Hostgator Problems - Any Suggested Alternatives?

216 replies
First, I need to just say it... Hostgator Sucks!

There, I got THAT out of my system.

I am paying a hefty monthly fee for a dedicated server with hostgator. For the 2nd time in 1 week, my server is experiencing a LOT of downtime as a result of maintenance hostgator performed.

When I notified them of my server being down earlier today, hostgator told me that they had "scheduled network maintenance" to "keep network outages from occurring" and that they KNEW this maintenance might cause a "brief period of downtime."

However, they never notified any of their hosting clients (myself included) about this scheduled maintenance that could affect our servers.

Unfortunately, the maintenance which should have only cause a "brief period of downtime" went very wrong... my server has been down more than it's been up for the past 8 hours... with no end in sight.

At this time, I am seeking other hosting solutions.

It's bad enough the amount of downtime I've experienced this past week. However, it's INEXCUSABLE that hostgator never notified their clients of scheduled maintenance that could affect their servers. If they had, I could have then notified my own clients. Instead, this is making me look very bad to my clients... and I don't even have a way to inform them of the issue b/c I have no email or support desk capability while my server is down.

If anyone here knows of an affordable alternative to hostgator, I'm open to suggestions. My criteria would be:

- Good uptime statistics
- Good communication w/clients re: server maintenance
- responsive support
- managed dedicated server
- fast server

Thanks for any input you can provide.
#alternatives #hostgator #problems #suggested
  • Profile picture of the author Tania Edwards
    I am planning to move hostgator too. looking for suggestions.
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  • Profile picture of the author dlundy1
    I use host gator as well, But i Rarely have problems with them.

    Try Clearing your Cache.

    Maybe your web-browser is continually pulling in the same error page from the cache and not the updated one.

    If you post your website, I can look for you.
    Signature

    Don't Give UP! See how I made mt first $69.73 online :)

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    • Profile picture of the author sirlancelot
      Join the club....

      I had to vent as well..

      New member here had to join since we are all in the same boat and sinking fast. Ever since HG was bought out by EIG, nothing but problems. I was never told about the buy out, just a meager announcement, that they were upgrading to "better servers". Ya right, after researching I found out HG is no longer and now just another storefront for EIG and the server upgrade was actually just a move to EIG datacenter to save money I guess. Business is business and plain and simple, the new server suxs. So while Brent travels the world, probably driving through Tuscany at this very minute, sipping fine Italian wines... We sit here in painful agony, fielding calls from angry clients, asking questions, why their websites are down and I have no real answer... I assume I am on Provo as well and it's dead today and has been teetering precariously for weeks now, with intermittent down times and slow responses. I can't run a business like this, been with HG for years, great service and company, but now it's EIG and nothing positive in the future as far as I can tell.

      So please help me, as I will be joining the mass exodus. Were do we go, how do I go, how do I migrate my entire VPS to another hosting company....

      Hopelessly Lost in a putrid swamp..
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      • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
        Originally Posted by sirlancelot View Post

        Join the club....

        I had to vent as well..

        New member here had to join since we are all in the same boat and sinking fast. Ever since HG was bought out by EIG, nothing but problems. I was never told about the buy out, just a meager announcement, that they were upgrading to "better servers". Ya right, after researching I found out HG is no longer and now just another storefront for EIG and the server upgrade was actually just a move to EIG datacenter to save money I guess. Business is business and plain and simple, the new server suxs. So while Brent travels the world, probably driving through Tuscany at this very minute, sipping fine Italian wines... We sit here in painful agony, fielding calls from angry clients, asking questions, why their websites are down and I have no real answer... I assume I am on Provo as well and it's dead today and has been teetering precariously for weeks now, with intermittent down times and slow responses. I can't run a business like this, been with HG for years, great service and company, but now it's EIG and nothing positive in the future as far as I can tell.

        So please help me, as I will be joining the mass exodus. Were do we go, how do I go, how do I migrate my entire VPS to another hosting company....

        Hopelessly Lost in a putrid swamp..
        So THAT's what happened! I never knew it changed owners.. I only knew their service has gone downhill since the "upgrade" to new servers a few months ago.

        Thanks for that info. Now I'm more determined than ever to switch hosting companies.
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        • Profile picture of the author sirlancelot
          Originally Posted by abundantliving View Post

          So THAT's what happened! I never knew it changed owners.. I only knew their service has gone downhill since the "upgrade" to new servers a few months ago.

          Thanks for that info. Now I'm more determined than ever to switch hosting companies.

          Been going downhill even before the switch. I thought the longer waits for support tickets was just maybe they were busy - nope the HG support is gone and now we are being supported by EIG people with all their other 100+ hosting companies.
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      • Profile picture of the author BeechHill
        Do a little research over at webhostingtalk.com and you'll get some more objective opinions on where to go. Most people should have seen this coming though. If you jumped on HostGator just because everyone else was using it, you were sadly misinformed.
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        • Profile picture of the author phobium
          What kind of issues have you been seeing Holly? I also have a dedicated with them and my server has been going down for the past 3 days and would stay down until I did a reboot request, at which point it'd come back up.

          This time though they refuse to reboot it until network issues are cleared up, so I'm now approaching 11 straight hours of downtime while other people's go down and come back up.

          edit: RackSpace offers dedicated servers and I've heard good things, but they're way more expensive. DreamHost offers comparable pricing to HostGator Dedicated's and I'm currently trying to see if they'll do a free migration.

          Is DreamHost any better?

          edit 2: Seems DreamHost is having the same issues lol
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          • Profile picture of the author sirlancelot
            Do not move to another EIG company. Many are having the same problems.

            Here is a list of EIG owned companies. Not sure if this is a complete list but a start

            Endurance International Group - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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            • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
              Originally Posted by sirlancelot View Post

              Do not move to another EIG company. Many are having the same problems.

              Here is a list of EIG owned companies. Not sure if this is a complete list but a start

              Endurance International Group - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
              Thanks for the list... and the warning!

              I hope this thread gets picked up quickly by the search engines so we can warn others to stay away from EIG owned companies, such as hostgator.
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            • Profile picture of the author Alex Mensah
              Originally Posted by sirlancelot View Post

              Do not move to another EIG company. Many are having the same problems.
              yeah honestly i would just stick it out because sometimes you make the move to another host and end up experiencing even worst problems.
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          • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
            Originally Posted by phobium View Post

            What kind of issues have you been seeing Holly? I also have a dedicated with them and my server has been going down for the past 3 days and would stay down until I did a reboot request, at which point it'd come back up.

            This time though they refuse to reboot it until network issues are cleared up, so I'm now approaching 11 straight hours of downtime while other people's go down and come back up.

            edit: RackSpace offers dedicated servers and I've heard good things, but they're way more expensive. DreamHost offers comparable pricing to HostGator Dedicated's and I'm currently trying to see if they'll do a free migration.

            Is DreamHost any better?

            edit 2: Seems DreamHost is having the same issues lol
            Dreamhost is probably another EIG company LOL

            What am I seeing?

            - Frequent downtime
            - long downtime
            - slow support

            I can't run a business when hostgator servers are down more hours than they're up... nobody can.

            P.S. Using hostgator name as frequently as possible so, when this thread is picked up by the search engines, other people can see what's really going on with hostgator. Hoping to help others avoid making the mistake of getting a hostgator server.

            P.P.S. I actually moved to a hostgator dedicated server because of lots of downtime from another company. A few marketers I respect all recommended hostgator's dedicated servers... said they'd never had any problems with them, and got good support. However, that was BEFORE hostgator "upgraded" our server's to EIG.
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            • Profile picture of the author sirlancelot
              Yes I didn't jump on any ships or wagons. I have been with Hostgator for 7+ years - always good service, reliable and fast support. In the past few months, and now the "upgrade" and EIG take over. Down the tubes.

              Time to pack up the wagon and gallop my pony out of here...
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    • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
      Originally Posted by dlundy1 View Post

      I use host gator as well, But i Rarely have problems with them.

      Try Clearing your Cache.

      Maybe your web-browser is continually pulling in the same error page from the cache and not the updated one.

      If you post your website, I can look for you.
      Nope, this is definitely downtime in their Provo center. Many servers are affected.
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  • Profile picture of the author Laura Raisanen
    I will have to keep an eye on this thread, as I was considering moving TO Hostgator. I'm currently with GoDaddy and recently had a lot of problems with running my blog, but haven't done anything about it now that the problem seems to have been solved.
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    • Profile picture of the author Gatorhater
      Originally Posted by Laura Raisanen View Post

      I will have to keep an eye on this thread, as I was considering moving TO Hostgator. I'm currently with GoDaddy and recently had a lot of problems with running my blog, but haven't done anything about it now that the problem seems to have been solved.
      We have been with that Gator for about three years, and they have progressively gotten worse since our arrival. We were with Netfirms, and they fell apart when EIG bought them out, and so we ran to Host Gator thinking to find a better company. Imagine how surprised we were, when things started getting "strange" at Host Gator, and we found out that EIG had bought Brent Oxley out..

      I would not recommend any company attached to EIG; it is only interested in acquisitions and profit. EIG is a disgusting corporation, parasites of the worst order. Everything they touch is defiled on behalf of corporate profitability.

      Now we are on our way out the door, gotta get away from that Gator. Been thinking about a company called SITE5, which has about 300,000 customers, and is still small enough to need and care about their customers.

      My advice to anyone thinking about going to HG, or any company tied to EIG, is RUN................................................
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  • Profile picture of the author jeffreyhuan
    If you are looking for VPS or dedicated hosting, I highly recommend WiredTree.

    Fantastic service. I have never had a single problem in two years.
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    • Profile picture of the author sirlancelot
      Originally Posted by jeffreyhuan View Post

      If you are looking for VPS or dedicated hosting, I highly recommend WiredTree.

      Fantastic service. I have never had a single problem in two years.
      Please keep offering alternatives for VPS / Dedi Hosting, I am currently researching them. Thank-you!

      Any feedback on Rackspace?
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    • Profile picture of the author tooAlive
      Originally Posted by jeffreyhuan View Post

      If you are looking for VPS or dedicated hosting, I highly recommend WiredTree.

      Fantastic service. I have never had a single problem in two years.
      Another thumbs up for WiredTree.

      I recently moved over to them from another "high end" host and not only are their servers actually faster, they're priced extremely competitively as well.

      If you look around you'll even find a 50% coupon for your first two months on a VPS, and I believe there was a similar option for their hybrid VPS and dedicated packages as well.

      I'm really happy with them so far and glad I switched.

      I also just finished moving my smaller sites from Hostgator over to StableHost. I had been thinking about switching since they started to go downhill after being bought out by EIG, and this outage today was the deal breaker. I had some Wordpress blogs for my parents on there as well, and they took AGES to load. I'm talking 5 to 10 seconds; sometimes even up to 14. And that was with caching plugins, optimized images and using a CDN. Looking forward to testing them out on StableHost now.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bish
    I have the same problem. All of my sites are hosted on HG. Everything is down at the moment.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dr Funkenstein
      I used to love Hostgator but all summer I have had issues and my sites are down right now like everyone else's. Pretty much have had nothing but problems since switching from a shared account to a VPS. I now pay 10x more for a server that is always down. I have so many people yelling at me because of the sites that are down, it's painful. I'm also looking for new options, I am officially done with these clowns. Tech Support used to be fast and now it's really slow, my server is always running slow, and the sites frequently have been down for many hours (almost a full day recently).

      What a joke this company turned out to be. Thanks for the info EIG, I'll be sure to stay away from those hosts as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author limestone614
    Hi Holly,

    Sorry to hear of your problems.

    You are not alone, my entire portfolio has been up and down all day today. I've had to pause 50+ Adword campaigns. No idea how much traffic has dropped off the sites.

    I have a mix of sites spread across 11 shared hosting packages at hostgator.
    (About 100 sites, split about 50/50 mine and customers)

    All of which are going to be cancelled very soon.

    I too have seen the speed of my sites slow over the past couple of months. Sometimes the page-load times have doubled.

    As for the best way to go, I guess that depends on the position you're in.
    We've been considering installing a couple of Dell R210's as web-servers in our building for a couple of months now. Today's events have solidified that thought.

    I ordered the servers from Dell at 3.00pm today for delivery on the 8th.

    Good bye Hostgator.
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    The Best Organic Traffic Solutions.
    For yours, take the next step: Visit Safeserps
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  • Profile picture of the author limestone614
    Don't waste your time with "Live Chat": I got this "Canned Response" after 30 minutes waiting. The Actual Chat window is dead.

    Chat ID: *******. Question: Terrible service & Potential Cancellation
    (5:07:33pm)System:Customer has entered chat and is waiting for an agent.

