Everything you need to know about Servage.net

www.Servage.net . The badwith, the space, the amount of supported features, it all looks good doesn't it, do you want to know if it really is?

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The good

The interface at Servage.net is great. Everything you need to find or do you can do in a couple of seconds. I can honestly say that I wouldn't change a thing. Do you want to install PHPBB 3? Click click, done. Do you want to start a wordpress blog? Click click, done. Want to add a couple of sub-domains or add a new domain? Click click, done.

I've been with the company for 2 years now and since then the company increased the space, the amount of bandwith that can be used on a day and they added A LOT of new features in that time.

Every single month they update auto-installers, add new auto-installers, update/upgrade existing features and much more. I can not complain about the interface or the features, because they are both great.

The bad

Security


Servage is a big target for hacking-groups. Some how the company got a lot of enemies. My webspace got hacked at least 5 times in the last couple of years. At first it was harmless, they changed a couple of index.htm or index.php files to advertise the hackinggroup but there were times where simple HTML ( not dynamic ) websites were infected with trojans and other dangerous scripts. The worst thing of it is that one of those websites had a "parents and their kids" target-audience and I got many complaints from people that got infected.

I remember back in 2006 when I searched for my domain in google, I landed on a hack-website with a complete list with hundreds of sites hacked hosted by Servage.net . That clearly showed that at some point Servage was a pretty easy target for hackers.

Here is evidence of ONE OF THE MANY times my webspace got hacked:

Quote:

RSA Cyota, an anti-fraud and security company, is under contract to assist JPMorgan Chase and its related entities in preventing or terminating online activity that targets JPMorgan Chase?s Bank clients as potential fraud victims. Cyota has been made aware that you appear to be providing Internet Services to a fraudulent Web site, which is part of a ?phishing scam?*. This activity violates JPMorgan Chase ?s Bank copyright, trademark and other intellectual property rights and may violate the criminal laws of the United States and other nations.

E-mail messages have been broadly distributed to individuals by a person or entity pretending to be JPMorgan Chase. These e-mails use JPMorgan Chase ?s Bank name and identity (including trademarks) without authorization. The e-mails request recipients to verify and submit sensitive details related to their JPMorgan Chase accounts. Within the fraudulent e-mail message, there is a link that leads the recipients to a fraudulent website displaying JPMorgan Chase ?s Bank copyrighted materials and trademarks.

The fraudulent website not only represents a misuse of JPMorgan Chase ?s Bank intellectual property; its purpose is to improperly obtain personal information of JPMorgan Chase customers in order to fraudulently access their bank accounts. The owners of those websites typically perpetrate identity-theft related activities, such as using customer?s credit cards or bank accounts without authorization. In addition, since the vast majority of all of the e-mails are not being sent to actual JPMorgan Chase customers, the actions may serve to damage the reputation and image of JPMorgan Chase.

Please take all necessary steps to immediately shut down the fraudulent website, terminate its availability to the Internet and discontinue the transmission of any e-mails associated with this website.

We understand that you may not be aware of this improper use of your services and we appreciate your cooperation. We specifically would ask that you also take the following actions:

Please provide us with a tar/zip file of the source code for this site, so that we may analyze it to help prevent further attacks.

If any customer data has been captured that is stored on your systems or equipment, please send us that data so that the customers to whom that data relates can be notified and take steps to protect their credit.

Please provide a copy of any records you maintain that indicate the name, contact information, method of payment or similar information that may be useful in helping learn about the identity and location of the customer for whom the website has been operated.

Thank you for your cooperation to prevent and terminate this fraudulent activity.

Sincerely,

RSA Cyota Anti-Fraud Command Centre

Tel: +44 (0)800-032-7751 (UK)

Tel: +1-866-408-7525 (US)

EU Fax: +972-9-9728101

US Fax: +1-212-208-4644

E-mail: afcc@cyota.com
I submitted all the data I had and the issue got solved. But the fact alone that something like this happened should wurry you.

After many complaints from me and a lot of other Servage owners, Servage improved the security. Hackers are not able to get in anymore...BUT they don't leave it at that. Continue reading please...

