The Planet has expanded its focus to add a suite of managed services, which it calls "Planet Northstar" and has rebranded its dedicated server offerings as "Planet Alpha." It's also redesigned its site with a Web 2.0 look.
View 14 RepliesI am setting up a VPS for testing purposes and I now want to try to really test how to get the most out of it when it comes to speed (focusing on PHP) without throwing security out the window.
I have started by letting Configserver secure and set the server up with mod_security, suhosin and suphp, which is great for security but not very quick.
Suphp does not work with eaccelerator for example, but putting things in dso mode is not exactly very safe...so what to do?
Apache is another thing that slows down and i have been looking at LiteSpeed (free version should work for just a handful accounts on a vps I guess?) and I have heard about lighttpd and Nginx, but I have no idea what works or how....
I am a WHM/Cpanel geezer so while I am surely ready to consider other alternatives I am a bit reluctant to move away from what I am familiar with, but if I have to to get the best speed and security...I'll do it
So...what needs to be done to speed things up and deliver lightningfast PHP pages...any experience or thoughts you want to share?
I just read this on their forums.Softlayer is pleased to announce that we have turned up a private 10G peer with Comcast in Dallas. This will bring our total capacity in Dallas to 70Gs.
Dallas, TX (dal01) - 70Gs
Verio - 20G (2x 10G)
Level3 - 10G
Savvis - 10G
Global Crossing - 10G
Internap - 10G
Comcast - 10G private peering Which other providers have this?
we have been having a strange hacking problem on our server that we can not seem to find how they are managing to accompish. I am just wondering if anyone here may be able to offer any suggestions on this?
The problem:
On our server, a hacker has managed to add malicious code to all html and php files on two hosting accounts that we operate. These two accounts are seperate and do not share login information. This is the 2nd time this has happened within the past two weeks.
Originally it was suspected that we needed to add SuPhp to prevent insecure permissions. This has been done, yet the problem continues.
On all html pages, malicious javascript has been added, and on all php files malicious php code has been added.
We have a lot of accounts on this server, and as mentioned only the two accounts seem to have been affected by this.
What we have done to attempt to secure the server:
1) We have installed SuPhp.
2) We have ensured that all scripts on the affected websites are updated and running the latest versions.
3) We have changed all the passwords.
Our server is a managed server, and our server company has been very helpful, however at the moment can not seem to pinpoint the problem. There also does not appear to be any indication via the access logs of the infected files being altered, yet they have been altered.
The computers used to access these websites are clean, and do not have any malware running, which would allow a hacker to obtain any passwords. It also does not appear that the hacker was able to obtain root access.
One other thing I noticed, we run Kayako on one of the sites. When this problem occurs we receive a message that Zend Optimizer is not installed on our server when attempting to login to Kayako, when in fact it is.
Searching Google, I found the following link on the Zend site in which the symptoms seem to be very similar. What are the odds this could be a Zend vulnerabilty?
[url]
how the hosting provider would back me up in setting up my vps, support in additional issues etc. with regards each of the above topics.
View 2 Replies View RelatedDoes anyone have any recommendations regarding managed hosting providers?
View 10 Replies View RelatedNeed the following specs from an established Managed Windows VPS provider with Ticket and Phone Support.
Server 2003
Helm 4
30-50GB Disk
1TB+ Bandwidth
1024 Memory
MySQL or WinSQL
2+ IP's
Currently our site resides on a dedicated server that I manage. We are only using a fraction of the resources on the server and I have no interest in trying to sell accounts or resources, just too much headache. We made the move from HostGator to a dedicated server some time ago when it became apparent HostGator was overselling. Our server was seeing reboots way too often, ads and their company branded error pages (although I could have changed this part), and sluggish performance.
What I'm interested in is a hosting company that offers backup solutions and can make your backups available quickly in the event of a failure. Other companies I have dealt with offered this but their response time of 1-3 days is just unacceptable. I will also stay away from any overselling, built in ads of any kind, and companies without 24/7 phone support.
