[flash=200,200]http://BEWARE OF FOREIGN HOSTING    BEWARE OF FOREIGN HOSTING       BEWARE OF FOREIGN HOSTING
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DO YOU KNOW THAT SOME FOREIGN ARE ON THE NET TO DUPE OR SCAM UNSPECTING INNOCENT SOUL LIKE YOU AND I.

SO IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING BUYING A HOSTING ACCOUNT PLEASE LOOK. I MEAN SHINE YOUR EYES BEFORE BUY. AS DOING SO, MIGHT BE DISASTER FOR YOU.

I BOUGHT A HOSTING ACCOUNT FROM 2GBHOST.COM IN JANUARY, 2009. AFTER 2 MONTHS THE BURBLE BURST, I MEAN MY SITE WENT DOWN. UP TILL NOW STILL DOWN. ALL ENTREATIES MADE TO 2GBHOST.COM PROVED ABORTIVE.

DESPITE SENDING MORE THAN 10 EMAILS, DEMANDING FOR RESTORATION OF MY SITE OR MONEY REFUNDED. NOTHING.

DO YOU KNOW THAT 2GBHOST.COM IS STILL ONLINE SCAMMING OTHER UNSUSPECTING SOULS,

MY FELLOW NAIRALANDERS PLEASE OPEN YOUR EYES WELL WELL BEFORE YOU BUY FOREIGN CHEAP HOSTING, AS DOING SO, COULD TURN TO NIGHTMARE.

BEWARE,



STAY TUNED FOR  MORE

So which is it? Beware of foreign hosts altogether (something you can't say cos IMHO you haven't tried them all) or beware of cheap foreign hosts (again, something you can't say cos again, IMHO, you haven't tried them all)?

@yawa. easy on the courtroom lines

what d dude is trying to say is dat. if you get screwed you would not be able to do a damn thing. but if na naija you go go scatter ground for dia office,

MORAL OF THE COMPLAINT

patronise our nigerian web hosts, some of them dey try,

Hahaha, am sorry I can't help it, but men have you seen that hosting website, I mean how did you fall for it, there is so many things wrong with it and its really unknown, first mistake, don't get hosting when you can't find out anything about it.

But then its really unusual to hear people talking about getting scammed by foreign companies, this is just crazy, please check first and check reviews around, before you even think of paying for hosting, no matter how cheap the offer is, just make sure you do your research properly.

we have to be very careful with foreign hosting with unreasonable payment terms and conditions.They would ask you to pay before service without any proper refrence here ni Nigeria.The would even blog and brag about what they cant do on naira land.Anywaz before you can fall for any trick ensure that they have a guarantor in your present place with physical evidence of the home address or office address.Scammers also know how to blog alot.

@ Yawa :You dont expect someone to pay someone you have not seen or know his or her whereabout.Pls dont take this personal but i advice you or any other legitimate foreign webmasters to get guarantors here in Nigeria especially Lagos,Abuja and Port-harcout. You have to convince people to be confident enough to seal a deal with you. This is the guy that is in to printing of scratch cards or your portal application.

This is a tough one though.

This is why contact addresses are necessary on websites even if dealing with digital products just in case something goes wrong.

While it is true that we can conduct online business from our homes any web developer who wants to be professional in his/her work must have a contact address that any interested or prospective client can verify.

No serious organization will want to do business with an entity that is only accessible through phone, email or when invited to the client's office.

Web hosting business can be setup by anyone with a server, internet connection, web hosting software etc. That is why people even run their applications and websites from their homes.

However, providing web hosting services to paying customers is another thing as the clients or customers must do their best to verify claims being made by the web hosting companies.

Needless to state here, the type of scam associated with web hosting is usually linked to prices and features that are usually too good to be true especially the prices.

