i by no means consider myself a high-maintenance customer. i signed up with gearhost about a year ago and have been relatively happy with their level of service, although i really don't require a lot. this has changed recently.

recently, my activity level has picked up and i've noticed a significant drop-off in their service level. support tickets oftentimes take more than a day to get even a simple reply to, and even then the responses have not necessarily been helpful. also, they have support forums that i've used from time to time to get help from other users when i have doubts my ticket will get responded to by one of their employees. BUT... i've found that they delete any thread that even hints at any kind of negative comment about the service level. now. i understand the desire to 'look good' from a service standpoint, but i think they'd do themselves a lot better if they just addressed issues they had and were honest about things.

anyway, so i am considering leaving. i do have a few concerns i'd like to get feedback on prior to starting to shop around.

- does anyone else have any gearhost testimonials good or bad? when i signed up (chosen due to responses on this board) i thought they were pretty highly regarded. has this changed?

- if you change over your hosting to someone else, what is the potential down time of your site?

- the domain name for my site was a package with my hosting account with gearhost. the domain is registered under my name and everything (so i am the registrant, administrative, billing, and technical contact), but the registration was done by them. will i be able to keep my domain name and just have to manage its renewal through gearhost? i'm not sure how this works. i believe i 'own' the domain name, right?

- if there are pop email accounts set up under your domain name, will transferring the hosting cause any loss of data as far as email goes? for example, say i have 100 message in an inbox for account xxxx and then switch hosting. can user xxxx login and still retrieve those 100 messages?

thanks in advance for any and all help!!!

recently, my activity level has picked up and i've noticed a significant drop-off in their service level. support tickets oftentimes take more than a day to get even a simple reply to, and even then the responses have not necessarily been helpful. also, they have support forums that i've used from time to time to get help from other users when i have doubts my ticket will get responded to by one of their employees. BUT... i've found that they delete any thread that even hints at any kind of negative comment about the service level. now. i understand the desire to 'look good' from a service standpoint, but i think they'd do themselves a lot better if they just addressed issues they had and were honest about things.


Others may look at this differently, but that right there would be more than enough reason for me to leave. Response times sound horrible and non-friendly. Deleting negative threads is not good either unless they are obvious "SPAM" or false testimonials.


- if you change over your hosting to someone else, what is the potential down time of your site?


If you time it right, none. You can have your new account ready and then change your nameservers and the change will filter through. Make sure your old account is still up until you are 100% sure it has resolved.


the domain name for my site was a package with my hosting account with gearhost. the domain is registered under my name and everything (so i am the registrant, administrative, billing, and technical contact), but the registration was done by them. will i be able to keep my domain name and just have to manage its renewal through gearhost? i'm not sure how this works. i believe i 'own' the domain name, right?


Technically, yes the domain is yours. However, sometimes hosts want to hold them back, but hopefully Gearhost won't. You'll need to contact them or check out the site and see how it works.


if there are pop email accounts set up under your domain name, will transferring the hosting cause any loss of data as far as email goes? for example, say i have 100 message in an inbox for account xxxx and then switch hosting. can user xxxx login and still retrieve those 100 messages?


If these messages are on the old server via webmail....no. However if they are in your Outlook Express (etc) account then you will still have a copy.

Well I hope I answered some questions for you. Let me know if you have anymore questions bud. :) Goodluck if you decide to move!

Totally correct, you should talk to your host about how you feel and I think they would be very happy to improve their service or help you transfer.

Only tell the host you are moving from after your account is safely moved. (Obviously, in this case you have to tell them earlier you need access to your domain account). Some hosts react negatively to outgoing customers and cut them off prematurely (immediately upon notification) or otherwise hamper them.

greybalance -

I just wanted to comment that u essentially answered your own question.

If you're dissatisfied, of course you're going to leave; it's just a matter of when. It's by definition.

My personal method and madness would be to have another url registered through an independent company (not your new host) and ready just in case you have problems with your current host.

I don't know how u code, but i always try to code so I could put the entire site on another url and just change a few things.

This also allows me to test a site myself before I put it to the url that gets high-traffic.

And with so many unreliable hosts out there, I never keep my url with my hosting company. I register it with someone else and use the tool to point to their dns servers. (But I did originally learn this the hard way)

cheers

-hiredpen

thanks everyone for the responses!!!

see, but legally do they have the right to not allow me to take my domain name with me? this is my primary worry, because the site is very dependent on the URL. what can they do to 'hold back' the URL?

transferring the code is not a problem at all.

it seems like there are varying opinions on when/if you should tell a host you're considering leaving. i think ultimately if i could not do anything about keeping the url and pointing it at another host i might be forced to stay...

