Any one know how old Daniel Conlon
is with Donhost?

man this guy doesnt have a clue does he.

Do a search on the forum.....

He's probably about 50 now, schizophrenia does strange things to people ;)

Plenty of readin' material when you "search DonHost" :D

Originally posted by k9brian
Any one know how old Daniel Conlon
is with Donhost?

man this guy doesnt have a clue does he. Age is irrelevant... There are a few people on these boards who are younger who I would, and in fact do trust because their attitude is spot on.

Not this particular person granted, but I thought it was worth mentioning as there really are some fresh faces out there who have a clue and are very good at what they do.

Originally posted by WebSnail.net
Age is irrelevant... There are a few people on these boards who are younger who I would, and in fact do trust because their attitude is spot on.

Not this particular person granted, but I thought it was worth mentioning as there really are some fresh faces out there who have a clue and are very good at what they do.

you talking about me right? :D

Don't be silly, he is of course - talking about me :)

Regards

Craig

Wish he was talking about me. . . . . . . . .:unhappy:

Well until you have dealt with Daniel and his sudden childish out bursts of (what he calls management) I guess you wouldnt think age is relevent.

Unless he is how we might say going senile there there is another thing to maybe look at.

Hmm, perhaps I should clarify for all you guessing about "was it me?" :D

You know who you are...

As for Mr Conlon, I will not get personal simply because professionalism restrains my comments. I think it's no secret however that I believe certain improvements could be made regarding Donhost's customer relations especially in the area of communication to resellers.

I will say however that I went through 6 weeks with Donhost and dealt with Daniel and Adam. Adam was communicative, helpful and polite throughout. You can read between the lines on this one.

Bottom line, I will not use their service nor recommend it.

Originally posted by k9brian
Well until you have dealt with Daniel and his sudden childish out bursts of (what he calls management) I guess you wouldnt think age is relevent.

Again, another case of seeing only one side of the story.

You're offering nothing in the way of substance than other threads flaming other hosts are producing. It's my guess that Daniel has given up on WHT though, so you're probably on a safe bet.

What led to these "sudden childish outbursts"?

I have not seen one person present anything of any substance against Donhost, that shows them not delivering as per their offer. Now I realise the whole Donhost thing is a thorn in some people's side, and so we see the usual "how old is Daniel Conlon" line and the usual people jump onto the bandwagon, but I'll defend Daniel/Donhost until something ever happens that changes my opinion. After all, nearly a year of fine service from Donhost is something of substance.

Is there another host offering a comparable, sustained offer?

Gary

Originally posted by Editor
I have not seen one person present anything of any substance against Donhost, that shows them not delivering as per their offer. hello again Gary... Wigan wasn't it? :)

We've been over this before regarding delivering what I considered a sub standard service and it's such a worn topic that there's no need to re-visit it. That said it was a genuine issue and I'm not going to get drawn into a "personal" diatribe. I did find that Daniel was abrupt and his confidence could use a boost as he seemed to take any criticism of his sudden changes very personally.

That said, the old "age" thing is definitely a daft one... it's personality and professional attitude that matter. Hopefully my own input on this one hasn't been interpreted as being for the "only XX years old... Pah! youngsters! No experience" :)

I know from experience that that just isn't true. Although I've yet to meet an 8 year old who I'd consider employing :D

Origanlly posted by Editor
I'll defend Daniel/Donhost

You asked for it :rolleyes:

I have a big problem with the whole DonHost Reseller plan.
Although he offers an extremely attractive reselling oportunity; I find the "Charges for using more than allocated bandwidth" part very disturbing indeed.
I think Daniel is a shrewd businessman. It appears to me that he offers bandwidth in hopes that the user will go over, and thus incur a large surcharge. I believe it is somewhere around $25GB USD at the present time.
If he offered a way to control the resellers resold accounts, when it comes to diskspace/bandwidth, I would have to agree that it is a good plan.
But, the fact that his user panel can, in no way temporarily suspend a resold account; I find it a deceptive business practice on DonHost's part.
Of course, he's in the business to make money, but this part of his plan needs to be better.

Just my views. . . . .

Originally posted by AnIdiot
But, the fact that his user panel can, in no way temporarily suspend a resold accountI suspect Gary will be in a better position to answer this than me as I don't have a control panel access anymore (I left after all) to check this...

BUT... I'm reasonably sure that there is a bandwidth limit option in the reseller control panel that allows you to limit the amount each account can use...

