It seems that the server on which all my ASP.NET/Mojo sites are hosted has suffered some sort of fatal malfunction.  I discovered this about midnight last night (EST), and 10 hrs later it's still not fixed, but there does seem to be some progress; last night all I could get was the default firefox "the server is taking too long to respond" type of error, but now I'm getting the MS error page about not finding "/" -- I guess that means that they have a server operating, but not yet fully configured and functional, plus I suppose they need to restore their own backups.  So it might be awhile yet.

I posted this here since the only one of my sites that seems to have a fairly consistent traffic is the one with Mojo skins -- which I was just about to upgrade, including all the skins, for version 2.3.5.5.  And I still plan to do that, as soon as Mocha has this server back online.  Ain't it lucky that I had just taken a backup of both the database and the entire file structure, preparatory to doing the upgrade!!

Lucky for Mocha, I have a new Michael Connelly novel to read, or I would be standing on my head hollering frantically about "99.99% up-time, my hind leg!"

Andria

Yeah, well they claim to have 24/7 tech support too, but I've already found out that's a lie -- their tech support consists almost solely with sending out links to their knowledgebase -- getting them to actually read and respond to any question in an appropriate fashion is like pulling hen's teeth -- and TWICE now they've sent me the SAME msg regarding the down server.  As far as free is concerned, I already paid for the hosting I'm currently NOT getting, and it ended up costing a good deal more than their sale page indicated. so I'm really not holding my breath on anything free from them -- they say it's an "Act of God" and that will probably be their weasel hole.

I'm really really REALLY unhappy with them -- it's been down for over 15 hours now -- but alas, paid for a year, and they're the only MS host I found that doesn't put a meter on bandwidth-- or disk space for that matter.  I tried a host once that metered bandwidth -- as soon as you start doing well, they take your site down for exceeding bandwidth.  That's why I couldn't sign up with Arvixe, they meter the bandwidth -- and the disk space.

If Arvixe would offer an unlimited plan for the budget-conscious, instead of metered plans at the low end and dedicated servers at the high end, they'd be my next choice for hosting.  But I can't deal with metered bandwidth, and I surely can't afford a dedicated server.

Just out of curiosity -- how many sites can be hosted/run off of a dedicated server?  If I could find some other broke folks who are fed up with low-end hosting, maybe we could make a "server sharing" consolidation of some sort.  I know I've gotta do something.  I'm thinking about a report to the BBB about Mocha, they suck so bad.

Andria

Not a real lot, to be honest, but I recall in the past when I've had a very-modestly-performing site get a really great link somewhere, traffic would skyrocket suddenly, and bang, there went my site.  Since that, I've made it a point to only use hosts that offer unlimited BW/disk space even on the low-end accts.

I dunno about Arvixe; maybe they have changed things, but I seem to recall a really modest 3GB or 5GB traffic allowance on their lower-end plans.  I'm sure I use a *lot* less than that on a regular basis, but if I ever got one of those "hot links," then BW would skyrocket, and there would go my site.  Disk space is another issue, especially since Mojo is not precisely small, though of course it can be made smaller by removing the unused skins and the Data/skins folder.

The major problem is that I don't host just one site per host, but a gang of them, and BW *and* disk space runs out fast in that situation -- I have one host for my Linux/Joomla sites, and one host for my ASP.NET sites -- and yes, I'm really wishing that the host I use for my Linux sites had a Windows plan, because they're unlimited, fast, and moderately responsive with their tech support, but all they offer is Linux hosting. 

I've been interested since starting with Mojo in its ability to handle multiple sites with one installation, but to be honest, I can't understand the docs explaining how that can be done.  Yeah, I get the "folder" scheme, but the "hostname" scheme, I just don't get it -- that stuff with "hosting headers", "bindings," etc -- obviously I have no access to anything like that.  I had thought maybe I just needed to use subdomains to get that to work, but I dunno, that's not really what the docs would indicate, with all that "hosting headers" and "bindings" stuff.  Maybe it's just the terminology that's messing with me; if I have a domain hosted at Mocha, then create a subdomain from that domain (which is also, of course, hosted at the same place that the domain is), isn't that the same thing?  I really don't get it.

I finally got a *real* response from Mocha, instead of their form-letter response, and they asked which of my sites was most crucial, so they could manually get it back; naturally I told them my "skins" site, so maybe that one will be back sometime tonight.  (crossing fingers!!)

Andria

Well, I like the thing they have advertised, host up to 6 domains, for $5/mo -- I could actually afford that.  But I've already commited to Mocha for a year, which was about $70, and just don't have any extra money to throw at some other host, at the moment.  But, if Mocha keeps this sort of thing up, I may have to scrounge around and see where I can find $60 -- no, I just checked again, and it would be $120 since they require a 2 yr contract to get that good price, and I just don't have it, and likely never will have that much money at one time.

The thing is, I don't make any money at this.  Every now and again I get a custom design job, for a site or a template, for which I might make anywhere from $50-$200 -- but it's nothing I can count on.  I do this mainly because a) I love it, b) I've been a housewife for 20+ years and the only kind of "real job" I might be able to find would be fast food (but I tried that, in October, and this middle-aged body just won't do that kind of physical work anymore).  So, this web stuff is really more of a hobby than a real business, though I work at it daily as if it were a real business -- since 1999 I've been trying to carve a niche for myself online, but I don't really know anything about business; I know what looks good, I know what makes a site really easy to use (or the reverse), and to me, this is art -- so I guess I'll keep doing it -- but I have to really scrounge hard to find the funds for 7 domains and 2 hosts a year (it used to be 10 domains, but I had to let some go, in the interest of economizing).  I just really hate it when one of the hosts turns out to be a "bum steer."  I can't afford to waste $60+ a year.

Andria

Oh, and the Michael Connelly novel, "9 Dragons," was as awesome as all his others -- a Harry Bosch mystery, but at the end, it brings in another of Connelly's major characters -- I almost named that character, but decided it was a spoiler, since it was such a surprise to me, so I'll leave it for any other Connelly fans to discover for themselves.  Might as well read a good book on a sub-freezing day, since I can't work on my sites.  That's right, sub-freezing in Atlanta, and it's not even winter yet.  Man, I can't wait for January!

Andria

Well, that sounds highly do-able; I have mojo.crypticsites.net, mojoskins.crypticsites.net (where I test things), and blog.crypticsites.net -- I had been waiting to put anything at just-plain crypticsites.net until I had learned how to do a manual install of *some* ASP.NET CMS, and guess what, I've finally learned to do just that with mojo -- in fact I *just* did the manual install of 2.3.5.5 at crypticsites.net -- one of those which are down, alas -- so theoretically, I could run the subdomain sites off that one mojo installation -- since all those subdomains are active at my host.  I guess it's just the terminology which sometimes confounds me with this ASP.NET stuff.  But, my host uses dotnetpanel, which forces you to create a domain for any type of domain you want hosted there, whether top-level or sub, then it forces you to "create web site" to have anything at that domain's address -- a sort of "provisioning," I suppose -- so yeah, I guess all those subdomains qualify for "hosting company has entries in their published DNS for each of your subdomains".

If I can get that setup, it would sure simplify doing version upgrades -- do it once, instead of once for each site!  It would also greatly reduce my disk space needs, for future consideration in choosing a host.

Thx!

Andria