Bandwith

Servage offers 5010GB/month. And beleave me when I say, you can actually use 5010GB/month. BUT Servage doesn't actually offer 5010GB/month but 167GB/day. So when your site uses 168GB on a day, it gets shutdown for the rest of the day.

But 167GB is a lot. You probably can't imagin a website on a host like Servage that uses so much traffic. Well, neither can I, if I get 20GB on a day then it's very busy day.

My websites don't get a lot of traffic, but I host custom content for certain games like "Trackmania Nations Forever". Sure, every file is only a couple of megabytes. But when you own a couple of game-servers and when you get a couple of hundred gamers a day on your servers, then it will use a decen amount of traffic.

But there were days when my traffic went up to 260GB with the result that my website gets shut-down. Not only is it strange that the traffic can go up to 260GB with a limit of 167GB and with decent hotlink protection, the strange thing is that it went from 10-20GB/day to 260GB in just one day.

There are only two possible scenarios:
- Servage.net messed with the counter in order to cover up downtimes
- Hackers did some sort of flood-attack on servage servers

And this happened not once, not twice but a lot. And when it does, I have to answer the emails and telephone calls from people that ask ME for help while I can't do anything about it.


Scripting Support

Don't ask for support about htacces or other scripting problems because Servage wont help you out with it. Can I consider this as a bad thing? Yes and now, I say "yes" because I know they could have helped me and I say "no" because I know that they have many more people to help out with more serious issues.

The Speed:

When I first signed up with Servage I was so happy. Back then I made some music and I hosted my music online. People were able to download them at 1-1.5 Megabyte/s wich was pretty darn impressive for shared hosting. But, time passed by and Servage became slower, and slower, and slower. Mainly because they kept on increasing the amount of webspace/traffic people could use and they were getting more and more customers. Now, on a lucky day, my visitors download at 500kb/s, I download around 200kb/s now.

There were times when it dropped below 100, but when it did I complained and the speed was back to normal again.

Downtimes

According to Servage, they have 99.98% Server Uptime.

Read this very carefully, I will say this more then once, THAT IS COMPLETE ********. I don't feel like waisting my time writing about ALL the downtimes, so let's focus on the last 6 months.

Up untill may this year. There weren't to many downtimes. Sure, I wasn't able to connect via FTP every now and then or my website was offline every now an then, but I must admit that everything did work fine for at lest 95% of the time untill may 2008.

Quote:

2008-05-17 21:20
Quote:

23:17:07] SmartFTP v2.5.1006.16
[23:17:07] Resolving host name "ftp.servage.net"
[23:17:07] Connecting to 77.232.67.29 Port: 21
[23:17:07] Connected to ftp.servage.net.
[23:17:28] De software op uw hostcomputer heeft een verbinding verbroken.
[23:17:28] Cannot login waiting to retry (30s)...
[23:17:28] Server closed connection

I have this problem hole day now. I didn't contact you sooner because it happens from time to time, but it usually resolves itself, this time it doesn't.
2008-05-17 21:28
Quote:

Never mind, ftp.servage.net no longer works, but ftp.mydomain.com does, I no longer have a problem.
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2008-05-23 13:30
Quote:

All my sites hosted at servage are offline again. This happens almost every day, multiple times, and the downtimes usually last 1-2 minutes, but now it's taking longer then usual.

Another problem I want to report:


Fri, May 2, 2008 at 11:30 PM
There has been a problem with the database!
This is a notice email to let you know that SMF could not connect to the database, contact your host if this continues.

Fri, May 9, 2008 at 4:09 PM
There has been a problem with the database!
This is a notice email to let you know that SMF could not connect to the database, contact your host if this continues.

Mon, May 12, 2008 at 1:24 PM
There has been a problem with the database!
This is a notice email to let you know that SMF could not connect to the database, contact your host if this continues.

Thu, May 15, 2008 at 6:18 PM
There has been a problem with the database!
This is a notice email to let you know that SMF could not connect to the database, contact your host if this continues.

Sun, May 18, 2008 at 12:59 AM
There has been a problem with the database!
This is a notice email to let you know that SMF could not connect to the database, contact your host if this continues.

Wed, May 21, 2008 at 4:10 PM
There has been a problem with the database!
This is a notice email to let you know that SMF could not connect to the database, contact your host if this continues.

