WARNING TO ALL CONSIDERING DREAMHOST W/FPSE

After a month of back and forth with support (and i use that term VERY loosely, because they are as supportive as a jockstrap formed from playdoh) and my site still completely unfunctional, i received the following message today on day 45:

'I searched several forums and could not find a solution. At this time we are no longer providing support for FrontPage server extensions. Since there will never be another update to the software and it will never work on Apache2. We know this is unfortunate for users that rely on the FPSE, but we can't provide support without the software. Therefor, any feature that's not working, we're not going to make any server changes to attempt to make it work. If you have any additional questions, please let us know.'

<This 'response' arrived after 17 days of no replies to my previous request. >

If this is true, I would strongly advise DH to stop advertising FP as a hosting option to new users.

IAmAtMyWitsEnd

Just out of curiosity, did you ask to be moved to an apache 1.3 instance?

--rlparker

Perhaps we could recommend that they update their website to be even more discouraging of those seeking to host a FrontPage site at DreamHost:

In reply to:
All DreamHost plans support Microsoft FrontPage Extensions, however you must first enable this option from your account control panel. Also note, if you turn on FP Extensions your CGI scripts will no longer work. Microsoft FrontPage is a somewhat popular web-publishing program that we do not recommend you use. We recommend buying a book on HTML or using CityDesk. The "extensions" are basically little interactive elements you can include in your site when designing it in FrontPage. You don't need the extensions turned on just to use FrontPage to make your site. As long as you aren't using any extensions, your site will be fine without them. Turning on FrontPage Extensions for a site can actually take a couple of days because your site will be moved to another server with a new IP, so you'll need to wait for the DNS change to propagate.

Frontpage support everywhere will be going away. It will just be another sad chapter in Microsoft's web support. Microsoft has some really great ideas, but if you start to depend on one of their dogs, woe will follow as they won't hesitate to abandon you (I've been abandoned a couple of times).

So perhaps they mean they support Frontpage to the extent that anyone on the planet will be able to given that the product is being sunsetted.

Anyway, I do sympathize with your predicament and hope you find a solution somewhere. I do hope DH makes their FrontPage support even more clear on their site.

What were you using FrontPage extensions for? Somebody here may be able to recomend an alternative that probably works just as good or better anyway.

You can still use frontpage to design your site, as long as you don't use any of the special features that require the extensions.
I started out using frontpage when I first started. I never once used the extensions.
But the version I had was old and did not support css very well. In fact it made my decision to switch to notepad that much easier.
Silk

My website

I have a client who uses FP E, and I'm not looking forward to dealing with teaching them an other program. I don't think much of the program personally, but the client has been making it work for them for some years now.

Out of curiosity, what was the problem that prompted you to contact support?

--Matttail
art.googlies.net - personal website

He is trying to use subwebs.

http://www.webcom.com/help/frontpage/subwebs.shtml
http://www.outfront.net/tutorials_02/fp_techniques/frontpage-subwebs.htm

"Please note: effective June 30, 2006 the Microsoft FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions for UNIX have been End-of-Lifed."

We do still have front page extensions installed, but anything that doesn't work with the current version will never work. WitsEnd, you are welcome to a refund if you like. I'll see to it that the website more clearly states the current state of FrontPage on unix.

Michael,

With all due respect, I do not believe I SHARED that information (creating subwebs) with anybody as of the writing of this post and I do not recall giving you permission to share it either.

<We do still have front page extensions installed, but anything that doesn't work with the current version will never work. WitsEnd, you are welcome to a refund if you like. I'll see to it that the website more clearly states the current state of FrontPage on unix.>

Creating sub-webs HAVE and STILL do work with even older FPSE - I have been working with them for over 9 years concurrently on three different hosting systems (RackSpace/1and1/DreamHost) with never a problem (even with DH); however, after the mess that DH suffered in June (all of the outtages/DDoS/whatever) it has never been stable since. I am not interested in a refund, I simply want you to fix the problem at hand...In the future, I would strongly advise you to never share a third parties information without their prior consent - as a 'honcho', you should definitely have known better.

fyi, I use NVU, Dreamweaver, NotePad and FrontPage to create my websites - whichever I feel most comfortable with from a day to day basis....and I sincerely do not appreciate the tone of some regarding FP....I have been very successful with my sites and FP and I do not appreciate attempts to belittle those that still use it....there are more than you think

IAmAtMyWitsEndEdited by IAmAtMyWitsEnd on 08/06/07 07:32 PM (server time).

