38h.com problems

[WW.NITELIFEUK.COM]

has anyone had problems with 38h.com?

my website www.nitelifeuk.com has been down for almost a week. ive tried calling them, left messages and emailed several times yet i get no reply.
is anyone else having problems

please let me know
thankyou

[ryza]

Have not heard of this host before.
I seriously hope they respond to you soon, that sucks!.

mod edit: the user is asking about another hosting company, he is not looking for suggestions, this is your first and final warning on the issue

[ryza]

they say here if you post a ticket it gets a reply within 2.5 hours:
http://www.38h.com/alert.html

ticket system here:
http://firstline.38h.com/

[WW.NITELIFEUK.COM]

hi,
thanks for your reply!
ive tried their ticket system so many times now i bet theyve run out of paper!
no seriously ive sent about 15 tickets, numerous emails and about 20 phone messages. ive been with them for 2 years now and never realy had too much trouble, but this is rediculous!
what can i do to get my site up and running i dont know that much about technical stuff.
i hope someone from 38h can see this message and maybe call me as soon as poss before i lose any more sales.
thanks again for your reply

[ryza]

Well i think you should give them the benefit of the doubt, anything could have happened.

Wait another 24 hours if your site is still down with no response then make plans to get your site online at another host.


Would be happy to hear how it turns out.

[alano]

Hi NiteLifeUK.

I am a web hosting reseller and, like you, use the 38h.com services. I have nearly 100 websites hosted with 38h.com. One of their servers (WEB3) went down for a 6 day period in June - which affected 13 of my websites - I guess this is what affected you.

38h.com have gone desperately downhill over the last 18 months and, as you have discovered, they do not answer Tickets, phone calls, or emails.

Although WEB3 is now working, I have four major Ticket incidents logged with them for 3 weeks now (plus several minor incidents). I have lost several customers during the last week because I cannot even tell my clients when problems will be fixed (because 38h.com do not reply to me).

I'm pretty sure that 38h.com must have gone bust and would recommend that all their clients do what I am doing now - looking around for a new host.

If anyone can recommend a UK-based host (makes tech support easier) that offers cheap shared Windows 2003 Server-based hosting with unlimited PHP, Perl, ASP, ASP.NET, SSL, POP3, SMTP included - or dedicated Windows 2003 Server hosting with the same facilities - then please let me know.

Cheers,
Alan

[overulehost]

well ,it is surprising for such things to happen especially when they are hosting so many sites.

[carpeni]

I too have sites on 38h - and the support has been fairly poor over the last couple of months. The forums are down and the Helm control panel is so slow it takes ages to navigate.
So sad really as they were really good - fast replies to support questions and helpful. I am also looking elsewhere - don't really want to but when needs must!! -
not happy though as I paid the annual fee and so most of that could be wasted

[ChrisBoy]

I'm giving up on 38H, with not a little regret... I've got a bill that they haven't explained to me, have not replied to e-mails or tickets and have an out-of-order phone number.

They host three sites for me and it's going to be a pain in the proverbial to move but sadly there's now no choice.

Knowing that technical tribulations can make the life of a service provider like this sometimes difficult, I have always been inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. Now, they're just costing me money and time.

Chris.

[I2V]

when a web host stops replying to emails or support tickets with prolonged downtime periods of their own site along with others', it's a bad sign!

if a host can not manage to bring a server back up within 4 hours (regardless of hardware or software failures), it means their system restore procedure is either not in place or not tested.

[dazzakiller]

I have had big problems with them also. I've been host 4 sites with them.

Have tried logging tickets, leaving loads of phone messages, etc. Had no reponse.

Again their site is slow to navigate; the control panel is almost un-useable due to the slowness.

I thought that I would try one last try to get in contact with them. I thought that I would try a different tact though. Instead of posting a ticket with a support question I posted one with a sales question, (account upgrade). I got a response almost straight away! I then replied saying that I had concerns about their service and mentioned about slowness of their site and CPanel etc. Guess what no response!

I wish that they would just say what problems they were have and that would go along way in helping me understand. But to hear nothing is very bad and makes me worry all the more.

They used to be really good. Offering great support and I had recommended them to lot of other people. What a shame.

I am now looking into other hosting companies. If anyone has changed from 38h.com to another hosting company with similar packages, please could you let me know your recommendations?

Regards
from a frustrated 38h.com user.

[alano]

Hello "frustrated 38h.com user".

UPDATE @ 15:45 23/8/2005: I just had an email back from James Griffin of 38H saying that WEB9 should be back up in around an hour's time.

I've now given up with 38H. I had 100 sites hosted with them and am now in the middle of the extremely painful process of migrating to a new host.

