Warning if you use HostGator Hosting!

aaron_nimocks

14 years ago

Ya they have very specifiic rules in their email policy.

HostGator Mail Policy

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Jesus Perez

14 years ago

Wow. I never realized the 500 limit could get triggered by monitoring. That's a bit disturbing!

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~kev~

14 years ago

Originally Posted by BlueSquares

Wow. I never realized the 500 limit could get triggered by monitoring. That's a bit disturbing!

I dont think its disturbing - I think its hostgator trying to prevent spam.

If your sending out more then 500 emails daily, everyday - maybe its time to look into an entry level dedicated server?

There is no way I could deal with a 500 email limit. A couple of times a month I send out a news letter to over 24,000 people. In all, I bet my forum must send out close to 50,000 emails monthly.

Its good to know that hostgtor is doing their part to fight spam. But on the other hand, the limit might force people to upgrade to server packages they dont really need - just for the email capability.

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dougp

14 years ago

I had a problem with host gator in the past, but i dont think that this post deserves a warning in the title. If your on a shared server then you need to know that your sharing the same server as many other webmasters. Its in the company's best interest to monitor how many emails are sent per hour, many other web hosting companies does this with their shared servers. Just think about it, if there are hundreds of other webmasters sharing the same server as you, and if they all decided to send out an email within the same hour, this could cause the server to stall heavily if there is not a quota on the amount of emails sent. If your business is growing and can finance it, i would recommend looking into a dedicated server to avoid this promblem.

Doug

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John Hocking

14 years ago

I am not bashing Hostgator at all.

They had every right to set a limit and they do notify me the site was suspended and made me aware of the problem.

With my help, they were able to locate and remove the malware that had been uploaded.

The site was hacked. I thought was the 404 script until i went into it to disable the email and found it was set to 1 mail a day.

The installed script was scanning the folder structure and emailing it out to a russian ip.

I have all the wordpress scripts updated and all is back to working normally again.

I did have a backup of the missing file.

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dougp

14 years ago

Originally Posted by John Hocking

I am not bashing Hostgator at all.

They had every right to set a limit and they do notify me the site was suspended and made me aware of the problem.

With my help, they were able to locate and remove the malware that had been uploaded.

The site was hacked. I thought was the 404 script until i went into it to disable the email and found it was set to 1 mail a day.

The installed script was scanning the folder structure and emailing it out to a russian ip.

I have all the wordpress scripts updated and all is back to working normally again.

I did have a backup of the missing file.

Misread your post, the title of this post is well deserved then

.

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Jesus Perez

14 years ago

Let's say someone installs a monitoring script that checks a site every 5 minutes. If a site goes down, it dispatches 2 emails. One to your cell phone, another to your main email.

Now let's say you just went away for the weekend and 1 of your 300 sites becomes unresponsive. Your out of internet and cell reception for 2 days.

If you're using a crappy monitoring script (that doesn't auto-shutoff after x amount of emails), it will send out 576 emails in 24 hours.

This means your entire account...all 300 sites...get shut down by Hostgator because of 1 site, 1 crappy monitoring script and a weekend tequilafest.

Not good. Disturbing. And there's nothing related to "spam" in this scenario.

I understand the "protection" they're providing. I also agree with it. What's disturbing is the way something innocent can shut down an entire 300 website business because 500 emails were sent.

Again...this isn't Hostgator's fault...it's the crappy script's...but you'll still lose revenue because Hostgator doesn't have the time or resources to see what's causing the emails and correct it. That's where VPS and Dedicated have a superior advantage.

Originally Posted by ~kev~

I dont think its disturbing - I think its hostgator trying to prevent spam.

If your sending out more then 500 emails daily, everyday - maybe its time to look into an entry level dedicated server?

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John Hocking

14 years ago

Originally Posted by BlueSquares

Let's say someone installs a monitoring script that checks a site every 5 minutes. If a site goes down, it dispatches 2 emails. One to your cell phone, another to your main email.

Now let's say you just went away for the weekend and 1 of your 300 sites becomes unresponsive. Your out of internet and cell reception for 2 days.

