HOSTING=> Stuff that you REALLY ought to know !

[Lumos]

I've been using various hosting services since around 1998.
It has been a huge learning experience for me.
I am a webmaster for others via reseller hosting and do not sell any hosting myself.

Many times I've posted different parts of my learnings about this here at BBHF, and now I'm putting lots of that together into a single LONG post;
Also replies at this thread will be seen and answered as and when I have time to spare.

Here's the TL;DR version of all that follows here=>
Hosting and domain reg. are a very live minefield which one MUST navigate with exceptional caution !!

Those with little or no experiences in domain reg. and hosting will have no ideas about just how crooked and rotten so many of the BIG NAME providers can be - and even worse are the IMers who PRETEND to be server ops but are in reality total fakes.

Rules which I adhere to:
- Expensive vs. cheap means NOTHING in the hosting biz;
- 'Free' usually ain't any good and pretty much ALWAYS has pitfalls built-in;
- Domain reg. AND hosting are all about reliability and support - absent any of those they are difficult or even scary, so choosing well for a commercial effort is VERY important !!

Onward now - considering 'free' hosting:

I've used a bunch of free hosting deals before taking up hosting for others, and:
Most have been severe disappointments - especially 000webhost, who will ditch your account for no reason and has ZERO support for free users, so if/when that happens you are just S.O.L. - neither warning nor notification - just...gone, subdomain and all data.
I tried it twice using their subdomains, years apart and it was the same both times.

The most recent and VERY important change in the hosting realm is that cPanel jacked their pricing WAY UP, and there's a bunch of info about this change posted here:

http://bestblackhatforum.com/Thread-Do-y...-right-now

When cPanel exponentially increased their pricing that forced many providers out of business altogether and many others went into using DA instead of it.

An example of when that happened back in July 2019:
There was an offer here for 5 years of cPanel hosting for $47 and 1 domain or $97 and 10 domains or $147 and unlimited domains.
This makes a fine example of what to be careful of...because since cPanel cranked their pricing way up, those prices might not even cover the cPanel licensing alone.

That provider is also ONLY promoted by IMers and had only made 4 threads with offers at WHT since Nov. '19 - so:
They seemed rather fishy and likely also very short lived to my eyes.

Sadly this has been the case by pretty much all the hosting offers made by IMers.

Lots of fake providers have done this - they buy master reseller hosting someplace - get money from a bunch of clients, then pretty soon after that...POOF - gone.

Here is another deal that hasn't even got any way to see how long they've been around as their about and FAQ pages have no real info about them and their visible stats are vacant:
http://bestblackhatforum.com/Thread-Anyb...ing-before

It is for:
https://www.panelsecure.com/us/

Their offer=>
1 Plan = 1 Price = $17 Per Year for 5 domains

Are they any good ??
No way to know unless you spends your money and takes your chances !!

Hosting offers like the above can sometimes be very good...or very bad.

Sometimes even the best providers just dry up and blow away;
One of mine gave ALL its clients notice of under 2 weeks to migrate their data elsewhere as they were simply giving up and shutting down.

It was high class hosting too - and I was with them since their start, for years...and they only gave refunds to folks like myself who paid for years at a time and DEMANDED a refund - they did not offer them up willingly at all - rotten, rotten customer relations of the smelliest sort.

My best hosting advice is always this:
1 - Look at webhostingtalk (dot com) for honestly written reviews;
2 - Don't be too fussy about pricing or what country a provider runs their services from.
3 - Use caution and ask good questions before spending your money.

Webhostingtalk has lots of offers by many providers, but keep in mind that many times hosting providers can just vanish without any warning...

So save yourselves loads of troubles from offers by IMers and just look here as instead:

Code:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=130

Strong advice for when using that site=>
- 100% Ignore the yellow (paid) listings at the tops of pages there, they are never any good;
- Contact any that you consider BEFORE buying in;
- Ask the right questions, like=>
1. How long in business under the same name and domain ??;
2. Where are their servers ??;
3. Do they own their servers 100% ??;
4. What country is their hosting managed from ??;
5. Are discounts for life (recurring) vs. one time only ??.

