Some Warning Might Have Been Nice
5:32 PM 3/20/2009The first symptom: My email server started 'timing out' whenever I would check for mail. My last successful retrieval was this morning around 9:30. I spent some time away from the computer - there was reading, a nap, a snack, a shower - then I started noticing email trouble.
What changed?: Thunderbird updated itself to a new version. That normally doesn't cause problems, but it was the only conspicuous change.
I logged into 'backstage' - my administrator's interface. No new mail there either. I couldn't figure out what was wrong.
Then, I went to my site to check something. It came up with one of those hijack pages: Some mysterious entity has failed to find your page, but offers you search options - the sort of thing you see if you mistype the domain name, and that misspelled domain is not registered. I cursed my fingers for slipping, then clicked a bookmark for added certainty.
Wait, did I just say "Not Registered"?
Well, it wasn't...
My hosting company - I love 'em to pieces, but this was kind of rude - automatically charged my check card to renew the hosting service. In retrospect, it is clear to me how I could have headed this off.
That caused an overdraft fee at my bank. Oddly, the online statement shows that the account never went negative. I have an ATM slip showing -$150. (Just the amount you would expect for a $120 charge and a $35 fee applied to a $5 balance.) I also got the card warning me of an overdraft today - always several days too late to do anything about the problem... But now there is no amount like that in the recorded history. Does that mean that the bank cleared up the problem on their own accord. Suntrust recently changed their motto to "Bank Strong" or some such nonsense. I liked the old motto, which always elicited derisive laughter from me: "Seeing Beyond Money". I never got that impression. "Bank Strong" is more honest.
In the midst of all this - I just don't register or renew domain names all that often - the hosting company has failed to alert me that my registration expired too. (Network Solutions used to send us weekly emails six months in advance at Olsson's hoping to get the renewal fee way before it was actually due - and touting every imaginable misspelling of our domain.)
So it's like nine dollars a year. Chump change. I had some trouble finding the page where I could pay it - I nearly asked tech support (the universal admission of failure) - but eventually I found it and paid. The site was back within a minute. Email downloads within three.
The thing about hosting services: You're still allowed in the back door the whole time, you can still do everything shown on the control panel... Though it might be nice to see the status of my domain registration there.