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LaneHost - 14+ Month Review
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Posted by geekie246, 04-22-2008, 11:12 AM I had recently posted 2 other reviews of LaneHost. They can be found here: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=610313 http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=631157 It has been 14+ months since I had joined LaneHost. Initially, service & performance were absolutely unbelievable. The first 2 - 3 months I had not experienced performance like they offered, had not seen service like they offered and was extremely impressed. At about the 6 month mark, things were not as rosie, server loads were quite high, and the service offered dramatically fell wayside. Not only did I find that the response to tickets slowed, that the technical knowledge of the support people left alot to be desired. I had to have my own staff provide technical support to solve problems which were clearly LaneHost's responsibily. After I had posted my second review about their lack of service, and their obvious inability to resolve issues, Derrick from LaneHost had indicated that they were addressing the issues. I will admit, things got much better and service did improve, as did the technical knowledge of those manning the help desk. The minor things that pop up, I don't mind. But with LaneHost, it seems that things are very cyclical and once they improve, they improve dramatically. When things go wrong, be prepared for days and days of agony! This is what happened recently. I was notified of a server switch, which didn't bother me too much. I asked for the new DNS server IPs, and promptly made arrangements to have my local technicians at my shop to do the switch at the time when LaneHost had indicated that it would occur. 4 days later, the server switch had not taken place, no notice from LaneHost, no explanation nothing! I incurred overtime for this period of time because I wanted to have staff in the office, on standby to move our clients DNS and to address any issues that resulted from the server switch. Then almost 12 days later, I get a PANIC message from Derrick, the owner of LaneHost indicating out of the blue that my account had been migrated, mid-day, no notice. This was on a Thursday and I had my staff act quickly to change the DNS entries for the domains we host and monitor propogation. We quickly discovered that LaneHost had made errors in the DNS they assigned us. Over the weekend, things slowly came online on the new server, but the data that LaneHost has transferred was STALE! It was over a week old (I'm guessing from the original date they were going to transfer the accounts). It was a total mess! Not all data was transferred, missing databases, corrupt files, you name it ... I had it. I had their support transfer the affected accounts again, and had my staff manually go through each domain and verify EVERYTHING from the old server and the new server to ensure that all the correct data was in place. It was a disaster averted partially because I put major resources behind it from my own technical staff and because our company backs up the files on each customer's account daily! Where was Derrick during all this? He was on a business trip! Not Answering Emails, and has been VERY silent since this major disaster. It is obvious now that LaneHost is a ONE MAN SHOW! If Derrick isn't around, nothing gets done. His support are outsourced, and depending on who is on duty, you either get great support, or no support. I have yet to be able to get anyone at the phone numbers posted on LaneHost's site, have not spoken to anyone other than Derrick one time. I have asked for a call back, and to speak with someone, left voice mails ... NOTHING! This is the typical response after they screw up. If anyone can recommend a good host other than LaneHost, it would be much appreciated. If LaneHost can turn things around, it would be a great company, but they need to HIRE someone who knows how to run a company, hire technical support staff that's not outsourced and pay attention to the customers. They need to communicate much better than they have been, and need to realize that they cannot arbitrarily decided to do things that impacts the businesses of all those they host.
Posted by rv_irl, 04-22-2008, 12:11 PM I'm honestly surprised you stayed for 14 months. That's good customer loyalty, unfortunately it seems the vendor was not as loyal..
Posted by geekie246, 04-22-2008, 04:15 PM Most of the issues my own technical support people were able to resolve. yes, it sucks when you expect support from a host, but it was reality. I know what I'm paying for and to be honest, I didn't expect much more after things went down hill. No real downtime on the servers I'm on, probably the best uptime I've experienced. We are now striking a contract with a local telco to have some servers installed closer to home. In all of this, the owner of LaneHost, Derrick Lane, has not responded to one email, one concern, or even apologized for the mess that his company has created. He does however, continue to advertise here at WHT.
Posted by nikg, 04-22-2008, 04:44 PM I was with them for about 5 months. Like mentioned in the first post everything was great at the beggining.. Afer that disaster came. Sites were contantly down and server load was hiting 150+ When i mentioned that they were insisting that no way this was happening. BUT they didn't know that i was running phpsysinfo (a very simple script which runs in every server by just copying a few files) so i sent them a few screenshots and after that Derrick sent me a long message admiting all those problems. I was lucky that i had only a few websites for testing some things, so i didn't have any angry clients It was not hard to understand that it was a one man show so i cancelled my account. I keep my other 2 reseller acount with 2 hosts that i am happy with them. One located in UK and being with them for 2,5 years with now downtimes and happy clients and one in USA for 8 months happy as well
Posted by geekie246, 04-22-2008, 10:43 PM nikg, would you be able to provide me with where to find that script you are talking about?
