[BNM] Fasthosts customers blindsided by emergency password reset

Tue Dec 4 13:16:07 GMT 2007

Funny the office I rent a desk in has internet connectivity supplied by
fastnet, and they don't seem to be the best isp in the world. Is there some
sort of automatic universal law that anything webby with fast in the title
produces a slow botched result?

Jules

On 04/12/2007, David Wilson <dw at botanicus.net> wrote:
>
> On 12/4/07, David Andrew <david.andrew at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > A customer of mine asked 'Is there any sort of prevention to stop this
> > in future?' I don't think there is but I would like to be proved
> > wrong.
>
> You can't prevent it, but you can seriously reduce the risk involved by
> not
> using a pack of cretins and/or cowboys to host your web site (Fasthosts
> are
> both).
>
> Negative indications:
> - Technical support are clueless and/or don't give a shit (Fasthosts are
> both).
> - Service is shit and/or broken (Fasthosts is/was both).
> - Threats of legal action in reponse to complaints about service (yup, you
> guessed it, Fasthosts again!).
>
> Below is a copy of a page I put online at the end of 2004, documenting my
> experiences with Fasthosts. It got better PageRank than their own home
> page,
> ranking first for any Google search for "Fasthosts" at the time.
>
> They immediately contacted my ISP and tried to have my friend's colocated
> machine switched off pending legal action. The ISP (who knew me)
> demonstrated perfect rationality, calling me up instead, and giving me a
> chance to take the page offline.
>
> I basically have no pity whatsoever for any past/present Fasthosts
> customer
> affected by the hack, as if they took just 5 minutes to evaluate the
> company, service (quantitive measurement? never!), or customer reviews I'm
> positive they'd have run away very quickly, regardless of how technically
> adept they are or otherwise.
>
>
> David.
>
> ==== 2004/12/05 ====
>
> *Please note:* this page represents the experiences and opinion of one
> person only, expressed solely for the benefit of the Internet community.
> As
> such, your experiences with this company may differ to mine, but *in my
> opinion*, you should not be doing business with them.
>
> It is worth note that if I wrote a page of complaint for each company that
> I
> dealt with, my web site would be nothing more than a trove of complaints
> that mammothed the positive content on the site. I wrote this page after
> spending many frustrating hours trying to work around *trivial and
> amateur*misconfigurations on Fasthosts's servers.
>
> Unfortunately due to someone else's decision, I have been forced to try
> and
> utilise the suboptimal junk service that is Fasthosts
> Internet<http://www.fasthosts.co.uk/>.
> It has been well over a year since I first encountered them, and I've
> finally been pushed across the line and decided it's time to do something
> about them.
> Why I Think FastHosts.co.uk Is Run By Idiots
>
>    - *Their '24 hour' technical support is shit:*
>       - They are ignorant and don't return your calls.
>       - They demand an idiot PIN number off you before even showing
>       signs of civility.
>       - They have a habit of disconnecting your call if you ask a
>       simple question they cannot answer.
>    - *Their 'web cluster' is a heap of steaming shit:
>    *
>       - Their PHP configuration varies across each machine, some
>       allowing certain functions, others not.
>       - There is no documentation as to what you are allowed and what
>       you are not allowed in your scripts. This isn't surprising, I doubt
> they
>       know themselves.
>       - Their NAS at peak times will give an astounding 3.2k/sec
>       /bin/cp when logged in via their shell.
>       - They rely on backwards features like *open_basedir* for
>       security. This worries me deeply.
>    - *Their Linux shell is completely useless:*
>       - They disable public key authentication (*WHY???*).
>       - The configuration in no way reflects that of the web cluster.
>       - There are hardly any tools installed, beyond base-utils.
>       - It runs Redhat 7.2!
>       - It runs apmd!
>    - *Their customer control panel is shit:*
>       - Even the password reset script crashes!
>    - *Their services are woefully overpriced.*
>
> Summary
>
> The above list was entirely from memory, which for me is impressive. I am
> sure there are plenty of points that I have missed. I will try to keep the
> list up to date from here on in.
>
> In short, Fasthosts appear to be a pack of money-grabbing amateurs. The
> day
> is coming where companies like this won't be able to exist any more. Well,
> at least I hope it is. In the meantime, avoid this pack of hounds like the
> plague.
>
> If you are looking for cheap hosting with a hint of self-pride, check
> out *BlackNight
> Solutions <http://www.blacknight.ie/>* instead. For sites with more
> demanding connectivity or processing requirements, I have had very good
> long-term experiences with *Bytel <http://www.bytel.net.uk/>*, a local
> company providing tier-1 connectivity to the MCI UK
> <http://www.mci.com/uk>backbone.
>
>
> >
> > D
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