    (5:11:08pm)System:Thank you for verifying your billing account ****.******@*********.co.uk!

    (5:26:13pm)Casey H.:Thank you for contacting hostgator.com support.

    In order to improve the reliability and efficiency of our Provo datacenter, we are currently completing emergency upgrades to our network-level capabilities. We are making every effort to complete this as quickly as possible, however, until the maintenance is fully completed your server may experience intermittent downtime. We greatly appreciate your understanding and apologize for any inconvenience that this maintenance may cause. These upgrades are necessary to ensure that our service is stable and reliable on a long-term scale.

    We will provide updates regarding the maintenance on our forums, as well as provide confirmation once these upgrades are completed. You can access our forum post via the following link:
    http://forums.hostgator.com/network-...301#post474301

    Please do not shoot the messenger
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    • Profile picture of the author sirlancelot
      Yes their support forums are running slower than molasses as well and the customer review section is getting hammered. But the bad reviews seems to disappear just like my income today. Customers calling me and I have no answers BS!
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    • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
      Originally Posted by limestone614 View Post

      Don't waste your time with "Live Chat": I got this "Canned Response" after 30 minutes waiting. The Actual Chat window is dead.

      Chat ID: *******. Question: Terrible service & Potential Cancellation
      (5:07:33pm)System:Customer has entered chat and is waiting for an agent.

      (5:11:08pm)System:Thank you for verifying your billing account ****.******@*********.co.uk!

      (5:26:13pm)Casey H.:Thank you for contacting hostgator.com support.

      In order to improve the reliability and efficiency of our Provo datacenter, we are currently completing emergency upgrades to our network-level capabilities. We are making every effort to complete this as quickly as possible, however, until the maintenance is fully completed your server may experience intermittent downtime. We greatly appreciate your understanding and apologize for any inconvenience that this maintenance may cause. These upgrades are necessary to ensure that our service is stable and reliable on a long-term scale.

      We will provide updates regarding the maintenance on our forums, as well as provide confirmation once these upgrades are completed. You can access our forum post via the following link:
      http://forums.hostgator.com/network-...301#post474301

      Please do not shoot the messenger
      LOL what a joke!

      I couldn't even get the canned response when I tried their chat... chat didn't work at all for me. Thanks for saving me the 30 min wait.
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  • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
    Originally Posted by amyincluj View Post

    Hi - me too cant take these problems with hostgator - I am changing over to eleven2.com I had a conversation with their customer service rep last week since the recent problems with hostgator and they seem like the best bet for me now. Prices are good and have won quality service awards, etc. I was going to wait another month but now I just cant wait anymore.
    Don't know how much credibility I give to this recommendation since it's an affiliate. Seems more like a way to generate affiliate commissions than make a true recommend for a reliable hosting company.
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  • Profile picture of the author garyisonline
    There's not a data center on this planet that hasn't had a significant outage...and every single one launches rants of exodus (example: Amzn S 3's snafus which begat Net flix snafus and beyond)

    Configure with downtime in mind.

    Domain Registration (vendor 1)
    DNS management (vendor 2) keeping root A record at a very low TTL
    Website Hosting (vendor 3) making daily progressive backups and weekly full backups.
    Website Hosting #2 backup (vendor 4) with unlimited domains...set up your domains keep 'em empty.
    POOF Vendor 3 craps out! OH NO!!!!
    after you can't stand it Restore backup(s) to domains' accounts on vendor 4
    Then log into DNS manager (vendor 2) and point the A record (which has the low TTL) to vendor 4 and take a deep breath.
    If vendor 3 doesn't respond soon and as expected, then replace them by backing up from vendor 4 and moving to your new vendor 3. Point your A record at vendor 2 (which has the low TTL) on over to your new vendor 3.

    There are other more involved failover methods, but the above is a poor webmaster's version.

    Outages in any line of tech are a given and should be planned for...just like everybody does regular virus scans and file backups on their office computers too....right? HA!
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    • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
      Originally Posted by garyisonline View Post

      There's not a data center on this planet that hasn't had a significant outage...and every single one launches rants of exodus (example: Amzn S 3's snafus which begat Net flix snafus and beyond)

      Configure with downtime in mind.

      Domain Registration (vendor 1)
      DNS management (vendor 2) keeping root A record at a very low TTL
      Website Hosting (vendor 3) making daily progressive backups and weekly full backups.
      Website Hosting #2 backup (vendor 4) with unlimited domains...set up your domains keep 'em empty.
      POOF Vendor 3 craps out! OH NO!!!!
      after you can't stand it Restore backup(s) to domains' accounts on vendor 4
      Then log into DNS manager (vendor 2) and point the A record (which has the low TTL) to vendor 4 and take a deep breath.
      If vendor 3 doesn't respond soon and as expected, then replace them by backing up from vendor 4 and moving to your new vendor 3. Point your A record at vendor 2 (which has the low TTL) on over to your new vendor 3.

      There are other more involved failover methods, but the above is a poor webmaster's version.

      Outages in any line of tech are a given and should be planned for...just like everybody does regular virus scans and file backups on their office computers too....right? HA!
      True, but the biggest issue I have with hostgator is that they did not notify their clients of this "scheduled maintenance" that might cause a "brief period of downtime" so could plan for it and notify our own clients of the possiblity of downtime.
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    • Profile picture of the author brutecky
      Originally Posted by garyisonline View Post

      There's not a data center on this planet that hasn't had a significant outage...and every single one launches rants of exodus (example: Amzn S 3's snafus which begat Net flix snafus and beyond)
      I agree every data center has issues. However issues seem to be the rule and not the exception with these guys as of late.

      Also I personally dont believe there 'where doing maintenance' BS. Especially since other posts on there forums say that they are having issues. To be its horrid that they would make up some lame excuse for there issue instead of just admitting that they are having troubles and will fix it ASAP.
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  • Profile picture of the author KirbyRaymund
    ^so did you change hostgator already? i am looking for a host too. was supposed to get hostgator.
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  • Profile picture of the author trackleads
    I agree with the WiredTree recommendation. Amazing customer support, which you'll rarely need if ever since they almost never have any downtime. Bluehost has been nothing but a headache as it seems to go down at least 30 minutes about once a week.
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  • Profile picture of the author LetsGoViral
    Just remember to move to a host not owned by EIG company. For their hosts look here:
    Endurance International Group - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    And go to https://www.facebook.com/HostGator and give them 1 star.
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    Time of thinking is over.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jesus Perez
    As my Hostgator sites are bouncing around, I'm currently upgrading my WiredTree VPS to the Pure SSD2000 plan.

    WiredTree has been rock solid since the beginning. I can recommend them wholeheartedly.
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    • Profile picture of the author sirlancelot
      Last message from HG support about this issue:

      Our data center in Provo is currently experiencing network issues and they are working diligently to resolve the issue. Unfortunately we do not have an estimated time of resolution. This currently is affecting shared, reseller, VPS, and dedicated servers within that data center. We will update this post when further details are available.
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    • Profile picture of the author helen jones
      Banned
      Are there different plans to choose from on the other hosting sites, like there are on Hostgator?
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      • Profile picture of the author mojojuju
        Originally Posted by helen jones View Post

        Are there different plans to choose from on the other hosting sites, like there are on Hostgator?
        Sometimes there are, and sometimes there aren't. It depends on the host and how they decide to sell their services.
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        • Profile picture of the author helen jones
          Banned
          Originally Posted by mojojuju View Post

          Sometimes there are, and sometimes there aren't. It depends on the host and how they decide to sell their services.
          Thank you, I'll check more about them in detail.
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          • Profile picture of the author jaythebull2
            Over the years I have tried a few different hosts and VPS offerings. These were the best:

            1. Linode (VPS)
            2. DigitalOcean (VPS)
            3. Geek Storage
            4. SquareSpace
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    • Profile picture of the author Brian John
      been having a few issues lately w hg myself. spent nearly 30 min on the phone yesterday after a few email correspondences. not exactly sure what's going on, been w them several yrs w no real issues and the few issues i did have had great customer support...one of the things i've always really liked. was up for yearly renewal, while on the phone also had billing change my account to month-to-month. keeping an eye on this thread and others like it.
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  • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
    Unfortunately, we can't transfer anything to a new hosting service UNTIL hostgator gets our dedicated server back up and running. TGIF!
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    • Profile picture of the author Jesus Perez
      Originally Posted by abundantliving View Post

      Unfortunately, we can't transfer anything to a new hosting service UNTIL hostgator gets our dedicated server back up and running. TGIF!
      True. I'm waiting until things stabilize and I'll definitely consolidate everything at WiredTree. This was my personal last straw.

      As you can see below, the downhill trend is obvious. June is when they migrated my server.

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      • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
        Originally Posted by Jesus Perez View Post

        True. I'm waiting until things stabilize and I'll definitely consolidate everything at WiredTree. This was my personal last straw.

        As you can see below, the downhill trend is obvious. June is when they migrated my server.

        Wow... that is the perfect example of a "picture being worth a thousand words". Scary.
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  • Profile picture of the author garyisonline
    The first thing I'd do after this outage is to:
    1) Set up a remote backup service, like Back o matic or someone similar to keep mirror copies of my account(s)
    2) Set up an account with a DNS management vendor and always point my domain(s) there and not my host's name servers...EVER!
    3) Set up a cheap shared account (unltd domains, cpanel etc) with an unrelated host to act as a temporary backup server if needed.

    It's not expensive at all, but it gives you options to maintain control when you are up against brick walls who THINK they own you.
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    • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
      Originally Posted by garyisonline View Post

      The first thing I'd do after this outage is to:
      1) Set up a remote backup service, like Back o matic or someone similar to keep mirror copies of my account(s)
      2) Set up an account with a DNS management vendor and always point my domain(s) there and not my host's name servers...EVER!
      3) Set up a cheap shared account (unltd domains, cpanel etc) with an unrelated host to act as a temporary backup server if needed.

      It's not expensive at all, but it gives you options to maintain control when you are up against brick walls who THINK they own you.
      Thank you for the suggestions. I didn't even KNOW (until you mentioned it) that there are DNS management vendors. Definitely something to look into.
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    • Profile picture of the author garyv
      Originally Posted by garyisonline View Post

      The first thing I'd do after this outage is to:
      1) Set up a remote backup service, like Back o matic or someone similar to keep mirror copies of my account(s)
      2) Set up an account with a DNS management vendor and always point my domain(s) there and not my host's name servers...EVER!
      3) Set up a cheap shared account (unltd domains, cpanel etc) with an unrelated host to act as a temporary backup server if needed.

      It's not expensive at all, but it gives you options to maintain control when you are up against brick walls who THINK they own you.
      This sounds good - who do you use for DNS management?
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      • Profile picture of the author mojojuju
        Originally Posted by garyv View Post

        This sounds good - who do you use for DNS management?
        I've used dns.he.net and have been quite happy with them. They offer 50 zones for free. They've recently added dynamic DNS support, so you could have a script that updates your IP whenever your site goes down so that your domain will resolve to a backup hosting account.
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      • Profile picture of the author garyisonline
        Originally Posted by garyv View Post

        This sounds good - who do you use for DNS management?
        I use DNS Made Easy. There are others. I like setting up my own "private" name servers and having 6 of them even. Then you can manage templates, load balancing (if you're into that), backup mx server etc.

        Many VPS and Dedicated boxes (On Hostgator for sure) have you set up 2 name servers on your domain record, then point them to the IP's all on the SAME BOX that hosts your Web Server, Database Server AND your BIND server too? Arghgh! Really?!

        Then in order to escape your host most are having to migrate (after the dead server comes back), then point the domain to new name servers and wait ... and wait for propagation.

        Whereas with a DNS management account your domain stays pointed...you just change the IP address of your root A record...plus any other entries pointing to the dead box to those of your backup box. I keep my TTL at 1800 seconds which is 30 minutes. So I can be restored and live on a backup (unrelated) server within an hour or so.

        Breaking the chains that bind me.

        Adding: I forgot to mention that I also do not host my email on the same server as my websites and databases. for obvious reasons.
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        • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
          Originally Posted by garyisonline View Post

          I use DNS Made Easy. There are others. I like setting up my own "private" name servers and having 6 of them even. Then you can manage templates, load balancing (if you're into that), backup mx server etc.

          Many VPS and Dedicated boxes (On Hostgator for sure) have you set up 2 name servers on your domain record, then point them to the IP's all on the SAME BOX that hosts your Web Server, Database Server AND your BIND server too? Arghgh! Really?!

          Then in order to escape your host most are having to migrate (after the dead server comes back), then point the domain to new name servers and wait ... and wait for propagation.

