I’ve proved once again that if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself. The ManuSoft web site is fully functional again after my longtime ISP had a major network meltdown. I waited for two weeks for them to repair it, then finally moved to a different provider. The new provider’s promised “24/7 tech support” turned out to mean “24 hours to respond, 7 days to fix” every problem, not to mention that I would need to provide step by step instructions to their techs so they could configure the server the way I needed. After two weeks of that, I gave up and configured my own server and now host it myself.
Let this be a warning to all of you hosting web sites with reputable providers, or storing your data somewhere in the cloud. I paid big bucks every month to my old provider for secure servers, redundant power supplies, managed and air conditioned server rooms, nightly backups, 99% uptime, etc., but they still lost everything. Almost a month later they still haven’t restored their customers’ data. Luckily, I make my own backups.
I used to be with a Web hosting company that had a peculiar bug: I could not do ftp uploads if someone else was doing a download. And they were expensive.
So I switched to a cheaper one, and get better service, most disk space, etc, etc.
I can't be sure, but I'd wager that my ISP was not fully staffed when this happened. I cringe to think of how many sales I lost while my online store was unavailable. Unfortunately, with the economy tanking, ISPs cut back in staffing and cut corners in maintenance and support, leaving customers more vulnerable at a time when problems can hurt the most.