Reseller-Center Refugees

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Posted by zardiw, 06-30-2005, 01:18 AM
Ok, if you're considering moving...........here's a place to start posting about it..............z
Posted by zardiw, 06-30-2005, 01:19 AM
Currently considering JodoHost.com........looked at Site5.com and some other highly rated ones, but it seems that a lot of them only offer CPanel.........looked at a demo of CPanel, and I really don't like it..........need HSphere.......................z
Posted by chenwei, 06-30-2005, 03:01 AM
Also considering jodohost.com, well, see if RC can really get the mail server up or not. Sometimes you can only tell how good the service is when problems happened.
Posted by Brannmark, 06-30-2005, 05:03 AM
So, Lets gather here all reseller-center customer. Lets put a list togheter with options we need on a web host. Any other host that want to try and give us a bid on hosting with them same specs that reseller-center has?
Posted by nipper_uk, 06-30-2005, 05:15 AM
Another refugee here. Think this time I will opt for a UK based host, trying to get support from RC at this time is now non-existent.
Posted by WebSpider, 06-30-2005, 05:35 AM
May I know what this moving from reseller-center is all about?
Posted by chenwei, 06-30-2005, 05:41 AM
basically there are some migration works and something bad happened, right now the mail server down for few days and still can't fix it. now ppl not really satisfied wif the service so consider moving... got it?
Posted by jmweb, 06-30-2005, 06:29 AM
The mail server has been down for a few days? Ouch. Good luck with your move.
Posted by WebSpider, 06-30-2005, 07:20 AM
Got it. Thanks for the info. Good luck to all concerned.
Posted by Groobash, 06-30-2005, 08:42 AM
Yep, I'm a R-C refugee too. I posted in the other thread because it was relevant to that discussion: My post was a follow up to the results of R-C being sold, and service went downhill as Vortech predicted. Not sure where I will end up next, but I am definitely leaving R-C ASAP. "THE BOSS" posted yesterday on the R-C forum that "Everything will be estabel by the end of next week after the cp move.. then we clean up and spend more time here..." At the end of next week?! I'm a patient guy. I've stuck with R-C thru a couple of months of ups and downs, but I don't see the situation getting any better anytime soon. The next host doesn't have to be Hsphere...in fact I didn't care for Hsphere at all. The UI is an unintuitive PITA and Psoft apparently has major issues (unless R-C was blaming Psoft for the problems unfairly)
Posted by baron_vonmunchaus, 06-30-2005, 09:24 AM
hey...that RC stuff is ridiculous. no redundancy whatsoever it seems. i can't believe no mail for days...and site outages...how can i run a stable business with this service. any suggestions for hsphere hosting please advise or post here.
Posted by Yash-JH, 06-30-2005, 09:46 AM
Well, I'm not sure I'd agree there. HSphere is a very stable control panel backed by excellent support. I am not sure of what problems R-C might be facing with PSOFT. I can only guess that there may have been software glitches during their migration process or there techs may not have been able to fix issues when needed. We recently performed an IP migration (2 weeks back) and PSOFT did an excellent job for us (covered us 24x7) and we had zero downtime. However, as I said, I do not know the exact nature of their issues and I do not doubt they may have had an issue or two with psoft.
Posted by sommardahl, 06-30-2005, 09:55 AM
I just started up hosting at Jodohost.com. Yash, who has been hosting on this thread, appears to want to help us out as much as he can. Jodohost seems to have comparable features and costs. I like the support options very much. They have been very accomodating thusfar. If anyone asks me, I would tell them immediately to work with jodohost.com.
Posted by Yash-JH, 06-30-2005, 10:04 AM
Sure, thats my job We are there 24x7x365 for our resellers as I told you I know Mark Carruba (he owns VIP) for at least 2+ years, although we run competing services. All I'd like to say is that he's a professional person. I don't know what happened to R-C and why it went down hill so rapidly. But VIP definately has more resources to run RC better than the previous owners... Let's just hope things turn out better for all that stay with RC and all those that decide to move
Posted by sommardahl, 06-30-2005, 10:07 AM
Quote from RC Forum: It's a monumentous day... almost like rolling over 100,000 miles on your car. Right now, there are more users on the RC support forum than have ever been in the history of the forum. Surely this will go down in history books.
Posted by IHSL, 06-30-2005, 10:34 AM
In what way? Did psoft do a mail migration? Simon
Posted by The Gunner, 06-30-2005, 10:34 AM
Mark may be a professional but he lacks very much in the communication department. Ever since he bought out RC he has not communicated to his customers at RC very well. He made an announcement that Email would be up by 8:00 am CST today...it is still down and no word from him. In my eyes that is not professionalism.
Posted by Netthang, 06-30-2005, 10:36 AM
So this is where you guys are hiding out I got sick of hanging around the RC forum waiting for some good news. JodoHost looks very interesting. I will be mailing them for some more details (yes I do still have some email addresses that work) On the bright side .... Because RC have been kept busy with the mail servers my site has actually not had any outages for the past 48 hours. A minor miracle in light of the recent dismal service RC have provided.
Posted by Groobash, 06-30-2005, 10:38 AM
I just want something stable. Saving $10 or $20 a month isn't worth it if I have to spend 15 minutes on the phone with a client even one time a month.
Posted by Yash-JH, 06-30-2005, 10:41 AM
I am sorry to hear that. I have communicated the same to him
Posted by Groobash, 06-30-2005, 10:43 AM
Honestly I am confused as to what exactly Psoft did or didn't do. All I know is that R-C (before and after upgrading Hshpere and selling out to VIP) blamed much of the outtages on them, saying Psoft does things on their own schedule, doesn't communicate scheduled downtime, etc etc etc.
