I’m updating this post because as many of you know (thanks for the emails and Tweets) LA Snark went down again today. We’ve emailed GoDaddy countless times and their reply is always something like “send us a traceroute report” and “looks like the problem is with your computer.” Yeah because all of Snarkville is sitting around sharing the same laptop.
What’s the deal? People have mentioned Dreamhost, but someone on Twitter just said that their site went down today. Where can LA Snark find a nice, friendly, host that will respond to inquiries with intelligent answers, and actually keep the site up and running?
[ad#inpost300]Here’s the rest of the post from December 08:
Image from NoDaddy.com
Hey we love GoDaddy’s ads as much as the next guy, but a website actually being viewable by the readers is kinda important. We’ve received your emails and your tweets, and we’re asking GoDaddy what can be done to stop these random page load failures from happening. Last time I asked I got this runaround answer about how we’re affected by other sites that are sharing server space with us, an explanation that makes sense to me but doesn’t seem right or like it should be my problem. Apparently it is though.
Here’s my letter to GoDaddy:
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
go daddy sux balls!
Apparently! I’m waiting to see if they respond within 4 hours like they said they would.
Its true that pages here sometimes fail to load, and its also true that GoDaddy sucks bigtime. But if they’ll agree to lend me that babe wearing the t-shirt, I’ll vote in favor of keeping GoDaddy as LASnark’s host.
It’s been about 14 hours now and no reply from GoDaddy. Time to put the wheels in motion.
Ling are you a guy? Cuz that’ll break Chad’s heart.
Classic Jack! Anyone reading this should use DreamHost, they have unlimited storage and great customers service and great pricing. Check it out here http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?468881
Good afternoon,
I work with the GoDaddy.com hosting team and came across your post. We definitely want to help you with this. One of our hosting specialists sent you an email asking for more information. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Alicia R.
Go Daddy Hosting
Hey Alicia. Trust me we’re really rather not do any work and keep things as is. Here’s the email I received:
Regarding your hosting account, lasnark.com.
It has been brought to our attention that you have been experiencing brief periods of site outtages. In order to best assist you, we will need to re-produce the errors that you are experiencing. We will continue to monitor the site to duplicate the issues, however, to be able to pinpoint the issues best, we respectfully request that you reply to this e-mail with the full error message that is displayed when the site is unavailable, any approximate time frames (if a common time frame exists) that the site tends to show offline, a phone number that we may use to contact you directly to discuss the matter in depth, and a traceroute to the domain while the issue occurs. In addition to providing a phone number for us to contact you directly through, we ask that you please provide three time frames during which we may contact you. Due to the nature of support tickets, we ask that you please give us 24 hours notice before the first time frame, and provide the time frames on three separate days. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or misunderstandings you may have endured, and greatly appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter.
Regards,
Scott V.
Hosting Support.
—————
There are no specific time frames that the outtages occur, it’s very random. Also, for me, there is no error message at all, just a blank page. Firefox will say “Connecting to lasnark.com….” and then it will just say “Done.”
Regarding your hosting account, lasnark.com.
We have attempted to contact you to discuss the current outages you have been experiencing. Unfortunately, you were not available. We would like to discuss this issue with you in depth. Please respond with a phone number and the best time to reach you.
If you would rather continue to communicate through email correspondence, please provide the URL of the white page when the error does occur and any noted time frames. Please also include any trace routes when the error is occurring.
Regards,
Jonathan B.
Hosting Support
——–
Odd, I’ve been sitting by my phone all day. I would rather communicate via email though, so I can have all of your instructions documented. As I mentioned before, the outtage happens sporadically, so I can’t immediately give you the url of the white page. When the page is white and failing to load, the url is: http://www.LAsnark.com. Also, I don’t know what trace routes are.
Thanks,
Jack
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for contacting Advanced Hosting Support.
To assist us in pinpointing the source of this issue we ask that you provide us with the results of a “trace route”. A trace route shows that path that a connection takes from your computer to a website, or another computer.
If you are using the Windows operating system, follow these steps to get the trace route results:
• From your Start Menu, go to “Programs”, then to “Accessories”.
