Exposing PIPEX PIPEX supply broadband and rated tenth (just above demon) in the August 2006 WHICH? review of ADSL providers. They also supply other services and have used thie spending powers to obtain smaller ISPs and company names. However it is the story of thier use of two smaller names that rises the issue here. As WebFusion (the hosting company) they attempt to trick costomers into signing over to 123-reg also held by PIPEX. Sneaky. This is how they do it. The target of this scam appears to be limited to customers with their own domain names not held by PIPEX. Customers purchasing a VPS (Virtual Private Server) are leaned upon heavily to purchase a domain name via thier systems. However hidden almost totally is the option to use your own. If you choose this option you will be sent an email telling you to point your domain to thier name servers (owned and operated in the name of another company owned by PIPEX). They also use the DNS system to look up who your registrar is and they tell you (one assumes they think you might have difficulty coping with this).

Primary Server Hostname : ns.hosteurope.com Primary Server Netaddress : 212.67.202.2 Secondary Server Hostname : ns2.hosteurope.com Secondary Server Netaddress : 212.67.203.246

A name server is simply a computer that tells you where to find the site that has (domain) the name. You need a minumum of two which should be at two different physical locations. Generally shared hosting of all levels right up to and including VPS and beyond to managed hosting and even co-location is supported by the ISP providing Domain Name Servers to ease entry into the DNS system. However, when Matt B signed up he had to wait four days to get this email and as he was unable to do so immeadietly left it a few days. After all it should not effect the rest of the set up process as the root IP address could still be used for set-up administrtion. Matt set the domain name servers (two) and waited a few days with the ability to access his domain. In the mean time he had gotten another email that said:

Login Details: Your IP address is https://212.241.196.217 To manage your websites, configure applications and examine web statistics, access your Plesk Control Panel at https://212.241.196.217:8443 Your username is root Your server password is gHSXDbNx To manage and monitor resources, reboot/backup or restore your VPS Server, access your Virtuozzo Control Panel at https://212.241.196.217:4643 Your username is administrator Your server password is gHSXDbNx

Matt tried to log in with these details. However, he discoved the first in what was to be a long line of failures. The login attempts failed. He emailed back and asked what was going on. He waited all day for an answer but none came. LAte in the afternoon the next day an email arrived. It directed him to phone a number for the other side of the country. After spending a long while on hold he was told that the usernames were wrong and that he needed to use different usernames. He was told these and was able to log in. The system propmted him to change passwords and enter the domain name (the one he entered when he signed up and that they had emailed him about). He did all this and after filling in forms for an hour was able to use the control panel which is the standard control panel called PLESK. PLESK allows you to set up new domains and subdomains and his sign up had a license for a very generouse limit of domains. More than Matt felt he could ever use. Matt naturally expected to be able to add domains and subdomains to his server. He was able to add them and this was all good. However he was unable to use them. He email PIPEX and the next day they replied:

Apologies for the missing dns record, this is now created and your website should start working within 24-48 hours after dns propogation has taken place. Chris Day, WebFusion Support

However the second domain he had added and the sub domains did not work. He wrote to them to ask if this was a limit with PLESK. While waiting for a reply Matt spoke to someone from RACKSPACE who also use plesk. The salesman had never heard of such a problem and assured him that thier technicians would write a fix themselves if such a problem existed. Matt assumed therefore that this was a set-up error. However the replys became increasingly shirty and condisending and the con started. It was now 10 days since the purchase and so far the product had been impossibble to use. (NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE!) The next day he was told.

Typically when a domain is oredered (sic) with a vps the domain is registered by ourselves and the dns record is set up automatically, in this case it appears the domain was allready registered and you changed the nameservers as described in the welcome email, alongside this a dns zone file needed creating, this is not obvious from the welcome email. We are currently working with the marketing department to improve the quality of this welcome email. Chris Day WebFusion Support

Matt tried to find out more about this file issue. He was not aware of this being an issue with any other ISP and as a Managing Director of an IT compnay felt he would probably know about such an issue.

I have been liaising with our technical support team about the problems you have been having. The VPS account you have is problem free and is working fine. All you need is to move your domain names into an account with a domain management company. You can use our company by going to www.123-reg.co.uk or any domain management company. Once you move your domain names in their, you can change all nameservers etc. through the control panel. The difficulty you are having is because your domain name are not managed through a domain management company and I am sure you will find it easier once this is done. The VPS account is fine. If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to get in contact with me, Best Wishes Naveed Riasat PIPEX Hosting Customer Services

This seems all well and good untill you realise that there is no such thing as a "domain management company" - Google the term and you will get nothing of worth. Matt could see no reason to move from godaddy with whome he was already able to change domain name server information as required and had infact already done so. In fact you can not "own" a domain name without an ICANN or Nominet registration (depending on the TLD you wih to use) which makes you a registrar. All such domainn name sellers are registered or resell for some one who is registered. Making Naveed Riasat's comments utter non-sense. When Matt objected to being treated like a fool the house of cards fell down.

