AffordableHost/DotCanada Callisto Server

Portal Home > Knowledgebase > Articles Database > AffordableHost/DotCanada Callisto Server

Posted by Jamie Harrop, 05-01-2005, 05:02 AM
This is now getting beyond a joke. SMTP on the callisto server, and it seems also the Deimos server, has been down for around 12 hours. I am also not receiving any emails, they are not even reaching the server because they are not appearing in Webmail. Despite this, on http://www.dotcanadastatus.com it says POP is up, when unless it is something wrong with my computer, it isn't up! I have tried submitting two support tickets, one asking about the SMTP and when they expect to have it up again, I didn't receive an email notification of the submitted ticket even though I used a hotmail email account. So, thinking I had not created the ticket correctly, and the fact I had just realised that I wasn't receiving any emails, I tried submitting another ticket, making the POP issue the main issue and also adding that I wasn't sure whether or not my first ticket regarding SMTP had been submitted, I then went on to tell them the SMTP problem just in case they didn't get the first ticket. I made sure this time that I looked for the "Your ticket has successfully been submitted", I found it, but, no notification email to my hotmail account. Is their helpdesk on the callisto or deimos server? Surely not! I can't even check on the status of my ticket because I don't have a ticket key because you only get that in the notification email. I try typing in my email address to the "Forgotten Key" field, I receive an email to my hotmail account with details from a ticket that I submitted around 2 weeks ago, this makes me think those two tickets I just tried submitting didn't even work. Would somebody from DotCanada/AffordableHost please tell us what is going on. May the next month come swiftly when I am moving elsewhere.
Posted by Jamie Harrop, 05-01-2005, 05:13 AM
It seems the Deimos SMTP is off and on every couple of minutes, but is certainly far from stable.
Posted by Jamie Harrop, 05-01-2005, 06:34 AM
I have finally managed to get a support ticket through to them. I used a different email address, I still didn't receive a confirmation email, I entered my email address in to the "Forgotten Key" field and it sent me the required details so I could check the ticket status. It is set to priority 'urgent' and contains information regarding the SMTP and POP problems. If none of the AH/DotCanada staff update us here, I'll do it myself.
Posted by Jamie Harrop, 05-01-2005, 08:50 AM
Well, two hours after submitting a ticket noted as 'Urgent' priority, the highest priority possible, there has been no response.
Posted by cdnmama, 05-01-2005, 10:59 AM
Hi innovationhosting....I'm having the same problem as you. SMTP has been down for hours....can't send or receive. Mails are not on the server either. I sent in a ticket over 14 hours ago and have received no reply. Ever since dotcanada took over, there are no confirmation mails when opening a ticket. When I made a comment about this in a previous ticket and it was ignored. One of my clients cannot send to AOL addresses, they all bounce. That's what the previous ticket is about. I'm about ready to move to a new host as well!
Posted by Jamie Harrop, 05-01-2005, 11:33 AM
Well thank you very much cdnmama for confirming that it isn't just my computer. I was getting a little worried there for a moment. Now over 5 hours and still a ticket set to 'Urgent' hasn't been answered.
Posted by cdnmama, 05-01-2005, 11:49 AM
You're welcome Jamie. It would be nice to hear something back from them instead of waiting hours and hours. Hopefully they are working on it. Deb
Posted by cliffw, 05-01-2005, 11:58 AM
Thanks for the information and updates. I, too, am relieved to know that I am not alone. But it has been far longer than 5 hours. I submitted a ticket last night! cliff
Posted by JenniH, 05-01-2005, 04:26 PM
All I can do is confirm that it is a server specific issue, because our AH sites are still up. But certainly, it gives plenty of scope for worry, in view of the recent takeover. PLENTY of scope. If and when the new owners actually bother to respond, could someone post? This is indeed a rather LOUD alarm bell with respect to the future!
