Top Hosting Center is once again offering their Rudolph web hosting plan for “lifetime web hosting”.  This time around they’ve got two different Rudolph web host plans, but it’s still the same scam they were running last year (and which I, unfortunately, fell for).

They’re up to the same old tricks they were running last time around – having employees pose as independent bloggers, etc, but they still can’t seem to keep their servers online.  If you don’t believe me or think I’m just bitter try reading the comments section of any of my past posts on Top Hosting Center.  They simply can’t handle the load they have now, but are looking to sell more space on their already overloaded servers.

Oddly enough, my old nemesis “John Raul” never wrote about the new Rudolph plans.  He’s the THC employee who was running all around the internet last year claiming to be a satisfied customer when he was, in fact, on the payroll.  Top Hosting Center’s CEO, Eric Vanier, even replied to his various John’s various comments as if he was a customer while sending him a regular monthly paycheck.  Those of you who have followed this story here at Philaahzophy will recall that John claimed I got him fired a few months back.  Well, according to his latest blog posts not only is he still working for THC, but apparently he has fallen in love with Eric Vanier as well.  Very strange indeed.

BTW, THC has finally stopped pretending to be the “#1 Budget Hosting” company and is, instead, touting their “Top 10 Fastest Growing” award from HostReview.  Knowing how much Eric likes to make things up out of whole cloth I looked into it and it turns out that the “fastest growing” category is compiled completely by votes solicited by the web hosting companies themselves.  HostReview still has not reviewed the company itself and does not endorse it in any way.  Rather, this “award” is just a matter of Eric, John, and their cohorts gaming the system by repeatedly voting for themselves from various IP addresses.  Not very impressive as far as awards go, but very sad indeed for a company that tries to project a profesional image.

As for the word “scam”, regular readers know I don’t use it lightly.  But what else can you call a company that regularly advertises “Guaranteed 99.9% Uptime”, delivers around 85% uptime, and refuses to even acknowledge, much less grant, their users request for compensation?

If you’re just looking for a cheap place to host your own domain, then Top Hosting Center may serve your purposes.  But if you want to know that your website’s going to be online whenever anyone wants to visit it, I’d consider any of the thousands of other web hosting options out there.

Post from: Philaahzophy

Top Hosting Center Rudolph Lifetime Web Hosting Scam Returns

• Top Hosting Center Attacks Web Hosting Customer - September 22, 2008 - 6 common tags
• Grease For My Squeaky Wheel - September 24, 2008 - 5 common tags
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• Top Hosting Center STILL Can’t Keep Their Home Page Online! - September 25, 2008 - 4 common tags
• Top Hosting Center Can’t Keep Own Website Online! - September 21, 2008 - 4 common tags

As y’all know, my squabble with my webhosting company blew up over the last few days. It flowed not only into email but on to two other blogs in addition to this one as well.  End results – one guy, John Raul, apparently lost the sponsorship of his blog (or possibly his job, or possibly nothing at all); Top Hosting Center’s CEO, Eric Vanier, is really pissed off at me; although the WebHostDir.com badge is still on the THC homepage it no longer links to the website; and my websites have been moved to a new THC server that not only has fewer other domains on it (which should increase stability), but also has the PHP 5 necessary for my “Email This Post” functionality to work properly.  I was under the impression I had PHP 5 on my servers all along since that what was advertised for the Rudolph hosting plan that I purchased.  Apparently, that functionality must be requested.  Who knew?

Regardless, I now have the functionality that I both desire and paid for.  That’s the important result.  At least one other THC customer is now getting better service as well, so I’m not the only one to benefit from this spat.  Only one thing continues to bother me and remain unresolved (at least in my mind).  Both John Raul in his original attack post and, later, Eric Vanier claim that the whole reason I started ranting against THC was to increase traffic to Philaahzophy.  Let me put that to rest with a little evidence.

• My post,  StumbleUpon Highlights Top Hosting Center’s Weakness, posted September 7 after a slight bump of StumbleUpon traffic crashed my server, is currently the number four result on Google when searching “Top Hosting Center” (with or without quotes), and the number nine result on Yahoo! for the same search.
• I have never had a single visitor come to my site as a result of searching for Top Hosting Center on any search engine.
• According to the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, the “approximate average monthly number of search queries matching” Top Hosting Center is 110 and there was not enough data to determine the number of searches on that phrase in August.  Feel free to follow the link and check it yourself!

My point?  If I’m targeting THC in order to generate traffic I’m neither very bright, nor very effective.  Despite the egos involved, there just aren’t that many people using the search engines to locate THC.  I do, however, find it rather curious that the THC CEO came to the same conclusion as a (supposedly) former employee of his whom Eric has previously helped disguise himself as merely a satisfied customer.

There’s definitely some fishy stuff going on over at THC, but they still offer some of the best web hosting deals on the web.  You can decide for yourself whether or not the financial savings is worth dealing with some of the oddities I’ve encountered of late.

