Messages

Sorry, this forum isn't really checked any longer.

If you still need this done, we can arrange it for you.

We are finally shutting down the following servers:

EAST.LVCS.NET
 - Running unsupported CentOS 6
 - Plesk with only a few active users due to previous attempts at migration in 2019
 - Shut down will occur by July 10, 2022 as all active users were already migrated.
 - We sent a reminder to those with content still on the server to either migrate or data will be lost
**Update 7/17/2022: We have moved all sites from this server and scheduled to shut it down**
FINAL SHUTDOWN DATE: 7/24/2022

EU.LVCS.NET
 - Running unsupported CentOS 6
 - Plesk with only a few active users due to many migrating to EU2 in a nearby data center
 - We have just started the review process for the discontinuation of this server again.
 - From the initial review, it seems 95% of the sites are not active, have no valid domains, or are disabled/expired.
**Update 7/17/2022: We are checking what additional sites are not active before moving forward**

NYC01.LVCS.NET
 - Infrastructure server that was moved from 60 William (Manhattan) to Dallas, TX a few years ago
 - No longer being used
**Updated 7/18/2022: This server has been decommissioned**
FINAL SHUTDOWN DATE: 7/19/2022

We hope to have these taken down by the end of July 2022.  (This is almost 3 years passed the date we intended to do this.)

The following servers are also being reviewed:

NYC.LVCS.NET
 - cPanel on CentOS 6 (no new updates for a while) and unsupported.
 - We originally setup EWR to replace this as well as the EAST Plesk server.
 - Our hosting/billing management site is still hosted here.  If we keep EU2 and EWR we may keep it alive and reimport the EWR sites into it.
**Update 7/17/2022: We are moving our own sites to another system and will investigate how many additional sites need moved**

EU2.LVCS.NET
 - Newer OS but not running the latest updates due to other components that need upgraded first.
 - This is not on the list to be removed at this time due to it being the only server left in the region after EU is removed from service.
**Update 7/17/2022: We have verified most of the components are running an updated version**

AWARDS1.LVCS.NET
 - NJ Infrastructure Server that hasn't been used in years

UPDATE:
This forum was updated to the latest release and moved to EWR
**Update 7/18/2022: We have adjusted the template settings and forced SSL on the forum**
**Update 7/22/2022: We have reinstalled CP1 and CP2 with a newer OS and reattached to the DNS Cluster**

I'm sorry for the lack of response.  The old freepgs.com email wasn't checked anymore as we migrated away from the old sites many years ago.  Checking it now just results in numerous spam messages.

There were some messages on the old system.freepgs.com site, but while people seemed to be using that, we stopped supporting it in 2008.

I had to get into the email in order to reset the password for the admin panel as it had become compromised quite some time ago.

I had been very busy during the pandemic as I didn't get to work from home like it seems many did.  We are in the final cleanup stage of some of the old servers we have been paying for far beyond the timeframe expected.

If anyone is still active here, the only server we will be keeping is EWR.  We haven't accepted signups since 2017 (which was under the hosting.lvcs.net site and not FreePgs.com which stopped at some point in 2011), and even then it was off and on for a few years before that due to abuse.

Over the last few years, both of the control panel software companies were acquired and now charge more for the user license fee (per user) than we previously charged for hosting.  This makes it impossible to continue offering the service.

I want to thank all of the loyal users and I'm sorry to have abandoned you during the last few years especially.

If you are not on one of these servers, please contact us to migrate you as soon as possible!

EWR cPanel Server -- https://ewr.lvcs.net:2083/  **BEST CHOICE, NEWEST OS, PHP, and MySQL versions**
EU Plesk Server -- https://eu.lvcs.net:8443/
EU2 cPanel Server -- https://eu2.lvcs.net:2083/

These are the only servers that will be kept beyond December 31, 2019.

----
Servers being shut down:

LA2 (cPanel)
LAX2 (Plesk)
NYC (cPanel)

----
Servers that have already been shut down:

WEST (Plesk)


----
Infrastructure Servers that are not changing at this time

AWARDS1
CP1
CP2
NS1
NS2
NYC01


If the demand warrants, we will get another server on the west coast running at some point, but we likely have to consolidate those.  We will attempt to replace EU and EU2 with a newer more robust server in that region.

Due to increased costs, we are being forced to shut a large number of the servers down.  We are also facing the issue of oudated control panels and increased license costs on our Plesk servers.

As many of you may know, cPanel increased the licensing cost earlier this year.   The license costs are now more that we collect from you for the entire service being provided.

We will be able to maintain a single cPanel server at our NJ datacenter.  As we will be removing the WHMCS system (due to it costing more than we collected last year), we will go back to manually billing or using PayPal or 2Checkout subscriptions to handle payments.  This will keep our costs down.

The new EWR server is running the latest version of cPanel, supports multiple versions of PHP, and has 16GB of RAM and large amounts of disk space.  We will continue to use our CP1/CP2 DNS cluster for redundancy.

