anyone expienced hostforweb?

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Posted by apachedave, 07-09-2004, 11:24 PM
hello everyone, I would like to hear comments about the above company as I am about to signup thanks Apache
Posted by Lubby, 07-09-2004, 11:30 PM
Did you do a search for them on this forum first? Send some presales emails to test knowledge and speed. Ask questions first signup later. Doing that backwards always leads to problems.
Posted by JenniH, 07-10-2004, 08:19 AM
For us: Pretty stable, virtually no downtime, pretty good support responses. I think you'll find they have a good reputation on here, and from our experiences, it is merited.
Posted by DDT, 07-10-2004, 10:26 AM
Excellent, stable, reputable, and cares about their customers. Support is 24/7/365 by ticket/800#/or chat. Since this is a reseller forum I will note that if you go VPS you may be asked to submit a ticket for complex issues and it might take a bit longer because only server management support (same as their dedicated server support) handles out-of-the-ordinary VPS issues. Do a search here, you will find many good things and no "horror" posts. They had a few datacenter problems about 2 years ago that took about a month to fully resolve for all customers as they moved everything to a different datacenter, how long & how big of a problem it was seemed to depend on which server and where you were in the moving process. They don't oversell, offer "too good to be true" deals, and if there is any downtime for maintenance or such they inform everybody well in advance and do it in the 2am range on a slow day. We have had great uptime, maybe not 100% but in that 99.5%+ range everybody promises. (100% for me as long as I can remember without straining my brain or counting 7 minutes down a little while back for a datacenter problem. No servers went down but connections were interrupted to the section of the datacenter where HFW [and other servers] are, while the DC did a restart on whatever tripped on their end) When I was a shared reseller there they had a very pro-active approach to trying to balance server loads. If someone was using a lot of resources slowing service on a server they were always quick to offer to move anyone affected to a new server if they couldn't indentify the customer causing the slowdowns & move them right away. But they were always watching for things like that to keep everybody at a decent level of performance. If you are new most of the support people are fairly patient with "dummy" questions. Not calling you dumb but everybody has some questions when they are new that they look back on later and think "was that ever dumb?". Also if you are a reseller they have a private forum (hidden) for resellers, VPS, etc. where you can ask anything that you might not want a potential customer to know that you had to ask, and usually get all kinds of help with things from other resellers & VPS & dedicated users. Only downside if there is one, is they seem to be growing at the maximum pace where they can maintain service. I was told they hired 3 new techs in the last month due to increased demand for VPS. They also have a kind-of bland web site when compared to many and they price a little differently than most so you may need to get a calculator to be sure you are getting "apples to apples" but if you do their pricing is competitive, Last edited by DDT; 07-10-2004 at 10:33 AM.
Posted by apachedave, 07-10-2004, 11:08 AM
DDT thanks so much for your detailed explanation actually I talked to a friend of mine today on the phone and he said more or less the same things you mentioned. I will definetely signup with them and see what happens next. I am not gonna host many clients there so hopefully this will be good enough i think thanks again
Posted by asmar, 07-10-2004, 06:51 PM
I have a reselling account with hostforweb and here is my review.... 1.Very long delays on domain resolving 2.Many times you need to ask the same thing 2-3 times in order to get a proper answer 3.Not good uptime 4.Very slow email server Apart from the above they have many good options like unlimited domains, cpanel etc Hope that helps
Posted by DDT, 07-10-2004, 07:14 PM
asmar, Please PM me your "handle, on their Reseller forums. I would be interested to see your complaints & their responses there. When I was a basic reseller there we never faced any of the issues you mentioned except oveall slow response on one server after I had aquired quite a few accounts. One support ticket and I was moved (by them, no action needed on my part, and no request, they offered to do it) to a different server within 24 hours and never experienced the "slow" problems again. Also experienced 100% uptime on that server until I moved to my own server, still with them. Mine did not relate to Email in certain but just a general "slowdown" of my account's performance. On their reseller forums I have only seen uptime complaints regarding 1 certain shared reseller server and those have not been significant. Nothing personal about your "handle" there, just wondering if you were the same one who had complained about their uptime on their forum.