Posted by IHSL, 06-30-2005, 10:51 AM
Well, I'd agree with the schedule thing. They tend to be like a phone company: "We'll be there between 6am, and 6pm". That shouldn't affect performance though. Simon
Posted by sommardahl, 06-30-2005, 10:56 AM
Just to clear up a few things: 1. Mark C did not communicate an 8:00 am CST ETA on the mail server being up. It was James, their UNIX guy. Mark C is the owner of VIP, not RC. I believe both VIP and RC are owned by another parent company. It seems unreasonable to put such a burdon on Mark C. 2. RC did try to shift blame on Psoft, but only ambiguously. This problem is not Psoft's fault. It is RC's for not having a redundant backup mail server. They only had to wait for Psoft to send someone out to re-install install software... can you blame them for not waiting in RC's breakroom for a server to go down before they put on their shoes and come in to save the day. The only reason RC should have to call Psoft in for an emergency is if they didn't do their job in the first place by having a redundant backup mail server. Please correct me if I'm wrong on any of this.
Posted by sommardahl, 06-30-2005, 11:01 AM
This wasn't Psofts problem. Can you blame Psoft for not keeping techs at RC round the clock just waiting for a server to go down? This was RC's fault for not having redundant backup mail servers. Everyone who is under the gun wants to find someone else to pin the blame on. Psoft is not at fault. If anything, they are on our side trying to fix RC's blunder. Psoft has put out a good product that allows many of us to make a living. Point your arrows at whom they should rightfully be aimed.
Posted by dardalius2, 06-30-2005, 11:41 AM
Hi Do JodoHost.com offer all the same features as RC (ignoring quota and bandwidth here) such as OSCommerce, PHP2BB, etc. I see they offer Oracle 10g.. nice, and shared SSL. Yash, how would you have delt differently with todays situation at RC, Please see here for details reseller-center.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5476 I am thinking of moving to you would would like to be a little more informed <<< Signatures need to be set up in your profile. >>> Last edited by SoftWareRevue; 06-30-2005 at 02:00 PM.
Posted by Yash-JH, 06-30-2005, 12:20 PM
We support all those features as well.. <<< removed >>> How would I have been handling it differently? Unless I know the full situation I wouldn't be able to comment.. Last edited by SoftWareRevue; 06-30-2005 at 02:01 PM.
Posted by Eel_Mot, 06-30-2005, 01:24 PM
Hello fellow RC Refugees! I'll be moving soon as well. I just don't trust RC anymore. I've narrowed it down to to either jodohost, DIYHosting, and HostNexus. Now I just need to compare plans. Btw, a question to other RC refugees: what can we do to prevent this from happening again w/ a new host? I mean aside from finding a good host, is there anything that we can do? Like sign up w/ 2 hosts? W/ one as a backup? Have our own DNS servers? Anyway, any other tips and suggestions would be great. I'm going to go read the forums of those 3 hosts and see how they are doing. *sigh*
Posted by mohmedsh, 06-30-2005, 01:29 PM
Ya the most important problems we have right now are 1- how to move our clients from host to another without losing the clients emails , site studio data and so on? 2- how to make sure that will not happen with the new supper star host? 3- how to make sure that our business will not be lost again for out of our control problem? BTW the email server is back online after long 2 days outage
Posted by Groobash, 06-30-2005, 01:36 PM
sheesh...you know things are bad at R-C when mohmedsh is moving. hahaha!!!
Posted by mohmedsh, 06-30-2005, 02:01 PM
I am not moving yet BUT i am making the plan to be ready when i have to move. I will be moving at least the clients that are not using site studio to my other cpanel host.
Posted by cartika-andrew, 06-30-2005, 02:15 PM
WOW - theres only so many h-sphere reseller providers and RC was one of the major players. Its really too bad to see something like this happen over something as basic as migrating a mail server and setting up port forwarding from the old servers to the new... There must be something else going on here - as mutiple days of no mail is not the same as a botched migration where mail is down for a few hours (which is bad enough)
Posted by IHSL, 06-30-2005, 02:23 PM
From what I have been told by RC customers who moved to us, the issue was hardware related, post-migration. Simon
Posted by cartika-andrew, 06-30-2005, 02:26 PM
That at least makes some sense - multiple days is still FAR too long, but, at least its some sort of explanation
Posted by Yash-JH, 06-30-2005, 02:32 PM
Their new mailserver crashed and had an OS corruption during the mailserver migration, after the dns propogation started taking place.. They started redirecting traffic back to the old mailserver but it seems that wasnt working very well.. They were also rebuilding that new server which was taking time as they had to reimport the data from the old mailserver. This is what I have gathered from customers that have switched to us and from Mark himself
Posted by zardiw, 06-30-2005, 02:32 PM
Yes it is a MAJOR pain in the rear to move all of the accounts. And from what I see there is no 'migration' tool to move from one Hsphere account to another. SO, all the accounts have to be recreated, all the email accounts have to be recreated, and everything needs to be FTP's back up to the new host. As far as SiteStudio is concerned, I'm hoping that by FTP'ing the files up the site will be recreated......but I don't know about that. Anybody got any info on moving a SiteStudio site?...........z
Posted by mohmedsh, 06-30-2005, 02:40 PM
No ftp will move the files generated by site studio but i will not by any means move the site studio account dbase that generates the site. That means you will have to recreate the site from scratch in site studio.
Posted by cartika-andrew, 06-30-2005, 02:43 PM
Just to clarify - the site will work once you migrate it, however, it will not be connected to the sitestudio application within the users control panel - however, since sitestudio creates html pages - the user can edit the site that way - or, as mohmedsh has suggested, you will need to re-create from within the new control panel...
Posted by zardiw, 06-30-2005, 02:48 PM
Boy that really sucks.....one would think SiteStudio had some way to move from host to host.............z
Posted by zardiw, 06-30-2005, 02:49 PM
Btw, IMAP mail is STILL down at RC...........z
Posted by Obry, 06-30-2005, 03:00 PM
I am also moving to Jodohost from RC... mail server is finally coming back up but the fact that their customer service has gone to hell and the negative attitude of the new owners can't keep me there anymore... It's so sad - it was an awesome company when I signed up with them - never had to wait more than 10-15 minutes for a TT to be answered, barely any major issues... I couldn't even beleive it myself... now it's become the exact oposite... I've had to go bitch on the forums before somebody even looks at my TT's the last few weeks... I've had TT's take 3 days (for them to re-create a ColdFusion DSN)... I've lost a good chunk of my customers, and I still am as I type this...
