Having problems with website hosted with webafrica and need advice

[Masu]

I bought a standard web hosting package from Webafrica in March. https://www.webafrica.co.za/hosting/
The site went down the beginning of April and I called WA and once it was up again this is what I was told...

Your website was pointing to Linux nameservers, but i changed it to your windows nameservers, the change takes 24 hours to propogate.

When it went down after this I was told that wordpress works better on Linux and mine was pointing to Windows......I am not sure if I am understanding correctly, but would this mean than it should point to Linux nameservers? If so that was what it was initially doing and subsequently changed by WA.

Since then it has gone down many times, the latest day before yesterday at around 10pm and was only back up 14-15 hours later.

I received this from WA regarding the latest problem...

The moving of your website means that it is currently on a Windows Hosting platform which is generally not recommend since you are running a PHP site through WordPress. Using the WordPress CMS, we noticed it performs much better on a Shared Linux hosting package than the Windows environment.

You are most welcome to purchase a Shared Linux Hosting package for the-conscious-mind.com and downloading all of your website content and database sql file from the Windows hosting package. Once this is done, you will have access to upload the content and import the database file on the Linux server.

This will allow you to test the sites performance before updating the name servers to the Linux platform.

My understanding of the above is.....My website is on a windows hosting platform and should be transferred to a Linux platform? Did I not have this to begin with?

I am a complete novice so how I am supposed to do all the above and put on Linux server is beyond my capabilities. I bought the package according to what I read on WA so if a wordpress site is not suited to Linux packages should this not be conveyed to customers when viewing different packages? The package I purchased says I can use wordpress and now I have had endless problems.

Any advice?

 

[rpm]

The line of communication sounds very strange indeed. You are either hosting on a Linux or Windows server, and I have no idea why they continue to mention nameservers.

The downtime which you explained is not acceptable, whatever platform you host on.

It is true that you have a PHP/MySQL website (Wordpress), and that Linux hosting will serve your purpose just fine. It does not, however, justify the downtime.

 

[Masu]

The line of communication sounds very strange indeed. You are either hosting on a Linux or Windows server, and I have no idea why they continue to mention nameservers.

The downtime which you explained is not acceptable, whatever platform you host on.

It is true that you have a PHP/MySQL website (Wordpress), and that Linux hosting will serve your purpose just fine. It does not, however, justify the downtime.

More mystified than ever but thanks for the input.

 

[Domains.co.za (Wayne)]

Wordpress websites should always be hosted on Linux server.

Some hosting companies use cPanel as their control panel, with this you would not even know you are on a Linux server. With Softaculous, you can simply click to install WordPress.

 

[Masu]

Wordpress websites should always be hosted on Linux server.

Some hosting companies use cPanel as their control panel, with this you would not even know you are on a Linux server. With Softaculous, you can simply click to install WordPress.

So if website nameservers was pointing to linux does this mean that it was hosted on Linux initially? I assume this to be the case.
If so then surely as they changed it from this to pointing to windows, it was their mistake not mine, so can't they just put it back to how it was initially.

Sorry if I sound stupid but am clueless but this sounds logical to me as a totally ignorant noob.

 

[Stormer12]

my advice, just move to another host.

elitehost or domains.co.za gets my vote

 

[AntiThesis]

I bought a standard web hosting package from Webafrica in March.

What does your welcome email say you purchased? If you purchased a Windows hosting package, it's different to linux.

The site went down the beginning of April and I called WA and once it was up again this is what I was told...

Your website was pointing to Linux nameservers, but i changed it to your windows nameservers, the change takes 24 hours to propogate.

That makes no sense whatsoever. Nameservers only tell people and browsers where to find your site - they have no bearing on what your site is or where it's hosted. If your site was working one day and not working the next and WA say it was because of nameservers then you or someone at WA changed the nameservers for your hosting.

Think of it this way:
I go to my browser and type in www.masusite.com because I want to visit your site. Nameservers tell my computer that masusite.com can be found at the server with an address of 41.101.111.22 and that's where my browser then really goes to. If suddenly, nameservers are telling me that masusite.com is actually at 50.50.50.50, I'm not going to find what I'm looking for.

When it went down after this I was told that wordpress works better on Linux and mine was pointing to Windows......I am not sure if I am understanding correctly, but would this mean than it should point to Linux nameservers? If so that was what it was initially doing and subsequently changed by WA.

Since then it has gone down many times, the latest day before yesterday at around 10pm and was only back up 14-15 hours later.

I received this from WA regarding the latest problem...

The moving of your website means that it is currently on a Windows Hosting platform which is generally not recommend since you are running a PHP site through WordPress. Using the WordPress CMS, we noticed it performs much better on a Shared Linux hosting package than the Windows environment.

You are most welcome to purchase a Shared Linux Hosting package for the-conscious-mind.com and downloading all of your website content and database sql file from the Windows hosting package. Once this is done, you will have access to upload the content and import the database file on the Linux server.

This will allow you to test the sites performance before updating the name servers to the Linux platform.