Posted by apachedave, 07-10-2004, 09:47 PM
DDT you said you used to have a basic reseller plan with hostforweb. You don't have it anymore? Why? changed company? Let me know. thanks APACHE
Posted by Yikes2000, 07-11-2004, 06:00 AM
I believe he moved up to a VPS account.
Posted by apachedave, 07-11-2004, 08:02 AM
HELLO, can you please tell me the advantages of moving up to a VPS? sorry if this sounds a STUPID question but I am trying to study as much as I can thanks DAVE
Posted by asmar, 07-11-2004, 08:45 AM
Any time that I am logging on through SSH, I will have to wait as much as 20-40 seconds between prompts even for simple commands like cp,ls,mv etc. I send an email in the past to the company saying about the poor performance and the answer that I took was "I will solve this issue" and after that the only difference that I seen was a reboot on the server. Obviously there are too many domains on the server; even from a simple top command you can see the huge load on the server. I have also monitoring my sites and the uptime was 99.56% the last month but many times I am experienced browser time outs even when the server is up and running. The main issue is the domain solving which sometimes needs 7-10 sec until the client be able to see the page. DDT I don't think that I was the one that wrote that on the forums but I am not sure as it's been a while.
Posted by DDT, 07-11-2004, 10:29 AM
Apachedave, There are a huge number of posts on several threads here about the advantages of VPS over shared reseller. Very basically with a good VPS you will get: 1. Full root access 2. Guaranteed minimum resources such as RAM & CPU 3. Ability to customize your account as root, add or modify programs or plugins etc. to suit yourself. (One other reason for us was a site that needed a unique php plugin the "average" user wouldn't and that could have been a security problem if there was some "bad boy" script junkie on the shared and they had installed it on the whole "shared" server). No problem on VPS, we installed it on our instance of php and we could monitor if any of our clients were trying to abuse it. (We don't have a ton of end-clients like a host would have when you look at all the domains on all the shared accounts on a shared server) 4. Overall faster response usually. VPS is basically a step between shared where you take what the package offers, and dedicated where you control it all. Most VPS plans give you 98% of the control of dedicated but with the support of shared. You arent the one worrying about security, monitoring server uptime, or other such responsibilities of having your own server. 5. Be sure your VPS provider doesn't oversell or all these wonderful features are worthless. They have to limit the VPS accounts per box to keep from bumping people down to their minimums all the time (or worse) VPS takes high-end boxes with lots of resources to deliver great service. And most importantly those guaranteed minimums so depending on your plan you will know that no matter what some space hog might be running on their account you always have XXXRAM and XXXCPU for your use even in a worst case scenario. With shared its just that, if enough stuff is running you might only be getting 20MB Ram or something, any VPS plan will guarantee 128 and good ones guarantee 1GB. And yes, I was one of the first if not the first one to upgrade when HFW started offering VPS and am now trying to decide between adding a second VPS there or moving to a managed/dedicated with them. asmar, Just ask to be moved to another server (wait until Monday) or submit another ticket fully explaining your problem. From your writing it seems english may be a second language for you and there may have been a misunderstanding of exactly the problems you were having. Also consider that (I may be wrong) I believe SSH should be much faster on a VPS because you are not sharing the login (it's your own IP and OS). If you use SSH a lot maybe a VPS would be a better solution for you. Last edited by DDT; 07-11-2004 at 10:36 AM.
