Swordfish Blog

In all probability if you are reading this you have had some kind of PCI compliance test done on your website and it’s highlighted that your server allows communication across SSL 2 which is insecure and should be stopped. As such you’ve probably arrived in a bit of a panic about what to do about it. If so firstly relax it’s not that difficult to fix out our web hosting platform or any plesk or apache setup. It’s been widely known in system administration circles for a few years now that there is a bug in SSLv2 that allows hackers to potentially execute arbitrary code whilst your server negotiates the SSL pairing with a client. Sounds technical and it is but thats not to say it wont happen to you. Luckily on all our Linux Plesk hosting environments it’s quite straight forward to put this right.

Disabling SSLv2 in apache

To disabled it you need to SSH to your server as root. If this is the first time you are SSH’ing then it might be best if you ask us to do this for you, if not read on! Type the following command: vim /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf Now near the top of the file under the SSLEnable bit but outside of the virtual host directive copy and past the following text: SSLCipherSuite ALL:!ADH:!LOW:!SSLv2:!EXP:+HIGH:+MEDIUM SSLProtocol all -SSLv2 Now save the file and restart apache: service httpd restart Simple Hey!

Disable SSLv2 on Plesk Control Panel

Disabling SSL 2 on your plesk control panel is slightly different as it runs in it’s on webserver (kind of). To disable it for pleask control panel: type: vim /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/httpsd.custom.include then copy and paste: SSLProtocol all -SSLv2 SSLCipherSuite ALL:!ADH:!NULL:!EXPORT56:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM:-LOW:+SSLv3:+TLSv1:-SSLv2:+EXP:+eNULL and thats it!

Confused?

If you’re confused by everything I’ve put then get in touch with our support team and we’ll do it for you free of charge - can’t get better then that can you?

Tags:

Categories:

Today MSN.com has launched it’s first major re-brand in the last 10 years and what a difference it makes - for the better! Many websites as they grow get more and more stuff added to them, especially on the homepage. More gadgets, more colours, more adverts and in the end  it leaves the user feeling out of touch with why they even came to the website in the first instance. Take a look at the new preview of the upcoming MSN.com website for how to de-clutter a big website.

From White -> Colour and Back again

Years ago most websites had white backgrounds, minimal colours and simple features. Then as the Internet developed, broadband speeds increased and web hosting platforms became able to do more there was a big shift towards graphic heav, incredibly feature rich websites that could do all and was all to all people. Only these website inevitable couldn’t be all to everyone and with each new addition the message of the website got lost. However in more recent times there has been a definite shift back towards making things simple for the website visitor. More sites have gone to a much cleaner, simpler looking version that makes much more sense. In the UK one of the first to make the change was the BBC who simplified their homepage whilst allowing you to customize what went where. A few months ago the yahoo website was changed to be simple from the current yahoo website to the old yahoo website and now is Microsofts turn.

The Current Website

The current website is very very, well blue! It’s got colours everywhere and without a doubt suffers from information overload. The site suffers from very heavy navigation (2 rows of it!), difficult to use search facilities , news stories just about everywhere you look and well just information everywhere. When it was first developed sure it looked great but it is a 10 year old looking design and needed a change.

The New MSN.com Website

Enter the new msn.com website and it’s toned down colours, sleek looking design and easy to use navigation. It still lets you get nice and quickly to the areas you are interested in whilst doing it in a much more intuitive way. Gone are the deep blues, and back are the simple white colours. They have even made use of their great new search engine ‘Bing‘ and in doing so have made the process of search easy too. We give this new site 2 thumbs up as new design that takes a massive website and makes it appear easy to use  which is a huge challenge especially on big complex websites like this.

Tags:

Categories:

So you’ve setup your brand new shiney Virtual Private Server (VPS) and are worried about keeping it brand new and shiney. You’ve ensured you keep services running to a minimum, secured your programming and now want to do the same to your virtual server - well we’re here to help. There are quite a few common things you can do to secure it and if what we’ve put below doesn’t make sense then give us a call!

Firewall

The easiest first step is to use a firewall to secure your server. The Plesk 9 control panel has built in a module which allows you to quickly and easily setup a firewall with little knowledge. On Linux VPS’s Plesk administers the IPTables firewall, on windows the firewall is handled by windows firewall - you can of course install you’re own. Within your plesk control panel you should see the option in settings to setup a firewall with the basic settings. This adds rules to allow access to common features like your web server, mail server, dns, ftp and more and is highly recommended that you use this as a base. If at a later date you want to customise the firewall or in windows’s case, install a different one then this is of course possible however be careful not to firewall yourself out!!

