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Now that i have your attention lets test your webhost tech support please..

This is a real problem i had recently i wont mention the host because i am still with them and i think they are good stuff , happy with my service so far so i dont want one isolated incident to reflect on their name.

I would like to know how your support would have handled the following scenario..

Some background.. :

I have 2 domains sharing an ip on a virtual account
siteone.com
and
sitetwo.com


pointing directly to the ip went to siteone.com

at some point this changed and was pointing to the second domain sitetwo.com

so i contacted support
( i dont have the exact trascript here so im just going by memory )
Me: hi did you guys change something on my box ?
support : no why ?
Me : well going directly to my ip used to point to siteone.com and now its pointing to sitetwo.com
support: hmm we havent changed anything here.
Me: well i have a few script coded pointing to the ip so i would like it switched around
support: we havent changed anything at all here
me: well hmm can you explain how the ip flipflopped like that on its own..
support: ill have to check into that
me:ok
support:ok maybe we did upgrade some things that might have cause some etc etc etc
me: it did , can you change it back
support: that cant be done
me: hmm well if you changed it one way makes sense you can change it back :)
support: ill put in a ticket to the tech's






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ok i shortned it a bit for time because we did a lot more looping in circles than i transcribed but you get the point.. ( i may also have been a bit more blunt in the transcript too because im doing it from memory )

I would like to have actually heard what the problem was and perhaps it could have gone smoother so heres a chance for webhosts supprt techs to show how they would have handled it ( perhaps smoother )

p.s. keep in mind i am just a virtual at this host not a dedicated so i dont expect royal treatment but.. ( and i would like that reflected in the answer as how you would answer a virtual account customer )

p.s. i dont recall if they did actually switch it back or not eventually .

i spent the night recoding my scripts because i needed it fixed that night so it didnt matter anymore

Did they fix it or not ?

apache config file thakes care of that

Well i dont know but i never had problem with any host :)

Ok Ok let me break it down here :)

First the tech side, this is an issue of HTTP/1.1 Virtual Hosting specs

Back in the day when they realized hey it doesn't make sense for all domains to have their own IP they changed the HTTP protocol to send a Host header that specifies exactly the name of the site that they want to connect to on a certain IP.

Now the only way to properly manage virtual hosting is via software, doing it by hand you'll go insane! Software is usually written 3rd party as its quite difficult to write in house, so there are a BUNCH of limitations.

Things that could have caused this problem, mannnn there's a bunch anything simple from rebuilding VirtualHosts (order is important) to maybe using alphabetical sorting, to even adding more IPs on the box and it having to re-organize previous entries could have caused sitetwo's vhost to appear above siteone's and that would result in what you described.

As for customer support it's always best to give a full explanation to the customer. Say for example, they honestly DONT have control over how the software associates IPs and VirtualHosts they could have explained that a software upgrade was performed and this is just the way things will be from now on. Its always good to counteract a negative with a positive, they might have suggested for example switching one of the sites to a seperate dedicated IP address or any other workaround if there is no possibility for a fix.

So there you have it :) I wouldn't blame the host much but in every situation there's a good way and a bad way to handle it.

the site that will appear when you put the ip will be the first site on the httpd.conf file . switching the sites must have a prior order change on the virtual sites list at their conf file

good answer :thumbsup

You can also create a new VirtualHost entry with the ServerName set to the ip address.