Not posting this on StackOverflow as they are usually so **** rude on there if you get it wrong so I thought I would try here as people are much nicer!

I have some hosting with GoDaddy but my new site won’t work there. I’m using Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition and I’ve written a site in MVC5 / Razor which uses Roslyn (but a WebForms application does the same) – of which I wasn’t aware until today. This creates a file called csc.exe which their shared hosting won’t allow to run because of their security policy.

This is a major problem for me as I can’t now run any sites that I have written (using VS2015CE) – they have suggested that I upgrade my hosting package (at a price) to their Plesk package.

My question is this: is there a way to write sites (in VS2015CE) which doesn’t use Roslyn or should I expect GoDaddy to enable this technology in their basic hosting?

This will catch out anyone who has use MS VS2015CE to write a site – and it’s not exactly niche: it’s a free download for anyone who wants to write a site for their band / football club / whatever…

I know there are quite a few developers on here who might be able to help… Can you please?

I don’t really want to pay to upgrade my hosting at the moment as I’m between contacts and don’t really see why I should have to as this is probably quite basic stuff.

Cheers

should I expect GoDaddy to enable this technology in their basic hosting?

Definitely not going to happen. Hosting companies have their own rules for whatever reason they fancy – quite often it’s to get you to upgrade to a more expensive service.
I found out a couple of weeks ago that my hosts (for the last 20 years) do not pages to connect to mysql databases that are not hosted with them for ‘security reasons’. But I could upgrade to a service that would allow it – I’ve now changed hosts.

Thanks sharkbait- interesting thoughts. I had wondered about that myself but I have six months to run on my hosting package and this is a really basic problem (in a techie sort of way…)

Just having a bit of a Twitter conversation with them at the mo, too.

We’ll see how this turns out…

Yep, being told to buy something new. Asshats.

This creates a file called csc.exe which their shared hosting won’t allow to run because of their security policy.

Technically, it is not creating csc.exe – that is the C# compiler. Your deployed application is trying to use the compiler to build some elements on the fly.

I’m not familiar with Roslyn, but there are lots of people reporting similar issues with GoDaddy, and some suggestions that fiddling with precompile options (ie. so there is no need to run csc.exe on the fly) may help.

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/442b100a-2b88-4ac4-b655-0c1345791f15/roslyn-cscexe-web-api-2-on-hosting-server?forum=msbuild

or

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24638267/deploying-asp-net-mvc4-app-to-godaddy-compiler-issue

Thanks for the excellent reply Gary!

I’m off to read those links.

I thought that GoDaddy (and many other hosts) must have come up against the issue but speaking to GoDaddy’s support team you would think that it was something new to them.

Yes, its exactly the sort of thing you would expect a support department for a host to have some guidance on – assuming there is a way to get round the underlying issue.

There seemed to be some indication of success in those links (and there are plenty of other pages discussing similar issues if you search) but I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes a bit of experimentation to get to settings that ensure everything is built in advance.

@Gary – I’ll keep you posted!

In honesty, I’d move hosts. GoDaddy do seem to be the Ryanair of the hosting world and it’s not like you’re short of options.

I’m not a MS bod but I’m not surprised that a webhost won’t allow some random executable to be installed on their hosted servers.

Cougar – Moderator
In honesty, I’d move hosts. GoDaddy do seem to be the Ryanair of the hosting world and it’s not like you’re short of options.

^ This. I despair when working with professional companies that tell me they’re hosting with GoDaddy.

What does your site involve anyway? If it’s basically static content (doesn’t need host/server-side processing), then probably move away from VS ASP/MVC kind of sites which work on compiled back end which needs the host to be able to execute your code (which raises hosting costs and has security implications for them, etc). Plain HTML, Javascript and a pile of JS frameworks about that can do rich content and dynamic sites without the need for backend processing. Though obviously if it needs backend database or web services then that’s another matter.

Other option is to rewrite in something they may support. VS has node.js support if you need host processing, though not sure about the freebie Community Edition. You can just use Visual Studio Code which is also free and aimed at node type of sites (bit basic an editor though).

Or is it a site that you could host in a content package, like WordPress? Tonnes of places host this, inc WordPress.com itself.

Another hosting option is Amazon WS or Azure. Freebie trial offers and Amazon has a free tier for very low use. Prices scale though so can start cheap but goes up depending on how you use it and traffic.

@deadkenney Need server side stuff… Custom built CMSs etc, plus it’s a bit of a showcase for me as I’m a developer. Who seems to have a bit of a dilemma!

Don’t really want the faff of having to move all my sites. That said, how much faff is it…?

How big is your audience? Is self-hosting an option? I did that for a while, just have to be very careful setting up a DMZ and conscious of the ‘A’ bit of ADSL.

How big is your audience? Is self-hosting an option? I did that for a while, just have to be very careful setting up a DMZ and conscious of the ‘A’ bit of ADSL.

Not sure if I want / am in the right position to do this. Not a huge audience, I guess, but not sure…

I’m not a MS bod but I’m not surprised that a webhost won’t allow some random executable to be installed on their hosted servers.

Not exactly a random executable… It’s a Microsoft thing. Although I suppose someone could create a file with the same name? Wouldn’t it have to be signed / have the right credentials though?

Being a VS site it’ll be easy to publish to Azure. There’s a 30 day free trial you can try also. Then if you like it, just point the domain to it. Assuming you haven’t let GoDaddy own your domain and don’t have to pay fees to get hold of it (i.e. hosting companies who ransom domains you supposedly own) 😉

Definitely not going to happen. Hosting companies have their own rules for whatever reason they fancy – quite often it’s to get you to upgrade to a more expensive service.

TBH, unless you’ve run a large scale shared hosting platform it’s hard to explain the myriad of problems that happen on them. I used to manage a platform that hosted 100k or so websites and it was an uphill battle every single day to create something that worked, wasn’t insanely expensive and where one rogue site didn’t kill the platform. Our investment in the platform for hosting and email was reaching 1M pounds when I left.

If you want to run very specific things, look to a virtual server with someone like Linode or Digital Ocean as shared hosting is a lowest common denominator thing. Even the higher packages.

If you want to run very specific things

Thing is, I don’t really see a standard web site as being very specific!

There are lots of “standards” when it comes to web sites. I find it difficult to keep up with what the latest trendy technology is.

Not all hosting companies support every host run site technology, or keep up to date with the newest versions.

TBH, there’s a reason most shared hosting is Linux as the permissions to run executables can make for hard work and most sales are Linux so there’s less incentive to really work hard at Windows shared hosting. I’d still go for a virtual server.

Update – now working fine.

If you remove the Nuget package

Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform

you can run Web Forms and MVC applications on GoDaddy’s shared hosting as Roslyn is not used and csc.exe is not uploaded to the /bin/Roslyn folder (and the Roslyn folder is not even created, obviously).

You would have expected their support teams to know about this.

Many, many thanks to Gary for those links, which solved the problem, and to everyone else who’s taken an interest and provided helpful comments!

Out of interest (and no comment made on the validity) what made you go the custom CMS route? It seems to be the opposite of the direction most places are going these days.

Rachel

what made you go the custom CMS route?

Because I wanted to write the code and play with a few different ideas…