Better Alert Page?

starcros · #1 03-02-2008, 02:30 AM

Why can't Hostgater have a more neutral alert page show up when a site gets shut down due to going over the resource limits?
For a business site, A customer showing up and seeing "ACCOUNT HAS BEEN SUSPENDED , PLEASE CONTACT BILLING/SUPPORT" would assume that the business is having trouble paying its bills.
I would hate to see a business loose its reputation because of a coding error or because he grew faster then expected.

kmaw · #2 03-02-2008, 09:17 AM

Probably because that's the generic page cpanel comes with and they don't think to change it -- or don't feel it's important enough to change.

Serra · #3 03-02-2008, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by starcros

Why can't Hostgater have a more neutral alert page show up when a site gets shut down due to going over the resource limits?
For a business site, A customer showing up and seeing "ACCOUNT HAS BEEN SUSPENDED , PLEASE CONTACT BILLING/SUPPORT" would assume that the business is having trouble paying its bills.
I would hate to see a business loose its reputation because of a coding error or because he grew faster then expected.

As a business, one would assume that if that page did show up, that it would be quickly dealt with, either by upgrading the account, or by manually pointing it elsewhere. In about 10 minutes and for about $10.00, that could be re-pointed to a neutral page.

Plus, any business who has their website down, would naturally lose reputation, for whatever reason. They should consider that when choosing inexpensive hosting.

Sam · #4 03-02-2008, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kmaw

Probably because that's the generic page cpanel comes with and they don't think to change it -- or don't feel it's important enough to change.

I thought they did change it to a custom one.. (http://suspended.hostgator.com/)

starcros · #5 03-02-2008, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam

I thought they did change it to a custom one.. (http://suspended.hostgator.com/)

No, my site just got suspended day before yesterday because it went over the CPU cap (bad wordpress plugin) and I got the page mentioned above.
The one you show is much better.

starcros · #6 03-02-2008, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Serra

As a business, one would assume that if that page did show up, that it would be quickly dealt with, either by upgrading the account, or by manually pointing it elsewhere. In about 10 minutes and for about $10.00, that could be re-pointed to a neutral page.

Plus, any business who has their website down, would naturally lose reputation, for whatever reason. They should consider that when choosing inexpensive hosting.

Good luck getting a problem dealt with in 10 minutes. It took me a day and a half to get my site back up.
Yes a site being down does hurt a business reputation but a page like that makes it many times worse.
All Im saying is, it would be nice if they changed it.

Serra · #7 03-02-2008, 11:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by starcros

Good luck getting a problem dealt with in 10 minutes. All Im saying is, it would be nice if they changed it.

Actually, I was implying that YOU could have taken care of it in 10 minutes. Yes, abuse is slow, but I'm fairly sure that if you were a business and your reputation depended on your site, you wouldn't wait around for two days for results.

GvilleRick · #8 03-02-2008, 11:43 AM

You could contact support and refer them to the page at http://suspended.hostgator.com/ and ask if they could change it to that one. It only takes a minute or so to change the page for them. It just requires pasting in the html code. It could be that your server was just overlooked when they changed the suspension pages.

TonyB · #9 03-02-2008, 12:24 PM

If that's a cpanel problem, then someone needs to tell them about it.

They're jumping into the middle of a problem they know nothing about and are making all kinds of unfair accusations.

GvilleRick · #10 03-02-2008, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TonyB

If that's a cpanel problem, then someone needs to tell them about it.

They're jumping into the middle of a problem they know nothing about and are making all kinds of unfair accusations.

I'm not sure I completely understand these statements. The page that is being shown on that server is the generic page that comes with cPanel. It's not a problem, it's just the standard format that is used.

There is an option in the root WHM where you can paste in html text for a different page if you want which is what the http://suspended.hostgator.com/ page has done. I have changed that page on my server and have done it in the past with a company that wanted a specific page for suspended accounts.

kmaw · #11 03-02-2008, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam

I thought they did change it to a custom one.. (http://suspended.hostgator.com/)

Shared vs reseller? probably..

hcacree · #12 03-04-2008, 02:37 PM

Any way that HostGator could let each of us create an error page to trap the situation? Like instead of looking for index.htm they look for unavailable.htm in the root. the generic cPanel one would be second in the lookup.

slapshotw · #13 03-04-2008, 05:42 PM

Edit: misread earlier post in thread.

TonyB · #14 03-04-2008, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slapshotw

You can create your own error page. Create a file called 404.shtml ...

This won't work if the account is suspended. Not that it's 404 errors we're talking about in this thread anyway.

slapshotw · #15 03-04-2008, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TonyB

This won't work if the account is suspended. Not that it's 404 errors we're talking about in this thread anyway.

My apologies, got confused about the thread I was in! Adjusting other post now...

Serra · #16 03-05-2008, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TonyB

If that's a cpanel problem, then someone needs to tell them about it.

