Hi,

We have a big reseller account on Hostdime about one year. We was glad from their services until today. We recommended them every time in this forum.

There are a DNS problem on the server at this time. We and our hundred and hundred customers cannot access to their sites and emails since yesterday. I contacted their suport department. They forwarded my message to their admins. But I could not receive a response and problem did not resolve. We are losing our customers. I think I don't continue to recommend them. We worked with together many hosting companies for years. Each of them got bad. I don't understand what is this reason.

Now we are looking for a new reseller hosting provider. Our minimal requirements are below:

60 GB Disk Space.
600 GB Bandwith / Month
Allow to host 300 domains
Cpanel/WHM with RVSkin
They must guarantee 99.9% Network and Server Uptime.
They must resolve any problem within 30 minutes!
They must check each accounts on the server 24 hours
Their support department and system admins must work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Our budget is $100 monthly(we can pre-pay for 6-12 months).

Can you recommend a company that provide the features that above?
Note: Don't recommend a dedicated server, please.

Hi,

you seem to have a decent budget, the only items that might be difficult to fulfill are

They must resolve any problem within 30 minutes!
They must check each accounts on the server 24 hours

Some issues do take longer than 30 minutes to fix, and I don't know any host that checks each individual account on their server.

If Hostdime has done right by you for the last year, perhaps you can give them a second chance. While a day of downtime is horrible, it's not unheard of for major problems.

Also, since it's DNS, are you sure this doesn't only affect those that haven't been updated (dns) yet? It could be they fixed the problem hours ago, but you wouldn't know it until your ISP updated.

Just idle speculation...

Good luck.

not many vendors provide you that package. Why dont you split it to few accounts with different providers? It will help to reduce your loss if one provider goes bad. I have a customer, he has 20+ reseller accounts with different providers, and I believe he has good number of customers too :)

Your bandwidth and domain requirments are normally not reseller candidate. You should probally consider a dedicated server or a VPS.

I agree with gate2vn, why don't you split your accounts on different servers/hosts, in this way you wont have that many sites down at the same time, it's not very wise to have all the eggs on the same basket :)

gate2vn's advice is sound, but then the budget requirements would only be increased.

They said that fixed the DNS problem after 24 hours. We can access to the sites now. But mail server is still not work. We are receiving the error message: "Connection dropped by IMAP server". The issues are continue to occur.

We are looking for an alternatve hosting provider now. But most of them provide too little resource(so they hosted more client's accounts on their servers. This is very bad thing for uptime). We maybe buy several reseller accounts. But the server uptime(is not network only) is most important thing for us.

But most of them provide too little resource(so they hosted more client's accounts on their servers. This is very bad thing for uptime).

Can you explain your logic that more reseller accounts means worse uptime?

have you asked them to restart imap? Could be a firewall blocking port 110 now? You are going to find a really hard time filling

60 GB Disk Space.
600 GB Bandwith / Month

You can easily get this in a dedicated server for about $100 - $150 per month

DedicatedNow.com
servermatrix.com

Those are good resources.

Or, try splitting it into 3 - 5 reseller accounts

have you asked them to restart imap? Could be a firewall blocking port 110 now? You are going to find a really hard time filling

60 GB Disk Space.
600 GB Bandwith / Month

You can easily get this in a dedicated server for about $100 - $150 per month

DedicatedNow.com
servermatrix.com

Those are good resources.

Or, try splitting it into 3 - 5 reseller accounts

We cannot find a managed solution for this price. But unmanaged solution maybe find. But management is more important thing and is not easy. We maybe find a VPS. But they provide little system resource. So we are looking for reliable reseller hosting. It can be provide more little disk space/bandwith(then we can buy a few accounts). But our other requirements are necessary. Thanks.

The DNS error had fixed after 24 hours. But it occurred again(you can see the error from http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/dnsreport.ch?%26domain%3Ddhcart.com). Are their servers hacked? We cannot access to the sites for 2 days. This is unacceptable. We lost many customers. Moving all of the accounts with their data to another hosting provider is impossible. We are thinking to close our hosting company. Why Hostdime doesn't write a response to this message?

