Confusing Advice - Outbound Port Opening, Shared Windows Plan happy with handling.

[eye7]

The following exchange of messages shows what happened when I tried to find out if Hostgator allowed outbound ports to be opened on shared Windows hosting plans with a dedicated IP address (I need this as I have IP CCTV cameras). (By the way – the final answer is that they don't). I am posting this because I wasted a lot of time thanks to the unbelievable confusion amongst Hostgator staff as to what the correct answer was, as you will see, and I want to avoid other people wasting time like I did:


Dear Hostgator – can you open outbound ports on Windows shared hosting?


2 June 2011 Hostgator Live Chat – answer is "YES"


Your question is, "Hello - I am looking for economical hosting but with these features: windows, asp, server-side includes, outgoing xmlhttp requests to ports other than 80 (i.e. outgoing ports opened) control panel, managed (i.e. I don't have to manage the server and set it all up), mySQL. Can you offer a package that does this? "


(04:28:50 AM) Andrew Ni: Welcome to HostGator Live Chat.
(04:34:28 AM) Andrew Ni: You would want a Windows dedicated server for that.
(04:35:18 AM) Michael: can I do that via your Windows hosting + dedicated IP address?
(04:36:33 AM) Andrew Ni: You just need outbound ports opened?
(04:36:55 AM) Michael: that's correct
(04:38:20 AM) Andrew Ni: Actually, then, you could do that on a shared Windows plan.
(04:41:30 AM) Michael: How would I actually get the ports opened?
(04:42:14 AM) Andrew Ni: You would send us a request to open them or request it in chat


2 June 2011 – answer is "NO"
Hello,

Unfortunately, we are unable to open custom ports for outbound connections. We apologize for this inconvenience but this is for the security of our shared servers.

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Regards,

Bradley Faulk,
Level I Windows Administrator




2 June 2011 – answer is "NO, BUT POSSIBLE WORKAROUND"
Good day,

Thank you for your interest in our Windows Hosting Platform and I apologize for the inconvenience you are facing. After discussing this matter with the chief engineer of the Windows Hosting services and the Director of the Windows Department, we cannot open outbound ports on our shared servers due to security risks associated with it.

I apologize on the behalf of the Junior Admin who said that we can enable out bound ports on the shared servers.

Please advise why you need these ports open, hopefully there might be a work around.

Please let us know if there is anything else that we can do for you. Thank you for your continued patience and for using Hostgator.com.

Best regards,

Sundeep S
Windows System Administrator - Quality Assurance




3 June 2011 – answer is "NO"
Hello,

We appreciate your support for hostgator, unfortunately, we would be putting other clients on the server at a very high risk by opening these ports. We strong advise you consider setting up a dedicated server for this process. Thank you for your cooperation.


If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us. We are more than happy to assist you.

Best regards,

Sheriff Gb
Hostgator.com Windows Administrator




3 June 2011 – answer is "MAYBE"
Hello,

Thank you for the explenation of the application and what it does,
At this time there is not anyone with the required level to authorize the release of ports,
If you will agree to wait, I will forward this in the morning to the necessary person and get a definitive answer after explaining what exactly
you application is doing.
Please be patient and the persons required to make this decision are not in the office until late morning CST.
Allow me the opportunity to make the case and we will see if a work around can be achieved.

Sincerely,

Michael McClaren
Windows System Administrator


3 June 2011 – answer is "NO"


Hello,

I have checked with my supervisor and at this time there are no plans to allow for custom ports to be opened.
I apologize but it appears that the shared service cannot be made to meet your needs.
If there is anything else we can help you with please let us know.
The only other option for this would be a dedicated server, these servers do carry significantly higher per month costs when compared to the shared environment.
I very much appreciate your patience in waiting for the definitive answer,
If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to ask.
Sincerely,

Michael McClaren
Windows System Administrator




5 June 2011 – answer is "DEFINITELY YES"


Hello,

Can you let us know what ports you needed open outbound? We are able to open outbound ports, I do apologize if you were given incorrect information. Here is a link to our knowledgebase article regarding this for your assurance:

http://support.hostgator.com/article...open-new-ports

Please let me know how I can help you! I'm happy to do what I can to assist you with your website.

Kind Regards,

Byron Thurman
Customer Retention / Cancellations




7 June 2011 – answer is "DEFINITELY NO"


Hello,


I have reviewed the issue and your ticket history in depth to see if we can do this and it appears that it cannot be done as this is currently on Windows hosting. Unfortunately we are unable to open the ports due to security concerns. I'm very sorry for once again giving you misinformation on this, as it is our policy to open ports outbound on our regular shared accounts, however due to specific security concerns with Windows hosting, that is not allowed at this time I'm very sorry to say.


Kind Regards,


Byron Thurman
Customer Retention / Cancellations


- - -


I hope that as a result of posting this thread of messages, Hostgator will clarify this across their staff and on their "open new ports" web page that is currently incorrect. I opened an account on the strength of the incorrect advice and wasted a lot of time on this.

[GatorLhebert]

Hello,

Thank you for working with us, I am sorry to hear that you have had such a bad experience. I have been in contact with the person that manages the information stored within our support portal. We will work to have the information updated on open ports in relation to our windows shared hosting solutions. I apologize for the confusion, our windows shared solution is a new addition to the HostGator family and we are certainly working to improve the level of support we can provide for these solutions.

[GatorSHussain]

Hello,

I believe it is best to explain some of the reasons why we actually cannot open ports on our Windows Shared Servers. During our extensive testing phase, we found when opening custom ports, the chances for the server's security and stability being heavily degraded was highly probable. We have even tried alternate methods in hopes to provide a solution for custom outbound ports, but unfortunately, we were presented with the same results which we have concluded is due to the nature of the Windows Filtering Platform.

In order to ensure the integrity of all Windows Shared Servers and ensure all of our clients are running at an optimal state at all times without the possibility of service interruption caused by possible unfiltered traffic which can be malicious in some cases, we can only allow common ports to be allowed outbound (e.g. 80, 21, etc) within our Windows shared environment.

This is also one of the reasons why we have required all Administrators to check in with their Supervisor / Manager regarding any requested changes on the Windows Shared Servers. We just want to take that extra step confirming all requests especially as this product was just recently launched.

Again, we do apologize that you were provided with misinformation and false expectations which we are currently working on correcting, however, I do hope I was able to clarify the root issue for you.

[eye7]

Follow-up to my original posting:

I have to say that I am impressed, no - very impressed - with the way in which Hostgator has handled this since I raised it.

As well as the replies posted here, I have also received private messages in an attempt to put this right. The issue has been taken seriously and there has clearly been investigation into how the confusion arose, and action is being taken to avoid a recurrence.

I was annoyed at the time I wasted on this issue - who wouldn't be - but I cannot over-estimate how important to me it is to get this sort of service from a provider when a problem arises.

I have been a Hostgator customer on Linux shared hosting well before this issue, and I'm very happy to continue.

Regards

Michael