Sometimes, though someone may setup a web hosting business and in the bid to make enough money to cover the cost of running the business may reduce the disk space and other features to a ridiculously low level (with the prices coming down too) that you may see hundreds of thousands on a single machine. This usually leads to disappointed customers and when the income is no where the expenses such companies may just close shop.

So, there is really no easy answer here both a combination of different things that we must do our best to understand or figure out before committing funds to.

zsulu,

I am afraid I don't understand what you mean or where you are going but you can rest assured that I don't and won't take it personally.

If I do understand what you mean, 90% of my clients, I have never, and probably will never, see in my lifetime.  For some, including clients in Nigeria, at the most, I have only communicated with them via email.  Though I am not saying I will never get burned, I think asking certain questions upfront will help separate the wheat from the chaff.

Look at it this way - you don't waltz to the very first mechanic shop you see and expect to pay whatever they say without them giving you a proper diagnosis. Even before they pronounce what the problem is, it is your responsibility to at least know a little about your car and ask pertinent questions before work begins and while work is going on, to ask further questions and/or watch what is going on so that you can perhaps work on a similar problem in the future.

nothing to fear.

Do your research properly you will be fine. dont go with funky looking company names lol

FOREIGN rocks!! i am on justhost and i host on siteground too. unlimited this unlimited that, out naija hosts are rip offs, everything is small !!

switch47:

FOREIGN rocks!! i am on justhost and i host on siteground too. unlimited this unlimited that, out naija hosts are rip offs, everything is small !!

unlimited this, unlimited that.

Only if you had an idea of what displayed and allowed quota mean.

Some are listed for marketing purposes and once you get close to what they actually carved out for you then you will understand the full meaning of unlimited this and unlimited that.

he he, even google says unlimited mail space yet, after you log in, if you scroll to the bottom of the page, you will see something like, "xxxx MB of xxxxxx GB used"

I run a dedicated server and the hosting management software will ask you what the actual quota you want is and what the displayed quota should be.

I can effortlessly make millions every month by carving out the space and quota as small as possible while displaying "unlimited this and that" and using same for advertisement and marketing. I will surely smile to the bank but the clients will first run into trouble before I follow suit and that is not my idea of running a good business.

It is all about maintaining a very high level of professional integrity in business.

It is easier to scam people when you lie to them because truth or fact is usually too simple to make any impact and when someone runs into trouble he/she begins to complain.

@ yawa and co: if u want to get down with biz then refer us to the ones you have provided webs for here in naija or to be specific Lagos.Besides i'm really interested in your ishes so i would like to see some of your works.

@ all the web gurus i would really like to know how much it will cost me to get a web that would host over 20million people's data base,updates of different ishes,forum and chat and stating the the capacity required.

zsulu,

As mentioned in a previous post, if you want to "see my works", you will have to contact me privately. I don't blow my own trumpet. Sorry

@zsulu
20 milli ? Designing the next facebook? LOL, just kidding
But really u will av to get on a dedicated hosting to take care of that.

The very problem with Nigerian hosts is that they offer minimal services for large amounts of money. For example, a typical Nigerian host offers you 1 domain registration, 5 email accounts (some don't even offer that), host only 1 domain in one account, 10 subdomains, very limited bandwidth and 1GB space for an exorbitant price of =N=3000 per month. But a foreign host (for example Inmotion which hosts my websites) offers me 2 domain registrations, 2500 email accounts, host 2 domains in one account, Unlimited subdomains, Unlimited space, and unlimited bandwidth at the awesome price of $8 (=N=1200). Which one do you think is better?

Now imagine that I decided to pay a Nigerian registrar for a new domain registration two months ago. First I filled out the online form. Next I had to go to a bank to pay the fee because they could not accept credit or interswitch cards! Next I was told to scan and email the teller. After that I waited a whole day and my domain was still not registered!! i called and called and emailed and then threatened before I got their attention. They registered my domain 3 days after I paid them!!! They never even called me.

