Hostgator Crash EVERY Time - Solutions? | Warrior Forum - The #1 Digital Marketing Forum & Marketplace

10 years ago

Hey Tiffany,
I'm hearing (unfortunately) more and more issues with HG. I'm with Bluehost, and although technically owned by the same company, haven't had any issues. Like zero. Would strongly suggest you look around at other providers, AND TELL HOSTGATOR you're doing so, and maybe they'll take your legitimate concerns more seriously.

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salegurus

10 years ago

It's so unfortunate that what was once one of the best providers has fallen like this...
I guess you missed all the threads about Hostgator going down the tubes lately...

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GlenH 10 years ago

I've been with HostGator for 4 years with a dedicated server, and have only had one real 'crash' which lasted about 6 hours.

Even then I got a 2 month hosting credit from them for the inconvenience.

I can't fault their dedicated server hosting
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seasoned

10 years ago

Originally Posted by TiffanyLambert

The ONLY thing on this site is a Download Guard - a catalog of products. No blog or anything.

I called HG and he says he's confused too - because in that one hour there were only 382 unique visitors.

My site got shut down for 382 visitors? WTF?

I'm not 100% sure how download guard works, etc... There ARE some settings/limits but they won't cause a crash, and recovery is quick. And most are above the 382. EVEN if you ran out of memory, it would recover.

I'm assuming this is a LINUX system, right? If it is, I will have to assume that they are, or a user on the system is, incompetent. In EITHER case, the most likely reason for the failure is that you are on a shared system. The average SMALL dedicated server costs about $90+. If you are paying much less than that, it is likely shared. Do you have the ability to log into root? If you don't, it is shared! Does going to the IP address that your site is at show you anything but a site of your? If so, the site is shared.

Try a

ps -e -f | grep -v root| grep -v your_user

You should see a "nobody" user. If you don't, or you see other users that aren't application users, it is a shared system.

There are a LOT of ways that a shared system can hurt an active site. A program can use up virtual memory and consume real memory until things crash. They could have a huge launch and hurt new connections and tank throughput. They can eat up all disk space. MOST databases use local disk space so it will affect THEM. etc....

Steve

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Kingfish85

10 years ago

How many addon domains do you have?

To be honest, addon domains are bad. They're bad for both performance and security.

If you plan to add more or have more than say, 10, I would recommend a reseller account. You need to split them up and get them off the single account. Since everything runs as the same system user, it's near impossible to track down which one could be causing the problem, at least without spending a ton of time tracking it down.

Another problem is that many people see "addon domains" as a way to pay pennies to host tons of websites; you then run into problems like this.

Next step is to find yourself a better web host.

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TiffanyLambert

10 years ago

Yep when this first started happening, they advised me to go to a reseller, so I did. That didn't help. So they told me to go Cloudflare. Didn't help.

Now they say I need a dedicated server.

Been with them since the start of my IM career - HATE that they have a tendency to suck now.

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Kingfish85

10 years ago

Originally Posted by TiffanyLambert

Yep when this first started happening, they advised me to go to a reseller, so I did. That didn't help. So they told me to go Cloudflare. Didn't help.

Now they say I need a dedicated server.

Been with them since the start of my IM career - HATE that they have a tendency to suck now.

So how many accounts are causing an issue? Do they just suspend your entire reseller account?

How many cPanel accounts do you have?

CloudFlre helps, sometimes, not all the time.

What types of sites & plugins etc are on each account?

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TiffanyLambert

10 years ago

No they just shut down the one domain on the reseller account. Then I have to call in, deal via email, then they reexamine it, lift the ban, etc.

The site only has DLG on it - a shopping cart, nothing more. There are 600+ products but still, they even said it was only 382 unique visitors in a one hour span that shut it down. That's what got me - it wasn't a big launch or anything. LOL!

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seasoned

10 years ago

Originally Posted by TiffanyLambert

No they just shut down the one domain on the reseller account. Then I have to call in, deal via email, then they reexamine it, lift the ban, etc.

The site only has DLG on it - a shopping cart, nothing more. There are 600+ products but still, they even said it was only 382 unique visitors in a one hour span that shut it down. That's what got me - it wasn't a big launch or anything. LOL!

