Apollo Hosting (www.apollohosting.com) Reseller Plan has the following issues. Has anyone else experienced these?
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· Reseller anonymity issues:
o The icons on the Resold Account’s Control Panel reference Apollo's IP address (graphic properties and on browser status bar while site loading).
o Email Auto-Responder “headers” contain multiple references to Apollo (name server and IP).
o When using FTP (cuteFTP or WSftpPro) to connect to Resold accounts, Apollo name server and IP show in connect log.
· Apollo’s website states that the Control Panel can be customized to contain your business logo. However, their tech-support negates this fact.
· Control Panel has 3 "vote" icons with no explanation of each. Upon clicking, they immediately register a vote with various host-rating services in favor of Apollo Hosting. But (1) why are these on a "site control panel" and (2) why not offer an HONEST way of voting where you get to choose the level of satisfaction. Here are the vote sites:
o http://www.hostindex.com (ID = Tamara)
o http://www.webhostdir.com (hostid = 5508)
o http://www.webhosters.com (company_id = 1019)
· Parked Domain names cannot be seen/listed! Neither on their Control Panel nor on an invoice.
· Even though you have Virtual Domain Name Servers enabled when you register a resold account, Apollo doesn't give you the opportunity to put the new domain under your Virtual DNS. Instead, they put it under their DNS and ask you to contact support. Then, support initiates a change, but that change request has to infiltrate the internet -- another 24-48 hrs on top of the initial time to register the Resold account. By setting up Resold Accounts under their DNS, Apollo Hosting negates the entire purpose of having a Virtual DNS enabled!!! As you know, Resellers enable a Virtual DNS for the sole purpose of putting their Resold Accounts on it. So, why put us through the hassle of a two-step, timely process? Apollo Hosting truly needs to provide the ability, even if optionally, to place a new Resold Account under a VDNS during the initial set up process.
· Apollo’s Control Panel offers MySql but (a) at older version 2.0.1, and (b) they won't upgrade or support it (c) it does not work at all. You are *completely* on your own.
· Apollo’s website claims they will optionally transfer a domain for you for free, but tech-support states they can't. Even if they did, their website states it will send an email to the current domain owner as "from Apollo Hosting” to request transfer approval, but this compromises a reseller’s anonymity.
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A friend of mine just setup his reseller acc at Apollo and didn't have a single complaint.

He's been using them to host his site for several months now.

Oh well...

Dear Dan (HostingCatalog),

Per your followup post, perhaps you should share my findings with your friend. I can't see how he could have overlooked these issues since they are NOT related to something special I am trying to do, but rather to the services they are selling yet failing to provide to the letter.

The US is, unfortunately, full of companies who promise the world but fall short on their delivery. One reply which I received from Apollo stated that I was "the only person who complained about these things". Good customer service ethics! Imagine bringing your new car back to the dealer to report a problem only to receive that reply??!!

TG

I'll link him to this thread when he is online next.

He has only been using them for a short time though, just about four or five months, and just a few weeks ago made a reseller acc.

The one thing he did tell me he thought was odd was, his words "the hold music sounds like its coming from a radio next to the phone handset"

I do hope you have a good experience with them. For the record, I have no affiliation with them in any way. They aren't even listed in my directory (yet.)

Good luck,
Dan

Oh, and in your post you put:



Go Daddy is just my domain registrar. I have nothing to do with them. HostingCatalog.com is my site.

And yes, unfortunately there are a lot of bad companies in this country. However, I don't think it has anything to do with the US but rather the concentration of companies. The US has more corporations than any other country in the world, and I am sure that if you look at percentages you'll see that the US and every other part of the world have about the same concentration of bad businesses.

Email and web access is terribly slow, ESPECIALLY during peak times (weekdays). I've sent test emails to myself and waited 15+ minutes for them to arrive (yes, I refresh every minute). Here's the reason -- at least they're working on it:
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In response to your complaint of connectivity issues, we have been running diagnostics as well as using the traceroutes that you have sent to us. We have spent a great amount of time testing, both inside and outside of our own network and have determined that there are multiple sources responsible for the problems you are experiencing. Please read the remainder of this email so you can be informed of the steps we are taking to boost your performance.

What we are doing:
We have replaced the router that serviced both the PHI1.GLBX and Qwest backbone connections at the entry point of our network. This should clear up most of the connectivity issues as we did find a corrupted table in the router.

We have embarked upon a project to enhance the performance of our own network. The initial phase of this project is to remove the switches and replace them with routers. The second phase of this project is to enhance the IP search capability within our network. Implementing these changes will provide a more direct connection into and out of your domain. This project will take approximately four months to complete. This puts the estimated completion date around the end of March 2002.
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Is there a moderator or some such here?

I'm looking into apollo hosting as well and noticed they were a "featured member" which I would assume that webhostdir has checked them out etc..

Thanks Cheryl

Hi Cheryl,

Apollo have been a client of ours for a couple of years and during that time, I cant remember a complaint about them being brought to my attention. Unfortunately the fact that they are one of our clients will most likely tarnish my testimony to many of the members here. Catch 22

Apollo Hosting is not a bad company. Our goal was not to insinuate that. They do not fully provide what they sell -- fully means 100%; not 97%. To clarify, AH can not provide full anonymity to a reseller. We feel they should advise a potential reseller of the facts we disclosed but they just don't. As a matter of fact, unless you own a dedicated server (with ANY hosting company), you may not be completely cloaked.

Other than that, their other issues (such as parked domain lists or MySQL problems) may be insignificant to you, especially if you are a "novice" user. They are apparently upgrading their network infrastructure as well, so perhaps their response times will improve. Overall, it's your decision.

Our goal was to merely educate others and possibly save them from realizing these shortcomings after signing up. If you are not concerned with the issues we disclosed, than AH may be the company for you. Just spend the time looking around; it's worth every minute of your time.

Cherylp3, continue to do your homework. Just because a company is listed as a "featured host" does NOT necessarily mean they are the best. Take for example "RackShack.net". Do a search on them within this forum and you'll see what we mean. Yet, they are STILL listed as a "featured host".

James, first-hand experience with a customer always speaks louder than any recommendation. The END USER, as you know, is the TRUE power behind the WebHostDir forums.

On that note, after all the trouble people apparently had with RackShack (search these forums), why are they still listed as a featured host? That completely taints the "featured host" listing in our opinion.

thatguy - trying very hard to do my homework - I hate to move.. Blah.. Sent you an email.

Which is why I didnt have your first posted edited



The featured Host links are paid advertisements, not recomedations. If you want recomdendations visit our awards section within the main site.


I hope that clears things up a little.