ipowerweb is teaching me a lesson.... and now i have hate

[b00k]

July 18th 2005, cannot connect to database. That was the beginning of one of the most horrible experiences i have ever had with a hosting company.

Aug 18th 2005, 1 month later.


There seems to have been a slight problem with the database.
Please try again by pressing the refresh button in your browser.
An E-Mail has been dispatched to our Technical Staff, who you can also
contact if the problem persists.

We apologise for any inconvenience.


Level 1 techs, level 2 techs, leads and supervisors. Ive talked to them all. First the issue was Vbulletin, not the server, the software. I did the regular forum searches here and went over my installation. I also cross referenced my setup with my 2 other sites, all was good to go.

The forum starts going down more often. I start making the calls from work, start making the calls from home. Sometimes spending 3 hours a day talking to their techs. I?m told its an abusive new registered user, they restart the sql and all is well. This happens about twice a day lasting anywhere from 1-4 hours. More issues. I ask to be moved off this server being so abused, they say it will cost $50 US. I have to pay because they cant look after things?

I keep calling. I?ve upgraded to knowing the level 2 techs well and they give me a php script i have to run because they cant pinpoint the error. Over the next 2 weeks its ran every time i come across the forum down.

Warning: mysql_connect(): Can't connect to local MySQL server through
socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (2) in /home/xxxx/public_html/testmysql.php on
line 31

Warning: mysql_select_db(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link
resource in /home/xxxx/public_html/testmysql.php on line 33
Cannot Select Database.

The level 2 techs assure me that the problem is going to be resolved. 1st week goes by and they dont even return my calls, site keeps going down. They tell me that moving the site is not an option because this sql issue can be resolved easily. At this point im calling 2-3 times a day, sometimes sitting on hold for 20 minutes. Then i get the level 1 customer rep who insists he can help me. When i give him the ticket number and email information he asks me what the problem is. For some reason this just started making me insane. They use a term "unfortunatly" often and it just started getting under my skin. At this point im biting my tongue and trying not to be tough on them as theyre just doing their jobs, but i mean really, ive been calling for 3 weeks everyday and your history in front of you doesn?t tell you WHAT THE RE-OCCURING PROBLEM IS?

Finally i start getting really upset and get the opportunity to speak wit a supervisor (Donald J) who is willing to make things happen. I can no longer take the "oh we'll just restart the sql for ya" crap. Oh, when it crashes in two hours i should call and you?ll reset it for me; "unfortunately sir that?s all we can do". /me pulls hair out.

Donald the supervisor moves our website to a new server. Ahhh, finally, things are turning around. *reality check*. The server goes down 9 hours later, same thing. Donald tells me vdeck is using all the resources and the coders & admins are both passing the ticket back and fourth and no one wants to fix it. They reset the sql. At this point the sql has been reset every day, at least once, if not up to 4 times.

Donald assures me this is a server side issue. I question when will it be fixed? No eta.

Last night im working away on the site, its up and well... whatever, time is limited. So i start coding in a mod from this site. The php called for 300,000 queries. Its ran, they suspend my account. I call and mention to them the sql and site is down, level 1 tech doesnt know why. I explain to him i ran this query and i noticed after that they have a 50,000 query max limit per hour. They refuse to reset my sql, due to it possibly damaging other peoples queries and db. I pose the question of, "you reset the sql everyday,1-4 times because your server has an issue, when i call and make 1 mistake you punish me"... response that made me boil.. "unfortunately sir, there?s nothing we can do".... i snap, i curse (which is prolly the most unprofessional thing to do) and i ask to talk to a supervisor. I get a lead hand, a lead hand who is a level 2 tech ive been dealing with. He tells me due to my 1x abuse my account is suspended. After a little anger, some TELLING him the sql is reset.

So now the sql is reset and well, back to business. 1 hour later the sql goes down. I call, they reset. 25 minutes later the sql goes down, I call, they reset. Come this morning. At 6:45 the site went down and is still down at 11:40 am. They tell me they?re doing some database management, and password upgrades and this is the reason I am down still.

