geekie246
01-25-2005, 09:05 AM
HostingLite / HiyaCorp Review (After 8 Months Using the Service)
In May 2004 my partners and I decided to make hosting a permanent product offering and break it away from our consulting, software development, networking and wireless networking company (bekcomputers.com). In June 2004, Affordable Hosting (affordablehosting.ca) was born.
We are not novices in the industry by any stretch of the imagination. I have over 25 years of experience in the IT industry, including Network Design (Windows & Unix), Network Administration, routers, switches, application development (COBOL / RPG / VB / C / C++ / Java), wireless telecommunications & wireless network etc. My partners have over 30 years in the field and specialize in multi-user distributed databases, system design, application development as well as application and system support.
We were not strangers to web hosting, and has it as part of our product offering for 9 years. However, we had struggled continually with finding a reliable, affordable host for our domains. We dealt with some of the major players in our local area, as well as some of the larger firms on the net. We bought into the idea that you "get what you pay for" and were constantly frustrated with 5 - 7 days between responses to requests for service. At one point, two of our clients' websites disappeared; we lost access to the control panel and were unable to get these clients back online for almost 3 weeks -- this from providers that guaranteed 7x24x365 service.
I stumbled on the WHT forums and researched many of the providers offering reseller accounts for "cut-rate" prices. It was too good to be true right? Low prices, reliable service, guaranteed levels of service? How could it be?
After reading and researching several of the companies I was contemplating going with, I emailed each of the companies (there was 4) with a request for more information. Fred T at hostinglite.com, answered all my questions thoroughly, provided me with the additional information I wanted. I waited for replies from the others and received 2 more back within 24 hours and the 4th back in 48 hours. These other companies simply pointed me to their FAQs and Presales-FAQs. My questions were not answered in the FAQs and subsequent inquiries were for not.
I decided to go with HostingLite and ordered a Power Reseller Account (4 GB / 30 GB - $6.99) and pointed my domain to their name servers. The concept of HostingLite is to reduce "support" and pass on savings to its customers. Support is concentrated on technical issues rather than answering trivial questions like "How do I login into my site?" or "What is FTP and how do I use it?"
My first request for service was to create my personal name servers (on shared addresses). This task was completed within 2 hours of the request. All other questions, whether "technical" or "non-technical" were answered promptly.
Service ran smoothly, and I moved more and more of our domains over.
In late December 2004, I began to notice brief periods of downtime. When I emailed support, I was notified that they were installing some memory in the server that I was on and a DDos protector. Server was up and running in an acceptable period of time.
From late December to mid-January, the server that I was apparently having "issues" with the memory upgrade and with an apparent worm attack (phpBB - Santy variant). This caused sporadic performance and downtime for both my clients and me.
At this time, I ran into an apparent DNS issue with local users using local ISPs not being able to find any of the domains that I was hosting. It gave the impression of a "server outage" and my phone started ringing. As I use the local ISPs here as well, I was unable to diagnose the problem (I couldn't connect) and therefore promptly fired off a request to support for some help (or enlightenment) on the issues.
All requests for support were answered in a reasonable period of time, and I worked with the support people to track what was causing the issues. From what I can tell, some of the outages were still related to faulty RAM in the server, while others related to some anomaly that occurred with the DNS propagation. My domains just stopped being seen on the net. I worked with support (and probably bugged the crap out of them), with my emails, suggestions and troubleshooting results that I was going through. I received some suggestions as for things to try.
As this was an intermittent issue, I quickly became frustrated. Not having full control over the situation (given my background), and knowing full well that I could be a very demanding customer.
I was asked if I wanted to be switched to a new, bigger server while experiencing the problems. I however, opted to stay where I was because I had domains that would have to be transferred and I have no access to change DNS information at the registrar. This would pose problems to me.
Through all of this however, support was fantastic.
For the most part, I would rate the responses that I received timely, courteous and much better than I have received in the past from any provider. Support was always patient with me, even though I know that I was becoming a pain in the behind.
I would rate HiyaCorp/HostingLite above average across the board with performance, service, price and features. Service is timely and they have a support forum, IM, toll free number, and an emergency email address when you need to get something fixed.
There is however, room for improvement.
Server load sometimes tends to be a bit high and sometimes there is a "lag" in loading some of the sites I host. This lag is related to the NOC, not the overall service of HostingLite and is being addressed. New servers are also being added to address the server load as well. And as stated, I was offered an account on the new server and support offered to transfer all my domains for me.
I would also like to see downtime for repairs scheduled and these schedules posted in their support forum. Finding out that your sites have disappeared for a memory upgrade because they thought no one would notice did raise concerns with me. Plus, things like scheduled backups, package upgrades or regular maintenance that impact performance can easily be communicated to customers and go along way to improve an already above average service department.
And a final suggestion that I would make is to make better use of their support forums for letting customers know what is happening, whether its an explanation of what happened to result in some unscheduled downtime, new improvements being planned or recent expansions (i.e. new servers) would be great. Even as I write this tonight there was an outage and I have no idea why. I'm unsure if it is related to a support ticket that I submitted but I did get a response back saying that my problem (PHP related) was solved and my sites all came back. I suspect this is from improvements being made, but not 100% sure. It does add to the stress levels that one can experience! *smiles*
Still, I'm pleased thus far with the service, level of commitment and dedication that I have received from the people at HiyaCorp and HostingLite. I'm confident that as they work through their growing pains, the suggestions that I have made will gradually come to fruition.