Go away from Hostdime!

It looks like Bind isn't running..or the server is completely offline.

If they can't fix it themselves, they should just outsource their tech support to someone else, who can fix the problems.

I hate to say this but it's going to be pretty hard to find what you are looking for unless.

1. You lower your requirmenets

Or

2. You increase your budget.

$100 - $150 for a server, and you can find 3rd party server managment from $35 and up.

I beleive PSM has service starting at $29 or so.
http://platinumservermanagement.com/

My friend uses them for his management. They are usefull now and then. I personally do it myself but I ask them questions now and then.

Realistically, with 60GB/600GB/300 domains your requirements are in line for a dedicated server. As you know, with full management this will cost more than $100, so if you try to get the same resources from a $100 reseller account you should expect it to be on an overcrowded server - how else could the reseller host do it without losing money? In which case a sustained 99.9% uptime is very unlikely.

By splitting your clients up and using multiple hosts you might be able to get more than your fair share of resources from each one, but this hardly seems like a good long-term strategy.

Hello DHCart,

I have constantly given you the exact same advise, and judging by the fact that you never follow it, you are probably sick of hearing from me and/or you do not believe me.

You need a managed dedicated server from a reputable company. Yes, this will cost you more then your budget. But, let me ask you - how much do these problems cost you every time? how much does moving 100's of accounts cost you?

with 100's of accounts you should easily be able to justify a properly managed dedicated server. Also, if I were you, I would get off of the cpanel platform and move to something that is scalable (ie plesk, hsphere or even helm (but helm is windows only)).

The last thing you should be dealing with is hosting. You are a value added reseller providing a shopping cart solution. The best advise I can give you is to stop being cheap with respect to hosting - I 100% guarantee you that you will have a lower total cost of ownership if you make the correct dedicated decision - and you will also find that your revenue from your shopping cart product will also increase incrementally more as you have a more stable platform and as you are able to focus more energy on your core business rather then hosting. Heck, at this point, I would charge more for all your hosting clients if you needed to in order to pay for a better environment - and accept that you will lose some clients by doing this.

Anyway, Ive said my piece for the 100th time to you - it is honestly the best advise I can give you. I will not bother you with my opinion again and I hope that you choose the right path this time - because getting another reseller account with the specs/budget you are looking for - will land you right back here, looking for another host and facing another migration in 1-4 months.

dhcart, I remember 1 month ago you opened a similar thread about Hostdime and your requirements. And you got almost the same replies :)

It is simply impossible to find a stable reseller provider that offers 60g of space in one single server.... period.

My advice :
- split your clients among different providers > this will go beyond your budget but gives you reliability.

- get 2 vps from modvps (30g space / 300g bw / fully managed and monitored like a reseller) > this is below 100$ per month

The DNS error had fixed after 24 hours. But it occurred again(you can see the error from http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/dnsreport.ch?%26domain%3Ddhcart.com).
Go away from Hostdime!

You should consider using a host that has DNS clustered across several locations. Their nameservers are not even RFC compliant.

I agree with tonyFF .. buy 2 VPS from different companies .. soo if one companies goes bad still your half clients will be save .. somes good companies provides managed vps services are modvps.com , wiredtree.com etc

You should consider using a host that has DNS clustered across several locations. Their nameservers are not even RFC compliant.

Well we run a DNS cluster and according to dnsstuff we still have a single point of failure on our DNS. So I'm not sure how accurate that actually is.

Well we run a DNS cluster and according to dnsstuff we still have a single point of failure on our DNS. So I'm not sure how accurate that actually is.

Hi Tony, its not accurate, do not be concerned with that. We are in the same situation - but, their "warning" actually states they may be in error:

WARNING: Although you have at least 2 NS records, they may both point to the same server (one of our two tests shows them being the same, the other does not), which would result in a single point of failure.