• Here you will find either “MS-DOS Prompt” or “Command Prompt”.
• Click on that program and a window should appear with some information regarding your version of windows and a prompt. The prompt should be similar to the following:
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.
C:WINDOWS>
NOTE: The command prompt window may show different text than the above. However, that will not affect this process.
At the prompt, enter the following:
tracert lasnark.com
After typing this press ENTER, you will get back a long list of information, and it will return to the original prompt you started with. To copy the results, right click on the menu bar of this window, go to “Edit” and select “Mark”. Starting at the upper left-hand corner of the command prompt window, highlight the full contents of the trace results. Once you have it all highlighted, press the ENTER key on your keyboard. This will put the highlighted information into your Windows clipboard, allowing you to paste that into a text file to attach to your response.
If you are using Macintosh OSX, you can use an application called Terminal to run a trace route. You should be able to locate Terminal in your hard drive in the Utilities folder, under Applications.
NOTE: Terminal uses a command-line interface. This means you’ll be entering commands at a prompt rather than using the more familiar Aqua graphic interface.
Once you have launched Terminal, enter the following to run the trace route:
traceroute lasnark.com
Once this has completed, highlight the contents of the Terminal window. Click on the “Edit” menu and select “Copy”. You can then paste this information into a text file, which you would then attach to your response.
We understand that this is quite a few steps; however this will allow us to further research the problem you are experiencing. We appreciate your assistance in tracking down the source of this problem.
Please contact us if you have any further issues.
Krista J.
Hosting Support
Attached is my traceroute report,
Thanks,
Jack
Dear Jack,
Your traceroute shows a few timeouts. This indicates an issue with your connectivity. Please contact your ISP with this traceroute so that they may troubleshoot these connection issues.
Please let us know if we can assist you in any other way.
Regards,
Quinn C.
Online Support Representative
As I mentioned before, I receive a great amount of emails from users trying to access the site.
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for contacting Hosting Support.
The issue has been addressed and should be resolved at this time. If you continue to experience delivery or access problems please let us know and we would be happy to assist you further. We appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter.
Please contact us if you have any further issues.
Regards,
Richard C.
Hosting Support
How has the issue been resolved? You said the issue was with my personal connection and I said in the beginning that multiple users complained of many instances of outtages. Is this something that can’t be fixed? Please let me know.
Jack
Due to its complex nature, your issue has been relayed to our Advanced Technical Support Team. Our most skilled technicians will be working to resolve your issue quickly and completely. You will be notified promptly upon resolution.
This is your Incident ID: 5225739
Thanks,
GoDaddy.com, Inc.
The ol’ GoDaddy tech support email dance, what great fun!
…….and I haven’t heard anything back yet..
I’ve been with Dreamhost for the last 10 years and have never had such issues that you are suffering with with GoDaddy. Dreamhost support is awesome. Their hosting goodies can’t be beat. Not to mention the enormous amount of storage, blah blah blah. Go Dreamhost.
That’s a vote for Dreamhost, can we get a Dreamhost rep in this comments section? Let’s make it happen.
Dr. Mr. Snark,
This is Miguel, a member of the godaddy.com hosting team. I’ve been tasked with fixing your problem, however, I’ve been too busy row-boating the godaddy.com model’s boobies. I apologize for the complete lack of attention to your site as I’m sure you understand where my priorities lie.
Insincerely,
Miguel Sanchez
OH NO HE DINT!
if you really want more quality try fluidhosting, I haven’t read complains about them. Im with solarvps myself but they only offer vps. There is plenty of reviews to help to avoid a troublesome provider.
I’m using FireFox/3.0.5 and I’ve started to experience the blank page after I changed my Forwarding URL in GoDaddy. I’ve been pulling my hair out trying to figure out what the heck I’ve done wrong – and I don’t have a lot of hair to be pulling out! I started to read this post and thought I would try MS Explorer. Guess what, my link works in Explorer. My domain is new and if I can’t find a problem to my blank page issue I’m going to have to drop GoDaddy and use another provider. That’s like throwing money away and I don’t know anyone that likes doing that.
I normally don’t comment very much but I have to say that I love your blog. Always good stuff.
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