Topic: A Small Orange and Other Web Hosting

[Skhilled (OP)]

I recently told Ken, again, about moving to A Small Orange Hosting for better service and more space, etc.

http://asmallorange.com

However, lately it takes almost a week for them to respond to my tickets! They do have Live Chat and usually respond to that right away. But here's the reason why for the poor change in service. They were acquired by EIG (Endurance International Group) which owns many of the larger hosting companies and have a bad reputation of bringing companies down. Here's their site:

https://www.endurance.com

Here's the companies they currently own:

http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/site-updates-news/the-who-what-when-of-endurance-international-group-eig/

Here's a review of ASO and EIG explaining why their support has waned:

http://reviewsignal.com/blog/2016/01/19/the-rise-and-fall-of-a-small-orange/

ASO was the best hosting I've ever had in all my years on the net!!! After buying them out it is slowly going in the toilet and people are leaving by the droves! So, my search continues for reliable hosting. So far, I've found these 3 which have been rated the best according to my search (in no specific order):

https://www.siteground.com - Site Ground (I do faintly remember something that I don't like about them but can't remember what it is yet)

https://www.a2hosting.com - A2 Hosting

https://www.mddhosting.com - MDD Hosting

I'll keep you guys updated. You can also find out anything you wish about hosting (anything about hosting) at Web Hosting Talk:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com

This site will even teach you how to run your own hosting service! This is where Les and I learned how to run Tinyportal Hosting years ago.

[Ken]

Good info Steve. 

This is something that is of great interest to me currently. 

[Skhilled (OP)]

About ASO, my sites have good uptime and do have R1Soft Backups, etc. The problem I'm having now is customer support. The last 2 times I sent in a ticket it took a week for them to answer each ticket! The problem I had each time was very minor but what if my sites were down? Before the buyout, my tickets were answered within an hour or less. How many hosting companies do that each and every time? They used have the best customer service bar none! Sad...

[Maxx]

Most everything is getting that way, they cut down on personnel and the investors get or save  more $$, or even if it a small company. Allot of on line stuff is impossible to talk to anyone, they have a list of useless trouble charts to go through.. and if you get to talk to anyone they have a list to go by and if your issue is not there. then you have just wasted you time and mind


Maxx

[Skhilled (OP)]

The problem with small companies is you don't get much as far as space or power and usually lack some much needed features like auto-backups, etc. I do a lot of testing and tend to have around 10 sites running on my server. So, I usually stay away from the small guys but they do usually give much better support if something goes wrong.

[Skhilled (OP)]

As reposted from my site:

I've read that link including the reviews from users at the bottoms of the page. Sounds except the review about paying monthly:

JK
 30/100 October 27, 2016

Don't use monthly billing.

SiteGround makes you call in every month if you have monthly billing. If you don’t CALL them, they will automatically bill you for a year. This is designed to make you forget one month so that you’re automatically charged. It is unlike literally every other service provider in the world.
Also don’t be fooled by their introductory rate. The real rates are much higher and hidden.

That was a red flag for me since I prefer to pay monthly. Most hosting will not refund unused moths if you terminate the account before the year is up. Also if paid monthly, I leave and there should be no problem with further payments.

I've also read the reviews of A2 Hosting and MDDHosting on that same review site. Both sound good but for A2 Hosting there seems to be a security flaw as started by one reviewer:

Evan
 1/100 May 5, 2016

MASSIVE security flaw!

Just signed up for A2 based on the high praise here (and elsewhere on the web). However, I am instantly cancelling the account based on this discovery: The username and password for the main cPanel user—the one with access to every file, database and setting on the server—is displayed in clear text on the client portal. This is on a page called “change password.”


I changed the user’s password within cPanel itself, which made the information displayed on the portal page inaccurate, however I was then able to use that page to change the password again WITHOUT VERIFYING THE CURRENT PASSWORD. So if anyone managed to compromise the billing account for A2, they’d also have effortless root access to the web server.


Utterly appalled at this “feature.”

I am not sure if that has been changed since then and I've emailed them and am awaiting a response which I'll repost here.

For MDHosting, the downside seems to be their uptime...slightly less than the others but still not bad at all.

During my search today, I've also found another promising hosting called Squidix:

https://squidix.com/hosting/shared/

I googled it and they seem to have great reviews! The ONLY downside that I've found is there's nothing mentioned about backups of any kind. So, I've emailed them and am also waiting a response back form them which I'll post here, too!

