Hi,

I have for a long time looked at dreamhost.com, and I have also searched this forum and read a lot of the threads, but they are quite old.

Do anyone have any new info concerning downtime and speed, and have their support improved?

Jonah

I have used dreamhost in the past, they were actually my first "real" host.

Their cheapest plan is $9.95 a month (if you pay for a full year), and that doesn't even include a CGI-BIN.

I think for $10.00 a month you would be able to find a TON more hosts with a TON more features, a LOT better support, and easier control panels. I personally use VenturesOnline.com, and they have a $7.95 and $9.95 plan, and if you search these boards you will not find one bad comment about them.

While I have no bad comments about DreamHost, I just dont think its the best choice. I had only used them for two months, and moved on to a more featured host, but they were great for what I needed.

Try the SEARCH feature on the forums for more information, as I really have little to say about them. Good Luck :)

I personally use VenturesOnline.com, and they have a $7.95 and $9.95 plan, and if you search these boards you will not find one bad comment about them.

Give it time. They have gained a lot of customers from these boards. Wait till they piss one off. They will be back venting.

Well, I guess I'm biased, since I work there/founded the place!

But, anyway! There's more to a host than price! The guy didn't even ask about price.. he said:

Do anyone have any new info concerning downtime and speed, and have their support improved?


Really reliability, speed, and support are what we focus on at DreamHost, rather than price so much. As for why our entry-level plan, Crazy Domain Insane doesn't offer cgi, it's a matter of system stability. Here's a quote from our knowledge base at https://kbase.newdream.net/

"The reason we don't offer CGI on Crazy Domain Insane is the exponential growth in server load and tech support use when people start using and trying to install CGI scripts. The cost of these really requires us to only offer it on our Sweet Dreams plan or above. CDI is still a really great option for people who don't need any interactivity beyond PHP on their site!"

If you want to ask our customers what they think about dreamhost, we have an open discussion board similar to this one at http://discussion.dreamhost.com/ which may be of interest.

Also of course if you'd like to tell me exactly what sort of features you're looking for and what kind of price you were hoping for I can probably swing you something. I wish more people would realize that just by writing in to sales (not just us.. any web host really) with your needs you can always get a plan a little bit customized to meet your specific needs.

After I read my post, I realized that I came off kinda harsh, with was exactly the opposite of what I wanted to do. As far as Uptime, Support, and Server Speed go, I give them an A+!

While I think you can get a better deal, you really gotta weigh your priorities. DreamHost offered me great support, and If I remember correctly walked me through the FTP process, and answered all my support questions. I have not a SINGLE negative thing to say about them.

Now that I am in more advanced stuff, I enjoy the ability to have a CGI-BIN and other things, but for a beginner, I would definitely suggest DreamHost. They best part is, as you grow you can upgrade to a higher plan if you so wish. Like they said, they have a 30 money back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose.

As far as the questions you asked, I give them a 10 out of 10, and apologize if I came off kinda harsh :)


[Edit: Grammar gets bad after 1 AM, Im sure I missed a lot more ]

Like TheMMIz, DreamHost was my real first host. I hardly ever asked for support, but as a newbie I found them to be very helpfull when I did need them.

At the time I really didn't know any cgi or any of that sort of stuff so the Crazy Domain Insane plan worked really well for me. I just needed somewhere to put my pages and supported streaming real audio.

One really neat thing that came out there was that I really started getting more into cgi because my next host did not have a pre-installed mailing list; so I had to install it myself. Then came the guestbook, and the news poster and the rest is history.

Well there you have it. My experience with Dreamhost cattapulted me to WEB GURU.:D

I wish!
As you can see I'm a Junior Guru Wannabe
I still got a lot to learn. :stickout

weird,

seems a lot of use used Dreamhost at some stage. Oddly enough it was that lack of CGI that made me move to other host, begin reselling (as they offered it) and now running dedicated.

