Does Anyone Still Use PennyWize On Their Paysites?

[Lee]

http://www.pennywize.com/index2.htm

Looks like the site hasnt actually been updated since before iBill went down the shitter.

Was wondering if any of you folks were using it for members area security or if StrongBox was pretty much being used exclusively by paysite owners these days?

Regards,

Lee

[raymor]

http://www.pennywize.com/index2.htm

Looks like the site hasnt actually been updated since before iBill went down the shitter.

Was wondering if any of you folks were using it for members area security or if StrongBox was pretty much being used exclusively by paysite owners these days?

Regards,

Lee

What I can tell you about that is that when we did hosting in the mid 1990s
we recommended Pennywize. We sent them suggestions for needed
improvements because we saw some big problems with Pennywize, and
some simple solutions they could have done. They ignored our
suggestions, excet to send back marketing materials. In 2001, the
infamous Pennywize white paper came out, explaining to the cracker
crowd how to USE Pennywize to make it EASIER to hack a site.
Suddenly, crackers were searching specifically for Pennywize
sites to attack since Pennywize made it so much easier than an
"unprotected" site. That's when we were forced to create something
that worked a lot better, which came to be known as Strongbox.
We never would have had any reason to create Strongbox if Pennywize
did the job for our hosting clients. Nowadays we see very few people
using Pennywize. Some sites are unprotected, some use some naive
systems which rely entirely on a single database, but few seem to use
Pennywize anymore, thankfully. Not that we dislike the Pennywize guys -
they are friendly enough. They just don't seem to have improved
their system at all in the last ten years.

[Mansized]

It seems pennywize only has ONE employee. At least support wise..named Steve.

My isp and I have been trying to get ahold of SOMEONE at that company for over a week now with no luck.

[raymor]

It seems pennywize only has ONE employee. At least support wise..named Steve.

My isp and I have been trying to get ahold of SOMEONE at that company for over a week now with no luck.

If they don't get you taken care of, we will. You can get ahold of the owner
and developer of Strongbox pretty much 24/7 at 979-530-1300. Phone numbers
for other countries are on our web site. Ali, our main customer service person,
replies to virtually all email every afternoon 24/7 and the office phone forwards
to me if you have anything urgent on a Sunday afternoon.

[derekt]

We use PhantomFrog.com. We have found it great. Best of all it's fully automated. We do nothing. The developer does nothing. When a member shares a password... it has a geographical thing in it that tracks IP Addresses, and it freezes the member. I receive an email, and the developer receives an email.
We don't restrict download limits.
It has fully automated member support.
If a member has a problem with whatever it may be. It offers a full help guide. Such as FAQ's.
Prior to going to PhantomFrog, we had nothing in play except htaccess. And we were receiving 1-2 support emails per day pretty much on a regular basis. The biggest problem was "I can't download this video, it's not working." And since we put PhantomFrog in tact, we rarely receive any support emails.
We had a support guy who worked for us. We no longer have him doing support, we have him now helping in re-designing members areas, promoting, things of that nature.
Best of all, with the security measures... the user never knows that we have Phantom Frog in play until they abuse a password and they are alerted that there has been a 12 hour block placed on their username / password. Or if they need support.

[Squirt]

Ray @ StrongBox has always been there over the years WHENEVER I've needed him and has always gotten back to me within hours.

I've never used PennyWize, looks like I got lucky on that one