An extremely slow page, and a question about the contacts page

[vantrepes]

First off, thanks in advance for any help I receive.
Now, on to the story:
I had Zen cart running on my site just fine for the last 5 months, and all of the sudden, it tanked.
The entry page loads just fine, but after that, it's pathetically slow.
Now, I know it could be a server problem, but how do I check it? I used Pingdoms site checked, and it timed out on the first Zen cart page.
When I ping the site, it seems OK, but beyond that, I am a paintball tech, not a computer tech. If it doesn't use air pressure, or pneumatic principles, I'm a neophyte.

So far, I have used .htaccess to ban an IP from Outback Steak House that had 8 open windows (they shouldn't have been surfing at work anyway if they were a legit customer) under the assumption that it was a script kiddie. No change.
I have turned Gzip on. Again, no change, so I turned it back off. I figure if "off" is the default, it's most likely that way for a reason.
I tried to optimize the database, but I received the following:

500 Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@moodypaintball.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

After that, I'm out of ideas.



The other question deals with the IQ of paintball players in general, and their inability to understand how to use E-mail. On the default contacts page, there is a simple little form to send e-mails. Now, I wanted that form to be used for website issues only, and the pages states that clearly. Unfortunately, while paint ballers may be able to type, they can't seem to decipher that page well enough to use the correct e-mail account for their inquiry.
Now that I have ranted enough, the question is: How can I remove the form, while still keeping the contacts page location?

[kobra]

You might pass this to your host to correct

ERROR: moodypaintball.com has no CNAME entry, but your DNS servers also report that the entire domain moodypaintball.com doesn't exist! This can cause many problems, as DNS servers may cache this 'negative response', preventing people from getting any DNS responses on this domain.

[vantrepes]

Now that's a kick in the head, isn't it?
Anyone have a suggestion for a new host? I haven't been real thrilled with Gate.com for a while now.

[Gamer]

Find someone local.. That way you can walk in to their office if there is an issue.

Its a database issue. Your pictures load up fine. Load a backup if you have one.

[vantrepes]

I did load a back up, the problem isn't the database it's self, it's the server the database is on. Thankfully, Gate, in their infinite skill and dedication to service, had no clue when they will be able to fix it.
I am currently switching the entire site over to another host who actually responds to tech support tickets, and gets things done in a day, as opposed to over two weeks.

[stevesh]

Good for you.

Drives me nuts when people insist on staying with hosts who don't do the job for them. (That's right, GoDaddy, I'm looking right at you.)

If more people would do as you did and switch to a better host, the bad ones will go out of business.

[vantrepes]

Well, I can see why a lot of people don't switch. It scared the hell out of me to try and bulldoze my way through the Zen cart setup again.

I am not much of a computer tech, let alone a programmer, so finding and fixing all the little things that I didn't like in Zen cart was less an act of finesse, and more an act of "Nope, that wasn't it. Neither was that. Not that one. Nope. No, not it. OK, there we go." It wasn't fast, but it worked. The problem was it took a lot of time, which when I first set it up was fine.
Now that the cart was running, and running well, I was a little leery of messing with it.

You have to understand, the only host I have used the tech support on was Gate, so I kind of figured they were all the same, and about as helpful as a box of rocks, so I thought I would have to hammer out the problems on my own, and it didn't look like it would be fun.

Then after the third "Yea, it's our problem, but we don't know when we will fix it" response, I snapped, and started up the bulldozer.

After a little digging, and an honest suggestion from a board member, I picked Pimahost. They cost a hair more than Gate, but after the switch over, I'd be willing to pay double what they ask.

Their tech support got back to me in less than 24 hours with each and every little thing I ran into (and everyone of them was caused by my own ignorance of protocols and such). When I asked them to set up a dedicated IP address, he responded "They are getting scarce, so it might take a little time", and I figured it would be ready in a day, maybe two, a week on the outside. Less than 2 hours and it was done. I was shocked.
I guess his idea of "a little time" and my idea of a little time (thanks to Gate's service) are rather different.

I think a lot of people were in my shoes. They get crappy service, and they hate it, but they don't realize that there are companies that provide damn good service, so they don't switch. It's the "the devil I know" syndrome.

I'm not saying that Pimahost is the greatest thing since sliced bread (but they are pretty high on my hero list right now), but I am saying that if you have a host that sucks, belly up, and leave. It took me less time to switch to a good host with good service than it did for me to harass Gate into responding to my e-mails let alone actually helping me with anything.

In short, if you get crappy service, tell them where to stick it, and MOVE.

[DrByte]

For additional reference, there is a "hosting" link at the top of this page which mentions a few hosts who are Zen Cart friendly.