Host Transfer

[bluewalrus]

I'm trying to transfer hosts and my old host webhostingpad won't release my domain. Does anyone know what legal action I can take? It's been down for 3 days and I've been trying to get them to transfer for it for 5-6 days. Very poor service from webhostingpad for anyone that is looking for a new host.

[traq]

Have they offered any explanation? Are you still in contact with them?

[bluewalrus]

They tell me to contact their DNS department which I tried Thursday and Friday. They've offered no explanation, haven't allowed me to talk to a supervisor, nor have I been contacted by their DNS department (have to contact them by email).

[djr33]

Call tech support, demand to speak with a supervisor and when you run into trouble ask for their name (and perhaps something else important like "Employee ID number" or "department", or just be extremely direct: 'let me talk to a manager so I can report your unhelpful service'). And if you can, ask to speak to a supervisor after getting a supervisor-- once you get 2 or 3 levels up they'll probably start being more responsive.
Of course if this doesn't work, then I suggest perhaps asking the other host if they could intervene (you have a new host lined up, right?).

This sounds really unpleasant, though I can't say I'm surprised-- I'd be wary of transfers for exactly this reason. (Not that I'm suggesting you're doing anything wrong.)

The real problem here is that you can't threaten much: you can't threaten to leave the host (since you're already doing that) and you don't want to pay them money.... good luck.
Maybe the weekend (even Th/F?) is just a bad time for them. Start on Monday and see if that speeds things up.

[traq]

I've had similar experiences with other types of services (right now with Charter Communications, for example). Just remember to stay on the phone, keep your voice firm but controlled, and keep repeating what you need. If they start talking about something else, remind them that "that doesn't address my problem." As soon as they say they can't do something, repeat, "You can't help me with that? Please transfer me to your supervisor." And no matter what, stay on the phone, collect IDs for everyone you talk to as part of your introduction...

good luck

[bluewalrus]

Thanks I finally got the info and it's transferring it now.

The directory structure is different on my new server though and I was wondering if the following would be possible, possibly through htaccess. I had a public_html and then my domain_name as a directory. All the content in the domain name directory was accessible through the root of the domain, the content in the public_html wasn't but could be called by the server.

So http://www.site.com/index.php loads /public_html/domain_name/index.php, and that page, index.php, can include /public_html/log_file.xml

Is this something htaccess could do and if so how? Thanks.

[djr33]

Short version: mod_rewrite.
Long version: making that actually work (since it profoundly confuses me, at least).

Simple version: just use the new directory and change things as needed.


(Note: you can't use my PHP version of mod_rewrite that I posted a while ago because you don't actually have access to create a PHP page in that place, from what I understand. You could see if that's possible. However, serving images, etc., that way seems messy.)


Glad to hear it's working though.

[traq]

How different? It'd probably be easiest to just use your new host's existing structure - I can't imagine why it wouldn't be able to accommodate "behind-the-scenes" stuff like you're talking about.