Choosing A Host Is No Fun
May 1, 2007
I'm moving from shared to VPS. This forum is helpful, but I seem to notice everyone recommends the hosts that advertise here. That makes me wonder about conflict of interest.
Anyway, I'm looking for a company that has great customer service and will walk me through the first baby steps of having my own VPS for the first time. That and uptime. Everyone else seems to have the same features. So how to choose?
I called 3 hosts today: JaguarPC, LiquidWeb and Spry. Jaguar sounded okay. The sales kid at Liquid didn't seem to be able to answer any of my questions that weren't on his cheat sheet. And Spry had me on hold forever (with good music, though) and dropped my call a minute in.
Also, will they help me lock my VPS down like a fort so it's ueber secure? Will I have to install PHP, MySQL, phpMyAdmin, and all the other programs I didn't know I needed myself? I have no experience, so it would be good to know. I'm a graphic desiger turned web designer turned noob PHP developer -- I'm scared that I'm not geeky enough.
Anyway, does anyone have the same feeling that all hosts seem the same when you're shopping around? I know I'm going to have to give in, close my eyes and jump at some point (very soon). But this is no fun.
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Jun 17, 2008
I am about to start a website in which I will feature lots embedded video clips from sites like youtube, toudou, etc.
I am new this, so I'm wondering how I can choose a proper web host for my site, so that people can always reliably view the videos and at decent speed. I'm not looking to spend a fortune as this is my first website.
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Jul 16, 2008
Choosing the right host is a very important decision. I've compiled a short list of do's and don't when it comes to web hosting.
1) UNLIMITED features. Rarely trust companies that offer unlimited space/bandwidth etc. as this is blatant overselling. When was the last time you saw an unlimited hard drive?! Companies that offer unlimited hosting features may not be around long and their other services tend to suffer - e.g. support.
2) Free hosting. Be wary of free hosts, particularly ones that seem to be giving far too good a deal to you - they probably are. The Webmaster-talk forums are regularly spammed with free hosting, and one that keeps cropping up is called ********.com. I urge you to ignore this as a highly reputable hosts do not spam forums!
3) Your ACTUAL needs. You might be excited by hosts that offer 5GB of storage space and 1000GB (1TB) of bandwidth for very low prices, but you should at the very least be wary of such companies. Besides the con issue, ask yourself - do you even need such large resources? For most small companies and individuals starting up, a maximum of 500MB web storage space and roughly 5GB bandwidth will be adequate. Once your site is up and running, you will be able to see whether you do need more or not and if necessary, you can upgrade. Some hosts (hostmonster.com being an example) seem to offer incredible packages for very low amounts of money. However, companies like this are often unreliable and may end up throwing you off their server if you start using these extreme amounts of resources. See tip no. 5 for solution.
4) Do your research. It's very important to do adequate resource on whichever host you choose: don't just take their word for everything. Check what the technology experts are saying on the issue (e.g. look through reputable technology magazines for reviews). BE CAREFUL WHEN SEARCHING REVIEW SITES - THEY USUALLY EARN COMMISSION FOR EACH SIGNUP SO WILL PUSH THE HIGHEST BIDDING HOST!! While it sounds infantile, type queries like "..... .com sucks" and also search through their own support forums (assuming they have them) to see how quickly issues are resolved. Try contacting their support or sales departments with questions to get a good perspective of their response times. Remember, if their sales department take a while before they have your custom, imagine how long they may take when they do have your custom!
5) When your needs outweight most plans. If you've outgrown your current plan and you are using very large resource amounts, it may be time to think about renting out a VPS (Virtual Private Server) or a Dedicated Server. I emphasize that this will not be necessary unless you are receiving a lot of visitors (traffic) and unless you are storing a very large amount of data (e.g. hundreds of photos, movies or software downloads). VPS' are now relatively cheap and combine reliability with speed and of course more space and bandwidth. A typical entry VPS may offer you 10GB storage and 100GB bandwidth. If you have extreme needs and you are already running a very busy site, you may even contemplate renting out a Dedicated server from a hosting company. Dedicated servers are computers entirely dedicated to your own web site and are very reliable (if you choose the right host) but are overkill for the vast majority of people.
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May 6, 2008
From testing, I've come to the conclusion that I get extremely fast page downloads from a host in the Equinix Center in VA. I'm in Western NY. I don't know if this data center is better than most or if I just happen to be in an ideal location for their service.
I have a business that gets orders from the whole U.S., but a majority are in the East, especially the NE. Visitors come from everywhere in the U.S., but I'd like to keep the buying customers happiest.
