This is a classic case of how a good thing can go bad if not handled carefully.

During signup we had requested our hostname to be "something.com" but received our server with a different hostname. this was in May 2004 and was pointed out to support and a ticket was created. The ticket was closed without resolving the issue and we had to be content with what was given.

Now we requested to have our reverse DNS setup done which requires just a PTR entry.

This was done, but for some reason the emails to hotmail were not being sent, so we were ADVISED by the tech staff to have "xyz.something.com" as a reverse lookup to resolve the issue. We agreed, but this is where the problem started???

Alfter the change everything that was working went horribly wrong.

1. The qmail queue reached 47000 (it had never crossed 1000)
2. CGI scripts have now stopped working
3. Postgresql refuses to restart.

We have tried rebooting but nothing helps.

and its been more than 20 hours sine the problem has been notified to support but we are still awaiting proper support for the mess created.... created when just setting up a simple "HOSTNAME" Entry for our server.

We are losing clients and our credibility in the market.

We hope someone up there helps us.

Just letting the Fuse off here.

Hostname should be full qualifying hostname and instead of just domain name, it should be something like hostname.domain.com instead of just domain.com . Depending on your operating system, you shoul be able to change it yourself.

The reverse DNS/PTR should match that of the full qualifying hostname. It looks like it does not match that of your server and probably that explains the issues you have been getting. Your server is identified by that and probably explains the failure from the other services.

Try changing the server hostname to match that of the PTR and then modify the various configuration to match that hostname and things shoulld get back from there.

If you do not know how to do that, hire someone who could resolve it for you.

This seems like something beyond what the Silver Mangement Plan would provide.

Thank you for giving a ear.

Well .. u see everything on our server was working fine until SM tech touched it. CGI/Emails/PostGreSQL, there were no issues.

It all started when our mails were not reaching hotmail and that is when we were pointed out that we requried a reverse DNS. Which was setup by SM without problem.

Now the PTR entered did not for some reason match our hostname (we do not know why) and they said they would do the change for us.

This is when everything has gone horribly wrong.
By just changing a hostname our entire system is gone for a toss and its been more than 26 hours and we are still to resolve the issue.

If the mess was created by us we wouldnt mind paying the additional charge for services, but this is created by SM and dont u think they should have the courtesy to get the system back as it was before the mess was created.

It has taken them a few mins to mess up the system but its been more than 36 hours and we still face loads of issues and havent received any update from SM.

None of our order forms or feedback forms for any domains on our sevrer work? Can u imagine to loss of business and credibility in the market?

I wonder what SM would have done if their order forms did not work on their website??

It probably all relates to the initial set up of the hostname. Probably everything down the line was dependent on that. I am not sure what their policy is but it could be that since domain.com was not a fully qualifying hostname, they had to place something in there and that might cause some issues.

Got to get that right first then change all the references in all the settings which precedes that.

We just realised that our hostname has been updated again...

It is back to the old one --- the same that initially SM had said was not correct and valid.

This is simply stupid and surprising that reputed company like SM doesnt know what they are doing.

U see.. The point is... the ticket was created because our emails were not reaching hotmail. This was done by adding a reverse PTR record and hotmail emails were being sent but our qmail became slow and that is when SM notified that the hostname and PTR were not matching and they required to change it? This was done by SM and now all of a sudden nothing seems to work right.

We are not technical experts that is why opted for Plesk control panel which does most of the work automatically for us.

But now this has happened and we really do not know how to proceed.
And SM is not helping by clearing the mess created by them.

Have also tried calling them. no progress.

I hope this helps as an alert for whoever think of signing up with SM.
Not that we are not happy with their pricing etc....

But one has to learn from them how to get a working box not working.
As for us we still are trying to get someone from SM to resolve the issue.

Everything resolved...

Alls well and that ends well..
SM had a few tech sick this weekend so the delay....

Hope they get well soon.

Honestly ServerMatrix needs to hire significantly more techs... I understand that they are constantly hiring, but it's obviously not enough.

Another solution might be to make the cheapest servers "fully unmanaged" like EV1 does - at the price/value point, they'd probably still sell like crazy, and I think it's a little unrealistic to offer so much bandwidth, hardware, and full management for $70 or less a month. That would free up the techs to provide higher quality support for the $100 and over servers. Just an idea.