I Officially HATE Host Gator.

by 75 replies
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I probably put this in the wrong section...

So I registered my very first domain name at Name Cheap and got hosting at Host Gator because they were highly recommended to me.

It took me a day or two to realize I needed to transfer the DNS to Host Gator's name servers.... so I did.

...and I waited.

...days...

...days...

I still can't see the Wordpress I installed on my site after several days. Now suddenly my website isn't even online. I can't log into it or even see it. No connection... like my internet breaks whenever I go to it.

I contact Host Gator's live support. They verify the transfer was done correctly on my end and it was in "propagation" or whatever term they used. I just needed to wait a bit longer.

Satisfied with that, I waited another day. Still nothing. I contact them again today and was told everything went through fine.

When asked why my website is offline, I was informed that I needed to transfer my EMAIL to their name servers and then gave me two different ones to transfer that to.

I asked how to do that and I was told I needed to ask Name Cheap.





What the heck is that? I am so confused!
#internet marketing product reviews & ratings #gator #hate #host #officially
  • Interesting, I have been hosting my websites with hostgator before and I don't like the following:
    1. Customer service
    2. No r1soft backup
    3. Don't support ffmpeg

    You have to contact hostgator again and be persistent. You have to be patient with hostgator.
  • Can you see your WP site if you type in the IP and not the name?
    • [1] reply
  • Also, I told them I want this resolved or I want a refund. They told me I can cancel but I will not be issued a refund. That gets me mad. I paid for a month of hosting and I haven't been able to TOUCH my website.
  • OK QCW, I'll tell you a little secret! THIS is how it works...

    1. You buy your chosen domain name on your desired host site during the purchase of a domain.
    2. They buy the domain, on your behalf(if they are honest), make the pointers point to their name servers AND make themselves the tech contact.
    3. They setup THEIR name servers to point to the system your website is on.
    4. They set that site up to properly run your site.

    OK, HERE is the rub. You forced them to BYPASS steps 1 and 2. That means BEST CASE....

    1. Problems can occur in resolution, and YOU have to change the pointers and WAIT.
    2. If they move the website, YOU have to change the pointers and WAIT AGAIN.

    WORST CASE?

    3. You might ALSO have to call them at various times to correct errors that otherwise won't occur.

    HEY, don't blame THEM. MOST of the problems you spoke of, and potentially ALL, have NOTHING to do with them, and YOU might have caused them.

    As for propagation? What the heck is THAT? Well, there is no way you could connect to a site in say china. Even BILL GATES with all his money couldn't manage THAT! So you ACTUALLY connect to a certain site. t is often the SAME whether you want to connect with the site nextdoor, or one on the other side of the planet. IT does the same. Try

    tracert amazon.com

    in a windows command window! For ME, It to 13 hops to get to the west coast. It takes more than 30 hops total. DNS is almost the same in reverse and each hop is done through that propagation. You triggered a worst case scenario, for YOU, by testing it.

    Steve
  • If you cannot access your domain through the IP, the domain has probably not been created.This is something you do through your cpanel on hostgator. (I'm making this assumption,because I have a Hostgator reseller account,not a single domain account.During the process of making the account it asks what DNS you want to use, hostgators or the ones at namecheap.If you chose the wrong ones it wont resolve properly.

    Hostgatyor may have a new way of setting up their DNS,but none of my sites are setup they way yours is.
    • [1] reply
    • Actually, by default, you are NOT supposed to be able to access a new shared domain through just your IP address. If you REALLY want to test it by "using your own IP", HERE is what you do!

      Edit a file that is called something like"C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts". Replace "C:\windows" with the base directory your windows OS is in.

      Part of it looks like:

      # 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
      # 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

      # localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
      127.0.0.1 localhost

      ADD a line that has spaces followed by the IP of your website followed by the domain name that YOUR site should use. Follow the example above for localhost.

      THEN, just type your domain name, and it should work. If it doesn't, the problem is DEFINITELY on THEIR end!

      You see, ALL networking stuff on unix goes, by default, to /etc/hosts FIRST, BEFORE going to DNS. THIS windows file emulates that functionality.

      This only works for YOUR system though, other people will generally be going to DNS.

      NOW, if this DOES work, it means that either their domain name service is setup wrong, you setup the pointers wrong, or it hasn't propagated yet.

      You CAN go to your website, and do a

      grep yourdomain.com /etc/hosts

      Replace "yourdomain.com" with your domain name. It should NOT show your domain name. If it doesn't, do a

      ping yourdomain.com

      If it starts pinging the IP address that you were given, then it is likely not their side. You see, when you ping on your website there, it will hit THEIR name servers FIRST!

