Orcon ending Windows Hosting

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Orcon ending Windows Hosting

adw

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Master Geek

#151777 4-Sep-2014 18:50

Received notification today that Orcon are ending their Windows Hosting as they consider it uneconomical to upgrade their servers and are giving 3 working days notice of this. They will be geo blocking websites on the 10 September (how many websites really only want local traffic?). FTP access only (all internet traffic blocked) 3rd October. FTP access to end 20th Jan. They recomend OpenHost - does anyone recommend anyone else please?

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#1122094 4-Sep-2014 19:20

3 (three) working days? If that is accurate I would not take that lying down. I would have thought 60-90 days notice would be more appropriate.

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adw

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Master Geek

#1122098 4-Sep-2014 19:27

Dynamic: 3 (three) working days? If that is accurate I would not take that lying down. I would have thought 60-90 days notice would be more appropriate.

Unfortunately yes, received notification at 16.19 today and it's geoblocked on the 10th. That leaves Friday, Monday and Tuesday. I would have expected a professional company to give more notice too.

Andib

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#1122104 4-Sep-2014 19:38

I assume they are running on Server 2003 so I can see where they're coming from but for a decent sized site, 3 days is crazy to setup, test and migrate over to a new host

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FireEngine

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#1122227 4-Sep-2014 23:01

adw:
Dynamic: 3 (three) working days? If that is accurate I would not take that lying down. I would have thought 60-90 days notice would be more appropriate.

Unfortunately yes, received notification at 16.19 today and it's geoblocked on the 10th. That leaves Friday, Monday and Tuesday. I would have expected a professional company to give more notice too.

The email notification in question (sorry some of the formatting has been lost in pasting it here):

"Microsoft is ending support for your web hosting platform, Windows Servers (2000, 2003, 2008). Without ongoing support, these servers are vulnerable from a security point of view. To limit security vulnerabilities, we are implementing geo-blocking to limit access to NZ and Australian traffic only on the 10th of September. Following that, we are closing off all non-FTP access to windows websites on 3 October 2014. Unfortunately upgrading these Windows servers is uneconomical for Orcon, so we have made the hard decision to make our Windows Hosting product end of life.

Next Steps It is important that you take swift action to begin migrating your Windows ASP websites over to an alternative hosting solution. To help with this transition we have negotiated with a trusted company, OpenHost. They have put together a free migration offer, to make transitioning your website easy. Basic websites can be easily migrated over to our iSERVE Linux hosting platforms. Please contact our Webhosting helpdesk to on 0800 144 737 to initiate migrating your basic websites to our iSERVE Linux platform.

You have the following websites hosted on our Windows Platforms: Basic Website Windows ASP Website Websites *|BASICSITE|* *|ASPSITE|* Domains *|BASICDOMAIN|* *|ASPDOMAIN|* OpenHost free migration offer

Options available: Options Cost of migration Monthly Basic Website Option to migrate to Orcon iSERVE Linux platform FREE Included in existing plan Windows ASP Website Option to migrate to Open Host Windows platform FREE on 24 month contract, click here for more detail $11 per month

Information and options for Windows Webhosting: Open Host = http://www.openhost.co.nz/orcon-free-migration/ Microsoft Azure = http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/websites/

Key dates:
Geo-Block on websites (NZ and Australia traffic only) – 10th September 2014
Servers FTP access only (All internet traffic blocked) – 3rd October 2014
Servers FTP access will end – 20th January 2015

Support: If you have any questions relating to this email please contact us on 0800 144 737 or email us at hostingsupport@orcon.net.nz. Regards The Team at Orcon

Regards FireEngine

Regs

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Snowflake

#1122237 5-Sep-2014 00:13

what crap timing.... during the annual Microsoft TechEd conference where up to 2500 delegates who may well be using the service are heading.

and 3 days notice? ouch. incredibly poor planning.

also:
Windows Server 2003 end of support is next July, 2015
Windows Server 2008 is in mainstream support until Jan 2015, and extended support until 2020
(Windows 2000 was EOL about 4 years ago)
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle
http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/default.aspx?sort=PN&alpha=Windows+server&Filter=FilterNO

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FireEngine

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#1122240 5-Sep-2014 00:31

Regs: what crap timing.... during the annual Microsoft TechEd conference where up to 2500 delegates who may well be using the service are heading.

and 3 days notice? ouch. incredibly poor planning.

