i-websolutions.co.uk

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Posted by Cobblers, 12-16-2007, 01:13 PM
Has anyone heard of this shower of cretins? Me and several others were stupid enough to take their reseller package which up to now has been flakey at best with unexplained downtimes, users constantly being blocked on their firewall and poor support. Unfortunately nobody has been able to contact anyone there for weeks and one of the main servers has been down now for 2 days. If they've gone bust or can no longer be bothered, what are the chances of me getting whoever they colocate the box with to offer us some uptime so we can retrieve our data? Thanks
Posted by iHubNet-Matt, 12-16-2007, 03:34 PM
If things are going like that I guess it's better to think about moving. No response for weeks is really too bad. Do you have complete backups? Howmany accounts do you have with them?
Posted by PremiumHost, 12-16-2007, 06:54 PM
Did you contact them via email and forum post? Their website layout doesn't look good in firefox.
Posted by Cobblers, 12-16-2007, 06:56 PM
Yeah we have backups of all the sites, we started off with 40 or 50 accounts on the server but gradually narrowed them down to around 10, unfortunately what we don't have are the SQL backups as they managed to break my backup scripts for me and never managed to get it fixed prior to the events of this weekend.
Posted by Cobblers, 12-16-2007, 06:59 PM
We've tried by phone (but the 'owner' changed his mobile number), email (tracked with msgtag, none were read or msgtag was blocked), their own forum (which they're ignoring) and support tickets (which are also ignored). I also contacted vooservers who host one or more of their boxes and even though they're reluctant to give me any info (which under the DPA is fair enough) they did say they'd tried to contact them too with no success.
Posted by PremiumHost, 12-16-2007, 07:14 PM
That seems to be a serious issue. Hopefully they still pay the server fee next month. What i can think of is asking vooservers to check server status and reboot server. When the server is up, try to backup all databases and run away.
Posted by Cobblers, 12-16-2007, 07:21 PM
Vooservers have been pretty helpful and are still trying to contact them, I can't really expect them to reboot (or switch on) the server until I know what position i-websolutions are in unfortunately. I think it's going to be a case of biting the bullet, taking the flak from customers and getting them moved over to our own dedi. server. (unfortunately some of those affected are currently in the process of having new web sites built by us so I can't imagine it instilling much confidence in our company)
Posted by ldcdc, 12-17-2007, 08:20 PM
Usually, better than null. Cling to that idea. If they've shut the server down for billing related reasons, they could, at some point, turn the server back on for a while, only to let the end users get their files. But that's only if they're nice people and feel like doing it. A nice and humble suggestion might prompt them to take such action. Play your card wisely.
Posted by Cobblers, 12-17-2007, 08:57 PM
As it turned out, the owner of the company was out of the country for a period of time, apparently with no internet access, eventually at the end of today the server was brought back up, they closed their support forum so nobody could find out for definate what happened and have as yet to offer any kind of apology, reason for the outage or any offer of compensation in-line with their SLA. We've since contacted all of our customers and we're in the process of getting all the data off. So word of warning, I know this outfit has advertised on here, if you see any 'offers' from them again then you're better off avoiding them. Unfortunately this sort of behaviour isn't a one off and perhaps we should have been more proactive in moving customers the last time they had an unneccessary extended outage but hindsight is a wonderful thing, we've learnt from our mistake.
Posted by MKHosting, 12-18-2007, 04:59 PM
Pleased to hear you managed to get your data back. So no one was managing the server why the owner was without internet access.
Posted by Cobblers, 12-18-2007, 06:44 PM
Certainly seems to be the case. So far the forums are still closed and no communication has been forthcoming to the customers who suffered the outage. No tickets have been responded to (from as long as nearly 3 weeks ago) nor any email. I sincerely hope they pull out of the hosting industry altogether as it's 'companies' like them that ruin it for everyone. Thanks to everybody for your help and comments. Much appreciated.
Posted by ldcdc, 12-18-2007, 08:04 PM
For some reason, it takes a while for hosting companies to die. Even after huge disasters, a good chunk of customers tends to give the host a second chance. As long as there are some people will to pay, there's no reason to close up shop I guess. How did you find this out? That is definitely not a good sign. Glad to hear you have access to your data now, and you can get back on your feet.
