Host provider died and lost me 1 month bizz

25 replies
Look it was bad news for him. I presume he was a one man bizz and he passed away but I lost my whole sites....pages..everything for about a month until I got in touch with someone to transfer the files. THEN what a job that was. This was a huge site I had built over 12 years...thousands of pages/scripts etc..

So the lesson is do not scrimp on hosting. It might bite you in the backside one day.
#bizz #died #host #lost #month #provider
  • Profile picture of the author AFI
    Oh my gosh! This same exact thing happened to me about 7 years ago. What was even worse was that I had all membership sites and had hundreds of members paying monthly subscriptions to my sites.

    There were no backups of my sites and no way for me to rebuild the sites and transfer the members over. I lost EVERYTHING. It was a nightmare.

    But then again I've lost everything and gained it back about 4 times in this business. I think it's the nature of the biz.
    Signature

    Learn about Internet Marketing from my dofollow comment blog.....Make Extra Money At Home...
    I WILL BUILD YOU YOUR OWN CUSTOM AMAZON REVIEW SITE - HUNDREDS SOLD!
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3697990].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author mkt
    This is probably a good reminder to back up all your sites. My host (Dreamhost) has a funciton that will do it, but I've never tried to restore a site after doing this.

    I usually end up doing manual backups about every three or four months, including the databases.
    Signature

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3698067].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author txconx
    You have more control if you have a dedicated server, but there are no guarantees.

    You're risking a lot if you don't regularly back up your site files and databases.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3699292].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author spesialis
    using wordpress, you can backup automatically, sent to your email

    Use WP DB Manager plugin or similar
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3699400].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author LilBlackDress
      Originally Posted by spesialis View Post

      using wordpress, you can backup automatically, sent to your email

      Use WP DB Manager plugin or similar
      But don't you also need something to back up your theme and photos?
      Signature

      Pen Name + 8 eBooks + social media sites 4 SALE - PM me (evergreen beauty niche)

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3699413].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author mavericx
        Man, that's rough......there's definitely a lesson to be learned from that though!

        I'm glad you got your stuff back!
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3699425].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author mavericx
          I recently transferred hosting companies myself, and it was a PITA; and I only had a couple websites....
          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3699433].message }}
          • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
            Absolutely, ALWAYS have a copy of your files on backup. I zip mine up and put them on a flash drive as well as keeping them on my computer.
            Signature
            Do You Vape? Submit a Guest Post! SmokersLogicEcigs.com
            Info Blog about Ecigs & Personal Vaporizers
            {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3699597].message }}
            • Profile picture of the author Christian Little
              Originally Posted by sloanjim View Post

              Look it was bad news for him. I presume he was a one man bizz and he passed away but I lost my whole sites....pages..everything for about a month until I got in touch with someone to transfer the files. THEN what a job that was. This was a huge site I had built over 12 years...thousands of pages/scripts etc..

              So the lesson is do not scrimp on hosting. It might bite you in the backside one day.

              I think there is a more important lesson here, read below...

              Originally Posted by mavericx View Post

              I recently transferred hosting companies myself, and it was a PITA; and I only had a couple websites....
              Originally Posted by AFI View Post

              Oh my gosh! This same exact thing happened to me about 7 years ago. What was even worse was that I had all membership sites and had hundreds of members paying monthly subscriptions to my sites.

              There were no backups of my sites and no way for me to rebuild the sites and transfer the members over. I lost EVERYTHING. It was a nightmare.

              But then again I've lost everything and gained it back about 4 times in this business. I think it's the nature of the biz.
              One of the most important rules of web hosting - keep a backup.

              Yes some hosts claim to provide back up services, but you would be amazed at how many of them won't give you access to the backup files when you ask for them.

              What you should be doing is creating a backup of everything every week or so of your site. It only takes a few clicks in cPanel, then just wait for cPanel to do the backup (can take several hours depending on how much stuff you have), then download the backup file.

              It's really not that difficult, and can save you an enormous amount of headaches and troubles when situations like what has been posted above arise.

              I'm sorry to hear about the problem you all had, but it's an unfortunate reality when running websites that you could lose your data so you must ensure that you have backups
              {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3699678].message }}
              • Profile picture of the author Diane S
                So glad you got everything back and that it was only a month! At least you did not lose everything forever!

                I am a HostGator reseller, and I provide hosting for SEO clients. I tell them their site is hosted by HostGator, and I give them the user name and password for the cPanel of their account. They could contact HostGator and move the site to their own HostGator account should the need arise. One day either I will stop providing the hosting or the business owner will decide to get their own account. Either way, the business owner has the information needed to take over. It will only cost them a small bit of money to use HostGator's most recent weekly build of their site. HostGator really does the weekly backup, and charges less than $20, I believe, to retrieve a backup for you.

                Unfortunately for the OP, their one-person hosting company did not do that for them.
                Signature
                KimW still needs our help DONATE DIRECTLY
                My First Kindle Book: Ten Days in the Land of Smile
                {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3699814].message }}
                • Profile picture of the author aminwasu
                  That is why one must stick to top hosting companies!
                  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3700188].message }}
            • Profile picture of the author Joe Mobley
              Smart. Very smart.

              Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post


              Absolutely, ALWAYS have a copy of your files on backup. I zip mine up and put them on a flash drive as well as keeping them on my computer.
              Joe Mobley
              Signature

              .

              Follow Me on Twitter: @daVinciJoe
              {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3732940].message }}
            • Profile picture of the author kirbymurphy
              Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

              Absolutely, ALWAYS have a copy of your files on backup. I zip mine up and put them on a flash drive as well as keeping them on my computer.
              I use Mozy.com, DVD backups, 2nd drive backups, networked PC's, external HD, and a lot of flash drives. Someone needs to come up with a filing device for flash drives
              {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3734298].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Mark Brian
    This is the most important difference between affordable (AKA cheap) VS market price shared hosting. The former can afford to sell cheap because they're usually a one-man band. Their business stability is not recommended in hosting mission critical websites.
    Signature

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3700290].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Jeff Henshaw
      One of the most important rules of web hosting - keep a backup.

