FAQ

We encrypt all FTP, email, and database passwords so they are not visible as plain text inside your control panel.

The exception is the very first FTP account: this password is visible on the right-hand side when you manage your hosting. You’re able to change all passwords and changes are usually processed immediately.

Please note: the majority of database passwords will be saved in the configuration or connection strings for your website. For example, for WordPress, the database password is visible inside the wp-config.php file.

We recommend using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) for managing your Microsoft SQL databases.

This industry-standard software provides a comprehensive environment for Microsoft SQL database creation, access, configuration, development, and other management features. It includes a variety of components including visual database tools, code and text editors, object management, boilerplate text management, and more. With SSMS you can deploy, monitor, and upgrade the data-tier components used by your applications, as well as build queries and scripts.

SSMS also helps you download and back up your MS SQL databases, which we recommend you do at regular intervals in the interests of best practice security.

You can download the software for free on the Microsoft SSMS download page.

To connect remotely you will need to use Server ‘mssql.stackcp.com’.

Registrars may ‘lock’ domain names to prevent unauthorized changes from being made to the domain.

This is often referred to as ‘Domain Locking’ or ‘Client Transfer Prohibited’. This status may be shown if you perform a WHOIS lookup on a domain name.

Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited

If your registrar does not give you access to unlock the domain name for transfer, then you should be able to contact them to request this. Once a domain has been unlocked you should then be able to transfer it to Host Hobbit Ltd.

When a new domain is registered – or if you transfer a domain name – then it’ll be subject to a 60-day transfer lock which can’t be bypassed.

The 60-day transfer lock is also placed on domains that have had their Registrant contact information updated. You may request the transfer first, and then update the contact information when the transfer completes to ensure you can transfer your domain.

Note: The 60-day transfer lock only applies to Generic TLDs. Other domains – such as country-code TLDs – may follow different policies and are decided by the local registry for that particular domain.

To create a subdomain:

1. Log in to https://cp.hosthobbit.com
2. Head to Manage Hosting -> Manage.
3. Select the Subdomains icon.
4. You can then add your subdomain into the Subdomain field and select Create Subdomain. You’re also able to change the Document Root so that you can direct the subdomain to the folder of your choosing.

The document root is the folder which the subdirectory will use, for example, you may have a directory within your web space located within public_html called support (i.e. public_html/support), you could point your subdomain to this location by adding public_html/support in the Document Root field.

Note: Updating a document root can take ~15 minutes, so you may just need to be patient whilst that updates.

If you’re unsure whether DNS has fully propagated for you, you should check the IP address your requests are resolving to. The easiest way to do this is to ‘ping’ the domain name from your local computers. On Windows, you should open a Command Prompt and on macOS a Terminal, and then type:

ping domain.com

Replacing domain.com with the website you wish to check. The IP address returned will show you which server you’re reaching when typing that domain into your web browser. It’s a good idea to check both ‘www.domain.com’ and ‘domain.com’, as each record will have its own cache.

To tell if this is the server at Host Hobbit Ltd, you should make sure the IP address returned by the “ping” matches the IP address displayed down the right-hand side of our control panel. If this isn’t the case, and you have recently created a new hosting package, manually changed your DNS records, or updated your nameservers on the domain, it’s likely DNS is still propagating for you.

If you manage your domain name with Host Hobbit Ltd and have access to it via cp.hosthobbit.com you can view the nameservers the domain is using by following the steps below.

1. Log in to cp.hosthobbit.com
2. Select Manage Domains and locate the domain you’d like to check, select Manage.
3. Select the Nameservers icon to view what nameservers the domain is pointing to.
4. You can edit and update them here.

Please note that nameserver changes usually take between 6-8 hours – but can take up to 24 hours.

Our control panel allows automatic configuration of DNS Records to configure your domain name for G Suite (Google Apps). This can be done via cp.hosthobbit.com.

First, select ‘Manage hosting’, choose the hosting package you wish to configure and select ‘Manage’.

Once on the DNS Management page, you will see two links towards the top of the page, one labelled ‘G Suite’ the other ‘Gmail’. The configuration you should use depends on the services you want from Google. If you’re using Google just for mail under your own domain name (MX records) use the ‘Gmail’ link. For all the other G Suite applications, including records for Docs, Chat, Calendar, and services like Hangouts, use the ‘G Suite’ option.