As it stands right now, after 8 months of service, I would easily recommend HostingLite and HiyaCorp. I consider my selection to be a winner and even given the areas of improvement, I've found no one yet to offer the features, the service and overall performance that HiyaCorp & HostingLite offers.
affordblehosting.ca
In May 2004 my partners and I decided to make hosting a permanent product offering and break it away from our consulting, software development, networking and wireless networking company (bekcomputers.com). In June 2004, Affordable Hosting (affordablehosting.ca) was born.
We are not novices in the industry by any stretch of the imagination. I have over 25 years of experience in the IT industry, including Network Design (Windows & Unix), Network Administration, routers, switches, application development (COBOL / RPG / VB / C / C++ / Java), wireless telecommunications & wireless network etc. My partners have over 30 years in the field and specialize in multi-user distributed databases, system design, application development as well as application and system support.
We were not strangers to web hosting, and has it as part of our product offering for 9 years. However, we had struggled continually with finding a reliable, affordable host for our domains. We dealt with some of the major players in our local area, as well as some of the larger firms on the net. We bought into the idea that you "get what you pay for" and were constantly frustrated with 5 - 7 days between responses to requests for service. At one point, two of our clients' websites disappeared; we lost access to the control panel and were unable to get these clients back online for almost 3 weeks -- this from providers that guaranteed 7x24x365 service.
I stumbled on the WHT forums and researched many of the providers offering reseller accounts for "cut-rate" prices. It was too good to be true right? Low prices, reliable service, guaranteed levels of service? How could it be?
After reading and researching several of the companies I was contemplating going with, I emailed each of the companies (there was 4) with a request for more information. Fred T at hostinglite.com, answered all my questions thoroughly, provided me with the additional information I wanted. I waited for replies from the others and received 2 more back within 24 hours and the 4th back in 48 hours. These other companies simply pointed me to their FAQs and Presales-FAQs. My questions were not answered in the FAQs and subsequent inquiries were for not.
I decided to go with HostingLite and ordered a Power Reseller Account (4 GB / 30 GB - $6.99) and pointed my domain to their name servers. The concept of HostingLite is to reduce "support" and pass on savings to its customers. Support is concentrated on technical issues rather than answering trivial questions like "How do I login into my site?" or "What is FTP and how do I use it?"
My first request for service was to create my personal name servers (on shared addresses). This task was completed within 2 hours of the request. All other questions, whether "technical" or "non-technical" were answered promptly.
Service ran smoothly, and I moved more and more of our domains over.
In late December 2004, I began to notice brief periods of downtime. When I emailed support, I was notified that they were installing some memory in the server that I was on and a DDos protector. Server was up and running in an acceptable period of time.
From late December to mid-January, the server that I was apparently having "issues" with the memory upgrade and with an apparent worm attack (phpBB - Santy variant). This caused sporadic performance and downtime for both my clients and me.
At this time, I ran into an apparent DNS issue with local users using local ISPs not being able to find any of the domains that I was hosting. It gave the impression of a "server outage" and my phone started ringing. As I use the local ISPs here as well, I was unable to diagnose the problem (I couldn't connect) and therefore promptly fired off a request to support for some help (or enlightenment) on the issues.
All requests for support were answered in a reasonable period of time, and I worked with the support people to track what was causing the issues. From what I can tell, some of the outages were still related to faulty RAM in the server, while others related to some anomaly that occurred with the DNS propagation. My domains just stopped being seen on the net. I worked with support (and probably bugged the crap out of them), with my emails, suggestions and troubleshooting results that I was going through. I received some suggestions as for things to try.
As this was an intermittent issue, I quickly became frustrated. Not having full control over the situation (given my background), and knowing full well that I could be a very demanding customer.
I was asked if I wanted to be switched to a new, bigger server while experiencing the problems. I however, opted to stay where I was because I had domains that would have to be transferred and I have no access to change DNS information at the registrar. This would pose problems to me.
Through all of this however, support was fantastic.
For the most part, I would rate the responses that I received timely, courteous and much better than I have received in the past from any provider. Support was always patient with me, even though I know that I was becoming a pain in the behind.
I would rate HiyaCorp/HostingLite above average across the board with performance, service, price and features. Service is timely and they have a support forum, IM, toll free number, and an emergency email address when you need to get something fixed.
There is however, room for improvement.
Server load sometimes tends to be a bit high and sometimes there is a "lag" in loading some of the sites I host. This lag is related to the NOC, not the overall service of HostingLite and is being addressed. New servers are also being added to address the server load as well. And as stated, I was offered an account on the new server and support offered to transfer all my domains for me.
I would also like to see downtime for repairs scheduled and these schedules posted in their support forum. Finding out that your sites have disappeared for a memory upgrade because they thought no one would notice did raise concerns with me. Plus, things like scheduled backups, package upgrades or regular maintenance that impact performance can easily be communicated to customers and go along way to improve an already above average service department.
And a final suggestion that I would make is to make better use of their support forums for letting customers know what is happening, whether its an explanation of what happened to result in some unscheduled downtime, new improvements being planned or recent expansions (i.e. new servers) would be great. Even as I write this tonight there was an outage and I have no idea why. I'm unsure if it is related to a support ticket that I submitted but I did get a response back saying that my problem (PHP related) was solved and my sites all came back. I suspect this is from improvements being made, but not 100% sure. It does add to the stress levels that one can experience! *smiles*
Still, I'm pleased thus far with the service, level of commitment and dedication that I have received from the people at HiyaCorp and HostingLite. I'm confident that as they work through their growing pains, the suggestions that I have made will gradually come to fruition.
As it stands right now, after 8 months of service, I would easily recommend HostingLite and HiyaCorp. I consider my selection to be a winner and even given the areas of improvement, I've found no one yet to offer the features, the service and overall performance that HiyaCorp & HostingLite offers.
affordblehosting.ca