What Makes You Mad About Hosting?

[Digger51]

Let's have it- what are the things that cause you the most frustration, irritation and maybe even capitulation when it comes to your host.

Feel free to include both web and email related issues and suggestions of fixes. Rant and rave it up!

[freddieb]

The worst thing, to me, is a poor resonse time, coupled with a failure to act on problems.

I've got 2 hosts, hosting about 140 of my customers domains between them. One host has a response time of 12 to 30 minutes, with problems fixed almost immediately. The other host has a response time of about 48 hours, with a very strong inability to fix problems. One security problem took over 6 months before I could even convince them that there was a problem!

I'm slowly transferring site from the bad to the good, but there are so many POP3s and other things that it's a slow job.

[McFox]

Babble from the 'Support Dept' trying to convince you that the problems with the site are #1 All in your head, #2 All your own fault and nothing to do with them.

Crappy templates that crash or freeze whenever you try to use them.

Lots more, but thanks for letting me get that little rant out! :o)

McF

[sajdlz]

I am lucky to have a hosting company with AWESOME support and response time (usually minutes) and they have even helped me more times than I can count with my own blunders while I was fiddling.


BUT I have had problems with other hosting providers and I think my biggest one is with companies that claim to do backups and then only back up a portion of things.. just the stuff that they set up. How lame is that?

I also have problems with people running hosting companies that don't know how it all really works.. not resellers, but the root company who got some out-of-the box type software and really doesn't know how to fix anything when the software doesn't do it.

[Blackicicle]

I have constantly had to jump from one to the other.

[freddieb]

I'm not sure that it's good protocol to advertise what I think is the BEST reseller hosting company ever, so I'll restrict it to a PM if you want their URL. It's even worth taking an account with them if you only have one site.

No one is ever going to be perfect, no machine ever is and they have had glitches, but at times motherboards have been replaced within minutes, backups have been restored so quickly and they have a REAL 24 x 7 support.

I've got no financial interest with them, they are in Florida, I'm in Australia, but I'd recommend them to anyone.

[flashfast]

It really is hit and miss. I used several hosts. My first, about 5 years ago, was 50megs.com, who never gave any support (though they pretended to). The site also had a message board. It seemed if any from the Planet Viagra posted onto my guest book it was considered 'spam'. I had spent months on a site displaying my oil paintings, and then 50megs.com sent me an email that i was a low down dirty spammer. So, guess what? I simply decided to sign on and manually delete these postings, though I'd never seen them yet. But I couldnt sign on! Not once over 3 days, and with no tech support answered, 50megs.com then deleted my entire site without warning! This was just after I (an Australian) had exhibited in New York, and handed out cards with this URL on it. They wouldnt even let me sign onto my account after that to redirect the URL - and what did they replace it with? A porn site!

My next hosts were GoDaddy.com. Excellent service and excellent people. The only problem was I had produced my first screenaver, and the high number of downloads due to a ZDnet recommendation in their newsletter, temporarily crashed the godaddy servers. Thus my first lesson in bandwidth. My bill for those few days of visits jumped to a few thousand dollars. After explaining my ignorance godaddy kindly put the bill in their garbage, but kindly asked me to move.

I moved twice more in as amny months, to sites claiming to provide the bandwidth i needed, but for a price. None of them delivered - my files, averaging only 2-5MB each hardly made it to the downloader - it was so slow most gave up the download, even on cable.

I then was kindly offered extra bandwidth by a few net saavy business people in SoCal, from their site. They had figured their URL while downloads proceeded, as good advertising of their own site. Except they weren't really saavy when it came to bandwidth - promising me as much as I needed, they got a bill for $3000 (after Microsoft recommended my lates screensaver to it's newsletter readers) from Verizon, who werent as understanding as godaddy.

Finally, after many years, I now have two sites comfortably nestled with BlueDomino, who charge a very reasonable rate for high bandwidth sites like me, and for those who dont need this option. They have live customer support, 24 hours (online) and I have only the greatest admiration for their kid services and professional treatnment of customers - and my downloaders can do so at lightning speeds (at least from the US and Australia).

The end...or is it?

[crashingflwrgrl]

oops...double post

[crashingflwrgrl]

I use Monster Commerce. They are always sending out patches to fix the "bugs" in their software. They have 24/7 tech. support and a forum where most of the answers are anyways. Very knowledgable staff too.

[JayDrake]

There were several reasons I left my last hosting company and started colocating servers that I adminstrated but most of them came down to a basic lack of communication and the use of middlemen known as support techs to get my problem to the person who will actually do something about it. I understand why they do this and that support people can help with the majority of issues that are not so complex, but I've usually done all the testing they will and then some and know exactly what my problem is when I call.

Now if something goes wrong I always know how to get in touch with the guy who will actually be fixing it and deal directly with him. The downside is that sometimes I get dragged out of bed at 3am because Ma Bell is being rotten and I have to explain to my friendly bosses that everything that can be done is being done and I need sleep.

[yestheyrefake]

We run a very large plastic surgery information network and have gone from host to host over the years and nothing gives me a bigger headache.

Firstly I was with a company who got bought out so many times rules, and employees changed with the wind.

Then we were with the dreaded Feature Price. I renewed with them for several accounts and then they changed their security so I could no longer upload via Front Page (no jibes please, I FTP now.) SO! After I told them I could no longer upload and couldn't use their service; they said sorry no refunds. I fought them tooth and nail and no dice. I think they got bought out or something. I even reported them for fraud, but of course nothing became of that.

My current one I was originally on their virtual servers for all 15 of our websites, plus our clients sites and the cgi message boards we have (Perl) ran perfectly after I installed them. They began running slow so I had them remove the cap and paid a lot in overages. But still cheaper than getting a dedicated server.

I then switched to a dedicated server, and ever since my boards have run really some. So they blame my older perl script and told me to switch to mod perl or php. I don't WANT to change scripts as I like the bulleted format and options I have on it. I, and ,y guests, can't stand the guestbook type formats (no offense).