To be honest, its not even a cPanel problem. Accounts being suspended should be very rare. The solution to the problem is not to be suspended. That can be done by putting their hosting in the proper type of account and being careful.

I can understand why hostgator keeps it very generic.

TonyB · #17 03-05-2008, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Serra

I can understand why hostgator keeps it very generic.

Sure you can. Until it happens to you.

And it's becoming more common as more hosts are overselling their servers.

I was with you until it happened to us a while back (not at HG). After complaining about high server loads for over a month, we were suspended one day, and one of those awful generic notices went up implying we hadn't paid our bills.

In fact, after they moved us to a new server it became obvious we had absolutely nothing to do with the server load. It was all a simple mistake, but that little mistake got blown all out of proportion by a really badly worded notice.

gtgeorge · #18 03-05-2008, 11:50 AM

I don't see how a generic suspension page makes it 'seem' like you haven't paid your bill. Either way, the point it portrays is the account is suspended and the owner of the site needs to contact the host to be reinstated.

gwyneth · #19 03-05-2008, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gtgeorge

I don't see how a generic suspension page makes it 'seem' like you haven't paid your bill. Either way, the point it portrays is the account is suspended and the owner of the site needs to contact the host to be reinstated.

Not only that, depending on what business you're in, it may actually be better p.r. if visitors infer that you didn't pay the bill than if they think your technical skills (i.e., lack of) brought the site down.

Serra · #20 03-05-2008, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TonyB

Sure you can. Until it happens to you.

And it's becoming more common as more hosts are overselling their servers.

Suspensions are not related to over selling. They are related to processor usage. An empty server or a full server, someone using too much processor is still using too much processor. It kinda sucks of you aren't actually guilty, but suspensions are rare. You just hear about them because people always post complaints.

alemcherry · #21 03-09-2008, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Serra

Suspensions are not related to over selling. They are related to processor usage. An empty server or a full server, someone using too much processor is still using too much processor. It kinda sucks of you aren't actually guilty, but suspensions are rare. You just hear about them because people always post complaints.

I guess it is. If someone promise you 1000 GB space and 100 TB bandwidth, what would you guess? Obviously it seems like you can host a big site with huge traffic there, right? Wrong!

The moment you start using a very small percentages of the resources, you get hit bu the hidden clause! Okay, not hidden - they do mention CPU usage in TOS. But why on earth they promise the kind of bandwidth and space that even a top end dedicated server wont provide? It is clearly misleading.

I am not against overselling, but there has to be a limit for everything. Offering the moon for a $5 hosting and then suspending for using a small fraction of it is simply not right.

Jordanlw · #22 03-09-2008, 09:26 AM

HG doesn't give a sh#t about Bandwidth there only worried about system resources.

Rockoids · #23 03-09-2008, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alemcherry

I guess it is. If someone promise you 1000 GB space and 100 TB bandwidth, what would you guess? Obviously it seems like you can host a big site with huge traffic there, right? Wrong!

The moment you start using a very small percentages of the resources, you get hit bu the hidden clause! Okay, not hidden - they do mention CPU usage in TOS. But why on earth they promise the kind of bandwidth and space that even a top end dedicated server wont provide? It is clearly misleading.

I am not against overselling, but there has to be a limit for everything. Offering the moon for a $5 hosting and then suspending for using a small fraction of it is simply not right.

I think it comes down to industry competition. In order to be competitive, hosts have to promise the moon and the stars for shared. A company that doesn't do it won't get their share of new business.

I would, of course, prefer to see something more realistic. I do think new customers come into this without understanding how the system works and the limitations of shared. They sign up, and do something that hogs resources and suddenly they're suspended. They naturally get pissed off and complain, or hop to another host -- and then another and another.

For 99% of the customers, it works out just fine, for they will never exceed the limits, and if they grow to a point beyond shared, they know they have to upgrade.

Serra · #24 03-09-2008, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alemcherry

I guess it is. If someone promise you 1000 GB space and 100 TB bandwidth, what would you guess? Obviously it seems like you can host a big site with huge traffic there, right? Wrong!

If someone had never hosted a site before, it may come as a surprise, but one would assume that someone hosting a busy site hasn't been under a rock for 10 years.

synchronize · #25 03-09-2008, 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by starcros

No, my site just got suspended day before yesterday because it went over the CPU cap (bad wordpress plugin) and I got the page mentioned above.
The one you show is much better.

Which wordpress plugin was that? I ask because i recently had the same problem with a wordpress plugin named 'wordspew'. It's an AJAX powered shoutbox.

Anyway my site got disabled and literally 5 minutes after that i got called from Hostgator security/support! The guy on the phone told me what the problem was, which was the plugin, so i disabled that and he put my site back online. Nice! Pretty good considering they rang my mobile phone and i happen to live in the UK!

<3 Hostgator support.