JTL.net down for almost 2 hours....

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Posted by andymatt, 06-14-2012, 11:07 PM
I have 2 dedicated servers with JTL - at first I thought it was the one server, then I checked the other, no luck.

So I checked and both 'jtl.net' and 'jtlnet.com' their 2 main domains are not up either.

I called as soon as I noticed an issue as I was on one of the sites and was taken to their 3rd party answering service.

Since then, everytime I try calling I get a "the person you are trying to reach is unavailable please leave a message" type thing.

**Edit** They have been down for almost 2 hours now.

Needless to say I can't sleep, literally, until this issue is resolved.

Is there any external way of identifying an issue (aka massive blackouts, etc.)

If not...what exactly are my options...their customer service has been declining, if I can't get a hold of them at all...what then?

Any advice would be helpful :\
Posted by divinitystar, 06-14-2012, 11:29 PM
You're not alone. I am having the same issue with them, and their phone answering system isn't even taking calls. I will be awake all night too...hoping to get some help here as well.
Posted by gordonrp, 06-14-2012, 11:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andymatt

Any advice would be helpful :\

Either:
- restore your offsite backups to a different host
or
- go to sleep
Posted by andymatt, 06-14-2012, 11:39 PM
Well it's a comfort at least to know there's someone else in the same rocky boat right now, I "had" great service with JTL for 5+ years, but the past 2 years after that it's really gone downhill and at times I feel like I'm the only person out there using their hosting anymore.

I know there's nothing I can do...but I don't want to be getting flooded with calls first thing in the morning from my clients.

I just called and actually got through (somewhat) - it was the answering service but instead of asking 20 questions I was able to speak with the woman who said yes they're having issues, and JTL has not given them any estimated time as to when they'll be back up.

I asked to be given a call when they're back up, but that's no guarantee either. It's literally a sit and wait game, it's just extremely frustrating.
Posted by ekhoo, 06-14-2012, 11:53 PM
Anyone know when they went down and any resolution timeframe to expect? Am in the same boat as you guys with 4 servers with them.

Made a couple of international calls (am not in the US) and can't get through. Been with them since 2001...
Posted by andymatt, 06-15-2012, 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gordonrp

Either:
- restore your offsite backups to a different host
or
- go to sleep

Well I'm double pwned on that one - my "offsite" backups are through them - I can search around maybe for an ip - but the host address I have is: fs8.jtlnet.com ....so I obviously can't connect to download anything :\

I guess that's stupidity on my part - I prepared for a server down-age with backups but not a provider. Lesson learned.

I'd like to sleep, and need to, but somehow repeatedly pressing refresh instead makes me feel more productive lol
Posted by ekhoo, 06-15-2012, 12:07 AM
Hi Andy,

Same here but if you'd like I can press refresh for you and you can go to sleep -- I'm 13 hours ahead of you and it's just five past noon here. Pinging and pressing refresh as well.
Posted by andymatt, 06-15-2012, 12:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ekhoo

Anyone know when they went down and any resolution timeframe to expect? Am in the same boat as you guys with 4 servers with them.

Made a couple of international calls (am not in the US) and can't get through. Been with them since 2001...

I noticed it at about 9:20PM EST. I was working on a site, I noticed it got slow then they went down. So this is going on almost 3 hours and minus a blackout in Canada once they've never been down this long that I've seen.

The first call I made I got the answering service, every call after that until the last one I made was the 'unavailable leave a message'.

The answering service has no clue what is going on, they are in no way actually connected to JTL they just take their calls. They say someone will call back but they never do
Posted by divinitystar, 06-15-2012, 12:11 AM
My monitoring shows it went down around 9:45 PM EST. I'm in the US and my calls don't go through either.

Been with them since 2007 - great service up until the last year and half. There are times when "nobody's home" for hours on end, and they've actually ruined a few of my weekends in recent months with issues similar to this one.
Posted by andymatt, 06-15-2012, 12:35 AM
Yeah they use to be great - I'd call, speak to a real person who knew what they were talking about, they always responded quickly and I slept really well.

A few months back after a series of bad incidents & poorly educated responses to trouble tickets I had it - after some run around I was able to schedule a phone call with a real person who assured me JTL is running better then ever, they haven't outsourced their work, and they're expanding. Call me naive but I believed him...

A "sorry we're experiencing technical issues we should be back up shortly" would be a comfort right now. I really really really hope it's resolved here soon, if they packed up and left...fingers crossed it's a temporary thing.
Posted by divinitystar, 06-15-2012, 12:46 AM
Your story is identical to mine. I used to be able to get a technician live on the phone at any hour during the day. Now, it's almost seems like they work 9-5pm and leave the servers 100% unmanned on nights and weekends.

What's happening right now is beyond ridiculous and unprofessional - if it's anything like the last outage we had, we probably won't even get a call back or any notice of what went wrong.
Posted by andymatt, 06-15-2012, 12:54 AM
My only hope now is that it's resolved before morning so I don't have to do a lot of awkward and nerve wracking explaining to clients as to why they can't access their websites or email. The majority of them are really nice, but a few will have my head for breakfast I'm sure.

