01-30-2008 - Widomaker Dropping Frontpage Support in Hosting Servers

Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:34:54 -0500
From: helpdesk@widomaker.com
Subject: Widomaker Dropping Frontpage Support in Hosting Servers

As many of you already know, FrontPage 2003 became the final version of the 
long running software line when Microsoft officially announced its EOL (End of 
Life) on June 30th 2006.

Because Microsoft is no longer producing or supporting FrontPage, FrontPage 
extensions are no longer among the supported aspects of our hosting 
environments. While many of our clients have moved on to other web design 
applications over the years, we realize many clients have not and continue to 
depend upon FrontPage for their web site needs.

While we have been continuing to support FrontPage extensions for the now 
unsupported software for the last year, the rest of the industry has decided to 
move forward with removing FrontPage extensions from their list of supported 
applications. As such, starting next week we will be upgrading our servers to 
support new features and tighter security measures at the expense of losing the 
support for FrontPage Extensions.

For our clients who do not depend on FrontPage or FrontPage extensions for your 
site to function properly, you can ignore this important update. For those of 
you that still depend on FrontPage for your site, please read the following 
carefully.

Q: When will my site be affected?

A: Starting next week, probably on Tues, Feb 5, 2008.

Q: Who is affected by Microsoft ending FrontPage support?

A: Anyone who uses FrontPage will eventually be affected by this change. In 
particular, clients who use any FrontPage web-bots such as form to email, form 
to text file, web counters, and discussion webs will be affected.

Q: What do I have to do in order to make sure my site is not affected?

A: You will have to begin using new software to both edit and manage your web 
site.

Depending on what types of FrontPage specific tools you're using, you may also 
need a web designer or programmer to make some changes on your site.  These 
changes must be made immediately to make sure you do not suffer any 
consequences of the FrontPage EOL.

Q: If Microsoft is no longer offering or supporting FrontPage, what web design 
tool should I use?

A: This is a difficult question to answer as each of you have different needs, 
but there are many tools out there you can use to continue updating your site, 
such as Contribute (http://www.adobe.com/products/contribute/) and Dreamweaver 
(http://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver/).

Q: What if I don't have the time or ability to make these changes to my site?

A: If you do not have the software, know-how, or time to make these changes to 
your site, it's critical that you work with a professional web designer to make 
the appropriate changes.  If you would like a listing of web designers, please 
do not hesitate to contact our staff.

In closing, I would like to apologize for the inconvenience that I know this 
will cause.  If Microsoft had continued to support this product, we would still 
be as well.  Unfortunately, since Microsoft no longer provides security fixes, 
FrontPage has become a security liability that we can no longer afford.

Benjamin F Loyall
President
Widomaker Communication Services, Inc.