OT: Dealing with a hosting company with it's head up it's rear end

[Dave Hayes]

On Thu, 13 Aug 2020 14:56:43 -0400
Aryeh Friedman <aryeh.friedman at gmail.com> wrote:
> The hosting company for one of our clients sent the following reply to
> us/them when we asked them to setup end user accounts on a dedicated
> Windows Server, FreeBSD box and CentOS box (all VM's on the same physical
> machine with no other VM's on the physical machine) and being told we
> needed scriptable access (not web based non-scriptable) to the windows
> desktop and shell accounts (including the ability to sudo) and they agreed
> to provide it:
...
> Their
> idea of a "two factor" authentication is each connection will only be
> allowed via a web portal and must use a one-time password sent the users
> smartphone.  Not only does this make automated deploy impossible it is a
> complete show stopper since our service is IoT and uses its own custom
> protocol.

Have you tried running SSH on a ephemeral port? 

> So how do we/the client tell the hosting company they are full of sh*t (the
> client has a 3 year contract with a pay in full to break clause with them
> which would be over $100k to break)

Well you can tell them anything you want by various means, we all have mouths
and email. I find telling people what is obviously true (for any human being who
eats) highly ineffective in convincing people to cooperate. 

However, it seems to me if you told them you need scriptable access and that was
actually in your contract, they are in breach of contract and you can use that
to break the contract. I am not a lawyer and you will quite likely need one to
pull that off. 

Just my $0.02 USD. 
-- 
Dave Hayes - Consultant - Altadena CA, USA - dave at jetcafe.org 
>>>> *The opinions expressed above are entirely my own* <<<<

Before criticizing people, walk a mile in their shoes. Then
when you do criticize them, you will be a mile away and have
their shoes.