I really thought that life is the ultimate mirror image of the biblical exodus journey of Moses and the Israelites in the Desert. I never realized that at the time when everyone was busy, I myself would be locked up in my room and tweaking my beloved blog 24/7 of the holidays up to the new year. I could have just left my blog hanging and dangling on a tree for vultures and crows to scavenge, but it was too precious for me to ignore. Not that I consider it as one of Gollum’s magic rings, its just that OTWOMD has touched so many lives already in the blogosphere (with or without the Ka Pepe) that I can’t seem to fathom the idea of leaving my blog inaccessible for days and weeks, especially during the season where many Internet users are looking for meaning in their lives, even on cyberspace (as if my blog is here to inspire haha). What took me 2 weeks to accomplish in the peak of the season was a desert experience that is more fruit bearing than the oasis on a desert itself.

The Jarring Experience

It all started when I upgraded my blog to wordpress 2.7. Everything was smooth, everything was working fine. And because i was so happy that my blog has reached thousands of hit every week, I started contacting my server, which was PagePH then. I offered them a free plug on my blog as a gratitude to their prompt reply in every questions that I throw them. When I sent them an email, I never got any reply. So I thought they didn’t need any of my free services so I just skipped the idea. After all, napakadali ko namang kausap (I’m so easy to talk to). When I woke up the next morning, I couldn’t access my site. So I turned on my FTP client so as to check if the server was down. MY FTP couldn’t connect also yes, for the first time, even my control panel in the server was rendered inaccessible. So I thought the whole host was having a maintenance of sort. I’ve waited for minutes, clicks upon clicks but to no avail. I contacted the support but there was no reply. The minutes became hours and the hours became days. I panicked. I sent an email again to the support but after only three persistent beg for attention, did they respond.

Pointing fingers

We (PagePH and I) immediately made a schematic diagnosis on my IP and my computer. I know it was very risky, but I was so persistent in doing everything just to access my blog again. They told me that the fault was not on their end but on my Internet Service Provider which is (Smartbo). After some exchange of emails, I immediately contacted smartbro and we also did a schematic diagnosis on my connection.There were so many procedures we’ve done. starting from the command prompt up to the proxy settings. Everything on Samrtbro’s end was axhausted and actually i gain full respect to their staff for being so patient with my qualms and demands. But it was no use. I cant still access my blog, my ftp client, and my cpanle on PagePH server. The last resort was to forward my complaint to the IT team of smart bro to make the necessary adjustments. For three days i’ve been on and off on the phone line to follow up my case. But to no avail. I was really beginning to panic. I already lost numerous clients in three days time. The strangest thing however is that I was the only one who cannot access my own blog. And I also received reports from Malaysia and France that the connection is a bit slow which also proves that the problem was not on my connection but on my actual webhost. Yet I still reserved my jusdgment because there were no definitive proof at that time which will catch the culprit. Until Good Samaritans showed up.

Good Samaritans

I contacted Mix Glorioso of Eto Ang Sayo (he was a former Dell CS) and asked for any info that he might know about my case. He then taught me this thing called “Proxies” and shared me a software he’s been using for years. Nakakatawa kasi sabi ko kay Mix, “don’t even try abandoning me” haha. I was so desperate to access my blog that I was begging him not to leave me online. And he didn’t. Until at last, I accessed my blog and my server for the first time since the jarring experience. This gave me a definitive proof that the problem lies on the IP address I’ve been using.

For those who cannot understand IPs, IP addresses are unique serial numbers given to your computer either by the manufacturer or your ISPs. This IP addresses shows up on your comments area in your wordpress control panel and these are also used to block any existing users who causes disharmony on blogs.

The software that Mix shared me was magical because I was at ease in accessing my server and my blog, without any kind of interference. Until Mix suggested that maybe the webhost pagePH blocked me. Again I reserved that kind of judgment, but I was thinking WHY? Why on earth would they block me? Malen and Ruthie are also hosted on Page PH and yet I can still access them and at the same time, they were not having any problems with their blogs.

Next an email came from Ross Delgado of Anak ni Kulapo, telling me that he already sent my prize for his contest. That was the time that I realized that I can now manage to buy and purchase a new webhost. Ross was really an angel for me at that moment since if it wasnt for that money, I would have been stuck up to now in PagePH.

So I have a money, but what I need is a good info about webhosts. Ironically, I was the one who blogs most of the time about webhosts yet when the time comes for me to choose the right webhost, I can’;t seem to decide for myself.