      Yes some hosts claim to provide back up services, but you would be amazed at how many of them won't give you access to the backup files when you ask for them.

      What you should be doing is creating a backup of everything every week or so of your site. It only takes a few clicks in cPanel, then just wait for cPanel to do the backup (can take several hours depending on how much stuff you have), then download the backup file.

      It's really not that difficult, and can save you an enormous amount of headaches and troubles when situations like what has been posted above arise.

      I'm sorry to hear about the problem you all had, but it's an unfortunate reality when running websites that you could lose your data so you must ensure that you have backups
      ... and this too; ensure that your domain name is hosted by a third party, so that it is safe and can be quickly re-pointed to a new DNS and always have at least two hosting accounts from different reliable providers, so if one goes out of business, you don't!

      Just my thoughts,

      Jeff.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3700385].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Christian Little
        Originally Posted by Jeff Henshaw View Post

        ... and this too; ensure that your domain name is hosted by a third party, so that it is safe and can be quickly re-pointed to a new DNS and always have at least two hosting accounts from different reliable providers, so if one goes out of business, you don't!

        Just my thoughts,

        Jeff.
        I'm not sure if I'd go as far as having 2 hosting accounts considering a shared hosting account can be setup in about 5 seconds. What I would do is have a hosting plan with one company and keep regular backups. If they suddenly went AWOL like in this situation, then just hop over to another host like HostGator or Dreamhost that offer instant setup (or Bolt Web Hosting - see my sig...yeah, I had to throw in my company there lol).

        Seems a little overboard to be paying for a hosting plan you won't be using unless your primary fails, especially when you can get an instant hosting plan elsewhere. Add to that the fact that it takes 24-48 hours for NS updates to propogate anyways and there really is little point to having a 2nd active account solely for the purposes of failover.

        If you're a reseller or have a VPS though I would agree with it, as those take a while to setup and you can lose a ton of money if you are reselling and the company you are buying from disappears suddenly.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3700616].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author masterjani
    Always better idea to have a free blog for your website.When something wrong you can update the blog about the happenings and subscribers as well.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3700633].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author christopher jon
    And this is why you don't go with cheap third party hosting. It might be OK for the short term but it's not a long term business solution.

    Godaddy, Hostgator etc... they aren't going anywhere and will be around next week. Mom n' pop hosting aren't a reliable long term option.

    If your trying to find the cheapest hosting available your business compass is all screwed up.

    If you can't afford suitable hosting after your first year of marketing, it might be time to cash in your chips and move on.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3700879].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author kirbymurphy
    Maybe I'm not as careful as I think I am, but I FTP my public/html folder to my hard drive every couple of days. AFAIK, it's all there. If you have a DB, you can FTP that also.

    Please let me know if I'm missing something.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3729635].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author CheapTrafficDude
    That's awful!!

    When it comes to web hosting you should always buy from a reputable COMPANY. Do your research, who the president, director, CEO are... The reason for that is a company is an entity in itself and someone can inherit a company or executives or shareholders can be elected as president. You're always better off to pay a bit more and get "security".

    That would be rather impossible to salvage because in order to get your source code, you need to have access to the server itself in order to FTP in and if the server is non existent, you can't FTP. Same with WP, since it's hosted on a server...

    Lesson learned right but to every problem there's a solution, you might be able to find someone who'd be able to retrieve your files but it probably got all deleted... If he was a reseller then you might be able to contact the "mother" provider. Sorry about your loss
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3729662].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author NateC
    You might have felt like you were saving money and getting a good deal... You have to build on a strong foundation and good hosting is key. Luckily when I started I had a good friend steer me clear of cheap hosting, it has made a world of difference.
    Signature
    Professional Custom Whiteboard Videos
    Click Here
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3731461].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author bmillionaire324
    Too bad, is good to know you got your information back, we better look for a reliable backup program or sum so we can have our files secured in case of anything
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3731565].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Tony Marriott
      The answers is backups, backups, backups.! No matter what hosting you use. The only guarantee that you have a backup is when you do it yourself and store it NOT anywhere near your hosting (ok even that's not 100% guaranteed)

      I have worked for many yaers supplying It services to major companies and pretty much wothout fail tehy hav elost data due to hardware failures and come unstuck when restoring it.

      Yes, the better hosting the better off yu will be but no-one guarantees 100% failsafe

      and even the 99.99% uptime is only backed up with your months hosting fee back!!!

      If you run a business then do the backups. It's a pain, it's tedious, it seems like a pointless overhead, it's easy to forget........................

      .............but when your website vanishes it will be when you didn't do that backup...

      One final CRUCIAL thing

      DO NOT have your domains registerd at your hosting. Else, if they do disapear, you can't even restore your sites to a new hosting...
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3731672].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author AdHungry
    That is why you should back up your website.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3734473].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Matt Ward
    You were running a site for 12 years and didn't make a single backup? This is your own fault, not the fault of the hosting provider...

    Any hosting provider worth its salt will either have a solution for you to make your own backups, or will have it possible to do it yourself. BACK EVERYTHING UP. 5 minutes of work can save you endless stress and total disaster. If you have anything that would kill you to lose it and you don't make multiple backups, it's not a matter of if you'll lose it; it's a matter of when.

    It's very easy to even backup/restore a Wordpress setup with files/images and all. Just google it.
    Signature
    "Keep moving forward."
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3734925].message }}

Trending Topics