This will be a long review describing what I have recently gone through with IX web hosting and why I am choosing to leave them.
I have been with IX Web Hosting about 2 years. As I researched, I visited some other web host review sites and noticed that IX web hosting was highly ranked at that time.
I signed up for the Business Plus plan for $7.95 per month . This plan offered 8 dedicated IP's for an excellent price. IX web hosting also offered renewal at the same price as long as you stayed with them. Unfortunately, a bargain is not a bargain unless the company that is offering the service can actually provide it without constant issues.
In the two years I have been with IX web hosting I have not really been very active other than putting up a very simple webpage with the assistance of one of my friends. What I have encountered is a lot of spam type email. On more than one occasion I have had over 1000 spam emails in my mailbox. I was told that finally that issue is being addressed and they are putting some time of spam filtering in place on their servers.
Recently I decided to get more active and create both a forum that included a photo gallery on my website. I am a photographer and I have a son who fights amateur mixed martial arts. I have been called to photograph several events and have been asked by the fighters and their families about purchasing images. I called IX tech support and asked them which forum software and photo gallery they recommended.. One of their tech support people suggested to me that I get a copy of E107 for the forum and Coppermine for the photo gallery. I followed that suggestion.
Once I got the software was to read its requirements and then contact IX to see if they supported ImageMagicK and MySQL databases. I was informed they did and those things were available to me under my current hosting plan. Then I noticed that even though I had changed the pointing of my name servers and typed the names of my domains in the control panel on IX hosting, IX never bothered to create or put up the temporary template or place holder each domain. So when I want to my domains the server name and the port number were exposed.
The first big issue I ran into was when I attempted to create a MySQL database. The data base creation went smoothly but when I went to add users it would not allow it. So I called tech support and we walked through it together. When the tech experience the same issue he told me it was on the server side and he would send an email to the administrator and it would take about two hours to fix it and they would notify me by email once it had been corrected.. Of course this delayed my installation of my forum software. I checked in two hours and I had received a notification that the issue had been resolved so I signed on and attempted to add users to the data base. I discovered the issue still was not fixed so I made another call to tech support. After another delay they finally fixed the issue and I was able add a user to the data base.
The second issue arose when trying to load the E107 Forum software through a zipped file onto the web server. I loaded the file in only to get a Bad response from Server Error when I attempted to extract it in the control panel. Of course I generated a trouble ticket only to be told it was probably a browser issues and could I provide more information. I responded and told them that I had used three different browsers attempting to get this to work and still received the same error. Finally I had to expand the program on my desktop which made loading the program take twice and long.
The third issue ran into came when I was attempting to install the coppermine photo gallery which is designed to work with the forum software I had installed as well as many different forum programs. One of the options is the ability to use a thumbnail program called ImagemagicK that I mentioned above. ImageMagick is a program that resides on the server of your web host and has to be enabled for you to be able to use it. You also need the correct data path to enable it to be used with your photo gallery. I called Tech support several times and no one seemed to know the correct data path. I was actually given the wrong data path by tech support on 3 separate occasions. Once I received the correct data path for it, the program still would not install. So once again I called tech support only to be told that permissions had to be enabled for me to be able to install ImagemagicK and that it would take an Admin to enable it. Since I was calling at night, I was told that it would take until the next day to get the permissions enabled. I was also told that I need to file a trouble ticket through their web system in order to get the problem taken care of. So I asked, if I am calling tech support, and they understand there is an issue then why wouldn't they generate the ticket instead of expecting the customer to jump through hoops to get something on their system corrected.
The forth issue I ran into occurred on the same night. I was continuing to modify my front page of my website and I needed to change some permissions in my program and the control panel on IX Web Hosting would not allow me to do so. So I attempted to use Filezilla which is a third party FTP. The server still would not allow me to change permissions. So once again I called into tech support only to be told that we are sorry we do not support third party software. So I asked for a supervisor and he saw there was an issue on their side that was not allowing me change permissions and finally after fighting with tech support once again and having to ask for a supervisor the problem was corrected.
As you can see, a pattern is developing here and I was starting to get angry.