Secure SSH or RDC

Root access via SSH and Remote Desktop Connections are provided to all Virtual Private Servers and are a great way to administer your server. Many of the features you can of course access through Plesk however obviously sometimes there is no substitute for getting your hands dirty! However with great power comes great responsibility (Sorry Spiderman, stole that one ;) ) - when you leave these facilities open you expose yourself to potential hack attempts from brute force attacks or worse. Because you will typically use RDC or SSH infrequently there is no reason to leave them publically accessible. Through the Plesk control panel firewall you can turn off access to SSH or RDC quickly and easily and turn it back on when you need it. This keep you nice and secure from brute force hacks.

Backups, Backups, Backups

Swordfish Hosting operates a different level of service than most, we automatically backup all our VPS’s for our customers saving you in the event of an emergency. However we can’t always guarantee we have the latest copy of your files so it’s always a good idea to backup your VPS. Backing up is really easy through the Plesk control panel and can save you in the event of an emergency.  Contact Us if you’d like some help with defining a backup policy.

Software Patching

When we release your VPS to you it’s all up to date but over time software can get out of date, security vunrebilities exposed and new features become available. It’s a bit like buying a car, at first it’s all singing all dancing but over time unless you service it you’ll find it get slower and more susepctble to break downs. Luckily our Plesk powered VPS’s make this easier than you think. Login to your VPS and you’ll see an icon for updates. Selecting this will update your Plesk control panel and all software as and when parallels release updates. However always make sure you have a backup before starting a update - top tip!

Optimize Software

Follow a simple rule, look at all the software you use and ask yourself if you need it at the moment. If the answer is no, turn it all. As a rule the less software running on your VPS the better. After all if you only had a webserver running on linux and that was it it should be pretty secure!! This also has the added benefit of keeping your VPS running clean and efficient leaving all the power to power your website.

Conclusion

There isn’t any way of making your server 100% hack proof but with the above points in mind when you setup your VPS they will at least help to ensure that you aren’t easy prey for hackers out there!

Tags:

Categories:

With the latest Windows 7 Launch having taken place last week showing all that is latest about desktop server I’m sure many of you are wondering if Microsoft release a new operating system every couple of years why do most hosting providers run with software which is often hugely out of date. In this article we look at Swordfish Hosting flexible and scalable web hosting platform and why you should host your website with us to make use of it and all we have to offer. [caption id="attachment_79" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Windows 7, PHP and MySQL"][/caption] The traditional model which the large majority of hosting companies use goes something like this; buy an inexpensive server, install basic software on it (php, mysql, mailenable etc..), make a copy of all you have done, swamp it with hundreds and hundreds of customers websites. When the server becomes full buy another inexpensive server and install a copy of the first one on it so all servers run the same software. It makes sense for the hosting company to do this so everything is standard - but what about you the website owner. You may have seen a really neat PHP trick you want to use and can’t because PHP version 5 isn’t installed for you. So you look to make a move between hosting accounts so you can have something supported but can’t because the system is inflexible. This is where our system differs…

Swordfish Scalability

The Swordfish Shared Hosting platform is completely flexible and scalable so you can easily move between our packages anytime you want.  If you start of with a simple shared web hosting account you can easily move to our range of Virtual Private Servers with no downtime. As your website grows and you want to make the jump from a VPS to your own dedicated server you can migrate seamlessly again with no downtime.

How This Helps You, Our Customer

By allowing you to seamlessly transfer between our hosting packages with no downtime you are in complete control of what software versions are on your hosting platform. If you are on our shared hosting platform and what different software to that which we’ve setup for you we can move you onto your own Virtual Dedicated Server quickly and easily.

Tags:

Categories:

We’ve tried to make it as easy as we can for you to stay up to date with the latest website happening, advice and support at Swordfish Hosting by joining Feeburner - You can check us out here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Swordfish-Web-Hosting. In coming weeks we’ll be looking at discussing hot trends in web hosting, how to ensure your website has the best uptime and how to make the most from your package with us.

Tags:

Categories:

