Time to rebuild my host spread

[TaoPhoenix]

Just for reference, I am planning some scheduled maintainence to correct data errors on one of the hard drives in the RAID array. If all goes well it will only involve minimal downtime (reboots) in order to remove the offending drive from the array for diagnostics, followed by another reboot to reattach it if it checks out. Probably will not begin until Friday or Saturday, I need to make absolutely certain that all probable scenarios for this repair are covered in some way with minimal loss and consult the datacenter for recommended approach to this issue as far as actually restoring full capability on the offending drive is concerned.

Though if I can't repair the drive through software I will have to schedule an outage for a replacement drive to be installed. No data will be lost though, I will be making a full backup to another server before making any changes to the current setup. Just in case, even though with a raid array it's not terribly difficult since for the most part it is automated.

How bad could the scheduled outage get? Most of a day?

[Seraphim]

How bad could the scheduled outage get? Most of a day?

Depends on how wrong things going wrong gets.

I am planning it out to minimize downtime wherever possible, like I said the worst of it will hopefully be no more than a couple of reboots.

But if I lose the array entirely and have to reinstall the OS, it will mean several hours of downtime at a minimum to reinstall enough software to restore the account data.

Fortunately because my last hardware failure was corrected using a RAID array in order to prevent data loss in the event of future failures, between my representative at the datacenter assisting and the hardware structure in use it shouldn't be any worse than a few reboots with maybe a couple of minutes of downtime a piece. Absolute worst-case that something broke in a way that can't be fixed anytime soon, I will reload all active accounts into my other server to keep people's sites alive while I repair my big server.

Just a bit up in the air right now, as the system has had this faulty drive in the array for some time and remains stable anyway. I just don't like the fact that it is giving regular errors, and want to correct it.

As for the Cross Industries thing, no response so far to my email. It is likely by now that he is already out of town for the four months he talked about, during which time all of his servers will be shut down and deleted for non-payment if he didn't instruct his hired technicians tending his store to maintain them for him. And seeing that one has already quit, it's probable that he did not.

Also what is the current version for your site. SeanieB and I were just comparing the versions on our two servers, he seems to still have the ReVision file present with incorrect image mappings while I show no such file on mine and only have the phone version with the current roster visible.

[TaoPhoenix]

"Also what is the current version for your site. SeanieB and I were just comparing the versions on our two servers, he seems to still have the ReVision file present with incorrect image mappings while I show no such file on mine and only have the phone version with the current roster visible. "

Heh I really get a kick out of it when y'all trade notes. I find it hysterically funny, but it also shows the type of inter-host communication I hoped would develop.

I did make an effort a while back to Synch everything - ReVisionPhone is the new mobile name because I have a Wide Screen version under dev at the same time now.

So last I knew,
http://taophoenix.lostsignalweb.com/ReVisionPhone.html and
http://taophoenix.seraphimlabs.net/ReVisionPhone.html

and in fact most all the others are the same.



Re Rankings, we're well into Round 3 by this point. Except for CWahi, just about everyone's had a blip.

My mobile design has room for 4 hosts on a line, and there are 6 left in the study. I'm tempted to experiment with a "communication sort" because of the odd case where CWahi and IsMyWebsite don't follow the ebb and flow here. Colorhost fell out of touch a bit and had a blip a while back, but overall they made it. I could make them a label that says "Round 2 Winners" and stick them on the bottom tier.

I'd consider it a dead heat among the rest of you. Then I get into a label coloring problem. (Colorhost is easy - grey because you are under monitor but you retired your free services division. This will place you last in the rankings, but hey - you're still ON the board!) I tried my hand at giving extra creds to Seraphim and Babble for allowing adult signups, but a red indicator is too misleading. Beyond that gets into the Micro-Manage category I won't get into. No single one blip will start a big shuffle of everyone's rank.

[BrandonTheG]

Hey Tao how's it going. I see your keeping these free guys in line!

[TaoPhoenix]

Hiya Brandon G!

Meanwhile heh I got tired of the dead link wasting load time. : )
Barring glitches, the whole spread should be updated now.

And - over 500 posts! Yay!

[TaoPhoenix]

....
Also what is the current version for your site. SeanieB and I were just comparing the versions on our two servers...


Approximate Competition Board
http://taophoenix.lostsignalweb.com/Science/ScienceGroup4.html


Approximate "Communication Sort"
http://taophoenix.seraphimlabs.net/ReVisionPhone.html

[TaoPhoenix]

All quiet on the study front!

[rajugundam]

By now y'all have seen that with a certain exception, I promote my host selections here with a remark every 3-4 months. I value longevity and stability over flashy features.

[TaoPhoenix]

By now y'all have seen that with a certain exception, I promote my host selections here with a remark every 3-4 months. I value longevity and stability over flashy features.

For example I would prefer fewer features if that means the host stays in business longer, rather than offering something like a free VPS and croaking in 3 months.

[Seanieb]

Hey Tao!

I finally stepped into web 2.0 a bit farther, and I set up a twitter account for quick status updates and announcements from our team, so if you're a Twitter user, you might want to follow

http://twitter.com/lostsignalnet

Also, a complete overhaul of our site is underway.

[colorhost]

ColorHost had a twitter for awhile:
http://twitter.com/colorhost

This twitter has alot of status updates on what goes on with colorhost

so like post above, please follow if you got twitter.

Thanks
ColorHost

[TaoPhoenix]

I know of twitter but I haven't done much with it. I'd still like bad news notes to be copied here because unifying the news of the hosts under study is the point of this thread. Things like upgrade news are optional here. I think it would serve as positive marketing for the hosts, but there is no penalty for not posting non-performance memos.

[torpix]

FREE cPanel Package

500 MB / Space
10 GB / Bandwidth

10 FTP
10 Sql
10 Email
10 Sub-domains.

Ad FREE

Site: http://discoverywebz.com/
Order: http://discoverywebz.com/billing/cart.php?a=add&pid=11

[Seanieb]

Thought it might be interesting to post about the launch of our new site design! I'm thrilled about how it's came out and I'm gonna be making it even better over the coming weeks,

Check it out, and let me know what you think, I really appreciate it!

[TaoPhoenix]

FREE cPanel Package

500 MB / Space
10 GB / Bandwidth

10 FTP
10 Sql
10 Email
10 Sub-domains.

Ad FREE

Site: http://discoverywebz.com/
Order: http://discoverywebz.com/billing/cart.php?a=add&pid=11

Hi Torpix.

Round 3 is closed at the moment, but I'll do a passive log of your entry request here. Do you offer 1GB plans?

[TaoPhoenix]

Thought it might be interesting to post about the launch of our new site design! I'm thrilled about how it's came out and I'm gonna be making it even better over the coming weeks,

Check it out, and let me know what you think, I really appreciate it!

Pretty good there Seanie!

My main comment to start is that there is a big discussion ambling over the web on Flash. See for example Apple refusing to put Flash on its i-Stuff. But many smart tech users run Flashblock and NoScript etc because of the general abuse of flash for ads across the web and scripts of all kinds doing Evil Things.

A quick test of a firefox plugin says if I have Flash off it deletes your presentation of features and if javascript is off it makes your site nearly unusable because the menus stop working.

I suggest a "power-user" Html alternate page with the same content. Also, power users would want a kind of dashboard/monitor station with compressed essential info, perhaps a server-up check, your twitter feed, etc.

Regards,

--Tao

[torpix]

Hi Torpix.

Round 3 is closed at the moment, but I'll do a passive log of your entry request here. Do you offer 1GB plans?

Yes We do. http://www.discoverywebz.com/shared/

[Seanieb]

Pretty good there Seanie!

My main comment to start is that there is a big discussion ambling over the web on Flash. See for example Apple refusing to put Flash on its i-Stuff. But many smart tech users run Flashblock and NoScript etc because of the general abuse of flash for ads across the web and scripts of all kinds doing Evil Things.

A quick test of a firefox plugin says if I have Flash off it deletes your presentation of features and if javascript is off it makes your site nearly unusable because the menus stop working.

I suggest a "power-user" Html alternate page with the same content. Also, power users would want a kind of dashboard/monitor station with compressed essential info, perhaps a server-up check, your twitter feed, etc.

Regards,

--Tao

Yeah, I'm working with the system to see if I can make a menu available for people without JavaScript enabled, hopefully I can figure that part out, maybe through a secondary menu or something..

[Seraphim]

That's partially why I keep mine in an older incarnation of Web2.0. It does have the graphics capability of newer systems, while the code itself is object compatible with all but the oldest of browsers. At worst a mobile device would have layout distortion caused by the small screen size.

I will eventually update mine, but I am keeping my focus on accessibility to everyone rather than flashy site features that only waste resources and complicate things for people with older computers or using mobile devices.

[TaoPhoenix]

Yes We do. http://www.discoverywebz.com/shared/

Hi Torpix.

I managed to be unclear, so I will try my post again. First of all, I think your overall strategy is on the right track - one of the best candidates to support a free host is one that does paid on the next level up.

However, I got a chance to look at your plans. Whether my efforts or someone else's gets there first, I believe the Free Host market will soon semi-standardize on Min 1Gig HD for a free plan. (But no higher for a while, because once past that mark is the slippery slope to overselling.) Therefore I have the following comments.

A. I recommend you rework your plan spread so that the 1 Gig package is the free one. I am fine with 10Gig as bandwidth. Then make your 2Gig package the $1.49 price. Then you will notice your 4Gig as is falls perfectly on the sliding scale.