I am getting all these messages from sc26341@servage-customer.net .

Please fix the downtimes and please fix the problems with the database.
2008-05-23 14:29
Hello Jelle

We had a temporary issue at our storage device which has been solved now.

Thank you. :)

Kind regards,
Julie, Support Team Member
Servage Hosting


2008-05-24 20:16
Quote:

My websites are offline once again:
Not Found
The requested URL was not found on this server.

Pretty sure it sas 99.98% Server Uptime on the frontpage...
2008-05-24 21:50
Hello Jelle

Your websites are now accessible. Please check.
We will making further checks at our end to prevent the issue from re-occuring.

Kind regards,
Peter, Servage - Support
Servage Hosting


2008-05-25 09:15
Quote:

Everything is offline once again:

Not Found
The requested URL was not found on this server.
2008-05-25 10:45
Hello Jelle

I have just checked your sites and are working without any errors. Please check and update us.

Kind regards,
Victor, Servage Support
Servage Hosting


2008-05-25 16:09
Quote:

They did work again, now they are offline again:

Not Found
The requested URL was not found on this server.
Servage.net Clustered Webhosting running enhanced Apache Webserver

And I see the Servage logo on the right.

Fix this already please. This has been going on for long enough.
2008-05-25 16:49
Hello Jelle

Our admin has fixed the issue on server. Please check your sites are working fine.

Kind regards,
Victor, Servage Support
Servage Hosting


2008-05-26 11:01
Quote:

My websites are offline again!
FIX IT FOR REAL THIS TIME!

The admin doesn't fix a damn thing. By the time you read the support tickets, the sites are always back online, and then you claim that it has been fixed.
2008-05-26 12:02
Hello Jelle

We are experiencing an issue in the server and due to which the websites are very slow. Our admin is working on it and will solve this as soon as possible.

please bear with us until then.

We have been advised that the problem has been isolated and that the issue would be solved soon. For quality's sake, our administrators tend to spend a slightly longer time investigating the root cause of an issue to completely fix it, rather than merely applying a temporary/unsafe fix, we've taken every possible step to ensure that this does not happen again.

Thank you :)

Kind regards,
Julie, Support
Servage Hosting


2008-05-26 17:36
Hello Jelle

Please check again, we can access your domain.

Thanks!

Kind regards,
Steven, Support
Servage Hosting


2008-05-27 13:35
Quote:

Just like I thaught, servage didn't fix a damn thing.

Voila, happened again today:
http://i25.tinypic.com/2hyb22s.jpg

And it seems like you lied about the database problems aswell:

from Nobody <sc26341@servage-customer.net>
to jellemees@gmail.com
date Tue, May 27, 2008 at 4:21 PM
subject Trackmania Belgium: SMF Database Error!

There has been a problem with the database!
This is a notice email to let you know that SMF could not connect to the database, contact your host if this continues.

Now please fix the issues once and for all. What did I do to deserve all these problems?
2008-05-27 17:08
Hello Jelle

Sorry for the inconvenience caused to you. :(

Yes, we are aware of this issue and we have already started working on solving this problem. So, I am requesting you to please check it after some time. Hope fully in the meantime, it will be fine for you.

Thanks for your understanding and co-operation!

Kind regards,
Steven, Support
Servage Hosting


2008-05-27 19:14
Hello Jelle

Please check by now, it must be solved for you.

Thanks!

Kind regards,
Steven, Support
Servage Hosting

2008-05-28 13:55
Quote:

Tue, May 27, 2008 at 4:21 PM

There has been a problem with the database!
This is a notice email to let you know that SMF could not connect to the database, contact your host if this continues.

Wed, May 28, 2008 at 1:14 AM

There has been a problem with the database!
This is a notice email to let you know that SMF could not connect to the database, contact your host if this continues.

Like I thaught, nothing got fixed.

403 Forbidden
You are not allowed to access this page. Possible problems:
* Authentication Failure
* Incorrect file or folder permissions
Servage.net Clustered Webhosting running enhanced Apache Webserver

When I refreshed it became:

Not Found
The requested URL was not found on this server.
Servage.net Clustered Webhosting running enhanced Apache Webserver
2008-05-28 20:22
Hello Jelle

It is fine.

