I'm so damn sick of all these website hosting companies saying that they offer "unlimited bandwidth". When they only offer around 3 Gigs at the max. Personally I think any companies offering "unlimited bandwidth" are a complete scam.

Yeah, may there souls burn for eternity in the firey pits of hell!! :kaioken:

I just feel sorry for newbies who start hosting their site with these companies, they get tricked.

SiperNet, to say it in Linux world:
May their Daemons turn into Zombies :D

LOL!!!!

You can look at it this way, HostBoy. Those companies are doing us all a service. Once you know the truth about "unlimited bandwidth", you know to avoid them. Wha they are really saying is "we are liars and use tricks to deceive you".

Aren't you glad they make it so easy to move on to some other company?

Hell yeah, but after charging you 500.00 bucks for using to much bandwidth.

Originally posted by JTY
LOL!!!!

My old high-school science teacher would say, "May the flees of a thousand camels inflict their armpits!"

Originally posted by AtlantaWebhost.com
My old high-school science teacher would say, "May the flees of a thousand camels inflict their armpits!"

Wow, freaky, mine used to say exactly the same. You didn't by chance go to school in the UK? It's just that it's not the kind of saying that everyone comes out with.

I went to school in a small town called Lilburn, north of Atlanta. I think John Turner is a director or something at the Furnbank Science Center in Atlanta, GA, now.

These "unlimited hosts" lie and scam. They feel dishonesty is the only way to steal... umm.. get customers.

They don't plan for tomorrow... the trick isn't as much to get customers as it is to keep your customers happy. Then they will reccommend you to others.

By the way... in my high school, we used to say "may the fleas of a thousand camels infest your crotch" to scum like them...
Gee, must be a world wide saying... I am in the center of the US... Indiana.

Originally posted by superiorhost
"may the fleas of a thousand camels infest your crotch"

My best friend uses that same phrase :)

My favorite ulimited banwidth example is communitech ;) Didnt take long for them to change that policy after terminating accounts without warning.

Sad Sad Sad
Zach

Originally posted by AtlantaWebhost.com
"May the flees of a thousand camels inflict their armpits!"

Maybe there's a connection. Didn't Klinger on M.A.S.H use that saying?

Greg Moore

Yep! The worst part is that a lot of large host still use this gimmick, and even worse us smaller and honest hosts lose clients because of it. It's too bad the average buyer wasn't more educated on webhosting. I guess the same could be said about any market. :)

I suppose the up side to that is people looking for hosting that get as far as forums such as this have a few advantages for us as hosts.

- they know crappy service already so good service is something they appreciate
- they're looking around so can see that false claims aren't in anyone's interest
- they've been online a little longer so are generally more educated than others stuck in *unlimited* accounts
- they understand the internet isn't they great white god it's made out to be, and things go wrong sometimes.

and finally...

- they've spent so much time arguing with their previous host that they've learn how to craft a fine email to support :)

Greg Moore

I remember the "May the flees of a thousand camels inflict their armpits" quote at the end of Jeff Minter's classic shoot-em-up game Attack of the Mutant Camels, threatening software pirates.

wow, I remember that game...

... talk about a blast from the past :)

Greg Moore

Hi,

My current host is westhost.com and they offer unlimited bandwidth. So far, I haven't had any problems with bandwidth (my site uses about 11-12GB/mo). I would like to stay with them and I'm hoping there won't be any problems in the future.

Does any of you have any good/bad experience with westhost.com? Like I said, so far I don't have anything bad happen and that's good! :) I'm hoping it'll stay that way.

easypooltutor,

They don't offer unlimited bandwidth or transfer even if they say they do. You would discover that if your site should start consuming more bandwidth.

What some hosts do offer, and mislabel, is as much bandwidth as they think you will probably use based on statistics of the industry and the law of averages. Some will juggle the occasional higher usage account by placing them on servers with very low usage overall. In other words, they spread out their high usage accounts across different servers.

Too many hosts want to use one word adjectives (like unlimited) to describe their offerings rather than describe them accurately. When applied to transfer/bandwidt/hits, "unlimited" is a lie. It is possible to surpass the very real limits they are not disclosing. Many people have and that is why the term is so objectionable. When your account gets disabled for using too much bandwidth, you learn the truth the hard way.

There is also an intrinsic relationship with cpu usage.

When applied to such things as POP3 accounts and such, the term is not misleading, even if still inaccurate. You'll hit practical limits long before any technical ones.

You may want to check your host's policy on bandwidth and have a serious discussion with them about growth. You are already at the point where many recommend a dedicated server, and others will disable your account for high usage. You probably want to avoid any unpleasant surprises should your traffic grow further.

Duster,

I understand that "unlimited" doesn't really mean unlimited but I guess I was just in too much of a hurry when I exceeded my bandwidth limit from my other host (5dollarhosting). I tried searching for a replacement at webhostdir.com and the best one I could find with the features I need is westhost. They seem to have good reviews.

Well, actually there was one host I signed up for before this one but I had to cancel because they were having problems with their control panel (i can't even remember the name of the host... hmmm... probably not worth remembering, that's why :)

Since I've already signed up for westhost then I'll stick with them until I can find a perfect host (terra-byte is the best one I found so far). Unfortunately, I didn't hear about terra-byte since I stumbled upon this forum several weeks ago.

Your advice is duly noted. Right now, I'm just hoping that I get no surprises. Thanks.

