Dreamhost

andreww

Sep 17th 2006, 3:05 pm

when i was looking for webhosts, i came across some interesting news about bluehost,
you might want to try googling for "(webhost name) sucks" and "(webhost name) problems" to see if there's any negative feedback.

in fact when i googled for 'bluehost sucks' the results were... interesting to say the least.

melol2

Sep 17th 2006, 3:15 pm

So far all I googled the word dreamhost and everything ive seen so far says it's great.

And I was wondering about that unlimited domains thing. Does that mean if I payed for one plan I could make a site (site1.com) and then also make another site (site2.com)?

kartik786

Sep 17th 2006, 3:22 pm

www.dreamhost-sucks.com .. Interesting blog.

andreww

Sep 17th 2006, 3:28 pm

well, take the 'this webhost sucks' blogs and sites with a pinch of salt though, cos they may be affiliating for another host and swinging traffic.

---
for hosting multi domains, you usually get a free mother domain, eg health .com and your add on domains are subdomains (eg. cycling. health .com) which are mapped to www .cycling .com.

usually it's done ok, but i have used a few reseller accounts where the mapping wasnt done well and the mother domain shows through.

eg, you type cycling .com and the address bar shows cycling.health.com.

quite bad for branding actually.

i use bluehost and anhosting for my domains.

kinda given up on reseller accounts.

a number of my fellow internet marketers use ixhosting and have had good results with them.

Pat Gael

Sep 17th 2006, 3:36 pm

Dreamshost and Vodahost have similar trends on this matter.

melol2

Sep 17th 2006, 3:49 pm

I know about subdomains... But what is interesting is they said unlimited domains AND subdomains.

bentong

Sep 17th 2006, 4:39 pm

most hostings are offering 'unlimited packages'.. you just only need to pick the right one. ;)

andreww

Sep 17th 2006, 6:53 pm

i read some reports that 'unlimited domain, unlimited mySQL, unlimited CRON job and unmetered bandwidth hosts' tend to have poorer QoS, so take note.

i'm going with 2 hosting accounts so i can swing domains over if QoS starts to deteriorate.

damnidunno

Sep 17th 2006, 7:07 pm

opp $45 setup fee if you choose month to month.. thats crazy and turned me away

melol2

Sep 17th 2006, 7:24 pm

Yes, but if you buy a year in advance, with that promo code, it cost less than $30 for a whole year.

damnidunno

Sep 17th 2006, 7:33 pm

Yes, but if you buy a year in advance, with that promo code, it cost less than $30 for a whole year.

yeah and then they suspsend my account and keep the money. Soo many stories about that. im actually scared of them, but i do need a good host. I might give them a try.

$30 for a whole year sounds pretty good. tempting tempting

carjamlangley

Sep 17th 2006, 7:43 pm

I've really enjoyed Dreamhost but I sure do wish they had phone support. It drives me nuts doing the email thing because they respond every 24 to 48 hours so if you've got something you need to know now...sorry, you're out of luck. The reviews I read were very positive and everyone seemed very happy with the speed in which their websites came up and that they are almost always up and running. They've also got this unlimited domain thing which is pretty cool. When you can get $97 off and you know that there are a TON of great reviews out there...why not go with Dreamhost (all businesses will have someone complain, but MOST reviews are extremely positive IMO)?

andreww

Sep 17th 2006, 8:18 pm

hey btw, before everyone gets carried away with the free domain thing, do take note of the number of mySQL databases offered.

cos i spent abt a month shortlisting web hosts.

some gave unlimited domains but only 1 or 2 or 5 mySQL databases and then slapped a $4 charge per additional mySQL (total bs in my book).

you probably already know that ONE mySQL database is required for each blog, forum, CMS (like joomla), so with unlimited domains your bottleneck is the mySQL databases, unless you're doing pure HTML sites, in which case go for it.

drig

Sep 17th 2006, 8:25 pm

http://dreamhostcoupons.info/

Mike Seiler

Sep 17th 2006, 11:03 pm

I like Dreamhost--and there are tons of promo codes out there. $97 is the max, but google will bring up results for people offering $102, if you link to them.