So it is my fault. And I am paying 3 or 4 four times as much as before PLUS overages in bandwidth (my current avg is 379 gigs per 30 days usage) and have slow boards.

I feel they have also been changing since they have expanded but I guess that is to be expected. They used to be a smaller hosting firm and now they are quite large.

As soon as I learn how to run my own security I am leasing a rack or two and being DONE with paying for hosting. Or will hire a security person to maintain the server.

There is my very summarized rant.

p.s. I think this is my first post, I am a lurker!

[yestheyrefake]

We run a very large plastic surgery information network and have gone from host to host over the years and nothing gives me a bigger headache.

Firstly I was with a company who got bought out so many times rules, and employees changed with the wind.

Then we were with the dreaded Feature Price. I renewed with them for several accounts and then they changed their security so I could no longer upload via Front Page (no jibes please, I FTP now.) SO! After I told them I could no longer upload and couldn't use their service; they said sorry no refunds. I fought them tooth and nail and no dice. I think they got bought out or something. I even reported them for fraud, but of course nothing became of that.

My current one I was originally on their virtual servers for all 15 of our websites, plus our clients sites and the cgi message boards we have (Perl) ran perfectly after I installed them. They began running slow so I had them remove the cap and paid a lot in overages. But still cheaper than getting a dedicated server.

I then switched to a dedicated server, and ever since my boards have run really some. So they blame my older perl script and told me to switch to mod perl or php. I don't WANT to change scripts as I like the bulleted format and options I have on it. I, and ,y guests, can't stand the guestbook type formats (no offense).

So it is my fault. And I am paying 3 or 4 four times as much as before PLUS overages in bandwidth (my current avg is 379 gigs per 30 days usage) and have slow boards.

I feel they have also been changing since they have expanded but I guess that is to be expected. They used to be a smaller hosting firm and now they are quite large.

As soon as I learn how to run my own security I am leasing a rack or two and being DONE with paying for hosting. Or will hire a security person to maintain the server.

There is my very summarized rant.

p.s. I think this is my first post, I am a lurker!

[compusolver]

It's fairly easy to find decent hosting when you're not doing server-side code & database work.

Years ago when I started server-side coding, I went from one hosting horror story to the next. In fact, I nearly gave up web development in frustration.

Finally I found a great place that works with resellers only. I've been a reseller for them for nearly two years now. Since I'm also a developer and database guy and developing all the time, I am probably more demanding than most of my clients, and I know what they're looking for. It's a nice plus when you can get decent control panels with full permissions setting, MX mail controls, spam filtering, etc., etc.

I recommend that when you find a decent hosting company, give them your full support and stay with them - and you owe it to your clients to be able to recommend or provide a good one.

[Trent Brownrigg]

I don't have a horror story but I am currently looking for a good webhost to host 5 mini niche sites and more in the future.

Does anyone know of a good webhost where I can host maybe 10 mini sites for a good price?

[leolucas]

My current provider, AQHost is great. I've had them for more than a year. Great uptime, good web and email service. There were a few maintenance times which were very short and communicated well in advance.

I've had two bad experiences:
FeaturePrice - started fine then went nuts as they went out of business. I wasted time, money and more time with them.
FidelityHost - started great, then lots of troubles, started to get better but I had already moved on.

After these bad expeiences, I am prepared to bolt at the first sign of trouble. Leo

[ellar]

Having read some of the horror stories below I feel very lucky. Here in New Zealand we have a couple of really big companies and then some smaller ones.

Our main residential and business phone provider is also the person who provides DSL bandwidth so no matter which hoster you go with you are always going to end up lining Telecom's pockets.

But I have found that one of the newer ISP companies that bought out a lot of the small ISP's a few years ago has been really brilliant.

Ok .. there support line closes down at 8pm every night but hey considering that half of them don't have support lines I consider this a bonus. You can contact them by phone or email and they don't charge the earth. I have always been able to access the site without a problem and there support centre has even been known to help with my minor computer glitches (non-internet related). And due to the fact that I put a lot of my customers through them I have received some extra services that I need for free (always a bonus).

So having read everything that has been posted here I am extremely grateful to them for the wonderful service that they provide.

Cheers

[webiff]

Welcome to webiff.net
Several Internet Companies today look at web hosting as a mass produced, cookie-cutter offering, with non-existent technical support. As a WEBiFF customer, you will notice a difference. We pride ourselves on delivering exceptional customer service and technical support. Whether you are just starting out or you are relocating an existing site, you'll appreciate the attention and service we provide as well as the security of our world class Network Operations Center. In addition, we offer a few extra that sawy wb managers will appreciate, such as statistical reports and protection within our industrial-strength firewall.

High Quality Web Hosting Providers in PAKISTAN
www.webiff.net

[deltatrend]

Top Rant: Backups that aren't there when you need them. Recently I accidently overwrote the Access DB of a client. When I asked the host to restore from my "daily backup" - well, guess what, it didn't exist. I have started working with a host in the UK with very good systems.

Second Rant: Log files and log analysis software. I think this is just a checkbox item for many hosts, so they just use some low-cost system. My clients want the log analysis to give them real information and be easy to use. I left one host because of gaps in the log files.

Final Rant: "We'll call you back" but they never do.

I'm gradually moving from one host to another because of good systems and responsiveness.

[cooper]

What makes me mad about web hosting?
Paying for it. hahahaha, seriously though, the worst is when the hosting company only has support through email and you need a solution RIGHT NOW! Time delays are the worst when it comes to your web site(s).

Makes me mad enough to switch to another host if it's my decision to make.

[yestheyrefake]

Compared to a lot of problems, script errors are minor and can be dealt with. My hosting service has 24 phone support, 24 ICQ/AIM support, I feel bad for complaining. I guess I am just stressed about my cgi issues. I hear it from my visitors and get all stressed out and then I take it out on my tech guys. Which I shouldn't do.

