(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Longtime hosting and Internet service provider BuffNET (www.buffnet.net) has decided to quit, sending many unsuspecting customer sites offline with less than a day’s notice, according to a Business First of Buffalo report.
Business First of Buffalo reported Friday that BuffNET, founded in 1993, sent an email to its customers on January 8, which read, in part, “Effective Thursday January 8th, BuffNET Dialup and DSL service will discontinue, followed shortly thereafter by web hosting and email services.” The company also thanked customers for their patronage and apologized for the disruption in the email, yet could not be contacted for interview.
BuffNET hosted websites will not be accessible to end-users and with BuffNET’s servers only online for a couple more days, Business First of Buffalo reports that BuffNET clients will have to act fast to transfer their domains and sites.
BuffNET’s email also notes that domain names will be released for transfer and authorization codes will be issued from the third-party domain registrars that registered them such as Go Daddy (www.godaddy.com) or Register.com (www.register.com).
Web hosts unexpectedly dropping clients has unfortunately become a recent trend. In December, Ann Arbor, Michigan, web hosting provider IAS.net (www.ias.net) was evicted following a dispute with its landlord over its building’s poor maintenance and poisonous mold growth, leaving a number of nonprofit organization and business websites also out in the cold as well.
BuffNET’s quick disappearance serves as a reminder to web hosts about the risk of appearing untrustworthy to clients. A recent blog entry, WHIR editor Liam Eagle offered some tips for smaller web hosts to separate themselves from the BuffNETs of the world.
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