I?m so bitter. I hate companies that take advantage of people like this. There?s not much else to do I suppose except change hosting companies. I have 2 other forums with them and the one had these issues in the beginning as well, but it was resolved and I got over it after a year and didn?t think it was possible for ipowerweb to do this again. My 2nd site gets no traffic, was something I built for the family so who knows If its going down. Their average is horrible.
Site one: 4600+ users, initially went down 1.5 years ago..was resolved
Site two: 200 users, family site
Site three: 480 users, attempting to replace make the new site over site one? horrible problems..

What do you guys think? Wait it out? Move on? Frankly, im scared if we move all my hard work will be lost. People aren?t as forgiving and may not return. I don?t want to recode the site, im not confident to do this move. Im tired, im sleeping four hours a day because theyre stressing me out now.

[tnguy3n]

You're surely a very dedicated webmaster.
As for you host, if it gives you that much of headache, then move to a more reliable company. You might get some good feedbacks on WHT forum.

[amykhar]

Move on. I am with http://www.ultraunix.net/ and am VERY happy with them. Whenever there has been any kind of a technical issue, the support staff worked with me to get things fixed very quickly. The price is very reasonable as well.

Amy

[b00k]

You're surely a very dedicated webmaster.
As for you host, if it gives you that much of headache, then move to a more reliable company.

i am dedicated, and i care about the work ive put into it. im just really bitter, and just felt silenced by them, like im supposed to just "accept" it all.

if i wasnt concerned about just losing it all, i would move... well, i think a move is still up in question for tonight. Myself and the other admin are going to talk it over cause frankly, i dont think i can take much more of contacting ipowerweb, i m feeling exhausted and frustrated.

[AN-net]

Last night im working away on the site, its up and well... whatever, time is limited. So i start coding in a mod from this site. The php called for 300,000 queries. Its ran, they suspend my account. I call and mention to them the sql and site is down, level 1 tech doesnt know why. I explain to him i ran this query and i noticed after that they have a 50,000 query max limit per hour. They refuse to reset my sql, due to it possibly damaging other peoples queries and db. I pose the question of, "you reset the sql everyday,1-4 times because your server has an issue, when i call and make 1 mistake you punish me"... response that made me boil.. "unfortunately sir, there?s nothing we can do".... i snap, i curse (which is prolly the most unprofessional thing to do) and i ask to talk to a supervisor. I get a lead hand, a lead hand who is a level 2 tech ive been dealing with. He tells me due to my 1x abuse my account is suspended. After a little anger, some TELLING him the sql is reset.

So now the sql is reset and well, back to business. 1 hour later the sql goes down. I call, they reset. 25 minutes later the sql goes down, I call, they reset. Come this morning. At 6:45 the site went down and is still down at 11:40 am. They tell me they?re doing some database management, and password upgrades and this is the reason I am down still.

why would u run 300,000 sql queries, that will kill probably any server>_>
also if this happened to you with the first site for 1.5 yrs i would have given up and moved on from 2nd if not 1st month of reoccuring downtime.

not to plug any specific hosting company but i am currently with http://www.asmallorange.com and I have not experienced any problems with them what so ever.

[afusion]

I'd run from them as fast as you can. Their customer support was no better when I was with them and often my site went down for half a day if not more. Pretty soon I had enough, moved to LayeredTech and everything's been perfect ever since. iPowerWeb really has nothing on LT's customer support :)

[bigcurt]

That is a hell of a post man..I actually read it all and it almost made me cry 0_o lol..I would definately switch..might want to checkout www.bluehost.com there fairly good and you get a free domain with package ;).



~Curt

[sabret00the]

isn't it just a matter of backing up and moving on or am i missing something? when people can't fix problems, it's time to move on.

[WhatChaMissin]

That is a hell of a post man..I actually read it all and it almost made me cry 0_o lol..I would definately switch..might want to checkout www.bluehost.com there fairly good and you get a free domain with package ;).