If you're using a crappy monitoring script (that doesn't auto-shutoff after x amount of emails), it will send out 576 emails in 24 hours.

This means your entire account...all 300 sites...get shut down by Hostgator because of 1 site, 1 crappy monitoring script and a weekend tequilafest.

Not good. Disturbing. And there's nothing related to "spam" in this scenario.

I understand the "protection" they're providing. I also agree with it. What's disturbing is the way something innocent can shut down an entire 300 website business because 500 emails were sent.

Again...this isn't Hostgator's fault...it's the crappy script's...but you'll still lose revenue because Hostgator doesn't have the time or resources to see what's causing the emails and correct it. That's where VPS and Dedicated have a superior advantage.

The limit is 500 emails per hour not per day.

And yes, if you hosted 300 sites in one account and something happened they all get locked out access until it is resolved.

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2oursuccess

14 years ago

I have a hostgator account thanks for the heads up

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Gene Pimentel

14 years ago

Almost ALL shared hosting has similar limits, some even less. HostGator is actually more generous than many.

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warfore 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Gene Pimentel

Almost ALL shared hosting has similar limits, some even less. HostGator is actually more generous than many.

So...I assume the answer is to move up to a more robust hosting package when you have more sites and potentially more email traffic..
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- John Hocking 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by warfore
  
  So...I assume the answer is to move up to a more robust hosting package when you have more sites and potentially more email traffic..
  
  Yes, If you get a none shared hosting account, you get more emails per hour. The limit is to protect the resources of the shared machine.
  
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John Hocking 14 years ago

Make sure that your WordPress blog is up to date on the scripts.

It looks like the hackers used some exploit on an old version of wordpress to gain access to the account.

I was wondering how they figured out passowrd with mixed case, special characters and numbers.
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- thunderbird 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by John Hocking
  
  I was wondering how they figured out passowrd with mixed case, special characters and numbers.
  
  Brute force.
  
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psresearch

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Gene Pimentel

Almost ALL shared hosting has similar limits, some even less. HostGator is actually more generous than many.

I guess that seems obvious now that I think about it. But I probably would have never even thought about it.

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StephenDavies

14 years ago

I have a Hostgator reseller account and as far as I know there is no limit on emails.

It's been a while since I looked around at hosting packages, but I must admit I sort of assumed that all hosting came with unlimited email useage these days, but I can see why a limit would be in their interests so as to prevent spam abuse.

Steve.

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John Hocking

14 years ago

Originally Posted by StephenDavies

I have a Hostgator reseller account and as far as I know there is no limit on emails.

It's been a while since I looked around at hosting packages, but I must admit I sort of assumed that all hosting came with unlimited email useage these days, but I can see why a limit would be in their interests so as to prevent spam abuse.

Steve.

I think it is more about the tax on server resources then anything. They also have limits on how long scripts can run and what percent CPU they use. If you have a problem with that one, you have to get your own server plan or find another host.

It does make sense. You would not want some other site owner site dragging down your site because it was hogging resources.

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jschmitt23

14 years ago

Thank you for the heads-up! I've been using Hostgator for some time, now, with no problems, but that's an issue that could have soon messed me up if you hadn't shared your experience.

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John Hocking

14 years ago

Originally Posted by jschmitt23

Thank you for the heads-up! I've been using Hostgator for some time, now, with no problems, but that's an issue that could have soon messed me up if you hadn't shared your experience.

I had been using this account for years and never even come close to this limit before.

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AffiliateCashPile

14 years ago

They do that to fight spam. If they didnt have that rule i'm sure hostgator would attract a lot of spammers. If you need to send out 1000's of emails a day your best bet is to get a server if you know how to inbox. If not there are some mailing companies out there.

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PerfectedWeb

14 years ago

Never realized that. Thanks for the heads up.

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erinwrites 14 years ago

Thanks for the heads up!

