Powweb - We can rely on You!!! [Archive]

weddingsite

4-9-03, 05:02 AM

I have many clients to whom I build websites.
Sometimes I consider hosting all of them on Powweb.
But then I think Powweb is just not reliable.

I mean...Ok, its cheap, large space, many pop3`s etc...BUT how can I face clients with the problems POWWEB is giving us.

On one day it`s the email, the other it`s a server, then it`s an upgrade, then SMTP settings disappear, etc...!!!!

We are always in rough sea. Please settle everything down.

I am fed up of everyday expecting something wrong to happen!

Now imagine, if I have 100 websites on Powweb...imagine all of these calling me and asking me why the site is slow or down..and I don`t know what to answer!

I think a moving my clients towards Powweb would be a risk to my reputation.

What you think guys?

CKH

4-9-03, 05:10 AM

Sure, powweb has some problems and some downtime, but, overall, I'm happy with them. I know I was pretty frustrated in December, but, they got things straightened out and have been running pretty good since then.
Their uptime is good, this board is good, they have a lot of good things that other places don't have.
I have a website at another place that is more expensive. Tech support sucks and right now I'm stuck because their system won't let me chmod some cgi files. Their interface is awkward and their documentation is non existent.

Here they have good FAQ's, users helping users, tech support (although they may not answer you right away, they seem to jump on a problem and worry about contacting you later), doc's, etc.

I can't complain. (not too much anyway)

polygon

4-9-03, 05:13 AM

I too, am very disappointed.

Lots of space at a low price that doesn't work correctly is no bargin at all!:( :(

weddingsite

4-9-03, 05:16 AM

I know I have to accept down time and I do (to a certain extent).

But when the websites aren`t yours but your clients`, they won`t understand all these down and slow times!

If your clients live in your hometown they will promptly grab the phone and call you.

Honestly, if you are designing a website for someone, would you promise him 99.7% uptime powweb claims.

I won`t.

I mean what about slow times, email server down times, upgrade times etc...

CKH

4-9-03, 05:23 AM

Looks like the problem has been solved, at least for space anyway. That didn't take too long. Now if it just stays fixed....

Jade Dragon

4-9-03, 10:46 AM

If you notice a slow response time please do a tracert to your server to see if there is a drop in between you and powweb.

I have noticed outages very frequently in the last month where my requests get droped somewhere between here and powweb. Nothing was wrong on Powweb's side and nothing was wrong with my ISP, but somewhere in the ATT and Verio range the request was dropped. There have been times where I could go to some sites located on servers in different regions but not others. Fustrating yes, but nothing I can do about it.

Powweb like any host does have some downtime. I have had accounts with two other major hosting companies which had much more down time than Powweb and they did not give out any info as to why.

I have 10 packages and have referred others to Powweb, I have had excellent uptime and have not noticed any major bumps to my sites for many months. I do believe that Powweb is the most open host there is. You are informed of what goes on behind the servers. There are many hosts who even refuse to acknowlege you requests to even find out what they are running for backend software. You also have an excellent level of control over what you can and are able to run with your site.

=)
Jade

lukeski

4-9-03, 10:51 AM

I have had the opportunity to have my site hosted by Powweb and on a few other hosts as well as working for a hosting company for a few years. I would have to say that Powweb, in my opinion, has done a wonderful job in minimizing the downtime and the problems that I have seen develop wasn't for their lack of planning.

I don't know of a host, including a high-end, dedicated server that isn't going to have problems sometime... that is the nature of the internet. DOS attacks happen, backbones sometimes go down, even to the most expensive. I think the things we need to be examining are if Powweb is doing their best to prevent these things from happening. I think they are. We should be looking for is if the problems were stuff they should have caught ahead of time, like running out of disk space, not a redundant connection to the internet, not keeping software up to date and so forth. But what I have seen, they have been doing this well. Just my 2 cents...

stevel

4-9-03, 11:00 AM

Mario, what do you mean by "SMTP settings disappear"?

I think PowWeb does a fantastic job for the price - better than many hosts which charge much more. If your clients insist on 100% availability for their sites, then you need dedicated and redundant servers and a lot more infrastructure - the cost will be perhaps 100 times what PowWeb charges.