But when I hosted my first domain with Inmotion, I simply filled out the form and put in my credit card information. Inmotion called me about 7 to 10 minutes after I submitted my form to verify! My domain was registered within 30 minutes of my payment. Now guys, which one should I trust more? Our dear Naija or the foreigners?

But before anyone decides to go with the foreigners check out the reviews, go with the good companies, ignore the $1 hosts (they're criminals), and extensively read what services they offer.

ugojamali:

The very problem with Nigerian hosts is that they offer minimal services for large amounts of money. For example, a typical Nigerian host offers you 1 domain registration, 5 email accounts (some don't even offer that), host only 1 domain in one account, 10 subdomains, very limited bandwidth and 1GB space for an exorbitant price of =N=3000 per month. But a foreign host (for example Inmotion which hosts my websites) offers me 2 domain registrations, 2500 email accounts, host 2 domains in one account, Unlimited subdomains, Unlimited space, and unlimited bandwidth at the awesome price of $8 (=N=1200). Which one do you think is better?

Now imagine that I decided to pay a Nigerian registrar for a new domain registration two months ago. First I filled out the online form. Next I had to go to a bank to pay the fee because they could not accept credit or interswitch cards! Next I was told to scan and email the teller. After that I waited a whole day and my domain was still not registered!! i called and called and emailed and then threatened before I got their attention. They registered my domain 3 days after I paid them!!! They never even called me.

But when I hosted my first domain with Inmotion, I simply filled out the form and put in my credit card information. Inmotion called me about 7 to 10 minutes after I submitted my form to verify! My domain was registered within 30 minutes of my payment. Now guys, which one should I trust more? Our dear Naija or the foreigners?

But before anyone decides to go with the foreigners check out the reviews, go with the good companies, ignore the $1 hosts (they're criminals), and extensively read what services they offer.

Interesting.

The cheapest hosting plan I have is N15,000.00 per year for personal websites and up to N90,000.00 per year for corporate websites and people still pay. Most of them are people that are moving from other hosting arrangements. Some have been paying for hosting for over 5 years now with email accounts for over 200 people in some cases.

When it comes to companies depending on the web trust me they will look for reliability and not all the marketing and advertising stuff you see every where.

Domain name registration takes less than a full minute to register so your assumption or conclusion on Nigerians providing such services is just plain wrong. Try to be specific and stop generalizing.

Afam:

Domain name registration takes less than a full minute to register so your assumption or conclusion on Nigerians providing such services is just plain wrong. Try to be specific and stop generalizing.

It's neither an assumption nor a conclusion. It is a hard cold fact of what happened to me. I really waited for 3 days before my domain was registered. I don't want to name the Registrar cos I don't want to kill someone's business, after all I wouldn't like someone killing my business in public.

Its good that you offer =N=90000 hosting. Its your business to charge people off if you wish so long as you provide good services. I'm not trying to say that Nigerian hosts are incompetent. all I'm saying is that compared to the good foreign hosts (Not the 2GB Hosts) the services you guys offer here are low. I trust my US hosts. They are among the ten best in the whole world so I'll stick with them.

To change the mindset of the poster, there are numerous web hosting scammers out there whether Nigerian or Foreign based. After the scammers, then comes the web hosts that put you on a paralysed server, so you get downtimes always. After that, you have hosts that will never give you customer support anytime there is a problem.

It is the responsibility of the person who needs the web hosting account to carry out proper research before making a purchase.

We created our own company after sampling Nigerian hosting companies and discovering that customer support is generally poor.

Olawunmi,
Hostmot Sales Rep. (www.hostmot.com)

ugojamali:

Its good that you offer =N=90000 hosting. Its your business to charge people off if you wish so long as you provide good services. I'm not trying to say that Nigerian hosts are incompetent. all I'm saying is that compared to the good foreign hosts (Not the 2GB Hosts) the services you guys offer here are low. I trust my US hosts. They are among the ten best in the whole world so I'll stick with them.

