Officially moving to 1and1.com!

#1

Well folks, my time here at DH is about to come to an end. I am not sure whether it was that new code monster plan or the recent upgrades or what that has rendered DH almost unusable for high traffic sites. Either way, I have once again researched whats out there and have found the company 1and1.com to be the absolute best out there. Not only are they billed as the largest hosting provider out there, they actually not only have a phone number for tech support, IT IS ACTUALLY TOLL FREE !!! (unbelievable)

They have huge data centers in both New York (which i like because I am an east coast resident) and UK. They support the notorious FP extensions, they have both Windows and Unix servers, did i mention they have TOLL FREE TECH SUPPORT…did i also mention they allow for up to 200 domains on their developer plan…and did i mention they give you 5 free domains…btw, when i called their tech services even before i was signed up with them, they understood the problems i was encountering and they were willing to provide me with an actual REFERENCE LIST of customers in my area who have been with 1and1.com for long periods of time…I have been with DH for around 1 year and 1/3 and it has been terribly exhausting…their support que has been around the 500+ mark for some time now and only today has dropped under the 400 mark…this means to me that they do not have adequate support personnel to manage their existing client base…not to mention that they dont even have a PHONE NUMBER…im not talking toll-free, im talking a phone number PERIOD!..My suggestion to you is to at least check these folks out and no i am not receiving a referral fee for my claim here, i simply share in many of your frustrations with what has been occurring. I am not someone able to just accept these problems and shrug them off without knowing that my service provider takes a proactive approach. The family member that originally referred me over to DH is now leaving for 1and1.com as well…what can i say, i’ve been more than patient over the past year and nothing has really changed…email problems, server problems, configuration problems, time out problems (and i am speaking of not just frontpage users)…enough is enough!

www.1and1.com…i suggest giving them a try.

IAmAtMyWitsEnd

#2

Good luck with 1&1. I hope it’ll work for you. From my own research they seem fairly reliable as hosts go, but that their support on the shared plans is horrible. They’re probably a good host if you can maintain your site and solve any problems you encounter yourself – their web servers themselves tend not to have problems unlike some of DH’s servers lately.

The downsides to 1&1 of course are the support (or lack thereof), convoluted TOS, slow control panel that has a will of its own, and the occasional mail server problems.

You might be interested in reading this recent review before committing yourself to 1&1. As always, YMMV regardless of the host’s reputation.

BTW, I hear that the people using their dedicated servers have encountered a lot better support than the people subscribing to their shared hosting services.

#3

Well on a different note, I moved to DH from MySiteSpace and I’ve not looked back. DH is far better than MSS.
Unacceptable downtime (MySQL, FTP everything), slow Cpanel I decided to move here. And I’ve not experienced any of the problems most people here have touch wood. I’ve only had my site down once and was back up soon :).
There are a lot of bad hosts out there, but I don’t think DH is one of them.

#4

Yeah, I kinda like DH. There are problems at the moment, but I’m hoping that those’ll get sorted out sooner rather than later. Have you guys ever actually read the terms of service for some of those other hosting companies? Some of them are insane, not to mention unenforceable, to the tune of “you give us the ownership of any content you put on our servers AND we can fine you $500 for any reason we feel like, whenever we feel like, as often as we feel like” and some of the shadier operations even try to act on that clause too. Dreamhosts’s TOS is actually halfway sane…

#5

I moved from MSS also. Some offers really are too good to be true, and that was one of 'em. Considered quite a few hosts before picking DH. IMO you’re just not gonna find better out there. Any host will have some glitches, but DH is great about announcing what’s up and about fixing the occasional problems. Same as decswxaqz, I haven’t encountered any major problems (here’s another knock on wood).

Just do lots of research before deciding on a host, so you won’t have to move again and again.

~Chell

#6

Iri,

all the things you have mentioned there and more i have already experienced 10-fold with DH…DH is only ok if you have a relatively small site that you maintain only occassionally…btw, your quick response and time of day would indicate that you probably are a DH staffer and in that case, i wish you folks much more luck in the future, because, if you continue down this perilous slope as recent activities suggest, your business will simply not succeed. I love the comment about support or lack thereof LOL…this coming from a service provider that does not even have a tech contact phone number and one that has a support que ALWAYS over 500+ without adequate staff to handle such que. It is very clear that DH is falling away from what helped keep them such an underground secret in the past and if i were a client i would be much concerned with the recent direction of DH…just a little insight from a soon to be former client

IAmAtMyWitsEnd

#7

I am not familiar with MSS and i am sorry to hear of your experiences with them. I can tell you that I have been crafting pages on the internet since 1994 and i have had my share of hosting plans and hosting providers, some better, some worse, but as far as true server speeds, DH has been one of the slowest i have come across in the beleagured world of shared hosting. This points to the mere fact that they are running far too many clients off of each server (as evidenced by their overall lack of windows servers-they chose unix explicitally due to not only overall reliability but more importantly the fact that they can run 100s of clients off of each of these servers while windows servers limits to around 25). I do not know the average traffic your site sees and how many sql requests that indeed processes, but, i can tell you that I have never been more dissatisfied with the things you have mentioned (MYSQL and FTP - ESPECIALLY!) than with any other hosting provider i have used in the past (mind you, i moved over to DH from Winsave and Affinity) - the problem is many of you out there are not paying as much attention to your sites as i do and the mere fact that my team runs updates on our site EVERY DAY is one reason that I see quite a bit more issues that many may not. DH’s e-mail warnings of when i site actually goes down are nowhere near the actual numbers + the downtime record that is displayed by DH is downright criminally incorrect. Ever wonder what happened to the we will definitely be in contact with you within 24 hours part of their contact support disclaimer?? Also, havent any of you wondered why the live chat beta has yet to even be used???!! They are a disorganized company - im sorry flat and simple - and the mere fact that they are having paying clients come to their defense due to their hippy logic befuddles me…this is a business pure and simple and the cute little catch phrases and happy go lucky atmosphere that seems to surround this company will only get them one place and thats a place that many of us would not like to see. I really do wish DH all the best in the future, but, i need RELIABILITY and SERVICE and the ability to actually troubleshoot with someone OVER THE PHONE…some things cannot wait 3-5 days to get resolved.

IAmAtMyWitsEnd

#8

Iri,

the “problems at the moment” thing you seem to be referencing has been occurring since their upgrades back in December - which is now over 3 months. While you are correct about the TOS of some hosting providers, there is a reason why the biggies have such tight TOS, its to prevent people from operating illegal sites on their servers or using their servers for spamming…most of which is sadly unenforceable as you have mentioned. I am just one to say that the grass is almost always greener on the other side…i still cant believe that winsave of all places was actually better than DH…that was my surprise.

IAmAtMyWitsEnd

#9

Chell,

first off i want to comment on what a nicely coded site you have…and on any other web service provider, your PR would at least be a 5 or maybe a 6…that is one thing that i have failed to mention in my rants of recent, when my site was hosted with winsave, it was a PR7, since i have moved it over to DH, i have not surpassed the PR4 range…i guess the rumors are true that google does indeed penalize certain hosting providers. All that said, very nice site!

IAmAtMyWitsEnd

#10

Um, Mr. IAmAtMyWitsEnd, for your information: I am not a DH staffer. The time of day of my posts – and the speed which with I posted a reply to your posts – are NOT your concern. Beyond that I take exception to the tone of voice you directed my way under your assumption that I was a DH staffer. Could you please point your comments somewhere else.

#11

they are running far too many clients off of each server (as evidenced by their overall lack of windows servers-they chose unix explicitally due to not only overall reliability but more importantly the fact that they can run 100s of clients off of each of these servers while windows servers limits to around 25)

You say that like it’s a bad thing. Arguments about overloading aside, which is more cost-effective: a free OS you can run 100+ sites on or an expensive OS you can run 25 on? All other things being equal, extra costs for OS and server software will eventually be passed on to the customer whether it’s in the form of higher monthly rates or reduced quality in one area or another.

