Volusion Servers Down Again

[cw1865]

As many posters on this forum are probably aware, I have been a long time booster of Volusion. If you visit their website you will note that the offer includes a 99.99% uptime guarantee.

What precisely is this uptime guarantee? When I decided to go with volusion, this was one of features that I found appealing. Personally, I thought of it as an indication of service, ie. on a yearly basis there are 8,760 hours *.9999 = 8759.124 meaning that in any given year I could expect 52 1/2 minutes of downtime.

Over the first couple of year, I must note that I did not notice any significant downtime at all; however in the last 6 months, Volusion has experienced four serious outages. The first outage occured in 9/09 and apparently was the result of a critical piece of the system architecure, a second outage occured for the exact same reason approximately 3 weeks later.

"Hello Craig,

Early yesterday, one of our blade server chassis lost connectivity to our Storage Area Network. This resulted in many of our customers experiencing downtime or errors on their storefronts.

Upon identification of the issue, we immediately brought HP on-site. After extensive troubleshooting, HP engineers diagnosed the issue as a failed mid-plane within the chassis. The engineers replaced the mid-plane, and all connections were restored.

This is the second HP mid-plane that has failed in the past 30 days. While the chances of two failures of a similar nature are very remote, HP was able to confirm this to be the case. Based on the serial numbers of the two failed components, we have reason to believe that both came from a bad batch. We are researching this further with the help of HP’s labs, as well as performing a full audit on all of our HP equipment.

We recognize the impact that yesterday’s outage may have had on your business. We are working diligently with HP to prevent a recurrence of this issue in the future.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you for choosing Volusion!

Tells us how we're doing: Volusion Customer Service (http://customercare.volusion.com/review)

Raymond Black
Volusion Support
800-646-3517"

Both failures resulted in thousands of dollars of lost sales and as a result, at that juncture I called them on the 'guarantee' - Volusion responded to this with a 'chump' credit:

"Hello,

Per the Service Level Warranty in our agreement (section 2C, Volusion Terms (http://www.volusion.com/agreement_monthtomonth.asp) ), you are entitled to a partial refund of this month's service charge for website downtime.

We promise 99.99% uptime in a given billing cycle. When downtime beyond 0.01% occurs (approximately 5 minutes), we issue 5% of your monthly fee for each additional 30 minutes of downtime. Downtime is calculated from the time your issue is recorded in our trouble ticket system until it is resolved. Note that not all performance interruptions qualify for downtime.

A credit has been issued in the amount of $19.99. Please allow several business days for it to post to your bank records.

We assure you we are dedicated to preventing future downtime.


Best regards,


Volusion Customer Care" [emphasis supplied]

By the time I received the above notification, the system was operating within normal parameters and while I felt that I should've received a larger credit, I wasn't really in the mood to dispute the credit.

Approximately two-three weeks ago, we had yet another outage, this time apparently the result of a denial of service attack on the system, which was apparently resolved fairly quickly and which seemed to have only a minor impact on my sales figures for the day. In light of the fact that volusion itself appeared to be a victim and in light of the fact that any credit issued wouldn't be worth the trouble of even sending an e-mail, I decided not to bother them with respect to the 'uptime guarantee'

Finally, that brings us to today where a portion of Volusion's server's went down (according to them) which affected only 250 of their customers. Unfortunately I was one of the two hundred fifty and as I write this I have, yet again lost significant sales revenue.

While a portion of this post is merely to gripe at a 'lost day' there is also a general point fo be made:
1. Before making a hosting decision, try to understand precisely the meaning of any given uptime guarantee.
2. Whenever possible, try to research the host's uptime reliability - obviously without any experience dealing with a new company this can be difficult.
3. For webmasters dealing with more than one domain, consider diversifying your server risk by using more than one company so that a failure will only hit a portion of your websites. As a result previous failures with Volusion, instead of putting 'all my eggs in one basket' - I have begun utilizing different systems for my new 2010 websites.
4. At this juncture, I am no longer comfortable recommending Volusion until their server reliability improves.

[kgun]

I have left two hosters silently and remain with four. Based on my personal experience:


Those who writes most are ofte the least reliable.
I take such guarantees with a grain of salt.
If I had a site where I sold physical goods above a certain quantity, I would have at least two geographically balanced servers. Read more in Professional PHP 6 chapter 23.


No other plugin. Not even the Google toolbar, that I have on my laptop.

No I remeber an incidence some days ago. Search:

pdofactory phpm

Be carefull with the second and / or third hit, the PDF document link of the the book Professional PHP 6, I gave an example of in my document. When I clicked that link via FF, Acrobat Reader crashed hard. Tried it again and the same happened on my Xp computer. I had no problems though with the link on my Vista laptop.

Source: http://www.webproworld.com/browsers/99752-new-firefox-problem.html#post499400

I have not put the PDF version of that book on the internet. So the best may be to buy the book like I have done.

[Jermooski]

Any piece of hardware is going to ultimately fail. I am not familiar with Volusion, but depending on how many clients and how much revenue they have, they should be able to invest in a fail over backup. At the least, if the main box goes down, box 2 picks up the requests. They should even have off-site fail over. A different city and different data center acting as backup.

Looking at their website.. they are offering "Lowest Prices Ever." Low pricing has a flip side.

Hope you get it figured out.

Jer

[anthonyk]

Volusion's recent and frequent outages have been very hard on our business. I expect to see a formal plan from Volusion outlining what they are going to do to repair their tarnished reputation. I too would not recommend Volusion for new customers based on their recent performance. Volusion is a money-making machine and they can afford to do better. Once you host with them, you are practically stuck there. That kind of power comes with tremendous responsibility, which Volusion is currently shirking.

[cw1865]

Interesting that you should comment at this precise moment because as I received notification of your reply, their servers are down, yet again - Sunday, March 7th, 2010...."We are aware that some customers are experiencing interruptions with storefront functionality. We recognize the urgency of this issue and are dedicated to delivering a fast resolution. Engineers have been notified and are working to resolve. We will update this page as we learn more details."

All I can say is that I hope its a short one...

[anthonyk]

The systems issue is binary; you have fail-over (high availability) or you don't. 99.99% uptime implies redundant hardware, mirroring, etc. That's not happening. So there's no redudancy on the back end. Last week I lost several transactions after the database crash. This week, it could be anything. Not having near real-time failover is something Volusion must address before they can be trusted with new store-fronts. Existing customers can't move off the platform easily; new customers can and should be warned.

[cw1865]

Last week I lost several transactions after the database crash.

We can commiserate together. I had a hangover effect from it too.


This week, it could be anything.

Knock on wood before saying that please, but you're right, on any given day now I have to wonder, am I in business or should I just go for a ride and hang out at Starbucks or something.


Not having near real-time failover is something Volusion must address before they can be trusted with new store-fronts.

Absolutely, I'm not giving them anything new.


Existing customers can't move off the platform easily;

So true, to a certain extent we get locked in.


new customers can and should be warned.

Absolutely, they obviously can't handle the customers they do have.

[kgun]

Once you host with them, you are practically stuck there. That kind of power comes with tremendous responsibility, which Volusion is currently shirking.
My bolding.

That is not correct:


Handle the name servers from your registrar and not your hoster.
Use relative paths in your site structure and store the code on your computer.
Take regular (cron job) backups of your database. Store the backups on your computer.
Then change hoster like this:
- Upload the code and the database to the new hoster.
- When everything is OK there (a mirror), change the DNS to point to the new
hosters name servers.
Then everything is changed when the new name servers are effective without a noticeable effect.
If this is new to you, test it with a test site.
Ideally use geographic balancing at two hosters. More on that in chapter 23 of the book I mentioned in my first post.
You can leave your original hoster silently, deleting the code there when everything is OK with the new hoster.
I have personally done this two times.
It worked seamless and efficient.

