The Worst Nightmare Imaginable with My Former Web Host

Home > Build > Web Hosting

by Keith Teicher

How safe is your site?

Do you think your web host could close your site, terminate your account and refuse to speak to you? No?

THINK AGAIN!

This is a true story about how I had the worst nightmare imaginable with my last web host--Burlee Networks, www.burlee.com. And it lasted for almost five days!

My Web site, onlineorders.net is an informational site designed to aid those wishing to add e-commerce capabilities to their web site. The site occupies about 4 megabytes of storage at our web hosting company. We use four CGI scripts in our site and all of them are commercial programs used by thousands of other sites on the web. These include "Links" from gossamer-threads.com, "Anaconda" from anaconda.net, "Register-It", and "Webstats" from Chatologica.com.

Here is my diary of how the nightmare unfolded.

Saturday, April 17, 11:50pm.
I try to access my site, but I am greeted with a 404 error message--page not found. Hmm, that's odd. I try to FTP to my site to see if something has happened to my homepage file. I connect to the server, but I can't connect to my site--access denied!

Sunday 18, 2:00am.
I still can't access the site. In the past I have had this same experience, but usually within a few minutes the site is active again. I dash off a quick email to support at my web host, informing them of the problem and asking for an update.

9:15am.
I try to log onto my site again, thinking that by now my site should be back online. At the very least I should have an email response from support advising me of the situation. I am disappointed on both counts--no site or email. Once again I zip off another email to support, "The site is still down, can you check on this and advise?"

11.00am.
I call burlee.com. I am upset at this point. Over the last month the site has almost doubled in popularity and several major advertisers were about to make significant decisions regarding the site. The gentleman I spoke to said he was aware of the problem and that there were some scripting problems on the server my site is on, and they were investigating this situation. But he couldn't give me an idea of how long it would take to get my site back on-line again.

5.00pm.
I return home and try to log onto my site. Nothing. Now my blood pressure is starting to rise. I call burlee.com again and they tell me that it appears the scripting problem may be within my site. "Didn't I get the email?", he asked. I inform them I have not received any email and that was one reason I was annoyed. It was their obligation to keep me, a paying customer, informed of the situation, no matter what the problem was. He promises to send me the email again.

I am getting curious about this situation. There was nothing unique or strange about the content in my site. Just out of curiosity I try to send an email to the site's domain which is forwarded to my regular mail box. It goes through with no problem. I try to access the script that allows me to update the directory of resources at my site. I get an error message that the script produced no output. The strange thing is, the error message returned a path that includes a domain name other then mine. I start to think that maybe something else is wrong at the server.

5:45pm.
At this point my site has been down for 18 hours. I received the following email from Burlee, "Your Web site has been temporarily deactivated due to poor scripting that has adversely affected the performance of our system. We are still investigating the matter, and will get back to you when we have pinpointed the problem."

I call Burlee again, and they tell me they hope to have my site back up in the morning. They said, they didn't think there was anything they could do today and that the analysis of the problem was very complex.

Out of all my emotions I have been feeling, the one that is bothering me the most, is the one of failure. I take my obligations seriously and I feel that I was letting my visitors and advertisers down. I was amazed at the number of email I was receiving from past visitors. They were coming back to my site for more information, but all they were confronted with were just error messages.

Monday 19, 9:30am.
I check the site and it is still down. I call Burlee again and complain. They tell me they know about the problem and it is being investigated. I ask to speak to a technician. "They are not in yet", they said. So, I ask for one of them to call me when they get in. But instead of agreeing to this simple request, they tell me to just send an email to their support. I ask to speak to their technical supervisor, but he's not in either. I ask if he could get the supervisor to call me back, when he gets in. "No", was the reply! They said he doesn't generally talk to customers and I should just send him an email. I ask for his email address and am told to just send a message to support with his name in the subject line.

11:40am.
My blood pressure is now at boiling point. I am really annoyed, now! I have been using the web for years and I have never heard of a situation like this. I can't get any information, my site has been down for 36 hours and NO ONE AT MY WEB HOSTING COMPANY IS WILLING TO SPEAK TO ME!!!

So, I quickly rush off another email stating, "If there is ANYTHING I can do to assist in the process you are going through, please let me know as I would like to get the site back on-line ASAP. If there is a scripting problem in my site, I am willing to deactivate them all to get the site back online. Would it assist you if I described each of the scripts and what they do?"

