Recent Downtimes… Why? Grrr (I hate it too!)
Ignore the flashy title 
Not many people read this blog, but those who do, they’ll find this post interesting. The public downloader has been on and off for the past 72 hours (3 days) and the time it’s been on, it has been very unstable. Why?
Lot’s of issues, to be honest. So, I’ll try to explain the entire issue here as quick as I can
When me and Dman first launched RP, we NEVER expected such an explosive response. Counting today (December 5th, 2009) it has only been 9 days since we launched. In that time, we’ve crossed 85,000 successful downloads.
So, back to the story (lol), about 3 days into launch, our server was maxing out the 100mbps connection 24/7. Effectively, we were transferring about 2TB of data every DAY. That’s 2,048 gigabytes!
Our old provider wanted us to pay 6-months upfront to get a port upgrade to 1gbps, but we could not afford that, so we decided to move to another data center that offered a 1gbps port for relatively cheap ($20). We never realized we were making a HUGE mistake. 2 days after moving with them, they started having problems with us moving 2TB of data everyday. Since our bandwidth was limited to only 10TB a month, they were worried we’d cross our limits. To top that, despite having paid for 1gbps, we never got it. We were still limited to 100mbps. And worst of all, their network was slow. Connectivity to at least 80% of our users from their network was seriously slow and yielded only 60% of total speed for most users.
Most free service providers would not care. But I love Google. (If you understood that, you’re one of those people who love the word ‘free’). Besides, if me and Dman are providing a service, we’d rather make sure our users have an optimum experience, as opposed to just dumping ads and trying to make top $$$ off you guys. Nope. That’s not us.
Soooo, yeah. Back to the issues. The new data center quoted us a price of $650/month to get a 1gbps port + 100mbps dedicated unmetered (effectively 66TB bandwidth/month). Nah. We could not afford that. No way!
So we turned back to our old provider, and asked them to help us out. They’re great, to be really honest. For specs and bandwidth, that everyone else in the industry would charge $500-$600 (each month) for, they gave it to us for $400/month
So, we’re back with them. (And yeah, the new data center will not refund us, so that’s $220 gone down. Though we just MIGHT have chances of recovering that amount partially).
And now, we’re waiting for our management company to optimize the server (install a new webserving software and optimize it) before we go live again. Though I’ll try to optimize the current webserver and see if I can get the site up and running again while they optimize it in the background.
That’s about it.
I’ll keep you all updated on the rest of the progress
Cheers,
Hamza
P.S: The private server is unaffected by all of this. So there you are, another advantage of being a private member. (Private memberships not out yet, though. We’ll be announcing them soon)
34 Comments »
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Hey Hamza Ty for this status update, thought v lost u gyz. Hope every thing will be up and running again. Good luck, mate.
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Hamza (194 comments) Reply:
December 5th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Lol no way. That’s not happening
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By the way, how can you be a private member?
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Hamza (194 comments) Reply:
December 5th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
No information on that, as yet. It’ll be 2 ways probably. One way is to buy it ($5/month) or ‘earn it’ by posting and accumulating points in our forum.
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pradeepmax (13 comments) Reply:
December 5th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Hey Hamza, sorry to bothering u like this mate, but in the forum also we can’t sign in so how to post any threads?
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Hamza (194 comments) Reply:
December 5th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
Forum registrations are currently disabled
They’re invite only. We’ll open to public registration soon
Dear Sir,
I Am Very Thankful To You that You Provide This Type Of Download Site For People Like Us,Who Are not Able To Bye Premium Account.Please Sir Give US This.
Thanks
Ksujon
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You guys are working great. this is the best premium links site I’ve ever seen. wish you good luck with old hosting server. i hope now things will work smooth.
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Hamza (194 comments) Reply:
December 5th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
I hope the same too
As of right now, the management company’s working on installing the new webserver, so the sites may not be loading
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The fastest site I’ve seen so far. It uploads in almost no time.
Good luck to all the good people helping us download the usual stuff off 300MBUnited.
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hope u can running again like usual..
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All i want to say is thnx a lot for providin us such a great…. wish u could start it over agn…
Prays
[Phoenix]
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Hamza (194 comments) Reply:
December 6th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
We’re NOT GONE ANYWHERE
Just a few hiccups disrupting the service for a while. SHOULD be resolved VERY soon
So hold tight
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guys..i hope this site got rigth back again as soon as possible.
thank you 300mbunited, i and we the others believe you in quality of movies.
