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jonathonblake
November 11th, 2009, 06:49 PM
Does anybody know what happened to Eskimo Nortth (eskimo.com)?

It seems to have dropped out of cyberspace. :(

jonathon

eunuch
November 11th, 2009, 09:14 PM
Does anybody know what happened to Eskimo Nortth (eskimo.com)?

It seems to have dropped out of cyberspace. :(

You might want to look into how to "make other arrangements."

I do not think there are any "technical" problems...

jonathonblake
November 11th, 2009, 10:01 PM
You might want to look into how to "make other arrangements."

It was my "make other arrangements" ISP.

jonathon

eunuch
November 11th, 2009, 10:29 PM
It was my "make other arrangements" ISP.

You are lucky.

Any recommendations welcome ...

:-|

eskimocustomer
November 11th, 2009, 11:20 PM
I've been searching the web since yesterday trying to find out what happened to eskimo.com. I'm glad someone here is asking about it.

Their domain name doesn't seem to be associated with an IP address anymore!? And they are NOT answering their phones (both 206 and 800 numbers)!?

Either something catastrophic happened to them or they went out of business without any forewarning.

jmtt
November 11th, 2009, 11:37 PM
Their domain name doesn't seem to be associated with an IP address anymore!? And they are NOT answering their phones (both 206 and 800 numbers)!?

Either something catastrophic happened to them or they went out of business without any forewarning.

Oh man... I assumed they were just dealing with another denial-of-service attack, but the part about their phones also being out makes me wonder if my 15 year run with them has come to an end :(

eunuch
November 11th, 2009, 11:37 PM
I've been searching the web since yesterday trying to find out what happened to eskimo.com. I'm glad someone here is asking about it.

Their domain name doesn't seem to be associated with an IP address anymore!? And they are NOT answering their phones (both 206 and 800 numbers)!?

Either something catastrophic happened to them or they went out of business without any forewarning.

My feeling is that if your domain name is no longer associated with your IP in the DNS it is likely not a server nor power failure...

Network outages are not secret either...

So...

:-(

jwilk
November 11th, 2009, 11:51 PM
I'm pretty sure they've gone belly up. Comcast no longer has a DNS entry for them, and their phone numbers don't work.

Which really annoys me, since I paid up for another year just a few days ago.

Oh, well -- after years of having the same Eskimo email address, my mail was about 95% spam anyway.

Time to move on.

eskimocustomer
November 12th, 2009, 12:01 AM
I'm pretty sure they've gone belly up. Comcast no longer has a DNS entry for them, and their phone numbers don't work.

Which really annoys me, since I paid up for another year just a few days ago.


That's my feeling too. I think they went out of business. I had signed up on a 5 year subscription and had a few more years left on it.

You would think after being in business for so many years they would have the class to warn their loyal customers they were closing. Instead we get nothing.

eunuch
November 12th, 2009, 12:03 AM
I'm pretty sure they've gone belly up. Comcast no longer has a DNS entry for them, and their phone numbers don't work.

Which really annoys me, since I paid up for another year just a few days ago.

Oh, well -- after years of having the same Eskimo email address, my mail was about 95% spam anyway.

Time to move on.

I'd like to get my files!

:-(

jonathonblake
November 12th, 2009, 12:21 AM
but the part about their phones also being out

Error message on phone lines is a standard Qwest message:
"The number you are calling can not receive calls at this time".

I tried roughly a half a dozen voice numbers for Eskimo, and they all had that error message. I also called a dozen or so dialup numbers for them, and they either had that error message, or had been dropped by Eskimo years ago.

jonathon

jwilk
November 12th, 2009, 12:32 AM
I'd like to get my files!

I'll bet there are a lot of very upset business site owners who are completely screwed by this. I feel the worst for them, because they may lose their businesses as a result.

My $84 is nothing by comparison, and I may even be able to dispute that charge tomorrow when my bank reopens after the holiday.

jonathonblake
November 12th, 2009, 12:51 AM
a lot of very upset business site owners who are completely screwed by this.

Especially if their backup isn't current.

I've been watching the twitter traffic. Somebody is claiming that Eskimo is "working on restoration."

jonathon

eunuch
November 12th, 2009, 01:02 AM
Especially if their backup isn't current.

I've been watching the twitter traffic. Somebody is claiming that Eskimo is "working on restoration."

jonathon

Hmm... "Working on..."

I hope they find a way...

TechnoMage
November 12th, 2009, 01:15 AM
Count me among those wishing I knew what was going on. I'm hoping it's a massive failure of some type and that their voice lines had all been switched to VOIP so they got caught up in the same failure.

I've been with them since 91 and have a hard time beliving that Bob would pack up without giving notice.

SonjaMarie
November 12th, 2009, 01:20 AM
Another displaced member, with them for almost 17 years. I would hope that Robert would not just ditch his members without saying something, or they might have a huge class act do deal with. We could always GET JESSE from King5 news. Sigh, I hope it's just a major problem and not the end of Eskimo.

SM

twotreesmusic
November 12th, 2009, 01:38 AM
Count me in on the class-action suit. I'm potentially losing hundreds or even thousands at the moment in this pre-holiday period, when my website usually grabs me a lot of business. And my wife's site is also hosted on eskimo, so we're doubly screwed. I'm looking for a new domain host as of now for both websites. Anyone have any recommendations? I've been with eskimo for 15 years or so, too, so I don't know much about who's good and who isn't. Ever heard of Fatcow.com? Are they any good? Also, how long does it usually take for the transfer of the domain host to kick in?

Arrrrggghhh!

-Gary

johngaunt
November 12th, 2009, 01:59 AM
I've been watching the twitter traffic. Somebody is claiming that Eskimo is "working on restoration."
Thanks for the update.

Successful restoration or not, I hope that Robert is preparing for the backlash from angry customers. This is a major outage. Me, I just want a working Eskimo e-mail address, my e-mail messages, and my files.

I've been on Eskimo for over 12 years and always found Robert and his staff to be helpful. It's a pretty generic feel-good response, but it's true.

Ex-Eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 02:03 AM
Oh man... I assumed they were just dealing with another denial-of-service attack, but the part about their phones also being out makes me wonder if my 15 year run with them has come to an end :(

Fifteen years for me, too...I did some searching, and came up with a North Seattle street address (not their P.O. Box), a (non-Eskimo) phone number and a Yahoo e-mail account for Robert Dinse. Unfortunately, both the phone number and the Yahoo address are "disconnected," so it's no help. I might drive by the street address tomorrow if there's no news.

I had a several business websites on Eskimo. I've got backups, but re-establishing service elsewhere is going to be a real pain. Plus, I have no idea what accounts of mine might be linked to my e-mail, which is the first and only primary account I've had since my first time on the Internet.

Ex-Eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 02:12 AM
Count me among those wishing I knew what was going on. I'm hoping it's a massive failure of some type and that their voice lines had all been switched to VOIP so they got caught up in the same failure.

I've been with them since 91 and have a hard time beliving that Bob would pack up without giving notice.

I also have a hard time believing it from Robert, but I guess I'm beyond surprise about anyone's failings if they hit hard times (of which the only possible suspicion I've seen about Eskimo is that they eliminated their evening and weekend support hours last month). I would have expected at least an e-mail or single-page web notice. And, even though my websites are backed up, I do have a WordPress blog and a large bunch of files I parked in my EN account so that I could link to them on other sites. If Eskimo is really down, I'd sure like to get Robert a DVD-R so he could burn those files for me.

I hadn't thought about the VOIP issue -- that would explain why all their lines were down. It would also be a good reason why an ISP should not do that, or at least have one standard line for situations like this.

Does anyone have the name of the Twitter account from which you're getting this information on "restoration?" As a newcomer to Twitter -- and I mean as in "I finally signed up for an account last night" -- I would like to be able to get any further news about this, since all other means of communication seem unavailable.

daarkjolder
November 12th, 2009, 02:16 AM
Wow! This was unexpected. I date to the BBS days. I concur that this is completely out of character for Bob Dinse. My guess is that he got hit with something like a cancellation or reduction in his line of credit at the same time he was in hardball negotiations with the phone people. The rug could have been jerked out from beneath him before he could arrange for a soft landing for the business sites.

Vision Communications leases broadband to Eskimo and their guy will only state that "serious issues" underlay the abrupt cessation of service. Qwest claims to know nothing.

We took our business site off eskimo several years ago, but kept DSL and 56K accounts for everybody's personal e-mail and as a backup. Unfortunately, my wife's law practice was using the 56K backup because of a problem with her ISP, and has lost a great deal of correspondence. We'll work around it.

I take this opportunity to thank Bob Dinse and Eskimo North for 27 years of fun, profit and service; wishing them the best of luck and with every hope for a rebound.


Harry Hamlin

CharlesA
November 12th, 2009, 02:19 AM
Perhaps this will help:

http://twitter.com/#search?q=eskimo%20north

Ex-Eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 02:23 AM
Vision Communications leases broadband to Eskimo and their guy will only state that "serious issues" underlay the abrupt cessation of service.

Damn! After the "working on restoration" message, I was starting to have hope again, but that explanation from Vision doesn't sound very hopeful. If it was a technical issue, rather than a financial one, I suspect they would have given more of an explanation.

eunuch
November 12th, 2009, 02:47 AM
Damn! After the "working on restoration" message, I was starting to have hope again, but that explanation from Vision doesn't sound very hopeful. If it was a technical issue, rather than a financial one, I suspect they would have given more of an explanation.

Regardless of the "How/Why" one thing remains - a lot of us have been left in the cold.

With each hour that passes, holding one's breath seem more inadvisable.

Of more concern is the likelihood of retrieving files from Ex-kimo's servers...

:-(

akmbd166
November 12th, 2009, 02:51 AM
Damn! After the "working on restoration" message, I was starting to have hope again, but that explanation from Vision doesn't sound very hopeful. If it was a technical issue, rather than a financial one, I suspect they would have given more of an explanation.
Guess this is one of the best places to get the latest on this eskimo.com thing, unless someone knows a better.
Have been with eskimo.com since early 90s... remembering the periodic meetings with Bob at the local restaurants.
Sure hope this is technical rather than financial... but I fear the latter may be the answer.
Would rather keep the business website there, but need to have it up too.

dragos240
November 12th, 2009, 03:02 AM
This was it's last known ip:
207.54.1.254

GregA2
November 12th, 2009, 03:15 AM
I did some googling around, and I think the answer is it's gone forever maybe along with all our data.

First I found this:
http://seniorobserver.blogspot.com/2009/11/eskimocom-down-drain.html


" Eskimo.com one of the very early Internet providers in the NW died yesterday. It had been having financial problems for a long time but the owner Robert Dinse was sent to jail and his family apparently could not keep it going. Eskimo.com started about 20 years ago. I was connected to the internet through a company that got it's service through eskimo. It was called connected.com. So I have been on the interent for about 20 years through eskimo.

Robert Dinse was convicted of incest and sentenced to 46 months in prison. Dinse tried to keep eskimo alive but prison was the final blow. It had problems for a long time. One of his employees said Dinse could have made a 100 thousand a year working elsewhere but he preferred to keep eskimo going instead. It takes a lot of engineering ability to keep something like eskimo going."