B. Because of my theory above, I have standardized my study on 1Gig plans from the hosts. I can admit you into Round 4 if you have a free plan of 1Gig. In parts of my study I have worked out "Manager's Coupons" to even things out, but I'd rather the plan be a stock one available to the public.

Regards,

--Tao

[TaoPhoenix]

So far in Round 3 we saw a whole batch of new hosts and a deletion. As a whole the batch of Round 3 entrants has been more stable, thus quietly achieving a snip of my purpose to keep a steely watching eye trained on the field long enough to begin discouraging Turnover experts.

For Round 4 there is a new requirement - the hosts must offer 1GB plans as standard plans available to the public; I would like to reduce the need to rely on Manager's Coupons for that.

[Seraphim]

Does that apply to carry overs from previous rounds?

Incidentally the plan you are currently using ended up becoming one of my standard plans, at the present time it is my most requested as well.

[TaoPhoenix]

It applies most strictly to new hosts. I know that a couple of the hosts that had lesser disk quotas have already left the study, and I haven't really surveyed the current batch to put the stats on a chart.

[Seanieb]

Alright, been working on the site under the hood, the menus are now CSS only, so they work with JavaScript disabled, ala noscript, I also am depending much less on the menus now. Still looking for an alternative to the slide show though..

[TaoPhoenix]

Alright, been working on the site under the hood, the menus are now CSS only, so they work with JavaScript disabled, ala noscript, I also am depending much less on the menus now. Still looking for an alternative to the slide show though..

Hey Seanie,

Not sure where you left off things, but I get inconsistent results from the menus.

Support and About Us look like they're correct.

Shared Hosting and VPS look don't drop down, so I dunno if they're supposed to, but at least they work if you click on them.

Dedicated, shoutcast, and other services don't do anything at all. : (

[TaoPhoenix]

Haven't heard fromTorpix, so the advent of a Round 4 would depend on actual interest.

[Seanieb]

Hey Seanie,

Not sure where you left off things, but I get inconsistent results from the menus.

Support and About Us look like they're correct.

Shared Hosting and VPS look don't drop down, so I dunno if they're supposed to, but at least they work if you click on them.

Dedicated, shoutcast, and other services don't do anything at all. : (

There's only two menus in use on the site right now, the other buttons don't do anything for the moment because I havent rewriten those pages yet, the design has been taking up most of that time. The options are just menu items, the only drop downs are about us and support (they have that little downwards arrow next to them)

Like I said, I'm trying not to use the menus much, but I had to at least use those two to make the navigation work on a minimum of a 1024x768 resolution

[TaoPhoenix]

Looks like I hit equilibrium on my study. Anyone who wanted in, is apparently in. So it looks like there's no round 4.

So now we can just do stuff, and see how our existing hosts do. Yay!

[Amaresh]

I'd love for you try out what I have to offer over at http://www.l4rge.com, that is if you're still doing this.

[TaoPhoenix]

I'd love for you try out what I have to offer over at http://www.l4rge.com, that is if you're still doing this.

Hiya Amaresh.

I am standardizing on a 1GB plan because it's the midway between small providers and prevents most overselling attempts. It looks at first glance that your plan is 250 megs. FYI I believe that very soon 1GB will become a "bench point" for hosts. Are you able to put through a "manager's coupon" to upgrade me to 1GB? I can drop to something like 3GB if you need me to, and evem that will sit idle a lot of the time.

Heh. I don't have an official "round" yet because you're the first new host to ask in a while. If I get 2-3 more entries I'll make it official. Otherwise I'll just add you.

Also, please re-examine your subdomain policy, and coupon that if you have to, because I only run on subdomains. It's easier to keep parallel pages that way. In case you haven't spent a nice evening reading all 500 messages, I keep my hosts as a strategic spread, doing different things per host. But you won't get any abuse here.

Cheers,

--Tao

[dmmcintyre3]

If you are taking offers, you can add me too. Just submit the signup form on my site. If you want a sub domain, just put your requested sub domain in the domain box.

[TaoPhoenix]

If you are taking offers, you can add me too. Just submit the signup form on my site. If you want a sub domain, just put your requested sub domain in the domain box.

Maybe, McIntyre. Looks like you've made a new back end since your days of Paradox. I have no grudges...

Heh still resisting a new round until I hear more voices... it went a week with nothing at the last general call. : )

If your back end is solid now, you might do well.

P.s. I'd edit your sig - it looks a little vague and doesn't help sales because there's zero info there. Subtle links are an Other-Forum thing - here, you'd want a wee bit of info apparent at a glance.

P.P.s your fall into the category of requiring a specific text of a linkback. I have to decline that. I would like a coupon to make you a typical host button on the top page pointing to a location of your choice.

p.p.p.s. You know how this forum hates "unlimited" anything. Make your page = "100 of anything else" because no one will exceed 100, and you can privately deal with anyone who tries.

[dmmcintyre3]

Maybe, McIntyre. Looks like you've made a new back end since your days of Paradox. I have no grudges...

Heh still resisting a new round until I hear more voices... it went a week with nothing at the last general call. : )

If your back end is solid now, you might do well.

P.s. I'd edit your sig - it looks a little vague and doesn't help sales because there's zero info there. Subtle links are an Other-Forum thing - here, you'd want a wee bit of info apparent at a glance.

I am going to soon, I'm planning it right now



P.P.s your fall into the category of requiring a specific text of a linkback. I have to decline that. I would like a coupon to make you a typical host button on the top page pointing to a location of your choice.

That's fine.



p.p.p.s. You know how this forum hates "unlimited" anything. Make your page = "100 of anything else" because no one will exceed 100, and you can privately deal with anyone who tries.
I have seen people complain about unlimited disk and bandwidth mostly.

[eSupun]

"Unlimited" word does not affect to other things except Disk space and Bandwidth. Becaus space and bandwidth have limits while others don't.

I don't see a issue there. And also no one uses unlimited features. That's actually an eye catching technique. ;)

[TaoPhoenix]

If you are taking offers, you can add me too. Just submit the signup form on my site. If you want a sub domain, just put your requested sub domain in the domain box.

Hallo.

I'm going to try the signup process for Mcintyre & Amaresh.
Comment: asking for
Full Name Address and Phone seems pretty aggressive for a free host you guys. Per my note in that other thread, right now users have just as much trouble trusting the stability of hosts as the hosts have trusting users. So, I'll submit an application but I decline that info.

... Try now and holler if you need info.

[TaoPhoenix]

Heh "Round 3.1.1"

McIntyre's My-Webhost has been added.
I'm about half way with Amaresh's L4rge, with a question pending.

[TaoPhoenix]

Hey gang,

As of about 7:30 US East, I can't seem to get to L4rge.com at all. Am I behind some local problem or does anyone else get that result either?

I sent Amaresh a note too, asking if he's doing maintenance.

[dmmcintyre3]

It loads for me.

[TaoPhoenix]

Wild.

I'm still getting timeouts across all my browsers, and I get every other page except his.

[dmmcintyre3]

Try flushing your DNS cache.

If you need help doing that look here: http://docs.cpanel.net/twiki/bin/view/AllDocumentation/ClearingBrowserCache

[TaoPhoenix]

Here is my tracert
Does this help?
------------------
>tracert l4rge.com

Tracing route to l4rge.com [69.72.216.36]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms dslrouter.westell.com [192.168.1.1]
2 9 ms 9 ms 10 ms 10.9.101.1
3 12 ms 11 ms 11 ms P4-1.BSTNMA-LCR-05.verizon-gni.net [130.81.44.144]
4 11 ms 12 ms 12 ms so-7-2-0-0.BOS-BB-RTR1.verizon-gni.net [130.81.29.172]
5 19 ms 19 ms 19 ms 0.so-0-2-0.XL3.BOS4.ALTER.NET [152.63.16.137]
6 22 ms 19 ms 19 ms 0.so-6-0-0.XL3.NYC4.ALTER.NET [152.63.16.221]
7 20 ms 19 ms 19 ms GigabitEthernet4-0-0.GW1.NYC4.ALTER.NET [152.63.20.97]
8 19 ms 19 ms 19 ms teliasonera-gw.customer.alter.net [157.130.60.14]
9 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms nyk-bb2-link.telia.net [80.91.248.161]
10 20 ms 48 ms 21 ms nyk-b2-link.telia.net [80.91.247.200]
11 24 ms 21 ms 21 ms fortress-120799-nyk-b2.c.telia.net [213.248.83.106]
12 21 ms 20 ms 21 ms 208.116.63.109
13 * * * Request timed out.

[Amaresh]

Hm, that's strange. I'm using Pingdom to monitor our server from multiple locations and the site is reachable for them.

I haven't faced any issues as well but it could be the firewall acting up. I'll investigate further into this if this happens again for you.

[TaoPhoenix]

It still is ...
I got a couple of page loads before it vanished, which felt odd.

P.S. It was hard to tell, but my login you sent me on PM didn't seem to be working either.

[TaoPhoenix]

Flushing the cache wasn't enough. It apparently took a full router reboot!

Apparently my login and password don't yet work right.

Now my next clue is, check if your anti-DDOS measures are too aggressive, because it might be blocking my ip based on like 6 bad attempts.

[Amaresh]

PM me with the username and password you're trying to login with - and I presume this for cPanel ? I've had others using our service without any such issues.

[TaoPhoenix]

Sure, I just sent one your way.

[TaoPhoenix]

Well, after some setup adventures, I'm making progress on l4rge.com.

However, a study note in case y'all haven't read my growing Tolstoyesque volume of comments.

To participate in this study, hosts need to grant me a manager's coupon standardizing some basic stats. This is essential to keep the focus on durability and away from individual teams' policy decisions, which are subjective and can change at any time.

