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  1. #1

    Thumbs up My 8 month Mosso review

    After being hosted in Mosso for about 8 months it is time for me to move on to a dedicated server but since there is little information about them here is my short review and my experience in case someone is interested.

    During my stay in Mosso I must say I have been generally happy with them with some downers during the first months. I can not comment on the reseller aspect since I did not use mosso for reselling.

    Stability and downtimes: During the first months I was very disappointed about the constant downtimes which lasted from 1 to 10 minutes, sometimes many times during the day or night. The last months have been stable so far. I have noticed very few downtimes and the service has now been somewhat reliable, but no 100% uptime.

    Speed: At first the service was very fast. Then they made some changes in order to make the system more stable but PHP pages took about 3-6 seconds to parse. The issue was fixed and now it is fast again with the occasional slowness. In my parse logs I can see sometimes pages taking up to 3 seconds to parse but that is not constant, generally about .5-.8 seconds for an oscommerce store. You can feel you are in a shared environment.

    Email: During the first months I had to stop using their email because of delivery problems. Sometimes I never received some emails, some other times people never received my sent emails, sometimes the servers got blacklisted. I stopped using their email and started using Google mail with my domain. They say they do not support SPF records but somehow an admin installed SPF records on my DNS with google. I do not know how their email has been lately since I don’t use it, sorry.

    Control Panel: Wa Wa Wee Wah, Very Nice… I think is GREAT!, some people complain that they like Cpanel better but not me plus you can’t really compare them both. I think it is very user friendly and it looks good. It has everything the average person needs. One thing they need to work on is the speed since sometimes it is very slow, you click on something and occasionally it takes several seconds to respond, but it is way faster than in the first months.

    Support: This is what IMO they are best at. I have yet to come across such a good support department. They are always on top of things, they are fast and they are knowledgeable. They are willing to help you on things and they seem to actually care about you and your sites. Since I don’t resell I don’t know how their support for your customers would be, since they can outsource support.

    Flexibility: The fact that you can choose to host on Windows or Linux, Mysql 4 or 5, PHP 4 or 5, its an added plus. Those features saved me allot of time while doing some coding.

    Conclusion: I think it is a great platform and a great team. I would not use mosso to host very important sites but for average people or business I think it’s great. Since I don’t know much about hosting and managing servers, if I were a reseller or web designer this is the place where I would be and forget about VPS or dedicated servers.


    I hate that I will have to cancel my account. I would like to host my other sites there, it is so simple and friendly compared to cpanel, but I just can’t afford to have a dedicated + server managing company and mosso.

    If you would like to know something else feel free to ask, I don’t know what else to add at the moment.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Posts
    356
    You know why i like this site so much? It is because we get the reviews from real users. There are reviews on various service providers here. Anyway It's nice to know about your experience.
    <<Please see rules for signature setup>>

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Posts
    314
    Thanks for sharing your positive review with your host here. Could you show your URL, please?

  4. #4
    Sorry to reopen this thread, but-- did you have experience with ASP and mosso, or just php?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    East Coast // NYC
    Posts
    1,698
    ASP/ASP.NET is usually much quicker to parse than PHP -- so expect good things.

  6. #6
    First off, thanks for the very thorough review - I think it will provide lots of valuable information for people shopping for a solution.

    After being hosted in Mosso for about 8 months it is time for me to move on to a dedicated server
    If you dont mind, can you please let us know what percentage of the resources you have purcahsed did you actually get to use before needing to upgrade to a dedicated server? or did you need a dedicated server for some other reason entirely.
    www.cartika.com
    www.clusterlogics.com - You simply cannot run a hosting company without this software. Backups, Disaster Recovery, Big Data, Virtualization. 20 years of building software that solves your problems

  7. #7

    Wink

    Hi,

    I am running a heavily modded oscommerce store and I did not like being in a shared environment plus I could afford it, . We also run some custom CRM ondemand applications in PHP.


    I never even got near the limitations of the system or the account.


    There is a big difference in speed though, my site is much faster now, more responsive. Something I was looking for.

    Hope this helps.

  8. #8
    Hello jjaviervi,

    that is exactly the information I was looking for - thanks !!

    technically speaking, a cluster such as theirs should exhibit better performance then a single dedicated server environment - but, with 1 TB allocations, I am not sure this is possible.

    Irregardless of all of this, it is always better to be in a dedicated environment if you can afford it - congratulations on your success...

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by jjaviervi
    During my stay in Mosso I must say I have been generally happy with them with some downers during the first months. I can not comment on the reseller aspect since I did not use mosso for reselling..
    I have been hosted there since December 2006, and I agree with jjavirvi they have been perfect for what I needed

    Quote Originally Posted by jjaviervi
    Control Panel: Wa Wa Wee Wah, Very Nice… I think is GREAT!, some people complain that they like Cpanel better but not me plus you can’t really compare them both. I think it is very user friendly and it looks good. It has everything the average person needs. One thing they need to work on is the speed since sometimes it is very slow, you click on something and occasionally it takes several seconds to respond, but it is way faster than in the first months.
    Yeah, this beats Cpanel.. Much more easy and user friendly


    Support: This is what IMO they are best at. I have yet to come across such a good support department. They are always on top of things, they are fast and they are knowledgeable. They are willing to help you on things and they seem to actually care about you and your sites. Since I don’t resell I don’t know how their support for your customers would be, since they can outsource support.
    Yep that is their strength, and legacy. The founders are from Racksapce who is very well know for its customer service. As you know, problems happen with ANY hoster. It is not the fact that you have a problem, but the way you react to it that sets a hoster apart. The way these guys react is awesome...They are on top of it.

    Conclusion: I think it is a great platform and a great team. I would not use mosso to host very important sites but for average people or business I think it’s great. Since I don’t know much about hosting and managing servers, if I were a reseller or web designer this is the place where I would be and forget about VPS or dedicated servers.


    Could not agree more.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by CartikaHosting
    Hello jjaviervi,

    that is exactly the information I was looking for - thanks !!

    technically speaking, a cluster such as theirs should exhibit better performance then a single dedicated server environment - but, with 1 TB allocations, I am not sure this is possible.

    Irregardless of all of this, it is always better to be in a dedicated environment if you can afford it - congratulations on your success...
    Well, it sounds like the cluster would perform better but in the real world it doesn't. Maybe in very high loads it would.

    Mosso has some spikes in performance, sometimes even simple HTML pages take up to 1-3 seconds to start loading.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    9,264
    Quote Originally Posted by jjaviervi
    Well, it sounds like the cluster would perform better but in the real world it doesn't. Maybe in very high loads it would.

    Mosso has some spikes in performance, sometimes even simple HTML pages take up to 1-3 seconds to start loading.
    Now is that the initial request, e.g. dns delays or is that ip-based access?
    Overall I think their offering is exciting either way.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    East Coast // NYC
    Posts
    1,698
    The 1 - 3 second delay sounds reasonable due to all of the overhead of load balanced clustering.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    EU - east side
    Posts
    21,920
    Nice, detailed review. A well done job!

    The 1 - 3 second delay sounds reasonable due to all of the overhead of load balanced clustering.
    In the computers realm, one second sounds very long to me. It most certainly is in this case as well, given how this only happened "sometimes".

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    2,357
    Good stuff. How's the dedicated holding up?
    Personal Website: Here | Currently Hosted By: HostGator | Twitter: @Quartz87

  15. #15
    What kind of control panel is Mosso using?
    Did they built it inhouse?

  16. #16
    I just signed up with Mosso a few days ago and switched from another host, and we're getting everything transitioned over. Their support has been helpful so far, and I've got great first impressions! I must also add that I love the look of the Mosso Control Panel.

    Quote Originally Posted by solidghost
    What kind of control panel is Mosso using?
    Did they built it inhouse?
    It's an in-house control panel built exclusively for Mosso's customers. You can see screenshots of it here: http://www.mosso.com/screenshots.jsp

  17. #17
    A lot of good Mosso reviews, guess they are doing a good job. That control panel also looks nice but is it very detailed? Can you do everything with it?

  18. #18
    I just signed up a few days ago, and have many problems so far. I've been using Rackspace, but don't really need a dedicated server (the cost is extreme!) and also wanted to do some cross-platform development. Rackspace (who has been OUTSTANDING with their support and technical expertise!) recommended Mosso, since they are a venture company.

    On Monday when I signed up, websites were not provisioning. Their support staff is incredibly nice and they did take care of that problem promptly. However, 4 times with issues I needed resolving, I was told they would get back to me and no one did. I had to call several times. They were very apologetic, and explained with the provisioning issue they were a bit overwhelmed.

    Then yesterday I got an email advising that sites were slow to respond or down completely due to some new hardware installations they were doing.

    Hmmmmm...I'm very afraid. I think they mean well, but I'm wondering if they are too new? I haven't completely migrated my site to them yet, am in the process, but in the past 5 days have not been too comfy with the goings on.

    Also a lot of their support staff does not seem to have the technical expertise to answer even simple questions; I've ended up figuring it out myself and telling them the answer. Yikes!

    I wish I could afford to stay with Rackspace, but right now as a startup it's hard to shell out $495 a month with no revenue being generated yet.

    Anyone have any other feedback on Mosso, or other good hosts that do cross-platform (php and .net development with cluster) or managed hosting?

