When your webhost disappears

May 29, 2003 9:00 AM

Akashik? I signed up a few months ago for hosting from these guys after seeing a MeFi textad. They have been down for over 24 hours now... Does anyone know a good place to go when your webhost disappears and they have no phone number and can't email them for help?
posted by VulcanMike to MetaFilter-Related at 9:00 AM (41 comments total)

My apologies for this being a bit OT. I was hoping that -- since they advertise here -- that other people may have signed up and they they may have more information... or I'm hoping that there's a central resource for this type of downtime info that I haven't heard of before...
posted by VulcanMike at 9:02 AM on May 29, 2003

I expect this will get deleted, but in the meantime, I'd recommend you look for a new host.

Cornerhost maintains an offsite status blog and a mailing list. It's not perfect, but at least you know what's going on.
posted by timeistight at 9:13 AM on May 29, 2003

I recommend pair networks. They're extremely reliable, have great support, and have been around forever. They even waive set-up fees if you're switching to them from another host. I'm just a happy customer and am not affiliated with them in any way.
posted by hyperizer at 9:40 AM on May 29, 2003

no phone number. BIG clue.
posted by quonsar at 9:46 AM on May 29, 2003

Pick a smaller, local hosting company that you can actually call and bother. They're much more open to custom configurations and you don't have to wait on hold. Plus you'll be contributing to your local economy.
posted by maniactown at 9:49 AM on May 29, 2003

The site you are looking for is Web Hosting Talk, many hosts monitor those forums, and do not want to get a bad rep in there, so respond to requests. No idea of " Akashik" does, though.

Also a great place to get a recommended host.
posted by malphigian at 9:57 AM on May 29, 2003

VulcanMike, have you tried checking the whois information to see if there's a number listed? (Hint: There is).
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:04 AM on May 29, 2003

Mr. Crash: Yeah. Did that. Disconnected cell phone number in what I believe is Austrailia. I should have mentioned it in my original post.

I also emailed Matt about this, since he must have gotten some sort of contact info when he took the TextAd, but have yet to receive a response.

Beware, MeFi buyers, beware.
posted by VulcanMike at 10:10 AM on May 29, 2003

Just to say, these tips are very useful (I'll have to leave university at some point and so will lose my space there) - I hope this doesn't get deleted!
posted by carter at 11:31 AM on May 29, 2003

I have had an account with akashik.net since October (it has been wonderful until now, btw). I too found out about Akashik via their MeFi text ad. At the time, I did sort of assume it wouldn't suck since Akashik was one of our 'sponsors'.

Hopefully this is still some transient (DDOS?) thing that they will manage to fix. Regardless, thank you for this thread, I hope it doesn't get deleted either.
posted by xowie at 12:37 PM on May 29, 2003

I'm a little puzzled by this idea that a hosting company with a textad would somehow be better than their competitors. While I'm sure Matt wouldn't deal with known frauds, I doubt if he does much investigation before accepting a $10 ad.
posted by timeistight at 12:52 PM on May 29, 2003

I'll second Pair networks. They cost a bit more, but the peace of mind is worth it. They usually end up as any random person's second and final host.
posted by websavvy at 12:54 PM on May 29, 2003

Along the lines of "cost a bit more," I had a good experience with Webcore Labs when I was hosted there.
posted by timeistight at 1:06 PM on May 29, 2003

I've been with Cornerhost since last year sometime, the offsite status blog is a real help.
posted by jessamyn at 1:13 PM on May 29, 2003

One word: media temple.
posted by the fire you left me at 1:16 PM on May 29, 2003

timeistight: I'm sure you're right. At the time, I assumed Akashik wouldn't suck not because of anyone's investigation, but because they were hip enough to place a text ad on MeFi.
posted by xowie at 1:20 PM on May 29, 2003

BlogOMania has been good, except for the outage yesterday (NOC had a fire). I left Dreamhost, because of their constant mini-outages and very non-Movable Type attitude. SitePlus is also a good little host.
posted by mkelley at 1:21 PM on May 29, 2003

Hell, as long as everyone is throwing in their hosts, here's my host since 1995.
posted by perplexed at 1:26 PM on May 29, 2003

my fave host in the US is he.net - they sent me christmas cards (to europe) for years, and never had an outage!
posted by dabitch at 1:42 PM on May 29, 2003

you can buy a text ad online in minutes without providing any info other than the proposed text to matt. the financial arrangements are handled by paypal.
posted by quonsar at 1:58 PM on May 29, 2003

mkelley-

Re: Dreamhost's "very non-Movable Type attitude", could you elaborate? I was going to switch there because I thought they were good for MT and heard they had great service.
posted by Asparagirl at 3:27 PM on May 29, 2003

I also emailed Matt about this, since he must have gotten some sort of contact info when he took the TextAd, but have yet to receive a response.