I should be happy I am not with Feature Price anymore.

:)M

[SymbioticDesign]

Hi...

I have been with the same company (One World Hosting) for over three years. We had previously experienced excellent service. With the turn of the new year (2004) the tech support now ranges between non-existant to poor.

In the past month, our server has been down twice. Once it was down for nearly four and a half hours just over two weeks ago. 2 days ago, after over 48 hours of using their tech support ticketing system and calling them, they have finally corrected my Domain's failure to deliver any email to any account within the Domain.

Please note that OWH claims to be able to reply to all tech support tickets with a resolution within 24 hours. This used to be the case. Now, they either ignore us or reply blaming us for the problem.

I have had enough. I was with ValueWeb before this and the email service was spotty at best with terrible tech support technicians that didn't know half of what they needed to.

Before that I was on CyberMail's server and lost all email capabilities with no response or support.

I am absolutely sick of doing research on this. I started looking for a real solution as soon as Tech Support started failing me so miserably in January of 2004.

I don't need much tech support. But without access as root there are simply some things I cannot do.

It took me months of research to make an educated decision on a hosting company well over three years ago. I tested the webserver's accessibility from Poland and other East European countries. I am extremely dissapointed that One World Hosting has become such a sad and pathetic choice. Only until very recently (this year) they were dynamite. As of 2004 they have sunk into the basement of ignorance and defiled every promise they have ever made concerning tech support.

It's time to abandon a sinking ship (Tech Support is the first thing to go south in a hosting company). That's why I am asking other reseller webmasters if they have a better deal with a different company (other than mentioned above). I have already PM'ed a few people posting favorable reviews of their hosting companies.

Please PM me if you are getting great service and a great deal. I am not looking for advertisements, I am looking for an honest opinion on a service which you use. I am not interested if you are trying to sell me on your service, you are biased.

I now host a couple of sites (my own, a Domain registration site, a hunting/fishing/adventure directory/community, a pheasant hunting farm, an Italian information site). Some are mine, some are not. I would host more of my own planned sites, if I could afford too. I do plan to start a web hosting branded site as well (at the very least).

Plus I have 225 Domains. Most are "Domain Sets" where out of 4 Domains, 1 is the main Domain and 3 others are intended to cover misintrepations of the Domain Name (ie: plurals/non-plurals, words in Domain typed in reverse, typos, etc..) and prevent cybersquatting. And I have development designs on each Domain Set.

I am looking for a shared hosting reseller solution with instant activation, but I am also considering a Dedicated server.

[acornwebworks]

1) Regularly get "root partition error" messages. The sites are available, but I can't get into control panels

2) It invariably takes 3 postings to Support to get a useful answer. The first two techs never seem to have read the question/problem.

3) Support responds (albeit usually unhelpfully) wthin an hour or two. However, they usually ask for something. On my last bout with them, they hadn't check the requested response for over 12 hours, which is typical. So I have now learned to copy everything from the first support request, create a new one, paste in the old information, then delete the old request. Seems silly to ask for info then not check back for it. Oh well.

I have been seriously considering hosting myself. At least then I only have myself to be aggrevated with :-)

But I have IMed a couple of you to find out who you use. I'm wanting to expand my business into an area that will require lots of bandwidth and lots of server space. I don't plan on using my current hosting service for that.

[ChristinaS]

I have no horror stories to report of my own, in fact I am absolutely thrilled with my web hosting company www.solidinternet.com, a subsidiary of www.myacen.com.

They have been so nice to me that they have upgraded me free of charge to 4 times what I had started with in just a few months. I started out with 250MB of space and 5GB of bandwidth monthly (which I only manged to use a small portion of) to 1GB of space and 20GB of bandwidth and some other perks as well.

I haven't had any need for any major help but even my own bloopers were taken care of very professionally and fast. And keep in mind that I use the no-frills hosting option.

So nothing but good can be said about Myacen and Solidinternet.

However I have witnessed a friend of mine losing all the web sites he was managing completely overnight due to a billing error from his hosting company who messed up the billing. No advance warning. No response for the longest time, no action to redress, even after they figured it was their own mistake. This was one massive headache as my friend had to move to a new host, re-upload umpteen web sites, re-code email forms and scripts and other things because of different server requirements, and on and on. It took months to settle down. The repercussions from clients were horrific I should imagine.

I don't suppose you can ever know in advance what's going to happen anywhere, so a good contingency plan is in order. I use a free hosting company to mirror a portion of each of my web sites (minus the database-driven portions which aren't supported) so at least they are not totally down if it ever should happen to me. I use URL forwarding from www.mydomain.com, so, in theory at least, I should be able to easily switch from one to another with minimal down time. Still a headache. Thank goodness I don't run commercial web sites, so there's no loss of business involved.

[tamra]

I've only had 1 hosting nitemare, but it involved their shady billing practices. The company doesn't check the identity info of the credit card owner (address/billing) and then issued a refund, per their policy, to the registered domain owner, regardless of who actually paid and how, which is basically money laundering.

Not that a thief would jump at registering a domain with a stolen credit card, but if one wanted to sit home with stolen card numbers and receive regular checks, they'd receive LEGITIMATE bank checks back as refunds for each domain registered under any name as the hosting company offers a 30-day money back guarantee. When bringing this up to the billing department, the billing manager, YES, I said manager 8-|, was so negative and unconcerned, and outright nasty as if the call interrupted her "'Game-Boy/X-box' day at the office". Even more shocking is they're plastered all over pages as the #1 web host provider. Not saying names, but the company begins with an "I". :o)

That experience led to me becoming a host of my own and I must say I LOVE MY NETWORK PROVIDER!! They're available 24/7, including holidays, they're smart, professional, global and reliable such that when I ask a high level php/linux module question, I get an ACTUAL knowledgable answer back immediately upon someone answering the phone or if via email w/in minutes or that same day depending upon the day. And what I pay for is all I pay for, there's never any hidden charges. And thus the same is passed on to customers.

