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RadioGeorgeFlag for United States of America

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Changing Web Hosts: Need Your Expert Opinion & Ideas

One day, almost a month ago, I cranked up my FTP program to upload and change some pages on my website. I have done this literally hundreds of times regularly over the past 8 years. This time, I couldn't connect at all. The FTP settings were pre-set long ago, and working well. So I called tech support and to my surprise, didn't get much of an answer! Ditto the next day.

After another call that lasted almost 2 hours, still no reason, but I was instructed to use the CPanel on the site which did work, except that it took much longer. Three more calls and it was FINALLY revealed that the host had been hit with a DDOS attack and there was no estimate of when things would be resolved. While the DDOS did not affect my site directly, there were side effects that affected pages displaying, audio players stopping for no apparent reason, and one or two other such miserable things. I did get some emails from regular visitors who were unable to use the site as they have done on an ongoing basis.

My immediate reaction was one of anger. I was angry that I had seemingly been given the run-around as to what happened. I was angry that the site did not have the decency to notify customers (after 8 years in my case) that there was a problem, and keep them posted on progress and when a resolution would me made/had been made.

So I started looking around for a new host. I read as many truly unbiased reviews as I could find, tracked down the list of the over 100 other hosts owned by the company that hosted the one I had been using, etc. I settled on one that had rave reviews, especially about tech support. When I called their sales office, there was no high-pressure pitch or hype and  I  learned that I could actually get a VPS setup for less than I had been paying the other site. For comparison purposes, let's call the one I had been with Host A and the one I decided to move to Host B.

Host B arranged to move all files and did so quickly. I left everything intact at Host A, as my research strongly suggested, to make sure everything  was OK, and just changes the "pointers" that needed to be changed.

I found that access to user "work" pages, such as cPanel, domain admin, DNS, email, etc. on Host B was difficult to find with many pages that I needed sort of buried. There are also many that are simply hard to find. I went to check/change the DNS servers and could not find the pages or the trail to them.

Calling or writing tech support at Host B resulted in fast connections, but some difficulty in communication in the sense that I was asking "What time is it?" and being told how to build a clock.

Yesterday, in response to a question I had, I sent a note to tech support at Host B and here is their (edited) reply:
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Please note after setting name servers at your domain registrar , domain name should be pointed to server IP from my.[Host B].net >> Domain >> DNS manager

kindly please try adding other domain names at my.[Host B].net >> Domain >> DNS manager let us know if you need any further assistance.

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Since i'm just a grunt user and not a techie, what I expect when being told to go to a certain page is the EXACT page name, or as close to it as possible, such as http://www. mysitehost.net/somenamedpage/DNSmanager.

I wrote back:
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Thank you for replying.

I really hope this doesn't sound extremely stupid, but exactly how do I get to:

my.[Host B].net >> Domain >> DNS manager

It's OK to use example names or numbers, but I simply do not understand what the

 >> Domain >> DNS manager

part means. I have been running websites for about ten years now, but I am simply not technical-minded and am one of what I believe is a big number of many, many people who have to be told technical stuff in what must seems like elementary fashion to professional engineers and support people.

This concerns me greatly, because the amount of correspondence that it takes to fix a simple problem delays operating sites a great deal, and I have spent a large amount of time to date with Host B's tech department just trying to get the domains that I have up and live.

I can follow directions pretty well, but they have to be clear. VERY clear.

----------------------------------------------------------
And this is the response I got to that:
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Hello,

The DNS Manager is where you can manage your domains if they are using our nameservers (cdns1/cdns2/cdns3.Host B.net). There you can edit the DNS records via using the Advanced DNS Editor. Yes, we understood the concern you have and we are extremely sorry for the delay in solving the issue you had. You can always contact us via our Live chat too where we will be online 24/7 days too. We will make sure not to happen this again.

---------------------------------------------------------  
Hello?  Was my question not clear? Am I (or more likely, perhaps) speaking with someone for whom English is not their first language?

One other thing: I have ten cron jobs sitting there on Host A which were  working fine on Host A After they were copied over to Host B. they failed to perform.

I started to review all this during a sleepless part of the night last night and it occurred to me ask YOU before I do anything else.

So, experts, what you do think I should do?

(1)  Stick with Host B, with lower costs, VPS service, and try to master the obtuse and (to me) super-technical procedures and learn the maze of paths to necessary pages for changes?

(2) Since I have not cancelled the contract with Host A, re-set the DNS as needed, and simply return to them. While I am still irked at the poor way they handled he DDOS mess, I do have to admit that there has been no other major technical hassle in the past 8 years and their tech support personnel are all English as a first language people. Their track record is pretty good, Also, their cPanel and user "work" pages are very easy and clear to follow.(And the cron jobs will work again instantly since they haven't been touched.)

(3) Find another host altogether.

(4) Something else.

Thanks for your time and attention. I am really looking forward to hearing your feedback!
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Dave Baldwin
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I must admit to being quite surprised at the replies to my post here but after taking some time to absorb them, the convenience of using tools with which I'm already familiar seems to be a major factor for returning to Host A. The reality check of the "tech support by phone" concept is disheartening, for sure.

I have a question connected with a move back from B to A: since I left everything intact on Host A, am I correct in assuming that all I need to do is to re-point the name servers on the registrar site for Host A, and that after propagation, it'll be business as usual as it was before I copied over files to Host B?  AND, correspondingly, what's the best way for me (remember, I'm a zombie when it comes to 99% of tech stuff) to check to "see" that the propagation has finished 100%?
When I have had to move a site to a new host, I uploaded an extra file that only exists on the new host.  You can do that on Host A.  You won't be able to view it until the name servers are updated.  Note that even if you can view it quickly, it can still take 24 hours to get to everyone around the world.
Great answers although the truth about the "support" is depressing. The website problems were resolved quickly and well thanks to the expert replies, so once again EE proves it is really a great source of info.
Glad to help.