Affichage des articles dont le libellé est User. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est User. Afficher tous les articles

samedi 12 novembre 2016

How to Create a Custom User Registration Form in WordPress



Do you want to create a custom front-end user registration form in WordPress? The default WordPress user registration form shows WordPress branding and does not match your site’s theme. In this article, we will show you how to create a custom user registration form in WordPress.


How to Create a Custom User Registration Form in WordPress


Why Add a Custom User Registration Form in WordPress


The default WordPress user registration page shows WordPress branding and logo. It does not match the rest of your WordPress site.


Creating a custom user registration form allows you to add the registration form on any page of your WordPress site. It helps you deliver a more consistent user experience during the registration process.


A custom user registration form also allows you to redirect users upon registration. You can also display additional user profile fields, combine it with custom front-end login form, and connect it with your email marketing service.


Having said that, let’s take a look at how to create a custom user registration form in WordPress.


Creating a Custom User Registration Form in WordPress


First thing you need to do is install and activate the WPForms – WordPress forms plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.


WPForms is the best WordPress contact form plugin that allows you to create all type of forms in WordPress.


You will need at least the Pro plan to get access to their user registration addon.


You can use our WPForms coupon: WPB10 to get 10% discount on your purchase of any WPForms plan.


Upon activation, you need to visit WPForms » Settings page to enter your WPForms license key. You can get this key from your account on WPForms website.


Add your WPForms License key


Next, you need to visit WPForms » Addons page. Click on the ‘Install Addon’ button next to ‘User Registration Addon’.


Install user registration addon


WPForms will now download and install the User Registration Addon. You will need to click on the ‘Activate’ button to start using the addon.


Activate user registration addon


You are now ready to create your custom user registration form.


You need to visit WPForms » Add New to launch the WPForms Builder.


First, you need to enter a name for your form and then select ‘User Registration Form’ as template.


Form builder setup


WPForms will now create a simple registration form for you. This sample form will have following WordPress user registration fields added by default.



  • Name – First and last name

  • Username

  • Email

  • Password

  • Short bio


You can add more fields from the left panel. You can also drag fields to rearrange their order.


Adding Custom Fields in Your Custom User Registration Form


WPForms also allows you to connect custom user profile fields to your user registration form.


To do this, you will need to add additional user profile fields to your WordPress site. The easiest way to do this is by using a plugin.


In this example, we are using User Meta Manager plugin. However, the field mapping feature of WPForms works with any plugin that uses standard WordPress custom fields to add and store user meta data.


First thing you need to do is install and activate the User Meta Manager plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.


Upon activation, you need to visit Users » User Meta Manager page and click on Add Custom Meta button to continue.


Adding custom user meta to user profiles in WordPress


First you need to enter a key. This key is how the custom user profile field will be recognized internally.


Next you need to choose a field type. In this example, we are using a URL field to add Facebook profile URL. Under ‘Label’, you need to enter the label that will be visible to users when filling this field.


Click on the Submit button to add the custom meta field. You can now visit Users » Your Profile page to see the field in action.


A custom user profile field to add Facebook profile URL


Now that we have created a custom user profile field, let’s add it to the custom user registration form in WPForms and then map it.


You will need to visit WPForms » All Forms page to edit your custom user registration form or create a new one.


After that click on a field from the left panel to add it to your form. In this example, we are adding a website/URL field to our form.


Adding fields


The website / URL field will now appear in your form preview. You need to click on the field and WPForms will show its properties in the left panel.


We need to change the label from Website/URL to Facebook Profile URL. You can also add a description for the field.


Edit field


Don’t forget to click on the Save button at the top right corner of the screen to save your form.


Next, you need to click on the Settings button for advanced form settings and field mapping. On the Settings page, click on the User Registration tab.


WPForms will now show your form fields and a drop down menu below them to select the WordPress registration field to map it with.


You will notice that WPForms will automatically map your default fields like Name, Email, Password, etc. You can also select a page where you want users to be redirected to once they submit the form.


You will need to scroll down to the ‘Custom User Meta’ section. Here you can enter the custom meta key you created earlier and then select the form field you want to map it with.


Mapping custom fields


Don’t forget to click on the Save button on the top right corner of the screen to save your settings.


Adding Your Custom User Registration form in WordPress


WPForms makes it super simple to add forms into your WordPress posts, pages, and sidebar widgets.


You need to create a new post/page or edit an existing one. On the post edit screen, you will notice the new WPForms button.


Adding a form in WordPress posts or page


Clicking on it will bring up a popup. You need to select your form from the drop down menu and then click on the Add Form button.


You will notice the WPForms shortcode will appear in your post’s content editor. You can now publish or save your post/page and then preview your form.


Previewing custom user registration form


WPForms also allows you to add your custom user registration form in your sidebar. Visit Appearance » Widgets page and add WPForm widget to a sidebar.


Add custom user registration form to sidebar in WordPress


You need to select the form you want to show from the drop down menu in the widget settings. Don’t forget to click on the save button to store your widget settings.


That’s all, you can now visit your website to see your custom user registration form in action.


Custom registration form in sidebar


We hope this article helped you learn how to easily add a custom user registration form in WordPress. You may also want to see our list of 10 WordPress plugins that will quickly help you get more traffic.


If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.


The post How to Create a Custom User Registration Form in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.







How to Add an Admin User in WordPress using FTP



Being locked of your WordPress admin is frustrating. That’s why we have shown you how to add an admin user in WordPress via MySQL. Recently one of our readers asked if it was possible to add an admin user in WordPress using FTP. Ofcourse it is. In this article, we will show you how to add an admin user in WordPress using FTP.


Adding an admin user in WordPress using FTP


Why You May Need to Add an Admin User in WordPress Using FTP?


Sometimes you may forget your username or email address on a WordPress site and cannot login to the admin area.


One way to do this is by adding an admin user to the WordPress database using MySQL. But you may be unable to connect to phpMyAdmin or don’t want to run MySQL queries directly.


Some users may get their site hacked and admin account deleted. In that case, adding an admin user using FTP can quickly restore your access to the WordPress admin area.


Having said that, let’s see how you can easily add an admin user in WordPress using FTP access.


Adding an Admin User in WordPress Using FTP


First thing you will need is an FTP client. If you are new to using FTP, then see our guide on how to use FTP to upload files in WordPress.


