Highgradecomics.com hosting problems

[VintageComics]

FWIW, since you went with your new hosting company, your emails have been getting routed to my spam folder. I don't know if anyone else has had the problem.

 

I haven't personally had that problem.

[blazingbob]

Well, there are email issues with GoDaddy.

 

Seems that my new arrival emails are not all going out. Ted VanLiew doesn't really post here so I'm speaking for Superworld also. Bulk emails are not getting sent, GoDaddy's server goes to sleep after sending out 20 and stops sending them. Something else to consider before you think about using them.

 

As with life this is something else to learn. Just when I think I'm out of the IT world it sucks me back in

[mrlatko]

I have a server hosted in Dallas, and another in Texas.

 

After all these years, I thought those were the same place!

[ComicConnoisseur]

I would like to apologize to my customers who are experiencing problems with the website.

 

My move over to GoDaddy.com has been nothing short of trouble since I've moved over. Superworld is also on the same hosting company. We are probably on the same crappy server. If anyone out there is considering Hosting companies do yourself a BIG favor and avoid this crappy company. I have been on the phone for 2 days with 5 different people and a supervisor.

 

I'm hoping that Godaddy might find the problem and fix it. I will be looking into another hosting company and plan on moving over as soon as I can.

 

Again the reason I moved over was my other web hosting company being hacked and the slow server we had to be put on. If you think Comic dealers are difficult to deal with try dealing with these .

 

Bob Storms

www.highgradecomics.com

Honestly Bob the other day I went to your site to look for books but it was so slow I had to give up.

hopefully you can get things back up to speed. (thumbs u

[blazingbob]

The website has been stable today.

 

I am reviewing and contacting web hosting companies.

 

We will be moving, I just want to make sure it is to the right place.

 

Bob

[comicwiz]

Bob, does your current hosting company allow you to do a complete site backup? Does the name cpanel sound like anything they are offering you to help manage your site?

[blazingbob]

Shared Server to me means they are managing the backups.

 

Managing backup's is not my issue at this time, performance of the server, tech support and it being slow is.

 

 

[mrmitchgro]

Shared Server to me means they are managing the backups.

 

Managing backup's is not my issue at this time, performance of the server, tech support and it being slow is.

 

 

I seriously can't wait for this rant!

 

Sorry to hear about the problems. Good luck getting everything squared away!

[comicwiz]

Just sent you a PM

[jkrk]

When it comes to IT issues I'm the last to know which end is up.

 

However, based on the early TV ads I can recommend the Go Daddy girls. (thumbs u

[blazingbob]

This is classic and why my days on Godaddy are numbered.

 

My last job at Verizon was a IT manager of a Quality assurance team. I worked with a lot of Verizon's Electronic billing products. Desktop, online, etc. I worked with helpdesks and worked on trouble tickets. You can imagine how I responded on the phone when I would get one of these.

 

"Known issue", I like this. Known to you but not known to me.

 

Please let me know if you are still experiencing issues.

 

Thanks for the patience.

Bob

 

Discussion Notes

Support Staff Response

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

Thank you for contacting Hosting Support.

 

I was unable to duplicate your issue, as I was able to connect to your website from outside the network with no issue. The server that your hosting account for highgradecomics.com was experiencing a "known issue" yesterday but since then it has been resolved and you shouldn't be experiencing anymore issues.

 

If you continue experiencing issues, please let us know the error message you are receiving and the steps required to reproduce this behavior. If this issue persists, please provide for us the results of a traceroute from your local computer to your server, screen shots and time stamps of the errors would be good to include as well.

 

Please contact us if you have any further issues.

 

Regards,

 

Clayton K.

 

Hosting Support

 

[fantastic_four]

This is classic and why my days on Godaddy are numbered.

 

My last job at Verizon was a IT manager of a Quality assurance team. I worked with a lot of Verizon's Electronic billing products. Desktop, online, etc. I worked with helpdesks and worked on trouble tickets. You can imagine how I responded on the phone when I would get one of these.

 

"Known issue", I like this. Known to you but not known to me.

 

Please let me know if you are still experiencing issues.

