After seeing PC Mag's Review, I had decided to give Interland a try. But this morning 9:30 am Pacific time, Thursday, May 18, I could not access their site. Anyone know what is going on?

Usually when Interland's main site is down it is due to one of two reasons... 1... the server is being rebooted. 2... there is a backbone issue which will not allow traffic between you and the Interland server. Though I have seen plenty of negative comments about Interland, I have not noticed anything wrong myself. We host our website with them and it has yet to go down. (Knock on wood) As for the support, sure I used to stay on hold for an hour or so, but lately it has been nothing but the best. Anyhow, hope your experience is as good as mine!

Originally posted by triumph595:
You have to work out the solution yourself and then send them instructions on how to fix it, otherwise they don't actual perform a fix, they just fudge a standard answer.

And you call this support?? Sounds like you are the support for them, not the other way around!

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tk

Whoops! There goes another $.02!

Davids, if you are going to make Interland sound whiter than white, at least do it from an IP address outside the Interland network (see http://www.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl).

In all fairness to Interland, when they get it right, their service is the one of the best I've seen, and at an affordable price. I work on the adage of better the devil you know and have hosted with them for 2 years. Sure, I have gremlins at the beginning of an account, in fact I expect to get them (from any hosting provider), but once the service is set up, things tend to be pretty stable.

However, be wary of their sign up procedure. As they used the wrong domain name on one of my recent sign ups, and basically caused a mass panic to get it put right. I've yet to see if they have double billed me as yet, if they do they will get a stern warning from AMEX about it (as they've already been notified).

The main problem with Interland that I have seen is that you cannot send them a query. You have to work out the solution yourself and then send them instructions on how to fix it, otherwise they don't actual perform a fix, they just fudge a standard answer. This is OK for people like myself, who has a fundamental understanding of the technologies involved, but I feel sorry for the people who are having their first stab at it.

I like their server package, what can I say. Like I said, I've hosted with them for 2 years, and am generally happy. When it goes tits-up, I don't expect them to be able to fix it without me telling them exactly how I want it fixed. This is the same with all suppliers, maybe I'm just a control freak!

Basically, I don't trust other peoples knowledge or capability to do a task until they have proved it. Therefore, if I am communicating with an anonymous support department, when I haven't spoken to that person before, I don't expect them to know the ins and outs of my setup and I do expect them to listen. I call it managing your supplier, instead of them managing me.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by triumph595:
[B]Davids, if you are going to make Interland sound whiter than white, at least do it from an IP address outside the Interland network

Triumph, this made me laugh out loud. I've spent all day trying to research web hosts for a smallish business I'm starting up. It's so hard to know how much to trust the reviews you read out here, especially when there's only a few. Scoping the guy's WHOIS was brilliant and funny.

Interland's still on my short list, but not at the top of it, so far.

newto this---Try using the search function at the top of this forum for Interland.
You will find several topics.....Im sure.
Good luck.

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HostCaters--We Cater Hosting
www.hostcaters.com (http://www.hostcaters.com)

You may want to take Interland off your list altogether. Please see http://www.webhostingtalk.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000252.html

And do a search in the alt.www.webmaster group via Deja.com, and you'll find some recent threads regarding Interland's problems.

Hey, thank you folks! Especially for the link, Duster. I've done a lot of research and emailing in the last few days, and I-land is no longer under (my) consideration, for whatever my somewhat-educated-newbie opinion is worth.

You're welcome. As of yesterday, Interland has been nominated to the RBL (Realtime Black List). If accepted, it means e-mail from any domain hosted on their servers will not be accepted by about 40% of ISP's Internet servers (about the amount that subscribe to RBL). It's a consequence of dealing with services that support spammers.

>>Realtime Black List

Ye Godz and little fishes, as Granny used to say. Wrong place to be tossing up my fresh little domain, sounds like.

I'm glad to hear it, though. I loathe spam.

Duster,

From what I've learned from the RBL (http://maps.vix.com/rbl), they only block specific mailservers for their members. So if you are referring to the spam you received by some marketing company hosted @ interland (can't remember the URL, sorry), the RBL will probably only block their smtp service IP. I may be wrong, which wouldn't be the first time!

I suspect the RBL will only block a whole hosting company if they have a large number of people spamming from their system (I don't have evidence to say Interland has, so cannot comment), but not sure if this is the case in this instance. Naturally, I'd be a little peeved if my mail ip was blocked because of it (in fact I'm monitoring it on a regular basis).

TTFN

While neither of us can presume to speak for MAPS, their stated policies make it clear that all of Interland is likely to be black listed in an effort to get Interland to cooperate in the prevention of spam.

from RBL"
The MAPS (Mail Abuse Prevention System LLC) RBL(Realtime Blackhole List) is a list of hosts and networks which are known to be friendly, or at least neutral, to abusers of those networks either to originate or relay spam or to provide spam support services.

It also says:
Blackholing Due to Spam Support Services

In addition to those domains which originate or relay spam, organizations providing spam support services are eligible for listing in the RBL. "Spam support services" includes:
(i) hosting web pages which are promoted by spam;
(ii) providing e-mail drop boxes or autoresponders which are promoted by spam;
(iii) providing resources such as DNS services, banner ads, hit counters, script processing and form handling services to sites promoted by spam;
(iv) providing software or services for distributing spam;
(v) hosting web pages or otherwise providing connectivity tothose who provide software or services for distributing spam;
(viii) providing software or services to acquire e-mailaddresses by any means other than confirmed opt-in methods,e.g., harvesting addresses from web pages, newsgroup articles, and online directories, or mining addresses using "dictionary attacks" or automated processes for the purpose of deriving e-mail addresses without the knowledge and consent of the owners of those e-mail addresses; or (ix) continuing to provide service or access to customers providing spam support services after such activity has been brought to the access provider's attention.

... (in other words we have blackholed AOL's mail relays on more than one occasion.)

There's plenty of money to be made in the ISP
business, you don't need to take every customer in order to prosper, and spammers will cost you a lot more money in the long run than they will ever pay you.

We may find all of Interland listed in RBL as long as they continue to host spamware sites in violation of their own hypocritical polices against spam.