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Thread: 1&1 Web Hosting

  1. #1

    Default 1&1 Web Hosting

    Hello all,

    Has anyone used 1&1? Personally I think they’re great. If you have, what do you think are the strongest features compared to other hosting sites like Bluehost and Go Daddy.

  2. #2
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    It's been years since I used or had to log into 1&1 and my experience with them is not great. Interesting you mentioned a comparison to Go Daddy since I consider 1&1 the 'Go Daddy' of Germany. I'm not a fan of either company nor their hosting. As a domain registrar? Fine. As a host? I guess it depends on what your needs are. If they're not more than the basics for a non important website...sure..either is great to mess around with without spending a lot of money.

    For your business website? I'd go with Bluehost.

    I understand a lot of people like 1&1 and Go Daddy and I'm not here to change anyone's mind. I'm just not a fan of either company.

  3. #3
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    I have probably used a dozen different hosting companies. I am working to pear down to two right now. They all seem to manage to keep a web site up and running and to me the measure of a hosting company is customer support. I have a number of sites on GoDaddy and it is one of the two I plan to keep. I do like them for domains but the customer support has been hit or miss. Sometimes it is great and sometimes not so great. Usually things do get fixed. I have not used 1 & 1. My favorite hosting company at the moment is SiteGround. Their customer support has been terrific. They do seem oriented to WordPress web sites so if someone is not planning to use WordPress there may not be as much of an advantage.


    Here is one of the things I noticed that gave them a gold star. If you go to GoDaddy and need to get an SSL on your site they do a good job of trying to rip you off. SiteGround promotes the free SSL and encourages people to get one for free and has a lot of helpful info to do it. They don't seem to be trying to rip people off which to me is a big plus. Just as an example when I redid my main web site and moved the hosting there once I had it built when I did the SSL certificate the slide show on the home page quite working. I contacted them and got help instantly. They fixed one image and then sent me a step by step instruction on how to fix the rest using my site for the illustration. It ran a few pages with lots of screen shots marked with arrows and very detailed. He could have fixed the site himself faster then showing me how to fix it but wanted me to understand what happened and what the fix was. When I have needed to talk to support I have never waited more than 30 seconds. Some hosting companies have you on hold for hours and some don't respond to a ticket for days.
    Ray Badger, Turbo Technologies, Inc.
    www.TurboTurf.com www.IceControlSprayers.com

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    Just to add, I used to recommend Go Daddy to all my clients, however, something happened about 7 years ago and they started sucking big time. Load times were horrible, uptime was hit and miss, support was horrendous, and then the security issues started happening. Not just my clients but new clients were calling me because their sites were getting hacked.

    Some of it was simple things like someone just hitting the index file and changing the home page, and others more serious like redirecting the site to bootleg pharmaceutical sites.

    Trying to work with Go Daddy during these issues was bad. They seemed to have no idea what to do and to make matters worse they always tried to blame the website owner.
    So I found myself digging though installs hunting down the hacked file or infection and cleaning them up. I kind of felt like as a hosting company they should have been able to stop the easy ones and they seemed helpless.

    Around this point is when I started telling my clients to move. Most did, some didn't. Of those that did (most to Bluehost) they never had an issue with security or uptimes again.

    But I still had clients on Go Daddy and new callers were with Go Daddy because you know...they advertise on the TV.

    Then Go Daddy made a deal with Sitelock to handle security and that made it even worse.

    Let me tell you how Sitelock operates.

    First of all they have like 175 security products...which..when you're dealing with normal consumers with basic websites..confusing them with 175 security products is ridiculous. Trying to get a straight answer out of them on which plan is the one that watches the site and fixes any issues, is impossible. Everything depends, and every plan has an open door in case they need to charge you more money per issue. Which is suspect because WordPress is one of the easiest platforms to fix, repair, or recover if you need to do so. Especially if you already have backup which you should with your paid Sitelock plan AND whatever your hosting plan gives you.

    Second, basic Sitelock is free and comes with the hosting, but it doesn't do anything except scan the site and send you a **** load of alerts that your site is infected and needs attention.
    They don't fix whatever is wrong with it, they just tell you. That's fine for me, but not for the average small business who has no idea what the hell they're talking about.

    Now, you (the average consumer) got these scary email alerts telling you something is wrong with your site. You call Sitelock and they proceed to sell you one of their security products to do a "deep scan" and fix the issue. Average price? $300 for a one time deep scan, and additional cost to fix the issue once found.

    I've had clients who were paying Sitelock monthly for security, but no matter what plan they had it was never the right one to fix whatever new problem Sitelock claimed to have found. And they were finding new things every month. How bad is the hosting if there are security issues on a simple website every month?

    On at least 2 occasions Sitelock sent a client a batch of these scary alerts claiming that something like 150 files were infected and in need of immediate attention or they risked getting de indexed by Google.
    So I dig into it. Of course the client needed to purchase the $300 "deep scan" to find the issue.

    So I..having been through this before suggested that since WordPress is PHP and Database driven and not a typical file by file website build that whatever it is in probably in the header.php. sidebar.php or footer.php because those are the most likely places that something would be and look like it's replicated across pages.

    They wouldn't look there. They wanted $300 for the "deep scan". Mind you the client is already paying a monthly fee for security.

    So I advised the client not to pay, I opened the footer.php and there was about 5 lines of javascript that shouldn't be there...just sitting there. As if someone has placed it there. Just enough code to cause an alarm, but it wasn't doing anything malicious other than triggering the alarm. That's when I started getting suspicious.

    I removed it, ran the Sitelock scan it came back clean and then I advised the client to move to Bluehost and they never had another issue. I think bluehost offers Sitelock now and I always advise long term clients to NOT get it.

    I've been through that story with Sitelock many times for clients. Through Network Solutions, and Go Daddy. With one client is was every month. They had him over a barrel using fear tactics on him because he was about to go for a round of funding and needed his site, so they sold him EVERYTHING. Over and over again Sitelock was sending alert...50 pages infected, 175 pages infected, 200 pages infected and Google is going to pull your site. I totally beleive they faked infections to keep charging this client hundreds and hundreds of dollars to remove what looked like grade school script kidde crap that I wasn't seeing on ANY OTHER WEBSITES across multiple hosts. Just hosts that used Sitelock. When you talk to these people as many times as I have it's clear something ain't right. As if they work on commision.

    The really crappy part of it is that Sitelock tells your host that your site is infected and your host can and will take your website down with no warning and then direct you to Sitelock to remedy it. If you don't know how to find the BS that I'm reasonably sure they're planting or lowering defenses to allow, you have to pay them to "fix" it and get your website back up. In many cases they will only restore your site if you purchase one of their "security" services. This is what Go Daddy calls website security.

    I also had Go Daddy clients with sites that were just not loading and it was clear that it was the server and Go Daddy wouldn't fess up. First they sell you more hosting. That doesn't change things, so they sell you even more hosting. That doesn't work, now it's the website's fault. For some reason the 5 plug ins we're running, the same as every other client I have on multiple hosts, are too much. Even though we've upgraded twice to run a simple 12 page website that has nothing more than words, images and 1 form on it.

    DAYS latter they finally admit that the client is on the old hosting platform and he needs to move to the new hosting platform. He was never notified. He was never given the opportunity to do so. And of course he has to pay to move away from the hosting package that they sold him and then abandon without any notice or warning...over to the new platform. I'm sorry but that's just bad business.

    And on the SSL point of overcharging you for things you don't need?
    Yes, I've had that experience with them too. Tried to sell me a static IP with an SSL/TLS for a simple site NOT on a subdomain. $350 for an SSL for one year.
    When they don't think you know what you're talking about they will run all over you, tell you every issue is your fault, and sell you whatever they can get out of you.

    I've also had Go Daddy support that was great. Knowledgeable techs, good customer service...but it's hit and miss. IMO Go Daddy has been around far too long to not have their crap together yet.

    So my sour experience with Go Daddy has a long history. Years.

    On the one hand, it's because they suck so bad that people still call me to handle them, but on the other it's not right the way they treat people who don't know any better and their security is a joke.
    I wouldn't host anything with them if you paid me. And I'm sad to have to say that because I used to love that company when I first started out. They did all the things right that I loved, they had a great product and made it easy for you to do business with them. When they first offered hosting it was great, but it went downhill very quickly. And since my first responsibility is to my clients and NOT to kiss up to one hosting company over another, I BEG people not to use them as a host and to stay as far away from Sitelock as they can.

    And the dashboard has always sucked.

    It's just not worth the hassle when there are many really good hosts out there that do a good job and give great service. But if you only want to pay $3 for hosting then I guess you go with Go Daddy or 1&1.

    JMO of course.
    Last edited by Harold Mansfield; 02-08-2019 at 07:46 AM.

  5. #5

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    I just use Godaddy for domain registration and have for years. I'm a believer in registering domains at a different place than hosting because of scams years ago.

    Does anybody recommend going away from go daddy if it's just used for domains?

  6. #6
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    I think Go daddy is fine for domains. If I wanted a new domain it is where I would go to get ir.
    Ray Badger, Turbo Technologies, Inc.
    www.TurboTurf.com www.IceControlSprayers.com

  7. #7
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    I have no problem with them as a registrar. I use to have domains there in the past and never had an issue with that side of the business.
    Last edited by Harold Mansfield; 02-15-2019 at 07:49 AM.

  8. #8

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    I dont think 1&1 is a good option for people outside USA as there customer service is not reachable and they dont have global support team or any chat support which could be easy to reach from any where. So having a website with them is not a good option.
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