I would like to stay with cPanel so our user's email accounts will not be interrupted or changed when the site is transfered. Of course if there is a full import option to another control panel this isn't an issue.
So my question is this: Does this company/service exist, or are we stuck paying for a dedicated server that we don't need? I'm more than willing to pay, just looking to see if there is an option less expensive that my dedicated server.
I've had a similar conversation in the past wanted to get more specific.
It's really a personal question.
I want a dedicated server but don't want to pay the extra 70 a month for managed solution.
If i don't have much experience with a linux server and can't use windows server because i need Apache mod_rewrite am i safe just getting a dedicated host and not messing with anything but the cpanel?
Most apps i've hand coded so i don't forsee upgrades, assuming it comes with the standard setup.
Why would i need a hosting manager, I think i can learn things on my own right?
Anyone been in my shoes before and went dedicated non managed?
I currently have a shared hosting account with a provider. They have been less than stellar, so I'm looking into alternatives.
I'm am designing and hosting Joomla sites for customers. While I can certainly look into using another shared hosting provider, I certainly owe my customers the best most reliable hosting experience possible.
Would VPS fit the bill? At what point do I consider moving from a Shared hosting environment to Managed VPS?
For reliable managed hosting, with some research, I can find...
Liquid Web
Rackspace
It seems like Liquid Web is definitely the bang for the bucks.. but it also makes me think if it's too good to be true. I feel Rackspace is more "professional" and they're more "high-end". But I definitely love the pricing from LiquidWeb. for the same price, I can get a quad core + 4GB from LiquidWeb, and maybe an AMD dual-core + 1GB from Rackspace..
My question is : Do LiquidWeb and Rackspace offer the same kind of "managed services"? Rackspace told me that they would give me an account manager which makes me feel more personalized. but I also had a live chat with LiquidWeb and the sales kept marketing the "Heroic support"
Let me give you some statistics of my site
Nature : E-commerce
Target : UK/Europe
Daily Visitor : 7000-13000
App : PHP + MySQL
I have a client looking for a managed hosting facility in Delaware.
Can anyone provide recommendations for a Tier II or Tier III Provider?
I'm currently using a SiteGround virtual private server with the following spec:
OS:CentOS (Linux)
cPanel: yes
Support:24/7
RAM: 512 MB
Accounts: 1 main
Traffic: 1,000 GB
Price/mo: $99.00
I'm hosting x2 Joomla 1.5 sites using PHP v5 with the following extensions:
Sobe2
OpenX
Community Builder
Fireboard
Virtumart
The problem is that both sites have several sizable databases, each in excess of 100k records. After uploading the first 90k records to mySQL it became apparent that performance was going to be an issue. I'm therefore considering a dedicated server, tuned for returning fast DB results.
Firstly, would a dedicated server solve my performance issues?
Secondly, what are the critical components, spec wise, that would ensure superfast DB calls?
Like everyone, I'm looking for the best value, meaning solid support, uptime and a low monthly cost. I have been recommended the following hosting partners, but would like everyones input:
site5.com
rackspace.com
iweb.com
singlehop.com
servepath.com
superbhosting.net
Rochen.com
I tried searching around but maybe someone can steer me in the right direction.
I, as probably many other people, are in an interesting predicament.
I love my VPS right now...however obviously since I started with my VPS I'm about to out grow it, with the amount of power that I need.
What I'm looking for is a server which is completely managed, completely secured (some sort of active virus scanning), however I can get in there and have complete control like I would with my VPS, but obviously with more resources.
What I'm looking for is:
2-4GBs of ram
Pentium D (minimum) up to a Xeon 3220 SINGLE processor
1000 - 2000TB / bandwidth
100mb/s uplink
Windows 03 would be great, I'll settle for CentOS though
Budget max is $170/mo.
if there are any recommendations on managed database hosting services. This will be used for a fairly large project running on Mysql DB. Due to the size and complexity of the database a lot of resources are being used, so I prefer to find a company which specializes in dB hosting.