You would have problems suspending an account granted but with regards to your bandwidth issue i think you may be wrong. If anyone can confirm/deny this it would obviously help.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by WebSnail.net
[B]hello again Gary... Wigan wasn't it? :)

G'day. Yeah...but there's always next season. :-)

This is just something I feel pretty strongly about, for no other reason than I know of 3 Donhost resellers (ourselves included obviously) who have had nothing but great service.

You wont normally find me knocking anything (except for one Tacid thread), but I'll speak loud and clearly about something that I can confidently defend. You know there's nothing in it for me...I pay the same Donhost bill as anyone else. But I do so gladly, because I can't speak highly enough about them.

The moment I made that post above, a three page email arrived from Donhost. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but when I see things like load balancing, greater speed and new control panel (with new templates), it all looks good.

Cheers

Gary

Originally posted by AnIdiot
I have a big problem with the whole DonHost Reseller plan.

That's my point. So do alot of people, apparently. But nobody has produced anything other than assumptions and guesswork as to why they have this problem.

You find the "Charges for using more than allocated bandwidth" disturbing....why? Did you exceed them and cop a bill? The excess charges are there in black and white. There's nothing deceptive about charging excess. Have you seen the price of bandwidth in Australia? Try 20c a MB. You'd only get 100MB from Telstra for the same price as a GB in the UK. (roughly...but you get my drift). Take a look at www.webcentral.com.au and see what the biggest player in Australia charges. Brace yourself.

So then clowns like Tacid jump onto these reseller deals, and they offer the world for $20 a year. Fact is, they don't *have* the world to offer in the first place, so when they get shut down who cops the flack...Donhost. That's just plain wrong.

You appear to be taking a shot at Daniel for offering X amount of bandwidth in the hope that a user goes over. Where are you heading with that? That's the silliest thing I've seen said about Donhost. He offers 50GB man...followed up with an excess charge not out of the ordinary for his region...so again I ask, is there another host anywhere offering a comparable, sustained deal?

What control is he supposed to provide resellers with over their own hosted clients? A set bandwidth limit and the function to shut their site down at a nominated limit? That'd work for the hosted client....you think. And you call this a deceptive business practice? How on earth....?

He provides a diskspace and bandwidth monitor. I check ours 2 or 3 times a day. Same as I do the traffic tools on our own server. It's not hard to manage this type of deal...rather than just taking the money in and hoping all goes well.

I can "suspend" a client's account if need be. If they spit out a GB in their first day, when we specify a sensible limit that is in keeping with the price the client pays, then I'd remap the domain. Thankfully only one has gone that way, and when the client discovered how much data was being consumed due to a sudden popularity burst of their content, they were *happy* to move to a more sensible package than expect the world for nothing.

You're welcome to your views mate, as I am mine. But I am yet to see anything other than what I guess can only be called envy, and some sort of fixation about the age of Daniel Conlon, repeatedly presented as evidence that Donhost should be avoided. When I know only too well, that they deliver as promised and support it well.

Cheers

Gary

Originally posted by WebSnail.net
BUT... I'm reasonably sure that there is a bandwidth limit option in the reseller control panel that allows you to limit the amount each account can use...

It's what I would call a "soft limit". It doesn't shut an account down. I've never seen a reseller system that does that, nor would I want to be hosted on one that does. What it does is it shows up the percentage of whatever that soft limit is set to per domain in the data transfer report.

Easy enough to watch over these figures and ensure that all is well.

Cheers

Gary

Originally posted by Editior

. .You're welcome to your views mate. . . . .


Thank you.

Editor: We have had great servie from them as well, I wasnt meaning anyone being childish other than daniel.

Daniel has the occasion to delete accounts on the fly and say he doesnt have to give reason. Or hell delete accounts and Email you a reason later. Which provides for a legal issue on the reslellers end proving to their customer ummm yeah we deleted your account because of:

There have been many out bursts of GOD mode from this guy that I just cant for the life of me think he's an adult.

Adams responses though have always been top line.

There'd have to be a reason for it though? And is it something you could reasonably be expected to have been watching for?

Take the Tacid (again) example...Donhost don't allow warez sites. Not only were their clients into warez, but Tacid themsekf were offering illegal copies of software in their own forum.

I don't buy it that you have had client sites shut down for no reason. And if it's a matter of urgency...say a rogue cgi script crippling a server, then perhaps there wasn't any notice given. There's also a matter of under what impression your clients are. If you're another reseller offering unlimited everything (no offence mate...but it's commonplace these days) then you're asking for trouble.

But anyways, good luck in your ventures.