Then I went here:
http://dw.courts.wa.gov/?fa=home.namesearchTerms

And did a search on Robert Dinse to see if any convictions were listed. Sure enough:

Along with some recent financial case connected to Citibank, there was this:

http://dw.courts.wa.gov/index.cfm?fa=home.casesummary&crt_itl_nu=S17&casenumber=09-1-01646-8&searchtype=sName&token=4021D49AB008DFCC00B8FD16FA850DC3&dt=695FEAB9B407CFFE0D18BB0C2D09D4DD

Which confirms the blog post - 3 counts felony incest, guilty plea, sentencing happened on 10/26/09.

Maybe it's a different guy, but that doesn't seem likely. I imagine the family is going through far to much emotionally and financially to be able to help any of us at the moment.

Maybe it would be possible for some of the group of us to pick a representative to approach the family - make a backup of the drives and somehow farm out backups to all the members.

It sounds like someone has been in contact with a former employee? Maybe they'd have some idea about the chances of getting our data and how to proceed?

dragos240
November 12th, 2009, 03:19 AM
Well. It's dead alright >.>.

akmbd166
November 12th, 2009, 03:28 AM
I did some googling around, and I think the answer is it's gone forever maybe along with all our data.
It sounds like someone has been in contact with a former employee? Maybe they'd have some idea about the chances of getting our data and how to proceed?
Wow !!!
Very sad if true.
Not sure what to do.
Guess will wait for a day or 2, and then try to figure out another place to put the website.

Don Rothwell
November 12th, 2009, 03:29 AM
In reply to you all. I also found a home phone# for Robert D. and an address. The phone # was disconnected. We live in Shoreline, so we took a run over there around noon today. It is a house in a residential neighborhood. There were boxes piled in the living room window, rotting pumpkins on the porch and two cars in the driveway,but It didn't look
like there was anyone there. We didn't go up to the door. It also didn't look like there was enough equipment there for it to be his place of business.....there was a TV antenna on the roof! Can't believe there wouldn't be cable! This is a puzzling mystery. We have been with Eskimo for at least 12 years and always try to "stay local" and support small privately owned business. This afternoon we caved and started email accounts with Comcast. I hope the truth behind this unfolding saga comes out soon.

GregA2
November 12th, 2009, 03:44 AM
Anyone know where the servers were co-located? It would be nice to at least verify that the servers are intact and that the current entity in possession of them knows that there are a large number of people that care a lot about the data on them.

I found this in the google cache, searching for:
eskimo north servers co-located
http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:B1B5Fx_q6IQJ:www.eskimo.com/services/hosting.html+%22eskimo+north%22+servers+co-located&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us


"Our servers reside in a co-location facility which has dual SONET rings to the SIX at the Westin building in Seattle, as well as peering with most other major carriers at that location. In addition the carrier has fiber running to other major peering points. We have dual ethernet connections between the router at this facility and our own router both for redundancy and load sharing is enabled to allow the combined bandwidth to be available to our servers. The peering is excellent and as a result, we are less than 10ms away from most well connected locations on the Internet. The dual SONET rings means a single fiber cut will not isolate us from the Internet. Our own LAN is N-way switched 100mb/s ethernet."

And here's a link to SIX: http://www.seattleix.net/faq.htm

Though from reading the quote, it sounds like the servers are somewhere else but have a high-speed connection to the SIX at the Westin.

GregA2
November 12th, 2009, 04:10 AM
Some more info digging through the google cache.

In 2007, on the outage list there was mention of the co-location company, ELI, being bought by Integra - and that the facility was in Bellvue:

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:1mPGww0joeYJ:www.eskimo.com/outages/msg01755.html+site:eskimo.com+outages-list@eskimo.com+co-located&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

ELI seems to be Electric Lightwave:
http://www.electriclightwave.com/

And that's about as far as I can get.

Ex-Eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 04:14 AM
I suspect one of us will be contacting them tomorrow.

Unfortunately, with a "mom'n'pop" (ironic, considering the circumstances) outfit like Eskimo, it might be easier to convince the owners to let us have a chance at our data. I suspect a larger company like Integra will simply wipe everything, and tell us "well, you should have backed up your data on a regular basis -- it's not our problem." :sad:

johngaunt
November 12th, 2009, 04:24 AM
I did some googling around, and I think the answer is it's gone forever maybe along with all our data.
*snip*

Maybe it's a different guy, but that doesn't seem likely. I imagine the family is going through far to much emotionally and financially to be able to help any of us at the moment.

Maybe it would be possible for some of the group of us to pick a representative to approach the family - make a backup of the drives and somehow farm out backups to all the members.

It sounds like someone has been in contact with a former employee? Maybe they'd have some idea about the chances of getting our data and how to proceed?
Good detective work. I feel icky now. :(

As far as Eskimo goes, add me to a hypothetical list of those wanting to retrieve e-mail addresses and e-mail messages, both in Pine.

Ex-Eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 04:47 AM
Good detective work. I feel icky now.

Same here, although, in all fairness, the court docket at that link doesn't mention any specific crime, just that someone named Robert J. Dinse pled guilty and was sentenced. One might draw conclusions from the non-contact order early in the case, but the only basis for believing it was incest comes from that other blogger -- and it certainly wouldn't be the first time unsubstantiated accusations were posted on the Internet.

carcosa23
November 12th, 2009, 04:47 AM
Count me in too - I have (had?) over 15 years of data there which I only partially backed up because Nanook was such a reliable provider. Virtual domains, mailing lists, ftp storage, a jillion images, 15 years of mail archives in Pine and a bunch of websites all gone. I hope there is a chance for recovery!
I really feel for the businesses who are screwed by this, the personal losses are bad enough.
formerly <snip>

GregA2
November 12th, 2009, 04:51 AM
Searching through the outages archive, it looks like Eric T. Jorgensen (ericj@eskimo.com) was a longtime support employee and working there at least as recent as June 2009. If anyone knows how to contact him, he would seem to be the likeliest to know the possibility of getting our data back - maybe he's the one that told someone he was "working on restoring" things? I hesitate to put his name up here, but under the circumstances, and I wouldn't know how to contact him, I don't know what else to do. But if you find his contact info, please be very polite and respectful - this mess has probably impacted him worse than any of us.

jwilk
November 12th, 2009, 04:52 AM
In reply to to Don Rothwell:


We live in Shoreline, so we took a run over there around noon today. It is a house in a residential neighborhood. There were boxes piled in the living room window, rotting pumpkins on the porch and two cars in the driveway,but It didn't look
like there was anyone there.

I did the same thing! Was wondering if I'd see any activity, like stacks of equipment outside, or the sound of wailing. (I shouldn't make light.)

The neighbors must have wondered about all these vehicles circling this dead-end street.

SonjaMarie
November 12th, 2009, 05:24 AM
I found a website he does, I did a Whois search for the domain name and found his local number, I called but it went to voice mail, and I didn't leave a message. I'm not exactly sure what to say.

SM

kalvyn
November 12th, 2009, 05:33 AM
I used to work for Eskimo, from 1995 until 1999. I was wondering what happened, as I've had my eskimo addy as my primary email address since 1994.

With regards to the incest charges, I just can't see that. Having worked with the man for 4 years, working out of his house in Shoreline and being around the family I just don't buy it. I would definitely wasn't to hear the details surrounding the guilty plea first-hand, from the family before jumping to any conclusions.

I guess I'd better start spreading the word to the folks I correspond via email with that my Gmail address is now my primary email address. Gonna have to get my domain transferred, too.

I would hope that we'll be able to get our files back, but if Robert's no longer in control I would have to speculate that our chances are pretty slim in that regard...

Sincerely,
Jimmie Farmer

Ex-Eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 05:44 AM
I used to work for Eskimo, from 1995 until 1999. I was wondering what happened, as I've had my eskimo addy as my primary email address since 1994.

With regards to the incest charges, I just can't see that. Having worked with the man for 4 years, working out of his house in Shoreline and being around the family I just don't buy it. I would definitely wasn't to hear the details surrounding the guilty plea first-hand, from the family before jumping to any conclusions.

I guess I'd better start spreading the word to the folks I correspond via email with that my Gmail address is now my primary email address. Gonna have to get my domain transferred, too.

I would hope that we'll be able to get our files back, but if Robert's no longer in control I would have to speculate that our chances are pretty slim in that regard...

Sincerely,
Jimmie Farmer
<snip>

Hey, Jimmie, I remember you from your days at Eskimo. I was "jwalley," and communicated with you on a number of occasions.

akmbd166
November 12th, 2009, 06:28 AM
:sad:
I used to work for Eskimo, from 1995 until 1999. I was wondering what happened, as I've had my eskimo addy as my primary email address since 1994.
With regards to the incest charges, I just can't see that. Having worked with the man for 4 years, working out of his house in Shoreline and being around the family I just don't buy it. I would definitely wasn't to hear the details surrounding the guilty plea first-hand, from the family before jumping to any conclusions.
I guess I'd better start spreading the word to the folks I correspond via email with that my Gmail address is now my primary email address. Gonna have to get my domain transferred, too.
I would hope that we'll be able to get our files back, but if Robert's no longer in control I would have to speculate that our chances are pretty slim in that regard...
Sincerely,
Jimmie Farmer
<snip>

Like you, find the 'incest' part hard to believe, but also like you, need to start thinking realistic (if thats possible these days :sad: )and figure out another place to put my business website.
Registered with GoDaddy, maybe thats the place to have host it ?
Other suggestions ?

stevemcccallister
November 12th, 2009, 06:35 AM
Well, that's a bummer. I, too, stretch back into the 1980's with eskimo and while I have other email and hosted websites have continued to pay for two shell accounts, mostly out of loyalty. My wife's account has an artist's website, which I think I have backed up.

Sad, sad day.

Steve McCallister

chips_ex_eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 06:42 AM
I used to work for Eskimo, from 1995 until 1999. I was wondering what happened, as I've had my eskimo addy as my primary email address since 1994.

hey Jimmie, can't believe it has been 10 years since you left. anyone else from back in the day of the sunday meetings at the pizza place?

I would hope that we'll be able to get our files back, but if Robert's no longer in control I would have to speculate that our chances are pretty slim in that regard...

:( I started with eskimo in 1990. I had a lot of stuff there, most of which I have backuped over the years. Mail from the past couple of months and some web files are going to be an issue. How come none of my eskimo web pages show up in the way back machine site? why wouldn't whoever is in control be amiable to letting users get their stuff? what i don't get is the going dark with absolutely no warning.
Sincerely,
Jimmie Farmer
<snip>

:( you are going to need to change your signature Jimmy.

akmbd166
November 12th, 2009, 06:53 AM
hey Jimmie, can't believe it has been 10 years since you left. anyone else from back in the day of the sunday meetings at the pizza place?
Only made it to a couple of those 'meetings'... that was a loooong time ago !
The 'good old days' ?

dansc
November 12th, 2009, 07:00 AM
Yikes, this has hit me hard as well!

I came back to Eskimo North after many years just last September... because the ISP that I had been using was getting flakey and I wanted a reliable one!

I signed up for a 6-year account about 14 months ago (SIGH)

Wonder if I'll ever see that money again? Ha!

I too live in the area and drove by their house in Shoreline this morning around 10am or so, there were a couple of cars in the driveway and no one around that I could see.

I guess I need to go find a new shell host somewhere... any recommendations? Once I have a new host I need to go update about 1000 photo links online (bigger sigh).

Please keep this thread going, there is no other information source online that I could locate relating to Eskimo.com (Eskimo North) going dark yesterday.

twotreesmusic
November 12th, 2009, 07:02 AM
So, my site is pretty much backed up on my hard drive at home anyway, but

1) what are the legal options for getting back money paid for two years or more of service that we won't be getting? HOw does one go about this? The attorney general's office?
2) Is there no way for a third party to relaunch eskimo temporarily to allow its customers time to find other hosts? I'm losing money here at a crutial time.