Never had a problem with Dreamhost, though the support thing they have where you could just e-mail back did get annoying at times. Didn't remember having much downtime, and speed seemed ok. I was passing their site a site back now and see it's had a facelift and had a new (and much better looking) control panel added now.

I personally think their pricing and feature list is a little behind market trend but if they still have their 10 000+ customer base I guess they're doing something right. Their domain's been active since Sept 97, and I'm pretty sure they've been offering hosting for a very large amount of that time.

If you're looking at using them, I'd give it a go. As Josh said they have a 30 day back. I could think of a hundred hosts I've never do business with (some highly rated ones here), but from my brief amount of contact with the guys from Dreamhost over the years I'd probablt still rate them a pretty good product

Greg Moore

Thanks for your time guys!

Well, Im not looking for a $10 plan/host (not that I have anything bad to say about them) I just feel that I can expect a little more service, and demand a little more in general, if I pay what the plan is really worth. I know it sounds stupid, but I feel that if I sign-up for those cheap plans, the host is hardly making any money, and probably won't pay as much attention to my needs.
I may be wrong, Im not really into webhosting, it's just my personal presumtion. I guess it all depends on the host.

Anyway I think I'll go for dreamhost, on the code warrior or the strictly business plan.

Well, you're right zhoujianfu, I should contact dreamhost and I will, I just wanted to gather some unbiased information first. :)

Thanks again!

Cool!

And sorry about that TheMMIz, rereading your first post now I guess it isn't really saying exactly what I thought it was!

We did get kind of "behind the times" with our hosting plans for a while I admit, mostly because we were for almost two years rewriting our entire back end, and it was hard to add features, etc while in the process. We finally finished that up in June, and since then we've been focusing on shoring up all our offerings. For example our plans now come with a lot more disk space, except for the entry level one, which we've kept as really a basic plan for starters. But our $20/mo plan's got 300MB, our $35/mo plan's got 600MB and our $60/mo plan's got 1GB.

My dreamhosted site has been down for four days
However if I check the dreamhost stats for my system status, I see, in dreamland, my site has been up for over 30 days. My uptime is listed as 99.9781%. If dreamhost is going to make up numbers why not say "110% uptime. Yes, thats right, more uptime than is possible in your limited view of reality, everything is possible in dreamland"
Maybe some of their servers are dreaming?

Maybe you shuold dream of sending their support an e-mail.

No, wait - try it for real :D

I'm not a customer of Dreamhost and never were.

But, I looked at their features and what really makes no sense at all is that they charge $12 bucks (pay attention, TWELVE dollars) for each additional GB of bandwidth traffic that you may have. And, worst, they don't provide locked bandwidth, they just warn you that you're about to go over your paid limit.

So, suppose I'm a customer of 9.95, and I have just crossed the 20GB limit. I was not in town, at the end of the month, and I wasn't able to look at my emails.
So, when I get home, I found that, just because my site used, let's say, 20.5GB, and not 20GB, I'll have to pay 9.95 plus 12 dollars.

It's an absurd.

I would never sign for Dreamhost until the day they are able to provide a locked bandwidth, i.e., a way to avoid the customer (if so the customer wishes) to go beyond its normal limit.

Dreamhost says that if you are going to use more than the allocated bandwidth, you should go to a more expensive plan but the fact is that suppose that I don't want to go to the next more expensive plan, I want just the 9.95 plan, and I don't want to pay any extra bandwidth, if my bandwidth traffic ever goes beyond the 20GB, I'd like my site to shutoff, and I want it automatically. Dreamhost DOES NOT provide such a feature, they want you to pay the 12 bucks extra cost for each GB.

Even the lame Geocities has such a locked bandwidth feature, why Dreamhost doesn't have?

I don't buy it!

I don't know of many hosts that offer to automatically 'shut your site off' if you reach the maximum transfer amount, nor any site owners who would request this! C'mon now... your site is popular, lots of traffic, lots of visitors, and at the peak of this, you want the site to disappear off the net and emails to bounce? That's just plain silly and pointless!

