IceTeks History

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 10:52 pm

Just thought I'd shed some light on our history. It all started with me wanting to have my own website. So I made a website with cheap wallpapers that I made in paint, I did not know html or how websites worked, I used the "tools for idiots" such as the geocities page building which was a java applet. Anyway, I moved on and did this. Oh, and my first web page was made in MS excel.

Yeah, that's it. I had no clue how to get it on the Internet and obviously never succeeded (though I did find it on my isp’s ftp server a while later, somehow I hacked into it without realizing, because I never knew about the ftp till the time I knew how to use ftp!)

Anyway later on I was learning C++ so I was making small applications and slowly but surely I was making quite a few, and they were starting to get decent. So I decided to make a "company" site called Ryansoftware. By this time I knew basic html but also had a html editor so I made a site with frames using the editor. Then I progressed and decided to change the name to something more cool, so I called it Reliexec; Reli as in reliable, and exec as in executable (software). Then I had a little "fight" with a forum and left and started my own. I called the forum PC411 because the forum with the mouthy people was called PC911. My moto was something like "when you are in an emergency, call 911, but if you just want friendly help, call 411." PC411 was a "division" of Reliexec as I was still making software. Then I decided to branch it off and call it the Reliexec network, so I had Reliexec Software and PC411 both part of the Reliexec network, and actually made another page with a bunch of ads in hope that people would click them, also part of the Reliexec network.

Anyway, time progressed and I realized I was spending more time on PC411 and was exited to get a new post every week or so. The forum was a hosted one, but later on I setted up my server. Somehow, this came naturally. I just did it. It was a no thinker thing. It was a cheap server, but it was nothing for me to set it up on my only computer, a crappy P3 which is pretty much unusable today. So I installed a pearl based message board called yabb Gold, which was full of security holes, and we got hacked once that was pretty nasty... Then, I decided PC411 was getting old, and it was originally to rip off PC911 for their hatred, but I wanted to just leave this aspect and get a better name so I started a poll (we actually had more members by then) and IceTeks was the winner.

So Christmas 2002 was the grand opening of IceTeks. It was still part of the Reliexec network but I found that I had not made any software in months so I was sort of thinking of dropping Reliexec but decided not to. The URL as reliexec.dynu.net/iceteks/. As IceTeks progressed, a site that was friends of PC911 (and lot of PC911 people went there when PC911 shut down… and reopened as another name), Bitbendertech, was furious at us for our success so far (which was not much) so we often got trolls/bad emails/fights etc, I'd go back and troll there, etc, it was a fight. As this fight was slowing down, I hoped it was the end of it.... however, a horrible thing happened, Martz, who is the admin at bbt reported our server so I was siteless for who knows how long.

I got too accustomed to unlimited bandwidth, php, mysql, no ads and all the goodies that come when you have your own server so reverting back to tripod was far from being an option.

But I begged my mom to borrow her credit card so I can get a host, which is the host we are with now, and I got a domain as well, but all this took allot of effort and it’s something I hope won’t be as hard when I have to renew it (soon). This marked the end of the Reliexec network, simply because any host would of never been able to hold all the software and stuff I had, some of my software did 50K downloads in one day.

Before we got reported, I was actually releasing a new version of that same software (prank pack) and I was just about ready to see it go off the wire again that year - as April fools was the day it would of hit, like the previous year. Unfortunately, we got reported about a week before April fools, so no site at all for that time. But once I managed to get the host I was excited to upload all the Iceteks files, restore the previous forum database in which I had saved on a CD, and bang, the next day www.iceteks.com was alive after dns propagation! I don't recall the official date, but according to the domain registration date in the DNS record, and a post made by me about the site coming back to life, I'm pretty sure the actual open date is April 1st. This truely shows that Martz reporting us was a TRUE JOKE! Never will he be able to easly get away like that because now we're not abusing any ToS.

That was April 2003. All the time before was "pre IceTeks" even though it was called Iceteks for a few months. Because with the domain, I wanted to make the site bigger. I redesigned it quite a few times to get it to how it is now (and we progressed BIG TIME since the start) and I also decided that I wanted to get in the real tech site business. That means exchanging article links, affiliating, link exchanges, you name it. That's really what started giving us traffic because I wrote more articles and they would go to many tech sites. I don’t really remember when I pushed hard to make IceTeks a "real" tech site but it’s probably a few months after we got the domain, it was a slow thing but it really helped as time progressed.

