Email, Subdomains and Webmail

I joined about 2 days ago now, and I've had an a support ticket online for 14 1/2 hours - is that normal for a support call by the way?

I'm trying to get subdomains to behave they way they did on my previous host and also to get access to my email either through POP3 which isn't working and now the webmail has stopped working too - and not just at the downtime we've been told about, some 10 hours ago.

Anyone see anything I'm doing wrong? Here's the ticket:

Hi there. I've just joined up and my nameserver changes look like they are about complete. However, I'm having a couple of problems that might be related and I just want to check.

Subdomains - Although the main domains are working, the subs I've setup aren't. With my previous host (Webfusion) I would add a subdomain called weblog.brunton.org.uk and point that to www.brunton.org.uk/weblog, or photos.brunton.org.uk and point that to www.brunton.org.uk/photos. This would allow me to continually use the subdomain name even with subdirectories added, e.g. weblog.brunton.org.uk/pages/
vote-history.html (not currently live) would point to www.brunton.org.uk/weblog/pages/vote-history.html.

Unfortunately I can't seem to get these to work. Trying the redirect option changes the url to the full path and doesn't stick with the <subdomain>.brunton.org.uk. Choosing the framed option is giving an error (error id: "bad_httpd_conf") which can be seen on the photos subdomain url, however the full url displays the index correctly.

Any ideas? Am I choosing the wrong option for the subdomain in order for them to behave as before, or has the nameserver propogation just not completed yet?

Update:
I just deleted the old ticket and resubmitted. I've realised that with Webfusion I was probably adding a new DNS entry rather than any type of forwarding. Having just looked at the Knowledge Base I've realised I can't access the DNS entries from my account and I'd have to upgrade. I only use three entries and wondered if there was a way to get these added without having to pay an extra $8 a month to upgrade
the plan.


The second problem is I can see my email on the webmail client, but I can't download it with Outlook.

The server names and login details are all correct.

Error: Your e-mail server rejected your login...The server responded:
'?#RR invalid password or already logged in, bye'

Both Servers are set to authenticate using the provided username and password, I've checked and reset the password and read through the help. I just can't see what I'm doing wrong. Is this also because the nameserver propogation hasn't completed yet?

Thanks very much.

Last week I had a couple of 18-20 hour waits for replies from support when the open tickets were in the mid 400s.

Your subdomain problem is probably from making changes to the settings before your previous change was actually fully activate. Things like mailbox creation and domain/subdomain changes tend to take several hours to be fully working.

This thread touches on several of the things you mention.

Cheers Manic, it does touch on a number of things, but none seem entirely relevant.

For the subdomains, the directories exist and the behaviour is not of subdomains on the previous host, and not as I expected either.

Webmail or email not working is not down to a few hours wait as they were setup on Sunday.

You can also set up subdomains as fully hosted, in which case they behave just like separate domains, with their own separate directory space not within another domain's directory.

-- Dan

Thanks guys. I've just added a support call to cancel my account and I'm moving elsewhere.

18 1/2 hours is too long for a support call, especially for a new customer.

Sorry you're unhappy and leaving.

Dreamhost is pretty upfront that they work on replying within 24 hours. 18 1/2 isn't that bad.

If it's an urgent (ex: site outage) matter, they're usually lightning fast.

saying there are 100 000 users in dreamhost, I assume 18 hour wait is very good.. it takes 48 hours at least for DNS moving.
So if your sad ur not getting supported, then ouch! For a simple manner of setting up subdomains which takes 1 min to do so

I didn't see anywhere anything that told me there was a 24 hour wait for support before, during or after signup.

As a customer I only require the service I purchased, 24 hours support is not acceptable for web and email support (this is the final time it took for a response). I can't imagine that anyone who is running a website or relying on their email can wait this amount of time.

The subdomains were setup but were not operating correctly and the email was being received but would not download from the servers, webmail access was extremely intermittent, and this was a period of over 48 hours from the nameserver move. So it's a bit more than you've assumed.

> Dreamhost is pretty upfront that they work on replying within 24 hours.

Sure. But the real problem is that they often fail to deliver.

> So it's a bit more than you've assumed.

Your "bad_httpd_conf" problem has been bringing down DH user sites frequently over the last year. I for one am pretty tired DH Support's brush-off ("it is a temporary problem that fixes itself in a few hours") and disappointed that there is absolutely no sign of DH doing anything to fix the cause.

i have the subdomain problem too... i wait 5 days and nothing
i want to know if this problem will be solved or not or i must do the same thing and buy another domain from other place.

Edited by pc_cos on 07/22/05 01:44 PM (server time).

I think richb described several different problems in his initial post. Are you seeing all the same symptoms? for both email and web?

If you are having the 'bad_http_config' problem, Jeff recently provided the following useful information:

"... bad_httpd_conf errors in general mean that something interfered with the generation of your site's entry in our Apache web server configuration file. You can sometimes work around this yourself by editing your domain from the web panel, 'submitting' it (even with no changes), and waiting a bit. This forces it to be re-generated, which may work. Obviously the error shouldn't happen in the first place, but if you want to get the site up ASAP this can sometimes help."

My recommendation would be to submit a site outage support request (have you done that yet?) , and try Jeff's suggestion. If it works, you can always withdraw the support request.