Naive of me, I know, but I have to ask.

akmbd166
November 12th, 2009, 07:09 AM
So, my site is pretty much backed up on my hard drive at home anyway, but
1) what are the legal options for getting back money paid for two years or more of service that we won't be getting? HOw does one go about this? The attorney general's office?
2) Is there no way for a third party to relaunch eskimo temporarily to allow its customers time to find other hosts? I'm losing money here at a crutial time.
Naive of me, I know, but I have to ask.
1. more time than its worth... am figuring money may at least help family.
2. seems like that may be a possibility, but sounds like may be dealing with a totally un-caring big bureaucratic server leaser.
Ps: Am going to check out GoDaddy for hosting... hmmmmm, anyone tried http://www.thetop10bestwebhosting.com/ ?

chips_ex_eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 07:22 AM
Yikes, this has hit me hard as well!

I came back to Eskimo North after many years just last September... because the ISP that I had been using was getting flakey and I wanted a reliable one!
{...}
I guess I need to go find a new shell host somewhere... any recommendations? Once I have a new host I need to go update about 1000 photo links online (bigger sigh).

I had looked into this a couple of months ago when I got into a billing dispute with Robert. I ended up not pursuing more details on these , as I decided 19 years of super affordable service was worth double paying for 3 months, but these seemed the best fits to me:
https://nullshells.net/mod.php?mod=siteinfo&group=site&name=shells
https://www.jtan.com/signup/index.cgi?goto=proshell
http://www.iprotection.com/
http://www.b2shells.com/
http://www.auroralink.net/pricing/
http://www.panix.com/shell.html


Please keep this thread going, there is no other information source online that I could locate relating to Eskimo.com (Eskimo North) going dark yesterday.
Yes, please do so. I am so depressed about this I could use the support group :-(

Ex-Eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 07:25 AM
what i don't get is the going dark with absolutely no warning.

If, as reports have it, the Dinse family was trying to keep the system going after Robert had been incarcerated, you may well be dealing with people who had absolutely no idea what was involved in running an ISP, not knowing what money was due where (even in they had it), and not being aware of their own upcoming demise until their provider pulled the plug on them. Even if they had a few days advance notice, they may have decided not to announce it in the hope that something could be worked out.

At this point, I think we have to assume that, since at least 10/26/09, Eskimo North was under the control of technical neophytes rather than an experienced sysop, as had been the case for decades before.

CJ Master
November 12th, 2009, 07:28 AM
Apparently I'm the only one that has never even heard of Eskimo North..

Ex-Eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 07:32 AM
1) what are the legal options for getting back money paid for two years or more of service that we won't be getting? HOw does one go about this? The attorney general's office?

Probably none. I'm pretty sure Eskimo was incorporated in some way (maybe an LLC), and so will probably file bankruptcy. In which case: no how, no way. If it was an individual proprietorship, you might be able to pressure the Dinse family into repaying you, but, if enough people do that or file lawsuits, they might opt to file for personal bankruptcy themselves. You still won't get anything, but you might cause them to lose most of what they have left.


2) Is there no way for a third party to relaunch eskimo temporarily to allow its customers time to find other hosts? I'm losing money here at a crutial time.

This is really two questions. First, "would someone put the site up as a pro bono service so people can get their stuff and move on?" Considering that would involve at least some degree of expense with no additional income, dubious at best. Second, "might there be someone interested in buying the business from the Dinse family and operating it as a new entity, or folding it into another provider?" I'd say the latter is more likely, if there's a local provider who sees Eskimo's blend of features and pricing as in line with their own business, or something with which they could make a profit.

chips_ex_eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 07:34 AM
Apparently I'm the only one that has never even heard of Eskimo North..
I never heard of Ubuntu Forums before I found this thread when doing a search on the eskimo.com problem.

Ex-Eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 07:37 AM
I never heard of Ubuntu Forums before I found this thread when doing a search on the eskimo.com problem.

Same here.

chips_ex_eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 07:40 AM
This is really two questions. First, "would someone put the site up as a pro bono service so people can get their stuff and move on?" Considering that would involve at least some degree of expense with no additional income, dubious at best.

umm, actually if the hardware could get delivered to me and then picked up when done, I think I could pull that off for a week or so. It would take a fair amount of buttering up my boss, but a decent chance I could do it.

ethan74
November 12th, 2009, 07:43 AM
I'm SO glad I found this thread.

I'd like to put another "me too" in for getting my files. I did occasional back-ups, but there's definitely a good chunk of stuff up there - Pine address-book especially - that post-dates my last back-up.

Funny thing: Last week, I got an e-mail announcing my account needing renewal. I sent an e-mail to Nanook, since I wasn't sure which account I was renewing and was considering temporarily pointing one of my domains at another of my sites hosted by eskimo.com while I worked on a site re-vamp.

No response, so I e-mail support. No response. I called and got someone, but he didn't have access to the records or the ability to process my renewal at the time of my call. Strange, right? I got an e-mail follow-up with the info, and replied that I'd be out of the office and couldn't renew the next day, but could they leave me on until the next day, so I could call in my CC and renew then? No response. By the next morning, I couldn't login, none of my sites displayed, and eskimo.com was down. I re-dialed from my cell's history and got that error message.

I'm as shocked as everyone else.

Naturally, this happens as I'm in the middle of my first big web design project in a while, when I don't have time to deal with the situation and have yet another complication to add to an enormous job with a tight deadline....

So... if anyone reaches the erstwhile eskimos, let 'em know that ethan74 would really love a back-up DVD and will cover reasonable costs to see it happen.

-Ethan Sellers
<snip>

Ex-Eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 07:46 AM
I had looked into this a couple of months ago when I got into a billing dispute with Robert. I ended up not pursuing more details on these , as I decided 19 years of super affordable service was worth double paying for 3 months, but these seemed the best fits to me:
https://nullshells.net/mod.php?mod=siteinfo&group=site&name=shells
https://www.jtan.com/signup/index.cgi?goto=proshell
http://www.iprotection.com/
http://www.b2shells.com/
http://www.auroralink.net/pricing/
http://www.panix.com/shell.html


I think it really depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for a UNIX shell with compiler, the ability to run bots, etc., then one of those would be pretty much up your alley. OTOH, I'm looking for e-mail and a place to host my websites (including a Wordpress blog and phpBB forum) with access to MySQL. So far, I've been looking at:
http://www.inmotionhosting.com/hostingplans.html
http://www.justhost.com/
http://www.fatcow.com/fatcow/special-promo.bml?offer=OPI&LinkName=No_Name
http://www.bluehost.com/

akmbd166
November 12th, 2009, 07:48 AM
umm, actually if the hardware could get delivered to me and then picked up when done, I think I could pull that off for a week or so. It would take a fair amount of buttering up my boss, but a decent chance I could do it.
Would probably make it easier if it was possible to communicate with someone who actually knows whats going on, and is able to make a responsible decision on behalf of eskimo north !

eunuch
November 12th, 2009, 07:55 AM
It would be nice to find out something concrete - besides just the demise of the Eskimo we knew.

I would be willing to contribute some reasonable fee amount and if each of those affected did likewise, the cost of putting the domain and servers back up for a week or more should be covered, no?

Unfortunately the location and control of the hardware is not known - yet(?)

I'm sure a lot of us would like a shot at our files...

I fear time is our enemy too.

Ex-Eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 07:55 AM
Funny thing: Last week, I got an e-mail announcing my account needing renewal. I sent an e-mail to Nanook, since I wasn't sure which account I was renewing and was considering temporarily pointing one of my domains at another of my sites hosted by eskimo.com while I worked on a site re-vamp.

No response, so I e-mail support. No response. I called and got someone, but he didn't have access to the records or the ability to process my renewal at the time of my call. Strange, right? I got an e-mail follow-up with the info, and replied that I'd be out of the office and couldn't renew the next day, but could they leave me on until the next day, so I could call in my CC and renew then? No response. By the next morning, I couldn't login, none of my sites displayed, and eskimo.com was down. I re-dialed from my cell's history and got that error message.

I guess we can all look back and see some warning signs, if we'd known where to look.

I've been on a month-by-month autopay shell/hosting account for the past few years. Every month, I'd get a transaction notice for my payment about three days before the end of the month, then a thank-you note from Robert on the first of the month . In the middle of last month (October), my account stopped working, and, indeed, I was informed that my account had been closed. I got through to someone the next morning, who turned my account back on and confirmed that the paperwork regarding my having renewed had been messed up, but a) that had never happened before, and b) the fact that it took until the next morning was due to support hours ending at 5:00 P.M., when the web site was still advertising support in the evenings. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I get the expected transaction notice, but no thank-you note.

dansc
November 12th, 2009, 07:56 AM
Ok, time to start digging for information on who/what/where owns what was Eskimo North.

I spent a couple of minutes online and dug up the following publicly available information on the business, registered location, etc:

<snip>

The registered address is just their residence, which once upon a time (back in the dial-up days) actually hosted the system.

I think I will call their registered agent (Who controls the Incorporation Documents) tomorrow and see what their take on things is. I suspect they will be closed mouthed and/or actually ignorant of the current state of affairs.

Please add any information regarding the co-location and/or physical location of the servers if you know! This might well be instrumental to us recovering any of our data on those servers.

ethan74
November 12th, 2009, 08:00 AM
Maybe you can get Nanook's lawyer's info from court docs, or send a letter. Maybe a collective of now-former customers can form a short-lived company to - in essence - pay for the hardware acquisition and data archiving services of a competent professional, and dissolve on completion of the task.

jamespr-ex-eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 08:11 AM
Count me in as another long-time Eskimo user who is just kind of in shock at this. It seems so out of character for Robert to just drop everything with no notice or anything.

Anyway, I have a question I'm hoping someone might be able to help with. I get it that Eskimo is dead, but what I'm a confused about is that I got my DSL through Eskimo, and it's still working (Im not complaining, of course! but confused about how it all works). I assume that Robert was bundling such accounts through a larger provider and redirecting e-mail, or whatever?

And regardless of how it works, does anyone know how I can find out who is actually providing the DSL service I have now, so I can make sure it continues?

cariboo
November 12th, 2009, 08:19 AM
Welcome to the forums ex eskimos,

Please don't post any personal information, including email addresses, you are welcome to read and participate

twotreesmusic
November 12th, 2009, 08:19 AM
Same here.

Same here, too. We're all finding it, it seems. And it is the only place we seem to have found.

bcl
November 12th, 2009, 08:25 AM
Hi guys. Hey Jimmie! I am totally floored by this news. My time on the internet is tied to Eskimo North, like many of you. First domain hosted, first UUCP account, etc.

I found a couple of booking entries in the King County Jail Inmate Lookup (http://ingress.kingcounty.gov/inmatelookup/), looks like he was transferred out on 10/28:

1<snip>
It looks like he is in Shelton according to the DOC Search Site (http://www.doc.wa.gov/offenderinfo/default.aspx)

I'm surprised that while all of this was happening that he didn't have a backup plan. From my dealings with him he always seemed to be an ethical guy and leaving all of his customers hanging out in the wind doesn't seem like something he'd do.

I sure hope you folks can get your files back.

cariboo
November 12th, 2009, 08:25 AM
This thread is closed to remove personal information.

[b]Edit:{/b} Re-opened

ff123
November 12th, 2009, 08:37 AM
Is it ok that I haven't used ubuntu since hardy heron?

