Some of you may have noticed the rude and almost blank screen that greeted you when you tried to visit Semicolon yesterday and part of today. It took about 30 hours for my web hosting company to track down and tell me what the problem was. They first said that my account had been suspended “due to spam.” Since I don’t do spam and I don’t like spam, except for the kind in the can, I didn’t know what to do about this seeming accusation. So I inquired further.
The web hosting company in question didn’t return my emails.
My emails became more and more frustrated and strident in tone.
They still didn’t return my emails.
Yes, I was going through blog withdrawal, but my main concern was the class schedule for our homeschool co-op that was supposed to be available on the web on Tuesday morning. It wasn’t. I had parents emailing and calling both me and the directors of our co-op.
Finally, thirty hours after they suspended my account without notice and after many, many emails from me, alternately irate and pleading, the web hosting company emailed to say that I could have my website back. One of the co-op class pages on this site had been the source of “a whole lot of spam” yesterday. Something was said about hackers, bcc injection, and pretty patches. Don’t ask me; I’m clueless.
Short version, I’m looking for a new website hosting company. Any suggestions?
I don’t know how much control you need over your template, but Ron and Andrea at Atypical Homeschool have started Homeschool Journal. It’s a Word Press site, and took me a while to get used to it after blogger, but the upside is that they are real people you can actually reach for support issues. And they’re both extremely nice to boot. This post: http://atypicalife.net/blog/?p=2716 explains the features available through Word Press.
Joshua at Razorskiss was talking a while back about his using Dreamhost. I’ve been using them for about a year and have very few problems and they were all fixed quickly.
I don’t have suggestions for bloghosts, but I just wanted to say I’m glad you’re back! 🙂
I’ve used Living Dot for over a year. Their technical service is great. I did have a billing glitche this year, but it was resolved in less than an hour…
My brother is my webmaster… so I don’t know much about the technical end. But I do know that I’ve been on Dreamhost for a year and all has been well…
http://www.totalchoicehosting.com/
Is another possibility
I second checking out what Ron and Andrea are offering. *grin*
We use Hosting Matters. I’ve been pleased with them. Completley pleased. Great customer service, even when we were overseas.
I’ve been using DreamHost for a number of years, and been extremely happy with them. The few times I’ve had problems, they’ve been resolved quickly (and cheerfully).