[acornwebworks]

I've only had 1 hosting nitemare, but it involved their shady billing practices. The company doesn't check the identity info of the credit card owner (address/billing) and then issued a refund, per their policy, to the registered domain owner, regardless of who actually paid and how, which is basically money laundering.

Not to be rude, but your story doesn't sound like shady billing practices or money laundering on the part of your former hosting service, just total dumbness.

On the Internet, every single one of us could be dogs. But, boy, don't we type well :-)

Ooooh, that sounds like a good signature quote!

[theoart]

THe worse hosting horror I have is as a result of being on a shared hosting enviroment. I learned the hard way by hosting some of my sites through a company on the Alabanza network. The company and Alabanza both provided great support but I was at the mercy of other sites being hosted. (BTW, if anyone is not familiar with Alabanza, they are a host provider for hosting services. Many, many many hosting companies are supported by them.)

It does not take much, even with the big hosting companies, for a site to bring a server to its knees which in return disrupt other web sites on the same server. For instance, if a site on a server you are sharing, runs a resource heavy script or keeps the servers resource to the limit, then this has the potential of disrupting your site.

Case in point, I administered a minor celebrity's web site that began getting so muuch traffic and and people downloading video clips that the it shut down the server. THe hosting provider had to move it temporarily to another server while we regrouped to figure out what we were going to to. The bottom line is that my client appreciated the traffic but it was not fair to other people who were hosting on the same server.

Another instance I experienced was a different client running a busy e-commerce site had the server go down repeatedly due to another site on the server running a "rampant script" (that is what the tech support people called it). THis was going on for two weeks before they resolved it but based upon this the client's sales averages I estimated my client lost several thousand dollars in sales.

My recommendation to anyone, especailly any professional web developer that provides hosting, is to lease your own server which you have full control. Also, do your homework. Many hosting companies are simply resellers. Find out if the hosting service is really just a front or if they are actually manning the servers.

[StuW]

I use http://www.ipowerweb.com and am really pleased with their service. They have over 180K subscribers as of last week. Costs are minimal. Customer Support is great once you reach a live body. Sometimes it takes a while. They've fixed my problems instantly while on the phone. E-mail support is good but a little slow. Their reports are great. (AWStats). Best yet, sign up three clients, the fourth is free.

[hal]

Are you really serious about this question? What is my rant? Growth at the expense of customer service! Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you the sad tale of how my ISP turned a simple, easily solved bank error into their own loss of a long-time customer.

In mid-March, I made a substantial deposit to my bank account. I have two checking accounts there. The size of the check necessitated a 10-day "hold." However, the money went into one account, and they accidentally placed the hold against the other account.

The very next day (figures!) Earthlink came along looking for their monthly automatic payment. They were declined. Why Earthlink? I had used them for years because of their outstanding customer support. Lately, however, I had been disappointed by the tendency to get almost an AOL-level of service. You know the type. First, there's the language problem -- my speaking with a mid-American dialect, and their first-year English in the Philippines or India or maybe Ice Station Zebra. But eventually things got done. So I remained loyal.

Within two business days after the above bank error, I received a phone call from A/R. It took 3 minutes to figure out what had happened. Four minutes to call the bank to figure out how to fix things most cleanly. Then it took over an hour -- an HOUR!!! -- to get back to the woman at Earthlink. No one would transfer my call to her extension. And this was at the phone number she GAVE me! I transferred up through two levels of supervisors before I was able to make it clear that it would be easier to patch me through on a simple billing correction phone call than it would be to answer to my lawyers in court. A bluff, but it worked. Frustration sometimes makes you do silly things. She was friendly, and everything was solved (I thought).

Y'know... I think that as I get older... or as the nation gets dumber, I'm not sure which... I find it easier to be up-front. For example, when looking for an item at a discount store, go to the front where two cashiers are busy discussing their sex lives, put an ax blade square in the forehead of one, turn to the survivor and politely ask, "May I have your undivided attention for just a moment...?" Sheesh!

Anyway, the ISP said all was cleared up, and I was paid up to date.

Two days later... they send a dunning notice. Even though it's all fixed and they acknowledged it, they still say they haven't been paid. These two people probably sit in desks that face each other, probably even touch, but it doesn't matter. I have and I haven't paid, all at the same time.

Further investigation on my part. The fact is that even though I am told I am marked "paid" I found out that, indeed, Earthlink did not come back for another withdrawal attempt. The closest anyone can tell me is that it is something to do with bad account identification. The only people who would have the answer are in the A/R dept.

"Well... can you patch me through to them?" Nope. Against the rules. "Can you give me their phone number?" Nope. Not allowed. "How do I speak to them?" They have to call you. "How do I get them to call me?" My supervisor has to tell them. "Can I speak to your supervisor?" No. Our policy doesn't allow us to call for him unless we can't handle it. "Well, what are you going to do about this?" Nothing. "Why not?" Only A/R has the information to help you. ... Go back to beginning of paragraph.

I went through with this process several times. Yes, several. On separate phone calls, to separate people. Twice I did succeed in getting the person to say that they would contact the supervisor -- have the supervisor contact A/R -- and have A/R call me so that we can fix this thing. Twice. A week and a half later, still no call.

That's when I moved my two remaining Earthlink-based domains to another ISP. Then I received an email. "Here at EarthLink, our goal is to provide you with outstanding service. For that reason, we ask that you take a few minutes to complete a survey ..." I am speechless! Then I realized. Except for this once, the only time I had received a survey in months was after a happy result; never after an unhappy result. Duh?! Why didn’t I catch that?

About a week later, after I'm all entrenched and happy at my new access provider, and my domains are running smoothly at their new host, I learn that Earthlink still had not killed one of my old hosting accounts.

