Comments

BrinkOfFeedom.net Down, Joe Knows and is Working on It — 41 Comments

  1. Bluehost did the same thing to me – shutting down my e-mail account (and suspending my websites!) multiple times with no advance warning and no apologies. Each time they insisted they were ‘right’ to shut me down without warning – including blocking my control panel access and shutting down websites which had nothing to do with my e-mail volume.

    I have had great service using over 3x the e-mail volume with HostMonster, so far, but I cannot say that I have had heavy website traffic.

    • Yes, Square Space. You cannot bring down one of their sites go ahead and try. Also, I think their website design tools are superior to WordPress.

      • I would never use any host that controls what I can and can’t do with the space. If I am forced to use their “design tools” no way. While I like WP-Engine specializes in Word Press the fact that you can’t do other things rules them out for me as well, especially at their price.

  2. This is a major bummer to hear. I signed up with them on Jack’s endorsement. If you guys find a new company I’ll switch for sure.

    I should note that Hostmonster and blue host are owned by the same parent company, EIG.

  3. Please keep the updates coming, we just opened an account and are in the process of building our site. Not something we wanted to hear.

  4. I havnt heard of one host yet that wont screw you over with the “unlimited” account. This is to bad. Just this month I transferred two businesses over to host gator and last month my own sites.

    • Everything regarding internet/data that says “unlimited” I would have reservations about. More and more every bit of content is being lifted from existing infrastructure and being put onto the internet pathways. Turns out running servers to run the world with dwindling cheap energy (to both power and cool) isn’t as cheap or profitable as people thought it might be.

      • Certainly not Joe or I expect unlimited to be truly unlimited but the threshold between what is over the top and what isn’t must have drastically fallen. When HG did this to me, I was pissed but understood I was pulling down 3.5 TB a month at the time. We worked it out, I went to a temporary VPS and then moved to a better suited dedicated host.

        I was mad about the no notice but understood the drain on resources I was causing. I was upset because I had contacted them several times about it and they said there was nothing to worry about then at 8PM on a Friday, off it goes, this is when my income was now 100% dependent on TSP!

        The problem here with Joe’s issue is the traffic load wasn’t that big. I think some may have to do with how many WP processes Joe is running but still. A few thousand visits should not trigger an unnotified shut down, further it is nothing like what I caused to happen three years ago. HG has gone down hill, time to find a new host as this level to recommend to my listeners.

        • Yeah I definitely think the lack of notice is pretty piss poor.
          I could also see throttling the processes with a notice to fix the problem (or the service would be temporarily shut down).

          Pretty much what I’m guessing (from my perspective) is they have various algorithms running that determine the history and breadth of your website and if it goes “completely out of whack” (to the algorithms personal specs) it would shut it down. (No human involved, just robots always on the look out). It wouldn’t surprise me if its used for preventing Denial Of Service Attacks.

  5. ANYONE who has decent traffic should read this post by Yoast. Yoast is an International WordPress expert and he knows and recommends only a few hosts for the very reasons Hostgator has also lost my business previously due to their “lip service” to customer service. I have no idea why the Feds aren’t all over these hosting companies for false advertising. Unlimited? My @#$.

    http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-hosting/

    • I am also a fan of Yoast and will give the article a look. Thank you Paula. As far as Feds getting involved that is the last thing I want. I say we let the market speak for itself.

      • I hear ya. I even thought the same thing as I typed it, but really if that isn’t false advertising and the type of thing the FTC is there for, then why do they exist ( a rhetorical question) πŸ™‚ Sigh, I kinda think I was born way past my time… these days things make less sense than ever. So glad your site was back up and I was able to read your excellent article.

    • Paula, I was thinking websynthesis too. It is a webhost optimized for wordpress owned by copyblogger. I’ve not used them yet but they are on my list of places to check out along with wpengine. wpengine simply charges an extra $1 for 1000 extra visitors, etc. I don’t know websynthesis policy.

      Both are pricier and easier to do once your site is making a profit. WordPress only is an issue if you want to do more things on the same host.