          Whereas with a DNS management account your domain stays pointed...you just change the IP address of your root A record...plus any other entries pointing to the dead box to those of your backup box. I keep my TTL at 1800 seconds which is 30 minutes. So I can be restored and live on a backup (unrelated) server within an hour or so.

          Breaking the chains that bind me.

          Adding: I forgot to mention that I also do not host my email on the same server as my websites and databases. for obvious reasons.
          Thank you for that great info!
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        • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
          Originally Posted by garyisonline View Post

          Adding: I forgot to mention that I also do not host my email on the same server as my websites and databases. for obvious reasons.
          Do you mean a different domain for your email? Otherwise, this is not computing for this lay person.

          .
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          • Profile picture of the author garyisonline
            Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

            Do you mean a different domain for your email? Otherwise, this is not computing for this lay person.

            .
            It's actually the same domain name. But by managing your DNS entries you can specify different locations for each server. I just have the mail being handled on a different server than my websites and databases.

            Basically it is a matter of setting up two unrelated hosting accounts (vendors). One for web and one for email.

            Then I point my domain name to (in my case) my DNS Made Easy name servers.

            Then within my DNS Made Easy account, I am able to manage my DNS zone records.

            I point my web related entries to the hosting server that holds my websites' files and databases.

            I point my email related entries to the hosting server that will act as my mail server. So I create an "A record" entry, mail.[mydomaingoeshere.com]. which points to the hosting server IP address that I use only for email.

            Then I create my MX entry to point to mail.[mydomaingoeshere.com]. with a priority of 5.

            Then I put in an spf text entry of "v=spf1 a mx ~all"

            You can also set up a backup mail exchange to handle the mail should #1 go down...but that gets a bit more advanced.
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            • Profile picture of the author SlyMaven
              Originally Posted by garyisonline View Post

              It's actually the same domain name. But by managing your DNS entries you can specify different locations for each server. I just have the mail being handled on a different server than my websites and databases.

              Basically it is a matter of setting up two unrelated hosting accounts (vendors). One for web and one for email.

              Then I point my domain name to (in my case) my DNS Made Easy name servers.

              Then within my DNS Made Easy account, I am able to manage my DNS zone records.

              I point my web related entries to the hosting server that holds my websites' files and databases.

              I point my email related entries to the hosting server that will act as my mail server. So I create an "A record" entry, mail.[mydomaingoeshere.com]. which points to the hosting server IP address that I use only for email.

              Then I create my MX entry to point to mail.[mydomaingoeshere.com]. with a priority of 5.

              Then I put in an spf text entry of "v=spf1 a mx ~all"

              You can also set up a backup mail exchange to handle the mail should #1 go down...but that gets a bit more advanced.


              Thanks for the explanation. From what I've read this week, this approach is the solution to getting into Gmails new primary tab. Those of us new to self hosted email could use more explicit instructions. Would you consider doing a WSO on this topic? I think the timing is right for it.
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  • Profile picture of the author mogulmedia
    They have had some serious issues since the server migration within the last month.

    My sites have now been down for a number of hours. Also the server has been loading slower than when it was in their last datacentre.

    I hope they solve these issues as otherwise I will be looking for another hosting company.

    Shame as before the migration things were great...
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  • Profile picture of the author mogulmedia
    BTW - If anyone is looking for VPS or dedicated servers etc, you should use Servint - http://www.servint.net/

    Their customer service is totally superb and I couldn't rate them higher.

    (no affiliation)
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    • Profile picture of the author oberooneeet
      Banned
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  • Profile picture of the author pvijeh
    this is insane. Can anyone suggest hosting alternatives?
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  • Profile picture of the author Dietriffic
    I can't recommend MDDHosting highly enough: MDDHosting - Professional Hosting Solutions

    I'm on their Intermediate Semi-dedicated plan and the support is fast, professional, and super helpful.
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    • Profile picture of the author heavysm
      Originally Posted by Dietriffic View Post

      I can't recommend MDDHosting highly enough: MDDHosting - Professional Hosting Solutions

      I'm on their Intermediate Semi-dedicated plan and the support is fast, professional, and super helpful.
      I second MDD along with Stablehost and Mediatemple.

      I did the exact same search last fall just because I couldn't deal with HG anymore, but those three are the main contenders I have seen so far.

      Webhostingtalk is a great place to find a good host (god knows they have enough reviews) but MDD, Stable and Media get my vote.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kingfish85
    This is what happens what corners are cut by investors. They reap profits at your expense. The "upgrade" was a mere cover-up for a migration "OUT" of SoftLayer. EIG has a history of doing things in secret.

    EDIT: This is a prime example of why people should keep their own copies of backups. Anyone who doesn't have them, is at the mercy of whatever's going on up in Utah.
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  • Profile picture of the author effervescent
    WiredTree looks good but people are saying the same things about it that I used to say about HG before EIG. Is it just a matter of time before EIG scoops up WiredTree too? From the looks of the list further up this thread of everything they own, it looks possible, if not likely that WT will be in this same boat sooner than later.

    Are there any larger hosts out there, besides GoDaddy, that don't seem easily picked up by EIG?
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    • Profile picture of the author DanielBlue
      I will move to stablehost, hopefully a good solution.....
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      • Profile picture of the author sirlancelot
        The great "Network Event : Provo Data Center" just like the great meteor event that whipped out the dinosaurs, the Hostgator reptile will be going extinct.

        See ya later alligator.
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      • Profile picture of the author TeamBringIt
        Originally Posted by DanielBlue View Post

        I will move to stablehost, hopefully a good solution.....
        Do they accept paypal?
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        • Profile picture of the author IamBaksi
          If you use Wordpress, you should read this for hosting ideas

          wpmu.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=53a1e972a043d1264ed082a5b&id=1be5859805&e= 273aaab0a8
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          • Profile picture of the author sirlancelot
            hmmm Hostgator website is still hosting on the "old" Theplanet server and running smooth, go figure. Come on HG move your site to the new and improved Provo Servers with the rest of us.

            PS: Your forum is running a bit slow. What's up? Did you check your customer feedback forums today.
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            • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
              Originally Posted by sirlancelot View Post

              hmmm Hostgator website is still hosting on the "old" Theplanet server and running smooth, go figure. Come on HG move your site to the new and improved Provo Servers with the rest of us.

              PS: Your forum is running a bit slow. What's up? Did you check your customer feedback forums today.
              I noticed that this morning.. ALL My sites were down, but hostgator's site was still up and running. Didn't seem quite fair to me.
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              • Profile picture of the author AZMD
                Originally Posted by abundantliving View Post

                I noticed that this morning.. ALL My sites were down, but hostgator's site was still up and running. Didn't seem quite fair to me.
                Same thing with Bluehost - Both of their sites were up running and open to sell hosting accounts while our sites are down and not accessible.
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        • Profile picture of the author DanielBlue
          Originally Posted by TeamBringIt View Post

          Do they accept paypal?
          Don't know. I will sign up as soon as HG in on again. Then THEY will move all my data so I don't have to bother with that.
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          • Profile picture of the author TeamBringIt
            Originally Posted by DanielBlue View Post

            Don't know. I will sign up as soon as HG in on again. Then THEY will move all my data so I don't have to bother with that.
            They will move, all your files and everything from HG to their own hosting? is this free?
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            • Profile picture of the author Nightengale
              Count me in as a very angry HostGator customer. I've been with them for over 3 years and was very happy with them until recently.

              My site speed has dropped dramatically and now my site is down too. This is completely unacceptable and I'll be moving too.

              Anyone else notice that HostGator.com is still up though??

              Thanks for the info about the DNS servers. I'll definitely be doing that!

              I'm looking for a host with reliability (uptime), speed, CPanel, and good customer support (not just e-mail support but live phone support too).

              I too appreciate any recommendations!

              Michelle
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            • Profile picture of the author DanielBlue
              Originally Posted by TeamBringIt View Post

              They will move, all your files and everything from HG to their own hosting? is this free?
              .......yep.......
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    • Profile picture of the author mikesonfire
      You know, every once in a while things go right.

      After many GOOD years with Hostgator, I started having what sounds like the same issues as everyone else in this thread.

      My problem was I had a dedicated server with several hundred active domains online for myself and my clients.

      On Tuesday, I bit the bullet and, along with my VA, spent the entire day migrating my domains to Hostnine. WHEW! I dreaded doing that but it appears I make the right move at the right time.

      I have had a reseller account with Hostnine for around 18 months. I was not thrilled with their uptime originally but it has gotten MUCH better as Hostgator has gotten worse. Their customer service has been excellent. Their pricing is very good and they have a unique system for picking IP's that, if done right, allows you to have 100 domains on 1 reseller account ALL with different IP's. Pretty cool!

      Hostnine would be my recommendation.
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      • Profile picture of the author CynCyn
        Originally Posted by mikesonfire View Post

        On Tuesday, I bit the bullet and, along with my VA, spent the entire day migrating my domains to Hostnine. WHEW! I dreaded doing that but it appears I make the right move at the right time.

        I have had a reseller account with Hostnine for around 18 months. I was not thrilled with their uptime originally but it has gotten MUCH better as Hostgator has gotten worse. Their customer service has been excellent. Their pricing is very good and they have a unique system for picking IP's that, if done right, allows you to have 100 domains on 1 reseller account ALL with different IP's. Pretty cool!

        Hostnine would be my recommendation.
        You literally just moved within the same company. Hostnine is also owned by EIG.
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        • Profile picture of the author Kingfish85
          Originally Posted by CynCyn View Post

          You literally just moved within the same company. Hostnine is also owned by EIG.
          :confused: Was thinking the same thing. They were bought with ASO.
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        • Profile picture of the author sweetbribes
          I sympathize with those of you whose businesses have been affected by the downtimes of some of the more popular web hosting providers.

          A few years ago, I used HostGator for a couple of months but didn't like a couple of their limitations towards those of us who were past the newbie stage. If it wasn't for that, I would still be with them and suffering today, too.

          Thanks to someone's honest referral here at the forum around that time, I switched and have stayed with their recommendation. I couldn't be happier with their great service, uptime, and customer support. For basic, multiple Wordpress sites, I couldn't ask for more.

          Even though I am happy with my hosting provider, I have also heard really good things about DreamHost and MediaTemple. Good luck to all of you who have lost out today.

          I don't like it when companies get too big for their britches and don't plan their expansion well. Their customers/clients shouldn't be the ones to suffer for their incompetence, yet we often do...:p

          Sadie
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          • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
            Originally Posted by sweetbribes View Post

            I sympathize with those of you whose businesses have been affected by the downtimes of some of the more popular web hosting providers.

            A few years ago, I used HostGator for a couple of months but didn't like a couple of their limitations towards those of us who were past the newbie stage. If it wasn't for that, I would still be with them and suffering today, too.

            Thanks to someone's honest referral here at the forum around that time, I switched and have stayed with their recommendation. I couldn't be happier with their great service, uptime, and customer support. For basic, multiple Wordpress sites, I couldn't ask for more.

            Even though I am happy with my hosting provider, I have also heard really good things about DreamHost and MediaTemple. Good luck to all of you who have lost out today.

            I don't like it when companies get too big for their britches and don't plan their expansion well. Their customers/clients shouldn't be the ones to suffer for their incompetence, yet we often do...:p

            Sadie
            So WHO did you switch to? You say you're happy with them, but you never mention who "they" are. I'd really like to know.
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          • Profile picture of the author oberooneeet
            Banned
            [DELETED]
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        • Profile picture of the author mojojuju
          Originally Posted by CynCyn View Post

          You literally just moved within the same company. Hostnine is also owned by EIG.
          DOH!!
          Signature

          :)

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          • Profile picture of the author oberooneeet
            Banned
            [DELETED]
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        • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
          Originally Posted by CynCyn View Post

          You literally just moved within the same company. Hostnine is also owned by EIG.
          Any suggestions on how we doublecheck to make sure we're not just moving to another EIG company? The only resource provided in thread was a wikipedia page that lists EIG companies... however, hostnine wasn't on that list.

          I sure as heck don't want to move to another EIG company! Is there a way I can check before making a move?
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          • Profile picture of the author mojojuju
            Originally Posted by abundantliving View Post

            Any suggestions on how we doublecheck to make sure we're not just moving to another EIG company? The only resource provided in thread was a wikipedia page that lists EIG companies... however, hostnine wasn't on that list.

            I sure as heck don't want to move to another EIG company! Is there a way I can check before making a move?
            Most of the EIG brands are listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endura...hosting_brands

            There are some, like HostNine, were owned by other companies acquired by EIG, like a small orange.

            Ask around here if you've found a host that you're not sure of. Somebody will know.
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            :)

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        • Profile picture of the author oberooneeet
          Banned
          [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author arranrice
      I've just bought a dedicated server with liquid web.

