Hosts Talk Common Sense, Ethics in Policy Debates

• By theWHIR.com , April 15, 2004

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April 15, 2004 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- If your servers are filling up, it makes sound business sense to replace them before they are full, was the consensus of a popular WebHosting Talk (webhostingtalk.com) thread, which began with comments about a host's recent announcement that it would not be accepting new customers because its servers were full. The same host had plans to re-open to new customers in a "few days" once it had purchased new servers.

Most agreed that if a server is filling up, a host should upgrade or risk losing potential customers. It only makes sense, hosts said, that if business is booming and servers are filling up, a host can afford new equipment.

Others pointed out the technical dangers of letting servers fill: "The server is only halfway full, but you shouldn't think of it in terms of how much space and bandwidth you are being allowed," one host writes. "I look at the server load because no one wants to experience performance problems."

Unfortunately, most hosts consistently agree on the Web hosting forums, performance is not necessarily a concern to the high-risk, fly-by-night hosts that seem to populate, or plague, the industry.

"There are too many people out there leasing cheap servers and offering dirt cheap prices that don't know how to run them," one host wrote on a separate HostHideout (hosthideout.com) thread. "So many people just jump into a new server and think they can run it but at the expense of their customers. What good is a cheap account if it's only online [half] the time? People need to take some time to learn how to run things before they take on the customers."

The questionable use of such servers was raised in this HostHideout thread after a host asked whether others thought there were too many hosts in the business. Most were quick to agree that there are too many hosts, but not enough of them offering quality hosting.

Business practices were again called into question on WebHosting Talk, this time in the area of security, when a dating site operator announced that his provider, HostRocket, had been snooping through his data.

While auditing system logs, the site operator noticed a user ID he didn't recognize, and that the user had been given access to areas he had not authorized. A reverse IP look-up determined that it came from part of a block owned by HostRocket. The thread-starter was even more confused when he realized the email address listed was a random AOL address.

While the customer initially thought he was being hacked, HostRocket explained that it had been performing a check to determine whether the site was in violation of the hosting provider's terms – an investigation prompted by reports that there was "questionable material" in the account. This was done, says HostRocket's business development manager Timothy Dick, to avoid having to suspend the site to look for violations.

The AOL address was used, HostRocket explained in a notice, not to throw off the host, but rather to give HostRocket access into the part of the site that was accessible to members only. "To put it simply, the user information that was used to create a test account was simply pulled out of the air, with the exception of the IP address."

While the customer seemed content with HostRocket's response, others were not so quick to agree, concerned that the provider violated the customer's privacy rights.

"What [the provider] did in this case went well beyond simple and acceptable probing for inappropriate content, and is in no way to be condoned or rationalized," one user wrote. Others agreed, stating they would not feel comfortable hosting their sensitive information with a provider whose standard operating procedure unsuspectingly allows them to search through data.

HostRocket defends its actions on the basis that it had reason to believe there was illegal material on the site (it turned out to borderline illegal, but not actually in violation of HostRocket's terms). "We do not go and randomly look through people's accounts," Dick said. "In this case, we were specifically targeting this account."

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