Posted by zardiw, 06-30-2005, 03:01 PM
And the email fiasco is not all............a bunch of my sites are on some server that keeps farting...........no/slowwwwwwwwwwwwww access to these sites.......no response to TT's submitted.............z
Posted by cartika-andrew, 06-30-2005, 03:06 PM
you can easily accomplish this, as IMAP folders can be moved - the sitestudio websites themselves can be moved as well and will function - but, no real way around rebuilding site studio sites if users want to keep using the interface to manage them - This is really the tough part with a reseller account - unfortunately, you are somewhat at the mercy of your provider - however, make a smart, educated provider decision and you can avoid these sorts of hassles in the future (at least until your business can justify a dedicated server or cluster)
Posted by mohmedsh, 06-30-2005, 03:21 PM
when i choiced RC it was the best choise i have ever done, I had about 2 years without any mentioned problem, great support and they never had more than minutes to resolve problems. some times we did not have to even submit a TT for a server issue as we could know that RC staff are on it. Now after 2 years things changed, at least temporarly. I hope that they could get the old RC back. If they could get the old staff back i will never think to move any where even if we had all the cluster down.
Posted by zardiw, 06-30-2005, 03:24 PM
YES, RC was GREAT.....but the operative word here is 'was'. The new people's 'care' factor is about a hundredth of what it was................the final straw for me was having someone named 'the boss'......the boss?? the boss????..........we don't NEED no stinkin 'boss'.............z
Posted by cartika-andrew, 06-30-2005, 03:27 PM
Hi mohmedsh, I completly agree with you - it is difficult to predict the future,..
Posted by JerryVT, 06-30-2005, 03:39 PM
Hi people, I have 3 Hsphere acc w/RC & thinking of backup solution (if they will not make things right again) I came accross this Hsphere host: webalix . com Any good/bad info about them? Also, there is Hsphere hosting comparison website: hspherehosts . com & webalix, jodohost and our RC listed among 36 companies Regadring mail backup. Someone on RC forum posted :: dnsmadeeasy . com any thought on this one? will it help? J
Posted by zardiw, 06-30-2005, 03:57 PM
Nice site!!
Posted by enterprisedreams, 06-30-2005, 03:59 PM
Hy guys, I believe that the best option is to create a first account in jodohost or where it is, but jodohost has very good commentaries, and very good plans, besides to give sub-you count FTP in Windows (it is due to request through TT, but you they create it), besides to have almost such compomentes that RC, and some than they do not have more (it would be milk if they had algun component ActiveX of pdf's, but already they give Oracle you, who is not either for despising, jeje), and has very good costs.... But good, that I am at least going to create an account in jodohost..., for creating all the plans and to form everything correctly (even a new dominion for a fast propagation of the DNS mine and my clients)..., soon once it has all it, I will make backup of everything (sites, emails, etc.), and of course will warn my clients of the change that will be made (mainly so that they do not undergo any change), and of course, that emails mainly of the clients, when still having the account opened in RC, will be able to enter viá CP, or webmail and to unload them they themselves..., if is something this omitting, or some thing about which thinks that I am being mistaken, I am open to "supplies" RC it has disappointed to me with the last change that has made
Posted by (Stephen), 06-30-2005, 04:05 PM
Just something I do want to point out, as we have had many requests, we do not install COM objects on request, or any custom COM objects on windows servers. We have a set large list pre-installed, allow .NET DLLs(no server side install required) and there are many other ways to accomplish the same task without the use of the external objects.
Posted by IHSL, 06-30-2005, 04:11 PM
The best way to collect email during a migration is to set the "incoming" mail host value to the actual IP of the mail server. You can also set the outgoing smtp server value to the IP, just in case your mail client tries to send it to the incorrect server. That way you can create two accounts for example@exampledomain.com and pull from two seperate mail host IP addresses. This means you don't have to worry about dns propagation resulting in lost email. The same goes for moving sites that are database driven. During the migration, simply set the DB hostname value to that of the IP, to avoid any problems. Simon
Posted by wireless1, 06-30-2005, 04:14 PM
How about answering a simple question that I've been wondering about ever since RC took a crap. How is it possible they didn't have a backup or mirror that could be brought online? How does Cartika handle this? For example suppose a bowling ball fell on your mail server and crushed it to bits. What happens next? I (and more importantly my clients) just can't believe that RC didn't have some kind of backup. What in the world were they thinking? Would it not be common to have some sort of backup for this important function? -David
Posted by cartika-andrew, 06-30-2005, 04:20 PM
I honestly cannot speak for their redundancy and backup strategies now youve got me looking up for falling bowling balls Even if the mail server (or any server in our cluster for that matter) completely blew up and vaporized - there are several options available to quickly restore service. Obviously a new server would need to be brought online and formatted, then a recovery from 1 of 2 backup sources. We utilize disk sync to take a daily backup of both system state and data files to a local NAS - and if, for some reason, that failed, we have daily offsite disaster recovery disk images we could recover from. I dont think we are exceptional in our backup strategy - I expect (and know) that all reputable providers have something very similar in place...
Posted by IHSL, 06-30-2005, 04:24 PM
1) Pull another server in to the rack, replacing the dead box. 2) Double check all the IP's route correctly to the new NIC 3) Run the recreate tool that is built in to H-Sphere to re-add the physical, and logical servers. 4) Restore /hsphere, /var/lib/mysql and /var/qmail directories from backup 5) Thank your lucky stars that you made backups. 6) Find the person that attacked your server, and kick him. Simon
Posted by JerryVT, 06-30-2005, 04:25 PM
Stephen, wait a minute. Yesterday I was talking with one of your sales persons regaring aspPDF installation & after he consulted his superv. the answer was "YES". What is the reason for installing 2-3 COM components from Persits and refusing to install one more from the same company? We don't have a lot of traffic at all & if we will we'll move to dedicated...