Once connected to your WordPress site, you need to locate your WordPress theme’s functions.php file. It would be at a location like this:


/yoursite.com/wp-content/themes/your-current-theme/functions.php


Right click on functions.php file and then select download. Your FTP client will download the functions.php file to your computer.


Downloading functions.php file to edit


Open the file you just downloaded on your computer using a plain text editor like Notepad. Now you need to add this code at the bottom of the file.



function wpb_admin_account(){
$user = 'Username';
$pass = 'Password';
$email = 'email@domain.com';
if ( !username_exists( $user ) && !email_exists( $email ) ) {
$user_id = wp_create_user( $user, $pass, $email );
$user = new WP_User( $user_id );
$user->set_role( 'administrator' );
} }
add_action('init','wpb_admin_account');


Don’t forget to replace Username, Password, and email@domain.com with your own values.


Next, save the file and then upload it back to your website using the FTP client.


You can now visit your WordPress site’s login area and sign in with the user account you just added.


Once you have logged in to your WordPress site, please edit the functions.php file and delete the code you added. Deleting the code will not remove the user you added, and you can always add new users and authors to your WordPress site.


We hope this article helped you learn how to add an admin user to WordPress using FTP. You may also want to see our list of 13 vital tips and hacks to protect your WordPress admin area.


If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.


The post How to Add an Admin User in WordPress using FTP appeared first on WPBeginner.







HostPapa User Reviews



alt="HostPapa User Reviews" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/hostpapa-500x224_c.jpg" />

id="floatright">href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/go/hostpapa">class="border alignright" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2010/0115-1.jpg" alt="HostPapa Hosting" width="565" height="363" />

HostPapa started business in year 2006 and it is one of the earliest green hosting companies. For only .95 customers can enjoy unlimited disk space, domain hosting, and bandwidth. At this time of writing, the hosting company operates business from both United States, Canada, UK and France.

My Overall Rating on HostPapa Hosting

I rated HostPapa a ‘B+’ in my href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/hosting-review/hostpapa/">HostPapa Review. The best thing about HostPapa is their ultra-low price tag of .95/mo – the web host is, in fact, one of the lowest price and it is highly recommended for those who are searching for budget host.

For more info, you can visit HostPapa’s website at: href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/go/hostpapa">http://www.hostpapa.com.

I need your HostPapa Reviews!

In support of HostPapa recent web marketing campaign, I am dedicating this special post to collect user reviews on HostPapa services. In case you are existing HostPapa users, please help others by submitting your feedback about the web host using the comment form below.

Related Updates: Special HostPapa Promotion (.95/mo)

I’m in the mid of getting a special deal for WHSR readers who wish to go with HostPapa hosting. We are currently using monthly coupon code (eg. JC99 for October, discount) but some of my readers might miss it and ended up paying extra for the same thing. What we are trying to do now is to create a special promo link to neglect the use of coupon codes and develop a special landing page to simplify the ordering process. Things should be done very soon, stay tuned for more updates.

Exclusive: No Coupon Code Is Needed For HostPapa Discount!

Updates: The special landing page is ready! Right now WHSR readers can enjoy the special discount without using the coupon code. All you need to do is follow this href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/go/hostpapa">special promo link to a dedicated order page and you will be entitled with the special promotion ( discount) automatically.

For the mean time, again, if you are an existing users, please help me and the readers by telling us what you think about HostPapa in term of reliability, user friendliness, customer support quality, as well as its web hosting features.


Page 28 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed




BlueHost & HostMonster User Alert: CPU Throttling



alt="BlueHost & HostMonster User Alert: CPU Throttling" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/cputhrottling-500x166_c.jpg" />

Note: This post is published in 2009. Since then there were lots of changes with BlueHost, HostMonster, as well as other Endurance’s hosting brands. As I no longer update this post anymore, I suggest you to check out href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/hosting-review/bluehost/">my latest findings and reviews on BlueHost. 

Are you a HostMonster or BlueHost customer? Are you experience slow site loading time recently? Well if your answer is yes, there’s a big chance that your site is being affected by HostMonster’s latest server feature – CPU throttling!

What is CPU Throttling?

Depends on what kind of CPU you are talking about – the term “CPU throttling” is used to describe the process of reducing CPU usage to avoid the computer processor getting overheated and damaged. Such technique is also used by Intel chips to optimize energy consumption.

CPU throttling in hosting

However the term has a different meaning when it comes to web hosting. When your website on a shared server is pulling “too much” CPU resources at one time, the CPU will freeze (or slash down) your account CPU usage. At this particular time, your website will respond extremely slow and your jailed website will only be released when the staffs think it is okay. Such hosting feature was not seen before until Matt Heaton spent thousands of hours (according to himself) developing the system and introduced this so called href="http://www.mattheaton.com/?p=185" target="_blank">Hosting Nirvana (One might argue DreamHost has been doing this for some time – but technically, it’s not the same at all).

Who is implementing CPU throttling now?

So far from what I know, BlueHost and HostMonster (they are under same management).

Is CPU throttling a good thing?

Well, apparently the web host will tell you that this feature is “for the good of all shared hosting users”.

But don’t you think this is such a convenient excuse for the web hosts to push away their responsibility; and blame their users for not using the server “properly”? Would the president of BlueHost (with over 1.5 million websites hosted on it!) spent thousands of hours developing this new system just because he wants to “change the hosting world for good”?

(Sorry to be such a cynic but things just look too fishy and I can’t help but keep doubting their real intention of doing so.)

WebHostingSecretRevealed.com is affected! Website loading extremely slow occasionally.

At this time of writing, this little blog is throttled about 30 minutes daily. According to reader Troy of href="http://alterego-of-pwi.info" target="_blank">alterego-of-pwi.info, my blog took up to 45 seconds to load (it normally takes less than 3 seconds in normal time)!

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2009/1001-4.jpg" alt="CPU throttling at Hostmonster" width="750" height=" " />

What has been done so far to handle this problem

FYI, I am now in the mid of discussion with the HostMonster supports to solve the issue. They’ve been very friendly and helpful so far but they just can’t explain some of my questions. For example they told me that the throttle could be caused by buggy scripts or heavy MySQL errors – but from my observation, my site still get throttled on the day where no error was logged! Is the site throttled because HostMonster couldn’t handle the amount of traffics I’m getting? Why are my other sites (with bigger databases and a lot more web applications) are working perfectly with href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/hosting-review/hostgator/">Hostgator and title="iPage review" href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/hosting-review/ipage/">iPage but things look so screwed up with HostMonster?

