I'm currently with Vservers and during an attempt to switch to a Hostpro plan (freedom 500), I was informed that I'd have to pay an additional $20US for each of the virtual hosts on the server. Since there are 175 of them, that's a whole lot of cash. Considering I'm in Canada, that would be about $4500 to upgrade to a new virtual system.

They said that the fee is needed to update the zone file with the new IP address as the physical machine is being changed. So in effect, I'm being charged double the original fee for these VH's. $20 each to originally add 'em and another $20 to change to another plan.

I suggested that I supply them with a script to do a search and replace on the zone file to swap the old IP for the new one. They rejected, insisting that the only way to swap servers is if I pay them $20 for each of my virtual hosts.

After being informed of all of the outdated software on the server, I felt that a swap was only necessary. However, paying that much money is just not possible and is outright highway robbery.

I have been looking around for a new host but I'm not exactly sure where to go. I'd like to stay with HostPro as it would make life a lot easier. But paying $4500 to stay with a virtual system or $1000US/month for a dedicated system is just out of the question. Switching hosts would mean changing the nameserver on all 175 domain names which would be extremely tedious but if its absolutely necessary, I'll do it.

I'm not out to bash HostPro seeing as though we've been with them for about 3 years no but our history isn't about to help the problem.

So if anyone has any suggestions of what I can do, please let me know as I'm all out of ideas.

Thanks.

Aloha,
well I am in a similiar fix with hostpro dealing with em for over 4 years and they recently went down hill on support
if ya have 175 domains why not go with your own server ??
depends on how much admin ya want I guess but maybe try out efreeservers.com or another dediccated server and that way you will not have per site fees ?
try to get one with some kind of control panel that will be easy to admin (might help not sure your unix level ?)

do they use much bandwith ??
I know that vservers can charge a lot for added bandwith ??

for dedicated box
I am looking at
efreeservers
and they have a deal at rackspace.com
http://www.rackspace.com/promo/150_linux.php
good service with them and it is managed so would be no updates etc.. on your end
also buying a server adn having it colo somewhere ?


anyway keep us posted

3 years with them and they won't cut you some slack? $20 per domain is a bit extreme, I would think. Changing DNS zone files is simple, but it does take a minute per file or so. If you were to write a script it would make the job much easier, but I think $20 a pop is too much. I would think a bulk price for all 175 domains would be more like it (something like $100 or something since it _does_ take time to do manually). I just pulled that value outta the air to make a point.

Just my two cents... :D

I had to move the IP addr's of 1800 + domains recently. A script took 1/2 an hour to write and 10 seconds to execute; even at $100 per hour rate this would still be lucrative for HostPro to do.

I have definitely been thinking of getting a dedicated server and have looked at Rackspace in the past.

Honu, I had a look at the server that you suggested at Rackspace. Would that system be able to handle 175+ domains? All the virtual hosts combined don't get a lot of traffic. I'm just worried that if its too much for the system, I'd need to upgrade to another server -- like the Linux Pro maybe?

Thank you for your help on this!

Aloha,
I would say so easily especially if you are on a vserver acount and have that many websites going then that box would be no prob think there are most likely over a thousand accounts on a vserver

have you said move em or loos em kind of thing to them ??

sounds like they will not be using tons of bandwith so that box should not be a prob

I talke to a rackspace guy about it
extra bandwith is $3 when pre bought and $3.50 when y ajust let it run over they have a way of monitoring it so ya know what you will need
the other thing is that there is 1 ip with the account and extra ip's wil be $2 per month so if not to many of your sites will need a static ip (cert or anono ftp)
then that shouldn't be to bad
It comes with webmin for the interface not sure if you are familiar with it http://www.webmin.com
so I have been thinking a rackspace managed server
for $150 base price
5 ip # $10
lets say you use 40 more gigs of bandwith if you can pre buy half of that 20x3=60 the other goes over 20x3.5=70
so you have $130 for bandwith just short of $300 not a bad deal really for teh service and reliability they offer

for the same price you ca get 200 gigs of traffic at efreeservers and your own machine with scsi and more ram able to run duals etc.. for same price but you will have to manage it yourself??

how many vserver accounts do you have you 175 spread accross it sounds like they are all on 1 the way you mentione dupgrading your account ??
I knwo the original vserver "unlimited accounts" throttle you big time at 15 gigs transfer then your site basically becomes useless after that (that is straight from them)


pros rackspace is very good at tech and uptime
cons only ide hd (would have to pay for bu services ?)

Honu, thank you for all of your advice. We have never been charged for additional bandwidth on our Vserver account so I'm assuming its below the limit. I'm only guessing but all of the websites combined maybe get a maximim of about 10,000 hits per month.

I'm not too sure about the IP addresses. How do I figure out how many I need? None of the sites need to have static IP's, I'm pretty sure of that.

Perhaps it would be a good idea for me to call them to see what server would be best.

Thank you again for your suggestions!

Aloha well if you are on a shared host and none of the sites are using a certificate then you will be OK
I would get 2 more
this is just me
I would want to run my admin stuff under a ip that I do not have any webistes attacehed to
then a second one for my main parent site then the 3rd one for teh rest of the sites

another reason you would need a static is to move accounts over ann test first so there is no down time
if they are fairly static sites not wiht a database at all you should be fine you should be able to preview them cna not remember how at this time ??

yeah if you are under total 10,000 hits (I assume you mean page views ??) anyway that server will be breating super easy with lots of room to grow
I do not think you would need more of a box and with that amount of trafic chances are you will not go ver the alloted 10 gig transfer and if you do only by a bit ;)=

so keep us posted at what you do
my feeling is the rackspace would be great for y a as they will help ya set up accoutns etc...
as the guy on the phone told me well hold your hand the whole way
the one guy I talked to was greg rice at 1-800-961-2888 xt 1009
(no I do not get anything he just sounded cool so ???passing it along)

Just to update people on this situation. My boss spoke to the head of sales at HostPro and she said that they'd give us the first 10 virtual hosts for free and a month free hosting. My boss was like, that's not fair. The lady called back today and told us that they are going to do the upgrade to the Freedom 500 for NOTHING!

So after doing research on a bunch of other companies, looks like we're staying with HostPro. Unless something crazy happens.

I suppose that when a situation like this happens, its always good to talk to someone at the head of the department 'cuz the regular sales reps can't do anything to help.