Domain Name / Hosting

Fri Mar 25 06:29:44 MST 2016

Thanks David!!

Any idea why you were hacked?  Was it an O/S vulnerability or WP?  Maybe 
we can all learn here.

Sounds like you were running your own mail server.

Mail is the weak point with the cloud and VPS, or even hardware.  I'm 
looking for a robust but cheap mail host.  I'd like to see $2/1G box/mo 
with no minimum.

On 2016-03-24 20:54, David Schwartz wrote:
> I’ve got a standard reseller account with WHM.
> 
> They don’t include ssh access on shared hosting accounts.
> 
> Performance seems ok. I shut most of the sites down before migrating
> them because of the hacking issues, and haven’t brought them back
> up.
> 
> Just a couple are running right now, and performance has never been an
> issue with them.
> 
> -David "The Tool Wiz" Schwartz
> 
>> On Mar 24, 2016, at 11:07 AM, Bryan O'Neal
>> <Bryan.ONeal at TheONealAndAssociates.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Loved all the responses here - great discussion. Hopefully I will
>> add something
>> Virtual or non-virtual.
>> In my professional life I need non virtual. Yes, I use hundreds of
>> gigs of ram, all the cores, but more importantly to get the
>> performance I need I disable cstates, power throttling on the CPUs,
>> I also pin processes to individual CPU's to take better advantage of
>> L2 cache, I completely mess with how the kernel does networking, I
>> require virtual hardware that normally conflicts with hypervisors, I
>> am very concerned with how NUMA is handled, etc, etc, etc.
>> But this is because I support a cloud infrastructure. Otherwise I
>> care about word press and email and will never have enough traffic
>> to warrant $12K of hardware hooked up to a 1GB pipe. So small
>> virtual slices are fine.
>> However I have also had issues with bad neighbors and over
>> subscription. So a GD Dedicated server eliminates that problem,
>> despite it having a thin virtual layer. That layer also provides a
>> lot of advantages as mentioned above. So unless I need to do the
>> very low level hardware stuff I do as a infrastructure provider it
>> seems like a great option.
>> 
>> Like Keith mentioned I mostly require wordpress, email, calendar,
>> direct mysql databases, etc for my hosting needs. So for workspace
>> like things (Email, calendar, etc) I use google apps for domains
>> because I was lucky enough to be grandfathered in for free.
>> Everything else is GoDaddy.
>> 
>> However when you look at something like WordPress you have a number
>> of options at GoDaddy. I can think of about 5 offerings that provide
>> it. Some are a shared [CPannel | Plesk] server, elastic grid
>> hosting, [Dedicated | Virtual Dedicated] servers, and of course
>> managed wordpress.
>> I chose managed word press because I want some one else to pay
>> attention to security and to, quite frankly, make it easy for me.
>> https://www.godaddy.com/hosting/wordpress-hosting [3]
>> 
>> On Wed, Mar 23, 2016 at 4:01 PM, David Schwartz
>> <newsletters at thetoolwiz.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> After some outfit named RegisterFly or something like that got
>>> “acquired” by GD, I began using NameCheap as my main
>>> registrar. They offer 1 year of privacy for free, then it’s a
>>> few bucks a year after that.
>>> 
>>> When NameSilo came along, they posted something here to get people
>>> to try them out, and I liked what they offered. So I migrated my
>>> domains over there.
>>> 
>>> As for hosting, I had my own machine at a co-lo in town for
>>> several years. After the HD died for the 3rd time, I decided it
>>> would be cheaper to just get reseller hosting somewhere. So I got
>>> a reseller account at HostGator.
>>> 
>>> I was getting fed up with the declining quality of support at
>>> HostGator, and last fall I was doing something where it was
>>> recommended to get a VPS.
>>> 
>>> So after many years with HG, I moved my reseller account over to a
>>> VPS. Most of it was Wordpress sites. I typically set up one
>>> mailbox per domain with a bunch of forwarders (to avoid a wildcard
>>> on the main mailbox).
>>> 
>>> Unfortunately, I discovered that there’s a downside to having a
>>> VPS: shared server hosts implement lots of anti-hacker stuff that
>>> keeps out a LARGE amount of riffraff.
>>> 
>>> Over six months, every one of my WP sites got hacked. The hackers
>>> are merciless in their onslaught. At one point my VPS locked up
>>> because it was “out of disk space”. WTF? When I transferred
>>> everything over, there was only 12 GB of disk used. After a month,
>>> it maxed-out at 25GB. This was just a handful of WP sites with
>>> very little activity! It seems spammers got into my email on
>>> several sites and started pumping out spam emails. And for
>>> whatever reason, they didn’t get sent, or deleted. So the VPS