The fifth issue came up later that evening. I went to back to continue to work on my web site and I click on the control panel and the icon just kept spinning. After several attempts and trying to use different browsers, I called tech support again. I was told by a tech support person " Oh we are sorry but we are running a maintenance script on the server and you should have access again in 2 to 4 hours. I asked, how come your company did not mail an email notice that they were going to be doing some maintenance and the server would be unavailable during this time period. The tech responded we just don't.
At this point, I about had enough and the next day I called in and spoke to ask for a management person and complain about my experiences. I ended up with a billing person who was very nice and convinced me to keep my account and offered me 2 free months of service to compensate me. I told him I did not call to get anything for free but accepted 1 month. Then the billing person told me that I was on an old server called CP4 and that the company had moved their servers from Hopkinsville Ky to Ohio because of bandwidth issues. He said there was also a new server called CP8 and he could not understand why they had not switched me to it because the programs I wanted to install actually resided on the new server as a simple script type install. What that means is that I would not have to load up the program manually and should be able to do a 1 button click install. Since I really did not have any content that resided on the old server I told him to switch me. Which brings me to the sixth issue.
The sixth issue to do with the reinstall of my programs. I used the one button install for the E107 program only to have a problem with the with the program not working properly and the front page not showing. When I called tech support, I was told sorry we do not support third party software. When I mentioned this is a program you have in your control panel and use to encourage people to sign up for your service, I was given the same line that this third party software and not supported. Then I pointed out that there control panel was third party software as well and asked if they supported that. I was told well we have a deal with the company writes that program and our company has modified it so we support it. I was told that if I wanted help with the E107 installation that they offered in their control panel that I would have to call back in the morning and ask for a specific person who was the person most experienced with it. When I called the next morning I was told that person was unavailable. What is ironic is that the same person I had talked to the night before answered the phone. That person was given instruction to help me by the person she had told me to call and we attempted to once again install the E107 software that resided in their control panel and on their server.
The CP8 server was running extremely slowly at this time. For some reason we could not get the e107 program to install properly that resided on their server so I told her I had a zipped copy loaded up but I was having problems getting it to extract properly on the IX server. The tech also had problems extracting it so she loaded it down to her desktop to extract it and asked if she could call me back once the 2997 files had been uploaded and we could walk through the install. I agreed and then she and I also agreed that I would upload the coppermine program through my FTP to the site from my side. After waiting for over 2 hours with no call back, I called back into tech support. I talked to another person who told me the tech I was talking to wanted to know if I could call back in 20 mins. At this point I said No and asked for a manager. I was given to a woman who was supposed to be the Manager over the Tech dept. When I told her what happened the tech who was supposed to call me back lied to her and told the manager she had. I informed the manager I had both a land line with an answering machine and a cell phone with voice mail and there was nothing on either one of them. Of course the tech then changed her story. The manager and I then went about installing the E107 program on the new server, but ran into difficulty because the server was so slow, I was put on hold several times during the install process while the manager went to find out why the server was having the speed issues. At some time during the install the Manager gives me the line we really do not support third party installs and needed to get off the phone. Of course I could not believe that I was hearing this again. So when she got off the phone, I called back in to the company and asked to speak to someone in higher management like a Customer Service Manager. I was told they had none. So I asked how do you get to speak to the vice president or CEO of the company and I was informed you don't. This of course was unbelievable.
I also had a trouble ticket filed outlining my complaints and asking for a call back from the CEO of the company. That ticket is dated Dec 3, 2008 To this date of Dec 17, 2008 I have not had any of complaints addressed in regard to the customer service or tech support complaints. Even so they keep trying to close my ticket and basically I have been ignored.
As you can see there are many problems with the IX Web Hosting Service, I have not listed everything I have experienced but I think you get the idea. I would strongly suggest that you avoid IXwebhosting at all costs.
During the time I have been waiting for a response I opened an account with Blue Host Web Hosting and so far my experience with them has been outstanding. The server appears to be much faster than IX hosting. The customer support is very friendly, and they have both E107 and Coppermine available in their control panel. They also support the install of these programs.
Compared to IX webhosting, Blue host is a breath of fresh air and IX webhosting is a nightmare.
Thanks for reading.
Biggest Con: Please read Review it tells it all
This person does NOT recommend IX Web Hosting.
This person recommends IX Web Hosting.