Posted by PremiumHost, 04-22-2008, 11:09 PM Try this link http://phpsysinfo.sourceforge.net It's quite common when server is filling up and start all sort of problems.
Posted by geekie246, 04-23-2008, 12:59 AM Thanks. I don't think that the problems plaguing LaneHost has to do with the server filling up as much as what it does with NO management, NO direction, and probably a poor business plan. As I've indicated in my reviews, things didn't start going bad until the company started to grow, which emphasizes the necessity for a proper business plan in this business. Growth can be rapid, and if you are not prepared for the growth, it can turn your company upside down. This I think, is the mistake of many "value" web hosts. They go for the quick bang, make some quick money, and then not be able to deliver on their promises. Slow & steady ... with a solid plan is how it should be, but again, this is just my opinion and 25 plus years of experience.
Posted by magicvorlon, 04-24-2008, 01:38 PM I can only echo the above statements. I had a mini-reseller plan with them from December to February. I had a feeling the service wouldn`t be too good. Heck they offer a whmcs license plus a very large reseller allocation, all for 11 bucks when you factor in their coupon(s). But for the license alone, it was worth it. I never used the plan for reselling space, I couldn`t be that cruel to my clients. I could be wrong but I got the impression their support was outsourced, perhaps the tecs were using generic English names but their replies sounded foreign to me. I also had the frequent reply of: At first I never thought too much of this, but when the admin can take anywhere from a few hours to a days to respond, that`s when you realise this admin is also the owner and likely the one man operation. If this owner is away doing other things, you will have to wait. I can`t remember but I think I was on their server BM5 or something like that. I had pretty poor uptime, with frequent outages of five to fifteen minutes. When these happen often (almost every night), it eats into your uptime! The ironic thing is, while the admin is at times extremely hard to get hold of. The owner is on these forums finding the time to advertise. Even more ironic, they are advertising big shiny new servers, yet from what I see, it`s the same three servers they have been using for ages.
Posted by geekie246, 04-26-2008, 02:53 PM That's the same response that I got, and they transitioned me to their "new server". Server loads are at an average now of 25 on most evenings. No response from the "admin (AKA Derrick Lane). I'm now hunting for a new host once again, and migrating (once again)! The latest response I got from them after they restored over a working site, which had been operating for 9 days after the last server transfer, was "we're sorry, we don't have a backup of your old site". They erased about 25 articles from a news site. Fortunately, I didn't trust them, had a backup and was up in running after many many many long hours of trying to get someone to restore the data. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Posted by magicvorlon, 04-26-2008, 03:47 PM If you need to reach the "admin" just checkout the sales forums here, he`s advertising often enough! I backed up my "backup files" the other night. Keeping them on my pc until I find another more reliable host. I was only using the reseller account with them for storing files/tarballs. I cancelled the account a couple of days ago, alas the ticket is open and not even looked at They`ll keep going, with such cheap costs their turnover must be quite high. Cancellations followed by new clients, followed by cancellations........
Posted by Manageandsupport_com, 04-26-2008, 05:10 PM Seems to me they were overselling and once the server was finally filled up server load started to greatly increase.
Posted by ldcdc, 04-26-2008, 09:13 PM Could be. Even then though, a server admin would intervene and suspend the top users if necessary, to get the server back within acceptable parameters, which in the end would translate into "you get what you pay for" for the customers.
Posted by magicvorlon, 04-27-2008, 11:20 AM Have fun trying to cancel! My request has been open four days and the ticket is just sitting there. I sent in a sales/billing inquiry about a hosting plan and it was answered within the hour! I guess cancellations and customer complaints are the lowest of low priorities for them!!!!
Posted by geekie246, 04-27-2008, 11:27 PM LOL! It's very bad there now. I have identified a new local provider, currently in negotiations for some co-lo type services, our own servers going into their location if things work out. To be honest, I have dealt with the BIG BOYS of hosting, many of them members here, and these little companies. To be totally honest, there is little difference between them. I have yet to find one that offers what they truly promised, regardless of the price that you pay. That's why our company is now looking at setting up our own dedicated servers ... owned, operated, maintained, support by the only people we can truly trust!
Posted by magicvorlon, 04-28-2008, 04:53 PM Indeed! Admin/Derrick must have gone on vacation and left the company in auto-pilot!! I have tickets (including a cancellation) sitting there for almost six days, never even looked at (or perhaps just ignored). Geekie246, are you looking to colo in Atlantic Canada? Just curious that`s all
Posted by sherwinaval, 04-29-2008, 04:11 AM are they down today?
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