      They offer 100% uptime.
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      • Profile picture of the author Nightengale
        Originally Posted by arranrice View Post

        I've just bought a dedicated server with liquid web.

        They offer 100% uptime.
        And if you believe that, I have some oceanfront property in Arizona...

        Sorry, but there are bound to be technical issues with the best of equipment and customer service. It's just the nature of tech. The goal is to keep it to a minimum and provide excellent customer service for the few times there are issues.

        "100% uptime"? Oh please. Don't believe everything you read. I'd avoid them simply for either lying to me or their "blue sky" Pollyanna attitude.

        Michelle
        (who works in tech support for a big-name company whose name you'd recognize)
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        • Profile picture of the author WillR
          Originally Posted by Nightengale View Post

          And if you believe that, I have some oceanfront property in Arizona...

          Sorry, but there are bound to be technical issues with the best of equipment and customer service. It's just the nature of tech. The goal is to keep it to a minimum and provide excellent customer service for the few times there are issues.

          "100% uptime"? Oh please. Don't believe everything you read. I'd avoid them simply for either lying to me or their "blue sky" Pollyanna attitude.

          Michelle
          (who works in tech support for a big-name company whose name you'd recognize)
          Well, it's not exactly what they say...

          Network Uptime Service Level Agreement

          Liquid Web guarantees network uptime to be 100%. This guarantee assures that all major routing devices within our network are reachable from the global internet 100% of the time.
          You also need to remember that I can guarantee anything I want. I could guarantee you if my product doesn't make you back the money you spent in 30 days then I will refund you twice your purchase price. For some people they won't make their money back in 30 days but that doesn't mean I still can't guarantee it.

          If someone is guaranteeing 100% uptime they are fairly damn confident in their network and if they fail to meet that guarantee, then you are compensated, which is exactly how any other guarantee works also.

          Hostgator, it's been great for 8+ years and I've sent you a ton of customers over those years. But you are now crap and I'm leaving. There's about $4k per year down the drain just from one customer because of your greed and stupidity.
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        • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
          Originally Posted by Nightengale View Post

          And if you believe that, I have some oceanfront property in Arizona...

          Sorry, but there are bound to be technical issues with the best of equipment and customer service. It's just the nature of tech. The goal is to keep it to a minimum and provide excellent customer service for the few times there are issues.

          "100% uptime"? Oh please. Don't believe everything you read. I'd avoid them simply for either lying to me or their "blue sky" Pollyanna attitude.

          Michelle
          (who works in tech support for a big-name company whose name you'd recognize)
          I agree.

          I actually switched to Hostgator FROM LiquidWeb. I was with LiquidWeb for almost 2 months. I left b/c they went down during a launch and cost me thousands... and were only willing to credit me with a few dollars (the pro-rated amount for the downtime on my server).
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    • Profile picture of the author humbledmarket
      Banned
      Originally Posted by effervescent View Post

      WiredTree looks good but people are saying the same things about it that I used to say about HG before EIG. Is it just a matter of time before EIG scoops up WiredTree too? From the looks of the list further up this thread of everything they own, it looks possible, if not likely that WT will be in this same boat sooner than later.

      Are there any larger hosts out there, besides GoDaddy, that don't seem easily picked up by EIG?
      try MDD Hosting or HostDime. MDDHosting has super fast servers and 1 gbps ports; they won't likely be picked up, not very big yet and the owner does it really well (not unusual to get a response directly from Michael).

      HostDime on the other hand has been holding up for some time with locations in Brazil, UK and US. I doubt they will be bought over too easily.
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    • Profile picture of the author effervescent
      Originally Posted by warriormatt12 View Post

      Absolutely no validity in this statement that WiredTree is at any risk of an EIG acquisition.
      This is great WarriorMatt, even though I was asking if this was possible, not declaring it so. Since I am not privvy to the inner workings of hosting companies will you please explain how you can be so certain?

      I'd like to be able to choose my next host with this same certainty.
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  • Profile picture of the author RobinInTexas
    It will end soon they claim as their techs working the phones look for windows to jump out of.

    http://mashable.com/2013/08/02/bluehost-down/
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    Robin



    ...Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just set there.
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnMIS
    I'm using HostGator and just leaned that HosGator, Bluehost and HostMonster are all down,, because they use the same server network in Provo, Utah. That's the same city NSA is building their new super center.

    You can go to the following HostGator Forum link to get updates from HostGator:

    http://forums.hostgator.com/network-...301#post474301

    I wonder if we will any credits back from HostGator because of the downtime?
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  • Profile picture of the author bgray
    Some good alternatives are StableHost and TigerTech. I have a VPS with WiredTree and they have been pretty good as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author garyv
    Well at least we can learn a lot from this down time. Never let a good failure go to waste.
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    • Profile picture of the author Nightengale
      Originally Posted by garyv View Post

      Well at least we can learn a lot from this down time. Never let a good failure go to waste.
      LOL Thanks for the laugh among the frustration!

      My site is back up too. Switching hosts just became top priority. Guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend. (Sigh...)

      Michelle
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      "You can't market here. This is a marketing discussion forum!"
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  • Profile picture of the author JeremiahSay
    Go for Beyondhosting or liquidweb.

    Check out these 54 companies currently owned by EIG. Avoid them: Endurance International Group - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia You've been warned!
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  • Profile picture of the author Jacqueline Smith
    Thought I'd pop into this thread because 'misery loves company'!

    I've been with Hostgator for years with no complaints. Until recently! Ever since the server changes I get up each day just hoping my sites are up and running. Definitely no way to run a business.

    The suggestions on this thread have been a huge help....I will be packing up my sites and moving on.
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  • Profile picture of the author twistedpixel
    Called WiredTree and after getting my answers, decided to move all accounts from HG to their SSD4000 plan (fast!)

    Uptime is supposedly one of the best in the world (#3 by independent monitor) and support/sales seems to be well informed.

    Adios HostGator!
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  • Profile picture of the author garyv
    Jeeeeez - I've never had an outage last this long! I hope to God that they don't scratch up any of my furniture before I can get it moved out of there!
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    • Profile picture of the author mak25
      All of my sites are back up. How about anyone else?

      Added: And they are running much faster too.
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      • Profile picture of the author sirlancelot
        Months ago I got this notice from HostGator: "Your dedicated server(s) are being migrated onto brand new, upgraded hardware"

        Translation = HostGator has been purchased by a big company and we're going to move your Dedicated Server to our crappy Provo Center without telling you.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dr Funkenstein
      I'm finally back up and running. Hope everyone here is too. Really tough day for a Friday but looking forward to switching hosts. Thanks everyone for your recommendations.
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    • Profile picture of the author DanielBlue
      Originally Posted by garyv View Post

      Jeeeeez - I've never had an outage last this long! I hope to God that they don't scratch up any of my furniture before I can get it moved out of there!
      Within the last 8 hrs. my downtime has been 5.5 hours. Well, I don't care anymore and will give my money to someone else.
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      • Profile picture of the author sirlancelot
        Yes I am up and running, but my websites are slower than turtles racing on a track of molasses.

        Last time I saw an image load so slow pixel by pixel it was 1990 and I was on a dial-up modem. Thank-you Hostgator for the nostalgic trip. Now where's my VHS?
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  • Profile picture of the author ejullya
    Hey everyone,

    I just thought I will add my voice here. I am really ticked off. I've been seeing some problems with my sites since the takeover, but I always thought that their support is awesome. Then, lately I've been noticing that their support was also not top notch. One of the suggestions caused me a major problem to my site.

    I am not very technical, so I am looking for a host with great support and cpanel. I too will be moving and I have been with them for a number of years.
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  • Profile picture of the author garyv
    Mine are still down.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ron Killian
    I paid my hostgator bill earlier. That was kind of dumb

    Sadly over the 14+ years online I've "switched" hosting a number of times. Seems the same pattern, the new host is great, then slides down hill. Or I keep using the wrong ones.

    For some folks it's not so easy to move. It can be major work.

    aarrgh....
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    • Profile picture of the author AZMD
      Originally Posted by Ron Killian View Post

      I paid my hostgator bill earlier. That was kind of dumb

      Sadly over the 14+ years online I've "switched" hosting a number of times. Seems the same pattern, the new host is great, then slides down hill. Or I keep using the wrong ones.

      For some folks it's not so easy to move. It can be major work.

      aarrgh....
      Many hosting companies will migrate your site for free.
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  • Profile picture of the author mogulmedia
    This is an interesting post about HG holding up their 99.9% guarantee as stated in their T&C's...

    http://forums.hostgator.com/we-autom....html?p=474444
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  • Profile picture of the author cash420
    I'm hoping, in time, HostGator will get it together. With that said, I just moved all my sites to HostGator because I was so pleased with their past service. Not so pleased today. I moved from another EIG host thinking it was the right move. Get it together HostGator and EIG or risk loosing all our business.
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  • Profile picture of the author garyv
    I'm up! - Let the exodus begin.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kingfish85
    Having worked with web hosting, linux servers, windows server, sun servers, cisco gear, netapp, vmware, dell, EMC, among many others for going on 10 years...I have NEVER in my life seen a networking issue take 9+ hours to resolve. For some reason, I get the feeling that there's more behind it.

    Funny how everyone was being so called "upgraded" when it was a mere cover up for a migration. Half the customers didn't even know EIG bought HostGator and not all got notices about the anticipated upgrade/move.
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    • Profile picture of the author twistedpixel
      HostGator is no more.
      At least the one we all signed up for.

      It pisses me off that they can sell our accounts to another company that then moves us to crappy hardware and calls it an "upgrade" without full disclosure.

      The "new" Hostgator is not the same company, hardware or service, so in my eyes, I am no longer hosted by the company I signed up for.

      Total BS
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      • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
        Giving me NEXT month at no charge doesn't help me one iota.

        They just charged my paypal account YESTERDAY for this month (then they promptly go down for the day) and they think I'm going to wait around till next month to get credit.

        How about giving me a REFUND of the payment I just made for THIS month!
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        • Profile picture of the author Nightengale
          GaryIsOnline mentioned some solutions for situations like this, but I'm unclear how to implement them.

          Originally Posted by garyisonline View Post

          The first thing I'd do after this outage is to:
          1) Set up a remote backup service, like Back o matic or someone similar to keep mirror copies of my account(s)
          2) Set up an account with a DNS management vendor and always point my domain(s) there and not my host's name servers...EVER!
          3) Set up a cheap shared account (unltd domains, cpanel etc) with an unrelated host to act as a temporary backup server if needed.

          It's not expensive at all, but it gives you options to maintain control when you are up against brick walls who THINK they own you.
          I'd like to do this, but am not very techie. HOW do I do this? I think I understand the gist of it, but don't know specifically how to do this.

          Can someone explain it to me? Specifically, is there a way to set it up so that if my site goes down with one host, traffic will be re-directed (resolved) to the second host with the backup site?

          I'd greatly appreciate the help! (And please remember, I'm not very techie!)

          Thanks,
          Michelle
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          • Profile picture of the author Jesus Perez
            Originally Posted by Nightengale View Post

            GaryIsOnline mentioned some solutions for situations like this, but I'm unclear how to implement them.

            I'd like to do this, but am not very techie. HOW do I do this? I think I understand the gist of it, but don't know specifically how to do this.

            Can someone explain it to me? Specifically, is there a way to set it up so that if my site goes down with one host, traffic will be re-directed (resolved) to the second host with the backup site?

            I'd greatly appreciate the help! (And please remember, I'm not very techie!)

            Thanks,
            Michelle
            DNS is the "phone book" of the internet. It translates www.yoursite.com to the numeric IP address (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) of your server at the hosting company.

            Following the phone book example...Imagine if you changed your phone number 3 months after the phone books are delivered to people's homes. Wouldn't it be great if you could click a few buttons and magically change the number in every phone book that's already been distributed?

            That's what he's suggesting with DNS. Instead of putting your host AND dns on the same server (Hostgator), you should place your DNS at a 3rd party location (Namecheap and GoDaddy offer this for free). This way if your host dies (like today), you don't lose control of your DNS AND your hosting files. You can simply change the "phone number" on the DNS server to point to a server somewhere else where you have the website copy ready for disasters like today.

            Again...if you're using GoDaddy or Namecheap, they already provide this DNS service for free!

            How do you do it?
            1. Go to your existing Hostgator account and copy all the names and numbers and types of DNS records for your domains into a spreadsheet.
            2. Go to Namecheap or GoDaddy and "park" your domains there. Once they're parked, you can create DNS records for them right at GoDaddy or Namecheap!
            3. Create and enter the various DNS records that you copied from Hostgator.
            4. When crap hits the fan like today, login to GoDaddy or Namecheap and simply change the "@" or "A" DNS record to point to a secondary hosting IP address that's ready.
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            • Profile picture of the author Karen Blundell
              here's what I found when it comes to shared hosting: don't go with the big companies. Go with a smaller, even a local company. The prices are still very competitive (they have to be!) but the company will treat you, the client, much better. Because they want to keep you.