[reelflies]

Hi Guys this is my first post on Webproworld, I have been in touch with Volusion since first thing this morning. I actually contacted them for something else and while I was on live chat there servers went down. This is becoming very frustrating for us we actually have three sites with them. Here is a copy of the live chat basically I guess they suspect another "Denial of Service Attack" any advice on how we can avoid these server outages?
Thanks
Steve


Hello, and thank you for choosing Volusion! A representative will be with you shortly.
steve: how do we stop customers from being allowed to change the shipping rate. We just ad a customer change it to zero $ after we shipped and charged him for shipping, I did not think this would be an option for the customer? Also can they do the same with the actual product price if so how can we stop this.There are 14 people in queue ahead of you. Thank you for your patience.
There are 14 people in queue ahead of you. Thank you for your patience.
There are 14 people in queue ahead of you. Thank you for your patience.
There are 11 people in queue ahead of you. Thank you for your patience.
There are 11 people in queue ahead of you. Thank you for your patience.
There are 7 people in queue ahead of you. Thank you for your patience.
There are 7 people in queue ahead of you. Thank you for your patience.
There are 7 people in queue ahead of you. Thank you for your patience.
There are 7 people in queue ahead of you. Thank you for your patience.
There are 7 people in queue ahead of you. Thank you for your patience.
There are 7 people in queue ahead of you. Thank you for your patience.
There are 7 people in queue ahead of you. Thank you for your patience.
There are 6 people in queue ahead of you. Thank you for your patience.
There are 6 people in queue ahead of you. Thank you for your patience.
There are 5 people in queue ahead of you. Thank you for your patience.
There are 5 people in queue ahead of you. Thank you for your patience.
There are 5 people in queue ahead of you. Thank you for your patience.
There is 1 person in queue ahead of you. Thank you for your patience.
There is 1 person in queue ahead of you. Thank you for your patience.
You are next in queue. We will be with you in just a moment.
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Matt S: Hello and thank you for choosing Volusion! I'll be right there to assist you.
Matt S:
Matt S: Can you please provide the order ID # for which you had this occur?
steve: let me get this
Matt S: No problem at all.
steve: Im trying to get it but is there a server issues I hope not we just had one a few days ago. Getting the connection has timed out error while trying to login to our admin panel
steve: site is also down!!!
Matt S: I apologize, there is currently an issue that our IT team is looking into. They havent provided any information as to an ETA or what is causing it, however, they are updating status.volusion as soon as they have it
steve: What is happening with Volusions servers i came to you to get reliability, I moved from Network solutions because of the same issues this is now becoming a common issues and will for sure effect our page ranking and indexing with search engines if it keeps up. Last time even your site was down. I need the 100 or 99.9 percent up time you quote.
steve: while you are trying to fix the servers how do we lock the customer from changing the shipping and product costs where is this option in the admin panel
Matt S: I understand the impact this can have to an online store and assure you that our IT team knows this as well and it working on mitigating the issue
Matt S: I cant say for sure as I cannot access your site, however, the only option within the admin area that would allow for this would be in Settings > Config Variables under Checkout Variables. The field is Config Enable Allow Order Edit. It is likely turned
Matt S: on and allowing your customers to edit their orders after they place them
steve: OK I'll check this once I can actually access my site again. Coming back to the server situation... I have two sites with you and a third almost complete. I survive as a business on ecommerce with no other source of income. I am really quite concerned by the recent history, I would like you to pass my comments on to a level 2 or 3 customer service person so that we can find a remedy, I am sure you don't want to loose a loyal and valued customers but the detrimental impact on our business is my to priority. Please get someone to call me on 519 854 1446
Matt S: I actually am a level 2 representative, I'm just helping with the high volume we are experiencing. I assure you that your business is important to us
steve: OK Matt that's great, you will find that I am very fare and understanding and have been successfully in business for the past 21 years. I realise that technical issues like this happen but what do I need to do to avoid this in the future? Sever issues are avoidable what changes have you made in recent months that have had such outages, are we on an overloaded shared server? I need you help and a solution so that we can have faith ion your service, at the moment my business is completely at your mercy so lets work together and find a solution.
Matt S: (Thank you for your patience. The operator will be back with you shortly)
Matt S: We are doing everything within our power to mitigate the issues that have been occurring. There hasnt been any information released yet, however, if it is what we expect, another Denial of Service attack, there is little that can be done to prevent it.
Matt S: We are looking into not only mitigating the impact, but also prosecuting those responsible as it is a felony offense.
Matt S: These attacks are basically submission of a large amount of data causing servers to overload and timeout. The only defense against this is to block IP addresses as they come in, which is why it is taken as such a serious offense.
steve: I have not heard of this before so why does it specifically effect only some Volusion sites.. or is it effecting all Volusion sites at this time? please prosecute these guys and please understand i am completely on your side but as a small family run business I am concerned about the impact of this on my income. Is this effecting any other providers outside Volusion or has someone got a vice with volusion.
Matt S: (Thank you for your patience. The operator will be back with you shortly)
Matt S: It intermittently effects everyone who utilizes functionality provided by the servers, which at this point is a large number of our customer base. There have been numerous providers large and small that have been effected by this type of attack, it
Matt S: simply depends on the person who does it. I do know that even google has been attacked I believe in May of last year and it took their service down for quite some time.
Matt S: Was there anything else I could do for you this morning?
steve: No I do understand the situation, but just please get my sites up and running as they should be 99.9 and also please make arrangements to credit me in some way for this downtime and the last few server outages for all three of my sites.
steve: No I do understand the situation, but just please get my sites up and running as they should be 99.9 and also please make arrangements to credit me in some way for this downtime and the last few server outages for all three of my sites.
steve: Please email me once the server issue has been fixed

