Server hosting suggestions?

All, I need a simple web server to host my website.

I know nothing about cloud hosting vs traditional, etc.

I need a website, drupal, probably moodle. So some media, database, etc.

Most of all, I need to actually be able to configure and use it. i.e. SSH, configure IRC or whatever. My current host sold the company, and it was moved to china and made terrible and completely unusable. I was going to wait the rest of the year (I pay yearly), however I’m done. I need an alternative. Suggestions?

Lorin

rackspace
digitalocean (if you want a VPS)
aws (if you want a VPS)

-D

Quite a few of us are using DigitalOcean for personal sites and experimentation. They don’t have all the complexity of AWS, but that’s probably perfect for your use case. They do “click 5 times and log into your server” simplicity better than anyone else I’ve seen.

DO is unmanaged hosting though, so security patching and general administration become your problem. That may not be what you’re after. I unfortunately have no suggestions for managed hosts.

If you’d like the 10 minute intro to DO, flag Me, Jon, or Ian B down on IRC or at the space. We’re all using it extensively.

  • Ry

“Host your next project on DigitalOcean. Here’s $10 to get you started. Use promo DROPLET10”

thanks, facebook ads.
-D

I’ll second (or third) the hype for DigitalOcean. My main DO server, which I use for IRC and other miscellanea, just hit a year of uptime a week or so ago and has been rock solid stable the whole time.

Ian B.

That was probably the way I was going to be going… I need SU access and experimentation. I do know how to handle security, but I’d appreciate a brush-up. Frankly, I feel like the first key to security is just don’t be dumb, and don’t run wordpress (which is really part of the former).

Thanks!

Lorin

If you want a secure way to run wordpress, look at the VMs on Schizo. Going on 3 years now with zero security incidents, even when there were public nasties in WP core.
-D

I second Digital Ocean. Simple and effective … also solid documentation … Exhibit A - https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/7-security-measures-to-protect-your-servers

Wordpress sites can be a pain to maintain and keep secure: with that said, wpscan is your friend.

If you’re using Gitlab and using Gitlab’s CI process, you can have wpscan automatically check your server for vulnerabilities – which is very helpful in identifying which plugins that you need to upgrade and all of that fun stuff.

To see a .gitlab-ci.yml file that would facilitate this type of behavior (admittedly, with a deployment/staging environment:

https://gitlab.com/uid0/homebase/snippets/15026

Ian

Or you can be heavyhanded like me and run them out of a read-only filesystem in a hardened chroot jail…
:slight_smile:
-D

Thanks all, I checked it out. Will be switching to DO today or tomorrow.