A clarification is needed

beller b

Hi,
I'm new to this , so please excuse me if I don't make sense or the question is stupid...
Thanks in advance.

I have a small site which I paid for to be set up & have paid for hosting for the next year..
I have admin access that allows me only to make small changes to the text on parts of the site....

I would like to be able to do more but the company hosting the site says this requires the writing of additional software ( at a price).. How would I go about getting full control to do as I please with this site....

I realise I probobly went about this in the wrong way..(so no slagging please).. I would just like advice on how to procede from here.

Thanks again

Rollo Tamasi

hi beller, could you please post the name of the company you signed up with and inform us of what package your paying for, that way we will know what type of access you have to the website.

The package your on, is it a template based website that the hosting company sold you?

beller b

Hi rollo , the company is acube software (friend of a friend thing)...didn,t sign up for anything specific..Basically paid €300 which included set up 1st years hosting & domain name
I just wanted something basic set up that I could work on myself from there...
the site is linked in my sig..
If you look you will see its very basic,with a simple home page & Q&A forums on the second..
The only admin options I have is to edit/add or delete the Q&A's and the advertising panels...Its only at a hobby stage but I would like the freedom to learn & experiment with it myself..
Thanks

dahamsta

In basic terms, you were robbed, and they're lying to you. The site is hosted on a 1and1 Plesk hosting plan or server, so the markup is absolutely enormous on what they're charging you: if it's a dedicated server, you paid for the entire thing for them for 3-6 months; if it's a resold hosting plan, it's likely being marked up by 500-1000%. They're probably letting you use Plesk's Sitebuilder application, so as a first step you could try logging into the control panel with the login details they gave you.

However you really need to get away from these scam artists as soon as possible. Start by telling them that you've consulted with hosting providers and that you've found that you're paying three times what you should be to an Irish company, never mind a reseller of 1and1 in New York. Tell them that you want a refund of the months remaining on the plan (divide by 12, multiply by what's remaining) and that you expect the transfer of your new site and particularly your domain name to go without a hitch.

They'll probably say that you agreed to their terms and conditions as regard the fees, but a threat of legal consultation might soften their cough. However I'd be more inclined to concentrate on getting the domain away from them asap. Once you have the domain you can do what you want with it.

I'll save the Irish hosts the bother of pimping by doing it for them: You won't go far wrong with a plan with Host.ie, Hosting365.ie or Blacknight.ie. It'll probably cost about half of what you're paying this eejit, for full access. I personally recommend Blacknight. (I have no connection with them, apart from the occasional telephone chat with their bossman.)

Rollo Tamasi

http://www.acubesoftware.com/index.html is the link to the company btw.

yeah, it looks crap. If you want us to provide you with some more advise you'll need to give us some info about your account with them. Did you pay it all up front? is there a free trial or anything?

Find out from them if you can get out of the contract your in asap....there are loads of decent irish webhosting companies, Ken mentioned the best of the lot in his post. Best of luck Beller, i hope you get some payback from those rip off merchants!

Serbian

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

http://www.acubesoftware.com/ is the link to the company btw.

They need a copywriter! It has to be the most poorly written copy that I have read on a business website for a long time.

aCube Software wrote:

Put it simply, we make the technology work for you, at a cost that is truly affordable, with an effectiveness unmatched in the industry and within a time-scale that you almost can't notice. We make sure that our technology solutions are truly "solutions" and not further "process hazards", without needing you to form another department to sort them out.

I almost can't notice the time-scale!

beller b

Hi Ken..thanks for the info...I was not even given that link to the control panel or any log in details.On a positive note there is no contract ,like I said it was a friend of a friend thing (or ex friend)....
Rollo, thanks for the offer of more advice..
like I said there was no real contract setup it was just a casual verbal arrangement...
I paid after the site was originally set up...
The money doesn,t concern me tbh, I just want to be free to do as I please with the site...
What do I need to do to transfer this site from thier server to another hosting company?
Can I keep the site as it is or would they have any copyright over it?
Any advice would begreatly appriciated....
Thanks for all the replys guys..........

mneylon

The first thing you will need to do is ensure that the domain is in your name.
You won't be able to move the site to a new provider until you've got it updated.

beller b

Hi blackknight,
The domain name is registered to acubesoftware, but under my address...
Like I said this is new to me so all the help is greatly appriciated....
can I contact namewithus.com direclty to change this?
can I insist they (acubesoftware) give give me the login details for the control panel?
If I have access to the control panel can the site be downloaded to my PC to upload to a different server in the future...
Would it would be easier just to get the domain name & start from scratch with a new hosting company???
Again thanks very much for all the help...

beller b

Well lads the latest update on this.. Spoke to them today.They said they have no idea what that link to the control panel is..........are they having me on or is there some other way to access the site....Mentioned about the domain name & they said they would get it changed....Anyone any advice on how to procede from here...
Thaks for the help...

steve-hosting36

If you have access to the admin-c email address for the domain, I would recommend you transfer it to another hosting company.

