Surratt Website

[L Verge]

As many of you know, the Surratt website has experienced a great deal of problems over the past few months. It can all be blamed on a company that sells domain names.

We have owned the rights to http://www.surratt.org since 1998. We have renewed that name in five-year cycles since then. However, this year, our renewal notices were e-mailed to our first webmistress -- who has been dead for a number of years. No written notice was ever sent via USPS to our address that appears on their records.

When we discovered that the site had been taken down about 6-8 weeks ago, we received the worst run-around from the company that you would ever believe. Suffice to say that we talked to reps in every state of the Union as well as India because it is a company that has no centrally located customer service component.

Several weeks ago, Roger warned me that our domain name might be up for sale. We checked, and they assured us that they hold the names for 4-5 months before releasing it. Guess what - they lied! Our domain name has already been sold to a gentleman in Mexico (who is, no doubt, hoping that he can resell it to someone for hundreds or thousands of dollars). http://www.surratt.org is no longer a site for the Surratt House Museum or the Surratt Society.

However, we have now registered and paid for a new domain name. Hopefully, within the week, one can type in http://www.surrattmuseum.com and be directed to our old site. We are leaving that up while we continue to build a new site with the help of Life Member Rick Mundy. That project has been on hold since the troubles began.

I have to praise my staff member who has worked through all of this (because the rest of us are computer illiterate). Some of you know Julie Cowdery as our tech wiz during the conferences. In between handling over 3500 school children this year at the museum and sundry other things, Julie has been the sole problem solver on this. If I could clone her at least three times, I would be one ecstatic museum director.

Keep your fingers, toes, knees, and eyes crossed that everything runs smoothly from now on.

[L Verge]

I should also give credit to a very nice woman in Texas, who finally took the time to trace down all of the problems and help Julie. There is at least one representative of that company who knows good customer service.

[MaddieM]

(06-22-2013 10:29 AM)L Verge Wrote:  As many of you know, the Surratt website has experienced a great deal of problems over the past few months. It can all be blamed on a company that sells domain names.

We have owned the rights to http://www.surratt.org since 1998. We have renewed that name in five-year cycles since then. However, this year, our renewal notices were e-mailed to our first webmistress -- who has been dead for a number of years. No written notice was ever sent via USPS to our address that appears on their records.

When we discovered that the site had been taken down about 6-8 weeks ago, we received the worst run-around from the company that you would ever believe. Suffice to say that we talked to reps in every state of the Union as well as India because it is a company that has no centrally located customer service component.

Several weeks ago, Roger warned me that our domain name might be up for sale. We checked, and they assured us that they hold the names for 4-5 months before releasing it. Guess what - they lied! Our domain name has already been sold to a gentleman in Mexico (who is, no doubt, hoping that he can resell it to someone for hundreds or thousands of dollars). http://www.surratt.org is no longer a site for the Surratt House Museum or the Surratt Society.

However, we have now registered and paid for a new domain name. Hopefully, within the week, one can type in http://www.surrattmuseum.com and be directed to our old site. We are leaving that up while we continue to build a new site with the help of Life Member Rick Mundy. That project has been on hold since the troubles began.

I have to praise my staff member who has worked through all of this (because the rest of us are computer illiterate). Some of you know Julie Cowdery as our tech wiz during the conferences. In between handling over 3500 school children this year at the museum and sundry other things, Julie has been the sole problem solver on this. If I could clone her at least three times, I would be one ecstatic museum director.

Keep your fingers, toes, knees, and eyes crossed that everything runs smoothly from now on.

That happened to me. A website domain name I'd had for 16 years! Such is life.

---

I tried your new link, it doesnt work.

[LincolnMan]

That's a scary thing. So with the loss of the domain name you would not have been able to administer the site, I take it?

[L Verge]

Maddie,

We now need to link the domain name to the other company that acts as our server. We hope to get that done this week. Julie was so stressed out after dealing with the first issue all of last week for about 3-4 hours each day that I was not going to pressure her any further.

Several years ago, a friend was telling me about his next-door-neighbor who refused to get a computer. Her reason was that she had watched her friends having fits with their computers and had decided that she did not need any further stress in her life. Very smart woman!

[Craig Hipkins]

Should be first come first serve. I can't stand profiteers who try to capitalize on making other peoples life miserable. I had some company in Hong Kong or Singapore somewhere try and snatch my website name from me. I merely ignored all of their demands to purchase the site name which I have had for years. Eventually they went away. Hopefully they won't rear their ugly head again in the future!

[BettyO]

It's a pity, Laurie that this had to happen....however I will be watching eagerly for the new site! I hope ya'll DO have another server company..... the old one sounds like a nightmare!

[L Verge]

I don't know how it works in the computer world, but the company that we buy our domain name from is totally different from the company that is our server. The domain people are the problems here.

[RJNorton]

What I do is different. Not only did I purchase my domain through my host company, but it is automatically renewed each year, and the bill sent to me. They take care of everything.

[Laurie Verge]

Keep your fingers crossed, but as of 3 pm this afternoon, the Surratt House Museum's website is back online under our new domain name. Go the http:// line at the top of your browser and type in http://www.surrattmuseum.org. With a little bit of luck, our old site will pop up.

As you will see by the old postings, we have some cleaning up to do since we have been out of business for some months. However, we are running with the old information with high hopes of getting the new and improved version online shortly with the help of Dr. Rick Mundy donating his services in appreciation for the research assistance we were able to give him years ago when he was working on his doctorate.

Our old site was created in 1998 and has had over a half-million hits. Here's to the new site lasting as long and doing as well. Now, everyone say a little prayer 'cause I'm not sure how much more pressure our Julie can take...

[Gene C]

IT WORKS!

[BettyO]

Hooray!! It's baaaaaccckkk !!!!!

Fantastic! Thanks, Laurie -

[RJNorton]

Wonderful. I have a ton of links in my website that point to the Surratt website; I will get to work on updating those URLs.

[Christine]

YAY! This is wonderful news!