forum-replies.cfm?t=918288

nikademus writes...

If you pay by crdfit card I would suggest you do this. In the past I have had success with people who charged me for something I didn't get.

Charging back will actually cost them more, so it may have an effect and get them to get their act together

MD-Blows writes...

Has anyone spoken to a legal person in regards to compensation?

At most you would be looking at costs (which is resonable). IF you can show you had additional costs from having to move you MAY be able to seek them. It is quite unlikely you can show a case for anything else and I doubt it is "fair" to do so. Very few people can't just move and within a few days this is what should have been done. The direct financial loss would be hard to show and if you lost that much you would have moved ASAP. You can't expect to be rewarded for being silly and if you haven't moved.....

hto writes...

a fortune costing "help" line..

It looks like it has been re-introduced following it's mentioning on here numerous times and it's effectiveness, just the thought on how many people will be calling that around this hectic season.

C-panel has been hacked

I've seen that happen before, they need to get another copy of the default theme files. Looks like the index files of cPanel were also over-written.

hto writes...

and a fortune costing "help" line..
rang that # was told to leave a message ... what a joke

was able to up load a fresh copy but no cpanel

TobyAbrey writes...

Their actions are indefendable, although I expect some poor misguided person will leap to their aid.

I have posted restraint in slamming MD.

However this problem has gone on for too long now and they have had plenty of time to rebuild and restore and plenty of chances to communicate.

Due to the length of time it has been and due to the continued lack of response and commitment on MD's part to provide customer service I will concur they do not deserve to have people posting restraint advice.

I would suggest that people do relax and be calm and post usefull suggestions in how to obtain refunds and as to what steps they have taken to get support, refunds and how they have gone with getting domains moved. That is especially for people who have locked domains with MD and can't contact MD to get them released. I would be interested in how people go with enom and icann.

SeaComms writes...

stealing all the site passwords...

It was a known exploit that puts the exploiters page over existing, it has never been an issue of passwords. Good luck to all those concerned by this, I hope it works out for you.

ozkfid writes...

I would suggest that people do relax and be calm and post usefull suggestions in how to obtain refunds and as to what steps they have taken to get support, refunds and how they have gone with getting domains moved. That is especially for people who have locked domains with MD and can't contact MD to get them released. I would be interested in how people go with enom and icann.

With considerable help from my new US-based hosting company, I was able to get eNom to get me shifted. It depends who you speak to at eNom: the first person we were dealing with was very helpful as far as his company policy allowed, but I was told they have to give MD 24 hours to respond to domain requests, and will only then step in. This is because MD is (was?) one of their top 100 resellers.

Once the 24 hours had passed, the next person we dealt with was, according to my new hosting company, something of an ***hole, and "my man" had to get very heavy to get any cooperation. However, after a couple of further delays and obstructions, that cooperation was eventually forthcoming.

Having started the process on 7 February, I was able to escape MD and have a functioning web site and email by February 9, and full control of the domain by February 11. This is despite my domain having a dead email address associated with it and being locked. During this time MD was 100% uncontactable.

It can be done, but unless you're very familiar with this stuff, having the right help is vitally important. Find a new company that is prepared to go in to bat for you.

SeaComms writes...

I am very forgiving, but enough is enough and the time has come to walk away and forfeit the 6 months renewals paid in December. I cant afford to run a business like this, I dont know how they expect to.

Actually what you can do is let the 6 months run out. Host with someone else as a hoster and make backups and then test them on your MD account to make sure they work.

You can also play with duplicate hosting and check out redundancy. Theoretically if one is a complete backup of the other you should be able to redirect domain names between them both with no interuption to people and make sure it all works.

I will probably keep a cheap site ($10 / month) with MD for this purpose. Simply checking my backups work and making sure in the event that my new hoster goes down I can redirect to this backup site for the duration. But then I will still wait and see.

SeaComms writes...

The big question I have for you gurus... Can I relocate a web site created with sohoadmin to a new host, when the sohoadmin installation itself is hacked?

Not being an expert in it but since no-one else has bitten at it.

I would think if you transfer it the hack will be the same as you are just moving it from one to one. The data in your site is the issue. You could try asking the people you transfer to if they can help. I am not familiar with it so I will be of no help.

I know with my site the problem was only the index pages. I was able to salvage material but I was using a frontpage built site. Doesn't really matter as a frontpage site was built off line and uploaded.

I restarted my site with Joomla and just transfered images etc from my old site accross folders. That way I didn't have to upload them again.

You may be able to build a new site and salvage pages and content from your old site but that is something you could ask your new hoster.

Or you may just want to cut it and run and start fresh when you start fresh.

SeaComms writes...

Yeah, since the site is running fine, I might just cut n paste and recreate it in frontpage so if / when this happens again at least I can just reupload it. All the other sites I host were done this way, just not my own of course!!

