:angry:

I am a former windows customer of i-hosting.ws. I was very unhappy with their service. I was unhappy that they were unable to secure the server that my reseller account was on. It was hacked into for times within 2 1/2 days and each time the hackers flooded all of my sites and my customers sites with their tags. This cost me alot of money not including the programming jobs I lost out on. It seems as if it was a terrible IIS install but who knows (certainly not i-hosting.ws). I think I have given i-hosting.ws a fair amount of time to rethink their position on giving me a refund. Following are some of the emails that were sent by me and received from them.


Email #1 (this is not the first email I sent but I can't find the ones earlier than this)

It happened again. I would like my money back plus the money lost for having to end my eBay auctions early. This is terrible. I DEMAND MY MONEY BACK. I HAVE LOST ALL OF MY CUSTOMERS WHO ARE ALSO LOSING CUSTOMERS TOO. PLEASE GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK TODAY FOR ALL OF THE MONTHS THAT I HAVE PAID YOU. I'VE LOST A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF MONEY BECAUSE YOU GUYS CAN'T SECURE THIS SERVER. MY REPUTATION IS SHOT TO HELL NOW AND IT IS VERY EMBARRASING. I MAKE MY ENTIRE LIVING FROM WEB PROGRAMMING AND HOSTING AND THIS IS KILLING MY REPUTATION. I SHOULD ASK FOR THE $600 YOU GUYS MADE ME LOOSE YESTERDAY. NOT TO COUNT THE CLIENTS FROM EBAY. THIS IS RIDICULOUS. IN FACT I WOULD LIKE AT 1/2 OF THE AMOUNT THAT THIS HAS DEFINITELY COST ME. I LOST $600 FROM A PHP JOB YESTERDAY. I LOST $25 DOLLARS FROM THE EBAY LISTING PLUS THE HOSTING FEES FROM THIS MONTH. THAT TOTALS $640 IN LOSSES. I WOULD LIKE 1/2 OF MY MONEY BACK. I WILL GLADLY MOVE MY DOMAINS ELSEWHERE. PLEASE PAYPAL MY MONEY BACK TO MY ACCOUNT

Email #2
I don't want to be put on another server you guys obvisiously don't know much about Windows servers and how to secure the IIS and the ftp daemon. Therefore, I want my money back. I want the $320 I requested in my email and support ticket. That is it. I don't want to deal with your company or your terrible system admins anymore. Just give me the money and I will not file a report with Paypal, eBay, Better Business Bureau, I will not start threads on Webhostingtalk.com and other web hosting forums. Just give me the money I asked for that is more than fair on my part. If I really wanted to I could find any good lawyer that would take this one. So please lets just settle this now.


>From: "pearly ang" <pearlyang@hotmail.com>
>To:
>Subject: Re: Someone keeps hacking my server.
>Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 16:36:20 +1000
>
>Yes, we have to let this guy in charge of this server take the
>responsibility. I'll put you on a better server which I can full control
>over it.
>
>Pls submit a support ticket now, I'll get Kel to create an account for you.
>and you can start moving your sites over.
>Pls let us know your domain name for use to create your account.
>You can assign your nameservers to ns1.imagine-host.net,
>ns2.imagine-host.net
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From:
>To: <pearlyang@hotmail.com>
>Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2004 3:50 PM
>Subject: Re: Someone keeps hacking my server.
>
>
> > Yes, but not to be a jerk about the situation but why woulldn't I assume
> > that this would happen on the next server. This person must have hacked in
> > from the root since he/she did this in a matter of minutes. I will
>transfer
> > my site over for now though until I can figure out what to do.
> >
> >
> > >From: "pearly ang" <pearlyang@hotmail.com>
> > >To:
> > >Subject: Re: Someone keeps hacking my server.
> > >Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 15:45:38 +1000
> > >
> > >If I create you on another server, can you create your nameservers and
> > >start
> > >uploading your sites on the server?
> > >
> > >Pearly
> > >
> > > > >----- Original Message -----
> > > > >From: "BRIAN Jinwright - Desopic.com" <bej34@msn.com>
> > > > >To: <pearlyang@hotmail.com>
> > > > >Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2004 3:27 PM
> > > > >Subject: Re: Someone keeps hacking my server.
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > > Please do something quick I've lost several customers today.
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > >From: "pearly ang" <pearlyang@hotmail.com>
> > > > > > >To: "BRIAN Jinwright - Desopic.com" <bej34@msn.com>
> > > > > > >Subject: Re: Someone keeps hacking my server.
> > > > > > >Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 15:25:55 +1000
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > >Hi, we're getting the datacenter to have a look. Pls bear with us
> > >as
> > > > >we're
> > > > > > >waiting for DC.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > >You can email support@i-hosting.ws.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > >Thank you.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > >----- Original Message -----
> > > > > > >From: "BRIAN Jinwright - Desopic.com" <bej34@msn.com>
> > > > > > >To: <sales@i-hosting.ws>; <pearlyang@hotmail.com>
> > > > > > >Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2004 2:25 PM
> > > > > > >Subject: Someone keeps hacking my server.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > I am the owner of the helmrs2 account on the server with the
> > > > > > > > ns1.helm-hosting.net and ns2.helm-hosting.net nameservers. and
> > >for
> > > > >two
> > > > > > >days
> > > > > > > > in a row someone has hacked into the server and put all tons
>of
> > > > >index
> > > > > > >files
> > > > > > > > all over each site I'm hosting. Please do something about it.
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> >
> >
> >


Please do yourself a favor and don't host we this guy. I think in total I lost about $850+.

Sorry to hear about your experiences....i would more through research before signing up with somebody....

Good Luck
:wavey:

I'm not defending this guy, but hacks/cracks will happen. No server is 100% secure. New vulnerabilities are found in web server software and component software on a web server everyday. It is difficult to keep a server 100% secure. However, hacks should not happen often.

The main thing is, how is the ability of your host to recover from a compromise? That is the correct way to think about it. Will it take your host 2-3 hours to rebuild the server and get his customers back online? 12 Hours? 24 Hours? Do they have site backups and data backups of their customer data? Will they rebuild even if it is in the middle of the night?

Those are the important questions. Sure, we would all like to think our host will not be hacked, but consider this. Major corporations, with million dollar budgets, get hacked. Citi-bank, NASA, come to mind.

Hacks/Cracks can and do happen. Can your host recover quickly with minimal data loss?

Hmm, why does he have a MSN email address.. Seems intresting since he owns his own host.

But, things do happen, and that is unacceptable that it did. But it can be fixed, and its not always a quick fix.

He had 3 days to fix the problem before I wrote most of the emails. I said the same thing about stuff happening. I understand stuff can go wrong but if the people you have managing the server are not knowledgeable and you aren't either try to find some one who is and don't waste my time.

:angry: :angry: :angry: Damn dude, thats gotta suck, i was also sucked into their services, having a reseller account off eBay also...we must have been running on the same server as it was getting hacked day after day, emails were never sending/receiving and they were doing nothing to resolve the issues in a short time span...they guarantee 99.7% uptime in their TOS, and yet my site, and customers were down for over 12-hours straight because THEY changed a setting in their DNS servers....

I really find their services extremely poor and their disaster recovery almost non-existent, and their dispute resolution poor!

I STRONGLY RECCOMEND THAT YOU STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY! if you could even call it that....you can't even call them, their phone number they have listed is connected to a modem...a typical backyard lemon if you ask me! STAY AWAY!!!!! :mad: :angry: