I have 5 domains with AFHosting.
Last month, my newest site went down for almost 2 weeks. http://www.minnesotabound.com
After emailing them quite a few times the site came back up but I had no emails for 3 more weeks. Bummer! I asked them to tell me what happened, a reasonable question to which I got no response. I tried calling them and kept getting an answering machine. After emailing them a few more times I got a response of "we work out of our homes and therfore do not give numbers out to talk to us live". Hmmmmm. OK well that stinks for customer service.
Now this month - My other 4 websites
http://www.vikingsmania.com
http://www.footballsites.com
http://www.mnlakeview.com
http://www.mountain-ash.com
would not let me FTP files over. This started 2 weeks ago. I emailed them 4 times over this period. No responses.
But at least my sites were up and could be viewed. But on Thursday, the 4 of them went down, nothing, no emails, no site, no FTP, zilch!
I emailed again, and filled out a work order ticket - #255. Yeah I know, get in line - take a number - been there and done that in the return line in Kmart at Xmas time. Sounds familiar anyway. Still have heard nothing. The only 1 of the 5 websites that is running is the one that went down last month. Its working just fine. Is the newest and must be on a different server for sure.
Football season starts tomorrow. 2 of my websites are football related and I get about 3500 page views a day on each of them. Well I used to get that many. What can I do?
I am helpless and at their mercy. They don't even tell me what's wrong or why their down.
Can't call'em - no answer
Can't email - No reply's
So I am on a message board spree.
And a voting / rating spree.
At least I can vent.
I hate punting - but you just have to do it sometimes.
Thanks for listening. I am golfing tomorrow - then watching my Vikes play and then forgetting the web ever existed.

The Flippster

Sorry to hear of your misfortune, My advise would be to move on and find a new webhost.

I recommend you check out the following all of which have a good reputation -

http://www.tera-byte.com

http://www.hostmatters.com

http://www.can-host.com

http://www.kdawebservices.com

http://www.wizardshosting.com

Thanks for the advice.
I am sure glad I found this hosting forum.
I am now reading a thread on some 99 dollar Dedicated server.
WOuld I be wise to get into something like this to host all 5 of my domains and possible others as I get them.
SOme Rac - Cobalt service.
The only thing is I have never dealt with any of this.
Will I be able to set up cgi scripts the same on Linux as I think they run, as my server now runs Apache and Unix.
Any advice out there would be appreciated on this.

Well it depends. How much space and bandwidth are all the 5 sites using?

Its definately time for you to move on if your having this kind of luck with your current provider.

You could probably justify yourself getting a cheap dedicated server, especially with running 5 different sites. You can most definately run your cgi scripts on them, and most you find, especially in that price range will be Unix/Apache.

btw, your 1 working site does look nice. I'll be looking to see what your other sites look like when they come up. :)

Thanks for the nice comment about look of www.minnesotabound.com My newest site shows my latest flash tutorials and artwork of Ole Lena Lars and Sven (doncha know)
Vikings Mania is a really fun site.
The Football Search Engine is really nothing pretty but a practical use of Gossamer Thread Search Engine with a few other toys.
The other 2 are accounts for businesses I have done. They basically pay me to create what they need as in the Real Estate on at MNLakeview.com which I took a CGI script for want ads and modified the bejeezez out of it for a realitor to sell property. The other is a local band that made the site themselves. I just helped load the files and get them a domain name.

ABout the sites bandwidth. hmmmm
I probably suck up about a gig of space.
But the bandwidth usage I am not sure of exactly. If my sites were up I can see the chart in the control panel. But they aren't.

Oh get this! LOL!
forgot this one!

on my www.minnesotabound.com site I posted a ton of photos as I attend events and post the photos of them. Right after an event is over with I get hit hard. I had the basic site for $9.99 a month with 50 megs and 1 gig of bandwidth I think. Well I used up the 50 gigs I am sure to which they said nothing, but the bandwidth went over the 1 GIG. so they just shut me down!
I was mad, and emailed them. The site was down for about 5 hours. I emailed them - The time of this support on the answer was satifactory. They said they fixed it and upped me to the next plan which is like 200 MB and 4 Gigs. What was unsatisfactory was why this happened in the first place? But they were baffled as to why I wasn't notified automatically that I was approaching my bandwidth usage limits.
Wouldn't they just charge me extra? Thats what I thought they would do.
This came just a week after I was down a month ago.
I tell ya, I need new service.

As for total bandwidth and space for my current 5 domains
I would need like 1GIG of space and about 50 Gigs.
What would I pay for a year of a dedicated server?
Currently I pay 19.95 for my 1st original domain and the other 4 are half of that. Resller rate I think they call it. So 60 bucks a month and then if you pay for a full year in advance you get a percentage knocked off. Which I did, so if I switched I would be trying to get a refund for unused time. They also said I would get 1 month credit for the first screw up with the site and email being down. Yet they are still charging me. I get billed by some automated system every week cuz I have a -5.35 balance due.

