The Good with the Bad

[keithquinton]

I've been with HostGator off and on for various business ventures for some three years now. When I think hosting, I think HostGator. I've never seen an outage and I've never had an issue with support. I've even seen resolution within 4 minutes!

That is, until I went to a dedicated server and simply wanted the exact same setup I had within a shared and reseller account... and was denied.

It seems simple, moving to a dedicated. $219 a month for a pre-configured server with WHM/Cpanel; I expected the same technologies found in my previous accounts. But, the dedicated server lacked ImageMagick, mssql, sqlite, and sqlite2. I asked support if these could be configured, as they created the image and know it far better than I do. It's so well locked down (not really complaining about that) that installs require a ton of work-arounds.

My focus is on providing a premium service to clients who would expect their current sites to be transfered over to work. We provide eCommerce guidance. I'm not trying to be a server expert, that's why I chose HostGator for my dedicate server and not The Planet. The reason for the dedicated was not to learn how to manage a server, but to provide reliable service where we could guarantee the number of accounts on a machine and know who else was on the machine.

This is the first time I've had a negative feeling towards HG. And the hardest part, in trying to find answers as to how to get all these technologies "restored", I found numerous recommendations for dedicated providers who installed these for their clients and explained to them how they did it.

I just can't wrap my head around the fact that I can't be provided with a like product when upgrading from one to the other. I know some things like Mod Security settings may be proprietary, but free software isn't (or am I wrong and these extensions aren't free? - Thus far, I've barely been able to get ImageMagick working). I dunno, I guess I'm looking for more explanation than I can get from Support and turn this into a 100% positive review for HG on all account types.

[GatorFord]

Thank you for the review. From what I'm reading here it looks like you're basically having issues with ImageMagick and the PHP Extensions for MSSQL, sqlite, and sqlite2, and possibly an issue with mod_security; is that correct? All of these we should be able to get configured for you without issue on a managed server without any associated fees. If you could provide me with a ticket number I should be able to get whatever issues you're having sorted. Thanks.

[keithquinton]

Thank you Ford. Yes, that is correct. Original ticket was GAJ-12600984, although submitted before I was looking into my php configuration and comparing against the reseller account. New Ticket: PGA-12611550.

[GatorFord]

It looks like Jacob has already grabbed your ticket and is working to match the settings requested for you at this time. Please let me know if you don't see resolution to this issue and I or another supervisor will look into it personally. Thanks.

[keithquinton]

A huge goes out to HostGator on this! A new support ticket had a response in the middle of the day within seconds. Afterwards, the server was configured exactly as I had hoped. As usual, HostGator has come to the rescue by means of their amazing support department. My only frustration in all of this was having asked live chat if this is something that could be done, and being told no. I used live chat to get an instant answer as to whether or not I should submit a ticket, instead of chancing sitting idly by my computer waiting for a response to a ticket. While it's frustrating that Live Chat did not provide an accurate answer, HostGator has earned my business time and time again. For this, I remain a loyal customer and thank them for such great customer service and expedient resolution.