I always notice that people that "find" promo codes always "find" small ones that puts a lot of money in the referrer's pocket. It's dumb to use anything less than $97. Not to mention, how do you only find small ones on an internet that is flooded with huge ones?

Personally, I'd say to use the code from someone that has been helpful to you, that is honest about it being a referral thing.

Even the ones that give away their full $97 referral in a promo code can still make money if you refer someone else ($5 each).

Also, note that you can make as many codes as you want, so just because someone says they found a bunch doesn't mean their not all his/hers.

andreww

Sep 18th 2006, 12:57 am

another tip: if you google for dreamhost coupons you can sometimes see the coupon codes advertisied by dreamhost themselves in the adwords cols.

so u can use those too.

ps: after reading bluehost.com's CEO Matt Heaton's blog at www.mattheaton.com it convinced me to go with bluehost.

been happy with them ever since!

Mike Seiler

Sep 18th 2006, 1:42 am

another tip: if you google for dreamhost coupons you can sometimes see the coupon codes advertisied by dreamhost themselves in the adwords cols.

Actually, those are just referrals as well. Anyone can put Dreamhost.com as the address in Adwords, plus you don't need the referral tag in the URL because a promo code automatically links the referral to the right account.

When Dreamhost does run a promo code, it's usually something like 777 or 888 -- and only dreamhost can use all numbers (watch for 0/O, I/1, etc...).

thekage

Sep 18th 2006, 2:27 am

I am a DreamHost customer, so let me speak from my personal experience. Dreamhost is great, although downside is that AWstats doesn't come standard and can be a pain to install. Another thing about Dreamhost is that they cramp many sites onto one server (but I guess most hosting companies do that), what this means is that if you are planning to host some resource intensive site off Dreamhost i.e. proxy, just forget about it. For example, www. damninteresting .com is hosted by Dreamhost, but their popularity has bought them some trouble with Dreamhost and been bugged to move to a dedicated server. But I think this is quite normal if your site is using too much server resource, it is after all cheap 'shared' hosting, and for the price Dreamhost is offering, I think it is a quite good deal. PM me if you want me to give u a promo code for a whole free year.

StrangeLife

Sep 18th 2006, 4:51 am

Ive been with dreamhost for almost 3 months, ive had no trouble, downtime at all and everything is running smoothly.

Awstats does come with the package, and you can install it automatically using there cpanel, it just takes around 2 days to set up.

They are one of the top hosting companys on the web, there are many sites which give it a great review...you get the odd bad review site, probably the creator is running a hosting company and is just jelous of the 180,000 domains bluehost is hosting..who knows.

From personal experience i have asked for customer support and they replied within 24 hours, which is incredible due to its compacity of customers...most hosting sites reply in under 24 hours....thats quite normal.

People who ask for customer support with bluehost don't read the faq they provide, its a big support section. Also if you really need to ask a question and want a really fast response, customers can goto the bluehost forums.

Bluehost is an excellent service.

Al Capone

Oct 1st 2006, 11:39 am

I'm with dreamhost -- there down right now -- there down a lot. I need a new host :( honestly though, I don't recommend dreamhost, the first 97 days of there refund period they are good, then around 100-102 days I have had downtime 2-3 times a week ranging for 5 hours-48 hours, really no good. I can't say I paid to much though, I think the first year only costed me like 50$, but I have lost over $5,000 dollars through downtime, I am probably going to move very soon.

In short -- dreamhost is good during the period you can cancel, once that is up, they will move you to slow server and you will cry, you will go crawl in a corner and cry. My expierence anyways. Hope that helps.

Mike Seiler

Oct 1st 2006, 11:35 pm

... but I have lost over $5,000 dollars through ...

That part's hard to pin on Dreamhost. If you're making a ton of money, you can afford redundancy. If you decide to base an income 100% on the uptime of a single shared hosting account, you have to be willing to accept downtime and loss of income.

Last I heard, Dreamhost has over 1,000 servers, so their problems are going to seem more frequent than a host with 3 servers. If you're having a lot of problems, they'd probably be happy to move you to a different server if you request it.

