UK2.NET – my experience of using it for the past 6 weeks
Notice the lack of httpd daemon in the ‘top’ below.
It should also be noted that the ticket responder did not seem to know from the ticket I raised as critical (specifying my domain) that the server was on a shared host.
It should be noted that items 1 through 5 were not answered – as is very typical for this company.
I’m using it as a development environment and analysing for use as a production platform. The root/service stuff of which I have no control is not sufficiently stable: It does not pass basic requirements as a production-quality hosting environment and I will move to another company before going live.
I don’t know if it’s normal on a shared service that the operator reboots at will – like today at 09:29.
The web server was randomly unavailable tonight, killing my site and others hosted. My site has been unavailable for short times at least 6 times in the last 2 weeks and the problem is back at either the DNS or the web server.
I noticed the support personnel are a bit slap-dash at closing tickets – suddenly the GUI became Arabic the other day, it could not be changed to English. The ticket closed and I had to get on their case to get it fixed.
PHP, when run from the shell, generates errors not finding libraries. This is minor but does not give reassurance its configured properly.
The Load Averages are often quite high with spikes showing CPU use 99.7 which causes performance problems. I pasted a fairly typical ‘top’ below.
I will not go into production with uk2.net and lease a dedicated machine from another supplier. If things don’t improve then I will host at home because I can definitely provide better up-time than this company.
top – 22:13:04 up 12:42, 3 users, load average: 32.27, 30.88, 26.05
Tasks: 407 total, 3 running, 400 sleeping, 1 stopped, 3 zombie
Cpu(s): 19.2% us, 3.5% sy, 0.0% ni, 52.5% id, 24.7% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.0% si
Mem: 2074328k total, 1981968k used, 92360k free, 233028k buffers
Swap: 4008208k total, 208k used, 4008000k free, 1011072k cached
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
21718 root 18 0 24296 16m 3748 R 94.6 0.8 2:28.27 php
30671 32703 18 0 24520 10m 5684 S 3.3 0.5 0:00.10 php
6526 root 21 0 105m 56m 2812 S 2.0 2.8 0:33.70 httpd
30584 mailnull 17 0 9796 4116 2848 D 2.0 0.2 0:00.06 exim
30641 root 16 0 9068 4076 2820 S 2.0 0.2 0:00.06 exim
30582 root 16 0 9492 4076 2820 S 1.7 0.2 0:00.05 exim
30621 root 17 0 10612 4076 2820 S 1.7 0.2 0:00.05 exim
30640 root 16 0 9572 4072 2816 S 1.7 0.2 0:00.05 exim
30661 ifu
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
5508 root 21 0 24296 15m 3756 R 98.0 0.8 5:20.65 php
8472 ifullpow 15 0 8592 1568 1084 S 1.7 0.1 0:02.08 sshd
3346 mysql 15 0 141m 46m 4368 S 1.0 2.3 620:35.23 mysqld
9726 mailnull 16 0 10408 3772 2664 R 1.0 0.2 0:00.03 exim
Kevin,
This is UK2 Tech Support for Shared servers.
Are you referring to a Dedicated Server?
You should Contact Dedicated Server Support.
Regards,
—
Technical Support
UK-2 Ltd
Account Login Page: http://www.uk2.net/index.shtml
Domain Control Panel: http://www.uk2.net/domains.shtml
Knowledgebase & Frequently Asked Questions:
http://support.uk2.net/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=view
Ticket Details
Ticket ID: TXU-333971
Department: Technical Support
Priority: Critical
Status: Awaiting customer response
Rate this reply and win an Apple iPod
Hello there,
It seems that your site is up and running. Please accept my deepest apologies for the delayed reply.
Have a nice day and let us know for further help.
Kind Regards.
Sebastián Fitipaldi.
End User Support Tech
Ticket Details
Ticket ID: TXU-333971
Department: Technical Support
Priority: Critical
Status: Awaiting customer response
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Kevin<@googlemail.com>
Date: 2008/9/30
Subject: Re: [#TXU-333971]: Apache down
To: support@support.uk2.net
Hi
No, shared hosting. It should be apparent from my domain name that I included in the initial ticket when I reported the problem (ifullpower.co.uk).
My concerns are:
1. (because I genuinely dont know) do you reboot normally without notification like yesterday?
2. Was the reboot a one off? 9.30 in the morning is a time when I anticipate my site being hit by requests by a 3rd party.