~Curt

That's who I've been using for the past year or so and so far no issues to report.

www.bluehost.com (http://www.bluehost.com/track/whatcham/text1)

4 Gigabyte Hosting Space
Host 6 Domains on 1 Account!!!
2,500 POP Email Accounts
100 GIGS of Transfer (NEW)
SSL, FTP, Stats
CGI, PHP, MySQL
2000/2002/2003 Front Page Extensions
Free Domain Included
Toll Free Support

[bigcurt]

Ya, I added on to my account though I got 8gb space and 200gb transfer..there fairly cheap also.

~Curt

[b00k]

why would u run 300,000 sql queries, that will kill probably any server>_>

was a php file from a hack provided here for an ai bot. i didnt realize it ran that many until i seen my account went down....

also if this happened to you with the first site for 1.5 yrs i would have given up and moved on from 2nd if not 1st month of reoccuring downtime.
No, the other site we had a problem a year and a half ago for a couple months, but time heals the wounds, and i got over it. We should have known better. The site has continued to go down all day today.

not to plug any specific hosting company but i am currently with http://www.asmallorange.com and I have not experienced any problems with them what so ever.
Im going to start looking into a new company tonight at work. So many small companies and im just starting to think I should pay far more and go with a good reputable company (whoever that might be) instead of these $10/month ones.


I am on hold with ipowerweb right now. I logged onto my FTP and all my information is gone. I have over 650 vbulletin database error emails.
*sigh* Least i got some sleep this afternoon.

[Erwin]

Learn and move on. :) There are plenty of good hosts out there.

[tracylee]

I manage 5 websites and I just moved the two most active away from iPowerWeb, and have advised the owners of a 3rd to do so.
The customer service was a joke - auto response based on keywords. I constantly had to reply with something to the effect of: OK, now read my e-mail.

The problem I had was with the shared servers. They host about 900 domains/server. One of those domains spams, and the entire server is banned by just about every ISP. All "welcome to the forum", "happy birthday", "You've got a new Private Message", etc. e-mails bounced back. I had more rejected e-mails than real e-mails!
You are supposed to report those to abuse@ipowerweb.com. At one point even that was rejecting my e-mails! I know they started ignoring me when I sent a report from one of the other domains I manage and they responded right away, when I got no response on the two busiest!

I moved to http://siteshostedby.info/ . Yes, more expensive, but much faster, personal customer service, an no blocked e-mails!

I feel your pain.

[sabret00the]

was a php file from a hack provided here for an ai bot. i didnt realize it ran that many until i seen my account went down....
link to thread?

[bigcurt]

Yea cause I am going to be installing a bot like that I DO NOT want to install that one :p.



~Curt

[Andrew]

I remember installing that bot for a client (I think it's just the vB 3.0.x Talker Bot or something like that) - The number of queries depends on the number of options you select to install (Different responses for different subjects.) If you select all of them though it will perform roughly 300,000 queries and take about 15-20 minutes to complete. I remember running it for my client and shortly after she got an email from her host requesting her not to execute a batch of that many queries ever again :nervous:

[jugo]

Quote:
Originally Posted by AN-net
why would u run 300,000 sql queries, that will kill probably any server>_>

was a php file from a hack provided here for an ai bot. i didnt realize it ran that many until i seen my account went down....

I have this installed at s3squad.com and the 300,000 Queries did nothing to my website or our server.

Did it, the server didn't skip a beat (Then again we';re hosted on QUAD Xeon Servers).

TSR..>Check your PM.

[m0nde]

Move on. I am with http://www.ultraunix.net/ and am VERY happy with them. Whenever there has been any kind of a technical issue, the support staff worked with me to get things fixed very quickly. The price is very reasonable as well.

AmyWhich hosting package do you use, Amy? I'm just now in the process of moving to http://www.splicehost.com

- Sid

[b00k]

<a href="https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=60329&highlight=BOT+TALKER" target="_blank">https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showt...ght=BOT+TALKER</a>

It's the talker bot that i was trying to install. I thought it would be entertaining. :nervous:

I need to take a break from talking about ipower for atleast a few more days or i might have a stroke.