Anyway, I just spent the past hour updating some of the places my eskimo address was used as a contact (I completed 26 out of 44 email updates).

I guess I'm lucky I moved all but a dozen or so messages off my inbox on the imap server. And the disappearance of my web pages may surprise some people who've been accustomed to it being there these past 12 years, but they'll have no way to reach me to complain :-) I don't plan to rehost it.

--the erstwhile miyaguch

kalvyn
November 12th, 2009, 08:45 AM
This thread is closed to remove personal information.

[b]Edit:{/b} Re-opened

By the way, thanks for letting us crash here! Lesser mods would have just shut it down entirely, especially after you had to clean up after all of us. :)

Let's hope Eric shows up here soon. I know he was still working there, so perhaps he would be able to shed some light on what the options will be with regards to getting files back.

Jimmie

chips_ex_eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 08:47 AM
Welcome to the forums ex eskimos,

Thanks for hosting us (and letting us take over ;) )

vkapur
November 12th, 2009, 09:10 AM
Add my voice in - with eskimo.com almost 12 years ( came in with the olagrande.net
transfer )

If we can perhaps organize somewhat as ex-users and figure out :
- data retrieval
- best case, continuation of eskimo hosting and accounts

Looks this discussion is well underway from browsing the threads. will
stay in touch / let me know as things to be done..

with all regards, vikas
vkapur at yahoo dot com

Ex-Eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 09:11 AM
I'm surprised that while all of this was happening that he didn't have a backup plan. From my dealings with him he always seemed to be an ethical guy and leaving all of his customers hanging out in the wind doesn't seem like something he'd do.

The crime he's apparently serving time for doesn't seem like something he'd do, either.

I would think that, even for someone who usually has a backup plan, the prospect of almost four years of jail time, plus the other personal consequences related to it, might seem so overwhelming as to prevent him from turning his mind to it. If I were facing a long stretch in the slammer, I might not care all that much about keeping a web-provider up and running for the benefit of my (presumably-estranged) family during that time.

blooberry
November 12th, 2009, 09:15 AM
This thread is closed to remove personal information.
Edit: Re-opened

My thanks also for giving the Eskimo refugees a (hopefully) temporary haven to figure out what to do next after this abrupt ending. As a 15 year subscriber at Eskimo, I put up with many highs and lows over the years (occasional extended outages that always seemed to have SOME plausible cause - I figured this was just another one...tonight I finally guessed that something more serious was going on).

Unlike some others here, portions of my account had grown stale and hadn't been backed up in quite awhile. :( Right now I'm trying to mentally track which parts I have to shrug over and say "oh well, maybe next time".

To be even more off-topic, even if we can't retrieve stored data, how do we retrieve "ownership" of our domains that were hosted at Eskimo? My domain was always hosted there, so I don't know how this is done.

TIA,
-Brian

Found_Objects
November 12th, 2009, 09:20 AM
I, too, was shocked when the site went down. Based on my e-mail access log, it looks like the T.O.D. for Eskimo was 11/10/2009, right around 3:00pm Pacific Time.

I don't think it was a big secret that Eskimo was having money trouble. What was even more telling, though, was that Robert was no longer responding to e-mails -- even when those e-mails were asking how much money we could give them for a particular new service. The cut in tech support hours was another red flag.

When things went down on Tuesday, I tracked down the provider of the main phone line as ELI / Integra. While ELI's tech support would not discuss the phone line with anyone that wasn't an owner, they did confirm that there were no major outages in the area and that any outages would not last as many hours as Eskimo had been down.

I was able to find the same address and phone details as others have, but since I'm not in Seattle, I couldn't exactly stop by. Further digging turned up the legal issues (both financial and criminal), but I didn't want to put anything out there until it was unquestionably confirmed it was really him. Sure, there is only one RJD in the state, but at least with the criminal allegations, you would never want to wrongly tag anyone with that.

A bit more digging turned up the name of Eskimo's accountants. I called and talked to them earlier today (Wednesday). As with ELI, they clearly couldn't just share private information. However, I was assured by someone with authority that steps were being taken to attempt to restore some kind of service. The comment was, "they're working on a way to get service restored." What wasn't said was who "they" are.

I can't recall exactly when I signed up with Eskimo, but I know it has been at least 15 years. Fortunately, all of my recent e-mails are on my local system, but I'm sad to lose some really, really old, personal messages that were archived from my days using PINE. The MUCH bigger issue is that my Eskimo account has been my primary personal e-mail that entire time. Anyone and everyone has that address and there's no way I could track everyone down and/or change every website login that uses that e-mail for contact. Hopefully, whoever takes over (or takes over running) the Eskimo domains will consider setting up some forwards during a transition period.

It is good to see people gathering in one place to share and offer help. Hopefully, Eric will pop in sometime soon. Heck, I exchanged e-mail with him last week, so he's gotta be around somewhere.

Ex-Eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 10:18 AM
I, too, was shocked when the site went down. Based on my e-mail access log, it looks like the T.O.D. for Eskimo was 11/10/2009, right around 3:00pm Pacific Time.

FWIW, the last e-mail I received from them arrived at 1:23 PM.


I don't think it was a big secret that Eskimo was having money trouble. What was even more telling, though, was that Robert was no longer responding to e-mails -- even when those e-mails were asking how much money we could give them for a particular new service. The cut in tech support hours was another red flag.

Maybe I was out of the loop, but I had no idea about financial troubles. I guess it occurred to me, on occasion, that smaller ISPs like Eskimo might have trouble surviving as more and more people went to cable and DSL instead of dial-up, but I didn't see any red flags until the cut in support hours last month. Eskimo's prices were always quite reasonable; as I may have said here before, if I'd known they'd been having trouble, I certainly wouldn't have minded paying a few more bucks per month to keep them afloat. Obviously, however, finances were the least of the problems for Nanook.


A bit more digging turned up the name of Eskimo's accountants. I called and talked to them earlier today (Wednesday). As with ELI, they clearly couldn't just share private information. However, I was assured by someone with authority that steps were being taken to attempt to restore some kind of service. The comment was, "they're working on a way to get service restored." What wasn't said was who "they" are.

The big question, of course, is whether they mean "get service restored" as "return Eskimo North as an ongoing, viable provider." And, while I wish them well (and would like to see it up again to be able to get my files), I really can't see that happening. While I don't want to underplay the horrific nature of the charges for which he's apparently serving time, the fact remains that Eskimo North was Nanook, and I really can't see it surviving without him at the helm. More likely would be its purchase by another ISP, in order to get the user base and resources, but does anyone really think that such a revived entity would be Eskimo North, rather than something that would eventually be folded into SomeOtherProvider.com, with all of that entity's feature set, prices and identity?


I can't recall exactly when I signed up with Eskimo, but I know it has been at least 15 years. Fortunately, all of my recent e-mails are on my local system, but I'm sad to lose some really, really old, personal messages that were archived from my days using PINE. The MUCH bigger issue is that my Eskimo account has been my primary personal e-mail that entire time. Anyone and everyone has that address and there's no way I could track everyone down and/or change every website login that uses that e-mail for contact. Hopefully, whoever takes over (or takes over running) the Eskimo domains will consider setting up some forwards during a transition period.

Same here on the time span -- I know I signed up with Eskimo in spring/summer 1994, so it's been a little over 15 years. I've got all my e-mail and website data (except for the WordPress and phpBB stuff and the files I was storing for personal reference) backed up here at home, so that isn't an issue. My bigger problem, like yours, is that I used my Eskimo address as my contact on a lot of websites whose passwords, ostensibly archived by Firefox, I have long since forgotten. I never figured it was a big problem, since all those sites provided password-recovery mechanisms, but virtually all of them would involve sending the password or the means to recover it to my contact e-mail. Last night, I went ahead and changed the ones I needed immediately to my business e-mail -- but a couple of them demanded that I enter my password to change the e-mail! In each of those cases, I was lucky and able to guess my old password after several tries, but there's no guarantee I'll be able to do that for any others that may come up in the next few months.

chips_ex_eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 10:20 AM
I, too, was shocked when the site went down. Based on my e-mail access log, it looks like the T.O.D. for Eskimo was 11/10/2009, right around 3:00pm Pacific Time.
Yepp, my list email from my eski account was at 2:59pm on 11/10

jonathonblake
November 12th, 2009, 02:18 PM
It also didn't look like there was enough equipment there for it to be his place of business

I don't know if it was a conscious decision or not, but the place never looked like a business was run from there, much less a big regional ISP.

There were servers there, but the "big" ones were in Bellevue.


.....there was a TV antenna on the roof!

As far as the TV antenna goes, there are over-the-air stations that cable does not carry.


Can't believe there wouldn't be cable!

Satellite, not cable. There used to be almost as many free-to-air satellite stations as there were that required a payment to access.

jonathon

segesvar
November 12th, 2009, 02:28 PM
Another ex-eskimoite whose account goes back to 1993, and I'm in the same boat as many others, having used this as primary email address to hundreds of people and sites all that time. I go back much farther with eskimo, however, as I was sysop of a BBS in Seattle for a number of years in the mid-late 80's (Poverty Rock, if anyone remembers) and Dinse was active with us in telecomm issues that were plaguing sysops at the time. Hard to believe the rumors of criminal activity - I don't get local news as I'm now on the East Coast - and hope they ain't true.

Anyway, great to hear that I'm definitely not alone. I'll be following this forum in hopes of some mitigation, at least for hosted web sites and domains.

jonathonblake
November 12th, 2009, 02:46 PM
I just can't see that .... and being around the family I just don't buy it.

I can see him pleading "guilty", if he was trying to protect somebody else. The looming question is did SSOSA kick in?


if Robert's no longer in control I would have to speculate that our chances are pretty slim in that regard...

That depends upon why it shut down.

jonathon

jonathonblake
November 12th, 2009, 03:11 PM
More likely would be its purchase by another ISP, in order to get the user base and resources,

a) In the current market, who/what would buy Eskimo North?
How much would they be willing to pay for it?

* A company that currently has their web operations on Eskimo North could buy it, to keep their site up;
* Another regional ISP would buy it, for the user base;
* A software development company buys it, to use it for showcasing the virtues of their software;

b) Who was still working then, before it went dark? If Erik, or somebody as good as he and Jimmie were included in the company purchase/takeover, then there is a good chance that a re-opened Eskimo North would be a viable ISP;


websites whose passwords, ostensibly archived by Firefox, I have long since forgotten.

I quit relying on Firefox archiving passwords, when I temporarily used one of the "secure password" generators, that wouldn't provide me with the password it generated. (I now keep the passwords in an ODF file that is password protected.)


but a couple of them demanded that I enter my password to change the e-mail!

I have a couple that require that one confirm the change in e-mail address, by replying from the old address.

jonathon

johngaunt
November 12th, 2009, 03:12 PM
(Please excuse and delete double/triple-posts of this message if they occur.)



if Robert's no longer in control I would have to speculate that our chances are pretty slim in that regard...That depends upon why it shut down.
True. Until someone gets it all sorted out, we don't know anything about the availability of the hardware, backups, etc. If that someone could keep this thread updated, then that would be wonderful.

I've been out-of-state for a number of years, so I can not do any legwork regarding this.


To be even more off-topic, even if we can't retrieve stored data, how do we retrieve "ownership" of our domains that were hosted at Eskimo? My domain was always hosted there, so I don't know how this is done.
This is a concern of mine as well. I haven't done this recently, so my memory is less accurate than usual. Please correct me if I am wrong or ignore me if I am too far off-topic.