To this day, I think we are "mid way" to growing, because all the rough stages are done, but we are still new and have lot of potential for more growth, and have disregarded the original reason I started PC411. To top it off I have learned lots in this process, such as html, css, php and mysql, and now most of the site is custom coded by hand, and no longer using html editors such as *gulp* front page.

Here are some screen shots and stuff from the old sites. I don’t have all the wallpaper stuff though. I wish I would of saved my first site just for souvenirs, but I didn’t. For all I know, it could be up right now after all these years, but the url was 2 pages long.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15102

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 10:57 pm

This was the download page for Prank Pack. From the message, it apears to be when the site was hosted by Easmartbuyer. I went through MANY free hosts in this process. Tripod was the last one until I got my own server.

In this time some stuff was on the local server, but I did not yet have adsl so it was on dialup.

I also had a secret warez ftp server.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15103

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 11:09 pm

This is the software listing page. I can't tell if it's an earlyer or older version of the site, but from the changed download page shown later, I'm pretty sure it's an older version of the site. I believe this was saved January 2002 because the home page shown after shows that there is new news since January 20th 2002

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15104

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 11:11 pm

This was the home page, this is most likely just before the whole PC911 thing, because I still remember when I posted there for feedback and everyone was making fun of my new and improved logo. I laught at it now, but back then it was considered good for me.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15105

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 11:11 pm

This was my about page. Somehow, I still think Microsoft should use it.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15108

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 11:14 pm

And to end what I found on this CD, this was a download page. I'm very positive it is newer then the first prank pack one I shown, which comes from another CD, which has a cheap open GL autorun of a plane crashing in the WTC (I was learning open GL) which does not work too well on win2k, or this computer is too fast for it.

Also, I had made a program that automaticly generated the download page when I released new software. I would enter the basic info such as the file size and it calculated the time and stuff and generated the html for the page, so every page was the same layout.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15109

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 11:27 pm

I see there's almost a year gap between saved stuff, because it seems the next saved files are after our server was reported to our isp. Which was March 20, 2003, as indicated in a readme on the CD, which was burt the 22nd. I basically put everything as it was, locally, and on the server.

This was the generic downtime page that I would use when I needed to do a defrag. I would reroute the DNS to my PC upstairs which I had built by then, and update as needed while it defragmented. This same type of message was the last page to be hosted on the Reliexec server, it was a message indicating that we would go down any time. Then I pulled the plug for good.

I was seriously planing to commit suicide that day, the thoughts came to mind, but I realized it would do no good. I was furiously looking for host pricing, but I had no idea how to aproach my mom on letting me borow her credit card, because in her mind, I did not need a website, she did not realize how important it was to me.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15111

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 11:30 pm

This was the Reliexec home page. Much much nicer then the old ones. I can't tell how far appart they are, but I would say at least a few months. I think this was done by hand, as I had decided to dump Front page and use hand html, and I was also learning php by then, and the software listing was actually written in php. This actual site layout stayed about a month before we got reported, if that. I remember we wanted a new layout at anythingforums and I used that same layout for it, which is the one used at this moment. (I had changed the colors in photoshop)

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15112

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 11:31 pm

This was the about page of Reliexec. I think this is one thing that pist off the bitbender people, is how I bragged about my network, because just before that I was making crappy tripod pages, and now I was learning php and making way better designes, and was blocking tons of hackers and weird activity.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15113

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 11:37 pm

I'm just amazed by looking at this CD. It feels like it's now, but it's more then half a year ago. Most of IceTeks was written in php so it's harder to take screen shots (the downside of dynamic pages) but here they are anyway.

This is the top of the home page. The "reliexec no longer in service" is the current document located at any link to http://www.reliexec.dynu.net/ The banner was pointing directly to it, so when I open it, it opens the page as it is now, and not a file on the CD.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15114

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 11:41 pm

This is funny. I still was using IE then and not coding my sites in standard code, and actually put a "best viewed in IE" thing. Today, I would kill someone for doing that.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15115

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 11:47 pm

And now for some more recent stuff, this is screen shots of the site as it was September 4th, 2003.

This is the forum, it shows the header and a bit how the forum was made. It's the same skin now as I remade it when I upgraded to IB1.2 (this is 1.1) but you can see that I forgot one thing when I remade the skin and it was to insert the rack mount sides in the forum view. Funny since when I was done remaking the skin, it seemed there was something missing when viewing a forum, and I just figured out what!