The control panel will show you the records that will be automatically added as a result of this change, allowing you to save them.

Please bear in mind that DNS changes can take up to 24 hours to fully propagate worldwide.

You can use phpMyAdmin to import an .SQL file with your database information. To do this:

1. Log in to your database via phpMyAdmin (https://cp.hosthobbit.com > Manage Hosting > [select package] > phpMyAdmin)
2. Choose the database you want to import your .SQL file to from the left-hand side.
3. Click the Import tab at the top of the page.
4. Select Choose File and locate the .SQL file on your device or computer.
5. Click Go

The .SQL file will be uploaded and imported to the database you’ve selected.

Host Hobbit Ltd’s shared web hosting offers 1 GB MySQL databases.

FQDN stands for Fully Qualified Domain Name.

It refers to a complete domain name consisting of a host and domain name.

The domain name itself is comprised of two parts: the second-level domain and the top-level domain.

So, for the example of www.exampledomain.com, ‘www’ is the host, ‘exampledomain’ is the second-level domain and ‘.com’ is the top-level domain.

If you intend to transfer your GTLD domain elsewhere, you’ll need its authorization/EPP code. The following guide details how to obtain this from your Host Hobbit Ltd control panel.

​Please note, domain names that have been registered or transferred within the last sixty days may not be transferred to or from Host Hobbit Ltd. This is a registry restriction.

1. Log in to cp.hosthobbit.com.
2. Once logged in, head to Manage Domains
3. Select Manage on the required domain name.
4. Under Domain Management, select Transfer Away.
5. If the domain name is locked, you should then be presented with the following: ‘To unlock the domain, you will need to select the green arrow.’ Doing so will unlock the domain. If the domain is unlocked, proceed to the next step.
6. Your authorization code will then be presented to you.

Registrant name changes for a .uk domain name (.co.uk/.me.uk/org.uk/.uk) can only be performed via the .UK registry, Nominet.

This can be done using the online Nominet account for the domain. This can be accessed via the following link, provided you have the necessary Nominet login details (which should have been sent to you when registering the domain name):

https://secure.nominet.org.uk/auth/login.html

Nominet currently charge a fee of £10+VAT for ownership changes.

To transfer domain names ending with .uk you’ll first need to contact your current provider and request they change the Tag to STACK. Once the Tag change has been completed you’ll be able to complete the transfer over to us.

If you’re having any problems with changing your Tag we recommend contacting Nominet. Nominet are the ‘.uk’ registry and oversee all UK domain names.

DNS propagation defines the process of updating information across the internet. There are two forms of DNS propagation: the first is the changes made to the DNS zone and the second is the changes made to WHOIS information.

A change made to your DNS zone will only usually affect a few servers and is the fastest change. Making a change that affects your WHOIS information can take up to 72 hours to propagate.

After the order of a domain or transfer of a domain, there will be a period where you can’t see your domain. This is due to millions of servers having to update with the new information. Your website may not be visible for up to 48 hours.

A nameserver manages a directory of domains that match specific IP addresses, like a phonebook: with names and numbers.

It is where the DNS server records for your domain (e.g. ‘example.com’) are stored. Whenever you type a domain name into a web browser, nameservers provide the IP address, which is a string of numbers. If nameservers were not in place, you would need to memorize that string of figures for every website you want to visit.

When you type ‘www.examplewebsite.com’ into a web browser, your browser uses DNS to look up the nameservers for www.examplewebsite.com. The nameservers ns1.examplewebsite.com and ns2.examplewebsite.com are retrieved.

Your browser then uses the nameservers to look up the IP address for ‘www.examplewebsite.com’. Your browser will then receive an IP address which it will then send a request for. The web server hosting the website sends the requested page to the browser.

Our nameservers make use of Google’s high-end DNS infrastructure, providing fully redundant and stable nameservers.

The restrictions imposed on domains vary depending on what extension you are registering and what country the domain is associated with.

Domains can be formed using only letters and numbers from the ASCII set of characters e.g. (a-z) (A-Z) (0-9). Hyphens are also allowed but must be surrounded by characters, therefore not at the beginning or end of the domain. You’re not allowed to use special characters (like ‘#*%’) and spaces cannot be used.

General Rules:

• Your domain must be unique, i.e. a domain name that is not already in use.
• .com .net .org and .info domain names cannot exceed 67 characters.
• .info and .biz must have at least 3 characters not including .info and .biz
• Other domain names cannot exceed 22 characters not including the extension.
• Domain names are not case-sensitive.
• 2 letter domains are not allowed.

Common Extensions:

• .com – used for commercial or personal sites
• .net – recommended for companies involved in internet infrastructure
• .org – recommended for not-for-profit organizations
• .info – used for commercial or personal sites
• .biz – restricted to commercial and business purposes
• .mobi – implies the website is designed for mobile usage

Common Country-Specific Extensions:

• .ca – websites with a Canadian presence as defined by CIRA (Canadian Internet Registration Authority).
• .cc – Cocos (Keeling) Islands, to be used for commercial or personal sites
• .co.uk – United Kingdom for commercial or personal sites
• .de – Germany, to be used for commercial or personal sites
• .eu – websites with a presence in the European Union
• .org.uk – United Kingdom for charities and not-for-profit organizations
• .jp – Japan, to be used for commercial or personal sites
• .us – United States, to be used for commercial or personal sites

If you get this behavior after a recent update to your website or a newly-created package, you’re almost certainly experiencing a DNS propagation delay.

It will resolve itself in a matter of hours.

The assumption is that when you previously visited your website you visited using www.domain.com and not domain.com (without the www). Thus, your DNS resolvers have the lookup of www.domain.com stored in their cache. When you try to view www.domain.com again, you get your DNS resolvers’ cached value which is the old IP address. However, when you checked the domain with just “domain.com” (no www) your DNS resolvers didn’t have an answer in their cache so fetched the new (correct) IP address for the domain. Hence “domain.com” works for you but “www.domain.com” doesn’t.

The only solution here is to wait for the cache to expire on your resolver, and then when you visit the domain again a fresh lookup will be made and the new IP will be stored.

If you’re using our nameservers, this should take no longer than 1 hour.

The transfer process for domain names varies, dependent on the type of domain in question.

UK domains (all domains that end .uk):

1. Update the Tag to STACK.
2. Complete the transfer via the Host Hobbit Ltd control panel.

To do these steps:

1. Ask your current domain provider to change the Tag of the domain name to STACK (most providers allow this via their control panel).
2. Log in to your account at cp.hosthobbit.com and click Transfer a Domain.
3. Enter the domain name and click Search.
4. Add the domain to your basket and complete checkout.

The transfer will complete almost instantly.

GTLD domains (ending in .com, .net, .org and most other domains):

1. Ask your current domain provider for the domain name authorization code.
2. Make sure you are listed as the Admin Contact, as an email will get sent here.
3. Log in to your account at Host Hobbit Ltd and click Transfer a Domain.
4. Enter the domain name and click Search.
5. Add the domain to your basket and complete checkout.
6. An email will be sent – usually instantly but can take up to 6 hours – to the email address listed as the Admin Contact.
7. Follow the link in this email and approve the transfer by entering the authorization code obtained earlier.

Once authorized the transfer will complete automatically within 5 days.

CentralNIC domains (ending in .uk.com, .gb.com, .eu.com, .uk.net, .gb.net and .eu.net):

1. Ask your current domain provider for the domain’s authorization code.
2. Log in to your account at cp.hosthobbit.com and click Transfer a Domain.
3. Enter the domain name and click Search.
4. Add the domain to your basket.
5. You’ll be prompted for the Authorization Code. Please enter it here.
6. Complete checkout.

The transfer will complete automatically within 5 days.

A UK domain transfer is a 2-stage process. You need to:

1. Change the tag to STACK
2. Transfer this in through the Host Hobbit Ltd control panel

The best way to check the current tag for a domain name is via the Nominet WHOIS system. Once you’ve confirmed this is using STACK, complete the transfer following the steps below:

1. Log in to your account and click Transfer a Domain
2. Enter the domain name and click Search.
3. Add the domain to your basket and complete checkout.

The transfer will complete almost instantly.

When setting up Google Search Console you will be asked to verify your domain. A recommended method which will work as long as you are using our StackDNS nameservers is to add the Google verification code as a TXT record for your domain.