>>> basically developed a bad case of constipation due to overload of
>>> outbound email queues! About half a million of them, according to
>>> my admin. Sheesh.
>>> 
>>> In January, my VPS host shut down my email entirely because he
>>> said it was exceeding email bounce rates and was putting the IP
>>> and some other stuff at risk of getting blacklisted.
>>> 
>>> That was it. I’d had enough.
>>> 
>>> So I looked around and decided to move everything to a reseller
>>> account at NameCheap. They’ve been in the hosting game for a
>>> while, and they offer standard cPanel hosting among other options.
>>> I put in a ticket and they moved everything over from the VPS to
>>> their server in a few hours. Everything seems to have worked very
>>> smoothly.
>>> 
>>> ———————————
>>> 
>>> Overall, I mainly to use my hosting for two things: WordPress and
>>> email.
>>> 
>>> So much is shifting over to hosted platforms that I’m finding
>>> less and less need for my own hosting.
>>> 
>>> I’ve got a few domains that I use for my main email, but over a
>>> dozen that have email configured. I think they’re all just one
>>> mailbox plus a bunch of forwarders.
>>> 
>>> For many years, I’ve used a 3rd-party SMTP host for all outgoing
>>> emails, which I started doing when I had my box on co-lo in order
>>> to stop the hackers from using my machine to send out spam. (I
>>> disabled the outgoing email.)
>>> 
>>> I used DNSMadeEasy’s SMTP service for years. It started out at
>>> $8/yr or so, and is now $29 or so. It’s limited to 500 outgoing
>>> emails per day.
>>> 
>>> But I recently found SendGrid, which is free for up to 12,000
>>> emails per month. So I switched over to that.
>>> 
>>> I’d like to be able to ditch the hosting entirely, but as others
>>> have pointed out, getting just standalone email support can cost
>>> more than full hosting!
>>> 
>>> (I have a small WHM reseller account on NameCheap that costs me
>>> $16.95/mo for 25 cPanel accounts.)
>>> 
>>> ————————————
>>> 
>>> Just today, NameCheap announced that they’re going into beta
>>> with a Managed WordPress hosting that’s free for now.
>>> 
>>> You can get into their beta by visiting: EasyWP.com [1]
>>> 
>>> They’re looking for feedback from people, and said they’ll
>>> offer a lifetime subscription when it launches to people who
>>> participate in their beta program.
>>> 
>>> I dunno what that means in $$ terms, but hopefully it’ll be
>>> cheaper than the other managed WP hosting solutions that are out
>>> there.
>>> 
>>> BTW, NameCheap has 88-cent domains for a dozen popular TLDs right
>>> now, and nice discounts on some others.
>>> 
>>> -David “The Tool Wiz” Schwartz
>>> ---------------------------------------------------
>>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
>>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
>>> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss [2]
>> 
>> ---------------------------------------------------
>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
>> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss [4]
> 
> 
> 
> Links:
> ------
> [1]
> https://u2206659.ct.sendgrid.net/wf/click?upn=BA-2BLqYkRAsk-2FWQL-2B6DSv3k8WC8R78EkiR4zEmv8nl8o-3D_6lpMB7VLnN-2Fj9-2FEErg8-2F-2BMBpb5QxlByTgv2M3fbWD9ebvC-2BWrN3h7jImK8EVWYBejIe-2Fsxdw3VnzqhpU0UO07aMJ5AtLNLnKAwNRSdSpFcaSXF-2BcHA5cJmNTpxSP3WNt3zvDTk2uT9TLTLgOEBUHayJC5ciQtvOQ9XBoy0NAqgd854VgAgZj58uIrCidzIwgjqX69EdKXn4tBL-2BhoTPkUTNNuNlRPsprXLKZwPTOKM0-3D
> [2]
> https://u2206659.ct.sendgrid.net/wf/click?upn=5DvWGaZUY8Sh5aRLWfQTKYiRLVzunonVk948p8WIzMe-2FXlJ9Cta8w8U9xoku9LrUSHNMJbSd3ZEwH-2BqnW2UHlA-3D-3D_6lpMB7VLnN-2Fj9-2FEErg8-2F-2BMBpb5QxlByTgv2M3fbWD9ebvC-2BWrN3h7jImK8EVWYBejIe-2Fsxdw3VnzqhpU0UO07QokGT4aMIvux9a1y0-2FPzJGyrz-2F8dFLAfJetyGVfzJq5eKO0CxPgtX4hhn44HmkhPLHMdEKIQ2sVn3vPQcIZAq4m1oDR8yvxPgIA9jjwFvtca2Kv0JzaV2Y3AG8siWO-2FTJI5LCUig1KYerxFHv2Fhbs-3D
> [3]
> https://u2206659.ct.sendgrid.net/wf/click?upn=3cK2FVJjyu2N-2Bxco034fZgdu5Cqvh5RhJkhaptagZBGsjzMj253HbwoTXeNpPhmRLClwk02HvsVZyhmRr7TLAQ-3D-3D_6lpMB7VLnN-2Fj9-2FEErg8-2F-2BMBpb5QxlByTgv2M3fbWD9ebvC-2BWrN3h7jImK8EVWYBejIe-2Fsxdw3VnzqhpU0UO07bHL7bzk8uvrZ0cY3FTRMY7WOvU00rNRJg0TqUNdbkybCUB-2Fz3nr6ngn3v8I1pQ-2F-2FiGafd1fOxgL4wPVcz6gsTRtL9QngJ890li0YB6rZdIYYHzqOOBDrvBwHCeWT1nWK00fEnpMdgv-2BnG18Gzol5-2FY-3D
> [4]
> https://u2206659.ct.sendgrid.net/wf/click?upn=5DvWGaZUY8Sh5aRLWfQTKYiRLVzunonVk948p8WIzMe-2FXlJ9Cta8w8U9xoku9LrUSHNMJbSd3ZEwH-2BqnW2UHlA-3D-3D_6lpMB7VLnN-2Fj9-2FEErg8-2F-2BMBpb5QxlByTgv2M3fbWD9ebvC-2BWrN3h7jImK8EVWYBejIe-2Fsxdw3VnzqhpU0UO07esqsoOMegdgeOZC2psY1lWhBlKydNr8IfrCLH-2FX-2Fp9DYr0wafNbrdebVcfVMdAs-2BOmA4ec6ajaTr9LqQR3rf2J56MU0Zgg98jN3qvTArZnjBMS-2F-2B2pPRCkrzoQ1W8QT7zXytwLJR634IUIOr7Nc5Ow-3D
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------
> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss

-- 
Keith Smith