Think twice before choosing a cheaper hosting....

I just got out of hell....

My first experience with Dolphin was on a shared hosting - My life was great... The speed was okay and the results okay as well... When I learned that I needed a RMS Hosting for the video chat I had to move my hosting somewhere else....

I won't tell you what company it was but I have paid less than $40 for 12 months on a shared hosting with everything unlimited... Pretty good deal??? well.... Not at all!!

Within a few weeks my site was completely corrupt and totally unavailable within any browser from Mac to Pc's.... What a nightmare... 

They did free upgrade to the latest version of Dolphin but my site was still unavailable. When I told the hosting company about it they offered a package that you need to pay in order to get an audit/fix but they couldn't guarantee to fix everything... 

I have decided to shop around and search for a more secure place.... I have decided to go with JoomByte because the security seems to be very important and they replied quickly to my zillions of questions. They also advertise a very powerful RMS Server for my video chat experience.

They moved my site over for free and believe me... it was initially a total mess when they saw the result... They worked HOURS to remove trojan, redirect, corrupt files and never asked to pay extra for an audit or fix....

Tonight... My site is back alive and work perfectly!!!

I tried the Video Chat and WOW!!!! I almost look good ;).... the quality is amazing!!!

So the story has an happy ending... THANKS TO JOOMBYTE!

Give it time lol....

We thought that paying a good price for a decent host would be the answer........ WRONG!!!!

We have a dedicated server on HFW. Its quick - thats the one benefit. Security is rubbish, and my site was suspended last week after it was hacked. My site has a lot of down time with them too. Just yesterday it was down yet again. I am endlessly sending tickets.

I imaging all hosts have problems, some more than others. but it just goes tyo show that dishing out the dosh doesnt always guarantee good, uniterupted, secure service.

Nathan

Well ..if u are starter there is no need to pay for dedicated server or VPS. YOu will be absolutely okay with shared hosting for at least year because it takes a long time to get some real members and ur site get noticed unless yopur site has thousand members already :-). I recommend you to go with hostgator reseller hosting which is quite cheap and there is ability to grow in space and bandwidth and use hosts like joombyte just for rms server separately.After your site got that many members like thousand or more u will have good incomem to pay for quality dedicated. Very good on hostgator is their online support so all staff can be solved very fast and also if u get attacked by hackers or malicious script their security admin will attampt fix your site for free too.

If you want dedicated now - go for dosdawg terabyte hosting as Dos is very experienced with dolphin and good person at all - so that would be my personal choice if I go on dedicated server...

I'd stand behind freakpower on Hostgator. Their support is first rate and they make moving from shared to reseller to VPS and dedi as easy as possible.

Been running sites on their servers for about six years now and am on my second dedi which they did as a sidegrade when they upped the server specs. That was when I saw the difference that a bit more memory can make!

Currently we have just less than 4K members and a similar number of daily uniques but are hardly even making the server breathe lightly.

One suggestion I'd make to you - whatever you do get as much memory as you can, it makes more difference than disk space, bandwidth or processor will do.

Thanks for the feedback John.

For those of you who have not heard of JoomByte, we have been around for 5 years now and have been hosting Dolphin for quite sometime now. We are not a "New Kid" on the block. We know the ins and outs of hosting Dolphin script. We have seen many people come and go, some very successful and many not.

Regardless, Dolphin is now a very MATURE software with practically unmatched features. John came to us with some badly injected files from his previous hosting. This may be due to poor firewall system and security checks.

No host is 100% bulletproof, but at JoomByte we can guarantee you that we will always do our best in supporting your cause and rectify any issues. There's always a solution for everything.

For more testimonials on our services check out this link - http://www.boonex.com/n/More_information_about_JoomByte

For special offer, click on Boonex affiliate link and enter "Boonex" coupon code for 20% off your invoice for our Dolphin Super Hosting plan - http://www.boonex.com/hosting/joombyte

More info on our Dolphin plan, click here - http://www.joombyte.com/content/view/57/63/

Thanks,
Rob
JoomByte.com

As a side note.... I was so frustrated about my overall experience with Dolphin that I have considered selling the whole package... I have spent around  $2000 to get a top of the line community with tons of add-ons from the market.... I wrote to zillions of people about my issues... I even wrote to the big boss... and NOTHING... No reply....  How frustrating... Lets say that Joombyte restored my happiness LOL....

I am with tmd, some downtime but fast support answers (not very good answers though). I got database access errors email messages since the begin. It is not seems to block any features of my site and everything seems to work well but that's not normal.

They told me "this is a well known issue with dolphin ask dolphin for help" pfff ... this is not.

Martin

if a database is rebooted or restarted, Boonex script will send you an alert.  But the database shouldn't be rebooted all the time. If you keep getting error messages, it's something else. The database could be overloaded with other accounts or it's running our of memory. Thus the sporadic connections and alerts generated by Dolphin. No this is NOT normal and this is NOT inherent to Dolphin script. Ver 7.0 build is pretty stable.

 Off topic but I get errors like that even on a fresh install and even if nobody is accessing the website, I'll switch host soon because I'm affraid it's a time bomb.

