Some Pre-Sales enquiries

[Unregistered]

I am looking at changing hosting company and wonder if you can give me the following details please.

- How long have you been in business?
- What are the specs for your shared and reseller servers?
- What datacenter do you use?
- Do you have uptime statistics?
- Is my account easily upgradeable? Is there an upgrade fee?
- If you upgrade packages during the time of my hosting, do you automatically upgrade the package that I have.
- How many people are on your support staff?
- Do you have a file I can download to test system speed?
- Do you have a money back guarantee?
- Do you have an uptime guarantee and if so is it server uptime or network uptime?
- Do you perform regular backups or am I responsible for my own backups?
- Are there any scripts that you don't allow to run on shared plans?

[Matt]

Hello,

Here are the answers to your questions:

- How long have you been in business?
We have been hosting web sites since 1999 and hosting them under the GlowHost brand since early 2003

- What are the specs for your shared and reseller servers?
They vary, are you referring to hardware or software?

- What datacenter do you use?
We use several, primarily, GNAX and their newly opened AtlantaNap datacenter.

- Do you have uptime statistics?
Yes. Our Hosting Guarantee page shows 99.95% as of this writing.

- Is my account easily upgradeable? Is there an upgrade fee?
There is no upgrade fee. Yes, they are easily upgraded. It is usually transparent to you that anything has been done, unless you are upgrading to a huge reseller account or dedicated server.

- If you upgrade packages during the time of my hosting, do you automatically upgrade the package that I have?
You would need to request an upgrade, we do not perform upgrades without your consent.

- How many people are on your support staff?
10-15 level 1 techs, 2 programmers, a level 2 tech and a level 1 tech, with additional uncounted numbers performing hardware and software support.

- Do you have a file I can download to test system speed?
Yes. We have an 11.3M and a 4.4M download available here.

- Do you have a money back guarantee?
Yes we have a 60 day money back guarantee.

- Do you have an uptime guarantee and if so is it server uptime or network uptime?
Yes, unlike most hosts, we offer both network and server uptime guarantees. You can read more about out "blanket guarantee" on our web hosting guarantee page.

- Do you perform regular backups or am I responsible for my own backups?
Yes we perform daily, and weekly backups. You also can create your own if need be using the control panel or FTP of course.

- Are there any scripts that you don't allow to run on shared plans?
The only scripts we do not allow are ones that cause a detriment to the server. These scripts are usually outdated and need an update or upgrade to cure the problem, if one even exists. We would let you know if your scripts are using too much of your server's resources.

Let us know if you have any other questions.

[Unregistered]

Matt,

Thanks for answering the questions. Hopefully, you can answer the follow up questions

- What are the specs for your shared and reseller servers?
They vary, are you referring to hardware or software?

I was meaning the hardware. I was trying to work out the ratio of users and packages to see by how much, if any, you oversell. I realise that this is "standard" across the industry but I don't want to sign up for something just to find that the performance dies 3,6,9 etc months down the line.

Do you have a policy on how you upgrade, or procure new servers, dependant on the load (server or network) of the hosts that you have.

- If you upgrade packages during the time of my hosting, do you automatically upgrade the package that I have?
You would need to request an upgrade, we do not perform upgrades without your consent.

Maybe I didn't make myself clear enough What I was meaning is something like this:

[current package - Budget 3 Star]
# 2500 MB / 2.5 GB DISK SPACE
# 50000 MB / 50 GB TRANSFER
# HOST UNLIMITED DOMAINS
# 20 POP EMAIL

In 6 months you upgrade this to (for example)
# 5000 MB / 5.0 GB DISK SPACE
# 100000 MB / 100 GB TRANSFER
# HOST UNLIMITED DOMAINS
# 40 POP EMAIL

I have paid for a years hosting. Would I need to ask for the upgrade of space or would it happen automatically.

- Do you have a file I can download to test system speed?
Yes.

Can you provide a link.

- Are there any scripts that you don't allow to run on shared plans?
The only scripts we do not allow are ones that cause a detriment to the server. These scripts are usually outdated and need an update or upgrade to cure the problem, if one even exists. We would let you know if your scripts are using too much of your server's resources.

Would you let me know before suspending anything. I ask this as I have had a situation in the past where boxtrapper was using too much resource (basically due to the bugs in boxtrapper). I had not asked for it to be installed - it was done system wide. However, as I get a fair amount of email, the boxtrapper process hung and was using a lot of system resource. The host stopped my email.