Jumba here I come....

I'd suggest for you to have a look at Joomla, it works better and isn't too hard to get used to if you've ever used a kind of CMS before :)

Just make sure that you don't use FrontPage Extensions, as Microsoft no longer support it, so most hosts don't anymore

Maxibuzz writes...

But my main concern is with the last website which is on Taurus server and it has been hacked with a redirect to a enlargement potions website. Now that would be funny but the website was for a local Girl Guide unit and they aren't happy Jan to quote a phrase.

Do you have FTP access? You could FTP in and replace all of the index.php index.html pages with a blank holding page for now. It would at least get rid of the redirect.

TwistedGecko writes...

Nick was helpful, after waiting 15 minutes for 1 chat in progress

Yes Nick is sooooooo helpful... only gave me suggestions of something I've tried and failed - which are the non-existing ticket system and support@mdwebhosting.com.au email. I've asked him to give me other suggestions that work rather than moving us in a circle, but he said that's all he can do, and left the chat.

Some people suggested to send the request via fax, as a last resort, which I've tried but my MD account is still active. Simply wanna cancel the service and deny the payments.

clarit writes...

Aussie Bob, many MD customers have reported in these threads that they have used this technique regularly, only to find that when they try to use the backup, the file is incomplete...


he's only been on for a couple days so probably hasn't read the 2 weeks worth of posts :)

assuntasig writes...

Simply wanna cancel the service and deny the payments.

Suggest maybe calling your CC company, and vgetting them to deny any future payments to MD WebHosting??

melbtrip writes...

using a dictionary word as a password

Since when does cPanel allow you to create a password to login with that is based on a dictionary word? My account, not with MD, doesn't let me use a common word like sydney with any added prefix.

Matthew, perhaps if you update your phpBB installation that would help secure the MD server your website is hosted on.

cdbragg writes...

The Centauri and Universe server have been moved back to our Melbourne datacenter. People using Private DNS servers should change the IPs back to 61.14.187.197 and 61.14.187.198. Sites will continue to be served from the old server for several days until we a sure the move has been successful. In addition, MySQL services may be down for several hours while security patches are applied.


the mysql services on my cpanel has been down for 5 days already. It popped back online today, so I decided to install Joomla for a trial run. Got it installed, and now the mysql is showing NA again.

Oh, and I am on not on either of these servers - I am on gasgiant, which is supposedly in the US, yet it crashed for 4 days same time as the Aussie ones went down.

SeaComms writes...

I am on gasgiant, which is supposedly in the US

That server is definately AU based.

Baron_of_Hartley writes...

I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for their phone support.

Its free and has been for about 12 months:

1800 600 934
9am - 5pm AEST Mon-Fri

melbtrip writes...

Have people looked at having secure password for example like l55fjdg89f? And not password like sydney2.

I use a complex non dictionary password and the entire server was hacked not individual accounts.

Doesn't matter what individuals use as a password if you hit the server and come in as the admin.

I believe it wasn't the users accounts that were hacked.

zenman33 writes...

I sent an email (again) to sales / support / accounts requesting immediate cancellation and a refund of the autobill cc payments from feb 15 - i asked for a response by 10am this morning or i would lodge complaints with the Telecommunications Ombudsman and Consumer Affairs ... which is what i have just done...

Ring your CC Company, and get them to issue a chargeback as it was an unauthorised charge to your CC

zombieho writes...

Suggesting that this is a password issue is insulting to my intelligence as a IT professional

I too was told I didn't have a secure password... I was told to change it to something ridiculously long such as " 09kfujed8fjduidjkd165f**90e9eodfoe­ h_)_kdo"
! Now, I am not an IT professional, so I did go and try to change my password to something like the above, but it wouldn't let me!! It says on the "change password" screen that the password can only be 6 characters long and contain alphanumeric characters only. What the? I think the best advice to everyone is to unfortunately for MD, change hosting providers. I too have been getting my websites blacklisted by Google and as I am really just an amateur at all this stuff. I don't know the first thing to do about that!

ditzy writes...

Now, I am not an IT professional, so I did go and try to change my password to something like the above, but it wouldn't let me!! It says on the "change password" screen that the password can only be 6 characters long and contain alphanumeric characters only.

:)

It's the cpanel password they are talking about not your MD account password.

From memory it's in the top row of cpanel but it's been awhile since I last saw mine :)

melbtrip writes...

My understanding it was user accounts was hacked in to and I know people uses these passwords for example like sydney2 and their websites got hacked in to and after they change they pass word their website has not been hacked in to since.

No.

We had passwords like xJc7h1K4

8 digits, alpha numeric, upper and lower case. All changed in December and again in January.

all our sites were hacked. 40 of them on centauri.

luckily we moved them and repointed the domains before that happened.