Posted by thefalcon, 06-30-2005, 04:31 PM
I am also a RC Refugee and am wondering the same...how could they not have a backup for situations such as this when I know that something can always happens in migrations...been through enough of them as well. With mail being down for days now, looks like I will also be looking to move to another host very very soon...such a shame, but with everything lately, it has to be done.
Posted by Eel_Mot, 06-30-2005, 04:58 PM
Wow, that looks really interesting. Does anyone know any info on this?
Posted by S.C., 06-30-2005, 05:11 PM
Heres what their administrator had to say about that...
Posted by zardiw, 06-30-2005, 05:16 PM
Here's a nice trick if you decide to move. Open seperate browser windows. Have one logged into the old HSphere control panel. Have the other one in the NEW Hsphere control panel. Now hold down the alt key and hit tab. You can now switch rapidly between the two, copying and pasting the info from one to the other, and comparing settings, etc................................z
Posted by enterprisedreams, 06-30-2005, 06:04 PM
Hi Simon, i really apreciated your post from this..., very I am been thankful him of its commentary about like doing the migration affecting in the smaller possible degree to emails, and db of my customers... Obvious this information I believe that not only he will be important and interesting for my only
Posted by (Stephen), 06-30-2005, 06:24 PM
One could also create a custom A record pointing to the new IP, then a custom MX record with a higher(lower in number) priority than the one already listed, so even if it hit the server being migrated from, it would go to the new server. Edit (This is regarding Email)
Posted by tsystems, 06-30-2005, 06:35 PM
My crystal ball forsaw that it was going to be a bumpy ride at RC. I signed up with cartikahosting weeks ago. Then I only managed to get my best clients moved before things got ugly with the mail server. What we need are tools to migrate reseller accounts. See my thread: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showth...hreadid=406928 I have been happy over at Cartika. I also use dnsmadeeasy for critial DNS. I don't like how most/all the hsphere resellers put both DNS servers in the same DC and you can't control TTL Dnsmadeeasy has been excellent. I did host some backup email accounts there for a while. But they don't price out the same as a Hsphere reseller account so I dropped that part. I really want 2 hosts. But it looks unlikely that RC will be one of them. Maybe the new admin guy will help.
Posted by Yash-JH, 06-30-2005, 10:31 PM
Jerry, we would definately consider installing a component that is from a reputable company.. However as Stephen said, we will not install 99% of the custom component requests we get. The stability of our windows servers is the most important to us.. And I'm sure our clients enjoy that stability with us
Posted by jd123, 07-01-2005, 05:37 AM
Hi Yash-JH are you able to assist with moving my files from RC to JodoHost.com? I have quite a large number of files and its going to take me ages to FTP them to my new host?
Posted by Yash-JH, 07-01-2005, 05:48 AM
Hi We normally assist our resellers in moving from any host. Submit a ticket with the details of the database or files of an FTP account you'd like moved... However you would need to recreate all the end-user accounts in your reseller CP
Posted by jd123, 07-01-2005, 06:13 AM
thanks Yash ... that is great news, and exactly what I was hoping to hear. I think that I will be one of the many moving from RC to JodoHost.com VERY soon. BTW ... I just spoke with someone on your chat line. I asked the very same question, and they said "sorry, we cant do that." You might want to speak to this rep, your 'might' be losing some business as a result of their comments.?
Posted by Yash-JH, 07-01-2005, 06:43 AM
I'll need to check up on why you were told no. This is of course a tech support issue and if you talk with technical support instead of sales, they'll help you out
Posted by JerryVT, 07-01-2005, 06:25 PM
tsystems, so, you don't use Dnsmadeeasy at all now? Sorry, I'm not getting this: " But they don't price out the same as a Hsphere reseller account so I dropped that part." What's the alternative that you're using now? Thanks
Posted by (Stephen), 07-01-2005, 06:53 PM
Jerry, I believe tsystems was talking about email services not pricing out well.
Posted by tsystems, 07-01-2005, 06:56 PM
I use DNSmadeeasy for DNS. They also offer email and web hosting. I used their email for a while.
Posted by JerryVT, 07-01-2005, 07:11 PM
Did their email work for you? I need to have an email backup for 2 of our websites because we have large orders from Boeing & duds alike coming every day by email.
Posted by tsystems, 07-01-2005, 07:36 PM
I didn't have any problems with it. What I do belive is that you need to configure the client's machine to check both servers. And configure actual accounts on both servers. A backup MX alone seldom helps email reliability. (IMHO) This does create the problem that all clients in the domain must check both servers. The other problem that I have run into is that I wish I had not configured my hsphere service domain to be my normal email domain. In order to keep my email flowing during the Reseller-Center migration and keeping the hsphere instant aliases straight has been a big pain. Perhaps JODOhost can answer a question for me. Can my service domain be a third level domain and still have my primary domain as a regular domain in hsphere? For example: dallas.mydomain.com as the service domain with server aliases like web1.dallas.mydomain.com and still be able to get my real mail at me@mydomain.com? I may go register another domain just to be the service domain.
Posted by (Stephen), 07-01-2005, 08:00 PM
tsystems, While it might technically be feasible, it would be quite troublesome with hsphere.
Posted by NexDog, 07-02-2005, 04:16 AM
Woo-hoo, bumper harvest time at Jodo. DIY and Cartika! Makes me wish we offered H-Sphere.
Posted by ldcdc, 07-02-2005, 10:07 AM
Makes me remember the adage "One man's misery is another man's fortune."