      I had issues with another host. Didn’t seem to be enough traffic to justify shutting it down. Plugins are cool, some wordpress plugins really use a lot of database processing, even with a small amount of traffic. A shared site can be shut down for using more than its “share” (unlimited?) of resources due to resource hungry plugins. This could be the issue.

      I don’t know of a shared hosting in hostgator’s basic price range which doesn’t simply shut you down if you are one of the sites pulling more resources when their shared server gets overloaded.

      I would not use godaddy for hosting. I even know a webdeveloper who doubles their rates if their client is on godaddy. And yes, they will suspend your site if it uses more than its “share” of resources.

      Another option is to use a good caching plugin and optimize your wp site for less of a load on the server until ready to more to a pricier, better server. There is even a plugin which will let you know what kind of a load various plugins are putting on your site.

      • I agree with everything you say. I have used many hosting companies over the last 15 years and can honestly say the most do not have a clue or a plan to deal with the extra resources that some WP installations take. Even a good caching plugin may not stop the wrath of a shutdown incident because the site “trips” a notification in the hosting company.

        That is why I am with Westhost.com now. I will upgrade if/when necessary πŸ™‚ Hostgator is seriously (and Bluehost owned by the same company) a dangerous choice if your site depends on being up for promotions especially. Many people who click through and can’t get the page, never come back. Especially if it is a first time visitor.

        I manage WhiteboardVideoSells.com, and it is on Bluehost (same company as Hostgator) right now, but it is the last site I have to move. It doesn’t get big boosts of traffic at the same time, but if you ever do get referenced by anyone online (especially Jack πŸ™‚ you probably can’t rely on Hostgator or Bluehost type hosting companies and seriously they are better than many others. That is why I think the Yoast recommendations are seriously worth considering. One bad incident can wreck your business, day, week… why bother once you know better… ha πŸ™‚

  6. Hostgator and Bluehost are pretty much the same company (umbrella company).

    If you find someone let me know as they have been pissing me off lately (10 sec database calls when I KNOW DAMN WELL ITS NOT MY CODE since it hasn’t changed and it works in < 2 seconds before)

    That or we could do some kind of class action against them for their "unlimited" claim.

  7. Well they got the issue resolved… 4 hours later they determined we are okay. The big bummer was that they did not notify us that they would be shutting down the site. They just did it and then sent a notification.
    I was happy with them with most everything else. I can understand if there was a constant leap in traffic that required a dedicated server. Just let me know you would like it moved over and I can work with that. Don’t just shut me down in the middle of the day without notice!
    At any rate, we have moved to our new temp home on the TSP server until we find a host we can trust. The site will be up just as soon as the DNS information updates. Shouldn’t be more than 16 hours.
    I have been looking into http://wpengine.com/
    They are a startup but look like they have their stuff together. The only issue I see is if we decide to use something besides WordPress for something. I will talk to them and see if they are strict on WP only. WP-Engine was created by some of the actual creators of WordPress and they have a very good reputation so far. The only issue… fairly expensive. We are not receiving any profit from Brink of Freedom at this point and it is a bit of a stretch to spend that kind of cash for their hosting. Not yet at least.
    Let me know if you have heard of or have personal experience with http://wpengine.com/

  8. I support a word press site on rochenhost.com for the past 4 years, very proactive and communicate issues before I knew we had one. They are worth a look.

  9. Josiah. I’m working with a client now that’s using wpengine. They are to my understanding only wordpress (can’t even host a separate forum). The one really cool feature is the staging site which lets you tweak your site on a copy and then copy it over to production.

    (also still down at 5:51 AM GMT -7)

  10. I only have 10’s of users per day so my experience doesn’t relate to yours. However I’ve used Go Daddy for several years now and haven’t had a problem. I agree with Jack’s comments that their cpanel isn’t very intuitive, but I’ve always been able to find my way around with a little effort.

  11. One more thing, Jack I’m willing you have you mention my site on the air and see if Go Daddy will shut down my “unlimited bandwidth” account. Of course I only make this offer for the good of the community, not to increase traffic to my site πŸ˜‰

  12. Jack, I was just thinking about sending you an email to see what hosting service you use or you recommend for my site I am going to be publishing soon. I will be looking for your recommendation. Thanks in advance.

