It has been a while since I’ve posted on the blog. Normally I don’t really feel the need to, since we’ve had twitter and the UserCP updates. But I suppose this proposed change needs some explanation, and thus the blog post.

I’ve been discussing this with Dman for a while now, following complaints from a few users about the default 5GB storage being too low; we still have the paid upgrades system planned, just that it being a structural change means it will take a little while longer. So, in the mean time, here’s what we’re proposing:

The current system will be altered to a time based storage system. Every user on the system will have their storage space increased to 15GB by default, from the current 5GB. However, the downside to this will be an expiry time. Files older than 6 days will be deleted automatically.

In the future, when we release our paid upgrades, users will be able to ’secure’ this storage for a small fee. And they will also be able to buy extra storage on top of the 15GB default, which will also be secured. Secured storage space will not be subject to the 6-day expiry time.

This proposed change will only be implemented following a majority vote. So if you would like to see it being implemented, and don’t mind the 6-day expiry period, please cast your vote below. If you have any comments, you can use the comment form

Update3: The site should be open and accessible now. We had to make a lot of changes to get the old system back in place and working. We’ve also made a lot of structural changes and the system should be more responsive and robust now. Tested the hosts and everything is online except MU. It’ll be back online in a couple hours. The promised extensions will be going out in a couple hours too. Me and Dman just need to get some sleep and then we’ll extend every user with the promised compensation time. Plus a few additional days for the delayed relaunch. Please remember to open a ticket at the helpdesk for any problem you encounter. The previous tickets relating to the new system will be closed since the new system is no longer being used. The beta will be announced in a few days. And the mass email will be going out once I wake up

If your account recently expired, please do not renew. You will be extended as compensation so don’t shell out any cash just yet

A huge thanks to everyone who held on and trusted us with their time and money. We promise to make it up to everyone for the downtimes and the problems in the past week. And we wish and hope that we never have to go through something of this sort ever again!

Update2: About an hour or so to go. Bringing back the old system and re-arranging users/plans, etc. Hold on please!

Update: Looks like my eta of 24-48 hours was the latter. 48 hours. A couple more hours to. We’ve got the 2 new servers and configured them. But we’re waiting on a hardware resolution for one of them. An email will be sent out once we’re backup

You’re probably not surprised by the ‘lockdown’ this time round. And you’re also probably frustrated by it. But we’ve temporarily disabled the site, again, to avoid further frustration. Read on for an explanation and how we’re resolving it.

I do realize that the new system brought with a lot of problems. Bugs kept creeping up and we did fix a lot of them. MU links would return 500 errors and/or the file not found error over and over and we fixed that. There was NL which kept generating 11 byte files half the time. We fixed that, but we did not fix it. I know that sounds confusing. We fixed it and everytime we tried it worked. But for some users it just would not work half the time. HF decided to ban our accounts and we had to temporarily disable it. As if that was not enough, MU followed suit today. And Rapidshare bans the P1 server on and off randomly.

Things had been great before the new system. But the new system is not entirely to blame. If anything, it’s ingenious in a lot of ways. The problems started coming up before the new system was put into effect but they were not so obvious.

Why the lockdown and what’s changing? Well the lockdown is necessary for the changes that are coming up. I can’t really give you guys a staunch ETA of that, but I’ll say anywhere between 24-48 hours.

We’ve currently got 2 file servers that stream the downloads. One of them is an extra powerful server that we use to serve a fair few users. Unfortunately, it comes at a price. The fact that it is extra powerful means more users can use it simultaneously. That’s great. But, it also strains the end filehost more. What does that do? It leads to that specific filehost blocking the server. That’s what happens when Rapidshare stops working for some of you guys (who’re on P1). That’s why Fileserve links sometime fail to generate. And I’m assuming that’s why MU keeps banning our accounts. And most probably, that’s the reason HF banned our accounts too.

We’ve decided to split that server up into two. Divide the load and spread the requests over more server. We had 2 servers, but they’ll be 4 now. The larger one will be divided into two. The second one will stay. And a new server will be added. That’s 4gbps of downloading capacity as opposed to 2gbps. We’re waiting on server deployment and we expect that to be in the next couple hours. Once we have it, we’ll set them up and bring the service back online.

But wait. There’s more changes coming up.

We’ll switch to the old code/system when the new servers are online. Dman says it’s stable. Although you guys will lose fileserve’s resume functionality, you’ll get back HF and MU as stable filehosts to download from. Although, again, we can’t exactly predict if we’ll be good to go this time round. Chances are, HF/MU may still end up banning us. But that’s not something to worry about. What’s more important is getting everything back online.

What about the new system/code then? Well that’s a little exciting. We’ll put the new system up on a different subdomain and it’ll be turned into a closed BETA. About 20-30 random premium subscribers will be invited to join the beta and help us test and iron out all the bugs. Once we’re sure the BETA works well up to our standards, we’ll release it to the public and replace the old system again. This time, if all goes well, it’ll be bug free and ready to use without any problem(s).

And last, but not the least, owing to the recent troubles over the past 3 days now. And continuing to the next day or two, I’ll be extending every account in the system by an additional 2 weeks once we’re back online on the new infrastructure. I’d like to sincerely apologize for all the inconvenience caused to you during this lockdown. But I assure you that you’ll be appropriately compensated for your money’s worth and that it’s being done to end up with a more stable system. Unlike most of the other premium link generators, we do place our premium subscribers first. And I guess we’ve managed to prove that in the past and continue to do that. I highly doubt any other similar service out there is as transparent with its users as we are.

And once again, my sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused to you during this lockdown.

Regards,
Hamza Y