Sorry for the slow load time!

Apologizes if you experienced slow load time with my blog recently. Please bear with me for this – I’m trying as fast as I can to investigate the matter and come out with the right solution. I’ll keep things posted here.

Big thanks to Troy T. Hall

To Troy who wrote me long emails explaining the situation – million thanks! And, I wish things are working smoothly with your site right now.

How to check if your hosting account is throttled or not?

Login to your BlueHost or HostMonster cPanel account, scroll down to the ‘Log’ session and click the ‘CPU throttling’ icon (see figure).

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2009/1001-5.jpg" alt="CPU throttling at Hostmonster" width="750" height=" " />

Click in and you can check your site status from the popped up page.

Alternatives to BlueHost and HostMonster

If you were considering BlueHost or HostMonster before this, WebHostingHub and iPage are the two best alternatives. These two offer more or less the same features like BlueHost and HostMonster; and their prices are cheaper with our special discount codes.

A2 Hosting and GreenGeeks are slightly pricier but recommended if you don’t mind paying a little more for faster or eco-friendly (300% green) hosting.

Details for your reference are as below.

class="default-lines" summary="Cheap Hosting Price List">scope="col" width="220">Cheap Web Hostscope="col" width="200">Featuresscope="col">Price/moscope="col">Detailswidth="220">href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/go/webhostinghub">class="border" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/webhostinghub.jpg" alt="Budget Hosting at WebHostingHub" width="218" height="125" border="0" />width="200">Bandwidth: UnlimitedDisk Space: Unlimited

Addon Domain: Unlimited.99*class="meteor-icon noshape" style="font-size:12px !important;">
class="icon-external-link" style="color:#0882c4 !important;">
 title="WebHostingHub Review" href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/hosting-review/webhostinghub/">WebHostingHub Reviewclass="meteor-icon noshape" style="font-size:12px !important;">
class="icon-external-link" style="color:#0882c4 !important;">
 title="http://www.webhostinghub.com" href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/go/webhostinghub">Visit WHH Online

Note: Special discount available, read review for more.width="220">href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/go/ipage">class="border" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ipage.jpg" alt="Budget Hosting at iPage" width="218" height="125" border="0" />width="200">Bandwidth: UnlimitedDisk Space: Unlimited

Addon Domain: Unlimited.89class="meteor-icon noshape" style="font-size:12px !important;">
class="icon-external-link" style="color:#0882c4 !important;">
 title="iPage Review" href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/hosting-review/ipage/">iPage Reviewclass="meteor-icon noshape" style="font-size:12px !important;">
class="icon-external-link" style="color:#0882c4 !important;">
 title="http://www.ipage.com" href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/go/ipage">Visit iPage Onlinewidth="220">href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/go/a2hosting">class="border" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/a2hosting.jpg" alt="Budget Hosting at A2 Hosting" width="218" height="125" border="0" />width="200">Bandwidth: UnlimitedDisk Space: Unlimited

Addon Domain: Unlimited.97class="meteor-icon noshape" style="font-size:12px !important;">
class="icon-external-link" style="color:#0882c4 !important;">
 title="A2 Hosting Review" href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/hosting-review/a2hosting/">A2 Hosting Reviewclass="meteor-icon noshape" style="font-size:12px !important;">
class="icon-external-link" style="color:#0882c4 !important;">
 title="http://www.a2hosting.com" href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/go/a2hosting">Visit A2Hosting Online

Note: Special discount available, read review for more.width="220">href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/go/greengeeks">class="border" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/greengeeks.jpg" alt="Budget Hosting at Greengeeks Hosting" width="218" height="125" border="0" />width="200">Bandwidth: UnlimitedDisk Space: Unlimited

Addon Domain: Unlimited.95class="meteor-icon noshape" style="font-size:12px !important;">
class="icon-external-link" style="color:#0882c4 !important;">
 title="GreenGeeks Review" href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/hosting-review/greengeeks/">GreenGeeks Reviewclass="meteor-icon noshape" style="font-size:12px !important;">
class="icon-external-link" style="color:#0882c4 !important;">
 title="http://www.greengeeks.com" href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/go/greengeeks">Visit GreenGeeks Online

Note: Special discount available, read review for more.

Check them out and do let me know at comment box below if you need help.


Page 30 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed




JustHost User Review by Katja



alt="JustHost User Review by Katja" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/default-image-500x308_c.jpg" />

I received an unsolicited JustHost review from a reader named Katja recently and I think it’s a useful piece for those who are considering JustHost.

JustHost Review by Katja

id="right">src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/home/justhost.jpg" alt="Justhost hosting" />

Just as you, I have been spending hours searching for a reliable host and reading reviews. To be honest, I do this about once a month, every time our hosting with JustHost majorly tanks and causes problems.

Frequent server outages

We have been with them since January 2010 and so far had at least once a month server outages, promises of being moved to a newer “faster” server, suggestions of add on fees for priority support (which completely ignored us during one episode of issues), daily backups and faster server guarantee for additional fee… all of which we purchased to make our forum site running more smoothly.

Every time we started encountering issues and escalated it to priority support they started off with the old “the problem is on your end, have you tried turning it off and on again” bit and endless email trails to finally get to the bottom that a server had failed and they were working on it.

Now things like this can happen, a bit of a downtime is unfortunate but I guess to be expected, however to go through this once a month, lies of them moving the site to a faster server, them migrating the sites and doing it incorrectly (TWICE IN A ROW) by forgetting to point the nameservers to the new servers so the forum was active in two “universes”… them telling us the site cannot be restored to the daily backup but only the last weekly one (losing a weeks worth of data despite having paid extra for daily backups), their customer service not even properly reading mails and properly addressing the people who sent it and after all of this not ONCE being refunded the monthly hosting fee when we had major troubles and downtimes.

10 hours down time!

Last issue was a 10+ hours outage and continued problems when the site was restored, mainly data loss and again wrongly pointed nameservers, despite them being warned about that when they finally agreed to move the site to a new server after being out for 10h already. What is frustrating is that there are no warnings or info mails when a server tanks or is undergoing some sort of maintenance. They don’t apply any type of load balancing that servers can be maintained without customers losing uptimes. When the customer contacts them about an issue they have a long list of lies to reply with before they honestly admit what is going on, they don’t apply services you pay for (priority service taking 24h to reply when they promise 30 minutes, daily back ups, faster servers) and every small issue turns into a few days worth of email trails and headaches.

JustHost -cheap and good for low traffic website

So all in all, JustHost may be cheap and good for websites with low traffic but their technical support is incompetent and reliability is significantly less than 97% stated in most online reviews.

Cheers and happy reviewing!

Katja

P/S: Katja if you are reading this please contact me – I wish to give a link to your site (as credit) but couldn’t reach you thru the email address you were using.

Send me your web hosting reviews!

Have something to say about your web host? Why not get it published here at Web Hosting Secret Revealed – send your hosting review to href="userfeedback@webhostingsecretrevealed.com">userfeedback@webhostingsecretrevealed.com.

Note: We no longer track or review JustHost hosting. In case you were considering JustHost – we recommend href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/hosting-review/bluehost/">BlueHost, href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/hosting-review/ipage/">iPage, and href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/hosting-review/fatcow/">FatCow as better alternatives. FYI, these web hosts belong (and are managed) by the same owner – Endurance International Group. 


Page 29 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed




Updates and Latest User Reviews on FatCow



alt="Updates and Latest User Reviews on FatCow" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/default-image-500x308_c.jpg" />

I was doing my usual readings online and I found some (old) news: FatCow hosting now comes along with SimpleScripts.

SimpleScripts is an auto script-installer, it helps users to install and maintain web application and software in just a few clicks. Right now SimpleScripts support installation for more than 50+ open source web apps including bloging platform, content management system (CMS), forum apps, project management software, shopping cart, RSS, form survey, and so on.

From what I see, the function of SimpleScripts and InstallCentral are exactly the same. BUT, the upgrade does make sense and benefits the users, SimpleScipts provides much wider choice (more apps can be installed) and fastest updates (from my experience). In case you are into images, here are some print screen from the inside.

Here’s where you can get into SimpleScripts from FatCow Control Panel frontpage

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2011/0727-1.jpg" alt="SimpleScripts on FatCow" class="border" />

Lots of scripts supported

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2011/0727-2.jpg" alt="SimpleScripts on FatCow" class="border" />

Updates September 2011: FatCow Review by Peter Benson

I got this informative FatCow review recently via email and I think you guys should have a look at it.

I think you have FatCow rated too high

I tried FatCow for webhosting a local political campaign site based on good reviews like these. The price was decent – for a year.

The campaign was successful, and I took the site down afterward. Unfortunately, I did not cancel the account, and it autorenewed at _7_ for a year. When I went to cancel it, they told me there would be a cancellation fee. When I said I didn’t remember seeing that when I signed up, they said it’s in "Terms and Conditions" – buried with a ton of legalese. Their "cancellation fee" is almost as much as the first year of web hosting. For what it’s worth, I had _much_ better luck getting a refund for unused time from JustHost.

Anyway, fool me once and all that. I told them I thought their policy was misleading and abusive, and I won’t be back.

(PS- They also take _forever_ to answer their phone – it took three tries to get this cancelled since one time I had to leave after ~20 minutes on hold and the other time I was cut off after a similar wait time.)

Anyway, I think you have them rated too high, and I think you ought to let people know about their loss-leader, bait-and-switch pricing and high cancellation fee.

– Peter Benson / Minnesota @ September 4th, 2011

Other Latest FatCow User Reviews

Now for more other FatCow user reviews – Quoted below are user reviews I read from elsewhere on the Internet. Sadly I note that many are unhappy with FatCow’s recent performance (email features and the phone support, especially). Perhaps FatCow has changed a lot since I signed up with them 3 years ago; perhaps some users are over-demanding; perhaps the company is now running under-staff …the reason behind these complaints are anybody’s guess.

As a smart Internet shoppers, you should always do your own homework, be skeptical to ALL (including mine) comments you read online, and NEVER hesitate to ask for a refund whenever you are unhappy with your host.

I would choose FatCow definitely! "When I first heard of FatCow, my response was, "What?!" It didn’t take me long to look through the features, and notice that the price was well within my range, so I decided why not. There were times when my website went down due to technical reasons I couldn’t understand, so I would contact their 24/7 help desk. Within minutes, my problem was either rectified or passed on to a tech support person who would figure out the root cause of the issue within a day or so. Not bad for the price in my opinion. I would recommend FatCow for anyone that wants a hosting company that offers ease of use and also friendly customer service reps. Check them out when you can!" – Jupiter / www.darryldsmith.com @ June 08, 2011.

Okay hosting, but email is quite bad. "I am pretty much ok with the web hosting service of fatcow, though file uploads and update times are inferior to other services. My main complaint is about their email service. It’s really bad in my opinion. Their web client is really bad. Folders are presented as names with "." separating the folder hierarchy. Apple mail and the mailboxes aren’t synchronized easily. Sent vs Sent Messages folders for example. The smtp server has constant problems and I’ve contacted customer support or hundred times. Certain letters aren’t allowed in the password either. I was told that the n-th letter in my password was not allowed. I was a bit shocked that they knew my password in plain text." Anonymus @ June 24, 2011.

FatCow rocks! "You can never be satisfied with the web host providers these days. I’ve been switching from one web host to another in the hope of finding the almost perfect one. I have always landed providers which if are not too expensive, they will fire back with downtime. This has made me hopeless that my shoe business will ever grow. Good thing, I learned about FatCow and I’m proud to say that I’m a satisfied subscriber. With FatCow, you don’t have to pay a pricey amount to experience quality service, uptime guarantee, and easy to use features and tools. Their staffs are always there to assist you, 24 hours a day." – Shelly M. @ July 11, 2011.

Okay hosting with very cheap price. "The truth is, you can’t expect too much when a host is only charging you the price less than a cup of coffee. Fatcow hosting is doing alright in my opinion and I love the fact that they are offering wide support of different hosting features. The new Simplescripts function is a stunner and I am betting that more users will be flocking in to the servers soon (geez, this means bad or good?). All in all, Fatcow is an average host with a very low price tags. As a budget finder, I am happy with it." – James @ July 19, 2011.

