Re: [WAMUG] Web site hosts - Information - Recommendations

[Kaye and Geoff via WAMUG]

Hi,

> 
> I have had a family tree website for many years hosted by Webcity which were 
> taken over by Vodien Internet Solutions, based in Singapore around mid 2020.

Vodien - say no more! We don't use them for hosting, but they are the domain 
registrar we've ended up with. We host a lot of web sites for other people, and 
manage their domain names. Like Matt, we suddenly had about 20 domains taken 
over by Vodien when they bought out WebCity , and they are the worst registrar 
we have ever dealt with. One of the fundamental things we need in a registrar 
is the ability to point the domain name to the hosting site - we can't even do 
that for any of our sites. We are slowly moving everyone off them.

The only way we get any response from them is to phone them, but even then the 
person you talk to appears to have no technical knowledge.

My advice is to move servers if you can. We are moving to Ventra IP, but that, 
too, is just for the domain registration - our hosting is completely separate.

Cheers, Kaye 


Kaye and Geoff
k...@kgweb.au



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Re: [WAMUG] Web site hosts - Information - Recommendations

[Daniel Kerr via WAMUG]

Hi Matt

Without blowing my own trumpet,…I do web hosting through my sub business - 
https://hostingserviceswa.com.au
Most of the hosting servers I use are located in Australia, so all local. And 
local server support people if I ever need to contact them for things. I’ve 
found them to be very good and reliable.

I can relate to the issues you mentioned with Voiden, as I have in fact moved 
quite a few clients from them - with similar issues and stories like you’ve 
said. (And in fact had a nightmare even trying to migrate sites from them.)
If your current host uses CPanel, it’s definitely a lot easier to migrate from 
one to another. If they use their own system, it can be a bit more complicated 
I’m afraid. More so if their servers are going up and down constantly.

But I do have quite a lot of customers that use my hosting service and very 
rarely do I have any issues. I’ve been doing it for almost as long as I’ve been 
doing MacWizardry (over 21+ years now). And though I’ve had some hosting 
servers I use get taken over by others, I always keep an eye on who I use to 
ensure it’s good, reliable and good support if needed.

One “downside” I’ve seen a lot this last year though, a lot of hosting 
platforms are increasing costs - so pricing across the board for “local 
Australian hosting” can be a little more than hosted overseas. But the upside 
of this, is it’s reliable and your content is kept in the country. I think a 
lot of the Australian based ones are noting moving more support back into 
Australian, so staff and running costs go up,…to keep it all local,…so they 
pass those costs along in slightly increasing hosting costs.

I’ve even found some hosts who say “it’s in Australia” and they “appear” to be 
running it from Australia - but when you dig further into it - it’s hosted 
overseas or a poor hosted platform in Australia and all support is overseas - 
so you then sometimes don’t get support in “Australian time”,..it’s all US 
times - or they take days to get back to you.
So I’ve been ensuring that all the ones I use are locally based and I can get 
support when I need it (which is generally 24/7 and they’re quite quick to 
reply if needed). Not that I rarely need to contact support, as I find the 
hosting I have “just runs itself”.

Happy to discuss if you require more info. Just drop me an email or give me a 
call. (I’m out at the moment but will be back later today/tomorrow…just running 
around doing some family things on my 1 day off,..hehe).
Hope that info helps.

Kind regards
Daniel

 Sent from my iPhone 12 Pro 

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MacWizardry

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> On 22 Jan 2023, at 3:09 pm, Matt Falvey via WAMUG  
> wrote:
> 
> Hi, I know this is not strictly mac related, but it is about webs site 
> hosting mac a product from Reunion family tree application on The Next 
> Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding (TNG).
> 
> I have had a family tree website for many years hosted by Webcity which were 
> taken over by Vodien Internet Solutions, based in Singapore around mid 2020.
> 
> On 1 Jan 2023 I noticed my site was down and thought it may be related to the 
> change of the year so I let it go before notifying them on the 3rd. Since 
> then they have managed to get the website up intermittently about 3 or 4 
> times.
> 
> (I registered my Domain name with Crazy Domains and in mid 2020 I received 
> notification that they would be transferring their operation to Dreamscape 
> Networks International, based in Singapore, but still operating under the 
> same name.)
> 
> As the website was continually off line I thought I would contact Crazy 
> Domains to See if there was anything wrong with my Domain registration, which 
> may have explained why the site was not working,. The technician there was 
> able to access my website and everything that had been happening since I 
> lodged my complaint with Vodien. (I subsequently found out they are the same 
> company.)
> 
> Any way it seems he knew what was wrong and told me to get in touch with auDA 
> as there was nothing, they could or were allowed to do.
> 
> I had never heard of the auDA, but they are a non profit .au Domain 
> Adminstration that oversees the operation and management framework of the .au 
> domain on the internet.
> 
> Apparently they advised Vodien on 19 Dec 2022 that a Ph  ishing scam 
> 

[WAMUG] Web site hosts - Information - Recommendations

[Matt Falvey via WAMUG]

Hi, I know this is not strictly mac related, but it is about webs site hosting 
mac a product from Reunion family tree application on The Next Generation of 
Genealogy Sitebuilding (TNG).

I have had a family tree website for many years hosted by Webcity which were 
taken over by Vodien Internet Solutions, based in Singapore around mid 2020.

On 1 Jan 2023 I noticed my site was down and thought it may be related to the 
change of the year so I let it go before notifying them on the 3rd. Since then 
they have managed to get the website up intermittently about 3 or 4 times.

(I registered my Domain name with Crazy Domains and in mid 2020 I received 
notification that they would be transferring their operation to Dreamscape 
Networks International, based in Singapore, but still operating under the same 
name.)

As the website was continually off line I thought I would contact Crazy Domains 
to See if there was anything wrong with my Domain registration, which may have 
explained why the site was not working,. The technician there was able to 
access my website and everything that had been happening since I lodged my 
complaint with Vodien. (I subsequently found out they are the same company.)

Any way it seems he knew what was wrong and told me to get in touch with auDA 
as there was nothing, they could or were allowed to do.

I had never heard of the auDA, but they are a non profit .au Domain 
Adminstration that oversees the operation and management framework of the .au 
domain on the internet.

Apparently they advised Vodien on 19 Dec 2022 that a Ph  ishing scam 
impersonating the America First Credit Union was trying to acquire account 
numbers and passwords, they gave Vodien 72 hours to fix it and when they 
didn’t’ they blocked the website with a message to them serverHold DNS abuse.  
They said Phishing had been reported by, various organisation.

auDa had to tell me what to tell Vodien what the problem was and how to fix the 
problem.   

So Vodien did that and the website came back up and went back down again.

Then then said to fix it they would need to go back to a September back up, 
reinstall it and everything will be working fine after that . They did that and 
the same problem is persisting, the website is down.


So I asked them a couple of days ago, were they going to seriously attempt to 
fix the problem, expedite it to a senior member so I can get the service I 
require and what compensation I will be receiving? 

They came back with, they had moved it up the chain and the senior engineer 
recommended that I authorise them migrating the website to a new server for 
free.  I asked them what is the benefit of going to the new server. They 
replied that the new server has been securely updated and is free of any 
problems. They also offered 3 months extension of my current contract for free.


Has anyone had any similar issues? Or has anyone with any knowledge of hosting 
any suggestions as to whether it is a good idea to move to the new server or 
not? (I presume if I don’t, I won’t have a website.)


Finally can anyone recommend a family tree friendly host service, (possibly 
Australian based), for when I almost certainly choose to move?

Thanks

Matt.


  




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[Matt Falvey via WAMUG]

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