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

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.

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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.

[b00k]

Originally Posted by SteveC

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.

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

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]

Originally Posted by Chris M

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.:down:

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