Posted by tsystems, 07-02-2005, 10:23 AM
I think I will just go get some more domains. Like mydomaindallas.com and mydomainhuston.com Or maybe just mydomain1.com and mydomain2.com
Posted by IHSL, 07-02-2005, 01:36 PM
No kidding. I know they lost at least 25 resellers during this to us. It's a shame, if the outage was handled correctly, they could have probably escaped with minimal damage. Simon
Posted by Yash-JH, 07-02-2005, 01:58 PM
I have not been able to count the # of customers from RC, but yes our support team has been kept busy dealing with alot of worried resellers I believe the RC mail problems have been resolved now and things have settled down now
Posted by Yash-JH, 07-02-2005, 02:13 PM
I have been answering this question several times for resellers moving to us. Will do so here as well although it has been addressed to Cartika... we have two simultaneous backup services we run on all our servers. Once is our conventional backup system that takes full backups of customer files and important data, and moves them to remote servers regularly. This system is very reliable during restoration but takes the most time. We recently adopted a new server imaging solution from Acronis that allows us to take complete mirrors of our servers and restore from those mirrors incase of a complete system failure, in under 60 minutes. For our mailservers, we have an added measure. We have deployed hot-standby servers that has a completely deployed copy of our mailserver (less than 24 hours old), which can be put online in under 30 minutes incase of a major issue.. Lastly.. all our servers are in RAID configurations, most using SCSI hard disks.. Such disk arrays are very reliable. So we are pretty well covered and I'm sure any decent host would have multiple resotration options incase of a failure, and they should be able to restore fairly quickly.. I suspect that RC, after migrating their mailserver locally didn't make local backups before they started the DNS propogation... When the server crashed.. they had to reimport data remotely. If they had local backups, I believe they could have avoided this. However, I am only guessing on what their situation could have been.
Posted by cartika-andrew, 07-02-2005, 02:19 PM
Not sure a RAID array will help you in the bowling ball example - though, if the bowling ball missed a drive - this may be helpful In all seriousness though - RAID really cannot be construed as a backup solution - it does provide redundancy, which is great - but, it certainly isnt a backup solution - at least not in my mind... Looks like JodoHost has taken all the precautions with their data that every reputable, data conscious company has (and maybe a bit more )
Posted by DediZoneSales, 07-02-2005, 06:00 PM
Good luck to all the RC clients looking for a new host, make sure you choose the right home for your businesses. Kind Regards, HS Last edited by writespeak; 02-13-2006 at 02:22 AM.
Posted by zardiw, 07-02-2005, 07:30 PM
Well, it's working for me, but not for others, and the email for 6-30 has VANISHED.........z
Posted by zardiw, 07-02-2005, 09:40 PM
Well, they have actually deleted my user account for the forums!............. 1. EMail is still all screwed up for lots of folks. 2. All email for 6-30 is LOST People are leaving like rats abandoning a sinking ship. They're going to have to change their NAME, cause NOBODY is going to sign up with them again. .............z
Posted by zardiw, 07-02-2005, 10:04 PM
Just got a call from reseller-center. First they threatened to turn off all my accounts IMMEDIATELY. After arguing with them, I now I have until Monday to move ALL my accounts. That gives me 45 hours............................... Nice guys huh????????????????? z Last edited by zardiw; 07-02-2005 at 10:08 PM.
Posted by zardiw, 07-02-2005, 11:17 PM
They threatened to shut down all my accounts immediately.......but settled on giving me 45 hours to get them all transferred.........I am so screwed........I guess they got pissed when I mentioned JodoHost.com on the forums for the second time.........Supposedly all emails are bouncing from my accounts............really NICE people............z
Posted by zardiw, 07-03-2005, 02:15 AM
I lay all the blame at the feet of MarkC and VIP Hosting for all the BS that went down with Reseller Center. They're the ones that bought them, and they're the ones that drove it into the ground................ I suggest VIP customers make backups (and often), and have a backup reseller account you can flee to if/when the s..t hits the Fan.............z
Posted by Yash-JH, 07-03-2005, 02:47 AM
Of course, RAID increases the reliability of your disk system, it is however not a form of backup
Posted by prairiestar, 07-03-2005, 10:04 AM
I'm an RC customer and have been for almost 2 years. I'm still an RC customer and have chosen to stay put for the time being. I think we're are almost through this and moving is hell. Things are quickly getting back to normal. Just to give another point of view: 1. My mail was actually completely down for about 30 hours with about 15 of those hours being during my customers prime business hours - not 2 days - not 3 days. I was pissed but got over it. My main problem was with communication of the status of the outage. 2. I've had very few problems with the migration other than the email. My sites were up and worked well. Database were cranking. For those who don't use absolute path to db there might have been a few problems because of mapping changes. This was pointed out early on and folks really did have an opportunity to get them changed. Those who didn't read the forum or understand instructions had a few more problems. 3. Some folks went way over the top in the forums calling RC staff names and flaming the situation. I recognize a name or 2 here in this thread. I'm sure that if the same types of posts were made in any other hosting providers reseller forum there would be problems for the person making the posts. There is a fine line between voicing concerns/seeking solutions and flaming. Some of it was WAY over the top. 4. I've been in the IT business at many levels for more than 25 years and have been through many installs, conversions, and/or migrations. Stuff happens. Any IT person who says they are always perfect is fooling themselves and everyone else. 5. The real mistake the new RC folks made was in their communications...but...it seems that they are taking steps to improve. 6. In every forum there are a few folks that seem to try to use up all of the available oxygen and the RC reseller forum is no different. Sometimes these folks know what they are talking about and sometimes they don't. 7. My sites are faster since the migration and during the migration my support tickets were answered quickly and professionaly. I'll have to tell you that when I worked in the corporate world I had users who conducted themselves better during stressful installs/conversions than some of the so called "IT professionals" did during this RC migration.