So I contacted via Phone, Lavern Tan of Pinoy Ambisyoso and asked him for advice regarding my problem. At frist, he was so sincere in offering me to host me in his server for free (Ang babait ng mga kaibigan ko ano?) for he has so many discspace in his account that he can build 100 blogs at the same time haha. Pero I was shy at his offer. Instead, I just asked him how much will a webhost will cost. He gave me the information that I needed and he even gave me a discount (retro-discount actually). When I counted my budget, It was the exact amount haha. So the next day, I immediately signed up in my server and bought a new domain that comes with it. I didn’t know that there is an option of excluding a domain name. But the problem was, I cannot seem to contact Lavern to help me in my transfer because in the process, I lost my sim card only to find it after everything was already okay.

Being clueless in my new server, I contacted Noel Cabacungan of Chronicles of Kotsengkuba, asking for help if he can assist me to go through the process of adding the domain to the directory etc. Would you believe that the entire day while he was watching his daughter Tifa, he stayed with me for at least 12 solid hours all in all in chat, just so I can transfer by blog to a new host? That’s not all, he even did my xml file and split it to pieces just so I can restore everything in OTWOMD including comments, posts, categories and pages.

After I have restored my blog, I learned so many things from Noel that I decided to create another blog which in turn became “blogs”. Without any money on my online bank account, without any Ka Pepe for two weeks and without any income, I turned to Marlin Ada of My Nosebleed to lend me $20 to purchase the domain names “bluepanjeet dot org” and “bluepanjeet dot biz”. “I have alrerady in my possession the rights to “bluepanjeet dot net” and “bluepanjeet dot com”. She willingly extended her help and even asked me if its only $20 I need. (Ang babait ano? haha). And with that comes history of another OTWOMD moments.

Thief in the Night

When I was in chat with Noel, the thing we talked about is to back up all my files from my old server including the xml files. Like a thief in the night, without my old server knowing my plans of transferring, I used the proxy server which Mix gave me, in downloading all my files and folders from PagePH. From the database, xml files, plugins, themes, photos and even media, I all downloaded them as fast as i could before my old server could block me again. When I fanally had my files back, I deleted any remaining trace of OTWOMD on PagePH cpanel and directory. And when Noel and I got my Blog back to its full, I emailed Page PH and tell them my decision to transfer, of which I never got any reply.

Last String Attached

The last thing that PagePH has hold on me was my Domain name “bluepanjeet dot net” because it was registered on their name. So in order to transfer the registration of my domain name to me, I need an authorization code which should be present in the domain cpanle. But when NOel and I checked, the Auth code was not there. So I emailed again PagePH to release my Auth Code but again there was no reply. I was afraid that they could hold it against me and that my blog will be useless without my domain name bluepanjeet dot net on my blog. You see, domain name is everything because all of technorati links, alexa ranks and google pagerank is attached to a domain name. And once a blog uses a new domain name, everything will be back to zero. The links, the pagerank and the alexa traffic. So it was very important for me to get hold of the registration of my domain name.

And because I dont want PagePH to have a grasp on me, I decided to contact the main registrant of my domain name which is based in California. I told them my complaint and was telling them to contact pagePH because of my problem. After a few minutes, when the California Domain Company responded to my ticket, Page PH replied and gave me the Auth code. Immediately, I used the auth code and transferred the registration of the domain name to my new server, this time under my ownership. On December 28, 2008, Bluepanjeet dot Net was officially and technically registered to bluepanjeet until July of 2010. That was the last time I looked back on PagePH.

Gratitude to PagePH

I am indebted and in gratitude to PagePH because they sponsored my site since July 2007 up to December 2008. I had no fees to pay for the last one and a half year except for the registration of my domain name. Page PH will be part of OTWOMD history because it is there where I gained a spike on my readership. It is also there where I got my first ever domain name. and its also there that I blogged about any topic including the most controversial ones. My Gratitude will always be with PagePH for helping me in putting OTWOMD in its proper niche in the blogosphere. Without them, there would be no OTWOMD up to now.

Freedom

But even if I was sponsored and I got a one year and a half of bill-free hosting, I was always afraid of Page PH. One is because until now I don’t know who the owners are. There are no physical address for office, no telephone numbers and even no information of the actual owner of the server. It is as if Page PH only exists in cyberspace that can vanish anytime without a trace. Two, its because they know so much about me, my details and even my address, that when you check the WHOIS of my bluepanjeet dot net before, my real name, phone number and address were plastered on the cyberspace for everyone to see. And its only when I transfered to my new server that I found out that my privacy was not protected. Three, I was always stifled to write everything I wanted to write, especially of the fear that the people I blog about are PagePH’s friends or they are supporter of this and that politicians. For how will I know since I do not really know anything about my server except that they sponsor me. Who knows, maybe some of OTWOMDs enemies are their allies. and Lastly, there are some features on my control panel which are always turned on even if I try to turn it off so many times. This gave me the fear, that someone has an access on my control panel without me knowing it.