              I host my sites and a couple of clients (I am a reseller) with a lesser known hosting company in Canada. When they perform maintenance we get emailed in advance so we know what to expect.

              I think the bigger companies get too big for their britches, and then they have to outsource their customer service and often the quality of said service goes down.

              I knew about this maintenance issue with Hostgator - because I maintain a blog for a client who uses them. I went to upgrade their WordPress installation to 3.6 today and the site was down. So I created a ticket in the Hostgator client area and sure enough, that's when we were informed of this maintenance issue.

              I don't blame you for being upset. There is no excuse for not emailing their customers when a major outage is expected.

              Good luck with your hunt for a good host - there are lots to choose from
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              • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
                In HostGator's overall defense it is a managed service for dedicated servers, and that has proved invaluable to me over the years. Overall, the tech support has been great. I know others have had other experiences.

                While the events today were not pleasant, and there are question marks with the new ownership, one event isn't going to make me too hasty to jump ship. Maybe I'll check out an additional service for some domains and see how it goes.

                A lot of web hosts promise a lot on their sales page, but unless they mention management of their dedicated servers they can be a big risk.

                .
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              • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
                Originally Posted by Karen Blundell View Post

                here's what I found when it comes to shared hosting: don't go with the big companies. Go with a smaller, even a local company. The prices are still very competitive (they have to be!) but the company will treat you, the client, much better. Because they want to keep you.

                I host my sites and a couple of clients (I am a reseller) with a lesser known hosting company in Canada. When they perform maintenance we get emailed in advance so we know what to expect.

                I think the bigger companies get too big for their britches, and then they have to outsource their customer service and often the quality of said service goes down.

                I knew about this maintenance issue with Hostgator - because I maintain a blog for a client who uses them. I went to upgrade their WordPress installation to 3.6 today and the site was down. So I created a ticket in the Hostgator client area and sure enough, that's when we were informed of this maintenance issue.

                I don't blame you for being upset. There is no excuse for not emailing their customers when a major outage is expected.

                Good luck with your hunt for a good host - there are lots to choose from
                I originally had hosting with a small company called DataWebPro. It was run by an AWESOME guy named Steve Hetrick.

                Unfortunately, Steve died suddenly about 3 years ago, and it was an absolute nightmare trying to get the info from my server moved to another hosting company. Many of his clients lost their businesses entirely since they were unable to get their servers back (you can do a google search and find an indepth discussion to see all the problems that occurred).

                For this reason, I decided it would be best to stick with a larger hosting company... something that was large enough that if something happened to one of the principals, the business would still run smoothly.

                It's a difficult balance... looking for a hosting company that isn't so large that you are a number, but isn't so small that only one or 2 people are running it.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kingfish85
        Originally Posted by twistedpixel View Post


        It pisses me off that they can sell our accounts to another company that then moves us to crappy hardware and calls it an "upgrade" without full disclosure.

        Total BS
        That's EIG's MO. Unfortunately, you're dealing with investors - profits & quantity overrule quality. It's been this way with almost every company they've acquired. The majority of the acquisitions were done in secret as were the migrations. Most people didn't have a clue until people started tracing the physical locations of their sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
    I just received this email response from hostgator to my multiple support tickets:

    Hello,

    Thank you for reaching out to us this afternoon.

    We'd like to start by apologizing for the issues connecting to your sites today. In hopes of resolving the latency reports which have recently been brought to our attention by a number of our customers, we began maintenance with our datacenter overnight with aims of providing a more permanent solution to the issues faced. Following this work, regrettably our datacenter begun experiencing networking issues which are currently still in the process of being fully resolved by our service providers. Unfortunately we have yet to receive an estimated time frame for the work to complete, but we are providing updates via our forum at the following link:

    http://forums.hostgator.com/emergenc...o-t278588.html

    We apologize once again for any inconvenience and appreciate you contacting us for more information. I’ve also adjusted your billing account to reflect the one month credit based on our network guarantee which has not been met today. While that offers a pro-rated credit typically, I don’t believe that’s appropriate and applied the full month as such. No action is necessary to make use of the credit, you’ll simply not receive an invoice this coming month. If we can address any additional questions or concerns you may have, please do let us know.

    Best Regards,
    Joshua Martin
    Director of Customer Service
    HostGator.com Support Portal
    HostGator.com | 1.866.96.GATOR (42867)
    Follow us at: @HGSupport @Hostgator
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  • Profile picture of the author seobro
    The best one for me has been always web hosting, but they just got bought up. It was by Sozo Technologies of Indianapolis, IN and I do not know if the good quality will go on. Time will tell as we say. HG is so bad now that I am considering moving away. Problem is that always web hosting is a lot more expensive. Still, we get what we pay for in many ways. Sadly, HG is not the same company anymore.
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  • Profile picture of the author celestmark
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
      Originally Posted by celestmark View Post

      Sure, I kissed DreamHost goodbye when I tired Nick Jolin's new Amazon cloud-based hosting. All my money sites have been moved and I haven't looked back!

      The biggest points for me was it's on AMAZON. I won't go down unless Amazon does and the unlimited SES autoresponders sealed the deal. Details available in my signature.

      I truly use and believe in this service: "Web Hosting designed by Internet Marketers FOR Internet Marketers!!
      is this a specific hosting company? Or just amazon? Please provide more info... sounds interesting
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    • Profile picture of the author mojojuju
      Originally Posted by celestmark View Post


      The biggest points for me was it's on AMAZON. I won't go down unless Amazon does and the unlimited SES autoresponders sealed the deal. Details available in my signature.
      Your link to the site (Insty.me) in your signature is an affiliate link, which is against the forum rules.
      Signature

      :)

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      • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
        Originally Posted by mojojuju View Post

        Your link to the site (Insty.me) in your signature is an affiliate link, which is against the forum rules.

        Thanks for the direct link.

        This sounds interesting but not exactly what I need. However, I LOVE the idea of running on amazon... THEY don't go down (and if they do, they'll fix it quickly).

        Are there any other solutions that run on amazon (to set it up directly on amazon, you'd need to be a uber-techie).
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        • Profile picture of the author mojojuju
          Originally Posted by abundantliving View Post

          Thanks for the direct link.
          You're welcome. Web hosting is one type of service where I feel it's good to be very skeptical of people's "reviews" if they link to a web hosting provider with an affiliate link.


          Originally Posted by abundantliving View Post

          This sounds interesting but not exactly what I need. However, I LOVE the idea of running on amazon... THEY don't go down (and if they do, they'll fix it quickly).

          Are there any other solutions that run on amazon (to set it up directly on amazon, you'd need to be a uber-techie).
          I don't know of any other services that are running shared hosting on Amazon's web services, but I bet there are others. There are tutorials that will show you how to set up your own server on Amazon's infrastructure for free using Amazon's free usage tier.
          Signature

          :)

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          • Profile picture of the author oberooneeet
            Banned
            [DELETED]
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  • Profile picture of the author CopyHat
    Originally Posted by abundantliving View Post

    First, I need to just say it... Hostgator Sucks!

    There, I got THAT out of my system.

    I am paying a hefty monthly fee for a dedicated server with hostgator. For the 2nd time in 1 week, my server is experiencing a LOT of downtime as a result of maintenance hostgator performed.

    When I notified them of my server being down earlier today, hostgator told me that they had "scheduled network maintenance" to "keep network outages from occurring" and that they KNEW this maintenance might cause a "brief period of downtime."

    However, they never notified any of their hosting clients (myself included) about this scheduled maintenance that could affect our servers.

    Unfortunately, the maintenance which should have only cause a "brief period of downtime" went very wrong... my server has been down more than it's been up for the past 8 hours... with no end in sight.

    At this time, I am seeking other hosting solutions.

    It's bad enough the amount of downtime I've experienced this past week. However, it's INEXCUSABLE that hostgator never notified their clients of scheduled maintenance that could affect their servers. If they had, I could have then notified my own clients. Instead, this is making me look very bad to my clients... and I don't even have a way to inform them of the issue b/c I have no email or support desk capability while my server is down.

    If anyone here knows of an affordable alternative to hostgator, I'm open to suggestions. My criteria would be:

    - Good uptime statistics
    - Good communication w/clients re: server maintenance
    - responsive support
    - managed dedicated server
    - fast server

    Thanks for any input you can provide.
    I have to say this is the first time I've heard a complaint about Hostgator.
    I dont use a dedicated server so I cannot comment on that, but there regular service, I believe, is good enough for any simple wordpress money site set up.
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  • Profile picture of the author CopyHat
    I've used hostgator for a while, mainly because it seemed like the perfect choice at the time, it made things very simple.

    What other web hosting services would you recommend over hostgator.
    Im hearing a lot of talk about Amazon, i didnt even know they had a web hosting service.
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    • Profile picture of the author mojojuju
      Originally Posted by CopyHat View Post

      I've used hostgator for a while, mainly because it seemed like the perfect choice at the time, it made things very simple.
      Basically any hosting provider that uses cPanel is going to be simple - and that includes pretty much any hosting provider. A lot of people here have this idea that cPanel and "1 click Wordpress Installs" through Fantastico are features exclusive to HostGator, and that's simply not true at all.

      Originally Posted by CopyHat View Post

      What other web hosting services would you recommend over hostgator.
      I can't name you any particular host to use, but I can say you should steer clear from any EIG owned brand. GoDaddy is also particularly awful, but for what it matters, they're better than some of the lesser EIG brands like iPage or FatCow.

      Originally Posted by CopyHat View Post

      Im hearing a lot of talk about Amazon, i didnt even know they had a web hosting service.
      You should disregard that.
      Signature

      :)

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    • Profile picture of the author garyv
      Originally Posted by CopyHat View Post

      I've used hostgator for a while, mainly because it seemed like the perfect choice at the time, it made things very simple.

      What other web hosting services would you recommend over hostgator.
      Im hearing a lot of talk about Amazon, i didnt even know they had a web hosting service.
      I like amazon as well, I use their S3 hosting, but like abundantliving said, you have to be a tech-guru to figure out the way they run things over there. It's not user friendly in the least.

      I just signed up for WiredTree from suggestions here on this forum. That and the fact that they are based out of Chicago which isn't too far from me. If you are interested, you can find a coupon online right now for Virtual Private Servers that will get you half off for your first 2 months. I'm going to be paying much less than I was for hostgator, and according to their sales page I'll be getting more. So if it works out I'll be a happy man.

      I'll report back to let you know how long they take to setup my server. I'm expecting that it will be a little longer than normal, because of the hostgator exodus today.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stefan Vee
    The truth of the matter is ...
    Most of us aren't very technical about hosting services.
    Remember ...
    In the land of the blind, the ones with one eye are king!
    Many of us are complaining, yet very few will make the move.
    The "One-Eyes" know that!
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  • Profile picture of the author Jayneal
    I have been on Host Gator for over 5 years with NO problems until they upgraded to "better" servers and now I have gone from 100% up time to lots of down time and all kinds of problems including all my files were gone on my site and had to up load them again. I am really not happy now and I have used Go Daddy didn't like them and Just host for a short time but might go back.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chezbelle
    Thanks everyone for all the ideas and suggestions, I will be one of the ones to be moving from HostGator.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ron Killian
    I am curious, has any one noticed SE ranks drops because of the "upgrades" with hostgator a couple months ago?

    If there is any way to even say it had an effect.
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  • Profile picture of the author kpmedia
    HostGator was never a good dedicated or VPS hpst. Their technology/infrastructure was lousy, and the plans expensive. Not expensive because it was good -- not a premium host, not even close -- but expensive to give HG pure profit.

    Knownhost. LiquidWeb and EuroVPS are two of my top suggestions.
    For dedicated, Futurehosting or EuroVPS.
    For shared, Site5 and Arvixe are good non-EIG alternatives. Or Stablehost is you're tried of "unlimited".

    Good luck!

    Originally Posted by Ron Killian View Post

    I am curious, has any one noticed SE ranks drops because of the "upgrades" with hostgator a couple months ago? If there is any way to even say it had an effect.
    Yes, definitely. It fails the site speed aspect of Google. It was definitely affected!

    I've been telling folks about this for a year now, since EIG bough HG out, I knew it was coming. This has happened with EIG brands for 10+ years now.
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    • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
      Originally Posted by kpmedia View Post

      HostGator was never a good dedicated or VPS hpst. Their technology/infrastructure was lousy, and the plans expensive. Not expensive because it was good -- not a premium host, not even close -- but expensive to give HG pure profit.

