RTD, I agree and thank you for your suggestion and providing the address.
Below is what I have composed and will send out tomorrow:
Dear Mesdames & Sirs:
I am writing to you in response to an e-mail message sent to Verizon customers on July, 20, 2011, entitled Important Changes to your Verizon Internet Account for FTP* Users. This message announced: Verizon will no longer allow users to FTP their HTML files to the personal web site Verizon offers . . . If you still wish to have a Verizon website, please go to our site builder tool available with Personal Webspace which can be found under My Services in My Verizon.
For anyone managing a substantial website using Verizon webspace this creates an impossible situation. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is at the very heart of virtually all commercial and open source web development software. It is the de facto method by which data is uploaded/downloaded in the process of website maintenance. The site builder tool does not even come close to approximating the capabilities provided by any standard web authoring tool and is woefully inadequate to the purpose of maintaining even small-scale, multi-page websites.
If this decision is not reconsidered I shall be forced to sever my relationship with Verizon for both telephone service and as an internet service provider (ISP). I have been a Verizon customer for over 10 years and have used Verizon exclusively for my phone and internet services. However, I shall not continue to do when webspace, a product that is critical to my business and that I have purchased, is made inaccessible by a decision that is indefensible on any grounds.
I ask you to have your technical staff reexamine this decision and, in light of the hardship it would cause for millions of your existing customers, to rescind it.
Sincerely,
{edited for privacy} BSCS, MS-SLP
Verizon actually said FTP is part of our subscription.
It says:
"Once you have gone through the initial set-up, you can continue to use Site Builder or begin using your FTP account. (The FTP "account" is part of your subscription package, and is available at no extra charge.)"
https://my.verizon.com/central/vzc.portal?_nfpb=true&action=FTP%20Server%20Information&_pageLabel=pw...
Also everyone vote on suggestion asing for a replacement for the soon to be discontinued FTP service
Ok. I just called Verizon. So I set up an account here to let you guys know what I found out.
Let's face it, ftp is pretty insecure. sftp (Secure ftp) is better (and ssh), but I think Verizon wants something else. The part of the email that recommends downloading everything from the ftp site can only mean one thing; they are taking the ftp server out of commission.
But they assured me on the phone that they will send us all instructions in the near future as to how to upload the files we were supposed to download, to another Verizon server using a more secure method of uploading and storage. We can't expect them to copy over all those gigs or more likely, terrabytes or info for us to the new server system.
My concern is that the http location had best be the same, or all our posted things won't work. I mean it will most likely work. One picture I put up this morning is listed as http://mysite.verizon.net/<my verizon account>/<filename>.jpg
Nothing about ftp there. And I assume their IT group should know how to get the routers and DNS naming servers to link the old locations to the new for us.
So I was told, before the Aug deadline, we will all get instructions about where to upload all our current files and folders if we use the Verizon Webspace on our accounts.
We shall see.
Well, it's good to hear that someone is saying there will be an alternate upload method, but I'm skeptical. I'll believe it when I see it.
The nature of their initial announcement and the fact that their own tech support was completely in the dark about this does not make me sanguine for an alternate solution. Nothing at all was mentioned in the e-mail about later communication.
I really hope I'm wrong. I've never heard back from the technical support person who promised to report back with a status after a meeting he was to have been in several days ago.
Currently, anything on Verizon personal webspace has the URL format you note. I've got HTML, digital image, and PDF files in my webspace and they all have the beginning of the URL as http://mysite.verizon.net/<my verizon account>/, followed by the file name itself (or subdirectory and the filename itself). If the plans include changing the URL for things then unless they announce that to give enough time for those with domain forwarding to "re-point" their forwards things will be ugly again.
Count me as another customer furious about being forced to move my website by Verizon's stupidity. I have maintained this website for four years and built traffic. Now I cannot maintain it because Site Builder will not work. Thanks Verizon. I'll going to move all my business elsewhere if this is not corrected by August 12.
Everyone using FTP must call Verizon right away. Send a letter if possible. We have to make it clear that this is a disasterous change of policy, and we don't have a lot of time. Call now!!
Just in case Verizon has a change in plans and will permit us to use Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) I went to my old version that did not have a secure option but the newer version of Core does...it is a free program for all to use.
http://www.coreftp.com/download.html
In it, there is an option to connect via SSH/SFTP which is Secure Socket /Secure FTP . In the event we are permitted, we will already have that option available to us. Just wish I didn't have to search for another venue for my site.
For we professional developers, this is just another example of Verizon's inability to solve problems.. If they really have a security problem they need to solve that problem direct, not penalize an entire population with this kind of solution.
One suggestion I could make is to simply define their "Security" issue and identify those accounts which are violating these issues. For the violators: 1) warn them, 2) repeated offenses, either a) block any FTP requests on that account, or b) cancel their service.
Come on Verizon, quit assuming that every one of us is a "security" risk.!. I've been programming for 40+ years and, to be perfectly honest, I've got better things to do with my time than trying to bring down computer systems.
I maintain web sites for several community organizations as well as personal sites, all using Front Page and FTP. To recreate all these using site builder would be no easy task, but I was willing to try it out.. In fact, it turns out to be impossible because I can not get site builer to work.
On my main account I logged into site builder, read the terms of agreement, and accidentally clicked Reject, instead of Agree. Okay, my bad, but it should be easy to fix. I thought I would be able to start over and do it right, but from the personal web site home page if I click Start Using Site Builder or Edit My Web Site it just flips me back to the home page.
I found a place to e-mail technical support to ask if they could reset this. It said I would get email confirmation with reference number and a reply by end of day. I got neither.
I discovered I could use site builder on one of my sub-acounts -- but only if I first deleted all the files already in my web space for that account - something that no one told me. I spent some time playing with site builder. VERY clumsy but usable.
Today I went back to experiment some more, and can no longer access site builder from that subaccount. From the home page clicking Start Using Site Builder or Edit My Web SIte just flips me back to where I was. Worse, the View My Web Page option is showing the home page for the old FTP'd page again, even though all the files are deleted and my FTP manager shows the new site builder files are there.
Today I can not find the place to send an email to support. Verizon has the most user-hostile web site I have ever seen.
Anyone have a suggestion other than just giving in and paying to have my sites hosted somewhere else?
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