Do Windows web servers really top out at ~25 sites? Wow.

#12

I have one of their free preview accounts. (This was before I signed up with Dreamhost, in fact.) Unfortunately, their technical support wasn’t very good–my emails went completely unanswered. I figured it was a case of “you get what you pay for.” Their web site and control panel are very pretty, though.

Actually, my primary domain was purchased at 1and1.com, and I’m a bit concerned about it… the registration expires on Sunday, and they haven’t renewed it yet. (They say it will be renewed automatically just before it expires, but they sure seem to be waiting for the last minute.)

Incidentally, my web site has been running fine. My server must not be overloaded. (If overloading is a problem, I wonder why they keep extending the sale. Maybe the problem is isolated to certain servers.)

#13

Iri,

I did not mean to insinuate anything of that notion and was simply being sarcastic…this is one of the large problems with communication via typing instead of voice–one of many reasons that im heading off for greener pastures…see to me the price isnt the issue, its the overall service…whatever has been happening in the innerworkings of DH over the past four months has simply grown out of control and I am not going to be apart of their host-beta anymore :wink:

IAmAtMyWitsEnd

#14

You say that like it’s a bad thing. Arguments about overloading aside, which is more cost-effective: a free OS you can run 100+ sites on or an expensive OS you can run 25 on? All other things being equal, extra costs for OS and server software will eventually be passed on to the customer whether it’s in the form of higher monthly rates or reduced quality in one area or another

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IAmAtMyWitsEnd

#15

Their developer plan only includes 3 MySQL databases. For my site I would rather stay here. I payed a lot less too. I only payed $9.24 for 1 year of L1 Crazy Domain Insane service. 1and1.com’s developer plan costs $19.99 a month. In my opinion, your not getting much at all, if I were you I would have stayed here.

#16

the mere fact that they only use unix servers and have a support que always near 500 or more open requests with zero phone support, clearly demonstrates a company with severe short-staffing issues.

That’s a red herring. What does a preference for Linux (whether that preference is based on cost, security, stabiltiy, scalability, flexibility, ease of management, or a combination of all these things) have to do with their current short-staffing problem? I’m just trying to figure out how your logic works here.

in response to the higer fees or reduced quality, what preytell is DH excuse than?

I think they’ve offered a perfectly reasonable explanation. Their prices are great for what they give you; $20/month for a huge number of services. Obviously high-traffic sites or users with a greater need for technical support should look for something a little more appropriate for their situation whether it’s a dedicated server here or a different hosting package elsewhere. No sevice is going to be perfect for everyone, but hey, that’s what the free market is for.

#17

I’m running some sites I update frequently, and I haven’t had any major problem with Dreamhost in four years of hosting here. My sites are also well-indexed in Google, so I don’t think I’m being penalized for being on Dreamhost. I regard the use of Linux instead of Windows to be a plus, both because Linux is better for servers and because of my ideological dislike of Microsoft.

– Dan

#18

DH’s use of open source was a plus in my book when I was looking around.

For them it’s economic and philosophical.

From http://www.dreamhost.com/aboutus.html:

#19

I have also signed up for the 6 month free trial with 1&1, and will be experimenting with it in the coming months. My first impression with them has been a fantastic one versus DreamHost. If all goes well, I’ll be moving my primary site over, too.

#20

I had (actually still have) that free 3 year plan with 1&1. That’s the reason why I switched to DreamHost. Maybe it was a “you get what you pay for” scenario, but I wasn’t impressed, not in the least bit. I have yet to experience the common problems that are reported in these forums, and that includes PHP and MySQL slowdowns.

MacManX.com
I don’t work here. I’m just your typical support forum volunteer.