Within the past few hours I have been messing around with JoomlaPC and I noticed something, it was grabbing my articles, site and everything from the database. But the database I could not find. The local phpmyadmin program I had installed on my machine locally contained sample data. Then I looked at my configuration file and noticed that it was grabbing the database from Siteground.
They actually hadn't removed my database. So in a hurry a ran over to Google and found a script that backups your entire database to a file on your computer. With that all setup I ran and it dumped my database to file.
This may be of use for some of you (including those who don't use Joomla). For this script be sure you edit it with your database information but do not but localhost as the connection address, the IP Address you want to put is 67.15.211.3.
Here is the script:
START CODE
backup_tables('67.15.211.3','username','password','databasename');
/* backup the db OR just a table */
function backup_tables($host,$user,$pass,$name,$tables = '*')
{
$link = mysql_connect($host,$user,$pass);
mysql_select_db($name,$link);
//get all of the tables
if($tables == '*')
{
$tables = array();
$result = mysql_query('SHOW TABLES');
while($row = mysql_fetch_row($result))
{
$tables[] = $row[0];
}
}
else
{
$tables = is_array($tables) ? $tables : explode(',',$tables);
}
//cycle through
foreach($tables as $table)
{
$result = mysql_query('SELECT * FROM '.$table);
$num_fields = mysql_num_fields($result);
$return.= 'DROP TABLE '.$table.';';
$row2 = mysql_fetch_row(mysql_query('SHOW CREATE TABLE '.$table));
$return.= "\n\n".$row2[1].";\n\n";
for ($i = 0; $i < $num_fields; $i++)
{
while($row = mysql_fetch_row($result))
{
$return.= 'INSERT INTO '.$table.' VALUES(';
for($j=0; $j<$num_fields; $j++)
{
$row[$j] = addslashes($row[$j]);
$row[$j] = ereg_replace("\n","\\n",$row[$j]);
if (isset($row[$j])) { $return.= '"'.$row[$j].'"' ; } else { $return.= '""'; }
if ($j<($num_fields-1)) { $return.= ','; }
}
$return.= ");\n";
}
}
$return.="\n\n\n";
}
//save file
$handle = fopen('db-backup-'.time().'-'.(md5(implode(',',$tables))).'.sql','w+');
fwrite($handle,$return);
fclose($handle);
}
?>
END CODE
In order to execute this code you have to have JoomlaPC installed on your local PC and then just copy this code into a text document save it as "perform.php" and move it to the Joomla folder (which is inside the WWW folder) and then just access http://localhost/Joomla/perform.php from your web brower and it will dump your entire database to a file called db-backup-[LONG_SERIES_OF_NUMBERS_HERE].sql
This was a miracle to me! So if you have been screwed over there still might be hope!
-Mike
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Update on my siteground case
Well since the last time I've posted here, I emailed Siteground again, politely asking them for some sort of phone number that I may contact them through and to please release my domain names so that I may switch hosts. Their response was very generic and carefully written. Carefully written in the sense that offered no help but once again stated their positions. They didn't answer my questions or provide me with options. Currently they are refusing to talk to me, they only want to talk to my friend who is also owner of the account. They told me that all future emails will be ignored.
My friend doesn't even have time to email them, that's why I take care of everything when I can. (At least for now because he is very busy.) This is just an easy way for them to get out the situation. They know their cover will be blown. They probably know about this blog, I really wouldn't be surprised. Keep in mind for 6+ months I have been emailing sales@siteground.com, and cust_service@siteground.com, calling, talking via live chat and NOTHING absolutely NOTHING has been resolved.
I'm more than positive they made up the whole "OH Your account had been charged back, that means fraud." Bullcrap! No one charged back the account. They just don't want to offer us service anymore. One live chat rep, told us we wouldn't be getting service from Siteground ever again (this was in September).
-Mike
My friend doesn't even have time to email them, that's why I take care of everything when I can. (At least for now because he is very busy.) This is just an easy way for them to get out the situation. They know their cover will be blown. They probably know about this blog, I really wouldn't be surprised. Keep in mind for 6+ months I have been emailing sales@siteground.com, and cust_service@siteground.com, calling, talking via live chat and NOTHING absolutely NOTHING has been resolved.
I'm more than positive they made up the whole "OH Your account had been charged back, that means fraud." Bullcrap! No one charged back the account. They just don't want to offer us service anymore. One live chat rep, told us we wouldn't be getting service from Siteground ever again (this was in September).
