a tale of 7 years of hosting problems - loooooooong post
 

when we started in this business, we started to promoted our phone sex lines. we got our first domain and found a host reading computer magazines.

after a couple months, i asked our host if he thought our package was sufficient to host adult sites. i was beginning to see a lot of traffic. he said yes. the next month, a bill for $1200 - mostly overages - arrived. so we found our first adult host.

they charged $100 for 30 gig, which actually was quite good then. they were nice, in the biz, and we got going. then their provider started having massive problems with slowages. it got to be an industry joke. it lasted till they moved their servers.

then the industry got busier and $100 per 30 gigs wasn't good enough. we got a top level virtual account with the host of a friend who i had seen a lot of people host with. after a month, he said we had to get our own server. i ran out and bought one and fedexed it to him. things were good for a while.

then our sites got slow. i emailed him, and he said that they were having problems being worked out with sprint. i said okay, let's see how it goes.

well, another month in, when all our galleries in the world had been taken down 'cause of slowness, and he didn't answer my emails, i got ahold of his "secretary". the guy said the owner of the company had forwarded his phone to the secretary's house and stopped contacting him. he was getting calls day and night asking what was going on, and he had no idea. he also told me (never could be sure) that the server i fedexed was not being used for our sites - that this guy got lots of us to send servers, kept us on virtual and used the servers for other things.

be that as it may, we decided it was past time to move. i found a place run by two guys that said they'd charge us $600 a month for 1mbps, which at that time was good. they also got us set up before our money reached them. i was so grateful - i sent them some dedicated customers, and always spoke very well of them. i still think they're really nice guys.

over a period of time, the fact that there was no 24 hour support caused a couple problems. also when i got there, they had no experience except with nt, so i was on an nt server which caused a lot of problems. and then bandwidth went down. they were letting me have up to 1.5 mbps for my money, but that was no longer competitive and things were getting to be a problem.

i talked to a friend and we agreed to share a server at another host that was extremely well spoken of on the boards. they said they'd upload our stuff, and told me it went fine, but in reality they missed a lot of my stuff - especially galleries, which got deleted off all the tgps once the name servers had changed. then within three days, we started seeing downtime.

they let us out of the agreement, which i really appreciated.

we moved to datahosters, and although we had the occasion problem, overall this was the best hosting i had experienced in all these years. then came the fateful day that frank at datahosters decided to give up his hosting business.

we agreed to be moved to candidhosting and frank said he'd set up our server himself. and then he disappeared.

we were getting close to the time we needed to be on the new server, so i contact mark at candidhosting and he put me in touch with one of the guys setting up the servers. this guy worked his ass off to get our server up to specs for us, and he actually worked without sleep on this massive migration for 3 days.

then on easter night, i got a call. someone working for datahosters went in and was working on all the servers, and was changing stuff in ours. it was too late to stop him by the time i heard.

once our domains came up, it became evident in minutes that the new file structure the guy set up didn't work. candidhosting support busted butt to get that straightened out.

but over the next couple of months, problems came up. the guy had reconfigured our apache, candid thought we wanted it that way, but it didn't work that way so they'd make minor changes which would fix the problem till the next showed up. finally an admin at candid luckily got mad about this apache, and when i heard, i had them totally reconfigure.

the long and short is that without these hosting problems, our income would be at least double what it is. every time we've had a long downtime, more of our galleries and sites get pulled down from where they're listed. we've been blacklisted from some good link sites and tgps. our last problem i watched our daily traffic drop 50%. old galleries still make sales, and not having them up removes that piece of our income. and each time our galleries start getting archived, we have another hosting problem and they're gone.

i guess i'm just venting. with good hosting, i would have time to spend on other projects. our income would be bigger. i'd spend less time worrying.

good hosts = good business!

Good read. Hosting and uptime is the heart of the business. If your down or slow you cant make any money can you?

Right on. And yet people still keep shopping for the lowest possible prices thinking of how much they are saving and then when extended downtimes hit, or incompetent tech support (if any) is given, they dont realize how much more they are losing as a result.

Oh well.

i shudder to think how much $$ id be making now if all my galleries & sites from the last 6 years were online & had never been down....

liquidmoe, you are SO right, but it's not just about prices. i never shopped for the cheapest. i searched some of the hosts on the board, and read nothing but good about the ones we tried. the host that didn't upload us right are still recommended by everyone a large number of people on this board and others yet they lost about half my content and didn't even know.

i think that it's important to find a host that not only understands what he's doing, but understands what WE'RE doing. reputation is something to check, but they have to understand our industry. other than that, cross your fingers. most of the hardship i've known in the business is hosting-related.

dawgy, you and me both!

Shemp is hosted at National Net :thumbsup

dad,im thinking of going over to them

you know i work the nite shift...its just great to have live tech support at 04:00.

Horror stories like this really urk me and I hate that you had to go thru all that. If you should find yourself in this predicament again or need some quality hosting relief now email [email protected] and we'll set you up on our 5GB/90GB Plan FREE while you recover/restructure.



:helpme is here!

hey, the Shemp, how long have you been at national net?

PbG, thanks for the offer - it's really nice of you - but we do at least 1 mbps a day and when we're up for a while, at least 2.

Yeah a stable host is important...I had a few hosts before the one I use now as well...ANd some weren't cheap either, but they just sucked..

First I used some dutch host, they could not handle the traffic, np, I moved to Hiendmedia(now called www.way2fast.com)

I had a ded server over there, and 100MBPS uncapped line. But the DED server could not even handle 4000GB a month.... I needed to add more ram+add an extra processor...Yeah right, only static galleries....

Then I moved to JON, he was nice, but he simply could not handle the business, and I moved on to his BW provider. They did okay, but still every few weeks a downtime of an hour.

Then I went to isprime, well you will know what I;m gonna tell next....

So whatever your hosting decission will be, look at one of the "better"** hosts, this will make you more money indeed on the long run....

BTW hiendmedia was recently "discovered" as scam company, they fucked many ppl over, good that I was already gone at that time.

one of the hosts in my list of woe is still highly regarded, but for me they probably cost me more in the long run than anyone else.

how long have you been with isprime? i've heard good things.

ive had one gallery/paysite server there a year.
we moved the main "shemp" server there when Nat Net bought Stricltly hosting, last March. I have just renewed that contract with NatNet for another year. :)

Good post.

Tru that service is always more important than cost, some customers don't see it that way until it all goes wrong.

Youre welcome. We have plenty of bandwidth, 1-2 mbps is not a problem either. We simply could not afford to give you that for free. However we feel your pain and would welcome the opportunity to provide you and/or most people with cost effective, reliable hosting.

Good service is hard to come by

Bass chick,

if you ever want to stop bouncing form host to host contact me../great connectivity, great tech support, affordable pricing, what more can you ask for...concentrate on the important things :thumbsup

Basschick, great post and very true. :thumbsup

All of our stuff is with Mach10 Hosting

for the last 2-3 years. Wouldnt think of moving.

Hey I lost my sock. Do 10 of you fuckers want to fight over giving me the best sock deals? Maybe a free sock till I'm back on my feet.

FUCKING LEECHES