Don’t you just hate crappy webhosts?

So I turned my attention back to this blog, reskinned it, and made a few posts.

Only, the MySQL database kept crashing, WHM showed almost full processor use on the server, and the load kept freezing the site.

I have to use a lot of reseller accounts, and though I have a generally good handle on the webhosting industry, the need for more and more reseller hosting accounts has meant having to push the boundaries of what I use.

The result is that I’ve ended up with a string of reseller accounts with webhosts who at best, are competent - most of the time.

But when you see a database server crashing all day and the server load constantly too high throughout a 24-48 hour period, and you email support - only to receive a reply that states:

I too experienced some delay when I accessed the domain for the first time. I thinks its because of the DNS cache issue and I am able to accesses the domain with reasonable response time after the first access.

you know you have to sever connections with the company.

Even good hosting companies have bad days, but they say, “Pants, the server is crashing, we’re really sorry, but we’re already working on the issue and should have the issue resolved pretty soon”.

Bad hosting companies say, “Sorry, I’m not seeing the issues you reported 4 hours ago at present” or “Gee, I’m only here to delay you until the problem hopefully fixes itself, by which time, if we lose you as a customer, oh well, as we have lots of customers anyway”.

Support is paramount in webhosting - if your site or server goes down, you need to be confident that someone is on the case and dealing with it, and can let you know this if you contact them.

The worst I’ve experienced is with 1&1 - I had to help a client once who still had some hosting with 1&1, and of a string of email support tickets sent, only one was received - 2 weeks later. While waiting, contacting phone support led me to someone who didn’t sound like they knew what a website was, let alone say anything intelligent about dealing with a crashed server.

The bad thing about crappy webhosts is that if you end up with a site down because of them, you end up losing more than uptime - potential loss of perceived value, loss of links to good content, fewer subscribers, etc.

That’s why it really pays to do some research, test out different companies - and most importantly of all: never keep all your eggs in one basket.

I learned that in April 2003 - not many sites owned, but all hosted under a single reseller account. Only, the server was so badly hacked that date that it was unplugged from the datacenter, and the hosting company didn’t know what was going on, nor its customers, resulting in a full week’s downtime.

I have a large number of reseller accounts partly for link building purposes (different IP ranges) - but more importantly, because it’s never worth risking all of your eggs in one basket. Especially when you have lots of eggs.