Access from Autralia and New Zealand continues after 10/9 as the email states, it is access from OUTSIDE that area that will be blocked. So delegates at TechEd will be able to access any site on those platforms just as before while TechEd is on.

Regards FireEngine

Regs

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Snowflake

#1122242 5-Sep-2014 00:51

FireEngine:
Regs: what crap timing.... during the annual Microsoft TechEd conference where up to 2500 delegates who may well be using the service are heading.

and 3 days notice? ouch. incredibly poor planning.

Access from Autralia and New Zealand continues after 10/9 as the email states, it is access from OUTSIDE that area that will be blocked. So delegates at TechEd will be able to access any site on those platforms just as before while TechEd is on.

if someone is running their website/server and I needs to be accessible from outside A/NZ, then they have a mere 3 days to migrate. If they also happen to be attending TechEd then they probably too much to do before the conference already, without the added pressure of having to migrate servers etc

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Snowflake
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about.me/nzregs
Twitter: @nzregs

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FireEngine

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#1122243 5-Sep-2014 01:00

Regs:
FireEngine:
Regs: what crap timing.... during the annual Microsoft TechEd conference where up to 2500 delegates who may well be using the service are heading.

and 3 days notice? ouch. incredibly poor planning.

Access from Autralia and New Zealand continues after 10/9 as the email states, it is access from OUTSIDE that area that will be blocked. So delegates at TechEd will be able to access any site on those platforms just as before while TechEd is on.

if someone is running their website/server and I needs to be accessible from outside A/NZ, then they have a mere 3 days to migrate. If they also happen to be attending TechEd then they probably too much to do before the conference already, without the added pressure of having to migrate servers etc

Ah - I see what you mean, rest assured that the customer numbers on these platforms is quite modest.

Regards FireEngine

Dynamic

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#1122257 5-Sep-2014 06:07

If 3 days is not enough time, get on the phone and rip them a new one. Orcon can isolate these servers from the rest of their network to limit their exposure.

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

Referral links to services I use, really like, and may be rewarded if you sign up:
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Inphinity

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#1122310 5-Sep-2014 08:55

5 or so days notice for this sort of change to a service, regardless of how small the user base for it is, it absolutely ridiculous and, sorry, reflects very poorly on Orcon as a whole. As I'm not one of the affected customers, I won't get in to it too much, but the announcement and way this is handled in general means I would not consider Orcon a viable provider for any of my future hosting requirements, as I would have zero confidence in them to provide a reasonable notice for any other changes. 30 days notice of the change would've been a totally different story.

As pointed out above, Win2000 should've been retired long ago, and 2003 and 2008 are both still in support. Also, end-of-support is something MS typically gives plenty of notice of.

adw

175 posts

Master Geek

#1122320 5-Sep-2014 09:25

FireEngine:
Regs:
FireEngine:
Regs: what crap timing.... during the annual Microsoft TechEd conference where up to 2500 delegates who may well be using the service are heading.

and 3 days notice? ouch. incredibly poor planning.

Access from Autralia and New Zealand continues after 10/9 as the email states, it is access from OUTSIDE that area that will be blocked. So delegates at TechEd will be able to access any site on those platforms just as before while TechEd is on.

if someone is running their website/server and I needs to be accessible from outside A/NZ, then they have a mere 3 days to migrate. If they also happen to be attending TechEd then they probably too much to do before the conference already, without the added pressure of having to migrate servers etc

Ah - I see what you mean, rest assured that the customer numbers on these platforms is quite modest.

So that's okay then. Don't worry about a modest number of your customers (and their clients) and affecting their livliehoods.

I particularly like point 4 of the Open Host agreement that says, "We will contact you within 3 business days to confirm that we have moved the sites with instructions on how to test the websites." - so the 'solution' you've proposed doesn't even have a testing element in that period. Surely you can do better than this?

FireEngine

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#1122326 5-Sep-2014 09:33

FireEngine:
adw:
Dynamic: 3 (three) working days? If that is accurate I would not take that lying down. I would have thought 60-90 days notice would be more appropriate.

Unfortunately yes, received notification at 16.19 today and it's geoblocked on the 10th. That leaves Friday, Monday and Tuesday. I would have expected a professional company to give more notice too.

The email notification in question (sorry some of the formatting has been lost in pasting it here):

"Microsoft is ending support for your web hosting platform, Windows Servers (2000, 2003, 2008). Without ongoing support, these servers are vulnerable from a security point of view. To limit security vulnerabilities, we are implementing geo-blocking to limit access to NZ and Australian traffic only on the 10th of September. Following that, we are closing off all non-FTP access to windows websites on 3 October 2014. Unfortunately upgrading these Windows servers is uneconomical for Orcon, so we have made the hard decision to make our Windows Hosting product end of life.

Next Steps It is important that you take swift action to begin migrating your Windows ASP websites over to an alternative hosting solution. To help with this transition we have negotiated with a trusted company, OpenHost. They have put together a free migration offer, to make transitioning your website easy. Basic websites can be easily migrated over to our iSERVE Linux hosting platforms. Please contact our Webhosting helpdesk to on 0800 144 737 to initiate migrating your basic websites to our iSERVE Linux platform.

You have the following websites hosted on our Windows Platforms: Basic Website Windows ASP Website Websites *|BASICSITE|* *|ASPSITE|* Domains *|BASICDOMAIN|* *|ASPDOMAIN|* OpenHost free migration offer

Options available: Options Cost of migration Monthly Basic Website Option to migrate to Orcon iSERVE Linux platform FREE Included in existing plan Windows ASP Website Option to migrate to Open Host Windows platform FREE on 24 month contract, click here for more detail $11 per month

Information and options for Windows Webhosting: Open Host = http://www.openhost.co.nz/orcon-free-migration/ Microsoft Azure = http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/websites/

Key dates:
Geo-Block on websites (NZ and Australia traffic only) – 10th September 2014
Servers FTP access only (All internet traffic blocked) – 3rd October 2014
Servers FTP access will end – 20th January 2015

Support: If you have any questions relating to this email please contact us on 0800 144 737 or email us at hostingsupport@orcon.net.nz. Regards The Team at Orcon

Just to add to this, I understand that if you contact the support team then the Geo-block can be modified on a case-by-case basis.

Regards FireEngine

FireEngine

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#1122341 5-Sep-2014 09:39

adw: So that's okay then. Don't worry about a modest number of your customers (and their clients) and affecting their livliehoods.

As you are personally aware, I take every customer issue seriously, hence spending my own time on here. I was simply responding to the suggestion that thousands of customer's are affected - which is a wild exaggeration based on no data.

I'd suggest you call the team as directed in the email, you will find they are only to willing to assist as outlined above, my apologies that the email didn't make that clear.

Regards FireEngine

Zeon

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#1122398 5-Sep-2014 10:50

Fair enough for Orcon to be making the call of discontinueing the service. If they haven't got contracts that stipulate a service period its their right.

However 3 days notice. That is honestly ridiculous. A website is meant to be "web"-site not a nzaus-site. Even 1 months is on the low end.

What's up with Orcon these days? Kim Dotcom on their ads, now this kind of stuff?

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#1122434 5-Sep-2014 11:18

Zeon: Fair enough for Orcon to be making the call of discontinueing the service. If they haven't got contracts that stipulate a service period its their right.

However 3 days notice. That is honestly ridiculous. A website is meant to be "web"-site not a nzaus-site. Even 1 months is on the low end.

What's up with Orcon these days? Kim Dotcom on their ads, now this kind of stuff?

Unfortunately the threat is very real, present and primarily from offshore outside the NZ/Australian geo.

Regards FireEngine

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