View 8 Replies View RelatedI am just considering to relocate one of my four sites from the current Ipowerweb shared hosting to a managed VPS one. I am fed up with their ftp upload speed problems and level of customer service and I want to upgrade to something sort of "semi dedicated".
Please consider that I am a beginner in VPS and i do not know anything about Linux other than it is an operating system. I have a few questions:
1) Managed or Unmanaged VPS
I guess as a beginner I would preferably have to opt for a managed VPS solution? Do you agree?
2) Easiest and most secure Linux Operating system to choose for VPS
I do not wanna end up having to fine tuning security issues or setting command line OS options (just want to reboot the server if needed and accomplish simple operations whithin the control panel). For example VPSlink at [url] shows me so many OS choices (centos, ubuntu, debian, fedora, opensuse etc. ) that make me confuse .
As a beginner which one is the easiest and most secure Linux Operating systems to choose?
3) Easiest VPS Control Panel
I am currently using Ipowerweb vDeck and aPlus control panels. What is the easiest VPS control panel to choose?
4) VPS Unlimited domains hosting
Does that mean that i can host unlimited domains or just park/redirect domains like in the shared hosting?
5) Preloaded PHP, MYSQL and other plugins/addons
Do they come included in the package like in shared hosting or do I have to install them myself?
6) VPS Dedicated IP and Search Engine Optinisation (SEO)
If I have one single VPS dedicated IP and many hosted websites do they share they same IP? How this affect the SEO effort if, for example, Google see all the websites sharing the same IP and linking each other? How would the announced Host Gator SEO Hosting [url]overcome this issue (no idea what multiple C classes are )?
7) VPS Hardware / resource selection
What minimum resources would you recommend for the following website profile?
Size: 45MB
Type/Features: Static pages, no forum or dynamic database driven pages
Daily Unique visitors: 4,000
Max bandwidth: 1,5 GB per month
8) Which cheap managed VPS to choose under 30$ a month?
Considering all the above, which cheap and managed VPS solution (possibly under 30$ a month) would you suggest to a beginner?
I noticed good reviews for KnownHost and they offer a basic semi-managed 20$ a month plan. Would a semi-managed plan good for a beginner like me? Any similar offers, with strong Customer support, you would suggest to look into?
Some of you may remember when I was asking for help on a good dedicated hosting company. I looked around for a month and finally found a great company to host my websites, WANSecurity. I received at least 10 dedicated server offers, but chose to go with WANSecurity because of the server and service they offered me. With so many options out there, I thought it would be helpful for me to share my experience with some of you. I have been on shared hosting for about 10 years and have never messed with dedicated servers. I had no idea there was so much work with dedicated servers until I got my hands on one. I was used to getting everything set up for me at Lunarpages. Although I love Lunarpages, their dedicated servers are nowhere near those offered by WANSecurity. Robert, the WANSecurity founder, has been particularly helpful. I received a recommendation from a WHT forum member telling me to get in direct contact with Robert for the "best managed hosting" offer out there, and guess what... I think I got it. Robert and WANSecurity moved all my files, installed Apache, Red 5, set up my mail servers, configured all of my large databases, and did so much more.
Although I am new to dedicated hosting, their managed plans are world class and their servers are very reliable. No issues in the last 6 weeks for me. If you are new to dedicated hosting and don't feel comfortable running everything on your own, trust these guys. They do a great job and they are flexible. Their managed hosting plans are new but they have been around for 11 years. They know their stuff and most of all, they care about you. That's the great thing when you are a big fish in a small pond. They truly care for you and therefore offer you the best service. If you are experienced with servers, they are still a great choice. They will give you a great deal on a server even if you don't need all the managed hosting services.
Check them out at: [url]
You can also get in touch with their founder if you are interested. PM me for his email. Feel free to ask me any questions. I'm open to give you my personal feedback.
recommend best uk fully managed dedicated server hosting
View 14 Replies View RelatedAbout us first, we do cPanel shared hosting and also (however you want to put it) fully-managed proactively monitored dedicated hosting - due to this we need access to our equipment all the time so we host it locally.