I have issues with Hostgator and hacked accounts from time to time but never knew about the e-mail limitations (not that it matters, I don't send nearly that much e-mail in a month, let alone a day). That's good to know!
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- rts2271 14 years ago
  
  Thats exactly why we set our thresholds at 10k per hour. Can't crucify a client for honest mistakes and automation. I've seen sub 1k caps get triggered from tiny hosting accounts in the exact same way.
  
  Gotta love Unlimited hosting hahaha
  
  Anyway hope this works out for you man.
  
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  John Hocking 14 years ago
  
  Got the account unlocked but the main site is toast.
  
  I have to look for backup for a site that has been mostly unchanged script wise in 8 years.
  
  may have to see if host gator has a backup of the missing script file.
  
  Make sure you have a current backup of your site as well.
  
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  rts2271 14 years ago
  
  John,
  When you get this resolved contact me and I can send you a quick howto how to automate a backup procedure and put the files on your desktop.
  That should also be a general rule of thumb for everyone.
  
  DO NOT TRUST A SHARED HOST BACKUPS.
  
  Backup to your desktop and if possible ALSO use a offsite backup system.
  It's your livelyhood people. Do not leave it up to durkadurkastan.
  
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VegasGreg

14 years ago

You should probably THANK Hostgator instead of bashing them. Once your sites are compromised by hackers, if Hostgator didn't step in and stop the madness you would have been worse off.

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rts2271

14 years ago

huh? Dude his site wasn't hacked. It was a 404 warning script that set it off, not a attack, not martians and not hackers.
RIF

Originally Posted by VegasGreg

You should probably THANK Hostgator instead of bashing them. Once your sites are compromised by hackers, if Hostgator didn't step in and stop the madness you would have been worse off.

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Damien Roche

14 years ago

You might consider using PEAR::Mail to queue emails and restrict to 500 (or 400 to be safe) an hour.

Good luck! hope you get it sorted soon.

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eaglechick

14 years ago

If your one of the big guns out there it is probably best if you check all their limitations beforehand - one of the gurus I'm with had some major problems with them when hosting a webinar.

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VegasGreg

14 years ago

Originally Posted by John Hocking

It looks like the hackers used some exploit on an old version of wordpress to gain access to the account.

I was wondering how they figured out passowrd with mixed case, special characters and numbers.

Originally Posted by rts2271

huh? Dude his site wasn't hacked. It was a 404 warning script that set it off, not a attack, not martians and not hackers.
RIF

Oh ok, I must have misread the entire post and just skimmed over the initial points.... :confused:

(not)

Originally Posted by John Hocking

With my help, they were able to locate and remove the malware that had been uploaded.

The site was hacked. I thought was the 404 script until i went into it to disable the email and found it was set to 1 mail a day.

The installed script was scanning the folder structure and emailing it out to a russian ip.

I have all the wordpress scripts updated and all is back to working normally again.

I did have a backup of the missing file.

Glad to see you got it all squared away. I would imagine that some lesser hosts wouldn't be able to help you at all and all could have been lost.

Any ways, al'ls well that ends well.

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OLOORE

14 years ago

Many times, we do not get down to the rock bottom, concerning the rules/regulations
guiding some of the establishments, we deal with. We simply assume. So, we must try the best we can to review and confirm our assumptions.
We are delighted to hear that your case is receiving Hostgator's attention.

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paulino

14 years ago

Thanks for the note, i will check that out.

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Quentin

14 years ago

I think you will find the same rules on most hosting accounts unless you go dedicated.

Isn't it nice to know they are looking after you and your sites are not sending out spam hour after hour.

Quentin

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ordinary

14 years ago

can't complain much with that kind of price

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macknox

14 years ago

Shared accounts are cheap and you should spread your risk.
I have accounts just for autoblogging and different accounts for static site and use aweber for emails.

You sites WILL be hacked and injected... it is just a matter of time.

Just make sure you back up.

Blogs required a little more effort but there is a plugin by Lester Chan - look him up.

I learnt my lesson 2 years ago .. expect the worst.

Also test out the restore routine... there no point backing up if you find it hard to restore.

Note wordpress has a export feature that I find works great.

Set up your FTP client to schedule backups for your images too, if you use images with your autoblogging plugins.

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