Changing web-hosting co

seabre

Hi All

I began trading 2 years ago and went to a web design co who offered me a package of @ 300 for web design and 25 per mth thereafter for hosting - as I said that was 2 years ago after the 1st 12 mths my Standing Order cancelled automatically (as I initially set it up for 12 mths to see how things went) and I missed a payment to my hosting co. Instead of calling me or contacting me they somehow put a block on my email accounts & website which meant I couldnt access my mail & customers mould not see the website! When I got through to them (of course it had happened on a long weekend) they informed me of the missed payment and I have to say I was v angry that they blocked my website rather than let me know but was so glad to get everything up & running I set the S/O up again - I did mention that I had noticed their hosting chg of 25 per month seeemd v expensive compared to other hosting co's prices but they said that I had signed up to that package for at least a year & basically tough.

I now notice that on their website they are offering hosting now as part of a web design package fr as little as 5 - 10 & 15 per month! I would love to try & bargain with them with regard to my monthly price - it is noteworthy that I rec no other service fr them - no e commerce or anything like that on my site & all content is managed & updated by me and no help with seo. However as I am unsure of the legalities around it I am afraid that they could do as they did before ie - effectively shut down my website if I even try to negotiate nevermind suggest moving to another hosting co!!! Oh and also I had problems once again in Dec regarding the retrieval of my email & when I called them they said it was something to do with the Hosting which I now had to pay for myself & sent me 2 links to a "letshost" page where I entered my card details & paid 2 amounts of @ 20 & 11 euro for my .ie & .com addresses!

Am I being royally screwed here??? If I have paid these amounts to "letshost" what am i paying the original co for seeing as I get NO OTHER SERVICE fr them whatsoever throughout the year!

Any advice welcomed & much appreciated!

Trojan

Just a heads-up:

boards rules wrote:

Discussion or recommendation of webhosts, or the packages offered by various web hosts is not permitted owing to a long, long history of these types of threads not working.

Therefore we cannot give you advice regarding specific web host packages.

However, some general advice that I can give you is this: as soon as you can, you should download a full copy of your website to your own computer. You should do this via "FTP" (here's some instructions). See if you can export any databases that you have setup (that link will give instructions for hosts that use one of the more popular database management systems). Finally, in a spreadsheet, make a note of all email addresses you have setup on the domain.

That gives you all your content backed up, the other thing to do is take control of your domain - if it's a .ie you should be fine, if it's a .com or similar, and they registered it for you, then you need to ensure it's in your possession.

Once you have all of those sorted, you have control of your situation and you can go to any web host you like.

The Apprentice

Well there was an initial contract.. but how long were you going to pay the 25 a month for ??

If it was predetermined that the cost of the website + 2 yrs webhost @ 25 = to the amount normally charged by another website company
So we need more info on how long that arrangment lasts for .. if indeed it is well gone past that..
Just simply back it up, go to different supplier, tell him/give them access to the account and transfer the package to another webhost.
As for the domain transfer i would question that asap.. and try get them under your control.. having them controlled by someone else as you can see can create a bit of a noose around your neck.

If all goes well just cancel the previous package with a firm note to the previous as to why you have suspended your service etc.. they might learn in future that you cant just cut somebodys website off that swiftly if indeed those circumstances are pretty much correct.

seabre

Yeah there was an initial contract for 12 months which is why I originally set the S/O up for that length of time - I did express dissatisfaction with how they handled the ending of my S/O and indeed the price I was being charged for the 2nd year but basically they brushed me off & I know its my own fault but you know the same old thing.... .I was busy - loads of other problems more pressing etc etc

I've just got to the point where I realise I could be paying this forever if I dont tackle this now! Thanks for all input - No more an issue for the back boiler - I intend to get this sorted asap!

seabre

@Trojan

Thanks for going to the bother of putting all that info up for me - Im not a complete technophobe but obviously not competent enough either!!! I followed all the instructions and downloaded the software but kept getting "fatal error" I believe was the term when trying to connect - My gut tells me it has something to do with FTP name but at the min I dont know how to approach this with my current host - I did however send a quite blunt email today saying I am actively seeking other hosters and not at all happy with the current price so we'll see ......

Thanks again!

hearny

When you signed up to the hosting did you get a welcome email containing the ftp details, or control panel login.

