Picking a host for your website is probably one of the most important things you’ll ever do. And fate forbid that host goes down, you’ll need all the support you can get. Actually, all you really need is somebody that is willing to investigate the issue in a timely manner, and timely is the category that Leaseweb’s technical support fits least in to.

Yesterday (Monday, 25th July ’08) the server stopped responding. I know I paid my bill because I have a receipt, so surely they haven’t cut it off?! Panic set in, there were people trying to access the server, I have two business clients relying on that server – one for the website, okay so that isn’t too bad, and the other for email! Lucky for me it’s the end of the working day, except – oh no, Leaseweb’s technical support is closed. They’re not in my time zone either, of course they can’t be blamed for that, it was my choice to rent a server outside of my country after all.

I power cycled the server, but still after five minutes of waiting my ka-billions of pings received no word from the server. At this stage just about every scenario is running through my head – the kind of scenarios where you imagine all of your work being swallowed by quick sand. I actually almost had a panic attack, and promptly (and I hasten to add unfairly) bit my wife’s head off. I didn’t realise that the stress of a server going down could cause me to feel this way. And now, I’m in their hands.

I email Support to tell them my server is inaccessible… I wait, and wait… and I wait some more. But no reply, not for Steve. The one waiting. The one literally peeing his pants because he needs that server to come back online. And finally, more than four hours later, I receive a reply! Quote:

Could you send us the login credentials to check this?

What? Are you kidding me? I thought they’d have this stuff logged! They sent me the password in the first place! And hold on, if they need the login credentials, the server must be up and running right? Well, I emailed them the password to the root account (which they defined originally anyway) and sat patiently on a reply. At this point you’d think they’d prioritise your ticket given your server is entirely inaccessible and they should ultimately be liable for issues that are their fault. But even after sitting up half the night, a reply seemed as likely to arrive as the real life postman delivering mail at three in the morning.

I decided to try to sleep – luckily, a kind gentleman at webhostingtalk.com offered some hosting services to me for free. I only really needed the mail server, and that was a relief. I couldn’t thank him enough.

I awoke at gone 9AM, to find an email I had just recently received. Looks like the server had been online since approximately 8.45AM. Good timing on my part, bad response time on theirs. But the response time is nothing in comparison to the response.

Dear costumer,

 

After replacing the UTP cable your server is back online.

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

*** ***** ******

LeaseWeb – Hardware Support

You have got to be kidding me. I can forgive the bad spelling and grammar, but that isn’t the issue here. We all know there will be language barriers when we’re working with people in another country. But to report that the server’s network cable was the cause of all this trouble – and to rub it in I had to wait more than 24 hours for the network cable to be replaced? The server, hosted in a datacenter, had a faulty network cable? Now, that is a hard one to swallow. I’ve never had to replace a network cable unless it has been interfered with, and unless Leaseweb have their network cables trailing to the floors of the datacenter I just don’t see how they could possibly be damaged. But more troubling to me is the fact that the server obviously wasn’t running during the time I couldn’t access it because my main site’s scheduled task didn’t log its work. Any other time where the server has remained live but inaccessible to the net I have had proof that this task has continued processing. I’m not suggesting Leaseweb are liars, but wait, actually, I am. But not officially, I don’t want to be sued, I just feel it’s a bit conspicuous.

There are definitely unanswered questions that, to be honest with you, I just cannot be bothered to ask because I have no faith in their support system or honesty. The first issue I had with this server was a disk crash, to which they did not apologise or offer me a refund, or any other kind of compensation. Their motto was “shit happens” – not in those words, but you catch the drift. I feel as though I had SUCKER written across my forehead.

A big downside to this is that I’m scared to use services in other countries now, I’ve almost become prejudist because of this experience. I’m sure that not all Dutch hosting services are like this, but I was hestitant to go outside of the UK in the first place, you can only imagine how I feel now.

I cannot recommend Leaseweb for a mission critical application. If your server going down equals loss of business (which presumably it would if you’re willing to fork out the money for a dedicated server in the first place), I recommend against renting a server with them with all my heart. I will be looking for a new host as of now, and this time I’m going to get one in my own country – I feel as though I have more leverage being that to sue them I don’t have to cross the border.

If you’re going to be looking for a host, check out www.webhostingtalk.com to get the low down on all the providers.

Has anybody else had an experience, good or bad? Let me and any other readers know by leaving a comment.

UPDATE: I am no longer a Leaseweb customer – after another crash, I decided it was time to vacate their data centre. I am now a member of Liquidweb, a US hosting company with a good reputation, and their service has been amazing. I can’t recommend them enough; stay tuned for a review.

But sometimes we forget the basics. More often than not you find webmasters are busy focusing on what they think could be the next big thing instead of what their community actually needs.

On that note, one thing that has become transparent in my years of developing an online community – never expect the community to know what they need because they aren’t the ones running the community. I’m not suggesting that you ignore your users, but take what they say with a pinch of salt. Instead of reading too far into what they say, spend your time carefully working out what they need in an overall sense.

So, I hear you asking, what do they need? Could it be that fantastic new feature that allows your members to upload multiple images and use them as an animated icon? Or could it be the database optimisations you’re working on that’ll make your pages load 25% faster than they have the past five years?

It could be something very simple - after all, your members have stuck with you for five years, obviously the site speed isn’t as much of an issue as you deem it to be. And that fantastic new feature? They’ve lived without it. So what do your community members really want – or rather, what do they really need?

It’s all a fine balance, and so my list bears little resemblance to an order of importance; that is for you to decide in your own time. But each point should be taken seriously, as it’s more important than any new novelty feature or slight optimisation you could make.

1. Be Open & Honest

People like to know where they stand. It’s important to elaborate on current issues with the server, within the community, even in your personal life in some circumstances (of course, you have to draw the line somewhere).

2. Be Active

People like to know that there is an “upper power” looking after what they consider to be their online home, and when you’re missing in action it doesn’t fare well for the faith from your members. It’s a good idea, in my experience, to make it clear that you are online – either by posting publicly for all to see, or even just having some kind of “online now” feature.

3. If They Ask, Respond

If somebody comes to you and asks a question, they’re coming to you because they see you as an authoritive figure. This is your chance to make an impression that could last – will you reply to their question, or will you leave it for your community to take care of?

4. Set An Example

You are a role model for the rest of your community. What you do gives guidance as to what is acceptable. How many of us actually read the Terms & Conditions? Does anybody even have enough paper to print all that jargon out?