Ed from RapidSwitch contacted us via live chat on our website at the start of September to introduce the company, he offered us a rack from £650/mo, mentioned we could take it upto 32A power (obviously not for that price!).
We're based in Maidenhead (in the town centre), 5 minutes walk from RapidSwitch and 5 minutes drive from BlueSquare, as we use power-hungry Dell PowerEdges and the DC is closer to us we thought we'd have a look.
We arranged a tour. On the tour we were told about their dual diverse dark fibre, diverse power, how their staff support cPanel, how the rack would be fully managed by them but we'd be able to pop in anytime to do work, how they'd let us move in our kit during the night, sounded great.
The following day the whole Poundhost vs RapidSwitch thing went down, soon after RapidSwitch themselves went down too, which was slightly worrying.
We moved in, or tried to First time we asked for DC access it took 1 ticket, a wait of 60+ mins, then an angry phone call from me to get it sorted out, it was sorted out for the following day -- okay, strange? We moved in the next day.
Some days later we decided to move some of our live kit at BlueSquare over to RS for the evening.
4pm - I open ticket saying I need access to rack some live servers as per our verbal agreement when I signed up, and I get a reply saying No, as they don't accept hardware or visitors outside the hours of 8am - 8pm Monday to Friday.
4:30pm - I phone Randeep (sales guy) and talk to him, he talks to a Manager, arranges an exception, says a note will be put in my account regarding tonight and the other server moves we had discussed before I signed the contract.
4:50pm - I follow up this ticket to make sure they're ready.
8pm - Again, I follow up this ticket to make sure they're ready.
8:45pm - I arrive at BSQ after having sent them one ticket.
9:05pm - I leave BSQ after going through security, meeting a BSQ tech, unracking a box from BSQ1 and BSQ3, signing documentation, etc.
9:15pm - I arrive at RapidSwitch, no one answers the buzzer, so I phone. A member of technical staff (seems friendly, etc) takes my hardware, I ask "Can you rack this immediately?", I am told "No we're really busy", I mention that I had arranged this earlier, he replies "Well I wish they had told us!!!", I am then told "Management always arrange maintenance tasks at the same time and never think of the fu****g monkeys (he said this!!) that actually have to do the work, there is no communication at all"... He then goes on to talk about only 2-3 people being on shift in the evenings, how they have too much work, etc. I ask "Can it be done in the next hour?". Am told "Uhhhhh I'll try but Ive got a mountain of jobs to do". Tech then walks off with the servers, forgetting to take the rails, network cables and power cables. I mention this to him, he says "Oh, I'm not used to this Managed Rack malarkey". He then says "I'll update your ticket to say we took delivery of your hardware".
9:28pm - I drive off.
9:34pm - I arrive at my office, no ticket update. I wait around a bit and reply to the ticket asking if it can please be done ASAP. No reply, I then phone and ask what the deal is, am told on the phone "ohh we'll do it in 10-15minutes, when (unaudible) comes back, but usually colo orders are racked within 48hrs, we're really busy!" (so basically am told that what I'm asking isn't acceptable and they're too busy to cope -- not what you want to hear from someone who's supposed to be managing your hardware)
9:50pm - I phone up and ask what the hold up is. Am told your staff are too busy still, am also told that servers are racked within 48hrs of delivery. (So, basically I'm pushing my luck).
10:27pm - I get a reply saying your staff will do it as soon as they've finished their current jobs.
10:40pm - By this time I am getting customers shouting at me as this is taking too long, too right! I sternly reply to the ticket asking again to please rack them, once again explaining my situation.
10:49pm - I get a reply saying the servers will be racked as your tech has finished his other jobs.
11:08pm - I get a reply saying the servers have been racked but not plugged in, asking how I want them cabled - fair question, if not a bit obvious.