They're pretty open about problems when they have them, so you can keep an eye on dreamhoststatus.com to see what's going on.

In short -- dreamhost is good during the period you can cancel, once that is up, they will move you to slow server

I can definitely see why people that just signed up would be frustrated, but I assure you that's not what they do--it's just a matter of bad timing.

Correctus

Oct 2nd 2006, 5:58 am

I have had no problems with DH they are the best

IT

geniosity

Oct 2nd 2006, 6:05 am

Anybody read Scoble's post of dreamhost?

Dreamhost getting sucky PR out on blogs (http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/2006/09/28/dreamhost-getting-sucky-pr-out-on-blogs/)

whitevitz

Oct 2nd 2006, 4:02 pm

i am currently using dreamhost as an online storage cuz of the bandwidth
so far so good.. i have been with them for 3 months
I use roughly 300 gig bandwidth a month

Al Capone

Oct 2nd 2006, 7:22 pm

dreamhost was just down like for about 2 hours again today, if you can cancel, DO IT! trust me do it do it do it -- it's to late for me but you have a chance. If you go over, then it's to late. good luck.

killer2021

Oct 2nd 2006, 9:56 pm

search google, you can find tons of them on there.

InnovationZen

Oct 2nd 2006, 10:46 pm

i subscribed to dream host mainly because of price, I am not worried if it will have a down time once in a while, for 30 bucks a year i am more than happy

i used the promo code "fairhost"

Olney

Oct 3rd 2006, 6:42 pm

Unless you host there because you have SPAM sites you really should switch. If you can loose even $100 because of downtime you should be on a better server.

I can't say I paid to much though, I think the first year only costed me like 50$, but I have lost over $5,000 dollars through downtime, I am probably going to move very soon.

Al Capone

Oct 3rd 2006, 6:58 pm

i subscribed to dream host mainly because of price, I am not worried if it will have a down time once in a while, for 30 bucks a year i am more than happy

i used the promo code "fairhost"

Once your site gets bigger, you will care. Downtime = loss of link parts + loss of google spiders + loss of money + loss of visitors. It's terrible. I need to save up to move away from dh

andreww

Oct 3rd 2006, 7:01 pm

yeah,
try using an unreliable host in the midst of an aggressive marketing campaign.

i was screaming WTF a week ago when i had abt 3 hrs of downtime.

i now use two hosting accounts, so that i can use a domain redirect if either of them go down, and switch the nameservers over.

it might take some time for the nameserver updates to propagate, but it sure beats being offline for an extended period of time.

thekage

Oct 3rd 2006, 11:49 pm

Dreamhost recently fixed their network problems, pretty stable now. Not to mention that they just doubled all their features... the starting plan is now 2tb of Bandwidth instead of 1tb... can't ask for much more at 9.95 per month. I can give the 97 dollar off coupon if u guys need it just pm me. ^^

Mike Seiler

Oct 4th 2006, 12:18 am

Dreamhost put out their own promo code today that knocks $99.99 off any one or two year plan: 9999 (Note that only all-number promo codes are from Dreamhost--everyone else has to use at least one letter.)

They listed it as "today only," but they've been slow at de-activating them in the past.

jessica12

Oct 4th 2006, 12:23 am

thank you for the code mike :)
i'd like to try dreamhost but saw many bad reviews.. mm..

Mike Seiler

Oct 4th 2006, 12:58 am

thank you for the code mike :)
i'd like to try dreamhost but saw many bad reviews.. mm..

You're welcome.

They all have bad reviews out there--unless you go to a review site full of paid/referral links, of course. ;)

They're hard to beat for the price, but they're not for everyone. I've had an account there for years, but I use other hosts as well.

It just depends on your needs. I wouldn't put anything that requires 100% uptime on a single shared host, whether it's Dreamhost or somewhere else.