      Steve
  • Steve,
    whenever I first set up a domain I have ALWAYS been able to access it by IP until the DNS has propogated.
    Starting with the domains I had with Host4Profit 13/14 years ago through using Pair Hosting and numerous others, I cannot think of one time I didn't access it that way.
    This is one of the frew times we disagree. :-)

    Now, you understand I mean the IP that the host gave me, not MY IP,right?
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Well, if you resell, you probably get an IP, and you definitely do for https: ,databases, dedicated servces, but shared hosting is generally NAME RESOLVED. THAT is why kingfish refers to: 0.0.0.0/~account which is http speak for go to this IP, and the site for THIS account. It is ALSO why if you ping a domain, and get an IP and then go to that IP, you often get a different website. Using the IP address on a named resolved system will give you the first site defined on that system.

      As time passes, until IPv6 becomes the standard, this will become MORE AND MORE true because ISPs will simply NOT HAVE ANY CHOICE! More people are using more IPs, and there aren't enough to even give HALF the people on the planet their own.

      Steve
  • Thanks for all the advice and information so far. It is my very FIRST website ever. I did a lot of reading before I went through with it but I never expected it to be so complicated.

    Seasoned - I didn't set out to make it hard. LoL I guess I just did the worst possible thing on accident. *sigh*
    • [1] reply
    • BTW I must have missed this before. I was NOT accusing you of ANYTHING! I was simply saying that if you get the deal as a package at a host, and it fails, it is THEIR FAULT! Let them say whatever, but the ball is in their court and it is THEIR fault!

      1. THEY should order the name.
      2. THEY should set the pointers to THEIR DNS.
      3. THEY should setup THEIR DNS.
      4. THEY should setup the initial account for you.
      5. THEY should setup themselves as the TECH contact so if they move the system THEY can repoint it.

      Did you do anything wrong buying from another host? NOPE! It is less risky and may be cheaper in the long run. It DOES mean that YOU need to do more work though. Your registrar and host can do little more than we have done here.

      Steve
  • Your nameservers from whois shows:

    NS455.HOSTGATOR.COM NS456.HOSTGATOR.COM

    Are you able to access the site by the IP provided in your account info email? It should be something like this:

    0.0.0.0/~account
    • [1] reply
    • Very strange. At first I thought it was a Cache problem and she needed to flush it but I can see that it does not load on my end either.

      Kingfish, could this be caused by her .htaccess file?

      BTW QCW, I love your url; it's very catchy.
      • [1] reply
  • That's what I was trying to find out too Kingfish.
    None of my Hostgator sites actually have "Hostgator,com" in the actual nameserver,
    But as I was saying, I have a reseller's account and not a single one,so don't know if they have different settings or not.
  • I don't know if you are correct or not.While it is a reseller account,it has never been sued for that,and it IS shared hosting. But I do agree with you that she should be able to access the site through the IP given in the welcome letter.
    When I had a similar problem I was given the back and forth runaround between namecheap and hostgator and it turned out the domain had never been created on the Hostgator server,so even though there was DNS,it was pointing to a non existent site.
    I think more than likely any one of several of us responding could find the problem with the login details,so if she actually has a tech she trusts,she may want to turn it over to him to look into.
  • Look in your account info email from HostGator. You should see where they give you a server IP. Each shared server will have its own IP. Your account on the server should be the first 8 letters of your domain name/cPanel username by default.

    the temporary IP they give you is the bound IP to that specific server your shared account is being hosted on.

    IP/~cPanelusername

    This will get you to your account no matter what. If it doesn't then you need to tell them that. I'm almost certain HG has mod_userdir enabled.

    Your nameservers show correct on your domain from multiple locations, including our in-house whois server. I can't however do a successful trace route to your domain nor get a response from it. I can get a response from the HG nameservers.

    It is a possibility that you were given the wrong nameservers though. I would most certainly get a hold of their support again.
  • Hostgator accounts before they are DNSed are reached through the IP as we all seem to agree. It always on my end looks something like this: 192.168.1.1/cpanel to actually access it.
    If I don't add the cpanel, I go to the IP and it says something like :
    index of.......
    But at least I know the site is created.

    In some ways all hosts are the same, in other ways they are all different.
    I still think it can be relatively easily fixed.