I also asked them to be more specific about the problem and to give me a time that they thought the site would be back online. And I also requested FTP access to be restored, since I wanted to see if my site was intact or had suffered damage. I thought this was a reasonable request, since I was told that my site should be back on-line that morning.

12:50pm.
I receive the following email response from a technician, but not the person I had sent my message to.

"I talked with Mr. Clemmons about your site. At this point he cannot reactivate a partially "crippled site" this afternoon, but he will look into this option, as he understands the urgency you feel. We thank you for your patience. Please understand that our systems are very complex and any problems caused by your scripts must be fully analyzed - not just the site itself. While it may be frustrating, we cannot quickly reactivate a site that poses a possible threat to the security and stability of the entire system.  We could be accused of being overly cautious, but we must fully investigate the matter. Please note that this kind of prudence prevents future downtime from which we all benefit."

Now, I am VERY annoyed! My site is still down and I can not get a specific explanation of the problem.

1:00pm.
I try to calm myself down a little bit, it is difficult since I see advertising revenue flying out the window. I send an email back in which I thank them for the reply and inform them that I certainly do not want my site risking the integrity of their entire system. However, I reiterate that I don't see how my site could have done this.

I ask the following direct questions:

"Thanks for your offer of assistance. We do not mean to keep you hanging on, but there is nothing more I can tell you at this point. In preparation, you should certainly consider replacing all your scripts. I do not know at this point whether it is one particular script or many. Only the technicians will be able to tell you this once they have completed their investigation."

OK, time to run down to the drug store and get something to calm my blood pressure. Not only is my site not up, but they did not even answer the direct questions I asked or give me a specific explanation of the problem. My only solace is that they are indicating my site will be reactivated soon.

5:30pm.
I call support again for an update. They have nothing to report. I ask to speak to a technician or manager again. Again, their reply was, "We generally don't talk to customers on the telephone and that I should send an email."

I explain that my site has been down almost 48 hours and I think that out of courtesy I should be able to talk to a real human being.

Tuesday 20, 9:30am.
My site is still down. I call again. No new information and no one is willing to speak to me.

11:50am.
I call again. Same thing happens.

12:30pm.
I notice an email from Burlee support--I am excited. Hopefully my site will be reactivated and I can get back to business. Quickly my hopes are dashed. Instead I get the following message.

"Thank you for your patience regarding the investigation of the scripts on your Web site. The delay in an adequate reply was due to our exhaustive investigation of the problematic scripts.  More time was devoted to finding solutions to the server malfunction caused by these scripts.

Due to the scripting errors inherent in your CGI scripts, we have decided to terminate your account with Burlee Networks effective immediately. This is the only acceptable solution devised that ensures that these scripting problems will not occur again. The errors caused a considerable amount of trouble for our personnel as well as our clients.

This decision is final and cannot be appealed. Regarding the billing for your account, you will not be assessed the $500 fine normally associated with this type of violation, as we believe that these scripting errors were not intentional. The hosting fees, however, are nonrefundable."

WHAT! That's unbelievable! They were giving me the impression that my site would be reactivated, yet suddenly they change their tune and tell me that they are terminating my account. I have prepaid twelve months hosting fees and I still have eight months left of the contract and they won't refund my money! I am stunned.

I immediately call and ask to talk to whoever is in charge.  I am told that the person in charge sent the email and he wasn't going to change his mind. I ask to speak to his boss and he says he is boss. I ask if he is the owner. "No", was the reply. I ask to speak to Mr. Maris who's name and "customer friendly" comments are on Burlee's home page. He replied, "Mr. Maris doesn't get involved in these day to day incidents." I explain, this isn't a day to day incident this is above and beyond normal day to day problems. I was getting nowhere, so I hang up.

12:50pm.
I send another email requesting the ability to retrieve files from my site. Since I use a database that is updated on-line by our users I often don't have a totally accurate back up locally. I also ask for information regarding the problematic script. I offer to remove whatever the offending script is, if they will reactivate my account. By this time, my site has been down for about 60 hours.

4:15pm.
I contact the hosting company where I have other sites hosted and explain what has happened to me. I advise them that I am transferring the Web site to them. Within 15 minutes they had my new account setup and was ready for my files. The Internic transfer request is made. Hat's off to Futurequest.com for their cooperation and support!

Continued...