*NOT IMPRESSED* I just opened a HG account [resolved]

[ickb]

NOT PARTICULARLY IMPRESSED AT THIS TIME
In Pre-Sales Question as I can request for a refund if not satisfied

After reviewing this forum for about 2 months, I opened a HG account.

Opening an HG account and getting a domain name was like any of the other host I've been with. Once you do get an account as was mentioned earlier you do get more access to this forum.

Serra, as you mentioned before Tech Support response faster than your backup company. I opened the account and already using HG support as webmail and email forward doesn't work. In fact when trying to get to the email after creating it, it just goes to the default email. So I will see how fast support can fix the email problem
(Ticket ID: EHF-2431480)..
Presently with a Hatchling account as I've been burned too badly by the vDeck people. I did sign up for 3 years. $15 per domain name is expensive and another $10 for private domain registration so $25 a year is expensive, but with the Valentine Discount.. competitive as my other company. I don't mind paying HG if they can perform. Most of the time, a person can do the private domain registration online. With HG you have to register, the email billing you want Private Registration, Billing emails you back to go to with a ticket to pay again.
http://hostgator.com/billing

I've worked with worse web hosting regarding billing, so this is a minor inconvenience, on top of email not working.. Horde email was not even showing up for webmail created, Squirrel Mail shows up on the screen but can't send/receive, Round Cube email shows the following:
Warning: include_once(config/db.inc.php) [function.include-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /usr/local/cpanel/base/roundcube/program/include/main.inc on line 42

Sales you'll be on hold as I was on hold waiting for 13 people.. ended up that I was on the phone for almost 30minutes to open 1 account, most of the time on hold.

I've been writing so many trouble tickets with the vDeck people, not particularly fond of having to do the same with Hostgator
I know a hosting review company assisting people from the vDeck people to come to Hostgator, but not willing to bet the farm on the move at this point. Hope to have some positive things to say later.

I will update this thread as the Trouble Ticket works it's way through the system. I have no problems saying good things about Hostgator, but can't say anything good at this time

I will update this thread *IF/WHEN* things improve, get worse, no help at all..

[ickb]

*Still Presales* until I decide to keep the Hostgator account

Four hours after getting an auto email saying that Tech 'should be' looking at what's going wrong. If I email support I get stuck at the bottom of the que. I look at forum status and don't see a problem with my server so what is the problem?

I decide to call HG tech support hopefully to get a status report on why 99.9% total uptime is *NOT* working from the time my domain propagated. Presently HG's uptime on my account is 0.0% total uptime, even disappointed with HG as they seem like the vDeck company.

Tech support(Ray) answers in under 1 minute. I'm on hold for 10 minutes to find out what is the status of the trouble ticket. Did the email server crash, get blacklisted, etc. ..my account is only a few hours old?

I am then told it is a minor problem, a technician is working on the problem and it should be fixed within the hour. I'm going to sleep now and will fill you in if HG does tech support better than the vDeck people. Email doesn't work properly if using vDeck3.. one of the main reasons why I'm terminating accounts with the vDeck people. As of this post email doesn't work with Hostgator and never has since my account went active. Both HG and vDeck claim there is a problem with my email. vDeck can't fix the problem.. tomorrow morning I'll see if HG can deliver

[ickb]

Below is what happened when I tried to get my email fixed. However; problems still exist, Round Cube *COMPLETELY DOWN-doesn't work* Intermitted problems with Horde & Squirrel.. can receive mail, but can't send to Hotmail account except when sending to the Tech Support. Tech Support is very patient and they will do the best to help you. JeanKarlo was my tech phone support and really spent time trying to resolve the email problem.

I will try to work with Hostgator until tomorrow afternoon. If the email problem is not solved, I will terminate my account Hostgator . I also hope this post will help others in pre-sales whether HG can solve seemingly simple problems such as email.. while the vDeck3 company, it was not possible

Hello,
The 421 error has been fixed, I do not exect that should be an issue now.

Please check roundcube as this should work as well.

If you still have roundcube issues please reply with the email account and password so we can login and test it directly.
==========
Thank you for choosing HostGator!

