Hastgator bringing the suck

[T0d]

So I've been with hostgator about one year now and up tell yesterday no real issues.

Well yesterday AM my site was down for 4 hours. I was told it was only going to be down 20 minutes "overloaded server" one guy was using to many resources.

Fine, I figured one incident and hostgator would ban this guy... NOPE later last night it was down again for an hour! Ok now I'm getting pissed off at hostgator and am looking for another shared hosting account or a friends server I can jump on. (I only have one account there just to keep one e-mail off my own dedicated servers.)

Well this morning I woke up and again it's down! It was only down for 20 minutes and it's back up but now it's down again!

Hostgator has lost me as a customer as their support (live) just gives you generic copy/paste responses, their server can no longer stay live, and it shouldn't take 4 hours for a damn admin to ban/block/re-route traffic from a site.

/rant off

[maldives]

Never had any trouble so far with them. Thanks for the heads up anyway.

[T0d]

Originally Posted by maldives

Never had any trouble so far with them. Thanks for the heads up anyway.

No problem. I notice it is still happening but luckily only for a few minutes. (Mail server can't connect and I notice the popup)
-TOdd

[niceboy]

hostgator seems to be one of the best hosting services around. i heard very less complaints with them.

[charlesgan]

if the support ticket dont solved, try post at hostgator forum, network status. there is a good place to get attention & help as well.

[kristeejo]

I would demand to be switched over to a new shared server - did they not make the dude hogging all the resources get on a dedicated?

[damien_ls]

Originally Posted by ToddW

So I've been with hostgator about one year now and up tell yesterday no real issues.

Well yesterday AM my site was down for 4 hours. I was told it was only going to be down 20 minutes "overloaded server" one guy was using to many resources.

Fine, I figured one incident and hostgator would ban this guy... NOPE later last night it was down again for an hour! Ok now I'm getting pissed off at hostgator and am looking for another shared hosting account or a friends server I can jump on. (I only have one account there just to keep one e-mail off my own dedicated servers.)

Well this morning I woke up and again it's down! It was only down for 20 minutes and it's back up but now it's down again!

Hostgator has lost me as a customer as their support (live) just gives you generic copy/paste responses, their server can no longer stay live, and it shouldn't take 4 hours for a damn admin to ban/block/re-route traffic from a site.

/rant off

Ever considered using a VPS instead?

This is the main problem with Shared hosting - some random rogue script that isn't even your fault can cause everyone to suffer. No matter how good the provider is, they can only work to react to the situation, and can't prevent it (in all cases anyway).

With a VPS you have your own isolated environment which means you have a guaranteed minimum amount of CPU time, memory etc. and therefore your site can't get crowded out.

Worst case, it minimizes the impact; best case, it prevents any impact on your site.

The same is true with the other major issues such as IP blacklisting etc. - a VPS keeps you isolated from these problems, without the major expense associated with a dedicated server (which in most cases is overkill anyway).

[T0d]

Originally Posted by kristeejo

I would demand to be switched over to a new shared server - did they not make the dude hogging all the resources get on a dedicated?

I woul dhave hoped but since it's happened a couple times after the original it doens't look like it!! It hasn't happened today so hopefuly its fixed.

[T0d]

Originally Posted by damien_ls

Ever considered using a VPS instead?

This is the main problem with Shared hosting - some random rogue script that isn't even your fault can cause everyone to suffer. No matter how good the provider is, they can only work to react to the situation, and can't prevent it (in all cases anyway).

With a VPS you have your own isolated environment which means you have a guaranteed minimum amount of CPU time, memory etc. and therefore your site can't get crowded out.

Worst case, it minimizes the impact; best case, it prevents any impact on your site.

The same is true with the other major issues such as IP blacklisting etc. - a VPS keeps you isolated from these problems, without the major expense associated with a dedicated server (which in most cases is overkill anyway).

Don't want to pay for a VPS. I have dedicated servers I just like to keep 1 email off my servers.

[Karooki]

I also don't see any point in paying for VPS if you've got already dedis from them.

[frobber]

I never had any big trouble with hostgator but I know some people having some problems and the customer support was no real help.

[damien_ls]

Originally Posted by Karooki

I also don't see any point in paying for VPS if you've got already dedis from them.

I didn't know that he had dedis when I asked that... but from what I understand they're not with hostgator?

If I'd known either, I wouldn't have bothered suggesting a VPS because obviously it makes little sense. However, the ultimate problem with Shared hosting, and the fact that VPS's often resolve a lot of these issues, remains a valid point.

I certainly wouldn't suggest that VPS's are for everyone - but anyone paying more than ~ $20 / month for Shared hosting should perhaps consider whether a VPS would be more suitable for their needs.

