Joined: 22 Aug 2003 Posts: 1322 Location: Gainesville Florida USA
Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 11:48 am Post subject: micfo.com
In earlier posts across the forum I have recommended the web host micfo.com.
With regret I must report that I can no longer stand behind this recommendation.
I'm sure they are still better than many hosts, and for the time being I am still with them, but I've learned enough now that I can no longer suggest them to others. _________________ Free Email Discussion Group For Your Site
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Joined: 22 Aug 2003 Posts: 1322 Location: Gainesville Florida USA
Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 1:54 pm Post subject:
10 years on the Net, I should know better than to go around recommending any web host. Completely my fault, so as you can I see, I'm not perfect either.
To bore you with a few details:
If you have a reseller account at Micfo (or many other hosts) you'll have a Web Host Manager control panel that shows you the status of various services on the server. It's actually a great tool, because it gives you info that previously only the web host had access to.
Anyway, I started experiencing some minor troubles to Micfo. When the troubles persisted over time I started checking in with WHM before submitting support requests.
WHM is routinely reporting my server as being overloaded, that is, too many requests upon the processor.
I'll report the issue to Micfo, and always get a speedy reply, and fix.
For today.
A day or two later, here we go again. Been going on for weeks now.
Now more serious problems are developing, and I'm still getting one sentence replies telling me everything is fine.
Observations:
If you have a small problem, or any problem that can be easily fixed, it will be attended to promptly. Micfo does a good job of responding in a timely fashion to support requests.
However, if the problem is part of an ongoing pattern, the Micfo team does not seem to have anyone in place who can see this big picture. Each tech fixes the problem at the moment, and the next time you report the problem, it's back to square one. Bumping the issue up to an admin doesn't work either, as they take the same approach.
I can certify that Micfo isn't able to auto monitor the load on their servers, tho the sales literature and sales people insist otherwise. If they are monitoring, why am I always the first to find the overload?
I'm still impressed by the speedy, if incomplete, replies. And the free Urchin stats. I'd still rate Micfo as above average, and my account remains there for now. But I've abandoned plans to rent servers from them, as I refuse to put myself in the middle between paying customers and the system they have in place.
I'm not on an anti-Micfo campaign, just withdrawing my endorsement.
Imho, it's not a good idea to pay ahead a year with anybody. I almost did that at the last host, and 30 days later they went belly up, vanished from the face of the earth, taking a lot of people's money with them. I didn't get burned, just educated.
I'm not suggesting you panic, but now that you've given up all your leverage, you may want to monitor performance yourself, as I'm not sure Micfo is up to the job.
If you bought Micfo based on one of my posts, and it doesn't work out, please let me know and I'll try to make it up to you somehow.
PS. None of my earlier recommendations were affiliate links.
Hope that's helpful, if you have additional questions let me know. _________________ Free Email Discussion Group For Your Site
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Joined: 29 Sep 2004 Posts: 23 Location: Western Australia
Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 2:57 am Post subject:
Quote:
10 years on the Net, I should know better than to go around recommending any web host. Completely my fault, so as you can I see, I'm not perfect either.
No not at all! I am very much thankful for your recommendation as it came to my rescue at the 11th hour just recently!
A couple of months back I discovered that my adsense earnings for a couple of days had dropped to almost zero...perplexed as to the reason why, I went to check the traffic stats on my sites and found that the host was down and had been down for a number of days without me noticing!
A search on webhostingtalk and it turns out that these guys (pixiehost) have been going downhill for a number of months (and I'd been none the wiser) and at that point they had finally done a runner and left all their clients stranded with no warning!
Sure enough, in a bit of a panic I started hunting around for recommendations for a new webhost (meanwhile, imagining the rankings and adsense damage each extra minute of downtime was causing!) and found your timely recommendation. Six hours later all my sites were back up on a new host (phew!).
I signed up for their free one-month trial and was impressed enough at their responses to my support questions to sign up for a year.
