Is it just me or do things just seem to keep getting worse?

[yorri]

I think that the customers who haven't jumped ship have been very patient (although frustrated) but it appears that problems are occuring every single day now...sometimes many times per day. It seems to me that things are getting so bad that I have lost all confidence in the servers/services here. Sure it is true that some of these issues may not be affecting me directly but what if I sign on a new client that needs to use some of these features or gets placed on one of the servers that has the problems etc...Is it fair to subject them to things that keep breaking (even if each one is isolated or rare as we are constantly told around here). I certainly don't want to put myself through that stress...I'm having a hard enough time dealing with my own frustrations.

How are we supposed to feel confident with services that break almost every few hours? I certainly can't.

I can say that if it wasn't for the good packages here I would be gone already...I certainly have looked but it is so frustrating having to migrate everything over to a new webhost.

I don't know how many customers have left because of the past 2 months but I certainly can say for myself that I was trying very hard to be understanding but how much are we supposed to take. I realize this is not fun for anyone who works for Jodohost but I have to be a little selfish here and think about how this makes me look when emails bounce back or pages I host don't respond because of a dns breakdown...or what if I host my ecommerce application and the ssl stops working or I need to use the session object. I mean these failures directly reflect on me.

All I can say is that as soon as I find another web host that offers a decent package I am going to have to serious consider it because this is too much. Having 3 months or 6 months of excellent services doesn't make enduring 3 months of constant breakdowns. I not expecting 100% uptime every single day of every month but what is normal to expect? I certainly can say that I have NEVER experienced so many problems for such a long period.

I've looked at crystaltech and tacticalsystems but because I need multiple domains, it would be a significant extra cost that I don't have right now. If I had the extra money I guess not having to deal with all these problems (or so I would hope) so maybe in the end it would be worth it???

Anyone else care to add their thoughts?

 

[Atul]

...I don't know how many customers have left because of the past 2 months.......I host my ecommerce application and the ssl stops working or I need to use the session object. I mean these failures directly reflect on me.../QUOTE]

Yorri,

Our Support staff did not see any open ticket from you today. Please let us know what problems are you facing currently.

With regards to how many customers left, we feel we are serving our customers well. When we shifted win1 and win4 customers, even that day we had a good number of signups and many of those customers paid for full-year in advance.

We have not seen any increase in customer leaving us in spite of last few crisis weeks. In a normal month we see just a few customer leaving us mainly becuase they had no use for hosting services.

We are hosting thousands of websites. These sites are working fine from our servers. We care for every single customer and would do whatever possible to provide you satisfactory services. Kindly let us know the unresolved issues.

 

[Yash]

yorri, what problem are you facing now?
Every issue you have mentioned has been resolved already!

 

[Ron]

Yorri, I've been with 3 other hosts prior to JodoHost. Apart from the recent issues with session variables and DNS, I would rate JodoHost's performance and customer support 3 times better than companies like GearHost and a few more...

I was affected pretty bad by the DNS problems and session timeouts. I am on Win5 now and its faster than win1. No more session problems and my sites are flying The last DNS issue I had was a week ago. So hopefully now I can finally get on with a good experience with JodoHost

If you want to switch, avoid tacticalsystems. They are smaller than JodoHost anyway according to the domains they host and I they did have some issues with them when I was there

 

[yorri]

Our Support staff did not see any open ticket from you today. Please let us know what problems are you facing currently.

Just because I don't have a existing problem now doesn't mean I cannot be concerned about ALL of the problems that I or others have been experiencing. Also, how long between problems is acceptable?? It's only been 24 hours since the last problem...how long until the next???????? Constantly over the past 2 months there have been a number of server problems (of course these are either blamed on windows 2003, superb.net or customer "abuse"...those are the ones that I can recall). I had such a great experience in 2003 with Jodohost and THAT is the reason I am still here but also because it isn't easy finding a respectable and reliable host and moving sites.

My post was stickly about MY concern and MY confidence in Jodohost's abilities to continue in the tradition of smoothly running hosting like I/we were used to in 2003. Yes the customer service is excellent (except from the people handling tickets) but that doesn't keep our websites up and running or running smoothly.

I also don't know what do you mean about shifting win1 customers. I am STILL on win1 and Yash said the migration was halted.

This post was not about an existing problem...but rather the AMOUNT and frequencey of problems we have had to deal with and my concern about how long we are going to have to continue to deal with them?

I never said anything about an existing problem so either you didn't read my post or you don't think it is right to post when AT THE MOMENT our websites are working...Isn't this the CHIT-CHAT forum??????? If I had a problem I would have posted in the support forum.

I believe I am entitled to my thoughts and was hoping to engage other peoples as well. Just as I understand your frustrations at the problems you've encountered, I am sure you can understand ours.....it's just that my frustrations have turned into a lack of confidence.

I truly hope for both my sake, other customers as well as yours that these continued problems can be put behind us so we can get back to doing our business without the hassles and frustrations we have all encountered...mostly in the past 2 weeks but also in the past couple of months.

 

[Yash]

You are entitled to your thoughts Yorri...
But I can say with confidence that the DNS problems are gone. The other two issues we had were with sessions and asp. Both of these are currently stable on your server and such an issue should not break out again. I can shift you to Win5 right now if you want. With that, the possibility of more Win2003 problems will become nill

In the last week, we've not had a single issue on Win5 because its running Win2000...

I love serving you and would hate to see you leave. Believe me when I say that we have routed all major issues..

 

[yorri]

Yorri, I've been with 3 other hosts prior to JodoHost. Apart from the recent issues with session variables and DNS, I would rate JodoHost's performance and customer support 3 times better than companies like GearHost and a few more...

I was affected pretty bad by the DNS problems and session timeouts. I am on Win5 now and its faster than win1. No more session problems and my sites are flying The last DNS issue I had was a week ago. So hopefully now I can finally get on with a good experience with JodoHost

Ron,
I agree about the service...and is half of the reason I don't want to leave.

I am really happy to hear about your success on win5...I hope that really is the permanent solution we are all looking for.

Yash, I guess I will see how things go...my sites seem to be stable now (as you have pointed out) so I don't want to deal with them being moved. Every time my account has been moved things break. I have had enough stress over this lately....no need to encounter more. If I experience one more problem then I will request to be moved to win5 since you and Ron both say it has been working wonderfully for the past week. I am sure that if this is the case...the other customers (like myself) who have been considering switching hosts would like to know this....but from CUSTOMERS like Ron. This is why I put this in the chit-chat forum.

 

[brawney]

I have always said that nobody is perfect and the most important thing is how the problems are handled. We have had our share of problems at JodoHost and to be honest I have questions about their abilities to keep things going myself. But they have great packages at great prices here and their support is top notch and professional. So I'm sticking around.

Some of my sites are business related, but I am small and can weather these storms. But if I had a mission critical, high volume, high dollar business site I may feel differently.

 

[DirtBag]

actually, the biggest problems at least i have had, is ASP going down, and thats not Jodos fault! thats users who cant code and writes code who fills up the servers memory or causes CPU usage peak on 100% every time someone visits their site (example: users with Soop "Portal" (at least versions older than 1.5))
this can happen to ALL hosts with shared servers.. The jodo crew has done what they can to find the abusers, something other hosts (maybe) wouldnt have done.. (example: my last host, were sites were inaccessible in norwegian office time.. script execution timed out even without any asp code)

but now when the DNS problems are fixed, abusers isolated and we are on a new server, these problems will hopefully stop..

 

[Yash]

The DNS issues as well as the abusers have been taken care of.. All we need to know ensure is a smooth downgrade to WIn2000 to avoid future problems

 

[brawney]

I also think there are a couple other things to consider. First, JodoHost is somewhat new and some of what we're seeing is growing pains and them getting settled. Second, many hosts don't have a public forum so they have these problems but it is not well known.

I applaud JodoHost for having the public forums and doing their best to answer questions truthfully and professionally.

 

[riley]

The DNS issues as well as the abusers have been taken care of.. All we need to know ensure is a smooth downgrade to WIn2000 to avoid future problems

I have a couple thoughts I'd like to share.

brawney has exactly expressed my first thought in post number 8 of this thread, so I will simply say, I agree 100% and thanks for saving me the effort of typing it.

The other thought I want to share deals with rapid growth and rapid change, as I think these are the root causes of the problems that have occured.

jodohost has successfully attracted many new customers in a short period of time because they offer great value and service. Although jodohost has the hardware capacity to handle such growth, they do not have the human capacity to monitor the new sites for poor implementation (bad code, giant Access databases, etc.), often leading to problems for everyone else on the server. Yash and the support team have made a great effort in this area, but I can only imagine how big a task this must be.

In an attempt to provide the latest and greatest hosting environment to its customers (and in hopes of mitigating some problems), jodohost switched to Win2003. As a customer, I actually do appreciate their good intentions and the expense/effort it must have taken. However, after 20+ years in the Information Technology field, nothing sends chills through my bones like the idea of a "cut-over" implementation of anything. The Banzai approach is always fraught with peril, and we all know that the best way to completely break something is to change it.

I think most customers are looking for stability. In fact, (going back to post number 8) stability is the key ingredient for mission-critical business-oriented applications.

I would state the problem as follows: jodohost must find a way to provide a stable hosting environment, while allowing for growth and the implementation of new technology. And to solve the problem, I would do the following:
1) Establish a primary environment for proven applications/sites, based on proven technology. Well behaved sites would run on a Win2000 server, providing the stability the customers want.
2) Establish a secondary environment for new, unproven applications/sites, based on proven technology. New customers would be placed on a server that runs Win2000 and, once the customer's site is proven to be "well behaved", it would be migrated to the primary environment.
3) Establish a 3rd enviroment for new technology. Those customers who are willing to experiment with their non-mission-critical sites would be placed on a server running Win2003. This would give the support team the opportunity to work the bugs out of the new technology before unleashing it on the entire client base. And, like any "development" environment, it would allow the support team to become familiar with the technology before they have to support it for "mission-critical" applications in a "primary" environment. I would allow my sites to be hosted there, and I'll bet others would too (how about you, brawney?).

riley

 

[SePP]

Well I've a linux hosting over here and I'm one happy
customer, great support, cheap prices. I think every
windows server had that problems. I just don't believe
the windows os is a good server os.It's just in starting
fase.
I don't think this is a jodohost only problem but I'm sure
other hosts hosting windows have the same problems as
jodohost.

 

[riley]

Well I've a linux hosting over here and I'm one happy
customer, great support, cheap prices. I think every
windows server had that problems. I just don't believe
the windows os is a good server os.It's just in starting
fase.
I don't think this is a jodohost only problem but I'm sure
other hosts hosting windows have the same problems as
jodohost.

The fact that almost all of the problems/issues posted in this forum are related to the Windows servers is something I was thinking about just a little while ago. But I'm not sure how to interpret that fact. Does the problem rest in the os itself, the installation of the os, the configuration of the os, or something else? I'm not really sure.

It would be interesting to know what the mix of jodohost customers is. That is to say, of all the customers jodohost has, what percent are hosted on linux and what percent are hosted on windows? Yash, can you give us an approximation?

riley

 

[yorri]

In an attempt to provide the latest and greatest hosting environment to its customers (and in hopes of mitigating some problems), jodohost switched to Win2003. As a customer, I actually do appreciate their good intentions and the expense/effort it must have taken. However, after 20+ years in the Information Technology field, nothing sends chills through my bones like the idea of a "cut-over" implementation of anything. The Banzai approach is always fraught with peril, and we all know that the best way to completely break something is to change it.

I think most customers are looking for stability. In fact, (going back to post number 8) stability is the key ingredient for mission-critical business-oriented applications.

I would state the problem as follows: jodohost must find a way to provide a stable hosting environment, while allowing for growth and the implementation of new technology. And to solve the problem, I would do the following:
1) Establish a primary environment for proven applications/sites, based on proven technology. Well behaved sites would run on a Win2000 server, providing the stability the customers want.
2) Establish a secondary environment for new, unproven applications/sites, based on proven technology. New customers would be placed on a server that runs Win2000 and, once the customer's site is proven to be "well behaved", it would be migrated to the primary environment.
3) Establish a 3rd enviroment for new technology. Those customers who are willing to experiment with their non-mission-critical sites would be placed on a server running Win2003. This would give the support team the opportunity to work the bugs out of the new technology before unleashing it on the entire client base. And, like any "development" environment, it would allow the support team to become familiar with the technology before they have to support it for "mission-critical" applications in a "primary" environment. I would allow my sites to be hosted there, and I'll bet others would too (how about you, brawney?).

riley

Couldn't have been said better Riley!!!! and I have been worried about upgrades from the beginning...I have even offered some of my sites for untested platforms in the past..because not everything I do is mission critical and I understand the need for proper testing.

With every single migration Jodohost has done (whether my account or software or server) I have had to open countless tickets to correct problems. I have to test every component now to make sure it works...that shouldn't be my job...why isn't it done properly in the first place??? We still encounter components that are expired or features that don't work. The answer I get is that it is rare or isolated. If it is so rare or isolated then why do the same things keep happening...I don't accept that.

Jodohost REALLY needs to do what they appear to be doing now...have a few migration servers where some clients are moved to make sure that things are going well...NOT MOVE US ALL AT ONCE but they also need customers who use the majority of features (not just static html) on these servers as well. Having someone uploading a bunch of html pages that don't access databases, don't use components is not proper testing. Proper testing also cannot be done by the administrators who set this stuff up...it can only be done by the people who use it because everyone uses software in different ways and with different configurations.

I didn't start having some of the lasted database problems until I loaded one of my client's ecommerce applications on my site. I had sites that accessed MSSQL, html pages but no pages that used access...then as soon as I had some...I noticed the problem and then find out this was a server wide problem. Why wasn't this noticed before especially when we were told it was Microsoft's fault and that there were problems with the jet engine on 2003. Then the blame goes on other clients. I don't believe this....this should have been tested before. If Stephen says that there are jet issues with 2003...why upgrade when most people use access??

If I were Jodohost I would SERIOUSLY consider doing what Riley has suggested. I don't see this happening at all and think it is necessary for a webhost to provide reliable services. Moving everyone to new servers/technology/OSes etc all at once is only asking for problems.

Just as software goes through alpha beta and RC releases...so should Jodohosts new servers and/or new technologies.

 

[SubSpace]

Good idea, provided it's financially executable of course, I can imagine this would need a fair bit more hardware than the setup as it was a week ago.

As for Windows as a hosting platform, I can't say I had any real problems when I was administering my own webserver. Granted, the server had less websites on it, but I didn't have any problems caused by the Windows platform. Some defective hardware and someone leaving in a boot diskette together with subsequent power failure were the only problems. This was with both Windows 2000 and (at the time) Windows .NET release candidates on another machine.

 

[riley]

Good idea, provided it's financially executable of course, I can imagine this would need a fair bit more hardware than the setup as it was a week ago.

Yes, feasibility demands some hardware. But we know jodohost has win1, win3, win4 and win5 (and I assume there is a win2). On the surface, it seems like enough resource.

As for Windows as a hosting platform, I can't say I had any real problems when I was administering my own webserver.

I too am sceptical that one can simply blame the Windows os. It is more mature that many realize. I think the reason most of the issues posted on this forum are related to a windows server is that the vast majority of customers have windows accounts. That's why I asked Yash what the percentages are.

riley

 

[r0ck1t]

Yes there is a win2, all my sites are on win2. It has had no problems... not since I signed up anyway. I only use some of the services available though, ASP and MSSQL mostly.

But I have had very few problems. The ones I have had have been my ISP's DNS servers, or my lack of knowledge.

 

[yorri]

As for Windows as a hosting platform, I can't say I had any real problems when I was administering my own webserver.

I wouldn't compare our own development servers to a web hosting setup. I myself haven't had problems either but that is because I am not running complex software like Hsphere or half of the other software (php, perl etc). I am able to configure things specifically to my site which I think make a HUGE difference...that is why I can totally understand the complexities of being a web host and having to host so many diffrent websites with different software and scripts installed.

 

[SubSpace]

I wouldn't compare our own development servers to a web hosting setup.

They weren't development servers
No, we weren't using H-Sphere, but if that is part of the problem, then it's not Windows 2003's fault, but PSoft's
Different sites were using Perl CGI/PHP/ASP/ASP.net/Access/MS SQL, a couple of standard components as well as some self written components, so the complexity of the environment wasn't that much lower.