      Knownhost. LiquidWeb and EuroVPS are two of my top suggestions.
      For dedicated, Futurehosting or EuroVPS.
      For shared, Site5 and Arvixe are good non-EIG alternatives. Or Stablehost is you're tried of "unlimited".

      Good luck!


      Yes, definitely. It fails the site speed aspect of Google. It was definitely affected!

      I've been telling folks about this for a year now, since EIG bough HG out, I knew it was coming. This has happened with EIG brands for 10+ years now.
      You say you've been warning of this for a year. Where have you been doing that (do you have your own blog)? I ask b/c you seem to be "in the know" and I'd like to be able to follow you... to avoid a similar situation in future.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Vick
    I use Servint.net for my money sites and client sites. I've been with them for 8 years+.

    I'm also using HostNine, which is also EIG . I'm in the process of moving from them.

    I just signed up for a free trial with SiteGround.com (click away from the submit order page to get a slightly better deal).

    I'm also considering Arvixe.com and HawkHost.com.
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    • Profile picture of the author kpmedia
      Originally Posted by Mike Vick View Post

      Servint.net
      HostNine, which is also EIG . I'm in the process of moving from them.
      SiteGround.com
      Arvixe.com
      HawkHost.com.
      Those are all pretty good ...

      ... except ServInt. Service has degraded in the past year or two. So watch out for that. (I hope it was temporary, but the jury is still out.) There's a few alternatives should you need them. Just keep a close eye on it, and submit some easy tech question from time to time to see how fast they are.

      I think HostNine was part of the A Small Orange deal. ASO had something like 5-6 brands that are now EIG too. I wrote it down somewhere, which was which.
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      • Profile picture of the author Mike Vick
        Originally Posted by kpmedia View Post

        Those are all pretty good ...

        ... except ServInt. Service has degraded in the past year or two. So watch out for that. (I hope it was temporary, but the jury is still out.) There's a few alternatives should you need them. Just keep a close eye on it, and submit some easy tech question from time to time to see how fast they are.

        I think HostNine was part of the A Small Orange deal. ASO had something like 5-6 brands that are now EIG too. I wrote it down somewhere, which was which.
        Servint has been fine for me. I was thinking of switch from them when my top money site started performing really slow. It turned out that I just needed to remove a plugin that led to a 20mb error file and re-install my cache plugin.

        I was looking at WiredTree when I was considering changing vps hosts. But then I saw on WebHostingTalk that they had some outage issues. That was a while ago though...
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  • Profile picture of the author Beverley Boorer
    I'm with Hostgator too - they emailed me to tell me of an upgrade. I thought it was a hoax mail since it didn't address me by name. a week or so later I got two more emails telling me new details and giving me new log-in link. It has all worked fine for me and no down time that I'm aware of. But they didn't say they had sold out...
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    • Profile picture of the author sktthemes
      Alternatives depend on what you are looking for.

      Based on our countless projects we did for clients rackspace turns out to be one of the best dedicated hosting till date.

      However if you are looking for other cheaper alternatives mediatemple is another

      And you can also have managed hosting services from page.ly or wpengine or firehost

      They aren't EIG hosting and offer good support and very reliable uptime and statistics.

      Yes hostgator, godaddy, bluehost and hostmonster have oversold their servers. Not their fault.

      Over selling have made them made over the years.
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  • Profile picture of the author garyv
    Just a follow up - I signed up with WireTree, and my server was ready in 4 hours just like they said. I'm getting ready today to move all of my sites. See ya later hostgator.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Vick
    I just signed up with Arvixe.com using lifetime 20% off coupon "whmcs" (more codes: http://www.retailmenot.com/view/arvixe.com?c=4526776).

    I also signed up with HawkHost.com using lifetime 30% coupon "startblog". HawkHost.com gets recommended a lot on WebHostingTalk.

    Neither hosting setup was instant unfortunately. Hopefully it doesn't take until Monday...
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  • Profile picture of the author tko4
    Again hostgator have network issues f***** http://forums.hostgator.com/provo-da...8-t278820.html. Guys I need good alternative
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  • Profile picture of the author jasondinner
    Not sure if anyone mentioned Rackspace yet, but since I switched from a dedicated server to their "Cloud Sites" service, I have been extremely happy.
    Signature

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    • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
      Originally Posted by jasondinner View Post

      Not sure if anyone mentioned Rackspace yet, but since I switched from a dedicated server to their "Cloud Sites" service, I have been extremely happy.
      Is your "cloud site" a managed server?

      I really need a managed solution. However, since I'm forced to move from my dedicated HG server (to avoid similar downtime in future), I may as well consider hosting in the cloud... it's much more flexible and can grow as my business grows.
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    • Profile picture of the author kpmedia
      Originally Posted by jasondinner View Post

      Not sure if anyone mentioned Rackspace yet, but since I switched from a dedicated server to their "Cloud Sites" service, I have been extremely happy.
      Rackspace is so 1990s in how they operate. RS is also very, very slow. I tend to think they overload their servers like the mass-market hosts. I've tested this a number of times now. There's also a possibility that some of their "cloud" services (shared) isn't really cloud. For example, shared on a SAN is what some call a cloud. But that's not a cloud.

      RS is also expensive. Not expensive good, just overpriced for what you get, and the speeds you get.

      Originally Posted by abundantliving View Post

      You say you've been warning of this for a year. Where have you been doing that (do you have your own blog)? I ask b/c you seem to be "in the know" and I'd like to be able to follow you... to avoid a similar situation in future.
      You can find me here, at webhostingtalk.com, and at digitalFAQ.com (my home site). When it doubt, ask me questions at the forum of that last site. I answer all hosting question there personally. I've not had time to write lots of editorials (blogs) lately, as that's not my job, but I'm trying to do more going forward. Yes, I know a lot of people in this industry: CEOs, CTOs, IT directors, etc. And I mean real companies, not "CEOs" at home in mommy's house.

      www.digitalFAQ.com
      www.webhostingtalk.com

      Thanks.

      Edit:
      Originally Posted by abundantliving View Post

      Is your "cloud site" a managed server? I really need a managed solution. However, since I'm forced to move from my dedicated HG server (to avoid similar downtime in future), I may as well consider hosting in the cloud... it's much more flexible and can grow as my business grows.
      If I were you, I'd get a dedicated server at Futurehosting or Namecheap.
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      • Profile picture of the author abundantliving
        Originally Posted by kpmedia View Post

        Rackspace is so 1990s in how they operate. RS is also very, very slow. I tend to think they overload their servers like the mass-market hosts. I've tested this a number of times now. There's also a possibility that some of their "cloud" services (shared) isn't really cloud. For example, shared on a SAN is what some call a cloud. But that's not a cloud.

        RS is also expensive. Not expensive good, just overpriced for what you get, and the speeds you get.


        You can find me here, at webhostingtalk.com, and at digitalFAQ.com (my home site). When it doubt, ask me questions at the forum of that last site. I answer all hosting question there personally. I've not had time to write lots of editorials (blogs) lately, as that's not my job, but I'm trying to do more going forward. Yes, I know a lot of people in this industry: CEOs, CTOs, IT directors, etc. And I mean real companies, not "CEOs" at home in mommy's house.

        www.digitalFAQ.com
        www.webhostingtalk.com

        Thanks.

        Edit:

        If I were you, I'd get a dedicated server at Futurehosting or Namecheap.
        I'm impressed by your knowledge, which is why I'd like to know why you suggest I get a dedicated server instead of a VPS/cloud solution.

        Right now, one of my projects is set to go global, and my hosting infrastructure needs to be positioned to easily grow with my needs... adding bandwidth and resources as needed. We were considering starting with a 3-server configuration: one server as a dedicated a mail server, and 2 servers with identical info, one running in U.S. and the other in the U.K. ... for faster user response times.

        Your input would be greatly appreciated.

        Also... do you go by the same username at webhostingtalk?

        P.S. I've bookmarked your blog as one of my go-to resources. :-)
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      • Profile picture of the author jlb148
        Originally Posted by kpmedia View Post


        You can find me here, at webhostingtalk.com, and at digitalFAQ.com (my home site). When it doubt, ask me questions at the forum of that last site. I answer all hosting question there personally. I've not had time to write lots of editorials (blogs) lately, as that's not my job, but I'm trying to do more going forward. Yes, I know a lot of people in this industry: CEOs, CTOs, IT directors, etc. And I mean real companies, not "CEOs" at home in mommy's house.

        www.digitalFAQ.com
        www.webhostingtalk.com

        I found this very helpful...Thank you
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      • Profile picture of the author jasondinner
        Originally Posted by kpmedia View Post

        Rackspace is so 1990s in how they operate. RS is also very, very slow. I tend to think they overload their servers like the mass-market hosts. I've tested this a number of times now. There's also a possibility that some of their "cloud" services (shared) isn't really cloud. For example, shared on a SAN is what some call a cloud. But that's not a cloud.

        RS is also expensive. Not expensive good, just overpriced for what you get, and the speeds you get.
        From what I know based on my experience over the last year, I'm paying the same at Rackspace that I did for a dedicated server somewhere else that crashed ALL THE TIME and cost me a lot of money in lost revenue - but now with RS my sites never go down.

        I regularly have 300-500 people on my site at any time during the day and not even a hiccup.

        I'm using their Cloud Sites option which is entry level for them and I'm very happy.

        If i were to buy a traditional non-cloud dedicated server to handle the traffic I'm sending, it would cost me a lot more than what I'm spending now.
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  • Profile picture of the author RobinInTexas
    Signature

    Robin



    ...Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just set there.
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  • Profile picture of the author zerofill
    Beyond Hosting is where I went awhile back...

    First I run CPV traffic through them. They have always been able to handle an incredible load of traffic.

    Once I saw that, a few months later I moved almost everything to their VPS servers. Mainly the $69 ones.

    When I write a ticket to support, if I don't get an answer within 15 minutes, I am actually shocked lol.

    I mean 24 hours a day...

    Although I don't need them for support much, since I have a background in administrating large groups of Linux servers... but either way, in my opinion, they rock.
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  • Profile picture of the author koreancowboy
    Originally Posted by abundantliving View Post

    First, I need to just say it... Hostgator Sucks!

    There, I got THAT out of my system.

    I am paying a hefty monthly fee for a dedicated server with hostgator. For the 2nd time in 1 week, my server is experiencing a LOT of downtime as a result of maintenance hostgator performed.

    When I notified them of my server being down earlier today, hostgator told me that they had "scheduled network maintenance" to "keep network outages from occurring" and that they KNEW this maintenance might cause a "brief period of downtime."

    However, they never notified any of their hosting clients (myself included) about this scheduled maintenance that could affect our servers.

    Unfortunately, the maintenance which should have only cause a "brief period of downtime" went very wrong... my server has been down more than it's been up for the past 8 hours... with no end in sight.

    At this time, I am seeking other hosting solutions.

    It's bad enough the amount of downtime I've experienced this past week. However, it's INEXCUSABLE that hostgator never notified their clients of scheduled maintenance that could affect their servers. If they had, I could have then notified my own clients. Instead, this is making me look very bad to my clients... and I don't even have a way to inform them of the issue b/c I have no email or support desk capability while my server is down.

    If anyone here knows of an affordable alternative to hostgator, I'm open to suggestions. My criteria would be:

    - Good uptime statistics
    - Good communication w/clients re: server maintenance
    - responsive support
    - managed dedicated server
    - fast server

    Thanks for any input you can provide.
    Media Temple.

    I've been with them for seven years now...I couldn't tell you about their customer support.

    Since I've never had to contact them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Geri Richmond
    Hi,
    Sorry for all your troubles. I use Hostwithcarol. It's not shared and if you want the basic plan it's $9.95 a month. There is also a business plan that is $39.95 a month but, it's great. If you want any more info, please PM me. I don't get compensation for the recommendation. There is no affiliate program, yet. I know she is working on it.
    Geri Richmond
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  • Profile picture of the author infinite
    Hey all

    I haven't read EVERY post in this thread so this may have already been mentioned, so apologize if these points have already been mentioned - but here are a couple of things I've learned over the years in regards to web hosting (which incidentally I have spent over $100k on in the past several years! Yikes!):

    (BTW - I too was affected in part by the latest HG outage but did still manage to keep in contact with my customers)

    1. Don't put all your eggs in the one basket (if you can help it)

    I learned this the hard way many years ago, and now host my sites and clients' sites across multiple hosting companies, servers and data centers. I even have them hosted in different COUNTRIES. This means that my support desk is almost always running even if some of my other sites aren't. (Even a shared account through a decent host should do the trick for most support desks and wouldn't break the bank.) I would highly recommend running your support desk or support email from an alternative server to your main sites (or your hosted client sites if you do any hosting like I do.) That way you will still be contactable if some of your other sites go down - or your clients' sites go offline.