[Skhilled (OP)]

It took A2 Hosting and Squidix a little over 4 hours each to respond. first is A2 Hosting's response:

Hello,

Than you for contacting A2 Hosting. The cPanel Password is able to be displayed in the Customer Portal. This password can be changed, and the if it is changed by the customer, the password shown will no longer be correct, and the "quick access" from the customer portal will no longer function.

We do offer Two-Factor-Authentication for the Customer Portal.

If you are concerned about security, you are able to the two factor authentication, as well as change the password for the cPanel.

At this time, we do not have two factor authentication for our managed cPanel offerings, as this would cause us to not be able to manage the servers effectively, but for greater security, you could consider an unmanned hosting option.

--
Regards,
Jeff H.
A2 Hosting Support Guru

So, basically yes, it does not obfuscate the password (hide while typing) and there was no verification when changing a password. However, I have seen this before in other hosting client areas. Also, 4 hours is a long time to wait if your site is down but the ticket was "low" priority. I can't tell if it was set to a higher priority would they have answered faster or not.


Squidix's response:

Hello Stephen,

We don't touch base strongly about backups, however backups are maintained consistently, and you'll always have access to backups created.

Backups are performed once weekly, on-site and off-site.

There're no fees to restore backups, this is an essential service that we feel the industry is obligated to provide as part of hosting services.

Granted, we will always restore backups for our customers, we use discretion when multiple requests are made (e.g. let's say you request a backup restoration on a daily basis, this would be outside the scope of support and we would provide you the backups to restore on your end). We will however always restore backups upon request within reason.

--
Larry Wright
Squidix Management

There is no mention of how a client can make backups. However, their take on it is very reasonable. We would not need them to restore backups daily or hardly at all so it sounds good so far.

[Skhilled (OP)]

My reply to Squidix:

Thank you for the response, Larry.

That sounds very reasonable. But do you provide a backup feature included in cPanel such as the standard one that is usually seem in most hosting or provide or backup for the customer to use (make their own backup copies) whenever they would like to have one?

Their reply within 15 minutes:

Hello Stephen,

Absolutely! Backups will always be available to you, and you'll have access to all retention dates of your backups on file. This includes 3 weeks worth of backups on a weekly basis.

--
Larry Wright
Squidix Management

Sounds like a winner although slightly more expensive.

[Ken]

The Squidix 10GB plan looks like it would suit my needs, but they don't give a lot of detail on the what's in the plan.

[Skhilled (OP)]

Read the entire page...what's below the cost and that's everything included with those packages. Unless there's something else you're looking for...

[Skhilled (OP)]

I did some comparative research against A2 and Squidix. Almost no bad reviews for Squidix at all! Sounds like a winner, winner, chicken dinner to me!

[Ken]

Then I guess there is more reading/research in my Squidix future! 

[Skhilled (OP)]

I may port one of my domains there to see how it goes.

[Skhilled (OP)]

Been reading up on the new https issue (crap, lol) and how sites like these that do not use https and without certificates will warn users about possibly having their data compromised. With all of the Russian hacking, etc. going on I've been looking up a few things. Underdog posted a topic on my site about it here:

http://www.docskillz.com/docs/index.php?topic=1184

So, I looked up Let's Encrypt which is free but seems to be a bit hard to install. However Squidix is one of the hosting that does support it so all you would have to do is ask them for it or it may even be included in the cPanel certs. I'll ask them about it and see...

EDIT: Looked at A2 Hosting and they also have Let's Encrypt support but also their plans are cheaper. I'm awaiting a reply from them. If all goes good I'll buy one and may move all my sites to it.

[Skhilled (OP)]

Quote from Squidx:

Good morning Stephen,

Lets Encrypt is very easy. If you have any difficulties, we would do this for you upon request. It's easy enough however to learn, just essentially clicking "Issue Certificate" through the control panel.

We offer Lets Encrypt for all our plans, including dedicated servers so they can be carried over when it comes time to upgrade in the future.

If you have any other questions, I'll be happy to assist. Sales phone hours are 9AM-5PM and I'll be more than glad to hop on the phone to answer all your questions as well.

--
Larry Wright
Squidix Management

Just waiting on A2 Hosting's response...