Finally! It's back. p-u-n-k.de can be found again at the usual address since today. But what happened in the last few days, why was my favorite site no longer accessible? For those interested, here’s a brief overview of the events. This is just a small excerpt of what really happened in the meantime. It cost me countless emails, phone calls, and nerves, but what wouldn’t one do for their valued visitors.
It all started last year, specifically on December 19, just as my Christmas vacation began when access to the database containing all the texts on this site was no longer possible. Well, I thought it might have crashed. So I immediately contacted my hoster's support, asking them to restart MySQL. Annoying, but at that time I had already planned to switch hosts due to the increasing difficulties with the server. I wanted to quietly prepare everything for the move during my vacation.
The calm was over the next day when the entire server was no longer reachable. Neither was my administration interface, and - this really worried me - neither was the web host Webhodi ISP. Neither through the ticket system nor via ICQ, where someone was usually online, and the support hotline only had the answering machine responding.
Thus, the disaster began, as I have since been trying to somehow contact the hoster. It turned out, as I only realized after my move to Webhodi, that it was just the owner plus a freelance support employee. This owner has seemingly vanished without a trace; there are many rumors, but his whereabouts remain unclear to this day. It is suspected that he simply made himself scarce due to the significant debts that became apparent over time.
So far, so unclear about what is going on. The support employee, let’s call him Mr. Stein for simplicity, later appeared in a forum where he wanted to sell the company for 350 euros. He owes an explanation of what happened and how the customer data should proceed, but he remains silent on emails, private messages in the mentioned forum, or other contact requests, instead offering rare half-hearted statements like "I’m afraid I can’t provide any further details on this matter at this time." However, he was at least able to shut down the customer servers. Given Mr. Stein's apparent interest in selling the company to the highest bidder, it can be speculated that customers are intentionally kept in the dark so they don’t jump ship and can be sold off as best as possible to a successor.
I didn’t want to wait for that. On December 20, I transferred all files for which I still had a backup to the new host Neue Medien Münnich, which I quickly selected. In making my decision, I was meticulous about choosing a provider that had been in the market for several years, had a certain size, and did not have any major blunders in the customer reviews. This should ideally prevent a repeat of the current experience. What was yet to come I did not know at that time.
The site was running again under a cryptic temporary address, which I distributed via MySpace. Of course, this message only reached a small portion of the visitors; sending a round email to all members during this emergency operation seemed pointless to me. Moreover, I was optimistic about moving my domain to the new host soon.
This is where the real trouble began. Because accessing the domains tiefergelegt.net (which is only used for the free email address) and p-u-n-k.de turned out to be an enormous hurdle. Now, while I am the owner of these domains, without the old hoster's consent for the KK application, which is the customer's request to transfer the domain to another host, nothing can be done here. As mentioned, the company owner has vanished without a trace, and his employee is only reachable for the sale of the company and is also extremely resistant to any pleas for support.
I submitted the KK application on December 20 for p-u-n-k.de; for .net domains, it’s a bit more complicated. Here, an Auth-Code must be provided before the transfer application, which, guess who - exactly, comes from the old hoster. Or rather, it does not, as in this case. After extensive research, I finally discovered that the Webhodi parent company, from which the .net domain is obtained, is Cronon AG. Although they present themselves quite martial on their homepage: "By entering this website, you assure that you are a commercial reseller.", once I established contact via email, everything went much better than expected. On December 31, I explained my situation in an email, and the responses arrived with a delay of no more than half an hour. Thus, after various initial difficulties ("We can only send the code to an email address under the mentioned domain - but that is not reachable - then we need a signed document along with the transfer form stating that we are allowed to send the code to another email address") I was able to actually set the domain for transfer before the end of the year.
Unfortunately, the situation with the main domain p-u-n-k.de developed more complicated. According to my new hoster, it should be with Strato. So I sent an email to their support, saying I would send the documents, please unlock the domain. Two hours later, the response was "the domain is not with us, it is with 1&1". So I forwarded the same request. It took them two days to send me a completely inappropriate response to my inquiry. To the clear text I received, as confirmed by several people, I only got an excerpt from the FAQ on how I could become a customer at 1&1. That’s exactly what I didn’t want. So I sent the email back. This seemed to completely overwhelm the support, as they now behaved according to the Webhodi principle. Better to say nothing at all, then there’s no trouble. So I picked up the phone. "Hello, what’s going on with my domain? - The domain is not with 1&1, but I can’t tell you where else it is."
