I decided to go with SpecHosting, because of a couple of things. Firstly, they were the only VPS provider I contacted (Out of 4) which replied within the day (Yes it was a weekend if I recall, but still). Secondly, the offer. I was on a recurring discount offer, for their SH 3 plan, giving me 100GB Disk Space, 1.5GB RAM, and included both a free cPanel licence and a free HostBill licence (Which I wanted).
Now, I ordered and my VPS was set up on April 14 2011, at 9:20PM (UK). Everything was fine, I requested the HostBill licence, they gave me the link for it, I requested the cPanel was set up, it was set up. On entering WHM, I saw the big free trial in the top left corner. I didn’t think anything of it. I just assumed it would take some time to set up.
However, days past, and nothing changed. So on the 20th, I contacted them, opening a ticket reporting that cPanel was still in a trial mode.
Here is the ticket. The only edits I've made is take out my name and theirs, my IP address and a link.
As you can see, 10 days passed and still nothing. I asked on here and was told that they most likely hadn't purchased it. So, I moved to a different provider.Quote:
Me
Client 04/20/2011 17:57
Hi there,
WHM is still saying it's in trial mode. Can you help please.
Me
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SpecHosting
Staff 04/20/2011 18:09
Hey [Me],
I am investigating this now!
Cheers,
-------------------------
SpecHosting | SpecHosting.com - We're Just Up To Spec!
Me
Client 04/21/2011 15:44
Hi there,
Has there been any update?
Thanks,
Me
SpecHosting
Staff 04/21/2011 17:19
Hello [Me],
Run the script below through SSH and it will not give you the trial license in your WHM!
/usr/local/cpanel/cpkeyclt
Cheers,
-------------------------
SpecHosting | SpecHosting.com - We're Just Up To Spec!
Me
Client 04/22/2011 07:03
Hi,
I've tried that, but I'm still getting the problem.I went on http://www.cpanel.net/apps/verify/ to get help, and that says the IP address has only got a 45 day trial.
I've taken a screenshot and below is the link, just in case it helps.
[LINK]
Thanks,
Me
Me
Client 04/22/2011 07:04
I also followed the instructions from this webpage:
http://www.thewebhostingdir.com/web-...nse-error.html
SpecHosting
Staff 04/22/2011 10:27
Hey [Me],
Hmm, your IP does have a full VPS version of cPanel/WHM. I am going to contact cPanel now and have them fix this.
Cheers,
-------------------------
SpecHosting | SpecHosting.com - We're Just Up To Spec!
Me
Client 04/25/2011 15:27
Hi there,
Has there been any update? Shall I run that command again?
From,
Me
SpecHosting
Staff 04/25/2011 15:44
Hey [Me],
No worries, we are fixing it for you. Run the script I sent you after 30 minutes and it will work fine!
Cheers,
-------------------------
SpecHosting | SpecHosting.com - We're Just Up To Spec!
Me
Client 04/26/2011 07:45
Hi there,
I've ran the script but it's still saying trial. I've checked on the cPanel website as well and it's still saying 45 day trial.
Thanks,
Me
SpecHosting
Staff 04/26/2011 11:48
[Me],
I have a contact over at cPanel, and I am going to have him look at this. I happen to know for a fact that your license is valid, I personally registered it. I will get this fixed for you!
Cheers,
-------------------------
SpecHosting | SpecHosting.com - We're Just Up To Spec!
Me
Client 04/27/2011 13:09
Hi there,
Any update? It's still showing me the message.
Also, if you need to do any work on my server, the WHM login in the other ticket I have is still correct.
Thanks,
Me
SpecHosting
Staff 04/27/2011 14:04
Hey [Me],
Thanks, I am sshing into your server now to see if we can't get this fixed!
Cheers,
-------------------------
SpecHosting | SpecHosting.com - We're Just Up To Spec!
Me
Client 04/27/2011 16:41
Hi,
Has there been any update? Sorry to be a pest.
Me
SpecHosting
Staff 04/27/2011 18:20
Hey [Me],
Your not being a pest at all. We have had to submit a ticket with cPanel for them to look into.
Cheers,
-------------------------
SpecHosting | SpecHosting.com - We're Just Up To Spec!
Me
Client 04/28/2011 16:39
Hi there,
Has there been any update? The trial banner is still showing in both WHM and cPanel.
Me
SpecHosting
Staff 04/28/2011 19:10
Hey [Me],
Working on an update now...
Cheers,
-------------------------
SpecHosting | SpecHosting.com - We're Just Up To Spec!
Me
Client 04/29/2011 08:38
Hi again,
Has there been any update?
From,
Me
SpecHosting
Staff 04/29/2011 11:29
Hey [Me],
It's in cPanel's hands now, I will let you know what I hear back from them!
Cheers,
-------------------------
SpecHosting | SpecHosting.com - We're Just Up To Spec!
Me
Client 04/30/2011 12:14
Hi there,
Has there been any update?
Me
While this was happening, I only had a problem with the VPS being down. I got told it was just the UK, however... as Pingdom had quite a few servers in USA, and was still reporting it down, I guessed it wasn't a networking problem in the UK.
Here is the ticket below:
However, this was only my experience. I'm sure they have customers who find them great. Maybe I just had a stroke of bad luck, I don't know. Apart from them two issues, I was quite happy with them. They seemed quite a good host. Their offer was great as well. I'm now on another host and I'm quite happy, even if I am paying more for a smaller spec VPS.Quote:
[Me]
Client 04/25/2011 18:05
Hi there,
Is the node I'm on down? I was trying to log into whm for my server and couldn't, and cannot log into the VPS control panel either.
Thanks,
[Me]
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[Me]
Client 04/25/2011 18:06
Also Pingdom is now reporting the server is down.
SpecHosting
Staff 04/25/2011 18:17
Hey [Me],
It looks like there is a ISP issue in the UK that routes traffic to the Chicago area. I have been watching the live reports and they said it should be accessible within the next 15 minutes.
Cheers,
-------------------------
SpecHosting | SpecHosting.com - We're Just Up To Spec!
[Me]
Client 04/25/2011 18:20
Hi,
Are you sure it's only the UK affected by these issues? I've had both Pingdom and BinaryCanary (Both in UK and USA) reporting it as offline. I did a check on downornot.com (http://www.downornot.com/[LINK]) and that's also reporting the same.
SpecHosting
Staff 04/25/2011 18:42
Hey [Me],
I just checked the server again, it is online and apparently the service in that area has been restored. Odd that BinaryCanary and Pingdom was showing it offline, would you check and see if it is working now?
Cheers,
-------------------------
SpecHosting | SpecHosting.com - We're Just Up To Spec!
[Me]
Client 04/25/2011 19:13
They have alerted me that they're up again now. Strange USA was also showing them offline.
SpecHosting
Staff 04/25/2011 19:59
Hey [Me],
That's really weird, we use PingDom as well just as a reference but it shows it was never down for us. I am going to investigate this to see if it might of been something more then a ISP issue.
Cheers,
-------------------------
SpecHosting | SpecHosting.com - We're Just Up To Spec!
[Me]
Client 04/25/2011 20:04
Ok then. I have exported a report from Pindom showing the outage from different locations. I set it to report from the 23rd for any down and down/unconfirmed issues. As you can see, they were all showing timeout issues.
I have attached the CSV file in hope to help you with the issue so it doesn't happen again (Even though no one can help network problems). :-)
I have had to upload the CSV file to another site as WHMCS doesn't allow it. Below is the link.
[Link]
[Me]
SpecHosting
Staff 04/25/2011 20:11
Hey [Me],
Wow, thanks so much, I will definitely look into this and see what might of caused something like this.
Cheers,
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SpecHosting | SpecHosting.com - We're Just Up To Spec!
Also, for the moderators, I opened a ticket a few days ago under Experience Information with proof in advance for this review. The ticket ID is FPL-291831.
So, I hope this review helps people decide on their VPS provider. Like I said, maybe I was just having some bad luck, maybe the cPanel licence was purchased and they had just been waiting, I don't know.. But I do know the VPS host I'm on now, their cPanel licence I'm on was verified the first time I logged in to WHM myself.