Assuming that Eskimo is down for the count and that you are a neophyte to handling domain names, you will need to

(1) Find out the domain registrar for your domains - For example, do a whois from the Network Solutions site (http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp)
(2) Find out if you have any control over them - Look for your e-mail address as one of the contacts in (1).
(3) Remove the Eskimo e-mails and replace them with yours - This is the tricky part. If none of the contqact e-mail addresses are yours, then you must call/e-mail/fax the registrar and explain to them why the contacts for your domain are no longer available. Whether or not they believe you is another story.

Found_Objects
November 12th, 2009, 03:45 PM
Assuming that Eskimo is down for the count and that you are a neophyte to handling domain names, you will need to

(1) Find out the domain registrar for your domains - For example, do a whois from the Network Solutions site (http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp)
(2) Find out if you have any control over them - Look for your e-mail address as one of the contacts in (1).
(3) Remove the Eskimo e-mails and replace them with yours - This is the tricky part. If none of the contqact e-mail addresses are yours, then you must call/e-mail/fax the registrar and explain to them why the contacts for your domain are no longer available. Whether or not they believe you is another story.

If the site hosted at Eskimo is for a business, some registrars can be fairly cooperative if you send a signed letter / fax (yes, a fax) on company letterhead and, better yet, can provide proof of company ownership with things like a business license or other gov't. documentation.

I may be wrong, but I don't believe Robert would've done the sneaky host stunt of making Eskimo the legal Registrant, even if he did the paperwork on your behalf. The Registrant name for the domain is the key to everything. That is who has the legal rights to the domain name.

Once you have control of the domain name, you can then change the DNS info and point it to your new hosting company. GoDaddy.com is actually pretty good and you can sometimes get some sharp tech support people (or not). Prices are better than many others out there. Network Solutions is the granddaddy, but is also more expensive and you shouldn't expect any renewal promos. However, they are more likely, in my experience, to give you 99%+ uptime.

Found_Objects
November 12th, 2009, 03:57 PM
To be even more off-topic, even if we can't retrieve stored data, how do we retrieve "ownership" of our domains that were hosted at Eskimo? My domain was always hosted there, so I don't know how this is done. -Brian

Good news, Brian!

I just did a quick check of your domain name and Robert DID do the right thing. Also, the registrar is Network Solutions, not some oddball company run out of a closet. They'll make you cross your T's and dot I's, but they're pretty cooperative. The legal registrant is you (and Robert is just the technical contact). They have your Eskimo e-mail listed, but dead e-mail accounts aren't uncommon and they should be able to help you update the info and gain access to the account. As I mentioned before, they may want a written request on letterhead (or some other proof that you are who you are).

Once you have access to your account, I'd suggest simply signing up for by-the-month hosting until the Eskimo situation shakes out. I say to keep the hosting at NetSol because that'll make DNS pointing the simplest and will also allow you to easily point back to Eskimo, if need be. They also have a fair amount of tools and (sometimes) pretty good telephone tech support. An easy, temporary fix for $12 per month.

whitznd
November 12th, 2009, 04:28 PM
[quote=jonathonblake;8300835]I don't know if it was a conscious decision or not, but the place never looked like a business was run from there, much less a big regional ISP.

There were servers there, but the "big" ones were in Bellevue.



The business was actually conducted around the back of the house and in the basement. I went there once to take him a check from a business I'm working for to get it to him quickest. The basement is so crammed with equipment that one could hardly move. One of the tech support guys was at a desk with a couple of monitors working away like crazy.

I've been with Eskimo for 15 years, and Burt for far longer than that. I considered Rober to be a personal friend and often engaged with political discussions with him. Sent Christmas cookies for everyone, invited him to our parties (he actually came!)

This saddens me. I send good wishes for him and his family and hope that this is soon behind them.

akmbd166
November 12th, 2009, 05:35 PM
The down side of trusted local small business patronage.

Hence another small business mantra... "dont put all your eggs in one basket".

Any recommendations for hosting ?

bbrace
November 12th, 2009, 05:35 PM
damn! all of a sudden... DNS seems to be intact but no connection or phone-contact for over 36 hours! I've been a loyal customer for over 15 years! and my files?? *geez* why? bbrace@eskimo.com

Ex-Eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 05:56 PM
With regards to the incest charges, I just can't see that. Having worked with the man for 4 years, working out of his house in Shoreline and being around the family I just don't buy it. I would definitely wasn't to hear the details surrounding the guilty plea first-hand, from the family before jumping to any conclusions.

After thinking about this overnight, I think we need to be especially careful here. The only basis for thinking that this was an incest conviction comes from that one blogger who announced the "death of Eskimo" yesterday. We do know that Robert Dinse pled guilty to something, and is currently incarcerated in Shelton. But there is nothing in the legal documents found online that indicates the charge or sentence. The story may be true, but it might be a conviction/sentence for some other offense entirely.

The fact remains that Robert is in prison for the immediate future, and Eskimo's viability is in serious doubt because of it. But, if it turns out what he was convicted of was not a sex crime (let alone one regarding his family), we don't want to be blackening his reputation even more by spreading what may turn out to be merely a rumor.

vkapur
November 12th, 2009, 06:07 PM
Good discussions so far - does anyone want to start collecting names / contact
information of us users - so that we can perhaps make some kind of concerted
appeal ? At this end - I'm :

Vikas Kapur
with eskimo.com for 12 years
vikas.kapur@gmail.com

Ex-Eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 06:16 PM
a) In the current market, who/what would buy Eskimo North?
How much would they be willing to pay for it?

* A company that currently has their web operations on Eskimo North could buy it, to keep their site up;
* Another regional ISP would buy it, for the user base;
* A software development company buys it, to use it for showcasing the virtues of their software;

b) Who was still working then, before it went dark? If Erik, or somebody as good as he and Jimmie were included in the company purchase/takeover, then there is a good chance that a re-opened Eskimo North would be a viable ISP

If any part of the equation involves the "reputation" of Eskimo as a fixture/pioneer/etc. in the world of Seattle computing, how much the current circumstances become known may play a major factor. (One reason I've become cautious of spreading too much information about Robert's conviction before having all the facts in hand.) If Eskimo, rightly or wrongly, becomes identified in the public mind as "that ISP where the owner was ****ing his kids," I would assume that any prospective buyers would be a lot more hesitant to do so, reasoning that a provider named "ILoveOsama.com" might have more appeal.

MasterNetra
November 12th, 2009, 06:21 PM
Guess this a painful lesson for many to keep up to date backups. Hard way to learn it granted.

Found_Objects
November 12th, 2009, 06:22 PM
After thinking about this overnight, I think we need to be especially careful here. The only basis for thinking that this was an incest conviction comes from that one blogger who announced the "death of Eskimo" yesterday. We do know that Robert Dinse pled guilty to something, and is currently incarcerated in Shelton. But there is nothing in the legal documents found online that indicates the charge or sentence. The story may be true, but it might be a conviction/sentence for some other offense entirely.

The fact remains that Robert is in prison for the immediate future, and Eskimo's viability is in serious doubt because of it. But, if it turns out what he was convicted of was not a sex crime (let alone one regarding his family), we don't want to be blackening his reputation even more by spreading what may turn out to be merely a rumor.

Sadly, the King County Jail records don't look to be favorable to Robert, but you're correct in saying that we don't know for sure.

Also, Robert's conviction isn't relevant to recovering our data and/or the restoration of Eskimo.com. That should be the focus of this thread (also because this is a computer site, not a crime site). All we know is that Robert is out of the picture at this point.

It would seem that the keys to this would be:

A) Communicating to the Registered Agent for the corporation (who is also their accountant) that there are people with knowledge and possibly tech resources available to help restore service and/or recover data.

B) Getting ahold of Eric, who is the only tech support employee I know of left. I have speculations about his last name and contact info, but am not sure. It is possible, if not likely, that the Registered Agent for the corporation knows how to reach Eric or any others involved.

One TINY piece of good news seems to be that their phone service is suspended and not disconnected. Let's hope that the backbone connections are in a similar status.

Just a thought... If it is purely a money issue, would everyone be willing to kick in $20 (or whatever) to restore service for, let's say, a month so that we can get our data off the servers? I know we've all paid (and many have lots of time due to them), but it would seem that money has been spent. I have no idea what the costs would be, but it is something I'm throwing out there...

vkapur
November 12th, 2009, 06:30 PM
It would seem that the keys to this would be:

A) Communicating to the Registered Agent for the corporation (who is also their accountant) that there are people with knowledge and possibly tech resources available to help restore service and/or recover data.

B) Getting ahold of Eric, who is the only tech support employee I know of left. I have speculations about his last name and contact info, but am not sure. It is possible, if not likely, that the Registered Agent for the corporation knows how to reach Eric or any others involved.

One TINY piece of good news seems to be that their phone service is suspended and not disconnected. Let's hope that the backbone connections are in a similar status.

Just a thought... If it is purely a money issue, would everyone be willing to kick in $20 (or whatever) to restore service for, let's say, a month so that we can get our data off the servers? I know we've all paid (and many have lots of time due to them), but it would seem that money has been spent. I have no idea what the costs would be, but it is something I'm throwing out there...

Good points. We've all paid up for quite a bit in advance - but I'd be willing to
put in $20 as above - if it is purely a cash issue right now. Btw, I think it
is Erik Jorgensen (sp ? ) - I received a email from support@eskimo.com on
Tue 11/9 w/ rgds - Vikas

vkapur
November 12th, 2009, 06:32 PM
If eskimo.com does get up and running again - I'd want to stay with them !
They've been an excellent operation - many connections to them at this
point and would want to keep it going. -with regards, Vikas ( 12 year eskimo.com
veteran..)

akmbd166
November 12th, 2009, 06:37 PM
Just a thought... If it is purely a money issue, would everyone be willing to kick in $20 (or whatever) to restore service for, let's say, a month so that we can get our data off the servers? I know we've all paid (and many have lots of time due to them), but it would seem that money has been spent. I have no idea what the costs would be, but it is something I'm throwing out there...
Think there needs to be a pretty viable alternative plan b4 all would agree to financial help.
We only have a few files on the web server, and have backups... no email stored, DNS, or other services of any significance, so do not really need to 'keep it going', but would be willing to help financially if the plan makes sense.
IOW, different users have different 'investments' in the issue.

Found_Objects
November 12th, 2009, 06:45 PM
Think there needs to be a pretty viable alternative plan b4 all would agree to financial help.
We only have a few files on the web server, and have backups... no email stored, DNS, or other services of any significance, so do not really need to 'keep it going', but would be willing to help financially if the plan makes sense.
IOW, different users have different 'investments' in the issue.

That is a given. I was just floating the concept out there. If, for example, ELI (or whoever) says they want $1,000 to restore a month of some kind of connectivity AND someone like Eric can take the lead in restoring service (possibly with others' help), only then would I be willing to kick in more $$. It would seem, but I don't know for sure, that unpaid bills simply mean the wires to the outside world have been cut (and maybe Puget Power?). Unless, of course, someone walked into the server room and just hit the circuit breaker at 3pm on 11/10, crashing everything.

vonfirmath
November 12th, 2009, 07:04 PM
*waves* here's another old Eskimo User (since 1992) -- halfway through a 5-year subscription but I suspect that money is long gone.

Luckily, I mostly had moved emails over to gmail due to difficulty getting to Eskimo's email at times. But since I've been with them since 1991, I did consider eskimo my primary and gmail as the backup! And I was still doing dialup. haven't tried but I suspect that is gone as well.