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Thanks you very much for this service. It’s a high cost to bear, so i’m so happy you guys went through with this.
Hope server is up fast
(and waiting for the private membership as well 
)
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the greates service ever
thank you so much for providing such a service
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This is a big project for you guys. Keep it up.
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hey guys !!! thank you a ton ! for this free service
am really happy to have ull and RP is the most visited site by me 
keep doing this good job guys !!!! May god bless you !!! May he help in all the ways you want 
thank u once again
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Hamza will get it all up and running again quickly,its a great site i have to say.
Well done mate
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Hi Hamza & friends, u all have a great job! This is the best premium link site i’ve ever found! Hope u’ll be on air again soon
Thank you 
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Hope it will be up soon…I’m glad I found this site! It’s AWESOME! keep up the good work guys…
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Hope eveything will be good soon…Wish you ppl a Good Luck!!!
U PPL ROCKKK Dude….! \m/
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thank you hamza…continue to provide good service
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Love this website. I’ll be willingly to pay man. It is User frdly + has gd spd.
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thx for the hardwork. I’ll keep an eye on this =D
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How much time it takes to you to get back!!!!
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Hamza (194 comments) Reply:
December 6th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
RP is not your typical link generator hosted on shared hosting accounts.
We’ve got proper dedicated servers with an infrastructure to plan. We need to optimize it and make sure it’ll work under peak loads. Unlike any other site, ours is streaming data 24/7.
If you understand the complexity of the entire situation, you would not be asking this question.
I’ve already given my estimates, etc on this blog and in our WBB thread. I will not (and I do not need to) explain any further.
Hamza
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Man, wats going on. i am using this site for quite some time…and believe me it ‘was’ the best PLGS on the web! But now wats gone wrong with you guys after that ’server saga’…i mean…
1) “firefox can’t find the server of you guys” for most of the time.
2) slow downloads.
3) unresponsive link generator
4) non-resumable downloads…
Hamza man kindly look into this stuff…or many other ppl lyke me will venture out to find alternatives…
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Hamza (194 comments) Reply:
December 9th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
It ‘is’ the best.
1. Temporary problems. Resolved now.
2. Cannot help that for now. The fact that you get slow downloads means we have a lot of people using it. Lot of people using it means they all love it. How can you say it ‘was’ the best? Try renting a server for $400 a month.. and losing almost $300 in the same month to another data center and a management company. If you still feel like keeping up the service with those expenses.. kudos to you.
I’m not saying I dont want to keep RP up anymore. In fact, quite the opposite. I will only be EXPANDING it. But with exams in conjunction with the recent problems and only one more person (Dman) to support the entire venture, it CAN get a bit difficult for us. We have a life too. Even then, we work over time maintaining and monitoring the server. Maybe try being a bit considerate?
3. Tried generating a link just now.. works fine.
4. Downloads are resume-able. If you are unable to resume them, use the contact button above and give me more details on the error you get when trying to resume.
I HAVE been and I still am trying my best to make the entire thing stable. I never said I wont do it. I simply said it’ll take a while. If you feel you must desert RP and move on to another service, by all means do so. You’re at perfect liberty to do that. Obviously because you’re not a paying customer, so you should not feel bound or ripped off.
But let me tell you something VERY simple..
“You WILL come back to RP.. at the end of the day”
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Hassaan (7 comments) Reply:
December 11th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
@ Hamza..
Mate! I think u took that all to heart…
… m sorry for that but, the thing is, that I always set RP my priority and move on to other link generating sites after that…and u got it all wrong when u said that at the end of the day m gonna come back to RP…i type RP’s address the time i first see a rapid share download link…m a big fan of ur service and will always be….RP has started rocking again! Thnx for that 
[R u of south asian origin?]
P.S: Blame my impatience for the previous post…
P.S.S: Just curious about ur nationality…
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Hey guys keep this thing going………… I wish I could afford some money, but I do not even have a Credit card (lol) wich is so bad man…….. this site rocks
Too bad I can’t download anymore from here within the next 24 hours
THX guys
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hey guys;
first i’d like to congratulate for the launching of this great service . it’s must be the fruit of an amzing hard work. it’s the first time i could download three chunks from hot file servers simultaneously.
the issue is that sometimes i get ‘undefined’ message when trying rapidshare is it a normal down moment????????????????
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I’m just another person who wanna say thanks for this service.
Alhamdulillah.
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Hamza (194 comments) Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
You’re welcome
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