Author Archives: Kenny

About Kenny

Kenny is owner of webhostpark and has been working in hosting industry since 2006. We provide unbiased hosting reviews and release the latest promo news. Follow me on Google plus

Bluehost Windows Hosting Reviews

bluehost windows hosting

After many years support for linux server, bluehost opened their first windows hosting plan! However, not for English users but only available to Asia district people. If you can not wait to see what's being offered there and if it's valuable to deal with, let's review side by side of the plan features, server specs, networking, support and every available offers.

Quick View of Bluehost Windows Hosting

Bluehost windows hosting plans are offered under http://cn.bluehost.com website which is officially named "Bluehost China". There're total of 4 hosting plans – starter, basic, advanced and premium. Each plan provides different limits on crucial features like disk space, number of supported websites etc. Users also have choice of server locations with a little price difference.

Windows Hosting Plans

Currently, windows hosting service is offered via shared & reseller hosting plans, for level plans for each. Unlike the popular unlimited offer, every hosting plan is restricted with specific limitation. Because of this, users can select the proper plan with reasonable price. Hosting plan details are provided as following:

Plan Starter Basic Advanced Premium
Datacenter HK US HK US HK US HK US
Price ¥6.00 ¥6.00 ¥16.00 ¥9.00 ¥26.00 ¥12.00 ¥80.00 ¥36.00
Website 1 1 1 1 1  1 10  10
Disk/Traffic 500mb/2GB 900mb/9GB 2/10GB 20/200GB 5/20GB ∞/∞ 15/50GB ∞/∞
Email

 

Server Details

Buehost windows servers are DELL production for Quad core xeon E5530 2.40GHz and 24GB RAM. 250GB RAID 1 mirror OS drive and 1TB RAID 1 data drive. Fire alarm and environment detection system is properly configured to ensure the best security. Server OS and software installation as following:

  • Windows Server 2008
  • IIS 7.0, asp.net 4.5, ASP, PHP 5.2x, PHP 5.3x, GD, cURL, CGI, mcrypt
  • MySQL 5, MSSQL
  • Zend Optimizer, Zend Engine, ionCube Loader

Windows server 2008 is main flow in Asia especially in China. Many people actually still use Asp applications for windows hosting thus this server platform is sufficient enough to support customer requirements. Especially when bluehost windows server is compatible with both .net & php technologies, clients get more selections among lots of oversold virtual servers.

Standard plesk control panel is provided for bluehost windows plans. All common functions like IP deny, domain parking, schedule task and stats analytics etc are offered for every client. Demo here.

Networking

Bluehost China provides two Datacenter options to clients – HK and US. For US data centers, they're all about Utah servers which is fully managed by the company itself. Also, since bluehost is one of EIG brand, it's connected to multiple other datacenters over the country for CDN service. If your targeted users from USA then their good price and service is powerful backend of your business.

For local users, HongKong is definitely the best choice comparing to various available options. Actually, the ICP license policy forces lots of users to host websites outside. Local hosting support like bluehost just perfectly solved the problem.

Support

Bluehost China support is located in Xiamen, Fujian province. Live support via tencent QQ and hotline. helpdesk ticket is also standard offer as bluehost US. The difference is their Chinese live support is only available during business hours at the moment.

How do We Think?

Technically speaking, the bluehost windows hosting service is more clean comparing to many local chinese hosting providers. Bluehost got lots of advantages in server managing and networking. It will bring positive influence to the overall industry competition and improve its service quality. Actually, bluehost and its partner brand "Hostgator China" are both configured in this way. It's positive to see rapid growth for their business in this area and very likely they will launch windows plans for bluehost US site.

Is iPage WordPress Hosting Worth the Try?

ipage wordpress hosting

iPage launched their dedicated wordpress hosting plan for bloggers and wordpress fans. Their people announced to conquer all competitors by superb server features and support service. Is that true? How users talk about this service and how is compared to some reputable wordpress server plans?

iPage WordPress Hosting Overview

Aside from their traditional single shared hosting, iPage provided two extra plans dedicated for wordpress site purpose – starter & essential plan. Comparing to their old budget service, the wordpress hosting plans have everything configured for this software such as server setup, plan features and even hosting control panel. From official announcement, they configured SSD server to power expert wordpress sites with sitelock protection. To be more specific, the ipage wordpress plans come with following:

Dedicated for wordpress. No any other kind softwares hosted on this server, only wordpress acceptable so their people can apply any necessary maintenance efficiently. Especially when there is any problematic site on server, they can easily track down for urgent fix. Because there's only wordpress on server, the tech team can deeply optimize the environment without worring compatibility for other softwares. It's super point for those who wants blazing fast wordpress server at affordable cost.