OK, THAT is different! I am PRETTY sure that DLG is the product that was written because a shopping cart I helped get working didn't have protected download functionality. It wasn't there, and I wanted to work on other stuff first.

The shopping cart I worked on seemed to be pretty good, and people didn't complain about crashes, but The download guard was a SEPARATE product.

Which product are you using for the shopping cart? Some are decent and LOW LOAD, but SOME would blow the biggest system on the planet out of the water.

That is ANOTHER thing! The shopping cart I worked on(originally called EA), and DLG were written in PHP. What language is your shopping cart written in?

I ask because most PHP, PERL, etc... software releases ALL resources after processing a request. Most JAVA programs, by contrast, DON'T! That means a poorly programmed Java process can KILL your server. Java was SUPPOSEDLY written to avoid the need for releasing resources. BUT, as I said when it first came out, computers may never be intelligent enough to do that. Today, that is no less true.

BTW the most popular open source JAVA app server is a product called (apache) TOMCAT. php,perl, etc... are often under a product called APACHE (httpd), or APACHE (HTTP SERVER). The part in parenthesis might or might not be mentioned. APACHE as a company and product got its name from the first open source httpd server. It had SO many patches that they said it was A PATCHY server, and the name stuck.

The product became so popular and had so many offshoots that the site, that was originally for an http server, became a repository for TONS of projects. httpd and tomcat are just two such projects. Here's a list of the projects, if you are so inclined, or merely confused: Apache Software Foundation Index: Alphabetical Index

ALSO, EA is a product that MANY modified a little. Towards the end of the existence of the site that originally provided it, I combined everything made available into one version, and hopefully everyone upgraded. It WAS low load, but just changing some of the queries incorrectly could greatly increase the load.

Steve

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Kingfish85

10 years ago

Originally Posted by TiffanyLambert

No they just shut down the one domain on the reseller account. Then I have to call in, deal via email, then they reexamine it, lift the ban, etc.

The site only has DLG on it - a shopping cart, nothing more. There are 600+ products but still, they even said it was only 382 unique visitors in a one hour span that shut it down. That's what got me - it wasn't a big launch or anything. LOL!

Yea, I mean, they're a budget host - it might not sound like a lot, but there's a lot of things going on behind the scenes and I can guarantee it spiked the load higher than normal. It was shut down because there's most likely no room for resource spikes, hence the budget.

A company driven by an equity owned firm isn't going to let servers sit a 60% capacity to allow for these types of spikes - that's a 40% capacity profit margin.

I'd say your best option is to find yourself a better host that has a better balance when it comes to quality of service and profits - any EIG owned company in addition to "bargain basement/budget" hosts is going to most likely give you the same problems.

EDIT: Also, there's a lot of confusion with people, hosting and "visitors".

"Visitors" does not equate to resource usage. 1 use can generate enough bandwidth, CPU & memory usage as 100 can. You do have other factors that come into play, such as concurrent connections, email connections, processes, sql connections etc. But in general, when someone tells you "oh, you had 1,000 visitors" it doesn't really mean anything.

It's kind of like here on this forum when someone says "I'm going to push 5,000 visitors to my website, what do I need?" - a know-nothing comes along and instantly says "You need a VPS, or even better, a dedicated server"........based on what?

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TiffanyLambert

10 years ago

Originally Posted by seasoned

Which product are you using for the shopping cart? Steve

They're zip files of content (text and word docs anywhere from 5-120ish pages each). 630+ items in the store.

Originally Posted by Kingfish85

But in general, when someone tells you "oh, you had 1,000 visitors" it doesn't really mean anything.

Yes I was just listening to the HG guy ramble and he was trying to figure out why it got temp suspended and he said it had 382 unique visitors and that shouldn't have shut it down. No clue. All the tech stuff baffles me. LOL!

The problem is, this ONLY happens when I host a sale - which is approx 4 times a year, going down to 1-2 times after 2014, so I hate to pay $179/mo for a dedicated server for those few days when it's not necessary the rest of the year.

Still, makes me nervous about doing a real product launch - but even that will be temporary, so I hate to invest in a dedicated server for that, too.

Bottom line - I'm being a cheap @$$

LOL!

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seasoned

10 years ago

Originally Posted by TiffanyLambert

They're zip files of content (text and word docs anywhere from 5-120ish pages each). 630+ items in the store.

