I just had to speak up. I started with 1and1 back when they first offered the free hosting to try it out. At that time it was ideal, I was very low on funds and cutting down some features of my site made it work there. I had few technical problems, but those I did have I was able to speak to a tech and get resolved immediately. Back then it was like the tech support line went into the back office where the technicians actually worked. Of course I was switched to the $59.99/3 months plan after the free period, which I have been trying to switch off for about 9 months now. I just had another 59.99 charge hit my bank account. And I am not able to use my hosting service because the website that I have been developing for almost 4 months is now for unknown reasons giving me a 500 error. I have repeatedly contacted their technical support to get vague uninformed answers. I have tried all the information on the forums regarding how to fix it. Nothing has worked. You better believe I am transferring my hosting over to a new host today. Goodbye 1and1, I refuse to put up with uniformed foreign support people and crappy, overpriced service that has alot of problems.
Comments
Also haven't been happy with 1and1
Hi Mink, we've also had issues with 1and1 quite a bit in the past. If you search drupal.org for 1and1 you'll find a wide range of evaluations on 1and1, with a disturbing number being 'not good'. Sounds like they went through some growing pains that just about killed them. You can see these past comments about 1and1:
Is 1and1.com slow?
1and1.com - The good, the bad and the ugly.
There's a million hosting options. We've been happy with NetwordRedux; they're about average but local which was important to us.
Good luck,
Jason
The only negative experience I have had ...
has been somewhat weak customer service. Otherwise I have found 1 and 1 to be outstanding in almost every respect.
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I never had a problem until
I never had a problem until the last few months. When they started to charge me I tried several times to change the plan but could not. So I overpaid them by about $90 but they don't mind. Now not only am I getting 500 errors on the drupal install, I am getting this error:
Memory size is not something 1&1 will let you change. *Sigh* Good luck bwv, but I am changing hosts.
I would like to second that
The customer support rarely recognizes what you are asking for but the hardware and connectivity are very decent to excellent. The machine I got on (Business Level hosting - $10/month) seems not to be overcrowded at all. I also like 3-months billing period as opposed to full year elsewhere.
And for overcrowding: the 1and1 machine I am on has attached 3.5T SAN with still 2.5T available. The machine hosts 110 websites (5 are mine) so real number of accounts is perhaps 30-50. They allow 250G space, so that would be only 3x overselling.
Just for comparison of overselling: I recently tried the provider, who advertises reseller account with 1.5TB space. I purchased a month to try, they put me on the machine with 400G drive as reported by WHM panel - with 80G still available to all accounts on that server. They said they would add more space when existing fills up 95%. I exercised this and wrote HTML file generator and filled HDD up to 98%. After 2 days sitting at 98% they added second 500G drive under /home2 and moved my account there. Before judging me for filling up 50G unnecessarily, please remember I was sold a service with 1.5T space and was kind enough to leave 10G available for others possibly running real websites on that machine.
1&1 is completely oversold.
1&1 is completely oversold. They're LARGEST hosting provider in the industry, so don't think that you'll get personal support manager.
AFAIK, they're pretty bad even as a domain registrar (although their prices are pretty good), cause they're charging extra for simple routine domain management actions (check WebHostingTalk for further details).
You can use their hosting for static HTML sites, but not for Drupal.
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1&1 dedicated servers are just as awful
I hate 1&1. I'm building a couple of Drupal sites and have some established Wordpress sites, so went with their managed dedicated server option about 6 months ago. Admittedly, it's the cheapest dedicated plan I've ever seen (about £50 per month) but I still wasn't expecting the awful service that followed. I don't have that much traffic yet, so figured it was worth a shot.
To cut a long story short, the server keeps crashing. I crashed it yesterday just by downloading some Wordpress pages via FTP. It's probably crashed 5-6 times in 6 months, and it's always the same routine:
- Call their foreign support team and spend 10 minutes repeating my account number whilst being put on hold for them to 'verify me'
- Wait on hold for another 10 minutes whilst they confirm that yes, the server is down
- Listen to them explain that they can't do anything about it, but they will email internal support and issue me with a case reference
- Between 3-8 hours later, the server will magically be available again. No explanation, no permanent fix, just until next time...
