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Suggested web site hosting offerings

Posted: Mon 15 Oct 2018 4:27 pm
by archae86
In my early Cumulus years I just used my ISP's included web site hosting. Comcast dropped that included service some years ago, and I've been using Steve's offering since. It has been more reliable than Comcast was, so I'm sad that Steve is advising us to seek alternatives.

I'm hoping that my fellow Cumulus users will chime in here with comments (good and bad) on alternative web hosting possibilities. As I'm in the USA, I'd somewhat prefer options on this side of the water, as while a happy Steve user I've felt slightly guilty at adding 5 Gigabytes a month to transatlantic cable traffic.

Re: Suggested web site hosting offerings

Posted: Mon 15 Oct 2018 8:48 pm
by typiod
How about Namecheap they are based in the us, im in the uk and use them no problems.

Re: Suggested web site hosting offerings

Posted: Wed 17 Oct 2018 6:59 pm
by freddie
Hostgator?

Re: Suggested web site hosting offerings

Posted: Wed 17 Oct 2018 7:13 pm
by RayProudfoot
In case I have to switch do I need to supply the new hosting company with expected monthly consumption? My limit with Steve is 50Gb and as he's never warned me it's been exceeded I assume it's fine.

But given things are out of your control to some degree it's difficult to know. In unusual weather visits to my site will vary a lot. Average is 60 daily but the max was over 300 one day.

Is there an idiot's guide on how to switch should it be necessary?

Re: Suggested web site hosting offerings

Posted: Wed 17 Oct 2018 7:25 pm
by Mapantz
A2 hosting is my recommendation. It's who I use.

If you're using MySQL, be aware that many shared hosting companies will not have the timezone table loaded on to the server, and 99% of the time, they will not add it either. That will cause a problem with certain graph data (using Mark's highcharts) to be wrong when it comes to clocks going forward and back. I had a terrible time with that issue, with several providers. Fortunately, A2 Hosting have all of this dealt with, so no issues at all.

Their customer service is very speedy and they are polite and helpful.

Worth a look http://www.a2hosting.com/refer/84874

Re: Suggested web site hosting offerings

Posted: Wed 17 Oct 2018 7:29 pm
by Mapantz
RayProudfoot wrote: Is there an idiot's guide on how to switch should it be necessary?
I've switched quite a few times - very straightforward. You can use cpanel to do a full site backup and download the zip file. Or, you can use an FTP client and copy the whole directory to a folder on your PC. When a new hosting is set up, you can either use the file restoration in cpanel, or upload your directory of files manually. It's very easy.

You would obviously need to set up an FTP account and change the details in Cumulus, and also point your domain name to the new IP address that your new hosting provide. I'm sure you'd get plenty of help on here.

Re: Suggested web site hosting offerings

Posted: Wed 17 Oct 2018 7:37 pm
by ConligWX
RayProudfoot wrote:In case I have to switch do I need to supply the new hosting company with expected monthly consumption? My limit with Steve is 50Gb and as he's never warned me it's been exceeded I assume it's fine.

But given things are out of your control to some degree it's difficult to know. In unusual weather visits to my site will vary a lot. Average is 60 daily but the max was over 300 one day.

Is there an idiot's guide on how to switch should it be necessary?
most hosting sites are all about bandwidth per month and nothing else. moving can be daunting, but if you do your homework first of all then it makes it easy enough.

If you use cpanel then just backup your content, data and any databases, then export/download them. ftp them backup to your new host.

DNS entries are then main thing to get right.

Your Domain registrar will hold your domain name and have a DNS record of where you domain name points to.. ie you hosting company. when moving hosts then you will receive a new DNS entry for your domain. you would then normally update your Domain Name registrar account to point the DNS to you new hosts. if that's the type of account you have...

another way would be to host it yourself.

I host my own weather site at home using dyndns, a NAS for my webserver.

My Domain registrar who I registered my domain name with (conligwx.org) has an entry on my account to enter Named Server IP addresses , these point to the 4 DNS servers at dyndns.org.

my NAS has a function (as do many routers) to have an account they updates DDNS to update dyndns with my ip address (dynamic and can changed - though it never has) thus making the domain name conligwx.org connect directly to my NAS :)

My other site linksysinfo.org is fully managed by someone else and Named Servers with my domain registrar point my domain name directly to the hosting company's DNS servers.