Amaresh, you seem to have a model of getting revenue from a fairly aggressive series of coupon offers, which apparently require full name and postal address to be sent to marketing companies. With my "unattached customer" hat, I would not choose to accept service under those terms.

For the study, I need you to turn off any ad engines and activity counters. Put in revenue terms, the study is a syngergistic 3rd party rating service which promotes hosts for proving longevity and stability, plus a minor-exposure linkback. That "rating" is the counterweight to bypassing the "random customer" requirements.

Please chime in if this is okay with you.

--Tao

[TaoPhoenix]

Amaresh has agreed to Coupon out his ad frame, so L4rge.com is in.

Current standings page:

http://taophoenix.l4rge.com/ReVisionWide.html

The sequence at the top was at one point roughly in order of traffic expected to be absorbed in a cascade type fashion.

There are other ratings for other metrics.

[TaoPhoenix]

All quiet on the Study Front. Sept 1 is the next duration marker.

The early round 3 entries are looking strong. Just what I was hoping! : )

[Seanieb]

Haven't checked this board in a while, how's it going?

[TaoPhoenix]

Grand.

Basically, by Labor Day, the current Round 3 entrants will be reaching the 6-month mark, a far better result than the earlier rounds. A couple of new entrants just joined in a new Round 4. (Heh I broke down and admitted it. I needed to give the prior round crew credit. I'd forgotten how well they've held up.)

As for the page, I've lately been dabbling with a Wide design. All at my usual glacial pace.

[Seanieb]

I am still included, of course?

[TaoPhoenix]

Sure!
At any time people can look at the current board. Here's one from Amaresh's host. (I'm missing the articles from this host, and I haven't BackSynched yet either.)

http://taophoenix.l4rge.com/ReVisionWide.html

The list is in roughly what I thought would be order of traffic absorption ability.

Word has gotten around that a Today's Client Count mentality won't do so well, so y'all from round 3 are doing really great. I'm just about to get around to doing more work on the actual pages in the medium-future.

[TaoPhoenix]

This showed up on another thread.

IsMyWebsite
Quote:
Originally Posted by eddie144 View Post
Hey all,

has anyone used there servers and have an invite code for me?

Thanks
~Eddie
Hi Eddie.

It turns out that I can report that IsMyWebsite is among the two winners of my host durability study! Here is my IsMyWebsite copy of my leisurely-developed test site I deploy for my site study over in that gangly thread.

http://taophoenix.ismywebsite.com/ReVisionWide.html

(This is not updated yet for the brand new Round 4 hosts I just added.)

A key part of my study design was to test *site longevity* and downtime-reporting. I explicitly chose not to get involved with "managerial decisions" for reasons just like your post. I appreciate the FYI because I hadn't noticed that IsMyWebsite went to an Invite system. And so, at this time, I don't have any codes to offer! I'll have to talk to them and ask how they want new clients vetted before they are admitted to the IsMyWebsite system.

I'm not sure how you settled on them; my next suggestion is to look at the host bars at the top of that page. They are all the currently succeeding entrants in my host stability study. Post a note in my big thread asking to see who wants to host you.

--Tao

[TaoPhoenix]

This leads to my next question of who wants to volunteer for "New Client Vetting" duty. In other words, very likely there would be greater than normal turnover based on the info stats of the requesting new client such as Eddie above. They might try some aggressive content uploads. But if someone really wants to haul in a few clients to practice their sysadmin design host metrics, it's an idea.

[TaoPhoenix]

One year later, I think I will close the study to new entries, save for one last wildcard entry TBD later.

The winners for duration are:

CWahi
IsMyWebsite
Seraphim Labs
Lost Signal
Babblehost
Colorhost (as paid only)

Recent new entries
L4rge.com
My-Webhost

Now this will be a monitoring thread, still for chats and downtime reports, etc. But now that there is indeed a nice spread of solid hosts, I must attend to the wry remarks about the vacuous state of my site itself.

This was my last big project for FWS, so I'll be a bit more scarce here myself, with a stray remark or three instead of passioned campaigns.

[Seanieb]

Maybe you'll actually be able to fill in content, for once.

[TaoPhoenix]

Heh yeah, sometime short of Eternity now!

[BabbleJohn]

Hello,

Sorry for Brandon's lack of updates, his current status doesn't permit him to spend much spare time outside of work. He also is dealing with a few health issues keeping him busy...he recently informed me of this website. If you have any questions about BabbleHost, feel free to contact me (I will also be monitoring these forums)

Regards,
John @ BabbleHost

[TaoPhoenix]

Nice note there John.

So far, I am pleased to report the hosts are cruising along solidly. Exactly what I hoped for at the outset.

[TaoPhoenix]

Nifty couple of chances to plug the hosts on the other threads.

That reminds me though, I have to synchronize my pages.

[TaoPhoenix]

(Copied from the other thread)




... I would like to give him this for his SEO project.

I still do free offers to people i think that will use it to the fullest.

Remember to contact us on site support if you wanna discuss it.

This is a public update of your availability for Colorhost. I'm fine with the news; I just keep an eye on my study hosts, and all major info about them should flow through this thread, or PM's here as needed.

The good news is that I can call you "Free Hosting upon approved request". : )

[TaoPhoenix]

I am getting some wild login errors to Colorhost's panel. This is a note to say that my files are def. there, but different browsers produce wildly erratic results.

If anyone really wants to dig into details:

Safari, Songbird, and 2 of the three Lunascape engines work.
FF 3.6.10, FF 4.0Beta6, IE8, and Chrome fail.

I do just fine on other-site copies of Cpanel11 like IsMyWebsite.

P.s. Kudos to Colorhost for having 24 hour live chat support!

[TaoPhoenix]

Hallo.

I updated my study results page with a rough version of the study results. The order of the hosts feels pretty close to final, but it's a very tight value scale now! The newer hosts all boosted some aspects after launch so that the final survivors are all really solid!

Random notes:
My-Webhost landed on the high visibility lead spot for almost 3 months during my hiatus updating pages, and I don't recall a single blip.

Colorhost has 24 hour live chat support.

So, I am pleased to publish my recommendations!

http://taophoenix.ismywebsite.com/Science/ScienceArticle2c.html

(P.S. some of the snarky language is directed at future Slashdot audiences.)

[TaoPhoenix]

Upon seeing my dashboard light go out, I peeked at Colorhost's page.

I am getting one of those "parked" pages from their main page at http://colorhost.net/

Any of you folks know if this goes up the back end chain?

[Seraphim]

Edit: They've made an update on twitter about it: http://twitter.com/colorhost

Apparently their domain got hijacked at the provider.

Also I noticed the version on my server appears to be out of sync with the rest. I still have ReVisionPhone.html as the only working page.

[eSupun]

When I visited this thread after sometime, I find it more valuable and more attractive.

You are doing a really job to the public and hosts also.

Keep up the good work!

[TaoPhoenix]

Edit: They've made an update on twitter about it: http://twitter.com/colorhost

Apparently their domain got hijacked at the provider.

Also I noticed the version on my server appears to be out of sync with the rest. I still have ReVisionPhone.html as the only working page.

Good tips there Seraphim.

Right now IsMyWebsite is on Lead, so by definition everyone else's copy is aging. Though - good tip, that I have to knuckle down and do a really good Sync soon. I am also in the Medium-Future on the verge of posting my next batch of articles. I'd just like a couple really good new milestones besides the minor tweaks I am always up to.

Re: Colorhost, I am slightly dismayed that he didn't post a note here, but his twitter feed is decent, so even with the severity of the problem I'd only rate that like a "half point" markdown.

[colorhost]

Hello Guys!

Yes, we have recently lost are domain "colorhost.net" due to a crooked provider i bought it from has recently took it without prior warning and has somthing towards me.

We are now going to rebrand into Simply Hosted Solutions, i hate to do this but it appears to be the only option since they are ignoring my contacts and name.com (the registar) cannot help me transfer it back into my account.

[TaoPhoenix]

Hello Guys!

Yes, we have recently lost are domain "colorhost.net" due to a crooked provider i bought it from has recently took it without prior warning and has somthing towards me.

We are now going to rebrand into Simply Hosted Solutions, i hate to do this but it appears to be the only option since they are ignoring my contacts and name.com (the registar) cannot help me transfer it back into my account.

Fair enough...

Any Timeline on when client data would be up under the new setup? I am pondering "honorably" taking you off the official spotlight so you can regroup. Remember my "imagined market" of the study is a fickle grumpy end user.

[colorhost]

all the servers are safe, and have been online...all it requires is a few DNS changes and you domain will have to change to taophenix.simpyhosted.info

besides that, nothing huge.

[TaoPhoenix]

all the servers are safe, and have been online...all it requires is a few DNS changes and you domain will have to change to taophenix.simpyhosted.info

besides that, nothing huge.

Well, as I was sayin' about my page, I should go ahead and make the new link, and whenever you get it running it will be on the dashboard. No rush.

[TaoPhoenix]

all the servers are safe, and have been online...all it requires is a few DNS changes and you domain will have to change to taophenix.simplyhosted.info

besides that, nothing huge.

I checked, and it looks like you're still working on things. I'll take you off the board until you're all set and have tested things. Post a note here when you're ready for me to test.

[TaoPhoenix]

....
Also I noticed the version on my server appears to be out of sync with the rest. I still have ReVisionPhone.html as the only working page.

Heh I keep forgetting about that Zip File Upload option.

This should be pretty good now including the article stubs.

http://taophoenix.seraphimlabs.net/ReVisionWide.html

[colorhost]

Alright were back up under colorhost.co!

