PHPCow Help

Thanks for inputs. Just my comments based on what i have seen:

(1) VDS is absolute waste of money. Hosts always tend to oversell the server capacity if they offer it cheap. I have never been a great admirer of VDS.
(2) For your sort of BW consumption a properly tuned P4 930D/2GBRAM/2X250GB(SW RAID1)/cPanel/WHM should be perfectly fine. I am witness to such servers doing 300-400GB/Mo BW on PHPCow based sites and server doesn't even budge noticeably. A managed server deal would be best and cost you around $280-300/Mo (basemeant deals could work out cheaper but then you would land in same Software Vs HW issues). If 4GB ram becomes unavoidable then xeon3210 with 4GB would be perfect though it could cost you 70$/Mo more.
(3) Dual Xeon (any CPU specs) is an overkill for sure for that sort of BW consumption.

Always keep in mind Server vendors would always blame the software (as they want to sell higher specs/packages, just as you have now).

Sorry if there's anything in the post above that makes you feel uncomfortable.

Cheers

Well, we were using a P4, but it had gotten to the point that it was running way too slow. Our current server costs us $279 a month, including daily and weekly backups......so its fine.

I'd like to see PHPCOW add some ideas and suggestions to their site for server optimization, or maybe something in the "Tips and Tricks" section. all we ever heard from them is that server issues wasn't their fault at all, and we should buy into their hosting....but no suggestions on how to optimize our server.

Maybe thats something we can work on here on the forums. I'd also like to see PHPCOW have a rep here to pitch in ideas and suggestions......and maybe listen to our concerns.

I think thats a great idea. Phpcow has been invited but I am waiting to hear back from their plans.

I guess no admin would never give away any clues on server optimization/tuning/security hardening in true sense as that's their bread and butter. One has to learn it the hard way. More so if PHPCow offers dedicated servers they would never give out any tricks on server related issues.

Any machine running slow could mean DC issue, kernel, disks type so on an so forth. Why would anyone dish out their secrets to competitors?.

Always check for throughputs at http://host-tracker.com

http://host-tracker.com/check_res_ajx/1013483-0/

Shows it real low throughput as far as i can see.

Compare this with
http://host-tracker.com/check_res_ajx/1013489-0/

which does around 70-90GB/Mo BW (again PHPCow based site)

Cheers

I am constantly getting emails from people who have had the same experiences i have with PHPCOW and their support.

Unfortunately, they are outside the US so its hard (but not impossible) to track them down. With them banning us from support and upgrades for sharing our experience (while still recommending their product), we are considering legal action against them. I have more than 2 years of emails, IM chats, and PMs supporting our position....but still we get ignored by them.

Seriously, we're to the point that we are about to stop recommending them, regardless of the features and price. These guys need to understand you can't treat customers like this....and if legal action is the only way to motivate them, then we will go that route.

I'd also like to make mention of the fact they used to have an "office" in Worcester, MA.....but moved it to Houston, TX because of BBB complaints......that office is nothing more than a PO Box at a Mailboxes ETC.... This is really getting to the point of sad, a great program with lots of potential is being ruined by some guys with no sense of integrity or customer service.

Capper it's really sad to hear about your experiences. We had very rare needs to ask for support from them but whenever we contacted we did get a constructive and precise reply/suggestions.

With Open Economy being the order of the day globally, we really never checked where they are physically located.

LOL, I know who you guys are....we've been down this road before......

Look, PHPCOW marketed and sold a program, they should do what they have to do to make customers happy, and ensure that their application runs the best possible, regardless of what hosting company you use. For you to sit here and post that they shouldn't, because its a trade secret, and that they offer hosting is both dishonest and unscrupulous.

Their hosting came along much later, and is I believe run through you guys.....we've had this discussion over at Digital Point Forums.....one has nothing to do with the other, and trying to make it seem otherwise is wrong......what you are basically saying is that they can strongarm you into buying another service from them.....which at this point i will not do.

I'm on these forums to help people who need help, or people who have been wronged by PHPCOW....if they want to play the game, they picked the wrong guy. They could make all this right by reconsidering their support practices, getting their product updated, and unbanning us....if not, I've got a BIG surprise for them.

As to their support.....use Google, its your friend......we ask questions and they either are closed without a response, or they go like this:

PHPCow: Hello. How may I assist you?
Capper: How hard would it be to create a modification or a plugin that makes pagination for pages like this:
Capper: http://hardwarelogic.com/authors/?authorID=2
Capper: or maybe the ability to create blocks on the author pages that separate the articles into groups
PHPCow: easy for master
PHPCow: very hard for beginner
Capper: that doesn't help me
Capper: Hello? Anyone there?

(No response after that)

Capper honestly i am not sure what you are trying to prove or say in you last post? Unfortunately I for one have no control on anything beyond what I think or what I do professionally.

There could be presumptions and assumptions made.

Cheers

Look, I've recommended the program, I think it could be a great product......but there are some issues....I think a lot will be addressed in PHPCOW3..... but there are some issues that should put up some huge red flags......the support is atrocious. If they patch/update the software, and fix their support issues, then There is really nothing out there that can compare.

I've gotten 3 emails just today about problems with their support, and literally hundreds since starting that thread over at Digital Point Forums.......do you think I enjoy this? Hardly.....I'd much rather work with them and get the issues sorted out.....but they think posting anything negative is "abusing " them.

Do you think I'm the only one with problems with them? hardly, several people chimed in at Digital Point Forums, several forums around the web have touched on the issues, and now people are even PMing me here about the issues.

Yeah, I'm sure you aren't HyTC or one of the others from over at Digital Point Forums........couldn't be......although the writing style and "Cheers" and even the tone are the same.

I find it almost comical that a smalll group of PHPCOW people spend so much time going from forum to forum posting this stuff, and arguing with me.......if you guys only put 1/10th as much time into fixing your product, or took the same care with your customer service, you wouldn't have these problems.