To do this, go to the “Manage DNS” section of your control panel. Towards the bottom of the Manage DNS page you will see 3 inputs to allow you to add new records:

• Leave the “Name” field blank
• Select “TXT” for Type
• You should now enter the record given by Google in the “Data” input.

Save your changes and head back to Google to run the verification. DNS updates across our nameservers are usually done instantly, but in rare cases can take up to 2 minutes.

Changing the contact details for a domain that you have registered with Host Hobbit Ltd is usually done in either of two ways. This depends on what type of domain name you have.

For a .com domain:

1. Go to Manage Domains, locate the domain name you would like to change the contact details for and select Manage
2. Select Contact Details and you will be able to update the contact information for the domain name.

For .uk domains (including co.uk):

1. You’ll need to login to Nominet. Head to https://secure.nominet.org.uk/auth/login.html and login or create an account by selecting First time logging in or forgotten your password?. Enter the email address you used to register the domain. You’ll then get an email prompting you to set up a password.
2. Use the password you create to log in. You’ll be shown a list of your .uk domain names. Choose which one you want to change the contact information for and Edit.

Note: There is a cost to change the contact details for .uk domain names of around £10 (enforced by Nominet).

As standard, any new package that is created or migrated into us gets given our default DNS. This will ensure the site and all its services such as email will function.

If you want to migrate a package into us that has custom DNS then you’ll need to add these records before pointing the nameservers to our platform. This will ensure a seamless transition from your previous host.

MX records are the most common custom DNS that may want to be kept following a migration, so you’ll want to add these within our control panel before switching the nameservers.

To add custom DNS you’ll need to:

1. Login to your control panel.
2. Locate your package.
3. Select Manage DNS
4. Add any custom DNS that you want. It is best to refer back to your DNS on your previous host so you can add the correct records.

You can setup a domain redirect in a couple of ways. We’ll outline these below:

Using the control panel Redirects tool:

1. Login to your control panel and head to either your list of packages, or list of domains and select to Manage the domain you wish to add the redirect for.
2. Select the Redirects icon, under Web Tools.
3. Add the domain you would like to be redirected and then the destination address.

In general, you’d want to use the 301 Permanent Redirect, but if you are planning on only temporarily redirecting the site then you can use a 302 Temporary Redirect.

The difference between the two types of redirects is down to how search engines handle them.

Search engines use the redirect type as a way to figure out if the old site needs to be kept indexed.

Essentially if you want the new site to be a replacement for the old site, you should use a 301 Permanent Redirect, if you’re developing a new website and your current website may be down for a short time, you may want to use a 302 Temporary Redirect.

Using .htaccess:

A .htaccess file is an important Apache configuration file usually resides within the public_html folder of your site, it’s a way to add specific rules on a per-hostname basis. A .htaccess rule allows for further configuration of your redirect should you need a more specific redirect. Below are some common examples you may need to add.

Redirect your website to a new domain:

To redirect your website to another domain using a .htaccess rule you’d want to add the following rule to your .htaccess file and then save the file:

RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^oldsite.com [NC,OR]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.oldsite.com [NC]

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://newsite.com/$1 [L,R=301,NC]

Force www. instead of non-www.:

You could achieve this by editing the site and home URL (if your site is WordPress), but it can also be achieved by using the following rule:

RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^mywebsite.com [NC]

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.mywebsite.com/$1 [L,R=301,NC]

Force HTTPS:

You can use the Force HTTPS tool from within the control panel to always enable https://, however you can also add the following rule:

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on

RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}

Creating a new mailbox is quick and easy.

Head to the Email Accounts section in the Host Hobbit Ltd control panel.

Type the name of the email address you wish to create i.e. info and select Create Email Account.

The mailbox will be created and you’ll be able to manage it via the Options menu.

Your new mailbox will just take 30 minutes to be set up and to start receiving emails.

The best SMTP details to use when configuring an SMTP plugin within WordPress when you’re using Host Hobbit Ltd WordPress hosting are:

Outgoing mail server: smtp.stackmail.com

Outgoing server port (SMTP): 587

Use the following type of encrypted connection: TLS

Using these details will allow emails to be sent via SMTP from WordPress forms or allow any other SMTP-based plugins to send.