Gary

Gary,

I applaud your sticking to your guns they way you have but given your comments I feel I now have to give the whole story regarding Daniels treatment of my account and me...

1. I signed up following an initial chat with Daniel on 3rd June 01. via the chat appelet...you: 2 points... :) Ok with regard to tech support what options are there... phone, email, this chat thing?
Daniel: Phone, email, chat
you: ok... thanks
you: Right... with regard to CGI is there a CPU timeout for scripts?
you: .. or a similar cap?
Daniel: No there is not.
This turned out to be 100% false when i received this email on 8th June 01.
> Also, I understand that one of the problems I'm having maybe related to a
> memory cap.
> Does such a cap exist?

On perl scripts there is a maximum run time of 20 seconds and a maximum CPU
time of 2 seconds. There is not memory limit.
On PHP scripts there is a maxinum run time of 20 seconds, a maximum CPU time
of 2 seconds and a maximum memory size of 5Mb.I then queried why I'd been misinformed and the response I got then was this...1. There was no limit at the time you asked the question, as I have said
this limit was added in the last few weeks.Now excuse me but check those dates... I'll give him that he "may have forgotten" when I spoke to him initially but this was plain wrong. It was not until 4th July 01 that I got an apology for this misinformation... And that was from Adam who I have the greatest respect for... No instead what I got from Daniel was thisHi,

If you have a legitimate application that uses more than 2 seconds of CPU
time you want to look at your code. You have a serious problem there
somewhere. The limit has only been added in the last few weeks to kill
looping out cgi scripts and has no effect on legitimate scripts. If you want
to abuse our service with applications that hammer the server you have come
to the wrong place. We provide quality services only.

Kind Regards,

Daniel Conlon
Donhost Ltd.

Ok now for the edification of all you out there this was all emerged when I questioned why an application I've used elsewhere (a commercial one I might add) was dying in the midst of a tar backup. It was not a runaway script, it was not an unknown and it was not contravening ANY rules in the TOS.

Now... this pretty much defined our relationship from this point forward... So I'll move on to my second major problem in the next post...

So we move on to major issue number 2.

The control panel for resellers when it got transferred over to 15 minute cycles, 2 hours cycles and then manual cycles.

On 14th June 01 I send this email... (snipped for relevance)
I've created a bunch of new accounts and married them up with the relevant
domain names but it looks like none of the email boxes I've created under
each account are accessible for some strange reason.

I checked using the pop6.donhost.co.uk as the pop server and all request
authorisation despite the fact that I've checked and even altered the
passwords to make sure I've got the logins correct.

NOTE: new mailboxes created under existing accounts work fine, it's just new
accounts since the downtime.

Is there some kind of check or other possible fault?ResponseThere is no know problem. Make sure you are using username-mail as the pop3
login. If this does not help, send me an example.I then get a whole load of other responses from Daniel to the effect that the problem I've noticed and repeatedly tried to get Daniel/Donhost to recreate are fine and that...."Seems fine to me"I really cannot find a problem. I am having no reports from other users and
can see no reason for any problems. If you just wait after creating an
account before trying to access anything it will all work just fine.And that is just a selection of them... It wasn't until Adam appeared on the scene and went back through what appears to be ALL the email logs to check my issues that I got this on 3rd/4th July 01...I am not disputing that there could be problems with mailboxes, we
anticipated that when making the sudden changes to the panel. If you go to
create a mailbox straight after creating an account then the user does not
yet exist. The mailbox is still created but it owned by root. The user
therefore does not have the necessary permissions to access it. As I say I
have known about this issue for some time but not thought it necessary to
implement a solution as nobody has (to my knowledge) said anything about it.
Now read this... think about it and read it again... Daniel NEVER passed on my reports and I made THREE attempts to get him to try and recreate the problem at his end... He didn't even tell Adam who I can only assume from other correspondence was/is responsible for programming the control panel.

Now, to put you completely in the picture I send multiple emails reporting a problem with their service that has had a direct affect on my customers to the extent that my most valued one... the one who refers half my custom to me by word of mouth, is seriously considering walking... Why... because his account was recently transferred to the Donhost account, and I set up the email account within 5 minutes of creating his user account as I'd done with all my other accounts before the account creation cycle was taken off automatic. It was 2 days before an event my client was running where over 30,000 people would attend and he relies on his email to check last minute details. He was without email for 24 hours because of a KNOWN issue that Daniel chose to ignore

So, before I hear one more word about people having NO significant problem with the service I'd like you to consider that my business nearly lost half its customers in 48 hours because of this...

I have avoided this in the past simply because it would take this long to air the issue properly and even then I've had to edit the whole thing down.

And finally, for the record I have never been anything less than cordial, polite but persistant in ANY of my dealings with Donhost... The only time I did anything against TOS was when I sent out a group email on a mailing list for an event I ran in my first 3 days on the account. As soon as I was informed by Daniel that it was against the rules I was a little shocked as I'd read the marketing spiel that indicated it was a feature but missed the rule against it in the TOS. I never did it again!

So, in conclusion my treatment was similar to that of an idiot... When I pressed for resellers to be kept better informed of what changes were taking place I was told in no uncertain terms that this was not company policy. I agreed to disagree.

So, to reiterate my point. I had SERIOUS problems with the way in which I was treated by Donhost, specifically with regard to Daniels treatment of my account, my reporting of errors and his overall business practice.

He never did anything dishonest or illegal but in my book if he continues to run his business in the manner which has seen me (and at least 6 other resellers who contacted me personally) leave then I'd say that he has some serious re-thinking to do.

I'm sorry if this sounds personal but I lost a lot of sleep and faith in suppliers thanks to the experience I had and I'm sure Marc at McHost and Craig of Flump.net would tell you that I tend to have a hairtrigger response now to the slightest whiff of possible trouble. I hope however that they would view my custom as welcome and any comments I make as fair and reasonable.

So, with the greatest respect Gary I believe I have demonstrated just cause for my negative opinions as you have demonstrated your own experiences to be positive. This is not however a case of me "having done something wrong" to warrant the treatment I received so I would appreciate it if you would please not treat it as if it were. Your comments...I am yet to see anything other than what I guess can only be called envy, and some sort of fixation about the age of Daniel Conlon, repeatedly presented as evidence that Donhost should be avoided... seem to indicate the I was just blowing hot air and I trust that was perhaps I have misinterpreted but given the above I hope you can now appreciate that my complaint has been genuine and serious enough to warrant your consideration as a real and substantial reason for pointing out Donhost as being less than the ideal option.

*deep breath*...

Ok, I've said my piece on this matter and whilst I may be expected to offer one or two small additional comments that's it for me and my references to Donhost.

Note: Gary, this is not and never has been a personal attack, I just want to set the record 100% straight

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles mate, and I can appreciate your clients' concern if there's no email.

The latest update to come out goes over the issues surrounding immediate creation of new accounts, how this was done in the past, how it had to be done just recently, and how it is going to be done after 18 August.

To be honest, I had never known it had ever changed. By the time we verify a payment, create an account, and generate a lengthy "Welcome" email with most of the information a new client needs, and they receive this and begin using their account, it's always ready at the Donhost end.

I tested this theory though, when the matter was raised about 2 weeks ago(?). And yes, it probably took about 5 minutes for me ro be able to get in via ftp to a new account. And it was previously instantaneous (I know it used to be because we used to go straight in and upload a welcome page). But it didn't revert to a manual system as far as I know. It went over to a timed update. But that's neither here nor there, for us at least...it's never interupted our progress.

I'm not taking your testimony as a personal attack mate. We're both talking about a third party that we have had different experiences with. Every host will do the wrong thing in the eyes of a least a small percentage of their clients...you can't please everyone and all that.

Good luck with it all.

Gary

Originally posted by Editor
it probably took about 5 minutes for me ro be able to get in via ftp to a new account.

Get your fact right .... You can't create an ftp account and be able to get via ftp in 5 minutes.

Originally posted by WebSnail.net
So, in conclusion my treatment was similar to that of an idiot...

Do you mean an idiot; or AnIdiot?? :eek:


:D

It would seem that DonHost is down . . . . . As I'm typing this:rolleyes:

:eek:


'nuf said

***** was also down, seems like same time to me.

Might be connection between them, hehe. :)

seen they are not very good in administratrion of the server...

Originally posted by Dedicated
Get your fact right .... You can't create an ftp account and be able to get via ftp in 5 minutes.

Yes, you can. Obviously, it must depend on how close it is to the scheduled update. And the matter is being resolved now anyway.

Gary

Originally posted by Lah_Lah
seen they are not very good in administratrion of the server...

You would want to hope that they were buddy...given your own situation.

Tell me Lah_Lah...you're on Donhost (and Fasthosts as well by the looks of your site content)...do you feel that you are getting a raw deal? Does Daniel's age affect your business? What's your interpretation of the service, and the uptime in general?

Gary

Originally posted by Editor
The latest update to come out goes over the issues surrounding immediate creation of new accounts, how this was done in the past, how it had to be done just recently, and how it is going to be done after 18 August.I guess that is good news at last but it's annoying that it's taking so long for the idea to filter through that a little communication can go a long way towards customers being more forgiving.To be honest, I had never known it had ever changed (snip)I tested this theory though, when the matter was raised about 2 weeks ago(?). And yes, it probably took about 5 minutes for me to be able to get in via ftp to a new account. And it was previously instantaneous (I know it used to be because we used to go straight in and upload a welcome page). But it didn't revert to a manual system as far as I know. It went over to a timed update. But that's neither here nor there, for us at least...it's never interupted our progress.As it happens I was told about the changes to cycled or manual whenever I phoned up to ask "what's happening now?". So it wasn't so much supposition as unbroadcasted fact. I believe it was on manual for at least a week back in late June/early July. At the worst point it took over 24 hours for an account to be created. That said you must have been incredibly lucky not to get caught :) Can I borrow that rabbits foot?I'm not taking your testimony as a personal attack mate. We're both talking about a third party that we have had different experiences with. Every host will do the wrong thing in the eyes of a least a small percentage of their clients...you can't please everyone and all that.[/B]Glad we're still on an even keel... As for the small percentage I guess the point is that resellers appear to be a larger group of "unsatisfied" than perhaps would be considered normal. With luck Adams personna may be filtering into the business more with things improving, in which case I can only applaude the move. Perhaps, just may'be, that potential can be reached after all.

Originally posted by WebSnail.net
Can I borrow that rabbits foot?

No way! That same rabbits foot seems to guarantee us great service from Fasthosts as well. :-)

G

If donhost and fasthost is a good host, I think most of the people here will be very happy.

Donhost had a DOS attack yesterday and supposedly all their Email was slowed down by like 4 hours

And as far as FTP goes, I agree with WebSnail.net on this server normally mie are ready to go in that amount of time on the server as well, but then there ar the occasions that we have to Email donhost and say hey its been 2 days and it is still not working...

The reply to that is more than funny.... we dont see any problems on our end. And then a miracle happens and the FTP is working right after that Email.

Originally posted by k9brian
Any one know how old Daniel Conlon
is with Donhost?

man this guy doesnt have a clue does he.

Do a WHOIS on the domain, call them, and ask!

I'm sure they wouldn't mind letting you know! :D

(Pretend to be a Toys 'R' Us salesman...it works quite well with kids!) :D

Hi,

I admire gary on his 100% dedication to donhosts reseller services,

as an ex reseller i am relieved not to have to put up with daniels childish behaviour. He is very good at the technical side but his management skills are very poor. A case of stick to what you know best.

Daniel's age is a question many are unable to answer accurately with ranges of 18 - early 20's. I am going to say about 19 - 20 myself after searching many forums regarding the matter.

As i have mentioned before... Poor communication sums up donhost.

There has been downtime, some not their fault but others have been due to their own doing. But this is always communicated to us after the event.


Account creation got worse... FTP was taking 2 hours to become active which it didnt use to do, this because of a manual operation put in place because of a corrupted file within the configuration. But this was never mentioned to a reseller except Gary perhaps :)


Many Thanks

R Martin

===================
ex donhost and proud of it
===================


Only 2 weeks to NETRG.NET
Dedicated Servers and Web Hosting

No, I certainly don't hear anything quicker than anyone else.

But what I do when there appears to be a problem, is try a range of pings and addresses to see what the general UK situation is from a few different start points. Very rarely is it anything that other parts aren't suffering from.

I'm still not convinced that the change in account creation procedure was anything close to dramatic. Certainly we never saw a problem. I recall that incident with that rogue config file, and once we discovered what it was the information was promulgated to our clients.

Not one...not a single one...has ever left us as a result. Perhaps our clientelle are a little more understanding...of the technologes and the value for money.

Cheers

Gary'

Well.. me personally I had to sit and wait 12 hours for an account to be created. FTP access was available so I could then create the email accounts...

What galled was wasting 48 hours trying to understand what the problem was with the email account not working because Daniel wouldn't even admit there was a problem. Then calling Daniel to find out that "Just wait a little while, it'll be fine" like I was some idiot. If he'd been smart he would have emailed me each time the interval changed just to let me know how long I could expect things to take instead of each time letting me find out for myself...

After weeks of that to then find out that Adam had had a fix the whole time and not implemented it because Daniel couldn't even pass a message on within his team was just nuts!

Bottom line, it seems not many others were unlucky enough to experience the problems I had and I'm pleased for those people but for me personally it was an umitigated hell. :angry: :angry: