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Thread: CIHost down

  1. #51

    Still Down - Anyone thinking of Legal Action??

    I hate for them to just walk away from this crap with only lost business of the pissed off clients.

    Why have we not heard about this in the local newspapers etc. If they are so big and a pioneer, I would think this would be newsworthy.


    I must say they have been great about controlling negative press!
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  2. #52
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Dallas, Tx
    Posts
    7

    Thumbs up RESOLUTION

    Just wanted to update everyone....

    After much deliberation and a couple of days of working with them, we have come to an agreement. I cannot disclose the agreement that we came up with, however, I will say that in the end CIHost made good on their words, what words are those? "Customer service". It is an unfortunate incident, however, I would hope, and after talking with Tamra this evening extensively, I feel that they are sincerely trying to alleviate the growing pains that they seem to be having. I'm sure that there are several management issues to resolve as well, but I guess as long as they understand the "holes" that they have and do their best and ensure that they are "filled" things will get better for those future clients to come. I sincerely hope that they reap the benefits of this restructuring and get the utmost dedicated, top-notch service that we all know we deserve.

    So I guess to keep this short, I am pleased at how CIHost, and Tamra specifically, handled this issue of ours so that we could come to an agreeable resolution for both parties.

    Good evening.

    --
    Richard
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  3. #53
    I am glad that your particular issue has been resolved, but you lost me after the "unfortunate incident" and "growng pains" comments. Unfortunately, words like "customer service" and "made good on thier words" appear alien to CI Host.
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  4. #54
    3 more emails from technical support directing me to a form to have my website reconnected to DSN. Third time I am filling this out. Plus, talking with Tech Support, I was told all was done when giving info verbally. But this will stall everything yet another day and most likely they will mark all tickets complete. You have to say, damm they are consistent.
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  5. #55
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    California
    Posts
    0

    Terrible management of crisis - Any suggestions?

    Does anyone know of another Windows host that also offers the Miva Empressa engine?

    After 10's of hours o hold, broken chats, useless tech support people and snotty e-mail responses our site came back up Wednesday the 24th (HTML and ASP)

    This is the worst handled crisis I've ever experienced. The customer service is non-existent and the company just doesn't care.

    I'm amazed the industry and media hasn't crucified them.

    Keith

    A quote by the CEO of CI Host from and article about this problem:
    "This is a proactive move to prepare our systems today for the attacks of 2006," said C I Host CEO Christopher Faulkner. "Since January of this year, the attacks have increased dramatically and for the most part we have been untouched. But the latest attack, the Witty worm, could have been a disaster."

    You can read the rest of the article at:
    thewhir.com/marketwatch/cih033104.cfm
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  6. #56
    My letter to TheWhir.com
    --------------------------------

    Dear TheWhir.com

    As per CI Host CEO Christopher Faulkner:

    "....but the latest attack, the Witty worm, could have been a disaster."

    It was a disaster. At first, CI Host downplayed the event, stating that they were experiencing a DoS attack but would be back soon. The next day they explained that “a server” was hit with a worm and that other servers were taken offline for inspection, but servers are beginning to come on line and all should be back shortly. The day after that they said that they have to manually apply patches to each server and it taking some time. They thanked me for my patience and said that all would be back soon. Then the CEO released an email about “rebuilding in the wake of witty worm” that gave clue to the full extent of the “event” and made it clear that all previous information was untrue. Last Friday and Saturday, I received phone calls in response to my emails explaining that “77 servers had to be rebuilt” and “14,000 websites were affected” but all were being repaired as fast as humanly possible and my site would be back up by Sunday, March 28th. They also commented that their phone support would be down for 2 hours while they replaced a switch. When phone service returned, the switch was indeed obvious. All calls were being routed to India where all they could offer was a “were sorry’ and “thank you for your patience” and “we will have someone call you.”

    At nearly 14 days, my website is still down. As per my developer, the site is intact but the permissions were never restored for the MS-SQL database, despite filling out a request form 3 times as directed and providing all the information verbally as well.

    For one of MANY customers adversely affected, this is a disaster despite Mr. Faulkner’s disingenuous comments. Discounting the actions (or lack) of his technical people that may have been able to prevent or minimize the damage, his customer service and support staff could have made this “event” easier for his clients by just being honest and responsive.

    I would suggest TheWhir.com do some investigation and publish an article about what is really happening versus providing an outlet for damage control and company spin.
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  7. #57

    Re: Terrible management of crisis - Any suggestions?

    Originally posted by kewpro
    Does anyone know of another Windows host that also offers the Miva Empressa engine?
    If its the same as Miva Merchant Storefront I believe the host I switched to, Atlantic.net, offers it.
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  8. #58
    My two cents: still in the process of changing from CIHost to ************. Latest problem is getting register.com account information from the boneheads in Bedford. I had CIHost register one of my domains, but forgot to get the registrar account info - now I have to continue waiting on hold, sending e-mails no-one responds to and in general hating Chris Faulkner until someone gives me the info I need to update this domain's DNS entry.