If you want that, get a yahoo briefcase account. They do that. Free providers do that. Paid hosts do not, in my experience, (for good reasons). This has got to be the first complaint about a host not shutting off a site when the limit is reached, heh. :rolleyes:

You are right if the website is for commercial purposes and you must not lose your customers.

But my site, although it has a good traffic, is a hobby, I win nothing with it but my own satisfaction of having a well visited site (and I like that, this is what hobby is all about).

But, I don't want to be worried about spending more than what I have allocated for a monthly payment. So, shutting down the site until next month is the best option for me. My visitors can wait and I don't have to pay extravagant 12 dollars for each additional GB.

Tell me if you know of any other well-stablished webhosting company that charges 12 bucks for just one additional GB of bandwidth!?

It isn't the cheapest I've seen, however it isn't the most I've seen either. If these are your needs then you really need to shop around for a host that will cut you off at the top of the allowed limit. I'm sure there are hosts out there who will, I just personally couldn't recommend someone to you. Alternatively, keep a close eye on it and if it seems to be heading up there, upgrade the plan (to keep the site alive).

Yours isn't a unique problem. Plenty of 'hobby sites' have grown popular (beyond their owner's wildest dreams), and caused problems for the owners. The price of success really. With the ad market down, running a popular site isn't always the easiest thing to do (in regards to paying for it, heh). You might want to consider sponsorship if it surpasses the level in which you are able/willing to pay.

I am sure if you requested it the host would be willing to enforce the maximum transfer limit on your site, so it would be cut off when the limit was reached. Generally hosts wont apply a limit and let the bandwidth be used then simply send you an invoice for the overages. However, as I said, if you ask I am sure they can limit your site to the allocated amount.

I have had a problem with my current host but this problem was solved and I'm not going to change to another host. I'm happy with my current host, for now.

But, while I was thinking about moving to another host, I came across DreamHost and get to know its plans.

I sent DreamHost a message asking if they would lock my bandwidth, so I would never have to pay any extra bandwidth, especially because their price of the extra bandwidth is waaaayyyyy too much expensive.

They politely replied that they CAN'T provide a lock to the bandwidth. They only warn you "well in advance" via email.

That was not good enough for my needs, so I discarded completely DreamHost.

Everybody has different needs.

A host that locked bandwidth I doubt would be very populer.

And offering 20 Gigs bandwidth for $9.95 sounds like a bargain. Maybe too much of a bargain - but that's for customers to report on - assuming any of them used any where as much bandwidth as that.

A host that would allow the customer to choose between locked bandwidth or "let it go" would be really very popular.

The lame Geocities allows this (for the paid packages!).

The customer should be the one to decide what he/she wants, not the host.

Offering 20 Gigs bandwidth for $9.95 is not an excuse for charging $12 for just one extra GB.

Originally posted by viol
Offering 20 Gigs bandwidth for $9.95 is not an excuse for charging $12 for just one extra GB.
I realize your issue is with locking the account at a specific transfer amount. Regarding the quote above though, this is what they change. That's it, no tricks. If it is more than you are willing to pay, you host elsewhere.

As I said $12 isn't the most I've ever seen. On the same note, $10 for 20 GB isn't the least I've seen either. You certainly couldn't get your knickers in a wad over a host that offers the following package:

$10 for 5GB of transfer and XX MB of space

-based on the fact that Dreamhost offers it for less. You couldn't say, "There's no excuse for charging $10 for 5GB of transfer!"

If they stated they charge $5 overage, and charged you $12, then that would be something to note. There certainly wouldn't be an excuse (in THAT case), so them charging $12 for just one extra GB.

I understand that each host may charge whatever they want for their services. We, as customers, just have to say "yes" or "no" to their prices.

Dreamhost is doing absolutely nothing wrong in charging $9.95 for 20GB and $12 for just one extra GB. It's their choice. If they wanted to charge $120 for just one extra GB, it's their choice.

