We have a lot of slang and community lore in the LowEnd community and one of the evergreen memes is the Summer Host.
The term refers to providers that seem to be started as soon as school gets out and are gone by September. Sometime it’s a scam – for example, offering three-year pre-pay options. Sometimes it’s just incompetence. Often wannabe providers do some math in study hall and say “hey, I can rent a server and charge rock bottom prices and still eke out a profit” without thinking about all the other costs of doing business, the late night aggravation of supporting people around the world for those eked pennies, and how chargebacks and unexpected events can send a small host spiraling into failure.
But hope springs eternal and so does unwarranted optimism!
Here’s a case in point: Zenhost.in. No, not Zenhost.co.za, or Zenhost.gr, or Zenhost.net, or Zen-Host.com, but Zenhost.in.
They were an Indian host that started operations on May 2, 2023 (according to their domain registration) and posted their first shared hosting offer on LowEndTalk on May 15. For less than a dollar a month you could get shared hosting from them, albeit with severely constrained resources (3GB storage, 20GB transfer). They had a TOS, a privacy policy, and were setup on PayPal.
Usually when you see ultra-low prices and scarce resources, it’s a sign the provider is working very close to the margin.
On August 1, a LET member posted:
Another Summer Host, gone already. Totally scammers, and not knowledgeable at all about hosting. I will file a complaint with Paypal even though it’s not the money, it’s time setting a website.
Sorry for the late reply, had a conflict of the name with a company so had to close it down, all my clients money was refunded. sorry for the inconveniences.
Recently I have started a hosting company with a partner and the name for the company is sorted so that there are no future conflicts.
And didn’t I say that optimism springs eternal? They ended with this comment:
You can expect a top notch service once we launch the brand here
…perhaps in May 2024?
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I also enjoy using LEBs! I have an empire of little guys for VPNs, larger guys for apps, and big guys for databases and storage. When I'm not in front a screen I'm into German Shepherd dogs, quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop roleplaying games, and forest hiking.
I enjoy writing technical articles here on LowEndBox to help people get more out of their systems. You can find me on LowEndTalk @raindog308
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