Problems, problems, problems...

[robb]

I feel like it's a new problem ever day with EUKHost.

In fact, so far this week it has been exactly that.

• Monday: Email down on Eurofighter. I notified EUKHost at about 9:30; it finally came back at 17:30. Literally hundreds of emails to my company and my clients' companies were lost forever in the meantime. A couple of clients tell me it was actually down for the entire weekend beforehand too.
  
  
• Tuesday: While email is back, it's not working correctly. Eurofighter is trying to deliver some mail for remote destinations to local mailboxes that don't exist. This has happened before, and I have had EUKHost fix it. But despite this, EUKHost would not accept that it was a problem with Eurofighter. But I finally convinced them to fix it.
  
  
• Wednesday: Client web site down. EUKHost can't tell me that the application pool was stopped, and restart it. But can't tell me why. Instead they told me to optimise the web site code to prevent the problem in future! The site is low traffic and runs a commercial application (which I've used successfully elsewhere) and it was a quiet period. So I don't accept that this is a problem with the site code; it's yet another problem with the server.

Support is a mixed bag. Some support staff are knowledgeable and helpful. But others seem not to actually read your support requests, or know what they're talking about. Even when you know exactly what the problem is they'll try telling you it's something else (see Tuesday). They've even been known to do things that I've asked them explicitly not to!

Then there's the time when they told me one Saturday that they were going to move all my sites to a different server the following Monday - effectively giving me zero notice (in business hours). They assured me that I would experience no downtime. Ha ha ha ha ha. It took a week before everything was running smoothly again. (It was for a similar reason that I parted company with my previous hosting company.)

They're apologetic, they've increased my disk space, etc. as "compensation". But that's really not good to me when I have to explain to my clients that, yes, it's gone wrong yet again. And, no, I can't explain why or offer them any assurance that it will be OK this time...

This is really starting to hurt my business. My clients are increasingly frustrated and the excessive downtime they experience. I'd move them all to a new provider tomorrow if it was that easy.

Yes, they're cheap. But the cost to my business of using them is starting to be unmanageable.

[eUK-Nick]

Dear Robb,

We have already spoken over live-chat. I myself have given you the details of what would be done. Thank you for your patience.

[robb]

Yes, thanks Nick. Although there are a few points above that we didn't talk about, so you might want to take a look at these too.

I hope that we can put this behind us. Fingers crossed - we'll just have to wait and see...

[eUKhost.com]

Originally Posted by robb

Yes, thanks Nick. Although there are a few points above that we didn't talk about, so you might want to take a look at these too.

I hope that we can put this behind us. Fingers crossed - we'll just have to wait and see...

Please let me know which problems were not discussed and I will take a look at those.

[robb]

Nick and I focused on this week's problems. So we didn't really talk about the following:

• general problems with support, i.e. the times that support staff "seem not to actually read your support requests, or know what they're talking about. Even when you know exactly what the problem is they'll try telling you it's something else (see Tuesday). They've even been known to do things that I've asked them explicitly not to!"
  
  
• "the time when they told me one Saturday that they were going to move all my sites to a different server the following Monday - effectively giving me zero notice (in business hours). They assured me that I would experience no downtime. Ha ha ha ha ha. It took a week before everything was running smoothly again. (It was for a similar reason that I parted company with my previous hosting company.)"

[eUKhost.com]

I'll wait for Nick as I am not sure why you had so many problems. Something must be wrong somewhere as 1 weeks downtime seems unrealistic. I'll get back to you tomorrow morning once I communicate with Nick.

[247h]

Mark, sorry to direct attention away from the main thrust of this topic, but my question is one of complaint of a forum issue — can you please do something about the formatting of bullet points text being much larger than the body text? Eh, you say?

This does only apply to the standard vBulletin style template, not your custom one, but not all of us want to have a sitemap column etc taking up unnecessary room on the right, for example, as per your custom style.

Thanks in anticipation ...

[eUKhost.com]

Originally Posted by 247h

Mark, sorry to direct attention away from the main thrust of this topic, but my question is one of complaint of a forum issue — can you please do something about the formatting of bullet points text being much larger than the body text? Eh, you say?