FatCow support is no help. "The first issue I had with Fat Cow was when I noticed that I had an alternate domain designation of .ca It was first noticed when I was not getting any emails I called support and I was able to get into my control panel there it was discovered that my emails had a .ca at the end not a .com as I had requested when setting up the account. This was fixed on the emails but little to my knowledge it was still present in my domain central section, I only found out about this when I received a bill for domain listing from the company in Austria that controls the .ca domain designation. Fat cow support was of no help in discovering how this alternate domain was associated with my account. I would assume that some sort of log is kept to track this. I never registered it in the first place, it obviously was the account rep that set the account up. And now it is time for my renew and the cost is 3X what i paid for when 1st set up so I will be leaving for another." – Anonymous @ July 24, 2011.

So again, before we end this post, I have to stress that my href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/fatcow-review/" target="_blank">FatCow review (and so does everyone else) is written just for your reference. I am writing base on my preferences and personal experience – what I think is acceptable might be a no-good for you. Cheers! :)


Page 27 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed




Recent FatCow User Reviews



alt="Recent FatCow User Reviews" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/default-image-500x308_c.jpg" />

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2010/0715-2.jpg" alt="FatCow Hosting" />

We have roughly another two months to go for href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/updates-news/fatcow-host-smart-drive-smart-contest/">FatCow Host Smart Drive Smart Giveaway. In case you are considering FatCow hosting, here are some recent user feedback for references. Some of these reviews are quoted else where from the Internet; some were e-mailed to my directly.

FatCow Hosting User Feedback

“Great Service!!” I’m using fatcow for more than 6 months, and did not had any problems so far. They servers are reliable and didn’t noticed any downtime for my websites. Some times the live chat support is slow, but the email and phone support is professional. Fatcow is my first hosting provider, and they has helped me a lot to put my business online. Great service! I would recommend to any business owner! – Reviewed by Jorg @ July 8, 2010.

“Jaw-droppingly easy to use!” Fat Cow’s automated installations are jaw- droppingly easy to use. I create and sell CMS/Joomla! websites using Fat Cow’s unlimited hosting plan and it has been a very profitable experience with Fat Cow. I do have to note that the overall speed of Fat Cow’s hosting plan leaves something to be desired when it comes to load time for scripts – mainly in Joomla! / MySQL installations. Otherwise – Fat Cow is the only hosting choice that makes sense to my business. – Reviewed by Matherarts.com @ July 01, 2010

“Average” I’ve hosted many different websites using a variety of web hosts over the years. The only time I’ve ever been “hacked” into was with FatCow – not once, but twice in less than a six-month period. My account was suspended with virtually no notice, and it’s a hassle to get it reinstated. While they gave me general guidance on removing bad files and preventing it from happening again, it was beyond difficult to get anything that specifically addressed my situation such as the type of files that are vulnerable, etc. When I asked customer support for details, I was told that someone will send an e-mail to me “very soon” but the email is never in my mailbox until today (it’s been months!). I’ve been a FatCow customer for less than a year, so I’m not sure how much of a “fluke” this is. Having said that, online support has been fairly prompt and responsive when I’ve had other sorts of issues and questions. Aside from the “phishing” concerns, I’ve been content. – Reviewed by Anonymous @ June 8, 2010.

“FatCow – Not Impressed! “ I have been trying to get a FatCow reseller account now for about 3 weeks.. my paypal payment had an error, so i tried it again.. then realized in my paypal account the first one had gone through.. although was sat “unclaimed” so now I had two “unclaimed” payments in my paypal account. I have been talking to support staff throughout the last two weeks trying to resolve the issue and NOTHING has been done.. they have “escalated” the issue to a senior specialist or something of the sort. I mean a two year old could accept a paypal payment in a few minutes!!!! After reading some of these reviews I am having second thoughts about using them.. they obviously have the look and the pricing but apart from that they seem to be pretty rubbish. – Reviewed by Luke @ June 26, 2010.

“Nothing but pleasures!” Hi Jerry I just wanna drop by and say thanks for sharing your comments about fatcow. I signed up with them in late march and I am 100% satisfy with the kind of service I am getting. fatcow servers are fast (as you said) and I never experience any site down time so far…. The overall setup process was amazingly fast and easy so I’d recommend FatCow to any newbies out there who wish to get things started immediately. In short, fatcow is nothing but pleasures!! – Reviewed by Teressa @ May 17, 2010.

“Debra Lamb Psychic Loves FatCow!” I found FatCow on the Consumer Report site as one of the top recommended web hosting sites for price and customer service. Their web building tools made building my website fairly easy, considering I had absolutely no experience, and every time I called tech support (which was a lot) I was helped by a friendly and knowledgeable associate. I also received encouragement along the way! – Reviewed by DebraLambPsychic @ April 5, 2010.

If these are not enough, check out my href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/fatcow-review/">personal reviews on FatCow hosting here.

Are web hosting user reviews reliable? Here’s what I think.

As a smart shopper, you should understand that a user/customer review is always written based on one’s preference. How well a web host scores in one’s record is always biased towards his/her expectation.

I once received an email complaining about Hostgator. The reason why this guy is unhappy with Hostgator is because (ready for this?) the company does not provide real time web stats reporting tool for his shared hosting account. That’s right, he is looking for a real time web analytic tool – can you believe that? Seriously, if you are expecting such a tool from a /mo hosting service, there is no way in this world you can be pleased.

Another example: Look at this recently published href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/user-reviews/justhost-user-review-by-katja/">JustHost user reviews, check out the review in that post and the comment that follows, I can’t help but wonder why we can have such different feedback on the same web host (Katja was unhappy with JustHost while reader Voyager was shock to see a negative JustHost user review and think it’s a fake review).

So hey, just because you found a negative review on a web host means that it’s a bad choice; vise versa, a web host with some positive reviews might not work rightly for you. Web hosting user reviews (this one included) are solely for your references. Sure some basic research and reviews will help filter out some bad apples but to be safe you should always href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/web-hosting-shopping/15-tips-on-how-not-to-get-screwed-by-your-web-host/">protect yourself from being screwed by a lousy web host.


Page 29 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed




SiteServing User Review By Myra Levi



alt="SiteServing User Review By Myra Levi" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/default-image-500x308_c.jpg" />

I received a very detail SiteServing review from a reader named Myra Levi on Dec 15, 2011; and, I think it’s a very useful piece of information (thanks man!). So… here goes.

