A few days ago I received an email from my FORMER hosting company — HostGator — telling me my sites had been suspended. The reason was unclear, and they didn’t answer my WTF?? email for about 15 hours. I was at work for most of that time, so I was distracted and it saved me from having a full meltdown.
When they did write back, they said traffic to the Surf Report was putting a strain on the shared server, and slowing down other peoples’ sites. They suggested I install a plugin that’s already been in place for more than five years. Beyond that, they had no suggestions on how to remedy the problem.
And just so you know: HostGator advertises unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited disk space. I guess a more accurate statement would be “unlimited (some limitations apply).” Right? How can they say it’s unlimited, and tell me I’m using too much? Also: this site is not exactly The Drudge Report, in terms of traffic. Ya know?
I emailed them back, and again… no answer for a long, long time. My sites were fully-functional, but locked-down by the host. And I was getting nothing but ambiguous and infrequent emails from them.
Finally, they told me somebody had linked to a few mp3 files, which I’d uploaded ages ago. There was a lot of activity on them, and this was causing the extra load on the servers. They gave me the specific file names, and I deleted them. They also requested I make a change with Google, and the rate with which they “crawl” the site. This is all inside-baseball boolshit. But I did everything they asked, and requested they lift the restrictions.
Sixteen hours later… they said nope; not good enough. They had a whole new list of demands, completely unrelated to the first list. They’d moved the goal posts. What the hell, man?? When I joined HostGator, they were the best in the business. I’d had not one second of trouble with them.
I started doing some Google searches, and learned the company was sold last year to some gigantic corporation called Endurance. It’s NOT the same HostGator, and there are complaints about shitty customer service and problems all over the internet. They’d been a beloved company before.
Then I found a guy who wrote about his site being shut down by HostGator, and going through exactly what I was going through. Infrequent, unclear emails… Doing everything they asked, but never satisfying them… It started to feel like an organized hassling campaign.
Yeah, that’s all I needed to know. Screw this. I signed up with a different company — one that currently has a fantastic reputation — and asked the guy who does tech work for me to start moving my sites.
I believe HostGator wanted to get rid of me for some reason, and they succeeded. I don’t understand it. I paid my money every month, rarely contacted them, and everything was going well. At least I thought so. It’s crazy. But I’ll tell you this much… I would steer clear of HostGator, BlueHost, and all the other Endurance hosting companies. This is some weird stuff.
Just to be clear: I don’t believe any of this was personal. I just think I fell into some category that Hostgator decided is hurting their bottom line in some way. What defines that category, I do not know.
But, we’re back in business. If you see anything that’s not working, let me know. During the last 24 hours everything’s been migrated from one server (and company) to another. It always makes me nervous, especially since the old stuff is on an obsolete platform called FrontPage. But, it seems to work out.
Thank you guys for your patience. This time it had nothing to do with the Russians. Their vodka-hands are clean, this go-round.
See you again soon!
Now playing in the bunker
Do your holiday shopping at Amazon!
Here’s the link for our Canadian friends
You’ll probably want to update that Recommended post you did a while back.
I’m glad the problem got resolved. When I first couldn’t log in I thought it was something wrong on my end. Hope this new hosting company turns out well. A few years back I had the same “unlimited” problem with Verizon land line phone service. Had them for a while at $80(!) a month because I was supposed to have unlimited long distance for that price. Then one day they called me and said I was “using to much unlimited long distance calling time”. I asked what their definition of unlimited was, because it was clearly different from the Webster’s definition. We argued about their limited “unlimited” phone service for a couple weeks, and I finally told the idiot bimbo I was forced to deal with to shove their Verizon land line hard and deep. Just cell phones now, and no problems whatsoever.
About three years ago – I moved, and had my phone number switched from a home phone to a cell phone. I also decided to do away with DSL – since I was no longer going to have a home phone. The Verizon people assured me there would be no charges for termination of my home phone/DSL. I ended up getting a 100 dollar phone bill a while after I moved. This was after I paid the final home phone/DSL bill.
It seems odd to me that they can get away with that sort of thing. Of course, they are gone now. Frontier took over.
I have been thinking about going for this new Sprint deal – 65 bucks a month – unlimited. I have to wonder if that is not a ruse of some sort. I have yet to move away from a basic flip phone – and maybe I don’t really need to.
