Long story short, the problems I've had with my host provider, and my server being hacked, finally came to a head. I discovered on Monday that my server had been hacked and hundreds of files spread over half a dozen domains had been altered with inserted malware code. Once it really began to sink in how extensive the damage was, I went into full emergency containment mode, and spent the evening editing these pages and rooting out malicious files that had been hidden in the nooks and crannies of my server. I'd reached a point where I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel when, about 10:30pm, all those files I'd fixed suddenly were infected again. So, being me and refusing to accept defeat, I started over.

I finally got the server cleansed about 3:00am on Tuesday morning. I'd gone through every single directory on every single domain on the server, and I was confident that I had deleted every bit of bad code and had removed every rogue file. The server was squeaky clean. There was not one bad bit of code on it anywhere. I changed my passwords on both my FTP server and my main account, and I went to bed hoping I'd taken care of the problem.

Well, when I got up on Tuesday, all of those files were infected again. At that point, I realized that there was nothing that could be done. I had thoroughly cleansed the server of all rogue code and had changed all of my passwords. If someone could that easily hack the site again and change that many files, that said to me that there was nothing on my end that could be blamed for it. Very clearly my host, IX Web Hosting, has some security issues. Their servers had been compromised. True to form, when I wrote them about this problem, they suggested that I change my password and read their recommendations on Internet security. In other words, they were having none of it where suggestions that they might be at fault are concerned.

Anyway, yesterday afternoon I decided to solve the problem be deleting everything from the server, in the hope that our financial situation will improve soon and I can move all of my web sites to a new host provider. I'll never host anything else on IX Web Hosting. And if they don't address my request for a full or partial refund (I just pre-paid them in early October for a year's service), I'm going to pursue a charge-back. This is nuts.

So... today I find myself for the first time in over a decade without a single web site to maintain. None of my files are available. None of my writing, or my blog, or my artwork, or my popular genealogy database, are online now. I'm left with a few social pages; MySpace, Facebook, ReverbNation. In some ways I think it'll be good for me to get away from the obsessive maintenance of my web sites. But in one way I feel like it's just another crime in a long line of crimes.

We'll see. I'm heading to Ybor City tonight to jam with Systematic Chaos. It's our last practice before the Guavaween show on Saturday. Right now I'm trying to focus my attention on that, and I'm thinking that maybe I'll let my web sites go for good. I put all that stuff up there in preparation for when I'd be making music and publishing books. But sometimes I suspect that they've actually gotten in the way of me doing all that, by robbing me of precious time. In the coming weeks, we'll see how well I deal with this new exile in the wilderness. A part of me honestly hopes that it'll be a good thing that becomes permanent.