Hosting companies

[TheWebDoctor(tm)]

I'm looking for opinions on this practice. Bare in mind I DON'T do this, but I know of a company that does.

A hosting company I know of is taking space on client hosting accounts and putting a mirror of the hosting company's site in a subdirectory of the hosting account. Then apparently linking to that subdirectory in some manner, I haven't researched this part yet, so that they can get an increase in links and PR back to their main site.

In my opinion this is unethical and illegal. How can this be reported to the SEs? How can the press learn about this activity? How can we let those hosting account clients know they are being mistreated, cheated, and having the resources they purchase stolen?

Again, I'm certainly not stupid enough to do this and I find it distasteful. I will not post the company's address in the forum and hope that no one else does this as it would add a link to them they do not deserve.

If you're a press member, feel free to PM me.

[cyanide]

That is pretty brutal.

I would love to know who this is?
Large or small.

[matauri]

Another similar practice I have seen is..

Instead of having a proper 404 file (which generates the "missing page" message when page not found), hosts taking advantage of clients by generating a mirror of their hompage when a page isn't found.

Which reinforces.... if you have the option of setting up your own 404 page...do it! Or try not to have any missing files (but it happens to all of us sometimes). Test your host, call up a wrong named file/page & see what 404 page it generates.

Hosts are in the game of making money like everyone else, some more unscrupulous than others. Your role shouldnt be in helping them do that, you already do by either paying them a subscription or providing an avenue to generate advertising revenue (If its a free site). Dont let yourself be exploited for your vulnerabilities any more than you have to.

And if you think that your host has shady practices...there is nothing stopping you from finding another one, in fact its recommended.

<<edit: oops...changed to 404...but relevent to any of the error pages>>

Cindy

[minstrel]

You mean "404 Not Found", don't you, rather than "401 Unauthorized"?

[brandblast]

Whoever this hosting company is it should be revealed, or you should at least notify the client that is having his data transfer and web space allocations stolen.

We hear horror stories like this everyday from clients switching to us, companies like that increase the anxiety of online business owners dependant on a host for their business success.

Congress should provide web based business owners legal recourse against their host in cases such as this.

The internet is still young and still many changes will come, until then the best advice is to research, reasearch, research your hosting provider thoroughly before choosing.