Posted by apachedave, 07-11-2004, 12:11 PM
DDT thanks so much for your reply. I have been with HFW for already several days and everything seems to be fine. I have emailed them several times and the response to my tickets was pratically immediate. As for now I will go ahead and keep this reseller package for a while until i get more familiar with the overall situation. How many domains or websites should i consider to host on the basic reseller plan? I know it might be a stupid question but I believe no more than 10 or 15 websites right? If everything goes ok, do you suggest me to upgrade to a VPS? Will HFW handle and move everything for me? thanks again for your cooperation. really appreciated APACHE DAVE
Posted by DDT, 07-11-2004, 01:44 PM
Smart move. Stay with reseller until you are very familiar with all the basic functions of creating plans, accounts, etc. Then the "extras" of VPS won't seem overwhelming. If you are new to HFW be sure to get them to enable your access to the private forums. Everone there is always willing to help. I know this sounds like a "smart" answer but I always tell people "if you don't know why you need VPS you probably don't". The number of domains you can handle on a reseller are affected by too many things to list but basics are things like how much traffic & simultaneous users they have, as well as how resource-intensive their sites are. For example if your hosting websites like for a local restuarant that just has some basic images & text and a "special of the week"...like 5 or 6 pages but really a "static" site you could host a lot of them with no problem. Get some sites with a lot of sql use like forums/chat/mambo/ etc. or other things that require repeat database calls or sites that are getting hundreds of visitors a day, or maybe a site or two where someone can download something, and the numbers go down fast. I hope that helps you get an idea. Basically when you need something regular shared doesn't offer or you notice things are slowing down for you and your customers, it's time to make the move. The price difference isn't that much so once you have some client base it shouldn't matter. HFW support is great. They will move everything when you upgrade from anything to anything else, a bigger reseller plan, or VPS (VPS has your own IPs, so you will have to change your name server IPs with your registrar) but that's about it. All your settings should make the trip too. (I did have to make a few "tweaks" because the VPS WHM didn't pick up some things I had "tweaked" in the reseller WHM...no biggie.) For now, relax, enjoy their reseller forum for your "getting started" questions, and expect support to be just the way you experienced it the as the rule, not the exception.
Posted by apachedave, 07-11-2004, 10:48 PM
HELLO DDT I have a question for you. As a reseller at HFW, they gave me a dedicated IP and a shared IP. All the websites I am hosting for my clients are on the shared IP. Do you know why they do this? thanks DAVE
Posted by DDT, 07-11-2004, 11:08 PM
This could probably be better answered on their forums or maybe by someone with more knowledge than me. My guess is on "shared" reseller the first IP is the same for everyone on the "shared" server. The second one is the IP that identifies your account on the server. This configuration allows you to have "branded" name servers like NS1.YOURDOMAIN.COM AND NS2.YOURDOMAIN.COM instead of having to use the HFW name servers. Not all companies offer this but many (like HFW) do. It's a nice option because your customers set their domains to "your" name and aren't as likely to find out they might be able to get the same thing you are offering from your host for the same price. It doesn't really "hide" you. It is better than using their name servers but if someone does a lookup that block of IPs still belongs to HFW. (Anybody with a better understanding of this correct me as needed, please)
Posted by apachedave, 07-12-2004, 01:27 AM
HI DDT i thought of this anyway I believe it is a good explanation. I will send a ticket to them and ask anyway. I am located in China and I noticed that in the early morning china time the ping to my server is around 280ms but during the day or night time it reaches up to 390ms...is it a problem of my internet carrier or what? APACHE
Posted by DDT, 07-12-2004, 09:39 AM
Now this is a REAL guess on my part but probably one of 2 things. (1)What's the time difference between where you are and here? It could be night there and the busy time of day here. Or (better guess I think) (2) With so much US-China trade & business & the time difference when it's night there is pobably when a lot of business data is being transferred and the overseas carriers get slower. Your ping time probably has nothing to do with HFW but the total Internet traffic between here and there. To be sure you can use some ping utilities that ping your site from multiple locations to give you an average time.
Posted by apachedave, 07-12-2004, 09:59 AM
DDT I did what you said..it seems right. Probably the traffic is word to speak. thanks so much regards APACHE