This is an example of the type of thing and not a specific.

[Matt]

Matt,
I was meaning the hardware. I was trying to work out the ratio of users and packages to see by how much, if any, you oversell. I realize that this is "standard" across the industry but I don't want to sign up for something just to find that the performance dies 3,6,9 etc months down the line.

Do you have a policy on how you upgrade, or procure new servers, dependent on the load (server or network) of the hosts that you have.

It really depends, its not like every server is a cookie-cutter machine that has 100 (or 500) sites on it. Its impossible to run reliable servers using such a formula. We have old servers with single PIV processors running hundreds of sites. We have a Dual Core Opteron 4 Gigs of Ram in a Raid 10 Setup across 4 disks and it only powers 1/15th of a singular website that we host.

It all depends on what the server needs to remain reliable and fast. There is no:
X packages * Y users = works on a Dual Xeon
formula that I have seen work.

Maybe I didn't make myself clear enough What I was meaning is something like this:

[current package - Budget 3 Star]
# 2500 MB / 2.5 GB DISK SPACE
# 50000 MB / 50 GB TRANSFER
# HOST UNLIMITED DOMAINS
# 20 POP EMAIL

In 6 months you upgrade this to (for example)
# 5000 MB / 5.0 GB DISK SPACE
# 100000 MB / 100 GB TRANSFER
# HOST UNLIMITED DOMAINS
# 40 POP EMAIL

I have paid for a years hosting. Would I need to ask for the upgrade of space or would it happen automatically.

Upgrades are not automatic. We have found most customers do not want a surpise bill that says they owe more than they expected. So if you paid for a year of hosting on a Professional 3 Star plan, and in 3 months you found you needed a Professional 4 Star plan, you would ask us to upgrade the account. Then we credit the 9 months you have not used (dollar amount) toward the purchase price of the upgrade you choose.

So for easy numbers, you paid $120 for Hosting Plan "A" which was for 12 months. Then after 3 months, you wanted an upgrade to Hosting Plan "B"

You have used $30 in available credit, You have $90 which can be applied to Hosting Plan "B"

Can you provide a link.

We have an 11.3M and a 4.4M download available here.

Would you let me know before suspending anything. I ask this as I have had a situation in the past where boxtrapper was using too much resource (basically due to the bugs in boxtrapper). I had not asked for it to be installed - it was done system wide. However, as I get a fair amount of email, the boxtrapper process hung and was using a lot of system resource. The host stopped my email.

This is an example of the type of thing and not a specific.

It is quite impossible for a Web Host to notify someone that their site is crashing the server, ask them to fix it, hope they do fix it, then hope that the customer replies, and if they do reply, that it is in a timely fashion. If the customer is on vacation, then what?

Boxtrapper is your web host's software, so if there was a problem with it, your site should not have been suspended, unless your site was being mailbombed or some other fun thing like that.

Suspensions should happen only when you have a runaway script that YOU installed on the site, not from a flaw in the control panel. At least thats how we do it, if and when we find we need to completely suspend a site, which is rare.

Most web hosts are not going to let a single site bring a shared server down.
As a host you have to choose the lesser of 2 evils:

1. Upset the customer responsible for overloading the machine.
2. Upset hundreds of other customers that had nothing to do with the problem, yet are being affected by it.

I think you can see the rationale.

A dedicated server is a different story, but when one site on a shared box affects other users, sometimes a suspension is the only thing to prevent it.

Now it is not our policy to just suspend an entire website every time it exceeds resource limitation. Its not an automated process like some hosts do it.

First of all we try to prevent it by fixing built-in cPanel problems before the servers go into production. Second we prefer to disable the problem process or script if we can SSH to the server, and then notify you if we have done something on your website to patch the problem.

That keeps your site running with the exception of a script or sometimes a directory, and we have effectively eliminated an entire site suspension by doing something about the specific problem.

However in rare cases the only way to prevent a server from spiraling down is to temporarily suspend it to kill all the associated processes, unsuspend it, then look for the problem in the server monitors.

If it is so overwhelming that immediately after suspension, the load spikes through the roof, then the only cure is to suspend the site again and repeat the process until resolution is found. If its not a simple resolution and it requires detailed log analysis, that suspension can take several hours. Rare is a suspension, and even more rare is something thats going to take a long time to track down. Generally its pretty obvious what the problem is.

Hope that helps.