    If I'd done a straight up google search on ci host I could have seen their track record and not chosen them in the first place. Once bitten...
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  9. #59
    Going on 14 days and had my developer on the case after FTP finally started working. However, the permissions need to be set for my site to run. I have been trying for friggin' days not. The keep sending me the URL for the SQL setup. I have filled it out three times and gave them the info over the phone and still no dice. However, at least I got to get my stuff out so I can startup somewhere else without losing much.

    In a pinch and after a fit, CI Host ain't worth s...
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  10. #60
    so bad
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  11. #61
    Pathetic is more like it. What's worse is they wont update the billing on my customers website and rebill me everday adding a buck for the decline!!! I gave them the new info like 4 times.
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  12. #62

    Our site was completely destroyed?

    Our CIhosted site is still down as of today.

    After 16 days of downtime and many hours on hold in the previous two weeks, I once again got in touch with a support representative at CIhost today. She tells me that I've been on hold for too long for her to sugar-coat the story:

    Our server, "ares", was completely destroyed by the worm. Their tape backups failed. Their technicians have tried to restore the site, but they weren't able to retrieve anything. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. All gone.

    Anything that we had posted there is irretrievably lost. The only way I found this out was by calling their tech support. They did not appear to have any plans to notify the clients on the impacted servers.

    Is this some sort of joke? What about their daily, weekly or monthly backups?

    What about the "100% of data restored" that their CEO claimed? How long have they been sitting on this tidbit of information?

    An interesting note is that our server was running Windows NT 4.0. According to ISS, it appears to me that the BlackICE firewall product reached its end-of-life in AUGUST 2003 for the NT 4.0 platform. (http documents.iss.net/literature/BlackICE/EOL_Sentry-Guard_WinNT4.0.pdf).

    Is this idiocy, or is it just plain negligence?

    Run as far away from CIHost as you possibly can!

    Scott
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  13. #63

    more about BlackIce on NT4?

    in fact, if you look at the following analysis from symantecL, the only BlackICE products that supposedly had problems were version 3.6. (This product is not even supported on NT 4.0.) it really makes you wonder....

    http: securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.witty.worm.html
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  14. #64
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Dallas, TX USA
    Posts
    2,812

    Re: more about BlackIce on NT4?

    Originally posted by sdudley
    in fact, if you look at the following analysis from symantecL, the only BlackICE products that supposedly had problems were version 3.6. (This product is not even supported on NT 4.0.) it really makes you wonder....

    http: securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.witty.worm.html
    Yeah, it does make you wonder.
    Maybe they had another problem that they don't want let public.
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  15. #65
    My CI Host site is still down but I pretty much don't care at this point. I am getting my site out of there. The promised me all this free service, but it doesnt seem to useful when the site is down. My site is being transferred to fluidhosting.com. They seemed to be well regarded and so far they have been responsive and helpful. I just hope they don't screw up my customers Linux hosted site before I get that out too.
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  16. #66
    I thought some of you might be interested in my public documentation of the C I Host mess. The first link if a very long hour-by-hour accounting of my communication with C I Host. The second link talks about Scott's experience and points to why I care long after I've moved my site from their servers.

    C I Host Outwitted by Witty
    C I Host at 100% says CEO. "Bull" says one customer
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  17. #67
    17 days after the "event" and I received a message from CI Host support that they have uploaded the site and database, not all I need to do is make it work. No clue or help offered.

    My site is already being transferred, however.

    On the bright side, they have included a link to the CI Host webstore. Now I can own a CI Host logo hat! Hurrraaaay!!!

    I can only describe them as amazing.
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  18. #68
    Scott, is your site still down?
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  19. #69

    Fixing CI Host problems

    We have been down for almost 1 month now, CI Host is of no help is restoring our site. I have complained and complained to CI Host, but they will not respond to our emails and they will not talk on the phone.

    We would like to pursue further action against CI Host. I believe that approaching CI Host on a unified front, with hundreds or thousands of people represented, will work better than each of us contacting them on our own. If it came to legal action, a large class-action suit would be more motivating than a little dinky suit.

    In order to do this, I need to find people who will join me in this endeavor. I'm not sure of the best way to do this. If you have suggestions, or want to join my crusade against CI Host, please email me at manderson@iname.com. TIA.
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  20. #70

    CI Host

    Manderson - by any chance did you allow CI Host to register your domain name for you? If not, then get out now. If you own your own name and have maintained your own backups, go elsewhere.

    Unfortunately, a lot of folks first let CI Host register the domain and then trusted them to make backups that could successfully restore their site. I have heard some horror stories.

    Hopefully everyone that experienced problems with CI Host have documented thier experiences and can prove damages. I think they are ripe for a class action suit. It would be useful to prove:

    that servers were grossly exposed to dangers because of outdated firewalls, inadequate backups, and haphazard application of security related patches.

    that they did not assist thier clients in mitigating financial loss by providing an accurate assessment of the problem and knowingly providing service restoration times/dates they could not possibly be meet.

    What would be further helpful is an ex-employee(s) willing to assist in documenting any potential claims.

    My own site was down for over three weeks because I at first gave them the benefit of a doubt and believed what they were telling me. Then for a week I heard nothing. Finally I spoke to someone because during the message "if you know the extension of the person you..." I made a lucky guess.

    Also, after getting a note every day saying my support ticket was still open, I took them up on thier "rate my service" and heard back from the big man himself who said he was sorry I felt that way, and what else could they have done. I told him. I never heard back. As far as those "people" know, my site is still down.

    Class action suit sounds good. I was looking into it. We would want a lawyer familiar with the process and willing to defer fees until the outcome, but he/she would have to be convinced of victory and assets. I have heard that CI Host leases pretty much everything. As for legal action, Chris Faukners mommy is his lawyer. She may not tuck him in anymore, but she fights his battles.

    I looked over some of the screen captures of the Support Chats today as well as the emails I received. How pathetic.

    John
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  21. #71

    Redefining Suck

    CI Host is redefining suck.

    I've had a dedicated server with them for almost the past year, and haven't had a problem with them until recently... when my server got hacked.

    Calls to their tech. support number(s) ring and ring and ring.

    Saturday, I called... and it took 24 rings before someone answered.
    Today, I called several times:
    8 rings
    30 rings (hung up and called the emergency #)
    12 rings (the emergency number)

    However, CI Host doesn't suck as bad as Interland/ Dialtone Internet. Their tech, support insisted repeatedly that they needed root access to my server to PING or run a TRACERT from my box. Few of the tech. support people I spoke with there, or had e-mail communication with seemed capable of communicating in anything other than broken English.

    They're a company who would GREATLY BENEFIT from outsourcing their tech. support to India. At least the people in call centers in India speak and understand English better than the morons at Interland.

    Your mileage may vary, but I'd highly recommend avoiding both companies. Their sales departments are great, and well-staffed... however their tech. support departments are not.
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  22. #72
    It's a shame, but they seem to have experienced a meltdown. They strung their clients along with misinformation and remained practically unreachable. They made me jump through hoops to cancel my account and acted surprised.

    CI Host is the worst company I have ever dealt with. They even make AT&T look competent.

    Good Luck.
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  23. #73
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Venice Beach, Ca.
    Posts
    83
    Hmmmmmm... This incident isn't surprising.

    I have a data center facility right down the street from CI Host in Los Angeles and it's not the first time they have had major issues. I have had a few of CI Host's Colocation customers make the move to my data center in recent weeks/months, with horror stories that are almost as good as some of the horror stories I get from my refugee Cal-POP Colo Customers.

    I'm glad to hear that most of you have picked up and moved on in the wake of this blundered affair. I wish all of you the best of luck with your new hosting providers. IMHO, I'm sure you are much better off.

    -R
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  24. #74
    Don't give your money to someone who paid some idiot to tattoo the company logo on the back of his skull. Faulkner does not care about customer service, he cares about fancy cars and breast implants. He hires his own family members and hideous lovers to run the company and you're seeing the result of their indolence and greed. If C I Host's client base only knew what went on in the Bedford Datacenter, I guarantee you there would be a mass exodus away from the joke that is Shitco.

    Faulkner never earned a degree, despite attending SMU and Baylor, nor has he ever worked for anything in his life. Anytime he experiences difficulty he sues, hiding behind his mommy in court. He goes through high-priced automobiles like Kleenex and yet pinches pennies when it comes to salaries and equipment. The lobby of the corporate HQ looks like a strip club. This man has no taste, no class, and only a semblance of a competent business sense.

    Do not support this idiot, or his asinine antics. He believes the American justice system was created as an outlet for him to avoid and silence his detractors and creditors. The conditions and level of knowledge that prevails within his company is atrocious...absolutely intolerable for the discerning consumer. How many outages have they had in the past four years? Too many to count...how many customers have watched as their data was destroyed and then deemed irrecoverable?

    Like Lenny said in Memento - Don't believe his lies. The only thing C I Host can do well is spin PR articles. Faulkner doesn't fight spam, he creates it.

    Please take your business elsewhere, because that is the only way customers can fight back against morons with delusions of grandeur who offer a service they are apparently unable to adequately support. Just look at the history of C I Host...all of the outages and crises and lawsuits. It paints an undeniably clear picture.

    I mean, why all the incessant PR anyway? Because C I Host can't rely on its reputation to win customers, because it has time and again been sullied by failures and controversy and general stupidity. Fight back, and maybe Faulkner will have to sue some more people to make his car payment, and if there is a God of Justice watching over us all...C I Host will sink into the quagmire from which it arose.
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  25. #75
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Venice Beach, Ca.
    Posts
    83
    Very well said!

    -R
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