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seanti

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Hey guys
I've read a few threads on this forum and followed a good few links, but I'm still not sure where to go.

I need to move away from the-hosting-service-formerly-known-as-Hosting365 ASAP, because I'm seeing simple blog pages taking 30 seconds to a minute to load (all of that database queries).

The obvious move is blacknight, as I am in love with the presence this business has all over different forums and the support stories I've heard are heartening, but they don't offer shell access on shared linux hosting. With the type of stuff I do, that is an absolute must, so I can't go blacknight. Otherwise their pricing seems attractive.

I can't seem to find reference to SSH on other hosting companies' shared offerings, so I was wondering if any of you other customers have shell access in a shared hosting environment that wasn't immediately made known to you?

Thanks a million.
 

joebloggs

New Member
seanti, did you have any joy on this issue? I myself have been with Blacknight but the lack of shell access is forcing me to move and it isn't worth spending more money for a hosting account that has got it with them. Have used letshost before and wasn't that fussed on them. Was there any other options you considered?
 

seanti

New Member
seanti, did you have any joy on this issue? I myself have been with Blacknight but the lack of shell access is forcing me to move and it isn't worth spending more money for a hosting account that has got it with them. Have used letshost before and wasn't that fussed on them. Was there any other options you considered?

I haven't contacted them yet joebloggs, and the options do really seem limited.

It's a real pity more hosts can't give shell access to their trusted customers. For me, it makes the difference between uploading a huge number of files, or a single tar.gz when migrating, and being able to extract the directory structure, permissions and so on intact.

I was told by one host that shell access is something you don't need on a daily basis, that you can do everything with FTP that you can do with a shell. :eek: I know it's a security burden, but so is running a production web server, and h365's old shared servers were locked down enough but still very useful. PHP is almost as much of a hazard. FTP, which sends passwords in plain text, is also a hazard.

I am going to feel like a real fool extracting some software package on a windows machine, uploading it and chmodding the directories and scripts over FTP. Being able to edit a script with your favourite text mode editor directly on the website was so useful, but we are forced to endlessly upload things again now. It's a shame. :(
 

hosting365

New Member
Most hosts (including register365) have a web based uploader, which will allow you to upload a zip and uncompress it on the server, set permissions, etc. Not perfect, but will get the job done...
 

php.allstar

New Member
...FTP, which sends passwords in plain text, is also a hazard...

If thats an issue for you, I suggest you check if your prospective hosting providers support Secure FTP (SFTP). If so you can setup OpenSSH on your local machine which will allow you to encrypt your passwords over SFTP.

More info on OpenSSH
 

joebloggs

New Member
zips

I think there are small php scripts you can use to extract archived files for you. But the amount of things you can do with ssh is very useful. Simple things like searching for files that contain a certain string etc. Or maybe there are other ways to do this that im not aware of ?
 

seanti

New Member
If thats an issue for you, I suggest you check if your prospective hosting providers support Secure FTP (SFTP). If so you can setup OpenSSH on your local machine which will allow you to encrypt your passwords over SFTP.

More info on OpenSSH

I know most hosts support SFTP, (which means they provide unix accounts without login shells), so that's a good point security wise.

There is no subsitute for shell access once you get used to it though, I know you can chmod and unzip through web interfaces, but they seem slow and clunky by comparison once you've tried wget (ctrl -v) followed by tar -xzvf (tab). Plus I'm a linux and mac user at home, so it's natural for me to manage my sites the same way I manage my own files.

I checked with letshost in an email who said the following

Thanks for your email. We would be glad to offer you SSH access on your account providing you ensure your account password is regularly updated and secure. As you can appreciate this does cause some security issues with some hosts but we know how useful SSH is and have made some allowances for this.

SSH can be used for direct SSH or for SFTP uploading to your account.

Please let me know if you require further information.

Regards,

So I have bought a month with them to see how it goes.
 

hosting365

New Member
Keep us posted seanti, letshost are certainly one of the most competitive in Ireland from a pure price point of view, and seem to be very flexible based on your experience.
 
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