I was going in circles. In the meantime, my transfer application was rejected, which may be due to the duration, as these automatically expire after a certain period. I continued to Neue Medien Münnich, where they assured me again that the responsible Denic member for my domain is Strato. Another email, again a similar response: "No, the domain is NOT with Strato". I called them and eventually gave up in despair due to the monotonously repeating answer "Strato has nothing to do with the domain. There’s a company from Berlin. Webhodi - Sure, they are unknown and have gone away, you are the next higher authority. - Us? No, I see nothing of that here."
Now it got too much for me, and I turned to the highest authority, Denic itself. I briefly explained my plight and received the information there again: "Strato is responsible for that. But if they are being stubborn, send us the KK application, we will forward it to Strato. If it comes from us, they will surely react." That was a word, so I forwarded all documents directly to the next recipient, but unfortunately, Strato proved to be more stubborn than expected. Again no reaction, so I called again yesterday, now January 8. "What’s going on with my domain? - Your domain? It is not with us. - Yes, my hoster has confirmed that to me several times. - Silence. I have two options to check. I don’t see it with either of them. - Even Denic referred me to you. - Silence. Hmmm. Silence. - What now? - I don’t see the domain here with us.
A quarter of an hour on the premium hotline was enough for me; I hung up and immediately canceled my test server with Strato. This morning, January 9, as usual in the past weeks, I immediately checked my inbox. "Your application for the transfer of the domain p-u-n-k.de has unfortunately been rejected." Fuming with rage, I grabbed the phone, found the number for Denic, and started ranting about all this nonsense. "You know what, we’re doing this ourselves now. I’ll pass this on to my colleague who will handle it. - That’s a word. You are my last hope." Not two hours later, a message from Denic arrived: "Your domain p-u-n-k.de has now been transferred to your new provider." Great, I quickly informed my contact person at the new hoster, and by evening the domain was indeed reachable again. As luck would have it, I also received the message around noon that the transfer of the domain tiefergelegt.net had been completed. The best day in weeks.
And the moral of this whole hassle? I hope to have found a host in Neue Medien Münnich where I will be spared from similar issues. However, not to rely entirely on that, I will acquire another server from a different host that is supposed to automatically create regular backups, planned at intervals of a few hours to keep any loss as minimal as possible. Of course, Neue Medien Münnich also creates current backups of the data, so that’s just in case, which ideally should never happen. I will transfer the domains to a pure domain provider in the foreseeable future, where I will have control over the administration myself. The advantage is that I can point them to any server. So if a server fails, it will only take me a few minutes to redirect the domain.
And what about Webhodi? No idea, a registered letter to the private address of the owner comes back marked "Addressee unknown moved away." Inquiries at various hospitals, after Mr. Stein clearly tried to feign an accident or similarly serious event with ambiguous statements, yielded no results. However, a call to the legal representative listed in the imprint proves that something has been off with the company for a while, as he denies any collaboration with this company and cannot explain how they ended up in the imprint.
Further background information about the work and the mystery surrounding Webhodi can be found at the following locations:
p-u-n-k.de Forum
Knox Punkkonzerte Forum
Webhostlist Forum, including (vague) statements from Webhodi
newsBLOG by GREATsolution
A special thanks goes to Cronon AG for the quick processing on New Year's Eve afternoon.
I would also like to thank the support of Denic, who, besides the friendly contact, ultimately brought the long-awaited success.
As a negative example, 1&1 can be seen, who apparently don’t even consider it necessary to read inquiries correctly.
The prize for the worst support goes to Strato, who still haven’t managed to acknowledge their responsibility for the domain despite obvious evidence.
I will not say any more about Webhodi ISP. I can’t even curse enough to describe what they have done to their (former) customers.