3. If I leased a dedicated server from you guys will you reboot “at will” as you seem to on shared hosting?
4. Load averages were in the 30’s yesterday – after I filed a critical support ticket about the unavailability of the https.
5. Do you not have any means of ‘nicing’ the load. (see below “top”).
I’ve been using your facilities for maybe 6 weeks and its not something I can call “production quality”.
I suppose I could assume you could ask “What do you expect for the money?” because it is not expensive, the problem is that I have to have a basic standard – whether it cost £8 a month, £80 or £800 at the moment there are too many interruptions.
I would move to a dedicated server but not commiting to anything until I know your product is reliable.
Thanks for your understanding – and I do not mean to appear rude – most of it is excellent and I do not want to move to another provider.
Kevin
top – 22:13:04 up 12:42, 3 users, load average: 32.27, 30.88, 26.05
Tasks: 407 total, 3 running, 400 sleeping, 1 stopped, 3 zombie
Cpu(s): 19.2% us, 3.5% sy, 0.0% ni, 52.5% id, 24.7% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.0% si
Mem: 2074328k total, 1981968k used, 92360k free, 233028k buffers
Swap: 4008208k total, 208k used, 4008000k free, 1011072k cached
2008/9/30 Support Team | UK2.net <support@support.uk2.net>
Kevin,
This is UK2 Tech Support for Shared servers.
Are you referring to a Dedicated Server?
You should Contact Dedicated Server Support.
Regards,
—
Technical Support
UK-2 Ltd
Account Login Page: http://www.uk2.net/index.shtml
Domain Control Panel: http://www.uk2.net/domains.shtml
Knowledgebase & Frequently Asked Questions:
http://support.uk2.net/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=view
Ticket Details
Ticket ID: TXU-333971
Department: Technical Support
Priority: Critical
Status: Awaiting customer response
Gibsbe said
Kevin – found your blog after hanging on the phone for over 35 mins waiting for a response from technical support.
I have just bought a package from UK2 and can honestly say that this is the worst ISP service I have experienced in 15 years on the internet.
The responses you quote here are typical of what I have received so far. Documentation is none existent, yet the help desk seem to think that the following link answer basic questions such as:
– how to install a MySQL database
– how to transfer FOC the domains that were part of the original agreement
If it carries on like this I will be going to trading standards to get them to sort this out.
Gordo said
Kevin,
I have four accounts with UK2. I have not been able to log into any of them for four days. I have sent several emails to their “support” department.
I have had an acknowledgment that they cannot log in either.
Their automated login check keeps emailing me with login details and passwords that do not work.
It is possible that I will never be able to use these accounts again, and there is nothing I can do about it.
Before this I have had many issues as well, such as WordPress blogs which I have spent many hours optimizing and configuring for best performance, then suddenly the setting revert to the default for no apparent reason. Or the blog disappears altogether.
This is the worst ISP I have ever used, and I have used several. They are even marginally worse than Streamline.net, and that’s saying something.
Mary Barker said
Hello,
I have been trying to contact the Sales team & Support team from past 15 to 20 Days, but NO RESPONSE. I tried sending them tones of emails all came back with giving just bounce back nothing more than that. I Tried calling all possible No. provided on the website, but again NO ANSWER.
This is the worst service I have ever seem in my life. UK2 has disappeared as if they ever into existence.
Please help me to get catch hold of these people, so that I can get my website to a reliable hosting provider.
Golden Boulder (Band) said
I have a variety of domains though UK2, and although most of the time the web domains work to some reasonable extent, the POP mail associated with them is nothing less than abysmal. I have mail accounts with BT, Googlemail, Hotmail, and UK2. Only the ones that are nothing to do with UK2 work consistently. I have some domain emails forwarded via BT some via Google. Only these ones can I guarantee to get POP access every day.
Support merely acknoledges the issue, although the “Service heartbeat” doesn’t declare an issue, and Support Tickets ’stack up’ waiting for response:
Quote: “Thank you for contacting Technical Support. I do apologize in our delayed response. Please note there is an issue with our mail servers in the sense that you get the connection timed out. This is caused when too many people try to connect to our mail servers at the same time. Our administrators are aware of this issue and are working to find a solution that will prevent this from happening again. I do apologize for the inconvenience this causes. In the meantime, mail you will continue to experience the issues you have stated. If you have any other questions or issues, please let us know. Thank you.