Posted by Ogg, 05-01-2005, 04:30 PM
I have a few sites hosted on callisto and last night MySQL was pretty much dead. They fixed that up but then I find out that e-mail is down. E-mail has been down since last night, I sent in a ticket at 1am in the morning and haven't received an answer at all. This is pretty bad since we host a fairly large forum, that's around 20-40 new members unable to register now. I'm quite upset with the service at current.
Posted by Jamie Harrop, 05-01-2005, 07:39 PM
If this is not resolved by the time I wake up, and I haven't had a response to my ticket or live help is not running, I will first try phoning their support helpline, if that fails I am going straight to the source, I will be sending a Fax to Richard.
Posted by cdnmama, 05-01-2005, 10:10 PM
I've been offline for 2 hours and just came back to find that Callisto SMTP seems to be working again according to their server status page http://status.webhosthelpdesk.com Although sending mail is working, at least for me, receiving mails is not working....they are just lost! Richard's WHT username is Lightspeed in case you're interested. It's too bad they took down their live help....again Deb
Posted by okok, 05-02-2005, 01:37 AM
I began to receive some e-mail, but it seems that all of yesterday's e-mail is lost. The few messages I did receive were recent. I just tried to send myself e-mail from some other account and so far didn't receive it.
Posted by gkong, 05-02-2005, 01:46 AM
I'm on the same server and experiencing the same problem too. It's just troublesome from Hometownhosting to Affordablehost to dotCanada, and I don't think they can stay independent much longer. And how can I company this size cannot solve E-Mail problems ontime and not responding to customer's trouble tickets?
Posted by Jamie Harrop, 05-02-2005, 04:49 AM
It seems things are running smoothly now. I seem to be getting "SMTP service unavailable [421 Too many concurrent SMTP connections; please try again later.]" I am not sure whether this is just my computer though. Could somebody confirm to me as to whether or not SMTP is working?
Posted by Jamie Harrop, 05-02-2005, 05:23 AM
It seems to be working when sending through webmail.
Posted by okok, 05-02-2005, 09:24 AM
From time to time I am getting warning messages about undeliverable test messages I sent myself yesterday, when I first noticed the promlem. This is a good thing, because it means some of those who have e-mailed me and others may finally have some indication that their messages were not delivered, and now they know they should perhaps try again or use some alternative addresses... I am still amazed by the outrageous way dotcanada.com has (not) been handling this problem. My support tickets from yesterday remains unanswered, and there was of course no other message from them since the problem began some 24 or so hours ago.
Posted by cdnmama, 05-02-2005, 09:47 AM
For me, sending mail has been working for about 12 hours. As for receiving mails, it looks like the mail queue is still backed up but the mails do seem to be slowly arriving. My client received over 80 mails this morning which had been sent to her over the weekend. I'm amazed there are still customers who have not heard from dotcanada. I got a reply to my ticket for this email problem about 9 hours ago....and after only 28 hours. okok....a few of my test mails were returned over the weekend as well. I just hope everyone didn't lose too much mail over this latest problem with Callisto. Deb
Posted by Ogg, 05-02-2005, 09:37 PM
PHP's mail function is working too now I believe. It took them a lot longer than I would've expected though.
Posted by Jadire, 05-22-2005, 12:37 PM
Like most of you I am extremely annoyed with the service from dotCanada (or should I say lack of service?). I was originally a customer of HomeTownHosting, then as you know they were bought out by Affordable Host and now dotCanada. I must say that customer service from both HTH and AH was far superior to other hosts I've dealt with which is probably why I'm so annoyed that service has gone downhill so fast to the point that there is no service at all with dotCanada. I'm also not thrilled with their reseller hosting plan. You get 50% off after you create a second account with them. HTH was so much better. I was willing to give them a try though but after constant downtimes with email (I host 6 domains of my own on the callisto server) both with receiving and sending and not getting answers to urgent support tickets I finally said enough and switched to another host last night. Customer service at the new host is like being back at HTH / AH, replies to support tickets are received within a few minutes and that to me is more important than price. Take care Jadire
Posted by Ogg, 05-29-2005, 01:58 AM
Callisto is completely down now.