Page download speeds are very important to me and I'd like to keep them as fast as possible for my customers. How important is the data center used by a host going to be to my decision? Also, is there a way to find webhosts from a particular data center? Manually going to webhost sites to find out if they have servers in the Equinix center has been painfully slow.
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May 14, 2007
I know absolutely nothing about these operating systems and am going to be solely relying on lxadmin or cpanel to manage my website.
However I would like some suggestions as to which OS I should choose (i.e. which is the fastest, most stable, etc.)
Here are the possible choices:
Mandriva
CentOS 4
OpenSuse 10, Slackware 10.2
Debian 3.1, Debian 4.0
Fedora Core 3, 4, 5
what is meant by VPS hardening?
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Jan 4, 2009
Im planning to put up a gameserver with a website for a mmorpg and i dont know how powerfull processor should i choose, what control panel, what operating system, 32x or 64x bit, what bandwith...? I was thinking about choosing iWeb Quad core Xeon, 100mb uplink, Windoes server 64x with cpanel.
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Oct 19, 2008
I've an original post with thread number 727551 which has date got old (forgive me for coming back late). So I decided to post a new thread here. But really thanks for all your helps, and I found I'm lucky to find a good place to ask my questions, as I see lots of valuabe responses when I come back.
I have some further questions about having "multiple domains" with a single hosting plan. Forgive me for not having much concept about this:
1. Does it mean that the "multiple domains" will all be sharing a single IP address (or should I say if I go to Shared Hosting plans, websites from all other people who share the same hosting machine with me will have the same IP)?
2. Would there be negative effect for my search engine rankings of each of these domains, if I have my domains sharing the same hosting (and if they really share the same IP)?
3. In case people know one of my domain name, would there be any way to check for my other domains in the same hosting, so that means they will know all my other websites?
I ask this because I'm thinking to launch different websites on a same niche.
And after looking into different hosting companies and their reviews, I found there are really different (and quite confusing) opinions around. Actually I expect I do not need much at the very beginning. I found there are lots of cheap offers, price as low as $1 per month, but I just afraid there will be problem later on. I'm thinking may be just go to those big and more famous one, say host gator, to avoid any unnecessary headaches later on.
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Feb 23, 2009
I am starting a small ecommerce website, initially selling 10 to 20 items but obviously hope to grow in the future. Since I don’t know much about web hosting, web design, etc., I need referrals to a webhosting company that provides easy to use professional looking templates which would allow me to design my website fast and start operation right away. Obviously, I need to get shopping cart/merchant account and all that goes with a e-commerce website (and I have no idea what all that might be but I am sure there are so many things that I will discover in the process). Anyway, I have visited many hosting companies out there and they are all so confusing to me. I wish they would allow me to see sample websites they host that used their templates but I haven’t been able to find any.
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Jun 29, 2008
I just saw two quite nice deal in the VPS offer forum with CheapVPS and Crissic.
They both around $15/month after discount with 512RAM and 20gb(Crissic's is 70gb) harddisk and 300gb+(CheapVPS is 600gb) bandwidth.
The harddisk space is more important to me at the moment but after a search in the forum I can't find any possitive feedback on Crissic, and both nice/bad feedback on CheapVPS. Seems more people are using CheapVPS.
I am wondering if anyone can help me to choose between them in terms of the reliability and stability of their server/service?
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Mar 1, 2007
I'm planning to move my co-located server to a cabinet soon. We are adding dedicated web & database servers to take the load off of the main box. I will get one GigE drop in this cabinet, so obviously I need a switch.
No routing is needed on my end, so my guess is that the regular GigE switch would do just fine. But I have few concerns about my setup.
All of my servers have dual GigE port. My plan is to connect one to the internet, and another to a local private lan for SMB, database, SNMP, and such. Jumbo frame is enabled on a private lan.
Is there any 16-port switch that allows me to assign 8 ports into one virtual switch (1500-byte frame) and another 8 into another virtual switch (9000-byte frame) ?
On the internet side, I expect to be pushing around 300-400mbps, a bit higher on the private lan. I need a very stable switch that won't choke or crash at this rate.
I'd also like to be able to limit throughput on each port, and probably do port/ip filtering on this switch instead of iptables on each box. (Am I asking too much for a switch?)
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Oct 3, 2007
i was recommended by a good friend to come here for advice. i'm looking for a web hosting service that will allow multiple domains & do php for my zen cart ecommerce website. i am currently spending $200 per year for web hosting just for my ecommerce website alone. does anybody know of any good reliable and cost efficient web hosting service that will allow me to do this at the same cost or slightly higher than what i'm paying?
