The "Joys" of New Webhosts

[Alphawolf]

Yeah- this is a long ass post, but I suffered and feel you should all feel my sufferin'.

This about sums it up ---> |noclue|

Last Sunday AM I joined a webhost to get my friggin' adult site up and running.

Fill out the form and go to submit all my info...had the CC date in wrong format. OK. Fill it out again and submit...
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Page not found error...their shit times out on me and I am like 12 miles away from them. Hmm...

I repeat this again and now my card is declined. WTF?

I log in to my CC and it shows I have no credit. Called the CC company and they told me I have 6 charges for $39.95. SIX



Their system told me my card was declined yet I had 6 charges pending. Whatever. I went over a friends house and come home later on...

Did have a message from the hosting company on machine. They saw I had problems signing up. CC company told me it would take a couple business days to sort out all the charges and payments I had pending. So, I just watched the Super Bowl.

Got an e-mail 'round 9PM from host with my IP and username/pass and the link to their control panel.

Couldn't do much Monday. I couldn't login to their control panel...checked username and password a billion times.

Submitted support ticket with JPG screenshots. Long time passed and ain't heard nothin' at that point. Followed link to check status on their website. Seems they strip attachments so I edit the help ticket and upload the JPG's to the server and put links to it. Next day I could login to the control panel.

Tuesday I started to upload stuff. I went to check out their control panel. It looked...a bit off to me. Lots of (Unknown) and every link went to a page not found.

Whatever. I'd upload my shit then deal with that later.

Decided it would be a good time to make an MSWORD document on all the various things needed when changing hosts. Folder permissions, physical paths, what files I need to modify and so on...

Whilst doing that I decided to check out my forum's default page on the new server.

The page came up...all weird. Some code and garbage characters. That just shouldn't be.



But- nevermind. Let's ignore that and magically it'll just work next time.

I worked on my MS WORD document which turned into a small manual.

I toss up some index page. Meanwhile, I go to set up e-mail accounts. Try to follow instruction, but I ain't got most of the links I need to "Administer E-mail". Still have many "(Unknowns)" and by now I know my account info just isn't being pulled in by their control panel.

I try some test pages on the new server and something just ain't right. I was like WTF for a while. Then I went to:

http://news.netcraft.com/

and

http://www.serverheader.com

To confirm what I now thought. They put me on an Apache server although I specified Windows 2000 in the signup form.

I can confirm that ASP pages don't work too well on Apache. |pissed|

I try not to ICQ the main dudes as it just shouldn't be required.

At this point my card was charged like 2 billion dollars, I had no way to set up e-mail and they put me on the wrong server type.

WAIT

It gets better...

I e-mailed their billing dept and my e-mail was bounced back stating I was in a SPAM signature. Huh?

I go to their website and submit an E-mail via their WEBSITE to billing. THE FUCKIN E-MAIL gets bounced back to me saying I was in a SPAM signature of theirs. WHAT?!?!?!

How can an e-mail submitted via their website be spam??? I tried deleting my name and domain...again I was SPAM.

I E-mail their main guy with ALL the issues- direct to his username. My E-mail bounced back with the message that my domain wouldn't resolve! |raygun| This is a mainstream account from a very reliable web host. |pissed|

I ended up fucking writing an HTML page with 5 items that needed addressed with links to screencaps. Uploaded that and ICQ'd the main dude with a link to my HTML complaint list. I also sent him e-mail via my shitty cable ISP's e-mail.

Wed night I had the control panel and was on Win2K. The other head dude e-mailed me explaining most of the issues were due to the problems with me signing up. As I was replying to him he called to make sure everything was OK. They did credit me back the 5 extra charges that same day...just took a while to show up.

OK. We all know sometimes "Shit Happens". I was just happy I could get up and running and it should be smooth from then out.

Was up late into Thur AM modifying files to suit the new physical paths and ya know- all the other stuff that goes with a new host.

My Forum uses a custom 404 to convert URL's to .htm and SE friendly names. It's a modification that takes all of 1 minute to do on my other host via Control Panel.

I had to submit a support ticket. My e-mails were now going through. Exactly 13 HOURS later I got the e-mail that my request was completed. Yesterday afternoon.

OK. I go into the forum and enable SE Friendly. It doesn't work. It wasn't set up properly.

Knowing they strip attachments I made an HTML page named 404.htm with explicit instructions.

An hour later I got an e-mail back saying he was confused. I should not have named my little instruction page 404.htm 'cos he wondered if that was the URL I wanted the 404 to point to.

The gist is that it points to a file, yet you must enter it as a 'URL' and manually enter the path.

I explain it in a Step-By-Step fashion to the tech guy. 45 minutes later I get:

Hello

I guess I wasn doing it wrong way, it should work now. thanks.

OK- whatever...finally it was fixed. I enable SE Friendly and get a big fat:

"HTTP/1.1 404 Object Not Found"

|pcwins|

Had enough. After setting up my mail accounts and playing with stuff on the new server I noticed their connection speed was very sporadic. On occasions even using the IP address I'd time out and when checking e-mail all my other accounts would finish then their mail server would take 20 seconds+

Had my suspicions about 'unmetered' plans on a webhost.

Went about e-mailing a host that lays low and isn't on the boards. Asked a bunch of questions and decided to sign up with them last night.

Their datacenter is 2 miles from me. Their cheapest plan is $50/mo but that also comes with a 50MB MS SQL 2000 database and they run their own site in Win2k so it should be a lot more smooth. They are more geared to co-location and dedicated servers.