Essential plugins pre-installation. iPage wordpress team has some essential wordpress plugins pre-configured when installing the software in control panel. Some reputable plugins like W3 total cache & Jetpack already included. Also, their people provide a list of some great themes to power your new site installation quickly.

WordPress control panel. Completely for wordpress! The team has completely revised the control panel for wordpress user. All we see is about wordpress management like installation, backup and database operation etc. Either wordpress professional and start user be able to familiar with it in short time.

Enhanced security. For essential plan users, account is created on SSD servers with sitelock protection. Except for daily vulnerabilities scanning every day, it will automatically removes any potential threat and admin will get notified. Not only potential security issues being scanned, some popular issues like comment spam and attack are also filtered by the firewall. What people get is a clean and safe site.

As we see, it's complete new service comparing to their all-in-one shared hosting plan. Regardless those advantages they announced, is it really so cool? Especially when comparing to some leading providers? Let's see

Comparison

Actually, they have provided a comparison list to other providers like godaddy and even wpengine. Following is screenshot

ipage wordpress hosting comparison

They compared to multiple popular wordpress hosting using ipage essential plan. The result is ipage wins on almost each crucial points like price, disk space and number of visits etc. The only I can tell is there's no much proof their server can work better than those competitors. Because their wordpress service is pretty new while their competitors have collected plenty experience. What ipage really can do is to gain more users by competitive price and high quality service. Only in this way, they can receive lots of positive feedbacks then they can proudly show the comments to the world.

How to Choose?

iPage provides two plans for wordpress with big difference for initial registration. However, difference for renewal rate is pretty small according to their policy. Let's see following about the actual rate

Starter plan:

  • 36-month term: $8.99 a month (billed $323.64 for 3 years)
  • 24-month term: $9.99 a month (billed $239.76 for 2 years)
  • 12-month term: $10.99 a month (billed $131.88 for 1 year)

Essential plan:

  • 36-month term: $10.49 a month (billed $377.64 for 3 years)
  • 24-month term: $11.49 a month (billed $275.76 for 2 years)
  • 12-month terms: $12.49 a month (billed $149.88 for 12 months)

The answer is clear. If we want to use all ipage wordpress server advantages, essential plan is the best choice. While the starter plan is priced half for less features, the renewal price is very close to essential plan. So why should we select starter plan in the begining?

Check out ipage wordpress hosting plan details www.ipage.com/wordpress-hosting

ipage wordpress hosting plans

Reviews of Justhost New Shared Hosting Plans

justhost new shared plans

Justhost is no longer sticky to a single shared hosting solution! Very soon, there will be 3 shared hosting plans to choose from with different features. This article provides detailed explanation and guidance how we can use it properly. No matter if you're existing client or new to this company, it would be nice to know the ongoing changes with the service.

Background of New Plans

Justhost, since from the very start, it has been winning the business by single hosting solution with everything unlimited. It provides all needed technical features in configuring different websites. After supporting one milliong global sites, they find their limitations in serving higher web requirements. Their team provided VPS & Dedicated server choice in the last year at very competitive prices. However, not everyone would like to manage a server with several times more costs. What people really want is a plan between basic shared and full server choice.

Under such situation, justhost decides to have a try by multi-class shared plans. In case you need more resources, just upgrade it without dealing with a full server. The plans their people will launch are named Starter, Shared Plus and Business Pro. Unlike its current all-in-one plan, new plans are offered with different advantages. See following:

Starter

Entry-level package, perfect for beginners on a tight budget.

  • 1 Website
  • 100GB Storage
  • 1 Free Domain, 5 Parked domains, 25 Sub domains
  • 100 Email Accounts, 500MB per
  • Google Adwords Credit

Shared Plus

Formerly the standard shared plan, still unlimited with with additional features and benefiting from substantial investments in infrastructure. (Existing shared plans will automatically be reclassified as Plus.) 1 SpamExperts service added for shared plus.

Business Pro

Similar to the original PRO plan with some change in features, geared toward businesses and power users.

  • 5x Server Performance
  • 2 Spam Experts
  • 1 SSL
  • 1 Dedicated IP
  • 1 Domain Privacy

How does it work?

As learnt above, all plans provide people some basic offers like disk space and monthly transfer. The real difference is about server crowd level besides the extra bonus service mentioned above. At the meanwhile, their sister site "Hostmonster" also announced the same change. There's no detailed explanation for how will it work exactly, but we can still find something from another EIG brand – Bluehost.