11:20pm - Servers are pinging
11:25pm - I have reconfigured the servers to work on the new IP range, so my job is complete, I then emailed them back asking if they're cPanel trained - turns out they aren't, although some members of their team might know bits and pieces - not what I was told on the tour, not useful to me at all.
I had a think about it over the weekend -- I wondered, if we can now only access our equipment 8am-8pm Mon-Fri (30% of each week) and they won't even allow a Dell engineer in out of hours, plus their staff are too busy to handle our requests in a timely manner -- what do we do if something goes wrong?
Worst case scenario is if a server physically broke at 5pm on a Friday and we didn't have the necessary spare part. We have 4hr SLA with Dell so they'd arrive at RS at 9pm but not be allowed in until 8am on Monday.
I decided it would be unwise for us to use a data centre which only allows us access to the building for 30% of the week and we should have been told before we signed our contract that we'd only be allowed in during those times. Being told their staff were cPanel trained bugged me too, especially if what they're selling me is a 'Managed' rack.
I wrote a long ranty email to them to nullify the contract, Paul Tacey-Green phoned me, we had a chat, he said they'd change the access time rules (but he hasn't yet), he mentioned that 2/4 of their staff on that shift had taken the night off sick and offered me some time free to show their commitment, I wasn't interested, I got the contract nullified and arranged to get out of there.
I then called BlueSquare, they provisioned a new rack, got me a new IP range sorted and assured they'd help with whatever I needed.
Getting out of there was interesting, a week later I opened a ticket to go there 19:30 one night, they made an exception to allow myself and a member of my staff in at the same time (only one visitor on DC floor allowed usually as their racks aren't secure).
We got in there really quickly, the tech guy was nice. (But there seemed only to be 2 techs on site, Paul, on the phone told me there should be 4 during night shift) Anyway, we get to our rack and find the servers they'd racked the previous week weren't done properly, firstly they'd randomly been racked in the middle of the rack rather than on top of the existing ones (at the bottom of the rack), and then, quite scarily/hilariously, the bottom one they'd racked (in the middle of the rack), the rails weren't put in at the back, so it was defying gravity and mysteriously HANGING at about a 15 degree angle in the rack!
We packed up our stuff as fast as possible, got out of there. We got into BlueSquare 10mins later, by the time we reached the door there were already BlueSquare techs waiting for us! They immediately took all our equipment out the back of my car and put it next to the rack so we could get it all installed.
Anyway, I thought I'd just share my experience of RapidSwitch - Im sure they have lots of happy customers. I'm just happy we got out of there before we moved in too much kit. I couldn't handle the thought of giving them another chance, them failing and us being forced to move out some busy shared servers at 7:30pm one night! We'll be staying at BlueSquare from now on.
I'm finally ready to move from a shared environment to a dedicated server. I don't know anything about server set up and management. Therefore I'm looking for a managed solution.
Reading through this great forum I found out that I can either go with a fully managed solution by the hosting company or go with an self-managed host and hire a third party administrator.
This will be my first dedicated server project. I would like to keep monthly cost below $400. Not necessarily looking for the cheapest deal out there, but rather for good service and stable performance.
I have heard good things about the Planet and liquidweb here on this forum. If I can find a reliable 3rd party management company I might be able to look into softlayer and/limestone.
I'm trying to decide whether I should go with inhouse management or 3rd party management.
I work for a small web design firm with about 100 clients/domains and we are starting the search for a new hosting provider. We need a managed dedicated server with an offsite backup. We are also looking for a company that knows what they are talking about. If we have a Linux or server question they need to be able to give us a quick straight answer. Also, if they could help us transfer all our hosting accounts from our current server over to the new one that would be a BIG plus.
We have been thinking about Rackspace or 1and1.com but were wondering what the community thought. Any recommendations?
Im thinking about launching a dating/social networking website and i was told that i will need a managed dedicated server package and i just want to know if anyone can recommend a company that offers a high quality reliable service like this? Price is obviously important too.
I would also like to know if countries like India offer good reliable high quality managed dedicated server packages too? Or if its better to go with a company in the United Kingdom or the USA etc?