Regards,
Robert Montierth
Technical Support
UK-2 Ltd”
I have been with UK2 since 2001, and due to their notice policy and fragmented charging system for different elements of the domains (domain reg, hosting, mail, spam protection etc) it is difficult to get an efficient cut off to transfer without being liable for penalty costs. I have been a good customer with LOADS of domains, for a long time.
I shall have to consider these costs soon as I am going ‘up the wall’ with “Outlook is unable to connect to your incoming server…” type messages for any direct POP UK2 mail.
All non UK2 POP accounts work fine. I have been waiting since 30th Sept (now 6th October) for anyone to come back to me despite posting ticket updates with screenshots of both Mailwasher and Outlook failed UK2 attempts to connect. It has been put to “Private” status, and to 2nd level, but nothing since 30th Sept.
If I use online mail I can often get through but it is incredibly slow. Sometimes it will not refresh and goes down due to non response from the server. Also I have sent test mails to the addresses, and sometimes they go through sometimes they don’t – maybe they are being treated like spam, or maybe they just aren’t working? That would mean I’m not getting mail being sent to me
My BT Broadband Desktop Help keeps popping up saying it has “detected a problem” with some of my email accounts – now I just ignore these as (of course) the software cannot resolve the issue residing within UK2’s servers and lines.
Today I called the sales number (I resent having to pay 50p per minute on the tech support line), and they tell me that if I update with a screenshot, my ticket goes to the bottom of the queue.
Well, I raised a ‘critical’ ticket yesterday stating that I had not received any support for a week, and that hasn’t been responded to apart from the initial automatic reply.
Oh boy, I don’t look for problems. I pay my bills, and get too much rubbish and problems in return… Oh yes, if you email me I may not get it LOL!
tazblaney said
I have 4 domains with UK2. I have pop3 mail accounts with all of them…and all of them are useless during normal office hours. I can send mail, I just can’t receive it.
Raised 2 complaints now and although they responded quickly enough they have given no indication as to when they expect to remedy this, just that the servers have been “really busy recently”, however it’s been like this for months.
I am now having to give my customers a hotmail address, which kinda defeats the purpose of a nice, professional pop 3.
I am not a techy guy, just a customer who wants what he paid for to work. Apparently that is too much to ask.
Anyone have any suggestions? Can i transfer domains, route though a different server? Aaargh! This is driving me mad!
AlanT said
Hi – I’ve experienced the same problems over 6 months or so with UK2 hosted emails re login from Outlook, and got much the same responses from them. Following yet another attempt to get the problem sorted they are now recommending moving my email facility to the same ‘cpanel’ server where I have a simple website. Is this move a good idea or a convenience for them ? Do I still get POP-type access ? (e.g. I use ePrompter to monitor incoming emails for several addresses)
Initially no obvious reason was given but I then got the response attached below when aked what the benefits were. I’m not a computing professional, just trying to run a couple of very small businesses, one with a website and both with good email access (ideally!). Independent advice much appreciated … thanks.
From UK2 : “Yes, the existing Atmail system does have reliability issues, and as such we want to eventually decommission the atmail servers. Hence, we are offering to move you to mail service hosted on a cPanel web server, the same as your hosting plan is on. Then you would be able to use cPanel to manage your email, and enjoy the increased reliability of that service. Please let us know if this is something you want us to do for you.”
Paul Greene said
These guys are in a real mess. I have hosted my domains on UK2 for several years now and up to recently there were no major problems- but recently POP has just disintegrated, and I can’t even access Webmail. The status page “service heartbeat” makes statements apologising for the problems and saying that POP will be restored soon, which is simply not true.
Seriously considering moving to another supplier.
Chris Miller said
Hi all I am a global accounts manager for a internet registrar, we deal with a lot of clients leaving UK2Net for various reasons.
If you would like to benefit from some personal service and to host your site in our milton keynes datacentre, then please drop me an email. I am not a salesman so dont expect a pitch – Just want to offer people some friendly help and a good service.
Look forward to hearing from you all
adrian hutchinson said
trying to get away from UK2 on an urgent basis – it is affecting our business significantly – Have you ever tried to get a cyber out code.
You have got no chance.
Anybody any ideas how we would resolve this???
I am tempted to turn up at their office with trading standards.