 

Thanks for the patience.

Bob

 

Discussion Notes

Support Staff Response

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

Thank you for contacting Hosting Support.

 

I was unable to duplicate your issue, as I was able to connect to your website from outside the network with no issue. The server that your hosting account for highgradecomics.com was experiencing a "known issue" yesterday but since then it has been resolved and you shouldn't be experiencing anymore issues.

 

If you continue experiencing issues, please let us know the error message you are receiving and the steps required to reproduce this behavior. If this issue persists, please provide for us the results of a traceroute from your local computer to your server, screen shots and time stamps of the errors would be good to include as well.

 

Please contact us if you have any further issues.

 

Regards,

 

Clayton K.

 

Hosting Support

 

If anybody reading this thread has seen a shared web host that doesn't hire mostly 23-year olds who frequently say something stupid to man their first-level phone support, give me the name of them. I've dealt with almost a dozen web hosts and they've all been mostly the same until you get to dedicated hosting which costs in the $200/month and up range. There don't seem to be intermediately-priced options I've been able to find in web hosting...it's either cheapo shared or expensive dedicated everywhere I've looked. We've paid anywhere from $5/month (GoDaddy) to $50/month for shared and the reliability and performance hasn't been significantly different.

 

Having said that, all of the shared web hosts I've dealt with have been rather decent overall, 95% - 99% uptime. We only avoid them on companies with beefier revenues. 11 out of 13 of our GoDaddy clients have never complained.

[comicwiz]

The court of consumer and public opinion on them isn't anywhere near as flattering as the models they use for their commercials. To be fair though, the bulk of the complaints I've heard with GoDaddy have more do as a domain registrar.

[fantastic_four]

The court of consumer and public opinion on them isn't anywhere near as flattering as the models they use for their commercials.

 

I suspect they're the biggest web host, or close to it, so they'd definitely get the most complaints. I also use them for backing up my personal stuff and making it available online, including image hosting; can't beat $60/year that includes ASP.NET and SQL Server or PHP and MySQL support.

 

Our first client who wanted to switch from GoDaddy was sometime in 2008 following a few minor problems which involved him calling customer support and getting irate about the college grads on the phone like Bob is. That client has now switched hosts twice since GoDaddy. They've had problems with their latest host, but I think they're just resigned to it being a part of life unless they want to go the expensive, dedicated route.

 

If I were starting a small business, I'd still use GoDaddy. If I had problems, I'd request they move me to a new server within their network. They seem willing to do that every time I've asked. They also periodically move you without you asking, I presume once they get too much load on one server or farm.

[fantastic_four]

In investigating web hosts, here's a useful tool:

 

http://news.netcraft.com/

 

In the upper-left hand corner, there's a textbox that is titled "What's that site running?" Type in www.comiclink.com, www.pedigreecomics.com, www.comicconnect.com, or www.ha.com. Netcraft will tell you the server operating system, web server software and version, and whatever information about the web hosting company they can find. If there's a competitor's site you think runs really well, this Netcraft tool will tell you their web host's name, and if you're inclined, try them out and see if the grass really is greener.

 

There's no cheap way to keep this information private.

[comicwiz]

The court of consumer and public opinion on them isn't anywhere near as flattering as the models they use for their commercials.

 

I suspect they're the biggest web host, or close to it, so they'd definitely get the most complaints. I also use them for backing up my personal stuff and making it available online, including image hosting; can't beat $60/year that includes ASP.NET and SQL Server or PHP and MySQL support.

 

Our first client who wanted to switch from GoDaddy was sometime in 2008 following a few minor problems which involved him calling customer support and getting irate about the college grads on the phone like Bob is. That client has now switched hosts twice since GoDaddy. They've had problems with their latest host, but I think they're just resigned to it being a part of life unless they want to go the expensive, dedicated route.

 

If I were starting a small business, I'd still use GoDaddy. If I had problems, I'd request they move me to a new server within their network. They seem willing to do that every time I've asked. They also periodically move you without you asking, I presume once they get too much load on one server or farm.

