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Written by Timothy Johns

Category: Hosting

Published: 25 July 2017

Last Updated: 25 July 2017

Hits: 2040

• shady1&1
• 1&1
• shady registrar

Beware if you're thinking of purchasing or did purchase a domain at 1&1 (1and1.com). They make it pretty much impossible to purchase a domain there and use it somewhere else. I'm guessing this is an attempt to force people to use their hosting or crappy website building services. First, changing the name servers is less than easy. But, then you have to change the A-Record. Navigating to that is extremely difficult and hard to find. When you finally find it, the link to change the A-Record doesn't even work. I've had to advise clients to transfer their domain to a different domain registrar in order to even use it. This is shady and should be illegal! Also, when I tried calling to resolve this, they just hung up on me after 15 minutes. Not just shady, but also very unprofessional. Stay away from 1&1!

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Written by Timothy Johns

Category: Hosting

Published: 02 May 2017

Last Updated: 03 May 2017

Hits: 3026

• godaddy
• terrible hosting
• worst hosting
• managed wordpress

I've heard of 'managed wordpress' hosting from Godaddy and a few other hosting providers before.  But never even wanted to mess with it because I know it's completely unnecessary.  It's just a way for unethical hosting providers to rake in more cash (it's usually a bit more expensive than standard hosting).

Recently I tried working on a project in which the client had several WordPress sites in Godaddy's Managed WordPress Hosting.  She had some issues with some websites.  Which is too bad because, with Godaddy Managed WordPress Hosting, you have no control over things whatsoever.  You have no access to files or the file system.  It's the most useless garbage hosting plan I've ever seen in my life!  And completely unnecessary too.  

Do not purchase 'Managed WordPress Hosting' unless you want a website that no one can work on if anything goes wrong.

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Written by Timothy Johns

Category: Hosting

Published: 19 December 2016

Last Updated: 29 April 2017

Hits: 1814

About a week ago, I had a client on a shared hosting account.  The server slowed down to a crawl.  I did a reverse-IP lookup and checked other websites that were on the same server... same thing.  They would either not load or barely load.  The TTFB (time to first byte) was around 8 seconds.  So it would take 8 seconds just to connect to the server.  

Called InMotion.  They looked into it and said the server had issues and the best thing to o was to move it to a different server.  In order to keep this from happening again, it was suggested that my client move to a VPS.  And, because of the issues, that they would give him  the introductory rate of $360 for a year.  And that he would also get credited for what he had prepaid on his shared hosting.  The total came to $200+something.  

They were supposed to make the move over the weekend.  On Monday, I checked the cPanel and seen that there was CPU usage issues (sitting at 100% with a fault:1).  So I called.  They said they started the move as scheduled, but didn't finish it and there is no notes as to why.  So they would need to re-schedule.  My client informed me that he was charged the entire $360 so I mentioned that to the tech.  He transferred me to billing.

After 20 minutes on hold, I got the rudest person I think I've ever talked to at InMotion.  She argued and argued that he should not have gotten the introductory offer.  And she kept saying that he was 'billed appropriately'.  She wouldn't stop arguing with me so I just started yelling 'supervisor' at her to get her to stop arguing as the conversation was going nowhere.  She finally stopped and said they would send an email with a supervisor's contact.

I've been with InMotion now for years and haven't had such a horrible experience until now.  I know they are doing some serious advertising and taking on a lot of new customers.  I don't know if that has anything to do with it or not.  We'll see what comes out of this and I'll update the experience...

My conclusion so far is... while I still reluctantly recommend InMotion and have to say they're better than most, ALL hosting companies are ruthless.  There is no such thing as an honest hosting company that's reliable.

UPDATE:

Within a week, my client received the email from inMotion and contacted them himself.  He explained what had happened and they refunded him appropriately.  It still is inexcusable, but at least they took care of it in the end.

Around February/March 2017, after a few calls to support, I did anything I could to not call support... the wait times were regularly 40-60+ minutes.  I've recently (April 2017) had to call them a couple times and my wait/hold time was less than 5 minutes both times.  I know they've been growing/expanding rapidly... too rapidly, according to one of the tech support agents, for them to keep up with customer service.  That was at the time of the long wait times.  So it seems like they've caught up.  I have to say I've been happy lately with support.  I should mention that the rude lady that argued was not in the tech support department.

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Written by Timothy Johns

Category: Hosting

Published: 07 April 2015

Last Updated: 07 April 2015

Hits: 7155

After arguing for a month with Godaddy on a daily basis, they finally send me this...

Thanks for your patience. We have an in-store credit for you.

We recently implemented some regular server maintenance which may have caused some slowness or downtime for your website. We've corrected the issue and continue to monitor the situation to assure the best hosting experience possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused. As a measure of good faith, we have provided you with an in-store credit that may be applied toward one free month of your web hosting plan or your purchase of other GoDaddy products. To View Your In-Store Credit: 1. Log in to your Account Manager. 2. Go to the Payments tab. 3. Click In-Store Credit. To Apply In-Store Credits to Purchases: 1. Select a product, and then click Add To Cart. 2. Optional: Select any offers you want to add. 3. Review your shopping cart, and then click Proceed to Checkout. 4. In the Select Your Payment Method section select In-Store Credit. 5. If the order total exceeds your In-Store Credit, select an additional payment method for the remaining balance. 6. Click Continue. 7. If you have read and agree to the Universal Terms of Service, click Place Order Now. Thank you for understanding. We appreciate your business.

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Written by Timothy Johns

Category: Hosting

Published: 01 April 2015

Last Updated: 04 August 2016

Hits: 4532

• godaddy
• worst hosting

Two years ago, I would say, "go with Godaddy".  At that time I had worked on many websites hosted with different companies.  And it seemed that the ones hosted on Godaddy ran much faster than others.  Their service was much better than others also.  So I was recommending them.  Times have changed.  I now believe that Godaddy is the worst host in the world.  They have the slowest, most overcrowded servers imaginable.  You might get lucky and have a very fast server when you purchase hosting.  Chances are that within a year, they will have soooo many websites on that shared piece of crap server that your server speed will be all but dead.  And they always blame it on your resources.  You're using too many resources, they'll say.  That's BS.  They're using too many resources.

Getting Response: 421 Too many connections (8) from this IP Error: Could not connect to server

The only way to fix that is to switch hosting providers.  Godaddy is a PIECE OF SHIT hosting company.  Their servers are old decrepit pieces of junk with spinning hard drives.  I picture a dirty old warehouse with cob webs across the machines when I picture one of Godaddy's server farms.

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Written by Timothy Johns

Category: Hosting

Published: 26 March 2015

Last Updated: 26 March 2015

Hits: 4360

• godaddy
• hosting issues

Godaddy has had serious issues with their cPanel accounts - affecting millions of people and businesses around the globe.  This has been going on since last Wednesday, March 18th.  For some reason it hasn't made the news yet.  But it's responsible for millions of dollars of lost revenue from businesses hosted on Godaddy.  I guess it hasn't made the news yet because the websites affected are experiencing extremely slow load times (sometimes over a minute) as opposed to a straight 'outage'.