The VPS system is a server, DNS and its configuration are dealt with before the domain hits the server. This means the domain can be controled by our systems or by any other domain name host. It cant be automated totally since some domain names wont be on our system and more importantly legally we are not allowed to make changes to DNS information with out an official request from the owner of the domain (either through a control panel or fax with signature). Nigel Cowie, WebFusion Support

Matt was quite supprised as he had given such permission when he added the domain via the PLESK control panel.

I understand that you have had difficulty with the configuration. I feel it important to point out that the system you have signed up to is not managed and so you are the administrator of the server. if the sites go down we would not know about it unless you informed us (although the hardware is monitored). If this is not what you thought you have singed up for I'd recomend contacting customer services with details of your issues. I'm sure you understand that ther eare (sic) complexities in automation especially when control over specifics involves integration between many seperate companies which in general would be competitors. Even if the VPS could be configured to amend details to suit your transfer needs we would recieve an equal amount of complaints for removing the functionality to make the change manually. Many customers point parts of a domain to a vps and the other records elsewhere etc. complaints should be directed to customer services, we are a professional company and will not affect your data in any way regardless of your complaints. I would encourage constructive feed back to be made in this way so our company can try to improve our service to you the customer. Issues with servers are inevitable, your webspace could be affected by something you do, something a hacker does, something failing (hardware) etc. We always do our best to resolve issues asap. Our ticket queue is currently very small and I couldnt see any other open incidents on your ...issue, please re-send the issue on that and I will do my best to find the solution for you asap. Nigel Cowie WebFusion Support

Yes we had trouble following the point too. It seems that Nigel is suggesting that Matt is too stupid to use a VPS and that the problems with the domain zone files are his fault Matt assumed that he would be required to send an email request for the zone file to be added to the domain name servers for each domain and sub domain. Changes that Nigel had just claimed could only be made if the istruction be given "either through a control panel or fax with signature" Matt queried this and object to the tone of the previouse message. He also objected to the attempted con-trick where they tried to get him to move all his domains to them so that the DNS system would work. The answer came back:

Please find the answers to your questions below... To make a domain point to your vps you need to perform the following simple steps. 1) buy the required domain name (with any domain hosting company) 2) point the domain name to the Domain name hosting companies (the one your purchased the domain name from) name servers (please note, we only add zone files to our name servers for the orriginal main domain name). 3) create a zone file (either manually or request support to do it) on the name server which directs all records to your vps. (this would be the name server you pointed the above domain name to) 4) add the domain to plesk with the settings you require. 24 hours after the changes on the name servers and the domain name have been completed the domain should point to the vps and the vps webserver (apache or IIS) will direct traffic to your public folders for the website you set up. Nigel Cowie, WebFusion Support

The problem that was not being addressed was how a zone file was to be created on a computer that Matt had no access to. It was begining to appear that PIPEX did not know the answer and they had therefore misadvertised what was available by promoting the fact that the well known control panel PLESK was installed as standard. It was not unreasonable to assume that automated control over DNS records, zone files and name servers would be included in the package as it is with all other hosting ISPs. But Nigel was not finished in his rant this time.

Please also note that webfusion are not a domain hosting company, we are a web hosting company. For more information on the scope of support for your platform please see the link below... http://support.webfusion.co.uk/view.cgi?id=655&menuopen=2,7 Nigel Cowie, WebFusion Support

It was now clear that this Nigel was not going to answer any questions and was infact dodging the issue compleatly. In addition to ignoring the objections to the tone of his messages Nigel chose to talk down to Matt and treat him like an idiot to mask his lack of a good answer to the rip-off trick being attempted by PIPEX.

The management of the DNS information and how it works can easily be located on the internet, if you search google.co.uk, or view http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page for general education on dns and its configuration.

Having mentioned at length his level of education and possition with his company Matt was extreamly offended by this remark. It was now cristal clear that PIPEX were going to attempt to make him believe that the domain names needed to be managed by 123-reg in order to use the PIPEX VPS. They would then beable to charge him what-ever they wished to renew the domains and potentially charge him a great deal to get control of them back. (Namsco limited are also famouse for a similar trick which they used when they purchased Simply.com a while back). Not wishing to be tacken for a fool nor wishing to pay secondry "taxes" for the VPS system Matt knew he was going to need to start demanding a refund. However as the email ended it was clear that PIPEX were going to attempt to use the contract terms to terminate the account without giving a refund.

We have attempted to be polite and informative in our responses to you however your replies back have been offensive and far from constructive. I will now forward this message to my team leader for review under the terms and conditions for abuse. Kind regards, Nigel Cowie WebFusion Support PIPEX

Well, Matt knew that a refund was going to be a slim liklihood and was only pleased that he had purchased via credit card. This gives Matt added insurence protection under British Law. It remains to be seen some 13 days after the purchase if a refund will be forthcoming. The odds of obtaining interest to cover the costs of using the credit card are slim and compensation for being messed about are extreamly unlikly. UK Law needs to toughen up on ISPs who are currently a law unto themselves. 

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