Web hosting problem for Woodworkstuff.net

[Joe Lyddon]

On 7-22-06, I was billed by the Hosting company I'm using for my website, woodworkstuff.net, for the Domain Name renewal and basic package. The transaction was approved and paid.

I thought all was OK until on 8-10-06, I try to see my website and get a message that the domain name has expired!!

It's a real mess... I can't get any help from them... I suspect that they just closed their shop... and are taking people's money without providing what was paid for...

I'm working on finding another hosting co. to transfer it to... but, I cannot transfer an expired domain name... I can't get it renewed so I can transfer it!! Their system will not let me renew it again... and they won't honor my first payment to get it really renewed!!
I have one more day to wait for help... If they still don't help me, then other steps (that I don't know about yet) will be taken.

Until then, it's not there...

I shall return... How & when remains to be the question...

[leehljp]

I went to your link and got a web page with some links on it to woodworking - Austrailia related. It said that your domain name had expired and offered a link to re-new it at:
http://domains.spiderhosts.net/anacr...wDomainServlet

It allowed a log in and password for renewal, but you have done that. Might be that you could call them.

[cabinetman]

Joe

That stinks. Call them up and tell them you are a personal friend of mine and I would like them to have the opprotunity to re-negotiate your website.



"I'M NEVER WRONG - BUT I'M NOT ALWAYS RIGHT"

[Holbren]

Joe,

That does stink. Maybe if you contacted another company they can get it fixed for you. Just so you know, this is some info on your domain.

"If this domain name is not renewed by
18-Sep-2006, it will be permanently deleted"

After checking, it appears these guys are the actual registrar of your domain. Spiderhosts is just the middleman. Maybe if you contacted them they can help.

http://publicdomainregistry.com/

If you go to www.networksolutions.com and click on "who is" at the very bottom you can put in your domain and see all the info.

[rickd]

Hi Joe,

That is pretty rotten allright. The webhosting company I use is Blue Host and they are really good. Reasonable and 24hr help line - although I've never had to use it.

Their phone number is (888) 401-4678 You might want to give them a call, explain the situation and see what they can do to help. I transferred my domain to them and they were great in assisting me.

[Joe Lyddon]

Spiderhosts.net, as far as I know, DOES NOT HAVE A TELEPHONE!! Email is only way... and they are apparently ignoring that!

We are in contact with PUBLICDOMAINREGISTRY.COM... I cannot transfer an Expired Domain.
Lots of hoops to jump through... PDR notified them & has given them 48 hrs. to assist me before they can take additional steps... I have to wait for the Old Co. to not do anything before PDR can do something!

I have less than a day left to wait before we step, hopefully, forward.

Incidently, from my experience, Spiderhosts.net is really No Good... appears to be a bunch of crooks... IMHO, one should stay away from them. They started out good, two years worth, then turned to crap.

http://www.woodworking-galleries.org.../SPInv6158.jpg

[Holbren]

It's hard for a lot of these smaller guys to make money when big companies like godaddy and 1and1 are so cheap. It's probably some guy leasing storage and bandwidth from someone.

[Joe Lyddon]

See new thread for the rest of the story... I'm back!

[Stan]

Barring all else... setting up a small LINUX server and paying for a dedicated IP address so you can host your own website can go a long ways.

I've been using Register.com for many years and have never had any problems. I've talked to a number of others who have used various discount rate registrars for their domains -- and it always seems like something comes up. Additional fees, problems re-registering, etc. I figure if your paying a discount rate... 'someone' is going to pick up the slack for the full fee of the domain registration, and that usually comes back to bite you.

If your interested, I can get you information on setting up a very easily maintained Linux software package (free of course -- as is most Linux 'stuff) called SME server, provides the following services to your home network:

Macintosh file & print sharing.
DHCP server
FTP server
LDAP directory server
Printing
Mail retrievel
Mail transport (qmail)
Transparent internet access (masq)
MySQL database server
PHP
Web proxy
PC file & print sharing
Web server
Webmail (access your email from remote locations)


So... for the cost of that small computer you have sitting in the closet -- you can have a robust firewall (and turn the firewall off on your PC to save CPU cycles), and all the standard internet hosting services.
The only costs after a small system to host the SME server software would be your domain registration fees (yearly) and whatever your service provider charges for a dedicated IP address.

Note, YMMV if you are using very many Microsoft products to develop your website, such as FrontPage.

[25]

As a note, with a domain name, if it is expired then anyone can registar it. So if your previous company disapears you can just go to a new company and register it through them. This is a double edged sword though since you can get your domain stolen like this too.