Hi easypooltutor,

The main thing I have seen hosts do, is that once they have a lot of high bandwidth sites.. and they get slammed with a big bandwidth bill, that is when they strike out at the customers.

I have seen this happen too many times. There is no free bandwidth for hosts, so it is way beyond me to try to understand why they would say unlimited... There has to be limits, or they will crash and burn when they get a huge bill from their telicom provider.

Best advice. Be ready. At your usage level, I would find an alternate host in case something ever does come up so you can be prepaired. Then you won't get stuck trying to find a host if things do take a change for the worse.

Tim L

I want to transfer hosts but I'm too lazy to to have to deal with the "transfer" process again. After all, I just did that a couple of months ago :) My biggest problem would be transferring MySQL tables... do you know another way to do this besides manual transfer?

Plus the fact that my site is a personal site and I don't really get any money out of it. The revenue from ads is more than enough to pay for web hosting but not enough to pay for all the effort I did to create and maintain the site.

Originally posted by Duster
You are already at the point where many recommend a dedicated server, and others will disable your account for high usage. You probably want to avoid any unpleasant surprises should your traffic grow further. [/B]

It sure would be nice if only I could afford a dedicated server... :)

Ever see the commercial where a mechanic says that, easy?

I took a look at your present host. My warning klaxon went off immediaely. There are several things that do not speak well of them, like no TOS and the use of many deceptive terms. You can look for a better host now, or you can look for one later. I have a feeling you're going to need one soon.

It is much better to be proactive than reactive.

Duster and company,

Hey guys. I have already made up my mind about tera-byte as my next host but I'd like to get your opinion(s) on how to proceed with what I plan to do:

After I do a domain transfer, I have a few days to upload all my files to the new server. PROBLEM: A few days, even a week is not enough time to complete the process. As my time allows now, I only have about 1/2 hour free time a day.

Is it a good idea to have another domain (eg. easypooltutor.net) so that I won't have to rush uploading all my files?

Also, I already asked this from a previous post but how do I transfer my MySQL tables to another server easily?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

The best way to transfer is in this exact order. Violate it at your own risk. I'll explain why where necessary.

1. Open your new account with tera-byte.

2. Upload your files. You don't need your domain transferred to do this. You can ftp using the IP address of the host or one assigned to you and your account name and password.

If you can get a dedicated IP, even temporarily (until your domain is transferred), you can test your files on the new server if your links are relative rather than absolute. You can configure and test any cgi programs using the IP address and change them to the domain name later.

3. Make sure you have gotten everything off your present (soon to be old) account.

4. Submit your change of hosts for your domain (hopefully, you are using an easy registrar like Open SRS instead of Nothing Simple Intentionally (NSI)

5. Let your old host know you are leaving and settle your bill. You may also want to clear off your files from the old account.

The reason you don't let the present host know until the move is fait accompli is that many will terminate your account immediately upon being notified. They have no right to, especially if you ar epaid untin the end of the month, and many will do it anyway, like bratty children throwing a temper tantrum.

I suggest you skip the aggravation, move first, and tell them later.

There are some of us who treat departing customers as well as arriving ones and I expect we are a minority. You;ve only been with your present host a couple of months, Now is not the time to find out how well they treat former customers.

Also, you may only have a day or two to move your files before your domain becomes active on the new server. With your limited time, it makes more sense to move the files first and then move your domain name when you're done.

I can't help you with the MySQL question. Sorry.

Add-on to Duster's post...

As long as your new host gives you a dedicated IP, you can test your new site even with absolute URL's by temporarily adding your domain name with the new IP into your local hosts file. That way, for your computer, (and your computer only) your site is at the new IP address. It takes about thirty seconds to switch once you know what you are doing. You can then test as much as you want using your domain name instead of the IP address or a temporary URL. Then, after you are ready to go live at the new IP address, do the nameserver switch at your registrar.

When I have to move sites, I like to have a couple of weeks of overlap between the time I set up the new account and cancel the old one. When I transfer sites for clients, In most cases they never know when the switch is actually made, and some time after they thought it should have been moved already, they ask me what's taking so long, at which point I tell them that the move happened already. :)

The point of all of this is, if it is done correctly, it is actually easy to accomplish, and a pretty stress-free task.

Thank you guys for your useful tips. I did not realize that I can transfer all my files to the new server without worrying about "time". It's only after I transfer my DNS to the new server that I only have a few days. I should have known this already because I've done domain transfers about 4 times before :)

About MySQL tables transfer... I was told to backup the tables and then restore it to the new server. Anybody knows how to do this?

Another thing I'm worried about is I'm not sure if westhost will refund the rest of my payment. I paid for 1 year (i know, it's stupid, but hey, I'm allowed a few mistakes, right? :)

Thanks again and I'll let you know when I have done this "dreaded" transfer and I'll give you a report on what I think of tera-byte also.

If you use phpMyAdmin, select "View dump (schema) of database", and select "Structure and Data". And copy the result into a text file. When you're in the new server, copy the file into "Run SQL queries..." text box. That should do it.

Originally posted by borjong
If you use phpMyAdmin, select "View dump (schema) of database", and select "Structure and Data". And copy the result into a text file. When you're in the new server, copy the file into "Run SQL queries..." text box. That should do it.



Thanks borjong. It just so happens that I have phpMyAdmin :) How convenient... :)