I don’t have a home phone, but I use DSL for my internet connection. Since that’s done on the phone wires, my account number is a phone number.
Every year, the phone company tacks on a calling plan to Mexico for $5/month, then I call, then I get my money back. I wonder how many people get ripped off, never noticing the extra $5?
Are they being racist? How come I don’t get a calling plan to Canada?
I recall at the time they told me I could not have “just DSL”. I found out later – that was not true. I wanted to go to cable internet anyhow.
The cable internet works pretty good – when it works. There was a time when it often would not work.
For a while I thought someone was unhooking the splitter – but they would need a ladder to do that.
Whatever it was – they fixed it. I think it was something to do with whatever the thing is on the line coming in from the telephone pole.
Actually – here is a good story about dealing with those companies:
I called a while back and complained about the internet connection going down. Of course, they wanted to upgrade me to all sorts of stuff I don’t want or need. Such as a Comcast phone number.
When the guy showed up – he asked me if I really wanted all that stuff. I said no. He tested the connection – and replaced the ends on the cables. He said the problem was on their end. You don’t often get honestly like that. It did fix the problem for a while. It started again – and one day I noticed the cable guy doing something to the unit on the telephone pole. So I guess they finally fixed it.
The problem is they have a lock on everyone here. There is no other cable or phone company – except the two we have.
Did you send them a farewell “[email protected]#% you and the horse you rode in on” Email?
Glad your back! Now for some bourbon. Brynhlidr, will you pour me a glass please darlin?
On a scale of 1 – 10, I think Jeff’s hair whipping hit 47.
Glad you’re back, Jeff.
And Happy Birthday (one of these days coming up I think – doesn’t your whole family have birthdays in November?)
11/30
11/29
Well I knew it was a comimg
It’s nice to have you back, Jeff; I was getting concerned.
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Isn’t that how it always is – you find a good, reliable company that does good work, then some shlock outfit comes along, buys them up, and turns their product into crap. It’s the new American way!
Glad to see you back. When I got the error 403 message I figured Host Gator had you bent over a pickle barrel. They’ve developed quite a reputation for that recently.
Good Afternoon Surf Reporters!
Glad to see everything up and running….
And for a little while there, I really thought it the Russians had struck again…
I suspected the Russians, as well! Ha!
I hope Host Gator is paying for the ad at the bottom of your update.
I just logged into Adsense and requested they not show HostGator ads on my sites.
I once had vodka hands. She was a cruel mistress.
jtb
Jeff: You need to post this saga on Endurance International’s wiki page.
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_International_Group
Anyone doing that amount of hosting is gonna make a mess of it sooner or later. Count on it.
Wow! That’s amazing. I’m going to bookmark this list, and make sure my current company doesn’t appear there.
Glad you are back. F em.
Welcome back.
And for the google crawlers;
Fuck shitty hostgator
Fuck shitty endurance international
Never, ever trust a company where two people with names like Ravi Agarwal and Hari Ravichandran are the founders.
I’m glad you’re back. I was getting scared after not being able to get to WVSR for that long!
Whew! Glad you’re back! Fuck them innernets people.
Interesting info on hostgator. Thanks.
you’re back!!! thank you jesus!
That google change that you did, did you undo it? Might mess with your hit count if thats important to you. Speaking of which, what was it, last week? when you where looking for us to tell two friends, to tell two more friends… to visit, maybe that spiked the hit counts and got you on the radar with shitty hostgator.
Apropos of nothing…. In the course of wandering around teh Intertubez, it seems that the word “douchebaggery” has been widely adopted. I approve. Nicely done.
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You shouldn’t rely on the services of any company with the word “Gator” in the title.
Yes, that includes Gatorade…
OK, now I’m concerned about my Gator shoes. I hope they don’t let me down in a pinch.
And I’m not sure the site is totally working for me yet. Other than the report of the reason for the outage, I can’t link to an update in the last seven days. That can’t be right.
And is Bunker Cam spelled Funker Cam on YOUR screen?
I’m not letting the Russians off the hook. Not just yet.
jtb
You’ll be OK as long as your shoes are Gators, not Crocs.
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Were you told when you signed up, “If you like your unlimited bandwidth, you can keep your unlimited bandwidth. Period.” ??