So it's just the OLD FASHIONED NO program text pages linking to like clickbank or paypal? This probably puts more stress on the clients(visitors systems) than it does on the server.

Yes I was just listening to the HG guy ramble and he was trying to figure out why it got temp suspended and he said it had 382 unique visitors and that shouldn't have shut it down. No clue. All the tech stuff baffles me. LOL!

The problem is, this ONLY happens when I host a sale - which is approx 4 times a year, going down to 1-2 times after 2014, so I hate to pay $179/mo for a dedicated server for those few days when it's not necessary the rest of the year.

Still, makes me nervous about doing a real product launch - but even that will be temporary, so I hate to invest in a dedicated server for that, too.

Bottom line - I'm being a cheap @$$

LOL!

Well, $179 IS a lot. It sounds like you should first find out WHY it is crashing though.

Steve

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Kingfish85

10 years ago

Originally Posted by TiffanyLambert

They're zip files of content (text and word docs anywhere from 5-120ish pages each). 630+ items in the store.

Yes I was just listening to the HG guy ramble and he was trying to figure out why it got temp suspended and he said it had 382 unique visitors and that shouldn't have shut it down. No clue. All the tech stuff baffles me. LOL!

The problem is, this ONLY happens when I host a sale - which is approx 4 times a year, going down to 1-2 times after 2014, so I hate to pay $179/mo for a dedicated server for those few days when it's not necessary the rest of the year.

Still, makes me nervous about doing a real product launch - but even that will be temporary, so I hate to invest in a dedicated server for that, too.

Bottom line - I'm being a cheap @$$

LOL!

I doubt you need a physical server, many who are told they do really don't.

Looking into a managed VPS with a decent provider wouldn't hurt though. You may be fine with another reseller plan with a better host as well.

From a price perspective, you'll get a better performing VPS than you will a dedicated server. You also have to factor in management. HostGator & other EIG companies aren't using good quality hardware, I can tell you that. They've also been busted selling "dedicated" servers that were actually virtual servers.

I'd say it's time to start looking around. In regards to being a "cheap @ss" - it will eventually catch up.

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ForumGuru

Banned 10 years ago

Originally Posted by TiffanyLambert

The problem is, this ONLY happens when I host a sale - which is approx 4 times a year, going down to 1-2 times after 2014, so I hate to pay $179/mo for a dedicated server for those few days when it's not necessary the rest of the year.

Still, makes me nervous about doing a real product launch - but even that will be temporary, so I hate to invest in a dedicated server for that, too.

Bottom line - I'm being a cheap @$$

LOL!

Kingfish85 touched on some of this earlier...ie: resource usage.

I got thrown off my shared reseller server (not Hostgator) back in 2005...they sent me to a VPS for 1/2 day which was a complete failure, and then by that evening I was migrating to a $200 a month dedicated box which I later upgraded to a more powerful but less expensive box that I am still using today.

My problem back then was the scripts and the website setups I was using were making a ton of database connections even with smallish amounts of traffic. Granted, by the time I was finally migrated to a dedicated box I was actually getting a ton of traffic --> so in the end I suppose I got what I deserved.

I believe Hostagator only allows a maximum of 25 simultaneous MySQL connections per shared server CPanel so I suppose when you run a sale it's possible that it's causing some issues. I suppose it's also possible that you may be getting/making too many connections. I think usually you will see an error when either of those two things happen, but maybe the crash is happening and you never receive or see the messages.

I am not always sure what causes it but sometimes the DB connections "get stuck" and that can cause serious issues and many simultaneous connections. It can be a script problem and/or a bot/crawler problem and who knows what else. Depending on your site and the scripts/code you are running it's possible one visitor can create multiple DB connections.

I also have a couple of shared Hostgator accounts, one of which I am going to attempt a launch on so I am crossing my fingers. One of my HG accounts was migrated and the other is still on it's original box...I have not noticed many issues, but then again I have not paid close attention to to the sites on those boxes either.

Anyway...I don't have a clue about the performance of the catalog script or the DLG script on your site, and I am not an expert in this area, but you might want to try to ask Hostgator or someone that knows what they are doing to try to take a look at your MySQL usage during your sale periods.

The funny thing about my server story is that I was calling in and complaining about that original shared server for weeks --> because of high loads and poor performance --> and in the end it was my own photo scripts and traffic that was bringing the server down.