Choosing which web hosting package you want can be a minefield. Do you want a shared web hosting package, a virtual private server VPS or a dedicated server? Chances are that if you’re looking at this post then your stumped, your confused by all the web hosting lingo out there and want some plain honest advice - well you’ve come to the right place. We’ve talked to many of our customers about how they go about choosing a hosting package and have come to realise we need to make things simpler - even our web hosting site is under review to make things easier for you and we’ll be releasing a new one shortly! The first thing to say is your not alone - many people get confused by web hosting packages but we’re here to help. You can contact us any time to discuss what you are trying to do, whether it be setup a family website or launch a ecommerce website our support engineers will help you choose the right web hosting package. However if you are looking for some instant advice then read on. What kind of website is it you’re building? As with anything the first step to understand which web hosting account you want is to understand which type of website your trying to build so ask yourself the following 3 hosting questions: 1. Will this website require a programming language and a database? if the answer is no then you are only after a very basic hosting setup.  A cheap web hosting account around £4.50 a month will be fine. 2. How many files am I planning to upload? All hosting account should spell out how much hard disk space you get, don’t be confused by bandwidth here - the two are completely different. 3. How many people am I expecting to visit my site? This is a really important question as the more people you have visiting your site the bigger the package you need. If you are expecting 10-20 people a day to visit any shared hosting account should be fine. As the number creeps up around the 100-200 a day mark start looking at a vps or dedicated server. There are many other reasons why you may wish to start on a VPS or Dedicated Server from the outset if you require custom setups or wish to be totally independent of what other users are doing on the server then these are best. Conclusion If you are unsure about what hosting account you require ask us before you buy as you may be selecting a package which doesn’t tick all the boxes you need - we’re here 24*7 with some great web hosting advice so why not give us a go?

Tags:

Categories:

One of the questions our web hosting support team get asked all the time is how we found out what the problem was in the first instance so that you, the customer, can try and diagnose it if it happens again. As such in the spirit of  ‘if you give the answer to a customer you will solve his problem, but provide them the tools to diagnose problems and you’ll answer his problems for a lifetime’ I thought I would put some very common tools we use all the time to help us identify potential problems so you have a basis of where to start looking for solutions! Some of the really common problems we face on a day to day basis is things like basic email problems, domain transfer questions and dns issues. The tools below are our favourite for checking basic information on these topics and best of all they are free to use for everyone so feel free to make use of them! 1. www.allwhois.com allwhois is a great tool for finding out the whois information on a domain name. Who Is information is great at telling you information like when a domain expires, who owns it, who the admin contact for the domain is as well as what the nameservers are and is always a good place to start trouble shooting 2. www.network-tools.com Network-Tools is a one stop shop for all things domain and dns related. It give you great information on basic things like whois lookups but also goes deeper to tell you dns information which can indicate why a domain isn’t resolving and can even tell you if your domain is on a blacklist for spamming. 3. www.mxtoolbox.com MX Toolbox tell you really useful information about your MX Servers (Email Servers). It’s great at finding out information on them and also if they are on any email blacklists. It searches loads and loads of blacklists so you don’t have to! 4. www.whatsmydns.net What’s My DNS is a useful tool for checking DNS propagation. As all you developers know when you change DNS / Update nameservers it can take 24-72 hours for the changes to take effect - this tool lets you see a map of the world and queries different servers to see if it’s updated yet. 5. www.dnsstuff.com DNS Stuff used to be an amazing tool which everyone in the industry used to check all things domain name related. It probably is still a great tool but unfortunately a few months ago they started requiring you to pay to access their services. Still a good tool but it’s gonna cost you! 6. dns-tools.domaintools.com Another great tool for checking dns, domain issues, mx records and whois lookups. Similar to network-tools really has a couple of good tools if you’re willing to pay for them! 7. www.archive.org Yes this technically doesn’t count as a problem diagnosis tool but it’s really useful to see past versions of the website if problems occur on your current website. You can retrieve old text you thought you’d lost, see competitors and even grab images that were lost over time! 8. www.mail2web.com Mail2Web is a brilliant free utility that lets you connect to your email box over the internet in a sort of basic webmail system. When you are having problems connecting to your mailbox this tool provides a great third-party view on if the issue is local on your pc or something more. 9. Web Site Statistics This one isn’t so much an website which provides a tool but more a good place to start looking if you have noticed unexpected peaks in traffic or database issues / your dedicated server taking a while to load. Web site statistics like google analytics or the great ones in our plesk control panels let you know what files are popular and who is downloading them from where. Sometimes you may find that your server running a little slow is as a result of a file you placed online being linked to from a popular forum or a script your wrote being accessed by others who you may not want to access it. All our plesk control panels come with built in firewalls to stop this happening if you so wanted but feel free to contact us if you want help setting it up. 10 www.swordfishhosting.co.uk Well we had to put ourself in here didn’t we! We offer free support to all our customers so if the above things don’t help you track down a domain / email issue then get in touch, our team is here to help 24*7

Tags:

Categories:

We were asked recently about our backup policy for our VPS customers and it’s prompted me to write about what we backup, when we back it up and what you can do to ensure your website and customers are as protected as possible. Swordfish Hosting prides itself on customer satisfaction but lets be honest you would hope all companies would pride themselves on that - the problem is that whilst some companies pride themselves on it, very few go that extra mile to ensure it, especially when it comes to VPS Servers

VPS Servers - The Stepping Stone

VPS servers are mini dedicated servers - a step up from having a shared account but no substitute for a dedicated server. Many people love VPS solutions as it has a great deal of the power and flexibility of a dedicated server (like custom server installs / control panels and settings) but without the price tag and perceived complexity. However VPS solutions still need looking after from a server administration point of view. Things like backing up, software updates and security overviews are now your responsibility whereas before on a shared environment you left that to your hosting company. Whilst software updates and security overview are things that are individual to the needs of each customer by default our VPS solutions come patched and ready to go with built in firewalls and security audits all built into the award winning Plesk 9 Control panel. However most people still aren’t sure about backing up and if you own a number of VPS solutions backing each one up can be time consuming.

