Where, Oh Where has Cihost.com Gone?

Nelson Weiderman writes "For about 36 hours (as of 9 a.m EST 12/31), cihost.com and the domain names it serves have been off the air with attempts to access them getting "the server does not have a DNS entry" message. Calls to their customer service (when you can get through) have a recording indicating that they attempted an equipment upgrade and that they tried to restore a backup NameServer, which apparently failed. They are trying to reassure customers that none of their data has been lost. Anybody know what's happening there or what the prospects are for recovery? I chose CI Host because they were rated in the top five web hosting services by three separate rating organizations. " We've been getting a huge amount of submissions about this, especially in light of the Masslinux Disappearing Act. Click below for more details - but from what research I've been able to do, it appears that they've been hit with a terribly timed series of mishaps and problems, and are working on getting back online.

This e-mail came to me as well: Hi,

Below is a copy of a post to alt.www.webmaster by Graham Wideman. I confirm his comments in every detail. I personaly have five domains (addresses below) with CiHost which are currently totaly unavailable (http,ftp,mail you name it)..

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Major Hosting service provider (28,000 domains?) CI Host has been attempting to move their servers for the last 10 days, with one problem after another, including webmasters unable to access their sites for update, and old backups being restored over new data.

Now we are up to 24 hours during which all sites, plus the email they support, are completely inaccessible due to CI Host's name servers being off the net. For many, this means they cannot even transfer their sites elsewhere (due to the way Network Solutions requires transfer email to come from the registered webmaster's address).

Adding spice to this picture is the fact that CI Host is a charter member of, and "certified" by the Web Host Guild, which is the main activity of Sumo Inc, now owned by CNet.

For further info on CIHost downtime, see alt.www.webmaster.
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Regards
Alan Cowderoy

Comments

Updating domains without email.

[winterstorm]

If you need to update your domain records to switch to another provider, you can do so by sending the appropriate form by email to network solutions and then faxing them an authorization form. To generate the authorization form you need your tracking number though so you need to send the form from an email address you can read (any email address should do).

I strongly recommend using a separate company to host your DNS. Sure, the company that hosts your website will through in DNS hosting for free, but if they are negligent or incompetent or unfortunate, your the one who will suffer. My web-server is hosted by one ISP but I use Easy DNS to manage my domain. There are many similar services out there too.

The bottom line is that you should have your website hosted by professionals who specialize in managing webservers, but your DNS should be hosted by professionals who specialize in managine DNS servers. The two are very different, and far too many admins take DNS management lightly.

CIHost is lying. It's much worse.

[gbnewby]

I wish someone could get us more detail. Here's what I know. Note that CIHost claims they service 48,000 domains! Whew!

• Even though I can get through to my virtual server (because I know the IP address), I cannot login, FTP etc.
  
• The data on the server have reverted, and a my whole recently-created virtual domain has DISAPPEARED. This is strong evidence that they recovered from an OLD backup tape, and recent changes may have been permanently lost.
  
• Mail to my addresses doesn't bounce, but it's also not correctly forwarded (out) like it's supposed to be. It's possible that mail is being lost. I'm worried.
  
• Read the press release dated 12/30 posted on hostindex.com. What it says:
  
  • Problems started 2:00 pm EST 12/29
    
  • They're rebuilding their nameserver(s)
    
  
  Contrast this to the FACT that it's been at least 48 hours, and as the above indicates their problems are a lot bigger than the name servers.
  
• My problems started several WEEKS ago when they began this ill-fated "upgrade." Lost mail, hours on the phone, inaccessible services, "losing" my account info and suddenly giving a quota 100s of MB less than I have....
  
  There's not much doubt about where my little footsteps will be headed as soon as I can get my data: FAR AWAY FROM CIHOST!

My horrifying experience dealing with CI Host

[migs]

I became a customer of CI Host in July of 1998. Immediately after uploading my pages to their server, I started experiencing problems. My calls and emails to customer service were never answered promptly, so after 3 or 4 months I decided to switch providers.

As soon as CI Host found out I was switching, they deleted all my data, without further explanation. Attempts to recover data that I had not yet moved to my new provider were completely unsuccessful. I found out that their claims about having redundant systems and frequent backups were not true.

Anyway, I thought that was the end of my worst experience with a hosting provider. I closed my account with them, hoping to forget the whole thing. Two months later (February of 1999), CI Host charged my credit card as if I were still a customer. Once again, my many calls and emails were never answered. Finally, after I tried to reach the CEO several times, they admitted their mistake and issued a refund in May of 1999 (they even gave me a copy of the refund slip).

To my utter disbelief, the refund never reached my credit card company. To this date I'm still trying to get my money back. CI Host never answers my calls, and takes about a month and a half to answer any email I send them (my contact there is Edith "I'm not allowed to give you my last name").

After dealing with about 10 different hosting providers over the years, I found CI Host to be the worst ever. If you want to save yourself months of frustration, financial losses, fraudulent charges, etc.

DO NOT HOST WITH CI HOST!!!