This does only apply to the standard vBulletin style template, not your custom one, but not all of us want to have a sitemap column etc taking up unnecessary room on the right, for example, as per your custom style.

Thanks in anticipation ...

I am confused. please message me on MSN as thats the most convenient way to solve problems

[eUK-Martin]

I am very much interested to say something after reading your post.

Originally Posted by robb

• Monday: Email down on Eurofighter. I notified EUKHost at about 9:30; it finally came back at 17:30. Literally hundreds of emails to my company and my clients' companies were lost forever in the meantime. A couple of clients tell me it was actually down for the entire weekend beforehand too.

Yes, emails were down on the server on Monday and reason for this to happen was only your domain neme.com. Your domain was under an attack and was receiving about 10 mails per second which was forwarded to your catchall address which is not hosted with us. So there was mail traffic in and out which cuased the SMTP queue getting jammed. The only way to stop this was to suspended your domain to get the situation in control. And I very well informed you about the problem when you were on Live Chat with me. Even after this emails were not getting delivered and hence we had to reinstall the Mail server causing further permission problems and it was only solved by Plesk developers which almost took the entire day to get resolved.

• Tuesday: While email is back, it's not working correctly. Eurofighter is trying to deliver some mail for remote destinations to local mailboxes that don't exist. This has happened before, and I have had EUKHost fix it. But despite this, EUKHost would not accept that it was a problem with Eurofighter. But I finally convinced them to fix it.

That is because you had added those domains on the server but does not host their mails with us. All the mail servers are configured to first check local delivery and then to look for the domain externally. We have to remove your domain from the DOMAIN.TAB file (Manually) to make them deliver externally.
I would also like to mention that this requires server wide configuration changes and we do it for FREE and hence do not have any records that we did it for you on a request as a gesture of good will. But the changes were wiped off since we had reinstalled the mail server. And since it was me who had made these changes any one else would take time to recognize the problem as this indeed is not a serve end problem.

• Wednesday: Client web site down. EUKHost can't tell me that the application pool was stopped, and restart it. But can't tell me why. Instead they told me to optimise the web site code to prevent the problem in future! The site is low traffic and runs a commercial application (which I've used successfully elsewhere) and it was a quiet period. So I don't accept that this is a problem with the site code; it's yet another problem with the server.

I can list about 100 reasons for the application pool getting stopped just because the code is not correct. Why would the server stop only your site's application pool that too a period of times a day. If the this was a server end problem then all the 400+ sites hosted should have this problem, atleast once.

Then there's the time when they told me one Saturday that they were going to move all my sites to a different server the following Monday - effectively giving me zero notice (in business hours). They assured me that I would experience no downtime. Ha ha ha ha ha. It took a week before everything was running smoothly again. (It was for a similar reason that I parted company with my previous hosting company.)

We had sent an email on 27th Nov that we will be moving sites on 1st Dec which was Saturday and not Monday. We started at 1 AM in the morning keeping in mind that if the problem occurs it should be resolved with the weekends.

I hope I am very much clear in what I mean to say.

[robb]

Originally Posted by eUK-Martin

Yes, emails were down on the server on Monday and reason for this to happen was only your domain neme.com. Your domain was under an attack and was receiving about 10 mails per second which was forwarded to your catchall address which is not hosted with us. So there was mail traffic in and out which cuased the SMTP queue getting jammed. The only way to stop this was to suspended your domain to get the situation in control. And I very well informed you about the problem when you were on Live Chat with me. Even after this emails were not getting delivered and hence we had to reinstall the Mail server causing further permission problems and it was only solved by Plesk developers which almost took the entire day to get resolved.

I have been given no evidence to support the claim that my domain was under attack. Even if I accept that this is true, I would not expect 10 emails per second to break SMTP. If this truly was the cause, this does not explain why suspending my domain did not solve the problem, why the problem did not stop when the alleged attack did, why EUKHost needed to reinstall the mail server, etc. From our conversation, I understand that the reinstallation of the mail server had set the permissions incorrectly, and that this is what the Plesk developers had to fix. So it seems that this made the situation worse, not better. I was also told that there was a bug in Mail Enable and that this was the root cause. Make your mind up! EUKHost seems to be keen to blame everyone else and not accept any responsibility for their inability to keep the server running smoothly.