[Talisman]

TSR ... send your members a message letting them know the site will be erratic for a while and you'll let them know once it's resolved. Then, get a dog and take a walk in the park ... buy some ice cream ... throw a frisbee around ... anything.

Maybe a massage? Take a few hundred deep breaths?

Then jump back in long enough to move the whole thing to another host.

Don't give up hope, these things do mean something to us (and our members).. but don't stress. It simply isn't worth it.

Good luck. And let us know what happens.

[Neutral Singh]

LOL!! So, you were running the queries for AI talking bot?

You reminded me of similar fate my website met 7-8 months ago. My account was suspended for a week. I can understand your headaches and heartaches... but as everybody has rightly said Move On...

i decided to host with http://www.hostrocket.com and initially opted for only six months package being terrible shaken from my first experieces with a hosting servie but sinve then i have puchased their package for one more year... if you treasure your work and wanna avoid headaches, just check out their packages especially RocketTWO.

Best of Luck

Move On and Relax, ;)

[b00k]

LOL!! So, you were running the queries for AI talking bot?


I only ran the script once and bam, suspended. So i called in and after telling their level 1 what i did he said "unfortunately" i cant help you, your account is suspended. I thought how the hell can you suspend my account when after 30 days you guys can?t do right by me? That's what pushed me over the edge, thinking in my head that im getting screwed over and this is how they treat a customer they?ve been wronging.
Out of all the people there, maybe 3 were really pressing for resolve, which was nice and made me feel better. The rest were useless and as far as im concerned were speed bumps on a road to resolution.
Yesterday their apache server was down. I just threw in the towel and let it be.
They don?t return calls, ever! No matter how professional i acted and reasonable, i never got what i wanted, a proper working server package and or tech support.

AS of this exact moment, the server has been running (from what ive seen) well. Hasn?t gone down and maybe they worked the quarks out... maybe. Its only been about 12 hours, at least I don?t have 750+ emails from vbulletin telling me there?s an error with connecting to the sql.

Part of my anger/bitterness is due to their lack of tech support. In any business when you continue to screw up you tend to lose customers. And even if they don?t move (like i haven?t..yet) , customers write long posts showing their misfortune with the company.

Ipower sucks. That's it. I?ve been taught my lesson and now i know. I will never ever tell a client to use ipower, nor will i opt to use it for my own personal sites.

[Chris M]

I have this installed at s3squad.com and the 300,000 Queries did nothing to my website or our server.

Did it, the server didn't skip a beat (Then again we';re hosted on QUAD Xeon Servers).

TSR..>Check your PM.

That is why - If you try and run it on a shared server you have no hope ;)

Satan

[Andreas]

Shared Hosting sucks - always, no matter where you host.

[RaidenDAWG2]

Had a similiar problem with SiteGround. They kept suspending our account because of vB (which made absolutely no sense). Finally got tired of it and moved over to StartLogic last night (have had no problems other than they got kinda pissed at me for importing the 100,000+ post database on my own...yeah...).

-RD

[b00k]

Update.. As it seems, nothing was resolved. In my FINAL ditch attempt i asked to be moved off the VDECK servers and put on one of my current CPANEL servers.

They advised against it stating they were moving all their clients to VDECK. If the CPANEL move resolves the situation, i would hope they look into it and consider some of the damage they would be causing.

The move over to the CPANEL server was not easy. Easy for me to follow instructions and get it done right on my end. But again, i had to contact IPOWERWEB and walk them through the issues i was encountering (could not connect..) The level 1 tech Mark said everything looks fine, of course it wasnt. So again, running their level 2 techs script (Ben's script) and informing him of the findings (cant find DB), they then resolved it. Is this really that hard for them?

All i ask of them is to make it work.

Ben (level 2 tech and lead at times) stated to me that our server was demanding on their sql due to the # of users and it was a very popular site, he suggested a dedicated server... :rolleyes: ... 450 users? demanding? taxing on the sql? WTF ? I pointed out to Ben that our other site has 5000 users with the same modifications done, and 4x the size of sql db... he squashed that idea. I would hope so Ben :ermm:

I will keep you guys updated on any further findings. I appreciate finding posts that have some decent information, so i hope im providing that to some other users searching on this company.