Re: Suggested web site hosting offerings

Posted: Wed 17 Oct 2018 8:36 pm
by saratogaWX
One caution about hosting yourself on a home network -- the XAMPP/LAMP servers are good for development, but may not be sufficiently hardened against miscreants attempting to penetrate your local network.
If you open a webserver to the internet, be assured it will be probed for vulnerabilities starting the day the port is opened to the net.
Depending on your programming skill, you may introduce vulnerabilities that can let the miscreants siphon off stuff from your local network, or inject malware/ransomware into your systems.

Far better to let the professional hosters handle the security updates, although, even with their updates, it's possible for any site to get hacked given enough time.


My recommendation -- stick with a commercial hoster and let them worry about underlying security of the platform. You worry about the code you add, and avoid free websites (000webhost, altervista, etc).

Re: Suggested web site hosting offerings

Posted: Wed 17 Oct 2018 9:18 pm
by ConligWX
Yep, I site behind a router and a Sophos XG Firewall, and using a full blown Webserver, not XAMPP. Backups are done approx 4 times a day and kept for at least a month. Also no mailserver to spam emails to anyone. :)

Re: Suggested web site hosting offerings

Posted: Wed 17 Oct 2018 10:12 pm
by RayProudfoot
Gents,

Thank you all for your helpful suggestions. It’s doubtful I would host my own site as I don’t possess the right skills to keep it safe.

I have used cPanel a couple of times but with hand holding from my host. I use FileZilla for file copying which seems easy enough and I have all the parameters to log in.

But I’d rather still give my money to Steve especially now he’s needing it for these fancy restaurants! :D

Re: Suggested web site hosting offerings

Posted: Wed 17 Oct 2018 10:17 pm
by ConligWX
PS anyone want to test their server with a free webscan please go here.

https://www.htbridge.com/websec

see how really open your website is :lol: :o :shock: :roll: :groan:

Re: Suggested web site hosting offerings

Posted: Thu 18 Oct 2018 5:51 pm
by rogerthn
Toxic17 wrote:PS anyone want to test their server with a free webscan please go here.

https://www.htbridge.com/websec

see how really open your website is :lol: :o :shock: :roll: :groan:
Do I need to take any actions?
C on https://www.htbridge.com/websec
BUT
A+ on https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/index.html

Re: Suggested web site hosting offerings

Posted: Thu 18 Oct 2018 9:41 pm
by ConligWX
rogerthn wrote:
Toxic17 wrote:PS anyone want to test their server with a free webscan please go here.

https://www.htbridge.com/websec

see how really open your website is :lol: :o :shock: :roll: :groan:
Do I need to take any actions?
C on https://www.htbridge.com/websec
BUT
A+ on https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/index.html
ssllabs test for manly SSL Ciphers etc, where as https://www.htbridge.com/websec test for the apache/php setup.

Also one to check is gtmetrix.com for performance.

Re: Suggested web site hosting offerings

Posted: Fri 19 Oct 2018 4:47 pm
by rogerthn
Toxic17 wrote:
rogerthn wrote:
Toxic17 wrote:PS anyone want to test their server with a free webscan please go here.

https://www.htbridge.com/websec

see how really open your website is :lol: :o :shock: :roll: :groan:
Do I need to take any actions?
C on https://www.htbridge.com/websec
BUT
A+ on https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/index.html
ssllabs test for manly SSL Ciphers etc, where as https://www.htbridge.com/websec test for the apache/php setup.

Also one to check is gtmetrix.com for performance.
Thanks!
Result from gtmetrix.com PageSpeed Score A (99%) YSlow Score A (96%) :D
Does https://www.htbridge.com/websec apply also for nginx/php?

Re: Suggested web site hosting offerings

Posted: Fri 19 Oct 2018 10:31 pm
by ConligWX
rogerthn wrote:Does https://www.htbridge.com/websec apply also for nginx/php?
yes, its against any webserver based software.