The hard reboot was bad enough but the subsequent media check meant the reboot time would stretch into hours before service was restored. Not exactly the kind of customer experience I was hoping for when I bought the device.

Things were getting so bad that I began researching a replacement device that I could purchase to replace the NetGear ReadyNAS. In the ReadyNAS Pro I have six 1.5 TB drives configured as a RAID 5 enclosure. That gives me 7.5TB of online storage.

I have been diligent in updating the firmware on the device and give it regular cleanings with compressed air so as far as I was concerned I was being diligent in managing the device. Despite my best efforts, the device continued to cause me problems.

After yet another hard re-boot my frustration level had reached new heights. I had about reached the end of my troubleshooting patience when for some reason I decided to change the configuration.

Up to this point I had configured the ReadyNAS Pro with two gigabit Ethernet connections directly to a Cisco switch. I seemed to remember that I added the second Ethernet connection just recently. I wondered if perhaps I had a bad cable.

I removed one gigabit connection and waited. After two weeks I did not have a single drop off by the device. I wondered if perhaps I had a bad cable. I swapped Ethernet cables and again left the device to run.

Another two weeks went by with no issues with the ReadyNAS device. It did not appear that the problem was cable since I had used two different cables. I decided to see if the problem was connecting both Ethernet ports. I plugged both cables into the device and restarted the ReadyNAS.

Within two hours the problem appeared and the device disconnected itself from the network requiring a hard boot. After several hours rebuilding and checking the drives the ReadyNAS was back on line.

This time I am using just a single Ethernet port on the ReadyNAS device. While I might theoretically only be getting half the throughput in this configuration it is a lot more stable and that is better than raw speed any day of the week.

I am able to access my files across my Ethernet network using a variety of clients including Windows XP, Windows Vista, Macintosh OS X, and Linux. It is hard to express how great this system has been.

Where I used to burn DVDs and shuttle USB drives from box to box in order to share data between computers now it is as simple as logging onto the ReadyNAS and accessing the information.

Not only is the information always available but it has given me the added benefit of being able to maintain one copy of the information instead of having multiple versions stored on various computers on the network.

The ReadyNAS has been so bulletproof that it has nearly become invisible. That is the greatest compliment a network device can receive. It works so well that people just forget it is even there. It is as reliable as turning on a light switch.

Of course making that statement I immediately jinxed myself to a life of dealing with problems that cannot be resolved. Such has become the case with the ReadyNAS Pro.

Recently the device downloaded a new version of the firmware and waited patiently for a reboot. The rain storm that blanketed Arizona last week offered the perfect opportunity to reboot. A power outage took down the entire network and I spent the better part of an evening recovering all the devices.

The ReadyNAS booted and went through a diagnostic check due to the power outage. On an array of six 1.5TB of data that can take a long time. When the system finally came up things seemed to be working.

The following day the ReadyNAS suddenly just stopped working. The blue power light on the front of the box was lit but the system was unresponsive. It required removing the power plug from the wall for a minute before the system would reset.

Upon restoring power it went through another system check taking over an hour to come up. Approximately two days later the same situation occurred with the ReadyNAS having to be powered off by removing the cord.

This has since happened six times in a week. My first inclination was the unsettled weather had caused some problems. In order to eliminate that, I bought an Uninterruptible Power System which I will review at a later date.

After installing the UPS the ReadyNAS seemed to be working and I thought the problem was resolved. Today the ReadyNAS again hung requiring yet another unplug and subsequent data check.

I began researching the problem and found I was not the only one having this problem. According to the support forums there are a number of Net Gear users having similar issues. So far the company has not found a solution.

Some are suggesting it is a configuration issue but that seems implausible given the number of people reporting the problem. Others are suggesting RAM but that too does not seem accurate since many of the people reporting this issue including myself have not upgraded or changed the factory memory.

For now I’ll continue to monitor the issue and in the mean time I will need to find a replacement NAS system that is more stable. I cannot afford to use this as a storage device if it continually fails. I’ll keep you posted as this progresses.

