Rocky Road To Start

[gspark]

Since others have wrote about their experience with H9, I should probably document my experience, so far its not as fluffy and sparky as some of them here, but here's wishing it as painless as possible

ok I updated this post - once i stopped trying to transfer domains and instead just changed namesevers everything went much better and the switch was super fast, now all is up and running and i be a happy H9 camper.

Some of my old remarks I left because I still feel they are current issues that H9 needs to improve

• the initial sign-up was a little buggy and after speaking to an H9 staff about whats suppose to happen next, they didn't seem to know what the next step and the welcome email only came after I asked someone about it

• signed up Jun 12 now its jun 15th and nothing is happening as of yet, no sparks flying, no trumpet sounds, no white horses or bells ringing, not that I expected this after reading all the other testominials here

update: some of this was on my part since i didn't realize how complicated things can be if you aren't very clear as to what you want to do. It might be better to setup over the phone but not everyone can do this so I think H9 needs to listen better at what their customer needs to have done and do better and more accurate follow-ups. I still can't help but wonder, how long it might have taken before anything got done perhaps 10+ days ? we be fine now so lets not go there

• initially the live chat was slow at best and as a customer, i never feel like i'm the center of their attention, still, they are people too and i'm sure they have better things to do ?

• when speaking to different H9 staff some would tell me one thing while others would tell me something different which gave me the impression that some are not as well informed about whats going on then others

update: the impression i get is that H9 sales people have no clue about the services they are offering. I think H9 needs to know their hosting plans better and whats on the website, many times, they told me transfers were free when they are not and many times via the helpdesk they are not on track with what you want to have done, email is a terrible way to communicate but if its all we got then we have to live with it.

Overall rating: two thumbs up
Due to the rocky startup I will give H9 only three out of five stars - mostly on customer support,

Disclaimer: This review is neither positive or negative, it is however an accurate experience as of June 2007, mine you, i'm not the brightest peanut in the web galaxy but i am an expert at recognizing a user-friendly experience so far, I've had better...

[colt45]

Why would you want to transfer your domains to a hosting company?

[gspark]

To get them out of the hands of a more evil power ? lol just kidding

Well, my thinking was simple, i found it a pain to have two separate companies managing hosting and domains, two different bills, receipts etc so thought, why not keep them the same. I know about pointing namesevers, been there done that.

What's the norm do people as a rule keep them separate and only do the namsever thing ?

[Gene]

Not sure I understand what gspark is saying. When you say "transfering domains" do you mean transfering domain name registration to a new registrar? or transfering domain hosting (website)?

My former hosting company was also the name registrar and it was a huge problem, they screwed up the billing and site was down for a day because the real registrar hadn't been paid . I now use have the name registration (namecheap/enom) seperate from the hosting company (H9).

[puravida]

Hi gspark, my 5 cents here.
1. never have your domain registrar and hosting with 1 company. I have over 100 domains, use godaddy, name cheap and 1and1, as registrars only, and now with h9 I have 2 hosting companies.
2. your initial instructions are leading to misunderstanding what you wanted to transfer, registrar and/or hosting.
3. domain renewal bills like you said, you can pay for 2,3 or 5 years and don't have to worry about a bill.
4. registar changes have to be confirmed with authorization code,which you have to submit somehow in a coded field, and then unlock (if locked) etc., Some registrars wait up to 10 days before the know if there is a problem. If you want both with one company, first do the DNS to the new one and you can start working within a day or so, and then start registrar change, following the detailed instructions of releasing and receiving registrar.
just my 5 cents
happy weekend from Costa Rica to the world.
Holger

[gspark]

the idea is to change domain registars to H9 and do hosting with H9,

What is the reasoning for keeping domains separate from hosting ?
You use three different companies for domain registration ?

For me having two separate locations creates more confusion, having to log into one then log into another, ideally if we stayed at the same hosting where our domains are it would not be a problem, unfortunately its not always possible.

We are at Ste5 currently on the $5 plan moving up to $6 plan with H9 and will end up paying $1 extra for domains registration with H9

Having both domain and hosting with one company is preferred unless there's a valid reason why its not recommended.

[kobra]

What is the reasoning for keeping domains separate from hosting ?

Having both domain and hosting with one company is preferred unless there's a valid reason why its not recommended.

Can only describe this with anaology -
Would you buy an airplane at a boat shop?
Yes, to make starting a web presence a simple matter - most hosting companies are resellers for registrars - conversely most registrars also sell hosting.

I believe that H9 uses ENOM as the registrar - so it would be simpler for you to select a registrar - ENOM, GoDaddy, Register1, etc. and maintain your domains with them. Why??

Then you are mobile and can change hosting services for any reason that you might find.

i.e. H9 currently does not support the Database postgresql and if you have a need for this for a particular site/script - you can obtain this at another provider and repoint the nameservers easily as you control these seperately.

Registrars pay particular attention to this part of the business and your domain names are most likely safer as they have refined systems to remind you of pending expirations.

Hosting providers concentrate on the hosting part of the business and H9 does a respectable job at this.

Yes, you need to maintain 2 different accounts (but that is what bookmarks are about) and as stated you can purchase your domains for several years and make this a small item to have to attend to.

[gspark]

I'm sold will keep them separate,

if i registered with ENOM isn't that the same as if doing it through H9 ?

[Gene]

Originally Posted by gspark

... if i registered with ENOM isn't that the same as if doing it through H9 ?

Not really, you would deal directly with ENOM. In my example above, the real registrar would not deal with me, I had to deal with the hosting company that was a reseller for the registrar.