[charlesgan]

hostgator is few of the only non-contract hosting provider.meaning you can renew your hosting each month. and not same like others that require you to paid yearly fees.

my advice here is, if anyone not convince with any host, find some review at forums, and some site hosted at hostgator. get it test out. and finally signup a short term to test it out

[T0d]

Originally Posted by charlesgan

hostgator is few of the only non-contract hosting provider.meaning you can renew your hosting each month. and not same like others that require you to paid yearly fees.

my advice here is, if anyone not convince with any host, find some review at forums, and some site hosted at hostgator. get it test out. and finally signup a short term to test it out

Uhm my hostgator is paid yearly... because I have the cheapest plan which they require you to pay yearly... best check the page again

[WebGeek182]

Originally Posted by ToddW

So I've been with hostgator about one year now and up tell yesterday no real issues.

Well yesterday AM my site was down for 4 hours. I was told it was only going to be down 20 minutes "overloaded server" one guy was using to many resources.

Fine, I figured one incident and hostgator would ban this guy... NOPE later last night it was down again for an hour! Ok now I'm getting pissed off at hostgator and am looking for another shared hosting account or a friends server I can jump on. (I only have one account there just to keep one e-mail off my own dedicated servers.)

Well this morning I woke up and again it's down! It was only down for 20 minutes and it's back up but now it's down again!

Hostgator has lost me as a customer as their support (live) just gives you generic copy/paste responses, their server can no longer stay live, and it shouldn't take 4 hours for a damn admin to ban/block/re-route traffic from a site.

/rant off

Hey Todd,

I'm sorry for your bad experience....it's not fun when that happens. You're not the only one who has had severe problems with Hostgator. One of my good friends woke me up at 3AM the other night with a frantic phone call because his site was under DOS attack. He got me involved so I could help him stop the attack. I told him there's not much I can do on my end, because I didn't have access to his server, and that needed to deal with the tech support at his hosting company. He's hosted with, you guessed it, Hostgator. (I've been trying to convince him to leave them.) He emailed support and they never responded. Bad sign!!! He called in after waiting half an hour. They said it would be fixed in 15 minutes. After another hour it wasn't stopped. His site (and I'm assuming the sites of everyone else hosted on that server) was completely unaccessible. That's a problem because his business is worldwide and customers order off his site around the clock. He called in again and they told him that the datacenter was "installing a security device" on the server that would stop it. I almost lost it when he told me this...So, they wait until the server is under attack before engaging security measures? Great! Apparently a half hour or so after they did so, the attack stopped. All told, his site was down for over 3 hours and was hit 30,000-50,000 times in that time period. Not to mention the other sites on that server!

A good host should have security measures in place that automatically stop a DOS (or DDOS) attack without the customer ever noticing. A customer shouldn't have to be the one to call it in because they aren't paying attention to what's happening on their own servers!

Well, that's not all...That wasn't the only security incident this particular friend of mine had with Hostgator. Somewhere about 6 months to a year ago, this guy had his site hacked while hosting with them...actually the entire server was hacked. Every web site on the server went down and was replaced with nasty messages.

Hostgator admitted that they didn't even have basic security measures in place.

Then, when they were restoring the backups, they "accidentally" restored the sites with a week old backup, instead of a day old backup. They had apparently lost the previous week's daily backups. Right...they simply weren't backing it up every day, and they got caught. It took him almost two weeks to get everything online again and running the way it was before. They didn't even offer to make any reimbursements whatsoever, even when he asked.

What a great company. (Read with sarcasm.) They used to get all kinds of awards for web hosting, but my take is that they grew too fast and got too big to handle it, so their service is going downhill.

If you need a quick solution to getting your email off your dedicated servers, you might consider Google Apps for Your Domain (http://www.google.com/a/) instead of getting another hosting account. It works pretty well, and they have a free service. Obviously the suitability of that solution depends on your particular needs, but you might want to check it out.

[Julie]

Hostgator has been very good to me for the 2-3 months I've been with them. I pay monthly, not yearly. But I think if you want to get the cheapest rates you can choose to pay yearly. I don't like that kind of commitment, so I pay monthly. The host that has been the most disappointing to me so far is dreamhost....their servers must be horribly overloaded. AQhost has been the best to me (next to v7 hosting of course), with super great support and fast load times.

[alemcherry]

hmm.. one of the rare bad review about hostgator. How is it now, ToddW? Have you got another hosting acc. or still with hostgator?

[damien_ls]

Originally Posted by alemcherry

hmm.. one of the rare bad review about hostgator.

Interesting that you say that - I've come across quite a few "bad reviews" about them on my travels, and they're certainly not hard to find if you go looking for them (i.e. as you should if you were considering hosting with them)...

[WebGeek182]

Originally Posted by Julie

Hostgator has been very good to me for the 2-3 months I've been with them.

That really doesn't prove much? 2-3 months of good experience? A lot of sites have that. All it takes is one good hack or DOS attack to expose some major security issues.

Originally Posted by alemcherry

hmm...one of the rare bad review about hostgator.

Not rare, my friend. Bad reviews get more common all the time.

Originally Posted by damien_ls

Interesting that you say that - I've come across quite a few "bad reviews" about them on my travels, and they're certainly not hard to find if you go looking for them (i.e. as you should if you were considering hosting with them)...

I agree...bad reviews are getting more common with them. I think they were good at one time, but they've gotten careless as they've grown.

[thePro]

hope this doesnt happen to me.