Oh man, in checking other ratings at www.rateahost.com
I found these posts!
I am not alone! I feel better about that.
Check this out - I to have been with them for 3 years and they went to pot after they switched from wr2000 to AFhosting.


We are, sadly, very disappointed in AF Hosting.

They have been our webhosts for 2 1/2 years now. We came to them before they changed their name from WR2000. In the beginning, Julie was wonderful and helpful--very personable and you felt as though you had someone to go to in times of trouble.

However, since they changed to AfHosting, there has been a tremendous change, and in our opinions, not much for the good. We have gone through extremely difficult and frustrating times with them. Especially lacking is the support they promise proudly and loudly on their webpages.

We are lucky. We do not have to ask for help very often. But when we do, we REALLY need it and have exhausted all other recourses. On one occasion, we wrote their support three separate emails, begging for their assistance on problems with one of the programs they have set up for their customers to use, and they ignored our pleas for help entirely! This happened more than once to us. You get the feeling, after a while, that it's at their whim, if they wish to answer your questions or reply to your emails or not.

They promise to have Live Help available on their website, but every time we've tried it, no one is there and we're asked to leave email. We have even tried phoning them, but no one is ever there to answer the phone when we have called. They ask you to leave voice mail. We never bother. It just feels pointless!

Otherwise, we have been happy there. They have decent prices and large storage available. Our website has had some downtime, but only once has it been unreasonable (when they were switching to Linux servers and developed unexpected problems. We were down an entire month then and that was another time when they refused to let us know what was happening. That silence was unbelievable, when we were only expecting to be down a day or two!!) They just aren't very dependable at times. And it can be extremely frustrating when they 'disappear' and you can't reach anyone when you need them.

So, our advice to you is be cautious about selecting them, if you feel you may need some help at some time!! We'd be happy to talk with anyone about our experiences with AF Hosting!! We have just left and found a new company to host our site.


Review 5.

I have 15 resold account with AFhosting. And when I started out they were very good. And as time went buy thier service went down the tubes. It now takes anywhere from 3-10 days for a response from thier technical support department. Thier service goes down on a regular basis and for hours at a time. They run a server with god knows how many accounts on it with 128mb of RAM. The cpu usage is constanly at 1.28 with one 650 pIII coppermine. ANd just as a BIG hint. They used to have an uptime and service gurantee. Now if you look at thier website... There isn't one.

Review 6.

Initially I was very impressed with the service. The features were plenty, the price was reasonable, the service reliable.

However with the move to new servers we experienced hiccups. That is understandable, especially with support sending a broadcast email. However the hiccups continued. The server was continued for a day a time to go down. Recently it was down for several days.

They seemed to have half rectified the problem yet I am currently experiencing email problems. This is rather frustrating as I moved to AfHosting as I thought it would be more reliable than my friends linux box in his bedroom, alas I'm not so sure!!!

I agree with the previous emails, I wish I read them before joining. It seems any small favour or query gets answered immediately, but ones regarding the unreliable hosting service - email, web - are left unanswered.

I really don't want to but may have to find another host as my living does depend on it. Or go back to my friend's linux box in his bedroom!


My review will be #7 after it is reviewed for posting!

Originally posted by Flippster . . . .Initially I was very impressed with the service. The features were plenty, the price was reasonable, the service reliable.

However with the move to new servers we experienced hiccups. That is understandable, especially with support sending a broadcast email. However the hiccups continued. The server was continued for a day a time to go down. Recently it was down for several days. . . . . .:eek: There is something so familiar about that :eek2:
I don't know. It's late here. I'm tired. I'll give it more thought tomorrow.

:sleeping:

Well another day gone down the drain and the first day of football has passed. My Vikes got spanked I lost at golf. I am starting a very bad trend here.
Can anyone tell me how long would it take once I have a a new server host my domain names, to get them online and running? How lengthy of a process is it to switch them from a server to a server?
Any correspondence on this would be appreciated as I have no insight at all. Have never switched before. I need to spread my wings and fly out of the tree.
Just need a little push is all.
Help......

Thanks!
Flippster

24-48 hours for the most part:

1) Pick new host.
2) Upload site.
3) Change nameserver at registrar.
4) Happy Flippster

<EDIT: See other thread>

I suppose I should start a new thread about my last questions to get more responses.

Doing that now .......

I have to figure AF Hosting and Luquid Web are associated someone. Both their sites and plans have a very similar feel.

I'm currently looking for a better web host. I'm with NetFirms right now and they're ok for the most part, but my site is extremely slow most times. They've gone down for long periods of time also, but for the most part I'd say they're average.

I've been looking at Liquid Web, but see VERY mixed reviews on this site.