire about their backup policy and make sure you back up your own files as well.

[kpierce]

Originally Posted by rmaday

I believe you can also right click on your site - veiw source and copy and paste the code.

That will get you the code, however, the code points to files such as pictures, pdfs, java script files, etc. Also, using that method, you'd have to go through every single page of your site and copy the code. It's much easier to find a host that gives you ftp access. That way you can simply drag all of the contents, files and all, in the correct structure, to a folder on your computer. From there, make a copy on an external hard drive, online backup and disk.

[rmaday]

Originally Posted by kpierce

That will get you the code, however, the code points to files such as pictures, pdfs, java script files, etc. Also, using that method, you'd have to go through every single page of your site and copy the code. It's much easier to find a host that gives you ftp access. That way you can simply drag all of the contents, files and all, in the correct structure, to a folder on your computer. From there, make a copy on an external hard drive, online backup and disk.

Exactly. Absent FTP access, it's better than nothing.

[kpierce]

Originally Posted by rmaday

Exactly. Absent FTP access, it's better than nothing.

Better than nothing indeed! As Billy has said, if you're using a host that doesn't give you ftp access, it's time to move on...

[Brian E. Kelly]

Originally Posted by rdulay

Thanks Mike. It's been a stressful couple of days with our whole team working all hours to restore services. Everyone's a bit tired & cranky but at least we're almost there. Anyhow, just wanted to say that it's customers like you (and Brian and David and Rich, and countless others who have shown unmitigated patience and support) that make the tough days more bearable.

If there is anything you need from me, let me know (I don't check the boards that often, so the best thing is to email me as support@grassfrog.com).

cheers,

Roberta

Thanx Roberta.

[ROBERT W. NEWLAND, JR.]

Roberta has taken care of my issues. I noticed some of her emails to me were at 2 and 3 AM... definitely working around the clock. Thx Roberta!