[cw1865]

My bolding.

That is not correct:


Handle the name servers from your registrar and not your hoster.
Use relative paths in your site structure and store the code on your computer.
Take regular (cron job) backups of your database. Store the backups on your computer.
Then change hoster like this:
- Upload the code and the database to the new hoster.
- When everything is OK there (a mirror), change the DNS to point to the new
hosters name servers.
Then everything is changed when the new name servers are effective without a noticeable effect.
If this is new to you, test it with a test site.
Ideally use geographic balancing at two hosters. More on that in chapter 23 of the book I mentioned in my first post.
You can leave your original hoster silently, deleting the code there when everything is OK with the new hoster.
I have personally done this two times.
It worked seamless and efficient.



Yes, the nameservers can be changed in a flash, the problem is that the data is ON volusion's servers, you can't just pick up and move. To plug the data from Volusion into anyone else's system (Doesn't matter if its OSCommerce, Magento, 3dCart, etc.), there is going to be a 'migration' headache.

[cw1865]

Hi Guys this is my first post on Webproworld, I have been in touch with Volusion since first thing this morning. I actually contacted them for something else and while I was on live chat there servers went down. This is becoming very frustrating for us we actually have three sites with them. Here is a copy of the live chat basically I guess they suspect another "Denial of Service Attack" any advice on how we can avoid these server outages?
Thanks
Steve


Yes, another one this morning. Aside from abandoning Volusion? Nothing, we're the customer, they're the ones who are supposed to keep the system running!

At some point, I would hope that somebody over there would actually get the FBI involved.....

[FortressDewey]

Hey CW, how far is Riverdale from Clifton?

[cw1865]

I don't know, its a secret! Hehe, just kidding. Its not far. I'm where 287 meets 23 Riverdale/Pequannock/Wayne/Totowa/West Patterson/Clifton

[kgun]

..., the problem is that the data is ON volusion's servers, you can't just pick up and move.


Does that mean that you use online software at your hoster to produce your pages without putting a copy on your own computer? I would personally never have done that.

