Shared Ssl Problem - Fasthosts/actinic 19/09/08

[Jarvis]

The thing that gets me is the vast difference in prices for basically the same service, by service I mean the supply not the support... Just where is the centre position...

I am a Director of an organisation (The West eBusiness Group), and we have just conducted a survey of Hosting services used by all our members.
The variation of cost and value added services spans the whole spectrum.
However, what is clear is that there seems to be little coreolation between these costs and services with good and bad at both ends.

My own company, (CBN-UK), takes a fairly low cost option to hosting inasmuch as we pay for a 'dedicated' shared server.
By that I mean, we have all our client's carts on one rented server which we have exclusive use of for that purpose.
We have a 'three ring' contact with a an engineer in case we need him, and that has worked very well for the last 7 years.
The server is replaced every couple of years and is fully patched on a regular basis.

My clients go through my company first and the issues are dealt with directly, rarely needing us to raise issues with the hosting engineer.
If we do, then it is dealt with immediately.
For this we charge our clients £180 p.a. and feel that it good value all round.
The only stipulation we make is that we will only host our own client's websites that we have built.

It also works the other way too; we will only build websites and carts that are hosted by ourselves.
This works very well indeed and I would not have it any other way.

Maybe that's the way to go for some developers out there.

[PDS Arts]

Streamline, hosting and attitude

I'm a little fed-up with some of the attitudes that it's basically the person who chose a specific hosting company who is to blame. OK, I agree that a quick search on Fasthosts showed problems. I used to be with them and didn't have too many problems, but I switched to Streamline to host my multiple sites some time ago.

I have used them for over two years without a hitch, and certainly didn't find anything about problems with them and Actinic at that time because I searched. Now a month or two into my new two-year paid up-front hosting it isn't working. I have seven Actinic sites hosted with them on this service along with a couple of other sites.

So I have paid £160 already and my income is limited from these site. I need them all to make any sort of income. I work from home, bringing up my son and work late hours so as to try to pay the bills. Every single pound counts to me and yet I am still running a deficit in my household budget.

Effectively writing off the £160 already paid for hosting my sites and paying an even larger sum to host seven sites is unfeasible for me. I am really pleased for those whose businesses are hugely successful and are making them rich enough whereby such financial investments are possible, but with £34 per month paid out on Actinic cover and the aforementioned hosting fees already paid, combined with the struggling marketplace I am working within this could quite simply break me.

But of course the small guys usually come a cropper in these situations. Not only is the recession having an impact on sales but now my sites won't even work and I cannot afford to switch domain hosting.

Who can give advice on switching from Self-employed status to unemployed?

[OriginalTouch]

I'm not the only person up late then - trying to get the sites to work on new Actinic hosting having moved from Fasthosts today - wont upload (merge error) can't ftp using new ftp passwords etc etc. Whoever's to blame, my patience is wearing thin !

[TraceyHand]

well, FWIW, I've switched hosting for a number of sites this week.
One on Friday (brave, I know!) and one today. Both went well, propogating pretty quickly, with easy set up and excellent support.
I know some people will be eye-rolling when I say that I switched to Darren's hosting at www.tametheweb.co.uk but his knowledge and support are faultless and he's got me out of a number of self-induced 'sticky situations' (behave, you lot, I'm being serious!) over the last few years with various hosting problems (previous hosts) and setup advice etc

To say I was nervous/anxious/terrified or switching hosts, for our 2 main sites, would be a gross understatement but, aside from some problems with my (crappy) connection at work timing out randomly (which it does all the time and it drives me potty!), all has gone swiftly and easily with 'specialist' support there if and when I needed it.

So, friend or no friend, I have nothing but praise for Darren and his hosting!!
Incidentally, I've had other sites hosted there, without incident, for several months so I wasn't jumping blindly into the darkness LOL
I was just waiting until nearer the time my hosting is due for renewal before jumping ship.

Just my 2 cents worth anyway (more like a couple of dollars really )

[PDS Arts]

Yes Sam, up late too, it's when I have to work with my young lad to look after most of the day.

Funnily enough though, I have been able to download orders since my last post. That is approximately two hours after raising a support ticket with Streamline. Pure coincidence I am sure, but none-the-less it re-affirms my belief there is a greater power looking down on me having a good chuckle.

Paul.

[OriginalTouch]

I'm going to have to ditch this tonight with NO website at all now - www.originaltouch.co.uk does show that its now Actinic hosted but numerous merge errors on upload and can't even FTP. boohoo.

If only Actinic support were 24/7

[OriginalTouch]

Just on the off chance before I call them, any idea why I cant FTP on Internet Explorer using the ftp passwords given to me from Actinic? Just wanted to check my CGI settings but cant log in?

[TraceyHand]

it's possible that their hosting doesn't allow ftp through internet explorer??

have you tried using an FTP program such as Filezilla?

[OriginalTouch]

Yeah and its now hosted by Actinic so I'll have to call them - it was just to get to the bottom of the merge request errors that are preventing me uploading. Getting a few CGI-Bin errors too so something has not been set up right.
Ha Hum!

[chris ashdown]

Just a reminder, that "Republish to the web" and then you can download orders,and the site seems to work ok, but after a while you cannot download untill you republish again

Just a quick workaround which appears to work

[OriginalTouch]

FTP sorted with Actinic's help. For your info, couldn't use ftp.websitename.co.uk as I have been used to. You would have to set up different A records for that. Have to use IP address instead.

Dumbo!

[leehack]

I'm a little fed-up with some of the attitudes that it's basically the person who chose a specific hosting company who is to blame. OK, I agree that a quick search on Fasthosts showed problems. I used to be with them and didn't have too many problems, but I switched to Streamline to host my multiple sites some time ago.

Choosing a host is the same as choosing a location for a retail outlet, it needs planning, investigating and you need to take advice. Too often people make uninformed decisions, usually based on getting it done ASAP or saving £20 a year. You wouldn't place a new shop in the Bronx, so don't place your website there either, these are the incorrect decisions most people refer to.

I have used them for over two years without a hitch, and certainly didn't find anything about problems with them and Actinic at that time because I searched. Now a month or two into my new two-year paid up-front hosting it isn't working. I have seven Actinic sites hosted with them on this service along with a couple of other sites.

This must be very frustrating for you and i genuinely feel for you, but you have the performance of 7 sites all anchored by a £160 spend, does that not strike you as a little strange. If £160 is such a large amount for these sites to be burdened with, why are you running 7 sites? It sounds like they could all be merged and save time, effort and running costs.

So I have paid £160 already and my income is limited from these site. I need them all to make any sort of income. I work from home, bringing up my son and work late hours so as to try to pay the bills. Every single pound counts to me and yet I am still running a deficit in my household budget.

Every single pound counts to a lot of people, this isn't about you being skint while we all have lavish lifestyles on our own desert islands, most people are skint or careful at the moment. This is about business and the raw facts are that you have 7 sites sitting on hosting that wasn't working and £160 was tainting your decision on what to do next. If money is tight, then making the correct 'long term' decisions is infinitely more important for you.

Effectively writing off the £160 already paid for hosting my sites and paying an even larger sum to host seven sites is unfeasible for me. I am really pleased for those whose businesses are hugely successful and are making them rich enough whereby such financial investments are possible, but with £34 per month paid out on Actinic cover and the aforementioned hosting fees already paid, combined with the struggling marketplace I am working within this could quite simply break me.

At times of trouble we all need to pull our belts in and look at our situation to see what can be improved. There may be some justified reasons to have 7 sites, on the surface it sounds like a logistical nightmare for little reward, perhaps it is time to take a long hard look at things and possibly take some advice on the situation. I am sure this forum alone would offer you some great free advice or ideas to move forward.

But of course the small guys usually come a cropper in these situations. Not only is the recession having an impact on sales but now my sites won't even work and I cannot afford to switch domain hosting.

Small guys usually come a cropper becuase they have made many wrong decisions along the way or they label themselves small and every decision they ever make is small. There is little to hold a website back from growing other than the site owner.

Who can give advice on switching from Self-employed status to unemployed?

You sound very negative at the moment, don't be blindfolded into thinking that it is only you, most of us are feeling the pinch in some way or another. It's all about how you react to it and handle yourself through it.

You sound like a hard working dad working his nuts off for his kids and that is of great credit to you, if you can channel that effort and determination into making long term, correct decisions for your business, whilst also dropping the 'small' label and thinking 'big', I am sure you will be fine. I am yet to meet a determined, hard working person who does not get rewarded for their efforts. As the saying goes, the harder you work, the luckier you get.

Keep fighting, forget the sentiment and focus on the business.

[OriginalTouch]

Can I just add that whilst money is tight, it is imperative to invest in the backbone of your business. If you are creating websites, don't do hosting on the cheap as it will cost you in the long term and all you will have done is waste the budget you have spent. Better to spend £100 that works than throw £50 down the drain. Don't put the engine to a Mini into a Rolls Royce!

[OriginalTouch]

Oh and by the way, sites now working. Guess I was getting impatient before the DNS settings had sorted themselves out properly. Now comes the fun bit of moving emails and being without communication for a few hours!

Once the move is done, it's worth paying more for the peace of mind. Time spent sorting out problems is time you could have spent earning money!

[dave_finlayson]

Paul,

Just to follow on from Lee I admire your braveness and determination. I am lucky in that I am employed and therefore don't need to worry too much about whether our hosting dies overnight or not, however, if we were running 7 sites I can tell you that our hosting bill would probably be around 20-30 times what you are paying. We could of course cut this down by running all the sites from 1 dedicated server but, just in case there was an issue with that one we would probably have a second dedicated server, on a separate host, and split the sites over the 2. Having said that, our host has been excellent for the last 11 years and we might well take the risk of having them all on the same host.

Anyway, I digress. In your situation, where the income of the sites is so important to you and your family, I think it is madness to put all your eggs in one basket. Fair enough, go with cheap hosting, it is probably more than adequate for you, but maybe consider spreading your sites over 2 or 3 hosts so that if one goes down, you still have some sites up and running on the other hosting and therefore an income stream still coming in.

Best of luck!