About SiteServing Hosting

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2012/0119-4.jpg" alt="SiteServing Homepage" width="750px" />

SiteServing is a privately held web hosting company that was started in 2000. SiteServing was built to service our customers and their requirements. You can visit SiteServing at href="http://www.siteserving.com/" target="_blank">http://www.siteserving.com/

Having not heard of SiteServing before, I decided to give them a shot back around eight months ago. They aren’t newcomers in the business, but they haven’t really been overly aggressive in the marketing before either. Having been around since 2000, they have proven to know what their doing (just by age alone). Below, are just some of my findings and opinions about this web hosting company.

My experience with SiteServing hosting

What can I say; SiteServing has everything any Webmaster will never need. From three different shared hosting plans, in around five locations, to every virtualization type known to man (or at least at the moment). SiteServing has all the accoutrements of an experienced team, and none of the short fallings (at least that I’ve been able to see so far).

What’s the pricing like?

The pricing for SiteServing is very reasonable; they have certainly done their research and it shows. SiteServing is extremely well priced and their initial shared hosting offering goes for as little as .95/mo, and that’s actually very hard to beat (no matter where you look).

From a visitors perspective, SiteServing has everything in one easy-to-use location, from their extensive 700+ knowledgebase articles, to their 364+ video tutorials, they generally have everything you need to get started. Even some of the other hosting providers have no where near this level of documentation or user assistance guides. That’s just some of the items that make SiteServing standout for me and for probably any first time visitor.

So, what’s good about SiteServing?

Fact: SiteServing has been around for over 10 years. Frankly, I’ve never heard much about them, until fairly recently. It seems that something within that company changed, and sounds, looks and feels like someone experienced has shown up. In fact, if you review everything you’ll notice quickly that they are extremely well documented, and everything is meticulously groomed to perfection. I was browsing their site and see that they have won numerous awards from industry review organizations such as PC Pro, WebHostDir, and many others. This really makes me realize that SiteServing might be that hidden gem that you’ve never found. This was the case for me at least.

99.99% Uptime Guarantee

While uptime guarantees vary, very few hosting providers have dared place 99.99% uptime guarantees on their website, due to the possibility of outages. This is certainly another quality marker of the SiteServing system, if you take a look into what 99.99% actually means, and that’s literally less than 52.56 minutes per year! That simply goes to show that SiteServing really has high expectations, showing customers, like me, that not only are they providing quality service, but they are putting money where their mouth is, literally.

Shared hosting plans and affordable plans

It seems that there are some web hosting providers such as SiteServing that are saying “enough” with the “unlimited everything” approach to web hosting, and actually starting to offer something that is real. As you see nowadays most hosting providers don’t actually provide true unlimited resources, SiteServing has decided to end with the fiasco and provide true resources for true money.

What makes SiteServing better than the rest, is that they are affordable, clean, crisp and by the looks of it, a highly motivated company. SiteServing isn’t your fly-by-night operation, nor is it the run of the mill web hosting provider, they are a serious player that has invested heavily into their presence – I can tell this from just looking at their website. What that means to customers, is that you get to enjoy all the extras they provide, while they do all the heavy lifting.

One-Click web App Installations

If you take a look at the SiteServing control panel, you’ll quickly notice a couple of things. The first being that SiteServing offers not one, but two auto installers, the first is called Fantastico and the second is called Softaculous. Both have huge pluses, and a wide selection of one-click installable scripts. For example, ever wanted to install WordPress, Joomla, Mambo, Drupal, or anything else, quickly? Well, with SiteServing you can, in one click – literally. All this goes to show that SiteServing is dedicated to creating a better experience for the customer, it certainly is for me.

So what might go wrong with SiteServing?

So far, having been hosted with them eight months, I can’t say that I’ve actually had any issues with them so far. The Server is fast, the uptime is strong, and the whole system feels solid.

The only thing that I can say about them that is negative (dependent on the way you look at it) is that they are a name that hasn’t been as widely spread as others. However, you have to remember that it doesn’t mean anything, it’s just rare to see such a highly optimized, and built company that hasn’t been pushed into the limelight. My guess is that they have not paid for reviews and top spots like I suspect other hosting companies do. I know some pay to have their top spot. I also know from experience that a top spot means nothing. I have plenty of horror stories from previous hosts, and all from the most popular web hosting companies.

Conclusion: Is SiteServing hosting a go or a stay?

If you’re searching for a web hosting provider that has everything under one roof, and has the vast amount of documentation, then SiteServing is a go. Having fairly priced hosting and over a decade (from what I’ve researched) of experience, SiteServing isn’t a company that is going away anytime soon. I’m just going to rate SiteServing an A and surely going to (and have) recommend them to all my friends, co-workers and family.

Send Me Your Hosting Review!

Have something to say about this web host? Like it or hate it – send us your comment (min. 250 words) today at style="text-decoration: underline;">jerry [a] webhostingsecretrevealed.com. I’m paying for each published review!


Page 25 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed




User Management Within MySQL Database With phpMyAdmin



alt="User Management Within MySQL Database With phpMyAdmin" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/default-image-500x308_c.jpg" />

There are situations when you can’t simply open your CMS or forum installation and manage users from inside the platform. Suppose you’ve been hacked and can’t access your admin account – what will you do?

Coming to your rescue is a web-based MySQL front-end — phpMyAdmin —  that helps you manage your site user accounts by performing actions directly on the database. The tool is integrated with all the major domain control panels (cPanel, Plesk, VistaPanel, etc.) and, when not present, it can be installed on your server via Fantastico or Softaculous (automated script installers that come with a domain control panel). Manual installation will not be considered for this short guide.

What Is phpMyAdmin?

href="http://www.phpmyadmin.net/" target="_blank">phpMyAdmin is a web-based, open source PHP tool for MySQL database management. Tobias Ratschiller, its inventor, started to work on phpMyAdmin on 1998 as an alternative to MySQL-Webadmin, but he dropped the project on 2000 because he had no time to maintain it. The development was taken over by three programmers on 2001, who founded The phpMyAdmin Project. Its success among webmasters is due to a user-friendly, easy-to-use web interface and the possibility to access the tool from a domain control panel (cPanel, Plesk, VistaPanel).

What Approach Will This Guide Take?

You can use two approaches to database management within phpMyAdmin:

  • management via phpMyAdmin interface
  • management via SQL query execution

This guide will show you how to use each of the two approaches to perform SQL operations on your user base.