I have four sites on PowWeb, and the availability has been darned close to 100% over the last ten months, based on the web monitoring I have in place.

weddingsite

4-9-03, 11:19 AM

Stevel,

re SMTP disappearing...it was a problem which POWWEB now corrected. IN ops, under SMTP nothing was availbale but now it is OK.

Don`t know with other hosts, but sometimes I think its better to have sites hosted on servers in my country so that I can phone quickly if its down.

I cannot forget last November (7th was the date I think). Between 7th and 10th I contacted personally over 150 prospective sponsors/clients for my website. That very same day my site was down and was up again only 36hours after!

I can`t imagine what these prospective clients thought of me after telling all the positive points of becoming my website sponsors and after they went to their offices the get an error when accessing it!

This happened more than once. I have another site www.mariofotografix.com hosted free on another provider.

It is never down. It`s OK if the sites being hosted are personal but in my case, sponsors pay to have a webpage on my site. They really don`t like it when it`s down. They take the impression that I am not as professional as I told them I am! I can`t blame them!

Sometimes I get the impression that POWWEB are increasing their popularity so fast that they frequently need upgrades...and they DO THEM, I KNOW, and it`s GOOD!

But upgrades mean downtime while upgrading, time for refining, testing etc... which means more downtime for us!

Anyways, I hope everthing settles quickly.

bobsworld

4-10-03, 12:57 AM

This happened more than once. I have another site www.mariofotografix.com hosted free on another provider.

It is never down. [/B]

I find that very hard to believe. There is no such thing as 100% uptime, the best any hosting provider can claim is 99.999% uptime. Things happen, a security patch may need to be released, which requires rebooting the server, there are so many things that can happen.

I am not doubting you however, I'm sure this free provider does provide a good service to you, and well ya cant beat the price.

But.. If you are looking for 100% uptime, give it up, it will never happen. I've worked for a webhosting company for 3 years, so I've seen on the inside what can happen. Computers have a mind of their own, and can be very fickle, when they dont feel like working anymore, they die. Or they will just randomly stop working. When this happend at our company, we made every effort to get service restored as quickly as possible, I am sure Powweb is the same.

FlyinV

4-10-03, 01:34 AM

Comment on something way above:

If you have 100's of clients a better idea would be to get yourself a dedicated server and sell your clients hosting.

Then you would have the control you want and be making money yourself.

If you have 100 clients and you charge them $7 a month
thats $700 -- You can easily get your own dedicated server for that.

sandy

4-10-03, 01:42 AM

Downtime and other unexpected problems can be frustrating. I have been fortunate in my 16 months with Powweb, to the point that I did the 2 year renewal this go-around.

Nothing is perfect. Systems do fail. I don't expect perfection. What I do expect is that the provider, or whomever I do business with, is responsive when there is a problem. Again I must say that I have not been disappointed. In my communications with support, via either E-Mail or phone, I have received excellent response and accurate assessments with appropriate assistance. I read some of the posts in the forum and I wonder if we're talking about the same service! In some cases I just chalk it up to you won't please everyone all the time, and, while not making any judgements on any specific individual who has posted in the forum, some of the problems just happen to be self-caused, yet they blame Powweb for everyone of theit own inadequacies.

Our system at work needs to be reliable, in that we're an international company. That "expensive" system does go down! Like I said, nothing is perfect. As far as having client who may complain .. I'm sure that these clients have experienced telephone outages, electric power outages, airline schedules that aren't always met, a repair service rep that doesn't always show up, late delivery, or no delievery of mail ,,, and the list goes on. Systems do fail. We don't pay for a "zero defects system" and we couldn't afford it even if it existed.

In conclusion, nobody is holding a gun to anyone's head to stay with Powweb. Those who feel dissatisfied .. well, there are lots of systems out there. The grass isn't always greener on the other side .. nor will all of your expectations always be met. You know what you have with Powweb .. what will you have after you leave?

Each person must make their own decision. Right or wrong.

Sandy

weddingsite

4-10-03, 05:23 AM

Originally posted by FlyinV
Comment on something way above:

If you have 100's of clients a better idea would be to get yourself a dedicated server and sell your clients hosting.

