What's the worst host you've ever used?

To be fair their dedicated hosting services aren't nearly as bad as their shared hosting which should be called NIGHTMAREhost.

But frequent downtime, slow resolution with issues, mail servers always going down.

Not worth whatever money you might save.

 

Apthost by fair is worst i ever had.. took them like 3 weeks to setup my account not to mention i had canceled after about 1 week of waiting..

 

Three weeks? Was this a dedicated server purchase, or one of their shared plans?

 

Sounds like a reseller who wasn't serious about his business.

 

iPowerWeb. This was around 2003/2004 and I purchased the Busniess Plan, with 3gb of space. I thought, great, I'm never gonna fill that! So I was trying to upload files one day and it kept failing, and I had only used 1.5gb of my space. So I contacted iPower, and their response was 'Oh our accounts have a limit of 50,000 files per account'. wtf? So I had 1.5gb of space that I couldn't use.

 

I was a co-admin on a forum that used iPowerWeb about 3-4 years ago and they were awful. Although me and the other admin trying to get to the bottom of some of the issues were quite funny times :lol:

My worst one would be CirtexHosting. The site was so slow most of the time, and went down completely a few times each day.

 

I have never really chosen any crap hosts. I had several though, but outgrew them.

Although my first host, ImagelinkUSA, got sold and did go rubbish, but I'd outgrown them anyway and left.

Then I used Wirenine for a while. Very good and excellent response times, we were on semi dedicated with them though yet they kept saying we were over using resources...they never suspended the site but they just said that was the reason our site kept slowing down. I think we simply outgrew them, I perhaps thought semi-dedicated could handle more than that. But as a host, overall, I'd still recommend them.

I also had a backup account on ASmallOrange....they were really good but the shared servers struggle a bit with larger vB boards. The support is excellent though...however, the other day a load of their servers got hacked and sites got replaced with viruses, which is not good. I hope their business recovers though, they are good people.

Another backup host I have used is TN3 Productions, they were ok but they have moved away from shared hosting plans altogether now. I think they still register one of my domains though.

Finally I am now with GlobalGold who are utterly fantastic! Not the cheapest but if you want the site running properly, they are the sort of host you need.

 

Lunarpages <----
Dreamhost <--- they were good several years ago, but now... :frown:

 

1blu.de - worst ever :idiot:

 

LMHosting a while ago, not sure if they're still going or what, or if they've changed their name by now.

Very dodgy Scottish host. A guy buying servers from (at the time ev1.net). Kept a domain of mine when I shifted and it wasn't in the terms, like it is in some. The reasons for leaving are long and I'd rather not list them here. But stay well clear of this rob dog that used to pounce on newbies in the AOL chatrooms at the time and pose as just a guy who can do you hosting, then it became clear his whole company was based around this, although he was attempting to get LMHosting established. I guess he never managed it.

[edit: yep the company is still going. Not too sure on the current status or ownership]

 

Seeing as I've never used them, I can't comment on DreamHost in detail. I will, however, say that what they offer is utterly ridiculous - the specifications of a standard shared account with them are described in a rather awkward manner, and the specifications are simply unrealistic.

I see that they're now offering VPS plans... with no root access. This is a mistake. Each one of these accounts is guaranteed more resources, but without complete access, there really is no "server". It's a virtual environment to begin with.

 

Back when I was using free hosting, I had two hosts I just couldn't stand using. The first (Host Ultra), I literally switched host from the same day or so, because of the ridiculous amount of popups and such like (and advertisements for dangerous stuff such as Spyware/Adware). The other, which I didn't switch from for a bit longer was a strangely obscure company called 'Funpic', which had a German based side, and an English side. The English side, apart from introducing worse and worse advertising over time, had apparently been nigh on abandoned support wise, so the forums were/now are filled with complaining users and ex users saying that no one seems to be maintaining anything. Sad how many free hosts had apparently just decided to leave their businesses running (and collect money from advertisers) and just completely abandon all forms of support for their 'clients'.

 

The vast majority of free web hosting providers rely solely on the revenue earned from these ads and/or banners to support their infrastructure - many simply purchase a shared reseller account from another shared provider and use a server who's resources are being delegated to additional clients.

Most of the time, these free hosting providers simply disappear without a trace. This is because they cannot afford to continue on, and have no private funding in addition to whatever is earned through their ad campaigns.

 

I definitely understand the 'vanish without a trace' aspect, I just don't get successful (comparatively) hosts who are making a decent profit who vanish yet keep paying the bills for the servers and such like.

 

Are you referring to the individuals behind these web hosting providers disappearing (i.e. the management team)?

 

iPowerWeb is (was?) absolutely horrible. I don't remember the issue that I had with them, but it was enough for me to say, NEVER again.

I've tolerated DreamHost for about three years now. They've always given me good support, tho. I can't complain about that.

But downtime is horrible (mail and http), and their "VPS" service is a joke to me (and too expensive for what you get).

I just hate hearing Mark (my fiance) say to me when I wake up, "Server's down again."

 

I heard about iPowerWeb before... are they really tha bad?

 

It's good to hear that I'm not the only one who feels this way about their so-called "VPS" service.

I noticed that they now offer full root access with each virtual server. This was something that was not offered a month or so ago. While this is a big step in the right direction, the method in which they use to "virtualize" their environment is rather peculiar. I'd be interested in hearing more in regards to your experience with them - always interesting to hear what DreamHost clients have to say.

Full root access to the server should have been a given in the first place.

 

I know how you feel :lol:

 

I didn't realize that they gave you full root access now.

They still charge too much for what they're offering for "virtual servers", and I'm even becoming paranoid about what I can and cannot do with the space that I have.

I host several friends' sites, and according to their new rules that's against their terms now.

You used to be able to sell space on your hosting (when it wasn't "unlimited"), as long as you handled the billing yourself. That's a thing of the past. Now you're not even allowed to GIVE any of your space to anyone else, even friends or family...technically.

When they first offered for people to be guinea pigs for their new server platform they gave the volunteers "unlimited space". I jumped on it. Then I read the terms and asked to be put back on my 500GB space.

They convinced me that it was perfectly fine to host a couple of friends and family space on my plan...that they were more worried about people hosting illegal content or torrents or online movies.

I don't get that feeling anymore, and I'd like to transfer all of those sites to a new host. I like JPC, but I am also considering WiredTree now.