Is that it now, does everything work like before? Unfortunately not yet, but I’m working on it. Below is a detailed overview.
p-u-n-k.de: should be functioning fully again. The site ran almost without interruption, it was just very hard to find without the domain. Tomorrow, some new interviews from Mini will also be added that have accumulated here.
mail.p-u-n-k.de: Unfortunately, what still doesn’t work is the free email address, as I don’t have the data yet. As mentioned at the beginning, the servers were shut down without warning. I do have a backup from December 19, but I cannot assess how consistent it is, as there are changes in the email system almost every second. So I would like to try to obtain the most current data by the weekend. However, this is conditional on me gaining access to the old server, which is rather unlikely. If that is not possible, I will try to set up the system with the emails up to December 19. Here, I cannot estimate how feasible that is. This frustrates me at least as much as all those affected who had their email address here. After these events, I will definitely not allow any further registrations for a new address, as a constant availability of the service would only be feasible with high financial and technical effort. And under the threat of having to endure such an outage again, I cannot continue to operate this service in good conscience. I recommend every member to create another email address with one of the many specialized email providers. The service will continue to run here until the last member has unsubscribed. If you no longer use your address here, please allow it to be deleted in your settings. Make sure to download important emails beforehand.
knox.p-u-n-k.de/db: Works again.
beta.p-u-n-k.de/db: The new version of the Knox Punkkonzerte database. This is a preview that is not yet fully completed, please test it thoroughly for bugs. Once no errors are reported, I would like to activate it.
blog.p-u-n-k.de: Works again. But it is mainly of concern to me.
kamikaze.p-u-n-k.de/shop: Does not work yet. Whether the shop will be brought back online will be discussed with the Kamikaze people beforehand. The shop may be completely abandoned.
wiki.p-u-n-k.de: Does not work yet, and I currently do not know why. Since this is only for internal use, it is also uninteresting for the general public.
A small excerpt from my email correspondence on the subject. Note that the numbers in parentheses indicate the number of responses. Additionally, there are some faxes and countless phone calls to mostly very expensive numbers. I’m already looking forward to my next phone bill.
The ticket system of Webhodi. Note the current date and the time when I reported the still unprocessed error. Also interesting is the selection of difficulties I had previously experienced with this hoster. Only a small part of my problem reports is visible.
It all started last year, specifically on December 19, just as my Christmas vacation began when access to the database containing all the texts on this site was no longer possible. Well, I thought it might have crashed. So I immediately contacted my hoster's support, asking them to restart MySQL. Annoying, but at that time I had already planned to switch hosts due to the increasing difficulties with the server. I wanted to quietly prepare everything for the move during my vacation.
The calm was over the next day when the entire server was no longer reachable. Neither was my administration interface, and - this really worried me - neither was the web host Webhodi ISP. Neither through the ticket system nor via ICQ, where someone was usually online, and the support hotline only had the answering machine responding.
Thus, the disaster began, as I have since been trying to somehow contact the hoster. It turned out, as I only realized after my move to Webhodi, that it was just the owner plus a freelance support employee. This owner has seemingly vanished without a trace; there are many rumors, but his whereabouts remain unclear to this day. It is suspected that he simply made himself scarce due to the significant debts that became apparent over time.
So far, so unclear about what is going on. The support employee, let’s call him Mr. Stein for simplicity, later appeared in a forum where he wanted to sell the company for 350 euros. He owes an explanation of what happened and how the customer data should proceed, but he remains silent on emails, private messages in the mentioned forum, or other contact requests, instead offering rare half-hearted statements like "I’m afraid I can’t provide any further details on this matter at this time." However, he was at least able to shut down the customer servers. Given Mr. Stein's apparent interest in selling the company to the highest bidder, it can be speculated that customers are intentionally kept in the dark so they don’t jump ship and can be sold off as best as possible to a successor.
I didn’t want to wait for that. On December 20, I transferred all files for which I still had a backup to the new host Neue Medien Münnich, which I quickly selected. In making my decision, I was meticulous about choosing a provider that had been in the market for several years, had a certain size, and did not have any major blunders in the customer reviews. This should ideally prevent a repeat of the current experience. What was yet to come I did not know at that time.
