Different plans no longer available

Just a note to those who are interested. DreamHost now eschews different plans in favor of a one size fits all approach, with certain "premium" features available at an extra cost.

-- si-blog --

Yeah, I just saw that myself ... considering how many times my account has now "changed" from the initial "Code Warrior" plan in 1998, trying to figure out whether or not to "convert" makes my brain hurt. frown

My current billing is somewhere between the "last discounted Code Monster plan" and the "original Code Warrior Plan", but the feature set is kinda a mix of the old and the new. LIke I said, my brain hurts trying to sort it! smile

--rlparker

Thanks for the info.

First thing I did is to log into panel to check my server space. It is the same as before. frown

It does not matter because I never use more than 1GB server space.

In reply to:
First thing I did is to log into panel to check my server space. It is the same as before.

That's because you're grandfathered into one of the old plans. Remember that you can change your plan to one of the new ones at any time with no additional fee (unless you're within the 97 day money back guarantee period AND you're on a monthly plan, in which case you'll have to pay the setup fee).

You'll get full credit for the unused portion of your prepaid fees.

If you're on a one year prepaid Level 1 plan, I think it's a no-brainer to change to one of the new plans since the cost is the same and you get the new increased quotas.

If you're on a two year prepaid Level 1 plan, you've got a little thinking to do because the new 2-year prepaid plans are $1 more per month (but you do get the extra disk and bandwidth). You have to go to a 3-year prepaid plan to get the same price.

If you're on a Level 3 plan for the extra disk and/or bandwidth, again I think it's a no-brainer to switch to the new plans.

If you're on a Level 3 plan for the callbacks, it depends on how much you want to prepay:
monthly: old plan is $1 cheaper
1 year: new plan is $1 cheaper, you get extra disk and bandwidth
2 year: new plan is $3 cheaper, you get extra disk and bandwidth

After reading that explanation... I think I will not be renewing my account here. I've purchased two dedicated servers, haggled with the sales reps, and it all made a lot more sense than what DreamHost is doing with their pricing schemes.

All the new gigabytes of storage and terabytes of bandwidth are irrelevant when you can't possibly use them all on anything less than a dedicated server anyways. I've been a customer for a couple years... lurked in the forums most of that time... and never been particularly impressed with the speed of the hosting. Oh yes, I have 10TB of bandwidth (since I'm a current customer), but no way in the world for all of it to possibly be used! The connection would likely choke if someone was using their full allotment of 10TB.

Instead of wasting time coming up with new irrelevant numbers, DreamHost could be improving the quality of the service... while sticking to the large, irrelevant numbers they already have.

In reply to:
Instead of wasting time coming up with new irrelevant numbers, DreamHost could be improving the quality of the service... while sticking to the large, irrelevant numbers they already have.

The miracle of overselling (really overmarketing) is that these large, irrelevant numbers are... as you've surmised... irrelevant.

They cost nothing and are probably just the product of the marketing department.

FWIW, I think DreamHost has been hard at work improving their quality of service. I for one took advantage of the PS service, which pretty much immunized me from "shared hosting bad neighbors". Which, as you can see from the popcorn server thread in the General Troubleshooting forum, *is* a problem here as it is at all shared web hosts.

I have to admit that I don't really understand your reasoning. How does a marketing revamp at the low and middle end affect you as a dedicated server customer?

I am for like 10 months a client of DreamHost.

I am pretty happy with the service, uptime, storage, support.

I am not happy with the speeds.

My upload speed via FTP is around 30 kB/sec on a quite high-speed internet connection. My download speed is a bit better, but still quite low...

No chance to use those gigabytes...

I have also quite slow ping and trace to DreamHost server where my site is hosted. And what's interesting, all is FAST till the last point, like, 40 ms or so. When the ping reaches DreamHost, it becomes something like 200 ms...

