Dreams, NO. Nightmares, YES. F-DREAMHOST!!!

computerproblemFor literally the past 48 hours we have been unable to access our website. It would look as though it was loading for about 4 minutes then timeout. About three months ago, we mentioned all the problems we had with changing from using WordPress.com to buying our own domain name and finding a host server. I know I’ve been promising some sort of post on ways to make your transition from utilizing a blogging software like WordPress, Blogger and Typepad to self-hosting. Well, here’s your first mutha-f’ing tip (cause I’m still SOOOOOOO mad) and a few more:

#1: DO NOT USE DREAMHOST AS YOUR HOST SERVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#2: Consider spending extra money for a more expensive hosting package.

#3: If you googlebot (the weird computer spider that crawls the web for new content on your site) crawls your site and there’s a timeout, it works against your pagerank (ie: where your site would come up in the google search queue). It just isn’t good in building a strong page rank.

#4: Did I mention consider not using Dreamhost?

We were recommended Dreamhost, but we’ve had more than a couple problems and we are searching for a better host. If you do choose to look into Dreamhost, I would say, maybe get the more expensive hosting package. I have a feeling those packages are obviously better because they do not bundle as many sites on one server or as Dreamhost likes to so “cutely” call it – blingy clusters. I had no idea that the word “blingy cluster” existed before 3 months ago, now it’s become a term I use at least weekly. For example: “Jonny, the fucking mutha fucker blingy clusters at Dreamhost have cause stress on the server we are one again and our site is down!!!!” or, “Jonny, I hate blingy clusters! I hate Dreamhost! Why can’t they fix this fucking ‘blingy cluster’ thing!!!”

This time was the straw that officially broke the camel’s back. I can not take it anymore. We’re packing our bags and leaving the Dreamhost family as are many others. I promise to add a few more hints in future posts. What I need to know from anyone out there – what is the host server you use and are you satisfied with it? HELP!

18 thoughts on “Dreams, NO. Nightmares, YES. F-DREAMHOST!!!

  1. I dropped dreamhost a month ago, after they had their last 48 hour outtage. The problem with a lot of hosting providers is that they oversell their bandwidth, meaning they’ll cram more users onto a server than the server can handle assuming that not everyone on it will be using it at the same time. This is how they offer the plans for so cheap. When the inevitable event occurs that a bunch of people start hitting the multitude of sites on a server, things go horribly awry.

    This is apparently the case with most of dreamhosts direct competitors as well. I did a bunch of research and decided to go with a much smaller host called Domatic. They are cheap but very fast (my pages load whole seconds faster than they did on dreamhost). The only drawback is they don’t have 1-click install of wordpress and their control panel isn’t as easy to use as dreamhost’s. I also had to get in touch with support a few times to get my account set up (they needed to change things on their end), but I’d have to say their response was very fast and the problems got sorted out in less than a day.

    If you or someone you know is comfortable installing software through a shell (command line), I’d would totally suggest giving Domatic a try. Feel free to email me if you have questions, I gotta head to work now.

  2. Unfortunately, for people like you and I, all of the hosting is pretty much the same: several web sites on a server sharing the hardware and bandwidth resources, all running with fingers crossed that the resources aren’t being oversold (which in all likelihood, they are). Getting something dedicated with more stringent bandwidth/cpu time/uptime guarantees, for me at least, was prohibitively expensive. Most (if not all) of these smaller outfits are actually just reselling the packages from these dedicated packages that exist upstream.

    That being said, I currently use HostGator. I have no complaints about them and have been using them for a few months now. I registered my domain name via GoDaddy. I just cross my fingers for good fortune…

  3. So, are you trying to tell me not to use Dreamhost? lol

    Thanks for the heads-up. I’m going to refer to your wisdom when I make the jump.

  4. Here I thought you took a mini vacation…wish I could help out but wouldn’t have a clue. Hopefully you’re back up again and won’t disappear on us.

  5. ironically, about three hours after we posted this, the site went down again and it appeared everything had been lost. we will be moving hosts in the near future and will be definitely be exploring the options you guys suggested. muchas gracias!!

  6. Hey guys! What a pain in the ASS! I have been annoyed with my server lately, too…but just in the last week or so. I use BlueHost, and up until now, I have been extremely satisfied. I have been having eximstats outages recently, though…apparently there is someone overloading the thing, and they’re trying to track them down. So, I guess what I’m saying is…Blue Host has been great (I use wordpress, too), though this last week or so has been not so great. They *are* really quick to fix outages, though. Just a quick call to their toll free and they have you back up. Hope this helps! 🙂

  7. yeah i was wondering what was up with your server lately. couldn’t access it at all 🙁
    I had dreamhost for about 5 years, about a year ago, and 4 of those years, I was raving mad at them. tons of crap like this happening all the time. but the price was right! PLUS they didn’t charge or take money out of my account for about 3 yrs (then hit me with the 3 year bill last year) so i took what crap they gave me thinking, hell at least i am not paying for it.
    I am now (as of a year ago) on Peter’s servers which are a bit more technically involved and not exactly what you are looking for, or I would offer up their name (i don’t even know it hehe) but yeah, i am sorry you had to go through their stupid hell. 🙁

  8. I’ve used BlueHost for quite a while and have always been happy with them. I see above that canarygirl’s had some problems lately, but I haven’t noticed any downtime. They do have Fantastico for easy WordPress installation and updates.

  9. I’m a DreamHost customer and I was just reading the DreamHost status blog, and I came across your post about the blingy problems. Under “amy jonny Says:” were the comments: “I’m so over this and dreamhost and, believe me, there will be a post on my blog discussing what’s happened.” I clicked “amy jonny” and ended up here. I then wondered if you dumped DreamHost, so I did a traceroute to your site, and hey, you’re still on DreamHost! (apache2-grog.megaman.dreamhost.com) So, did they give you a free year or something? 🙂

    Best regards from Denver

  10. Hey, Brett. Yes… you’re right… we’re still on Dreamhost. Although we didn’t get a year free, we did get some bit of a kickback for the problems we’ve been facing. Unfortunately, we have not had the time to switch over to a new host yet, but it’s still in the works I PROMISE! Thanks for holding us to this promise (in a way!). Within the next month or so we’ll be goners… I just wish we had a few hours to do a bit more research. But when we do our ‘relationship’ with dreamhost will be over.

    Thanks for checking us out!

  11. Hey guys, sorry to hear about all the DreamHost trouble. I haven’t had any, except for once or twice with email going down, but I’m on a different server. Also, my sites probably don’t get as much traffic as yours. I’ve heard good things about mediatemple.net, who is also in LA, but it will be interesting to see who you end up with. By the way, your site is really cool!

    Best of luck,
    -Brett

  12. The thing is, we don’t really get that much traffic which is why we’re still on the cheap server. Not really sure what the deal is with them. I’m sure we are just stuck on some shitty server – the one that – in my creative mind – I see smoking in a corner, coughing like an old man with little springs flying off every once in awhile. It’s the shitty one! But they keep putting more on it and it just can’t handle it. My husband just walked by and read your comment and agreed w/ you – he seconds mediatemple.net. Maybe that’ll be the one?

    Thanks so much for the compliment! It’s nice to have non-food people say something nice!! We’ll let you know how it goes, Brett.

    Amy

  13. I have to second that Domatic has been my host for over 8 years now and i cannot remember even a minute of downtime or being overloaded. They guys are professionals and keep the servers light in the load dept. I had moved around alot before them and aswell i tried dreamhost they seemed way overloaded then and im sure even now. Rock On!

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