Matthew F.
Linux Support and Level 2 Administrator
Our new ticket system is at http://tickets.hostgator.com/

FYI: I have no problem opening a test account even if the domain name makes no sense and not a functional business account; however, all aspects of web hosting be it Hostgator or any other company must pass this preliminary test. If they cannot pass this test, opening more accounts is only inviting more problems. The cost of doing business when transferring clients who have trusted you over the years.

[GatorFord]

My apologies for the issues you've been having. I'm forwarding this now to a tech who will be reviewing and working on this shortly.

If you need a call back at some point just update your ticket with your phone number and one of our admins will be happy to call you to resolve any and all outstanding issues. Thanks!

Hello,

I have replied to your ticket. The forwarder is working, and some more information regarding this is in the ticket. I have re-build roundcube on this server and was able to log in and send/read e-mail without error after this. If you have any further issues, please feel free to let us know.

[ickb]

Thank you GatorFord and GatorMichaelS, I've been testing different aspects of Hostgator including the email. It finally does email to a Hotmail account where formerly, it appeared to be blocked. The account was definitely too new to get 'blacklisted' and with tech phone support we may have sent and received 30 emails in an hour. Until GatorFord and GatorMichaelS stepped in this problem was solved when I started testing the account about 9a PST today(Thursday)

Email does work properly including 'roundcube'. Whatever the email glitche was, it has been fixed at this time. Will continue to monitor a send at least 5 emails a day at different times for email consistancy.

I did try the .htaccess change thinking the php4 and php5 toggles, but it appears that after you toggle to php5, it stays at PHP Version 5.2.5.. which is fine for PHP5 compatible programs; however, it will crash programs that formerly worked with me in a PHP4 environment.

Hostgator does step up to the plate with Tech support when you need them. I'm still in the process of testing HG as it's setup configuration is different than the 3 other hosting companies I presently host with. The vDeck company is completely out of the picture in the next few months.

In the next couple of days, if scripts don't work with php5, I will be rewritting scripts. At 40.41 MB diskspace used and 6.84 bandwidth used, I'll will easily stay below TOS space/bandwidth/CPU, yesterday was a heavy day so now that it appears that some of the major bugs have been resolved , I can work more on productivity using the Hostgator configuration.

The main thing, problems are gettting resolved, while still getting familiarized with the Hostgator server setup. For those migrating to Hostgator.. Hostgator is very easy to use; however, different hosting companies setup their servers differently and it is up to the webmaster to upload websites that are compatible to the Hostgator setup whether you choose php4 or php5. Now that I toggled my account to php5, I will be finding similar programs/scripts that formerly worked with php4 when a re-write doesn't work.

php4 isn't going away overnight and not all programmers are necessarily in a rush to program in php5, so I do see the wisdom in keeping php4 during this transition period. Many of my other accounts with other hosting companies will stay with php4 until forced to make the transition.

[ickb]

There is a time when even testing gets tiring especially when most everything works:-).

So I will be staying with HostGator and testing it for long term usage. It is one thing testing a web host long term and nothing works and testing a web host where nearly everything works.

Thus far I've seen server load go from 0.2 to 18.0+ on the cPanel so even though this may not be 100% accurate, it has not slowed down anything. I do have a host to compare Hostgator and Hostgator is much quicker using phpBB or SMF forums.

There is true 24hr telephone support, email support and this forum. The response is much quicker than with the vDeck people and thus far everyone works together at Hostgator to solving the issues.

Earlier post mentioned if Hostgator would go to a different control panel(cPanel); however, if cPanel works well.. it is well worth the cost as in my personal experience some hosting company insist they create their own control panel, it goes completely out of control and lose your *MOST* faithful customers you had for years(vDeck people are only one of many hosting companies that have this and failed) If Hostgator and so many other successful hosting companies are using cPanel and successful.. "Don't mess with success"

Different web host as mentioned earlier have so many different configurations that it is impossible to tell what will and won't work until you actually use an active account. Still learning the details of Hostgator and this is the first host that I'm trying php5. Thus far most everything works, so at this point everything is in the fine tuning stage regarding Hostgator.

[Serra]

Originally Posted by ickb

Thus far I've seen server load go from 0.2 to 18.0+ on the cPanel so even though this may not be 100% accurate, it has not slowed down anything.