Posted by gkong, 05-29-2005, 04:01 AM
Confirmed Callisto is down by two different locations. 1 3 ms 3 ms 3 ms * 2 5 ms 4 ms 6 ms * 3 5 ms 4 ms 2 ms * 4 * * * Request timed out. 5 * * * Request timed out. 6 3 ms 3 ms 3 ms ge-1-1-0.a01.newthk01.hk.ra.verio.net [203.131.2 40.229] 7 4 ms 4 ms 3 ms ge-0-0-0.r01.newthk01.hk.bb.verio.net [203.131.2 40.92] 8 57 ms 56 ms 56 ms p4-0-3-0.r01.tokyjp01.jp.bb.verio.net [129.250.3 .57] 9 72 ms 72 ms 85 ms ge-7-0-2.r21.tokyjp01.jp.bb.verio.net [129.250.3 .181] 10 185 ms 185 ms 185 ms p16-1-1-1.r21.mlpsca01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250. 4.153] 11 178 ms 178 ms 178 ms p64-0-0-0.r21.plalca01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250. 5.48] 12 187 ms 187 ms 186 ms xe-0-2-0.r20.plalca01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250.4 .230] 13 173 ms 173 ms 172 ms 129.250.9.186 14 173 ms 173 ms 173 ms 12.122.80.65 15 227 ms 230 ms 225 ms tbr1-cl2.sl9mo.ip.att.net [12.122.10.41] 16 233 ms 232 ms 233 ms tbr1-cl4.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.10.29] 17 233 ms 233 ms 233 ms gar1-p300.ascva.ip.att.net [12.123.8.49] 18 * * * Request timed out.
Posted by Tina J, 05-29-2005, 07:47 AM
Yes, if you read their announcement - it does confirm that the server was taken offline by the upstream. --Tina
Posted by saghir69, 05-29-2005, 08:59 AM
Hi is anyone here a customer of affordablehost ? my sites are down for about 5 hours plus, i just wana know that its just not my sites. i submitted a ticket an hour back, still waiting for feed back. my sites are hosted on clipsaw or something like that.
Posted by Tina J, 05-29-2005, 09:07 AM
They posted a note about this in their Announcements area. Go to their website, click on Members Area and then Announcements. --Tina
Posted by richardhay, 05-29-2005, 10:40 AM
From the AH ticket: ----------------------------- May 29, 2005 - 3:00 AM EST Fortunately, we had a server on standby, and our technicians are working to get the accounts transferred over to the new box as quickly as possible. The new server name is Laurier, and if you have a recent back-up, and would like to have restore your back-up to the server, open a support ticket with your username and password, and our technicians will re-create your account so you can upload immediately. -----------------------
Posted by eldawg, 05-29-2005, 11:38 AM
The announcement can be found here - http://www.webhosthelpdesk.com/?_a=a...=details&_i=57 IMO, its not very clear whether they are actively moving accounts to a new data center.
Posted by mr_wuss, 05-29-2005, 01:14 PM
great, while I was waiting to find a better host, AH killed the server I was hosted on.... I am so excited.
Posted by mr_wuss, 05-29-2005, 01:18 PM
Tina, tell me this breaks the no compete so I can move back to a host owner I trust.
Posted by eldawg, 05-29-2005, 01:22 PM
Looks like the server is back. My sites seem to have now moved to a server at Theplanet.com.
Posted by 123 Logo Design, 05-29-2005, 01:26 PM
affordablehost has aparently been took over by a different set of people. Theyve suspended my account 3 times in total in the last 3 days without any warning. Also judging by their helpdesk FAQ's top 2 most asked as 'How Do I Cancel My Account?' and 'Do you offer a money back guarentee?' says it all really.