[SteveC]

Hey TSR, I had this EXACT SAME PROBLEM with ipower web starting on July 19th. They never mentioned other vbulletin customers having a similar problem.

Now it's happening again. Same thing, endless time on hold and they tell me it's a problem with a vbulletin script. Vbulletin tells me it's a server problem. I'm tearing my hair out. Sounds like I should definitely move to another host. Did you?

I see several hosts suggested in this thread. Any opinions on which is the best?

[Club3G]

+1 with Ipower, they were the worst hosting company I've ever used.

[b00k]

Hey TSR, I had this EXACT SAME PROBLEM with ipower web starting on July 19th. They never mentioned other vbulletin customers having a similar problem.

Now it's happening again. Same thing, endless time on hold and they tell me it's a problem with a vbulletin script. Vbulletin tells me it's a server problem. I'm tearing my hair out. Sounds like I should definitely move to another host. Did you?

I see several hosts suggested in this thread. Any opinions on which is the best?

God.. yes, the problems never stop. I was dealing with a rep by the name of Don (supervisor) and Ben (level 2 tech) never mind the countless idiots/drones/pylons that are level 1 customer service reps.
Man, i used to get LIVID calling 2x a day and the CSR would insist they can help me, when really it was always the level 2 techs who would have to. They wasted so much of my time...

Ive even told them about the numerous threads out there about their lack of service, really, they don?t care. They have enough idiots like me still with them.

What you should look into is to see if they swapped out your Cpanel. For some reason on THEIR servers i only have a 90% uptime with cpanel running. Anything else causes 100% downtime, they also blamed my the software (vb)

The other option for me that they offered was to get a dedicated server. Seeing that i have this issue on my one server with 6000 members and on my other with 500 (hundred, yes) at the time i couldn?t see why it would happen on both. Ok, maybe the 6000 user one id understand, BUT, i know people with more users who have less issues.

Maybe it is the software? Maybe there?s a mistake in a hack i implemented? But i would think the issues would be more regular, where as right now they?re sporadic.

Bottom line is, ipower sucks.

[SteveC]

Why are you staying with them? This thread has convinced me to switch to someone new.

[b00k]

Why are you staying with them? This thread has convinced me to switch to someone new.


any new projects ive gone elsewhere. But with my current sites ive had fears of having to re-hack everything and or losing all the Db... thats basically it. :surprised:

But trust me, on my 'new' sites ive gone elsewhere. Im convinced i could run a better server from my basement :squareeyed:

[tbradham]

I have the exact same issue with iPower, and I will be moving as soon as my contract expires. My site goes down once a day if I don't "reset" it every day.

I remove the sql user's rights from the database. Log into phpmyadmin with that user. Go back and give the sql user rights to the database again. Open the database in phpmyadmin.

This also works to restore the site when it is down.

If I could only find a way to take the site offline on a schedule, I think I could live with it until December.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

How does it go down?

Do you get error messages?

[tbradham]

Fortunately it is up right now, so I can't give you the exact error message. It is the max resource questions exceeded 50,000 error message.

I do get emails to let me know it is down. Where does it get the email address from to send those error messages? I need to change it to go to my Blackberry so I can be more responsive to outages.

I changed it in the general VB settings, but they still go to the other address.

[Chris M]

If they are generated by vB you need to change the email in your config file ;)

Chris

[COBRAws]

I had the same problem with A Small Orange, they always told me it was my software running on their server the problem of everything. Then, they told me it was me (my pc lol, this was the last straw). I recently moved to another company and never got any errors agains. Ill never go back to A Small Orange ASO.

[Zachariah]

I was working on a rotation script.
- multi usernames 1 database
each user gets 50K in a given time frame. The script rotates what user VB uses.


- this needs some work or a new way of looking @ it.
- I am busy @ the moment

Old post I found
If you have a shared host for your website you may know what I mean. MySQL users get 50,000 Questions per hour. The account is banned then after the hour you get access again. :mad:

The hosts will allow you to create unlimited users per DB.

