11 Dec 2010

Useful tools for your website

Most businesses have a web-site and so it's important to know that your web-site is working properly. After all, if there is a problem with your site's potential visitors won't be able to find it and so can't become customers and your business will suffer. The problem is that it's difficult to know if your  site is working properly just by typing it's url into a browser. It may come as a surprise to many but you might be able to see your site but it may be invisible to others in other countries. Reasons for this can be varied and it's quite a technical issue. However, you don't need to be a geek to know how your site is working, just the right tools. The good news is that there are lots of them available, for free.

My current favourite is http://internetsupervision.com/ where you can check to see if you site is available around the world. It's a handy way of checking if your site is available form seers around the world. Not only that, it will tell you have quickly your site loads, important when Google ranks sites partly on the speed at which they load.

The basic service is free and you can check your site numerous times manually. They also offer a fee service that includes the following:

• One HTTP monitored service (HTTPS not included)
• Loading headers only (no content)
• First 90 days: Checking every 15 minutes
• After 90 days: Checking every 24 hours
• Email notifications
• Fully upgradeable to any of the paid plans

Requirements:
1. Link to InternetSupervision from your website [get code]
2. Respond to one brief web-related survey per year.

Paid packages range from $2.95 per month to $24.50 per month, so there is something for everyone, whether you have one site or several.

There are plenty of other free services too on the web so you could always do a Google search for "web-site monitoring" or "network tools". Whichever tool(s) you use, it's important to check your site on a regular basis. Arguably, if your business depends on your site then you should sign up for an automatic service that will email you or send you an SMS so you can sort out any problems quickly.
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4 Dec 2010

Light at the end of the tunnel!

Image representing cPanel Inc as depicted in C...Image via CrunchBase


Finally, after some minor hiccups I have successfully migrated to my new (dedicated) server with UKFast.net.

As I say, it didn't all go smoothly. For one thing, I needed to sort out the DNS settings for both the sites (www.newbeltane.com and www.bestcoolerprices.co.uk) so that they point to the right server. Having done my usual thing at the domain register and in my server's cpanel, I thought all I had to do was wait for the new settings to propagate themselves around the net and we would be away. But, it wasn't to be that simple. When I rang my new hosting company's support desk I discovered that as I was now on a dedicated server and not a managed server I was on my own, at least officially. However it was the middle of the night and I was feeling tired and fraught, and as I had only just received the server form the engineer  I had some sympathy from the guy I was speaking with.

After some confusion over what I was trying to do (my tiredness didn't help) I managed to get him t understand my predicament and at that point he suggested that trying to handle it all in the cpanel was probably not the best approach and he suggested using SafeDNS. As it happens, they offer the service for free and after talking me through the steps we were away. All I needed to do now was to wait for 24-48 hours and all should be well.

Next task was to set up Wordpress on the server for both sites and again I hit a barrier. I discovered that neither Fantastico or Softaculous were installed with cpanel. This meant I would have my work cut out. I tried initially installing it need 'by hand' but it wouldn't work properly for some reason. Time to call support again. Only now the person I emailed responded that  would need to purchase a support credit (£60 plus VAT for 1 hour's work!).

However, after much discussion on the phone and explaining that as I am paying for the cpanel (£30 pcm plus VAT so it's not cheap) I had expected it come fully configured and my experience was that on or both packages were installed by default. However, despite my protests of 'daylight robbery' it seemed I would have fork out the £60. I was not a happy bunny, I can say.

After making a call to my account manager (the guy who had sold me the dedicated server package for a not inconsiderable sum) I received an answer that was not the one  was expecting but worked out a lot cheaper, i.e. free! I could install Softaculous for free myself. I visited http://www.softaculous.com/docs/Installing_Softaculous_in_cPanel and read how to do it, followed the instructions and it was easy peasey, so to speak. However, a word of warning. Wordpress doesn't come with the free version of Softaculous and you need to buy an annual license. Its only $24 a year per server but it's worth it as it means you get all 150 scripts and Wordpress is so much easier to install (and delete if need be).

Once I  had done that, installing Wordpress was easy and I was starting to cheer up. However, there were still some hurdles left to over come but more on these in my next post.
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2 Dec 2010

Oh dear... no end to the misery of hosting!

Well, I had high hopes that my move from a reseller hosting account to my own VPS with WebhostUK.net would work out and that finally I could focus on getting my hosting business up and running. Sadly, it was not to be. As said in my earlier post the staff at WebhostingUK.net have been very friendly but despite their best efforts I have had no end of problems.

Here are just some:

• Site not visible by others in different locations around the world
• Wordpress 'fatal error: out of memory' errors
• Wordpress dashboard crashes
• Images failing to be loaded by the server
• 500 error messages (signifying a server issue)

I spent most of my time trying to resolve these issues, posting support tickets and trying to get the staff to understand exactly what was happening, replicate the problems and solve them. In spite of several staff trying and assuring me the problems had all been solved they just kept coming back.

As I was also trying to develop a website for a client at the time it was extremely frustrating to say the least.

In desperation I started looking around for another hosting company and in the end I have settled on UKFast. This time I avoided a VPS package and gone the whole hog and chosen a dedicated server. Hopefully this will avoid any issues with virtualisation. It's more expensive than a VPS but from a business perspective something that works is better than something that is cheaper but doesn't work. I managed to negotiate a good deal (a mix of a cheaper price and some extra features for free). They have won several awards and are used by the likes of HSBC and UKTV.

I am waiting for the engineer to setup my new server and once it is handed over I shall be able to configure my various accounts and packages. I will let you know how it goes. All need now is for confirmation that my existing account has been cancelled.
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