    Heck, if you are so unhappy with hostgator,though I'm not sure its their fault, then give Kingfish85 a try. He seems willing to make sure you're set up right and has a special WSO offer going on. I think, is that offer still on,Kingfish?
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • KimW - Thanks for the recommendation. Yes, we do have 2 WSO's running - Standard shared hosting as well as our new Cloud Hosting.

      Unfortunately, this is clearly an issue on HG's end and it's also unfortunate that they are not giving you much help. (from what I understand). The DNS info coming from your domain itself appears to be correct and is telling where to go. The destination is the problem. If HG's DNS doesn't know where to send the request, it will simply just time out.
  • As I said,I had this problem once with HG, turned out the domain was never created. In my case it was my fault because having a resellers account it was my responsibility to create it through my WHM,and I thought I had,but apparently didn't.
    And it sounds like she is having the exact same problem I had, where the DNS from namecheap is pointing to the right location,but it can't find the credentials on the server,so its stopping there. Does that make sense to you?
    • [1] reply
    • This could be the case however, it was mentioned that HG support said it was a prop. issue which leads me to believe the account is active. If she can access cPanel, then the account is active. If she also received the account info email then that verifies the account was created as it's automated. It's also possible that the account itself became corrupt. Either way if the account wasn't created HG (if the tech was competent enough) should have noticed the account was missing.

      There's a number of things that could be causing the problem, but without having any info on the account or access to it I can only make assumptions based on experience.
      • [1] reply
  • I have HostGator and i never had any problem with them. Any time i needed assistance i would call them and they would help or ask if they have my permission to go in and do what i wanted done. I think all hosting companies are about the same these days, to call them directly when needed.
  • domaintools says the NS are
    ns455.hostgator.com
    ns456.hostgator.com

    So in my hosts file I added
    184.173.199.244 howtotextwomen.com

    Which does come up with a page, but it looks to be a parking page.

    Accessing a site by IP address only may work if there are no other sites on that IP address, or there is a default site set. Otherwise web servers such as apache httpd will usually return an error saying the HOST was missing in the sent header.
    • [1] reply
    • It doesn't do this with HG, but other host I have used the IP given me would end with soemthing like "port:80 "
  • Regarding that 404 issue, there IS a setting in apache, FancyIndexing, that is often set, and there is a skeleton that may be copied but if neither were the case, you would get the 404 issue. QCW, have you tried setting up an index page? And FancyIndexing is a neat feature but may be looked at as a security risk, so I could see an ISP disabling it.

    Steve
    • [1] reply
    • From what info I can gather from the server, there doesn't appear to be an account (at least not with any files in it, but it was mentioned Wordpress was installed.) on that server. Without access, I'm at a loss unfortunately.
  • It seems that the domain has not been created on the HG side. You can do that via the cpanel. Perhaps their support assumed that you have already created it. Or, it could be a case of misspelling.

    To check, do this:

    1. In your cpanel, check the 'Main Domain' under the 'Statistics' section on the left side. It is the 9th section. It should have your domain name.

    2. If domain name was not found in above step, then click on 'Addon Domains' in the 'domains' section in the main cpanel. Check of your domain is listed there.



    3. If domain name was not found in step 2 either, add your domain name here in the 'Addon Domains' area.

    HTH.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Methinks that it is just a matter of waiting. Takes a while sometimes in my experience.
  • LOTS of responses to go through! Wow guys, thanks so much! I'm going to keep trying everything suggested. I should have it sorted out by tomorrow. I feel so stupid trying to figure this junk out. LoL
    • [1] reply
    • I have created dozens of Wordpress blogs with Hostgator and never had a problem. The last one was just a few days ago. I think Kim is right that the problem is you didn't *create* the domain. You have to sign into your CPanel and click on either Addon domain or Subdomain, depending on what it is and "create" it before Hostgator recognizes it. Then the process only takes a few minutes.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
      • [1] reply
  • I'm going to CALL support Tuesday and demand to speak to a manager. I'm completely stumped. I've tried things mentioned here in the thread and everything looks to be working fine with the exception that my site is offline 99/9999% of the time and when it's not, offline, Wordpress is not showing up.

    I had some really awesome ideas for that site and I am very eager to get going on it. Ugh.
  • I am a newbie here and also hate hostgator and dreamhost for their worst services. At least dreamhost seems to respond properly. Hostgator always gives a standard reply and I have received more "no's" during my interactions with them.
  • I use hostgator and I had no problems at all. Try to clear your OS DNS.
  • I still say I am right about the problem.
    I also think she should try Kingfish. If he can get her setup in less than an hour,which I am sure he can, her stress will be much lower and she can move on to other things.
    As far as propagation goes, almosr all Hosting companies have a standard reply for the time it takes,but I have found at least with HG, I can make my site at say noon and by 2PM get to it by url.