    I know a lot of people whose entire business froze with this latest HG issue and they were unable to even contact their customers or have their customers contact them.

    2. Backup, backup, backup

    It's always good to maintain a robust backup plan in case the worst happens. A LOT of people rely on their web hosts to keep backups for them but what happens if you web host goes bust and just shuts up shop? It actually happened to me many years ago when I was probably hosted through some cheap reseller.

    Bottom line - NEVER rely on your web host for backups. Most will tell you that they offer backups "as a courtesy" and cannot guarantee that they will have all of your precious data. "Murphy's Law" would have it that the very time you REALLY need a backup from your web host will be the time they tell you that their backup is corrupt or something and that you "should have been backing your sites up yourself too as outlined in the terms and conditions" A.K.A the fineprint!

    Anyhow... hope this helps.

    Aaron
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    • Profile picture of the author WillR
      Originally Posted by infinite View Post

      NEVER rely on your web host for backups. Most will tell you that they offer backups "as a courtesy" and cannot guarantee that they will have all of your precious data.
      It's definitely a point worth mentioning. A lot of hosts do offer backups but as you say, they won't guarantee it or be held liable if things go wrong.

      So always make sure you do periodic backups of your stuff. Make it a weekly or fortnightly thing.
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  • Profile picture of the author whland
    I've always backed up my files and never counted on the hosts having my backups even though they boasted that they keep backups.

    I take a backup of all my sites daily. You can never be too careful.

    Chad
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  • Profile picture of the author marklester611
    HostGator is one of the top web hosting company today, but after the acquisition with the EIG, many people are complaining on their services. It will be hard to look for an alternative that has the same service that HostGator offers to their users. I also been looking for an alternative to HostGator until I found Stablehost. You can find more info's here:
    Alternative to HostGator that is not owned by the EIG | Techyv
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    • Profile picture of the author Iqball
      Very excellent thread. Top solutions suggested here. Media Temple hosting looks good will check
      that one out.
      Thanks to sharing poster.

      I recall some time back reading in some article that Marlon Sanders well-known marketer used
      these guys for his hosting: olm.net

      Don't know if that is case now, but maybe can check it in and out.
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    • Profile picture of the author Iqball
      Originally Posted by marklester611 View Post

      HostGator is one of the top web hosting company today, but after the acquisition with the EIG, many people are complaining on their services. It will be hard to look for an alternative that has the same service that HostGator offers to their users. I also been looking for an alternative to HostGator until I found Stablehost. You can find more info's here:
      Alternative to HostGator that is not owned by the EIG | Techyv
      Thank you also for bringing this very useful info and list to the attention of WF.
      You can easily see that EIG are becoming the purely profit driven 'Google' monster of web-hosting.
      And inevitable casualty....poor quality of service and resultant outages!

      Excellent advice also from post#157 by Infinite.
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  • Profile picture of the author USA
    Switching over to a VPS (virtual private server) hosted by Media Temple has been the best hosting decision I ever made. I still have a bunch of sites on my Hostgator business accounts, and a few other companies, but all my money makers are now with Media Temple.

    They aren't cheap but if you get a lot traffic and need a lot of cpu power and storage, they are definitely the way to go. Great customer service, reliability... I can't say enough good things about them.

    Some of the big corporations who use Media Temple are Sony, Adobe, jQuery, Volkswagon, Samsung, NBC Universal, and Red Bull... just to name a few.
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  • Profile picture of the author doriono
    try mediatemple
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  • Profile picture of the author alan01
    BlueHost has been good for me, although I do prefer HostGator over them. Another good option with an unbeatable price yet unheard of to most is Zyma.com who have options for various sized sites. Both have really good prices and customer support.
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  • Profile picture of the author greenowl123
    Have not read every post on this thread, so I don´t know if anybody has mentioned HawkHost

    I have had no problems with HawkHost

    Not a fan of HostGator because they took all my blogs down without any warning (because of Cache issues) about 2 years ago. I would have appreciated at least 24 hours warning.

    So, again, HawkHost gets my vote...
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  • Profile picture of the author SterlingWebb
    I've never been a fan of Host Gator ever since I had my server admin run tests on my 'dedicated' server and came back with IP addresses being shared with pornographic websites.

    One of the things I did when I switched hosts was use: Web Hosting Search Tool, Reviews & More at WhoIsHostingThis.com

    However interesting I ended up using Amazon AWS cloud hosting which was pretty complicated to setup buuut does the trick. I also have an account with Dreamhost for testing (mainly because its cheap and non-critical)

    Hope this helps!

    ~SW
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    • Profile picture of the author tooAlive
      Originally Posted by SterlingWebb View Post

      I've never been a fan of Host Gator ever since I had my server admin run tests on my 'dedicated' server and came back with IP addresses being shared with pornographic websites.

      One of the things I did when I switched hosts was use: Web Hosting Search Tool, Reviews & More at WhoIsHostingThis.com

      However interesting I ended up using Amazon AWS cloud hosting which was pretty complicated to setup buuut does the trick. I also have an account with Dreamhost for testing (mainly because its cheap and non-critical)

      Hope this helps!

      ~SW
      Ouch. That's some really shady stuff indeed.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kingfish85
        Originally Posted by tooAlive View Post

        Ouch. That's some really shady stuff indeed.
        Yes it is. A lot of people ALSO don't know that most Dedicated servers from HG are running as virtual servers. A lot of the dedicated server migrations I've done from there, are OpenVZ VPS's. - meaning you're not running on bare metal. In theory, it works fine however, you're not told this, you're told your using a dedicated, "bare metal" server. It wouldn't surprise me if they were selling a dedicated server, but then running a few virtual instances on that same physical server.
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        • Profile picture of the author tooAlive
          Originally Posted by Kingfish85 View Post

          Yes it is. A lot of people ALSO don't know that most Dedicated servers from HG are running as virtual servers. A lot of the dedicated server migrations I've done from there, are OpenVZ VPS's. - meaning you're not running on bare metal. In theory, it works fine however, you're not told this, you're told your using a dedicated, "bare metal" server. It wouldn't surprise me if they were selling a dedicated server, but then running a few virtual instances on that same physical server.
          Was that before or after EIG bought them out?

          I'd be pretty angry if I found out I had been overpaying for a VPS while they made me believe it was a dedicated server.

          I have my VPS elsewhere, but knowing that makes me feel relieved that even my shared sites aren't with them anymore.
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        • Profile picture of the author RobinInTexas
          Originally Posted by Kingfish85 View Post

          Yes it is. A lot of people ALSO don't know that most Dedicated servers from HG are running as virtual servers. A lot of the dedicated server migrations I've done from there, are OpenVZ VPS's. - meaning you're not running on bare metal. In theory, it works fine however, you're not told this, you're told your using a dedicated, "bare metal" server. It wouldn't surprise me if they were selling a dedicated server, but then running a few virtual instances on that same physical server.
          How can you tell what the server is running?
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          ...Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just set there.
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          • Profile picture of the author Kingfish85
            Originally Posted by RobinInTexas View Post

            How can you tell what the server is running?
            Easiest way is to look for a vnet interface. Others are to look at the file system, prof specs, disk specs etc through the server.

            For openvz look for: /proc/vz/veinfo
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  • Profile picture of the author danieljohansson
    have you checked beyondhosting.net? I have used them for a while I am very satisfied with performance and support. I'm hiring a VPS from them...
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    • Profile picture of the author tooAlive
      Originally Posted by volstersfar View Post

      have you checked beyondhosting.net? I have used them for a while I am very satisfied with performance and support. I'm hiring a VPS from them...
      I have to say, their support team is excellent. I'd submit tickets and would have a reply within 10 minutes.

      But my VPS1500 at WiredTree is faster than the more expensive VPS1024 I had at BH.

      Just my two cents.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kingfish85
        Originally Posted by tooAlive View Post

        I have to say, their support team is excellent. I'd submit tickets and would have a reply within 10 minutes.

        But my VPS1500 at WiredTree is faster than the more expensive VPS1024 I had at BH.

        Just my two cents.
        It's been that way for quite some time. Out of sight, out of mind. What virtualization is WiredTree using? I know that HG/BH and probably most of the other ones use OpenVZ, which isn't true virtualization, it's container based; not a real VM. KVM, Xen, VMware etc, are true virtualization platforms. OpenVZ tends to be oversold/overloaded to the hilt. That's why you'll see people selling unbelievable VPS's for chump change.

        OpenVZ containers also affect the other containers much easier - one crappy VZ VPS can bring down an entire node with who knows how many others on it very easily. We still have some older VZ machines floating around but phasing OpenVZ completely out for any customer related services. All new VM's are provisioned using KVM.
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  • Profile picture of the author RobinInTexas
    Just wondering, has anybody found anything worth looking into in this forum?

    Web Hosting Offers

    Probably not a good idea to post a negative, just looking for positives.
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    ...Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just set there.
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    • Profile picture of the author garmahis
      Originally Posted by RobinInTexas View Post

      Just wondering, has anybody found anything worth looking into in this forum?

      Web Hosting Offers

      Probably not a good idea to post a negative, just looking for positives.
      I just found Stablehost coupons there, will give it a try.
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  • Profile picture of the author kpmedia
    WiredTree is Virtuozzo (commercial version of OpenVZ, same difference). It's not the best way to virtualize, no. It's an outdated method, before stuff like Xen, VMware and KVM existed. WiredTree is a good host, but I keep my important sites on Xen or VMware. KVM is too unstable still.

    EuroVPS is a good host with VMware.
    LiquidWeb and Namecheap are good hosts with Xen.

    Almost all budget hosts use OpenVZ.
    OpenVZ vswap is okay for non-essential sites. OpenVZ UBC is crap.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bill321
    For shared hosting, we use Webfaction and A2hosting with great success. Webfaction does not have Cpanel, but it does have fast loading times and great support. A2hosting offers Cpanel.

    Hostgator sites generally load slowly (nowadays). Hostgator used to be good, though.

    Bill
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  • Profile picture of the author Bish
    I'm sure my suggestion has been mentioned at some point in this thread and I'll apologize for not checking. I had massive problems with HG, not just the fact that all of my sites went down for over a day which was poor and cost me quite a bit of money. But they also changed security settings meaning that i ended up with an IPN forwarding issue, which ultimately made my membership sites impossible to automate. The problem persisted for nearly two weeks and their support was useless.

    The upshot: I have switched to LiquidWeb who are independent and definitely not owned by EIG
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  • Profile picture of the author ClickMonkey
    Regarding some of the comments in this thread about
    Endurance International Group (EIG), their business model,
    and their business practices.

    Given the scathing reviews in this thread regarding the manner
    in which Hostgator has been irreparably damaged as a result
    of EIG having acquired the company, an interesting question
    arises for which there does not seem to be a clear explanation.

    How does a company like EIG stay in business and continue to
    grow, if, as alleged in this thread, they essentially "mess up" the
    companies they buy? Hostgator was not their first acquisition,
    and in one link provided in this thread, there is speculation that
    EIG could possibly purchase GoDaddy one day. Again... how is
    any of this possible if the companies being acquired by EIG are
    being irreparably damaged?

    Any thoughts or insights would be appreciated, thanks!
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    • Profile picture of the author Kingfish85
      Originally Posted by ClickMonkey View Post

      Regarding some of the comments in this thread about
      Endurance International Group (EIG), their business model,
      and their business practices.

      Given the scathing reviews in this thread regarding the manner
      in which Hostgator has been irreparably damaged as a result
      of EIG having acquired the company, an interesting question
      arises for which there does not seem to be a clear explanation.

      How does a company like EIG stay in business and continue to
      grow, if, as alleged in this thread, they essentially "mess up" the
      companies they buy? Hostgator was not their first acquisition,
      and in one link provided in this thread, there is speculation that
      EIG could possibly purchase GoDaddy one day. Again... how is
      any of this possible if the companies being acquired by EIG are
      being irreparably damaged?

      Any thoughts or insights would be appreciated, thanks!
      Affiliates keep driving sales via fake top ten lists.
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    • Profile picture of the author mojojuju
      Originally Posted by ClickMonkey View Post

      How does a company like EIG stay in business and continue to
      grow, if, as alleged in this thread, they essentially "mess up" the
      companies they buy? Hostgator was not their first acquisition,
      and in one link provided in this thread, there is speculation that
      EIG could possibly purchase GoDaddy one day. Again... how is
      any of this possible if the companies being acquired by EIG are
      being irreparably damaged?

      Any thoughts or insights would be appreciated, thanks!
      EIG companies don't cater to a discerning or educated customer base.

      The same question could be asked regarding McDonalds.