No matter how free my financial obligation was on PagePh, there was really no sense of freedom. And no amount of freebie can really pay the price of True Freedom.

Today, as of this writing, I am enjoying the freedom that I never experienced before. My host is from the US and I have no more fear of writing anything I want. Sometimes kasi, Kahit Pinoy, di mawala wala ang subjectivity. This has always been my fear when I was in PagePH na baka bigla na lang ihack ang blog ko just because of what I write. I was in their mercy because I was sponsored and my blog was running free. But this time, I have a total control of my blog. Wala na yung takot na baka kaibigan nila yung maisusulat ko. wala ng takot na baka ihack yung blog ko. at wala na yung takot na baka ipitin nila ako.

OTWOMD has always been fighting for freedom. And it will be contradicting to promote freedom when the blog itself is not free.

So did they really blocked me or what?

According to PagePH, this was their side of the story:

The above is a traceroute from our server to your IP (assuming that this is the correct IP, i have obtained this from your last login log), there is a delay on hop 7 and could very well indicate a problem or not, while the result displays a time-out, there is a possibility that it was blocking our request or the router or the said hop is indeed experiencing some form of technical issues. The Hop is between p64-7-0-3.r20.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net and 58.71.0.70 (This is a PLDT Network).

If there is indeed a routing issue, there is nothing we could do as the issue in not on our network, you may want to clarify this from your ISP.

But according to smartbro, and to various people i consulted who are in the IT business and are computer literate, the evidence all points to PagePH blocking me for reasons still unknown to me. For logic dictates, that how can smartbro (my Internet Service Provider) go on the length of blocking my own blog on my connection wherein they dont even know I have a blog? Smartbro clients in my area share the same IP address. When Mix was still here in the Philippines, we have the same IP address because his lives a few blocks from where I live. Thats why If I am blocked on a certain site, all of the smartbro clients that have the same IP address as mine will also have difficulty in accessing the site. Therefore, the blocking would have not come from Samrtbro but from PagePH.

And logic also tells us that of all the sites that I have checked, its only PagePH that was not accessible, including my blog hosted under them. I am not saying that this is true, but all of the evidence and the checks that smartbro and I have gone thru points at the direction of their culpability.

Reasons?

I do not know the reason. Maybe because I wrote something against their friend or the owner of a blog tied to PagePH. Maybe they are tired of me. Or Maybe they are teaching me a lesson for offering them a free plug on my blog to show my gratitude to them. I really don’t know. But What I do know is, Gratitude remains when good things are done up to the finish line. Because no matter how many good deeds you did for a person, it wont really matter or be valid at all if you yourself cause some harm to him, who should have been his protedctor in the first place.

New Year is all about moving on, and I want to move on. I want to leave 2008 without any bitterness or bickering for my old server because they have contributed so many things for the growth of this blog. Yet, they could have just finished my stay their with a bang, if they just asked me to leave the server politely, without blocking me or anything, after all, just like what I have said above, madali naman ako kausap sa totoo lang.

Blessing in disguise

It’s actually a blessing in disguise because if it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t have thought of expanding bluepanjeet.net into a blog trlogy. And because of them, the dream of having 5 more blogs in store for 2009 wouldn’t materialize if I did not take the risk. For growth and change always involves risk taking.

I would like to thank Buraot, Ambo, Kaka, Malen and Mix for helping me with my transfer to a new server. To Inang Reyna for all the wonderful PR he has been giving me these past holidays. I can’t pay you all enough, only my prayers. And to Chuva who extended financial help when my online caprices needed it. Alam mo na yun chuva hehe. You are my angels here in the blogosphere. And most especially to Rev, Utoy, IFM, and Dfish who prayed for me constantly when i was on the verge of panic.

You see, when I take people into my bosom and tell them that they are my “friends”, I just dont blurt out words which I do not know the meaning. When I tell them they are my friends, I mean it in all sincerity, that they came to the rescue when no one else dared to save me.

Blogging is an Exodus journey. It’s not just an online stint or a temporary past time. It actually evolved into an online community where friends from far away places are there to help each other, defying distance, religion, belief and rights to define what we always demean as “nobodies”.

To all of you, always remember that OTWOMD existed and continue to exist, just because of people like you.

My prayers and Gratitude for you this 2009

Pax et Bonum