This morning the Ninj and I experienced an internet business disaster.
Not a mere gaff, not just an error. A full-blown, stomach-clenching online business system catastrophe.
What happened?
Our server disappeared. Our Web site vanished. Putting the URL into the browser bar wasn’t bringing it up. Trying a different browser wasn’t bringing it up.
Gah!
Reboot all three computers.
Still not coming up.
Internet service seems to be working fine. Every other Web site we try pops right up. Every one, that is, except ours and our host server.
OK. It’s FREAK-OUT time!
Is it our computers?
Can’t be! Ninj calls the host to check. They are able to access both their Web site and ours. Relief. How odd!
Good news, but baffling.
Must be our ISP.
I have to tell you, if there is one aspect about our Web business that neither of us cherish, it is communicating with our beloved ISP – Charter Communications.
Todd Rundgren has a pretty humorous song about this – “I Hate My Frickin ISP“. Hopefully, one day Google or its ilk will come to our rescue and give us all free Internet access. But I digress.
So after an intense hour of systems checks and phone calls, we confirmed that it was a problem with our ISP. Against my will, I got on the phone to Charter Communications, ready to pummel them with questions. While waiting for a real-live person…
Our catastrophe self-corrected.
Correction took about one hour. Had we been away at the gym, a bookstore or coffee shop, we would have remained blissfully unaware of the problem. Ignorance can work sometimes.
Now that my heart beat has resumed its regular speed
…and everything is back to normal, it’s time to reflect on our little wrinkle in the fabric of the online universe. It’s motivated me to write an article with a check list about how to make your internet business secure. I’ll let you know as soon as it’s up.
Our Web business is over five years old. It has proved far more secure than any other job I’ve ever had.
However, for some weird reason, running a Web business still feels surreal.
It’s still a brave new world online for businesses such as ours that are completely information-based. Like it or not, we’re on the cutting edge.
- We don’t have a brick-and-mortar store.
- We don’t ship books.
- Our customers receive access to information via a password.
When it comes right down to it, we are simply pixel pushing in the noosphere. It’s all data in the cloud. Talk about faith-based initiatives!
