Afrihost Hosting - they need some new engineers

[quovadis]

read my comment

I thought 100,000 users was material to your hosting. I would be very nervous if I was using a shared hosting provider in the traditional sense (ie. Afrihost) who allowed direct connectivity to their SQL environment via the internet no matter how big or long the usernames/passwords provided are. So yes exposing your SQL environment or shared SQL environment to connectivity from the internet is a security risk in general. I doubt your corporate environment would allow the same type of connectivity from the public internet too. Saying that Afrihost could possibly make their environment more flexible to at least allow more easier management.

 

[Ipwn 4]

Nvm I see your point.
Solution: don't make use of shared. You have tools so just spin up a VM somewhere and make it a dedicated dev box.

 

[nkawit]

exposing your SQL environment or shared SQL environment to connectivity from the internet is a security risk

And a very big security risk at that! just another possible vector for attack.

Most that do allow SQL connections do not even use SSL, so all your data is sent plain text across the Internet.

Just look at this joke "http://support.godaddy.com/help/article/4978/connecting-remotely-to-shared-hosting-databases" and let me quote... "Direct database connections do not support secured (SSL) connections."

 

[noob_saibot]

just moved to godaddy. Unlimited MSSqlServer Databases, Unlimited websites, direct access to databse with SSMS (management studio) unlimited traffic, unlimited disk space, free ssl, free domain, unlimited email.

all for R79 p/m

now all i need to do is move that domain

I'd be weary of the word "unlimited". Generally, they're either big enough to work on tight margins to provide a decent deal on shared hosting or they're cramming as many users as possible onto a single server. The logic behind it is that even if they gave "fair" access to servers in terms of users, most of these shared sites don't get big hit rates (try letting your site get even 25K hits per second and the website will probably "shut down"). So with an assumed low-hit-rate, cramming is possible and happens.

Also, you should check to make sure you aren't sharing the server with a porn/spam/other-bad site (generally, co-existing with those types of sites is possibly bad for SEO).

But good luck though. I assume the local hosting companies use the same "cramming" policies found in the rest of the world, except that they can charge higher margins (for what reason, I'm not sure).

 

[nkawit]

I'd be weary of the word "unlimited"

There is no such thing as "unlimited".

You do not get unlimited hard drives. You do not get unlimited bandwidth media.

It is just like uncapped DSL, the high usage users are subsidized by low usage users. If you use too much, you may find your account suspended or service terminated due to some excuse about over utilization.

Here is a good writeup...
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/wiki/Overselling

 

[Telasera]

Nvm I see your point.
Solution: don't make use of shared. You have tools so just spin up a VM somewhere and make it a dedicated dev box.

+1

Alternatively purchase a VPS that you can perform your lab/dev work on as it will be way more flexible.

 

[recre8]

I am not at all surprised by your post. I will be posting my a live support chat transcript with one the afrhost employees in the next few days. I have given Gian a month to respond to two personal e-mails with no reply. Basically, the Afrihost support guy said that Afrihost's shared hosting is vulnerable to interference from other other clients sharing the same host and the administrators were not pleased with me for testing my site on their server. I WILL NEVER use afrihost for hosting. Stay away!

As for the "security risk". It is just a security risk if you have no idea what you are doing. We have since moved our data to Windows Azure, where you get a Azure SQL server which can be connected to using SQL Management Studio and their own silverlight web-based mangament site, that is just as capable as Management Studio. Afrihost unfortunately is completely inept at hosting.

Update:
Here my encouter with the dark side: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...dmits-to-insecure-and-unstable-hosting-beware!

 

[SmartKit]

I have a hosting package with afrihost (Gold Home - Windows).

Part of the package allows me one MsSQLServer Database. Funny thing is, i can't access it. Yes, my web application should be able to, but i can't connect to it using SQLServer Management Studio.

I am in development of an application, which means there will be numerous changes over the next few weeks, and their solution: backup your Database, log a call, and submit it, our DB admins will upload it.

WHAT :wtf:

Alternatively, they can give me access to a web based interface :wtf:

I spent around R8000 to have tools for SQL to make my life easier, now i have to discard that and use a web interface? :wtf:

Clearly i was not happy, i mean, i used to be able to do this on my previous hosting packages (also Windows Gold Home), so i gave them a call.

The person that helped me Sabelo, tried his best to find out what is going on, however, he eventually spoke to his DB Admin Chris who said, "sorry it is a security risk". :wtf:

I work in a large corporate environment, we have thousands of databases, and we have close to 100k users, why are we able to make it secure, and afrihost's engineers can't?

I feel that there is a lack of experience, competence or leadership.

Turning down clients, purely because your so called "engineers" do not know their way around a database is terrible business.

I will be moving my hosting elsewhere, does anyone have any suggestions?

Not Mweb, same problems and even more uninformed technicians.

 

[recre8]

I have a hosting package with afrihost (Gold Home - Windows). ...
I will be moving my hosting elsewhere, does anyone have any suggestions?

I can really recommend Microsoft Azure here if you don't mind the bit of latency. The closest datacenter is in Amsterdam but I can live with the 400ms response time. Upload your site by FTP or git commit. Set it to autoscale. It will shrink down to the smallest instance when there isn't much traffic, if your site offers Foo Fighters tickets for sale, it will scale to to 5 instances or whatever is required to handle the traffic. Seamlessy. Click "Add" or "Import Database" and create a new SQL server. Connect with SQL Management Studio and tada. Get yourself the free 90 day trial and check it out.