I had a hosting account with 1 main and 3 add-on domains. Not able to make much headway, I decided not to renew my main one. I did inform my host a month before, yet the inevitable happened. I could not access either my cPanel nor FTP (as both reflected to my main domain). I summoned my host who feigned ignorance on my earlier mail, and asked whether to delete and I said yes.
Everything was lost, all sites down. Panicked I asked them what you have done? They said “you told us to delete and we did that”.
My question is: Is there not a procedure to handle such cases automatically? Is it not routine? If not, what else could be done? Also, who erred here, me or my host? I can easily blame my host and move on but then I should know how to handle this?
I will appreciate any feedback and inputs on this. Thanks
Thanks for your candid reply. I really appreciate it. However I believe:
As far as domains are concerned, it does not make any difference which one is main and which add-on. Hence after I had informed the host, they could have easily made any other main, which they did not do.
I agree that since I am a pc buff, not knowing linux/web installs, could not understand the question “should we delete…”.
My 4 domains, 12 sub-domains (for testing purposes though) roughly measured 150 mb. After my howling, they gave me a backup which was a phenomenal 650 mb+. However even after so-called restoration (from offline, non-internet-connected server) none of my sites came online. All I could see was a jumble of folders, with just nothing proper (I don’t know what they had backed up). I even downloaded the full zip file, but as of now it just lies on my pc, not knowing what to do.
I had my backups but a power-glitch rendered my NTFS drives’ MFT damaged. (Anyway, I take the blame on myself, separate issue).
In shared hosting I read almost everyone has more than a dozen sites. How do they manage in this situation?
So before getting a new host, should I ask a few questions or taking backup and restoring myself is the only answer? Does that mean I should use cPanel, delete old one, change my new main-domain, change add-on domains … all by myself?
Given the way cPanel works and that the account itself is tied to the main domain (meaning theat the host has to set up a new account and transfer everything across for you if you want to change the main domain), a lot of people I know of just use a dummy domain name as their main domain that they don’t use for anything else and then use an add-on domain for all their actual sites.
Okay, but then one has to renew that domain name every year, isn’t it? Doesn’t $10 mean anything to all? (I see people request sharing stuff valued at below $7 …).
Moreover opening new a/c, putting an add-on domain as main and clubbing others to this main one … is it tedious or a simple script based operation? Thanks for answering, but I need to know in what words should I ask my host to do all this?
I switched hosting a few months ago and used a different domain for my main domain with the new host to what I had used with the old host. Uploading the domains a different way around was simply a matter of uploading the files for what had been the main domain into a folder so that the folder could be used for the add-on. The new main domain was for a WordPress blog and so with a couple of lines in the .htaccess and changes to a couple of the settings I was able to keep almost all of that in a separate folder as well.
The hosting company really should have switched the domain name that is on the package. It is quite easy to do and could also have been done after your main domain lapsed. It is true that you have to take some of the blame for what happened but I have been in the web hosting industry for some years and one of the first things I learned was to explain things clearly and make sure I am understood. The people you dealt with clearly did not do that.
There is no way on this earth that any hosting company I have ever dealt with would “Delete” a website (actually remove it from the server) without written authorisation from the customer via a password protected help desk ticket. Normally it is just made inactive and often kept for months or years (that way if the customer comes back with the renewal fee you can reactivate it painlessly - and get the money!) Storage costs virtually nothing in comparison with everything else a hosting company spends money on.
Imagine what the reaction would be if Coca Cola, IBM or any large company were told “we deleted your website because you told us too”?!?!!?
If you have a cPanel backup, it can be restored very easily; but not by you; by your new host.
Even if your main domain was going to expire there was no problem with the hosting. Hosting can be on an expired domain also till it is not against ToS of your host.
“it does not make any difference which one is main and which add-on.” - it matters if you ask your host to delete main domain.
“after I had informed the host, they could have easily made any other main, which they did not do.” - no it is not the duty of host till it is not requested.
You cannot restore that backup provided by your host on your PC as the format may be for cPanel backup/restoration.
Some of my customers have even 100 add-on domains and there is no problem. Whenever they want to make any domain as main domain or change the name or so, they are requesting and we are obliging. In fact, you can do that through cPanel also BUT with some precautions.
"So before getting a new host, should I ask a few questions or taking backup and restoring myself is the only answer? Does that mean I should use cPanel, delete old one, change my new main-domain, change add-on domains … all by myself? " - leave all this to new host - just provide the backup to them - open an account with them, upload backup in public_html folder and inform them to restore that.
Right now, we are in a very interesting position similar to you - a Japanese customer, whose English is very poor, ordered a hosting account. As he is existing cutomer, automatically new order was clubed with his existing account. He immediatelly wrote us to ‘delete the account’. We were knowing that client does not understand nglish and has very little knowledge of hosting, we did not delete anything. We asked explanation and he gave a wague reply. We know what he wants but we will not take any action till the things are not very clear. Actually he wants 2 saparate hosting accounts for his both orders, so he wants to get new order saparated. What I want to say that host must be reasonable also and should not work like a machine.
Very many thanks for your reply. EXACTLY, I wanted to read this. Thanks. The host should understand what the client needs. Whatever little I could learn in my nine months of web experience, I informed my host about expiring domain. The only question, I think they should have asked is, “which other domain should be your main one”. It would have saved me from all this frustration.
Imagine what the reaction would be if Coca Cola, IBM or any large company were told “we deleted your website because you told us too”?!?!!?
I truly appreciate it. I already said I accept the blame for being a newbie. I will live and learn, there is no other choice. Except I can always come here at sitepoint forums to learn more. Thanks everyone.