 

I think it's an unfair knock against a company that does hire young people, especially in the industry we are talking about, where much of the support is sent offshore. The main reason why it shouldn't be a problem is that when a trouble ticket is reported, the most important thing is that it's relayed properly and in a timely enough manner for the tech's to resolve.

 

The tech's are normally senior, very experienced, and not some college student walk-ons. Now it does happen with every company that when something goes seriously wrong, or you have an issue with intermittent problems, that the status reporting from tech to the customer is never relayed in a fashion that helps allay the unnerving feeling of waiting in limbo for it to get resolved.

 

There is also with shared hosting or domain clustering a number of political reasons why a hosting company would not reveal the true reasons for performance issues. Moving to another network is a crapshoot because all it takes is one domain on that network with a security issue to bog everything down. My experience with moves on a different network with the same company is usually one of a temporary fix, and unless the hosting company puts in place the protocols to reduce the security breaches network wide (and that includes serious restrictions on everything from the permissions, through to the rules governing how emails are sent from a site), you're just delaying the inevitable and prolonged disappointment.

[fantastic_four]

The tech's are normally senior, very experienced, and not some college student walk-ons. Now it does happen with every company that when something goes seriously wrong, or you have an issue with intermittent problems, that the status reporting from tech to the customer is never relayed in a fashion that helps allay the unnerving feeling of waiting in limbo for it to get resolved.

 

That's exactly where EVERY single shared web host fails, passing the info to customers, and it's exactly what Bob's complaining about here since this is where the cheaper employees come into play. Every shared web host I've ever dealt with uses two levels of support--the guys on the phone who don't make much, and the experienced guys who do that you rarely, if ever, talk to. The phone guys are either young or just inexperienced; oddly I have yet to use a shared web host with an offshore help desk which is contrary to what I'd expect.

 

It's not unfair to knock first-level help desk reps--they as a whole don't communicate all that well. It's the rule, not the exception. You don't make much on phone support, so by the time they get good at their job they're looking for a new one. I'm not even knocking them, I have no more problem with them not being spectacular at their jobs than I do with someone at McDonald's getting my drive-thru order wrong or a salesperson at Best Buy not knowing the differences between 720p, 1080i, or 1080p signals in getting the best possible image on a television. I'd do no better than many other people stuck in those jobs.

[comicwiz]

The tech's are normally senior, very experienced, and not some college student walk-ons. Now it does happen with every company that when something goes seriously wrong, or you have an issue with intermittent problems, that the status reporting from tech to the customer is never relayed in a fashion that helps allay the unnerving feeling of waiting in limbo for it to get resolved.

 

That's exactly where EVERY single shared web host fails, passing the info to customers, and it's exactly what Bob's complaining about here since this is where the cheaper employees come into play. Every shared web host I've ever dealt with uses two levels of support--the guys on the phone who don't make much, and the experienced guys who do that you rarely, if ever, talk to. The phone guys are either young or just inexperienced; oddly I have yet to use a shared web host with an offshore help desk which is contrary to what I'd expect.

 

It's not unfair to knock first-level help desk reps--they as a whole don't communicate all that well. It's the rule, not the exception. You don't make much on phone support, so by the time they get good at their job they're looking for a new one. I'm not even knocking them, I have no more problem with them not being spectacular at their jobs than I do with someone at McDonald's getting my drive-thru order wrong or a salesperson at Best Buy not knowing the differences between 720p, 1080i, or 1080p signals in getting the best possible image on a television. I'd do no better than many other people stuck in those jobs.

 

James, you're talking about something that can never be done perfectly because the translation and/or second-hand interpretation of an issue is rarely if ever done in a meaningful enough way for a tech to figure out what the problem might be. That is unless their systems are reporting an error that they could troubleshoot around. The best approach is for a customer to report the problem to the best of their ability in an email or reported through a web-based trouble ticket platform. Then if there is any question that still remains unanswered, the first level support can communicate with the customer to tease that out. Now because customers like myself aren't keen on typing out a problem in a web-based console or email and would prefer to speak to someone over the phone, some hosting companies continue to offer phone support even though it can potentially hurt their ability to serve the customer in an efficient manner.