We had a problem with the datacenter hosting the WEST Plesk server, so that server no longer exists.  While we do have another cPanel server in the LA region (LA2.LVCS.NET), it will be EOL within the next six months, so we strongly urge anyone that wishes to continue with our service migrate over to the EWR server as soon as possible.

We will continue to honor your existing pricing plan as long as possible.  There are no plans to increase the cost, but we must consolidate our operation so we can keep things running.

Also, please disregard this message if you have already migrated to another provider.  We are sorry for the intrusion.

Please reply to this message to coordinate the transition to the EWR server or to create a new account if you were on the WEST Plesk server.

Thank you,

FreePgs Legacy

As the Plesk servers get older and older, it appears more and more sites are being compromised.

Remember to keep any scripts you use (such as WordPress, themes, and any plugins) updated.

Please also request to be migrated to our new cPanel platform as soon as possible.  Due to the constant problems we are going to have to move forward with shutting down all Plesk servers in the near future.

We have cPanel servers in the following regions:  NYC (East-US), LA2 (West-US), EU2 (Europe).  We will likely have to add more capacity as we start to migrate accounts, so be sure the site is in the most logical location for your visitors (compared to just where it was created originally).

The SSL Certificates have been renewed and installed for the following Plesk servers:  EAST, EU, WEST.

We will be shutting down the Plesk server LAX2.

If you are still using this server, please request migration to LA2 (if you need a site in the same region).

-Allowing the existing customers to stay on the system as long as they desire, but this will require us to finally get rid of all of the extra Plesk servers to bring our costs down.

I Agree with this option. The service and offerings has gotten better over the years and I personally would like it to stay.

Would a "referral" or "authentication" system work for new sign-ups?
So, this way current customers could invite "trusted" friends that may want to sign-up (2 per year), hopefully that curb fraudulent accounts

Yes, this is something we will consider.  Thank you for the suggestion.

Unfortunately, we have been forced to disable signups due to an influx of fraudulent accounts being created that are then used for phishing websites, spam, etc.
This event caused a disruption of service to any client on our NYC server today for about 5 hours.  This server is also where our billing and support system along with this forum are located.

We are evaluating our next steps.  Some options we are considering:

-Shutting down the entire service and refunding the unused portion.
-Keeping signup disabled and servicing the existing customers until their end of term.
-Allowing the existing customers to stay on the system as long as they desire, but this will require us to finally get rid of all of the extra Plesk servers to bring our costs down.

Please feel free to post any suggestions on this thread.

Thank you.

Unfortunately, due to the number of users that have failed to keep their scripts up to date and/or their credentials secure, we are forced to start shutting down this service.  We can continue all cPanel operations as there are more safeguards in place, however, users will still need to keep their scripts updated.

west1.lvcs.net
OS EOL -- Must migrate

west.lvcs.net
Old PHP versions

east.lvcs.net
Phasing out use of Plesk panel

lax2.lvcs.net
Hardware problems and phasing out use of Plesk panel

If your account is on one of these servers, please email plesk at lvcs dot net for more information to migrate to one of our new servers.
Please ping the following servers and let us know which of these has the lowest response time.

eu2.lvcs.net
la2.lvcs.net
nyc.lvcs.net

The name service had stopped due to an invalid DNS record Plesk allowed a user to create.

Yes, you really need to migrate to one of our new systems.  Please email plesk at lvcs dot net.

You will want to ping the following servers and determine which one is closest to you.  If you were on the closest server, the new replacement is la2.lvcs.net.

Here are all of the available servers:

eu2.lvcs.net
la2.lvcs.net
nyc.lvcs.net

So what (if anything) do I do if my stuff is on west? Do I need to sign up somewhere or something?

Asking because chrome tells me that the SSL certificate on https://west.lvcs.net:8443 is now 200+ days past expiry.

And the nameservice on west appears not to be running right now:


sven@ ~
$  nslookup NS1.WEST.LVCS.NET 8.8.8.8
Non-authoritative answer:
Server:  google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address:  8.8.8.8

Name:    NS1.WEST.LVCS.NET
Address:  50.62.148.171

sven@ ~
$ ping NS1.WEST.LVCS.NET

Pinging ns1.west.lvcs.net [50.62.148.171] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 50.62.148.171: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=52
Reply from 50.62.148.171: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=52
Reply from 50.62.148.171: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=52


sven@ ~
$  nslookup NS1.WEST.LVCS.NET NS1.WEST.LVCS.NET

*** Request to UnKnown timed-out
DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
Server:  UnKnown
Address:  50.62.148.171

DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.



(I paid for 3 years last time, so I don't get payment emails,
so I might have missed some information somewhere. Probably my fault.
Sorry in advance if that's the case.)

This was due to SSL not being setup in cPanel for this domain correctly.  The AutoSSL process was forced which seemed to have enabled the SSL properly for this sub domain in the panel itself.

Since Plesk has discontinued Plesk updates on version 11.5 and 12.0, we will be forced to update these to at least version 12.5 or to the new Onyx release.

We will have to move a bit faster on migrating away from Plesk if these upgrades do not appear to be successful.