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Help! - Missing SiteStudio templates
Hi,
I am an end user trying to create a low-cost template-based website as quickly as possible, that does not use host-supplied banners or ads or have other strings attached.
I came across a provider called 'host department' who use SiteStudio. They provide free hosting with no ads or strings with the extra costs of domain name registration, etc.
There are a number of players out there, and a number of site building programs. However, I'd settled on using either the 'Picture' or 'Painting' templates from the SiteStudio demo, using hostdepartment, only to find that hostdepartment does not have the last 8 or so templates which are listed on the SiteStudio demo, and both the templates I want are in the missing set. (I saw some of webgirl's posts here on a similar problem...)
Further, half of hostdepartment's pages are 404ing on me, especially the Support Ticket page and the Support Chat page.
I've had no joy trying to contact the support mail address of hostdepartment, and psoft have at least written back to me saying they cannot answer any end users' questions. hmmphhh.
***Update***
Looking at psoft's website, they are the 9 most recently added templates. However, I can't access them from hostdepartments' URL of http://66.98.178.21:8080/servlet/psoft.masonry.Builder, which uses SiteStudio 1.6.
The reason for the 404s (apart from SiteStudio being down for a while) is due to loopback entries in my etc/hosts file from a standard anti-spyware service blocking out their 3rd party support provider pages. hmmm. (Safety first - spyware is a present day scourge.) So once I've reallowed editing of etc/hosts in Spybot and uncommented that other site, it's OK -- but e-mails sent to their conventional support account were deleted unread, according to the sneaky read receipt I set on the e-mails. Consequently, they don't appear very well staffed or very accommodating in general -- and the website itself is hard to traverse, and seems a bit 'gimmicky'. When you can't access SiteStudio and you can't access support, it all starts looking a bit flaky if you've just signed on for a trial. And then the templates are incomplete, not what was 'advertised', due to 3rd party provider issues...
******
I'm trying to develop a tourism-based site with international exposure, and one where the template allows lots of images to be posted in a stylish way. I'm not averse to paying a small fee for a site, but I want to test it out on a no-risk basis for performance, uptime, etc, before I commit sums of money. And I would like the site up quickly in a prototype form, THEN register a domain name at my leisure and look at upgrade options.
Further, I intend to do a number of further sites, 3 or 4 perhaps, some business, some charitable, so I'm looking for a reliable host/reseller with at least well-intentioned support levels and reasonably good bandwidth. I'm in Australia, but the location of the host servers doesn't bother me too much as long as performance internationally is acceptable. In fact, the tourism site is intended for audiences in Europe and S. America. The others will be for local consumption.
I figured if hostdepartment didn't work out, then nothing lost, and I've dipped my toe in the water at low risk.
Can anyone either point me to a reliable host that has these templates, or provide a better option with other site building software? Does anyone have an opinion of 'host department' in general they can advise me of without getting sued? Respond here or to e-mail - seanreynolds@netspace.net.au
Thanks,
Sean
I am an end user trying to create a low-cost template-based website as quickly as possible, that does not use host-supplied banners or ads or have other strings attached.
I came across a provider called 'host department' who use SiteStudio. They provide free hosting with no ads or strings with the extra costs of domain name registration, etc.
There are a number of players out there, and a number of site building programs. However, I'd settled on using either the 'Picture' or 'Painting' templates from the SiteStudio demo, using hostdepartment, only to find that hostdepartment does not have the last 8 or so templates which are listed on the SiteStudio demo, and both the templates I want are in the missing set. (I saw some of webgirl's posts here on a similar problem...)
Further, half of hostdepartment's pages are 404ing on me, especially the Support Ticket page and the Support Chat page.
I've had no joy trying to contact the support mail address of hostdepartment, and psoft have at least written back to me saying they cannot answer any end users' questions. hmmphhh.
***Update***
Looking at psoft's website, they are the 9 most recently added templates. However, I can't access them from hostdepartments' URL of http://66.98.178.21:8080/servlet/psoft.masonry.Builder, which uses SiteStudio 1.6.
The reason for the 404s (apart from SiteStudio being down for a while) is due to loopback entries in my etc/hosts file from a standard anti-spyware service blocking out their 3rd party support provider pages. hmmm. (Safety first - spyware is a present day scourge.) So once I've reallowed editing of etc/hosts in Spybot and uncommented that other site, it's OK -- but e-mails sent to their conventional support account were deleted unread, according to the sneaky read receipt I set on the e-mails. Consequently, they don't appear very well staffed or very accommodating in general -- and the website itself is hard to traverse, and seems a bit 'gimmicky'. When you can't access SiteStudio and you can't access support, it all starts looking a bit flaky if you've just signed on for a trial. And then the templates are incomplete, not what was 'advertised', due to 3rd party provider issues...
******
I'm trying to develop a tourism-based site with international exposure, and one where the template allows lots of images to be posted in a stylish way. I'm not averse to paying a small fee for a site, but I want to test it out on a no-risk basis for performance, uptime, etc, before I commit sums of money. And I would like the site up quickly in a prototype form, THEN register a domain name at my leisure and look at upgrade options.
Further, I intend to do a number of further sites, 3 or 4 perhaps, some business, some charitable, so I'm looking for a reliable host/reseller with at least well-intentioned support levels and reasonably good bandwidth. I'm in Australia, but the location of the host servers doesn't bother me too much as long as performance internationally is acceptable. In fact, the tourism site is intended for audiences in Europe and S. America. The others will be for local consumption.
I figured if hostdepartment didn't work out, then nothing lost, and I've dipped my toe in the water at low risk.
Can anyone either point me to a reliable host that has these templates, or provide a better option with other site building software? Does anyone have an opinion of 'host department' in general they can advise me of without getting sued? Respond here or to e-mail - seanreynolds@netspace.net.au
Thanks,
Sean
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