I must be known as the one who b*tches the most on this forum. Anyhow, here is what is going on.

My site has been down since Sunday. I have a co-lo at mae-dulles and there is a contract dispute between 5 Star and Mae-Dulles. Mae-Dulles according to 5SC has a clause in their contract that during a "dispute" they may hold onto any equipment...EVEN IF ITS MINE!

So, I have been looking for other hosts, but the problem is I can't even get my own equipment. And, Mae-Dulles' parent company, Tag Computers is a government funded company which means, if I go over there with a police officer to get my equipment they could/can have federal officers waiting for me (who knows).

What about backups you may ask? Well I have 2 drives on my server, one specifically for backups, so I cannot get any data moved to a dedicated server (5Star has offered me one in the mean time). You put your equipment in a datacenter because its supposed to be safe...not so they can have it.

Regards,
Paul Roberts

Wow. I have never heard of this before. Is there a site address we all can see? Good luck :)

Mae-dulles: www.maedulles.net
5Star: www.5sc.net

Just so everyone knows, I do not have a gripe towards 5SC anymore. They are trying their best so I would like to apologize for my comments previously about them.

-Paul

Paul - Do you have a copy of this contract? Surely Mae Dullies cannot enforce the witholding of your equipment, unless it is used in part of an attack or some other illegal activity?

Maybe you should file for compensation for lost revenue and time in trying to get back your property? That might tempt them to give you access to your server.

I didn't realise initially that you owned the server - I thought it was leased from 5sc.

--Rich

Rich,

I plan to file a lawsuit against Mae-Dulles. I've already lost some customers of mine that host on my server not to mention my advertising contracts that are in place on the website. I need to get my equipment before I do anything, I am not willing to wage a battle while they have my server. Basically, they have me by the balls :(.

-Paul

That really sucks...just curious, but why did they disable your equipment in the first place? Did you not pay for a month? or was illegal material on your site?

If there was, then you really cannot sue anyone, because that was partly your problem.

I hope you figure out something.


Jim

Legal site. Bills paid. They screwed me.

-Paul

that sucks then

jim

This really bites Paul. What reason have they given for taking down your machine, and refusing you access?

--Rich

The machine is not down (or at least I hope not), I believe they just pulled 5SC's network connectivity there. We will see what happens, I really am in shock over this. You try to protect yourself from power outages, fire, server crashes, hackers, etc etc...I never expected to have this happen. There really is not "plan of action" for something like this. I have to wait, I have to lose customers, and I have to lose money.

In the long run I will learn a very valuable lesson. If you do something, do it right the first time! Tomorrow I am actually taking a tour of a new datacenter in Vienna and hopefully getting my own rack.

Regards,
Paul

You seem to have some sort of large business. May I ask what company you run or represent? You may want to think about building your own data center.

Jim

Its not a large business, just a successful website as well as a bunch of smaller sites hosted as well. The site is Cheater.com - if you have kids, I gurantee they've heard about it :). I also work at a local Voice Over IP (VoIP) company here in Northern VA.

My background is in WebDevelopment and Networking. I've been in the "game" since the early 90s but just never ventured on my own. I think I may have reached the breaking point :).

-Paul

PS: No datacenters for me :)

What does your site, Cheater.com do?

Jim

I do not believe a third-party can legally hold equipment that does *not* belong to the party with which it has a dispute. In other words, 5-Star had no right to sign away *your* rights without your knowledge. If you can prove that the equipment is your property you should be able to get it back immediately. I would contact a lawyer, and go there with your laywer and a law enforcement official.

Deb,

Thanks for the advice. Tomorrow I will go down there, and if Mae-Dulles' management undersands that the machine is mine they SHOULD release it to me. I'll keep my fingers crossed...

-Paul

Originally posted by Deb Suran
I do not believe a third-party can legally hold equipment that does *not* belong to the party with which it has a dispute. In other words, 5-Star had no right to sign away *your* rights without your knowledge. If you can prove that the equipment is your property you should be able to get it back immediately. I would contact a lawyer, and go there with your laywer and a law enforcement official.

Yes and No.

5-star might have signed thier "rights" away at the mae-dulles hosting center. Also paul roberts might have signed his "Rights" away to 5-star.

Even if Paul did not. Mae-Dulles might have enough walls to slow paul down even to the point outright having to buy his equipment back (contract clause with 5-star might call for auto sale of all equipment ). All Mae-dulles knows is that all the equipment is of 5-stars. Paul would then have to place a suit with 5-star and call Mae as third party to the suit.

If anybody cares to send me a contract I'll do a quick-look.

And I would not be surprised to find a clause that states "if you (5-star) host equipment not of your title, you must apply for an ok from us (Mae-dulles)"

Most importantly, go legal and do it quickly.

-Michael
I am not a lawyer, I've just paid them since I was 13.