Once, on an earlier call, I had actually reached a training supervisor in Manila. He explained that whenever you call Support, they are required (upon request) to give you their first name, call center location, and badge number. That way you can file kudos or complaints accurately. This was denied by every person I spoke to on every subsequent phone number. "Not policy." No wonder; that's like volunteering for the guillotine. I also learned that not one of my calls on my account had been notated since last December. Hmmm. That's also just about when I noticed that service had started it's rapid decline.

Am I ranting just to vent my spleen? No. I actually think they can be saved. I had given them every possible opportunity, but they just didn't want it. I don't think it's a matter of Managment not caring; I don't think the word is even reaching them. Since my every attempt to reach Management has failed, perhaps someone over there will read this and realize that someone still cares.

At worst, perhaps they will learn the first thing that I learned about boats as a young lad. A friend of my father's had a sailing yacht, and one day he took my family out. My one time on such a boat, ever. What I learned was about bounce-back. When throwing garbage overboard, do not face the wind. These days, talking to Support over there is almost like facing into a gale.

Hal

[New]

Hosting horrors.

About two weeks ago we asked our host to change some setting because we changed some of our own.
We gave them all the details and thought that was it.
But they didn't changed it, even after more then 10 emails from different email adresses they still haven't respond to any of them and still didn't changed our dns records. We therefore still can't receive any email which is a very important factor in our business.

Pfff now, let's go over to extreme faxing to try to get through to our lovely hosts

[margec]

(is it my imagination of has this question brought more response than...whatever.)

okay. I run a business that actually sells a PRODUCT (a lot of products!) online. If our site is down, or not functioning properly, we lose money.

what irritates me:

downtime...for any reason.

host moving us from one server to another with no warning...inability to make the switch seamlessly, and the cutover taking over 48 hours to be completed.

Host refusing to directly respond to our emails since we signed up with a reseller. We have to contact the reseller, who contacts the host, who answers the reseller...who forwards the answer to us.

lack of 24/7 support. (this we didn't know about when we signed up!)... he's on the west coast, we're on the East...heaven help us all the the site goes down while he's asleep.

lack of promised support for the billing gateway we use. he claims to provide automatic support, but if for any reason an order is not approved (a timeout perhaps?) the order is not marked declined...it's LOST. forever. We will have no record that it was placed. So we do all the billing manually.

why do I stay with this arrogant creep? Because his shopping cart is the best I've used. I like it immensely, and don't want to put my staff or my clients thru a another change

[tamra]

I use http://www.ipowerweb.com and am really pleased with their service. They have over 180K subscribers as of last week. Costs are minimal. Customer Support is great once you reach a live body. Sometimes it takes a while. They've fixed my problems instantly while on the phone. E-mail support is good but a little slow. Their reports are great. (AWStats). Best yet, sign up three clients, the fourth is free.


ding, ding, ding! all I can say is if you read my previous post on this: "No Comment". however, I will mention that if you're planning to rely upon ANY SQL/PHP to display any content, be prepared to be limited to size and to share with EVERYBODY, and I do mean everybody, even Grandma with the generator in the swamps. if one bad script is initiated, all SQL resources are no longer available, as in for every domain on the network until someone reboots all servers involved. this happened daily, and was very annoying since everyone paid the price of one domain or too many server calls being made at once. *sigh*

[acornwebworks]

why do I stay with this arrogant creep? Because his shopping cart is the best I've used. I like it immensely, and don't want to put my staff or my clients thru a another change

I can't imagine any shopping cart being worth having sales disappear and having to bill manually. This is 2004, for crying out loud.

More important, have you actually asked your customers what they think? (Including telling them that their orders are lost?)

I can see it now:

We're doing a survey to find out which you'd prefer.

1) A shopping cart I like immensely that will occasionally lose your order completely. As a result, we will always bill you manually.

2) A shopping cart that isn't as great, in my opinion, but your order will never be lost. Plus you can pay/be billed online if you prefer.

Hmmm.

If you want to make choices about problems that only relate to you, that's fine. But that's not what I'm hearing you're doing. You aren't saying 'they don't want'. You're saying 'I don't want'.

You wrote: "If our site is down, or not functioning properly, we lose money."

Guess what. Your site isn't functioning properly.

[jstarkweather]

I have used several hosting companies over the past 4 years. Phpwebhosting.com is a good company for small sites that aren't going to do major bandwidth. I also used HostPro (which then got bought out by Interland) for a while. I switched briefly to Interlands small dedicated branch in Florida, but the servers were slow.

Finally I found a decent dedicated hosting provider, Burton Hosting (www.burtonhosting.com) out of the UK. They are either a reseller or a co-locator host and use GNAX.NET as their hub location (Atlanta, GA). Ironically this is the same provider for the Myacen.com company mentioned earlier. I cannot be more pleased with this arranngement. I should say however that this is mostly a self-managed account and is NOT cheap at $300 per month. Some nice perks though were allowing me to upgrade the ram by 500mb for a one-time fixed charge ($250?). Most providers would want to hit you up for an additional amount monthly PLUS the intial setup charge.

My rant? The bill seems to show up every 2 weeks (but it really doesn't).

Jim

[Tubby]

Different hosts have upgraded my service.

I wish they would not upgrade my service when it is working well. I always have to pay a programmer to tell me that my site no longer accepts whatever and that I need to alter every file that says "thisgobbledygoog" to make it read "thatgobbledygook"

I do not understand programming. . upgrades are total hell. One host upgraded me, so that it caches my gifs at a seperate location, so to upload any modifications I had to change the name of every picture on site'. It was just simply far easier to move my hosting.

They just do not care to sit in the webmasters seat, I do not think they give a damn about us. I do think a majority give a damn about Improving things to attract future customers. . but if your already there and happy. . Phhht . . they will upgrade you right off the net.

[cyberious]

This is perfect! I was glad to see this since I just dealt with a terrible hosting company and had to move my site! They advertise "Professional Service and Support" as their most prominent deal, and it takes them days to reply to a simple support ticket. I had to call them and cancel service to get an answer. Their support department wasn't even available on weekends (another thing I can't stand).