-Mike
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
I Have Had the Most Horrifying Experience With Siteground
I have never really liked site ground, ever since the beginning. However, I coped with them because I had no real experience to otherwise switch to a new host. Boy has my opinion changed. Here is my experience of why Siteground.com sucks:
It started about 6 months ago (in May 2008), we (my friend and I, who are both in on the same hosting account) had just renewed our Siteground hosting plan. We then decided to also grab a new domain. It wasn't more than 2 months later than all of a sudden our sites stopped working and in their place was a message stating "This account has been Suspended or Closed. Please contact your web hosting provider for more information." Panicy as we were, we immeditely talked to an agent on Siteground's live chat, which we then discovered that someone committed fraud. We were not told anything else and we were directed to email the managers via email at Sales@Siteground.com. The live chat agent told me that he could not help me any further. We then emailed Siteground and within a few days we had received a response. The agent in the email informed us that we had to call Siteground at their 1800 number to receive support for our case as he was not able to help us any further. After we that email, we promptly called them, only to discover that they had no hold and that you had to leave a message. We called again later and an available agent spoke with us, again telling us we must email a manager to get the help we need. Months fly by as we continually try to talk to the live chat people and with no avail, no one contacts us to get this resolved.
Then in Semptember of 2008 we talked to a live chat agent who told us we were not cooperating and that they tried to call us and we were unreachable. After many arguments back forth, stating that we did not get a call and that we have no idea what is going on, he finally assured us we would receive a call back from a manager who can explain to us what exactly had happened and how to proced. About a week later we receive a call from a manger and we tell him that we did not committ the charge backs so he confirmed the case as a fraudulent case and escalated it and informed us he can not help us and that we need to email the escalated managers via email. Confusing was brought about and we (unknowingly) continuted to email sales@siteground.com not knowing there was a different email.
Months fly by again and finally I decided I would take the rest of this case swiftly and quickly. Previously a week or two earlier my partner had talked to an agent via live chat who looked into the case and informed him that we are currently unable to ever receive service from Siteground (I guess the agent was assuming we commited the fraud). I then talk to some live chat agents all 3 times I got different agents we were very rude, unhelpful and provided me no solutions but to email sales@siteground.com. I then emailed and started a new live chat session a few hours later only to find yet another very rude agent who told me he could see my emails and read them. He even copied and pasted a huge chunk into the live chat window. Ferious I called Siteground and left a message and later that night an agent called me back and told me this was the first time they have record of being able to get a hold of us since the fraud had been commited. He was very helpful and elevated the case and gave me a different email that goes directly to the managers. He told me they have no managers available via phone. He also explained to me the exact details of the fraud, what was done and how they handled it. I accepted all of this hoping at the very least, my case would be resolved now.
The next morning I got a respond via email from an elevated top-level manager, informing me that everything was refounded, all of my data from my sites deleted, my accounts deleted, and that my domains would be removed from the database and there was no change of getting my data back and that I should have backed up. Calmly I wrote back telling her I understand (maybe if I was as nice as possible they would do what I say), and that I wanted to be assured that my domains would be removed from the systems and unregistered so that I may re-register then under a different host. (Me and Terrance both agreed to change to Bluehost, who I had talked to twice asking questions and they were extremely nice and I tried their 1800 number and they do have holding.) This morning I got a reply to my request to un-register the domains here is what the respond was (also provided is the first email I sent to them and their responce):
It started about 6 months ago (in May 2008), we (my friend and I, who are both in on the same hosting account) had just renewed our Siteground hosting plan. We then decided to also grab a new domain. It wasn't more than 2 months later than all of a sudden our sites stopped working and in their place was a message stating "This account has been Suspended or Closed. Please contact your web hosting provider for more information." Panicy as we were, we immeditely talked to an agent on Siteground's live chat, which we then discovered that someone committed fraud. We were not told anything else and we were directed to email the managers via email at Sales@Siteground.com. The live chat agent told me that he could not help me any further. We then emailed Siteground and within a few days we had received a response. The agent in the email informed us that we had to call Siteground at their 1800 number to receive support for our case as he was not able to help us any further. After we that email, we promptly called them, only to discover that they had no hold and that you had to leave a message. We called again later and an available agent spoke with us, again telling us we must email a manager to get the help we need. Months fly by as we continually try to talk to the live chat people and with no avail, no one contacts us to get this resolved.
Then in Semptember of 2008 we talked to a live chat agent who told us we were not cooperating and that they tried to call us and we were unreachable. After many arguments back forth, stating that we did not get a call and that we have no idea what is going on, he finally assured us we would receive a call back from a manager who can explain to us what exactly had happened and how to proced. About a week later we receive a call from a manger and we tell him that we did not committ the charge backs so he confirmed the case as a fraudulent case and escalated it and informed us he can not help us and that we need to email the escalated managers via email. Confusing was brought about and we (unknowingly) continuted to email sales@siteground.com not knowing there was a different email.