The big problem is going to be figuring out all the places I need to change my email with, and worrying if gmail will go down since we have no backup now!

My eskimo userid was 'sarah' (Think I'll ever be able to get something that great again?)

I was in Texas when I started and am back in Texas now. But I interacted with Nanook while living in Washington for 14 years and am in shock. I would not have believed this of him.

vkapur
November 12th, 2009, 07:11 PM
Any suggestion for POP email alternatives in the meanwhile ? I use
Eudora as a news-reader at home and really like having my
emails on my drive ( where I can sort and browse old messages as much as I want)

I have gmail and yahoo accounts but all the email stays on the google/yahoo
servers and I'd like to have them at home ( via Eudora )

As for the webhosting - I had a small website setup at www.eskimo.com/~vkapur (http://www.eskimo.com/~vkapur)
( no domain names ) - any suggestions there.. ? Do appreciate all yr responses..

I was browsing this ubuntu thread and saw a whole host of references - fatcow, etc..
( and thanks for posting those ) - but would welcome personal input. I just
spoke with a friend that has been with earthlink.net for a long time - and gets email
from them at home with Eudora..

If eskimo.com does revive - I'd definitely want to stay with them / give them
another chance ! vkapur@eskimo this end for 12 years - the Unix and shell
access was also excellent and a Unix/shell ISP of that nature would be nice..

w/ rgds, vikas

chrisro
November 12th, 2009, 07:13 PM
Hello all!
With Eskimo since the early 90's, new to this forum.
Like everybody else, shocked at the sudden demise of Eskimo - and the presumed reason.

I am certainly very interested in at least a temporary resurrection of Eskimo for the purposes of getting at my email and Pine addressbook. And fully prepared to put in some money to make that happen.

If anybody were to bring back Eskimo permanently, I'd sign up right away and remain a loyal customer.

Thank you everybody for your participation in this forum and providing the various bits and pieces of info. Let's keep it going.

Finally, I am local to Seattle. Maybe we can bring back the (former) tradition of Eskimo users meetings at a restaurant to get organized and determine how to proceed...

Chris

jessup-1
November 12th, 2009, 07:13 PM
Hi everyone. This is quite the thread. Some long time Robert/Eskimo fans and supporters. Some folks who just want their money back and want their lost data. And some folks who, like myself, want to see Eskimo rise from the ashes of hades and rock on... somehow. Well, I have drafted a proposal and recovered my previously Eskimo hosted business web site from the ER. Now it is time to figure out the best way to go from here and get Eskimo out of the ER also. But, getting any sort of host system back up and running, setting up a new and legal business structure to support it under, and trying to sort out anything with Robert locked up behind bars is not going to be a cake walk. First steps first, IMHO. So, tell you what. If you would go to my web page and take a gander at my proposal posted there then we'll see if we can put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Hopefully this will post and the folks in charge of this thread will not delete it or edit it into the ozone along with Eskimo. Chuck Jessup. President TMI. transform-me-inc.com

akmbd166
November 12th, 2009, 07:23 PM
Any suggestion for POP email alternatives in the meanwhile ?
ePrompter (download from eprompter.com)... text only, receive-send-delete capability, no attachments, but can monitor up to 16 accounts with one small interface window for quick email access
Some occasional problems (so you sometimes need to be patient) with hotmail and other large email providers that keep changing their security setups, but in general a good quick, and safe, way to monitor email.
I use/d it for eskimo.com email.

peteyboy
November 12th, 2009, 07:27 PM
I am also shocked. I should have known when my account lapsed at the start of the month (I always put off paying until I get shut off), and my account didn't get suspended. I called that day and told them the check was in the mail, and the person who answered didn't seem to care. This was all unsual for me, but I figured I was finally cashing in on 14 years of loyal customer-ness.

I guess the reality was that there were much bigger fish to fry.

Anyone hear anything about drizzle.com? Apparently they are a local Seattle ISP offering shell accounts as well...

GregA2
November 12th, 2009, 07:33 PM
My story sounds the same as many of you - 13 years as galt and my wife was kaking.

We would definitely be willing to contribute cash to help get data off the servers and into our hands. What ever is the simplest way to make that happen, I'm game. If that's pool some money together to help a local ISP buy eskimo so that they can get it up and running for another 2 weeks while we all download our data, that'd be great. Or if we can pay Erik to methodically dump our files/email to CDR, I'd be for that. Or if things aren't quite as bad as that and Robert's family can somehow get the server back up for long enough to grab our data, possibly with us kicking down money to pay their bills for another couple weeks, I'd be fine with that.

Assuming the company isn't coming back, I'd think the ideal would be any means for us to get our data backed up, and then have some other ISP buy the eskimo.com domain name and set up email forwarding.

If someone wants to step up to be a point of contact representing us, that might make communication simpler between the accountant and us. I'd like to hear an official word from him about what they think is possible as far as getting our data and what if anything is currently happening, and what we can do to help. In return, we can let him know that we care very much about our data, that we can offer money and technical expertise to help the process, if needed.

akmbd166
November 12th, 2009, 07:44 PM
As much as we may like to see Eskimo North (EN) back in business, it was so dependent on one person (who may now be in jail), think it would be fruitless (or ridiculous) to try to revive it.
A buyout sounds more like it... ideally by some local firm.
In the meantime, seems like we may need to keep searching for an 'official' contact for EN.
Havent checked WA Corp records for corp agent, if any, but maybe that was Robert ?

'dansc' were you able to find/contact the corp agent by phone per your previous post (also sent dansc private message with this question)... maybe we could get them to post on this forum, or at least quote them ?

bcl
November 12th, 2009, 08:07 PM
Some of you may be able to recover bits of your websites either via http://archive.org or by doing a Google search and clicking on the 'cache' link below the responses.

As for POP email clients, I've been using Thunderbird for years, and Thunderbird 3 Beta for months with no major problems (ie. no lost mail).

One potential hurdle I see in getting your files recovered is making sure that you are the real owner of said home directory.

Ex-Eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 08:16 PM
As for the webhosting - I had a small website setup at www.eskimo.com/~vkapur (http://www.eskimo.com/%7Evkapur)
( no domain names ) - any suggestions there.. ? Do appreciate all yr responses..

I was browsing this ubuntu thread and saw a whole host of references - fatcow, etc..
( and thanks for posting those ) - but would welcome personal input. I just
spoke with a friend that has been with earthlink.net for a long time - and gets email
from them at home with Eudora.

I just set up an account with JustHost.com. FWIW, they seem pretty good, based on the first hour or two. ;)

scs_eskimo
November 12th, 2009, 08:18 PM
Yet another long-time user here. scs, registered in 1992 or so.

It seems to me we have to do two things, Real Soon Now, to preserve data. In reverse order:

2. Find out exactly where the main servers are hosted (somewhere in Bellevue, I know) and make sure the servers don't get shipped off and sold for scrap to help pay for unpaid hosting charges.

If (as I suspect) there are significant hosting charges owing, we'll probably have to come up with that before they'll let us access the servers. I'm certainly willing to pony up some dough, and it sounds like others are, too.

That's the most important thing, but before that, we need to

1. Find a proper place to meet, discuss, exchange real-world contact info, and coordinate. It's very nice of the Ubuntu forums to have let this continue, but it's not the right place. Any suggestions?

wbeaty
November 12th, 2009, 08:26 PM
ESKIMO.COM RETURNING TODAY probably

I just stopped by the house, and the family says their bandwidth provider should be restoring things today.

They say everything has been in disarray with Bob not there, and they've been working for weeks to sort out finances. Their own phones were cut off too, so they can't answer questions.

The Glitch
November 12th, 2009, 08:27 PM
I hope Eskimo is able to continue on through this.

wbeaty
November 12th, 2009, 08:31 PM
1. Find a proper place to meet, discuss, exchange real-world contact info, and coordinate. It's very nice of the Ubuntu forums to have let this continue, but it's not the right place. Any suggestions?

If they get back online, we might not need it.

But anyway, how about an unofficial user meeting at Metrix Createspace http://metrixcreatespace.com/ on Broadway? They open at noon, so I'll call and see if we can reserve tonight or tomorrow.

Eskimo users might want to pitch in and help Bob's family.

wbeaty
November 12th, 2009, 08:33 PM
In the meantime, seems like we may need to keep searching for an 'official' contact for EN.

If they get their phones restored today, we can call the current owners.

vkapur
November 12th, 2009, 08:37 PM
'wbeaty' - and Chuck - thanks for all updates on this.

It may be useful for just a few of us to be 'designated points of contact'
- else we may well overwhelm them with phone calls , emails etc..

w/ rgds , vikas

eunuch
November 12th, 2009, 08:39 PM
If they get back online, we might not need it.

But anyway, how about an unofficial user meeting at Metrix Createspace http://metrixcreatespace.com/ on Broadway? They open at noon, so I'll call and see if we can reserve tonight or tomorrow.

Eskimo users might want to pitch in and help Bob's family.

If anything comes of these Face-to-Face meetings, please remember that some number of Ex-kimos do not live in Seattle but are still interested in...

Please keep us all informed.

Thanx.

twotreesmusic
November 12th, 2009, 08:40 PM
If they get back online, we might not need it.

I'm just hopeful that they can restore service for just a few weeks at least in order to give us time to make other arrangements. wbeaty....you on the level? Are they really trying to restore service and what are the odds of that happening? I'm just about to commit my day to moving hosts, but if they're coming back, I've got other things on my immediate plate.

johngaunt
November 12th, 2009, 08:43 PM
But anyway, how about an unofficial user meeting at Metrix Createspace http://metrixcreatespace.com/ on Broadway? They open at noon, so I'll call and see if we can reserve tonight or tomorrow.
I am not a local any more, so I can not attend. Can a forum or thread be started on another BB for those of us unable to do anything face-to-face? I understand that we who can do nothing are less important than those who can actually do something in Seattle.

Thanks again to ubuntuforums for letting us discuss our little emergency here.


Eskimo users might want to pitch in and help Bob's family.
Yes. They didn't ask for this to happen to them.

If Eskimo does come back, then Bob's family may be able to point to this and say that Eskimo can survive anything. A little more disaster recovery might be helpful the next time. :)

(Too early for jokes and a smiley?)

wbeaty
November 12th, 2009, 08:48 PM
I'm just hopeful that they can restore service for just a few weeks at least in order to give us time to make other arrangements. wbeaty....you on the level? Are they really trying to restore service and what are the odds of that happening? I'm just about to commit my day to moving hosts, but if they're coming back, I've got other things on my immediate plate.

I drove over there this morning. Bob's wife says they should be up and running again, and the ?son? who's repairing the business disorganization says the bandwidth provider should restore things today.

akmbd166
November 12th, 2009, 08:53 PM
If they get back online, we might not need it.But anyway, how about an unofficial user meeting at Metrix Createspace http://metrixcreatespace.com/ on Broadway? They open at noon, so I'll call and see if we can reserve tonight or tomorrow.
Eskimo users might want to pitch in and help Bob's family.
1. Meetings, without reliable info and attendees without any authority, are a bit useless.
Ubuntu seems to fill the need for now.
2. Family help, if needed and accepted, would be nice.

eunuch
November 12th, 2009, 09:02 PM
1. Meetings, without reliable info and attendees without any authority, are a bit useless.
Ubuntu seems to fill the need for now.
2. Family help, if needed and accepted, would be nice.

I think one REALLY important thing is to communicate with whoever is in control that we are here, interested, concerned, willing to help and in need of our "stuff."

