Real experiences
Hosting Stories
The renewal shocks, the 2 a.m. rescues, the migrations that went sideways — told first-person, with the hard-won lesson in each. Because the fastest way to learn hosting is from someone else's bad Tuesday.
Cookie Banner Panic
A polite message from a reader in Europe sent me hunting for what my own website actually collects. The answer surprised me.
Elena Novak, WordPress & Managed Editor · 5 min read
"But it worked on my machine"
It ran perfectly on my laptop. Live, it showed nothing at all. A tour of my own early mistake, and why local and live are never quite the same place.
Marcus Feld, Infrastructure Editor · 7 min read
The email that said our host was closing
A short, polite email told my client her little host was shutting down in fourteen days. Neither of us knew where her website actually lived. Here's how we found out.
Elena Novak, WordPress & Managed Editor · 7 min read
The only backup lived on the server that died
A client of mine was proud of his nightly backups. Then his server failed, and we found out where they'd been sitting all along.
Marcus Feld, Infrastructure Editor · 6 min read
I changed my nameservers and my email quietly died
The new site looked perfect. It was a client, not a dashboard, who told me something was badly wrong. What I learned about the difference between your website and your mail.
Elena Novak, WordPress & Managed Editor · 6 min read
A Small Flood That Felt Like a Tsunami
Tickets went on sale at noon for a client's festival and, at the same moment, a wave of junk traffic arrived. The host's protection did kick in, just a few painful minutes too late.
Marcus Feld, Infrastructure Editor · 6 min read
Business Email on Gmail Looked Amateur
My client Ingrid ran her physio practice from a free email address for two years. The day we switched her to her own domain, the way new clients replied changed, and she finally understood why.
Elena Novak, WordPress & Managed Editor · 6 min read
A 504 From Behind the Proxy
A SaaS client's slow report page kept timing out with a 504, and we spent two days blaming the wrong layer. The real answer was a query nobody had looked at.
Marcus Feld, Infrastructure Editor · 6 min read
The five minute backup setup that saved our Monday
An ordinary update turned my client's charity website into a blank white page. Because of one boring habit, it was fixed before the first cup of tea went cold.
Elena Novak, WordPress & Managed Editor · 5 min read
A 500 Error With Nothing in the Logs
A client's site went blank, the error log in his dashboard was empty, and he nearly paid someone to rebuild it. The culprit was one stray line in a file he'd never opened.
Marcus Feld, Infrastructure Editor · 5 min read
A Tweet Sent Ten Thousand People to a Free Plan
My client's book announcement took off overnight, and the free hosting plan I'd set her site up on could not keep up. It's one of the first hosting lessons I ever learned the hard way.
Elena Novak, WordPress & Managed Editor · 6 min read
403 Forbidden on My Own Files
A graphic designer client uploaded her own portfolio images and the server told her she wasn't allowed to see them. She had locked the door with the key still inside.
Marcus Feld, Infrastructure Editor · 5 min read
12 stories so far — three new ones every week.