Example Software In This Guide

Among the most popular CMS and forum scripts, the choices for this guide fell for WordPress and XMB Forum, although the tutorial can easily be applied to any user-based site software in general. The guide will show you how to use both of the two above mentioned approaches for each script’s database user table.

phpMyAdmin User Management for WordPress

Interface Method

Login into your cPanel account (or any other web hosting control panel with your domain). Look for phpMyAdmin under the group ‘Databases’ and click on the phpMyAdmin icon:

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0416-1.jpg" class="border" alt="Databases in cPanel" width="600" height="149" />

The phpMyAdmin web interface will open in a new window. Once you’re in, select the database you need to work on from the left sidebar. In our example, the database is wptest_wp234. Click it.

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0416-2.jpg" class="border" alt="phpMyAdmin" width="600" height="256" />

When you open your database, you will see a list of all its tables on the left sidebar, while the main page shows you a list of those same tables with browsing/editing tools (per row). To access your users list, click on the ‘wp_users’ table and look up the list of users.

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0416-3.jpg" class="border" alt="WP Users" width="600" height="181" />

You may need to change your credentials, email, website URL, etc. Open the row associated with your user account by clicking “Edit” (there’s a pencil icon next to the link) to start editing your information. The image below shows the user info fields you can edit.

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0416-4.jpg" class="border" alt="User Info Edit" width="600" height="306" />

To change your password, you need to select MD5 from the drop-down menu. Write a strong password (you can use a href="http://www.thebitmill.com/tools/password.html" target="_blank">random password generator for better results). Once you’re done, save your changes.

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0416-5.jpg" class="border" alt="MD5 Password Edit" />

The MD5 is acronym for Message-Digest (algorithm) v. 5, a cryptographic hash function that returns a 32-digits value. The ‘user_pass’ field will automatically convert your new password into a MD5 32-digits string.

id="right">src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0416-6.jpg" alt="Edit Link for User Rows" />

In case you need to get rid of all spam accounts, just go back to the ‘wp_users’ table, select the user rows of choice and hit the “Delete” button at the bottom of the page. If you need to remove a single user, intead, simply hit the “Delete” link on the user row (see image here on the right).

SQL Query Method

phpMyAdmin allows database managers to execute SQL statements directly on the web interface. When you open your database in phpMyAdmin, you’ll see a series of tabs on the main page — Browse, Structure, SQL, Search, Insert, Export, Import, Operations: click the SQL tab to access an SQL web shell in which to write and run your statements. Refer to the 4th screenshot in this guide for the exact tab location.

Following are 3 code snippets you can use to edit user accounts by SQL operations.

NOTE: By ‘youraccountname’ I mean your hosting account username. This is the most common form of database identification on shared hosting environments, where each database is assigned to a specific user. Hence the underscore(“_”) between your hosting account username and your database name. There are other forms of database identification that only use a database name. The convention you will use is the one shown in your phpMyAdmin installation.

1. Change user password (MD5):

UPDATE `youraccountname_databasename`.`wp_users`
SET `user_pass` = MD5( ‘testuserpasswhere’ )
WHERE `ID` =2;

What does this code do?

  • UPDATE `youraccountname_databasename`.`wp_users`edits and updates the ‘wp_users’ table inside the database ‘youraccountname_databasename’.
  • SET `user_pass` = MD5( ‘testuserpasswhere’ )sets the value of the attribute ‘user_pass’ to the MD5 hash string of ‘testuserpasswhere’.
  • WHERE `ID` =2;tells you that the user ID you’re applying modifications to is the #2. Obviously this is an example ID here; it can be any user ID of choice.

2. Edit user info:

UPDATE `youraccountname_databasename`.`wp_users`
SET `user_login` = ‘newusername’,
`user_nicename` = ‘newusername’,
`user_email` = ‘newusername@domain.com’
WHERE `ID` = 1;

What does this code do?

  • As for the first snippet, the UPDATEline specifies which table will be modified, and in which database.
  • The SETfunction here operates on 3 different attributes: it sets ‘user_login’ and ‘user_nicename’ to a new value ‘newusername’, and ‘user_email’ to ‘newusername@domain.com’. Mind that ‘user_login’ and ‘user_nicename’ are two different attributes with the same value: the former is the username used to login, the latter is the name that will be shown on your website pages. Example: ‘greatboy84’ is the login name, ‘Frank Span’ is the name shown on page.
  • WHERE `ID` = 1;tells you that the user ID you modified is number #1.

3. Delete spammer account:

DELETE FROM `youraccountname_databasename`.`wp_users`
WHERE `ID` = 2

What does this code do?

  • The first line tells you that you’re going to delete something from the ‘wp_users’ table from database ‘youraccountname_databasename’.
  • WHERE `ID` = 2means the user ID you’re deleting is #2.

phpMyAdmin User Management for XMB Forum

Interface Method

The procedure is similar to WordPress user management.

Login to your domain control panel and open phpMyAdmin. Select your forum database and look for the table ‘xmb_members‘: it contains your forum’s member accounts.

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0416-7.jpg" class="border" alt="XMB Forum Members List MySQL" />

Click ‘Edit’ on the row associated with your user account and edit your user info (see image below). Hit the ‘Go’ button to save your changes.

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0416-8.jpg" class="border" alt="XMB User Edit" />

SQL Query Method

The following 2 code snippets show you how to edit or delete an XMB user account via MySQL.

1. Edit XMB member account:


UPDATE `youraccountname_xmbdatabase`.`xmb_members`
SET `username` = ‘bigsmurf85’,
`password` = MD5( ‘xmbuser178pass’ ) ,
`email` = ‘testmail@gmx.com’,
`site` = ‘http://domain.com’,
`location` = ‘US’
WHERE `uid` =139;

As with the WordPress examples above, this SQL code updates a user’s current information to new specified values.

2. Delete XMB member account:


DELETE FROM `youraccountname_xmbdatabase`.`xmb_members`
WHERE `uid` = 178

The first line says you’re going to delete one or more user IDs (‘uid’ here) from the database ‘xmb_members’. The second specifies the user ID number, 178 in this case.

