The Good and Bad of Bodhost - An Honest Review

BMR777 · #1 (**permalink**) 04-02-10, 10:56

Hello,

I've been with BodHost for over 6 months as a VPS customer and I have to say that for the most part I am impressed. Every time I have needed help with something their support is quick and able to help me usually in minutes. Their server is fast and easy to manage. Their network is great, fast and has no downtime as far as I can recall in my six months with BodHost. Overall, BodHost is an awesome host, but there is one thing they can do better...

One thing BodHost needs to work on is notifying customers when they make major changes to their VPS servers. I remember logging in one day and the CPanel on my VPS had been updated by BodHost to a new version. Not bad, but as this is a VPS and not shared hosting I think I should at least know ahead of time if something is to be changed.

What made me really angry, however, was what happened a few days ago. I was working on my website when all of a sudden I lost the connection to it. I could not access WHM, CPanel, SSH, SFTP, anything. It turns out a firewall was blocking my access to my own site. I found this weird since the firewall I had set up through the Plesk Power Panel on the VPS was only set to allow certain ports and not automatically ban IPs. No matter, I contacted BodHost support and they unblocked me from the firewall.

The next day, I notice that my website traffic is way down. I am also getting emails from website visitors who are saying they are getting timeout errors and cannot connect to my site. I again contact BodHost support and they say that I should check the firewall settings inside WHM. Here's the thing though, there were no firewall settings inside WHM, at least not the last time I logged into WHM. BodHost had installed CSF Firewall on my VPS without informing me and now it was blocking legitimate visitors to my website with no notification to me or to my visitors! I spoke with support and they said to keep both the firewall in WHM (CSF Firewall) as well as the one inside Plesk Power Panel running. So, they wanted me to run two firewalls, which seems like a bad idea, something that could cause conflicts.

Once I disabled CSF and was only using the Plesk firewall my website traffic almost instantly (within minutes) jumped back to the normal levels. Looking at CSF it seems it was set up by default to deny users who connect to my site with too many connections at once. The way I had optimized Apache's configuration, however, was with a low timeout, which means more connections but better performance on a site such as mine. My website also has some pages where 30+ images may load per page, so what was happening was any time a user would view one of these pages on my site, CSF firewall would add them to a deny list and block their IP because they had too many connections. Not cool.

So, overall BodHost is a great host, with one exception. They really need to notify customers in advance when adding features to their VPS servers that may affect customers and their websites. I use my website to make money and the less visitors I get the less money I get. Customers expect things not to just change magically with a VPS server. If something stops working that was fine previously, chances are something was updated.

BodHost has been great though. Their support really is great and has solved any issues I have had or has at least been able to point me in the right direction. The servers are great too and the network is fast, which is most important to me.

BodShane · #2 (**permalink**) 04-02-10, 11:12

Hello,

Thanks for your honest Review and to be really honest, if we do not receive reviews from our customers, we will not be able to understand where things are going wrong just like the firewall issue that you faced. In respect with notification to clients, we are in process of setting up a new automated system which will even send direct messages to a client's mobile devices. However, this might take couple of week though.

Please do share your ideas about BODHost in our public forum and we appreciate your contribution in improving our service towards our clients.

Regards,

Shane

centelo · #3 (**permalink**) 04-07-10, 00:25

I have to jump in and first say I really love honest reviews, good or bad, is all about getting to the point/s and across to those reading it quickly and simple.

My questions, as Shane you know I have been poking around here for sometime now - one what are you currently running as far as client systems to contact out (if you are, or is this new thing something custom made maybe comparing to what you have been using in the past).

And two, this is for BMR or maybe Shane? Why is it the host' fault for not updating you specific to your mobile, or did I read that line wrong? Isnt it the clients issue to keep proper contact info correct on file in case of an ER?

BodShane · #4 (**permalink**) 04-07-10, 06:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by centelo

I have to jump in and first say I really love honest reviews, good or bad, is all about getting to the point/s and across to those reading it quickly and simple.

My questions, as Shane you know I have been poking around here for sometime now - one what are you currently running as far as client systems to contact out (if you are, or is this new thing something custom made maybe comparing to what you have been using in the past).

And two, this is for BMR or maybe Shane? Why is it the host' fault for not updating you specific to your mobile, or did I read that line wrong? Isnt it the clients issue to keep proper contact info correct on file in case of an ER?

Hello Centelo,

We have been working towards providing as much information as possible to our clients in all situations. Although, we request all clients to to maintain information prior to their signup of their hosting accounts.

Regards,

Shane

BMR777 · #5 (**permalink**) 04-07-10, 11:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by centelo

I have to jump in and first say I really love honest reviews, good or bad, is all about getting to the point/s and across to those reading it quickly and simple.

My questions, as Shane you know I have been poking around here for sometime now - one what are you currently running as far as client systems to contact out (if you are, or is this new thing something custom made maybe comparing to what you have been using in the past).

And two, this is for BMR or maybe Shane? Why is it the host' fault for not updating you specific to your mobile, or did I read that line wrong? Isnt it the clients issue to keep proper contact info correct on file in case of an ER?

BodHost does have my contact info on file, it just seems that they don't send notifications when doing server maintenance or adding / changing features, which I think is something they should do more often, which it looks like they are working on.

I check these forums once in a while so it would be nice if any maintenance / changes was also posted in the announcements section here.

BodShane · #6 (**permalink**) 04-07-10, 12:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by BMR777

BodHost does have my contact info on file, it just seems that they don't send notifications when doing server maintenance or adding / changing features, which I think is something they should do more often, which it looks like they are working on.

I check these forums once in a while so it would be nice if any maintenance / changes was also posted in the announcements section here.

Yes, i definitely agree to you and we are setting up automation on our forums. In case there is any information to provided to our customers, it will automatically be announced in our forums.

Regards,

Shane