Comments on: Web Africa, from hero to zero http://imel.co.za/webafrica A practicle approach Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:21:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Pierre http://imel.co.za/webafrica/comment-page-1/#comment-356 Pierre Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:13:55 +0000 http://www.imel.co.za/?p=5682#comment-356 Hi Imel Stumbled upon your site and wow...I am so glad it is not only me experiencing the same trouble. As I am no IT expert it is very frustrating when things go wrong as I am now experiencing. My one domain has been down 5 times (that I know of) in the last 2 weeks. Everytime something different goes wrong. First a PHP error then site down completely then control panel says my account has been suspended etc etc I am now also thinking of moving my domains and am scared to death to it :( I have been a Webafrica supporter and have also sent people their way but I am disappointed by their service lately. It has cost me a lot of money holding on the telephone hoping somebody will come to my rescue. I am not here to brand bash but feel that these guys deserve to hear how they are upsetting their customers. Like I said I thought I was alone in this...and after being told the problem is on your side a few times (even though you know that you have not changed or fiddled anywhere) you start to doubt the whole process. So here is to them sorting out whatever went wrong in their system...and hoping that we will all be able to get the service we deserve... Cheers Pierre Hi Imel

Stumbled upon your site and wow…I am so glad it is not only me experiencing the same trouble.

As I am no IT expert it is very frustrating when things go wrong as I am now experiencing. My one domain has been down 5 times (that I know of) in the last 2 weeks. Everytime something different goes wrong.

First a PHP error
then site down completely
then control panel says my account has been suspended
etc etc

I am now also thinking of moving my domains and am scared to death to it :(

I have been a Webafrica supporter and have also sent people their way but I am disappointed by their service lately. It has cost me a lot of money holding on the telephone hoping somebody will come to my rescue.

I am not here to brand bash but feel that these guys deserve to hear how they are upsetting their customers. Like I said I thought I was alone in this…and after being told the problem is on your side a few times (even though you know that you have not changed or fiddled anywhere) you start to doubt the whole process.

So here is to them sorting out whatever went wrong in their system…and hoping that we will all be able to get the service we deserve…

Cheers

Pierre

]]> By: imel http://imel.co.za/webafrica/comment-page-1/#comment-353 imel Sat, 03 Oct 2009 18:43:47 +0000 http://www.imel.co.za/?p=5682#comment-353 The new network webafrica is testing shows some real promise. Both local and international traffic is performing better than any other ADSL networks around. Some issues remain though, like not being able to access any websites one of the webafrica servers (control3), but this is likely a routing issue which will be addressed soon. If the new network is made available at a reasonable cost (R40 - R50 per GB) then I suspect many customers will return, being willing to pay more for a better experience. The new network webafrica is testing shows some real promise. Both local and international traffic is performing better than any other ADSL networks around.

Some issues remain though, like not being able to access any websites one of the webafrica servers (control3), but this is likely a routing issue which will be addressed soon.

If the new network is made available at a reasonable cost (R40 – R50 per GB) then I suspect many customers will return, being willing to pay more for a better experience.

]]> By: imel http://imel.co.za/webafrica/comment-page-1/#comment-274 imel Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:59:37 +0000 http://www.imel.co.za/?p=5682#comment-274 Hi Francois, my disk usage is still as it was a week ago. Maybe it is related to the increasing of mailbox limits that is currently happening? Best to check with support. Hi Francois, my disk usage is still as it was a week ago. Maybe it is related to the increasing of mailbox limits that is currently happening?
Best to check with support.

]]> By: Francois Laubscher http://imel.co.za/webafrica/comment-page-1/#comment-273 Francois Laubscher Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:52:44 +0000 http://www.imel.co.za/?p=5682#comment-273 I just noticed my disk usage at #webafrica has more than doubled (almost trebled, actually) overnight without me adding anything. Have you checked yours? I just noticed my disk usage at #webafrica has more than doubled (almost trebled, actually) overnight without me adding anything.