I started all this discussion because personally, I find this price, combined with not being able to lock the bandwidth, not logic, not good sense. But this is only my opinion. That's why I didn't sign and won't sign for their service. It seems that 40,000 other people (maybe less due to multiple domain ownerships) think differently than me.

Anyone should decide if this is okay. For me, it's just not okay.

Every cpanel server has the ability to suspend an account when it hits it's limit. In fact that's just what we do. Accounts are turned on again shortly after by us, but it makes both us and the customer aware that their current account has reached it's 'limit'. If it's near the end of the month we usually just overlook it as websites do on occasion have spikes.

If it becomes a trend then we suggest they should move to a higher account. As the prices aren't that much different, it worked out more affordable than to sting people for overages.

It's a natural progression for both host and customer as accounts gain popularity. I personally can't imagine why everyone else doesn't do it, as it's always worked well for us, and our customers.

Greg Moore

akashik,

Like you said, all CPanel hosts have the option, but I personally would rather pay the overages if I went over. Many hosts, specifically VenturesOnline, allow you the option of whether you would like to be "shut off" at a certain number. By default they allow you to go over and bill you for usage, but allow the user the option to decide what they want.

DreamHost is an extremely honest host. I dont believe they are trying to trick anyone, and they make their bandwidth numbers visible. Bandwidth may be an area where DreamHost makes up on their money. Im sure they like all hosts oversell it, and you have to make it up somewhere. Whether it be through plan increases, or whatnot, you have to make money. Would I go with DreamHost if I knew I would be going over my allowance constantly, no, but Ive used them in the past for personal hosting and found their services to be great.

Ensim control panel allows you to set your bandwidth too. I can't imagine having an acct where I did not have the control to shut down my site if it reached its bandwidth.

MMIz: Ventures Onlines has had some complaints here in the past.

It seems that 40,000 other people...think differently than me.


I'm hoping for larger odds for myself...;)

The customer should be the one to decide what he/she wants, not the host.
We thought so too. Our control panel (http://nexcess.net/siteworx.php) lets the client choose if they want the site to become unavailable when their transfer limit is reached, or be charged for overage at the end of the month. In our experience webmasters whose sites have outgrown their budget appreciate this option.

gee.. thread is over 12months old and started again?

>TheMMIz: Their cheapest plan is $9.95 a month (if you pay for a full year), and that doesn't even include a CGI-BIN.

You might want to check out their new plans (already a few months' old now). You now get full CGI access for just $9.95 a month.

Has anybody else noticed Dreamhost is having a lot of problems lately?

I've used them for a couple years without any problems, but in the past few months I've had repeated outages (web and mail) due to hardware failure and incorrectly configured servers. Right now I can't even login to the control panel because it's down! And customer support is slow to respond to questions (they always answer within 24 hours, but that's too long to have to wait for some matters).

I don't know what's causing all these problems, but it seems like their staff isn't as competent as it used to be. Are they having financial difficulties? Did they lay off a bunch of people or something like that? Or is it just 'growing pains'?

I really like them and don't want to move to another host, but if their service continues to decline I won't have much choice. :(

Yes, they may not be the cheapest webhost provider around, but a lot of my friends have said they're great for beginners and also businesses. I think that you should go for the best support/service, and then when you know a bit more about domains and hosting, you can then look at prices, etc more closely. :)

We used DreamHost when we were first starting out. Support was great at the time (about two years ago if I'm not mistaken), as was uptime, reliability, etc.

I've been using Dreamhost since 1998 and i've been quite satisfied. The control panel works great, support is responsive with archived trouble tickets and great uptime. I recommended all my friends... they all use it with no problems. Granted though, most of these are small personal sites.
I was gonna jump to a dedicated server elsewhere but dreamhost is so easy that i'm gonna stick with them, avoid the headaches and move if i outgrow.