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15116

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 11:49 pm

This is the forum view. Shows how recent it is, looks the same now but different topics, but something to make members feel more welcome, the topic you see in the staff lounge is the same "most recent" at the moment.

It's a thread to show the rest of the staff and future staff how to block IPs off the whole site with my script, and so far no one has needed to use it (that I know of

)

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15117

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 11:55 pm

And this is the home page as it was september 4/03. Same style as now, pretty much, but now it's a different layout.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15118

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 11:56 pm

And a bit lower to show the last post mod and post titles.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15119

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 12:04 am

Well this is it! A brief time line of our/my web history. Hope you enjoyed it because this will make a dent in my bandwidth allotment.

I think we progressed quite allot, and we are progressing exponentially if you look at the Reliexec site on the free host compared to the one before we got reported, just that leap alone was quite big as for design improvement alone, and now being more known is the next step and with articles going at about 1000 hits or more this is starting well.

That brings us to where we are now. I don't think we would of made it this far without everyone who has continued to post and support us! I'd like to give a special thanks to all of you who have stayed with us all this time.

We are a few days to our 1st Anniversary and, and still have a few months to go for our first anniversary of iceteks.com, which I believe was a good change due to a bad catastrophe. Also, I must give a special thanks to martz from bitbender for doing the nasty thing of reporting my server. It was meant as a very dirty act, and it was, but it turned out to be good in the end time, and it's because I was knocked to my knees but got up and fought. I did not bring a knife at the gun fight, but brought a bigger gun then everyone else! :hugegun5.gif:

We still have lot of progress to do, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the future will bring to us! I hope more members, and more UD crunchers is one of them.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15120

rovingcowboy · Post by **rovingcowboy** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 4:11 pm

Red Squirrel wrote: This is the software listing page. I can't tell if it's an earlyer or older version of the site, but from the changed download page shown later, I'm pretty sure it's an older version of the site. I believe this was saved January 2002 because the home page shown after shows that there is new news since January 20th 2002

yep it is your 2002 page i remember that one as well the first one you did.

for i sent you awards for those pages being easy to see and read.

that was before you started to get too light in color.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15142

jryan · Post by **jryan** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 7:00 pm

I have to add a bit to that, everyone, because Red left out a few details.

When he first went to his own server, we had a few glitches. Eventually, there was a big glitch, and a bit of squirrel and suddenly there was no server. So, being that Red and I live in the same region, and that we've known each other for a long time, I brought over one of my old machines, which was our server up to the point where we were forced to bring it offline. Trust me, we had quite a few bugs that we worked out over time (including a failed exprimentation with using Linux as our server os way back when ) Attached is a picture of that server (to the left) and Red's Parent's machine (Formerly the main computer he worked off of) to the right. Now those were the days (and I'm sure Red and I have learnt many things about working with Servers that we would be able to run a much better setup now

)

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15148

jryan · Post by **jryan** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 7:06 pm

Here's a shot of our "Rules" for PC411 (Using the PC411 Site Layout)

At the top is a logo that was a parody of PC911's.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15149

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 7:07 pm

Yep I remember, we still had lot of problems and bugs to work out. Remember the parse errors? We'd have to reload a page because it would error out for no reason!

And we tried linux but never got it to work. I think it was related to it not detecting the network card. After trying linux on my main computer, I know it's very easy - you just need up to date hardware. Windows is good for any PCs that support it, but Linux must be on an up to date computer otherwise things start to not detect, something I've learned overtime.

I'm sure if we'd still be running our own server now, I would of probably squeezed some cash out of my bank account to get a decent machine up. Because that P3 was not holding for very long (when we got reported it was on the P3 I think... the other one melted down or something).

And remember the 2 10gigs on top of each other? That server melted down on us because of that. And so did the drives.

Next time I'm using more then 1 fan in a server.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15150

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 7:07 pm

jryan wrote: Here's a shot of our "Rules" for PC411 (Using the PC411 Site Layout)

At the top is a logo that was a parody of PC911's.

Cool! I did not know you had that! Because I could not find PC411 stuff.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15151

jryan · Post by **jryan** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 7:12 pm

This is partly what PC411 would have looked like, only the colors were different and there were more forums. (And it wasn't hosted by Web1000.com)

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15152

jryan · Post by **jryan** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 7:15 pm

Red, I had the rule page from when we were sending it back and forth to each other making changes and revisions. The only other thing I had was a IM save.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15153

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 7:20 pm

And I just thought of something, we don't even have a rules page right now, or any official rules... and we've never had problems this way either.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1819, old post ID:15154