See below as a previous response to your conclusion.

unlimited this, unlimited that.

Only if you had an idea of what displayed and allowed quota mean.

Some are listed for marketing purposes and once you get close to what they actually carved out for you then you will understand the full meaning of unlimited this and unlimited that.

Meanwhile, what is the name of this host that is among the 10 best in the world?

hostmot:

To change the mindset of the poster, there are numerous web hosting scammers out there whether Nigerian or Foreign based. After the scammers, then comes the web hosts that put you on a paralysed server, so you get downtimes always. After that, you have hosts that will never give you customer support anytime there is a problem.

It is the responsibility of the person who needs the web hosting account to carry out proper research before making a purchase.

We created our own company after sampling Nigerian hosting companies and discovering that customer support is generally poor.

Olawunmi,
Hostmot Sales Rep. (www.hostmot.com)

After reading this post I checked the website of the poster and saw that her comment does not marry what the company does at their own end.

With 50MB disk space and 500MB monthly bandwidth what is the maximum email account quota one could have out of the 3 accounts allowed?

If I can give you 50MB on a simple 80GB hard disk then I can carter for at least 1600 websites on a single server with their respective visitors accessing the same processor.

Compare this to a web host that provides a minimum of 500M for the cheapest hosting plan on the same hard disk and judge for yourself the reliability of the web hosting.

The bottom line is that we don't have to make unsubstantiated statements just to sell our services as we may end up exposing ourselves unnecessarily.

An article I wrote sometime in 2004 I think holds true till today - Understanding Web Hosting - http://afamnnaji.com/articles/article_detail.php?id=16

@afam

Thank you Mr. Nnaji,

Your feedback is highly appreciated.

Be rest assured that we will not cram 1600 websites on one server. That is corporate suicide, and we intend to be around for Nigerian webmasters and bloggers for years to come.

Also, these days, space is not the only thing that matters. You could be on a server with 50 other accounts and there is one of them pulling all the resources and RAM (ever been on a server where one of the accounts keeps getting traffic spikes or DDOS?). So, web hosting does not work by dividing hard drive space by the least package space and calculating how much you can rake from it (at least, not for us). It takes good knowledge of servers, server requests and a passion to keep other peoples' websites up (babies, in our parlance).

Support is our strength but we we also place a high value on performance, otherwise we will get bombarded with angry phone calls and support tickets.

Keep up the good work on your end sir. Our collective efforts will definitely take Nigerian internet to higher places.

Olawunmi
Sales Rep., Hostmot (www.hostmot.com)

Afam:

See below as a previous response to your conclusion.


Meanwhile, what is the name of this host that is among the 10 best in the world?

Inmotion Hosting. Check all available hosting reviews. They are even partners of CPanel Inc. See, as a web developer I make proper research before before selecting a host. And forgive me for saying this, I cannot trust any host who gives me 500MB of monthly bandwith for a high price. I'm currently working on a website that will have a pay per view TV. What do you think would happen if I were to pay a host in Nigeria here for the site?

I'd have to pay up to 20000 NAIRA a month to get adequate bandwidth!!

And still that would not be enough. Imagine what would happen when hundreds of visitors watch movies of about 300MB each!

My brother and my sister, I'm not saying Naija hosts are not good. I'm saying for the kind of money they charge, they have to provide better services.

ugojamali:

Inmotion Hosting. Check all available hosting reviews. They are even partners of CPanel Inc. See, as a web developer I make proper research before before selecting a host. And forgive me for saying this, I cannot trust any host who gives me 500MB of monthly bandwith for a high price. I'm currently working on a website that will have a pay per view TV. What do you think would happen if I were to pay a host in Nigeria here for the site?

I'd have to pay up to 20000 NAIRA a month to get adequate bandwidth!!

And still that would not be enough. Imagine what would happen when hundreds of visitors watch movies of about 300MB each!