Months fly by again and finally I decided I would take the rest of this case swiftly and quickly. Previously a week or two earlier my partner had talked to an agent via live chat who looked into the case and informed him that we are currently unable to ever receive service from Siteground (I guess the agent was assuming we commited the fraud). I then talk to some live chat agents all 3 times I got different agents we were very rude, unhelpful and provided me no solutions but to email sales@siteground.com. I then emailed and started a new live chat session a few hours later only to find yet another very rude agent who told me he could see my emails and read them. He even copied and pasted a huge chunk into the live chat window. Ferious I called Siteground and left a message and later that night an agent called me back and told me this was the first time they have record of being able to get a hold of us since the fraud had been commited. He was very helpful and elevated the case and gave me a different email that goes directly to the managers. He told me they have no managers available via phone. He also explained to me the exact details of the fraud, what was done and how they handled it. I accepted all of this hoping at the very least, my case would be resolved now.
The next morning I got a respond via email from an elevated top-level manager, informing me that everything was refounded, all of my data from my sites deleted, my accounts deleted, and that my domains would be removed from the database and there was no change of getting my data back and that I should have backed up. Calmly I wrote back telling her I understand (maybe if I was as nice as possible they would do what I say), and that I wanted to be assured that my domains would be removed from the systems and unregistered so that I may re-register then under a different host. (Me and Terrance both agreed to change to Bluehost, who I had talked to twice asking questions and they were extremely nice and I tried their 1800 number and they do have holding.) This morning I got a reply to my request to un-register the domains here is what the respond was (also provided is the first email I sent to them and their responce):
Dear Mr. Mike Lierman,
Thank you for contacting us back!
Please be informed that we have carefully investigated your case in order to provide you with the best solution regarding your inquiries. We have contacted our registrar in regards of the domain names phinxfx.com and techdatamcs.com, however as they are registered on 2007-07-05 (phinxfx.com) and 2008-08-10 (techdatamcs.com) they cannot be deleted from their database.
If you would like you can allow some time until they expired and become available for registration with another registrar. During that time you can register the same domains but with a different TLD (Top Level Domain). For your convenience I will provide you with different domain names that are available and you can use them as a substitute to the phinxfx.com and techdatamcs.com.
phinxfx.net phinxfx.biz phinxfx.info phinxfx.org phinxfx.us etc.
techdatamcs.net techdatamcs.biz techdatamcs.org techdatamcs.info techdatamcs.us etc.
If any of the mentioned above is suitable for your needs you can simply register them with your new hosting provider.
However regarding the 2 hosting accounts with those domain names I would like to note that they are closed and their contents has been already terminated
I would like to apologize for the inconvenience and I thank you for your understanding!
Kindest Regards,
Mirko
SiteGround Sales Team
Toll free phone: +1.800.828.9231
sales@siteground.com
www.siteground.com
Mike Lierman wrote:
Yeah so I cannot have my domains back and I have to register under a .net, .org, .biz. No solution from something that was never my fault to begin with. This absolutely absurd. I suggest to everyone who is reading this to NEVER EVER consider getting service from Siteground. They are a pain and forever always will be. They have crappy support and if you want to talk to someone helpful, good luck you're going to need it because you can only contact them via email.
Oh by the way, anyone who wants the email that goes directly to the top level managers at siteground, it's cust_service@siteground.com.
Here is a recording of the conversation I had today with a support agent on the phone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqqE3cFbWuY
Thank you for contacting us back!
Please be informed that we have carefully investigated your case in order to provide you with the best solution regarding your inquiries. We have contacted our registrar in regards of the domain names phinxfx.com and techdatamcs.com, however as they are registered on 2007-07-05 (phinxfx.com) and 2008-08-10 (techdatamcs.com) they cannot be deleted from their database.
If you would like you can allow some time until they expired and become available for registration with another registrar. During that time you can register the same domains but with a different TLD (Top Level Domain). For your convenience I will provide you with different domain names that are available and you can use them as a substitute to the phinxfx.com and techdatamcs.com.
phinxfx.net phinxfx.biz phinxfx.info phinxfx.org phinxfx.us etc.
techdatamcs.net techdatamcs.biz techdatamcs.org techdatamcs.info techdatamcs.us etc.
If any of the mentioned above is suitable for your needs you can simply register them with your new hosting provider.
However regarding the 2 hosting accounts with those domain names I would like to note that they are closed and their contents has been already terminated
I would like to apologize for the inconvenience and I thank you for your understanding!
Kindest Regards,
Mirko
SiteGround Sales Team
Toll free phone: +1.800.828.9231
sales@siteground.com
www.siteground.com
Mike Lierman wrote:
As I stated previously Terrence and I are in on this together. Certainly you must be kidding to think he doesn't know about this. I hope you realized that Terrence and I have both tried numerous times to email sales@siteground.com and chatting with the sales team to get this resolved. Our attempts to contact a manager or supervisor go back to early September.
In any case, since you can't do anything more, I erge you in Terrence's and mine behalf to close all our accounts (including all domains we have registered with Siteground). It's critical that you release our domain names. As it stands we are not able to re-buy phinxfx.com or techdatamcs.com because they are still registered under Siteground (despite the fact that you said the system was going to close them). I would like them to be deleted so that we may re-register them under a different host. We are in a rush to get our sites back online.
Thank-you for your understanding!
Most importantly, thank-you for your time in reviewing our case.
-Mike Lierman and Terrence Campbell
cc Terrence Campbell
SiteGround Sales Team wrote:Dear Mike,
My name is Emi and I am a supervisor of the SiteGround sales team. I have reviewed the case in details and I have gone through your communication with our sales team. I would like to apologize if you feel that you have been treated in a rude way by our sales representatives. They are not authorized to handle such cases and as they saw that you do not have active services with us currently, they have tried to explain that you need to email us, so that they can escalate the case to a supervisor.
I can see that the accounts for the domain names phinxfx.com and techdatamcs.com were with us under the name of Terrence Campbell. However, all of the accounts and services that he had with us are currently closed. The reason is that we have received chargebacks for the payments for these accounts. We have tried numerous times to contact Terrence Campbell, as well as the credit card holders whose credit cards were used for these payments. We have tried to reach someone and resolve the issue for weeks with no success, so we had no choice but close all the accounts and services that Terrence Campbell had with us.
Currently all the accounts are closed and are to be terminated any moment by our system. Thus we are not able to provide you any kind of access to them and it is not possible to make a backup of the files or databases or get any other information that was located on these accounts. The payments for the accounts and for the domain names were claimed fraudulent and are not authorized by the payers, so we cannot provide access for management of the domain names, as well.
If you would still like to host your sites with us, you are welcome to open brand new accounts under your name and upload the sites on them. However, we would still be unable to provide you access to the old accounts, so you would need to use your own back-ups of the information, in case you have such, or rebuild the sites. You can also try to contact Terrence Campbell and ask him to provide you any back-ups that he might have.
I hope that you will find the above information useful.
Kind regards,
Emi
SiteGround Sales Team Supervisor
Toll Free Phone: +1.800.828.9231
sales@siteground.com
www.siteground.com
Mike Lierman wrote:Hi,
This is Mike Lierman one of the owners of the account phinxfx.com and techdatamcs.com.
Previous representatives via the live chat have been extremely rude and have provided no help to my case. I just spoke with a representative on the phone who was exteremely nice and gave me this email and told me to email you guys because he didn't have permission to help me, and that I needed higher level managers. Apparently there have been multiple chargeback to the account and so everything was refunded. As it stands, it's been 6 months of talking to reps via live chat and emailing sales@sitegrounds.com. Their behaviors have been unacceptable. Today has been the first day I have talked to someone over the phone who has been nice to me. All these 6 months the reps have been jerks.
At this point, all I really what is to get this fraud thing all sorted out. That way we can download all of our website files and databases so we can transfer our domains, phinxfx.com and techdatamcs.com, to another hosting provider. I spoke with a representative of the hosting provider we want to work with and they informed us that we need to talk to you guys about transferring our domains.
Please help me out. I've been through a lot of suffering jumping through loops of support representatives that were extremely rude. I'm trying to run a business and that doesn't help when my site has been down for 6 months.
Thanks so much!
-Mike Lierman
cc Terrance
Yeah so I cannot have my domains back and I have to register under a .net, .org, .biz. No solution from something that was never my fault to begin with. This absolutely absurd. I suggest to everyone who is reading this to NEVER EVER consider getting service from Siteground. They are a pain and forever always will be. They have crappy support and if you want to talk to someone helpful, good luck you're going to need it because you can only contact them via email.
Oh by the way, anyone who wants the email that goes directly to the top level managers at siteground, it's cust_service@siteground.com.
Here is a recording of the conversation I had today with a support agent on the phone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqqE3cFbWuY
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