Also, when counting bad reviews, keep company size in mind. They're hosting over 350,000 domains across somewhere near 1,000 servers, so if they had 100 unhappy customers writing bad reviews, it could still be a much lower overall percentage than a tiny host with 5 bad reviews.

jessica12

Oct 5th 2006, 3:14 am

I see.. thank you for your explanation :)
I'll probably give it a try :)

andreww

Oct 5th 2006, 3:23 pm

Jessica,
i think it's safe to say that there isn't a perfect host out there.

it all depends on what your requirements are and in my search for a web host, besides the specifications, i've looked for those with 30 day money back guarantee (with at least a 7 day money back guarantee) to test them out.

cos sales copy is one thing, the reality is another.

in any case, you have a 60-day chargeback period if you're using a credit card, so it shouldn't be an issue. it's just that without a formal money back guarantee it takes longer to intiate chargebacks against the smaller operators.

jessica12

Oct 5th 2006, 11:48 pm

Andreww, thank you for your suggestion :)

Mike Seiler

Oct 6th 2006, 12:08 am

I'd avoid the charge-back method. If you agree to a company's terms, then use a charge-back to break those terms, you're committing fraud... and will quickly see your charge-back reversed.

If you don't trust a host, you shouldn't sign up. Period. If you don't trust them, a charge-back shouldn't make you feel safe. Think about it... why would you voluntarily give someone you don't trust your credit card number and all of the info they need to use it?

Dreamhost does have a 97-day money back guarantee (as long as you use a credit card, rather than PayPal). Even if you don't like them, they're not frauds, so there's nothing to fear with giving them a try. If they work out, great--if not, you get your money back.

I do believe the 9999 promo code has expired, though (but feel free to try it -- it will show a discount if it still works), so you'll have to use one of the thousands of $97 codes out there. If you can't find one, or don't want to use one that's spammed at you, you can PM me and I'll give you one that gives the max allowed discount on any plan. You should know that if you refer people, the person that referred you will get $5 each, even if they give you the max discount.

johan-cr

Oct 6th 2006, 1:13 am

I just signed up with the 9999 code and it still works..

$19.41 for one years hosting isnt that bad :)

jessica12

Oct 6th 2006, 11:01 pm

yep.. the code is still working :D

andreww

Oct 7th 2006, 1:00 am

chargebacks are a last resort, if the company has one thing in their ToS and they do another thing.

i've had bad experiences with the smaller resellers, so i'm using the bigger hosting companies, even though they're more expensive, but the service and support is more professional.

johan-cr

Oct 7th 2006, 6:48 am

I take back my opinion about dreamhost beeing a good price...Since yesterday the database has been down for 3 !!! times....

Everything else has been working fine during that time. So for people not using a DB it could be a good deal.

Al Capone

Oct 8th 2006, 1:49 pm

Mike Seiler

Oct 8th 2006, 2:12 pm

That is a REALLY good idea... I just wish it could be automated, like your site goes down and GoDaddy automatically changes DNS info.
DNS Made Easy (http://www.dnsmadeeasy.com/) offers that service for a fairly cheap annual fee. Your domain needs a dedicated IP on each account. They have more info and a tutorial on their site.

technomad

Oct 8th 2006, 2:59 pm

I am a former dreamhost user.

I was with them for about 6 months. I never really got my sites together much. I think they are good for noobs like myself because they have a lot of one click installs and things and I've enver had an issue with anything as far as my site loading or working or being able to edit stuff. Plus I could pile on a lot of websites to test things out. And hell, its so cheap, what do you expect?

But, I always thought my sites were slow as hell to load. They were all wordpress sites and any time I needed to do anything within wordpress, it always took a long time to save and reload. I've heard it all depends on which server you get placed on. SOme are good, some are bad. Mine was slow but it was always up. I never experienced downtime that I noticed.

Overall, I'd say you get what you pay for. They are super cheap and it can be a roll of the dice for servers. I just switched to another host and damn its fast. And I can email/IM/call them any time of day or night and someone responds in a couple hours. They are still small though and are still getting things set up with better cpanels and one click installs. Im having a lot of issues with getting wordpress to work because a lot of things aren't automatic(like read/write permissions) like they were with dreamhost. For a noob, that sucks. But they have been very helpful in working with me to solve my problems.