000Webhost.com - Hosting24.com Scammers suspend websites

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bannination
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000Webhost.com - Hosting24.com Scammers suspend websites

Unread post by bannination »

.000webhost.com and hosting24.com Review Suspended or blocked account without warning. (This post is mostly for Google search to maybe help someone thinking about using these peoples.)

Too long; didn’t read version at bottom.

So here’s what happened:

On 11/6 or Tuesday morning our shared hosting starts getting flaky, the site wasn’t responding very well for me. No biggie, I’ll go ahead and submit a ticket and just let them know something is up very politely! The day goes by... I’d say by about 4pm I wake back up (lazy democrat) and realize the site is not responding at all. I log into the web host and check my ticket status:
Hello,
I have double checked your website and it seems to be working fine now. I am also able to connect to your account (and members area) without any problems.
If you still experience any problems accessing it, please try cleaning up your browser cache, resetting your internet connection or restarting your computer.
Finally, if the account still shows up as unavailable for you, please try to access it by using the http://www.proxy.org service.
To add, feel free to check out our premium accounts, where the website speed and response times are a lot better. You are welcome to upgrade your account at http://www.000webhost.com/upgrade

Very Truly Yours,
Peter |
Sometime shortly after they answered that ticket they suspended the site:
Suspended (Unmanaged or abandoned website that allows anonymous posting. MySQL database is overloaded with thousands of junk records. To get your account unsuspended please upgrade to our premium hosting.)

Obviously, our database wasn’t filled full of spam (no jokes about Vrede’s posts please), and it hasn’t allowed anonymous posting in quite some time. We did absolutely nothing to violate their terms of service.

At this point I’m in a pickle, not only did they suspend the account, they blocked any access to retrieve any files or databases. The only thing in my favor now is that I did have the foresight to manually back up the database and files once a week, even though the 000webhost claims to do this for you.

Now, you’re only allowed to submit 1 ticket every 24 hours, so they got me, I can’t send another ticket asking for the real reason on why my account is suspended, ask for data, or anything, I’m at a stand still with support.

The “account suspended” message claimed we can get all our data back if I upgrade to their premium hosting – hosting24.com, desperate, I figure ok, I can sign up for one month (at a extorsionist rate) let them transfer our most recent data to it, then I’ll download it, and close that account. At the same time I was simultaneously signing up for a host we could trust, no way was I going with a company with this kind of business model.

Makes sense right? Yeah... it would have if they actually had more recent data than I already had the foresight to back up just last week! I paid for nothing in essence! They claimed something they could not do. The whole thing was a scam. Let’s see, it’s a debate website, during an election.... hm.... “upgrade to get your data back”, coincidence? I think not!!!!

After getting everything mostly settled down I started searching the Google for evidence that this has happened to other people, and apparently it has. In fact another fellow had his site shut down at about the same time.

Oh yeah, in the rush I screwed up (way too many tabs open doing way to many things at once in the limited time I have between work and life!) and extended the delay a couple hours by having our new host point to blueridgeNOW.com instead of blueridgeDEBATE.com.... damn typing muscle memory. So I’ve got a tiny amount of blame in there. Our new hosts support is *awesome*, and had it fixed within 10 minutes including wait time.


Anyway, fast forward to Thursday morning, the dns is finally starting to settle in and a couple people can start accessing the site again. So here we are now on a new host completely unrelated to this company with an obligation to give us 99.9% up-time. Hopefully, no more surprises. I’ve seen one issue so far and I’m not sure if it’s a result of the caching on my own computer/router or a minor configuration error with redirects I’ve made on the host, hopefully I’ll get that worked out tomorrow (Friday 11/9) or today actually, it being 2:30am.

I know we’re still missing some people that haven’t revisited us... I know some at least a few people continued to use “hville.hostzi.com” even after we moved to “blueridgedebate.com” hopefully they’ll find us again. It was forwarding, but who knows for how long, I no longer have control over it.

Unrelated, one of the most used search terms by a huge margin to find blueridgedebate.com is “foolgle”...... hahahaha!




TL;DR
It was a fun journey of downtime, I intentionally got ripped off to get our data back, learned a lot, and everything should return to “normal” soon.

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Stinger
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Re: WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unread post by Stinger »

Thanks for all your hardwork, bannination.

The most important news day of the year, and the host decides to kidnap the forum?

What lumps.

blackfoot
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Re: WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unread post by blackfoot »

Reminds me of when AlanS/Crock got a forum shut down by going to the host and claiming violations of service.....LOL! Oh well, what goes around comes around...karma etc....LOL!

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Crock Hunter
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Re: WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unread post by Crock Hunter »

blackfoot wrote:Reminds me of when AlanS/Crock got a forum shut down by going to the host and claiming violations of service.....LOL! Oh well, what goes around comes around...karma etc....LOL!
Never happened.. but thanks for the Idiot's Perspective ...
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Wneglia
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Re: WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unread post by Wneglia »

Glad the site is back. Thanks for your hard work.

