Getting frustrated with JagPC

[bigt5631]

I'm not much of a complainer but lately service seems to be falling off quite a bit. I've been with Jag for about 10 years now with one account or another and have never had any complaints until now.

I know the economy is forcing companies to do more with less but having a website down for 13 hours while waiting to move to another server is ludicrous.

Waiting hours for customer service to respond to support tickets while your website is down is like having bamboo slowly shoved under your fingernails. It just plain hurts.

Granted, running a Wordpress blog is resource intensive but come on, the site ran fine for 4 months on shared hosting and now after finally moving to SDX hosting I'm being told that I'm still using to much server resources and need to upgrade to Hybrid hosting at $100 bucks a month is a bit much to swallow.

I could believe that I'm killing the server if I had seen a huge jump in traffic but at 200 to 300 visits per day on a Wordpress install that has been optimized with static code and image and page caching I find it hard to believe, espescially when I've had days where traffic was at 800+ visitors without a problem.

My support ticket to customer service with a priority level of "Emergency" is now going on 2 hours old without a response. You have to wonder what constitutes an emergency around here now.

Anybody else have similar problems like this? Any ideas for a good host for a Wordpress blog?

[JPC-Bilal]

HI bigt5631,

We do not disable or block any user unless we are sure about that and have some proof. Please advise the ticket number so that I can check its status. If the ticket is in Customer Service queue then it can take little time as they do not work 24/7 whereas the support is around for 24/7. We do appreciate your patience with this.

[bigt5631]

Hi Bilal,

This has been an ongoing nightmare for the past 2 months now.

Website causes high load, tech supports shuts down web access. I upgrade plan, wait to move to new server, site again causes high load, upgrade plan and repeat process...

TIDs are 13054089, 13052719 and 13046505.

At this point I am shopping around for a new host for this site.

[JPC-Zishan]

Hello,

Your ticket 13054089 has been updated. Please followup with it.

Thanks

[Vin DSL]

[...] Wordpress blog is resource intensive but come on, the site ran fine for 4 months on shared hosting and now after finally moving to SDX hosting I'm being told that I'm still using to much server resources and need to upgrade to Hybrid hosting at $100 bucks a month [...]

I could believe that I'm killing the server if I had seen a huge jump in traffic but at 200 to 300 visits per day on a Wordpress install that has been optimized with static code and image and page caching I find it hard to believe [...]

Anybody else have similar problems like this?

Well, yes! Almost identical...

My production site runs PHP-Nuke... which is resource intensive. And, I have a WP site, which is resource intensive. And, a MediaWiki site... which is resource intensive too.

Everything ran fine until December, when my account started bringing down a SDX server (Kraken). At first, I was in disbelief - same as you - but I monitored the situation myself for 2-3 days, and WATCHED it happen in real time!

I have a theory as to why all of this is happening. It doesn't have ANYTHING to do with JagPC, and EVERYTHING to do with CentOS... but my theory hasn't been proven out by doing extensive Google'ing for the last month. Soooo... who knows.

The fact of the matter is, I *think* this situation is happening to MANY ppl - not just you and me - and NOT just here at JagPC.

The 'cure' for me was to move to Hybrid 100 - same as they suggested to you - and I *feel* like I've died and gone to heaven!

The same identical setup/config that was bring down an SDX server, is now happily running on the new Hybrid 100 account. Hell, when you look at the server load... it looks like it's sitting idle. It's eerie! But, I have just as much traffic as ever, and I'm using the same amount of resources. Really!

Anyway, yes, you can believe what Tech Support is telling you - you're not alone - and Hybrid 100 is the fix.

I know it's a bitter pill to swallow, but if you can stomach the switch, I think you will be pleasantly surprised! I know I was...

[bigt5631]

I have a theory as to why all of this is happening. It doesn't have ANYTHING to do with JagPC, and EVERYTHING to do with CentOS... but my theory hasn't been proven out by doing extensive Google'ing for the last month. Soooo... who knows.

Care to share your theory?

I'm not blaming Jag for anything other than response times being slow the past few months. Replies that use to take 15-20 minutes now take 2-3 hours!

I've ran top on every server I've been on and watched the spike in CPU and Mem utilization when new posts are made and multiple php processes are spawned. I've got in to the habit of praying "Please God, don't let me crash the server, please please..." everytime I go to sleep.

Latest update on my support ticket tells me no hybrid slots are available til Friday, no bargain bin dedicated servers are available and specials on hybrid servers are only available to new accounts.

I've been looking at grid service hosting from Media Temple. The dynamic burstability sounds like it could be a good fit priced at 20 bucks a month.

[Vin DSL]

Care to share your theory?

No, not really. Sorry!