Bluehost was also featured for single shared plan and gradually revised for multiple hosting solutions provider. They're now offering multiple shared, VPS and dedicated server plans. Since bluehost is sister site of justhost and hostmonster, mostly they'll be configured the same way like their team did for vps/dedicated server service.

Check out bluehost shared hosting plans www.bluehost.com

How do we think about the change?

Basically, it's just because of the market needs and justhost is preparing to earn better business. Because we do not get the final plan design and price, it's hard to judge good or not. But it should serve clients better, at least we have more choice before upgrading to a full server. Just wait few days for its final design or if you want to catch up with the old plan, check below!

justhost shared hosting

Guides of Arvixe DotNetNuke Hosting

DNN hosting with arvixe

DotNetNuke(known as DNN) is the most famous open sourced asp.net CMS. The use of DNN software vary for small to large size websites since from the very start. For lots of Asp.net hosting plans, dotnetnuke support is critical to get clients. In this article, we provide step by step guidance on how to get DNN running with arvixe – one of the best DNN hosting providers.

There's huge improvements for dotnetnuke itself recent years. Because of the windows and IIS server development, lots of service are integrated by its web platform installer(WPI). In this way, we no longer have to deal with many web services independently. Instead, we can centrally manage everything on the same platform. Either server end GUI or web based control panel, we can complete most tasks without leaving the interface.

Get Started with Arvixe DotNetNuke Hosting

Arvixe ensures you get the latest microsoft technologies support on latest hardware setup. Each asp.net hosting plan provides more than basic requirements for DNN installation at very good price. So the first is to select your prefered hosting plan based the following promotional offer

DNN plan PersonalClass PersonalClass Pro BusinessClass BusinessClass Pro
Price $3.5/mo $5.6/mo $18.9/mo $28/mo
Disk/Traffic Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Free domain 1 1 1 1
SQL Server 2012 Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
SSL/Dedicated IP No No Yes Yes
Promo Claim Claim Claim Claim

Installing DNN via Websitepanel

Arvixe .net hosting plans are 100% websitepanel powered with full automation. The "Web App Gallery" includes various asp.net and php applications including DotNetNuke. Unlike any other auto installer script, the app gallery updates directly via software official release by API, so what we get is always the latest stable version. Please be noted, the installer will only download the package to our specific website directory with basic configuration. We will still need to complete the installation wizard on actual website as usual. Following is a complete video show about the process.

If you encountered any problem during installation, click support for online assistance. Arvixe support person will be more than happy to fix it.

Why Arvixe DNN Hosting Plan?

Obviously, there're not too many hosting providers who can provide good feature supports with good price. They either provide a dedicated DNN hosting plan with high costs or simply doesn't support it. The server has to be configured by leading hardwares with good selling policy in order to support a health DNN site. Arvixe is outstanding because their championship from side by side comparison.

Leading server platform. All arvixe windows servers are brand new DELL production with server 2012 OS configuration. SSD raid 10 is configured on every server for blazing fast speed. Because of this, your dnn site performance is greatly guaranteed.

Leading account features. Every hosting accounts are offered a free domain name for life, a dedicated application pool for each website. For business account users, one FREE ssl certificate and static IP is provided. It's definitely great offer if you're running shopping cart website!

Competitive price. As low as $3.5/mo, we get all needed supports for DNN configurtion. Up to 30% discounts for all hosting plans and the most important thing is such discount will be applied for every renewal. Means we can always take the great price as long as our hosting account is alive with arvixe company!

Super friendly support. Support in arivxe company is 24*7 like most reputable hosting providers. The difference is ther support people are not working in a single office. Instead, they're everywhere in united states with free working style. In this way, they ensure each incoming inquiry can be accepted in time and properly supported. They're available via web chat, email and ticket platforms to handle every custom requests efficiently.

arvixe dnn hosting promo

Check out arvixe DotNetNuke hosting plan promotion details on www.arvixe.com

IX Domain Club Service Secret Revealed

ixwebhosting domain club service

Ixwebhosting provides a service called "Domain Club" which costs us $9.95/mo. What's the use of this service and how it's working? We have done indepth research and contacted their support person directly for full understanding. Follow us to learn more if you're evaluating the domain club service too.

