I’ve be implementing some mod_rewrite tricks learnt from Ronald and I was trying to get them working on my 1and1 server. I’ve just finished a conversation with a tech guy at 1and1 and the it went something like this:-
Me:Hi I’ve been trying to get a few mod_rewrite rules going on my server but I keep getting a internal server error, I’ve tested it on 2 development machines and it works fine. How can I access the apache error log?
Tech guy:Could you give me the address of your script
Me:Yeah but all I need is the apache error log. I give the address.
Tech guy:You are not allowed access to the apache error log on your server because it’s a shared hosting package.
Me:Oh that’s a bit daft, every other hosting package I’ve been on allows you access to the error log. Could you read me what the error says for that particular url?
Tech guy:Yes no problem, I’ll just put you on hold.
Me: 11 minutes later, can you read me the error?
Tech guy:I’m sorry I’m not allowed to read you that error.
Me: …
Me: What? Eh? First of all it’s madness that I can’t read the apache error logs on my server, second you have to actually read them to me, third you can’t read the error to me that I need??? WTF
Tech guy: Thank you for calling 1and1
Comments 30
I’ve fixed my problem now, without the error log! But 1and1 YOU SUCK!
Posted 06 Aug 2007 at 10:46 am ¶Hehe.. your obvious attempts to social engineer the super secret stuff in error logs was foiled.. by a very alert and smart tech support person. … :)..
seriously though, I’ve worked with some of these techs before, they don’t like it if you seem to know more than them.. pretend to be dumb.. and just ask them make the changes for you.. sounding like a helpless woman helps a lot..
Yes.. these guys are crazy.
Posted 06 Aug 2007 at 12:11 pm ¶Yeah I might try that next time
I don’t understand how these people get jobs.
Posted 06 Aug 2007 at 12:15 pm ¶Wow, I think I would find myself another host. That’s pretty lame.
Posted 06 Aug 2007 at 12:51 pm ¶Yeah I couldn’t believe it!
Doesn’t look good on 1and1
Posted 06 Aug 2007 at 1:05 pm ¶I sometimes have to work with external (shared hosting) providers and this story is very recognizable.
Especially when you call for something they don’t know (like the rocketscience question ‘Can you add script X as a daily cronjob?’) you get redirected and redirected and after a while you get connected with the one sysop guru that does what you ask him as long as you tell him what he should do step-by-step, while staying really kind and explaining how much you like sysops all the time.
Things like this can be really frustrating but until now I always managed to get the tech person to do what I ask him, the only thing you need is an awefull lot of patience
Posted 06 Aug 2007 at 1:21 pm ¶Sounds familiar. You are not the only one to have been denied access to read the error log for your own server. I don’t remember any provider offering a “shared hosting” package would give you that information. (that I’ve been with) :/
Posted 06 Aug 2007 at 2:43 pm ¶It’s pretty bad really, I used DSVR before and you had full access to your server because it was a virtual one which was chrooted but allowed you to do everything.
Sadly though when DSVR got took over by another company their service went really bad so I moved.
Posted 06 Aug 2007 at 2:50 pm ¶1and1 is even worse than that. They tried to cheat me out of money too.
I had signed up with them a few years ago when they had just started up and were offering free hosting if you signed up fast enough. I did that and everything was fine. The free period comes to an end and I try to renew my basic package for $3 a month for a year. Click through the order form and get to a confirmation page that just says thank you. No package details, nothing to show what exactly I signed up for. It raised a few red flags, but I figured that when I got the email confirmation I could take care of any issues that might be there.
I get the confirmation and its for a package 3x the cost of what I ordered. I called customer service and they said that they can only go with what their computers say and that I can’t downgrade my package or anything. They wouldn’t even offer me a refund to cancel my package.
Eventually I contacted the BBB and forced a partial refund (everything except for the week or so that I was “using” the upgraded package).
Needless to say, I will never go with 1and1 again, and recommend everyone drop their service at the earliest convenience…
Posted 06 Aug 2007 at 3:04 pm ¶Those responses from 1&1 support team are weird. Other hosting providers who are using Control Panel instead of Plesk (used at 1&1) provide access to an error logs through a control panel which makes life a lot easier for developers and support as well.
Posted 06 Aug 2007 at 6:34 pm ¶Andrew yeah I agree but I shh’d into my server and ran a find for the error.log file to double check, also *error*. It’s a shared hosting package so maybe that makes a difference.
Posted 06 Aug 2007 at 7:20 pm ¶Oh, this is just the tip of the 1and1 iceberg. They are complete and total losers.
Start with the fact that they run Fedora 4 (it’s at 7 now) and the only version of PHP that PHP.net strongly recommends you NOT use, add in the fact that they support mostly from a remote location that has poor saps with no power to do anything, stir in email response times measured in days, and top with a itchy trigger-finger on the “redirect / 127.0.0.1″ button, and you’ve got my nominee for the worst host in the world.
If you want gory details, let me know but for now, let me just say — STAY AWAY FROM 1AND1!
Posted 08 Aug 2007 at 5:16 pm ¶Hi Chris who do you recommend? I think I’m gonna look for a new host
Posted 08 Aug 2007 at 5:19 pm ¶Left 1and1 a couple years ago, never looked back. Good riddance.
Posted 08 Aug 2007 at 11:04 pm ¶Blue Host provides good shared hosting:
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I’ve heard that GoDaddy provides good dedicated servers. RackSpace 2
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Posted 09 Aug 2007 at 4:33 am ¶Ammm I missing something here? Assuming your shared hosting provider is using some type of halfway well thought out infrastructure shouldn’t the error logs be seperated per site anyway? I’m pretty (~85%) sure that logs can be specified per vhost, etc.