Anyone with more experience, so we can compare?... :-)

Cheers:)

It's too bad you are having speed issues, though that is pretty far "off topic" in this thread. You probably would have gotten more response in a separate thread. wink

There are lot's of things that can impact your upload/download speed via ftp, and in most instances it is more likely to be something other than the server itself. It quite often has to do with your ISP and their routing and/or their available throughput.

I have no such problems with my DreamHost connections. Have you contacted DH support about this and asked them to check things on their end? Also, have you tried using passive mode in your ftp client?

The *first* place I would suggest you look is at a full traceroute output; it could be that hose "last hops" involve an overseas link, or some other potentially problematic routing for you ISP.

If you want to post a full traceroute here, I'm sure several users would be happy to look at it for you.

--rlparker

I am so far away from DH servers, that I guess I should be happy even with 30-35 kB/UP :-D

OK, I tried passive, active... No big difference, UP speed is around 25-35 kB/sec anyway... Maybe it's connected to my ISP, it's possible, although I've tested with at least two (from work, from home...).

I don't mind copy-paste here a tracert to one of my blogs hosted at DH (will this help?):

Tracing route to optimiced.com [208.97.170.179]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 2 ms 1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.254
2 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms ip-183-1.powernet.bg [91.148.183.1]
3 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms border1.powernet.bg [193.24.240.129]
4 3 ms 2 ms 2 ms GSR-2.evro.net [80.72.65.70]
5 3 ms 2 ms 3 ms Ge2.border6.evro.net [80.72.64.225]
6 43 ms 38 ms 39 ms 01758-001-01-gw.ip.tiscali.net [213.200.86.250]
7 53 ms 43 ms 39 ms ae1-221.fra40.ip.tiscali.net [213.200.86.249]
8 38 ms 43 ms 38 ms xe-0-0-0.fra20.ip.tiscali.net [89.149.186.65]
9 40 ms 45 ms 44 ms so0-0-0-622M.ar2.FRA3.gblx.net [213.200.65.150]
10 191 ms 194 ms 190 ms 64.209.105.26
11 195 ms 190 ms 195 ms apache2-kant.manchester.dreamhost.com [208.97.170.179]

In reply to:
And the interesting things here is that speeds are around 40 ms, ntil reaching the server at DH, when they become around 200 ms... Hmmmm...

That's the overseas segment.

What's actually interesting about that is that all the routing internal to the trunk connection between Frankfort, Germany and the Global Crossing interconnect in Los Angeles that (presumably) DreamHost uses. BTW, the 64.209.105.26 address is the address of the Global Crossing interconnect that I mentioned.

Does anyone know what happens to everything you've accumulated if you downgrade to the new plan?

digitalrundown.com

If we "upgrade" to this new one size fits all plan, do we keep any promo code benefits we have? Example: We have a code monster sale plan prepaid for one year with 6 extra free domains, would get to keep those free domain benefits if we upgraded?

Edited by Dragonmaster384 on 09/25/07 11:34 AM (server time).

If you've prepaid into to one year or two year plan, the remainder of your "unused" time is prorated into the prepayment on your new plan.

Promo code benefits are preserved into new plans. The only one where I'm not exactly sure how it works is the extra disk and bandwidth promo code options. Maybe someone with direct experience can tell us whether those got doubled when they upgraded or whether the doubling applied to the extra disk and bandwidth we get every month?

Well, it looks to me like the trip across the pond (via Global Crossing) is what's slowing you down:

64.209.105.26 resolves to 64.209.105.26

IP Whois Results:

Connecting to whois.arin.net...

OrgName: Global Crossing
OrgID: GBLX
Address: 14605 South 50th Street
City: Phoenix
StateProv: AZ
PostalCode: 85044-6471
Country: US

ReferralServer: rwhois://rwhois.gblx.net:4321

NetRange: 64.208.0.0 - 64.209.127.255
CIDR: 64.208.0.0/16, 64.209.0.0/17
NetName: GBLX-11A
NetHandle: NET-64-208-0-0-1
Parent: NET-64-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: NAME.ROC.GBLX.NET
NameServer: NAME.PHX.GBLX.NET
NameServer: NAME.SNV.GBLX.NET
NameServer: NAME.JFK1.GBLX.NET
Comment: THESE ADDRESSES ARE NON-PORTABLE
RegDate: 2000-03-15
Updated: 2007-08-29

I'm not too sure what you can really do about it; things get slow before you get to DreamHost's servers.

