Am very sad writing this post after loosing over 8 websites due to constant downtime I do experience from two of my Nigerian web hosting company.

I decided to focus on web design services /training and leave hosting to other to do for me, but now regreting ever using a Nigerian Hosting company.

One lost all my webfiles including back ups on the server then the other allowed my website to be hacked.

out of a total of 35 websites I hosted under this two web hosting companies, I lost eight client during the transfer period because the clients said they cant afford to be offline for even 5 hours.

Now I ask what is the problem with some of this local web hosting companies,  is it inefficiency or  lack of competency or negligence ?

Please fellow web designers/developers becareful with  some local  web Hosting companies.

The problem is simple and not a Nigerian thing.
Its inexperience on the part of the host service providers and the clients.

Servers are machines but really with the present stage we are at with technology it will take a considerable amount of time between server crashes as a result of faults. Most of the downtimes or problems you experience with your hosting provider may not originate from the datacenters. Most are as basic as an inexperienced support techie with happy fingers, rattling server configs until something blows up. Linux commands do not really have "Undo" so if you brick a server there is not "reset" button.

Again, most service providers in Nigeria are somewhere around the middle of the service chain and have to pay some major money to get reseller rights. Since they do not have direct access to the upstream provider, their failure to pay their monthly lease fees. . . for any reason (sane or insane) will mean a suspension of their account. . . there is no abeg in the matter, ofcourse such suspension will affect the downstream customers.

Another problem is support, sadly its zero here. You can't expect to receive technical support and I am yet to see a webhosting company (that I am not linked to) in Nigeria with 24/7 online chat in the true sense of the word.

This forum is another problem, in a bid to make money from resellers we make people believe all that is needed to be a webhost it to get a 500 Naira/Month reseller account and keep creating accounts from it for people. Infact that's so big a deception that I don't know how to start hitting it down.

Now the customers. . . we hardly know what we pay for. We don't know what a service level agreement is, we do not know what an uptime guarantee is.

Take for instance your customers saying they cannot afford to be down for even 5 hours.

Lets assume you are on a host who has on its site (as usual) "99% uptime guaranteed"
99% uptime means that you are guaranteed your site will be online for 365 days in a year less 87 hours and 36 minutes.

Therefore if I offer you a hosting package with 99% uptime, within a period of one year from the start of your contract I am in my right to pull the plug on your site for 87 hours and 36 minutes. . . take me to any court and you will waste money because you will pay me for time wasting. . . when I should be at working pulling other plugs you are wasting my time in court for what I rightly mine. . .

So those you customers saying they can't afford to be off for 5 hours. . . kindly tell them that they have already signed that they can be off for 87 hours per year, assuming you are running the site on a host with 99% uptime guarantee. See the list below for the other uptimes and how long they can be down (in their right) per year.

90% 876 hours
95% 438 hours
99% 87 hours, 36 minutes
99.9% 8 hours, 45 minutes, 36 seconds
99.99% 52 minutes, 33.6 seconds
99.999% 5 minutes, 15.36 seconds
99.9999% 31.68 seconds


Again. . . customers do not know what constitutes an uptime. Read your host's Terms of Service very well to know what is covered in their uptime guarantee.

No web hosting company on the planet can prevent your website from getting hacked when you are using vulnerable/outdated php scripts. How can you refer to yourself as a web developer and not know that? Besides websites worth Millions of Dollars are being hacked everyday; What gives you the impression that your cheap website, residing on a shared server should be hack-proof?

Furthermore, No Shared Web Hosting Company in the World would guaranty the safety of your files/content. Keeping Offsite backups is a must and again I am surprised a "Web Developer" does not know that.

Am very sure you are the very hosting company am referring to:
post you website address here lets confirm.
Tell me the work of a web host manager if I will be the one that will be during their work, see your mentality, wait until I post your website address here.

You called to apologize to me this evening and here you are defending yourself, show your identity.
So I should pay you to go sit at home abi ?

My response to this thread can be found here: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?action=profile;u=161999;sa=showPosts

It was chopped by the bot.


Guys please this should not degenerate into accusations and counter accusations. . . if you two have some business to settle, settle it within the confines of your business environment.

Thanks Dual Core, you said it well, I have learnt my lessons.

I have also signed up with a more reliable hosting company.

So it wont happen again because this time, am very careful with terms of service agreement.

greenmouse:

Am very sure you are the very hosting company am referring to:
post you website address here lets confirm.
Tell me the work of a web host manager if I will be the one that will be during their work, see your mentality, wait until I post your website address here.

You called to apologize to me this evening and here you are defending yourself, show your identity.
So I should pay you to go sit at home abi ?

I am not your Web Hosting provider and I never wish to be. A simply look at my profile would show you that I have been registered on Nairaland for almost 6years and you surely would not find any reference to your host in any my posts.

My anger stems from the fact that you choose to denigrate all Nigerian hosts with your post, when your knowledge about the field is at best mediocre.

I think I will post your email to me here. Whats wrong with you.

Just read Dual core reply and see who is right about this your blind argument, just accept you are wrong and i will forgive you

Am sure you are not the only Nigerian web hosting company in Nairaland.

Show your company site lets comfirm, and pls respect yourself

@GreenMouseTech Take it easy and be Calm,

It is just a pitiable situation I can understand how you feel specially in this time loosing clients and data for reasons out of your control.
Apart from reading fine print always go for service because they have what you want not necessary because of cheap price assuming this is the case.

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