Readyhosting suddenly changed their policy to disallow .exe files from being uploaded via FTP or downloaded by site visitors -- no warning whatsoever was given -- they just disappeared. As a shareware developer that caused me alot of problems.

Response time also steadily got worse, sometimes downloading at under 1 KB/Sec.

If you require high bandwidth for your site, I can not recommend Readyhosting, even though they advertise 'unlimited bandwidth'. If you don't need much bandwidth, you can find cheaper Web hosts that are more reliable and surely have better support.

I recently switched to Alpha1hosting, and am so far satisfied.

cant believe you would trust a unlimited bandwidth site

Sorry to hear Jeff, hope you have better luck with your new host.

Originally posted by Jesse_613
cant believe you would trust a unlimited bandwidth site

Well, it sure doesnt bring more visitors and can fool many people in some occasions ;)

I guess the company is starting to feel the effects of the, well basically, overselling they were doing. It seems to me that their disabling of EXE's is them attempting to lower bandwidth usage.

It's sad to see a company cripple ...

I dont understand the reason why a company would disable .exe?

Virii issues, JNadolski. Not the only reason, but probably a leading reason. Bandwidth is another. Software Piracy is yet another. Three good reasons right there. :)

Well, there could be a multitude of reasons. For instance:

1. Disabling warez - a lot of warez is transmitted in .exe files.

2. Reducing bandwidth - .exe files tend to be large files. For a free host, or a host offering unlimited bandwidth, this could substantially hurt them if the traffic was great enough.

3. Preventing the transmission of viruses - it's a well known fact that viruses can be sent through .exe files. Simple parinoia.

4. Unknowledgable techs seeing .exe transmissions in logs - past experience shows that whenever a site is scanned, be it by a virus or some such looking for Windows exploits, they search out exe files. More specifically: cmd.exe, command.exe, and other Windows files. Techs may view that as some weird form of hack attempts or virus attempts entering a *nix system through Windows exploits.

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Edit - the post directly above mine was posted 3 minutes before mine, but I had been typing this post before he even posted. He and I must think alike. We hit the EXACT same points. Just thought I'd mention that, sometimes you guys freak and think of re-writting the already stated.

Originally posted by jakiao
Well, there could be a multitude of reasons. For instance:

1. Disabling warez - a lot of warez is transmitted in .exe files.
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bullcrap. Most warez is distributed in either .bin/cue files or as .rar files. NOT EXE.

PCGamez, then you're pretty new to the world of warez. :) It can come in many formats, even something as simple as .zip or even just renaming an .exe extension to something like my initials .dlh EXE is and was the most popular version (look at how many people allow you to download setup.exe from their site, Microsoft for one, etc).

jakiao, yeah, I'm gettin' that alot lately, did it with another person in a different thread, upon reviewing a host. The difference was that THEY were the short answer, I was the freakin' encyclopedia. ::chuckles::

I suspect it was a matter of Readyhosting trying to limit bandwidth, perhaps by purposely alienating such customers as shareware developers who offer large downloads. What was especially disturbing was that no notice or warning was given -- I was just going to upload a new version of one of my products via FTP and found that I couldn't, and no other .exe files were listed! At first I thought I would just make my install programs into .zip files, which are still allowed, though that was a hassle because many download sites were already linking to the .exes. Then I noticed that downloading the .zips seemed extremely slow, so they might actually be limiting the priority of access to .zip files.

Along with other issues with stats, support, etc., I finally realized it was time for me to move on -- I should have switched hosts long ago.

Whoa... warez come only in .exe :rolleyes: Compression formats are so commonplace now that even Bill Gates gave in and bundled it with WinXP. And even Virus scanners scan in zip, tar and rar files... Readyhosting.com was always crap (Yes, we used them once) and this is just more crap from a crappy host.

Anyone can think, understand & accept fully that UL Bandwidth is a scam. Anyone who offers it is a scam, which means Readyhosting is a scam to start with.

bullcrap. Most warez is distributed in either .bin/cue files or as .rar files. NOT EXE.

Let it be known that a lot of warez is transmitted to Windows machines and a lesser amount to Linux. Windows can't read .bin and .cue files without a converter.

Now, I understand the idea of compressions such as .zip, .rar, etc etc. I was hopping that whomever responded to my response would understand that I recognized that as a given. It would seem sensible to block .exe files because of warez capabilities, but .zip and .rar files serve much higher purposes then being used for warez, and they mostly aren't used for warez 90% of the time ((based on: 90% of zip files are legit and 10% warez, completely made-up numbers, but used for representation)).

Done. :)

Most of us shareware developers distribute our software in the form of executable installers, since that is the most convenient form for users to download and install. Surely the small number of sites that offer warez .exes can be dealt with in other ways -- they can be terminated after a complaint. Disallowing .exes for any reason seems extreme.

Agreed, the only truely acceptable reason to block all .exe files is parinoia or to reduce bandwidth if exe's generate enough.