suspeneded accounts behavior!

[ThomasW]

Andrew did the right thing, if the script has already been exploited then the account needs to be suspended.
What happens if the account in question brings down the server, what am I supposed to tell MY customers???

Course if my account gets suspended someday for something like that I imagine I might feel a bit different...

[ZYV]

Well, I see that there is some misunderstanding here. I completely agree with you Andrew, that this is your clients' responsibility to upgrade all the stuff they put on the account, and if they are reselling the service they have to monitor their clients as well.

What I am talking about is this:

But once a script has been exploited it simply is not reasonable for us to send e-mail notification and wait for actions to be taken.

I feel that the right thing to do is to notify your reseller after the account's suspension providing a reason for the suspension so he can check out the domain, perform requested upgrades and perhaps post the unsuspension ticket.

This attitude is OK and reasonable, but when you are hearing from the client something like "Hey, my account has been suspended, wazup?" and you have to reply "Wow! Didn't know that one, got to ask Andrew, hang on!" the situation is somewhat confusing and I doubt that the client won't go away after that.

Did I miss something again?

[AndrewT]

Well, I see that there is some misunderstanding here. I completely agree with you Andrew, that this is your clients' responsibility to upgrade all the stuff they put on the account, and if they are reselling the service they have to monitor their clients as well.

What I am talking about is this:



I feel that the right thing to do is to notify your reseller after the account's suspension providing a reason for the suspension so he can check out the domain, perform requested upgrades and perhaps post the unsuspension ticket.

This attitude is OK and reasonable, but when you are hearing from the client something like "Hey, my account has been suspended, wazup?" and you have to reply "Wow! Didn't know that one, got to ask Andrew, hang on!" the situation is somewhat confusing and I doubt that the client won't go away after that.

Did I miss something again?

Once again, there is one key point that you must keep in mind. This is a shared hosting environment. One account can effect another. Would you like having problems with your domain because we chose not to suspend another customer's exploited account on your server? I don't think so, that is far from reasonable. An already exploited script/domain poses a great risk to the entire server.

[ChrisTech]

Andrew

some domain owners or as I prefer to call them, customers, cannot keep track of emails. You cannot expect them to keep track of scripts they employ?

The scripts are supplied as a service - in cPanel you should have "use at your peril" if this is your attitude. It is easy to install via cPanel for a reason, so that any novice can build a forum or what so ever they wish to employ on their site.

With that same NOVICE in mind, YOU should also provide a NOVICE approach to upgrading and not expect them to track the script makers site, etc for any and all issues!

This could have easily been prevented if you had listened to past arguments and actually provided a solution that YOUR customers are obviously wanting.


Regards

Thats 2 years out of date. Do you forget to change the oil in your car too?
The scripts in cpanel library have been updated. It was your client who failed to keep it updated. We have a scripts section here on the forums that people post to when new updates come out.

I don't know, maybe Dathorn should raise their prices, and provide a fully managed reseller service, that checks every single account on the server. As it seems many folks can't keep their own scripts updated. A platinum managed service. Hey, Andrew, I think it would sell.

[ChrisTech]

I'm all for the suspension policy.

If you're running your own business you have to take responsibility, just like any other business in the material world.

I manually check all of my accounts every month or so. Fair enough i don't have vast hordes of accounts, but then if you do, and this is your lively hood or business, it's something you'll have to get into your routine or business plan.

David

Ditto that, I had a client, well friend I hosted, who decided to attempt to run irc commands via ssh, as well started to compile on steam server on his account. Andrew caught him right away, and of course his account was suspended. I fully support it. He shouldn't of been running such things on his hosting account. I'm glad it was caught before it started to cause problems for other users, and for me, as obviously I have accounts on said server.

As you David, I go thru each account once a month, check to see what scripts they have going, and check to make sure they are not hosting anything illegal.

[Jonathan]

Kind of getting the feeling Im wasteing my time here... Would appreciate any other views than admin/moderators. Preferably those of you that have customer sites on these servers.