Otherwise we are only talking to ourselves while bill collectors or whoever do whatever they do.

articair
November 12th, 2009, 09:02 PM
I drove over there this morning. Bob's wife says they should be up and running again, and the ?son? who's repairing the business disorganization says the bandwidth provider should restore things today.

Way to go!

This link might give some insight as well:

http://twitter.com/SeattleOtaku

"Raising the Frankensteinian platform. Waiting for lightning."

ddunkin
November 12th, 2009, 09:08 PM
Though from reading the quote, it sounds like the servers are somewhere else but have a high-speed connection to the SIX at the Westin.

Glad I found this thread, it is nice to see so many people locally come together on this.

This appears to be out of date information. I haven't heard about them for years, specifically because they aren't on the SIX. They aren't on the participants page, otherwise I'd probably have solicited them for peering over the years.

wbeaty
November 12th, 2009, 09:09 PM
Way to go!

This link might give some insight as well:
http://twitter.com/SeattleOtaku
"Raising the Frankensteinian platform. Waiting for lightning."

> Above message appears to be a spammer, trolling for blog traffic. Please delete that message (and this one!)

Arrg. Yes, seattleotaku has no eskimo.com information, but the user is ETJ, a ?former? eskimo.com employee

vonfirmath
November 12th, 2009, 09:14 PM
Maybe not. In at least one place "Seattle Otaku" is associated with an employee of Eskimo North.

The Glitch
November 12th, 2009, 09:15 PM
Sounds like they will be up soon.

ddunkin
November 12th, 2009, 09:16 PM
Glad I found this thread, it is nice to see so many people locally come together on this.

This appears to be out of date information. I haven't heard about them for years, specifically because they aren't on the SIX. They aren't on the participants page, otherwise I'd probably have solicited them for peering over the years.

I hit tab/enter too fast :) Likely their upstream for data is ELI/Integra which is SIX connected, they just aren't directly connected.

jbmillard
November 12th, 2009, 09:37 PM
The down side of trusted local small business patronage.

Hence another small business mantra... "dont put all your eggs in one basket".

Any recommendations for hosting ?

I was with Eskimo for about 10 years. I, luckily, got a domain name last July. Once it went dark, I looked at a number of companies and ended up with http://www.brinkster.net. I need shell access and a "C" compiler for my site and they fit the bill. I moved my site (I have local backups) and DNS and was back in about 12 hours. Brinkster was very quick getting my account setup (15 minutes). DNS took about 4 hours to filter down.

Brad
http://www.jbmballistics.com

Esquimaux
November 12th, 2009, 10:00 PM
Hey everybody, I've been diligently keeping up on these posts since last night, but I haven't had anything constructive to add, so I've kept silent. Like many of you, I've been with Eskimo since the 90s, and have a website hosted by Eskimo. Same email address forever. This situation has posed some regrettable professional problems, for that reason.

Have corresponded personally with Robert on political and philosophical issues. I can really appreciate what a horrible nightmare and tragedy this is for the family. My heart goes out to them!

A lot of good brainstorming going on here. Thanks bcl for posting the link to archive.org, for retrieval of unbacked up webpages. That worked for me! ;) I had one page on my website that wasn't backed up (the most recent, naturally) and was able to create a copy via the archive you mentioned in message #104. Thanks also, wbeaty for the ray of hope about Eskimo possibly going back up today (message #107). Also, thanks johngaunt, for posting info on how to find out the registrar of your own website via Network Solutions (message #81).

I really appreciate all the research people have shared (including the stuff that got deleted). For anyone who hasn't been following this discussion from the beginning, I suggest you go back and read thru everything before posting. The moderator doesn't want us to post email addresses, for example. See messages #64 and #67. Since Ubuntu is hosting this discussion, we should do like the Ubuntus do!

Hopefully this situation will get resolved thru Eskimo going back up. But if that doesn't work, I think one of the things we should all be very concerned with is privacy. Personally, I don't want just any old company (or individual) to get their hands on my data/info. That's why we used Eskimo in the first place. We knew Robert cared about privacy issues and he had enough professional integrity not to hand stuff over willy-nilly to some tyrannical gov't agency, for instance. Not sure how I'd feel about Eskimo getting taken over by just anybody, for that reason.

I'll continue to follow this thread. Prior to the disruption in service last night, I was unaware of any difficulties Robert or Eskimo was going thru, because we'd moved. Things on this end have been in slight disarray, too.

carldinse
November 12th, 2009, 10:21 PM
Hi, This is Carl from Eskimo North, I want to clarify that no one has lost any of their files, the servers are fine. A confusion with our provider for our T1 connection caused a 2 day outage, we have resolved the confusion and they will have us turned on within "a few hours" or by the end of the business day. I spent the past 2 days trying to work out the issue. All of the servers are still running, and have not lost any files. When we are back up I will send a notification to our outage mailing list on eskimo.com. Thank you for all of your support and patience.

-Carl

akmbd166
November 12th, 2009, 10:47 PM
Hi, This is Carl Dinse from Eskimo North, I want to clarify that no one has lost any of their files, the servers are fine. A confusion with our provider for our T1 connection caused a 2 day outage, we have resolved the confusion and they will have us turned on within "a few hours" or by the end of the business day. I spent the past 2 days trying to work out the issue. All of the servers are still running, and have not lost any files. When we are back up I will send a notification to our outage mailing list on eskimo.com. Thank you for all of your support and patience.
-Carl Dinse
Thank you for the update.
Let us know if there is anything we can do to help.

chrisro
November 12th, 2009, 10:56 PM
Thanks Carl!

I see some improvement already, the fax number is responding :-)
(Don't you all call and try it now...)

I'm sure we all do want to help, so please keep us up to date with anything we can do.

Regards,

Chris

DoctorIce
November 12th, 2009, 11:05 PM
Thanks Carl!

I'm sure we all do want to help, so please keep us up to date with anything we can do.



Ditto on that, Carl. There are a few unemployed geeks among us, if more hands wouldn't just get in the way.

Either way, thanks for all your hard work.

And thanks to the ubuntu forums for allowing us this space for communication and support among the eskimo family. :)

carldinse
November 12th, 2009, 11:14 PM
I really appreciate everyone's support, and the ubuntu forum for allowing this thread.
Phones are back up, should be about another 45 minutes for the T1 to be back online. Eric and I are working to resolve this communication error in the event that this ever happens again. I want everyone to know, as of now, Eskimo North has no intention of going out of business. I will do my best to communicate otherwise if something else happens. More details to arrive late tonight or tomorrow night. I still work a day job career outside of Eskimo to support my self as I can't live at my parent's house. So I do what I can in my free time and any help will be appreciated. We can discuss those terms at a later date.

For anyone who may be confused, I am Robert's oldest son, and he has given me power of attorney over Eskimo and himself while he is away. Accounting issues on our customer end will be caught up with thank you letters this weekend and next week. I just had to get over this mountain involving our bandwidth provider first.

Thank you!

-Carl

dweksler
November 12th, 2009, 11:48 PM
Thank you Carl for the update.

I would also contribute any time/effort for support if needed. Good luck with getting things back online.

I'd like to echo the thanks to Ubuntu Forums as well for supporting this discussion

-- David

Found_Objects
November 13th, 2009, 12:13 AM
Carl,

Thanks for the update.

I don't have the tech know-how to help with your systems (and it doesn't help that I'm not in Seattle), but if you need some PR or marketing assistance to help build Eskimo (and shore up the finances), don't hesitate to ask. Once the e-mail system is up and you've had some time to catch your breath, I'll either send you my contact info or route it through Eric.

As others have said, Eskimo North is not some anonymous corporate ISP and it isn't only about rescuing our files. Many of us would've been glad to help however we could long ago. You just gotta ask.

bcl
November 13th, 2009, 12:39 AM
I'm glad to hear things are getting straightened out. If I could make a couple of suggestions:

Setup DNS servers outside your primary network -- that will prevent incoming email from starting to immediately bounce when the link goes down.

Create a tech-support twitter account to keep everyone updated when outages happen. Assuming Twitter isn't down of course ;)

Good luck getting things back together!

chips_ex_eskimo
November 13th, 2009, 12:53 AM
ePrompter (download from eprompter.com)... text only, receive-send-delete capability, no attachments, but can monitor up to 16 accounts with one small interface window for quick email access
Some occasional problems (so you sometimes need to be patient) with hotmail and other large email providers that keep changing their security setups, but in general a good quick, and safe, way to monitor email.
I use/d it for eskimo.com email.
I've been a user of ePrompter since literally the beginning of the program. I even paid for it. Unfortunately at this time it is pretty useless for anything other than POP3 :-( .

johngaunt
November 13th, 2009, 12:55 AM
I really appreciate everyone's support, and the ubuntu forum for allowing this thread.
My two-cents' worth:

- Make sure to reconnect with your local users, since they are the ones financially and morally supporting Eskimo at this time. Many other companies do not have such a loyal userbase.

- Your business users have been especially hard-hit; I don't know how things can be made right with them.

- And also address any technical concerns that are raised so confidence is restored.

I do not envy your position. Good luck.

chips_ex_eskimo
November 13th, 2009, 01:13 AM
I really appreciate everyone's support, and the ubuntu forum for allowing this thread.
Phones are back up, should be about another 45 minutes for the T1 to be back online. Eric and I are working to resolve this communication error in the event that this ever happens again.
{...}
Thank you!

-Carl Dinse good luck to you, Eric and us on getting back online. (as of 4:08pm email is still not functioning)
There are plenty of old time customers of Eskimo, as you can see via this thread. I think most of us will be willing to continue with Eskimo at least for the email accounts. If you need help/assistance in getting & keeping the joint running, put out a plea. I for one would be willing to help (I donated one of the servers about 18 months ago) if just for the sake of being able to use the name 'chips'.

chips_ex_eskimo
November 13th, 2009, 01:17 AM
:confused: I can not find any of my wordpress pages via search engines or archive.org

Ex-Eskimo
November 13th, 2009, 01:22 AM
I'm glad to hear things are getting straightened out. If I could make a couple of suggestions:

Setup DNS servers outside your primary network -- that will prevent incoming email from starting to immediately bounce when the link goes down.

Create a tech-support twitter account to keep everyone updated when outages happen. Assuming Twitter isn't down of course ;)

Also, if possible, have one support phone line that is NOT tied into VOIP or your regular phone system, so that, if they go down, users won't be left with nothing but a phone-company recording that sounds, for all intents and purposes, as if the place has gone belly-up.

Speaking as a long-time customer, and someone with business websites on Eskimo, if this had merely been a data outage, even for a couple of days, I would have grumbled but put up with it, as long as I would have been able to reach a support tech, or even a recorded message telling me what was happening. The "last straw" was not being able to reach anyone there, or even knowing what was happening with it, for over a day (until someone found this forum and let me know about it). All I could assume was that Eskimo had gone under without warning. As it is, although I intend to keep some of my personal accounts on Eskimo, I've already had to move my business sites elsewhere. Will I move them back? Maybe eventually, but not until I've seen that the current staff at Eskimo is able to keep things running smoothly and reliably in Robert's absence.

eskimocustomer
November 13th, 2009, 01:54 AM
Also, if possible, have one support phone line that is NOT tied into VOIP or your regular phone system, so that, if they go down, users won't be left with nothing but a phone-company recording that sounds, for all intents and purposes, as if the place has gone belly-up.

