Question About Picking A Hosting Company

Kim:

Running Zen Cart in dual directories can be done, the problem is that you have to maintain the full program in both directories.
On my server I just made a soft link in the https directory pointing to my http directory . Works fine.

-- David

Thanks for the reply.

Any thoughts on whether or not this opens any type of security holes?

edited - cheap, reliable, recent php & mysql, php with curl, low domain counts on servers. this is who we use and our carts are snappy fast! :)

My host uses cpanel and Zen works perfectly! Check out my host everyone, the prices are unbelievable!!! edited. I have been with them for several months now and the service is excellent and the prices can't be beat!

The previous 2 posts have been edited as this thread is ** NOT ** for advertising your host. Rather for discussing hosting issues.

the guy i am with id sound we are in the uk they are in the states but i get better support then when i was with a uk host.
also as soon as you sign up you get a control panel that comes pr gonfiged with zen cart and a whole lot more email me and i will send you there url

I'm sure you guys already know this but you can compile your own php. I use dreamhost as my host. They didn't have a php module installed for payflowpro so I compiled my own php.

Basically you redirect the php to your own php. I was able to do it fairly easily and I know pretty much nothing. I mentioned in detail how to do it in this thread;

http://www.zen-cart.com/modules/ipb/index....f=12&t=11995&s=

Sorry I'm new and don't know if this was answered or even the question, but I thought I'd have to change hosts for simple php dealings and was awesome finding that I could control my own even in a shared enviroment. Hope this helps out. So php should not have to be an issue in choosing a host. ::tup

edited

Please do not post recommendations for specific hosts or prices.

franzexpress:

** edited. :)
Nice spam. :lol:

Guys, I have gone through one hosting company, and looked at a few others. I would highly recommend everyone to look at this site: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned in this thread, but hear it is. Search and read about the experiences of others and then do your own legwork. My immediate response is that the views there are quite balanced.

Good luck!

harborsales1:

We would like to make a new store using zen cart, but our current host using Cpanel and they said that Cpanel will not work with zen cart. Is this true? If it is what control panel does the host have to have to be able to use zen cart?

Thanks

Mike

*** edited ***

-John

Please do not advertise hosting. Thanks.

CPanel has nothing to do with zencart. CPanel is a management interface for you to host your web site(s).

With CPanel, you can create your databases and db users (usually HOSTINGUSERNAME_root), and use this in the config setup.

Some sites that use CPanel include fantastico, which basically is a bunch of scripts that automates the installation of various web applications. Some hosts offer Zencart as part of fantastico, but it is rarely the most recent version.

You do not need fantastico (or CPanel for that matter) to install and run Zencart. These are merely tools for making it easier.

Quick question regarding the same issue, I am looking into using zen-cart as an online store tool, but have my hosting on econo-package (shared hosting).

I do have a database (Mysql) and decent space (400 MB).

Wondering if I would need anything specific? i.e. root access, access to server config, etc.?

Zencarts requirements are quite normal these days - PHP, MySQL you have. 400MB will be fine unless you have alot of products with large images.

Most shared hosting can accomodate Zencart's needs.

I use <edit> for my hosting. I have several shopping carts running, all under shared hosting <edit> with everything needed to Zen-Cart. Their main tach's name is Michael and these guys offer great TS. I highly recommend them, and they know me well. I was the first to run Zen-Cart with them and they were very integral in helping me get my first cart up and running.

I highly recommend them for US based web hosting. They are located in New Orleans.
Kevin

<Please PM all suggestions, this thread is about how to pick a host, not who to pick>

THIS THREAD IS FOR HOSTING QUESTIONS ONLY.

DO NOT ADVERTISE YOUR SERVICES HERE.

If you have already shortlisted hosting candidates and need an extra input to make up your mind, trace the Internet route between the host and you. You can learn the number of hubs and the delay to reach each one and cautiosly infer or predict with some reservations the quality of their connectivity. Diferent routes might imply redundant bandwidth providers at the host's end, which a minimum requirement for high availability.
If the host's sales website is called, for instance, www.what_ever_host.com, in Windows go to the MS-DOS command line and write at the prompt >
ping www.what_ever_host.com
and read and compare the delays. Also in Windows write at the prompt
tracert www.what_ever_host.com
The longer the list, the higher the number of hubs your connection is going through.
In Linux, write at the shell command line
$ ping www.wha_tever_host.com -c 5
and
$ traceroute www.what_ever_host.com
These tools just give snapshots of how their connection/s is interacting with yours. They don't tell you about the quality of the connection of customers with that particular host. You will not assume that the behaviour that you see in a given moment will be similar in future.
This just helps to set apart the really and obvious slow/remote servers.
Advanced users would like to ping and traceroute existing websites of the host. One way to find them out is by using the free reverse IP search of https://www.whois.sc. There are aplenty of free tracing programs as well.
imag

OK, ignore the precise example above, it happens to redirect to an existing commercial host. Who bought that domain, and what were they thinking about when they did? :blink:
Anyway, please read https://www.what-ever-host.com in my previous post.
Imag

Is it spam if I give these links?
http://whreviews.com/ has reviews of web hosting companies. This is how I found my host. You can search for Zen-Cart to get some info on who supports it. My web host told me he'd install Zen-Cart or OSCommerce for me when I signed up. They're others that do that too. Nice.

Another is: http://webhostingtalk.com/ ...Yeah, that's the one I think I used the most to search out the good guys more so than the first link.

Since we all have to use a host I have a question and would like to know if what just happened to me is standard procedure or if I should blow a head gasket.

I was notified this AM by eBay that some eBay spoof pages were hosted on my website, told me to change my host password and remove the pages. Thank goodness the gave me the page location because they were hiding in /htmlarea/plugins/CSS/lang/

OK, changed pwds and located the files (uploaded at 4AM this day) and deleted them. Replied to eBay email thanking them and telling them it had been deleted.

Received an email from my host several hours later that looked like a reply to a service ticket I had opened about the problem but I suspect it was created by an email to them from eBay. I replied to that email and told them the pwds had been changed and the files deleted and expressed my concerns about the site being hacked but thanked them for the notification.

6 hours later my website is now Account Suspended and that's evidently what customers are seeing too. Contacted Live Chat, they tell me to contact abuse to get it fixed. Tried to call, got Tech support and they tell me the only way to contact is abuse@ email address, no telephone.

The tech guy did tell me that there were regulations regarding what they had to do in the case of spoofing and phishing but does anybody know if this is a standard procedure or just my jerk web host? That being said renewal time is 7/15 and I think it's time!

I see hosts that offer domain name transfers, they can just grab the name I have registered, correct? (My host does the registration now) And how long does the transfer stuff take? I have customers that have specially ordered product already paid for that may get a bit antsy if they go to check their order and see the suspended message.

Ted, sounds like you've had a bad day.. :(

transferring to another host should not cause any problems. Ask your current registrar for details for logging in and managing your domain. If they have none, then switch it to any other registrar that does or to another hosting company (this will cost u an extra 1 year domain reg, or anywhere from $6 - $35 for US domains). Any host/registrar can transfer a domain quite easily, though this is not essential when changing hosts, only updating it is!

Once you have set up your new site and it's all ok (or earlier if your old site is offline), you can point the domain to your new nameservers and it should be completed within 24-48 hours max.

I hope this helps!