The site was running again under a cryptic temporary address, which I distributed via MySpace. Of course, this message only reached a small portion of the visitors; sending a round email to all members during this emergency operation seemed pointless to me. Moreover, I was optimistic about moving my domain to the new host soon.
This is where the real trouble began. Because accessing the domains tiefergelegt.net (which is only used for the free email address) and p-u-n-k.de turned out to be an enormous hurdle. Now, while I am the owner of these domains, without the old hoster's consent for the KK application, which is the customer's request to transfer the domain to another host, nothing can be done here. As mentioned, the company owner has vanished without a trace, and his employee is only reachable for the sale of the company and is also extremely resistant to any pleas for support.
I submitted the KK application on December 20 for p-u-n-k.de; for .net domains, it’s a bit more complicated. Here, an Auth-Code must be provided before the transfer application, which, guess who - exactly, comes from the old hoster. Or rather, it does not, as in this case. After extensive research, I finally discovered that the Webhodi parent company, from which the .net domain is obtained, is Cronon AG. Although they present themselves quite martial on their homepage: "By entering this website, you assure that you are a commercial reseller.", once I established contact via email, everything went much better than expected. On December 31, I explained my situation in an email, and the responses arrived with a delay of no more than half an hour. Thus, after various initial difficulties ("We can only send the code to an email address under the mentioned domain - but that is not reachable - then we need a signed document along with the transfer form stating that we are allowed to send the code to another email address") I was able to actually set the domain for transfer before the end of the year.
Unfortunately, the situation with the main domain p-u-n-k.de developed more complicated. According to my new hoster, it should be with Strato. So I sent an email to their support, saying I would send the documents, please unlock the domain. Two hours later, the response was "the domain is not with us, it is with 1&1". So I forwarded the same request. It took them two days to send me a completely inappropriate response to my inquiry. To the clear text I received, as confirmed by several people, I only got an excerpt from the FAQ on how I could become a customer at 1&1. That’s exactly what I didn’t want. So I sent the email back. This seemed to completely overwhelm the support, as they now behaved according to the Webhodi principle. Better to say nothing at all, then there’s no trouble. So I picked up the phone. "Hello, what’s going on with my domain? - The domain is not with 1&1, but I can’t tell you where else it is."
I was going in circles. In the meantime, my transfer application was rejected, which may be due to the duration, as these automatically expire after a certain period. I continued to Neue Medien Münnich, where they assured me again that the responsible Denic member for my domain is Strato. Another email, again a similar response: "No, the domain is NOT with Strato". I called them and eventually gave up in despair due to the monotonously repeating answer "Strato has nothing to do with the domain. There’s a company from Berlin. Webhodi - Sure, they are unknown and have gone away, you are the next higher authority. - Us? No, I see nothing of that here."
Now it got too much for me, and I turned to the highest authority, Denic itself. I briefly explained my plight and received the information there again: "Strato is responsible for that. But if they are being stubborn, send us the KK application, we will forward it to Strato. If it comes from us, they will surely react." That was a word, so I forwarded all documents directly to the next recipient, but unfortunately, Strato proved to be more stubborn than expected. Again no reaction, so I called again yesterday, now January 8. "What’s going on with my domain? - Your domain? It is not with us. - Yes, my hoster has confirmed that to me several times. - Silence. I have two options to check. I don’t see it with either of them. - Even Denic referred me to you. - Silence. Hmmm. Silence. - What now? - I don’t see the domain here with us.
A quarter of an hour on the premium hotline was enough for me; I hung up and immediately canceled my test server with Strato. This morning, January 9, as usual in the past weeks, I immediately checked my inbox. "Your application for the transfer of the domain p-u-n-k.de has unfortunately been rejected." Fuming with rage, I grabbed the phone, found the number for Denic, and started ranting about all this nonsense. "You know what, we’re doing this ourselves now. I’ll pass this on to my colleague who will handle it. - That’s a word. You are my last hope." Not two hours later, a message from Denic arrived: "Your domain p-u-n-k.de has now been transferred to your new provider." Great, I quickly informed my contact person at the new hoster, and by evening the domain was indeed reachable again. As luck would have it, I also received the message around noon that the transfer of the domain tiefergelegt.net had been completed. The best day in weeks.
