Uptime And Reliability

[ranelar]

I run a forum for a web game clan of around 40+, and it is our main method of communication. Lately my current host has been crashing left and right -- dns errors, and mysql problems are running rampant. Mass hysteria breaks out whenever the forum is down for a single minute, and I get dozens of complaints when it runs slowly. My host used to provide great service, until they took on the actual web game that my forum is dedicated to. Since then, they seem to have forgotten about us lower paying customers, as all their resources are going into the game. What I need to know is, if I switch to TCH, will you be able to provide the kind of reliability I require? Obviously, anything would be better than my current host right now, but in the long run, do pages open quickly and smoothly, and are crashes more of an anomoly, or at least planned, rather than a once a month occurance? I honestly cant tolerate any unscheduled downtime because my members are relying on this forum (we take the game pretty seriously ). Can I depend on getting good support and service even if I'm only on the $4.00/month plan? While I would appreciate staff comments, I'm looking for current members' opinions on the service. Thanks.

 

Oh btw, as a side question that has nothing to do with anything, how did you (forum manager) reshape the "Clickable Smilies" box to be vertical instead of the default horizontal that IPB comes with? I tried to figure it out so I could fit more smilies, but I gave up Are you able to configure how many smilies are in each column/row? thanks

[youneverknow]

renelar...I am just a customer of TCH and have 2 sites hosted here since September 2003. The service here is VERY GOOD and down time is almost non-existant. The equipment TCH uses is probably overkill for most hosting companies (usually dual xeon proceessors and tons of ram. TCH is Very commited to keeping thing running smoothly and hence their zero tolerance for customer that abuses their hosting. When you pay only $4 per month you got to say "whats wrong with this picture???" Well you will be pleasantly surprised that your $4 per month is just as important to TCH as someone hosting 1000 sites. The information on down times is just about always listed here in this forum. In fact you can even subscribe to the server number you are on and get an email of any scheduled down time... now that's cool...

Try it out for 30 days and if you are not happy, they do chearfully return your money!

youneverknow

[Alan]

Hi ranelar,

 

youneverknow, is very correct.

 

TCH goes the extra mile to help their customer's do what they plan with their websites. No Matter how much you pay you are just as important to them as the ones who spend hundreds of dollars a month on hosting.

 

If you ever have a problem, they will strive to fix it, and usually when there is a problem, it is fixed withen the first few hours.

 

And the friendships that are formed here at TCH are amazing, everyone here is friendly and have no problems with helping you if you need it.

 

(And they do not have a 'No Minors' Policy LOL)

 

I run three websites here at TCH, one is actually hosted here, and the other two are hosted on a semi-dedicated server through TCH.

 

And like youneverknow said, if you are not absolutely happy with your experience here at TCH, just cancel your account, and get your money back.

 

~Alan

[bellringr]

I've been here since January and have never had a problem. Even my dial-up family members have decent load times.

 

When there is downtime, either for maintenance, hardware issue, or DOS attacks, Head Guru and the crew keep everyone informed, and they don't make excuses if the problem is on their end.

 

You'd be hard pressed to find another hosting company out there with even half as much integrity as these guys have, and you certainly can't beat the price!

[TCH-Rob]

I have been here since March of last year. I have been around the block with hosting companies, even working for a few. How well do I like it here? Well enough to volunteer my time to assist in the moderation of these forums.

 

This is the most reliable host I have known.

[ranelar]

when there is downtime, about how long does it last? seconds, minutes, hours?

[Alan]

Well, it takes them time, to find the problem and fix it, but usually no longer than a hour or two.

[ranelar]

but I could expect to go on for few months without experiencing such a crash right?

[youneverknow]

The down time is kept to a minimum partly because TCH uses HUGE data centers around the country staffed by 24/7 personel and from what I have seen here a good supply of parts to fix a bad drive or what ever. Also by using data centers to physically house the TCH servers you are hooked up to the FASTEST pipelines available to hosting companies.(These servers are not in someones bedroom trying to be a hosting company) I am not a techie but I do know that my sites come up fast.

youneverknow

[TCH-Bruce]

I've been hosting here at TCH since July of last year. I was on a server that had a hard drive failure only to find out the the backup drive was also crapped out. This resulted in the installation of a new main drive and backup drive, complete reload of the OS and configuration, security patch updates and reloading all of the accounts on that server. How long was it down? 12-14 hours. Was I mad? Heck no, my last host would have been down for weeks getting fixed.

 

There is no place like TCH that I know of.

 

If you still have a reason to believe that customers are not informed when there are problems and what is being done (been done) to correct them please glance through the Current Server Issues forum. You will see they keep everyone informed to what's going on.

