Businesses & Shared Hosting Downtime

[geo]

I've noticed a disturbing trend on this forum for other users to attempt to quash the complaints of customers choosing to run their business on bluehosts shared-hosting plans, and I simply must comment.

To everyone who holds the opinion that hosting a business on "shared hosting" is a mistake: The fact is that many hosts actively encourage, advertise, and even specially target specific features toward people hosting their businesses on shared hosting. Bluehost is just as encouraging of this as other hosts (if not more so!). Even on the first page it says "*professional* web hosting" and offers features such as "ecommerce/shopping cart". Delve a little deeper and click on "Tell me more" (which incidentally by placing it under the heading "Whats Included" is specifically relating to their $6.95 shared-hosting option) and it comes up with this: "From the *business owner* to the individual who desires full functionality on a small budget..." etc

Bluehost specifically targets and claims their "shared hosting" is the perfect place to host ones business.

My point here is that it cannot be construed to be the customers fault if a company advertises a product that says it can do something that it then can't. So it is absolutely not a valid defense of bluehost to suggest people running businesses are unwise to be using shared-hosting to do so. If there IS a legimitate concern with shared-hosting for businesses on bluehost then the flak should be directed AT BLUEHOST for misrepresenting their service. Everyone who is rightly concerned about their business downtime this past week, and ESPECIALLY those on shared hosting - I suggest you keep that up and demand bluehost deliver the service they are claiming you are paying for.

To be fair, it seems many of us HAVE been receiving the shared-hosting service we've been paying for up until recently. My main issue here is that I see absolutely NO validity in the claim from some members of this forum that we should not continue to do so!

[John]

BlueHost has been providing hosting solutions to thousands of business and personal web sites since 1996. Our internet hosting package helps businesses and individuals get high-powered service at a fraction of the cost.

With BlueHost you can depend on:
Highest customer service
Quality equipment
Maximum guaranteed uptime
Highly functional tools for adminstration
The leading feature set available
Secure and reliable backups
Solid and honest business

BlueHost is here to secure your business. We are confident we can provide you with the highest level of support with our friendly and patient support staff waiting to address your needs. Our veteran hosting team knows what it takes to be the best and how we can help make your site a success.


Yep, you are right sir.

[GrateMusic]

Exactly. I would not have chosen Bluehost if they had not actively advertised that they could meet my needs and the needs of my users. I know that I may not have the biggest business or a standard operating model, but it is important to us that users see our content and have access to what we provide. In the music business, image is everything, and downtime is a huge image killer.

[squash]

i am no webhosting guru, but I would think shared hosted servers are more reliable than dedicated ones. there are so many things that can go wrong with a server. i would guess a web hosting company's priorities would be on keeping the shared hosts up as that is where most of their business is , no?

[Frusis]

Couldn't have said it better myself Geo!

[palmcoastgirl]

To be fair, it seems many of us HAVE been receiving the shared-hosting service we've been paying for up until recently. My main issue here is that I see absolutely NO validity in the claim from some members of this forum that we should not continue to do so!

Hey, go ahead. Nobody is stopping you from complaining...Your just preachin to the chior. We are all in the same boat, so to speak. That is, of course, if I understood your words correctly.

[Frusis]

I don't think you did. Geo was saying how it was perfectly acceptable to host a business on BlueHost. In fact, BlueHost advertises this is the case! That was the point. Having a dedicated server doesn't stop downtime when the problem is a lack of a generator. This is a basic requirement for both shared and dedicated hosting.

[palmcoastgirl]

I don't think you did. Geo was saying how it was perfectly acceptable to host a business on BlueHost. In fact, BlueHost advertises this is the case! That was the point. Having a dedicated server doesn't stop downtime when the problem is a lack of a generator. This is a basic requirement for both shared and dedicated hosting.

That's what I was thinking after I read it over agiain twice. I couldn't figure if it was praise or complaint. Thank for clearing that up for me.