UGH!

[vwebworld]

Luckily I have not had hosting problems, just
overpaid for my prior hosting.

I now am a reseller of hosting, after moving four sites
to my current host.

(plug)
The packages are good, prices are very competitive,
24/7 support, great control panel and features, and stats.... etc etc.
~Roland

[ldyguique]

I can heartily recommend my WH company. When I first got my domains and started looking for a company, I found a "good company." But, I kept looking and found VizaWeb (http://vizaweb.com). Not only are they inexpensive, but I get a great package, and they have a good Control Panel and run Fantastico, which allows me to install a whole series of PHP-based programs and MySQL dbs. I paid $74 for a year, which included registering a domain. Plus, I get 70gb bandwidth/mo and have a full Gig of storage. Their system has been very stable.

They also offer a Reseller Plan that is very interesting.

The help that I've needed, I've gotten.

[chris_jones]

Thanks everyone for the tips. Especially Tamra for the warning about shared MySQL hosting. That plus some other comments about overloaded servers make a good case for justifying a dedicated server in the near future.

My current host, CIHOST, who I don't like much, is stacking up pretty well according to the horror stories.

Their sales department is useless, and billing department is worse than useless, though the tech support is usually pretty good. One major exception is their escalation policy for unresolved problems, "up to the president of the company" which is a complete joke.

We changed domain names last year, which somehow justified them forcibly relocating us to another server (broke our php-nuke site, back to html for now). I could not get a straight answer from anyone for days why this was happening. Also, they are very quick to close tickets, and have unexplained downtime which never shows up on their network status page.

Also they don't use a standard control panel, and some of the options on their control panel are dangerous and don't work properly. The functions are NOT available from a telnet session "for security reasons". Zip up your web site zips it up all right. It also DELETES IT! Oh, and BTW, tech support must unzip it for you, since your user ID cannot be used on some directories. Messy.

On the plus side they have 24 hr tech support and chat.

They also do not support mod-rewrite for shared servers, which is neccessary for SEO of PHP/SQL sites.

Also one time we were deleted from their DNS for no apparent reason, leaving us with NO SITE for three days.

AND we've had issues with mail bouncing because of our server being blacklisted for spam (not from us, and not necessarily from our server even). When we were forcibly relocated, it turned out that our server was on most of the major Realtime Blacklists as a spam source. The spammer was long gone, but the RBL was still there. Does CIHOST care? Apparently not. So it was up to ME to contact the companies who were bouncing the mail. Mainly they took pity on me and the problems were resolved, except for one.

For a long time I have not been able to send email to Verizon/GTE.net (Major US Telephone/ISP company) customers. Verizon does not respond, and CIHOST is completely indifferent.

Before signing on the dotted line with any hosting company, ask for the IP of the server they intend to put you on and check to see if it is RBL'd.

http://rbls.org/ enter the IP address and be patient.

Long rant. Hope that helps.

[Maxlamenace]

Hi there,

I have been using www.domainfactory.de for 3 years now. No problems at all, great support, flexible, NO DOWNTIME AT ALL and acceptable pricing.

Modified Linux RedHat, PHP, MySQL, unfortunately NO JSP.

I am a reseller and my clients arevery happy too.

For my "adult" sites I use www.adultfriendlyhosting.com and they are great too.

My bad experience was with register.com in 2001. they were only after the money and dindn't know the meaning of the word Support.

[sovidiu]

TimeWarner Telecom is a good hosting provider. We have been using it for quite a while now, and it is all worthed. Now that GMail has 1GB capacity, most hosting providers will got down.

[MekhongKurt]

I don't have *hosting* rant; the free hosts I used at first did everything they promised, and when my needs outgrew what they offered, I moved on.

Did a ton of research. Asked around. Then I settled on the simply outstanding www.addr.com. I pay for their "gold" top-of-the-line package, which is not the most generous nor the cheapest such package around, not by a long shot. So how can I say they're outstanding?

Their tech support is unbelievably excellent. Not long after I signed aboard a few years ago, I was pleased when they went 24/7 with live support -- I live in Thailand, they're in California, so having to call at what might for me be an inconvenient time was a *small* problem. But the shift to 24/7 took care of that minor shortcoming.

I had one experience in particular that impressed me no end. I don't even remember what the problem was, and not at all sure whether the problem was on their end or if I was just being an unknowing idiot. Called up. Mr. Techie heard me out, then promptly said "I'm not 100% sure on this. Let me run it past an expert in that particular area. Can you ring back in 20 minutes?"

During that first conversation, for some reason or the other he had taken my number here in Bangkok. I was surprised when my cell phone rang about 5 minutes later and I saw it was from addr.com. I hastily answered, thanked the guy, then said I'd hang up and call him right back if he would tell me how to be sure I could get back to him in particular. He told me not to worry about it, the proceeded to explain the problem -- which was a function of my being Idiot Operator, not addr.com screwing up.

Now, the guy wasn't at all obliged to walk me out of the morass into which I had gotten myself -- but he did, spending over an hour (!) on the line with me while I sat in front of my computer, doing everything he was telling me to do. Bingo. Jackpot. The heavens turned bright again, and my problem was solved.

I thanked the guy -- profusely, you may be sure -- and asked him how I needed to go about paying for such extensive support and for their cost for an international phone call -- made at the weekday rate, by the way, and calls to Thailand weren't cheap. He told me it was part of their service support for customers like me, or for anybody in a real jam (which I was), and not to worry about the phone bill -- addr.com would pick it up. But even had the guy told me how to go about paying for both the service and the call, I would have happily done so AND continued to recommend them.

Still, I kept waiting for a bill to come. Nothing. When renewal time came around, I got my usual notice, at my usual price. I sent an e-mail to their billing folks and asked if I didn't still owe for the lengthy support session and international call some months before. I got a prompt reply that both were on the house, and part of their dedication to service.

