Talk about bad timing. It seems as though Afrihost just can’t handle SA Rocks on their servers. I’m not sure why that is as I personally don’t think that SA Rocks can possibly be toppling servers just yet. We are on the way, but not just yet.
I have had this debate a thousand times with a hundred people on many blogs. But is it viable to host a “successful” blog or website locally?
I am beginning to think not. Inspite of Gian at Afrihost trying exceptionally hard to please local websites and blogs I think that I need to take a stand right now and say that the last three weeks of hosting with them has been filled with difficulty.
A while back SA Rocks begin to flourish and local servers at Afrihost couldn’t handle the pressure. So I was moved to an international server and told that I would have access to unlimited bandwidth with my current package. Then earlier this month I was having serious downtime due to SA Rocks putting pressure on that server. I was then moved to another server (more downtime) and told that the problem was rectified. Then today I see a lovely image, something about bandwidth, usage, exceeding, blah, blah, more downtime.
Afrihost have been incredibly accommodating, helpful and resolute in their approach to me, SA Rocks and the business I give them. Yet at some point a good attitude cannot replace a good product.
For me a good hosting product offers me little downtime and a lot of stability. I have had too much of one and not enough of the other from Afrihost.
I will not be moving my site away from Afrihost, I believe that they can and will get things right, but it needs to be said, product is more important to me than service. I need your product to work.
I am not going to mention the 100% uptime promise that Afrihost offers because that doesn’t really factor in to this. What I am going to say is that I expect 100% uptime, not 100% good service.
Maybe hosting abroad makes more sense; it’s cheaper, more reliable and will more than likely give me less gray hairs.
But for now, I’m sticking with Afrihost. Gian can thank the great customer service that his team provided me in the last 3 weeks.
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February 25th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Whats the actual issue? Using up the servers resources? Assuming you on a shared account ? Or too much bandwidth? International won’t solve that issue though, had a similar experience on a cheap international package.
February 25th, 2008 at 11:27 am
I can’t tell you specifics because I don’t know. I am on a shared account and was told that my site is one of the sites putting massive strain on servers, so it was moved. Then my “bandwidth limit” was exceeded. However that has apparently been resolved.
The problem was that their setting on the new server had me capped. Now apparently that wont be an issue any longer, but still, downtime is downtime and it’s affecting my site, readers and sponsors. None of which is acceptable.
February 25th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Well i am sure posts like this will ensure a smoother ride.
Hope it gets resolved.
February 25th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Thanks gMk! Me too, I really do like the Afrihost dudes, but like I say, comes a point where you need to take a stand!
February 26th, 2008 at 9:43 am
My advice: scrap Afrihost, they’re useless. All the “warm regards” and “hope you’re well
” doesn’t make up for the fact that their technicians are terrible.
I was with them for 1 year and eventually got so fed up that I moved to Host4Africa – much better.
Also see other bad experiences:
http://www.timesurl.at/4a97c5
February 26th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Hey Nic – sympathies to you – understand exactly how it feels – except that I decided/was advised that the UK would sort out all my problems, and nice ‘n cheap too. Seems that I am being moved to the States now to ensure more uptime than downtime!
I hated leaving local, but the deals seemed to be pretty good overseas, and after realising that I had been paying through every orifice possible locally, I just wanted reliability… Suppose you get what you pay for… well… sometimes… anyway… I wasn’t getting it, and I was paying too… so I just don’t know.
But. Service does make a difference. If you end up with some poephol on the other end of the line who either doesn’t know what’s going on, or can’t really bothered to help you – it just makes you a deeper shade of red (as one does have so often with Telkom). So if you are getting positive service; in other words they are trying to sort you out and actually have personality on the other side of the line, then stick with them.
Just remember – when you have a first-name-hoesit-daarso-tjommie kind relationship with their technical consultants, it means you’re having far too much contact with them.
February 27th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Hi Nick. Sorry for the downtime meneer – it really sucks. I’m sincerely sorry although I know doesn’t mean much if your site goes down. The new server is handling the site fine – the problem was that when we moved you to the new server the support guys didn’t change your default traffic allowed setting to unlimited – which meant that when you hit the limit your site stopped working. Our mess-up completely. No excuses – it was unacceptable. I’ve personally checked to make sure that your site traffic is now set to unlimited. Has Bren got hold of you re: your hosting for the next few months? cheers. Gian
February 27th, 2008 at 11:52 am
@Rouvanne great point regarding the chommy relationship with service people. You’re 100% right, you shouldn’t know them well enough to be on a first name basis.
@Gian No one has called/emailed me regarding the next few months of hosting. I am sorry that I had to blog about this but I was pushed in to a corner through no error of my own.
Thanks for visiting and commenting and I will wait to hear from someone from you team!
February 27th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Hi Nic.
I don’t have any experience with Afrihost, but for what it’s worth.. I’ve been using Hetzner for the past couple of years, also on shared hosting packages, on both local and German servers, with some pretty big sites, and I have never had a single problem. Not one!
I can highly, highly recommend them.
Just wanted to throw in my 5c..
Cheers,
Gary.
PS – I’m not affiliated to them in any way, and gain nothing from recommending them to you. In case anyone is wondering..
February 27th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Hey Gary!
Thanks for the tip. As I say I think that I’ll be sticking with Afrihost!
At least I know the alternatives that are available!
March 15th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
A while ago I detested my database for noboxmedia.com (Dumbest thing I have done in a while). I emailed Afrihost at 7 on a Thursday night, I got a response within 15 minutes and Afrihost recovered my data a few minutes later. My site also exceeded its allocated bandwidth so I emailed Afrihost at 8pm on a Sunday night. Again I got a response within 15 minutes and my site was up and running on an international server before I went to bed.
I’m a developer for a web agency and as such deal with many hosting services. I do not get the awesome service Afrihost provides anywhere else, but I do get the same problems, if not worse with other hosting services.
As far as I am concerned, shared hosting, dedicated, Afrihost, hosts4africa – they all experience problems. What matters is the ability to respond and provide solutions in a timely manner. So as far as I am concerned, Afrihost is tops.
May 20th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
I was reading today on the net and found a company that sell to you your own VPS (Virtual Private Server) for hosting all branded under South Africa, then I found out they host all international, making me sick.
Is there no law that can make ISP to inform clients that they misleading us, and they must inform clients that they host their servers in the USA and not in South Africa.
I think we all had a bad experience with international hosting.
I then found this company http://www.vpsinabox.com a local based company hosting in South Africa. and the prices are very good.
Well done VPSinaBOX keeping traffic local and keeping the Rands in South Africa.
January 4th, 2012 at 10:23 pm
Good post and right to the point. I don’t know if this is actually the best place to ask but do you people have any ideea where to hire some professional writers? Thx