HG monitors for load spikes, but I wouldn't worry about seeing a load of 18. On a shared server you are going to see load spikes simply because you have so many different users at different levels of skill.

The servers are very robust, I'd only worry if you saw the server slowing. If that happens when there is a high load, put in a ticket and some poor schmuck will be suspended for his/her trouble.

[ickb]

Originally Posted by Serra

HG monitors for load spikes, but I wouldn't worry about seeing a load of 18.

The servers are very robust, I'd only worry if you saw the server slowing. If that happens when there is a high load, put in a ticket and some poor schmuck will be suspended for his/her trouble.

Thank you Serra, that is what I like to hear/read as I am really cautious about staying under HG's TOS with CPU/Space/Bandwidth and will go dedicated before anything gets close to HG's TOS. Since you also have HG and LP accounts you can relate to everything I'm talking about.

One thing I was impressed with Hostgator is how Phone Support, Forum Support, Email support coordinated together to get the problem fixed. I signed up for 3 years and I have no problems with this.. if HG can maintain this high level of support. Also if HG rarely has problems with 99.9%+ uptime, of course Tech Support won't get flooded.. so I can let Hostgator focus on the technical aspects of webhosting and I'll just focus on building websites.

[Serra]

Originally Posted by ickb

Thank you Serra, that is what I like to hear/read as I am really cautious about staying under HG's TOS with

As for TOS violations of CPU and memory, just limit cron jobs, and watch your user count. Too many users online at one time isn't a TOS violation, you'll be flagged for maxing out your mysql, but that shows an error, not gets you suspended. (Provided that number of users is in a reasonable range. If you start getting 500 hits a second, your screwed).

Support can really help you understand what your CPU usage really is and sales can give you guidance on when you should move to a dedicated. HG is not know for shoving people needlessly into dedicated servers. (Despite what you might read)

I can honestly say that HG has been really good to me. I've never had extended downtime they didn't handle well. I can't say the same for Lunarpages, I had an ecomm site down for DAYS and a dedicated down for 12 hours waiting for support to fix thing. BOTH were caused by their support's error. One for a change to the shared environment and the other to an unscheduled PHP upgrade. (I like being proactive, but don't upgrade PHP versions without first informing me! My customer called me about the dedi being down and I traced it back to LP's upgrade. My customer was not pleased with them.)

[ickb]

Originally Posted by Serra

I can honestly say that HG has been really good to me. I've never had extended downtime they didn't handle well. I can't say the same for Lunarpages, I had an ecomm site down for DAYS and a dedicated down for 12 hours waiting for support to fix thing. BOTH were caused by their support's error. One for a change to the shared environment and the other to an unscheduled PHP upgrade. (I like being proactive, but don't upgrade PHP versions without first informing me! My customer called me about the dedi being down and I traced it back to LP's upgrade. My customer was not pleased with them.)

My clients usually have less than 500 hits per day.. so even missing 1 hit because a server is down is a 'big deal'. Those who may get 20 hits per day *REALLY* want uptime as losing several hits means not getting information to their clients or potential clients.

I don't use cron jobs, I'm not against those who use cron jobs responsibly that don't violate TOS. At present I have not had a need for cron jobs.

I see "Our servers are limited to 25 concurrent mysql connections." meaning literally 25 concurrent mysql connection(not visitors) while I have no more than 25 visitors. But if these 10-15 visitors have difficulties viewing or posting, this is a problem.

File size upload is a little vague so I've searched this forum and found this link to be the closest regarding FTP file size upload?
http://www.forums.hostgator.com/show...t=ftp+filesize

If I can upload files under 50MG I'm happy, not that I'm going to upload this size of file. The cPanel on the Hatchling plan says 350GB on cPanel upload, but I wouldn't have a Hatchling plan if I was going to upload anything even remotely close to this file size

Mainly I wanted to see if Hostgator Shared web hosting was something I can grow into rather than what I have suffered with vDeck people after 8 years, not even coming close to limits posted on this forum

[GatorWesley]

No need for two threads on this:
http://forums.hostgator.com/showthread.php?p=104503