Why Some Web Hosts Suck, Like Mine
Matthew Kopelke | Friday, July 16, 2010 at 5:00PM You know, I really hate the web hosting company I have to deal with. I am not referring to Square Space here - so far, my dealings with SS have been universally excellent. No, I am talking about the web hosting company that I use to host the old BTR Productions web site. I am not going to call them out here by name, but if you were to undertake 5 minutes of research, you would quite easily find out who they are.
Put simply, after having dealt with them for many years now, I simply cannot recommend them as a web hosting company, simply because their tech support service is absolutely terrible.
A few years ago, when I was spending a lot of time on the BTR web site, I used a variety of CMS platforms to publish from. But these days, I am not after something cutting edge or brand new - I just want something simple, that allows me to have a web presence for the old content, so that people can access the downloads if they are interested in hearing and watching what we used to get up to. So I use the CM4All Web Site Creator, a freebie Web platform that comes with the hosting package. It's simple, doesn't do much, but it is OK for my needs.
There is only one problem - since the web hosting company implemented a policy of requiring you to update your password on the site every 28 days, it seems to have broken their back-end systems. Whenever you put a new password in, said password does not go any further than the primary login gateway that gets you to the Control Panel. So even if you try and do anything, nothing basically works. Not one single element of their hosting platform works, because the password does not filter though.
So you approach their tech support people. Who tell you to change the password (at least several times whenever I find I have to deal with them), which never fixes the problem. And then they declare they cannot help you anyway. Which means you've wasted your time dealing with them. At which point they shut down the live chat support program, and they're gone.
Good tech support, eh?
I find I encounter this problem every time I try to update the old BTR web site, which is something I am trying to do right now, given we've got some new material to release. Hopefully things can get sorted out soon, but somehow I doubt it. Would love to push out an update this coming weekend, but I shall see how things go.
In the meantime, my advice to you is this - choose your hosting company wisely, lest you get screwed in much the way I am here. I've found premium companies like Square Space to be the best in their field, while these lower-rate two-bit hosting companies really are not worth you wasting their time on...
Reader Comments (2)
I agree that choosing a web hosting company should be done carefully. The decision should be made after a good research has been done. Online reviews, asking friends of their experiences with their web hosts, checking out forums, are just some methods of determining which one suits you and your website's needs. To me, it's like doing a background check of someone you're wanting to marry.
Jane Darwin
best web hosting
Jane,
Hi - thanks ever so much for your comments! Yes, that is so true. What also needs to be taken into account is that if / when your hosting company is bought out by someone else, watch out for their quality level dropping. That is what happened to me, since I've been with this company since 2005, and it has only been in the last 12 months that things have gone downhill...