WillWybrow.com

I was traversing the internet (more specifically, the parts of it that I write) when I came across a little article I wrote in January 2007 about my previous webhost, a company called 4sitesnetwork. You can Google them if you want, I am not going to link them.

One of the article’s reader comments says that the article in question “comes high up on a Google search for 4sites,” so I decided to look into that. And, what do you know, here we have the evidence:

Lo and behold, there she is, second in the list.

So if anyone wants to look for some impartial reviews of 4sitesnetwork (instead of the incredibly biased customer testimonials), they might search the internet for them, and come across that exceedingly well-written yet uninformative rant. But I don’t want a senseless rant to be my public stance on this particular hosting company. It’s not very helpful, for one, and doesn’t reflect the genuine problems that I could detail.

Mainly, however, I figure that if a post of mine hosted on a free blog can get so far up the Google search page for keywords that apply much more to pages made by the actual company, particularly when it isn’t actually a review, I figure this post can get even higher.

Alex Robinson - a Review of 4sites

4sitesnetwork will offer what initially seems like a reasonable deal for webhosting. UK based (to save those nasty conversions come checkout time) and quite cheap, you think you’re getting everything. Until you realise that the “company” is actually just some Welsh guy running things from his mother’s house.

But you can’t say that on your 4sites hosted website. You can’t say anything critical about the company or its employees at all. You know why? Because 4sites hate freedom of speech. Even if you make a good point about the quality of the host in reference to downtime, and have evidence to back up the validity of your claim, you will still get shut down as quickly as Alex Robinson can manage.

Other than being the totalitarian dictators of budget UK webhosting, the trouble I got into with slandering Alex Robinson all kicked off (both times) with my site experiencing unpredetermined and unexpected downtime. My website was offline for a considerable amount of time when I posted my angry comments. 4sites’ own unreliability forced me to make critical comments, which then forced (sort of) Alex Robinson to ban my site and delete all my original work. About 95% of it has been salvaged from archives, but it’s messy and somewhat haunting.

Anyway, to sum up, find a different web host. Honestly. The unreliability and arbitrary censorship isn’t worth the discount they offer in comparison with alternative companies.

A lot of people are leaving comments asking for any 4sites contact details I might have. The best I can do for you all is this list of probably outdated contact details:

• An old phone number I pulled from his website at the time he was hosting me: +44 870 446 7483
• The number on his website now: +441492 81 81 81
• A number that he contacted me on a few times: +441492 621 101
• A possible personal e-mail address that I was sent by a fellow sufferer of 4sites’s terrible hosting: alex@alexrobinson.me.uk
• And finally, a postal address that may be useful:
  4sites Limited
  3 Norton Villas
  Conwy
  LL34 6HU
  UK

4sites’ registered company number is 5683624 that you can enter into the government companies checking service, here. It confirms the postal address and there are two more PO Box addresses on the most recent web.archive.org copy of his page that might be useful.

Do please continue to leave comments! Between us we can help each other out, and if there are valid contact details to reach Alex Robinson, please let me know so I can update my page.

Update

MORE TAG

OWNED, BITCH

Welcome, friends and enemies alike. What you’re seeing is the first ToolChronicles post after what we shall refer to as the “Alex Robinson Incident,” which I will write up in an objective way some time in the future, for all of you to enjoy. At any rate, most of you probably heard that the problem was with my host. Well, now I have a shiny new host to put up my website from now on. They’re more suited to my needs, so let’s see how this pans out.

For now, let me promise that there will be no stopping the updates. This close shave with obliteration has given me lots to think about. But the future is secure, believe me, and you won’t be deprived for long.

Welcome back. It seems I’m always saying this… but hopefully this time we can delay it indefinitely.

Peace out. Love, Chronicler.