We are changing your main domain now, :)

[colorhost]

Alright, your main domain is changed, feel free to add me back on!

[TaoPhoenix]

"Colorhost Premium Web Hosting Great Web hosting! 1$ Monthly Plan Available!!
Offering Services to customers since 2009!
Contact Infomation: Kevin H. ColorHost CEO kevman95@colorhost.co or by phone: (559) 412-5194 "

Wasn't Ethan Caskey the CEO earlier?

[colorhost]

He is Co-owner, i am and always have been owner.

[TaoPhoenix]

I updated part of my seups, and the pages work!

[colorhost]

Alright! Taophoenix, did you update the pages on me now? and update all other hosts with me back on the board?

[TaoPhoenix]

Alright! Taophoenix, did you update the pages on me now? and update all other hosts with me back on the board?

Hiya.

I updated a single example page as a test, hence I posted my note here as the official remark. However I typically have a couple hosts with different test versions of ideas I do for the page before I mirror it all out. I tend to do synchs when I add other stuff elsewhere on the page because I am big on version control. If you've seen the news/posts about people losing their life's work with no backup, that will never happen to me because the host pages come from source files. I'm no web guru, but that is one quiet little advantage I get from building my pages 100% by hand.

So at any one time the pages will never be 100% synched, because whoever is "on lead" will have the experimental version.

[dmmcintyre3]

If you notice any downtime, it is because my VPS is being moved to another hard drive.

[TaoPhoenix]

I'd love for you try out what I have to offer over at http://www.l4rge.com, that is if you're still doing this.

Hello Amaresh.

Are you having a blip of downtime? I'm getting a Not Found error.

[TaoPhoenix]

They're still down and I don't see an answer.

Looks official, right at the classic 3 month mark.
They almost got booted by operating an extremely aggressive ad barrier wall with companies that ultra spam your email. I saw it coming and tested on one of my 3rd tier emails.

[eSupun]

Hello Amaresh.

Are you having a blip of downtime? I'm getting a Not Found error.

I thought you stopped trying new hosts. That's why I didn't invited you in.

Anyway, if you'd like to test PerfectZ.iNfo as well, I would really appreciate it as I consider you are a good service promoter and has a good future in reviewing and blogging.

[TaoPhoenix]

I thought you stopped trying new hosts. That's why I didn't invited you in.

Anyway, if you'd like to test PerfectZ.iNfo as well, I would really appreciate it as I consider you are a good service promoter and has a good future in reviewing and blogging.

Hi Supun!

L4rge was just about the very last one from about August. L4rge snuck in just before the earlier deadline, and he was just another typical fly by night looking for pump&dump ad clicks. In case you weren't following, a lot of the first two round respondents were bumpy, still playing the old turnover game. Then because I kept the thread fresh, they all folded and it became clear that at least someone on the consumer side had a memory longer than 6 months. By round 3, (plus a couple guys who repaired their servers after some bad luck) I started getting the real entrants I'd been hoping for. So by now, "any ol' entry" won't do anymore because I've got a solid cadre ahead of them showing how it's done.

My general announcement was based on the fact that after a steady stream of applicants it was pretty silent for several months so I just decided to make some decision not to keep wondering for months. However, you're definitely around, so send me a message with whatever I need to get started! The key is that you asked to be in, rather than me begging the general FWS population.

Cheers,

--Tao

[eSupun]

I sent you a PM regarding the account. We can continue after your reply. :)

[TaoPhoenix]

This showed up in another thread, and it's awesome! I can't believe how many times I kept asking in this thread. : )

http://downforeveryoneorjustme. com
I'll start using this as a near-official metric of my host ratings when I think I see slowdowns

--------------------
Did anyone else just get a truly evil spam in the last couple of days?

[TaoPhoenix]

Edit: Post Deleted upon suspicion of that little service.

[colorhost]

Yes, It is down...i cannot access it either.

[TaoPhoenix]

PerfectZ and eSupun are in!
Here is a partially updated page showing new developments.

http://taophoenix.perfectz.info/ReVisionWide.html

Colorhost is also back up.

[eSupun]

PerfectZ and eSupun are in!
Here is a partially updated page showing new developments.

http://taophoenix.perfectz.info/ReVisionWide.html


It's my pleasure to get in. :) And also it's a great joy to host a buddhist on my server. (Aren't you?)

Hope to see you around.

[TaoPhoenix]

...also it's a great joy to host a buddhist on my server. (Aren't you?)

Hope to see you around.

Yep. There's a whole section on my page for it. : )

[Seraphim]

This showed up in another thread, and it's awesome! I can't believe how many times I kept asking in this thread. : )

http://downforeveryoneorjustme. com
I'll start using this as a near-official metric of my host ratings when I think I see slowdowns

--------------------
Did anyone else just get a truly evil spam in the last couple of days?

The spam rush was something else, I got hit with it too and I hadn't used that site yet.

I've known about that for a while, handy little gadget for people who don't have a couple of different shells to check a site from.

[TaoPhoenix]

I worked on my page redesign!
Starts off with warmer colors.
But the real message is behind the scenes. The site will be going copyright-whitesourced, by which I mean that the page elements have been documented as being generally free from the clutches of big corps. I am starting to believe that whitesourcing will be the wave of the future, hopefully with a couple of utilities to make it easy.

I made my replacement images drawing heavily on the Prelinger archives. The few remaining ones are either "on loan" or gifted pics.

http://taophoenix.perfectz.info/ReVisionWhitesource.html

[BrandonTheG]

Longest thread, byfar, in free hosting requests.

[TaoPhoenix]

Longest thread, byfar, in free hosting requests.

Are we at the third longest in FWS?
http://www.freewebspace.net/forums/search.php?searchid=234890

Though I may have messed that up - and I thought there was a sticky somewhere with a lot of posts, but I can't find it now.

I'll hit 600 replies easy, but I dunno about 700. There aren't all that many count-boost posts here and I wouldn't want to pad it too badly now.

[TaoPhoenix]

(ColorHost's Twitter) http://twitter.com/colorhost

Colorhost is moving their services - they posted a twitter note. I can't pull my page yet but I'll give it a few hours and check again later.

[colorhost]

the reason your subdomain does not work is because we moved are main site to a separate node from yours, which this will cause are site to be up normally if any issues arises.

http://68.233.236.62/~taophoen/ is a temporary way to get into your site, we will set you up a other sub-domain soon.

Thanks
ColorHost

[TaoPhoenix]

Colorhost is working on my domain links. Then if I did my page change properly I can think about synching the hosts again because there's no breaking news this month.

[colorhost]

Were working on the issue!

it Will be fixed today or tomarrow at the latest!

[colorhost]

Fixed it already.

update your links Tao.

[TaoPhoenix]

Yes, I saw the first part of the fix go through, and then I gave it another couple of days until the cpanel "password reset" option was disabled.

http://taophoenix.perfectz.info/ReVisionWhitesource.html
http://taophoenix.perfectz.info/Science/ScienceArticle2c.html

An interesting note on the current design of the page is that I am moving toward what I call "whitesourcing", meaning that all the page elements are documented as permission granted. Some of the new icons came from the Prelinger Archives, which are a collection of old ads that have been released into the public domain as a raw starting point for visual data.

Between colorhost's repair and that update, I'm just about due to synch up the copies again in the medium future.

[TaoPhoenix]

All the spread hosts made it through the Christmas break, which makes it just about official that these hosts are ready to move up a level. I used to see new hosts hiccup badly at Christmas.

[TaoPhoenix]

Babblehost, do you still check FWS? I am getting Server Not Found.

[colorhost]

Uh oh, i sense Babblehost has gone down for awhile.

[TaoPhoenix]

Update -

Not too bad overall.
It seems to be back today.
I'd guess they missed a renewal deadline or something, but by now, it only rates one of my half-point deductions.

[Schmarvin]

This has been going on for a long time, lol.

[Tyler]

This has been going on for a long time, lol.

Yes, it has. I'm surprised colorhost is still here - his site looks a lot better then it did half a year ago. I never see his live chat online though :(

[TSO]

Yes, it has. I'm surprised colorhost is still here - his site looks a lot better then it did half a year ago. I never see his live chat online though :(

Does he offer ticket support? I know that in many cases, live chat becomes overwhelmed with spammers and non-serious buyers - perhaps that's why they're not using it much.

[Schmarvin]

I wouldn't mind going back in the race. But, meh. It never did benefit me.

[Seraphim]

I'm still very much alive as well. Noticed the other day though that the SSL Certificates on my site and control panel have expired. It will produce a certificate error when you try to use it, but most browsers will let you accept the invalid certificate and use it anyway.

Am working on correcting that, it only affects my control panel and sign up not my actual services.

[TaoPhoenix]

This has been going on for a long time, lol.

That is in fact, the point!
The rest of the web is Short Attention Span Theater.

[TaoPhoenix]

Does he offer ticket support? I know that in many cases, live chat becomes overwhelmed with spammers and non-serious buyers - perhaps that's why they're not using it much.


Colorhost's support is pretty good. He's canceled a couple demerits from good support efforts. I think he has tickets, though I just went straight to a live incident each time.

[TaoPhoenix]

I wouldn't mind going back in the race. But, meh. It never did benefit me.

It's a marathon that weeds out ad-happy sprinters. But the grading metrics are rough on owners going through brand changes.

Are you firmly settled back to the Glacier Host brand now?

[colorhost]

I am gonna give my update for the Green Server, effects Tao.

It appears the Datacenter has gone silent, but i have gotten News from them just recently that there coming back monday.