If I reindex the search index of my forums.
"" "" any part of my site that has a lot of data.

- 50,000 limit smashed and I get the no access "finger"

Here is what I get:

Processing: 102279 ... Done
Processing: 102281 ... Querying first post of thread... Done
Processing: 102282 ... Done
Processing: 102283 ...

Invalid SQL:
INSERT IGNORE INTO word (title) VALUES ('annnnnnything');

MySQL Error : User 'root' has exceeded the 'max_questions' resource (current value: 50000)
Error Number : 1226


Idea: "user load balance" (this may be done somewere)
- I could use some ideas
- would make a nice "how-to" also :D

forums/config.php


EX: w/ vBulletin 3.5.4

// ****** DATABASE NAME ******
// This is the name of the database where your vBulletin will be located.
// This must be created by your webhost.
$config['Database']['dbname'] = 'forums';

// ****** TABLE PREFIX ******
// Prefix that your vBulletin tables have in the database.
$config['Database']['tableprefix'] = '';

// ****** MASTER DATABASE USERNAME & PASSWORD ******
// This is the username and password you use to access MySQL.
// These must be obtained through your webhost.
$config['MasterServer']['username'] = 'root';
$config['MasterServer']['password'] = 'password';

// ****** MASTER DATABASE SERVER NAME AND PORT ******
// This is the hostname or IP address and port of the database server.
// If you are unsure of what to put here, leave the default values.
$config['MasterServer']['servername'] = 'localhost';
$config['MasterServer']['port'] = 3306;


// Database array for Random users
// ##########################################
$dblogins = array();
// ****** MASTER DATABASE USERNAME & PASSWORD ******
// This is the username and password you use to access MySQL.
// These must be obtained through your webhost.
$dblogins['1']['user'] = 'root2';
$dblogins['1']['pass'] = 'password';

// ****** MASTER DATABASE USERNAME & PASSWORD ******
// This is the username and password you use to access MySQL.
// These must be obtained through your webhost.
$dblogins['2']['user'] = 'root3';
$dblogins['2']['pass'] = 'password';

// ****** MASTER DATABASE USERNAME & PASSWORD ******
// This is the username and password you use to access MySQL.
// These must be obtained through your webhost.
$dblogins['3']['user'] = 'root4';
$dblogins['3']['pass'] = 'password';


// Place this below every thing.

// ********* The following does NOT need to be edited and is only used for multiple DB users ************
srand((float) microtime() * 10000000);
$dbloginid = array_rand($dblogins);
while ($dblogins[$dbloginid]['user'] == '')
{
$dbloginid = array_rand($dblogins);
}
$config['MasterServer']['username'] = $dblogins[$dbloginid]['user'];
$config['MasterServer']['password'] = $dblogins[$dbloginid]['pass'];

unset($dblogins, $dbloginid);

This will work but It still needs:
- counter in session memory per user and stop using account when close to 50k.

or

- IF mysql connect gives error ER_USER_LIMIT_REACHED (Error Number : 1226) THEN skip that user and use the next one.

[tbradham]

If they are generated by vB you need to change the email in your config file ;)

Chris


Where is it? I know it should be in the root of my VB install, but it's not there?

[da420]

It's in your includes folder.

[peeknpeak]

They completely LOST my whole site for a week. 12 tech calls with no fix or site found. When I call Billing to ask for compensation, a Billing Supervisor found my site and restored it back to January. (It's now June) It's been a week of more Tech support with permissions errors everywhere.

I have three VB sites on iPower.:(:mad::down:

Daily e-mails:
User 'peekn' has exceeded the 'max_questions' resource (current value: 50000) Error Number : 1226

[encryption]

Can some of you facing sql timeouts on your sites provide links to your sites as well ? I'm not denying there can be pitiful webhosts out there (I was the victim of probably the worst one myself) but I'm increasingly finding a number of people who do not have the budgets to run extremely heavily modified boards and at the same time, fail to correlate how significantly interconnected those two are.