The folks at dreamhost once again proved why their hosting sucks. To make the story short, the technical staff at dreamhost went ahead and blocked Google bot accessing my site. How did they do it, they added deny rule for IP range of google bot to my htaccess file. Google bot is unable to access my site, google bot last accessed my site on Nov 12th.
Traffic decline
Due to this my traffic is decreasing steadily, i saw it declining but really didn’t take time to check what is happening. Today i logged in to Google webmasters tool and realized that Google bot is getting 403 error (Forbidden), then i immediately opened htaccess file to see whether there are any changes to it. Yes i guessed right someone blocked Google from accessing my site. I quickly removed the rules and sent a mail to dreamhost customer support. They replied in 5 mins saying…. (see the image below)
This is just pathetic, this shows how they treat customers. If there is any problem with Google crawl they should inform me first before blocking Google bot. They did not do that they just went ahead and blocked google. I won’t consider this as an error, because there is no need for them to touch my htaccess file unless there is a serious problem with the site crawl or something.
For webmasters most of the traffic comes from Google, if you are blocking the site for Google means you are killing the site.
I had enough with them, i thought of canceling when dreamhost servers are hacked, i paid for 1 year that is why i am staying with them. Now i am sure i will move on.
If any of you are considering hosting with Dreamhost i highly recommend not to use them. They are the worst host i have ever seen. Ofcourse they are cheap but you need to compromise for things like this.
Note: This blog “Technology Bites” is hosted at MediaTemple not at Dreamhost
Great I found someone who may follow me out. I am leaving Dreamhost by the end of this month and moving to my Friends Dedicated server. Am just setting up things now hopefully one everything is settled I’ll make the move
@Keith
That’s a good move, i am also planning to take a dedicated to avoid these type of things
Thanks for the head-up. I shall bear that in mind.
Greetings and lotta loves from Malaysia.
Thanks for the information! I see you now have an (mt) logo on your blog. 😉
If you’re looking for a “better quality DreamHost” I recommend WebFaction (http://www.webfaction.com/?affiliate=myke ). It is also recommended by the highly regarded Jeff Croft: http://www2.jeffcroft.com/links/3197/
This is really bad news, infact dream host had issues previously also.
I recommend you to move to Bluehost, the best for bloggers. I wont say its 100% perfect, but very much responsive to any issues. To be frank, I have not faced any issues after I moved in July.
If I could afford to move my blog now I would do it. I’ve been with DreamHost 3 years this month and this has been the worst year ever. From slow servers and databases to GMail greylisting them- it’s been a pain.
The worst of DH is their almost always down Mysql server. Too slow, sometimes not running at all.
I’ve moved all my database driven projects to Crucial web host http://www.crucialwebhost.com/promo/5365/ – their shared is like VDS, but for the price of shared. Always up and running fast. You can even save 50$ with my coupon code “TheCAPTCHA”. Just enter the word “TheCAPTCHA” (without quotes) when you will order hosting for your site and you will receive a 50$ discount from your order 🙂
I have only used BlueHost, and I must say they are the best! No issues yet. I agree with Nirmal, that they are not 100% perfect, but very responsive to any issues. I say you go for BlueHost next!
Sorry to hear about your problems with Dreamhost buddy! I was with a company called WebIntellects and I had a slow responding server and a customer on my VPS who apparently was sucking resources from the rest of us.
As much I didn’t want to do it, I moved to LunarPages and have been EXTREMELY happy with them. GL in whatever you decide to do.
Thank you all for your suggestions, i will decide in next few days where to move my sites.
Oh my god !! I am also hosted on Dreamhost. Seems like i also need to move out with just around 3 to 4 months times left on dreamhost. I will prefer bluehost as i am hearing a lot good about them. But still, changing host is one thing which I hate the most 🙁
Didn’t you already move to MT? I though you’re with MT. I’m happy with Site5 for now.!
@Ben
I am with MT, one of other site is in DH
Ram,
I wanted to ask you before also, which is your other site?
Since I’m considering a move-I have to renew my Domain which is through DreamHost and I’ll just keep it there, what method is the easiest way to move everything and have it propagate across the internet in the fastest time? The only time I moved hosts, it took over 2 weeks, some could see updated posts, others saw the last post I had written before the move. Any suggestions? I’ve looked at WebFaction and I really like what they offer.
@Beth
I moved sites and it never took me more than 2 days, most of the time they propogate in 2 or 3 hours. To move without having downtime, first transfer all the files and database to new server and then change the DNS information. This way your visitors don’t see any downtime, but you may loose some comments if the DNS propagation is late.
I’m happy that I never fell for Dreamhost. Just a handful of other good hosts around.
I went through the same trouble before.