On Friday, the geniuses at DreamHost moved my site to a new server. This move, like the one for the email server, was completely unannounced. Unlike the email server move, this one had a drastic and material impact on my site and my business.

I was away from the computer since Friday morning and subsequently, I haven't made any money in over 3 days. My site was completely unloadable from Friday afternoon until just a few minutes ago.

The issue was that a command in my htaccess file to allow html files to be read by PHP was apparently using mod_php



This was fixable by changing it to

This allows visitors to read all the pages on the site, but now, one very small detail remains unresolved...

My licensing system (for the software I sell) requires bcmath functions in PHP. DreamHost's default installation doesn't have those enabled. Previously it was impossible to enable them on a per-website basis and I don't believe that has changed. When I put the site up I had to have someone install our own instance of PHP (4.something at the time) to be able to include bcmath. So far I haven't been able to reach the friend that did that install for me.

This custom installation has broken with the server move. Therefore, while I can run my shopping cart and make sales, licensing will fail and people won't necessarily get everything they've paid for.

Would anyone be able to take a look at the licensing and possibly offer any suggestions for using some other functions other than those from bcmath (if it's even possible)?

Or alternatively, perhaps offer some help in getting PHP5 custom installed into my hosting space with bcmath functions enabled?

So far, DreamHost haven't been helpful except to offer the replacement to the php_mod command mentioned above. Only after I had already identified the specific problem to them though. Their first fix was simply to direct my pages to using their PHP5 install.

This is really stressful.

I had written some additional text to the Dreamhost guys and they've been completely useless.

Unfortunately they're big enough to have different people answer each support request and perhaps I'm not big enough to be in a position to have a dedicated account rep. They've given me a free month of service which is hardly any consolation and doesn't begin to cover the amount of money I've lost so far.

I'm in the process of trying to install a custom build of PHP5 right now and just waiting for a script to finish processing. Once I've verified everything is working correctly (fingers crossed I won't be here all night doing this), then I'm going to start to look again for a new host and a dedicated (or at least virtual dedicated) server to hopefully prevent some bullshit move like this in the future and so that I can be in complete control of the server environment.

Yeah, they've really been a "dream host" for you, haven't they?

Next time the discussion comes up on this BBS about web hosting, I'm sure you'll have this story to tell. :-)

Well, the good news is that I've managed to compile my own version of PHP 5 with the required bcmath support. And get it swapped for the default version on my site properly.

Things seem to be working again. Now I can only hope that at least some of the people who visited the site when it was down come back for another look. I'm confident some won't.

Yup, I had the same experience. My hosting was down, and I went a day without a response from support. After a day passed, I started sending them messages every hour or so, none of which were replied to. You know what that did? They banned my entire account for spamming their help system. Yeah, I sent a lot of messages, but I should have received some response.

Bruno: this is why, in my rush to find a new host, the very highest criteria was finding someone with good customer support. Bluehost has 24 hour PHONE support. Dream Host has a ticketing system that makes you feel like you'll never hear from them again. If I call Blue Host this second (it's midnight here), I'd wager I could get to a person in about 30 seconds. In the middle of the day I've never had to wait more than five minutes to talk to someone (I've only called a few times, and not for major issues, and most of them turned out to be my fault anyway ).

Anyway, if you're feeling a need for change, I can vouch for Bluehost...

I recommend HostGator.com. I have a dreamhost account too, but I wouldn't use it for anything important. They're too unreliable.