Quote:
Imho, it's not a good idea to pay ahead a year with anybody. I almost did that at the last host, and 30 days later they went belly up, vanished from the face of the earth, taking a lot of people's money with them. I didn't get burned, just educated.
Yeah I was a little concerned about that too. What pushed me over was they had a 50% discount on 12-months hosting and being about three days before end of financial year in Australia it made sense to pay all the expenses I coud in advance to save the tax
Quote:
I'm not suggesting you panic, but now that you've given up all your leverage, you may want to monitor performance yourself, as I'm not sure Micfo is up to the job.
Yes I am a _little_ bit concerned about this now...they were very forthcoming before I handed over cash, and now their support is somewhat more...dismissive? I raised concerns over the load on the server that hosts my sites as one of my writers complained at the slow responsiveness of my CMS and their only suggestion was to move to dedicated hosting, despite the fact that when I paid I upgraded to a higher-level plan which according to their rules means they should have moved me to a machine with fewer accounts (but didn't...)
Quote:
If you bought Micfo based on one of my posts, and it doesn't work out, please let me know and I'll try to make it up to you somehow.
PS. None of my earlier recommendations were affiliate links.
I fully appreciate that your recommendation was an honest one based on your genuine opinion at the time, so don't worry I'm not blaming you or anything! As a matter of fact your recommendation got me out of a very sticky situation in a hurry and for that I am still very thankful! _________________ Download free card games at cardgames4free.com
Joined: 22 Aug 2003 Posts: 1322 Location: Gainesville Florida USA
Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 12:38 pm Post subject:
scotto wrote:
Yes I am a _little_ bit concerned about this now...they were very forthcoming before I handed over cash, and now their support is somewhat more...dismissive?
Yes, dismissive. That's a good way to describe it.
Well thank you for being a good sport about this. I still do think one could do much worse than Micfo, as I guess you discovered.
For three years I had an office inside my web host. I was a customer, running a bunch of servers, and they just rented me my own room. I got an inside look in to what I think was probably a typical small hosting company.
Couple dozen employees, almost all guys, led by an ambititous CEO, everybody under age 30, maybe under 25.
Very savvy technically, admirably ambitious at business. In those respects SOOOO much farther ahead of where I was at that age.
But, not very mature emotionally, not much ability to deal with adversity, poor communication skills, more than a bit arrogant, leading to the "dimissive syndrome". Completely normal 22 year old guys in other words. Reads like my resume from that era!
Most hosting companies are operated and led by this demographic, because the industry is only 10 years old, and older people were already established in some other career when the hosting industry was born.
In the future I think you'll see middle aged women in charge and out front, and the tech guys will be where they belong, locked in the server room where they can work their magic on the servers instead of the customers.
Until then, the rest of us will just have to be more than average mature to make up the difference, a challenge this graying tech guy simply isn't prepared for! _________________ Free Email Discussion Group For Your Site
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Joined: 22 Aug 2003 Posts: 1322 Location: Gainesville Florida USA
Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 12:42 pm Post subject:
PS. One solution to all this is to educate ourselves and get really comfortable with the process of moving from host to host. I worry about all this stuff less than I used to.
You don't want to move at the very first problem, because it is simply impossible to make everything work perfectly all the time in a networked environment.
But if the stress starts to build, it won't get too hot if you know how to pick up your electrons and move on. And, if everybody knew how to move, we'd get less "dismissive" from the hosts. _________________ Free Email Discussion Group For Your Site
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Joined: 22 Aug 2003 Posts: 1322 Location: Gainesville Florida USA
Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 3:09 pm Post subject:
PPS: I've decided I'm not going to be able to accomplish my plans unless I have a good relationship with at least 2 different hosts.
If something goes wrong at Host A, I'll already have a tested preapproved backup plan in place, an open account at Host B.
Hosting is so cheap compared to the income of any serious enterprise, this extra expense seems justified.
And, I'm narrowing the field considerably by focusing my search on women owned hosting companies. The clever young dude thing has pooped me out.
I've already found one candidate who is very experienced, and who communicates extensively like an adult pro. _________________ Free Email Discussion Group For Your Site
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