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Feb 22, 2007
We're ready to setup 3-4 42U racks for servers and are in need of choosing Ethernet switches. What do you guys use and why?
I'm looked at Cisco switches, but lost in their product forest. I'm looked at Express 500, 2960 and 3750-E models. Is there any more difference (in exception of stacking, cli and hot-swap fan/psu) that I need to consider? Prices differentiate too much.
I'm also looked at Linksys/D-Link business products and they seems to have the same features as Cisco Express series, but only 50% cheaper.
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Jul 19, 2008
I'm new to SSL certificates and the like. I am switching to VPS hosting soon and I would like to buy an SSL certificate to go along with an (Ubercart / Drupal) e-commerce site that I am hosting. I'm looking for a cheap but good one. Does anyone have a recommended vendor / certificate type that would work well for me?
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Oct 30, 2009
How much more would you pay a month for dedicated server with a Cisco Master Certified Managed Services Provider?
In addition, would having the entire company's support staff CCNA certified influence your decision for choosing a dedicated provider?
Would certifications influence your decision to buy a server?
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Apr 20, 2009
my company's current hosting contract expires in May and I'm in need to find another one that will hopefully suit me better and cause much less headache.
I'll try to list some basic needs I got:
10gb bandwidth
10gb space
Mass email marketing ability! This is important!
I have a member list of about 30,000 who I email twice a week! These people are opt-in recipients of these emails.
On top of that I'd like to start mining and sending out opt-in requests of about 50-100,000 a month to NEW emails that I don't have direct permission to email.
I obviously have software to manage, clean, send out in batches, and do whatever else you have to for proper email marketing.
From some research I got the idea that I would be better off with some offshore VPS/dedicated host that won't shut us down for emailing. We will do our best to keep the bounces at minimum as well as keep up-to-date blacklists/unsubscribers.
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Jul 30, 2009
We are too small needswise for even a half rack. Even a 1/4 rack would be overkill but nontheless, options in the area are limited to even *owned-enclosed* 1/4 racks from the colo facility itself.
The local facilities that would fit our needs spacewise are probably going to fit this in a full rack with space that we purchase against.
My concern is the security of *our* -- the customer equipment. Read alot of horror stories and would hate to end up one day finding out that whatever provider we choose was behind on bills, etc and we have X days to grab equipment from the facility, etc.
I am looking to colo SAN equipment, which is almost a triple digit box.
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Jul 28, 2009
As per the last thread, I cleaned this up a little more, I welcome more comments as we make this the best it can be!
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Top Ten Things to Consider when choosing a Datacenter
Redundant Power
A minimum of N+1 power on critical systems (UPS and Generators) should be an absolute requirement for your business; however this doesn’t mean there aren’t points of failure. Not all power distribution is the same so demand a copy of your provider’s power map. 2N or greater systems is the only practical way to prevent failure. Definitions of redundant power can vary so demand to see a map that shows what it is truly redundant to. True B power should be redundant to the street.
Redundant Cooling
Redundant means more than just N+1 CRAH or CRAC units. If the facility has chilled water demand either a loop feed bi-directional system or a completely redundant pipe. This allows for maintenance on the pipe without taking the system down. Other considerations include redundant chillers, pumps, valves, controls, and electrical.
Network Carriers
At a minimum you should require a facility with multiple on site carriers. Competition drives pricing, therefore; by being in a carrier neutral facility with access to multiple providers, you increase your bottom line and decrease risk. Fiber should have diverse entrance paths to the building as well.
Location
The risk of system outage is significantly reduced by placing your servers in a datacenter that is located in a disaster free area. The threat of natural disaster such as tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and wildfires can be easily thwarted by choosing a datacenter that does not reside in a coastal or storm centered region. Also consider the cost and availability of power when selecting your location.
Security
It is important to demand accountability from your Datacenter Operator. While two-factor authentication is good, the most secure datacenters enforce three-factor authentication: something you have, something you are, and something you know. Man traps to avoid pass-back and tailgating at all points of ingress and egress should also be high on your list of requirements.
Support
Do not risk your business to an unmanned facility. Require a minimum of 2 remote hands engineers and ensure the datacenter has certified professionals on site at all times. Don’t be fooled by datacenters who hire “button pushers.” Remember that your infrastructure lies in their hands during critical moments.
Flexibility to meet your business needs
Don’t pay for a datacenter that is everything to everyone; in other words, avoid paying for services you don’t require. And do plan for growth, as your business grows, you want a datacenter that grows with you.