Speaking as a long-time customer, and someone with business websites on Eskimo, if this had merely been a data outage, even for a couple of days, I would have grumbled but put up with it, as long as I would have been able to reach a support tech, or even a recorded message telling me what was happening.


I totally agree with this. You must ALWAYS let your customers know what's going on.
A voice message on your phone saying you are aware of the problem and are fixing it and a one page website saying the same thing, goes a long way in soothing customer concerns and prevents customers from bolting to another ISP.

chrisro
November 13th, 2009, 01:55 AM
Speaking as a long-time customer, and someone with business websites on Eskimo, if this had merely been a data outage, even for a couple of days, I would have grumbled but put up with it, as long as I would have been able to reach a support tech, or even a recorded message telling me what was happening. The "last straw" was not being able to reach anyone there, or even knowing what was happening with it, for over a day (until someone found this forum and let me know about it).

While I agree with the frustration expressed here, and the earlier suggestions for improvement, it appears that Carl and Eric are dealing with extraordinarily difficult circumstances.
We should all be glad that Carl found this forum - and the time to post some messages here that brought us all some clarity.

So for now, I think we should continue with our offers of help and support, and not "beat up" these poor guys...

I imagine that once the immediate downtime is resolved, Eskimo staff are going to be more than happy to work with us on improvements and ideas to prevent a repeat of how things went down the last couple of days!

eunuch
November 13th, 2009, 02:00 AM
Woohoo!

5:00 PST

Fingers crossed!

Many thanks!

Novatech1989
November 13th, 2009, 02:04 AM
I am a Shoreline business owner and have been with Eskimo North since 1990 or so. When the heat goes down a little, I think I will see if I can help. I really don't like doing business with the mega-corps. It is nice to get on the shell and just use "vi" to update a web page.

peteyboy
November 13th, 2009, 02:10 AM
It's up!

Ex-Eskimo
November 13th, 2009, 02:11 AM
While I agree with the frustration expressed here, and the earlier suggestions for improvement, it appears that Carl and Eric are dealing with extraordinarily difficult circumstances.
We should all be glad that Carl found this forum - and the time to post some messages here that brought us all some clarity.

So for now, I think we should continue with our offers of help and support, and not "beat up" these poor guys...

I'm not "beating up" on them, merely stating the facts as a business owner. I certainly will be offering them my best wishes, and, if there's anything I can do to help, I will. And I'm not pulling all my accounts from Eskimo, nor closing the door on the possibility of returning everything there in the future. But the point is that non-communication (in other words, not having things set up in advance so that they can communicate in an outage) is by far the worst mistake any ISP can make -- and it seems that the failure for that lies on Robert rather than Carl or Eric, since some provision should have been set in place before recent incidents. Had I been able to reach a voice message on Tuesday saying that they were working on the problem, but couldn't give a time for resumption of service yet, I wouldn't have had to spend my past day or two trying to fix matters from my end.

chips_ex_eskimo
November 13th, 2009, 02:11 AM
email working at 5:10pm

and just a ton of 'unable to send email' messages

as to the lack of communication, to me the weird recorded message one got when phoning Eskimo clued me into 'this is not a normal down time' situation.

Carl/Eric , please update all the welcome messages for the web , ftp and telnet.

May I suggest that people hold off on ftp'ing in to dl their files for at least the night?

--- WordPress was up at 5:10 but by 5:15 it was not responding all that well. probably have a flood of traffic hitting Eskimo now, as while any mail from Tue and Wed will never be sent in, all the mail from Today is coming now. ---

dansc
November 13th, 2009, 02:20 AM
HTTP, POP3/SMTP and FTP are back up as of now that I can see.

Email is working, there isn't and new mail, as it wasn't queued up.

My home directory is currently empty of all files, hopefully they are still bringing things online!

Carl - thank you for your efforts on this, it is a huge relief to see our data coming back!

darkwillow98
November 13th, 2009, 02:31 AM
:p

Sooooo happy to see eskimo back online. I too along with my husband and friends are longtime eskimo north users. Been here since the early days back in 1989 I think.

Good work Carl and Eric you two are amazing.

wbeaty
November 13th, 2009, 02:34 AM
It's up!

Telnet is up too.

Web server still down, 525PM

chips_ex_eskimo
November 13th, 2009, 02:34 AM
I , and am sure many others, greatly appreciate your forbearance and allowing us to gather here.

now that the Eskimo site is getting back its legs (at least for the time being), I think we should all move this discussion to another site. I'd have no problem in doing this at a Yahoo Group. Any other suggestions?

articair
November 13th, 2009, 02:44 AM
Thanks Carl for your work on getting this back up and running, on top of your regular day job!

Also thanks to ubuntu forums for hosting this thread.

vkapur
November 13th, 2009, 02:45 AM
This has certainly been a (very) difficult few days for all of us - eskimo users and
eskimo people. I completely agree - let us set up a eskimo user group
on Yahoo-groups and at least register there - so we can keep in touch
with all happenings.

I'm on at least 30-40 different yahoo-groups and it works very well - i usually
just read postings on the yahoo server - or if the group is an important one -I
have the messages delivered to my mailbox.

A yahoo-group ( or any group ) will essentially be independent of eskimo servers
going down certainly - and - unless yahoo goes down - (which is a VERY big
deal ) - will essentially stay up independently. Messages are archived and
searchable - so that good user tips remain around indefinitely.

WIth regards, Vikas
vkapur at eskimo, vkapur at yahoo
12-year eskimo.com veteran..

whitznd
November 13th, 2009, 02:53 AM
I am assuming that whoever sets up the Yahoo group will come back here and post it for others to join?

chrisro
November 13th, 2009, 02:55 AM
How about this new google group I just created: http://groups.google.com/group/eskimo-users

chips_ex_eskimo
November 13th, 2009, 02:56 AM
This has certainly been a (very) difficult few days for all of us - eskimo users and
eskimo people. I completely agree - let us set up a eskimo user group
on Yahoo-groups and at least register there - so we can keep in touch
with all happenings.

I'm on at least 30-40 different yahoo-groups and it works very well - i usually
just read postings on the yahoo server - or if the group is an important one -I
have the messages delivered to my mailbox.

A yahoo-group ( or any group ) will essentially be independent of eskimo servers
going down certainly - and - unless yahoo goes down - (which is a VERY big
deal ) - will essentially stay up independently. Messages are archived and
searchable - so that good user tips remain around indefinitely.

WIth regards, Vikas
vkapur at eskimo, vkapur at yahoo
12-year eskimo.com veteran..

ok, for those interested I reserved a name:
http://groups.yahoo.com/-group-/Eskimo-North-Users
(note take out all the dashes) which is open to users joining.

handl
November 13th, 2009, 03:15 AM
Carl Dinse (Roibert Dinse's son) informed me they have an investor and the server is up and running again. The email is working. jh

overdrank
November 13th, 2009, 03:17 AM
Threads merged

vkapur
November 13th, 2009, 03:32 AM
ok, for those interested I reserved a name:
http://groups.yahoo.com/-group-/Eskimo-North-Users
(note take out all the dashes) which is open to users joining.

Thanks 'Chips' :-) -- I just signed up. There are 8 members already - folks - do please
consider migrating over there ! ( whitznd - thanks for the google group setup too..
perhaps we can keep both going - or keep the google as a backup for yahoo :-) )
For now, I'll post primarily to the yahoo-group

With all regards, Vikas
vkapur at eskimo
vikas.kapur at gmail
12-year eskimo vet.

whitznd
November 13th, 2009, 03:46 AM
I joined both groups. Thanks

eunuch
November 13th, 2009, 03:51 AM
I joined both groups. Thanks

Krikey!

How many groups do we need?

vkapur
November 13th, 2009, 03:56 AM
ok, for those interested I reserved a name:
http://groups.yahoo.com/-group-/Eskimo-North-Users
(note take out all the dashes) which is open to users joining.


Krikey!

How many groups do we need?

I'd recommend the yahoogroup for now - we have 18 members already and
climbing. chrisro ( apologies for the incorrect attrib. :) _ tnx again on the
google front - and do come over to the yahoogrp too. whitznd -- good stuff :)

w/ all rgds, vikas ( eskimo '97 )

whitznd
November 13th, 2009, 03:56 AM
Probably just one, you folks decide which to keep and the other one can be disbanded. Makes no difference to me although most of my groups are on Yahoo

jarebben
November 13th, 2009, 04:17 AM
Thanks for setting these groups. I am going to join them soon.

johngaunt
November 13th, 2009, 05:46 AM
Carl Dinse (Roibert Dinse's son) informed me they have an investor and the server is up and running again. The email is working. jh
I logged in about two hours ago, took a screenshot of my Pine address book, forwarded a mail message or two, responded to e-mail, left myself idling in Pine, and logged out a few minutes ago. Good enough for tonight.

Co-workers have been praising Ubuntu. Being a Solaris and Red Hat/CentOS guy, I moaned and groaned. Since this Ubuntu community and its mods put up with this thread, I have a much better feeling about the tolerance and helpfulness of Ubuntu-ites. Ubuntarians? :)

Sporkman
November 13th, 2009, 05:51 AM
...I have a much better feeling about the tolerance and helpfulness of Ubuntu-ites. Ubuntarians? :)

Ubunturds. Ubuntards?

:P

twotreesmusic
November 13th, 2009, 06:08 AM
Don't look now but Eskimo is down again...

jonathonblake
November 13th, 2009, 07:28 AM
you folks decide which to keep and the other one can be disbanded.

Keep them both, for when either Yahoo or Google goes down, permanently.

jonathon

SeattleOtaku
November 13th, 2009, 07:38 AM
Don't look now but Eskimo is down again...

Not for long; we're aware of it and will get to the hung servers for reboots later tonight (one of the problems of juggling hours with other jobs). And not as all-services-encompassing as the bandwidth shutdown mentioned before.

~ Eric (Eskimo phone support)

carcosa23
November 13th, 2009, 07:58 AM
Thanks Eric, your efforts are *very* appreciated!!

carldinse
November 13th, 2009, 12:43 PM
Just wanted to let everyone know that everything is now online, please refer to our website for outage information and announcements. Many thanks again to the Ubuntu forum moderators for allowing us to communicate here. This will be my last post on this matter in this thread. thank you all for your support.

-Carl

carcosa23
November 13th, 2009, 05:34 PM
Hooray! Thank you Carl!

Alpinist
November 13th, 2009, 08:55 PM
Wow, during the outage I didn't think of looking to the Ubuntu forums for conversation and information. Amazing how many of us old time Eskimo customers are using Ubuntu.

I'm glad the system is back up again, but sorry and surprised to hear about Robert's problems.

The Real Dave
November 14th, 2009, 01:28 AM
Does anybody know what happened to Eskimo Nortth (eskimo.com)?

It seems to have dropped out of cyberspace. :(

jonathon

Server froze ;)

marstersmike
November 15th, 2011, 07:30 PM
Been with Nanook for close to 20 yrs, always had good service. Haven't been able to get online since about 11/2 or 3. Seems I read somewhere he was ill within the last few months. ??? Anyway I'm moving to some other provider. The $84 is minor. I would renew in December and had him set me up on automatic. If others have done this it might be a good idea to watch the credit card.

Being old, I forgot my sign in name for Ubuntu and of course couldn't retrieve it due to no access to eskimo.com so I had to sign up with another account. Thanks to some of your subscribers helping me a few weeks ago with an email problem. Ubuntu is great.

If anyone finds out what happened I hope they post .

sffvba[e0rt
November 15th, 2011, 07:33 PM
Back to sleep thread...


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