--rlparker

In reply to:
Well, it looks to me like the trip across the pond (via Global Crossing) is what's slowing you down:

200ms from Slovakia to Los Angeles really isn't too shabby.

I wonder if there's an RWIN optimization for this or if it's purely a bandwidth limitation? The trunk pipes are all symmetric (I think) so I'm not sure what would lead to different bandwidth on upload and download on the trunks or at your ISP's peer.

lelion, you haven't mentioned what your observed bandwidth is with local servers either in Slovakia or Germany.

BTW, we are way off topic here.

You are correct; I said that wrong! frown You had it "right" in your earlier response which, somehow, I missed. It really sucks getting old(er)!

--rlparker

Hey no way! Your response was much more detailed and informative!

I'm curious to know where all this leaves me, a shared hosting user for three years now, who is paying $19.95 for what the new shared hosting plans get for $9.95? (Not to mention the fact that that includes my 3 years worth of additional bw and diskspace.)

I still have 4-5 months left on the latest year I've paid for. Am I to understand that I should just change my plan?

Yes. Just go to Billing->Manage-Account->Edit, select the payment option and click "change my plan now". You'll immediately have the increased disk space plus what has been added since the sign-up. I updated my account and now have 540gb space. The pre-payment you already did will be deducted from the next payment.

Jan

I've heard from support that all current plans will be updated with the new limits, so there's apparently no need to redo your plan unless you want to.

Yes, it says so in the blog post

Jan

Wahoo, it rocks!

I just thought I missed the big offer again. Now I need to think how to use up the space and bandwidth tongue

"If you're on a one year prepaid Level 1 plan, I think it's a no-brainer to change to one of the new plans since the cost is the same and you get the new increased quotas."

But what you forgot to say is that it will extend your term by 1 year. So, it does end up costing you to change. I learned this out the hard way. When I contacted support about it, they said they would revert my plan back to crazy. They then proceeded to delete my account without informing me, which meant that all email that was sent to me today is lost forever. Great job dreamhost (/sarcasm)

It really makes me rethink whether I should stay with dreamhost if such drastic changes are made without any notification...

In reply to:
But what you forgot to say is that it will extend your term by 1 year. So, it does end up costing you to change. I learned this out the hard way.

I apologize for the oversight. I have to admit that I thought it was obvious from my statement that "You'll get full credit for the unused portion of your prepaid fees." I suspect that my statement that "you can change your plan to one of the new ones at any time with no additional fee" might have been a bit misleading. I really should have said "you can change your plan to one of the new ones at any time with no additional fee other than the fees associated with your new plan"

Just to be clear about how I understand plan changes to work: You do have to actually prepay your plan to the term of the prepayment you select, but you get full credit for any unused portion of your previous prepayment plan. So if you're three months in on a one year prepayment, even though you have to start a new one year contract from the time you sign up, you only have to pay an extra three months since you have nine months "left over" in prepayments from your previous plan.

In reply to:
When I contacted support about it, they said they would revert my plan back to crazy. They then proceeded to delete my account without informing me, which meant that all email that was sent to me today is lost forever. Great job dreamhost (/sarcasm)

Oh man, that was a real screwup. :(

In reply to:
It really makes me rethink whether I should stay with dreamhost if such drastic changes are made without any notification...

It does. One just has to assess whether such mistakes are the exception or the rule.

BTW, don't forget that in breaking news, someone else heard from support that the disk and bandwidth on old plans will be doubled at some point. That info does change the analysis some, but cashflow and commitment timing aside, it's still seems to me to your advantage to change to the new plan if you're currently on a one year L1 plan.

Different plans no longer available