:mrgreen:

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Crock Hunter
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Re: WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unread post by Crock Hunter »

Thanks for sure.. I know firsthand how much effort this sort of project requires..

Good work..
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rstrong
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Re: WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unread post by rstrong »

Welcome back!

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k9nanny
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Re: WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unread post by k9nanny »

Trying again to post. Each time I try, I get a screen telling me I must be logged in. Here goes.

Edit: Maybe it's because I deleted board cookies? It's good to be back, though I see my posts from Europe about the election are gone. Meh- all's well that ends well. Ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!
Se Non Ora, Quando?

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mike
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Re: WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unread post by mike »

Nice work, Banni!!!!! Image Image

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Image

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rstrong
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Re: WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unread post by rstrong »

k9nanny wrote:It's good to be back, though I see my posts from Europe about the election are gone.
Election day was deleted. Rove, Morris and Trump have agreed to hold another one for our benefit.

JTA
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Re: WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unread post by JTA »

It was probably Chinese hackers. Too bad our government is too stupid to realize that all we need to do is unplug the wire that connects our two internets together.
You aren't doing it wrong if no one knows what you are doing.

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mike
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Re: WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unread post by mike »

It's gonna take a bit to get the participation back to where it was before the hiccup.

But, it will happen.

Things are quiet all over on 'Pub sites and with 'Pub participation in pretty much any forum; they're still licking their wounds.

Again, thanks, Banni!

Image
Image

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Colonel Taylor
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Re: WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unread post by Colonel Taylor »

Ban I still can't log in on my home laptop. It goes to PHP error..
cleared cache andall any ideas?

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Crock Hunter
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Re: WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unread post by Crock Hunter »

Colonel Taylor wrote:Ban I still can't log in on my home laptop. It goes to PHP error..
cleared cache andall any ideas?
IMHO .. .If it's a Windows box ..Run cmd then ipconfig /flushdns
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mike
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Re: WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unread post by mike »

Colonel Taylor wrote:Ban I still can't log in on my home laptop. It goes to PHP error..
cleared cache andall any ideas?
Make sure you're not pointing directly to the old "hostzi" site.

It should be redirected even if you do, Thorny.

Keep me updated ... which browser are you using? Which OS?

EDIT: If you are on Windows, follow what Crock Hunter mentioned and report back.

Kudos, Crock Hunter. Image
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AntiAlias
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Re: WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unread post by AntiAlias »

mike wrote:It's gonna take a bit to get the participation back to where it was before the hiccup.

But, it will happen.

Things are quiet all over on 'Pub sites and with 'Pub participation in pretty much any forum; they're still licking their wounds.

Again, thanks, Banni!

Image
Oh, I don't know. Lots of posts on http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/*/index. You should check them out. Endless schadenfreude!

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bannination
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Re: WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unread post by bannination »

AntiAlias wrote:
mike wrote:It's gonna take a bit to get the participation back to where it was before the hiccup.

But, it will happen.

Things are quiet all over on 'Pub sites and with 'Pub participation in pretty much any forum; they're still licking their wounds.

Again, thanks, Banni!

Image
Oh, I don't know. Lots of posts on http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/*/index. You should check them out. Endless schadenfreude!

For 48 hours, I have pondered the retaliation. It is here and it is now. BOYCOTT all blue states!. Isn't that correct? Buy nothing from these parasite states. ZERO!!. Do not watch or listen to any media emitting from these leaching states.Everybody stop.Do it now and spread the word. Don't ever go there again. Do not facilitate these leaches. EVER AGAIN! They will eat their young.


:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

The crazy is strong there.

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bannination
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Re: WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unread post by bannination »

Colonel Taylor wrote:Ban I still can't log in on my home laptop. It goes to PHP error..
cleared cache andall any ideas?
Definitely don't use hville.hostzi.com anymore as it won't redirect. Try clearing your cookies, or maybe just "clearing board cookies".

If it doesn't go away by tomorrow post the error you're getting.

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mike
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Re: WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unread post by mike »

AntiAlias wrote:
mike wrote:It's gonna take a bit to get the participation back to where it was before the hiccup.

But, it will happen.

Things are quiet all over on 'Pub sites and with 'Pub participation in pretty much any forum; they're still licking their wounds.

Again, thanks, Banni!

Image
Oh, I don't know. Lots of posts on http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/*/index. You should check them out. Endless schadenfreude!
Ah, the schadenfreude. I was wondering how long it would take them to get around to that (not like they haven't been practicing such all this time).

Still, probably better put in a new thread. Sorry, my bad ...
Image

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Bungalow Bill
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Re: WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unread post by Bungalow Bill »

Talk about bad timing. I though maybe one of the nutters went wild and got the site
shut down. I've been to a lot of the right wing sites and they are foaming, and you
just know that one of the reasons given for Mittman's loss was He wasn't conservative
enough!!!! I have yet to get over to free republic. Can't wait to see the bloodshed.
Four more long years. :lol:

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