Getting settled

I have to admit I was dreading the move from development to production. Wrangling a working configuration of Apache, MySQL, and all the other bits on a brand new virtual server exposed to the world isn't overly appealing to me. However, things have gone better than expected, thanks largely due to diligent study and the so far exemplary service provided by Slicehost (the entire VPS setup was automated and remarkably fast, very impressive).

The biggest problems so far have been unrelated to the server itself. First, Moniker is apparently having trouble updating my DNS info to reflect the new name servers (and thus, the new web server). Their support staff has been responsive but so far unable to resolve the issue. I'll give them another day to get it fixed, then it's time to shop for a new registrar. Again. I've already left GoDaddy because of their unethical business practices, and was happy with Moniker until this incident (which to be fair might not be their fault).

The second issue I'm faced with is less technical. Rather than host my E-mail on packetlife.net, I thought I'd try a third party provider. First I tried Yahoo Small Business -- that was a mistake. There is no semblance of order in their interface; the "check mail" link directed me to my preexisting personal (free) account, and to top it off I was having ads shoved down my throat. And of course, they won't issue a refund, despite having canceled service after 24 minutes. $35 down the drain, thanks Yahoo. I hope Micro$oft buys your ass out and guts the company.

Next I tried Mail2World. They have a distinct late nineties feel, but the reviews I found were mostly positive, and they're cheap. After signing up, I found the user interface, even the appropriate login page, entirely absent. The URL I'm referred to after signup is simply a redirection to the site's main page. I sent them an E-mail a while ago, still no response. Could be a scam, but for $2.50? We'll see how this plays out.

To end on a positive note, I setup IRC stats for #cisco on Freenode. Going to try out a 14-day retention to see how well the server handles parsing of the log files, might bump it up if all goes well.

UPDATE! I'm happy to say both issues have been resolved. I only wish I had someone other than myself to blame. I was entering the wrong TLD for the name servers, and was using the wrong login credentials for Mail2World's webmail. Considering all that could have gone wrong with the VPS setup, I suppose I should consider myself fortunate the largest problems so far were caused by own lack of attention.