OnSmart hosting gone bust !

[12noon]

It looks like OnSmart have gone bust... Here's what happened to me ...

About a month a ago my domain name needed paying for, for another year. I paid via PayPal and thought everything was ok. About two weeks ago i noticed that email wasn't working on my domain and thought i would let OnSmart know about it. OnSmart didn't respond though.

Anyway i thought i would do a quick google search to find out if other people were having problems with OnSmart and read something about them abandoning the server.

Panic set in and i found a new web hosting company to use for my website, but i needed to move my domain name over. The problem was that the OnSmart hosting was breaking down. I could access my Cpanel and billing system, but couldn't do much with them when logged in.

I found out that eNom could get access to my domain name, but i had a register lock on my domain name and needed to unlock it. I would have to set up an account with eNom and give them my credit card details. I would have to pay eNom $29.95 (i've already paid OnSmart) to give me another years use of my name, plus give me access to be able to move it to my new web hosting.

What a mess !
OnSmart have gone bust. eNom are charging to sort the mess out and making money out of other peoples misfortune and i have had to pay for new web hosting that i've already paid for once with OnSmart and another $29.95 for the domain name when i've only just paid $15 to onsmart.

[Andy]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. At least it looks like you can get the domain name back under your control. The "abandoning the server" line sounds a bit fishy to me. I would try and find out if a larger company is behind the server system and can be contacted.

One good reason to keep your domain name and hosting separate where the domain is kept on a specialist domain name marketing site such as namecheap or godaddy. yes they do hosting as well, but I feel that their core business is domain names.

[SensoVision]

Graham, I'm sorry to hear about this. Hope you'll be able to retrieve domain through Enom, too bad that you already paid and have to pay once again.

One good reason to keep your domain name and hosting separate where the domain is kept on a specialist domain name marketing site such as namecheap or godaddy. yes they do hosting as well, but I feel that their core business is domain names.

yeah I've try to follow this rule short after beginning when got problems with my first hosting, and was lucky to transfer domain before company gone out of business. From those times I've keep domains on separate registrars, I was going to move them to one place this year to save on cost and time but now think that's it's better to leave things as they are, just to make sure that you'll not loose everything at one moment.

Graham, let me know if I can help you somehow.

[12noon]

I'm just about sorted now. I had to pay eNom to get control of my domain name. I then changed the DNS settings and moved the domain to my new web hosting company. All i need to do now is sort out my website and sort my email.
 
Still not sure what happened with OnSmart. I think they might have gone bust and couldn't be bothered to tell anyone or maintain the server. They must have still had time left on the server ownership, but thought whats the point and just left it to breakdown and moved on to find other jobs or start afresh somewhere else.

BTW i think eNom must have shut down everything to do with OnSmart by now. Either that or the server finally broke all together.

Oh, one thing i was bothered about was the fact that they had my credit card details for billing. I'll have to keep an eye out on my bank account now.

[SensoVision]

I'm just about sorted now. I had to pay eNom to get control of my domain name. I then changed the DNS settings and moved the domain to my new web hosting company. All i need to do now is sort out my website and sort my email.

glad it's sorted now, hope to see your site again soon!

Still not sure what happened with OnSmart. I think they might have gone bust and couldn't be bothered to tell anyone or maintain the server.

I think if they officially told about quiting business they could get a lot of calls and e-mails...

Oh, one thing i was bothered about was the fact that they had my credit card details for billing. I'll have to keep an eye out on my bank account now.

doesn't sounds like a fun, they had a merchant account to bill credit cards or some company like 2checkout?

[Andy]

I think it is illegal for merchants to not properly safeguard credit card and personal details. I would expect that the company's merchant bank would retain the CC numbers on it's servers rather than the web host.

If you paid via a service such as World Pay it would go to a merchant bank. Unless the host was manually processing the CC orders, it's unlikely to be an issue I think. But seek professional advice if you are concerned and alert your credit card provider so they can flag your account for special scrutiny.

[mariancarpan]

I had this kind of problem 2 years ago when I tried to buy a hosting plan and I paid with my card. I did not get the host but instead my card was hacked. So I contacted the bank and in the end the problem was solved so please be careful!