Posted 10 Aug 2007 at 7:48 pm ¶Thorin you’d expect the logs to be separated but apparently not on their service!
Posted 11 Aug 2007 at 10:05 am ¶Stories like t his one just make me mad. There needs to be some sort of minimum competency exam for people entering IT (any technology job really).
I can maybe see that they don’t have their logs split up, I think it’s dumb but whatever….
What is totally unforgivable is the fact that the guy kept you on hold for 11mins just to figure out that he doesn’t know how to use vi, grep, cat, etc. I know he said “not allowed” but honestly it took 11mins for his mgr or team lead to say “you’re not allowed to do that”? I doubt it, it seems much more likely that he’s a techno idiot and couldn’t figure out how to find the entries you needed or didn’t want to admit that they host 100s (?) of sites on the same machine(s) and their log files are only good for about 3 mins of history.
/sigh
Oh well, at least you did get it fixed in the end.
Posted 13 Aug 2007 at 12:02 pm ¶haha, I just found this blog whilst searching for 1and1’s site (not difficult I know but I like a clean address bar)…anyway, the reason why I was looking….
I recieved a letter this morning from a debt collection company regarding payment to 1and1. The fees were £10.45 for a domain & £15 charge for late payment. Hmm…? So I go to my control panel, check my domains (never hosted with them but they’re the cheapest for domains)…& one of them is blanked out. I check my card details & remember changing to paypal which is easier for me. I double check the domain & recall why I changed to paypal…the card had expired & 1and1 informed me that I needed to update my payment details, which I did. I phoned the debt collector & explained this & they said, “yes, but your details were invalid when the domain was due for renewal so it was suspended…but you can use your paypal account to pay the fine”.
wankers!
BTW, I use dataflame & have been extremely impressed with the service & price. I buy the domains from 1and1, hosting from dataflame & just update the nameservers.
Posted 15 Aug 2007 at 2:07 pm ¶I got a customer satisfaction survey emailed to me. I don’t normally fill out these but when asked about the skill of the technician I simply couldn’t refuse.
Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 10:10 am ¶Excellent value, appalling customer service. God knows how they’re so successfull.
Posted 12 Sep 2007 at 12:08 pm ¶hello everybody!… I’ve got a problem here with 1and1 ..(don’t we all?!) ..i’ve ordered a domain… i’ve paid…..but they won’t send me the confirmation e-mail..they said that it will be sent in 24h … Any advice will be glady received:)
Posted 19 Sep 2007 at 9:36 pm ¶I registar domain name .org with 1and1.com end after 4 days no answer,no help noting,but hi colect my from credit card charge for registration.I dont bolive whats is hepening,i try to support,info all mail help,but noting only this:
Thank you for contacting us.
Your account is being on queue by our Authentication Department to
Posted 29 Sep 2007 at 11:20 pm ¶ensure that all Customer information are correct and valid.
I have been with them for a few year’s unfortunately! they are a dreadful company, I need to go elsewhere but I don’t get time a lame excuse I know!
But I am now developing sie in Web2.0 and my sites are soooo slow I think my server is a zx81 or something! I have had nothing but trouble with them, the guy who first wrote this forum said they would not give him his log files well one of my customers called them with only his domain name nothing else no address, passwords nothing else and they told him how to gain access via ftp to all my sites!!
They suck, big time, on both customer service and what they offer.
Posted 30 Jan 2008 at 5:56 pm ¶Hate 1and1? then find another webhost…..simple solution.! Then if that registrar again sucks…then find again until you haave tested all the registrars around the world…
Posted 31 Jan 2008 at 9:02 am ¶Hope it won’t happen to me, for me 1and1 is the best.
Posted 16 Feb 2008 at 3:01 pm ¶I read somewhere that they cancel accounts of people who complain about their hosting while using it. Hoping now that this is not true.
Posted 03 Mar 2008 at 9:49 am ¶1and1 is totally #!**.
Change hosts as unknown suggested? Easier said than done. I’d love to but it takes a lot of time to move a number of sites, some commercial.
1and1 is a great webhosting service provider. The bottom line of the story Gareth why you are so pissed off with 1and1 is that you did not get what you want.
Sure.. there are error logs in a shared hosting package but tech guys cannot go through each and every one of them just to see what is the error of your script. Especially with thousands of customers occupying the same server and all logs on the same folder.
One more thing… how much are/were you paying for hosting? If you want total access and everything you want in a box, then buy a dedicated server. In that way you won’t be appalled anymore with what shortcomings shared hosting packages have.
Posted 05 Mar 2008 at 11:23 am ¶@raven
That is the point, I shouldn’t need the tech guy to go through the error logs, I should be able to see the error log for myself. I have used other shared servers which employ a virtual file system and I have had access to error logs before so it seems this is a disadvantage of using 1and1.
Posted 05 Mar 2008 at 11:41 am ¶To be fair, thespanner.co.uk is hosted on one of my servers, and is not the kind of set-up Gareth would go for.
For 90% of our clients and jobs, the 1&1 shared server is perfect. Good uptime, good speeds, and usually good help for anything.
For the other 5% we have a few dedicated servers, where we can view logs and tweak settings to our hearts content.
I’d rather not sling shit at 1&1 for this, as they’re doing what’s set out in their terms and responsibilities, so they by no means “suck”.
Posted 06 Mar 2008 at 3:24 pm ¶