When I view hosting offers I also very carefully watch for these facts:
- Advertising of 'unlimited space and BW';
(This usually means 'overselling' - which depends upon the load being light enough for the users not to notice lag times...)
- Limited vs. unlimited accounts - this is a VERY important fact to know !!

I've gotten the very best hosting for years from searching at WHT and in point of fact, a truly superb one I'm using for years already has their servers in AZ and is managed from the Philippines.
This one is good enough that I try to promote it to others and have an aff. link for it that I give out upon request.
It is also very nicely priced and when paid yearly comes with a domain reg. included.

I've also had very poor results from high ticket providers vs. having great results with some cheap ones - and much to my surprise, the one I landed on has been terrific despite being run from a different country with servers here.

What actually makes a provider stand out favourably are open communications, great support and true reliability.

It is worthy of note that ANYONE can be a reseller of someone else's reseller hosting and that this is a very common thing to find out... usually belatedly.

Sadly, there are too many inexperienced folks who think they can make good money by getting into providing hosting - but then they find out it is grueling 24/7/365 work with zero relief and not much pay, so=>

The biggest threats with any hosting provider are always the same NO MATTER WHAT IT COSTS:
1 - The provider can just burn out and suddenly decide to shut down, many times without ANY warning or refunds;
2 - Total data loss can occur either per #1 above, or when a pretend provider fakes an attack and then claims they are forced to shutdown, and just tells you...'Gee whiz, very sorry - BYE !!' - and then vanishes without a trace.

Please take into consideration that many users do not know that they can also get 100% locked out of hosting automatically if/when they do things that either cause their IP to get blacklisted, or by violations of the provider's TOU.

All the above is why I do not offer ANY hosting for sale;
Yes - I do always use good reseller hosting ONLY - BUT:
I do not own or operate my own servers - let the provider do that difficult work !!

Here is the reason that I -only- use reseller hosting:
I need good space and BW allotments for multiple domains.

Anyone wanting those NEEDS good reseller hosting - this is a total no-brainer.
Lesser hosting is usually for a ONE domain account - period;
Reseller hosting adds additional access which enables many separate accounts per whatever allotments are bought by you. (Called WHM for cPanel users...)
This is a world of difference !!!

Yes - you can sell hosting - but there are some very good reasons NOT to, especially if one is a newbie to this field and NOT a seasoned server admin.

Supporting hosting users is an endless, tireless task and most who just try to get into it quickly burn out as it REQUIRES 24/7 attentions.

I do have clients - and do tend to their support needs - but I do not do the actual server supporting - that is for the folks who sell the hosting to do - I do end up in the middle whenever there is any little problem, but that is what they pay me for.

Now, for your edutainment, here are some exact examples of bad hosting:

Code:

http://bestblackhatforum.com/Thread-Hosting-deal-with-zero-support

http://bestblackhatforum.com/Thread-50-Lifetime-Recurring-Discount-For-Reseller-SSD-Shared-Hosting

http://bestblackhatforum.com/Thread-5-Years-of-Blazing-fast-web-hosting-for-the-Price-of-One-Year?pid=2980240#pid2980240

http://bestblackhatforum.com/Thread-50-Lifetime-Recurring-Discount-For-Reseller-SSD-Shared-Hosting?pid=2865312

http://bestblackhatforum.com/Thread-X3HOST-Unlimited-SSD-Hosting-Reseller-VPS-Linux-Windows-Starts-from-6-YR

http://bestblackhatforum.com/Thread-3-YEARS-UNLIMITED-WEB-HOSTING-FOR-4-ONETIME-PAYMENT-FOR-TOTAL-3-YEARS?pid=3209254#pid3209254

Another provider selling here at the forum (X3) still has a BSO for some of the least reliable hosting I've ever tested, it has 500 errors endlessly - which they deny despite solid proof from multiple users being posted here.

So here I have posted my thoughts of warning, in hopes that maybe even 1 single member may be spared from pain filled data and earnings losses.

Best Wishes to All !!
.
.

