1 & 1 Hosting - Opinions?

[philameena]

Anyone got experience with 1&1 ?

They're offering 3GHz P4 dedicated servers with 500Gb/month bandwidth for $99 a month. Seems like an amazing deal.

[Shining Arcanine]

I'd go with ServerMatrix, they offer 1TB of bandwidth standard with all of their servers.

[Joshs]

Server Matrix > 1&1

For one thing they don't offer cPanel but instead their own proprietary control panel. ugh.

[Ian Gordon]

UK Company that is spreading overseas to reach a greater market potential.

[cyburbia]

Their ads in US computer magazines had what I thought was a UK-ish look when I first saw them. I didn't surprise me when I found out it was a UK-based company.

[TripleH]

they have their own limits just for the db size.. be careful.

[poolking]

They might be well known, but take it from me, I wouldn't bother with them, as Joshs said, their control panel is absolutely awful.

There are better hosts out there.

[walter]

Their ads in US computer magazines had what I thought was a UK-ish look when I first saw them. I didn't surprise me when I found out it was a UK-based company.

Actually they are a company from Germany founded 1988. Now they have offices and data centers in Germany, France, UK and USA.

[flamingpeach]

I recently switched from prohosters to 1&1 and have had no problems what so ever.

As for their control panel, compared to what I have used in the past, its wonderful.

[Scifience]

Anyone got experience with 1&1 ?

They're offering 3GHz P4 dedicated servers with 500Gb/month bandwidth for $99 a month. Seems like an amazing deal.
I signed up with them for this deal about a month ago and have had a wonderful experience.

The servers are VERY fast and they had it set up the same day for me. Whenever I have had a question for them, I just sent them an e-mail, and in a few hours (or less) they wrote back to me with a helpful response.

The nice thing about their 500GB of bandwidth is that unlike many hosting companies, they don't limit your use of it. My site on their server has at times used up 300-400GB of bandwidth in a period of an hour, and they don't mind. There are NO caps in place as to how much bandwidth can be used at once or during a single day. Their overage charges are also low compared to my previous host ($0.99/GB vs. $0.10/MB), a very important thing to consider if you've had a $25,000 bandwidth bill like I have had.

As far as the control panel naysayers go, their control panel for the shared hosting is rather unintuitive, I'll admit. However, their dedicated servers come with Plesk 7 pre-installed, which is a VERY nice and intuitive control panel, IMHO. On a dedicated server, you will never have to touch their control panel interface except for ordering domains and additional IPs.

I would highly recommend their service. I have had absolutely no downtime or slowdowns an I put a lot of stress on the server (see story above about $25,000 bandwidth bill).

If you do decide you're going to go with it, please PM me for a signup link to use (so I get a few dollars off of my hosting bill). :)

[Dean C]

Do not use this company.

Their support is horrrendous. I'll edit this post with my experience later today...

Ok EDIT:

Basiaclly I used this company to do the most simple thing in the world. Register a domain name. I have my hosting elsewhere so I reg'd the domain and then it took 3 days to process (normally < 24hours on most other services). Then I went into my control panel trying to find where I could change the DNS details and couldn't find anywhere. I looked in the FAQ and in one place they said they don't offer this service and in another it gave me a pdf form to fax to them. So I sent the fax off to the number they listed. After 7 days which is what they said it would take at maximum to get it all sorted I emailed their support complaining and asking why it hadn't gone through. Two days later I got a response saying they hadn't received a fax and said to send it through again and the support guy quoted a different fax #. So I sent the fax off again and then 2 days later got a response saying that DNS would not resolved. When in fact it does as I know several websites who are running off the two nameservers I gave them. So bascially they are uttering complete and utter bull**** and I'm stuck with them for a year with a domain I can't use which I wanted to use to launch my online portfolio/personal business.

They're support system and response time is parallel to that of a non-staff mcdonalds. Do not use this company. I can't imagine it being any better for hosting if they can't deal with a simple issue such as changing the DNS of a domain.

[Scifience]

Do not use this company.

Their support is horrrendous. I'll edit this post with my experience later today...

Ok EDIT:

Basiaclly I used this company to do the most simple thing in the world. Register a domain name. I have my hosting elsewhere so I reg'd the domain and then it took 3 days to process (normally < 24hours on most other services). Then I went into my control panel trying to find where I could change the DNS details and couldn't find anywhere. I looked in the FAQ and in one place they said they don't offer this service and in another it gave me a pdf form to fax to them. So I sent the fax off to the number they listed. After 7 days which is what they said it would take at maximum to get it all sorted I emailed their support complaining and asking why it hadn't gone through. Two days later I got a response saying they hadn't received a fax and said to send it through again and the support guy quoted a different fax #. So I sent the fax off again and then 2 days later got a response saying that DNS would not resolved. When in fact it does as I know several websites who are running off the two nameservers I gave them. So bascially they are uttering complete and utter bull**** and I'm stuck with them for a year with a domain I can't use which I wanted to use to launch my online portfolio/personal business.