    Kay,
    II also saw that it was also only a couple of days old, I just think the OP is a little too anxious. :-)
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • For propagation, I have found that adding the domain in the HG cpanel before registering the domain and then setting the nameservers while registering (not after) makes the process almost instantaneous. This way I am able to have my domains point to my hosting account within minutes of registering them.
      • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • QCW,

    A thought just occured to me. We are ALL ASSUMING the same thing! When you purchased the domain(HG ACCOUNT), did you put in your EXACT domain name and tell them you already had it? If you didn't, THAT is your problem. I'm telling you though, TRY the etc/hosts method I listed above. That will get rid of 33% of the possibilities!

    If THAT works, the domain is setup right, etc... and the problem HAS to be YOUR system/network, or THEIR DNS. If you DON'T try it, you may know NOTHING.

    Nobody can guarantee propagation. That would require contracts with who knows how many ISPs and violating standards. If you register a new name, and do all right, and THEN use it, it will work RIGHT AWAY! If you slip up anywhere, it will be slower for everyone on your subnet and some along the route. That is just the way it works. If all systems went to the source to get the info all the time, EVERYTHING would be slower because of the hops to get there, and the bandwidth usage. anyone remember when all those nameservers went down a few years ago? They said there were only THIRTEEN, for the ENTIRE PLANET! If all users went to the source for DNS, that would have SHUT DOWN THE INTERNET, at least for the .com and .net TLDs!

    Steve
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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    • Honestly - keep this in mind. LOL

      Steven and Kim (and probably at least 75% of other people here) know much more than I do about how domains and hosting work.

      My own approach is of the "details" variety - such as asking "did the flood start before or after you removed your finger from the dike?".

      When I first began working with domains and hosting and sites...I knew there were many technical things that could be wrong when something or other didn't work.....but 99.9% of the time the problem was that I screwed up some little thing along the way.
      • [ 2 ] Thanks
      • [2] replies
  • OP - please contact HG support before you go creating a bunch of addon domains. Addon domains is NOT what you're looking for, and I don't know why it keeps getting suggested. From what I understand in your post, the site in question is the main domain on the account, which if you cannot get to the root domain, you're not going to get to an addon domain.
  • WHo suggested addons? DId I miss that? Addons are NOT the way to go.
    • [1] reply
    • Yea, there's a few posts mentioning addon domains. As for taking time, this isn't the case. 99% of the time, DNS is updated across the globe within a few hours, in rare cases it takes days.

      This is definitely an issue on HostGators side, and if the OP hasn't gotten it resolved I would suggest finding another web host. As I've said plenty of times, HostGator is a great company, but they are beginning to lack on quality technical support. You can tell be the scripted replies in your tickets.

      I would suggest you pack up and move. It should not, in ANY case take days to get this resolved. I'm shocked to comment on this thread again today and it appears the problem is still going on.

      HostGator needs to start treating their customers like actual people and not just another account.
  • Seems basically we are now at the point of just repeating ourselves. If she wants advice, sh'e has been given plenty of good advice.
    If she wants actual help,that also has been offered up.
    The ball is in her court now.
  • That confuses me. You said step-by-step that you:

    1) Registered the domain name at NameCheap (NC).
    2) Signed up for HostGator (HG) hosting and eventually pointed the domain name to the HG DNS.
    3) You say that you installed WordPress (WP).

    That means you were able to access Cpanel. You installed WP via Cpanel/Fantastico or possibly a manual install via FTP. In any event, you are saying that you installed WP.

    Questions..

    1) Did you actually install a new installation of WP on the domain?
    2) Are you referring to a different WP installation that was on a different domain?
    3) Did you move or transfer a WP installation from a different domain?

    Jeffery 100%
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I have hundreds of sites with hostgator and in my experience, DNS propagation normally takes "minutes" rather than days, especially if you use a US based proxy to view your sites.

    I would think there is definitely something wrong at this stage, and the problem is likely to be at hostgator's end. Since this is your first website, the chances are that this is the primary domain of your account which means you do not have to do anything. I would check again whether indeed that the namerservers are correct.

    ns455.hostgator.com
    ns456.hostgator.com
  • Welcome to the ever increasing family of host gator haters. 3 months was all I could handle with them. I've found another host and have never been happier. The only good thing they have going for them is there price, but beyond that, nothing.
    • [1] reply
    • Seems Hostgator haters are far fewer than those of us that have no real problems with them.
      • [1] reply
  • For the price you're not going to find a better provider. I've used hostgator, micfo, site5, and a laundry list of other economy hosting providers over the last 10 years, and HostGator has been my favorite because of decent support and not a day in downtime for the last 3 years.
  • Umm, working fine for me. Clicked your URL, pressed enter, and up popped Wordpress instantly...
    • [1] reply
    • You are correct, it is working now, at least showing a WP site,but we don't know what the op has done since she first posted.

      And Kay, you were right,there was activity on the 23rd.
      • [1] reply
  • Same here. Im guessing you have resolved your problems with hostgator etc...
  • and the answer is.. either she or HG originally assigned an incorrect DNS


    The original DNS
    Name Servers:
    ns455.hostgator.com
    ns456.hostgator.com


    The new DNS
    Name Servers:
    ns805.hostgator.com
    ns806.hostgator.com

    Side note: Sure would like to see the DNS in the original welcome email.

    Jeffery 100%
    • [1] reply
    • What I find frustrating is when someone asks for help -gets the problem resolved - and doesn't bother to come back to say WHAT the problem was that was fixed.
      • [ 4 ] Thanks
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  • you are right
  • Backups DO take space and bandwidth. So there IS a cost. People USUALLY don't need them, so it is a waste. I could understand them charging a modest cost. And their willingness to do it for free probably depends on how long you have been a customer, how often you have asked them to do it, and how much data you have.

    BTW SEVERAL throw in FREE SERVICE TIME! It is often a bit of a meaningless gesture, BUT, suppose it were $15/month. If they charged you $15 for a restore, you would NEVER know there was a cost!You might not see the charge on the bill. It WOULD mean that OTHER stuff that would have been free could have been charged for.

    Steve
    • [1] reply
    • We have never charged or added higher prices for backups, and never will. Now, if those backups are being pulled from tape, then sure. Web hosting accounts shouldn't be backed up to tape anyway. Tape is only for archival purposes.

      It does really bug me that some companies charge a customer $15 to restore an account. I guess that's where quantity over quality comes in.
      • [1] reply
  • Since the OP disappeared, we can get off track.
    I keep looking at your service and I don't see a good in-between plan for resellers. I'd have to almost triple what I am paying now to get a reseller account with you. And space wise I'm not sure if I'd be getting more or less with you.
    • [1] reply
    • Hi Kim,

      To avoid hijacking this thread, would you mind if we took this over to either one of our WSO threads or via PM? We do offer custom packages and will be expanding our reseller plans/phasing out our developer packages.

      For space, keep in mind everything we offer is 100% RAID 10 & backed up remotely. (except our Standard plan.) We will eventually be re-working our packages, and all except budget hosting will include premium features.

      -Brent
  • I figured the OP has deserted the thread that's why I had no problem discussing it, but sure I can talk via PM.
    Maybe one of your WSOs would cover my needs. I don't even go to that forum anymore. The W+ affiliate program has made it so i get almost every WSO posted delivered to my email at least by a dozen different sellers/affiliates nowadays. lol.
    • [1] reply
    • Sure, understandable. Feel free to shoot me a PM or email (email is in sig). I will have to take a look at the Warrior Plus, it may be a good option for us. We have had great turnouts with our WSO's, but 90% don't comment or ask questions. We will also be adding VPS's to our line here soon.
  • I have been with some crappy hosting companies over the years, but HostGator is not one of them. They are one of my favs.
  • at this point, hostgator has totally let everything go. you will never get your websites online with hostgator. in another attempt to cut corners and make more money at the expense of their long time customers, they have contracted the datacenter in provo. don't let the lie about "upgrading" fool you. that data center is a total wash.

    Move away from hostgator now. Get all of your property out of their while you still can get to it. all of your data will be gone and they won't let you have it back as is in my case right now
    • [1] reply
    • I hate Host Gator too!

      They only host about 120 website for me, and then they force me to pay $12.95 every month for the privilege. That's ten cents a month per domain! What ! Do they think I'm made of money?
      • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • Seems to me Hostgator made their name name on the "Gurus".

    I never liked them.
    They're too expensive and have poor customer service.

    I started with 1&1 and was very happy with them.
    But, they didn't have C-panel.
    I switched to Blue Host and would highly recommend them.
  • OLD THREAD ALERT!
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Yeah, 5 messages ago shanepax23 wanted to make it clear hostgator is bad. c'est la vie!

      Steve
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