Have you checked yours?

]]> By: Cagenuts http://imel.co.za/webafrica/comment-page-1/#comment-271 Cagenuts Thu, 27 Aug 2009 07:18:06 +0000 http://www.imel.co.za/?p=5682#comment-271 I have moved over all my customers to smtp.saix.net after repeated failure by the WA SMTP servers to deliver mail reliably. I have moved over all my customers to smtp.saix.net after repeated failure by the WA SMTP servers to deliver mail reliably.

]]> By: Abdul-Aziz Arnold - WA NOC Manager http://imel.co.za/webafrica/comment-page-1/#comment-267 Abdul-Aziz Arnold - WA NOC Manager Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:56:09 +0000 http://www.imel.co.za/?p=5682#comment-267 Hi Imel, Yes there was an issue last night where one of our cabinets, (Cabinet 3) lost power completely. We had to send an engineer to go take a look at the DC to see what the cause of the issue was. We then ended up moving the APC it uses to a entirely different multi-plug. This caused all servers in that cabinet to go down for that period. Our graphs, aswell as your own indicate similar readings regarding this. Hi Imel,

Yes there was an issue last night where one of our cabinets, (Cabinet 3) lost power completely. We had to send an engineer to go take a look at the DC to see what the cause of the issue was. We then ended up moving the APC it uses to a entirely different multi-plug. This caused all servers in that cabinet to go down for that period. Our graphs, aswell as your own indicate similar readings regarding this.

]]> By: imel http://imel.co.za/webafrica/comment-page-1/#comment-266 imel Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:29:58 +0000 http://www.imel.co.za/?p=5682#comment-266 Hi Abdul, there was a two hour blackout on the server last night, between 11pm and 1am, followed by a server reboot. During this two hour window my own pings and http requests to multiple domains on the server continuosly failed. Can your NOC shed light on this? Hi Abdul, there was a two hour blackout on the server last night, between 11pm and 1am, followed by a server reboot.
During this two hour window my own pings and http requests to multiple domains on the server continuosly failed. Can your NOC shed light on this?

]]> By: imel http://imel.co.za/webafrica/comment-page-1/#comment-265 imel Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:16:08 +0000 http://www.imel.co.za/?p=5682#comment-265 A quick update: Had a call from Daniel Hendler, Web Africa Quality Assurance, glad to hear that my issues are being taken seriously and are being investigated. Have been promised that server load is being addressed and will improve soon. (Why reactive and not pro-active?) Non delivery of emails is also now being investigated and will hopefully soon be a thing of the past. (As this is a know issue why are customers not informed that some outbound emails are dropped without notification?) Control panel issues are a concern and am being investigated as a result of my issues logged. Have been given a shortcut to get directly to the techies, hopefully this will relieve my frustrations with the helpdesk. As to the way forward, considering a few options, hope to get a call form the sales guys soon. A quick update:
Had a call from Daniel Hendler, Web Africa Quality Assurance, glad to hear that my issues are being taken seriously and are being investigated.

Have been promised that server load is being addressed and will improve soon. (Why reactive and not pro-active?)

Non delivery of emails is also now being investigated and will hopefully soon be a thing of the past. (As this is a know issue why are customers not informed that some outbound emails are dropped without notification?)

Control panel issues are a concern and am being investigated as a result of my issues logged.

Have been given a shortcut to get directly to the techies, hopefully this will relieve my frustrations with the helpdesk.

As to the way forward, considering a few options, hope to get a call form the sales guys soon.