:rolleyes:

Best of luck!

Regards,

-don

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seasoned

10 years ago

The way I heard it, people try to determine max average resource usage and sell to 10 times as many customers. There IS a chasm between running smoothly, and total failure. And the system rarely will be used 100%. When I was talking about the number of users, I WAS assuming ALL hit the system pretty much simultaneously.

Some companies have had their sites shut down because of a MAJOR spike from a national broadcast. They are generally well into the thousands of visitors though. But we ARE talking SERVER WIDE, and shared servers may have thousands of visitors even when YOUR sites are idle.

Steve

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seasoned

10 years ago

Tiffany,

If I understand you about how your "shopping cart" works, with NO defined DB connection, Then the connections FG refers to would only be from DLG. HOPEFULLY, it only uses ONE connection per session, so you could, if 25 connections were allowed, have 25 visitors download simultaneously. As I said, if they are PHP/PERL, the resources, like this, SHOULD be released after the response. There IS one gotcha. There is a bug that a number of databases, including some versions of mysql have. If the connection is not EXPLICITLY closed, it may stay open FOREVER. That would cause the number to increase, cause the DB to slow down, and restrict your access. BTW if that IS your problem, a simple script patch could fix it. It IS possible that something is happening like:

open database connection
issue command to check access
download file
close database connection

If THAT happens, they could have trouble downloading the file, abort, and end up with an orphaned connection. It SHOULD be like:

open database connection
issue command to check access
close database connection
download file

THAT way, if the connection aborts, the database is already closed.

How big are the files they download? What type of connection? If it is a high speed connection, over 10MB may be a problem. If it is dialup, a smaller file could be a problem. Have people complained about starting a download and having problems?

Steve

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barbling

10 years ago

I've been using

http://dominionhosting.com

now since 2005. Hardly any issues at all. Dedicated server.

And hope you get it resolved soon, Tiff!

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Kingfish85

10 years ago

Originally Posted by barbling

I've been using

http://dominionhosting.com

now since 2005. Hardly any issues at all. Dedicated server.

And hope you get it resolved soon, Tiff!

Since 2005?

Domain Name: DOMINIONHOSTING.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1762462873_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.enom.com
Registrar URL: eNom - domain name, web site hosting, email, registration
Updated Date: 2013-10-30 07:35:22Z
Creation Date: 2012-11-28 12:47:00Z

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barbling

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Kingfish85

Since 2005?

Domain Name: DOMINIONHOSTING.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1762462873_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.enom.com
Registrar URL: eNom - domain name, web site hosting, email, registration
Updated Date: 2013-10-30 07:35:22Z
Creation Date: 2012-11-28 12:47:00Z

Yep. They used to be http://NewWebsite.com .

Domain Name: NEWWEBSITE.COM
Registry Domain ID: 2601659_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.enom.com
Registrar URL: eNom - domain name, web site hosting, email, registration
Updated Date: 2013-10-07 03:18:56Z
Creation Date: 1997-11-19 05:00:00Z

I don't lie about what works for me.

Hope that helps!

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Kingfish85

10 years ago

Originally Posted by barbling

Yep. They used to be http://NewWebsite.com .

Domain Name: NEWWEBSITE.COM
Registry Domain ID: 2601659_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.enom.com
Registrar URL: eNom - domain name, web site hosting, email, registration
Updated Date: 2013-10-07 03:18:56Z
Creation Date: 1997-11-19 05:00:00Z

I don't lie about what works for me.

Hope that helps!

Fair enough.

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Paul Myers 10 years ago

Originally Posted by Kingfish85

Fair enough.

You really need to think about it before calling someone out on what could be an easily explained misreading on your part, Brent. Especially someone like Barb, who has zero history here of any "sketchy" stuff.

I often tell people I've been with Verio for 16 years. Fact is, the original account was with iServer (or maybe a company they bought), which was bought by Verio shortly afterward. Still the same original account, same specs, the whole thing. (Added dedicateds since, but still.)

Play nice, sir.
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TiffanyLambert

10 years ago

Thanks everyone! I might just splurge and go for the bigger deal and put all my domains on it. That way I'll only be sharing with myself

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Hostgator Crash EVERY Time - Solutions?

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