Need to call unmanaged code

I have been a long time jodohost customer on asp.net shared hosting. Now I want to be able to call unmanaged code (my own dlls) from asp.net 2.0. I don't know whether this requires medium trust, full trust or what.

All I want to know is, is this possible on your asp.net 2.0 shared hosting? If not, I will have to go looking for another hosting company that offers this feature.
 
It won't be possible in medium trust code here or most places elsewhere as it is a security issue for shared environments. We have it available in Semi Dedicated and WinVPS accounts only.
 
Hi Stephen,

I'm a little confused on semi-dedicated and VPS plans. What is the main difference and which one is better? Will they also allow direct ISAPI, windows cgi exe and dll programs?

I have looked at the description of these plans earlier, and I have always wondered that I will need to do more work for above plans, for example, keeping my own back up, installing software, etc which in shared account you take care of. Can you explain the difference with a shared account from this point of view? What WILL NOT BE TAKEN CARE OF in above plans as compared to the shared account?

Thanks,
Sanjay
 
I just got a reply from another hosting, quite well known, that they allow unmanaged dlls to be used in their asp.net 2.0 accounts as long as the dlls don't write to the registry. That is the only condition they enforce. I'm soon going to try them.
 
Hi Stephen,

I'm a little confused on semi-dedicated and VPS plans. What is the main difference and which one is better? Will they also allow direct ISAPI, windows cgi exe and dll programs?

I have looked at the description of these plans earlier, and I have always wondered that I will need to do more work for above plans, for example, keeping my own back up, installing software, etc which in shared account you take care of. Can you explain the difference with a shared account from this point of view? What WILL NOT BE TAKEN CARE OF in above plans as compared to the shared account?

Thanks,
Sanjay

We will on SD plans allow external DLLs and windows exe's so long as we can verify their authenticity, ISAPI is not allowed on either shared or SD due to some conflicts with the Hsphere system. Semi Dedicated is fully managed for you, VPS is NOT fully managed.
 
Well, I have managed to find another hosting company (quite well known) where I can call unmanaged code from a shared Windows account. I am in the process of moving one of the main web site there. Just thought I will let you know.
 
Well, I have managed to find another hosting company (quite well known) where I can call unmanaged code from a shared Windows account. I am in the process of moving one of the main web site there. Just thought I will let you know.

That is your choice, it is not something we allow.
 
Hi Stephen,

Well, I tried moving the web site and it worked fine for the dll stuff. But I had a bitter experience on the email account management. The plesk control panel has lot of bugs and they kept on fixing some DNS entries but it kept on corrupting them on each change. I would rather not use something that has plesk. The good old hsphere is much better.

Question: Does your Windows Shared Hosting use plesk too? If I move to SD, what kind of problems can I expect? I want as smooth a transition as possible.

Thanks,
Sanjay
 
Our standard shared hosting is all hsphere, VPS is Plesk.

SemiDedicated is Hsphere but full trust.
 
You didn't answer/assure me on smooth transition. In my last attempt to another company, I had lots of email problems where they had to repeatedly fix some DNS issues that Plesk caused. It was not related to DNS transition. That I can understand.

With your past experience of moving sites to SD, how smooth is the transition, especially related to HSphere? Does almost everything get controlled by control panel? Am I in full control? What about file permissions and stuff like that. I believe HSphere does not give any control on that.
 
You didn't answer/assure me on smooth transition. In my last attempt to another company, I had lots of email problems where they had to repeatedly fix some DNS issues that Plesk caused. It was not related to DNS transition. That I can understand.

With your past experience of moving sites to SD, how smooth is the transition, especially related to HSphere? Does almost everything get controlled by control panel? Am I in full control? What about file permissions and stuff like that. I believe HSphere does not give any control on that.

Well, moves work pretty well I can't say 100% flawless but for SD we have a dedicated support desk(which we will let you know the address of if you use SD services, it is hidden) and any such requests you need are handled at priority.

For windows accounts we have servers on the new and old cluster and can simply do an account move, that will make your mail services unchanged in full so no problem in mail transitions. Permissions are about the only thing that can be an issue initially on the webside and once set it is normally done for a long time unless you need them modified.
Also there is about a 24-48 period that it is on both servers and if you watch closely you can check when it hits the new server before most people will see it there and check the permissions.
 
Thanks. Seems like a great deal!

One more doubt. Will the nameservers be the same as NS1.JODOSHARED.COM or will they be different? I hope they are different so that old site continues working till DNS propagates.

Also, I suppose, before changing the name servers, I can test the web site fully by that Alias that Hsphere makes up.
 
Thanks. Seems like a great deal!

One more doubt. Will the nameservers be the same as NS1.JODOSHARED.COM or will they be different? I hope they are different so that old site continues working till DNS propagates.

Also, I suppose, before changing the name servers, I can test the web site fully by that Alias that Hsphere makes up.


As long as you still have the account on hsphere side we could perform an account move and the nameservers would be the same. If we have to recreate a new account it would be different.
 
In that case, how do I proceed? Just send a ticket to upgrade to SD and you charge my account? I'm asking because this won't be a new account sign up but a move.
 
In that case, how do I proceed? Just send a ticket to upgrade to SD and you charge my account? I'm asking because this won't be a new account sign up but a move.

You got it mail to sales@ with account name and desired plan :))
 
Well, I have managed to find another hosting company (quite well known) where I can call unmanaged code from a shared Windows account. I am in the process of moving one of the main web site there. Just thought I will let you know.
The .Net framework can determine what calls it makes and what trust level is required for such calls. Once calls are made outside of the framework it's not possible to allow only certain calls. This is why most companies (like JodoHost) do not allow calling unmanaged code from .Net.

While the company you move(ed) to may be able to block registry writing via permissions, they can't block the API calls you make by allowing unmanaged calls. Sounds like a security nightmare, IMO.

What do you need to make an unmanaged call for? You usually don't see too many websites calling unmanaged code unless it's for interfacing with an API from a third party product.
 
It's just a question of trusting a long time customer.

I need to call a third party dll to generate license codes for my software. It's a typical requirement of many Windows developers today.
 
It's just a question of trusting a long time customer.

I need to call a third party dll to generate license codes for my software. It's a typical requirement of many Windows developers today.

It isn't exactly as easy as "trusting you" if you open it for one you open it for ALL, even those that may sign up and try to spam and scam.
 
Then there should be a reasonably priced alternative hosting plan. Jumping from $12 directly to $69/$40 per month is a big hurdle. That's why long time customers like me go looking for other hosting when you can retain them.
 
In fact, if I think about it, even $40 VPS is not an option as it is more work for me. Only $69 SD will do. Increasing my expenses 5.5 times just for this little extra feature does not seem justified.
 
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