For 15 bucks a month, I'm sticking with the tried and true. And no, I'm not a reselller of their service nor do I have the slighted financial interest in them -- other than I hope they make tons of money and remain in operation until I hang up my guns (or whatever it is a web master hangs up).

My single beef has nothing to do with addr.com, other than coincidentally. The first year I used them I simultaneously used Network Solutions to register my domain name, as I did the next year, during which second year my then-partner and I registered a second domain name through Network Solutions. Over a year ago we dissolved our partnership, and had the legal papers drawn up giving him full ownership of the second name and site and me the full rights to the one we had started together. Renewal time came around, and although we had promptly provided Network Solutions of the change of ownership, they billed me. It took repeated e-mails, culminating in my final one saying any further communication would be from my attorney, for them to catch on and back off. And I had provided the necessary documentation again, along with my former partner's name, address, e-mail, etc. etc. etc. so they could take it up with him.

Meanwhile, he was frantic the site would go down -- and addr.com, quite properly (since we hadn't thought to let *them* know of the change) wouldn't let him, and since Network Solutions refused until well after the final date that I no longer owned the name. Besides, he had taken on a partner who was increasingly worried himself, and the partner decided the best thing he could do was to give into Network Solutions demand, and he paid for the renewal.

But guess what: I'm getting dunned again *this* year. I wrote them a cease-and-desist demand the first time, referring to our earlier e-mail exchanges (providing them all) and to the hard copies I had provided of the transfer of ownership. They stopped -- for about a month, then dunned me again. I wrote them and said if I ever heard from them again I would direct my U.S.-based attorney to report them to the BBB and any place else appropriate. I also told them I had called the F.B.I. at the embassy here in Bangkok to inquire if they felt I had any legal grounds to pursue a complaint of harrassment if they continued. While the F.B.I. guy said he figured I was on thin ice, legally -- because of my prior-client status -- I'm assuming my mention of the F.B.I. has done some good, though I also told Network Solutions I had been advised I probably would get nowhere with a legal complaint.

After checking with my attorney here on the libel angle (no problem -- I can document the works), I've started reporting this in forums such as this one. I wish Network Solutions would go belly-up right *now,* never mind "sooner or later."

As a p.s., the site never went down -- no thanks to Network Solutions, but because addr.com worked with us to keep the address (I don't know how they pulled that little trick).

I may as well put in a final plug for addr.com. When I first signed aboard, the activated my site almost instantly, though I had to send a check by courier to pay for it. DHL was too dumb to look up their address in the phone book, although I had told the pickup guy here I knew only their tech support number -- and I wrote a note on the label for DHL in California to look up their address or phone number. As a result of DHL's dithering, my check didn't reach addr.com for 9 *days* -- and then it took an additional 7 or 8 days for the check to clear my bank in Texas. And addr.com just kept on smiling, assuring me it was no problem.

Avoid Network Solutions like the plague. If unequaled support (billing, tech, the works) is more important to you than having the greatest number of e-mail addresses, bandwidth in the package, etc., I do hope you will consider addr.com.

Curiously -- for a hosting company -- their site is slow to load, even on the 512Kb ADSL line I'm using. But that's a nothing as far as I'm concerned.

[synergytheory]

At work we have a dedicated server, no problems there. Great support, fast server. The only real problem is we have hundreds of clients hosted on it, with different backends, so it's kinda difficult to update PHP mySQL and the such, because some of the backend apps aren't backward compatible with new versions.

For my personal site I use icdsoft.com CHEAP! [$60 per year with domain name] But their support is truely amazing, I always have a response with in 2 or 3 mintues from support, and that is understating. Their servers aren't super quick, but everything is always updated to the latest version.

[hupp25]

I have had lots of nightmares in the nearly 4 years I have been in business. One former host I had to testify in FEDERAL court. Another could not handle the security side when we went to a shopping cart, another just disappeared?strange- another tried to bill for things they did not do and would not give any support and were rude when asked and now I am with a company that at least tries to give the support. They were not use to someone that worked 7 days a week and soon developed a weekend on call system. They have great tech support and are personable.


To answer this quote
Not that a thief would jump at registering a domain with a stolen credit card, but if one wanted to sit home with stolen card numbers and receive regular checks, they'd receive LEGITIMATE bank checks back as refunds for each domain registered under any name as the hosting company offers a 30-day money back guarantee.

They do- I had someone try to use my credit card to register a domain and set up a website. The individual even used my name and phone numbers. Thankfully the host company called me and realized it was stolen. So do not be so sure out there. These things do happen.

I am a small company but do not like being treated as if my money was not good enough for them. Beware of host that will tell you this or treat you as such-soon enough they will come back and realize hey you have grown- see what we can do for you.

[cyberious]

I have been hosting with OneWorldHosting.com for some time now, and have always gotten excellent support, 7 days a week. But they have had some major problems lately! A few weeks ago they upgraded their version of PHP to 4.3 and all my PHP sites broke, along with CGI sites as well. They finally fixed this, and then upgraded their Database Manager which is now completely broken. I have 3 sites that need to be running in a few days, and I can't even set up! Then I have 4 more sites that will need db's and I'm not sure I can use this company, since they haven't fixed it (it's been 2 weeks already).

I have searched everywhere, and can't find a provider that compares to them. It's unfortunate because I don't have a hosting company to fall back on, that I can trust to help when I need it - 7 days a week. I've tried iPowerweb (terribly unsupportive), webmasters.com (also not very helpful) and Bluehost (terrible... awsome deal, but they take days to answer, and never have an answer... I was told that they don't offer any support at all for programs that you install on their server.) At least One World takes a crack at it! They have always tried to help with any of the programs I installed, and one way or another, we get things running. Their support has been unrivaled (except for the recent problems).

I am disappointed because you would think that upgrades like this would be tested fully, prior to installation. My sites should not be affected at all when an upgrade is done.