In reply to:
and I sincerely do not appreciate the tone of some regarding FP....I have been very successful with my sites and FP and I do not appreciate attempts to belittle those that still use it....there are more than you think

I'm sorry, but there is no possible way you can put a positive spin on FrontPage. It has always been crap. It may have been clever enough to help ignorant people make websites, but the sites that it produced were hideous examples of bloated, invalid markup and proprietary rubbish. Even the most recent versions were amateurish fumbles into the realm of WYSIWYG web design compared to things like Dreamweaver.

99.9% of WYSIWYG editors are crap, and FrontPage was the worst example of the breed. I am, of course, excluding anything that produces a web page with the dreaded "Save As HTML" option - such things never should have existed at all.

-- si-blog --

In reply to:
With all due respect, I do not believe I SHARED that information (creating subwebs) with anybody as of the writing of this post and I do not recall giving you permission to share it either.

Hmmm.. that's interesting. He didn't "share" your "communications", or "quote" you, he "shared" that you were having problems with FP and subwebs. I think there is a significant difference, though I understand that you feel differently- meh, no "harm" appears to be intended or suffered, so I say "no foul". wink

In reply to:
I am not interested in a refund, I simply want you to fix the problem at hand

That's pretty obvious, I think. That does not, however, mean that DreamHost has to "fix the problem" at all - they can "just say no" and you can host FP sites somewhere else. It's *their* business, after all, and the ToS makes that very clear.

In reply to:
I sincerely do not appreciate the tone of some regarding FP....I have been very successful with my sites and FP and I do not appreciate attempts to belittle those that still use it....there are more than you think.

I think I know exactly how you feel!

I sincerely do not appreciate the tone of some regarding my brand of motorcycle....I have been very successful with my motorcycle riding trips and my brand of motorcycle and I do not appreciate attempts to belittle those that still use it....there are more than you think. wink

--rlparker

In reply to:
my brand of motorcycle

Which is?

-- si-blog --

In reply to:
Hmmm.. that's interesting. He didn't "share" your "communications", or "quote" you, he "shared" that you were having problems with FP and subwebs. I think there is a significant difference, though I understand that you feel differently- meh, no "harm" appears to be intended or suffered, so I say "no foul".

Well, I suspect that Michael was trying to address the two or three people who all asked "What feature in FPSE is the OP trying to use that doesn't seem to work any more?"

At that point in time, since this is the "General Troubleshooting" forum where peers are ostensibly here to try to help solve technical problems, it was very helpful of Michael to provide the key piece of information that would have allowed people to be able to help with debugging or the finding of alternatives.

I think that it's a bit rude to accuse someone who's trying to help the people who were trying to help you of violating your privacy by naming the technical features of a product you were having trouble with when you posted in a technical support forum. Illogical as well. But really a sign that you're upset and feeling picked on. I say this not to try to make you feel worse or to argue about it, but just to tell Michael that I'd hate to see others hurt by you not trying to help us help each other.

I do admit a bias against the "yelling in the hotel lobby" crowd, so you should take my opinion in balance to that.

In reply to:
Which is?

Which is, actually, irrelevant to the point I was trying to make. Since you ask, however, I have always liked Honda, as well as Motoguzzi, BMW,and Triumph. My current scoot is 12 year old Honda Shadow 1100. wink

--rlparker

In reply to:
I have always liked Honda, as well as Motoguzzi, BMW,and Triumph. My current scoot is 12 year old Honda Shadow 1100.

I loved my KMX-125 (Kawasaki), but my all-time favorite was the BMW R 1200 RT.

-- si-blog --

WARNING TO ALL CONSIDERING DREAMHOST W/FPSE