I am trying my best to restore this issue, i will try to do it sooner but if not its monday.

Sorry for the inconvenice.

[[SRVLYR] Ivan]

They don't have 24/7 support? Monday seems kind of deep to wait in my opinion D:

[colorhost]

They DID as i should say.

But now i have lost my contact with them, i have heard today from someone who heard from them that there coming back monday.

apparently, the owner of this company is in the hospital with a heart attack, which i dont believe and i think its a cover up lie.

[Tyler]

They DID as i should say.

But now i have lost my contact with them, i have heard today from someone who heard from them that there coming back monday.

apparently, the owner of this company is in the hospital with a heart attack, which i dont believe and i think its a cover up lie.

That still wouldn't stop employee's from working. Still, it might have actually happened - you never know.

Is it joes by chance? I know with joes datacenter it took seven days to get a reply to my ticket once.

[colorhost]

No it isnt with them, as soon as we come back up i plan to move Green again, hopefully for the last time.

[TaoPhoenix]

No it isnt with them, as soon as we come back up i plan to move Green again, hopefully for the last time.

Would I see any changes on the front end with net addressing or is it behind the scenes?

[colorhost]

I plan to do a silent move, so no changes on your part.

[Schmarvin]

It's a marathon that weeds out ad-happy sprinters. But the grading metrics are rough on owners going through brand changes.

Are you firmly settled back to the Glacier Host brand now?

Eh, I switched my current clients from Cross Industries to Glacier Host. So I guess you could say that. Just trying to find someone to help manage the host with me.

[TaoPhoenix]

I am getting a blip from my-webhost.

[Tyler]

I am getting a blip from my-webhost.

freeresellers.info is down as well.

[colorhost]

Update: I did the silent move, things should be fine.

If not, i am here to help.

[dmmcintyre3]

nginx was dead when I woke up this morning.

[Seraphim]

SSL certificates changed without issue. Just took me a little bit to get new ones prepared.

That should get rid of the SSL errors on my site and control panel.

[TaoPhoenix]

Update: I did the silent move, things should be fine.

If not, i am here to help.

Hi Colorhost.

I am getting problems with
http://taophoenix.colorhost2.tk/Colorhost.gif

Firefox can't find the server at taophoenix.colorhost2.tk.

[Tyler]

Hi Colorhost.

I am getting problems with
http://taophoenix.colorhost2.tk/Colorhost.gif

Firefox can't find the server at taophoenix.colorhost2.tk.

Your DNS cache may still be updating Tao, as I can see it fine:

http://i56.tinypic.com/2ptylhi.png

[TaoPhoenix]

Yeah, it looks like it is back now.

What causes a dns cache blip? Of course, no penalties to Colorhost here.

[TSO]

Yeah, it looks like it is back now.

What causes a dns cache blip? Of course, no penalties to Colorhost here.

Can be on your ISP's end of things. Could also be your browser cache.

[dmmcintyre3]

What causes a dns cache blip?

Server moves/IP changes. There is ways to prevent that though. (set ttl to 60 a few days in advance, then change servers and DNS record)

[TaoPhoenix]

Yeah, it looks like it is back now.

What causes a dns cache blip? Of course, no penalties to Colorhost here.

This time I can't reach Babblehost. Is that my dns again?

[dmmcintyre3]

It's working fine for me.

[colorhost]

Server Green update: Includes you Tao


Green Maintenance Window:
------------------------------
1/26/11
12am – 6am eastern standard time ( Tuesday at Midnight/ Wednesday morning)

Reason for Maintenance:
------------------------------
Server relocation

Summary:
------------------------------
We are happy to inform you that we have recently opened a brand new state-of-the-art data center. Our new facility is outfitted with all brand new assets such as a new 1.5 megawatt generator, UPSs, batteries, CRAC, power management and dual interlock pre-action fire suppression. Additionally every switch port now has 1Gbps capability, cross connects between servers are effortless regardless of their locations within the data center, and we now have over 150 Gbps network capacity.

Thanks
Kevin H.

[colorhost]

It was Delayed due to Severe Weather near the Datacenter, i will keep you posted.

[Seraphim]

I'm alright, currently taking DDoS splash from another server on the same provider getting attacked.

All services are in fact operating, they are just unreachable right now because of network conditions.

My guys are on the line, they'll have it deflected as soon as possible.

[TaoPhoenix]

Thank you for the correct response Seraphim, so while not fun, your reports negate most of the penalties. I'd give it something like 0.19 of a point out of 3.2. That is meant in the sense that it's very hard to keep raw perfection forever, but you correctly didn't just vanish into open space or pretend to blame it on a tech.

[Seraphim]

Thank you for the correct response Seraphim, so while not fun, your reports negate most of the penalties. I'd give it something like 0.19 of a point out of 3.2. That is meant in the sense that it's very hard to keep raw perfection forever, but you correctly didn't just vanish into open space or pretend to blame it on a tech.

Doing the best I can here under not very friendly circumstances. I suppose it had to happen sooner or later.

Turns out somebody was sending a nearly 500 Mbit UDP flood to my nameservers. It seems somebody somewhere felt a need to prove me wrong on the DDoS protection.

Though I will admit, this is the first time in the entire time I have been hosting that I was the target of a large-scale DDoS attack.

Total repair time remains unknown, they say the attack has not yet let up. I am probably going to have to make major configuration overhauls at emergency speeds to bring things back online.

[TaoPhoenix]

What is the relationship between you and Lost Signal? They seem to be out too.

[Seraphim]

What is the relationship between you and Lost Signal? They seem to be out too.

Same facility. To the point that LostSignal's main server physically sits on top of mine.

They were knocked out when a major IP range had to be nulled because it was impacting the entire facility, and there still are some hiccups getting everything on their end restored. They should come back up any time now, since the nulls have been reduced to just my nameservers. I am showing intermittent connectivity to them though.

Been up since 3AM dealing with this matter, repair time remains unknown. I'll give it all I've got, but I've clearly lost my DNS for the time being.

[Seanieb]

Someone sparked by some sort of anger at this forum has been attacking my datacenter with upwards of gigabits at times twords Seraphim - they're having trouble mitigating at the higher levels, apparently.

I'm going to be getting in contact with someone at this forum for information on whoever did this.

I'm getting the report that the sheer mass amount of packets is hard on their load distribution routers, causing outages across the company..



Same facility. To the point that LostSignal's main server physically sits on top of mine.

They were knocked out when a major IP range had to be nulled because it was impacting the entire facility, and there still are some hiccups getting everything on their end restored. They should come back up any time now, since the nulls have been reduced to just my nameservers. I am showing intermittent connectivity to them though.

Been up since 3AM dealing with this matter, repair time remains unknown. I'll give it all I've got, but I've clearly lost my DNS for the time being.

[dmmcintyre3]

I wonder if it's the same person who decided to throw a 2 GBPS attack at my stuff.

[Seraphim]

I wonder if it's the same person who decided to throw a 2 GBPS attack at my stuff.

Could you PM the info on this? We're running out of leads here, and I now have a few thousand dollars of overage and damages on my head.

You guys might see something here actually. Most hosts will cut losses and run.

I'm not that kind of guy. No matter how much this costs me, I am standing my ground and will come back.

[Seanieb]

My systems should be up. Seraphim will be down for a further undetermined amount of time.

[TaoPhoenix]

Seanie, I am getting time outs again for Lost Signal. I think my dashboard showed green-to-go earlier, so this is a new wrinkle. Any info? Do I have to do some sort of cache flush or something again?

[Seraphim]

Censored

[TaoPhoenix]

The whole datacenter dropped out again.

It appears the attack on me has not stopped, and continues to increase in magnitude. All of the servers in that facility are unrelaible due to brute force saturation of upstream equipment and lines.

Also I am not staying down. Getting very tired of waiting, I am currently arranging bare-minimum coverage on another provider. No way to retrieve the files at the moment, but you have the full set so that wouldn't affect you.

Yikes! "It wasn't supposed to come to this!". Scoring wise, "uh - you might not be in a position to offer time sensitive hosting", which when push comes to shove is the 2nd-to-last-pole metric of my scorecard, but if you survive this you're on the way to a damn potent Giant Asterisk of a counterweight, because the FIRST pole is Durability!

[Seanieb]

Someone on this forum is not to be trusted - immediately after I let you know that my side was up, they attacked one of my shared hosting boxes I'm not sure I can participate on this thread.

[Seraphim]

Danger zone

[TaoPhoenix]

Someone on this forum is not to be trusted - immediately after I let you know that my side was up, they attacked one of my shared hosting boxes I'm not sure I can participate on this thread.

That feels just wrong... I'm just a semi-random customer, who happens to be more obsessive at keeping notes than most. My uptime bar is literally just a link sitting on your server pointing to your sales page.

The reason I am upset is this slides into a big topic I am eyeing for years now, that "suddenly the world is different now in a Post Seanie World". Nope. It's like a hall of mirrors mindset. Once you panic and try to run you just get bloodier.

Same question as for Seraphim - why *you*? "Awesome as you are", you're also "just a provider". So hold on to a lamppost a min - before you slide into the Mafia Mindset "I can't be in the thread anymore" - skies help me someone's not afraid of my little promotion? At best I've been rather laid back in promotions, just letting the silent numbers speak for themselves. If by now someone has it out for you, twelve minutes of their time could make a silent link of their own.

The very least I can do is put an Anti-Mafia clause in my scoring. The old intent was just to pick up on "7 month special" hosts. I clearly get you guys are hit with a DDOS which is a whole new bag of worms. So let's do this.

