Vent: Interland

I've had several clients that have hosted with this "company". Each has had nightmare experiences that I won't go into. Now I have a new client that is hosted with them and wants some php/mysql programming.

Their mysql server is on a different server, I have absolutely no control over it, can't upload text files, I can only connect to it through a hacked version of phpmyadmin, all php scripts must have permissions set, and the following line inserted at the start of the script: #!/usr/bin/php . And they are running php 4.0, not the more recent versions.

Imagine if I had installed a program like OScommerce or Phpnuke and had to go through each script and insert that!!

On a busy server I can understand putting the db server on a different box.

Aaaaarrrrrggghhh!!

If you have to put the shebang line at the start abd set permissions that means they have setup PHP using CGI and not as an Apache module. Normally when people set it up as CGI they put in the automatic parsing of PHP files which they havent done. By the way it sounds they are crap.

I kind of figured it was something like that. I've seen php installed as a cgi but I've never seen the shebang line in a php script.

This vent has been years in coming. I have several clients that are still hosted there, and several times a year I get frantic calls about their shopping carts not working suddenly, email, DNS improperly configured, you name it.

One client requires them to notify him of any thing to be done to the server. Then he schedules me to be available to make sure everything is working.

Well the thing is that if you configure things right there should be no issues with upgrading to newer versions of PHP.

I constantly update mine each time a new release is made (running 4.3.4RC1 atm) and my PHP scripts don't need any changes.

The client I was referring to only has perl scripts that they break anytime they do anything to the server, and his email. They aren't even upgrading when they break things.

It's another client that is having trouble with php/mysql. I think I've convinced him to move to another company.

I have my dedicated servers through Interland and have been happy, but then again I have full root access and they are managed servers, meaning I get about 90 minutes a month to request upgrades/updates instead of doing them myself.

Its PAIR's shared hosting that I am disappointed in as of late. They have MySQL on their own dedicated boxes not of the their webservers and dynamic sites are extremely slow as of late.

Now if I could find good dedicated FreeBSD hosting for $100 a month with 500GB of transfer, I'd be happy.

Yeah, I had a client that had a dedicated box through them. They kept screwing up the dns on the box somehow. The box was going down weekly.

So, they moved to another company. Interland continued to charge their credit card eventhough they cancelled. Despite repeated phone calls they wouldn't stop charging the card.

Finally, the client called their credit card company and had all future charges denied from Interland and got a chargeback on the other stuff.

I've had problems with one ISP that switched billers and after two months, noticed that I was being double billed for my hosting. After contacting their old billers two, never heard anything from them, I called up the people that manage the GM card, said I was being defrauded and to ignore any charges from that provider and contacted the ISP to what was going on.

The ISP was more than willing to extend my hosting for an extra 2 months free since i had paid for them. It was the billing company they had been using that was the problem and after I diened payment they had to take it up with GM or Mastercard or whomever.

I've had problems with interland as well- they silently moved a clients account, and neglected to recompile perl modules with XS components (namely Net::SSLeay for web automated SSL connections).

Broke a client's site for a day or so, and made me look bad even though it was completely not my fault. In my mind, you don't move a site without properly moving EVERYTHING associated with it, even if that requires stuff to be recompiled. Suckas.

Look at www.sprocketdata.com , though won't meet your bandwidth requirements (500 GB? What the hell are you hosting?) They give you a box and a backbone, and leave the rest to you. And they support OpenBSD, FreeBSD, RedHat, Debian, and Slackware.

I've heard naught but good about them.

Yeah, I'm now having fun modifying a links script to work on their server. I have to find the scripts that are actually displayed to the browser and put in the shebang line, scripts that are included can't have the shebang. Now, when the client moves I'll get to change the scripts back to normal functioning.

There also seems to be a problem with $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'], it is returning a undefined variable error.

I found out today that they don't define their hosts field for mysql privileges. Leaves a gap in their security.

$%^#@* Interland!!!

I use Sprocket Data for all of my test boxes and a couple Ecommerce sites for clients that use OpenBSD.

Excellent service there.

/me calls al and munk up to read this...

It gets worse:

Safe mode = off
Register globals = on (yes, you read that right)
expose php = on (not major)

PHP Version 4.0.6 - I believe there were some good file upload vulnerabilities in this one.

shared server = no access to .ini files

I think I have the client convinced to move.

Yes, Interland is indeed crap. My company has a hosting account with them (I'm trying to get them to change) and I've had to do everything in 4.06 as CGI. I wrote a note to the admins asking when they would be changing to not only a current version but to PHP as an Apache mod and the response was 'we have no plans to upgrade'.

That's because $_SERVER is not available on 4.0.6, you have to use $HTTP_SERVER_VARS. The new style 'superglobals' only exist after 4.1.0.