      You don't think they serve the best burgers, do you? (if you think that MacDonalds serves the best burgers in the business, then disregard the next paragraph).

      How does McDonalds stay in business if they don't make the best hamburgers? They serve pretty basic burgers with reconstituted onions on them. They serve "chicken nuggets" made from ultra-processed chicken parts. Their food is nothing special. In my town, and probably yours, there are better burger joints that most people will never hear of. They make better food but they will never be as successful as McDonalds. McDonalds customer base doesn't go to McDonalds because they serve the best food. There are other reasons, like cost, convenience, brand recognition, poor taste....

      The same goes with hosting. The people who go with the mega-hosts I'd guess are not the most discriminating, or the most demanding, customers. As long as it "seems like" their web site loads fast (directly from their browser's cache! ), they think they've got a pretty good web host. They don't think of more objective ways to test web hosting service and they'll never know that their sites are slow or have much downtime.

      tl;dr - most consumers of EIG hosts just don't know any better. Most people don't know much about hosting or how to tell if hosting sucks. It's easy to sell an inferior product to people who don't know what a good product is.
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  • Profile picture of the author Moneymaker2012
    I have always trusted and chose hostgator, it is really great and I never had any issues with them. Their support team is great and gives good response.
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    • Profile picture of the author nomdeplume57
      Originally Posted by Moneymaker2012 View Post

      I have always trusted and chose hostgator, it is really great and I never had any issues with them. Their support team is great and gives good response.
      Do you work for HostGator ? or are you by chance a reseller for them if I might ask.
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  • Profile picture of the author TrafficMystic
    hollie.. i would recommend D9 Hosting.. they are very fast.. support is the best Ive ever experienced and any issue get solved asap..
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  • Profile picture of the author mojojuju
    A few ways to tell are listed here How to verify if a dedicated server is really dedicated? - Server Fault

    As Kingfish85 pointed out, you could just run ifconfig and look for a network interface called venet0:0. That's a dead giveaway that it's an OpenVZ container.

    Originally Posted by Kingfish85 View Post

    Yes it is. A lot of people ALSO don't know that most Dedicated servers from HG are running as virtual servers. A lot of the dedicated server migrations I've done from there, are OpenVZ VPS's. - meaning you're not running on bare metal.
    So you've actually seen this on servers sold as "Dedicated servers" from HG?!! If so, that, I believe, is deceptive advertising if it is the case.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kingfish85
      Originally Posted by mojojuju View Post

      A few ways to tell are listed here How to verify if a dedicated server is really dedicated? - Server Fault

      As Kingfish85 pointed out, you could just run ifconfig and look for a network interface called venet0:0. That's a dead giveaway that it's an OpenVZ container.



      So you've actually seen this on servers sold as "Dedicated servers" from HG?!! If so, that, I believe, is deceptive advertising if it is the case.
      Yup. I have personally seen it on quite a few customer migrations from dedicated servers and they admitted to it on WHT a bit ago. It got buried in thread replies so that was that last mention of it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kingfish85
      Originally Posted by mojojuju View Post

      So you've actually seen this on servers sold as "Dedicated servers" from HG?!! If so, that, I believe, is deceptive advertising if it is the case.

      Have read through this thread: (the entire thread)

      How Hostgator cheated /fraud my 199$ - Dedicated Server - Web Hosting Talk

      Virtualizing shared & reseller servers are one thing but selling a physcial, dedicated server with one large VPS and not telling customers what they're really getting is another.

      Now, here's the kicker. Say a customer orders a dedicated server with 500GB drives...how do you know they aren't sticking 2 500GB VPS's on 1 server with 1TB or 2TB drives? You don't. They're also selling you on the dedicated cPanel as well which is double the price of a VPS license - right there is a 50% profit if the costs incorporate a full cPanel license. Makes you think a bit about what's actually going on behind the scenes...

      Smaller dedicated w/ 250GB drives? Are they running multiple VPS's with smaller configs on single servers calling them dedicated servers?? Think of the possibilities here...

      User gatorpatrick goes on to say....

      Originally Posted by gatorpatrick View Post

      The *overwhelming* majority of our clients (99%+) prefer this setup as some of our primary complaints about the dedi offering was around deploy times & hardware monitoring. We can do a far more effective and rapidly proactive job with the setup we have in place currently than our classic setup which was basically just baremetal + widely available monitoring tools (as you suggest).

      For the insistent minority which don't want the tiny KVM overhead we're totally willing to take the 30 minutes it takes and reload their box with a baremetal setup. So far we haven't had anyone insist on this after they've heard the benefits of the monitoring layer. (to my knowledge)
      Unfortunately, I'd be willing to wager that the "*overwhelming* majority of our clients (99%+)" have no clue as to what's going on despite what they say. I told one of our customers whom was being migrated a few months ago about this and needless to say he was shocked. So no, I highly doubt the "overwhelming majority" knows.
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  • Profile picture of the author Untouchablex
    I havent had a problem with hostgator so far.
    You could try liquidweb. I have heard good things about them
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  • Profile picture of the author quotephotography
    GO FOR DREAMHOST. THERE PLANS AND HOSTING ARE MUCH BETTER AS COMPARED TO HOSTGATOR.
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    • Profile picture of the author TimCastleman
      I moved all my files from Hostgator to Liquid Web and never looked back.

      Sent major launch traffic at it - without a hitch.

      I even convinced them to move all my sites from HG to LW for free (they normally charge $500 for this).

      If you're looking to switch PM me and I'll send you my affiliate link and tell you how to get your sites moved from HG for free.

      BTW, I had Bluehost - same story - they sucked.

      Liquid Web for the win.
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      • Profile picture of the author WillR
        Originally Posted by TimCastleman View Post

        I moved all my files from Hostgator to Liquid Web and never looked back.

        Sent major launch traffic at it - without a hitch.

        I even convinced them to move all my sites from HG to LW for free (they normally charge $500 for this).

        If you're looking to switch PM me and I'll send you my affiliate link and tell you how to get your sites moved from HG for free.

        BTW, I had Bluehost - same story - they sucked.

        Liquid Web for the win.
        I did exactly what Tim did. Moved all my sites 2 weeks ago from Hostgator over to Liquid Web. Had a launch last week and no issues with the server at all.

        Just to follow on from what Tim said regarding migration, Liquid Web actually do that for free. They did the migration of all my sites over to Liquid Web as well. They will take care of it for you. It's part of their service.
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  • Profile picture of the author mediahog
    I have moved over to Arvixe.com
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    • Profile picture of the author ThomasTe
      I moved from godaddy to hostgator some months ago, since godaddy all of a sudden chose to shut down all my sites, without explaining me what. They talked about having some code on my sites (classic asp), which made the servers slow. That I did not have, and they could not give me any details, so I decided to move everything to hostgator (wordpress blogs now).
      However, for the last couple of months response times on my sites have been horrible.

      Would it be an idea to move back to godaddy?
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  • Profile picture of the author ThomasTe
    Any input on the current response times, godaddy vs. hostgator?
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    • Profile picture of the author CyberAlien
      Originally Posted by ThomasTe View Post

      Any input on the current response times, godaddy vs. hostgator?
      It depends on how you try to get ahold of them. You can call both and wait a few minutes to talk on the phone, but HostGator offers live chat which GoDaddy doesn't.
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  • Profile picture of the author kennytan
    Try to look for Liquidweb as their servers have never been down in my experience and their supports are quite impressive
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  • Profile picture of the author ThomasTe
    Thanks, Kenny. How about the response times? Right now my sites' response times is 10-30 seconds, compared to Facebook at around 0,8 seconds.
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  • Profile picture of the author WSS
    Check out Crocweb. As soon as I heard EIG had acquired Hostgator I went on the search for a new host. I narrowed it down to some well known ones but then found people talking about how happy they were with crocweb and decided to give it a shot.

    My websites are far faster than they ever were with Hostgator (even though their servers are in Montreal). They also don't have all that "unlimited" BS marketing ploy. It's easy to see how much resources you are using and with a few simple clicks to upgrade or downgrade your plan if need be. They immediately started on transferring my sites even though it was about 3AM their time on Saturday. I was expecting to have to wait for a business day for my support ticket to be worked on, so that was a pleasant surprise.

    So I moved from a gator to a croc and am happy I did (even if they did sort of copy hostgators name and mascot).
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  • Profile picture of the author mkellam
    I DEFINITELY recommend WiredTree. We changed our 100,000+ visitors per month site to a WiredTree VPS at the recommendation of others on the Warrior Forums after lamenting our continuing problems with Hostgator and it has been the best decision we have ever made regarding any technical part of our business. Their system works well, the support staff are amazingly helpful and we even get periodic e-mails from managers/VPs asking if everything is going well. Once we were all transferred, we have never had another problem with our hosting.

    Previously, we used a Hostgator VPS and had nothing but trouble for a year and a half. With Hostgator, our site was overwhelmed with technical issues that brought our site down during critical sales. Hostgator attributed the problems to our coding, plugins, Wordpress, store software and so on, but after switching to WiredTree, the problems miraculously vanished.

    Ironically, the price at WiredTree was a lot less, so we were also able to get double the resources for 40% less cost, although we never come close to using all of what's available to us. I'm very happy with WiredTree and I recommend them to anyone who doesn't want to spend a lot of time chasing technical ghosts and wants good hosting that just works with great support...

    Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author sunshineaddict
    I moved away from Godaddy. Don't even think about them. I have accounts on Bluehost, Hostgator - and most recently on a VPS at Wiredtree. I recommend Wiredtree. I have about 80 domains on there and not a lick of trouble. PROMPT responses to the very minimal number of support tickets I have had.

    Bluehost.com is continuously having problems. I am frequently getting downtime notices from Google Webmaster tools on domains there. Then there have been multiple *extended* outages in the past. I will likely be moving most of my priority domains away from there when I have time.

    I have no issues with Hostgator so far since the change but I just have a run of the mill account there, not a dedicated server.

    In general I like spreading my domains across different web hosts to guard against my entire business going down at once. But Wiredtree shines in terms of support and performance and seems solid after 13 months.
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  • Profile picture of the author Vasilev
    5 pages and barely any suggestions.... Hostgator stated sucking and that's the deal... anybody going to suggest alternatives or...?
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    • Profile picture of the author Kingfish85
      Originally Posted by Vasilev View Post

      5 pages and barely any suggestions.... Hostgator stated sucking and that's the deal... anybody going to suggest alternatives or...?
      You're not going to get any. Most of the people posting don't bother to read the thread.
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      • Profile picture of the author Vasilev
        Originally Posted by Kingfish85 View Post

        You're not going to get any. Most of the people posting don't bother to read the thread.
        LOL, I guess people are just chatting...well, I'll be researching a little more and you will probably be my next provider, so thanks one more time for showing up.
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        • Profile picture of the author Kingfish85
          Originally Posted by Vasilev View Post

          LOL, I guess people are just chatting...well, I'll be researching a little more and you will probably be my next provider, so thanks one more time for showing up.
          Sure, no worries. Like I said, feel free to let me know if you have any questions about any of our services - we've recently introduced our VeeroTech Cloud, based on Vmware & NetApp which has taken very well.

          -Brent
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  • Profile picture of the author DJL
    I have been very pleased with WiredWeb.
    Performance and support have been excellent.
    They currently have a discount offer here on the WF.
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  • Profile picture of the author goldbiz
    The problem with google searching web hosting options is that most (like 99.9%) of related articles/sites are built around commissions. A few of those webmasters might not recommend companies they don't like. Yet they still recommend from a pool of the same companies--those which pay the highest commissions. This is one reason why you see a zillion hostgator recommendations.

    For the same reason, I think a lot of people who would offer you a sincere recommendation, aren't even aware of better options.

    There are a lot of web hosts that you don't usually hear about that provide good speed, bandwidth, and stellar support, all at an excellent price. I left hostgator and godaddy for stablehost, which I had never heard of before (until discovering the site below), and which was a world of difference. I also looked favorably at MDD, VeeroTech, and many others.

    While searching for a new host, I found webhostingtalk(dotcom) There you can read objective reviews from all levels of webmasters and developers. Additionally, many of the good companies have a presence there, so you can see for yourself how they respond to issues, and how many issues there are for each company.

    Many of the hosts offer big discounts in the special offers section, so check there.

    Do your research. This is by far the BEST resource I have found for researching hosting companies. If more people knew about it, fewer of them would flock to the most commonly promoted companies, which really don't compare in terms of quality.

    DISCLAIMER: I am in no way associated with webhostingtalk. But: 1) I know what it's like to need a new host but distrust affiliates reviews and 2) I am really glad I found them.

    By the way, if this helps, please hit the "thanks" button. I need a few of those
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    I’d explain it to you, but your brain would explode.

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