FYI -Oz- and myself, both moderators, are customers of Dathorn
and are not in anyway afilated (sp?) to them past the "Customer / Business"
relationship typical of all Dathorn clients such as yourself. I fully support
Andrew's policies. As much as it'd suck to have it happen to me I'd rather have
it go down suspended w/o warning than to risk any other, including my own,
websites on the server. Quality of service vs. providing pampering to customers?
I'm sticking to the "Quality" part. I host websites for myself and just one other
person - a online friend. I explained it outright what was and was NOT
allowed and clearly told him in plain english - you screw up and your suspended
without notice! He's happy and accepts this. He knows I am doing it for the better good.
What he doesn't know is I don't decide if he gets suspended out of the blue - Andrew does.

Keep up the good work Andrew

[sfoma]

If you can't or don't want to micro-manage ALL accounts under you I suggest you find another host.

[thewave]

I've also been a customer for about two years or so. Long enough to remember the old Forum (when openbox and Kylec were the mods) and I have to side with Andrew for the most part.

When you consider the number of servers *times* the number of resellers *times* the number of domains *times* the number of scripts that are installed, it is completely unreasonable to expect Dathorn to keep on top of updates. Personally, I would like the option of easily choosing NOT having CPskins and auto installed scripts available on accounts. Even so, it will not stop a customer from installing a script on their own and forgetting to update it.

Like it or not, Suspension for outdated scripts is dathorn's policy. Its one YOU must pass along to your customers. I would let every customer you have know via TOS and E-mail, that failing to keep a script updated may result in their immediate and automatic suspension.

The servers here are well run and a rigid policy is part of what makes that possible.

HOWEVER

I've also been around long enough to experience Andrews deficiency when it comes to his people skills. WHT is littered with threads about Andrews "Attitude". Its something that in my opinion Dathorn still needs some work on.
Instead of the "THIS WILL NO LONGER BE TOLERATED" garbage, a detailed, courteous note explaining why the account was suspened and what, if anything can be done to get it operational would be appreciated. I'm not an employee of DIS, so I don't want to be disciplined verbally as if I was one.

Bottom line, in my opinion, you have no reason to be upset about the suspension, but I'm guessing it could have been handled a bit better if what you say is indeed true.

EDIT

For those of you who regularly go through your customers accounts, I hope you gave them ample notice of this when they signed up. I'd be pretty upset if you were going through my files without prior notice.

[Jonathan]

In the past I've let people know and now that I am down to just
hosting my friend I've let him know. He accepts it and is very cool with it.

[openbox]

(when openbox and Kylec were the mods)

Ahh, the good old days

Seriously, I'm inclined to side with Andrew's viewpoint. As a business owner, and a systems administrator, he simply can't afford to allow a compromised account continue to operate. Doing so could allow infiltration to other accounts and/or servers, which would be serious negligence on Andrew's part. Andrew has an obligation to the rest of his customers and the Internet at large to protect them to the best of his ability.

Having said this, Dathorn could have notified you after the suspension occurred as a customer courtesy. This would have allowed you to notify your customer of the ongoing issue and take care of business as necessary. But the bottom line is, your account is your responsibility and you really need to be more proactive. Not upgrading old and buggy scripts is not an option on the Internet these days and you really should have known better.

[AndrewT]

Having said this, Dathorn could have notified you after the suspension occurred as a customer courtesy.

Not sure if this was unclear above, but this individual was sent an e-mail regarding the suspension immediatley after the domain was suspended.

[ChrisTech]

I've also been a customer for about two years or so. Long enough to remember the old Forum (when openbox and Kylec were the mods) and I have to side with Andrew for the most part.

When you consider the number of servers *times* the number of resellers *times* the number of domains *times* the number of scripts that are installed, it is completely unreasonable to expect Dathorn to keep on top of updates. Personally, I would like the option of easily choosing NOT having CPskins and auto installed scripts available on accounts. Even so, it will not stop a customer from installing a script on their own and forgetting to update it.

Like it or not, Suspension for outdated scripts is dathorn's policy. Its one YOU must pass along to your customers. I would let every customer you have know via TOS and E-mail, that failing to keep a script updated may result in their immediate and automatic suspension.