*Any Host in this thread Hit with a DDOS/other attack retains full marks, and gains one credit pass against any self performed error.* By this point you two have two free credits each. However, y'all are smart - if y'all help each other find evidence turns up that someone is creating them deliberately from this FWS Forum, watch out!

[eSupun]

That feels just wrong... I'm just a semi-random customer, who happens to be more obsessive at keeping notes than most. My uptime bar is literally just a link sitting on your server pointing to your sales page.

The reason I am upset is this slides into a big topic I am eyeing for years now, that "suddenly the world is different now in a Post Seanie World". Nope. It's like a hall of mirrors mindset. Once you panic and try to run you just get bloodier.

Same question as for Seraphim - why *you*? "Awesome as you are", you're also "just a provider". So hold on to a lamppost a min - before you slide into the Mafia Mindset "I can't be in the thread anymore" - skies help me someone's not afraid of my little promotion? At best I've been rather laid back in promotions, just letting the silent numbers speak for themselves. If by now someone has it out for you, twelve minutes of their time could make a silent link of their own.

The very least I can do is put an Anti-Mafia clause in my scoring. The old intent was just to pick up on "7 month special" hosts. I clearly get you guys are hit with a DDOS which is a whole new bag of worms. So let's do this.

*Any Host in this thread Hit with a DDOS/other attack retains full marks, and gains one credit pass against any self performed error.* By this point you two have two free credits each. However, y'all are smart - if y'all help each other find evidence turns up that someone is creating them deliberately from this FWS Forum, watch out!

I am pretty sure he was not pointing his finger at you, Tao. He was talking about the person who is doing *this dirty thing* to all of us.

It is fair that he thinks the person who attacked his server is someone in our own forum since, three of us were affected by the same attack.

[TaoPhoenix]

I am pretty sure he was not pointing his finger at you, Tao. He was talking about the person who is doing *this dirty thing* to all of us.

It is fair that he thinks the person who attacked his server is someone in our own forum since, three of us were affected by the same attack.

Sure. Elsewhere Peo advised to stay conservative in our esimates of who is involved.

I meant watch out, not because I have the chops to do much, but someone here does and "we wouldn't like him when he's angry". /Hulk.

My spread design was built to catch resellers and lazy hosts, not attacks. So this bothers me.

[colorhost]

I wish all the luck to the providers effected by this, and hope you guys will be restored soon.

[TaoPhoenix]

Is it just me or are we in the running for top-25ish highest last-24 evar?
(Edit - okay, not ever, but just more than a lull a couple of months back.)

[dmmcintyre3]

I'm getting DDoSed again, this time my main VPS is the target, so your site is down along with all my other clients instead of just one site and a nameserver like it was when I was last attacked.

[TaoPhoenix]

PerfectZ & eSupun, do you have an update?
I am starting to get more time out blips from your server lately including as I write this.

[xes1972]

What are your diskspace and bandwidth requirements?

[TaoPhoenix]

What are your diskspace and bandwidth requirements?

Sorry, I am not taking any new entries at this time.

If I do decide to, offering hosts are advised to read the whole thread to know the concepts of my sudy board. By now, I generally look for a host to have been in business for a year before applying, because as remarked elsewhere, my results turned up a key fail metric at the 7 month mark.

[TaoPhoenix]

After some adventures with the hosts, this is where the current board stands.

http://taophoenix.perfectz.info/ReVisionWhitesource.html

[TaoPhoenix]

I'm getting a noticeable outage from PerfectZ again.

[eSupun]

I'm getting a noticeable outage from PerfectZ again.

Unfortunately, that's correct. :(

I am also surprised with these downtimes which is going even though there is no issue on the server except for the DDoS attack.

I am kindly requesting patience from all of our clients including you Tao. I am trying to do something more reliable these days. Maybe we could accomplish the goal in next couple of months.(Maybe less.)

[TaoPhoenix]

From a redirect on their front page -

"Were Sorry to see us go! But after long years here....ColorHost is Closing.
We May Return in the future, But no promises
We all hope you may return to us for hosting soon. "

[Tyler]

Probably a joke. If not, can they shed some light on the situation?

[deeplist]

They have a mod_rewrite in place that redirects every page to:

http://colorhost.co/closing

Da da da da da da.... another one bites the dust...

[TaoPhoenix]

Probably a joke. If not, can they shed some light on the situation?

Naw Darksoul, that kind of thing is never a joke - jokes are usually in word choices etc.

Now it's not clear if it's a malicious attack, but if they are closing, they should have posted a note here. What bothers me is how fast and dirty the notice is. Usually a business closing has an exit plan and a half decent apology page.

Either way, if they're in fact still around, they're just about out of chances because losing control of a server to an arbitrary rewrite would be tied for top-three security breaches.

All this is enough for me to post a board update in a minute.

[TaoPhoenix]

Here is the current board, this time on Babblehost's copy.

http://taophoenix.babblehost.com/ReVisionWhitesource.html

IsMyWebsite is down from the high perch after a bad shakeup, but they are relaunching Version 4 now.

Colorhost has been retired. A couple of the other hosts withdrew.

So we're getting to the endgame of this study. The infamous CWahi became the winner. As long as they're not sitting on any big surprises, Babblehost has been quietly doing the No-News-Is-Good-News route to take second. The others are about in a dead heat by this point, and the order I chose is a rough approximation.

The FAQ page got a big cleanup too. It's still got a "Tumblelog" feel, but I rewrote the whole thing to be more respectful that the last series of hosts to depart were not 4-month scams, but hosts that tried hard while they lasted. That was definitely a development I didn't see coming back at the beginning.

http://taophoenix.babblehost.com/Science/ScienceArticle2c.html

[Tyler]

Damn. Didn't you start out with like 15 applications?

[TaoPhoenix]

Damn. Didn't you start out with like 15 applications?

More than that. I don't want to get dragged into pasting the former entrants, but I think there were about 30 including the ones that I only issued quick replies to on the board.

What surprises me is the implications of Opt In. I really was pretty lenient in the grading, but "only 20" hosts applied. Compared to the total chaos of the Hosting Offers board, that bothers me just a little. Only 1Gig space, using negligible bandwidth, negligible features. I should have been flooded.

[colorhost]

Hello guys!

I am sorry to see us go, Were closing.

We can no longer support ourselves, it wasnt getting us anywhere.

We plan to return in the future, our servers are still up (Besides Green)

EDIT: I also forgot to include, that we do have backups off all our data...so if we were ever to come back, it would be like we never left.

[Tyler]

http://dsservers.net/images/SS-2011-03-05_09.35.45.png

Damn.

Edit:

Beat by five seconds -.-.

[deeplist]

Offering Services to customers since 2009.

Wow, hardly even two years...
Now can people see where these $1 hosting plans will get you?

[colorhost]

Wow, hardly even two years...
Now can people see where these $1 hosting plans will get you?

Did you need to be rude in your post? It has supported itself for awhile now...Intill Yesterday when we lost one of our main servers which i cannot recover.

[ThePro]

Wow, hardly even two years...
Now can people see where these $1 hosting plans will get you?

I was staff there.

I can tell you that it was earning enough for paying the servers, so it wasn't a money issue.

[deeplist]

I can tell you that it was earning enough for paying the servers, so it wasn't a money issue.

That's funny because on Darksoul's screen capture above it says that they're closing because they have no funds.

[colorhost]

That's funny because on Darksoul's screen capture above it says that they're closing because they have no funds.

My Mistake, Its actually due to a corrupted provider that i lost one of my main servers and i dont feel like its great to continue.

We have had alot of funds, i am not gonna contiue this discussion ....I am not gonna turn this Good thread into a flame war.

[Tyler]

My Mistake, Its actually due to a corrupted provider that i lost one of my main servers and i dont feel like its great to continue.

We have had alot of funds, i am not gonna contiue this discussion ....I am not gonna turn this Good thread into a flame war.

I don't understand this at all. You lost one server, and you're just going to throw away two years worth of work over it? Why not just get another server and restore the backups you have.

[colorhost]

I don't understand this at all. You lost one server, and you're just going to throw away two years worth of work over it? Why not just get another server and restore the backups you have.

I do have a other server, this all of this hassle to get everything moved etc...Its just no point to me.

I dont want to turn Taos Thread into a forum all about my closing, so can we please stay on topic?

[Tyler]

i do have a other server, this all of this hassle to get everything moved etc...its just no point to me.

i dont want to turn taos thread into a forum all about my closing, so can we please stay on topic?

......... :tired2:

[TaoPhoenix]

...Intill Yesterday when we lost one of our main servers which i cannot recover.

Do you feel at liberty to say what happened to that server, so we can see what happens to hosts when it's not about money?

Hardware crash?

[deeplist]

I do have a other server, this all of this hassle to get everything moved etc...Its just no point to me.

I dont want to turn Taos Thread into a forum all about my closing, so can we please stay on topic?

Have a mod split the thread and create a new topic then. I believe there's interesting points being made here. And this is a prime example as to why the shared hosting industry has gone to hell in a handbasket.

[TaoPhoenix]

I do have a other server, this all of this hassle to get everything moved etc...Its just no point to me.

I dont want to turn Taos Thread into a forum all about my closing, so can we please stay on topic?

Actually colorhost, that's almost part of the concept, here in the end stages - it's about the lifecycle of hosts after the advertising stage. I'm learning a lot about the types of reasons. Also I considered it part of fairness for the hosts to have their last say.

[colorhost]

Alright, Since Tao wants me to contiue i will

Well it appears that my provider that supplied the server to us as gone up in flames.

I do have all of your data, but due to the amount of stress that this has placed me i feel that we should not continue.

