A couple of questions about suspending free accounts.

[laburnum]

I have a free account and, after around a month of inactivity, I was e-mailed to say it would be suspended if I didn't log in. I logged in to avoid this but the same message appeared a few days later. I logged in again and successfully stopped the account from being suspended this time.

I logged in just a few days ago knowing that this same message was due to appear again if I didn't. However, the message *didn't* come but my account got suspended without warning. I had to follow the instructions to unsuspend it.
Why is the account being suspended like this? What am I doing wrong?

Also, if I have a stable website that needs no maintenance for months but is still accessed regularly, will the account still be under threat of suspension?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Dead-i]

Hi laburnum,

The only way of stopping your account being suspended is by logging in to https://x10hosting.com/sso/login

Accounts are suspended if the account owner has not logged in there within 31 days. You do not need to take any action after logging in.

Unfortunately, accessing your website does not contribute to the activity requirement.

Thank you,

 

[laburnum]

Thanks, but I did log in to that address a couple of days before the account was suspended and was asking why it didn't stop the account being suspended.

 

[tonynadi]

These types of systems administration functions are usually baked into Linux. This means that the login page, before you are recorded as logged in, the system will update your "last seen" or "last access" record. I've never seen Linux, nor a cPanel environment, fail to do this, AND still let you log in.

 

[laburnum]

I'll see if it repeats this behaviour next month. If it does then there must be something wrong with the system or perhaps it takes a while for the login record to propagate through the system and be available to the account monitor.

I can't really use a system like this for any live app (no matter how small). Other free websites I have set up have been running for years with no maintenance. Occasionally I get an e-mail asking if the site is still needed and a reply to that e-mail is sufficient to stop the account and site being removed.

 

[gill_yermaw82]

If those other free hosts were as reliable as this one, why change? Logging in once a month isn't a big ask.

 

[laburnum]

They don't offer scripting or database functions or I would and it's quite easy to forget to log in once a month when there is no warning given.

 

[gill_yermaw82]

You could pay for hosting or set a reminder to log in, it only takes 30 seconds to hit the bookmark and sign in.

 

[caftpx10]

They don't offer scripting or database functions or I would and it's quite easy to forget to log in once a month when there is no warning given.

What do you mean by this? You can use PHP and MySQL on free hosting accounts.

 

[bdistler]

If those other free hosts were as reliable as this one, why change?

They don't offer scripting or database functions or I would...

###

What do you mean by this? You can use PHP and MySQL on free hosting accounts.

not all hosts offer "PHP and MySQL" with their free-hosting accounts

 

[caftpx10]

not all hosts offer "PHP and MySQL" with their free-hosting accounts

Oh. No. I was talking about on X10Hosting.

 

[laburnum]

Yes, that's why I wanted to try out X10hosting as they offer those features. But the project I was thinking about is not that important and will require a bit of work on my part so is on the back burner for now.

And Gill, they already send a reminder after the 1st month of inactivity so why don't they continue sending reminders? The code is already there to do that job, and they should be aiming to make customers happy if there is any chance that the customer might upgrade to a non-free service in the future.

 

[gill_yermaw82]

I get reminders on the rare occasions that I get near the deadline without having logged in, check your junk mail. Fact is, the free hosting service is fine for most folk, so some will start paying purely so they don't have to log in once a month, some will pay as a thank you to x10. It is a free hosting account that lets you do what you require, but you need to spend 30 seconds of your month logging on to a website to show that you're wanting to keep the account active. Not a big ask, so you'll have to excuse me for saying this, but your complaint seems a bit whiny and ungrateful.

The rule used to be that you had to log in to the Community, not just your account, so the requirement is actually less now than when I signed up. Imagine the horror of having to visit the x10 site, click sign in, auto complete saving me from valuable seconds of typing, and then having to click Visit Community, auto complete saving valuable seconds again. Makes you wonder why so many people use the host, eh? [/sarcasm]

 

[tonynadi]

I get reminders on the rare occasions that I get near the deadline without having logged in, check your junk mail. Fact is, the free hosting service is fine for most folk, so some will start paying purely so they don't have to log in once a month, some will pay as a thank you to x10. It is a free hosting account that lets you do what you require, but you need to spend 30 seconds of your month logging on to a website to show that you're wanting to keep the account active. Not a big ask, so you'll have to excuse me for saying this, but your complaint seems a bit whiny and ungrateful.

The rule used to be that you had to log in to the Community, not just your account, so the requirement is actually less now than when I signed up. Imagine the horror of having to visit the x10 site, click sign in, auto complete saving me from valuable seconds of typing, and then having to click Visit Community, auto complete saving valuable seconds again. Makes you wonder why so many people use the host, eh? [/sarcasm]

...well I've been active in community helping others, While trying and waiting to get help on a relatively easy mod_security fix. Its been a week. The fix is one that nearly every new account encounters (403 error), and I still don't have a functional site.
I can't wait anymore... a week on a free host that doesn't work, isn't a host, it's a time-sinking brick.

 

[laburnum]

Excuse me Gill, but I am not whining. If you look at the initial question I was simply asking why it was behaving like it does and thought I was doing something wrong. I wasn't even looking for a solution to it. Then you gave me some advice which, quite frankly, was not helpful at all since I will have to do what you said, regardless. I then followed up with some constructive criticism on how customer satisfaction may be improved. What X10hosting does with that criticism is entirely up to them. I am not here to argue or whine and I'm quite happy to let the matter rest here.

 

[Dead-i]

Hi,

Thank you for your feedback. We are always interested in how to improve our service.

I've tested the inactivity system on my own account, and I can't see any problems with the inactivity warning emails. I was sent two emails to warn me my account was nearing the end of the inactivity period, and a final email to inform me my account was suspended. I'm not so sure what would have caused the emails to get lost.

In any case, this thread seems to be swiftly going off-topic. Since @laburnum's original question has been answered, I'm going to lock this topic.

@laburnum: If you have any further questions, please create a new thread.

Thank you,