The new company have been trading for quite a while and provide virtually identical-spec hosting (Helm, Windows 2003, etc.) - but a lot cheaper, a lot faster, and replies to all questions usually within a few minutes (just like 38H used to be). They also seem to keep up with latest updates (Helm is v3.2.5, PHP is v5, ...)

It's very sad that 38H have gone so desperatley downhill - I've given them every chance (and encouragement) to improve their service during the last 9-12 months - but they usually ignore my emails (even when I send supportive and/or sympathetic emails).

I did manage to catch James Griffin (the Managing Director) via email around a month ago and he pledged that things would improve within days (he avoided giving reasons for the persistence of the problems).

One month later and there's no improvement. In fact - WEB9 has been down for the last couple of days and I have been busy moving 5 critical domains from 38H to my new host (and I still have 13 more domains on WEB9 that, when my clients discover their websites are not working, I will receive "hate-mail".).

I STRONGLY suggest that you make sure you have full backups of all the websites and a record of email, FTP, ODBC settings, etc. - because I just had to move 5 websites blindly from a backup I took 3 weeks ago (because Helm is down I couldn't get to the settings, and because WEB9 is down there's not even FTP access to the affected domains!!!).

38H are being VERY unprofessional in their failure to acknowledge and discuss their problems with professional Reseller clients such as myself. Never mind - they've shot themselves this time - I'm well and truly on the escape path and have still got around 60 websites to move - it's a long and painful process - but I don't have any other option.

If you Personal Message me I will tell you the new host that I'm using (it was recommended to me by someone else in this thread).

Cheers,
Alan

[tzyzhing]

thank you for the information.

[alano]

Hi all.

I notice that 38h are now officially no longer taking on new customers. They have also formally acknowledged that WEB9 server has been down for several weeks. FTP has also not been working on WEB1 and WEB4 for several weeks either. Control Panel is still very slow (if you can get it to work at all in the first place!).

I have just formally written to 38h to conclude my dealings with them. In searching Companies House to find their registered address and the address of their directors I noticed that Sion Jeremiah is now the only director - their other director resigned their directorship two weeks ago (James Griffin, I would imagine?).

Me thinks that 38h have now gone for good. I'm glad that I've managed to find an even better host (even better prices too!) thanks to this forum. I'm still severely troubled (hence my writing to 38h) that I have still got around 25 of the 100 domains, that I was hosting with 38h, left to transfer to my new host - but am unable to do so because I can't access the web pages and databases because FTP is broken.

Good luck to all my fellow 38h sufferers!! Let me know if you need advice/assistance/moral support moving to a new host.

Regards,
Alan

[dazzakiller]

I noticed to that they have changed their front page and put some emails addresses for domain backup on CD etc. I have sent an email with a request for my domains to be burnt to CD.... well see what happens I'm not going to hold my breath.

I've been pretty blessed in that I had taken backs just before all the problems. I wonder if there will be any chance of a refund?

Anyway very happy with the new host RedFox Hosting.

Regards

Darren

[alano]

Hi Darren.

I've been sending a polite email each day to all the new email addresses at 38h since 28th August requesting backups - I've not received a single reply yet - not even when I've specifically asked for them to at least simply confirm receipt in order that I can rest assured that they're working on my case.

I've now just written to 38h at their Registered Office and at Sion's home address (obtained from Companies House) asking that they provide backups or risk a Small Court Claim for damages because they are massively in breach of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982.

I too took backups of all 100 of my reseller domains before the big crash (backups taken on 31st July) - but my customers are very active and many use databases that get updated upon each browse to their website. I always made it clear to my customers that they are responsible for their own backups - but that doesn't make me feel any less professionally obliged to do backups as well.

Oh well - like you say - at least RedFox are a good bunch!

Cheers,
Alan

[carpeni]

I have also sent emails to all the email addresses and had no reply to any of them.
I really can't believe how they went downhill so quickly as it takes no time at all to put information on their site and we as users may have been able to help - or at least keep the number of moaning emails down.
I paid the annual fee for my reseller account - and trying to get a refund - but I am sure that thay have no money left in the kitty.
I am just trying to get two databases back from them - luckily I replicated all the code on my home system.
Ian

[alano]

Hi Ian.

I, unexepectedly, received an email from James Griffin yesterday afternoon promising to supply the backups I requested - explaining that they had been inundated with requests for files (surprise... not!). He said that he'd email me back later that evening with the details - but he didn't (again - surprise... not!).

I think the real reason I got an email from him yesterday was in response to my written letter threatening a claim via the Small Courts system.

I am 99.9% sure that 38h have formally disbanded. They are no longer a legitimate Ltd Co according to Companies House (they only have Sion Jeremiah listed as a company officer - being listed as both the Company Secretary and the only Director - which is not a legitimate configuration for a Ltd Co.).