  19. #19
    P.S. The mosso control panel is very nice, I can do everything so far that I need to do with it.

  20. #20
    In nine years of being hosted by many, Mosso ranks as one of the worst experiences. For the past 3 months since signing up with them I kept checking here for other responses and was amazed at the positive feedback. Honestly thought it was just me. In fact I asked them frequently is it something about our setup? That was one question that went unanswered.
    Let me say that for the most part customer service response was very good and quick. However in the last few weeks I have had what appear to be stock answers. Our setup is zen-cart which runs on mysql and php, an offshoot of oscommerce. We have a fairly busy site. Enough to be our sole source of income and support a few employees.
    The speed of our site there was always sluggish with an occassional burst of energy. Sometimes I would wait a minute or more to get to the next page. I upgraded to latest zen-cart with a very clean install and hoped that would help resolve it. No such luck it was as bad as ever. Downtimes were frequent. I can't remember all of them but they would last a day plus. One of course was at the busiest weekend before the holidays. The answer from them was always something about clusters. I don't know what they are and don't have time to learn, that is their job and what I pay them for. For the downtown they said they would adjust our monthly fee, never happened. Last week we were down again and I finally hung it up with them. I kept hoping they would get their act together but I could avoid the inevitable no longer.
    So for mysql/php type sites that actually do business I would suggest avoiding them at all costs. And I really hate having to say this but maybe I can help prevent someone else from going through that misery.

    Jeff

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    EU - east side
    Posts
    21,920
    We have a fairly busy site. Enough to be our sole source of income and support a few employees.
    Maybe it's time to get a "more dedicated" solution for the site. Looks pretty critical in nature to me.

  22. #22
    Jeff,

    I really appreciate you sharing your experiences. I have actually seen many not-so-good reviews here around the forum, which is what made me more nervous about continuing with them.

    Your response confirms my fears. I actually canceled my server with them yesterday, before seeing this. I based it on the fact it took them a week to answer some simple questions about their backup policies, and even though this was escalated to one of the supervisors, he also failed to answer an email of mine, and of course, when he finally answered (after a second email from me) he apologized and said it was due to the server problems last week.

    I just personally don't have time to chase after people for answers (and this happened not once, not twice, but about 6 times within my first week with them) and worry when it appears they are not staffed well enough to handle emergencies.

    I still have my Rackspace dedicated server, and it's honestly more machine than I need right now. If you are looking for a lot of bandwidth and power, but don't want to pay for your own dedicated server, get in contact with me. Perhaps we can split the cost down the middle, or work something out dependent on your needs. I have the abililty to create up to 100 domain names and of course, set up clients in Plesk so we could easily share the server and the costs.

    I am EXTREMELY happy with the uptime and customer service at Rackspace--it has been unparalleled so far with my experience with about 4 or 5 other hosts--but the out of pocket cost ($500 a month) is killing me right now since we are brand new and not generating any revenue yet.

    The machine we have is the following:

    AMD Athlon 64 - 3200
    1 GB Memory
    Hard drive: 250 GB SATA x 2
    RAID: RAID 1
    Monthly Bandwidth: 1000 GB

    This of course includes 24/7 "Fanatical" support, which it truly is. No balls have been dropped there since I signed up with them in October, and all of their folks really know their stuff. I have to say, they go above and beyond in making sure that all my questions are answered. My Account Manager has even called me on her day off, Saturday, to ensure I have gotten answers I need.

    So if you (or anyone else out there) is interested, let me know.

    And again, thanks for the info on Mosso. I hope they will get it together, they have a great concept but I think they need to increase their staffing and stabilize their environment, or they will not make it out there.

  23. #23
    As far as more dedicated goes, I assumed (hah!) that from my study of their info, suggestions here and my talking to them they would easily handle what I needed. Obviously not so. Here is another small example. Zen-cart has a great sales report. At Mosso running this report for more than 2 months time frame would time out consistantly and I would have to reclisk the button and eventually, usually 2-3 minutes, would get the report. And running it for a year or something, forget it. At my new host, wiredtree.com, I ran a report for the full 1 and 1/2 yr of data and it spit the whole thing out in about 5-8 seconds. No comparison in performance.

    I appreciate the rackspace offer but I moved to wiretree.com with a VPS server. As I wrote on the forum concerning wiretree yesterday, I couldn't be more pleased with support and performance so far. And half the cost. I will do a better review in a few weeks.

    Jeff

  24. #24
    Sorry I keep writing wiretree and it is wiredtree.com

    Jeff

  25. #25
    Thanks Jeff! I hadn't heard about Wiredtree. I will look into them. At first glance, their pricing is very good. But how easy was the migration from one server to the other? I always seem to have problems with that. Did you require a lot of support, and if so, how were the technical folks?

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