Swordfish Hosting VPS Automated Backups

This is where we differ from all other hosting companies. As standard we automatically backup your VPS once a week to external hard drives. We also maintain a rolling 2 week backup so you are only ever a click away from restoring your VPS - even if you have never personally taken a backup yourself. Sounds good doesn’t it!

Backup, Backup Backup!

Whilst we maintain a backup for your VPS it is also very important that you maintain a backup for yourself as well. Why? Well whilst we maintain a backup for you there are no guarantees with anything in life and in the event of a disaster recovery it’s also a good idea for you to have a backup to restore from as a first port of call. It might also be that you need to recover a specific file from your server which is easier if you have taken the backup yourself. Why not view our great range of VPS Servers now and see how we can help your business grow.

Tags:

Categories:

Comparing VPS providers isn’t as easy as you might expect - there are many “behind the scenes” settings VPS Servers have which you’re not always told about. Swordfish Hosting prides itself on giving you all the facts so you can make the best choice. Interested in learning about these hidden VPS settings? well read on!

I’m sure if you are visiting our website today you are doing so to compare our web hosting packages with our competitors and I can’t blame you - with some many hosting companies out there you need to make sure that you are getting value for money as well as ensuring the best reliability and scalability.

With this in mind I want to let you in on the VPS hosting trade secrets to let you better understand why we feel Swordfish Hosting is the best VPS provider around, bar none.

The first is about VPS server contention ratio’s. When you sign up for a VPS you get access to a virtual slice of a dedicated server along with other customers. Most hosting companies typically have around 80-100 VPS customers per server (although some very well known hosting companies, which shall name nameless, we’ve seen with as many as 200 VPS customers per server!!!) . Here at Swordfish Hosting we have no more than 50 VPS customers per server - the lowest around. We don’t even hide how many VPS’s we have on a server - if you have one with us you can ask at any point what the current load is and we’ll tell you!

Now you may be asking “but I thought VPS servers don’t affect each other” but in effect they do - we say this time and time again - there is no substitute for your own dedicated server. At it’s basic level a VPS server has one or a number of hard drives which means that if the hard drives are worked very very hard because the server the VPS’s are on is overloaded then things will go slower. Also if you have a VPS which is overloaded and all the sites are quite active you hit the effect that the processor can’t handle all the processes at once  - hence things get slower and occasionally stop. This is why we never allow our servers to be overloaded with VPS customers ensuring you always have as much processor, memory and hard drive capacity as you need - 24*7*365

The VPS Hidden Settings

This is the bit they also don’t tell you when you compare VPS’s, the behind the scenes settings that allow some hosting companies to get away with overloading their servers. For instance compare our VPS package with 1GB of RAM and 15GB of Web Space with our competitors. You may say that they give exactly the same server spec as we do - unfortunately you would be wrong. Down deep in the depths of Virtuozzo (our virtualization control software) are settings where hosting companies can specify how many processes are allowed at any one time, how many http requests to allow and how many emails to handle at any one time. Other hosting companies impose strict limits on these settings meaning you never stand a chance to use all your memory or disk space as these virtuozzo restrictions prevent your website from ever getting busy enough. It’s almost like buying a ferrari and then limiting the speed to 30mph - you know it should be going fast but it doesn’t

Here at Swordfish are limits are almost double any other host. Not only that but we are the only VPS hosting company that if you hit one of these hidden limits will actively increase it before you notice (obviously to a point!!). If you keep needing more and more resources we’ll not only keep giving you more flexibility but we’ll also help move all your websites to one of our great range of dedicated servers when you take the next step up the hosting ladder.

Interested in talking to one our our support team about how we can create your perfect VPS solution? get in touch now!

Tags:

Categories:

Welcome to a very short and snappy post welcoming you to the first installment of the Swordfish Hosting blog! We’re going to be covering all sorts of topics over the coming few months here including:

• Spam and what you can do about it
• Website Hosting and Website Creation
• A whole load of other things!!

If you have any suggestions please do get in touch and in the mean time stay tuned!

Tags:

Categories: