hey you hosting guys... here is a personal customer experience

[janzenms]

I know most of you care about your customers. I want to tall you my little story in hope that maybe when you are signing up customers you can see it clearly through their eyes and be a little more proactive is taking care of them. In the long run it is in everyone's best interest since we live in a symbiotic relationship.

Last Saturday my server died right before my eyes. It was a slow death too, took about 30 minutes from what I can tell. It was a dedicated box at aplus.net. I thought everything was being backed up but no, 99% of my user contributed data was lost. Yep... I'm screwed. Starting over.

A part of me figures I can make a clean fresh start the other part is incredibly pissed at myself and aplus.net for their lack of ability to truly serve customers and my own boneheadedness for not being more careful. So maybe at the very least someone will be able to learn from my experience and prevent this from happening to them. For all of you hosts... I hope this gives you a sight into how your customers think.

1. Don't believe what the hosting sales guy tells you. Promises made during the sales process are empty.
2. Don't get a dedicated box unless you are really comfortable with is. Get managed services.
3. Use websites like to find the right host.
4. Check prospective hosts by using the search feature on sites like this. See what people are saying about them.
5. Keep a watchful eye on your host over time; quality changes over time.
6. Backup your data to off-site systems. Making a weekly backup to your own computer is also a great option.
7. Don't believe the hosting review sites, the majority are affiliate sites in disguise.
8. Don't believe cnet anymore. I believed them and they led me to aplus.net.
9. Plan to switch from time to time. The host you are with today still has you on that old machine and software. When you switch you often get more for the same money.
10. Build your sites to be transplantable. A couple of my sites were super easy to move, db and all. A few of the older ones required a lot of tweaking because they had server paths (for example) hard coded.

Good Luck!
-M

p.s. oh... I'm back online (mostly) and busy rebuilding. Got a dedicated box with some managed serivces and offsite backups. It didn't cost much more either and I got a lot more computer.

[AvailNetworks]

good advice from a newcomer. Rare but very refreshing!

It is good you learned these things and are actually doing something to correct it. Most people never learn from mistakes and continue to do the wrong thing.

I too have had my bad experience from aplus.net a few years ago....they are scammers at best

[webguru72]

I know most of you care about your customers. I want to tall you my little story in hope that maybe when you are signing up customers you can see it clearly through their eyes and be a little more proactive is taking care of them. In the long run it is in everyone's best interest since we live in a symbiotic relationship.

Last Saturday my server died right before my eyes. It was a slow death too, took about 30 minutes from what I can tell. It was a dedicated box at aplus.net. I thought everything was being backed up but no, 99% of my user contributed data was lost. Yep... I'm screwed. Starting over.

A part of me figures I can make a clean fresh start the other part is incredibly pissed at myself and aplus.net for their lack of ability to truly serve customers and my own boneheadedness for not being more careful. So maybe at the very least someone will be able to learn from my experience and prevent this from happening to them. For all of you hosts... I hope this gives you a sight into how your customers think.

1. Don't believe what the hosting sales guy tells you. Promises made during the sales process are empty.
2. Don't get a dedicated box unless you are really comfortable with is. Get managed services.
3. Use websites like to find the right host.
4. Check prospective hosts by using the search feature on sites like this. See what people are saying about them.
5. Keep a watchful eye on your host over time; quality changes over time.
6. Backup your data to off-site systems. Making a weekly backup to your own computer is also a great option.
7. Don't believe the hosting review sites, the majority are affiliate sites in disguise.
8. Don't believe cnet anymore. I believed them and they led me to aplus.net.
9. Plan to switch from time to time. The host you are with today still has you on that old machine and software. When you switch you often get more for the same money.
10. Build your sites to be transplantable. A couple of my sites were super easy to move, db and all. A few of the older ones required a lot of tweaking because they had server paths (for example) hard coded.

Good Luck!
-M

p.s. oh... I'm back online (mostly) and busy rebuilding. Got a dedicated box with some managed serivces and offsite backups. It didn't cost much more either and I got a lot more computer.

Well said..... who is your new provider?

[janzenms]

Well said..... who is your new provider?

Server4Sale came highly recommended on another board as a managed provider that resells servers at Layered Technologies. Seems like a good symbiotic relationship for them and fills in the gap I need between dedicated and managed.

For just a little more every month (than I was paying at aplus.net) I upgrade from a single processor P4 to a dual xenon. Double ram, more than double drive space, 100gb storage, etc.

I also got a godaddy site for $7 a month for some of my small content only websites. I know it sounds crazy but I'd rather not have all my eggs in one bucket and godaddy seems to have their stuff together.

[Craig]

Server4Sale came highly recommended on another board as a managed provider that resells servers at Layered Technologies. Seems like a good symbiotic relationship for them and fills in the gap I need between dedicated and managed.

For just a little more every month (than I was paying at aplus.net) I upgrade from a single processor P4 to a dual xenon. Double ram, more than double drive space, 100gb storage, etc.

I also got a godaddy site for $7 a month for some of my small content only websites. I know it sounds crazy but I'd rather not have all my eggs in one bucket and godaddy seems to have their stuff together.

Doesn't sound crazy at all, it best to have *backup* options just in case the worst happens.

BTW, its ''not have all my eggs in one basket'' .

[www.eukhost.com]

hello,

A back-up process is very much neccesary for any hosting.
We certainly have to be very careful about this issue as this can be fatal to the business we hold.

regards
shane richards

[janzenms]

BTW, its ''not have all my eggs in one basket'' .

heh... yes... silly me. thanks.

[Volt.Networks]

Thanks for posting that useful piece of advice. I'm sure someone can learn from it.

[janzenms]

Thanks for posting that useful piece of advice. I'm sure someone can learn from it.

I'm actually hoping some of the web hosts take something away too. Thanks

[Flaunt]

6. Backup your data to off-site systems.

Softlayer has nice backup options. And they're not too expensive

[heymrdj]

Doesn't sound crazy at all, it best to have *backup* options just in case the worst happens.

BTW, its ''not have all my eggs in one basket'' .

Some of us need buckets .