Casting my mind back over the last year - I suspect that 38h suffered some sort of cashflow/personnel problem around a year ago - that's when things started to get real bad (when you and I started posting the critical-yet-supportive posts on 38h's forums). Like you said - we couldn't have been more supportive to 38h - offering Laurel leaf after Laurel leaf - but they were too proud (or damaged) to react sensibly. I asked them several times if there was anything I could do to assist them - but they didn't even reply.

I'd love to know what's really happened - just so that I can learn from their mistakes (how NOT to run a web hosting business!). I'm sure that the hacking and DOS attacks that they claim are the reason for their interruption in service are simply a consequence of 38h failing to keep their servers adequately up-to-date with patches, etc.

Anyway, I've JUST finished transferring all 100 of my domains across to an alternative host now - and am extremely pleased with their service so far. The transferring process has taken me several hundred man hours - which is why I am threatening a Small Courts Claim against 38h. The transfers have significantly impacted many of my clients as they have had to regenerate their systems from older backups (thanks to 38h's FTP service being down on WEB1, WEB4 and WEB9).

This episode with 38h has caused me such a headache with also running my other company (property development & investment) that I have no alternative but to prepare to shut down my web host reselling business. My customers will be well chuffed off when I tell them - only recently having to suffer the hassle of me transferring their domains between hosts - and soon having to do it all again themselves!!!

Oh well! Keep smiling! Cheers.
Alan

[VagaStorm]

Has anyone at all recived their requested files? I have several customers with databases that they update frequently, not to speek of all the customers on web9 which I fear is, a-las, lost :(

:confused4

[elevation]

Hi All,

I too have many domains hosted (or not) with 38h.com. I have had no joy whatsoever getting hold of them or my database files.

This morning the 38h site and all the rest of mine that were still active dropped from the radar.

I have one major problem - having started to move my domains to your excellent recommendation Red Fox, I have hit a wall with one or two domains - I got 38h to register them for me and now cannot change the Name Servers to point the domains to Red Fox instead of 38H as I can do with the domains I purchased via UKREG.

If anyone has any solutions or suggestions please let me know.

regards,

Sean

[dazzakiller]

I posted a question to support because I still have one domain that 38h registered for me and I can't transfer it to Redfox, keeps coming back with "Not Available (37)". Anyone who knows how I can get around this please let me know. Redfox say they are looking into it with the registar.

Anyway I did email 38h re the above and they did get back to me about a week later but couldn't help.

Anyways I hope you all manage to get tansfered over.... eventually.

Regards

Dazzakiller

[dazzakiller]

Sorry forgot to say still waiting for files to come through post.
Anybody spoken to them about refunds?????

[alano]

Hi All.

It was brought to my attention, yesterday, that 38h have totally disappeared from the face of the planet (or, at the very least, their DNS server has gone bye-bye's). None of theirs, or our websites and email are working.

I've still not received any files from 38h, either - and have now resigned myself to totally giving up.

And, anyone (including myself) who was planning a Small Claims Court action against 38h can probably forget that too - if 38h have gone into Receivership then we'd simply be pi**ing in the wind!

With regard to transferring domains registered via 38h to another host - you two key options...

(1) easy option... if the email address lodged with the domain name registrar is a working one, then you can go to another domain name registrar (I use UKReg) and use their "Transfer" function to "pull" the domain name from 38h to UKReg (it's an automated process, but usually takes a few days). You can then, via your (e.g.) UKReg control panel, set the nameservers to those required by your new host. If you need technical assistance then either post here or PM me.

(2) If the email address registered against your domain name was one hosted with 38h (or is another email address which is unavailable) then your only option is to contact the top level registrar - or the regulatory authority and ask them to change the nameservers to that of your new host, and to update your contact email address. Use a good WhoIs tool to find out the necessary Registrar contact details (I use http://resellers.tucows.com). Again, if you need technical assistance then get back to me.

Good luck y'all. Me thinks we can forget about 38h now!

Shout if you need assistance.

Cheers,
Alan

[elevation]

Alan, thanks so much for that, ill give it a go. The 38h phones stopped today... I really cant get over the cheek of them to not even let their customers know what's going on via their site etc. As you say, forget and move on...

You dont happen to know a bluetooth driver for NT on my old laptop. Got a driver to get the USB going (wey hey!) now to get that dongle working, downloaded an NT bluetooth usb adaptor driver, scared to install it, getting lucky twice in the same morning seems unlikely.


Regards,
Sean

[Kjell_78]

They have 6 nameservers, still dns report returned: A timeout occurred getting the NS records from your nameservers! None of your nameservers responded fast enough.

being with 38h for years no, i really did not want to move, but at the end... I felt I had no option (I started to search for hosts months ago, just if I had to move)

Luckely I managed to move the sites, and my new host has a temp. url so I could check and fix problems before the sites went online on the new server. But I didnt want to make the DNS changes before this weekend (less trafic at the sites/mail then)
Unfortuanaly, I dont know my costumers passwords, so they have to re-enter them... also if they had mail (I told them to download it if they had beafore the move) on the servers, its probably lost now.

