If you’ve experienced slow response times from my blog (“Moving at the Speed of Creativity”) in the past year I want to apologize, and also shed a bit of light on the source of these problems. My current website host, POWWEB, has been having speed and connection issues with mySQL applications like WordPress (which I’m running) for many months. The official POWWEB blog post from October 15, 2007, “MySQL, YourSQL, OurSQL” sheds some light on these issues, as does the more recent post “The State of MySQL Address” from November 5th. Since it is a significant challenge / bummer (at least in my estimation) to completely move my websites and content to a new server and provider, I have been patient as POWWEB has gone through some transition times recently. I’m still being patient, but there are limits to my patience as well as that of others, so I am going to be monitoring this situation closely in the months ahead.
The bottom line is this: POWWEB has been having LOTS of complaints from customers (not just me) about slow mySQL connections in the past six months. Just this morning, for several minutes my WordPress blog was unable to make any connection to the mySQL server, rendering it inaccessible by everyone, not just me. This situation is unacceptable if it persists. If these speed issues do not improve and the problems go away in the next two months, I’m going to switch over to a new web host like Bluehost. I want to be patient and understanding, but I think it’s reasonable for patience to have limits and boundaries. Hopefully the POWWEB folks will resolve these issues and make mySQL connections for my blog (and other “PHP based applications with a MySQL backends” fast and speedy as they should be.
I will share kudos with the POWWEB staff for openly writing and sharing about these issues on their corporate blog. No one likes to share bad news, but when there IS bad news as a customer I certainly appreciate a company that is open and forthright about the situation as well as the steps they are taking to remedy problems. I think this type of transparency is a business best-practice in our read/write culture.
Comments
3 responses to “My blog’s slow response times and POWWEB mySQL issues”
FWIW…
I ran into the same issue a few years ago with a different webhosting provider. I made the switch over to SiteGround and have been an extremely happy camper ever since…going on about 3 years with them. I’ve also heard great things about BlueHost along the way.
Allow me to echo Siteground recommendation. They’re great, Wes!
Miguel
I am having problems with my site on Powweb also. I found your entry by doing a search to see if anyone else was having these Powweb MySQL issues and it seems as if a lot of people are. I’m on the verge of demanding my money back and going else. It’s really ridiculous.