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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 by 1996 by Dallas Bethune, Josh Jones, Michael Rodriguez and Sage Weil, undergraduate students at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, and registered in 1999 by Michael Rodriguez. DreamHost began hosting customers' sites in 1997.

Web hosting

DreamHost's network consists of Debian GNU/Linux-based servers for customers running on F5 Networks Big IP-based 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 not provided, instead DreamHost has support via IRC and email. DreamHost's staff also contribute to an official blog and a wiki.

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. A number of accounts were automatically suspended due to an inability to pay the erroneous bill, which led their websites to go down. Some users canceled their accounts.

References

1. ^ "WHOIS information for newdream.net". Retrieved 2009-04-04.
2. Marlowe, Chris (2002-08-09). "Webmasters Host Music Dreams And Live Streams". Retrieved 2009-04-02. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |publication= ignored (help)
3. "California LLC Registration Search". ca.gov. Retrieved 2009-04-01.
4. "DreamHost: Our Past". DreamHost. Retrieved 2009-04-04.
5. "Debian: DreamHost Web Hosting, USA". Debian. Retrieved 2009-04-04.
6. Netcraft's Top Sites List
7. Berlind, David (August 3, 2006). "Honesty, transparency can offset customer service disasters". ZDNet. Retrieved 2009-03-30.
8. 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)
9. Josh Jones (2008-01-17). "The Final Update". DreamHost. Retrieved 2008-01-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
10. 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)
11. 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)
12. 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