Post from: Philaahzophy

Grease For My Squeaky Wheel

• Top Hosting Center Attacks Web Hosting Customer - September 22, 2008 - 7 common tags
• Top Hosting Center Rudolph Lifetime Web Hosting Scam Returns - January 5, 2009 - 5 common tags
• Moving Your WordPress Blog To A New Web Server In 10 Easy Steps - September 24, 2008 - 5 common tags
• Well THAT Sucked! - January 13, 2008 - 4 common tags
• Top Hosting Center STILL Can’t Keep Their Home Page Online! - September 25, 2008 - 4 common tags

It’s been about 48 hours since I signed up for my new web hosting account at Top Hosting Center and things just keep getting better. It may be hard to believe that things can improve over a one-time payment of $95 to get hosting and a domain for life, but they do. First, let me remind you of their incredible hosting deal-

• $95 one-time fee gets hosting for life
• One free domain for life
• 250GB disk storage
• 3000GB monthly transfer
• All the standard bells and whistles (emails, sub-domains, MySQL databases, etc) with unlimited access
• 24/7 support
• 30-day money back guarantee

Normally this is a $4.95/month package, which is a great deal in and of itself. But the first 1000 people to sign up for their Rudolph web hosting plan get the whole thing, free for life after a single $95 payment.

What’s the most important thing in a web host? Uptime. Well, 48 hours isn’t much time to judge that but THC hasn’t been down yet. A close second to uptime, however, is service and tech support. In that arena THC is coming through with flying colors. One of the reasons I went looking for a new host after being on 1and1.com for years was that I was starting to push the limits of what they would allow. I needed a web hosting company that would allow me the freedom to try new things. Not only does Top Hosting Center allow me that freedom, but they’ve been helping me explore those boundaries as well. We’ve exchanged around a dozen emails and tickets now and the longest I’ve had to wait for a response was 6 hours with an average time of less than two and several responses within minutes.

In yesterday’s post I detailed the Good, Bad and Ugly of the first few hours with THC (although I didn’t contact them directly about most of the issues) and they responded via email to let me know what solutions they’d developed for all of the problems I listed-

Hi Aahz,

For you information:

- We are in the process of integrating the Payment gateways (2CO and Paypal), Helpdesk ticket system and php 5 (migration)

- We wrote a special note that during a signup with credit card, the registration of the free domain will take up to 5 hours, because of credit card validation (to avoid fraud) .

- Starting in January, an upgrade will be done every month for all EasyAPP applications.

–
Best regards,

Team Support
www.tophostingcenter.com
Web hosting solutions for you and your business — we have it.
At THC, we match any prices GUARANTEE!
ROCK Support 24×7

How’s that for responsive? I wasn’t overly concerned about those issues, just pointing them out to my fellow netizens, and they’re all being dealt with ASAP! My new domain is fully registered and active (though I can’t share it with y’all for another few days, sorry ) When I was looking to use a specific Unix command that they had not allowed (as many web hosting companies don’t) but that I need for a specific WordPress plugin to function correctly they were even willing to reverse their prior ruling and allow its use!

When I was having difficulties transferring a MySQL database (something I’ve never done before), THC tech support not only offered to handle the migration themselves, but then came back and explained what I was doing wrong so I could learn in the process and do it myself in the future. Essentially, they’re willing to hold my hand as much or as little as I desire, and ‘smile’ the whole way. If that’s not the definition of customer service I don’t know what is, particularly considering they’ve already got my $95 one time fee, so it’s not like they’re going to be earning more from me at this point.

Setting up new blogs couldn’t be easier than with their EasyApps Collection. You essentially just pick your blogging platform (WordPress, B2Evolution, or FeedOnFeeds), fill out a few variables (which domain, directory, admin username, etc) and it creates the database for you, install the software and sens you on your way! With almost 40 different apps in this collection, all of the major web softwares are represented and just as easy to install. Thus far I’ve used WordPress, OpenAds (phpadsnew), and PhpBB, but I’m looking forward to experimenting with Joomla, Php Nuke, PhpWiki, CubeCart, osCommerce, ZenCart, CS Live Helper, and phpMyFAQ now that I don’t have to worry about a possibly lengthy and complex installation process first. I’ve had Zen Cart, for example, sitting on my desk top waiting to be tried for over a year now.

I’ll continue to check in with reports on Top Hosting Center occasionally, but they seem about as perfect as a webhosting company could be at this point.

Post from: Philaahzophy

Kinks Working Out At Top Hosting Center

• First Impressions of Top Hosting Center - December 20, 2007 - 9 common tags
• Is My Website Hosting Search Over Already? - December 17, 2007 - 8 common tags
• Grease For My Squeaky Wheel - September 24, 2008 - 4 common tags
• Well THAT Sucked! - January 13, 2008 - 3 common tags
• Top Hosting Center STILL Can’t Keep Their Home Page Online! - September 25, 2008 - 3 common tags

As I wrote a few days ago I’ve been looking for a new website hosting company and decided to give Top Hosting Center a shot because they’re currently offering an incredible hosting deal-

• $95 one-time fee gets hosting for life
• One free domain for life
• 250GB disk storage
• 3000GB monthly transfer
• All the standard bells and whistles (emails, sub-domains, MySQL databases, etc) with unlimited access
• 24/7 support
• 30-day money back guarantee