Please check now.

Kind regards,
Steven, Support
Servage Hosting


2008-05-28 20:45
Quote:

403 Forbidden

You are not allowed to access this page. Possible problems:
* Authentication Failure
* Incorrect file or folder permissions
Servage.net Clustered Webhosting running enhanced Apache Webserver

FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT! FIX IT!
2008-05-28 20:52
Hello Jelle

May i know, the link, where you are getting this error? For me all the domains you have are working fine.

Thanks!

Kind regards,
Steven, Support
Servage Hosting


2008-05-28 21:49
Quote:

I can give you 1000 links. When I talk about downtimes I talk about every single page and file on my server.

Every single website goes offline at least 10-20 times every day. And every time it happens people call me with Skype, people email me or some of them join a server I am gaming on to tell me that they can't acces the forums.

The downtimes only last 1-3 minutes. The reason why you don't see anything rong when you visit my sites is because my websites are back online by the time you view my ticket.

Do you want me to take screenshots? Because I can do that. Do you want me to record movies, because I can do that...
2008-05-30 20:58
Quote:

Fri, May 30, 2008 at 9:49 PM
There has been a problem with the database!
This is a notice email to let you know that SMF could not connect to the database, contact your host if this continues.
2008-05-31 10:45
Quote:

Apperently you don't feel that it's nessary to help me anymore.
This is totally unacceptable, the way this company handles problems.

You've claimed multiple times that the problem has been solved while clearly nothing changed at all. You treat customers like little kids, "we'll tell them what he want's to here so that he shuts up for now".

Sat, May 31, 2008 at 2:05 PM

There has been a problem with the database!
This is a notice email to let you know that SMF could not connect to the database, contact your host if this continues.
2008-05-31 13:15
Hello Jelle

Sorry for the problem caused to you. :(

For solving this database issue, you can try to create a new database (which will be created on the different MySQL server) for your script and then export the old database and import it into the newer one. Then in the configuration file for your script change the database details according to the new one. In the meantime, we will check and solve the problem for the current database server, if any.

Hope this helps!

Kind regards,
Steven, Support
Servage Hosting


2008-05-31 17:02
Quote:

The database is just one of the many problems, the main problem is that my sites go offline multiple times every day. I provided the screenshots you asked for and you didn't reply at all to those.
2008-05-31 17:06
Hello Jelle,

Thank you for updating the ticket. We can offer to move your account to our newest cluster if you would like that. If yes, kindly advice us by updating this ticket.

Please note your web site may be inaccessible up to 24 hours after the move. Please confirm that you want your account moved. We are looking forward hearing from you :o)


Kind regards,
Steven, Support
Servage Hosting


They moved me to another cluster and the problems never stopped. As of this day the same problems still occur on a daily basis and I had to shut down my websites because of it untill I find a decent host that can not only provide 99.9% update but also good dowlnoad-speeds for custom-content on my game-servers.

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2008-05-25 04:19
Quote:

Ftp.servage.net is still not working, come on now...

And ftp.mydomain.com no longer works in my ftp program ( SmartFTP ).

Strange, because ALL OTHER FTP SERVERS work just fine in SmartFTP.
2008-05-25 04:25
Quote:

Now ftp.mydomain.com is working again. It was just another downtime.
2008-05-25 16:32
Quote:

The FTP problem continues. 4 connection attempts needed before I can connect via FTP.
2008-05-25 17:35 - Sevage finnaly replies with something usefull:
Please try with ftp1.servage.net .

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Does Servage.net give you what you pay for? Yes and no.

Yes, they do provide the space/bandwith and the features they mention on the website.
No, there servers are not fast and the amount of downtimes is unreal.

Please, feel free to buy servage hosting if your hobbies are:
- Fixing websites that got hacked
- Submitting support tickets
- Answering angry people that visit your websites and can't get on it

The issues that I didn't mention are issues that I can personally live with, issues that can show up on every host or issues that were rare but did get fixed pretty fast.

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My Servage rating for 2006 and 2007 is 6/10. But my rating for 2008 is 1/10 because I was forced to shut down my websites because the downtimes never got solved.

This concludes my topic, EVERYTHING you need to know about Servage.net .

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