If the provider comes back online, i may continue...but i dont have promises on the return.

[TaoPhoenix]

Have a mod split the thread and create a new topic then. I believe there's interesting points being made here. And this is a prime example as to why the shared hosting industry has gone to hell in a handbasket.

I'd rather not deeplist, it's nice to see the flow of time and host-community interactions in the thread, which was also part of the idea.

[Tyler]

Alright, Since Tao wants me to contiue i will

Well it appears that my provider that supplied the server to us as gone up in flames.

I do have all of your data, but due to the amount of stress that this has placed me i feel that we should not continue.

If the provider comes back online, i may continue...but i dont have promises on the return.

But since you have the backups and you have another server why not just use that server?

[deeplist]

Very good.

What ultimately happened here was his funding has dried up, in one way or another, and he's trying to blame it on hardware failure.

To colorhost: You know what? Hardware failures happen. It's just the way it is. If you had backups in place, you can have the datacenter swap out your failed hardware, restore your backups, and be back up and running in a matter of a few hours with minimal data loss.

[TaoPhoenix]

That's funny because on Darksoul's screen capture above it says that they're closing because they have no funds.

Right Deeplist.

This is where I urge Colorhost to make a classy exit and avoid some of the famous pitfalls of companies in trouble by mixing Press releases.

[colorhost]

It wasnt caused by me. It was caused by a other provider failures.

I do have backups.

I am gonna take "classy exit" as Tao says, and leave before somthing happens.

all i wanted to do, was announce to you guys the troubles...and i did so, but i did not want all of you guys to attack at me on it.

Good Bye guys, i hope to be back in the future!

Kevin H.
ColorHost CEO

[TaoPhoenix]

Fair enough Colorhost!

[deeplist]

I am gonna take "classy exit" as Tao says, and leave before somthing happens.

You've already failed at your attempt to make a "classy exit" by giving mixed reasoning for this decision to leave.

[TaoPhoenix]

Where do we go from here? P.S. to Deeplist, he's close enough, I don't mind two stray posts.

Deeplist, do you want a Wildcard slot, and if not, I'd like to know the logic. P.S. I lost track if free hosting is part of your normal offerings, because that is actually relevant.

[deeplist]

What do you mean by wildcard?

[TaoPhoenix]

What do you mean by wildcard?

In the beginning I literally took anyone who offered a gig of space with linkback only (no posts, no banners) in return for a little promotion and the public visibility. Here towards the end I'm starting to close down on requests from hosts open under a year, because I have my data on hosts who specialize on 4-7 month turnover specialists.

However, I've noticed lately you've contributed, and your sig says you've been around since 1998, so I figured you'd have a shoo-in to run for second place. All this thread is, is a little connect-the-dots exercise of the field. It started when I got tired of all the "here we are" offers, followed by vanishing without a trace. So I made a simple opt-in deal: agree to be visible by the FWS community, ... including trouble if it happens, and those hosts who grind through get something like a "certification" that they're a cut above normal.

Wildcard is my choice to issue a couple of offers here and there. It's still supposed to be "easy" because I have got to be close to the easiest client to host ever, but I am still chilled by the revolving door of the Offers board and how many of those are just "collect 100 clients and sell" operations - worse, I caught one as a "collect data and fold" operation.

[TaoPhoenix]

I still feel a paid host is the best source of free hosting - as a "entry / loss leader", but the point was the host has to not vanish. My big meta-theme is there is a colossal security risk when paid webhosts fold because of the payment data.

Of course I can afford a dollar a month - the concern is there's no blind-encrypted micropay services out there that I trust / and-or are common enough.

[Tyler]

I still feel a paid host is the best source of free hosting - as a "entry / loss leader", but the point was the host has to not vanish. My big meta-theme is there is a colossal security risk when paid webhosts fold because of the payment data.

Well, colorhost just vanished and they were a paid web host. So I guess it's a tossup.

[colorhost]

Well, colorhost just vanished and they were a paid web host. So I guess it's a tossup.

I didnt just vanish, i gave the reason why we left.

[TaoPhoenix]

Well, colorhost just vanished and they were a paid web host. So I guess it's a tossup.

(Trying to watch the parallel sentences)
I feel the best chances overall come from paid hosts as an overall model, but only if they have everything else working in order. Colorhost had special tags on the study for a while because they were indeed a paid host without a free division for a while.

To clarify, the hosts studied had to have an official free services division and not just "manager-coupon" me in. The goal was to promote hosts across FWS.

Indeed, now that they are struggling, I hope Colorhost takes great pains to protect the data. Actually
Colorhost, I'd recommend you delete your payment data from any of your paid clients, and if you ever come back, just require it again. Unfortunately you're square in the profile of the biggest plus of free hosting - I have perfect data backups, so if a host folded, all I lost was a little posting time. But once that Money factor shows up, I think collapsing paid hosts are potentially the biggest security risk of all time if they make any two of some ten possible exit mistakes.

[TaoPhoenix]

I didnt just vanish, i gave the reason why we left.

He meant the suddenness, and it was a surprise to me as well. A tip for your next business, is to have enough reserves if possible to give clients exit warnings.

[deeplist]

Well, a little background about myself and my company. I began designing websites in 1998 and I offered hosting back then as well, but only as a reseller for another company.

In 2000, I purchased my first dedicated server and began the full time hosting operation under the DBA: DeepList PC Services using the domain deeplist.com, which is now only a redirect. This had went on for about 6 years and then I decided that it would be best to market the services under a new name and new domain, which is when I decided to begin "Decker Services" and use deckerservices.com and I have been doing so for the last 5 years. The company has grown a lot since then and as a result, we're now a fully licensed LLC in the state of Indiana doing business under Decker Services LLC, no longer a sole proprietorship.

Collectively, I have had an online presense since 1998 and have been offering hosting solutions on my own equipment since 2000. As you can see, I've been a member on these forums for nearly as long.

As with any hosting provider, we've had occasional downtime due to errors, or hardware failures, but over the last 2.5 years, we've maintained an average uptime of 99.98 percent. NOT 99% or even 99.9% but 99.98%. Customer service is #1. We have a phone number for phone support. Forums and tickets for online support. If you want to run a business, your customers are what MAKE you. They're not just numbers! People do not seem to get that!

In regards to your thread here, I've read over a good portion of it, not all. I understand your study and I think it's really beneficial to the community to help raise the awareness for deadbeat hosts and kiddies who don't have a clue. Is it possible for a kid to run a hosting business? Yes it is. In 1998, I was only 12 years old. I got my first RedHat 7.2 server when I was only 14. It's possible, but the vast majority of these people these days just don't have a clue. It makes all of us look horrible and destroys the shared hosting industry.

</rant>
I'm done.

[TaoPhoenix]

Sure, that's why you earned the Wildcard offer.

I would like to know a couple of details about "decided that it would be best to market the services under a new name and new domain". Sure, over that length of time stuff moves around, but I am curious to know what would trigger that kind of marketing decision. Is it because you now prefer "My-Name" branding insead of "Some-Word" branding?

If you would like to be in, just send me a message with account setup details / questions. I do subdomains, and I settled on a Gig of space as the hedge against the Overseller question.

[deeplist]

I didnt just vanish, i gave the reason why we left.

And the problem with you is that you didn't give a consistent reason. You clearly lied and/or changed your story judging by what you said here and what you said in the chat box to a "potential" client which was then posted here in the screen capture.

[colorhost]

And the problem with you is that you didn't give a consistent reason. You clearly lied and/or changed your story judging by what you said here and what you said in the chat box to a "potential" client which was then posted here in the screen capture.

I knew who it was.

[deeplist]

I knew who it was.

besides the point

[colorhost]

besides the point

I am not arguing with you, you can believe what you want.

I am current working on possible restore methods.

[TaoPhoenix]

I knew who it was.

Sure. So gang, he slipped in his first reflex, but it's time to let him wind down. All closing businesses have a few ugly wrinkles, which is why they close. But I'm trying to give him room to extricate himself.

[colorhost]

I am working on possible solutions anyways, so we will probably continue

[TaoPhoenix]

I am working on possible solutions anyways, so we will probably continue

Best of luck! Go ahead and retire my data to be official with things.

Let's let him have some space out of the spotlight to regroup.

[ThePro]

Very good.

What ultimately happened here was his funding has dried up, in one way or another, and he's trying to blame it on hardware failure.

To colorhost: You know what? Hardware failures happen. It's just the way it is. If you had backups in place, you can have the datacenter swap out your failed hardware, restore your backups, and be back up and running in a matter of a few hours with minimal data loss.

I sometimes think you just want to cause a flamewar, but w/e :P

Anyways, it wasn't a hardware failure, the server provider that he used on that server decided to dissapear of the planet, i know which one it is, and with ColorHost's permission i will say which one it is.

[deeplist]

I sometimes think you just want to cause a flamewar

No flame-war intended. I just get sick and tired of seeing this same scenario time and time and time again.

When some host goes under, usually one of two things will happen:

1) They disappear into the night and nobody ever hears from them again.
2) They make some lame --- excuse about what happened and blame it on somebody (or something) that is out of their control.

[VivuHost]

Ok here it is - ColorHost: Long story --> Short

Upstream provider - fakes illnesses(heart attacks and comas), and conveniently 'forgets' to pay for all his servers except for his main one with his site
ColorHost - Then suffers as a consequence.

Lesson here, learn more about your upstream providers before diving straight in.

[deeplist]

Lesson here, learn more about your upstream providers before diving straight in.

OR

Manage your own servers so you don't have to rely on somebody else.

[VivuHost]

OR

Manage your own servers so you don't have to rely on somebody else.