You can then just ask your current provider to email you a zip file of the current website

beller b

Hi Steve unfortunatly I don,t have access to any admin of the site.....
like I said they deny knowing anything about the link for the control panel, which Ken Shabby posted....
What would they be using to access the site??
As I said this is new to me, sorry if the questions sound silly...
Thanks

steve-hosting36

If you want to pm me the domain name, I can check the status and contacts for you?

dahamsta

It's the site in his sig. Registered to the con artists, surprise surprise.

http://www.betterwhois.com/bwhois.cgi?domain=****.com

Admin contact is a Richard Alexander Gabriel Chance though, is that you OP?

beller b

Thanks Ken & steve.. No! thats not me will need to get get that & the domain registration changed to me....I'll ley yous know how I get on after that....
Thanks again

mneylon

Get the domain updated so that you have complete control.

Judging by the site I doubt if they are using a content management system, but looks can be deceiving. You would really need to get your hands on the FTP details if you wanted to migrate the current content exactly as is (though wget can be your friend )

beller b

I've been told they are changing the registration & admin to my name...Still waiting...Once thats done I'll be looking for advice on how best to get it hosted elsewhere.....
Thanks again

beller b

Just an update on this........
Met with them today...Told me access is not possible because it is shared hosing! To access it would mean being able to access everything on thier server. Would this be correct?
Anyway getting the domain registration details changed & they said they would arrange to upload the site for me once hosting a/c is set up....
Going to look at a few prices.anyone any suggestions?
Thanks again....................

dahamsta

beller b wrote:

Told me access is not possible because it is shared hosing! To access it would mean being able to access everything on thier server. Would this be correct?

Only on a very badly configured server. Certainly not on a Plesk machine. More lies.

mneylon

beller b wrote:

Just an update on this........
Met with them today...Told me access is not possible because it is shared hosing! To access it would mean being able to access everything on thier server. Would this be correct?

That sounds more than a little em .. how can I put it... odd? strange? unlikely?

beller b wrote:

Anyway getting the domain registration details changed & they said they would arrange to upload the site for me once hosting a/c is set up....
Going to look at a few prices.anyone any suggestions?
Thanks again....................

If they are willing to move the site's content for you once you move provider that sounds reasonable. Just make sure you change the passwords once they've made the move for you

beller b

Blacknight,
Thought it a bit strange..anyway..Nearly there......
btw...He also told me the domain registration name was an error..(thats being sorted)
but the hosting can be changed without it being in my name..Would this bit be true?

mneylon

Yes. They can update the domain to point to a new host without changing other details.

rsynnott

Ah, scammers. Fun.

beller b

Ah! lads its been a long couple of weeks but I have my site to myself now...Its all mine to muck up as I am sure I will..
Thanks for all your help & suggestions .....very much appriciated!

acubesoftware

This evening we were just checking for dead links for the company website in Google and other search engines whereupon we came across this link:
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/archive/index.php/t-303186.html

It's an old link from 2005, from so long ago that this is now stored in the archive and did not allow us to reply directly in the link. Nevertheless we just thought we should put a reply; at least to put things straight.

The poster in question was one "beller b" who runs his own boards.ie sound-alike ************* (b o a r d s i e . c o m) and was perhaps actually barred from boards.ie
(http://boards.ie/vbulletin/archive/index.php/t-2054859814.html). He has been a good friend (and we really did not expect he would post lies like this in the board) and few years ago he came to us asking to develop a content management system so that anyone asking any question on his website (on subjects of security alarms) can be replied/answered by him - and they will be posted real-time on his website. He needed a search facility too (hence needing a database to store contents) on his front-end. And finally he needed people to pay by paypal to get alarm-related manuals (that he supplied to us as PDF files). The work was not huge, we charged him 250 Euro (if we remember correctly - we can check with accounts) which by any Irish standard was a very fair price, and we freely hosted it on our company server for a few months (think it was 3 months). He would come back with a lot of questions; we were extremely patient and at times we would spend more than 3 hours (no financial charges levied on him - please be aware) consulting him about his website. It was then that he wanted to get complete access to the site, we provided him with an FTP account. Then he came up with this idea of ************* (b o a r d s i e . c o m) - wanted to have his ROOT access to our MySQL server so he could install SMF, etc. We politely requested him to purchase a hosting plan (which we sell for less than 50 USD per annum - via namewithus.com) and have his stuff moved away from our server. He did - and that was end of story.

There was another wee problem, when we registered his site - our domain management panel picked up the last domain's account holder details (God forbid us all for being silly at times) which we rectified within 48 business hours.

So what "beller b" told you of spending 250-300 Euros for hosting a website was not so much of portraying the exact truth; it really does not matter as this post has not taken any of our customers away or anything; still it's necessary that the both versions of the story be told and heard in this place.


Kind regards
acubesoftware.com

copacetic

you can reply directly to that thread by clicking on the actual thread link in the archive listing.

acubesoftware

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055128087

comer_97

why are you drawing attention to this. it's an old post that most people will have not read. I've read it now because you linked to it.

let sleeping posts lie...

Ph3n0m

Closed