I looked into VizaWeb recently, but was a bit skeptical about the support (based on my experiences with One World, I have high expectations that a new provider needs to meet). Anyone else use One World? Anyone know of a comparable provider that meets the same standards, but TESTS their applications and upgrades thoroughly first?!

[TrafficProducer]

looking for a good webhost to host 5 mini niche sites and more in the future.

Does anyone know of a good webhost where I can host maybe 10 mini sites for a good price?

Check out http://www.1sthostweb.com/

[Nargule]

My recommendation to anyone, especailly any professional web developer that provides hosting, is to lease your own server which you have full control. Also, do your homework. Many hosting companies are simply resellers. Find out if the hosting service is really just a front or if they are actually manning the servers.

I agree. I have had my own dedicated servers (yes, that's servers with an s), each one with a different provider. Each server has one terabyte of transfer a month and an 80gig hard drive.

I can host as many websites as I want (within resource limits obviously) and have complete control over what is going on.

The only downside I can think of to this setup is it requires knowledge of server administration which I love doing, but I can imagine many webmasters do not.

I can secure the server anyway I want. Disabling services, customized firewall, non-standard ports are some of the things I have implemented. I can setup my DNS anyway I want, I have root access, I can run any version of any service I want and I don't have to worry about other sites bringing mine down (of course there is always the possibility of the provider's network getting clogged by malicious folks).

Each server costs under $80 a month which is a drop in the bucket comparing to other expenses such as marketing and labor to fill orders. Not to mention the expense of downtime I had with other hosts.

[Nargule]

I also used HostPro (which then got bought out by Interland) for a while. I switched briefly to Interlands small dedicated branch in Florida, but the servers were slow.
I too had HostPro many moons ago and switch to their dedicated branch in Florida. A problem I had with them is my server would all of a sudden stop accepting requests (http, ssh, ftp...everything). I would submit a ticket and it would take forever to get rebooted. Finally I complained enough and was given an alternate way to submit reboot requests. The reboots were getting done fast, but still nothing done about the original issue.

Finally one day, I rebooted the server myself and it did not come up. After being down for 2 days, it was determained that the machine had a bad DIMM. After it was replaced I experienced no more down time, but I had enough at that point. I now have two separate dedicated servers from two different providers - redundancy is the only sure way to avoid downtime.

[Nargule]

The functions are NOT available from a telnet session "for security reasons".
Telnet is a totally insecure way of accessing a server. I don't blame them for not allowing telnet.

[chris_jones]

The functions are NOT available from a telnet session "for security reasons".
Telnet is a totally insecure way of accessing a server. I don't blame them for not allowing telnet.

They do allow telnet and ssh. They don't allow users to use tar and gzip.

[xoltaric]

I was with Yahoo! Hosting until about a year ago.

I'd had my Yahoo! email account for *years* and pretty muched used Yahoo! as my primary news portal. (Still do btw).. it seemed logical that when I was ready for a major Web site that it be with Yahoo!

I loved that they had PHP and MySQL support.. that Webmail was joined at the hip with Yahoo mail.. but.. I soon realized that things were not as they seemed...

<rant>

PHP support was limited at best as most of the functions had been disabled. mail() could only send 250 messages a day.. no cron support and the servers were SLOW... my 50kb page (including all images) would take 4 minutes to load on cable.

The last straw was trying to get tech support...

Me: The site is slow for me and all my customers.. I've tried doing a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i and j but the average load time is always hovering at about 3 minutes. (
<html><head><title>Hello World</title></head><body>Hello World</body></html> took 2.5 minutes to load.. for everyone)

Yahoo Support: Everything is fine.

Me: No it isn't... since then I've tried k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s and t... can you please tell me aa, bb, and cc?

YS: "Everything is fine. Try refreshing your page." (direct quote, that was the entire email!!)

Me: No it isn't. I've tried a-z but still this, this and this happens. Can you please tell me aa, bb, cc, dd and ee?? Please do not reply to this with everything is fine because clearly it isn't.

TS: Everything is fine, thank you for using Yahoo!

I figured email support was either a bot or just stupid people at this point so I called them... but it was more of the same.. I tried calling a few more times and the supervisor was always "busy" or something. Finally I got one second level tech who accepted there was a problem but abruptly interrupted me and cold transfered me to "the proper department" and I was forwarded to a voicemail of Joe Blow in "Yahoo! Media Relations Department".....

I called back right away and it took me a half hour to track down the guy I was speaking to (and it took 5 minutes for him to remember me, from just 30 minutes before)... he said he forwarded me to Media Relations because I mentioned seeking help at an online forum and that anytime the "media" is involved, media relations has to be the prime contact though he couldn't tell me how a PR person would help me with my problem. Finally I convinced him to take a look at my problem. After about 45 minutes he admitted that there may indeed be a problem but since it wasn't happening at that very time, I'd have to email tech support when it happens again. That was my cue to leave Yahoo... which was a task in itself as I had to call in... Oh and they also put a lock on my domain name meaning it took another two weeks to transfer the domain out of Melbourne IT (Yahoo's registrar.) (Melbourne IT customer support: "If the domain name really is yours, you would have this code which will allow access to your control panel.. try contacting Yahoo" Yahoo CS: "We don't give out the access code.. try contacting Melbourne IT.")
</rant>

I'm now with Jodohost (hsphere) They'd been great until December when they did all kinds of "upgrades." Since then something has been breaking every three weeks or so... I've chalked it up to growing pains but will watch how the situation develops. 99.5% SLA too.

Lots of different packages to choose from.

[myincubliss]

spam with incorrect speling, mil*l*ion**s of as**te*ri*sks, or a variety of random pu#nct'ua~ti+on and n0um2be87rs.
OR that claims to be someone in africa with a WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY when the details of the individuals age location etc change throughout the course of the message.
Thinking about it, this irks me less than entertains.