  13. I’m running my own VPS with myhosting.com. Just got my own mail server and wordpress engine up and going. But if you guys don’t have (or desire to be) a linux guy I could see that being a stumbling block. Didn’t take me but 10 minutes (supposed to only be 5 but i had some permissions in mysql hiccups) to install wordpress, and soon I’ll have my own blog site up.

    Can’t speak anything about their service though. They had the best price (Better than hostgator) and as far as I can tell they’re the best rated provider with the best prices.

  14. In the past, I’ve had tremendous success with Dreamhost. I am a Linux sysadmin as my full time job so I like to have a lot of flexibility and control when it comes to hosting. I’ve tried 1&1, Go Daddy and a few others but I’ve never found a host as flexible as Dreamhost. Plus, they are just a great bunch of guys. I recommend reading a couple of their monthly newsletters to get a feel for the type of company they are. That said, these days I like to have my own dedicated server (even if it is virtual) so I have moved everything to Amazon AWS. I’ve also heard great things about Linode from my Linux admin coworkers. These solutions require that you are comfortable installing the OS, setting up the web server, etc. But they can’t really be beat with regards to flexibility and self reliance. You don’t have to worry about sharing your server with others and hey, if it is good enough for NetFlix… πŸ™‚

    • I have a Dreamhost horror story with a site that did not get much traffic. I moved on. I have tried most every so called great hosting company and eventually that is why I listened to Yoast.

      If I was starting all over with what I know now, I would go with a more expensive host, because when you make money with a site (or want to) the host you choose can make the determination of whether you do make it or not.

      The difference between $12..95 and $35 or more per month seems like a lot, until you realize that the difference in revenue is ten times more if your site can respond to a traffic spike caused by a mention on Jack’s site or Digg.com. The question becomes will you grow from the traffic or be invisible.

      I don’t have a particular recommendation except to really understand how the choice can affect the results you seek. Ugh.

  15. In my experience dreamhost is horrible. They throttle you at about 5000 pageviews a month on their unlimited plan unless you buy their VPS

  16. Well since brink of freedom is backed up. Check out the lowwattliving group. We need more discussion on different ways for backup battery power.

  17. I use SiteSell.com and I have never had a hosting problem with them… ever. I know that is hard to believe, but it is true.

    Even though they do have an extensive set of very valuable tools and templates you do not have to use them, you can have direct access to the database through what they call a XML it module, which makes it easy to upload your stuff to the server.

    Now, I do not use the XML it module because I use the Block builder tools which is the finest WYSIWYG editor available. But many of the bigger websites hosted on SBI do. They are accustomed to high traffic websites and are set up to handle them.

    http://compare.sitesell.com/

    I would highly recommend them to anyone especially newbies.

    I have been using them since 2010, when I started I barely knew how to use email, much less build a website. Jack, the education I got from them in the first six months allowed me to go from a complete novice to applying for and getting the job as a Guide on About.com. Guides are basically niche focused webmasters who build, maintain, and provide content for “guide sites” within the HUGE NY times website About.com.

    Six months after that my own website was doing so well that I ditched the job at about.com. Now I am trying not to toot my own horn…. I really could not have done this without SBI.

    I only tell you all this because you seem to have a passion to help “newbies” and little guys be successful on the web. I am certain that directing folks to SBI will help you accomplish the goals you have with 5 minutes with Jack. I have listened to all your podcasts over there and everything you teach there is taught at SBI plus a whole lot more.

    On top of that they have the tools necessary to succeed. I really encourage you to check them out. There is much more I could say about them, but I’m afraid I have things to do.

    Let me leave you with one final thing. There are two things that I credit with helping me to be truly free. One of them is this podcast, in teaching me to think like a free man. The other is SBI in teaching how to be a financially free man.

  18. I’ve been with Hostito for 4 years now – granted I have a tiny, tiny audience but so far I’ve had no problem with their customer service. πŸ™‚

  19. I’ll throw my hat in for InMotion Hosting too. They’ve done very good by me over the years. If you need .asp/.aspx code support, look to Arvixe as another competent provider.

  20. asmallorange.com – I have a lifetime account thru them which i got thru drak.net before they were bought by A Small Orange. I’ve had no problems with them before or after the changeover.