Web Server Customer Server Deleted Parts of my .htaccess!

What to do?

[erlandc]

Hi experts,

I learned most of .htaccess here, & now after years of adding bad bots & hackers, etc., I'm getting hammered & spending alot of time re-adding bad IPs.

My web server are denying it & now I'm not sure what to do.

***they deleted most of IPs and totally deleted my mod_rewrite file!***

Any suggestions?

Thanks
E

[wilderness]

If you don't have any local copies (backups) on your own machine, than your pretty much screwed.

A hard learned lesson to the safety of backup procedures.

[erlandc]

Wilderness, I had a bad feeling I was screwed. Thing is, their Support said they made a minor change, but when I looked afterwards, what I said were gone.

I told them I was talking to my lawyer & then they stopped emailing me.

Now suddenly, I have a few IPs crawling all over my site to check me out. Have now blocked them & will definitely be ditching them.

Anything legal I can do Wilderness?

thx

[wilderness]

Anything legal I can do Wilderness?

I haven't a clue, however I'm inclined to believe they are covered by their user agreement that you accepted when you signed on.

[erlandc]

Not sure if I want to waste more time on my host i ca because now my log files are inundated by those bad IPs & can barely keep up.

One of their messed it up & won't admit it, so now I'm looking for another web server.

I know an Internet lawyer but that takes times. Did some research on them & it isn't good.

Know any good & reputable web servers? PM if you want. If not, thanks for your time & input Wilderness.

e

[wilderness]

I would suggest that you step back and take a deep breath.

It's not your hosts fault that you failed in a fundamental procedure of standard backups.
Surveying in the process whether the bulk of the services your present host provides to you have been satisfactory.

FWIW, this very same issue was discussed off-topic in the active-Server Farms (Aug 2014) thread [webmasterworld.com] in the SSID Forum.

FWIW, I would suggest not presenting litigation as an issue whenever things don't go your way (you'll only alienate yourself from any otherwise amicable association). Webhost's offer User Agreements that you agree to and cover just about every situation related to their services.

[erlandc]

Indeed, I am out of breath as it will take months to redo what I should have backed up. As you said, tough lesson for sure. Even so, the fact they denied they did it has caused me to look elsewhere & move my sites from them as well as clients.

I will check those links - thanks.

Plus I have no time to read their Terms, etc. I'm just going to walk away...

Thanks for your advice W

[lucy24]

Anything legal I can do

Well, for starters you'd have to prove a monetary loss. And find a judge whose brain doesn't shut down when faced with The Internet.

ALWAYS keep a copy of everything. Or-- putting it differently-- NEVER edit your .htaccess directly.* The .htaccess on your live site should simply be an uploaded copy of "htaccess_mysite" on your hard drive.


* Even for my test site, whose primary purpose is to let me fiddle with RewriteRules, I've got a core "htaccess_google-plays-silly-buggers.txt" saved locally.

[erlandc]

Thanks Lucy,

As I've said, I will do backups when I move all my sites from this place in question.

Will not waste any more time on them whatsoever. They've shown their true colors as seen on reviews about their bad service.

[wslade]

Probably a dumb question, but have you asked them for an earlier back up that may contain the data? They may say they don't have it just to protect themselves BUT maybe not.