Well, I signed up earlier today and overall am pretty happy. I’ve been designing (and thus hosting) websites for more than a decade now. I even operated a small web hosting company for a few years back in the mid-90s. So I’m far from a rookie when it comes to webhosts. Bear in mind that the following is a result of only a couple of hours of playing with the system. As I add more domains and do more work I’ll come back and post further updates-

The Good -

• Their Rudolph lifetime web hosting deal (outlined above) is absolutely amazing!
• Their tech support is speedy, human and helpful! Thus far I’ve emailed them (before and after buying a web hosting package) and sent one internal ticket through their customer support system. My response times: 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 2 hours, 45 minutes. All responses were directly to the point, friendly, and clearly written by a real human being.
• The one-click install for many standard web software programs is as easy as it sounds. So far I’ve installed WordPress and OpenAds (phpadsnew) on two separate domains.

The Bad -

• Both WordPress and OpenAds installed easily, but the software was out of date and needed an immediate upgrade. With WordPress this was easy enough to do, but with OpenAds it’s a major upgrade and it turned out easier to just delete the automatic installation and do the installation myself.
• I have no idea what’s going on with my free domain. Part of the Rudolph hosting package is a free domain name for life. When I purchased my account I was told to email them the information for my domain. I did so, but have not heard back on that and the domain is still listed as “available” at the domain registrars 10 hours later. By contrast, I registered another new domain today and it shows as “not available” a mere two hours later.

The Ugly -

• When ordering my account it quickly became evident that this is a very young company. The process of simply making my payment took at least a half dozen different pages, none of which seemed to be hosted at THC. Having the payment processing so visibly done by a third party doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. As an FYI, I’ve used 2checkout.com (they’re payment processor) in the past, and found them reliable. This is a matter of the impression of insecurity rather than a genuine lack of security.
• I had to create a separate login for their support system. That is so annoying. When I’m already logged in to my account and need to look up how to do something I’m already frustrated. the last thing I want to do is have to login to yet another site. The support system should be 100% integrated into the control panel.

Considering the mad amounts of drama I’ve had transferring (or creating) accounts with past web hosting companies, these complaints are relatively minor. If you’ve hosted your own websites before you’ll navigate your way through just fine. if this is your first time, their customer support staff is superb. Top Hosting Center is definitely still a thumbs up from me even if you miss out on the Rudolph deal and go with the same plan @ $4.95/month.

Post from: Philaahzophy

First Impressions of Top Hosting Center

• Kinks Working Out At Top Hosting Center - December 22, 2007 - 9 common tags
• Is My Website Hosting Search Over Already? - December 17, 2007 - 8 common tags
• Grease For My Squeaky Wheel - September 24, 2008 - 4 common tags
• Well THAT Sucked! - January 13, 2008 - 3 common tags
• Top Hosting Center STILL Can’t Keep Their Home Page Online! - September 25, 2008 - 3 common tags

I mentioned earlier today that I’ve started to consider changing website hosting companies. This may actually be my shortest service search in history thanks to Top Hosting Center and their Rudolf plan. This is truly an amazing introductory offer…

• $95 one-time fee gets hosting for life
• One free domain for life
• 250GB disk storage
• 3000GB monthly transfer
• All the standard bells and whistles (emails, sub-domains, MySQL databases, etc) with unlimited access
• 24/7 support
• 30-day money back guarantee

While working on this post I dropped them an email to see if they allow the running of cron jobs (don’t worry if you don’t know what that is) because its one of the limitations of my current host (I can’t run them here) and that’s been a bit of a hassle. Within literally two minutes I received a friendly response confirming that you can! Excellent!

Anyway, I lost my train of thought there for a moment…. Oh yeah…

If you’re thinking to yourself “this is too good to be true”, you’re not alone. But, as always, you need to determine what you’re actually risking. In this case it’s only $95 for lifetime hosting. And this idea isn’t exactly unprecedented. I signed on with my current host, 1and1, when they first arrived on the American web hosting scene about five years ago. Why? Because they were offering three years of service for absolutely nothing. I figured it couldn’t hurt to try and received three years of excellent service for absolutely nothing. Now that I’m paying for the same plan I was getting for free I’m feeling its limitations a little more, hence the shopping around for something new. But I’m convinced that Rudolph and Top Hosting Center are my answer.

The plan regularly costs $4.95/month (not a bad deal in and of itself), so as long as THC survives for 20 months (until July 2008) I’ll be in the black. Am I taking a chance in dropping $95 in advance? Sure am. But I think it’s one whose dividends will be paying for years to come. My only concern now is that they don’t sell out the 1,000 available Rudolph plans before I can get my monthly paycheck into the bank tomorrow evening.

Post from: Philaahzophy

Is My Website Hosting Search Over Already?

• Kinks Working Out At Top Hosting Center - December 22, 2007 - 8 common tags
• First Impressions of Top Hosting Center - December 20, 2007 - 8 common tags
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• Top Hosting Center Can’t Keep Own Website Online! - September 21, 2008 - 3 common tags