I've sent them emails asking for a permanent resolution or a different server, but nothing comes back.
So yes, I'm finding a new host this week. Don't use 1&1 for anything but domain registration, please.
I've found them OK...
...but you get what you pay for. Technical support (in the UK) has been alright via email, but it does take a while. Contract support has been variable, but gets there in the end. I've been running a couple of Drupal sites as well as a few Xoops jobbies for a while now with no significant problems, but I've been in the IT business for nearly 30 years so I tend to rely on my own support rather than that provided by suppliers.
Maybe I've just been lucky?
I am not sure why it had
I am not sure why it had been so bad for me. I even had a struggle to get my money back. If I get what I pay for I was severly shafted then as I was paying them $59.99 US every three months. That's about 4x what I paid for the last host I was with, whom I liked better. Also about 8x more than what I am paying now.
I hate to say it, but in my
I hate to say it, but in my admittedly limited experience, 500 errors and server crashes are not, generally speaking, the fault of the host. I've been with 1and1 for several years and have never seen my site go down because of an error at the server end. I've had similar problems as have been described here but made adjustments on my end (for example, editing permissions, getting correct paths established, and amending settings.php to increase memory load) that have resolved all problems. I generally do not find any need for customer service, since most answers to our common questions are available here and elsewhere on the web. I pay 28 dollars every three months and have more space than I know what to do with. I also like their control panel and have registered numerous domain names rapidly and with ease.
The only issue thus far that I have been unable to resolve is one involving a cron file that I would like to run; my assumption is that I am doing something incorrectly.
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http://classicvinyl.biz ~ http://vinylclassics.biz ~ http://jazz.vinylclassics.biz
My YouTube Channel
and amending settings.php to
That, it seems, would have alleviated all my problems however I got several emails where I talked to the host directly and I was not allowed to increase my memory load. I had never had any major problems before the installation of Drupal. Afterwards I was rife with problems that were not allowing my project to continue. Thus costing me money aside from the money I was paying to the host. My hosting was the $59.99 every three months, and while for a while I did need the space, I found it very difficult to downgrade my package as opposed to upgrading my package. When I started having trouble I did as you said, I scoured this forum and on the web before making any diagnosis. After moving to another host that is greatly cheaper but more than adequate, I have had no problems.
1and1 - i have never known a company so innept and arrogant
My short answer is to avoid 1and1 if you can. I've been with them for around 3 years - and they've got steadily worse. They're okay, until you need support. I thought their prices were reasonable, and one of their main advantages - but they're not actually that cheap, and once they've got you involved in a billing cycle, it's very difficult to get rid of them.
Changing web-hosts is a hassle – but after being pushed a little too far by 1and1, I decided that enough was enough. After doing some research I found a superb web-host who charge half as much as I was paying with 1and1; I'm completely shocked how much better a host can be.
I dislike 1and1 for the following reasons:
I've had emails and billing responses sent to me in error - requesting I pay x-amount of money. Responses have sometimes been completely unintelligible half-complete replies to other customer's queries. I got to the point where I had absolutely no confidence in the company at all.
There have been times when I've been unable to access my webspace / website, and databases associated with my account; unluckily for me this occurred while I was demoing a site to a client. I received no apology or explanation from 1and1; rather than own up, their policy seems to be to hope customers won't notice.
At one stage I was unable to make a payment because the billing departments IT system was down. Subsequently my account, was locked and sent to a debt recovery agent, making all my domains and sites unavailable for nearly a week.
To get anything more than basic hosting, expensive upgrades are needed. The level of functionality vs. cost often seems arbitrary; for example - why should I pay over £72 pounds a year extra just to receive SSH access?
I've sent complaints on numerous occasions and not received responses. When I have received replies, they've been 'stock' replies - standard templates. They don't listen and it's impossible to speak to anyone who can actually help. Everything is run according to scripts.
I cancel my account - they respond; not by refunding me the money I'm owed, but by re-billing me for each domain previously registered, using brand-new two year contracts!
I sound like I'm ranting - and I suppose I am. I'm just deeply dissatisfied with this company - and still slightly shocked that they can get away with such levels of incompetence.
Avoid 1and1 like the plague - there's no such thing as a free lunch.
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