If you have been a regular to this website, you would know that the site has been down for more than a week. In fact, this problem has been occurring since the beginning of January 2021. Due to some unknown reason, there is always an intermittent spike in server resources consumption, causing the site to fail at odd intervals. I tried to contact the support and for an entire month without getting any solutions.
Had The Same Exact Experience With These Vodien Customers. Reviews are taken from WH TOP.
How I Solved My Own Technical Problem
Instead of relying on them, I decided to take some time to read forums chats about others facing the same issue. Ultimately, I realized the root cause of this problem (which also means that I am now qualified to work as hosting support staff). The operating system which my server was operating on was outdated. My version was Centos 6, which has already reached the end of life on 30th November 2020. Hence, the outages were no coincidence. They were part of a brute force attempt to hack the server.
cPanel & WHM version 86 will continue to be supported through March 31, 2021. However, CentOS will stop providing support for CentOS 6 on all systems, including your server, on November 30, 2020. This means at that time they will no longer provide bug, security, or feature updates to CentOS 6. We encourage you to migrate to a server using CentOS 7 or upgrade to a server running CloudLinux 6 before November 30, 2020. Information about cPanel deprecation plan is available in our documentation.
After discovering the problem, I wanted the support staff to upgrade my OS to version 7. However, despite having subscribed to a managed server, they were not able to do it. I would need to either handle the whole process myself or purchasing another server. This news was extremely shocking to me. One of the sales staff even quoted an entire year subscription. Can you imagine how ridiculous this sounds? It is like paying for another broadband service from the same internet company because your neighbour wants to steal your wifi.
This Is How Much Vodien Wants To Charge Me Despite Having 6 Months Left On My Current Subscription!
Vodien’s Technical Support Is Virtually Non-Existent
Due to the prolonged response time, the support team could not get any of this done, and the server was compromised. However, we do not keep any personal information online. All contact form details are emailed directly to us (or most people WhatsApp me directly). In fact, the support was so slow that it took 6 days for them even to send me the backup files! Going forward, I have no idea when the support can even restore my site! There is no choice but to migrate to another hosting company.
I am not writing this because I want to bash a company and damage its reputation. I have been a client with them for the past 8 years and have always been satisfied with their past services. However, after the company was acquired by Dreamscape Networks back in 2017, prices were creeping upwards. Increasing prices are not that big of a concern to me if I get even more value. Unfortunately, this was not the case with Vodien. If you used the Wayback machine to check the Vodien’s website back in 2019, they were still offering 24/7 super support. However, the recent changes to their site tell you another story.
24/7 Super Support Was Still Available Back In 2019
The Current Vodien Website With The Super Support Banner Now Replaced By Sales Promo
How To Choose A Good Hosting Company?
Now I need a new hosting company. So how do you choose a good one? Website hosting is an extremely competitive business, and there are so many companies offering the same thing. Besides, reviews can be very misleading because they will only tell you one part of a story. Instead, I prefer to look at numbers and statistics because always tell you a complete picture.
One of the ways to check website statistics would be at webhostinggeeks.com. From there, you would be able to key in any hosting company to find out more about them. If you happen to key in Vodien, you will realise that the total number of domains has not increased after the acquisition. The total number of domains have been on a downward slide before picking up in 2019.
Vodien Domain Growth Over The Years
Although the total number of domains tells you a story, the critical one you need to scrutinise would be the number of lost/gain domains. This metric is important because it tells you about the customer retention of that company. If you lose more existing customers than acquiring new ones, you are in a bit of trouble. If you cannot retain enough customers, you will reach a spiral point where your existing clients continue to go somewhere else, and there are no more new clients to acquire.
Vodien’s Lost And Gained Domains
How I Ended Up Choosing Exabytes
After looking at insights of various hosting companies, I came across Exabytes. I decided to go with them due to a few reasons. The company was based in Singapore, and technical support was available 24/7. Exabytes is also a big company means that they have economies of scale and should hire a good team of support staff.
Exabytes Domain Growth Over The Years
Exabytes Lost and Gained Domains
Besides, the prices of their services were even lower than those of Vodien! And of course, the most important metric of all was their growing number of domains. It is obvious to see that more clients are sticking with them compared with those who are not.
If you are an existing website owner, I implore you to check your Centos and Cpanel version. Because after 31st March 2021, I assure you the, you will face similar or worse problems like what I have encountered if the upgrade is not done.
We Are Always Looking At Win-Win Solutions
Over at Condominiums of Singapore, the way we help clients analyze certain properties is no different from how we search our hosting companies. Property reviews are often biased and may not tell you the entire story. That is the reason why we always prefer to look at the numbers. Our clients make a good and informed decision, and we get paid. It is a win-win partnership we always desire at the end of the day.
If you are looking at a hosting company, find our analysis super helpful and wish to sign up with Exabytes, you can use our affiliate link below.
https://billing.exabytes.sg/mypanel/aff.php?aff=8200531
Although we do get paid a referral fee by Exabytes, the process of how we do it is not influenced by any other factors other than numbers and statistics. We are always looking for win-win relationships. If things do change at Exabytes, rest assured I will be writing another article like this one. Meanwhile, stay safe, both offline and online!
Article contributed by Jerry Wong.
Jerry Wong is a realtor with Propnex Realty. He loves coffee, cookies and condos and has been in real estate for ten years. Most importantly, he loves connecting people to properties and gets enormous satisfaction when they acquire their dream home. Or making well-informed decisions that see their assets grow. Book a video call appointment and Jerry will share with you the following.
- How certain factors affect real estate prices. Why some condos can make a million dollars while others can lose that same million.
- Why timing is not the most important thing. Because some people can buy the same condo at the same time, but one end up making $100k to $200k while the other suffers losses of the same amount!
- Understanding your requirements and craft a solution for your real estate needs. Be it in asset progression, tax planning, financial calculations, rentals, sales, etc.
You can also subscribe to our Facebook page and receive the latest real estate updates in Singapore!
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