I had a similar situation with this hosting company, which I also found via a textad and, while I would never expect mathowie to take any responsibility for to or vet advertisers to see if they provide good service (not for $10 anyway), I am sure the feedback is appreciated - if there is one user who has been ripped off, there may be others (maybe many). I also sent an e-mail, but neither expected nor received a response or any action.

After investigation (and some discussion on #mefi), I settled on MTV Hosting and have never looked back. On the couple of occasions I have needed it, their support came through with flying colours and the service generally has been fantastic.
posted by dg at 3:34 PM on May 29, 2003

I have to third Cornerhost. Michal runs the show there and I've seen how quickly he works to resolve a crisis. Top notch.

Thanks for the link Malphiquin. I didn't know about that website.
posted by ?! at 3:54 PM on May 29, 2003

Asparagirl, Look through Dreamhost's and Movable Type's forums to see the problems with Dreamhost. Part of it, is the fact that DH has a custom script that kills the cgis of Movable Type for CPU use. While they deny that they're "anti-movable type", I don't hear about other hosts with issues.

I loved Dreamhost's online tools, but I would have little unexplained outages, some 15 with some for hours. I would put in a request and was told all is well.
posted by mkelley at 5:27 PM on May 29, 2003

I've been using Dreamhost for more than three years with very few problems. I also use Moveable Type and haven't had any conflicts with Dreamhost. YMMV
posted by moosedogtoo at 5:46 PM on May 29, 2003

mkelley, that's not the impression I get from working through DH's forums -- I've gotten as far back as last December so far. And I've installed MT on DH before.
posted by mcwetboy at 5:53 PM on May 29, 2003

This hosting company is run by long-time webloggers.
posted by perplexed at 5:56 PM on May 29, 2003

Digging further, it looks like they cottoned onto some of the MT problems -- DH guys read the forums too. Not that this isn't off-topic or anything.
posted by mcwetboy at 6:02 PM on May 29, 2003

VulcanMike

it IS an australian phone number... did you leave off the first 0 when you called?

+61402 xxx xxx is the way to dial Australian mobiles from overseas.
posted by cheaily at 6:10 PM on May 29, 2003

or, +61xxx xxx xxx depending on the prefix.
posted by cheaily at 6:11 PM on May 29, 2003

VulcanMike, the phone contact is, as cheaily says, an Australian mobile number, which is a valid number but the phone is currently switched off. I will keep trying to reach them.
posted by dg at 9:22 PM on May 29, 2003

I'm happy with Dreamhost and I've installed Moveable Type on several sites there without any problem.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:27 PM on May 29, 2003

This WebHostingTalk thread has an explanation as to what is going on.
posted by tonelesscereal at 11:04 PM on May 29, 2003

I understand that TypePad will soon offer a fine hosted blogging service with all of Movable Type's features and more.
posted by anildash at 1:39 AM on May 30, 2003

I have had rock-solid service and instant support from icdsoft.com in Hong Kong, and the rates can't be beat.
posted by planetkyoto at 3:05 AM on May 30, 2003

Thanks, tonelesscereal.
posted by xowie at 6:24 AM on May 30, 2003

Thanks everyone for their feedback, insight and recommendations -- especially tonelesscereal for tracking down the forum post.

For those of you who haven't followed tonelesscereal's link, it appears that:
(a) Akashik was the victim of fire/power problems at their host (b) which turned into a DNS server failure, (c) which was compounded by the fact that the company was preparing to shift to another hosting facility, and thus didn't have the proper backup servers ready to even display their site with an error message.

Seems like everything is on its way back at the new location, so hopefully everything will be resolved by the end of the day.
posted by VulcanMike at 8:09 AM on May 30, 2003

PepsiBlue.
posted by dhartung at 12:14 PM on May 30, 2003

I missed that first time around, dhartung. I think anildash actually has a very good understanding of TypePad's plans.

BTW, I don't work for cornerhost.
posted by timeistight at 1:11 PM on May 30, 2003

I'm not a PepsiBlue fan, but in this one-time only, limited-time offer I'll second planetkyoto's recommendation of icdsoft. I went in with a "what can I lose" attitude, but so far everything has been very cool. (and they have PHP and mySQL support.)
posted by taz at 10:22 PM on May 30, 2003

late the the party as usual, but i really like kualo. the support is amazingly responsive, borderline annoying.
posted by adampsyche at 4:41 AM on June 2, 2003