Q: Are you involved in Tow Net in any shape or form?Tbar,
Now TBAR unfortunately this post might give ammunition to a few( aggregants?) to push back at you so I apologize as that is not the intention. Your posts tend to have so much information that I lose track and your words sometimes dont adress the topic specifically but rather seem to skirt around issues that you feel you should not be specific on. or seemingly so to me anyway....so.....
Just to lay it out in simple form for simpletons like me to understand I have a few questions to be answered in mano a mano format.
Are you involved in Tow Net in any shape or form?
Are the admins and/or owners of Tow net specifically you, your family or friends from before the Tow net venture?
Is Tbar.Company your project?
How does the money from the donate button get to Tow net to repair their hard drive?
Is Tow net a 2 server operation only or is it a full blown webhosting company with many servers?
Where are the webservers located and who is responsible for their hardware,software maintanance and upgrades?
A: I am one of three partners with TowNet: Tbar, Jesper and Buxton. Tbar is USA, Jesper is Netherlands, Buxton is UK
TowNet can be compared to the USAAC BoD, everything goes thru TowNet partners when it comes to server/internet issues.
Q: Are the admins and/or owners of Tow net specifically you, your family or friends from before the Tow net venture?
A: There is no TowNet venture. TowNet is a simple partnership of the Three .. Tbar, Jesper and Buxton. TowNet is what is referred to as that which keeps all of ToW Web and Game servers up and running, interacting, managed and Administrated.
Tbar does all the PR and actual 'public' work. Jesper is the hardcore server administrator, Buxton does the communications protocols. As to what Buxton actually does is far over my head and I never understood it. Things like our jabber server (same as msn, yahoo or aim) is what he's involved with. Jesper is basally the brains of the internet and hardware needs. Tbar does most of the HTML work, and the public relations .. in your face type of presence. The partnership is a handshake. No part of TowNet can exist or function without all three parties. It was founded 8 years ago now I think. TowNet is NOT a legal entity. It is an agreement of three gentlemen.. partnership on a handshake. Our word to each other, etc. Originally TowNet payed for everything, when the ToW Club came on the scene they became the funds source. Tbar used to pay for everything.. every expense. Now the ToW Club picks up ALL costs. In essence at this time ToW Club is the owner, and TowNet is the service provider.
Q: Is Tbar.Company your project?
Yes, Tbar.com is wholly owned by Tbar. It is not a company at all. Tbar.com website displays the projects I have worked on., helped with, or have some indirect connection with me in real life, etc. Most of those links etc are to promote those other sites and products. I have either worked with .. or on .. or contributed something to those projects. In one sense it is a visual resume. Tbar.com is not a commercial business. Tbar.com is legal however and the only vehicle we (TowNet) has to transfer funds, pay bills, etc., all thru pay-pal. ToW Club Treasure controls the funds in pay pal and makes regular reports to ToW Club on all finances. Tow Club is the sole contributing source to TowNet with exception of some occasional outside donations. The actual site of Tbar.com is nothing more really than an internet placeholder. Tbar.com does NOT generate funds.
Q: How does the money from the donate button get to Tow net to repair their hard drive?
The funds are dispersed and approved by the ToW Club Treasurer (no I'm not related to her) to pay the bills that TowNet is obligated for. Only TowNet can 'sign' contracts or make financial obligations as they are individuals, Tow Club approves ALL said obligations.
Q: Is Tow net a 2 server operation only or is it a full blown webhosting company with many servers?
No. Anyone we host makes donations or pays nothing at all. No funds from hosting ever go to "tbar' , they go to the ToW Club via Pay Pal and the Club Treasure keeps track of those funds.
Nither Tbar, Tbar.com , TowNet or the ToW Club is in the 'web hosting' business or the ISP business. We have a couple of 'affiliate' programs with Verio and Hypernia, however they don't yield any significant incomes for the ToW Club. Yes, those funds also go to the ToW Club to cover costs .. which the ToW Club pays for all.
There is consideration to selling Tides of War T-Shirts , etc to generate ToW Club funds, all funds go to the club.
TowNet, Tow Club simply exist to provide our members with services as cheaply as possible. There as never been, nor will there ever be any 'business plan' for either organization. They are founded and supported for the purpose of the Tides of War Gaming Community and specifically the needs of the Tow Club.
Q: Where are the webservers located and who is responsible for their hardware,software maintanance and upgrades?
TowNet has two servers.
WebServer or main server is a Dell 2U unit located in Tampa Florida in the Data Processing Center of Hivelocity ( http://hivelocity.com/ )
Hardware is maintained by qualified technicians we must pay for, OR... some of the work I do myself, OR we have a ToW Club member in the area that will service the hardware needs. it is a professional DP center with all the necessary backbones, hardware, security, power backups, etc and so forth.
Software is a loaded question, the server OS is maintained and administrated by Jesper (TowNet). Other user software is simply installed by the parties needing same as a 'user'.
Upgrades are OS software issues again this is Jespers Department.
Game Servers .. there are two. They are located in Huston Tx with Hypernia.
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So Inferno .. mano e mano .. I hope this all helps. Sorry if its too many words etc. Careful explanation in total has always been my way.
If you simply want to know where the 'power is' .. its like this .. follow the money.
Tow Club provides the funds
Yes, I am a ToW Club Member, one of 30. All ToW Club members 'vote' similar to the BoD on everything we do as a club. It works very well .. ..
Everything you see or know about with ToW or Tides of War or Townet or any other name .. is ALL non profit with ONE primary goal .. the needs of the ToW Community. Come by and chat sometime.. there is some most interesting things about Tides you might be pleased to know about.
