Saunalahti, the Finnish ISP
I was a customer of saunalahti internet provider. Happily connected to their machines via SSH and maintained my rudimentary web pages.
Suddenly, the machine unix.saunalahti.fi disappeared. Soon it disappeared even from the nameserver. I discovered it after maybe a couple of months not accessing it.
Calling customer support. After usual 15 min. waiting in the queue:
(I) The Unix shell does not work.
(Saunalahti) I take a look at it… (waiting) Oh sorry, the Unix usernames were all removed.
(I) ??? I need Unix shell.
(S) We can restore it. (waiting) It is ready now.
(I) So what machine should I connect to?
(S) The same machine you connected earlier.
(I) But it is not even known to the nameserver! And it is your nameserver I’m using.
(S) I’ll look at it. (waiting) The other machine is ftp.saunalahti.fi
(I, feeling suspicious about such hostname and trying to connect) It does not let me in. Says “Connection closed by remote host”.
(S) OK, one moment… (waiting) the SSH access is closed now. (points me to their web page, saying that my contract does not include SSH access.)
I have nothing more to ask. The SSH access was an important feature for me and one of reasons why I’ve chosen this provider among others. Now they silently removed this reason without even a notice. The only way to maintain the web pages now is by FTP (sending password in clear text). I complained about the issue also on Saunalahti own webboard, other users confirmed the issue. I’m in search for another provider.