I had no response from Support, and has not recived the CD.
I just hope there was nothing I missed beafore it went down.

The new host is cheaper, HELM is fast, more features and support answers faster then I am able to respond them :classic2:
38h R.I.P (ONCE a great hosting company)

[fishmedia]

I have one domain that is/was controlled by 38h.

But 38h provided me with login details ...

http://manage.opensrs.net
domain: *********.com
username: ******** (domain without .com)
pass: ******

Obviously if you don't have the password it's going to be a problem, but as said above contact opensrs for .com or Nominet for .co.uk and they will be able to change the TAG or admin email for you.

I don't know what has happened to 38h apart from the message that was posted on their site. I do know that they were subject to many hackers as our servers also got hacked. But my company moved lock stock and barel at the start of the year .. and we left 3 of our own servers with them!

http://www.fish-media.net/newspress.asp?id=25

I suspect that the connection to their servers/rack has been disconnected thus taking all the servers offline.

It is really sad, as when we joined them they were doing really well and were great to work with.

Rich

[Kjell_78]

its still one site I need to move :(
I do have a backup of this site, but I think its outdated.

This is one customer I didnt reach before 38h went down, and therby the last one I would move.

Still no CD as requested, and no response to any e-mails

[instanthosting]

I cannot even access there site, i think they have now tried to make there buisness untracable so there is naw no chance of getting a refund or even proving that they exsited and where they were based,

[TJR Networks]

It's sad that a thread like this seems to come up so often. I guess it is a good reminder to make sure you always have current backups of your files, especially databases.

[Kjell_78]

It's sad that a thread like this seems to come up so often. I guess it is a good reminder to make sure you always have current backups of your files, especially databases.
I do have backup of all my sites, and do have of my clients.
But this client was in the progress of renewing hes site, and thats why I think my backup of the site is outdated.
Hopefully he will contact me, and did not work directly on hes site, but had a local copy of it.

[dorhost]

I had a reseller panel from 38h and i was so lucky that i move to a new server.
I have a dedicated server now and it is very nice,I installed HELM and SmarterMail on my server and they work normal.
If anyone want to have a reseller panel with 1 GB and many features please email me at admin@dorhost.com

Ehsan Amini

[alano]

I had a reseller panel from 38h and i was so lucky that i move to a new server.
I have a dedicated server now and it is very nice,I installed HELM and SmarterMail on my server and they work normal.
If anyone want to have a reseller panel with 1 GB and many features please email me at admin@dorhost.com

Ehsan Amini
Hi Ehsan.

Good for you! I nearly set up my own server, but thought better of it in the end because I would also have had the hassle of maintaining it (althought, at least it would be under my own control!).

Out of interest - what level of support (24x7?) and service level guarantees will you be offering to reseller accounts? Will support be a one-man offering (you), or will you be employing support staff to provide cover during your sickness, holidays and other absences?

I wish you the very best of luck in your venture. It's a shame that 38h went tits-up - but at least it does create business opportunities for others (like yourself)!

Best regards,
Alan

[jonbanjo]

Well unlike others' here, I'm not a reseller but have also been picking up the pieces up the pieces from 38h. Lost a month on 1 accessdb which I used to back up via ftp and spent the last month of 38h's existance trying to get my ftp service back but that was the only loss.

I had the domain name problem with email addresses set to 38h one. Contacted tucows/opensrs who require a government photoid to make this change - good job the domains are in my mother's name, not mine as I have nothing like a driving licence with picture, passport, etc. Hopefully that will be resolved soon.

Started one of our sites under a different domain name with RedFox. Excellent set up, superb CP, fast pages, etc. BUT.

I've been down twice with ODBC errors and ASP script time outs. These were issues I had with 38h from time to time (and I notice Red Fox had before I joined, looking through thier forum) but overall were resolved, eg. towards the end at 38h, we were running for months on end without ever needing to contact support for this problem (which may is 38h support was right be someone else with a script forgetting to movenext, etc. knocking others out.)

Whatever, I've been down twice in a little over a week, this time for 2 hrs with no reply as yet to my re-opened support ticket. They do look promising but at the moment I'm feeling like I'm revisiting 38h a couple of years back and reliving a past nightmare before they managed to resolve whatever the problem was. Hopefully, as with 38h (when they were excellent), matters will resolve and I find I have made a good choice though.

[jonbanjo]

Better had, just had a useful reply from them, so I'm optomistic for the future.

[carpeni]

Just to prove it is all over, they are even selling the domain name!!!!!

http://auction.names123.com/domain_details.php?domain_id=6237