Posted by zardiw, 07-03-2005, 01:31 PM
No answer at Mark C's phone: 713-357-5508......no answering machine either.............I'd be worried...........z
Posted by zardiw, 07-03-2005, 01:46 PM
Any company where this can happen has SERIOUS issues. What about your mail for 6-30........did you ever get that??? You can say that again, and that situation has NOT improved, in fact it's WORSE. Maybe for you they were, half of mine were slow as molasses and timed out often as not........ Really........you notice improvement? How many posts by support have you seen lately.......Before I got kicked off I saw zero... ............z
Posted by zardiw, 07-03-2005, 01:53 PM
Well so much for 45 hours.....My accounts are now INACCESSIBLE....... I guess VIP Hosting 's vindictiveness has overruled their professionalism.................z
Posted by prairiestar, 07-03-2005, 02:28 PM
Well, actually they were in the forum this morning and replied to the one person who had an issue and, by the way, that issue should have been handled by a trouble ticket. z...you might be the nicest guy in the world...or...not...I don't know...I don't know you...you didn't add anything that was too constructive to the debate on the RC forum and seem to be hell bent on a personal vendetta here. You posted on the RC forum the you had had a call from Marck C last Thursday and then continued to try to heat up the debate there for a couple of more days....as they say....move on. I would like to add, before I'm accused, that I am just a developer and RC customer...all of my thoughts are my own. I've never had contact with anyone from RC, old or new management, except through trouble tickets or the forum.
Posted by NameShark, 07-03-2005, 03:00 PM
Sounds like they are host with no integrity and little support....
Posted by zardiw, 07-03-2005, 03:00 PM
1. Well actually I consider myself a fairly decent and honorable person.......but who doesn't...lol. 2. Maybe the reason only one person was in the forums is that they , like I am busy trying to restore my customer's accounts at another vendor ( jodohost.com in my case) . 3. Like you said, the email issue, although SERIOUS, was not the number one concern for us. It was the TOTAL LACK of communication and the seemingly UNCARING attitude of VIP Hosting staff. 4. I did talk to Mark C, and as a result basically decided to wait 24 hours before I made the decision to move. During that time I submitted several TT's with no resolution. When I found out that 6-30's mail was LOST (I believe it's still on the old 209.. server, but because of a redirect in place to the new 64... server, is inaccessible), and was getting nowhere in trying to recover it from them, I decided that it was over, and pulled the trigger on my relationship with VIP Hosting. Btw, it's VIP Hosting that is at fault. Reseller-Center is just a name now, since the original people that ran it, Alan, Mike, and Sean, are GONE. 5. There was also ZERO support on the forums with regard to these issues.....when I posted jodohost.com (where I was considering moving to) one more time(this was basically to get SOME kind of attention!), they killed my forum account. 6. Then I got a call from a guy named Bruce, who threatened to terminate all my accounts IMMEDIATELY. After some arguing, in his infinite mercy granted me 45 hours...til July 4th at 4pm to move all my accounts. Btw, as you all know that is a ridiculously short time to accomplish this. Luckily, I had taken steps previously to help facilitate this. 7. This morning I find all my accounts unreachable, hence the 45 hour 'grace' period has also been terminated. So in their vindictiveness, they basically threw their professionalism and their duty to their customers out the window. 8. I took the word of several people about VIP hosting having a good reputation on these boards, but have since found out that had I done a search on VIP hosting , I would have discovered what a poor company that is. Here's just 2 comments gleaned from that search: 9. Let's remember one thing...it was THEIR screwup...it was THEIR lack of communication with us......it was THEIR dearth of support to fix these problems. The first can be excused, the second 2 CAN't. Therefore, it is not suprizing that people lost their cool, I being one of them. 10. I suggest you do a search on VIP Hosting to see how bad they really are, and prepare yourself however you can, and quickly, for when this seeming calm period ends........They're moving the CP server on Tuesday.....during the middle of the week.......I wish you LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.........................................z......... I feel much better now at jodohost.com, btw. Last edited by zardiw; 07-03-2005 at 03:07 PM.
Posted by submenu, 07-03-2005, 03:03 PM
That's a shame, they look like a reputable company. I know first hand that migrating accounts on h-sphere sucks hard. Thankfully I only lost 1 customer because of it.
Posted by BigBison, 07-03-2005, 03:08 PM
You know, zardiw, I'd like to know what's going on with this but you've started so many threads about it, that I can't follow what's going on.
Posted by zardiw, 07-03-2005, 03:24 PM
Well, there's only 3.......lol..... As things deteriorated from bad to worse, I thought that a few extra threads would keep people up todate.........the Reseller Refugee one is the one that has most of the history in it. The VIP thread links them to the debacle at RC, and it's really not RC that is at fault, since the original people that ran it are gone, it's VIP's fault, or whoever their 'parent' company is.......good luck finding that....... And finally the Nightmare one is one I started after they started killing my accounts.....starting with the forum, and progressing to all the rest of it...........z
Posted by Vortech, 07-03-2005, 10:05 PM
I just hate to say I told you so but. I guess I can now. LoL I told you so.
Posted by croco, 07-04-2005, 06:17 AM
Wish i was listen to Vortech befor , U was right man! I trusted alan, mike but they play with us saying it's not sell it's merge!! Any way if things didn't go for better very soon , i will moving
Posted by zardiw, 07-04-2005, 12:56 PM
I'd like to clarify one thing.........apparently I can still access my accounts at RC........I was using the domain to try to get to them, but the DNS had propagated. When I changed the URL back to default, I was able to log on............Sorry that I gave the impression they'd cut me off totally before my 40 hour grace period was up.........z
Posted by zardiw, 07-04-2005, 01:02 PM
Yes you DID, and I hope you're HAPPY!!...lol......... But if they hadn't run out of money, and been forced to sell out to VIP, I'd still be a happy camper............... I bet if they had put their money problems to their customers, we would have come up with some way to bail them out. I've always thought that if a bunch of people got together to start a reseller business, and were all say 'shareholders' in the business, it would be he best one around............... If they had come forward with the issues they were having, we could quite possibly have solved them. I figure if a few of the 'deeper pocketed' customers had furnished funds, in exchange for a percentage of the profits, it would have worked.......................z
Posted by Yash-JH, 07-04-2005, 01:44 PM
reseller-center had no cash problems as far as I know.. However they had slow growth and low volumes I know this because before VIP was considering to buy RC, we were too. I had alot of discussions with Mike and their interest was always in the welfare of their customers in any buy out. I don't think that selling to VIP was a bad decision at all, but yes VIP made some mistakes during the migration process which has cost them quite a bit..