If you have ftp access, you should be able to download the code.
There are other more professional and faster ways to do this. Simply dump the code and database to your own computer and upload it to the new hoster.
If Volusion is a professional company, they should give you all the code you need and let you leave?
You live in free Corporate:rolleyes: America?



To plug the data from Volusion into anyone else's system (Doesn't matter if its OSCommerce, Magento, 3dCart, etc.), there is going to be a 'migration' headache.
Hm. See above. The most professional way to do it would be to dump the code from one server to another (you must then set up a connection between the two servers). That was how we did it in the Central Bank of Norway in the mid 1990's. If that is not possible it should be possible to go via your own computer.

Personally I have had no problems moving to another hoster. Most of my time were taken by communicating with them via email.

I use Opera's principle. Don't rely on any site / online company. I think that principle is even more important today than when I started to use it some years ago. There can be a hurricane earthquake that destroys the rooms where the servers are located.

[cw1865]

Does that mean that you use online software at your hoster to produce your pages without putting a copy on your own computer? I would personally never have done that.

If you have ftp access, you should be able to download the code.
There are other more professional and faster ways to do this. Simply dump the code and database to your own computer and upload it to the new hoster.
If Volusion is a professional company, they should give you all the code you need and let you leave?
You live in free Corporate:rolleyes: America?



When I first started with them in 2006, they used to sell a licensed product where you COULD take the code and put it onto ONE website. The cost was, and I kid you not, $10,000.00 (if my memory serves me correctly). I do not believe that they currently offering a licensed solution anymore.


Hm. See above. The most professional way to do it would be to dump the code from one server to another (you must then set up a connection between the two servers). That was how we did it in the Central Bank of Norway in the mid 1990's. If that is not possible it should be possible to go via your own computer.

Personally I have had no problems moving to another hoster. Most of my time were taken by communicating with them via email.

I use Opera's principle. Don't rely on any site / online company. I think that principle is even more important today than when I started to use it some years ago.

When I first started this in 2000, I did it slowly and surely. I was working full time in NYC and doing the websites 'on the side' - they were making money but nothing to write home about. By 2006 I had created a data management nightmare and people were commenting that my platform began to look 'dated' {which I had to agree, it was} - by 2006 I knew I needed to make a change and when I researched it, OSCommerce, being free seemed to be a good option - however at the time I would've needed to have gone down the learning curve to operate. Volusion had a free trial and I tried it and I liked it; it was absolutely idiot proof. Once I went with them it was like throwing gasoline on a fire, my business exploded. They were the cornerstone of the success of the business. I had realized that I wanted to diversify away from Volusion, I've been trying since late 2008 - 3dCart, Americommerce, Magento, etc.

[kgun]

When I first started with them in 2006, they used to sell a licensed product where you COULD take the code and put it onto ONE website. The cost was, and I kid you not, $10,000.00 (if my memory serves me correctly). I do not believe that they currently offering a licensed solution anymore.

So what is your rate on that investment now?


I had realized that I wanted to diversify away from Volusion, I've been trying since late 2008 - 3dCart, Americommerce, Magento, etc.
You and I know how important diversifying can be.

But again, I assume that you have ftp access to your site. If not, IMO another indication of a non professional company. I use DreamWeaver and click a butten if I want to download the whole site to my computer via ftp. I can take a back up of the database in the cPanel and download that to my computer. Not every hoster do that for you automatically.

P.S. a Norwegian http://www.smartftp.com/ can perhaps do the same as DreamWeaver. I don't use that since DreamWeaver and Embarcadero's Delphi PHP is good enough for me.

"SmartFTP is an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client which allows you to transfer files between your local computer and a server on the Internet. With its many basic and advanced Features (http://www.smartftp.com/features/) SmartFTP also offers secure, reliable and efficient transfers that make it a powerful tool. Click here to Download (http://www.smartftp.com/download/) our ftp software".

So you can use it to upload and download files.

[cw1865]

So what is your rate on that investment now?

