I'm got my site at RN Web Design & Hosting and my experience has been terrible. First of all, technical support is almost non-existent as it sometimes takes several emails to get them to respond, and if they do respond, they don't always do what they say they were going to do. They have an 800 number, but it always go to voice mail, and they have a live chat button on their website but it always says to leave a message.

This has been my first experience with a web host provider, so I don't have much to compare it to, but I sure hope there are some better services out there.

I'm curious from those of you who are experienced in hosting about a recent experience with the servers being down for over 48 hours.

They claim something about a hacker and a trojan virus brought the server down and that the last backup they had was from about 24 hours earlier.

So .. if they have a backup, does it make sense that the server would have been down for over 48 hours and that things are still not back to the way they were before even after over 4 days?

So as I look for a new web host now, I don't know if there is any value to when somebody says that they back up every day.

Also, what is a reasonable amount of time to expect for a response to a problem? For example - if I was able to FTP before and all of a sudden it won't work.

Given the speed at which e-buiness works, not being able to update a website at the right time could be a real problem. So I would expect to have the problem fixed the same day. Is this reasonable?


Thanks for your help and advice.

Dear Fox,

I think you should post your query here http://webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=4

Unfortunately your first experience sounds terrible.
I would think most hosting co. would respond in 24 hours (that being the max) and if its something that cannot be fixed, etc. I would hope they would notify clients.
If you would leave your email some hosts would probably respond to you.
Feel free to email me..we arent allowed to post about our services on the forum
admin@hostcaters.com

Originally posted by fox
Given the speed at which e-buiness works, not being able to update a website at the right time could be a real problem. So I would expect to have the problem fixed the same day. Is this reasonable? In a word, yes. There's a recent thread here in which the general concensus was that a tech support response should certainly be within 24 hours. A few people remained convinced that even that is much too long.

Certainly things can go wrong with any host, but a 48-hour outage is pretty much disastrous.

I don't know anything about RN Web Design & Hosting, which isn't really surprising considering how many small hosting companies there are in the world... but you are definitely right that there are better services out there, at least in the sense of being more stable and with a real tech support presence.

You'll hear about a lot of them now that you've posted. Take your time and do some reading here in this forum, and in a couple of days you'll be a well-educated consumer ready to shop to for a new home.

Originally posted by fox

So as I look for a new web host now, I don't know if there is any value to when somebody says that they back up every day.

There is great value to it. If your site is not backed up and someting happens to the server, it is expected that it will be restored. After all, that is one of the major responsibilities of any hosting company.


Also, what is a reasonable amount of time to expect for a response to a problem? For example - if I was able to FTP before and all of a sudden it won't work.


At most, 24 hours, but in a server wide problem, you should have resolution, or at least acknowledgement, within minutes. Again, a major responsibility of the hosting company.

Given the speed at which e-buiness works, not being able to update a website at the right time could be a real problem. So I would expect to have the problem fixed the same day. Is this reasonable?

Not only reasonable, but expected.

-------
You are doing the right thing by looking for another host. It seems that your current provider is not doing their job according to your needs.

You may want to look here (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=7638) and look at most of the hosts that visit this forum. It will take a bit of time to go through them all, but once you have narrowed down your picks, ask questions. Ask the host themselves, and of course, one of the reasons we are here is to help out as well.

Good luck to you and your endeavors.

Also, what is a reasonable amount of time to expect for a response to a problem? For example - if I was able to FTP before and all of a sudden it won't work.

<<ADMIN EDIT>>

[Edited by Chicken on 03-29-2001 at 07:25 PM]

Fox, sounds like you got hit by a number of hosting problems that are all too common. Many of us have been where you are now, and more than once. I'm on my seventh host, and went through five in my first 18 months online.

NEVER count on your host to keep backups! ALWAYS keep all your current files backed up to your home PC! ALWAYS test tech support by e-mailing the support address and calling the support number before you sign up. More than once. See the last link in my signature for some host-finding help.

Fox, you should take a look at the advertising forum, where RN has just posted a halp wanted ad. It might explain some of the trouble you've been having, even if it doesn't make you feel any better.

I appreciate all the comments and advice.

Peeps - I'm glad to see that they realize that they have a problem and are looking for some help. I guess that's a good start to recognize that they have a problem.

You know, the more I look around, the more I am surprised out how bad some hosting companies treat they're customers.

I was looking at a website for a company that has a forum for it's users. I went in there to see what was going on and they were talking about an upcoming server move. But the things that surprise me are statements like "don't bother XXXXXX with any questions this week because he'll be busy preparing for the server move. And... back up all your data just in case something goes wrong. And ... some people could see up to 1 day downtime ...

In reading the posts in this forum, it appears that there are some reputable people know what they are doing and who truly want to give good customer service. On the other hand, I can see that just about anybody can become a reseller and put up a nice website to give a good appearance, but that they either don't know what they're doing or don't know how to support they're customers.

Unfortunately, these people appear to give a bad name to the whole business. It makes we wish I could go to a brick and mortar location to see the real people behind it.

thanks again.

Hello,
I work for RN Web Design & Hosting and thought that I would just like to toss in this about our company. We had a major server hack (Trojan Virus) and a hacker destroyed all the Operating system. First, we had to delete the entire hard drive, and then reload our operating system. The reason why we had so much trouble was because we had to look through the files and make sure another virus was not still in the files. This is why the problem took so long to fix. We have it all fixed and the server is up and running now. We are sorry that we did not have enough techincal support reps onstaff at the time, and we are now hiring new ones. We invite the 5 customers who have left us to come back on at a discounted rate and give us another shot, we promise it will be a different experience for you. Thank you for your time and please realize that we do not mean any of our customers any harm and never like when we have clients leave due to the response time to their problems. Again, we are sorry and did not mean any harm to anyone.

Jim
---------------
RN Web Design & Hosting
http://www.rnwebdesign.com

Fox, that is a very common problem. Look at the dotcomavenue/experthosting thread currently underway. This is the same ripoff artist that ran truehosting. Unfortunately, any idiot with a computer can sign up with a host and be a reseller. Anyone intent on just taking peoples' money and not giving good service can morph into another company at the drop of a hat (or after being kicked off one provider after another).

My advice to anyone seeking hosting is to do more research than you think you should. It might take longer to get a site up somewhere, but in the end it will be worth it, because solid checks have been done. It's just a way to save yourself some grief a little way down the road.

truehosting? What are you talking about? You should really back things up before you start making false comments.

Jim

Jim, note that he doesn't seem to be talking about you guys. There's a tangent in there (not sure how it relates to this thread, other than he thinks people should research before going with any company). That was his example of why...

Oh, sorry about that. Thanks for telling me.

Jim
--------
RN Web Design & Hosting

I can see why Jim got his bristles up though. Just the thought of having *that* company mentioned in a thread where your own company was mentioned is enough to give you sleepless nights. I don't think it was in anyway relating RN to them though :)

Funnily enough I was searching for something earlier and came across a thread from around this time last year. Even Duster was in it as an 'unregistered' poster so that shows how old it was *grin* You know who got a good drubbing in that one too Over a year later and he's still breathing... sad...

I suppose this thread (this one, not the old one), does remind everyone that support is king.

Greg Moore

I suppose if people are really intent on taking offense where none exists then there is nothing anyone can do about it. If I had meant to refer to rn web, I would have said rn web.

My post was merely referring to reasons why one should check hosts as thoroughly as possible prior to actually choosing one.

Peeps,

I'm sure everyone is aware of that. We're just trying to keep the conversation light.. :)

Greg Moore