Yes, also true.

[TaoPhoenix]

I offered deeplist / Decker Services a Wildcard slot based on his longevity and recent thread interest. In a modestly edgy move, I slotted him at #2 behind CWahi because of his business years. Here is the board on DeckerSvc's copy.

http://taophoenix.deckerservices.com/ReVisionWhitesource.html

After the recent ups and downs and maybe one more blip from someone, I expect it to quiet down to that "boring lull" part. Deeplist, you need to confirm for me if you offer free hosting as a standard offering, since if not I'd do the special-colorcode routine on your dashmarker.

[deeplist]

We do offer free hosting, but by request only and to those who have proven just cause. As a matter of fact, there's a few members on this forum who have free hosting from us. We just do not advertise it.

[TaoPhoenix]

That's probably close enough for now. I'd rank that as more of the anti-abuse selection process, which I am aware can get wild with free hosts.

[Tyler]

I knew who it was.

I was under another name and on a VPN. I highly doubt you knew it was me.

[TaoPhoenix]

There's only 2-3 Tylers on this board at FWS : )

[Tyler]

True, I suppose. But since he asked if I was a current client I doubt he knew it was me.

[TaoPhoenix]

True, I suppose. But since he asked if I was a current client I doubt he knew it was me.

Nah, assume it was obvious. So he fed you a line. No biggie. We're moving on.

[colorhost]

The only Tyler on the FWS forum i knew was you, So....:)

[Tyler]

The only Travis on the FWS forum i knew was you, So....:)

Well I'm not Travis - sorry. That's someone else.

[colorhost]

Well I'm not Travis - sorry. That's someone else.

Tyler :) Heh, i was mixing up names again.

[TaoPhoenix]

Hmm. According to my Rep, I'm doing okay, but someone posted a note that they don't care for the appearance of my sample page. Okay, ya got me - I put zero effort into how nicely my text lines up on the little green sqaures; and my FAQ page has zero formatting. And I cop to scandalous laziness writing the articles on the rest of the placeholder icons. However, this is not a report. It's more like the "notebook" stage of science. That's why I haven't sent it to "review my site". I can always pay some designer $100 to spruce it up for me.

By the way, I am also studying copyright trends. Since its new revision a few months ago, the site is 99% permissive-licensed. (The 1% is my way of covering any goof I may have made.) News stories are starting to appear that lawyers are suing for copyright violations on graphics as well as music and movies. Therefore, my entire page, while exceedingly choppy, is nearly perfectly documented to be permissive use. Here I would give a shout out to the Prelinger Archive which bought Terabytes worth of 60 year old TV commercial footage, and paid for the rights to make it cleanly public domain. Some of my backgrounds are cropped snips of screen shots from those archives to replace formerly copyright-unclear graphics "used in 1999 wild west" style.

I stand by the sudy methodology itself. It's opt-in, gives hosts plenty of chances to escape undue penalties arising from the vagaries of running a business, but yet provides a realtime view of hosts maintaining existence.

[dagaul101]

It's a pity none of the free hosts last the distance :(

[TaoPhoenix]

We're still a wee bit above "none"! A couple of the round 4 or so entrants are still around, and then it's looking like the power hitter is Crosswinds / CWahi.

I might have a new type of "footnote" category. There may be a couple of hosts at which my data is still up, but that are no longer able to be recommended in the lead study. They can be found in the panel links (rather than the study's pure-sales 'linkbacks') at the bottom of the FAQ page which can be reachedby the blue FAQ button. The chief host here is IsMyWebsite, a former strong contender, who has had to rebuild several facets recently, and the owner tends not to visit here often lately.

[azoundria]

The chief host here is IsMyWebsite, a former strong contender, who has had to rebuild several facets recently, and the owner tends not to visit here often lately.
I visit here more often than you visit us.

[TaoPhoenix]

Truce. Let's narrow "here" to especially mean my project thread. I created this as the interface between the selected hosts and the free host enthusiast community. I use the hosting services of my selected hosts daily, at a minimum of observing the dash indicators, and every few months completely loading entire new editions of my pages.

We'd love to have you back posting some notes again.

[TaoPhoenix]

I also got a customer support answer from IsMyWebsite that the reason my dash indicator went down is that I need to make an upgrade away from a retired version of the site software, so I'll try that in a couple of days.

[TaoPhoenix]

Crossposted from the other thread.


Sorry for the 'shutdown' if you considered it such. I do figure things haven't changed, and there are still the hundreds of one night stands.

Guess this is as good a place as any for venting.

[azoundria]

The requirement to transfer is simply logging into your account. This was mentioned as early back as 3 months ago on our blog (http://ismywebsite.wordpress.com/), a couple weeks ago on the main website, and there were 7 days of grace before I updated the DNS system to use the new database. Even now, the only thing which is down for an untransfered website is the DNS. Your website comes back online shortly after you transfer.

I'm not sure what that post you're quoting has anything to do with this. I was expecting maybe that hosting had moved forward so there were decent services, and as a result of this the end user requirements had changed. Instead, I got a response that reminded me of 5 years ago - with remaining alive at the top of the list. That's the easy part. It's competing with the paid hosts that's tough. I was hoping more for features like our new backup manager, that's really practical and helpful. When emphasizing this I felt I 'shutdown' the discussion.

[TaoPhoenix]

Great note. I'll add the clarification that what I think confused me last time is that logging into my cpanel wasn't the same as "logging into my account". Here, on the speciality of the thread, I'll remark that staying alive is still not easy, as evidenced by my little project. Since I carefully stripped out all the other variables *besides* staying alive here, I'll go over to your other side to go think about nice features.

[azoundria]

Hi Tao,

IsMyWebsite is for serious web developers, and designed to help you manage multiple websites in ways cPanel can't hope to do. It's like having a reseller, though simpler and more flexible to host on different servers. The new features give you even more control over your websites.

You really miss a lot if you just log directly into cPanel. That's basically what every host has.

[Seraphim]

Sounds like I should upgrade a bit then. I'm still using year old templates on my site.

There's going to be quite a few changes from me still to come, but I doubt my stubbornness to a cause will ever change.

[TaoPhoenix]

All's quiet!

[deeplist]

That's good news!

[TaoPhoenix]

My dashlight for my-webhost is down now. Any info?

[Tyler]

http://i56.tinypic.com/k06gi1.jpg

Looks like he became a paid web host.

[dmmcintyre3]

I moved it to the paid server and forgot to point your subdomain to the free server which you are on.

[TaoPhoenix]

http://i56.tinypic.com/k06gi1.jpg

Looks like he became a paid web host.

Yeah, good eyes - I whizzed right past his screen while checking my post. I'll have to find a new color again to represent paid-only hosts, unless you still plan to offer free hosting on the side besides me.

[dmmcintyre3]

Yeah, good eyes - I whizzed right past his screen while checking my post. I'll have to find a new color again to represent paid-only hosts, unless you still plan to offer free hosting on the side besides me.

I still plan to, from http://forums.my-webhost.info/ and http://freeresellers.info/

[TaoPhoenix]

Some feedback - I didn't see anything on the forums clarifying the place of free hosting in your company offerings. Meanwhile, a technicality is that if possible my site is mostly geared to free hosts, with occasional exceptions, so if FreeResellers is your primary free brand, I'd change the link text. Generally I hold paid hosts to a higher standard, yet I believe that a paid host is also in the best position to offer a free-host loss leader division to attract new clients.

After about round 3 my approximate rule became that free hosting has to be generally available in some fashion for inclusion in this study - I can't be the only client on a free plan out of special privilege.

[dmmcintyre3]

freeresellers.info is going to be the main free brand.

[Tyler]

freeresellers.info is going to be the main free brand.

I do not see any shared free plans on freeresellers.info. I see reseller plans, but nothing there for the average person.

[TaoPhoenix]

...

Wow, you changed your name to Tyler.

[Tyler]

Wow, you changed your name to Tyler.

Yeah. :)

[TaoPhoenix]

Something is happening to my link again - I think it came back briefly earlier.

[Tyler]

Something is happening to my link again - I think it came back briefly earlier.

My-webhost.info has been down for around a day or two now.

[Seraphim]

What is the link to the current spread. Your data with me is still hosted, but last I looked at it the version was somewhat behind with several dead hosts on it.

Also, count me as back in the game. Sorry it took so long, I like to make sure that everything is stable and secure before a relaunch.

Not bad for dealing with unexpected circumstance though. I pulled through that outage with all customer data intact, and ultimately only lost 1 customer- he was too impatient to wait for service restoration and went elsewhere.

[TaoPhoenix]

What is the link to the current spread. Your data with me is still hosted, but last I looked at it the version was somewhat behind with several dead hosts on it.

Also, count me as back in the game. Sorry it took so long, I like to make sure that everything is stable and secure before a relaunch.

Not bad for dealing with unexpected circumstance though. I pulled through that outage with all customer data intact, and ultimately only lost 1 customer- he was too impatient to wait for service restoration and went elsewhere.

Probably something like this.

http://taophoenix.ismywebsite.com/ReVisionWhitesource.html

IsMyWebsite is back in their traditional second place after some recent effort from azoundria renewing their FWS presence including this thread. Strong newcomer Decker Services is still playing Pacer Horse at third. Babblehost and PerfectZ are collecting some uptime presence. Seraphim per above, is back to try again. Slipping a couple notches is My-Webhost because they appear to have changed their service offerings away from general free webhosting in this brand name, but it will be a little time until I can reprocess the special coding in the dash icons to represent this. (However, it's now been a while since I fully synched all the host copies.)