Posted by Jamie Harrop, 05-29-2005, 01:27 PM
eldawg, it seems like you are one of the lucky ones. I have been speaking with the techs and they say that many accounts are coming online at the moment.
Posted by 123 Logo Design, 05-29-2005, 01:31 PM
Are the techs replying to you? I sent a message to them over 5 hours ago with no reply?
Posted by Jamie Harrop, 05-29-2005, 01:47 PM
Yes I have had replies Skize. Are your tickets regarding the issues with callisto, if not, that may be the reason. Obviously they are having to deal with the current issues on the callisto server. Bare with them.
Posted by DediZoneSales, 05-29-2005, 01:58 PM
As long as the support is responsive, that means they havent dissapeared and probably just sorting out their problems
Posted by eldawg, 05-29-2005, 03:12 PM
I got a quick response from them and my sites were on Callisto.
Posted by mr_wuss, 05-29-2005, 03:18 PM
My site is up.... http://rigormortis.us/ and borked.
Posted by Ogg, 05-29-2005, 08:19 PM
She's been down the majority of a day now, here's hoping for a quick resolve.
Posted by Bruin03, 05-30-2005, 01:37 AM
My site hosted with them has been down for over 12 hours!
Posted by Bruin03, 05-30-2005, 01:44 AM
Its May 30, 2005 01:38 AM EST and still no site!
Posted by WireNine, 05-30-2005, 01:48 AM
Are you unable to contact their support?
Posted by o-dog, 05-30-2005, 06:29 AM
Any one with affordablehost? They have recently been taken over by dotcanda.com. Have had a major issue with a server and it has been taken offline. No eta on a fix, i appreciate there are a lot of accounts to transfer, but my question is how long do full server transfers take on average? My clients sites have been down for nearly 2 days now, its gunna hit the fan tommorow with them and they are gunna go nuts. affordablehost have been pretty good up till now and i wont leave them cos of this, however if it goes on too much longer i may have to consider other options. anyone else on the same server as me? chris
Posted by cywkevin, 05-30-2005, 06:50 AM
There is no average time really. Could take an hour or a few days. Of course it doesn't matter all too much since it has to be done. I think you should move now sooner than later. Seems the general consensus is that dotcanada cannot get the job done. I wish they would make an effort to fix the problem as seeing all the dotcanada sucks post makes me sad.
Posted by o-dog, 05-30-2005, 07:06 AM
To be honest, there havent been too many problems uptill now, occasional server outage for a few mins here and there but i appreciate that is to be expected for shared hosting. So uptill now very pleased... at the moment pulling my hair out because clients are gunna start going nuts shortly
Posted by richardhay, 05-30-2005, 08:11 AM
From their support: "We are currently attempting to copy the live data from all client accounts on the callisto server to our new laurier server and will also be updating our centralized DNS system to reflect the new IP address for the accounts. Our staff will be updating the announcement for this issue with all new developments. We are forcasting a 24 - 40 hour recovery, but many accounts are coming back online as we speak."
Posted by saghir69, 05-30-2005, 08:17 AM
some of my sites are up, but the databases are not working so non of the sites are working.
Posted by o-dog, 05-30-2005, 09:43 AM
all my sites are completely knackered. i did have dns servers as alias (eg ns1.mydomain.com) and it is completely screwed now dns wont even resolve tech support not giving an eta on fix either, infact their responses are very sporadic. gunna get my *** chewed out by my customers soon been down for nearly 2 days now
Posted by o-dog, 05-30-2005, 10:02 AM
i can contact my nameservers (the shared ones anyways) through its alias, but the dns server itself certianly isnt responding to www request, it fails. can i just check with other peeps here, my dns servers are set as: primary ns = 12.164.25.254 secondary ns = 63.247.129.29
Posted by Bruin03, 05-30-2005, 11:22 AM
I'm yet to get a response to my ticket.