Our nameservers are not on the same server - apparently 1 of their tests can detect this, 1 cannot. So, on the whole, not sure how accurate this is.

dedi server. you can get a decent one under $100 that will more than perform to your needs.

Thanks for everyone. I think I'll buy several reseller accounts from different companies and won't host too many domains on one reseller account.

Now we can access to our sites. But we and our customers cannot read their emails by a mail client such as Outlook. We can read emails at our first tryed. But then we cannot. The connection refused by the server. What maybe the error according to you? Does the freewall block to access? Outlook error number is 0x800CCC90

try to telnet to your domain on the port 110 (if this does happen when you try to check emails) or port 25/26 if this happen when you try to send and let us know what you get

try to telnet to your domain on the port 110 (if this does happen when you try to check emails) or port 25/26 if this happen when you try to send and let us know what you get


How will I check this telnet? I tryed port 25 and 26 on Outlook Express. But I have no problem to send emails. Also I can read emails by Webmail. But we and our customers cannot read their emails by any mail client. We use port 110 for POP3.

On Windows

Click the Start button then RUN type in cmd
This will open a new command prompt window, there type

telnet yourdomain.com 110
and press enter

Type in USER followed by your email address e.g. USER yourusername@yourdomain.com and then click the Enter key. You will then get a message +OK Please enter your pass, with the PASS command
Type in PASS followed by your password e.g. PASS yourpassword and click Enter. If it is correct, you will get an OK Well done message.

If you can do this, you have connected to the mail server and so the problem lies somewhere with Outlook Express.

I wrote telnet dhcart.com 110. Then I received the message called +OK Hello there. Then I wrote our email address (...@dhcart.com) and pressed enter. But I received the error message called ERR Invalid Command.

You have to enter

USER yourusername@yourdomain.com (including USER)

You have to enter

USER yourusername@yourdomain.com (including USER)

Yes, I wrote it true like this (I cannot wrote our email address in here for security purpose).

Most time we see pop and imap as failed on the service status page of WHM. They fix it. But it occurred again and again. I think they won't fix the problems all. I cannot move the accounts to another company, too. I think I'll close my current company. Thanks everyone.

I wonder why you cannot move accounts to another company? Do they disable backup feature and refuse to provide you backups?

Well we run a DNS cluster and according to dnsstuff we still have a single point of failure on our DNS. So I'm not sure how accurate that actually is.

Well considering they are in the same C class and just one off the other I would put $100 on that they are on the same machine. Plus the fact they don't meet RFC requirements should be enough to turn people away.

Most time we see pop and imap as failed on the service status page of WHM. They fix it. But it occurred again and again. I think they won't fix the problems all. I cannot move the accounts to another company, too. I think I'll close my current company. Thanks everyone.

Hey dhart, are you giving up? Come on, this is not a reason to close a company because of email goes down with your current provider - simply find another provider(s) and they will help you transfer all accounts over!

Sometimes things get hard but we must fight - there is always a solution.

One thing that I've realized in my many years of business, it's never easy to deal with irrate customers. However, if there's been any level of service or any legitimate attempt to reconcile the problems at hand, most customers will give you another chance.

DOn't close shop ... think of the 100s of sites you host ... you're ok with cutting them free?

Yes, I wrote it true like this (I cannot wrote our email address in here for security purpose).Try Username instead of USR ;)

The DNS error had fixed after 24 hours. But it occurred again(you can see the error from http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/dnsreport.ch?%26domain%3Ddhcart.com). Are their servers hacked? We cannot access to the sites for 2 days. This is unacceptable. We lost many customers. Moving all of the accounts with their data to another hosting provider is impossible. We are thinking to close our hosting company. Why Hostdime doesn't write a response to this message?

Go away from Hostdime!

dhcart,

I am currently investigating what happened with the DNS zone files repeatedly to cause them to go down. From the looks of it the server itself was fine except the dns zone files. I apologize for the issues. I will make sure to find the cause, discuss it with our team and make sure it doesn't happen again if it can be avoided within our control.

