It might have escaped your notice, but thanks to hacking attack on major hosting company Fasthosts, it made the decision to reset the passwords of those customers who had not already done so, and send them these new passwords using snail mail. The problem is that many people still haven't received their updated passwords, so they're locked out of their sites. MacFormat reader Paul Ripley spoke for many when he wrote to us to say:

I have not received the letter, cannot login to my account to change anything, and so am left high and dry. I have customers screaming at me to update web sites and there is nothing I can do. If you use their password reminder, a page tells you it is down due to this event. If you try calling them, the phones are so busy you get a network busy tone on all their lines. When I tried earlier in the week, I did get through but was told by an automated voice I was at queue 86! I didn't wait.

I'm personally in the same boat, and I just called up again just now to find myself at position 43 in the queue. We got in touch with Fasthosts, and this was what it had to say:

Affected customers whose websites may have been affected by this should now have received their password and would be able to rectify any issues. Customers who have not received their new password letters may call the Customer Care Helpline (0870 888 3600) and once authenticated, can be provided with their new passwords over the phone.

It did also, however, provide the following statement which was issued on November 29; if nothing else, the company seems to be genuinely apologetic.

Fasthosts are working with all affected customers to help them receive their new passwords as swiftly as possible.
Fasthosts would like to apologise once again for the inconvenience to its customers affected by the recent password changes. Unfortunately, the measures were necessary to fully ensure our customers' websites and data were secure.
The password change was applied to a significant portion of the Fasthosts customer base who hadn’t changed their passwords following our initial announcement about a network breach in October. It was applied following a very small number of customers who did not change their passwords having experienced a compromise to their FTP or website space.
Affected customers may have incurred a delay in being able to access their Fasthosts Control Panel, for which we apologise. In addition, certain customers who did not change their passwords as was previously recommended, and whose websites utilise automated databases, may experience website downtime as a result of their database passwords being automatically changed. However, any such customers whose websites may have been affected by this should now have received their password and would be able to rectify any issues.
The significant majority of Fasthosts customers websites and email are unaffected, it is just access to their online Control Panel that has been restricted.
We apologise to those customers affected for any inconvenience caused during the issuing of new passwords.
Fasthosts customers who did not change their passwords as was previously recommended, have now all been sent their passwords. Affected customers who have not received their new password letters may call the Customer Care Helpline and once authenticated, can be provided with their new passwords over the phone.
Whilst Fasthosts has seen high call volumes, the company will continue to provide additional resource over the next 48 hours in response to the demand and actively call the most affected customers directly to resolve any issues as soon as possible.
As a precaution, Fasthosts will also change all unchanged email passwords for email services hosted with Fasthosts automatically on Thursday 13 December. We therefore recommend that all affected customers change their email passwords as soon as they regain access to their Control Panel. We are emailing instructions to all affected customers with clear instructions on how to do this, and which mailboxes are affected.
We apologise unreservedly to those customers affected for any inconvenience caused during the issuing of new passwords. Unfortunately, the measures are necessary to fully ensure our customers' websites and data are fully secure. The security of our customers website data remains of paramount importance to Fasthosts.