Originally Posted by eUK-Martin

That is because you had added those domains on the server but does not host their mails with us. All the mail servers are configured to first check local delivery and then to look for the domain externally. We have to remove your domain from the DOMAIN.TAB file (Manually) to make them deliver externally.

This is quite a normal scenario, and not one that has caused any problems for any other hosting companies I have used over the past 15 years. So I'm rather surprised that this is a problem for EUKHost. But that in itself is not a big issue for me. The issue is two fold:

1. When someone makes manual changes, these get forgotten when something else changes. So when the mail server was reinstalled, the manual changes that were required were lost. This same problem occurred with the server move (below). Any manual configuration changes that had been made to any of my sites were lost when my sites were moved to a new server. It seems that EUKHost neither copies over the relevant configuration files, nor documents these manual changes, so we have to start again from scratch each time.
2. EUKHost refused to accept there was a problem, telling me the problem was with the destination mailboxes - whereas the problem was that the email wasn't getting anywhere near the destination mailboxes. I had to repeatedly reiterate that I knew this was something that needed to be addressed on Eurofighter to get any action.

Originally Posted by eUK-Martin

I would also like to mention that this requires server wide configuration changes and we do it for FREE and hence do not have any records that we did it for you on a request as a gesture of good will. But the changes were wiped off since we had reinstalled the mail server. And since it was me who had made these changes any one else would take time to recognize the problem as this indeed is not a serve end problem.

I do not consider that anything you need to do to enable my sites to work in a normal way is beyond the service I pay for. If your SMTP server is INCORRECTLY trying to deliver email locally, then that is a problem that needs to be fixed. Furthermore, I repeatedly referred the technical support representative to the ticket where you had made the changes, but they still refused to accept the need to do anything.

Originally Posted by eUK-Martin

I can list about 100 reasons for the application pool getting stopped just because the code is not correct. Why would the server stop only your site's application pool that too a period of times a day. If the this was a server end problem then all the 400+ sites hosted should have this problem, atleast once.

I don't know. But since you apparently don't keep application pool logs, we'll never know. But is seems that neither do you notice when an application pool has crashed. Nor do you have anything to automatically restart a crashed application pool. If you did, then downtime could be minimised.

Originally Posted by eUK-Martin

We had sent an email on 27th Nov that we will be moving sites on 1st Dec which was Saturday and not Monday. We started at 1 AM in the morning keeping in mind that if the problem occurs it should be resolved with the weekends.

You're out by a month. The email was sent on Saturday 27th October, and said that the site would be moved on Sunday 28th October. Just 24 hours notice (and that over a weekend - meaning zero business hours notice) is totally unacceptable.

Worse still...

• Six of my sites were missing when the server came back up
• Any sites that used databases had been broken (because of permissions being set incorrectly)
• Sites that came back would then randomly disappear
• The server was up and down like a yo-yo

It wasn't until a week later (Sunday 4 November) that all my sites seemed to work OK.

I could go on and on with the problems I've had. I had got the impression that EUKHost was going to take my issues seriously. Now it seems they're only interested in trying to shift the blame...

[robb]

Why has this been moved into the cPanel forum? Are you trying want to make sure that customers only see positive testimonials? I don't even have cPanel!

[eUKhost.com]

Originally Posted by robb

Why has this been moved into the cPanel forum? Are you trying want to make sure that customers only see positive testimonials? I don't even have cPanel!

Your problem has nothing to do with Testimonials forum. Our support team answers threads in support forum only.

I have requested our billing department to issue full refund on your account. You can consider a VPS or a Dedicated Server for hosting your websites.

[robb]

Well, this was a testimonial, not a support request. I wasn't asking for a response from EUKHost. I posted it before I spoke to Nick, and having spoken to Nick I was hopeful things would get better. But after Martin's comments above, I'm less hopeful (although I have found Martin to be one of the most knowledgeable support staff).