MD has security issues you could drive an ocean liner through.

rockcod writes...

My questyion is to some who have moved to Jumba is what is the setup process like?

are they able to import all the details of my hosting with MD. Such as emails, SQL Databases, domain names, my web content?

There's a process called a Cpanel Transfer... can you login to your Cpanel at all?? If so, you just ask to get a Cpanel Transfer done, otherwise:

If you have a Full Backup from Cpanel, if you upload it to your Root directory on Jumba, support would be able to restore your Cpanel and pages, db's. etc. :)

ditzy writes...

I too have been getting my websites blacklisted by Google and as I am really just an amateur at all this stuff. I don't know the first thing to do about that!

We had the same problem but my son found the problem and removed it before using google webmaster tools to appeal the listing on the grounds that the problem has been fixed. If you can access and edit your site it is good news. in the probable event that your domain is also unaccessible, there is not much you can do but hope that the problem is resolved soon or try and point your domain to somewhere that works and is free of malicious scripts.

google webmaster tools require that you validate your site by either adding a html page with a certain name or adding content to meta tags. when your sites validated you can (ensuring that the site is clean), appeal the blacklisting.

if you can access your cpanel and change files, you should be fine. if you can't, there's not much that can be done.

Oh, has anyone noticed that md's own site is one of the few that seem to have been unaffected during all of this? just an observation that ive noted since december. (sure they've had an outage or two but not that bad)

ccsclean writes...

if you can access your cpanel and change files, you should be fine. if you can't, there's not much that can be done.

I had a cron job that fired off every now and then and checked the size of the index files on my site against a pre-configured list. If they changed, it would replace them and email a notification to me.

However, MD have restored the server, but most of the data is missing. I have since moved my site elsewhere, but this cron job keeps going off and emailing me. The cron job doesn't show up in Control Panel as it's only partially functional.

ditzy writes...

Thanks, I can access my Cpanel, but I can't up can't upload any pages through ftp

If you have access to Cpanel, I did this last time FTP wouldn't work. I created another FTP user with access to the public_html directory. I was able to get in this way via FTP.

I also believe that the CPanel file manager may allow file uploads, However I've never tried it.

clarit writes...

Play nice. I cancelled my acccount with them last week via this method and want to help others resolve their issue.

OR they can just contact the TIO and lodge a formal complaint :) If the offical contact methods are not available then this would seem to be the next option. None of this secret squirrel crap. Formal complaint to the TIO, charge back if you pay by CC and a complaint to your local Fair Trading Dept :) I hear it illegal to take money for a service and not provide it. Why mess around? IF you can show you have done everything in your power to contact and resolve this then move to the next step.

melbtrip writes...

My understanding

From who? MD?

What I am hearing now this was not the case and maybe it was MD had holes in their security.

Well, not much of the offical information makes sense. I'm sure some other hosts have a VERY good idea of what is going on but are not allowed to comment :)

herbertg21 writes...

also in order to cancel your account must you pay the remainding months?

No. You paid for a service and are not getting it. They have had sufficent time to resolve ANY issues and have not done so. Try and contact them VIA the offical means. Logs the times and the result. I suggest three times over a few days should be sufficent. If you get through (45+min on call waiting and I would be hanging up) then you will need to give them time to process the refund. 14 day is long enough. I would expect a refund of at least the period of when these issues started.
The next step if they do not refund OR you cannot contact them is to lodge a formal complaint with the TIO, Dept Fair Trading and get a charge back from your CC company :)

AJS writes...

Play nice. I cancelled my acccount with them last week via this method and want to help others resolve their issue.

OR they can just contact the TIO and lodge a formal complaint :) If the offical contact methods are not available then this would seem to be the next option. None of this secret squirrel crap. Formal complaint to the TIO, charge back if you pay by CC and a complaint to your local Fair Trading Dept :)

My comment "Play nice" refers purely to any emails sent to the email address that I provided as I didn't want (justifiably) angry customers abusing a helpful employee that most likely has nothing to do with the lack of contact.

I was trying to find a quick and easy solution for those trying to get out (as I did).

Sure, go by the book and head down the normal channels if you have time to spare and don't want your site up until after the court case in a year or two. I was trying to help out.

No wonder you have a pretty poor looking aura AJS... Keep up that WP addiction!

Mr Stego writes...

I also believe that the CPanel file manager may allow file uploads, However I've never tried it.

Mr Stego, just wanted to say thanks! and that I tried uploading the new files via Cpanel file manager and it worked!

Cheers,
ditzy

nikademus writes...

post a letter to our PO Box

Try this one...

PO box 6190
South Yarra
Melbourne, Victoria
Australia 3141