My experiance

[Thomas]

I have to say, that the response times are outstanding. However, what does it matter when the issues remains unresolved.

It's now my second day into using these webhosting services. I signed up and moved my site over because of good reviews and support for ffmpeg.

I am still arguing back and forth after two days about things that should be trivial at startup and that I should not have to bother with. I shouldn't have to bother with support for file upload from html forms and file/folder manipulations like rename,move via php scripts, but I can not upload video and pictures with anything less than chmod 777 of the folders and it still doesn't work. The advice I'm getting is to talk with my programmer, when the transfer of files and folders to the new server should be transparent and have worked just fine with all other webhosts I've evaluated. Advising me to chmod files and folders to 777 is just crazy!!!! !What on earth are you thinking?

MySql 4.1.21 also has bugs with the use of DISTINCT, which I am refered to cpanel to resolve myself. Ok, I'll add some extra pressure. I'm sure my voice will be heard....

Then ontop of all, ffmpeg doesn't work any longer. I'm reassured it's installed properly, but my scripts works no longer. A simple

<?php
extension_loaded('/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg') or die("ffmpeg extension not loaded");
?>

with or without path results in ffmpeg extension not loaded. Whats going on? I got the path from support staff.

This is just the first couple of days of issues. Needless to say, my site is not functional without full upload support during form postings, which includes video encoding and picture manipulations on the fly.

I have one more day to spend with this nonsens before I have to renew my domain name. My patience is running thin and I will not spend another day being tossed back and forth with no resolution to the problems at the server side. If you can't fix it, just say so. I'll move on somewhere else.

I'm no expert on webhosting and I understand many things can go wrong. However, I've not had these kinda problems with akiraweb or domain direct. This situation is not acceptable and I can't imagine other customers are amused either.

Please advise if the Cirtex team will work promptly together with me to get the server side issues resolved or not. Please don't waste any more of my time.

I think this time spent on this nonsens is unfortunate. My site has been growing fast and I was looking forward to a host that could accommodate my needs as the site continue to grow and as the site continue to improve adding new features.

Kind regards
Thomas

[Cirtex Admin]

Hi Thomas

Your script needs to be checked by your programmer, it seems to be a homebrew php script using the ffmpeg function and it is very buggy. There was 10+ simultaneous ffmpeg processes hanging from your script and thus killed them all and they were causing server load to spike from 1-10+ on a new server.

We did not tell you to chmod 777 entire folder, your FORM was giving error for validation2.phtml in the end of submission which was the only file we chmodded 777 and made it start working and we told you to check with your programmer.

Unfortunately we're only the web host and our job is to make sure everything is setup correctly and working. We've already went out of our way to troubleshoot and try to modify script to work for you and we ended up just having to chmod the file 777 in order for it to work properly.

The small MySQL4 Bug is with cPanel and it is in cPanel's Bugzilla which they will address soon by updating mysql4 in their system. Your script is faulty and it needs work, if you wish for some contacts I'll gladly recommend some php programmers for you.

Other than that feel free to contact us if you have any discontents or feedbacks. If you wish I can also provide refund if you need. Not all hosts are the same and each have their own unique configurations but to really troubleshoot your issue, please talk to your programmer first before putting the blame on us.

Cheers

[Thomas]

Perhaps it's buggy homebrew php scripts with lots of room for improvements. However, the serverside issue with the folder tree remains unresolved and has very little to do with homebrews or even moonshine. The scripts do not have permission to rename and move files eventhough path and chmod are correct. In fact, I couldn't even write to the folders from the windows ftp client.

Warning: imagejpeg() [function.imagejpeg]: Unable to open './Pictures/60cs.jpg' for writing in /home/justtcom/public_html/validation2.phtml on line 201

Warning: rename(./Pictures/60cs.jpg,./Pictures/Michigan/48039/0/0.jpg) [function.rename]: No such file or directory in /home/justtcom/public_html/validation2.phtml on line 294

Warning: fopen(./Pictures/60cs.jpg) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/justtcom/public_html/validation2.phtml on line 297
can't open file

The above after your so called "fix" by chmod 777. Unreal.We might as well tell the whole world to take a look at it.

60cs.jpg does not exist because the temp file could not be saved to the folder. The recursive creation of folders did not execute because of the issue with the folders created at upload of the site not allowing to write to them.

I'm done. I continue to get feedback everything is alright on the serverside, when it is not. The Cirtex team does simply not dig deeply enough into the issue to get it resolved or perhaps it's just ignorance and lack of accountability.

I'm sure ffmpeg was running seeing the issues. It's interesting to know that the server load peeks after only 10 paralell processes of ffmpeg.....

Good luck with the webhosting. I hope others will have better success than I did. Try your new server setup before you dedicate it to customers. We can not afford to be ginneypigs.

Kind regards
Thomas

[Cirtex Admin]

Hi Thomas

I'm not trying to put the blame on you but please do consult with your programmer first, we host hundreds of different video sharing sites with varying scripts/systems with using ffmpeg, mencoder, mplayer etc.

The files you mentioned were chowned to user nobody:nobody for some reason probably due to transfer or improper permission of files and I have fixed that. This also happens if you use a PHP Uploader to upload the files and it can incorrectly place ownership of files, that's how most hosts are setup for php4 + php5.

You're not a "ginneypig" and I'm truly sorry if you felt that way but please do not expect us to Recode your script as PHP Programmers charge $10+/hr of work and you're on a $4.99/mo hosting plan, we already went out of our way to try and troubleshoot it for you but there was nothing wrong on our server side and we just chmodded 777 the validate2.php file and it started working and I'm truly sorry you're so dissatisfied.

I've went ahead and made a backup for you of your account inside your FTP and send a refund your way for the hosting.
Good luck with your new host, you have 7 days to move off of our hosting and let us know once it is off of our server and we'll cancel + terminate account.

Cheers

[Thomas]

Thanks for the prompt responses. That part of your service has been outstanding.

Please delete my account. I've moved back to domaindirect for the time being. Everything works perfect there. Unfortunately no support for ffmpeg, but at least picture upload and saving to disk works just fine. I would have stayed here to work out the issues if just the picture upload would have worked here too, but I got no resolution to the issue in a timely manner. I never asked for support to write scripts nor was it necessary to fix the issue with file upload from a simple form.

Yours sincerely
Thomas

[Cirtex Admin]

Hi Thomas

It's been our pleasure serving you, I'm sorry your script did not work out with our server configuration but I'm pretty sure there was just some difference in PHP settings between your old host and us and your programmer had it set to work with them but if you contacted your programmer to check I'm sure he would've resolved issue. Anyhow good luck with your project and you have our best wishes!

Refund sent and account closed. If you have any further questions feel free to private message me here on the forums directly.

Take care and have a good one Thomas.