Posted by dazmanultra, 12-19-2007, 06:35 AM
Get out and leave while you can, cut your losses if you must (if you paid a particular amount up-front).
Posted by tru1, 12-19-2007, 01:31 PM
Sorry to hear mate, grab a backup if you can, and leave!!
Posted by Tom-Brown, 12-19-2007, 02:49 PM
Just get your files, cancel anything your paying for and get a better host
Posted by Cobblers, 12-19-2007, 06:46 PM
My boss is just finishing off moving the last few accounts, all of which are static sites which we have full local backups for so it looks like we're on the home straight.
Posted by CyberHostPro, 12-21-2007, 06:53 AM
This is the problem with one man band hosts. if they go on holiday, support is on holiday! The one man band hosts maybe able to offer you the world for £1/$1 but in the end, you only get what you pay for. Did you find a new hosting provider?
Posted by Cobblers, 12-21-2007, 11:19 AM
I did yes, we have our shared window hosting with Fasthosts, a dedicated box with Pipex and any shared *nix accounts with Heart Internet.
Posted by Cobblers, 12-23-2007, 10:42 AM
These clowns had the audacity to send us an invoice to renew our reseller hosting today, I'm debating as to which orifice I'll tell them to stick it up.
Posted by Catsworth, 12-24-2007, 05:24 PM
Hi Guys, I've also been caught up in the i-websolutions debacle. I've had to re-assert my identity with Nominet and then get them to force a change of the IPS tag so that I could move to a new domain management company and then to a new host. I've just put in a new support ticket (all the others were being ignored) giving then 14 days to respond and refund my hosting fees, and the prices that I've incurred as a result of them basically cutting off all lines of communication, failing to meet their promise of 24 hour support, and faling to meet their uptime guarantee. Once those 14 days are up it's a letter (via recorded delivery) to the address on their invoices and the address on the whois record for the domain (have to do two letters, the addresses don't match) giving them 7 days to pay up (at this point the amount goes up as well to cover the two recorded delivery letters). Failing all of that it's going to be the small claims court for this one. Allthe problems with these clowns, and their lack of timely communication, make this thread even sweeter to read: www_dot_webhostingtalk_dot_com/showthread.php?t=493819
Posted by cacabule, 01-25-2008, 08:31 AM
All I can say is OMG, you little bast@rd! My blood is boiling as I type! I only just realised something was fishy yesterday and today I discovered how serious this is! I managed to recover some stuff from google cache at least. How long has it been down for?. I'm most angry about the email situation! I run my own email account through them and I shudder to think how many important emails I have lost! and I cant retrieve. This could have some serious repurcussions for me! I am in tears! I received no notification of any problems! My domain was registered elsewhere thank god so I had no problems setting email up back up instantly but Jesus!, a simple email notification that there were problems would have helped! I didnt realise email was down because I forward the emails to another account and never check if it was forwarded on from I-websolutions! Rot in hell I-websolutions! I work for a law firm so I will be looking to prosecute you!
Posted by AntiSilence, 02-05-2008, 11:25 AM
I got caught up in this as well, back in December. Had a standard hosting package with them. After their UK2 server went off-line for about a week (mine was on UK3 fortunately) and they closed their support forums and my support ticket remained unanswered since October, I thought it was time to shift. I found another host that is much better so far and now have a re-seller package (I'm not running my own hosting business, it's for hosting the websites that my business makes for our customers). I-Web were fine when I first signed up with them back around May last year, but then it all seemed to go down the toilet with no communication from Adam (the owner) or anyone else there.
Posted by Shaw Networks, 02-05-2008, 10:55 PM
Did their servers come back online long enough for everyone to get their files and get out?
Posted by AntiSilence, 02-06-2008, 02:07 PM
Some people managed to get their data and that of their customers. But some had to go to Vooservers and get them to transfer the data from the I-Web servers. I had my site already on my PC so I didn't have anything to lose, thankfully.