]]> By: Abdul-Aziz Arnold - WA NOC Manager http://imel.co.za/webafrica/comment-page-1/#comment-264 Abdul-Aziz Arnold - WA NOC Manager Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:12:28 +0000 http://www.imel.co.za/?p=5682#comment-264 As Matthew Tagg, our CEO, has mentioned above, our NOC department actively monitors any activity,lag or any other issues that could occur on any of our Shared, Dedicated and Office servers. A short list of what we monitor on our Plesk Servers is displayed below(Windows Shared Servers Sensors are different): PING , HTML , ASP, PHP, Perl, Python, PHP4 , PHP 5, MySQL 4, MySQL 5, Disk Space % HTTP Check, HTTP CPU Load Check, Control Panel HTTP Check, HTTP Backup Check, HTTP Tomcat 5. These are the common sensors that exist on our Plesk Servers, some Shared Servers however have more services monitored, to name a few, Coldfusion, Smarterstats, Mail Queue, POP, SMTP, IMAP, Spool Count, etc. We utilise monitoring software called IPCheck and large screen displays indicates a failure on any sensor which is picked up within 60 seconds, for a NOC engineer to resolve. Secondly we also look for trends in hosting tickets or specific problems that clients escalate that are unable to be dealt with on a support level. If you do find any occurrences like these and receive no acceptable response from any of our frontline support agents, kindly request they escalate the query through to the Engineering Department where we will attempt to identify, firstly if there is a performance issue and secondly the cause of the performance issue and take corrective action. Now, with respect to your query regarding slowness on the control3.wa server - I've personally investigated this and noticed the query was not escalated to any NOC Engineer. We will however actively monitor this server and compare our stats to your own to verify if there is in fact a lag and contact you with a solution sometime today. As Matthew Tagg, our CEO, has mentioned above, our NOC department actively monitors any activity,lag or any other issues that could occur on any of our Shared, Dedicated and Office servers. A short list of what we monitor on our Plesk Servers is displayed below(Windows Shared Servers Sensors are different):

PING , HTML , ASP, PHP, Perl, Python, PHP4 , PHP 5, MySQL 4, MySQL 5, Disk Space % HTTP Check, HTTP CPU Load Check, Control Panel HTTP Check, HTTP Backup Check, HTTP Tomcat 5.

These are the common sensors that exist on our Plesk Servers, some Shared Servers however have more services monitored, to name a few, Coldfusion, Smarterstats, Mail Queue, POP, SMTP, IMAP, Spool Count, etc.

We utilise monitoring software called IPCheck and large screen displays indicates a failure on any sensor which is picked up within 60 seconds, for a NOC engineer to resolve. Secondly we also look for trends in hosting tickets or specific problems that clients escalate that are unable to be dealt with on a support level.

If you do find any occurrences like these and receive no acceptable response from any of our frontline support agents, kindly request they escalate the query through to the Engineering Department where we will attempt to identify, firstly if there is a performance issue and secondly the cause of the performance issue and take corrective action.

Now, with respect to your query regarding slowness on the control3.wa server – I’ve personally investigated this and noticed the query was not escalated to any NOC Engineer. We will however actively monitor this server and compare our stats to your own to verify if there is in fact a lag and contact you with a solution sometime today.

]]> By: imel http://imel.co.za/webafrica/comment-page-1/#comment-263 imel Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:21:44 +0000 http://www.imel.co.za/?p=5682#comment-263 Hi Michael, I have been in your boat before, hurriedly migrating sites from one host to another. I hope your site migration went smoothly, but is not something I am looking forward to doing again. As to Hetzner, I have heard good and bad things, and do not want it to be a case of jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Every host or business partner will have there ups and downs, for me it goes more about the partnership and the flexibility / re-assurance your supplier can give. Having first rate competent support goes a long way in my book towards putting my mind (and business risk) at ease. Regards, Imel Hi Michael, I have been in your boat before, hurriedly migrating sites from one host to another. I hope your site migration went smoothly, but is not something I am looking forward to doing again.

As to Hetzner, I have heard good and bad things, and do not want it to be a case of jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

Every host or business partner will have there ups and downs, for me it goes more about the partnership and the flexibility / re-assurance your supplier can give. Having first rate competent support goes a long way in my book towards putting my mind (and business risk) at ease.

Regards, Imel

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