Web companies and Downtime

attagirl · #1 08-02-2007, 08:41 PM

I always understand that things need to be changed on websites and taking the site down to do is the quickest way of doing it, but I have never understood why some companies are down for hours on end every night.

Any clues?

scorpiox · #2 08-03-2007, 03:54 PM

Well, it depends, surely the best idea would be to keep the site up and then update it when the editing is done. As you said some companies do go down a lot. Some sites it's just there server uptime.

attagirl · #3 08-03-2007, 06:38 PM

Yeah, some of those companies do it way too much. I think that it is on purpose and not for any purpose in many cases.

scorpiox · #4 08-03-2007, 06:53 PM

Yea.. but if they are going down a lot its server uptime most likely. If its just once every month or w/e then updating the site etc.

JenniP · #5 08-03-2007, 07:48 PM

Bad Web Masters, unqualified people hacking about with stuff they dont understand, bad web hosting company etc etc

Take your pick really.

Yes sometimes things do go wrong and you will be down for hours, but generically there isnt much excuse. The product I maintain goes down for maintanence for around 2-3 hours once every 3 months or so.

Jen

scorpiox · #6 08-03-2007, 08:16 PM

Taking a site down is NOT the fastest way to repair something, unless there is a problem with existing content and it needs to be resolved.
If its static, you just reupload (10mins work, ish)
If its dynamic, then you just edit it on the fly. Taking a site down is techspeak for "We F**ked up somewhere, bear with us while the boss grills our As*es."

There you have it :P

Smash · #7 08-03-2007, 09:38 PM

Also hosting re-sellers. People buy the accounts and sel the hosting and all you see is the fancy website.

Little do you know that it's one guy sat in his bedroom, and when you need some support, if they don't know, you might as well just ask for help on a hosting forum, as that's what they'll be doing.

scorpiox · #8 08-04-2007, 06:38 PM

Yep, that sounds right. Hosting resellers are a big pain, because they are never reliable. I should know, i have used some :P

James · #9 08-20-2007, 12:44 PM

Is there anywhere that publishes average downtime figures?

I suppose I am a bit of a sucker for comparison charts and league tables, but this seems to me to be an effective way of keeping this to a minimum.

attagirl · #10 09-05-2007, 03:01 PM

Originally Posted by scorpiox

Taking a site down is NOT the fastest way to repair something, unless there is a problem with existing content and it needs to be resolved.
If its static, you just reupload (10mins work, ish)
If its dynamic, then you just edit it on the fly. Taking a site down is techspeak for "We F**ked up somewhere, bear with us while the boss grills our As*es."

There you have it :P

Yep, I think you nailed that one right on the head.

I think Jen is right in saying that unexperienced web masters could be the issue as well. I have found that many people think they know what they are doing but really do not know. Take for instance the people who just come out of school and have no real experience. They might run into problems that they cannot handle and do not ask for help until it is too late.

I also have to agree with the hosting reseller stuff mentioned above.