My brother and my sister, I'm not saying Naija hosts are not good. I'm saying for the kind of money they charge, they have to provide better services.

I respond to issues when you generalize. Who is talking about giving you 500MB as bandwidth? The cheapest hosting plan I offer comes with 5GB monthly bandwidth because I understand the business of web hosting very well.

Make no mistake about it this is not about proving whether my services are better but to demonstrate that your generalization does not hold water as your comments are wrong.

You must learn to be specific when you make statements about issues.

Inmotion Hosting? Thanks for the information. Sleep dey catch me now, later on this.

JStarter JMedium JPremium JCorporate
Pricing N15,000.00 N30,000.00 N60,000.00 N90,000.00
Disk space 500MB 1GB 7GB 20GB
Monthly Traffic 5GB 10GB 30GB Unlimited
Email (POP email accounts) 3 10 50 260
MySQL (users) 1 3 5 10
PHP Yes Yes Yes Yes
Control Panel Yes Yes Yes Yes
Support (24/7 email support ) Yes Yes Yes + Phone support Yes + Phone support

Based on the above information found at Just Web Services it will cost me N90000 to host a film company's site with tens of movies available on PPV to my audience. In five years I'd have to look for another hosting plan as my uploaded movies would have exceeded the 20GB Quota! That would be another 90000. In effect I'd be paying N180000 to host a single website.

Compare this service to Inmotion which allows me to have Unlimited Space, bandwidth, 2500 emails, etc, all at $108 (Less than N20000!) and I am yet to experience some form of downtime on my sites.

You want me to be specific? Here is being specific. I said in an earlier post that I did not want to review any host or post any negative comment about someone's business but since you asked me to be specific, then I will start with you. And why is it that you do not offer phone support to your Starter and Medium clients. Honestly, how much extra would it cost you to offer phone support to them? Its not as if you have to call them everyday to chat about the weather.

If you guys want me to review all the webhosts in Naija here I can do that. But again, like I said I do not like to make negative comments about someone's business. I wouldn't like someone to make one about mine.

Seems your last post was flagged as spam.

Based on the above information found at Just Web Services it will cost me N90000 to host a film company's site with tens of movies available on PPV to my audience. In five years I'd have to look for another hosting plan as my uploaded movies would have exceeded the 20GB Quota! That would be another 90000. In effect I'd be paying N180000 to host a single website.

Compare this service to Inmotion which allows me to have Unlimited Space, bandwidth, 2500 emails, etc, all at $108 (Less than N20000!) and I am yet to experience some form of downtime on my sites.

You want me to be specific? Here is being specific. I said in an earlier post that I did not want to review any host or post any negative comment about someone's business but since you asked me to be specific, then I will start with you. And why is it that you do not offer phone support to your Starter and Medium clients. Honestly, how much extra would it cost you to offer phone support to them? Its not as if you have to call them everyday to chat about the weather.

The best way to address the point you just raised is to take a look at the same website you claim is one of the best 10 in the world.

The cheapest hosting plan on that website does not have support for

streaming audio, streaming video, mysql database, flash, shockwave and the funniest of all is that you must pay for 2 good years for you to signup for this plan.

Based on this it does not make any sense to educate you on things you don't understand concerning web hosting.

Why don't you start uploading unlimited movies to the account you signed up for and see how it goes?

Hosting companies take advantage of the gullibility of customers like you to make offers that are too sweet to refuse.

If you even do a search on google on web hosting I am sure you will come across my article which is even being used by some web hosting companies in the US and UK on their websites to educate customers on the facts about web hosting.

So, for the simple fact that your host which you claim is one of the best does not support video or audio and requires that you pay in advance for 2 years goes to show that you are still far from reality as regards what works and what doesn't work.

To conclude, I can offer unlimited everything on all the features even when the actual setting will place limits on every single feature. All web hosting management tools I have come across come with such flexibility to set a displayed quota and an actual quota.