And the moral of this whole hassle? I hope to have found a host in Neue Medien Münnich where I will be spared from similar issues. However, not to rely entirely on that, I will acquire another server from a different host that is supposed to automatically create regular backups, planned at intervals of a few hours to keep any loss as minimal as possible. Of course, Neue Medien Münnich also creates current backups of the data, so that’s just in case, which ideally should never happen. I will transfer the domains to a pure domain provider in the foreseeable future, where I will have control over the administration myself. The advantage is that I can point them to any server. So if a server fails, it will only take me a few minutes to redirect the domain.
And what about Webhodi? No idea, a registered letter to the private address of the owner comes back marked "Addressee unknown moved away." Inquiries at various hospitals, after Mr. Stein clearly tried to feign an accident or similarly serious event with ambiguous statements, yielded no results. However, a call to the legal representative listed in the imprint proves that something has been off with the company for a while, as he denies any collaboration with this company and cannot explain how they ended up in the imprint.
Further background information about the work and the mystery surrounding Webhodi can be found at the following locations:
p-u-n-k.de Forum
Knox Punkkonzerte Forum
Webhostlist Forum, including (vague) statements from Webhodi
newsBLOG by GREATsolution
A special thanks goes to Cronon AG for the quick processing on New Year's Eve afternoon.
I would also like to thank the support of Denic, who, besides the friendly contact, ultimately brought the long-awaited success.
As a negative example, 1&1 can be seen, who apparently don’t even consider it necessary to read inquiries correctly.
The prize for the worst support goes to Strato, who still haven’t managed to acknowledge their responsibility for the domain despite obvious evidence.
I will not say any more about Webhodi ISP. I can’t even curse enough to describe what they have done to their (former) customers.
Is that it now, does everything work like before? Unfortunately not yet, but I’m working on it. Below is a detailed overview.
p-u-n-k.de: should be functioning fully again. The site ran almost without interruption, it was just very hard to find without the domain. Tomorrow, some new interviews from Mini will also be added that have accumulated here.
mail.p-u-n-k.de: Unfortunately, what still doesn’t work is the free email address, as I don’t have the data yet. As mentioned at the beginning, the servers were shut down without warning. I do have a backup from December 19, but I cannot assess how consistent it is, as there are changes in the email system almost every second. So I would like to try to obtain the most current data by the weekend. However, this is conditional on me gaining access to the old server, which is rather unlikely. If that is not possible, I will try to set up the system with the emails up to December 19. Here, I cannot estimate how feasible that is. This frustrates me at least as much as all those affected who had their email address here. After these events, I will definitely not allow any further registrations for a new address, as a constant availability of the service would only be feasible with high financial and technical effort. And under the threat of having to endure such an outage again, I cannot continue to operate this service in good conscience. I recommend every member to create another email address with one of the many specialized email providers. The service will continue to run here until the last member has unsubscribed. If you no longer use your address here, please allow it to be deleted in your settings. Make sure to download important emails beforehand.
knox.p-u-n-k.de/db: Works again.
beta.p-u-n-k.de/db: The new version of the Knox Punkkonzerte database. This is a preview that is not yet fully completed, please test it thoroughly for bugs. Once no errors are reported, I would like to activate it.
blog.p-u-n-k.de: Works again. But it is mainly of concern to me.
kamikaze.p-u-n-k.de/shop: Does not work yet. Whether the shop will be brought back online will be discussed with the Kamikaze people beforehand. The shop may be completely abandoned.
wiki.p-u-n-k.de: Does not work yet, and I currently do not know why. Since this is only for internal use, it is also uninteresting for the general public.
A small excerpt from my email correspondence on the subject. Note that the numbers in parentheses indicate the number of responses. Additionally, there are some faxes and countless phone calls to mostly very expensive numbers. I’m already looking forward to my next phone bill.
The ticket system of Webhodi. Note the current date and the time when I reported the still unprocessed error. Also interesting is the selection of difficulties I had previously experienced with this hoster. Only a small part of my problem reports is visible.
