I had been tracking all the hosting companies listed on this blog for a few months, and every month there have always been companies dropping off from the list — no longer operating, domain cannot be resolved, or server no longer responding, or gets redirected to domain parking pages, etc. I think it might actually be a good idea to look back each month to see which hosting providers have entered into — the LowEndBox Dead Pool!
XENnode
XENnodeCurrent Status: IP cannot be resolved.
XENnode first came to the scene in November last year offering 128MB Xen VPS for $62.09/Year. Now the domain no longer resolves (although the registration still has a few more months to go), nor is owner’s computer shop website. It has a pretty rocky start from the beginning, as there has constantly been “enermies” posting fake review comments via proxy servers.
ComfyHost
Current Status: Domain expired.
I covered ComfyHost more than 2 years ago (pretty much at the beginning of this blog), whom were selling 128MB OpenVZ VPS for $6/month. The domain expired on 21 March 2010. The website might have been down or changed to parking pages before that, but I would not know. It’s a 6 year old domain though, which can be a valuable asset for a hosting company. But I guess what GFC told us is, even a 100+ year old busines can collapse.
DareDevilHosting
DareDevilHostingCurrent Status: Owner changed and no longer offers low end packages.
I don’t usually report providers who changed owner, or changed package that no longer meets this blog’s pricing threshold. But with DareDevilHosting whom I have listed on this blog back in February, has been sold in March. However unlike some other acquisitions, there have been reports of existing customers lossing their virtual servers — even if they have prepaid for up to a year! That’s certainly weird consider they still have not changed the IP address of their web site, i.e. they might still be on the old hardware. Moreover, a few weeks later, Arber Beqiraj the old owner, started yet-another VPS company called “TheVPSGods.com”, posting various low-cost VPS packages (while still not yet having a website).
I am now removing all of them from my tracker.
There are also some VPS providers’ websites that are currently down — but not up to two week yet. They may appear in next month’s Dead Pool, if they stay dead and buried.
- HostaGigs — Website account suspended since 2010-04-21.
- OneNetwork — IP not resolved since 2010-04-28.
- 5 Reasons Why You Want a Low End Box - May 26, 2021
- Dead Pool January 2012 - February 2, 2012
- exit(0); - January 19, 2012
Bad News.
I was a XENnode.net customer until April 1, 2010, on which date my virtual host disappeared with nary a trace — along with the entire “XENnode.net” organization, apparently. This despite the fact that we pre-paid for service at least through May, 2010. An aggravating experience, to say the least.
I told you so. ;)
You should make this a permanent page, eg a “wall of shame”, that tracks these failures. Maybe even it’s one category. This will make it easier to track these dodgy startups, especially if the owners spring up again under a new name…
Man I hate typos.
Very interesting to see this, thanks!
@LEA Maybe next time you’ll head my warnings instead of deleting my posts. ;)
I will group all the dead pool posts under this category, and will put a link somewhere after I’ve gathered a few more posts.
vote for Permanent Page!
Omg :(
oh, what a shame! :( customer should be vigilant now and only get VPS from a host who is a fully registered company.
@QuickWeb Joe — indeed having a fully registered business would be a barrier that can hopefully filter out the bad hosts (although never guaranteed). However the registration might be done anywhere in the world — LLC, Pty Ltd, etc — all have different regulations. Would be quite a bit of work tracking that down.
xennode is dead indeed, but the customer vps had been transferred to centralhost. Quite few problems appears when it’s transferred there. xen changed to openvz, then changed back to xen with very long downtime. but their network and performance are great so far. Perhaps that was the best for us the customer who prepaid for it. I prefer that than the host, our vps, and our money just gone.
@ paijrut –
Good to hear they didn’t just kill the servers off.
I had learned from bitter experience that it is not good idea to prepay for one year unless it’s high profile webhosting company. I just realized there are no universal regulator in this business, so everyone could be scammed very easily.
This and the bad service of the larger hosts is what puts this business down to the level of used car salesmen. :(
Arber Beqiraj is the owner of thevpsgods.com and daredevilhosting and he is a fraud. you are right, the site is down. and all those that purchase cheap vps from him are conned. so be creaful choosing your hosting company.
Indeed. TheVPSGods.com has not been resolving for > 36 hours. Looks like he might have just taken the money from the unaware and run…