123-Reg problems and importance of quality hosting
I read a few weeks ago about UK based 123 Reg’s DNS server failure for a whole weekend. The problem started on Friday afternoon and wasn’t fixed until Sunday evening - over 48 hours of downtime. For those non-technical reading this, DNS servers are key to the internet as they provide the lookup of domain names to IP addresses - which are used to route traffic around the internet. So www.zarr.com resolves to IP address 87.127.147.50.
Without functioning DNS servers, people typing in www.company.com for websites hosted with 123-Reg would fail - so even websites would be up and running, there wouldn’t be a way of getting to them. According to a statement from a 123-Reg representative, the problem occurred due to high demand on the servers and then hardware failure. I think customer’s frustration was exasperated by the fact there was no-one you could contact to get an update. No phones answered, nor messageboards/forums updated. Problems happen, but I would have expected a multi-million company such as 123-Reg to have hardware immediately available to replace ones that fail - I’m sure they will from now on though!
For people running websites on those servers that couldn’t be reached, the results were disasterous. As its now the end of November - well December in about 2 hours - ecommerce sites are getting busier and the last 6-8 weeks of the year are the busiest with sometimes more sales generated than the rest of the year.
So downtime of 48 hours can cost money. A very good blog that I read called Self-Made Minds is run by two UK based lads who detail what they are doing to make serious money online - not through running ecommerce sites, but through affiliate marketing. Al is current hitting the $1000 barrier each day through Google Adsense (with other incomes streams too), so profit wise he could have lost out on $2000+. Some relatively modest websites that Zarr have developed and host are turning over £5000-£7500 per day and making 40%+ profit on those sales each day
My dad has always said that if something looks to good to be true, it probably is. So with 123-Reg’s hosting at a few pounds a day, you get what you pay for - well thats just my opinion anyway.
If you are looking to host a web, the advice I would pass on is:
1. ask for customer testiimonials, or speak to their existing customers as their experiences and comments could sway you.
2. ask about uptime % or availability. If they guarantee 100%, then they are lying!
3. Ask what methods are available for you as a customer to speak to someone technical who can help you if you get a problem. If they say its purely email support, then that should ring an alarm bell - are you too important to speak to?
Good luck!
