Monday, July 07, 2008

Anyone Know a Good Web Hosting Service?

Ok, here's a secret. One reason I didn't post the script excerpt was that my web hosting service seems to have imploded.

Yes, I am having some problems with my current web hosting company. They registered my website in my name (a whois search turns up me), but put up a link farm on the URL. The back end still shows all of my files and my web pages and scripts and podcast files and whachehoochee, but those files do not seem accessible from the world wide web.

When I click around and doodeelee doodeeleee, my web hosting account now tells me I haven't registered this website and I need to "click here" to do so. "Clicking here" leads me to a blank page.

I've opened three separate trouble tickets on it. In the past, they have been very good with the trouble tickets, responding withing 48 hours. So I'm giving them 48 hours before I actively start looking for other domain registrars and web hosts. Any suggestions?

14 comments:

NoRegrets said...

I'm on a listserv where someone recently asked that question. I'll compile it and send.

Susan said...

Server talk makes me want to cry right now. We just switched to a new one at work and things are going very not good.

NoRegrets said...

Actually people always seem to like GoDaddy.

Cyber D said...

I didn't understand half the thing you said but I think a good poriton of it was pornagraphic in nature!

On a side note I used Go Daddy for a few years and it was great. My wife uses Pow-Web and they suck balls.

Tera said...

Cyber...they suck balls? Bwahahahahahaha!

M. Robert Turnage said...

NoR, thanks.

Susan, don't cry for me, Susantina.

NoR, as much as I appreciate large breasted women popping their bra straps, I am not a big fan of Go Daddy's ad campaign, so I probably won't send them money.

Cyber, you see right through me. Everything I type is secretly dirty.

Tera, I am surprised Cyber is complaining about something like that.

People who emailed me anonymously, thanks!

Churlita said...

I don't know anything about what you speak. I'm with Cyber D with thinking it might be pornographic...Which for IT types, it might be.

heather said...

i had no freakin clue what you were talking about so when i spoke to brat today i asked her. this was not a conversation i needed today.
my little sister has the ability to make you 'see' her rolling her eyes at you even though you're on the phone and she hasn't said a thing. the upshot of the conversation (once she realised i was only asking for a friend and had finished teasing me about my techno idiocracy) was that she has only used go daddy and yahoo. both of which could use an overhaul but go daddy seems to work a bit better.

not exactly a glowing recommendation but i tried.

Maida said...

I've been with Westhost for 9 years now.

Nearly all of my clients are hosted there as well. I've always had good luck with their support - they offer live chat, email and phone support. I usually opt for the first two options. I've never had to wait for more than 6 hours for a response to a ticket via email.

I don't recommend Powweb or Yahoo. I don't like GoDaddy because they don't give me access to everything I need access to. But some of my clients insist on hosting there so I work with it. Their support sucks - email support is slow and hard to track down, and their phone support is a toll call. Nice, huh?

Sounds like your hosting company lost your domain in their name servers. It's a simple fix. They just need to put it back in the DNS. Then it takes 24-48 to propagate. :)

M. Robert Turnage said...

Oh, it is definitely a DNS issue.

I didn't like my old registrar, so when the contract on my domain expired, I transferred it over to my new people. The new people sent me all sorts of email assuring me that there was no problems and they got the URL after the lock on it was lifted and the transfer went smoothly and the link farm on the URL was only temporary and should be gone within 48 hours and we'll be up and running again and yadda yadda.

But I've been told, "We'll have this fixed within 48 hours" for about a month now. Now, after escalating it two levels, they're telling me I need to go back to my old registrar and ask for them to let go of the domain - something they told me they already handled a month ago. Not happy.

Maida said...

Who is said registrar?

I switched all my domains to GoDaddy. They've done me right so far. ;)

And I'm fond of their controversial commercials myself... heh heh

M. Robert Turnage said...

The bad registrar I do not like is the sinister and evil Domain Registry of America (droa.com).

My soon-to-be-ex-current registrar is Hostway.

NoRegrets said...

Wow, I've entered another world with another language. I can almost understand though.

daniel duke said...

Have you made a final decision yet? my Dad is looking to renew and I don't know who to tell him to go with.