Well I'm off to try to get some sleep, I guess I'll leave ekhoo on double refresh duty If this isn't resolved by the morning I'm sure this thread will become my venting home. It's sad I guess to have so much riding on technology, but I'm really really really SOL if this isn't resolved :\
Posted by ekhoo, 06-15-2012, 12:57 AM
Still no luck on the refresh or pings -- both from across the pacific or from my other server in LA.

Looks like I've to strategize on multiple providers now... and better off-site backups
Posted by horsetail, 06-15-2012, 01:51 AM
We've been having the same problems with JTL. Our site has already been down twice today - the first time for almost 3 hours. I put in a ticket then and never got a response. Now everything is down.

This is worrying me even more because we had an issue with Cpanel/WHM the other day not being licensed and as of the last time I looked it wasn't fixed. I certainly hope this isn't how we find out that they went out of business.
Posted by ekhoo, 06-15-2012, 02:12 AM
All my servers are back up. 2pm MYT, 4am GMT, 2am EST
Posted by divinitystar, 06-15-2012, 02:13 AM
Same here...2am EST.
Posted by horsetail, 06-15-2012, 02:14 AM
It's back up, but they have yet to activate our Cpanel/WHM. It came up as unlicensed over a week ago and we can't get into Cpanel or WHM. And they have yet to fix it.

I tried what the page said, but am told the license was used on too many machines.

Guess I'll try grabbing some backups via shell access.
Posted by andymatt, 06-15-2012, 11:08 AM
I got up around 3:30AM EST to check, I've never so happy to see a flood of gold selling spam come emails come in!

I have not received a call back(not that I actually expected them to return it). There is nothing stating that there was any downtime - "hey guys, whoops our bad there was some downtime yesterday, be reassured the issue was resolved and won't happen again"

My personal experience with JTL is that they "were" great - and that's why I stayed with them for so long. They weren't the best price, or the cheapest available - they were a group of people who offered great services and knew what they were doing.

The decline in services has finally come to a head for me - I'm with ekhoo on the offsite backups - lesson learned there. In todays age "transparent" companies who have little internet presence, can't be reached, aren't available via social media, etc. leave little you can do if there's a problem.

After the downward progression over the past 2 years of unanswered trouble tickets, slow response times, uneducated responses, and when you really need them the most you are left in the dark...it's time.
Posted by divinitystar, 06-15-2012, 02:32 PM
I was able to call today and speak with somebody by pressing "3" for sales as opposed to "5" for support. From what I gathered during my call, is that JTLnet was aware of the situation and was working very hard behind the scenes to get things fixed. The person I spoke with was very knowledgeable, and my call reminded me of how things *used* to be when getting support.

I expressed my concern about the lack of communication and recommended they visit these forums or even setup a dumb little twitter account so they can communicate to their clients during these types of outages. A simple notice would have saved us a lot of undue stress and would have prevented us from fearing the worst case scenario.
Posted by garycarr, 06-15-2012, 04:29 PM
JTL was purchased by the same people that purchased my former hosting company Hostonce.com about 8 years ago. Their name is XIBI Group and their website is xibigroup.com. If Joel, the former owner of JTL is no longer there it would explain the lack of response and support. I rather not go into details, but I would stay clear of XIBI Group and anything they are associated with.
Posted by andymatt, 06-15-2012, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by divinitystar

I was able to call today and speak with somebody by pressing "3" for sales as opposed to "5" for support. From what I gathered during my call, is that JTLnet was aware of the situation and was working very hard behind the scenes to get things fixed. The person I spoke with was very knowledgeable, and my call reminded me of how things *used* to be when getting support.

I expressed my concern about the lack of communication and recommended they visit these forums or even setup a dumb little twitter account so they can communicate to their clients during these types of outages. A simple notice would have saved us a lot of undue stress and would have prevented us from fearing the worst case scenario.

Same here - the reassurance and nice sounding guy I spoke with today is the same thing I heard last time I had a major complaint which is why I stayed.

The problem at hand is still exactly that - if there's a major issue you can't get a hold of them. They still never return calls even though the answering service says they'll call back(maybe that's a communication thing), last night even the answering service didn't exist for a period it was just a machine, there's no Facebook/Twitter, IM, website update...nothing. Not even a message on the machine "sorry about this...", the answering service can't give any information - and that's the problem - I have people that complain to me "hey my site is down" - so when I have no knowledge to relay to them that also makes me look like quite the idiot as well.

Joel's name is still on both jtl.net and jtlnet.com, but owning a company and being present and active are 2 different things - I was reassured again when I spoke to someone that they haven't outsourced and things haven't changed - but actions speak louder then words.
Posted by ekhoo, 06-19-2012, 02:48 AM
I guess the issue is someone to talk to so that we're all not left in the dark wondering what's going on and worrying. Especially when you have clients hosted on those servers.

I've some on MediaTemple and the other is at Turnkey. Anyone have other hosts to recommend as part of my diversification plan?

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