A Password Security Tip

The MD5 algorithm has first proven vulnerable on 1996, when href="cseweb.ucsd.edu/~bsy/dobbertin.ps" target="_blank">Hans Dobbertin discovered collisions in the MD5 hash function, and more href="http://www.infosec.sdu.edu.cn/uploadfile/papers/How%20to%20Break%20MD5%20and%20Other%20Hash%20Functions.pdf" target="_blank">reports were shared with the public over the years. When we say ‘collisions’ we intend situations in which different strings of characters (i.e. passwords) have the same hash value. The material is ample and can’t certainly be covered by a single paragraph in a short guide, but do not fear– MD5 can still save you from a lot of headaches as it was explained in this guide. However, the next safety step to take after you changed your password in phpMyAdmin (using the MD5 encryption) is to change it again in your WordPress user profile. In fact, WordPress will encrypt your password using a library called href="http://www.openwall.com/phpass/" target="_blank">phpass, that includes safer and therefore not easily breakable algorithms.

The ‘Lazy’ Trick!

To be lazy does not necessarily result in wrong choices. More often than ever, the tricks we develop to save time convert into website efficiency and higher traffic, so let’s not overlook this paragraph.

The ‘lazy trick’ is to take advantage of a spammer’s user account to create a fictional character’s or friend’s account. How?

The procedure is simple – all you need to do is open your users list inside your database (you can use the interface approach for this kind of easy task), click the “Edit” button for the chosen user row and edit the following fields (leave the ID as is):

  • user_login, user_pass, user_nicename, user_email
  • optional details (user_url, user_registered, etc.)

In alternative, you can use the SQL query snippet for user account editing I showed you earlier in this guide.

When will this trick turn out useful?

Oh, let’s list a few significant examples: you may need fake accounts on your forum or blog to test new plugins, hacks and mods, or perhaps you want to register accounts for your busy friends to have them ready to use. Also, you may need to use a ‘forum bot’ that publishes board rules, section rules and so on. Really, your imagination is the limit. :)

Bonus SQL Code: Create A User Account

A small extra bonus won’t hurt, will it? Following are two SQL code snippets: the first creates a new user account for your WordPress site, the second a new XMB Forum user.

INSERT INTO `youraccountname_databasename`.`wp_users` (
`user_login` ,
`user_pass` ,
`user_nicename` ,
`user_email` ,
`user_registered` ,
`user_status`
)
VALUES (
‘newusername3’,
MD5( ‘newpassword3’ ) ,
‘Mally Bally’,
‘mallybally@domain.com’,
‘2012-04-13 00:00:00’,
‘1’
)

The sample code will create a new user and will assign values (user information) to the attributes ‘user_login’, ‘user_pass’, ‘user_nicename’, ‘user_email’, ‘user_registered’ and ‘user_status’.

To create a new XMB Forum member:

INSERT INTO `youraccountname_databasename`.`xmb_members` (
`username` ,
`password` ,
`email` ,
`status`,
`location`
)
VALUES (
‘fairyland’,
MD5( ‘fairypass123’ ) ,
‘fairyland@domain.com’,
‘Member’,
‘US’
)

Have fun! :)


Page 24 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed




Little Oak Hosting: Updates & User Review



alt="Little Oak Hosting: Updates & User Review" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/littleoak-hosting-500x274_c.jpg" />

Some time ago I took a closer look on California-based hosting company, Little Oak, and title="Little Oak Hosting Review" href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/hosting-review/little-oak/">wrote a review based on my online research. From my perception the web host seems like a good one – there were quite some trustable positive reviews, Realmac recommended the host, and the hosting service is backed by 100% uptime SLA. My opinion, however, shouldn’t be fully trusted. Afterall, I was never a Little Oak customer and I am not familiar with web development in Mac environment.

Little Oak Hosting Went Down – March 11/12th

About two days ago href="https://twitter.com/littleoaknet/status/443475282293301248">Little Oak network crashed and their users were left in the dark for few hours. WHSR visitor, Chay Spelman, buzzed me about the incident; and after exchanging a few emails, we decided to do an online interview about his experience at Little Oak.

Little Oak User Review

Here goes our Q&A session.

How long you have been with Little Oak (LO)?

Have been with LO for just over a year. They were recommended as a perfect hosting company for Rapidweaver sites by Realmac Software.

Can you tell us the URL of your site hosted at Little Oak?

Our site URL is href="http://www.theminiworld.com" target="_blank">www.theminiworld.com. We specialise in restorations and parts for Classic Minis.

So in overall how was your experience at Little Oak? What’s the best thing you like about the hosting company? And, what’s the worst that you dislike?

In general they were better than the last hosting company I used (Web Intellects). I put up with them for nearly 10 years! I expected a breath of fresh air but it was much of the same.

The cute design of their website installs confidence and the fact that they are approved by Realmac software was the main appeal.

From the start there were problems. They needed nearly a week to confirm my Paypal payment for some unknown reason. Then they were slow in transferring my domains. Also my e-mails are down at least once a month.

LO have a Facebook page which had no news or notifications posted regarding their latest outage. Not a professional way to treat clients whose livelihoods depend on their sites and emails to be functioning 24/7.

Chay thanks a lot for sharing this with us.

I hope this helps others out there who don’t need the grief and hassle of dealing with yet another hosting nightmare.

Better Disaster Recovery Plan, Perhaps?

I did a little digging and read quite a number of user feedbacks on Little Oak before writing this post. To be fair, I think Little Oak is not that bad. Things go wrong all the time – even site as big as href="http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/24/gmail-goes-down-across-the-world/" target="_blank">Google goes down sometimes, it’s insane to expect absolute perfect performance from a small web host like Little Oak, yeah?

What bothers me, however,  is how the company dealt with this unexpected server/network outage. Users were left in the dark for hours and the folks at Little Oak certainly should do better than this.

@L.0. Jeremy: I think you are sadly misinformed. I’m assuming your Twitter account is littleoak.net (at any rate that’s the account a lot of folks tweeted to). On that account Little Oak posted about the outage about 3-5 hours after the outage began: not exactly “timely”. So, yes, you posted, but you also posted way way late. – href="http://forums.realmacsoftware.com/profile/342/mitchellm">mitchellm

Read thishref="http://forums.realmacsoftware.com/discussion/66625/is-little-oak-completely-down-3-10-14" target="_blank"> thread on Realmac for more details (caution: angry users rant ahead) as well as the timestamp of Little Oak’s tweets below – It seems to me that the company only tweeted about the outage after the issue has been fixed.

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-8954" alt="littleoak tweets" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/littleoak-tweet.jpg" width="750" height="812" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/littleoak-tweet.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/littleoak-tweet-277x300.jpg 277w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

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