As people have said, wordpress does work better on Linux than on Windows but if a Linux package is what you purchased, then you have no problem. Either way, the downtime is nuts and you should make an issue of it. There are WebAfrica representatives here on the forum, contact them and ask for an explanation.

Any advice?

If you don't get any joy, move. It's quite simple to do and your new host would probably assist you to move. As someone said, check out Elitehost and domains.co.za - solid offerings.

Yours is not the first story about WA issues I've heard recently.

 

[Masu]

What does your welcome email say you purchased? If you purchased a Windows hosting package, it's different to linux.

If you don't get any joy, move. It's quite simple to do and your new host would probably assist you to move. As someone said, check out Elitehost and domains.co.za - solid offerings.

Yours is not the first story about WA issues I've heard recently.

Thanks for all the advice. I called WA again and a guy from the hosting side explained it as follows:-

I registered a domain with WA and bought the hosting package immediately after having done so. The domain was parked on Linux servers. The package I purchased was apparently a windows package so it was moved from Linux parked to windows package.

So it seems as though it was initially my blunder. The only solution is to move everything over to a Linux package. :-(

They are going to help me do this so I am appreciative. If this does not sort out the problems I am having with website going down quite often then I will move elsewhere and see if I fare any better. I had been with WA for many years with various products and overall have been happy with them.

Either way will check out the 2 you mentioned for possible future website.

Thank you all for the advice

 

[AntiThesis]

Awesome, glad there's a possible solution for you. The shift from Windows to Linux doesn't really explain the downtime but you'll see how it goes.

In the meantime, and to help you monitor, use a service like https://uptimerobot.com/ to let you know exactly what your stats are for uptime. Most ISPs have a 99.9% uptime guarantee and you can and should be refunded if they fall below that.

 

[neo_]

You are most welcome to purchase a Shared Linux Hosting package for the-conscious-mind.com and downloading all of your website content and database sql file from the Windows hosting package. Once this is done, you will have access to upload the content and import the database file on the Linux server.

This paragraph irritated the hell out of me. How can they expect their clients to know how to do this? Every hosting company I've ever dealt with has offered (in the first place) to handle migrations for me - be it inter-package or inter-server. You should definitely ask them to migrate the data for you.

I'm also mystified as to why different nameservers are used for Windows servers... Surely they should be using a single set of nameservers that apply for all their servers? Truthfully, though, I've never hosted on Windows, so I don't really know.

(My apologies - I wrote this response without reading the rest of the thread, which appears to cover some of this. Nonetheless, posting anyway because I hate wasting time. That aside - I'd recommend looking for another host. I recently moved everything over to EliteHost. The team there is simply superb, and they know what they're doing. Service-uptime is also excellent, albeit the recent server attacks they faced some weeks back. Everything is running optimally now. Should you not want to use EliteHost, then Domains.co.za is also excellent, from what I've read [Thor, I'm talking about you, here].)

 

[halfmoonforever]

What is the hosting package you bought, because if it's windows or linux, it would say that in the name and reflect in price as well. Once we can determine what hosting package you bought initially, then we can determine WTF is actually going on.

Pointing nameserver records to linux or windows has NOTHING to do with the actual hosting, so for them to update your name server on your domain and having you wait 24 hours for it to propagate is insane.

 

[Webafrica Helper]

I bought a standard web hosting package from Webafrica in March. https://www.webafrica.co.za/hosting/
The site went down the beginning of April and I called WA and once it was up again this is what I was told...

Your website was pointing to Linux nameservers, but i changed it to your windows nameservers, the change takes 24 hours to propogate.

When it went down after this I was told that wordpress works better on Linux and mine was pointing to Windows......I am not sure if I am understanding correctly, but would this mean than it should point to Linux nameservers? If so that was what it was initially doing and subsequently changed by WA.

Since then it has gone down many times, the latest day before yesterday at around 10pm and was only back up 14-15 hours later.

I received this from WA regarding the latest problem...

The moving of your website means that it is currently on a Windows Hosting platform which is generally not recommend since you are running a PHP site through WordPress. Using the WordPress CMS, we noticed it performs much better on a Shared Linux hosting package than the Windows environment.

You are most welcome to purchase a Shared Linux Hosting package for the-conscious-mind.com and downloading all of your website content and database sql file from the Windows hosting package. Once this is done, you will have access to upload the content and import the database file on the Linux server.

This will allow you to test the sites performance before updating the name servers to the Linux platform.

My understanding of the above is.....My website is on a windows hosting platform and should be transferred to a Linux platform? Did I not have this to begin with?

I am a complete novice so how I am supposed to do all the above and put on Linux server is beyond my capabilities. I bought the package according to what I read on WA so if a wordpress site is not suited to Linux packages should this not be conveyed to customers when viewing different packages? The package I purchased says I can use wordpress and now I have had endless problems.

Any advice?

Hi Masu,

I've asked a Senior to give you a call and with feedback around your website issues.

 

[jonno_081]

Hosting wordpress on Windows is possible (I have had to recently for some client's) but its a bit of a pain.

Having said that their talk of name server's seems rather silly, its got nothing to do with the hosting.

If you need help with moving the content I'd be happy to offer some if you do decide to move over to a Linux server.