Continuing problems with Streamlinenet…

Right. I know that I didn’t post up anything about this before, but anyway… I’m posting it now. I’m having problems with the hosts that I signed up for webspace with (Streamlinenet). Basically, the problem is that I signed up for their ‘unlimited user’ package, which including VAT amounts to about £40 per year (£80 for two years, which is what I paid). The reason I bought the webspace (as I’ve said before) was to be able to run a photo gallery type thing and let people upload photos and stuff to it, to replace the current MSN “Campus Crew” photo gallery (where each user has limited space).

I downloaded the gallery software, and installed it — but it wouldn’t run. StreamlineNet have got some PHP functions disabled which means that unfortunately it won’t run. I emailed them about this on Tuesday… I got a response back which wasn’t very helpful. In fact, it was so helpful I’ll post it up here.

Hi Phil,

Thanks for your email.

Unfortunately those functions are disabled for security reasons.

Kind Regards,
Support Department
E-mail: support@streamlinenet.co.uk
Telephone: 08709 22 06 99
Fax: 01283 550119
Website: http://www.streamlinenet.co.uk

—–Original Message—–
From: Sacre, Phillip D [mailto:pdsacr@essex.ac.uk]
Sent: 04 May 2004 19:24
To: Streamlinenet – Support
Subject: RE: site mail: logging in to the control panel

Hi,

Sorry to be a pain, but — I’m trying to run a piece of software called ‘Gallery’, which is an automated gallery type system written in PHP.

The trouble is, it requires some image programs to be run, and every time I try and upload a file I get the error message:

Warning: exec,system,passthru,popen() has been disabled for security reasons in /home/fhlinux196/p/phillsacre.co.uk/user/htdocs/campuscrew/gallery/platform/fs_unix.php on line 34

Would there be any chance of enabling the necessary function just for this?

One of the reasons why I chose an unlimited hosting package was so that we wouldn’t have to worry much about the limits imposed by “free” groups etc, and it’s very handy to have an automated image indexing system.

Regards,

Phill

As you can see, the response wasn’t exactly the most helpful. So, I sent an email to the orders department, asking if it would be possible to have a refund because their servers couldn’t do what I wanted them to. This is the reply I got today.

Hi Phill,

Thanks for your mail.

We are afraid that although we can transfer your domain free of charge. We cannot refund you for this reason. This is because there would be no problem running a photo gallery on our web space.

If you like we can send you some links to web sites that we host that have photo galleries on them.

Any further questions please get in touch…

Kind Regards
Support Department
(etc…)

—–Original Message—–
From: Phillip Sacre [mailto:pdsacr@essex.ac.uk]
Sent: 05 May 2004 12:09
To: ‘StreamlineNet – ORDERS’
Subject: RE: Important info from StreamlineNet

Hi,

I wasn’t entirely sure where to send this email, so sorry if it’s the wrong place!

Basically, the reason I bought webspace with Streamlinenet was to run a photo gallery on the webspace. Unfortunately, it transpires that I am not able to run this on the Streamlinenet webspace (I wasn’t made aware of this before purchasing the webspace).

This means there is very little point continuing with the account! So would it be possible to cancel the account, get a refund and have the IPSTAG on the domain changed back to HOSTEUROPE ?

Regards,

Phill

Sorry to vent, but — the upshot of this is: if you’re considering using StreamlineNet for using Gallery, don’t! They’re not particularly helpful. In fact, I haven’t had fantastic service from them all-round… my current hosts (OpenHosting) I believe will refund any money that is unused if you cancel before the time you’ve paid for. I’m not entirely sure about that though 😉 But not giving a refund is, I think, a tad unforgiving considering I think I have a legitimate grounds for dissatisfaction.

I sent another email back today spelling it out, and if the matter isn’t resolved then this little matter is going to be escalated. £80 is a lot for webspace that you can’t use…

Um, yes. All for now…