hosting – Jay's Random Thoughts

Review: JuiceSSH For Android

As my readers know, I am a techie and one of my hobbies is monkeying with Linux. My basement contains multiple Linux servers including a Raspberry Pi model B, and I also have a couple of Linux webhosting accounts. I am an anti-GUI kind of guy and so I manage and operate all of these systems through SSH. The process has historically worked really well until a few months ago.

Recently, my company updated their firewall to block SSH and so my remote access functionality ceased operation. This was a problem especially since I was in the process of migrating webhosts. As a result, I had to look for other SSH access options. My first thought was to use my smartphone and so I headed to the Android AppStore to look for a client. My initial search yielded ConnectBot which was highly rated; however, I ran into problems. Continue reading Review: JuiceSSH For Android

Migrating WordPress from one host to another in seven easy steps

As a service to my readers and for my own future knowledge, I wanted to explain how to move a WordPress blog from one web host to another. As I wrote previously, I recently moved to a new web host. My strategy for migration is to bring up the blog on a subdomain for testing purposes. Once I have fully tested the site at its temporary location, I use DNS to point the active URL to the new site. Let’s walk through the steps: Continue reading Migrating WordPress from one host to another in seven easy steps

Migrating to a new web host

I have been hosting this blog on Blue Host for about three years and in general it has worked okay. However, recently some technical issues emerged that took much longer than I anticipated to resolve and so I decided to research other shared web hosting options. My needs are quite limited since this is a low volume site; however, that does not mean that I am willing to sacrifice on quality. With that said, let’s look at some of the options I considered.

First, when looking a web host review sites, it is clear that there are many supposed “review” sites out there that seem to be thinly veiled advertising ploys. I did find a couple of sites that I liked including WhoIsHostingThis, Web Hosting Talk and finally, I liked this one. As you go through, it quickly becomes obvious that there is a range of options and price points. The difficult thing is that the cost of entry to webhosting is minimal with anyone being able to hang out a web hosting shingle with little or no outlay. Hence, it is critical to choose a “real” provider that has experience and knows what they are doing.

In my case, I was looking for simple shared hosting account. There are many more expensive options, but my needs are limited. My one caveat is that I did want an account that would let me host multiple domains and blogs which can be a consideration since some sites only allow a single domain. You will also note that many providers offer big discounts upon sign-up, but these are short-lived and prices will go up upon renewal. I ignored any short-term discounts and only focused on actual long-term costs. (The one exception is StableHost which offered a 50% lifetime disount.) The other thing to keep in mind is that the prices advertised on websites are often misleading because they assume that you buy three years upfront. My focus is on a one year term and so the prices below reflect that. After lots of research, here is what I came up with: Continue reading Migrating to a new web host

New web infrastructure

As part of my move to update this blog, I have moved to a completely new webinfrastructure and gone from a self-hosted configuration on a dedicated server to shared system. Self-hosted has worked well, but the difficulty of maintaining and upgrading server hardware has become too difficult. I am happy to have someone else deal with the foibles of running a webserver and associated networking equipment. Here are my current service providers.

Blue Host – I am using them as my webhost and have been happy with them. Their customer service is good and it is rare to find a company where you can reach an actual person with minimal hold time. Best of all, their prices are reasonable and they offer unlimited storage and bandwidth.

EveryDNS – This company is hosting my DNS. I have been happy with them in general although I currently have an issue with one of my domains. Part of the difficulty is that they have recently been acquired by DynDNS and it appears that support is in transition.

DomainMonster – These guys are my domain registrar and I have been very happy with them. Their prices are reasonable and their service is first rate. You can call them too and they will answer. They are also prompt with their web-based response. I also used their DNS services on my domain that is having issues with EveryDNS and everything worked smoothly.

Google Apps – I use this service to host my email and calendars. I have a very positive experience with Google Apps so far and am impressed with the reliability and robustness of the offering. Best of all, the price is free! It also takes advantage of many of the Google applications already available for a wide variety of PDAs thus allowing you to synchronize your email, contact and calendars transparently.

I performed extensive research before choosing each of these options and so far am quite happy with each of them.