I will also have accounting credit you some months free for the issues. Please fill out this form with your email and ticket so we can address it at our management level http://www.hostdime.com/about/management/contact/

Thank you all again for your advises. I'll re-design our hosting site with new offers and will continue to sales.

The most of the problems resolved. But We have still a problem when try to read emails by a mail client(but we can read emails by Webmail). Sometimes the connection refused by the server. Also I see a blank page at telnet when this problem occured. We had no problem until 27 jun 2007 and everything was fine. Our customers live on different states and countries and they have same problem, too. I did not understand what is the reason of this problem. I hope these problems resolve all soon.

I looked a lot of reseller hosting offers. Most of them provide little disk spaces according to their prices for me. We maybe pay more. But then we cannot make money. Because our site is not international and most of our customers' budget is too low. Most of the hosting companies which located at our country sell hostings with too cheap prices(for example under $10 per year). So we cannot increase our prices. Also we worked with many hosting companies before. So we have no many alternative at this time.

What do you think Hostforweb? Their reseller and VPS solutions looks good. I saw a lot of good and bad reviews that made about them on the Web. I did not decide. Also I liked mosso offer. But their control panel is not Cpanel.

HostDime, are really strange last days...

I was having a big problem with the Bronze Resseler plan, because the server was to slow causing Proxy error 504, to connect the WHMCs and other stuffs that i have in my site so I ask for a upgrade to my account about a 10 days before the prices encrease...

They told me that they are trying to solve the problem, but i tell them to not solve the problem just upgrade my plan..., they insist 10 days passed, i talk to 5 different people, the prices encrease, and them they came ask me if i want to change my plan!!!! o cammon!!! thats ridiculous... im really pissed about this and im looking for others company too...

They arent the same...today....

HostDime, are really strange last days...

I was having a big problem with the Bronze Resseler plan, because the server was to slow causing Proxy error 504, to connect the WHMCs and other stuffs that i have in my site so I ask for a upgrade to my account about a 10 days before the prices encrease...

They told me that they are trying to solve the problem, but i tell them to not solve the problem just upgrade my plan..., they insist 10 days passed, i talk to 5 different people, the prices encrease, and them they came ask me if i want to change my plan!!!! o cammon!!! thats ridiculous... im really pissed about this and im looking for others company too...

They arent the same...today....

tubadc,

Our prices haven't changed in over 1 year, can you please give me your ticket # so we can check into the issue.

Im Brazilian,

And they change!!!

here is the ticket MWX-564990 (brazil)

and there is all the talk...talkl...talk.....

Im Brazilian,

And they change!!!

here is the ticket MWX-564990 (brazil)

and there is all the talk...talkl...talk.....

Ok you are talking about www.hostdime.com.br ? I thought you were referring to www.hostdime.com

I will investigate this and do whatever it takes to make this right for you.

This is the same company isnt it?

This is the same company isnt it?

HostDime.com is the parent company and other companies run separately but report and are suppose to follow the same procedures and ethics of main company HostDime.

Manny contacted with me and helped. They moved our accounts to the another server that works stable. So all of our problems resolved. Thank you very much Manny and other Hostdime team. Also we won't continue to create accounts on same reseller account. We bought a new one and it created on another server of Hostdime. We no more think to host too many domains on one reseller plan. I think we had been making mistake before about this subject.

Thank you very much for the update and the opportunity to get this resolved for you. I agree that spreading accounts over various reseller accounts would be a good option for you.

@DHCart
I have to say you've been a HD cheerleader for as long as I can remember, it's good to see that a long time relationship seems to have been mended.

Having said that I really have to agree with Cartika's advice. At the price range you are looking at I really think you are doing your customers a dis-service, like CH said you really should not be worrying about hosting and but instead concentrating on your core biz. Dividing your customers on various hosted accounts is better but you still have the same core problem as before. What you gain in diversity you lose in exposure (more hosts can lead to increased potential issues).

Anyway have you looked at Futurehosting.biz? They have a fully managed hybrid VPS for $99/mo. Anyway thats one solution if you absolutely did not want a managed server.