If you have access to the control panel you should be able to change ftp usernames and passwords in there, if you log into your control panel and see if you can tell us what it looks like (even pm me a screenshot blank out any personal info if you like), If you can identify the type of control panel I can give you some instructions.

Is there much coding in the background of the site.
If the site is mainly html you could download a copy using wget.
This will basically get a copy of all of the html produced by the site, the front end only, none of the programing like a Content Management System or submit forms will be downloaded. Its not ideal I would still try to get the ftp details sorted and any databases backed up but at least you would have something to start with.

The Apprentice

seabre wrote: »

@Trojan

I did however send a quite blunt email today saying I am actively seeking other hosters and not at all happy with the current price so we'll see ......

Thanks again!

That could be a mistake on your part.. you shouldnt have mentioned this till your baby was safe as houses,

seabre

The Apprentice wrote: »

That could be a mistake on your part.. you shouldnt have mentioned this till your baby was safe as houses,

Is this industry so void of morals & underhand??? What I have so far I have paid for in full - surely they wouldnt risk such reputational damage over a customer seeking a better deal? They would be aware they are charging me the top monthly rate they now offer but I am not getting all that that rate includes.

EIREHotspur

My sympathies.

I think a lot of web designers are reluctant to use someone elses design.
they would of course like you to hire them for a complete redesign.

People who get designers to do their websites usually don't have a clue about the whole process and never ask for a copy of their website on a disc in case things go wrong etc.

Do like a previous poster said and get someone to download as much of the website as possible so you can pick a new hosting service.

seabre

hearny wrote: »

When you signed up to the hosting did you get a welcome email containing the ftp details, or control panel login.

If you have access to the control panel you should be able to change ftp usernames and passwords in there, if you log into your control panel and see if you can tell us what it looks like (even pm me a screenshot blank out any personal info if you like), If you can identify the type of control panel I can give you some instructions.

Is there much coding in the background of the site.
If the site is mainly html you could download a copy using wget.
This will basically get a copy of all of the html produced by the site, the front end only, none of the programing like a Content Management System or submit forms will be downloaded. Its not ideal I would still try to get the ftp details sorted and any databases backed up but at least you would have something to start with.

Thanks for all your help - Id need to get a free hour or 2 and sit down and do this step by step! I know a fair bit about doing the admin on the site & updating pages etc but I would need to familiarise myself with everything on the admin side of things its built by Joomla if thats any good to know??? Had a brief look last night for ftp name etc & so far dont see it!!!

hearny

If its a Joomla site the wget backup wont be a great use to you in all honesty.

If you want to pm me some details like the domain name to start with and I can see what I can dig up.

The Apprentice

seabre wrote: »

Is this industry so void of morals & underhand??? What I have so far I have paid for in full - surely they wouldnt risk such reputational damage over a customer seeking a better deal? They would be aware they are charging me the top monthly rate they now offer but I am not getting all that that rate includes.

Well not nessarily just your particular industry, the boards section is full lately of people being ****ed over by unscrouplous peeps so its a case of getting it right first time rather than go down that route.

The image you have portrayed of them, i dont think a little reputational damage is their concern..

Trojan

They're probably not going to screw you around - I think most people would just go with the adage "better safe than sorry".

There are some companies who have done some crazy stuff - one example is http://www.reddit.com/r/web_design/comments/jk195/stay_the_****_away_from_this_thiswebhostcom/ (the link works despite the asterisks)

MOH

First thing I'd do is head here, pop in your domain name, and see who it's registered to. The admin or tech contact might be your hosting company/designer, but the main registrant should be you.

If it's not, then the domain is officially registered to someone else and you could have a problem down the line.

€25/month for hosting might be high, but it depends on what kind of server you're paying for. If it's just basic shared hosting, it's pretty high.

How are you making changes at the moment? Is it through some type of CMS or do you have FTP access. If you don't have FTP access try asking for it, they should normally give it to you.

If you can't get FTP access, if it's just a plain HTML site with not too many pages and no great functionality behind it, get a screenshot of each page, or better yet visit each page and save a copy of it (right click, save-as, and make sure type is 'Webpage, complete'). That may help if you need to rebuild the site from scratch.

Check the original contract you had with the company, especially regarding ownership and usage of the design. Check also if there's anything about missed hosting payments - blocking the site immediately on the basis of one missed payment for an otherwise reliable client, with no warning, seems a bit heavy handed.