[kwlug-disc] Hosts....

Sat Mar 27 11:42:20 EDT 2010

On Sat, Mar 27, 2010 at 11:23 AM, Joe Wennechuk <
youcanreachmehere at hotmail.com> wrote:

>  >>1. Did you research other autoresponders and settle on this one? If so,
> what were the selection criteria that led to this decision.
>
> I researched several. We settled on this one. It is in PHP.
>

The worrying part is using a discontinued part of PHP. You should be wary of
that since it can open security holes in your server.

> It uses ioncube for obfuscation, which I only half understand.
>

Since PHP is distributed in source form by definition, this poses a dilemma
for
commercial applications that don't want their application source to be
exposed.

Ioncube solves this by providing an obfuscator, allowing commercial
applications
written in PHP to be distributed and run without revealing the source.

This is good for the application company, but not so good for you. You can't
inspect
the source of fix problems if they arise.

The criteria was that it run on our servers IIS6 PHP4, ASP. My boss is a
> hard core windows person.
>

OK, so that is the first data point: Windows has to be the platform by boss
mandate.

> >>Again, Mailman is a great candidate here
> http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/index.html
> This looks great, omni mailer is okay as well, but again I don't want to
> have this hodgepodge of different technologies; that are hard to setup in
> windows( I'm not sure my host would do it anyway ), to keep track of. It
> seems that the bosses requirement of using ASP and building up the existing
> site might have to go.
>

Mailman is Python, not ASP. I have not checked if it runs under Windows.

But your/he are already using PHP for omnimail. So the "has to be ASP" seems
not to be an absolute.

>>2. Are you happy with Windows/IIS/ASP as a platform, or were you forced to
> use them because of ASP? Do you want to use Linux here, but you are hampered
> by ASP being the blocker?
>
> I don't really like the windows platform. I am inheriting this. The problem
> being that my boss wrote the site from scratch using asp. I'm sure he has
> invested a lot of time and effort, and doesn't want to see it wasted. Now he
> has hired me to keep the site going, as well as, add a lot of  functionality
> like automailer, and he wants me to put in a authenticated download site
> with different folders for each user that uses http not ftp.He also seems
> completely attached to the current look and feel of his site. I just feel
> that I am putting band aids on stuff. At what point do you cut your losses,
> and move to a proper CMS? How do I break the news to him?  I showed him a
> Drupal site I've been playing with on my laptop. I would like to show him
> some good drupal sites that are in production (any suggestions?).
>

Writing an automailer in ASP should not be that hard. ASP itself is not
really hard.

Yo can still do it in PHP (which your boss is not opposed to, it seems), but
use PHP 5.2. Look into how Drupal does the auto reply in the contact module,
and go from there.
Or ignore Drupal altogether, and use the PHP mail function directly.

http://php.net/manual/en/function.mail.php

This way you don't run a bad PHP version.

>>Should I switch hostng companies?
>
> >>Because they are ones providing you with omnimailer? NO
> Why?
> No It's because I can't change Folder/File permissions myself ( My boss
> says it's for Windows security reasons ) every time I need to change a
> permission I have to send an email with the requested changes and it takes
> anywhere from 1-4 hours. I made a couple of mistakes  setting up omnimailer
> ., and had to re do some stuff, and it's taking me days to do what should
> take hours, or even minutes. Also I needed to run a cron job for omnimailer
> that uses wget, and windows doesn't have cron, or wget, So I had to go find
> wget for windows and send it to them and explain that on windows cron is
> called scheduled task. It's like I have to spoon feed them. So 8 hours and 6
> emails later my tasks are running. It is frustrating.
>

I will let someone who hosts on Windows comment on this one, whether it is
standard
operating procedure to have that, or that this host is bad.

>
>
> Joseph Wennechuk
> ________________
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2010 23:09:07 -0400
> From: kb at 2bits.com
> To: kwlug-disc at kwlug.org
> Subject: Re: [kwlug-disc] Hosts....
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 26, 2010 at 1:08 PM, Joe Wennechuk <
> youcanreachmehere at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>  I am setting up an autoresponder called omnimailer. It is in php running
> on Windows 2003 Server standard edition, the version of IIS is 6.0. The PHP
> version running on the server is 4.3.6.
>
>
> PHP 4.x HAS BEEN DISCONTINUED. You should really be using PHP 5.2.x now.
>
> http://php.net/releases/index.php
>
>
> Th site is in asp and html and written in frontpage. I need to upload my
> whole customer database to the site for marketing campaigns.
>
>
> Before we can answer these questions, let us step back a bit and find out
> some parameters:
>
> 1. Did you research other autoresponders and settle on this one? If so,
> what were the selection criteria that led to this decision.
>
> 2. Are you happy with Windows/IIS/ASP as a platform, or were you forced to
> use them because of ASP? Do you want to use Linux here, but you are hampered
> by ASP being the blocker?
>
>
> Are there any security issues surrounding the customer data being
> comprimised by an attacker?
>
>
> One possible attack vector is PHP 4, which we know is old.
>
>
> Should I switch hostng companies?
>
>
> Why?
>
> Because they are ones providing you with omnimailer?
>
> Need more info here.
>
> How would linux LAMP server handle frontpage extensions?
>
>
> Frontpage extensions are simply for uploading web pages to your servers, as
> well as some rudimentary macro facilities.
>
> Apache has an extension for FrontPage, but now in the date and age of
> content management system, this is an antiquated method of doing things.
>
>
> What are the options for migrating this site to linux?
>
>
> Well, there are ways to run ASP under Apache, but as with all technologies
> that are Microsoft they will keep changing the goalposts and it will not be
> pretty chasing the ever changing APIs (e.g. WINE, Mono, ...etc.)
>
> Consider using something totally free and open that does autoresponding and
> be done with it.
>
> Again, Mailman is a great candidate here
> http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/index.html
>
> It powers this very KWLUG mailing list that we are communicating on ...
> --
> Khalid M. Baheyeldin
> 2bits.com, Inc.
> http://2bits.com
> Drupal optimization, development, customization and consulting.
> Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. --  Edsger W.Dijkstra
> Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. --   Leonardo da Vinci
>
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>
>

-- 
Khalid M. Baheyeldin
2bits.com, Inc.
http://2bits.com
Drupal optimization, development, customization and consulting.
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. --  Edsger W.Dijkstra
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. --   Leonardo da Vinci
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