Well, I didn't actually buy the code for 10K, Volusion operates on the premise that you pay a monthly fee and they provide the hosting and the system and you put in the data, pictures, options, etc.


You and I know how important diversifying can be.

Absolutely, I started getting that 'I have all my eggs in one basket' feeling in 2007 and in summer 2008 I began to ponder it a bit more, my Magento project, undertaken prior to the recent problems with Volusion, has not been successful.


But again, I assume that you have ftp access to your site. If not, IMO another indication of a non professional company. I use DreamWeaver and click a butten if I want to download the whole site to my computer via ftp. I can take a back up of the database in the cPanel and download that to my computer. Not every hoster do that for you automatically.

I do have FTP access to the account. As I write this I still hold out some hope for Americommerce being a strong platform since it is a centralized CMS. The problem is in mapping the data from one system (Volusion) to the other (Americommerce), the two systems handle options completely differently. The bulk of the data is easy to handle, but those pesky options (I have over a thousand different options)


P.S. a Norwegian SmartFTP - FTP Client (http://www.smartftp.com/) can perhaps do the same as DreamWeaver. I don't use that since DreamWeaver and Embarcadero's Delphi PHP is good enough for me.

"SmartFTP is an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client which allows you to transfer files between your local computer and a server on the Internet. With its many basic and advanced Features (http://www.smartftp.com/features/) SmartFTP also offers secure, reliable and efficient transfers that make it a powerful tool. Click here to Download (http://www.smartftp.com/download/) our ftp software".

So you can use it to upload and download files.

I am not privileged to simply take Volusion's code however. For instance, Volusion is NOT a centralized CMS. On one website I have every single sku that I offer and anytime I change something, I always change it there first and then I can bring 'excerpts' over to existing or new websites. So, let's say I start to sell products from a certain distributor, I can bring that data into what I consider to be my parent website and then export the data, import it into ANOTHER website and then simply use the FTP to download the picture files from one server and upload them into the other website (these pictures also exist on my desktop).

So, for instance, this page here: Wallets-USA.com - 8 Credit Card Leather Bifold Wallet w/external pocket - Made in USA (http://www.wallets-usa.com/8-Credit-Card-Leather-Bifold-Wallet-w-ext-pocket-p/wallets-rnrs548.htm)

I can see the source code and I could copy and paste the source code into dreamweaver, but ultimately its a dynamically generated page, its not going to work without Volusion's engine.

[kgun]

I do have FTP access to the account. As I write this I still hold out some hope for Americommerce being a strong platform since it is a centralized CMS. The problem is in mapping the data from one system (Volusion) to the other (Americommerce), the two systems handle options completely differently. The bulk of the data is easy to handle, but those pesky options (I have over a thousand different options)

'''''''''''''''''''


I can see the source code and I could copy and paste the source code into dreamweaver, but ultimately its a dynamically generated page, its not going to work without Volusion's engine.
Going back to the Op and reading this, I


am very sceptical to their service.
especially if they can not pay you for lost income because of their inferior services. I have had my Norwegian hoster (not cheap) since the end of 2004 that has not been down a second to my knowledge. The same with my ISP.
You have a strong background in law as far as I know. Is this a case for the court?

[cw1865]

I'm not really in a position to sue them. I still have to do business with them!

[kgun]

Volusion's recent and frequent outages have been very hard on our business. I expect to see a formal plan from Volusion outlining what they are going to do to repair their tarnished reputation. I too would not recommend Volusion for new customers based on their recent performance. Volusion is a money-making machine and they can afford to do better. Once you host with them, you are practically stuck there. That kind of power comes with tremendous responsibility, which Volusion is currently shirking.
So that is correct? Some people are more loyal to the bank than to their partner, now we can add, some people are more loyal to ...

In the end it is an cost benefit analyse:


What is profitable in the short run?
What is profitable in the long run?

The answer to question 2 seems obvious, diversify.

[cw1865]

Well there are two sides to every story, received a mass e-mail from Volusion today, one thing about them, they DO communicate (I get their status updates on twitter as well). Here is the e-mail from their CEO today. I figure if I can be critical, I can at least be fair and show you their side of it as well:

Dear Customer,

Volusion has recently been the target of a number of Distributed
Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks. These can take many forms, but one thing they
have in common is that they render a website and/or its resource provider(s)
semi-operable/inoperable by means of traffic overload (more about DDoS attacks
here: Denial-of-service attack - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack)). Since the time
that the first major attacks were performed several years ago, technological
development and best practices have greatly reduced and even eliminated some
attack methods, leading many to regard such events as a thing of the past.
Perpetrators, however, have responded with innovation of their own, and their
activity has recently been on the rise. Even major providers like Twitter
(Neowin.net - Twitter suffers Denial of Service attack (http://www.neowin.net/news/twitter-suffers-denial-of-service-attack)) and others
(DDoS attacks are bigger threat than hackers planned - Feature - Techworld.com (http://features.techworld.com/security/3210247/ddos-attacks-are-bigger-threat-than-hackers-planned/))
have been taken down for extended periods.

While some providers are luckier than others at avoiding attacks, none are
immune to them. Preparedness is a key factor in quick mitigation and resolution,
but the extent of the related service interruption is largely determined by the
sophistication, resources, and determination of the perpetrator(s). In our case,
the recent attacks have morphed in complexity with each attack and the
perpetrators have proven thus far to be uncommonly resilient.

We fully understand the negative impact these events have on your business,
which is why we are working closely with our upstream providers and the
authorities to identify and block the source of the attacks, and pursue all
means available of ceasing the attacks while minimizing the impact of future
occurrences. Over the past two weeks we have made several significant
improvements to our infrastructure by implementing key enterprise monitoring and
security systems that enable us to respond to and limit the effects of these
attacks.

While we cannot promise to eliminate these types of attacks, please know that we
are fully focused on mitigating them and minimizing their impact on your
business. In the meantime, you can always view the latest information at
Volusion Status (http://status.volusion.com)

Kindest Regards,

Kevin Sproles
Founder/Chief Executive Officer
Volusion, Inc

[kgun]

Should they revise their uptime guarantee?

[cw1865]

They can warrant in any manner that they see fit, but that warranty/guarantee should be clearly defined so that a user can judge exactly when a breach occurs, and the remedy that the user will be entitled to in the event of a breach.

[justfactsplease]

My friend was a developer at Volusion until he and almost the entire development staff were laid off in January. He told me the DDoS was a cover story. The real problem was that Volusion management forced its software developers to release new software before it was ready, within a framework of old and poorly designed software written ten years ago by a 17 year old.

[avolusionmerchant]

What's the deal with Volusion and Authorize.Net. I haven't been able to process cards for almost a week. Volusion support tells me the problem is with Authorize.Net. When I call Authorze.Net they say everything is OK, that the problem is with Volusion. I'm getting a complete run around while my business is at a stand still. Is anyone else having the same problem?

[cw1865]

I am not experiencing that issue. First thing is to check your 'keys' and make sure they are correct and weren't inadvertently changed, also be aware that volusion is terminating v4 stores, if applicable upgrade immediately, if you're beyond v4, don't worry about it.

Check the SSL's, make sure they're working, on my v4 conversion, I had that issue.

Volusion also threw PCI compliance issues on us in February......

With respect to authorize.net make sure you're not inadvertently in test mode.

[cw1865]

My friend was a developer at Volusion until he and almost the entire development staff were laid off in January. He told me the DDoS was a cover story. The real problem was that Volusion management forced its software developers to release new software before it was ready, within a framework of old and poorly designed software written ten years ago by a 17 year old.

Perhaps it was, but at that time, rackspace and volusion were in cahoots, and rackspace got hit, the denial of service attacks originating from china, allegedly, drew the attention of sec state hillary clinton....