Recently, I got an email notice for authorized paypal transaction to IX account. Unfortunately, I'm not awared what it is for because the hosting account is not expiring yet. Then I logged into account management panel and saw there's one item called "domain club" in "My add-ons" category. The status showing it's activated on Jun-12-2014 with auto renew enabled. However I'm not awared of this service and it's actually not doing any good to my hosting account. See following screenshot:

ix domain club center

As we see, it says zero protected domains and zero SSL points. Means I'm paying money for nothing. So I contacted live support right away for how is going on. Following is our chat screen:

ix domain club service

The support says it should be selected during account ordering page. However my account was created 3 years before and I'm sure there's no "domain club" service option at that time. Then I did further research for this service on their website. It's actually announced in 2014 by their tech team. Here're basic details for domain club:

  • Free for first month then $9.95/mo
  • Free domain privacy for all domains under hosting account
  • Up to twelve free SSL points per year
  • One free SSL certificate
  • Discounts for domain renewal

See official domain club TOS on this page https://www.ixwebhosting.com/terms-of-service#q22-2

Though I'm not sure how it's added to my account with auto renewal status, definitely I don't need it at all because I don't use those benefits for this hosting account. For all those advantages, people will save some money if you

  1. Registered domain names with ix company
  2. Use ecommerce site with ssl installation

Because I don't have any registered domain with ix and no ssl certificate, so I tried to disable the auto renewal. Now it prompts up this screen with full explanation:

ix domain club service

Editorial notes: The ix domain club service does some good for website security and money saving if you have purchased those service under hosting account. However, it's also a marketing tactic to encourage people to use more ix products. For all those benefits, discounted price is probably the mostly spotlight attracting users eye-ball. However, it's not advised to have everything managed under hosting account based all our old article explanation, expecially domain registration service.

There're some changes being applied to ix hosting plans such as their proud dedicated IP offer. Now only the first IP is free and additional ip will be $1/mo. It's suggested keep an eye to your hosting account and make sure you don't loose anything.

3 Ways to Launch Your Website

It's easy to get your personal website online! Based the fast improving technologies, we have so many choice to create a website and probably confused how to select. Hence, this page analyze the top 3 solutions side by side to help select the most suitable one with your requirements.

Sitebuilder Wizard

sitebuilder serviceSince from the 1990s, sitebuilder service has been helping millions people configuring their first websites. Either for family photo gallery site or personal portfolio site or even simple store and forum website, sitebuilder has been showing its powerful abilities with new tech improvements. Till today, there're over one hundred sitebuilder products online with different features. All sitebuilders come with WYSIWYG feature, what you need is not programming but more about designing skills for excellent website creation.

Attenion, different sitebuilder service will let you publish the web contents to different locations.

  1. Most online sitebuilder service can only publish your website to their own website directory, users only get a web URL to view it online. We don't have direct access to download the actual files. Weebly is probably the best example.
  2. For dedicated sitebuilder softwares, we make the design then publish to specific website space. The software will generate all needed files & database to support a website. In this way we have full control for our website, and in case we need to transfer it to another server, it can be easily done.

If you prefer to use a sitebuilder service, we highly suggest plesk sitebuilder solution which is offered by multiple reputable hosting providers like InmotioHosting and Hostgator. This sitebuilder is by far the most powerful and user friendly solution, with over 4 thousands build-in templates, you can create a professional website in minutes!

CMS Software

cms softwareThe most popular choice today. Especially for its free feature for many softwares, many people start with it. Many web developers and programmers even use the platform for new website development.

Unlike any other website solution, CMS is based on templates, modules and plugins with well-structured admin panel. Most cms softwares can be customized in the way you liked. Scalability and user friendly are most featured for CMS solutions. Using cms is not only a choice but also good experience to understand more about web developing. It's not just a work but fun.

Considering website security? Want to add more functions without a programmer? Try out cms and you will get more than expected. If you want to know which cms software to work with, we highly recommend wordpress and joomla. They provide resourceful templates and plugins which is easy to get. If you want to create a blog or news website, go with wordpress. If you want to build an enterprise or shopping cart site, joomla provides the most scalable solution.

Programming

programmingThe primary choice for enterprise websites. Because you want to keep each code under cotrol for fast maintenance in case there's need. As about programming, developer will test everything side by side to ensure the best compatibility on production server. In this way, the website security, performance and usability is extremely optimized with your exact requirement. If you choose to program a site, you must get a experienced programmer to deal with. It's the best if you have your own IT department so everything can be centrally controlled.

Regardless any advantage of programming solution, everything is money based. Hundreds or thousands USD dollar is expected depends the overall website requirement. It takes time and manual works to complete the project thus it's not affordable for personal or small size website purpose. This solution is only best for enterprises.

As above explanation and comparison, cms is probably the best choice for most users. No coding skills required but you can setup a professional and security website. Based various control panel installer, you even don't have to deal with the challenging installation process.