Warning: mysql_query(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /home/choixduq/public_html/flash/modules/global/inc/db.inc.php on line 48

Warning: mysql_query(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /home/choixduq/public_html/flash/modules/global/inc/db.inc.php on line 49

Warning: mysql_query(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /home/choixduq/public_html/flash/modules/global/inc/db.inc.php on line 50

Warning: mysql_query(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /home/choixduq/public_html/flash/modules/global/inc/db.inc.php on line 51
Database access error.
Warning: mysql_error(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /home/choixduq/public_html/flash/modules/global/inc/db.inc.php on line 71
 Description: Database access error.
Warning: mysql_error(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /home/choixduq/public_html/flash/modules/global/inc/db.inc.php on line 71
 Description: Database access error.
Warning: mysql_error(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /home/choixduq/public_html/flash/modules/global/inc/db.inc.php on line 71
 Description: 
Warning: mysql_num_rows(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/choixduq/public_html/flash/modules/video_comments/inc/classes/BxDolCronVideoComments.php on line 67

do you know anything about folder permissions? Ask your host what the folder permissions should be. It should be "755" and "644" for files generally speaking. It looks like the flash modules can't access or read your database.

 I tried even 777 on everything in flash folder and inc folder.

I tried to remove the .htaccess files

I tried to change the db.inc.php file informations in inc folder (db password and port)

Nothing seems to work

something else is going on, on your server's database. your hosting support can't help you?

 Nope, they sent me to boonex.com support ...            at 3,95$/month I got what I paid for I guest...

 You should NEVER set the /inc folder to 777! Actually it's a horrible idea to set any folder to 777 but some hosts have php setup in such a way so you have to do it to write to some directories, but /inc isn't one of them.

I am guessing at 3.95 per month they have a limit on the number of connections to the database server. It's common. Looks to me like a database problem and a limit seems to be the most logical reason.

"777" is NOT safe and you will get hacked sooner or later. Believe it or not many hosts still allows "777" writable.

I tried 777 only to see if the problem was the files permissions and I tried it on a test dolphin website only but thanks I agree this is a very bad idea for common use.

You are probably right Deano, I'll try to set the cron to */5**** instead of ***** maybe it will help if they limit the number of connections to the database server.

If they have a limit on cron its most likly 15 minutes. Most shared set it to 15 minutes and most times it is in there TOS.

 Then I wonder why they are in the recommended hosts by boonex?

http://www.boonex.com/hosting

@Marthymat - I did the same mistake.... and Joombyte completely changed my life for the better... 2 days ago I have canceled my hosting with the other company... Even if I have had +5 months remaining... and guess what.... I got 5 calls to ask me why I'm leaving... Well... When my site was there.... they never came with a clear explanation... they tried to sell me some support... that's about it.... So my recommendation .... Marthymat.... Go with Joombyte... You won't regret it.... I am really really reallly happy with their service and kindness.

 Thanks for that Johnl

Regards

Martin

My experience is that what really matters is support. The best option what look for is hosts with online chat support with real IT professionals on chat. WHen u got site hosted u wilol face wil heaps of problems which u will have tosolve quickly and this simply never can be achieved by hosts who offer only ticket system, email or phone sipport. Text or video chat is for me a MUST for host.

We would have disagree with you on this. We have helped thousands of tickets over the span of 5 years in hosting Dolphin. Our tickets reply are fast and issues are resolved quickly PLUS we monitor our server 24/7.

Joombyte: I understand u stay behind your offered support as its your business, but I have to say even if u take it by simply logic ALWAYS online chat support is much better (faster) than any other support way (ticket,email,phone) as if you can chat with technician time to resolve problem is cut at least by 50% in comparsion with email or ticket system (even if replies are fast)I think there is no doubt aboubt that. I had hosts where was very fast responses to tickets but than I actually tried hiostgator and difference on time for resolving problem was really on different level if u have reply of technicians in matter of seconds by chat..

I didn't have any problems with ticket and phone support at my hosting provider.  The response time was within half an hour (usually within minutes).

But you look like an expert, so forget what I said.

nathan: I will divide (from my experience) hosts support with ticket/email/phone into following categories:

1) support replies to tickets, emails are within days or weeks ( about 50%) of hosts I tried

2) support replies to tickets, emails are within hours and days ( about 30%) of hosts I tried

3) support replies to tickets, emails are within minutes or hours ( about 10%) of hosts I tried

4) support replies to tickets, emails are within minutes  ( about 10%) of hosts I tried

Even with hosts with fastest ticket/email replies is average reply time about 30 minutes - some less, some slightly more - Im talking about average. In case of serious problem or malfunction if site is live and not some kind of test site or site with few mwmbwes even reply time 30minutes is for me not acceptable. Most of problems involve many questions answers to be exchanged between me and technicians and even with reply speed in minutes makes whole process very slow in comparsion with an online chat whereb interaction is matter of seconds. I have several hostings where some involve unfortunately hosts with ticket system ( as I need FMS host) and if I compare resolve time with my other two hosts where both have chat system its quite uncomparable - problem is always solved much much quicker on chat which also brings less stress and save my time.

Im not saying not to use hosts with ticket/email support just wanna point out that for those who run profressional site chat support is without doubt absolutely fastest way how to solve problem and for example for me this is what really matters for me. After many years in IT I can say I always go with live chat support hosts and go for other only if I have no other alternative... I need support to react in real time in seconds and even minutes are too slow in case for example some hackdr attack or site takeover attempt... but even if there is some other reason like site malfunction this needs to be solved fastest as possible and every minute more delay can be massive loss of customers on a pro site...

johnl came to us with a TON of issues. Not going to mention the name of his host but it was a very affordable host with real time live chat support. That host couldn't offer him help and he got the run around. None of the issues he got on his website can be resolved over a matter of minutes over chat. The support ticket was escalated to several techs including our head tech to view it. Live chat is NOT the holy grail of tech support resolution. @freakpower, I'm glad you have found a host that is fully capable with chat. This industry provides tons of choices for hosting and if you have found a good one stick with them. We enjoy hosting Dolphin and have done so for 5 years now and will continue to support this software as it has matured a lot with Tons of great features not found in other Social media platform.