Perhaps there is someone on this forum who also runs a dating/social networking website and can recommend a good dedicated managed hosting package as well?
I am considering moving to dedicated server, what are risks with self managed server compared to managed?
Managed servers are very expensive for my needs.
When a colo vendor can consider themselves as a managed colocation provider? What make them different than *normal* colo service?
If you need a managed colo, why not go with managed server? With managed server, your vendor will take care about the server health, including software and hardware too
(I am mentioning to fully managed server vendors like Rackspace, don't tell me cheap managed servers)
I've always had hosting where everything is pretty much already setup. I am now considering getting my own dedicated server. I see most good packages are Self Managed Servers.
I'm not a system admin and never had any experience managing and setting up my own server. Is this a lot of work? Is this something that is also pretty easily learned or does this really take a lot of knowledge?
is there anybody out there with a rave review and different experience than the rest of us are having?
View 14 Replies View RelatedI've been waiting to get a server for a long time. On Monday, I went ahead and ordered a server from The Planet. 20 minutes later, I decided for the money I might as well upgrade my package a little bit (from $180 to $220). So I chatted with one of the sales representatives (Ryan B to be exact) and was told my first order was canceled and that the second server was ordered. $197 was charged for the first order and today, 5 days later, has yet to be refunded.
I found out on Tuesday that I'm being laid off on August 22. With this information, I immediately canceled my second order with The Planet, knowing I wouldn't be able to pay it monthly. I was told the order was canceled (the server was never setup) and I also asked about my first order. They said it had been canceled and I should be getting the refund shortly. That was Tuesday afternoon. I contacted them on Wednesday and again they said I should be getting the money soon. It's a simple credit card charge back, it can be done instantly. It's now Friday afternoon, almost 5 days since I ordered my first server and the money (totaling $443) still hasn't been refunded. Is this normal...? I really could use that money...
In general, which of those is the best in hardware and bandiwdth, and in support?
View 14 Replies View RelatedI was hosted with these guys for well over 2 years, and was spending on average more than $2,000.00 a month for servers.
I had slowly grown to well over 10 boxes, and was definately on my way. then one day I get a spam complaint that one of my serves was casing complaints. So I checked it out, and asked for the complaints to be relayed so I would have record of it..... nothing.... I responded and even tried to call, but at that point they had sent me a tciket stating.
We have recieved well ofer 1000 spam complaints from a server you lease with us, per out TOS we are terminating ALL OF YOUR SERVERS, and you have 15 days to remove the data!
WOW... there was no ability to have them terminate that server, they simply said NO your account will be terminated (all of your servers) and you will be banned from The Planet!
When I tried to call they said your not allowed to speak with the abuse dept, again I tried contacting my account manager, and he said he checked into it and only saw a few complaints, and didn;t understand why they were doing this... In short I barely got moved over to another provideer before they shut me down completely..... They did however offer one course of action... you could turn your dedicated server clients over to us so they dont have to move! THEY ACTUALLY SAID THIS!
I at that point made the move and then they hit my credit card for another month well short of 20 days before a bill would even be due.. I had to file charges at the local courthouse to get this reversed.
My advice, if you host at the planet dont send mail. get another server provider for mail, these guys are *&^)(* and they don;t care about shutting you down no matter what you spend with them, on top of that they will try to scarf your clients up if they can, after they leave you high and dry....
Anyone else have issues like this with anyone else. I want to compile a list of providers that do business like this so I can avoid them.
I've had my servers with The Planet for years. Used to be really happy with them. Ever since the merger, they seem to have deteriorated over time. Recently, I find the level of support to have become poor.
The redeeming quality is that they have had outstanding uptime over all of these years, and they are always there if you need them in a true emergency - in other words, they always pick up the phone.
I need a company that is comparable in their level of staffing and resources. Who out there is comparable, yet providing better support and overall attitude these days and for the long-haul?
I currently have a colocation solution with The Planet. How do they stack up against the competition for price and reliability?
View 10 Replies View Related