They're support system and response time is parallel to that of a non-staff mcdonalds. Do not use this company. I can't imagine it being any better for hosting if they can't deal with a simple issue such as changing the DNS of a domain.
As of right now, I can update DNS through the online interface for domains I have purchased through them. I've registered 8 domains through them and none have taken longer than 24 hours to propogate (except when it was my ISP's fault, but that's another story).

[Dean C]

There is nowhere in my control panel @ admin.oneandone.co.uk where you can change the DNS.

[Scifience]

There is nowhere in my control panel @ admin.oneandone.co.uk where you can change the DNS.

That may be, but there is indeed a way to do this in the USA control panel.

[Shining Arcanine]

From what I understand, you do not want to register a domain with 1and1, besides that, they are fine.

[Icheb]

Only one thing: DON'T GO THERE.

I ordered a managed server with them last august and until mid december I had no problems with them. But then it started. In mid december, I received an e-mail that the HD broke down and they had to replace it. By itself, this would have been fine. Then january came, and with it my story:
We suddenly started experiencing outages with no apparent reason whatsoever. We had no increase in traffic, no change in scripts, nothing. Sometimes the server went down three times per day and it always took them about half an hour (sometimes longer) to get it back online. I called them and mailed them NUMEROUS times, they always said it was due to an overload caused by some script. Then, for some time, everything was fine again, then the problems came back.
Two days ago I was SO mad at them and once again I called them. It took about 8 minutes for someone to pick up (that's nothing new with them, you get used to it with them) and the guy at the other end kept telling me that he can't see any indication at all that the server was ever down, not even once. In reality, it kept going down every day. And it was not just the MySQL-server, the entire thing was gone. FTP, Apache, SSL, everything. I asked him to send me Apache / MySQL / whatever logs, so I could research this all by myself. His response: "we don't do that, there's no discussion".
He said, when the server would have been down, they would have had an entry in their log. Apparently, they don't have that. But who restarted the server then? It certainly does not go back online all by itself. Then the question came up if it could be a faulty piece of hardware. He insisted that they would have replaced the part immediately.
My server keeps going down and they claim they would have error logs if that ever happens, which they apparently don't. But they DO log the last time I called them. As a last resort I asked him to ask an admin to send me some Apache / whatever logs (apparently only they have access to that), but nothing happened.
I can't stand them anymore. I just can't. In may we will be switching to another ISP, I wish we could switch sooner.

[good2laugh]

Only one thing: DON'T GO THERE.

I ordered a managed server with them last august and until mid december I had no problems with them. But then it started. In mid december, I received an e-mail that the HD broke down and they had to replace it. By itself, this would have been fine. Then january came, and with it my story:
We suddenly started experiencing outages with no apparent reason whatsoever. We had no increase in traffic, no change in scripts, nothing. Sometimes the server went down three times per day and it always took them about half an hour (sometimes longer) to get it back online. I called them and mailed them NUMEROUS times, they always said it was due to an overload caused by some script. Then, for some time, everything was fine again, then the problems came back.
Two days ago I was SO mad at them and once again I called them. It took about 8 minutes for someone to pick up (that's nothing new with them, you get used to it with them) and the guy at the other end kept telling me that he can't see any indication at all that the server was ever down, not even once. In reality, it kept going down every day. And it was not just the MySQL-server, the entire thing was gone. FTP, Apache, SSL, everything. I asked him to send me Apache / MySQL / whatever logs, so I could research this all by myself. His response: "we don't do that, there's no discussion".
He said, when the server would have been down, they would have had an entry in their log. Apparently, they don't have that. But who restarted the server then? It certainly does not go back online all by itself. Then the question came up if it could be a faulty piece of hardware. He insisted that they would have replaced the part immediately.
My server keeps going down and they claim they would have error logs if that ever happens, which they apparently don't. But they DO log the last time I called them. As a last resort I asked him to ask an admin to send me some Apache / whatever logs (apparently only they have access to that), but nothing happened.
I can't stand them anymore. I just can't. In may we will be switching to another ISP, I wish we could switch sooner.
I'm still with them on a managed server II - basically apart from the logs this is the exact thing I got - they kept denying it was down so I send them that tracert thingy (I don't understand it but it shows its not getting to the site and losing hops somewhere) Also blame my scripts - and will ask me what I was doing to cause it to go down. hmmmph, but my story rings much the same as yours. My biggest gripe is the phone line and having to report its down, the managed server is supposed to monitor the site and make sure it is up 99.8% Last night I went down again, and had to phone the out of hours emergency server line - I got thru to the American office, and the guy was such a welcome change, polite courteous everything and got the server up again within ten minutes (well not him but he arranged it lol) In some ways they are very good but when things go wrong they do like to take their time and blame me Mnd you when the site was down previously and it was a faulty machine they did give me 3 months free, but most complaints just result in, well you wouldn't get a better service for the money.

