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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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.

[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.