[CanhCam Guy]

With my ten years hosting experience, cheap/ lowcost hostings lead to cheap business and the time you need to take your business to next level become the time you need to fix your hosting's problems!
Cheap hosting really shi.t, longtime/ lifetime cheap hosting really BIG SHI.T, and cheap reseller hosting is the Biggest SHI.T OF YOUR SHI.T LIFE!

[Lumos]

Greetings CanhCam Guy !!

I must respectfully add that as has been said above - when I started out ONLY higher cost hosting was used - and none of them stuck around - the worst of them having been KDisk and Semoweb.

IMO the only thing better than reseller hosting for anyone with multiple domains is either finding a VERY stable VPS provider - getting dedicated hosting - or outright buying your own server to house at a real, good server farm.

Otherwise any provider-based hosting or VPS bought from anyone can fail...and at ANY TIME.
.
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[Lumos]

And so...of course, to prevent work and data losses:
That is what keeping recent backups is best for !!

.
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[osmanal2]

Ah... just found this useful post about the hosting issues. Thank you. Should be more information about the hosting matters, always welcome the new updates or latest development. Thank you again and the reputation given.

[keithoz]

Hi smithnowt,
Thanks for the informative article mate!
I've gotten the very best hosting for years from searching at WHT and in point of fact, a truly superb one I'm using for years already has their servers in AZ and is managed from the Philippines.
This one is good enough that I try to promote it to others and have an aff. link for it that I give out upon request.
It is also very nicely priced and when paid yearly comes with a domain reg. included.

I wonder if you could please send me a link via message?
Thanks :)

[Lumos]

Another suggestion that may be worthy of note:
Mention is made here at BBHF of 'interserver' hosting sometimes...

If you may be considering their offers, I STRONGLY SUGGEST looking their reviews up at Trustpilot BEFORE diving in.
(There are others listed here to which this suggestion also applies...)

Let the buyer beware.

[bhaffiliateman]

This s verey good advice.
I used to resell hosting accounts, you are right they are not woerth the time.

THE VERY WORST HOST IS GO DADDY.
They use very dishonest business practices.
I finally got known I was let into the RESELLER on line Family.
They ALL were revealing some unethical practice that GO DADDY
2 examples are but their are many others.
You decide you want a good domain name. You start using Go Daddy to search for a good domain. You Save these domains in GO DADDY as possible picks. Your close down computer and 3 o4 days later you review the domains I picked and then selected a few more. You finally narrow it down to 3 domains, and think over for a few days. You decide on one domain but when you look it up to order you find out it is SOLD. This is not really true because because big companies are allowed to put on hold your domain. You don't know what happened.

A week later you decide to ask owner if it is for sales.
They answer you with a sales price $1,000. You wright back to them and say it is to expensive.
A couple of days later they wright again and ask if you would pay $850. You say no.
They keep playing this game hoping you will fall for their scam. Eventually they ask for $100.
This is a week before the hold expires and they either let it go or sell it to you.
To novices they assume to be seperate companies. BUT THEY ARE NOT. They are booth ownded by Go Daddy. So when you used their website to search fore a domain,you have eveery right to presume they are ethical BUT THEY ARE NOT.
This is totally unethical. They do not disclose to you that the campanies are the same. THIS IS UNETHICAL AND ALL OTHER RESELLERS KNOW IT. But the ICANN lets them get away with it I complained to iCANN on 10 occasions for domains i wanted and others that my customers wanted.

Sometimes you may find something with an original order. You ask or a refund. They play the game of: they can't authorize it but will call back with his decision. This goes on as long as your patience goes. Their final offer is they will expend your period an extra year, business listings etc. The salesmen make more money if they money even if youare mad.

I have tried 10 times for myself and customers but i never got a refund.

Stay away from GO DADDY.

good luck

[Lumos]

I agree with you 100% Bhaffiliateman - GD is pure suckage now.

Years ago they were better - but it has been a very long time since they changed and are no longer even worth looking at.

[Lumos]

I've got another thread going now that is very related with this topic:
http://bestblackhatforum.com/Thread-Some...I-ve-found

(Data colection is still in progress for that one...)