Posted by zardiw, 07-04-2005, 02:37 PM
Too bad they didn't go with you Yash.....then I'd still be home......lol....................z
Posted by Eel_Mot, 07-05-2005, 04:37 AM
This past week I learned more about hosting then I really cared to know! And though RC messed up big time, hopefully they will learn from their mistakes. Remember, a few of the really good hosts here also had a rough patch a while back--and they took that experience and improved themselves. And in case anyone is wondering Im w/ Jodo now. It was a tough choice between DIY, Jodo, and HostNexus. But because we wanted HSphere, we had to choose between DIY and Jodo. In the end, we chose Jodo because 1) their website information was clearer, and 2) their forums had some disgruntled posts and they handled it well.
Posted by croco, 07-05-2005, 04:46 AM
I'm thinking to move to Jo But will give RC More 2 weeks 'My last hope they handel all the problmes'
Posted by Groobash, 07-05-2005, 12:01 PM
Prariestar - I think you are extremely lucky, and if you have been keeping up with the R-C board you know you have been extremely lucky. You also know that things are not completely back to normal. There are still DNS issues, webmail issues, etc outstanding. Everyone is just grateful that email is up (for most) and the phone calls from angry clients has stopped. I have started another reseller account with another host, and am waiting to see MarkC's plan for moving forward before migrating my clients. I have no faith in RC/VIP. It's up to them to reassure us that they have everything under control now, and a plan to move forward, including what they're doing to stop this from happening again. Despite all that, if "The Boss" doesn't change his tune drastically I will be leaving anyway. Life's too short to deal with jerkoffs who treat customers like that.
Posted by prairiestar, 07-05-2005, 01:06 PM
Maybe a little luck - mostly prepared. I followed everystep of the purchase and migration very carefully. I've been in the IT business long enough to know that stuff happens and you shouldn't trust ANYTHING you can't control. I backed up everything everyday to a Win 2003 server in my office. I was ready to download current DBs and switch to that server quickly if needed. I immediately submitted a trouble ticket at the first hint of anything being wrong with any of my stuff. All of my tickets were answered in a timely manor. I communicated with my customers early on and at every step of the way. They knew the good, the bad, and the ugly. I didn't lose any customers. The mail was a pain, but for me and my customers that is over now. All of my customers use outlook so the web based clients aren't an issue. As far as continuing problems...I monitored the forum all weekend and there were very few posts with problems. There was a post from someone who was having problems with renaming their DNS at the registar and the problem that DWmail is no longer the default client...The main discussion was some of us RC old timers trying to figure out who had been around the longest. The rest of the threads were regular "development" support issues among resellers. I think most folks had a quite weekend. As far as "The Boss" goes. I just find that he is short and to the point. Also, it seems that maybe English is not his first language which causes some to think he's being rude. I think one of the problems here is that folks got used to posting problems on the forum under the old management and the new guys want trouble tickets sent. I can see their point. I can't imagine that any of the other reseller providers use their forum as the main TT venue for problem resolution. And...yes for me things are pretty much back to normal.
Posted by nardoni, 07-06-2005, 02:15 PM
My site is dependant on CGI scripts, several of customer's sites are also dependant on CGI...before I signed up with RC I checked and was told perl modules "no problem" After their first upgrade attempt my sites were down 8 days becasue they could not get perl to work, they finally got it to work, 3 weeks later the big unplanned migration upgrade fiasco... lies, no communication, rudness and 100% customer no service... sites down again, then the e-mail dead for a week Lost 80% of my customers... then after many requests an e-mail from RC support "Your support request was answered: Created: Jun 28, 2005 3:58:17 PM Last Mod: Jun 30, 2005 1:20:22 PM Assigned To: admin(Admin Account1) [Jun 30, 2005 1:21:41 PM] A: Hello, Unfortunatley we cannot get the modules to install properly as they are not compatible with the release of h-sphere we are running on our new cluster. This would also require many recompiles which will be over written by h-sphere when updates occur. We could only recommend the use of a dedicated server if you need a custom build such as this. Regards, - James " The day after my credit card gets charged on time... never an appology, never an attempt to make good on SLA... never acredit for the down time and hundreds of e-mails lost...never anything anything. "IF you are smart... you will stay away from RC"
Posted by jd123, 07-08-2005, 05:51 AM
prairestar' ---- you are either a very forgiving or very luck person. I am one of the majority (I believe) who has found the service delivered by RC to be rediculously poor over the last month or two. 1) RC support staff are rude !!!! 2) RC communication is non existant or after the fact. 3) RC support staff have attitude. 4) RC environment is unstable from one day to the next. 5) RC support staff are rude. One last thing, did I mention that the support staff ("THeBoss" especially) are rude? BTW - what sort of nob (especially being a support person) calls himself "TheBoss"???? I should have known that we were in trouble when I first saw that our new support person at RC was called "TheBoss". What a tool !
Posted by smithconcepts, 07-08-2005, 03:40 PM
There actually is a way to move site studio websites from one host to another however it does require root access by both hosts to backup and restore the files.
Posted by cartika-andrew, 07-08-2005, 03:43 PM
I have actually heard that - and our admin here says he can pull this off (hes a magician, so, Ill take his word for it) - but, we have yet to meet a provider who is losing a reseller to us offer us root access on their cluster
Posted by buckROGERSfn, 07-08-2005, 04:54 PM
I don't know if I would call "TheBoss" a tool...sometimes tools can be useful. This guy has never proven to be of any use.