If your info is listed as owner and the other contacts, i think you could just go to namecheap.com or godaddy and transfer it to them. That way you wouldn't have to worry.

The only catch I can see is the transferring of the Domain name. Whomever it is registered with, you should have been given an ID & PW so you can login and make changes. If you don't have that information you won't be able to change Nameservers to your new host.

You should review your documentation that was supplied to you when first signed up with gearhost, looking for that Registrar login information and/or if you must stay with gearhost for a certain amount of time in order to receive it.

If you are ever dissatisfied with a host - leave. Pretty simple really. Moving can be a hardship sometimes but if you plan it right, it can be done without too much disruption. Sure is a better option than putting up with shoddy service though.

- does anyone else have any gearhost testimonials good or bad? when i signed up (chosen due to responses on this board) i thought they were pretty highly regarded. has this changed?

YOU MIGHT NEED TO USE "SEARCH" VERY HELPFUL :)

- if you change over your hosting to someone else, what is the potential down time of your site?

IF YOUR PROVIDER IS EFFICIENT IN TRANSFERING YOUR SITE, THE DOWNTIME SHOULD BE EXACT THE SAME AS THE TIME NEEDED FOR GLOBAL UPDATE ON DNS, HOWEVER, MIGHT LOSE SOME DATA DURING THE TRANSFER PROCESS (NOT SYNCRONIZED), HOWEVER YOU CAN TEMP. SHUT IT DOWN.

- the domain name for my site was a package with my hosting account with gearhost. the domain is registered under my name and everything (so i am the registrant, administrative, billing, and technical contact), but the registration was done by them. will i be able to keep my domain name and just have to manage its renewal through gearhost? i'm not sure how this works. i believe i 'own' the domain name, right?

YOU HAVE TOTAL RIGHTS OVER IT, TRANSFER YOUR DOMAIN TO ANOTHER REGISTRAR, RENEW IT WITH YOUR NEW REGISTRAR.

- if there are pop email accounts set up under your domain name, will transferring the hosting cause any loss of data as far as email goes? for example, say i have 100 message in an inbox for account xxxx and then switch hosting. can user xxxx login and still retrieve those 100 messages?

PROBABLY DOWNLOADING ALL THE MAIL TO YOUR LOCAL COMP WOULD BE THE BEST SOLUTION.

Sorry for the CAP. Hope I resolve some of your hesitation.

I hate to say it but our website for our organization really has no choice I think. We pay for uptime and for a site that is accessible, not one that is up by a luck-of-the-draw. Several times in the past few months our site, FTP, AND Gearhost, have all been inaccessible. I do not think they handle business in a very professional manner. I really feel for any business who currently uses Gearhost as a hosting provider.

If you are listed as the Admin contact (including email address) in the whois record of your domain name, you legally own the domain name. The potential problems people are mentioning here probably refer to when a host does have direct control to change the whois record - and when they learn about your wish to cancel, they may change the ownership information to regain control over the name, or disallow changes to it until you pay a fee. (Dirty tactics, usually.)

You may want to check and see who the actual registrar is - it might not be Gearhost. They may resell domain registration services from another party (such as Tucows, GoDaddy, etc.) or may have just registered with another provider on your behalf. If this is the case, you might not need to worry about that issue, since you could contact the registrar directly for assistance with updating the DNS info and maintaining control over the domain.

In regards to transferring - it can be seemless. The key is to keep the site on the old host live while you are moving all your files to the new hosting provider (assuming you have IP address access to the account intially). After you are sure the site is in place, you can make the request to update the DNS record to the new host's nameservers. After about 72 hours, the domain name should point to your new host and it would be safe to shut down the old account.

Although I understand the concern of those who suggest not telling your host about cancelling until after you switch, be cautious that many web hosts have cancellation policies, and you should be sure to follow what terms you agreed to upon signup.

As for email - if your old hosting account is live during the propogation period and each host is providing you with a dedicated IP address, you should not lose email messages. Some emails from certain ISPs may arrive at the old host while others will begin arriving at the new server. You may need to check your email from two places for a few days.

greybalance I apologize to hear that your experience has not showed our best. If there is anything we can do to improve our services please let me know.

Regarding the cancellation and move GearHost will never hold on to anyones domain. We give you a login to control the domain, even if you leave GearHost as a source of your web hosting.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Actually if the emails are in webmail, you can copy the files from the email account through ftp. I moved an account from one host to another and I copied the mail inbox, saved, sent, folders and was able to upload it to the mail folder for my new host. All the files copied over. It took forever because there were a lot of emails stored, but they did copy.