Thanks for the refund but it's not about the money. I've looked at the VPS option before, and considered moving over. But I'm not convinced that would make any difference to the kind of problems I've had...

[eUKhost.com]

Originally Posted by robb

Well, this was a testimonial, not a support request. I wasn't asking for a response from EUKHost. I posted it before I spoke to Nick, and having spoken to Nick I was hopeful things would get better. But after Martin's comments above, I'm less hopeful (although I have found Martin to be one of the most knowledgeable support staff).

Thanks for the refund but it's not about the money. I've looked at the VPS option before, and considered moving over. But I'm not convinced that would make any difference to the kind of problems I've had...

VPS or Semi-Dedicated Server will help you to understand whose fault it is. As you said about Martin, he is our most knowledgeable person and he is reluctant to see any more problems on eurofighter.eukhost.com.

I've asked our windows team to setup a separate server and move troubled websites on that server. We have similar servers for cpanel accounts and it seems that we need to reserve such servers for windows customers as well.

[robb]

I'm reluctant to see any more problems on Eurofighter. But please don't tell me this means I have to move server again. Not after the mess of the last move...

[eUKhost.com]

Originally Posted by robb

I'm reluctant to see any more problems on Eurofighter. But please don't tell me this means I have to move server again. Not after the mess of the last move...

You wont face any problems this time as we will move only your account and we will take care of verifying working of all your websites after transfer. You wont face any sort of downtime and you wont need to make immediate DNS changes as we will notify you once everything starts running smoothly from the new server.

[Indigo]

Very dishonest people, dreadful performance.

My constructive post seems to have been deleted because it was an HONEST account of what is happening these days. Honest posts are deleted and fake posters post fake reviews.

My websites are down on a daily basis, today they have been down all afternoon. All emails in my inbox go missing, many don't make it to their destination and people comment that they have sent emails, which I never receive.

It's all going so wrong, and my business is being wrecked.

No apologies, just plain wrong!

[flesso]

Originally Posted by Indigo

Very dishonest people, dreadful performance.

My constructive post seems to have been deleted because it was an HONEST account of what is happening these days. Honest posts are deleted and fake posters post fake reviews.

My websites are down on a daily basis, today they have been down all afternoon. All emails in my inbox go missing, many don't make it to their destination and people comment that they have sent emails, which I never receive.

It's all going so wrong, and my business is being wrecked.

No apologies, just plain wrong!

Do you have any tickets open regarding the problems that you have faced? If so, please could you post their ids here. Also, as a moderator I can assure you that none of your posts have been deleted and the positive testimonials posted are from genuine customers.

[eUKhost.com]

Originally Posted by Indigo

Very dishonest people, dreadful performance.

My constructive post seems to have been deleted because it was an HONEST account of what is happening these days. Honest posts are deleted and fake posters post fake reviews.

My websites are down on a daily basis, today they have been down all afternoon. All emails in my inbox go missing, many don't make it to their destination and people comment that they have sent emails, which I never receive.

It's all going so wrong, and my business is being wrecked.

No apologies, just plain wrong!

I am not sure who has deleted your previous post as I don't see any new threads opened in last 3 hours. Please post once again and we will reply to your questions.

[Rock]

Originally Posted by Indigo

Very dishonest people, dreadful performance.

My constructive post seems to have been deleted because it was an HONEST account of what is happening these days. Honest posts are deleted and fake posters post fake reviews.

My websites are down on a daily basis, today they have been down all afternoon. All emails in my inbox go missing, many don't make it to their destination and people comment that they have sent emails, which I never receive.

It's all going so wrong, and my business is being wrecked.

No apologies, just plain wrong!

Indigo, can you please open up a ticket in our windows support section or email us directly on windows@eukhost.com this way, your queries/problems will be sorted/responded out more quickly than here. Also, if you already have opened up a ticket, please provide me the 'Ticket #', I'll get it checked right now & you'd receive a positive reply within 10 mins. We are online 24x7 on Live chat support too, it'd be better if you can come online for direct interaction between us.