Posted by Bruin03, 05-30-2005, 11:26 AM
Update: My site is now back up but utterly useless because my databases are not working.
Posted by Bruin03, 05-30-2005, 11:46 AM
Databases are there but they are empty (they are missing tables and tabledata!)
Posted by aodat2, 05-30-2005, 12:12 PM
o-dog: My advice and I'm sure it's gonna be a lot of people's advice along with it... STAY AWAY FROM DOTCANADA. They have been having problem since day 1 they took over AffordableHost. Think about it... Paying them to stress over things like that? I'd be more than willing to accept you as my client and give you that headache... (just take your money and do nothing). I'm sure it's not only me who would be willing to accept you as their clients too and giving you a BIG headache and taking your money along with it. It's kinda pathetic and stupid to actually say I'd stay with them since I've already been with them for some time and if they die, I die along with them. If you're unable to move your clients out, then I'd understand, but if you could, why are you trying to torture yourself? I'm not trying to say anything bad about DOTCANADA but if their service is that bad, why, WHY in hell are you still with them? Because they gave you a good service previously? That's a lame excuse. Good Luck!
Posted by o-dog, 05-30-2005, 12:52 PM
they have been ok uptill now. i am lookign at my options now, they have caused me A MAJOR HEADACHE
Posted by saghir69, 05-30-2005, 03:48 PM
^ yeah same thing with my sites
Posted by Jamie Harrop, 05-30-2005, 04:37 PM
I have been told that all databases and I assume tables will be restored. I presume the 24-40 hour deadline covers this also. Hopefully by this time tomorrow everything will be done, *hopefully*
Posted by saghir69, 05-30-2005, 05:29 PM
yeah i really hope so! its really hurting me pretty bad! i guess thats a lesson for me for future! never put all your eggs in one basket!
Posted by bqinternet, 05-30-2005, 06:39 PM
To be expected? Any type of outage should be very, very rare (like once a year for a few minutes) with any provider that knows what they're doing.
Posted by Bruin03, 05-30-2005, 08:10 PM
Told by whom? I assume you are a fellow customer of dotcanada? Gosh...it's like they're taking their sweet time while our businesses suffer. Something is truly wrong here.
Posted by Bandit-X, 05-30-2005, 08:27 PM
here is a reply i got about the mysql databases today, "The databases are being transferred for all accounts and should be active today. The process is moving a little slower than expected for the databases, however our staff are monitoring each transfer to ensure it completes. If we run into any delays I will make sure the announcement is updated for the callisto-laurier issue. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to ask. Thanks, Jeff "
Posted by Ogg, 05-30-2005, 11:11 PM
I can't seem to get on the helpdesk now... Two of my domains are back up, one fully operational, the other just directories. My main site (which has over 100 daily posters and 1000 readers a day) isn't even there yet. edit: helpdesk is back up. Last edited by Ogg; 05-30-2005 at 11:17 PM.
Posted by Jamie Harrop, 05-31-2005, 04:53 AM
Things seem to be in order now. I have one database that is still not correct, this is my personal site so it isn't my main concern at the moment. However, it doesn't seem like they have a shared SSL avaliable for the new server yet, I have a few clients using it so at the moment things on their Websites are a little messy.
Posted by saghir69, 05-31-2005, 05:25 AM
I still have 3 sites down, and they are important sites too. 2 + days of down time, i never thought it would happen to me!
Posted by Ogg, 05-31-2005, 12:45 PM
My 2 main sites are still down too .
Posted by saghir69, 05-31-2005, 02:36 PM
I've logged a ticket with them since morning, and still there is no response. and you lot can't even imagine the kind of word i want to use for them!
Posted by Ogg, 05-31-2005, 10:21 PM
I think they've forgotten me. One of our websites is back up (but that one only had a picture that said coming soon and my e-mail address) while the other one just shows 2 directories. Our main site is completely dead and not even resolving. I'd assume they'd be top notch as Costco Canada offers them as hosting for their members... Looks like I'm not going to shop at Costco anymore, heh.