The servers here are well run and a rigid policy is part of what makes that possible.

HOWEVER

I've also been around long enough to experience Andrews deficiency when it comes to his people skills. WHT is littered with threads about Andrews "Attitude". Its something that in my opinion Dathorn still needs some work on.
Instead of the "THIS WILL NO LONGER BE TOLERATED" garbage, a detailed, courteous note explaining why the account was suspened and what, if anything can be done to get it operational would be appreciated. I'm not an employee of DIS, so I don't want to be disciplined verbally as if I was one.

Bottom line, in my opinion, you have no reason to be upset about the suspension, but I'm guessing it could have been handled a bit better if what you say is indeed true.

EDIT

For those of you who regularly go through your customers accounts, I hope you gave them ample notice of this when they signed up. I'd be pretty upset if you were going through my files without prior notice.

I've been here well over 2.5 years. Evidently Dathorn is doing something right.

Andrew runs a tight ship. When you have a problem, it gets resolved. He doesn't ask me how the weather is, he doesn't carry on a conversation with him. He doesn't ask me to be his best friend. He does what he does to keep his servers running fast & secure. If some people feel he is too harsh, they are free to make their own decisions, and if they don't like how things are run here, they are able to make their own choice to leave or find some other host.

As for my customers, ALL of them know I am hosted here. They were given links to the website, to the terms & policies of Dathorn and told if they cannot follow them, they could loose their hosting account. All know how much I pay for hosting. They all know I go thru accounts once or twice a month. Keeps them on their toes. And what makes you think that admins @ Dathorn don't go thru your accounts? They have every right. I mainly notice when a user who normally does 500 megs of bandwidth suddenly does 3 gigs of bandwidth, that they are doing something different, and go look.

[-Oz-]

i've had an account suspended. It was because of a script I wrote. I submitted a TT asking why it was suspended, andrew said "such and such a script overloaded such and such", i said great, deleted the script, he activiated the account. done. no attitude anywhere.

[thewave]

I've been here well over 2.5 years. Evidently Dathorn is doing something right.

Thats correct. The servers are well maintained as I stated in my previous post.

Andrew runs a tight ship. When you have a problem, it gets resolved. He doesn't ask me how the weather is, he doesn't carry on a conversation with him. He doesn't ask me to be his best friend. He does what he does to keep his servers running fast & secure. If some people feel he is too harsh, they are free to make their own decisions, and if they don't like how things are run here, they are able to make their own choice to leave or find some other host.

I don't remember ever asking anyone at DIS about the weather or to be my friend or to carry on a conversation. I did ask that I not be disciplined like an employee or be given two word answers when I submit a trouble ticket.

What you seem to be missing is that no one thinks the topic starter is correct to be outraged about his suspension. What I don't particularly like is the attitude that sometimes comes with it.

I don't sit still for that kind of treatment anywhere else, why would I accept it here? Or do you routinely allow people you pay to treat you like a plebe without saying anything.

You also left out a third choice between leaving or accepting it. That is expressing your feelings here, at WHT and other places to let people know what hosting is like here (if I'm satisfied or unsatisfied.)

95% of the time, things here run like clock work, but please don't dare suggest its fantasy land. I can remember several heated arguments that have taken place over the years...Mostly over how suspensions have been handled.

As to what you tell your clients...thats your business. And no, I don't expect DIS or anyone else to be crawling over my account to "Keep me on my toes" What I do expect is that they perform within the boundries of their TOS/AUP nothing more.

From DIS AUP:

We do not routinely monitor the activity of accounts except for measurements of system utilization and the preparation of billing records. However, in our efforts to promote good citizenship within the Internet community, we will respond appropriately if we become aware of inappropriate use of our service.

[sdjl]

For those of you who regularly go through your customers accounts, I hope you gave them ample notice of this when they signed up. I'd be pretty upset if you were going through my files without prior notice.

It's in the TOS and AUP policies that i make every person who wants hosting with me, aware of.