 

And although you see TCH- in front of my name I am a customer and not paid staff of TCH. I just happen to be a forum moderator as well.

 

Hope to see you join our friendly family.

[bellringr]

When there is downtime, it varies. Normally they'll be on top of whatever it is within a few minutes to an hour, tops. If an upgrade doesn't go as expected, it could be 30 minutes to 2 hours. The crash that Bruce spoke of is by FAR the longest outage I've ever seen here.

 

DOS attacks, well....the attack itself is beyond their control, but you bet HG will be up all night getting it nailed down. Even then the downtime isn't usually too long.

 

Take a look at the different servers' forums. You can get a good feel for how things are done when problems arise.

[boxturt]

I have been through as many hosts as there are months.

I have been here a year.

I am very picky. I have 3 sites here.

This whole year I have been able to rest comfortably.

I don't ever worry about my sites.

 

Remember the old Greyhound Bus ad? "Go Greyhound - and leave the driving to us."

 

Well, you get the idea

[ranelar]

ok, Ive also kinda lost track of all the information ive been looking up with different hosts. quick question - TCH isnt a reseller is it? ie, they're not selling space that they bought from someplace else right?

[TCH-Rick]

I moved my site here in January of 2003 after having moved it in December to a different host that was down about half the time I was there (only a couple of weeks.) My site has rarely been down when I have tried to access it and most of the time when it was down it was due to my ISP's problems and not server problems.

 

I just realized I started working here a year ago yesterday. Time flies when you are having fun!

[MikeJ]

ok, Ive also kinda lost track of all the information ive been looking up with different hosts. quick question - TCH isnt a reseller is it? ie, they're not selling space that they bought from someplace else right?

Correct. TCH is not a reseller. TCH owns its hosting servers, and has colocation space in several datacenters.

[ranelar]

how important is processor speed when comparing different web hosts? I see TCH is run on 2.4GHZ Pent III's, would 2.8GHZ Pent III's be significantly better? Would 1.2GHZ Pent III's be significantly worse?

[MikeJ]

On shared hosting, what's more important then processor speed is how many sites are on the server for the power it has. While TCH doesn't disclose how many sites they allow per server (no hosts really do), TCH put less domains per server than average in order to insure that your site remains quick.

Edited April 28, 2004 by TCH-MikeJ

[TCH-Don]

Something else you won't see on other hosts:

 

server status page link at the top of the forum,

where you can see how all the servers are doing.

 

Detailed Server status on the help site, where you can look at the System Information for each server.

Pay attention to the /home folder where the users site are, and you will see plenty of room is kept free.

 

And of not many a host will have a forum like this,

where customers can talk to each other.

 

I too am just a customer that has been around, but no more,

I found a home :hug:

Edited April 28, 2004 by TCH-Don

[Deverill]

On shared hosting, what's more important then processor speed is how many sites are on the server for the power it has.

The techs here keep watch on everything happening and Head Guru is here about 20 hours a day - no exaggeration. They have a pretty fancy system of notification of problems too. For instance, if a SQl service goes down, or email or apache ..., their pager goes off alerting them to the problem as soon as it happens.

 

The thing about power versus clients on a site is that TCH makes sure the load is kept low on the servers. This is basically how busy the system is and if it starts getting too busy they either move customers off or find out why and stop the problem. If it is a rogue script running wild they will suspend the client that has the problem and contact them to fix it. They do the same thing with spam - if someone is reported for spam they investigate and resolve the problem so the other clients on the same server never get blacklisted by the likes of AOL.

 

I also am a forum moderator, not paid staff, and I've been here almost a year and have not had a second's problem. As mentioned, check out the server section of the forums and see the problems and fast resolutions that have cropped up but don't be surprised if some servers have no entries in the forums... they just don't go down that often.

 

Moving is a harrowing experience, but you'll love it here!

[TCH-Don]

Oh btw, as a side question that has nothing to do with anything,

how did you (forum manager) reshape the "Clickable Smilies" box to be vertical

instead of the default horizontal that IPB comes with?

This is the way they are on version 1.3

 

 

Also if your current host uses cpanel

the tech staff may be able to move your site for you and easier than you can.

They moved mine, forum e-mail and everything intact.

 

If you need any info, just ask,

we are like family here,

and like to help Thumbs Up

[ranelar]

Also if your current host uses cpanel

the tech staff may be able to move your site for you and easier than you can.

They moved mine, forum e-mail and everything intact.

Mmm, yea that would be a big help. I'm thinking I might order TCH tonight, we'll see