Hostgator is monetizing traffic with a delay in addon domains

[NameCharger]

It appears that Hostgator has taken a backseat to integrity -- by creating a delay in the time it takes for an addon domain to start resolving on their servers. During this time, the domain will be redirected to a searchportal.information.com page.

Support staff has given an excuse about a glitch in cPanel 11 having to be restarted before addon domain changes take place. I have a VPS with cPanel 11 and addon domains take place immediately, no need for a reboot.

 

[d0main]

I think you are just a bit paranoid

 

[Whogister]

I have noticed this the other day when adding a new domain to my account...

 

[yilduz]

I think you are just a bit paranoid

Yeah, I agree. I use Hostgator and it doesn't take long at all for it to resolve. I really like them.

 

[cache]

the other day my .htaccess was changed (some 404 and 505 re-direct .htaccess), I could not not figure out how it was changed, but definitely not me. If what you said is true, then this would be another case.

 

[NameCharger]

I use Hostgator and it doesn't take long at all for it to resolve. I really like them.

Just because you like them doesn't mean they won't pull something shady. I've been a Hostgator fan for years and this is the first time I've encountered this kind of activity.

I think you are just a bit paranoid

I think you're a bit naive.

Ping resolves to Hostgator IP: 74.53.x.x

wget resolved my domain to 74.53.x.x and received a 301 to searchportal.information.com. This is not a DNS issue, it's the hosting company playing games.

 

[Whogister]

They are still doing this crap I see....

 

[happyhappy]

I was wondering what I did.. when I owned my servers i would send all traffic hitting the server to a search portal (which were my domains, my traffic etc..)... but that was a couple years ago now I see Hostgator doing that to my names when I added them... not cool

 

[Mark]

Not only this ^ But after their recent "UpGrades" - I keep noticing Domains are removed from my account ... And are also resolving to their "searchportal.information.com" pages. I've pointed it out several times already via their ticket system - It gets fixed , and now a few months later It's all happening again. About 20+ domains that I know of already are not resolving on My Hosting plan with them.

Time for a move again

 

[adda4u]

even i got the same prob ...

May be they are trying to get some bucks out of it ...

 

[holyroller]

Hostgator has been putting ads on paid for hosting for years. I setup a MU blog on there a while back and all the mistyped sub domains went to there parked pages.

Also by default they redirect 404 and error message pages to there own page with advertising on.

The google adverts in fact break google TOS in some caes, by placing adverts on pages with no content and also placing adverts on websites with adult content.

 

[Jack]

I didn't know they did this.. so you're saying that they put a wildcard dns on your domain and pointed it to their own ad filled pages? That's inexcusable.

 

[Joseph]

I've been experiencing this also :td:

 

[.Andy]

I agree thats crazy. But there not the first host to do It I know many more.

 

[MH-Andy]

Why should you be paying to host there adverts on your site, can you set the default 404 message? If so change it.

 

[NameCharger]

Why should you be paying to host there adverts on your site, can you set the default 404 message? If so change it.

They are screwing around with redirects so you'll never see a 404 during this "delay"... traffic has been hijacked before even getting to that point.

 

[MH-Andy]

They are screwing around with redirects so you'll never see a 404 during this "delay"... traffic has been hijacked before even getting to that point.

Wow that's evil and sneaky at the same time

 

[remotay]

No way they would do that, I love hostgator been with them forever and never had any issues. From what I read most people have similar sentiments towards them... Anyone else experience this?

 

[nascar59]

this whole thread has got me thinking about signing on with hostgator I hope they are not pulling this,otherwise I will be seeking out another host

 

[elefter]

Have the same problem too! i set up my domain DNS to point at hostgator but did NOT set up the Add-on domain on my control panel since i am still working on the web site. after some time passed a week or so the domain started showing those ads.
now i set up my addon domain and wait... to see what happens :S

 

[SpareDomains]

They know what they are doing, don't let the restart cpanel crap fool ya.

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By Mark on Jun 29, 2009 | Reply

"Are the domains you’re using for this all domains that HostGator bought for marketing etc or are these domains purchased by HostGator customers that they haven’t setup yet?"

By Chad Bean on Jul 1, 2009 | Reply

"@Mark : It’s a bit of both."

 

[FPForum]

Wow, pretty inexcusable stuff there. Couldn't there be some sort of lawsuit for this? Isn't this like a form of cyber squatting? I mean, technically they are stealing your mis-typed or mis-directed traffic and making a profit from it.

 

[cache]

the check is for oversee.net affiliate account.