[routed]

I've noticed a disturbing trend on this forum for other users to attempt to quash the complaints of customers choosing to run their business on bluehosts shared-hosting plans, and I simply must comment.


100 % Correct, I couldn't agree with you more!!!

[dvessel]

80%... I'm mostly with you but it's not that simple in my view. If my livelihood depended on a website being up all the time then it is my responsibility to do the research and make sure I'm in a situation where it will always be up. It's pretty much the norm these days of making yourself bigger than what you really are. Individuals & companies alike. I don't agree with it and sure, it makes it much harder to find the right host but I'm sorry to say this.. Paying so little and then to expect so much back isn't realistic. When I say 'expect so much' I'm aiming that towards the people who flip out immediately when their site has localized problems that lasts a few minutes.

The power outage is a huge oversight.. I agree, and there has been a string of problems as of late. Most of it could have been prevented. Sure, it's not asking much to keep the servers up in a power outage when they advertise backup generators. It's pretty much a given. The huge influx of criticisms I see as a good thing. If Bluehost isn't run by incompetent fools then this situation will no doubt make Bluehost better.

If you want to host your business in a shared environment, then by all means... Go for it but expect to be disappointed every now and then. Well, once we get over this hump.

[admin]

While there is some truth to the fact that we can't avoid downtime, it IS true that we are 100% responsible for our servers being up and the product that you purchased from us is delivered!!! We are the ones who are responsible, and we would treat you the same if you paid us $5 a month or $500 a month. Everyone deserves respect and an understanding of THEIR needs. Even if it is only $7 a month, Bluehost is responsible for the livelyhoods of many of our customers. We take that VERY seriously. With regards to these power problems lately with the city of Orem, Utah I simply want to pull my hair out!! They don't care that we are a huge web hoss and that we can in fact affect many tens of thousands of peoples lives by not having power. The problems lie at our feet. We told the customer that power issues wouldn't be a problem, and they are. At least for boxes 1-40, the other 110 boxes were just fine. We WILL make this issue become a NON Issue. Our diesel setup between building E and D which was suppose to take no time, has been pushed back another week, but after that that "latest" a serious of downtime issues will be solved. Hopefully we can be better prepared for the next one.

On a lighter note, my wife is on the VERY brink of having a baby girl. Tonight or tomorrow. I will post pics here when she comes!!!

Matt Heaton / Bluehost.com

[John]

While there is some truth to the fact that we can't avoid downtime, it IS true that we are 100% responsible for our servers being up and the product that you purchased from us is delivered!!! We are the ones who are responsible, and we would treat you the same if you paid us $5 a month or $500 a month. Everyone deserves respect and an understanding of THEIR needs. Even if it is only $7 a month, Bluehost is responsible for the livelyhoods of many of our customers. We take that VERY seriously. With regards to these power problems lately with the city of Orem, Utah I simply want to pull my hair out!! They don't care that we are a huge web hoss and that we can in fact affect many tens of thousands of peoples lives by not having power. The problems lie at our feet. We told the customer that power issues wouldn't be a problem, and they are. At least for boxes 1-40, the other 110 boxes were just fine. We WILL make this issue become a NON Issue. Our diesel setup between building E and D which was suppose to take no time, has been pushed back another week, but after that that "latest" a serious of downtime issues will be solved. Hopefully we can be better prepared for the next one.

On a lighter note, my wife is on the VERY brink of having a baby girl. Tonight or tomorrow. I will post pics here when she comes!!!

Matt Heaton / Bluehost.com

Congrats Matt....My baby girl will be 16 years old next month...cherish that beautiful gift from God.

;)

[Iness]

Wish your new baby girl healthy and your family enjoy the happy time!

[silentcollision]

Put it this way, if your site is responsible for enough income that you are angry when your downtime is more than a few hours, then you should be running on a dedicated box.

They may market it at you, but do you think General Motors is going to host their site on shared hosting? No. There are limits, and common sense should prevail.

[tynyffridd]

At least for boxes 1-40, the other 110 boxes were just fine. We WILL make this issue become a NON Issue. Our diesel setup between building E and D which was suppose to take no time, has been pushed back another week, but after that that "latest" a serious of downtime issues will be solved. Hopefully we can be better prepared for the next one.

On a lighter note, my wife is on the VERY brink of having a baby girl. Tonight or tomorrow. I will post pics here when she comes!!!

Matt Heaton / Bluehost.com



Thanx for the update Matt.

Box 55 at least was also down over both recent power outages, so not confined to boxes 1-40 entirely.


Meanwhile, Best Wishes to the wife and your new daughter. Our two daughters are now 29 and 26 so are both well flown and making their own way.
From my experience the first 25 years are the worst, things are uphill after that!!! (Just wish I could say the same for the two lads :eek: )

[Frusis]

Silentcollision… What can I say? You don’t understand. This thread is trying to clarify your misconception. We can all tolerate our websites going down because of a DDOS attack or the odd poorly written script. That comes with shared hosting! Businesses are aware of this fact and have no doubt built it into their expectations. If they haven’t, they’re fools. What everyone was up in arms about today was the fact that this downtime was needless and easily preventable! It only required a generator. What’s more, most people thought there was a generator available for their account… Thus, they were horrified when they found out this wasn’t the case.

If people complain about a DDOS attack… That’s when you tell them they need a dedicated server. However, getting a dedicated server doesn’t prevent a power outage. You still need a generator! Due to BlueHost’s ambiguous advertising, we all just thought we had this base covered.

From reading other threads I understand backup power is being made available to all accounts. Thus hopefully we’ll never have this problem again.

On another note… Congratulations Matt! I imagine you’ll be walking around beaming for the next while.

[Brotherhood of the Bean]

No Web Hosting Company/ISP will ever give you a 100% guarantee that your service will be available. What they will give you (for a price) is a SLA that will spell out compensory factors which will result in a refund of a percentage of your monthly bill, and/or will provide you with a contractual means for termination of the partnership.

[PhreakPhy]

While there is some truth to the fact that we can't avoid downtime, it IS true that we are 100% responsible for our servers being up and the product that you purchased from us is delivered!!! We are the ones who are responsible, and we would treat you the same if you paid us $5 a month or $500 a month. Everyone deserves respect and an understanding of THEIR needs. Even if it is only $7 a month, Bluehost is responsible for the livelyhoods of many of our customers. We take that VERY seriously. With regards to these power problems lately with the city of Orem, Utah I simply want to pull my hair out!! They don't care that we are a huge web hoss and that we can in fact affect many tens of thousands of peoples lives by not having power. The problems lie at our feet. We told the customer that power issues wouldn't be a problem, and they are. At least for boxes 1-40, the other 110 boxes were just fine. We WILL make this issue become a NON Issue. Our diesel setup between building E and D which was suppose to take no time, has been pushed back another week, but after that that "latest" a serious of downtime issues will be solved. Hopefully we can be better prepared for the next one.

On a lighter note, my wife is on the VERY brink of having a baby girl. Tonight or tomorrow. I will post pics here when she comes!!!

Matt Heaton / Bluehost.com

The real question is why was it advertised that you have diesel backups, when this is not true for 100% of your customers?

I think they have a term for that. False advertisement! You are 100% responsible for the recent and preventable downtime. Backup generators are not a luxury feature for a datacenter. They are standard, necessary, and advertised as existing when they are not. This is appalling and inexcusable; I am outraged that you would make us all believe that backup generators are a “feature” of your service when we have all clearly seen they are not.

Moving the downed servers to the building with a backup generator is not good enough. I am very impressed with the support team, but the servers should have never gone down in the first place. If there was room in those buildings then why weren’t the servers there to begin with?

We aren’t asking for a miracle, not even compensation. All we want is what we have paid for, and unless something is done to ensure that we get that I for one will be taking my business elsewhere and stirring up as much bad press for Bluehost as possible. I cannot support a company that blatantly lies about its capabilities because I have integrity, and hope that you would too.

So Matt, tell me what you are going to do for us? Your customers deserve to know what is going to happen about the current situation.

Sincerely,
PhreakPhy

P.S.
Congrats on the baby.

P.P.S
To the support staff:
Excellent work, pat yourself on the back.

[adam-s]

Business is business really. The marketing team will probably always use whatever it can. That's marketing guys for you. I would have to agree with Frusis on some things. I have a hobby site through another webhost that just happens to make money.

Whether it made money or not I would expect some sort of quality in the web host and the features advertised. If this is fixed then no problem though. I believe if you spot Bluehost the recent and ongoing downtime they are still among the very best for shared hosting providers. I've actually found myself wishing they had offerings for dedicated and virtual servers.

The only real gripe I've ever had about the service is with the FTP losing connection several times per upload and deleting the last file it was working on. Annoying but no big deal. If they get all of this fixed and are ready for next summer also then we are good to go.

[PhreakPhy]

Whether I pay $5 or $500 I was told I my domains would be on a backup generator and it was not. Just as ignorance of a law does not excuse someone from breaking it, an ignorant marketing team does not justify false advertisement. If someone took Bluehost to court they would likely be found guilty of false advertisement.

For 7 bucks a month I am not expecting a whole lot, 100% uptime is an unreasonable request to make of any hosting company. Demanding what is advertised, and what I have paid for is not so unreasonable.

-PhreakPhy

[TriRyche]

As a potential BlueHost customer, I gasped when I read that back-up generators
were apparently not provided for all their customers.

Living in hurricance-happy Florida, I am now used to the symphony of poorly-muffled,
gas generators when August-September rolls around each year it seems.
The ridiculous number of new homes being built in my area equals power brownouts and fluctuations abound.
We won't even get into the amount of lightning we are treated to each year. (I'm still glad I left NJ, though)

I think that it is fair to state that BlueHost is based in a 'data center-friendly' location for certain.
But to be caught off-guard by the local power co. - ouch!

Another webhost co. I spoke to on the phone last night (who's data center is based in Los Angeles)
made it abundantly clear that they had generators/power back-up in place to last them for a 40-day period!
Granted, that may seem like 'a little much,' to some, but...

I am sure that Matt will speak to whomever is responsible for allowing Diesel Generator Backup Power
to be prematurely listed on the BlueHost's WORLD CLASS TECHNOLOGY feature list before it was available to all their 'boxes.'


-TriRyche

[trace30]

Is this a Utah Power issue or a City of Orem issue? Orem City does not generate electricity - is there some kind of construction accident? (trenching line cut, cross-connection or the like)? I think some detail would at least help us understand what's happening?

In the meantime, go rent one of these:

http://www.unitedrentals.com/images/eqimages/1929_m.jpg

There's one waiting for you at United Rentals 2 miles up the street!

[grant]

Is this a Utah Power issue or a City of Orem issue? Orem City does not generate electricity - is there some kind of construction accident? (trenching line cut, cross-connection or the like)? I think some detail would at least help us understand what's happening?

In the meantime, go rent one of these:


There's one waiting for you at United Rentals 2 miles up the street!

State of Utah issue is my guess. They are primarily a green state.

[Morph]

Congrats for the baby, Matt, it must be one of the greatest times of your life, take pictures and video so you will remember this experience in the future ;)

[sesstreets]

Two things I'd like to state:

1) This rarely happens to my site, I have 100% uptime for the last month (http://host-tracker.com/web-site-uptime/154193/)

2) NYC is getting the high and hard one by con edison, more than half of queens (again im lucky so not me) is black right now.

[cbphoto]

wow. Never heard of HostTracker. (http://host-tracker.com/) Pretty cool.