Hi all,

We have been using Planet servers for about 2 years now. In the last 2 weeks our servers started to crash and shutdown. We talked to support and they suggested we upgrade to the latest version of Perl.

Now not having much knowledge in how to do this we asked one of the technical if they could help us and he did.

2 days later we find that some of our Perls scripts had stopped working. I'd asked them to see if they could fix it and go back to the original version.

The replied with the following

>
(zwilliams-07/17/2006 16:28:06):
I do not see anywhere in a ticket that we upgraded your version of perl. It was suggested in 1288596PLNT to upgrade to 5.8.8, but no work was preformed. The error from your previous posts suggests that version 5.8.7 is installed. This server is provided in an unmanaged state, and the day to day administration is your responsibility. If you would like us to perform a service for you, such as upgrading this perl module, then Administrative charges do apply. How do you wish to proceed?
>

So now they tell me they didn't do it and if we want them to look into it they will charge me $150 per/hour

Now I don't about you guys but we don't have that kind of money to throw around specially if their staff did the upgrade.

So this is a WARNING. It clearly shows that the guys at the top have told their staff to charge existing customers for any work carried out at $150 per hour.

So they may look cheap on paper but this is how they are making their money.

We are now looking elsewhere for a better service.

Also to top this up there seems to be some Phishing issues on our server, someone is using our servers for Phishing. Now we don't have a clue about this. We've been told again that we have to pay $150 p/h for them to look into it.

Can you believe this ???

WARNING...!!!!

HAS ANYONE ELSE EXPERIENCED THIS ??

Shame on thePlanet !!

I don't know about the perl upgrade but for the phishing that is totally your responsibility.

I suggest you sign up for some administration services to help you with this.

> The error from your previous posts suggests that version 5.8.7 is installed.

Did you check what version of Perl you have installed currently?


> Can you believe this ???

Yes. Why would they do it for free? Does your landlord come over and help you install a dishwasher. Not to be a cranky ass, but if you are not comfortable administrating your own server, you need to hire an administrator or pick up a maintenance plan. Everyone else does, the technician's time is valuable.

There are a number of third parties that can assist at reasonable hourly rates, their quality varies so shop around a bit if you're planning on extensive work being done. TP techs are available too, but cheaper with a managed services plan.

Servers crashing could be caused by your machine getting hacked - if you don't like updating perl (and don't know how to check the current, installed version) then more than likely your server was insecure and got owned...

When did the service charge went up to $150/hr ? I thought it has always been $75/hr.

Basically, the issue with the Perl has nothing to do with them, it is your responsibility to handle it. If you do not agree with the charges and cannot do it yourself, you could always hire someone else to do it for you.

Your server crashing sounds like a software issue and that is your responsibility. You cannot blame them for that.

So, to sum up your post in one sentance, you got an unmanaged server because it was cheap and you are now complaining because TP/SM will not do your work for you?

This whole post is pointless, everything you listed is your responsiblity, not theirs. Suprisingly enough, unmanaged means they do not manage them.

It is ServerMatrix, not RedHat Matrix, or cPanel Matrix...

I am not going to say that you are an idiot.


But I am certainly thinking it

That is exactly what we tell our staff. Ultimately system administration is your responsibility. If you need us to help you out and don't want to pay $150/hr then look into some of our professional services plans. Most of these come with a number of free admin hours per month. These can easily be applied to tasks like upgrading Perl on your system.



If someone is phishing from your server then perfrom an audit of your user accounts and the scripts that your users are running. Ask for more details on whats going on, match it up to an account, and take action on that account. It's OK to be new to system administration at the beginning, but I highly suggest either purchasing one of our service plans, hiring a system administrator or researching how best to run your server. We take phishing and other forms of Internet abuse very seriously, since it's our IP addresses that get reported to the black lists.

If you have any questions on how to handle this or how to upgrade Perl you're more than welcome to ask here on our forums. Peer based forums support is free, and we're happy to help.

I agree, but...



So it's not really the beginning! While we all have to start somewhere, I think this is a prime example of "when servers go bad". What I find most annoying is that the OP gets so angry (with TP - or himself I wonder?) and his first post on these forums in two years is a tantrum against TP.



Not only that, 3rdeye, notice how your post was not deleted even though you do your best to malign The Planet? Free support and free speech, what more could you ask for

Free liquor

Alright, but apart from free support, free speech and free liquor, what have the Romans ever done for us?

It is a good warning to new customers, if you don't know what you are doing then pay for one of their managed plans.

Hmm, my post rate isn't too good either for 2 years.

You've probably made more sensible posts that I have with a post count 100 times higher

Its probably not even a Perl problem, someone probably hacked his server and messed up some stuff.
Its YOUR responsibility to secure your server and manage it. The Planet is responsible for the Hardware that it runs on, not the software you use.
This is where we get into we need an IQ test. Maybe we just need to make sure that everyone who gets a server must know how to use Linux.

You mean I need to pass a Linux test to rent a Windows server?

Oh, I meant Windows Test.
Heck, just send them the eBook on managing Windows 2003 Server. Windows isn't hard to secure at all.