Then you would have the control you want and be making money yourself.

If you have 100 clients and you charge them $7 a month
thats $700 -- You can easily get your own dedicated server for that.

I didn`t say I have 100`s of clients.
I said...
"Between 7th and 10th I contacted personally over 150 prospective sponsors/clients for my website. That very same day my site was down and was up again only 36hours after!"

I don`t have hundreds (I`d like to!)

Re bobsworld...

"But.. If you are looking for 100% uptime, give it up, it will never happen"

I am not lookinf for 100% uptime. I expect the 99.7 powweb claims which I really doubt and by uptime I mean up and running not up and slow as a snail!!

The other website mentioned I am sure it`s not 100% uptime BUT whenever I had trouble accessing my site on Powweb, the other site, other host, was ALWAYS UP!

Today is another day...and again...Lunar is SLOW!

Soul-Haven

4-10-03, 10:49 AM

www.theweddingsite.com just came up without any problem. 99.7% uptime allows for some slowness and downtime. It's just going to happen. There's no possible way around it.

KimmiKat

4-10-03, 03:04 PM

I agree. Computers seem have a mind of their own and when they go down, they will do it. Although they're supposed to not get mad, not get happy, not get sad....they just run programmes.

Maybe PW's tagline could be changed to "The Near Perfect Hosting Solution -- Since no computer is perfect yet" :) :D

Joe_Moo

4-10-03, 03:31 PM

Ill have to agree with almost everyone but the originator.
If you are desiging websites Im not sure if you are obligated to provide hosting for them. That seems like an Odd set up.
Maybe it is not unlikely to provide your customers with some options and they can choose. If I had someone design my website the only reason I would contact them is in regards to an upgrade, or a function not working. If the site was down completely it is the hosting provider.
If you are offering to host/set up hosting for your clients I suggest leaving it up to them which host they would desire. Otherwise you are wholely responsible and at the mercy of 3rd party hosts.

...Or as someone stated, set yourself up as a host and then you can tackle the 100% uptime issue.

Weatherdemon

4-10-03, 04:35 PM

If you are unhappy with 99.7% uptime you can go with Dell Host.
For $20 a month you get 150MB storage, 10 email addresses, web mail, and 99.9% uptime SLA. If you would like more space, email addys, SQL support, or other options they are all available for an additional cost. You are limited to 1 ftp user though, but, they have excellent tech support 24 hours via a 1-800 number. They don't offer a forum such as this which I think is invaluble and a big part of the many reasons I chose POWWEB after 3 weeks of research.

I have used Dell for 2 1/2 years and they follow through on the 99.9% up time SLA. I just couldn't see paying more than $20 a month for SQL support and other options when I could come here and get everything I needed for under $8 a month while only dropping to a %99.7 up time SLA.

JMO...... :)

Weatherdemon

4-11-03, 01:14 PM

Oh, one more reason I am moving from Dell. If you try to FTP more than 25 files up or down at the same time(including files inside directories) the connection resets on you and corrupts some of the files and you have to start all over. It took me 2 hours to get the messages directories downloaded to my local PC from Dell. It took 5 minutes to upload them to POWWEB. I still haven't been able to get all of my members transferred to POWWEB because it keeps reseting the connection and corrupting the user.dat files.

SDRadio

4-11-03, 02:00 PM

It's been a while since I've chimed in about Powweb, service, and the four nines (99.99). I moved my site, SDRadio.net for two reasons:
:) economy
:p board.

I wanted to learn. I wanted to make my site better. I needed to tap the shoulder of someone who knew exactly; and new the constraints of POWWEB. I looked at the forum. I knew that, for the most part, what I was getting involved in.

Yes, I was upset when a major change happend, but since the turnaround, it's been five nines for me (99.999). I believe they want to get to six nines (99.9999).

Of course, your results should vary, objects appear larger than they look ... but for the most part, POWWEB is great for the reasons I've indicated. I will do a two year renewal in the fall when it's time for SDRadio.

Thank you for reading,

Chris
Oceanside, 92056

locos

4-11-03, 09:01 PM

i have had good luck with powweb. with the exception of the mysql cap that was recently put in place. i find it very unfair as do most. powweb is a great host, we asked several times for them to simply raise the mysql cap. they wouldnt budge at all. not good powweb !!

MrP

4-12-03, 07:38 AM

i've only been with powweb a few weeks and I've been pretty happy thusfar with how things are run. It's much better than 9/10 other places on the web when you consider the great price for the options you get.

i've used many other hosting companies, run my own servers ( locally and remotely) , currently do have a few dedicated servers(but don't use them for webhosting really.. mostly for file downloads and irc), etc ... so even though i've only been with powweb a few weeks I like the post above knew what i was getting into after reading through this forum first and having previous experience with other hosts.

BuuuUT... what has been happening this past week(pretty much httpd is down) for an hour + every midnight PST needs to be resloved ASAP. I now see many different threads like this one for many days.. w/o an answer from an admin. http://forum.powweb.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19084

I'm new here.. so i hate to b*tch because I know how easy it for things to go wrong and have everyone down your throat for problems here and there , when all in all your provide a great service. Which i believe powweb does ... but this being my first problem that's getting annoying... i just hope they can resolve/put an end to whatever they're doing everynight that seems to affect most the customers sites on various servers.

lastly.. weddingsite guy. My recommendation to you to get more customers, is get rid of some of that wasteful java on your site. I'm using a p4 and your site used 100% of my cpu.

:)

NMS

4-12-03, 01:42 PM

I have 6 packages hosted with powweb and I am slowly shifting most clients here. This proofes how I am satisfied with powweb's overall performance. Being a moderator does not entail no downtime or no email problems .... but still I rarely have any problems. Most problems here are server based and only a small % are effected with a particular problem.

All my clients are very happy with the service and this is what counts most.

Trapazoid

4-12-03, 02:26 PM

nmsupplies:

Are your site accessable from 12 midnight to 2am Calfornia time? Our arn't.

sandy

4-12-03, 02:44 PM

Are your site accessable from 12 midnight to 2am Calfornia time? Our arn't.

I haven't noriced my site being down during this time (I am in S. CA). I'll look again when the opportunity arises!

Sandy

stevel

4-12-03, 03:45 PM

I have WebSitePulse monitor my sites on an hourly basis. Except for the recent momentary fluctuations with server "space", my sites have been available around the clock for many months.

SixString

4-12-03, 04:00 PM

Im fairly new to PW, as a user of many free hosting sites I must say for the price and space, among all other packages that PW offers, it is well worth its weight in gold. Maybe you should direct your clients/sponsors to PW's forums if they want answers as to why your site is down. But like it has been stated, certain things happen and servers will go down, and that you can trust 100%.:cool:

NMS

4-12-03, 07:54 PM

Originally posted by Trapazoid
nmsupplies:

Are your site accessable from 12 midnight to 2am Calfornia time? Our arn't.

I did not notice any downtime lately on any of my sites and none of my clients reported anything. As I explained earlier, any downtime can be associated with a particular server. Each server has a maximum of 1000 packages and this means that less then 3% of powweb's customers are effected.

99.7% uptime means that a 0.03% dowtime is allowed. This downtime can be broken down to a few minutes every day or to several hours per year.

If you are having reapeted problems with your site, you can report this to support@powweb.com

MrP

4-12-03, 08:06 PM

@ nmsupplies.
re: "Most problems here are server based and only a small % are effected with a particular problem. "

it's been reported on various webservers, not just one or 2. :)
check the threads out for yourself

Trapazoid

4-12-03, 09:53 PM

I'll bet dollars against donuts that in 6hours and 4 minutes both Lunar and space will stop loading pages for 2 hours!

EDIT: Probably asteroids also, I hope I'm wrong...

Trapazoid

4-13-03, 04:18 AM

12:08am PST:

Lunar is not responding at all to my "www.lejabeach.com" EDIT: No, I take that back. it came up in about 3 minutes while I was typing this.

"www.theweddingsite.com" very, very slow.

nmsupplies, both your sites listed in your post are loading very slow. Before midnight, they came right up. I would be happy with that!

EDIT: It appears a forum page with loads of script to execute, doesn't load, but a simple 3-5Kb page loads in a few minutes.