Switching hosts is such a PITA especially after modifying stuff to work on their servers.

I already changed my DNS before getting any sort of confirmation from the new host.

Wish I could justify/afford a dedicated server to control my own stuff. Just can't right now.

I don't really want to slam anyone in public. It's just not my style and people have different experiences.

The owners really do seem to care, but their employees or system just isn't up to what I expect.

Why post this? <shrug> Needed a place to whine and get cyber sympathy.

Now- wating for the new host to charge me and get my account info. Have a good feeling about these guys. <crossing fingers>

PS- Guess this belongs in Chit Chat, but getting a host is a pretty important business aspect.

[Cleo]

I'll refrain from my usually Winblows comments.

So what host is this that you had such an entertaining time with?

[Alphawolf]

Originally posted by Cleo
I'll refrain from my usually Winblows comments.

Thanks. I am a bit strained for such things.

So what host is this that you had such an entertaining time with?

The host that xbiz awarded "2004 Best Web Host". <shrug>

[Bill]

Oh GEEE-SUUUS man, you do NOT want a windows server!

Ah well, there's somethin' to be said for the school of hard knocks I suppose.

Good luck. You'll need it.

Otherwise, your comedy of errors is pretty common. Servers cause problems, it's as inevitable as gravity.

Remember I said to you get your server now, you'll want every extra day you can get. This kind of stuff is EXACTLY what I was talking about.

Now, with a unix server you'd have less problems. Still problems, just less of them.

[Jim]

I do have to wonder, why would you want to use a Windows Server?

Christ, a few weeks or months ago, Microsoft admitted to using some sort of unix machine for security reasons.

[Cleo]

Originally posted by Jim
IChrist, a few weeks or months ago, Microsoft admitted to using some sort of unix machine for security reasons.

They run Mac OS X
http://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclect...icrosoft_.html

[lilzagi]

Hey alpha wolf get in touch with this guy on ICQ:

4930562 he can definitely help you out with your windows problems

[Alphawolf]

Originally posted by Jim
I do have to wonder, why would you want to use a Windows Server?

Christ, a few weeks or months ago, Microsoft admitted to using some sort of unix machine for security reasons.

My apps are ASP/ASP.NET/MS SQL 2000 based...

http://www.aspplayground.net/news.asp

I plan a dozen or so sites with the above software.

This has been my e-commerce solution....

http://www.storefront.net/

I have no problems on Windows. The fact that others cannot admin it properly was the issue.

If I were doing just typical freesites and galleries Apache would be a no brainer.

http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials...le.php/1487231

Changed hosts. It's like night and day. Still, it will suck until I can get onto a dedicated and lock it down and add various modules.

I'd be far more comfortable on a dedicated Win2003/IIS6, but just won't get that for a while.

I look forward to getting certified by MS again on Win2003.

I'm a bit of a masochist.

[Alphawolf]

Originally posted by Bill
Now, with a unix server you'd have less problems. Still problems, just less of them.

It comes down to who's running the network and servers.
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Most people on IIS know who the better hosts are. I have clients purely in a Windows server environment the past ~2 years I've done Web design. No probs to date.

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum47/1409.htm

The post by bakedjake (Message #5) is very good.

Those who don't read it and run Windows should download this if they never have:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tre...s/mbsahome.asp

[Cleo]

Alphawolf I wouldn't worry about trying to convince anyone that Windows better suits your needs.

But I feel your pain, I keep on posting how Mac OS X is better for their desktop needs.

OSs are a lot like clothing, one size does not fit everyone.

[Alphawolf]

Cleo,

You shock me! LOL.

Listen, there is no doubt Apache is far better for 99% of adult sites. No need for "I told ya so" when I whine about hotlinkers.

I'm not retarded or thick headed. I hate not having my own server to lock down.

As soon as I can- I will. Most of my sites won't be adult. It's a business decision.

When I had my epiphany of building my own sites instead of working for clients not long ago- I already had a lot invested(time+money+experience) on the IIS/MS SQL server platform. All my favorites, newsgroups, forums, etc...are Windows based.

When I got my 1st job at a Network Engineering firm back in late 95 I was all set to learn NetWare. They wanted me to learn that silly Windows NT the NetWare guys laughed at.

Anyone with common sense will not be attached to an OS for the hell of it. Ya can put a chimp in charge of the latest greatest stuff and it will be vulnerable. That goes for *any* network.

Believe me- if I could get the same functionality for free I'd use Apache in a heartbeat.

I know of some excellent solutions on FreeBSD/MySQL...they just aren't mine or anything I can use for what I have planned.

[Cleo]

In the print industry we use a lot of NT and now Win2K machines for RIPs. They aren't used to go on the web or anything like that and basically they are only networked to a bunch of Macs so there is zero risk of viruses or worms or anything bad,

Got some NT machines that have been online since about the time that NT came out. They are covered in a thick layer of dust from never being touched, but day in and day out they do what they need to do and have had zero problems. The Win2K machines are proving to be as reliable.

It just comes down to using the right OS for the right task. The RIP software has always been written for this platform so it is used.

[Alphawolf]

Originally posted by Cleo
It just comes down to using the right OS for the right task.

Amen to that. For Web Hosts though, the way they design and handle their Network Infrastructure can help or hinder. Security devices and expertise is expensive.

But, hey...life's a journey, not a destination. If it doesn't kill ya it makes you stronger. So "they" say.