Posted by smithconcepts, 07-08-2005, 05:28 PM
It is actually a pretty easy process just time intensive, it might be possible to trick the other company into giving the customer a backup of the files for "backup reasons" but I don't know of a company that would do it if they know why.
Posted by demostorm, 07-08-2005, 05:29 PM
Sorry to hear about RC. Had an account with them a couple years back and they were pretty good. Makes you wonder. Having been around for awhile you see so many highly touted companies go south. Seems like it only takes time to sort out the real stable ones.
Posted by tsystems, 07-08-2005, 07:23 PM
Well, I for one am embarrassed to have taken part in the threads over at the RC forums. I can't condemn the behavior of the owners having witnessed the the behavior of the customers. Cussing, name calling, vindictiveness, it may not have been a complete breakdown in civility, but it was not any fine example of humanity. I will now be taking site studio off of my plans because no migration is a show-stopper. I think that all providers will eventually have an episode of substandard service. In fact, I think that the quality of a provider will ebb and surge over time and that it is up to me the reseller to protect my customers from being damaged by it. It is just the state of the industry. I would help a customer migrate away from me. I feel that helping them to leave gracefully is part of the service that I offer. If a lot of time was involved, I would charge my normal hourly rate, nothing more.
Posted by jd123, 07-08-2005, 07:46 PM
I think that all providers will eventually have an episode of substandard service. .... It is just the state of the industry." tsystems - your attitude in this regard does nothing at all for the Reseller industry. If we allow and accept substandard service in this industry to go on, then it just sets an unacceptable precedent for other WebHosts to follow. The standard are RC has been WELL BELOW PAR for some time now. Good hosts I will commend. Bad hosts (ie RC) I will denounce. I see this as my responsibility to try and ensure that other Resellers do not throw away their hard earned cash on unprofessional organisations such as RC. It is simply NOT ACCEPTABLE to state that "It is just the state of the industry" and let RC off the hook that easily. Many of us Resellers at RC have lost a lot of clients and money over this debacle. You should really think more about your comments before posting next time.
Posted by cartika-andrew, 07-08-2005, 08:08 PM
Hi Brian, considering you are a client of ours, I obviously find this to be an interesting statement - however, I will treat this as a challenge, vs anything negative From your comments, and our interactions - you seem to be quite a resonable individual and client. You have only been a client for a relatively short time, however, I ask that you keep me updated, especially if & when something negative happens. In this industry, you cannot avoid problems - you can only take measures to minimize their impact, communicate effectively and improve upon previous performances. Next time we have an issue (**knocking on wood that this never happens ) - please drop me an email directly to andrew[at]cartikahosting.com and let me know 1) how well you think we handled it and 2) how you feel we couldve improved. Im in agreement with jd123 - I do not believe unreliable performance and subpar or intermittent standards should apply to this industry. Pricing and value added services both play a role in a companies long term prospectous - but, there are several other intangibles which contribute to long term success and viable partnerships. Last edited by cartika-andrew; 07-08-2005 at 08:12 PM.
Posted by Cahl, 07-08-2005, 08:27 PM
It is not actually that easy. There's only two people who I know can pull a flawless sitestudio migration off. I am not talking about taking a CP server and restoring it to another server nor a partial restore using select files from the "backup" created by the source host. Your example just will not give you the result that you're discussing. The process is one that not even Positive Software will attempt. (They'll state it's not possible) R'gds Dean
Posted by buckROGERSfn, 07-08-2005, 08:39 PM
You have the cart before the horse here. The customers got rude as a result of service going to crap with zero communication from RC staff. Then, when customers questioned the issues they were greeted with attitudes when the support staff did answer. The new owners are being held to the standards of the previous owners. So far, they're failing miserably. That's why I have jumped ship - and why everyone I have spoken to has either already done so or will be doing so soon.
Posted by cartika-andrew, 07-08-2005, 10:13 PM
Dean is absolutely correct - there are only a handful of people that can pull this off... Just for interest sake - here is the process... Make sure both SiteStudios are the same versions of SiteStudio (obviously an issue if you need to get either host to upgrade - particularly your old host) data is stored in: /hsphere/shared/SiteStudio/var/websites/xxxx.website.data /hsphere/shared/SiteStudio/var/websites/xxxx/ xxxx being your sitestudio account on your old hosts control panel. Get this data. Then setup your account and sitestudio with your new host. Ask your new host to replace the data you got changing the xxxx of your old file to be the number of your new file. After you are done, restart sitestudio. Login to the sitestudio account and refresh the images to link to your new alias url. Polls, guestbooks, counters are a different story. They are stored in a seperate postgres databases. In theory, these can be extracted and migrated, but just easier to create those from scratch. This is really the tough part, as there are only so many reasons you would ask for this data - typically, this is the sort of data a host backs up for you.
Posted by tsystems, 07-10-2005, 12:19 AM
Here let me clarify what I am getting at. Currently as customers we REACT when something goes wrong, screaming, yelling and what not. We need to become PROACTIVE. We need to voice our concerns before they become complaints. We also need to take actions to mitigate the risks ourselves. We can't wait for the hosts to do everything because there is not enough incentive for them. We all know that one size does not fit all and the hosts target the balance of reliability vs cost on vague assumptions. We can clarify what we expect. I would be happy to go into details, but not on this thread. What I need is to find the other Resellers that need this stuff too. So that we can compare notes and share experiences. I managed to loose zero customers with all of the RC migration problems. I even managed to raise rates. It was a royal pain and took many many hours to pull off. I would be happy to share what I tried and what worked and what didn't. I think of the reseller industry as a graduating high school class with high cholesterol. I believe in them but I think they need a lot of criticism. Andrew: Yes, things are going excellent with your hosting. But I am currently in a "Once bit twice shy." state of mind. I will get around to letting you address my concerns, but right now I have to take the kids swimming.