Topic: Anyone on GoDaddy Upgraded to 4GH

[CNYWeather]

This past weekend I had the same kind of issue I think.

What I was able to figure out was that all the sites that were on the same server as mine were unresponsive or
extremely slow. It ended up resolving itself with a not pertinent response from GoDaddy.

I've been FTP'ing and sending the 5 second clientraw file for 6 years and never got that from them in the past as a response.

[colonieweather]

Very weird.  I was able to manually FTP using Filezilla and Dreamweaver CS5, but not automatically.  All of a sudden lat night it was fixed.  I definitely feel better about things after reading your response.  It just didn't make sense to shut me out because of auto FTPing every 5 minutes.  We'll see if it happens again.

Thanks Tony!

-Chris

[GregJ]

I just switched to the 4GH a few weeks ago.  I am pounding them with ftp sessions and have not had a problem.  I am running VWS with 2 minute updates, APRS, Wunderground, AWEKAS, WeatherForYou, Northwest Weather Network and my webcam sends up a 75k thumbnail every 20 seconds, a 500+k image every minute, a 10+mb time lapse video every hour and a 40+mb time lapse video at midnight.  Other than a couple of weeks ago when they went down, I have not had an issue.  So, somebody GoDaddy is a little confused about what hosting and ftp is all about.....

Greg

[colonieweather]

Out of curiosity I asked them if there was an exact limitation on how many login and connection attempts and here's their response:

"There is no exact limit that we can state for attempted connections to your hosting account.  Your IP may be temporarily blocked at any time due to a larger number of attempted connections and logins on a shared hosting account based on server activity and needs.

If you wish to prevent this IP blocking from occurring, you will need to purchase a Virtual Dedicated or Dedicated Server.  These servers allow you to have much more control over your hosting and do not have the same limitations as a shared hosting account."

[neondesert]

I also made the "mistake" a short while back and "upgraded" to GD's grid hosting.  I experienced FTP timeouts as well and noticed when I signed into FTP with FileZilla I would get a message similar to:
220-You are user number 450 of 500 allowed. Just for kicks I signed out then right back in again and the message indicated there were to many FTP users active.

So I called there "tech support" and was told "oh you probably were just unlucky and where put on a more crowded server".
Wow, nice response GD.  I can see from some of these recent responses that I'm wasn't the only unlucky person out there. 
Needless to say since this wasn't the first unpleasant run in that I've had with them and I have since changed hosts.

The one that I read that is particularly irritating is:

If you wish to prevent this IP blocking from occurring, you will need to purchase a Virtual Dedicated or Dedicated Server.  These servers allow you to have much more control over your hosting and do not have the same limitations as a shared hosting account."

True, you will have much more control and different limitations but they will come at a much higher cost.

I believe it is a side effect of the grid/cloud architecture that is causing these issues (at least with GD) and unless your site is consuming an inordinate amount of resources (CPU/RAM/Database connections etc.) an upgrade
to a VPS/Dedicated Server is probably unnecessary.

So what to do?  You could have GD move you back to a traditional "shared" server.  Hopefully, then things would go back to the way they were.
Or you could move to a different host.  There are a LOT to choose from so I won't go into a long list here. Some include, E-Rice, Hostgator and 1 and 1 Hosting. 
An excellent resource for researching potential hosts is:  http://www.webhostingtalk.com/

One thing to keep in mind is UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH and UNLIMITED DISK SPACE are a gimmick.  Think about it, most sites are not going to use 100's of gigs of space or bandwidth.  If they did shared hosting providers wouldn't be able to provide services so cheap.  What you will run into way before this are resource limitations.  There was a recent thread here where GD sent out an email about the number of files in a given directory being too large, a resource issue.  The current FTP issue with GD's Grid computing, also a resource issue.  UNLIMITED offers have Limits.  Read the TOS of any host you sign up with carefully FIRST. 

