I read somewhere that you could delete the xmlrpc.php file and the blog will work fine. I’ll try to come back and post an update on what happens if I remember.

Thanks for the heads-up on Lunar Pages, I was considering using them as my current webhost only offers 500M of disc space. Anyway after reading of your experiences and others I’ll scratch them.

As for Hostgator. Well…

Despite recommendations and glowing reports from others about them I have to say that I was utterly disgusted with the treatment I received…

I signed up, paid via paypal and set up a monthly debit. I was then sent to a page instructing me on how to access my account. All great so far.

However I wasn’t able to log on and was ‘talking’ to the live chat person to find out why when she mentioned an email had been sent to me stating why. Funny that… then I noticed an email from Paypal stating my payment had been refunded.

“What?”

After another ten minutes an email arrived from Hostgator stating:

“Your account has been marked for a security verification. Because of this, in order for us to host your domain, we will require payment via bank transfer or Western Union.”

What? Why?

No reason given, just instructions how to pay by bank transfer or Western Union. A minimum payment of $100 would be required and a dire warning was given to follow the instructions ‘to the letter’ otherwise payment wouldn’t be accepted.
(If you check out the small print any bank transfers or Western Union deposits will NOT be refunded in cash. They will only by credited against Hostgator’s future ’services’.

This means you have to pay for a year or more services upfront but have no way of getting a refund if you decide to cancel… not good that!)

And I’d been told Hostgator people were friendly! But it gets worse…

I obviously replied asking what was cooking. Their answer was: ‘they’d had too many Paypal reversals and bank chargebacks originating from China.’

UHH? So why accept the payments from here in the first place? Why not state the payment terms on the website to save misleading potential clients?

I stated as much in my return email and then asked why they were treating me like a criminal – security verification indeed – and why couldn’t they word their email in a different way that wouldn’t be so offensive?

I mean a simple “Dear Sir, we are very sorry to inform you that we have been forced to stop accepting payments via Paypal…” or words to that effect would go a long way in building customer relations and spreading the word. But you won’t believe the reply I got – I was stunned myself.

Quote:

“At no point have we stated that you are a criminal. However, as any investigator can tell you, when some one claims that they are not a criminal without being accused of being a criminal, that person is either a criminal or planning on doing something that they know to be questionable in nature.”

Can you believe that?

“We haven’t said you’re a criminal but you must be one if you ask why you are being treated so”

Anyway to cut a long story short I shall NEVER use Hostgator and am still waiting for the reply to my complaint about their attitude.

Just thought I’d let you know that all is not well in ‘Hostgator land’ either… and I’m still looking for a trustworthy webhost… sigh!

Take care,

Stuart

I’ve been with them for years and I have to admit, their service is going downhill I’ll consider moving to Hostgator now

And, as I mentioned in a previous post, use MyStarterBlog if you want a blog type format that is HTML based. See here..

My Starter Blog
http://www.mcgrathinfosolution.com/mystarterblog_en.htm

Demo: http://www.mcgrathinfosolution.com/msb_example/

I know you are down with XSP, but, MSB is only about seven dollars.

Key Benefits Of MSB…

* More secure since there is no backend that can be hacked

* Learn to use FTP software, HTML (posts/pages)

* Interact directly with your readers

* Use the 8 included themes that you can modify to your taste or get new ones

* Search engine friendly out of the box so that your readers can find your blog quickly

* Auto-generate the RSS feed and sitemap.xml

* Create unlimited blogs (paid version)

* Import text files in a batch to start your blog faster (paid version)

* Import your WordPress blog(XML) (paid version)

* Free Basic version(1 blog)

* Low cost paid version available with free upgrades for life

* No spyware or adware

Your call, but I am glad you made the move. Lets hope you don’t run into further problems..

On hale it up..

Robert C..

They used to get my highest recommendation and now they get my lowest. HG used to get my lowest, and now they rank among my highest (right up there with Liquid Web and iWeb).

I got one of those resource e-mails for having 2 of JP’s Niche in a Box sites on one account. I moved those two and added 18 blogs to a Bluehost account with no problems. Same with HG — I put 20 to 25 blogs on one account (I have 2 shared and 1 reseller with HG) and CPU is always at 0.1.

Ready for another shocker? Ping your LP servers and see what kind of response you get. Here’s my results running right now:

LunarPages: 101ms
Hostgator: 47ms
BlueHost: 78ms
iWeb: 41ms

Shaun

If you get p.o. at Hostgator, you might try Dreamhost. I’ve been with them for a couple of years and have had no issues with them. They have a lot of bandwidth, the technical support is great and they have one-click installs for just about anything you can ask for.

Cheers,

Barry