In the megalomaniacal world (in which I live) - if I figure out how CentOS messed up the last critical kernel update, I'll be able to claim bragging rights. If you figure it out, we'll have to share the glory. LoL! I just hope that I figure it out before the next kernel update... which should be coming up pretty soon.

I've ran top on every server I've been on and watched the spike in CPU and Mem utilization when new posts are made and multiple php processes are spawned. I've got in to the habit of praying "Please God, don't let me crash the server, please please..." everytime I go to sleep.

Heh! I KNOW the feeling!

I've been looking at grid service hosting from Media Temple. The dynamic burstability sounds like it could be a good fit priced at 20 bucks a month.

Hrm...

I'll tell you what I do, in cases like that: I Google "blah blah blah sucks".

For Instance: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22media+temple+sucks

First result for me is: http://www.themememe.com/why-media-t...ting-dreamhost (Why Media Temple Sucks, or How to Save Money on Web Hosting)

I’ve been with numerous web hosts in my nearly fifteen years on the Net. Some shared hosts are absolute nightmares (DreamHost was the worst). Still, you can usually walk away without leaving much money on the table. But Media Temple isn’t for the budget conscious. Its (gs) Grid-Service sounds sexy and makes good sense, but it’s over-priced and doesn’t live up to the hype (Media Temple even admits as much; see below). [...]

Sloooow Service, or The Straw That Broke the Camel’s Back

AN Hosting took only 22 minutes to respond, better than their usual response time of an hour or two. Media Temple took 26 hours and 21 minutes to respond to the same issue. This isn’t an exception. Media Temple usually took anywhere from several hours to more than a day to respond to support requests. [...] (emphasis added)

The Designer Jeans Fallacy, or The Price of Prestige

[...] (P)rice isn’t really the problem. If the (gs) Grid-Service lived up to the hype, it’d be worth it, which is why I signed up in the first place and why you may be tempted. [...]

The GPU Problem

Though Media Temple offers 1 TB of bandwidth, the reality is that you’ll probably never get to use it, even if you have a popular site. You’ll hit your GPU limit long before you take advantage of the bandwidth offered. [...]

Hey! That’s MySQL!

The real problem with the Grid-Service is that it won’t help you with a slow MySQL database. If you’re hosting a WordPress blog (or any blog that uses MySQL, as most of them do), you can have plenty of GPUs and still have slow performance because you’re sharing a MySQL server. Now, to be fair, this is true of any other host. But that’s another reason why Media Temple isn’t worth the premium; it does nothing to eliminate this bottleneck.

Media Temple offers two MySQL options with the Grid-Service: MySQL SmartPool, which it claims “offers performance comparable to industry-wide shared hosting systems,” and MySQL GridContainers, which offer a kind of virtual dedicated MySQL server. If you want a GridContainer, it will set you back anywhere from an additional $20 to $150 a month. [...] (emphasis added)

Even the Grid Goes Down

In theory, the Grid-Service means downtime “caused by device failures will be a distant memory,” but that doesn’t mean the Grid never goes down. You’ll still find maintenance messages in your inbox from time to time (emphasis mine):

This maintenance action will require that parts of the Grid be briefly taken offline. A very short period of downtime may occur, customers should prepare for a brief disruption of services such as web, email, and ftp. It is likely that only a small portion of the maintenance window will actually be needed. Any email inbound to your server during the maintenance window will not be rejected or lost.

We would like to remind all customers that scheduled maintenance and security related updates are a necessary and vital aspect of web hosting that ensures the long term uptime and reliability of your server.

Anyway... I'll stop (with that). You get the idea - I'm sure (you sound like you've been around the track a few times too). And, to be fair, there are probably plenty of "blah blah blah sucks" threads out there, including ones about our favorite web host.

No discount mass web host is perfect - and the grass always looks greener on the other side, but...

Since you've already established a long-term business relationship with JagPC, I'd suggest you stick it out with them. That's what I'm doing.

I've been with JagPC 7 years myself, and I don't plan to move anywhere soon - unless they change the locks on my account and throw my files out into the street.

[Ron]

Vinny, you got PM

[bigt5631]

Hey Vin,

Thanks for the reply. You're right, I've been around the track once or twice and always do my due diligence before making any decisions.

What I have decided upon is to change the blog directory to a subdomain and host with MT. Yeah I read all the blah,blah sucks threads and noticed most of them were written in 2008 or early 2009.

Hey, any new tech is going to have its share of problems and it looks like they've got most of them worked out now. I figure that even with some downtime on a grid it is still better than serving up 403 errors to my visitors.

I'm not leaving Jag, I still have a reseller server with a bunch of accounts on it and will still continue to set up new clients here. I just can't justify the $100 a month for a hybrid server right now.