Posted by Bruin03, 06-01-2005, 03:16 AM
Mine is still down as well. I placed a ticket over 48 hours ago and I'm yet to hear anything
Posted by Sensory, 06-01-2005, 03:22 PM
I'm with them too. A few days ago all the tables in my databases disappeared, then they returned, but I couldn't access any webmail or any backups or databases (the pages just wouldn't work). Now my databases have disppeared completely and I still can't access my webmail. As soon as things get back to normal (if ever), I'm backing up and moving out. Things were great when it was just HTH, but things have seriously slipped. This is by far not the first time I've had missing databases.
Posted by peynir, 06-01-2005, 05:15 PM
Same here. All my sites went down 48 hours ago and counting...... mysql, email were gone.....but, just about every month, this sort of things happens again and again.
Posted by Ogg, 06-01-2005, 06:07 PM
I want my files back.
Posted by saghir69, 06-01-2005, 06:30 PM
Ogg i know how you feel! i bet a ape could run a better hosting company then these lot!
Posted by Ogg, 06-01-2005, 08:16 PM
They weren't that bad until something actually happened. Now they have the nerve to not even respond to my helpdesk ticket. I tried calling both of their phonenumbers but nobody answered. 1-888-886-4678 (just something about pressing 1 if you're the system admin) 1-866-319-4678 ("We are experiencing a high amount of calls...") At least they were responding before but now they're just ignoring me.
Posted by Bruin03, 06-01-2005, 11:04 PM
I want my files back too!
Posted by okok, 06-02-2005, 01:57 AM
I am truly surprised that some customers have stayed with them for so long with all their technical problems and total lack of customer support. It took me days since the problems began, shortly after the sale, to move away, and of course I am very glad I did that.
Posted by saghir69, 06-02-2005, 02:15 AM
yeah you are lucky.
Posted by Bruin03, 06-02-2005, 12:19 PM
WTHeck? My ticket has been deleted and I've received no response!
Posted by saghir69, 06-02-2005, 12:20 PM
i'll only say 1 word "Move"
Posted by Ogg, 06-02-2005, 07:14 PM
I think they should be reported to the Better Business Bureau of Canada.
Posted by mickey222, 06-03-2005, 05:59 AM
I was also practicing serious problems on Charon. (Somebody informed me Charon adn Deimos are the same server! Is anybodyelse knowing anything about? Thanks). SMTP, emails and Webmail and CP not working. What a mess!.. Now..after several days..seems that CP is working and emails, too. Have to check better
Posted by mickey222, 06-03-2005, 06:03 AM
and?... what would be the result?
Posted by saghir69, 06-03-2005, 06:10 AM
well i've got all my sites back up properly today. took them a week!
Posted by mickey222, 06-03-2005, 07:07 PM
..... [edit] Last edited by mickey222; 06-03-2005 at 07:16 PM.
Posted by mickey222, 06-03-2005, 07:09 PM
Wow! thaaat "fast"! Last edited by mickey222; 06-03-2005 at 07:18 PM.
Posted by mickey222, 06-03-2005, 07:11 PM
. Yeah, really far from stable. I m on Charon. Charon I say... Where's the connection with Deimos? BUT... did you know that Charon and Deimos are the same server ?! If yes...why then they re indicated like different servers here (servername): http://www.affordablehost.com/login.html
Posted by Tina J, 06-04-2005, 09:38 AM
Charon was combined with Deimos months ago, when we owned AffordableHOST. We set it up so that charon.affordablehost.com still worked/resolved on Deimos, because even though we sent out a mailing...alot of customers (like you) will either miss or not read it. So, basically, its listed as 2 different servers so that when you go to log in you don't go "AHHHHHHHHHHHHH WHERE'S CHARON?!?!?". As for anything after April 19th, 2005...I have no clue, since that's the date dotCanada took over. --Tina