Things had gone fairly well since then until Friday June 13th. At that point I was frustrated enough that I had come to the conclusion that I needed to make a change to my hosting company. I began to research the various options at my disposal. At the same time I was maintaining my IX Web Hosting account and the sites hosted there. I figured that I had a little time so that I didn’t make a mistake and rush into something I would regret. Besides, it wasn’t like my sites were down or anything right? Yeah I really should not have made that last statement.
This past weekend I got up and turned on the computer. I was going to post a blog entry here and one on Diary of a Diehard. I opened a browser window and navigated to my web site. Instead of the page I was given an error message claiming that the site was unavailable. Oh great, here we go again I thought. At first I considered maybe this was a local problem. I rebooted my computer, my router, and my cable modem. No such luck, I still could not get to my sites. Maybe this was a DNS problem. I instead entered the IP address to my sites expecting to see the page load. Again I received a network error. I went to the IX Web Hosting site and attempted to log into my control panel. I was again presented the network error page. This was strange. I went to the support center and entered a problem ticket. Like usual several hours later I received a reply stating that the server had some emergency problem and that administrators were working on it. I opened a chat window to talk to a representative to see how long this outage would last. I was told there was a problem with a RAID controller and that there was an ETA of a couple of hours. I was irritated that IX Web Hosting didn’t have on-site spares but a couple more hours wouldn’t kill me.
I waited rather impatiently for the sites to return. After two hours I tried again and got the same error message. I understand that things sometimes happen so I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I promised myself I would double their allotted time before requesting status. Two more hours came and went and my sites were still unavailable. I went back to the chat client and asked for a status update. I was told the server had drive issues as well as RAID and would only boot into safe mode. The new ETA was that it would take 4 hours for service to be restored. This would mean that my sites would be unavailable for 12 hours. I was not happy but there was not much that I could do. I found other computer work to do to kill the time until I could get on and update my sites. I was now sitting on several entries that needed to be posted and data that needed to be updated.
At four hours I checked the sites and they were still unavailable. I decided I would let it go another couple of hours. At that time I checked again and continued to receive the error message. I went back to the chat client for yet another status. The problem ticket I had initially opened had still not been updated so it was clear that system was not getting me anywhere. The technician at this point had no idea how much longer this was going to take and suggested that I wait until morning; great, a whole day of outage without an end in sight. I was seriously ticked off.
The next morning I checked and what a surprise, my sites were still down. I went back to the chat client and again asked for an update. I was told 2-4 hours. Seriously, I was told that again. I explained that I didn’t really trust their estimate and asked if they could please just put my sites on a different server while they continued to troubleshoot. I was told that was not possible. They cannot move me until they get the server fixed. They have no idea why they can’t move me; they just know that can’t happen. So there I sat for another 4 hours waiting for a miracle to happen. The miracle didn’t show up and I was still down. I went back to the chat window again and explained that my sites had now been down a day and a half. There was a canned apology along with an estimate that it would be up in 4 hours. I don’t have to tell you that those hours blew by and my site was still unavailable. I went back to the chat window and demanded that something be done. In this amount of time you could drive from the IX Web Hosting data center to Dell, buy a server, drive it back to the data center, configure it, and get it on the network. There is absolutely no way it should take this amount of time. I was told that the administrators were doing everything they could and that it could be several hours before it was available. I asked for a definition of “several” and was told up to 12. I went to bed last night thinking at the worst case the sites would be restored by 10 AM which was 2.25 days since I found them down. Of course 10 AM came and went and the sites are still not available.
This is beyond ridiculous. When I protested that this downtime went well beyond the 99.9% uptime guarantee I was sent to billing who provided me with a credit of 2 months on my service contract. What good is that going to do me? Why do I need to extend my contract when they can’t even keep a simple server up? Not only that but the promised credit was not posted to my account so I have no idea where this actually went. It is now imperative that I find an alternative for web hosting. The technicians at IX Web Hosting obviously have no clue what they are doing or are not empowered to solve the problems they encounter. The customer service is grossly understaffed and incapable of fixing anything. Further they do not seem to know what the administrators are doing and set false expectations with the customer. What they lack in customer focus they make up for with rudeness. I cannot put into words how bad their service is. If you are a current customer I suggest monitoring your service closely. If you are considering web hosting I suggest you look elsewhere as the aggravation is not worth the cost savings you may receive.