With a medium size site I'd say they were ok, but busier sites they don't seem to cope with, well thats my experience, but My site is not as busy as a lot here, and I'd class it as only medium, but then I think each experience is relatively unique - I had a LOT of downtime with VO but others swear by them

[Icheb]

I don't have to report it being down, thankfully they reset the server themself (after a while!). Sending them traceroutes is a good idea, did it do you any good?
We should get together and start a site: www.1and1victims.com (http://www.1and1victims.com) :D .

[good2laugh]

LOL good idea. Actually the traceroutes seem my only proof it was down. I've had a complete rebuild and 3 months free - so I guess they've done some good. Trouble is, I can't afford another server so for now I have to put up with it.

[KimmiKat]

When 1 & 1 was introducing themselves to the North American market, they had a free offer for 3 years. After reading the fine print, I took advantage of that for a dormant domain I had just for fun. Although the set up was painless, it took a week before anything was working properly. I simply slapped a mboard (one of the free ones) on it which sees little action.

[Shining Arcanine]

It took 3 days before any worked in my case.

[Majik™]

Server Matrix > 1&1

For one thing they don't offer cPanel but instead their own proprietary control panel. ugh.You aren't saying that 1&1 doesn't offer cPanel are you? I host with 1&1 and they offer both cPanel and Plesk with their servers. I've been with them for a while and haven't had a single problem with downtime or speeds, unlike other hosts I've dealt with.

[ThwartedEfforts]

UK Company that is spreading overseas to reach a greater market potential.
They're extremely German and their support is absolutely hopeless. Avoid.

[ThwartedEfforts]

You aren't saying that 1&1 doesn't offer cPanel are you? I host with 1&1 and they offer both cPanel and Plesk with their servers. I've been with them for a while and haven't had a single problem with downtime or speeds, unlike other hosts I've dealt with.cpanel appears to be unique to their US service. I could be wrong.

Here, their European home market isn't offered much in the way of luxuries (a quick breeze around their .co.uk web site shows no mention of cpanel or custom DNS) and instead we have to make do with their own admin system. It's very old, very slow, and very nasty.

There are also no DNS configuration options I am aware of with my account, and as per another post their support is abysmal. Turnaround for support messages varies between 24 and 48 hours.

[Majik™]

Ya, I can't say for over there.. But, I live in Canada and therefore have my site hosted on their US servers and have never had a problem.

You have 3 choices for a cPanel, Plesk, and their proprietary one. Theirs is actually very nice, it was fairly good before, but in the last couple weeks they've been upgrading it and making lots of changes to it. You can do damn near anything you want to from it now yourself and have the changes effective usually within minutes.

As for support, I've only ever required to contact them twice. Beither was for any problem though, I was just enquiring about upgrading some things. Response was within an acceptable timeframe.

[michaelab]

My experiences with them so far have been pretty positive. I use their European (.co.uk) service and have their "Business" shared hosting package which gives me 1.5Gb of space and 10Gb/month of bandwidth for £8.99/month. My vB board has 90% UK based members so I wanted UK based hosting and my members consistently report my board as one of the fastest and most reliable they use.

In over a year I've never been aware of any downtime or slowness and I frequently have 30+ simulataneous users (max was 79) with no probs. Only time I ever had to contact support was to upgrade MySQL to fix a (MySQL) bug that was causing thread corruption. I found their response time perfectly acceptable.

I can't edit my DNS info but then I don't really need to. I have to use their somewhat clunky control panel but it does what it says on the tin so what's the problem? I've never used cpanel (I don't even know what it is). I've registered several additional domains with them and all have been active in less than 24hrs with no problems.

However.....on the package I have you are limited to a single MySQL db with a maximum size of 100Mb. I didn't know about the 100Mb limit until just a few days ago - it's in the small print :( . There's no option to increase that size. The only way for me to get a bigger DB is to switch to dedicated hosting (managed or root) at a minimum of £29 a month. Since my DB is already at 75Mb it's going to be an issue fairly shortly.

Michael.

[envy-uk]

Apart from their policies regarding changing the DNS of a domain name, they are great.

I've been with them for the best part of a year, on their professional package. To my knowledge, my web site has never been down, they offer a great deal of options with their hosting packages and are generally very reliable.

Being a professional customer, I have free premium support. A quick phone call to the support line, which is also free, and they are there to help, efficient at doing so too.

[Icheb]

michaelab: I also never had problems with them when I was in shared hosting. It's understandable that they carefully manage those servers because downtime would affect many more customers. The problems started when I switched to one of their managed hosting packages.
Bottom line is: If you only need shared hosting, 1&1 is great. If you have to go dedicated, don't bother.

[GamersBible]

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Seems that they have inrtoduced DNS support in the UK.