Web Hosting Service disaster

After OLM went down for 5 days I decided to migrate from my $89 dedicated server to a better hosting service. Fumbling around with my search for a service that would fit my Zen Cart needs I stumbled onto a VPS server hosted by Bluehost suggested by the forums here as being a valid host. I purchased their Ultimate VPS hosting service package for 1 month at $59.

I was assured that I was getting the top of the line total secure package completely populated with the highest up to date security and utilities for ZC. I did not want to hire someone to harden my server like at OLM and I certainly did not know how to do server side performance updates and upgrades.

I have never migrated a Zen Cart before. I knew Cpanel well enough to copy files and upload them to a server using Cpanel File Manager so integration was easy until I got to the SSL. Comodo wanted to do a complete DCV verification after 4 years on a EV SSL with 1 year left on the 5 year cert. It took me 15 days to get my EV SSL up to speed, add the 5 days OLM was down and the day and a half to get the site ready I was looking at major down time.

Bluehost sales lied to me, the monthly Trustwave security check failed 31 high security risks and my CC# vendor First Merchants was going to make me pay for being out secure. Bluehost support tells me that I need to do all the server side configurations and updates on a VPN server. I asked about a solution and I was told to convert to a Wordpress site because they are not really a Zen Cart friendly hosting service.

Horrified, I looked to the top of the ZC forum list at Geekhost hosting service. Being in the US I was Leary of leasing from a company in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada. I called customer service and spoke with Michael Barnes.

He had me up and running by migrating me for free in less than a day complete with cert migration and seamless integration into my new Cpanel home on a $50 Geek Extreme hosting plan that gave me sufficient space and services to fill my needs. My Trustwave re-scan shown I was in complete compliant and I was back in business!

**I rarely suggest vendors unless I can see that my failures can help others avoid the pitfalls. Geekhost saved me from a disaster.
**
Best Regards,
Mark Young; webmaster
www.charm-lite.com

mark.
a few things:

#1, i have no experience with either of these hosts.
#2, glad to hear that geekhost saved you from a disaster! nice recommendation for them.
#3, it sounds like you were sold a wrong package at blue host, which means there was probably a communication error between you and the blue host sales team.

if you have never migrated a ZC site before, and you are using some cpanel tools for migrating files, there is NO way you should be utilizing a VPS server package from any host. getting a VPS means having the ultimate control, as well as the ultimate responsibility for maintaining and updating a server. some hosts will maintain the server for you, but i have seen fees of an extra $100 just for that service.

at geekhost, you are probably on a shared server (with what sounds like excellent customer support for ZC installs); at bluehost you were on a virtual private server which is a completely different animal. sales people at hosting companies are rarely the ones that really know what you need, and i think you needed to figure that out prior to making a purchase decision.

having a VPS does mean updating packages and hardening the server against attacks. and based on what i'm reading in your post, is clearly not for you.

again, glad you got it sorted up.

best.

My main concern is to see that my fellow Zen Cart devotees are not making the same mistake I did.
The support staff at Bluehost even commented that they were Word Press experts and did not know why anyone would want to use Zen Cart when they could use Word Press.

Best Regards.

Be they good or bad, sharing results based on experience is the way to go. Glad to hear you were able to handle the situation and find a Hoster that suited your needs. And hats off to geekhost for doing an excellent job in providing what you needed.