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DreamHost is a Los Angeles-based web hosting provider and domain name registrar. It is the web hosting branch of New Dream Network, LLC, founded in April 1996 by Dallas Bethune, Josh Jones, Michael Rodriguez and Sage Weil, undergraduate students at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California.

Web hosting

DreamHost hosts around 700,000 domain names on a network of mainly Debian GNU/Linux-based servers, mostly running as shared-web-hosting servers. Customers have access to a control panel that includes integrated billing and support ticket systems. The majority of hosted domains exist within a shared hosting environment, with a small percentage of customers on dedicated servers. Telephone-based support is available on a limited call-back basis only, but is otherwise unavailable.

Transparency

DreamHost is notable for being unusually transparent about its business practices, with staff contributing to a popular blog. After a large power outage incident in August 2006, a status site dedicated to detailing server maintenance and outages was created.

Billing issue

On January 15, 2008, the billing system was mistakenly used to bill users up to December 2008. Josh Jones had intended to bill any accounts that had failed to be billed in late December 2007 due to an upgrade discrepancy, but he entered "2008" instead of "2007". This resulted in erroneous charges of $2.1 million, out of the $9.6 million in total that was billed. In some cases, users who had automatic billing enabled experienced overdraft charges or other fees on their bank accounts and credit cards. Many accounts were automatically suspended due to an inability to pay the erroneous bill, which led their websites to go down. The comic tone in which Jones announced the error drew criticism and some users canceled their accounts. As DreamHost tried to undo the billing, some accounts that were not billed received refunds while some other accounts that were billed did not receive them.

References

1. "Top Web Hosts Worldwide". WebHosting.Info. Retrieved 2008-05-19.
2. DreamHost's feature glossary
3. Web-based account administration
4. Honesty, transparency can offset customer service disasters
5. Netcraft site report showing site ranking of DreamHost's blog
6. LA Hosting Providers Slowed by Power Problems
7. Anatomy of an ongoing disaster
8. DreamHost Status Blog
9. ^ Matthew Sparkes (2008-01-17). "Typo causes $7,500,000 mistake". PC Pro. Retrieved 2008-01-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
10. ^ Josh Jones (2008-01-17). "The Final Update". DreamHost. Retrieved 2008-01-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
11. Austin Modine (2008-01-15). "Dreamhost billing cock-up shocks customer bank accounts". The Register. Retrieved 2008-01-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
12. Linda Rosencrance (2008-01-16). "Web hosting provider uses Homer Simpson to notify livid customers of $7.6M overcharge". Computerworld. Retrieved 2008-01-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
13. Juan Carlos Perez (2008-01-15). "Update: Billing nightmare for DreamHost customers". InfoWorld. Retrieved 2008-01-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

• Official website
  • DreamHost Blog, official news
  • DreamHost Discussion Forum for customers
  • DreamHost Status, alerts on system status
  • Wiki.Dreamhost.com, the Community DreamHost Documentation Project

• Employee-owned companies
• Web hosting