[GregJ]

I thought I'd resurrect this thread in order to share my latest experience.  Since upgrading to the 4GH I have had some issues.  I posted earlier in this thread that I have not had any problems.... Big mistake...  (You know how that goes)  Shortly after that I had some complete downtime on a half dozen occasions.  I had not had that many outages in the prior 6 years I had been with them.  Then, last week my time lapse videos would not run consistently.  They would time out, stall and download in short bursts.  It didn't matter if it was a 14 second video or 2 1/2 minutes.  It just stopped working.  I had friends from other ISP's and in different areas of the country try and they had the same results.  So... we can rule out my 8mb DSL connection.  So I called tech support.  The first go around with them was that there was absolutely nothing wrong with their system, they had no reported issues and it must have something to do with my page.... Right....  So I didn't push it any further hoping it would go away.  24 hours later I had the same problem and it was really bad.  I called them again and after he analyzed the issue he figured out the solution.  All I needed to do was change to a virtual dedicated server, for a mere $70 more per month.  He said my site had way too much traffic to be supported on their 4GH servers.  I average 250 hits a day with bursts up to maybe 2,000.  Now I may be Swedish, but I can smell a low life used car salesman when I have to.  That much traffic is childs play.  Before we finished the phone call I made him say these exact words: "Godaddy is incapable of supporting the technical requirements of my site on the 4GH network".  End of conversation.....

So I started researching new web hosts.  Then late Friday afternoon I get an email from the local ABC affiliate saying that they are going to feature my site again over the weekend..... OH BOY!!!!  Let's draw a little more attention to my site that basically stopped working 2 days before..   Here is the link: http://www.komonews.com/weather/blogs/scott/124109644.html?blog=y So my frustration was enough that I put a little disclaimer at the top of my site about the circumstances around the poor performance, complete with the very kind $70 upgrade that GoDaddy offered me.  Normally I do these things privately, but this was a little more than I could handle with grace and forgiveness.    Amazingly, I got an email from a resident in the community stating that he would pitch in $70 and could find 11 others to do likewise so they could cover me for a year.  Unbelievably kind gesture.  I have an position about soliciting donations for my site.  I know I am in the minority, but I feel that this is my hobby.  I don't know of any golfers that solicit donations for better clubs from the community so ethically I can't do it.  It was a very kind offer though.

So, I have contracted with Ipage.com for a whopping $2.95 per month.  I have upload all of my site to a personal folder on their server and tested it.  Not a hiccup.  They have a 1-800 tech support line, unlike GoDaddy.  They also actually answer the phone, speak English and are very friendly.  We'll see what it's like when the honeymoon is over, but so far I am pleased with my choice.  The domain switchover should be in the next few days.

I shared my experience with Scott Sistek the KOMO blog writer and he had a great response.... "But how can Danica Patrick be so wrong? "

Thought I'd share....

Greg

[neondesert]

Hi Greg,

First off, kudos on the KOMO article! 

Sorry to hear you have fallen victim to the old GoDaddy "Let's upgrade you to something better" debacle!
As you have probably already read in my previous post, I too was a casualty of the new and improved 4G architecture. 

The good news is you have found a new host and it sounds and appears everything is back to normal. 

You may want to go over their TOS located here:  http://www.ipage.com/legal/legal_useragreement.bml
Paying particular attention the CPU and Bandwidth terms.  If you have any questions make sure you get them clarified
now, although I will say that their Anytime Money-Back Guarantee sounds great! 

Good luck with your new host and newly discovered freedom from Danica Patrick! 

[CNYWeather]

I also am having issues from time to time. I am really wondering about all this 4G server crap too.

I've been on GoDanica since 2005. Never an issue until I "upgraded". I'll give it a little more and
see what happens. Otherwise if it does, it will be GoodByeDaddy for me. It's a hobby for me too,
but when severe weather strikes the useage goes through the roof. I hate to disappoint my users with
slow page loads or pages that are unavailable.

Nice KOMO article too! 

[GregJ]

It's nice to know that others have the same issue.  I was starting to think that Danica didn't like me.....

Greg

[neondesert]

It's nice to know that others have the same issue.  I was starting to think that Danica didn't like me.....

Greg

Nah, I just blame it on Parsons. 

[colonieweather]

Same here, not a single issue for the last two years or so with GoDaddy until I upgraded to the 4GH a month or two ago.  There have been a couple of hicups (maily slowness, especially this weekend) since I got abruptly "locked out" for FTPing too frequently (every 5 minutes....get over yourself GoDaddy).  I have been looking into other hosting sites that neondesert brought up in a previous post.  I do have one more year left on my plan so I may look at into switching then... unless this issue returns ...I'll switch sooner.

-Chris

[GregJ]

Nah, I just blame it on Parsons. 

I have always admired Bob Parsons.  He seems so self confident.... er.. I guess maybe there is a possiblity that it is arrogance...do ya think?