Vendors and Partners of the Datacenter
Often times the datacenter operator has relationships established with vendors. Leveraging these relationships can save you time and money compared to working with solution providers.
Service
Be sure to consider any other services the datacenter may offer you with regard to office space, engineering services, consulting services, customer accessibility, remote hands, etc.
Standards
The datacenter you choose should be SAS 70 Type II compliant. If your business deals with online payment transactions ensure that the datacenter meets the physical and environmental controls necessary for Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards.
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Sep 24, 2008
how other people with large subscribers’ database (over 500K subscribers) manage their e-mail marketing needs.
We do have a number of different everyday newsletters and occasionally send surveys to customers (once in a couple of months). I do like the functionality and features that different e-mail marketing providers offer with their packages like Constant Contact, Icontact, etc.
However, considering the number of subscribers their services cost too high in our situation. Maybe there is a standalone software product which we can license and install to our servers and manage in house instead of buying a hosted application?
Quick update: I just found [url]. Does anyone has any experience working with them?
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Jun 13, 2008
I'm in the process of preparing to install CentOS 5 on my server, and was wondering whether most people recommend going with the 64bit version or sticking with 32bit. My server's CPU is 64-bit capable (Xeon 3060 at SoftLayer), and I have previously run CentOS 4.4 64bit on it, though I did have some struggles from time to time getting things to work (following setup guides that tend to assume 32bit more often than not).
I'll be running just a standard setup of PHP 5, MySQL 5, and Apache 2, powering several moderate-traffic sites that run on the Drupal CMS (e.g. about 7000-10000 visitors per day total, though hopefully more in the future of course). I don't plan on running a control panel other than Webmin, though I might get DirectAdmin or similar in the future to make hosting some friends/clients a bit simpler.
Will going with 64bit offer any worthwhile advantage with this setup?
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Aug 11, 2008
The company I work for is doing a promotional site that will probably involve a good chunk of progressive (as in, not quite the same as streaming) video -- basically my best guess is that everyone who views the site will likely download between 6 and 50 megabytes of video depending on how long they spend on the site, etc... I would imagine most people would be at the low end of that, maybe 12 megs, but it's hard to predict...
The tough spot is there will be TV and banner ads purchased for this promotion, and it's not entirely clear to us how good response will be. It could be 5,000 visitors in a day ... it could be 250,000 in a day... the response to various advertising campaigns our clients have done has just varied a lot...
So let's say we have 150,000 visitors downloading an average of 12.5 megs of video - that's about 2 terabytes of transfer in a month.
How much should we expect to pay for that kind of data transfer, and are there good providers that will scale with us? I don't think we mind sacrificing a few hundred bucks our first month only to find that traffic was low -- but if it's going to cost thousands to move 2-3 terabytes of data via a CDN, what are our other options? Does anyone scale well even if it's unpredictable? I realize we have to pay some sort of premium for that scalability or it's not really fair to the hosting provider.. but what price range should we be looking at?
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May 10, 2008
We have a few websites which get 90% Asian traffic. Looking to optimise the user experience in terms of loading time..
Any specific server providers good for asian traffic? How do I find the latency time for a server provider before I go ahead with buying the server?
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Jun 26, 2008
I would really appreciate some advice about changing from a VPS to a dedicated server and getting a good 24/7 server management service
I know I need more Ram than I’ve got now and I know I need a managed server. Beyond that I’m not sure what I need and all the info I’m reading is making me more uncertain and more worried about making the wrong decision.
I moved from shared hosting to VPS a year ago. I have now started to outgrow the VPS.
The VPS has 512 MB Ram, 10% Burstable Resources. The site has been up since the last crash for 78 days but it is maxing out the Ram during the busy parts of the day and has high load averages.
There is one site on the VPS with static HTML pages. Last month’s figures were approximately 186,000 MB of Data transfer and 4,362000 page views. Average of 30,000 visitors per day
I want to add another 4 or 5 sites small sites. Some of those will be XML feed sites. No forums, chat or reselling.
So what to choose?
1.Operating System
CentOS or Fedora Core Linux 6
2.Control Panel
cPanel 11 or Parallels Pro
3.Processor
Single Core or Dual Core
4.Ram
1GB or 2GB
5.Hard Drive
Single with backup, RAID or RAID with backup drive
Server Management Services and Monitoring 24/7
I’m using WebSite Pulse for monitoring at the moment and I’m very happy with them but they don’t do server management. I need a company to secure, protect, update and keep the server running 24/7
platinumservermanagement.com seem to offer a good service for only $29 per month. Don’t know what they are like. They only manage cPanel, don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Would appreciate other suggestions.
Basically I’ve got to decide do I stick with current hosting service and move to a dedicated server choosing from the options I have listed or move to another hosting service offering managed VPS with more resources like wiredtree.com. Don’t know what Wired Tree is like just read about them in the forum.
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Mar 23, 2015
I can't seem to find if there is a way to specify what hostname is used for a service on a service node. For instance, if one creates a service node named web01, and makes it a DNS service node, is web01 what will be used when creating NS records in zone files, or is there a way to change that?
The ppademo.com site is offline (and was unlicensed again last week).
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Apr 11, 2008
I'm configuring a website for a client who has moved their web hosting to downtownhost, but is keeping their email hosting with their current provider. They do not want to configure an MX entry on DTH to autoforward email back to their current provider because they don't want their email to pass through DTH.
In order to do this, do I keep the nameserver entries on the current provider the same, and configure an http redirect to point to DTH? Or is there something else I should configure on the current provider?
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May 21, 2009
I'm wondering if you can tell me something about your experience with a host/server in a different country or overseas.
My webpage will be mostly frequented by Australians.
What do you think is the advantage and the disadvantage of having a host in your own country and having one overseas?
I'm thinking about stability, traffic speed, peak hours in different time zones, customer service, ....
What are your experiences?
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Aug 3, 2008
I was with Blue Host and their support and service was pretty bad. Servers going down all the time, and chat support was terrible. Then I moved to Host Monster and received the same kind of service/support. I later then figured out that Blue Host and Host Monster is runned by the same people. For example, I opened up a tech support ticket with Host Monster and then they replied signing their signature with Blue Host. So I got the same service: terrible tech support and servers kept going down. Now I'm looking for a new web hosting. I a few people here gave Host Gator some good reviews. I hope Host Gator is not run be the same people that runs Blue Host and Host Monster.
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Jul 8, 2008
Does anyone have a preference for Host Excellence compared to Blue Host?
Do you think their basic offers are the same?
This is for just a couple of simple domains and sites to be hosted.
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May 27, 2008
with this being my first website goddady's website tonight or there blog site plan seem pretty good as I do not know how to build a professional looking website nor do I have a knowledge of HTML. Are there other hosts that offer better services such as these?
Also I would want to register with 1&1 as to register privately is free but with godaddy it costs around $15 and I've heard of godaddy stealing persons domains when they haven't even expired yet i.e. familyAlbum.com?
Is it allowed for instance to register my domain name with 1&1 and host my site with godaddy?
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Jun 16, 2008
If you had to chose either Host Gator or Hawk Host which would you go with and why? Don't bring any other hosts into consideration just compare these two. This would be for a standard website, forum, and a few downloads if it makes a difference...nothing too fancy.
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Dec 12, 2007
I have just made a personal website using photoshop, html, css and php. My site contains an index page, a gallery page with 8 photos, a contact page with a form and an extra page with some quotes. I am planning to use a paid host for the first time. Based on feedbacks from some of my sitepoint friends, I decided to go in for shared hosting. I thought of using Hostdogs.com as they have the option of a monthly billing cycle. I thought that I have the option of changing my host after a month if I am not happy with them. I have also read a lot about Hostgator.com. A lot of sitepoint members seem hooked to it.
1. Can anyone give an opinion as to which host I should go in for? Hostdogs also give a free domain. Is there any reason I should go in for Hostgator instead of Hostdogs?
2. One more question, I have heard that once I have a site running, I can earn money through the advertisements placed on it? How do I place advertisements on my site?
3. One last and very important question is whether it is right to go in for shared hosting at this point of time. I just read this
Quote:
When you look for a suitable host, be sure to check out the amount of bandwidth that will be available to your site. Even a site that doesn't require a great deal of data transfer per month could run slowly if you're hosted on a shared server; particularly if you are on the same server as a more popular or bandwidth-intensive site.
The more sites hosted on a server, the more likely they are to compete with each other for available resources, including bandwidth. This is why you may notice a reduction in server response times during busy periods, or during a sudden peak in traffic at a busier site on a server that you share.
This made me wonder whether I should go in for shared hosting. But then mine is a personal home page which may not have so much of traffic.
4. What does the paragraph below mean? How does one handle ones registration manually?
Self-Management (no cost)
Select this option if you prefer to handle your registration manually.Your web host can establish service with any Top-Level Domain (TLD), international or domestic.
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