If you’re using Host Hobbit Ltd’s mail server but want to route emails via another provider – such as G Suite, Office 365 or Mailchimp – you may need to add a secondary sending server source to the SPF record.

You can do this by specifying multiple includes within the TXT record within Manage DNS. Each include is separated by a space and if any one include should fail, the SPF mechanism will simply move on to the next one. Below are some common providers you may need to add to your SPF record.

Host Hobbit Ltd’s default SPF record: v=spf1 include:spf.stackmail.com a mx -all

To include a secondary include, you can edit the record:

G Suite

v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:spf.stackmail.com a mx -all

Office 365

v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:spf.stackmail.com a mx -all

Mailchimp

v=spf1 include:servers.mcsv.net include:spf.stackmail.com a mx -all

SendGrid

v=spf1 include:sendgrid.net include:spf.stackmail.com a mx -all

Here’s how to set up a Host Hobbit Ltd email on an Android phone or tablet:

Open the mail application on your Android device.

Select Add New Account and enter the mailbox name and its password.

Select Manual Setup and select IMAP Account.

The User name will need to be the same as the mailbox name.

Enter imap.stackmail.com as the IMAP Server, change the Security Type to SSL, Port 993 should then be used.

Enter smtp.stackmail.com as the SMTP Server, change the Security Type to SSL, Port 465 should be added.

The outgoing mailserver User name and Password are the username and password for your mailbox.

Select Sign In and the mailbox will be added to your Android.

To migrate your emails and mailboxes to Host Hobbit Ltd, you can use our in-house Email Migrations tool. This will let you migrate your IMAP mailboxes, your Gmail mailboxes and your Outlook mailboxes into Host Hobbit Ltd.

To do this:

Login to cp.hosthobbit.com

Select which package you want to migrate emails in to via Manage Hosting.

Select the Email Migrations tool that is within the emails section.

Enter the relevant credentials and then select Sync.

Hostname – This will be the hostname of the mailserver that you are syncing your emails from. If you’re not sure what this is then it may be worth asking your previous hosting provider what this is.

Username – This will be the mailbox that you are syncing.

Password – This will be the password of the mailbox at your previous host and of the newly created mailbox at Host Hobbit Ltd. Please note: you’ll need to have set up the mailboxes within Host Hobbit Ltd first using the same password as currently used by the mailbox.

If the sync fails to start, this is likely due to the credentials not being correct. You should confirm that the password you have used is correct and that the hostname is also correct before requesting support.

Yes, you can use it as many times as you want. You may want to do this if you’ve recently switched MX records so mail now routes to Host Hobbit Ltd, to get the latest copy of the mail from the previous mail server you can simply redo a mailbox migration. This will then only migrate emails that are new, so you won’t have any duplicate emails.

The email migration tool copies the emails and folders across to Host Hobbit Ltd, so no emails are “removed” from your old mailserver/mailboxes.

Yes, you can only perform one mailbox migration at a time per package.

Your previous host will be able to tell you your hostname. It is worth trying mail.yourDomain.co.uk as that is a common hostname that is used.

To set up your Host Hobbit Ltd mailbox on an Apple iPhone or iPad, you need to:

Head to the Settings icon and locate the Accounts & Passwords option.

Then select ‘Add Account’.

Select Other from this list.

Input the information requested:

Name: Anything

Email: [email protected]

Password: Mailbox Password

Description: Work, Business…etc

IMAP:

Incoming Mail Server

Host Name: imap.stackmail.com

Username: [email protected]

Password: Mailbox Password

Outgoing Mail Server

Host Name: smtp.stackmail.com

Username: [email protected]

Password: Mailbox Password

Finally, select the mail account and go into the Outgoing Mail Server settings. Select Primary Server, make sure SSL is switched on and the port is set to 587.

Email should now be set up on your iPhone or iPad.

There are various methods of connecting to mailboxes on our platform. We always recommend IMAP as that helps keep messages in sync between various devices and our webmail system. This is our recommended configuration for Thunderbird mail clients.

Incoming Server (“Account Settings” > “Server Settings”)

Server Name: imap.stackmail.com

Username: Your e-mail address

Port: 993

Connection security: SSL/TLS

Authentication method: ‘Normal password’

Outgoing Server (SMTP)

Server Name: smtp.stackmail.com

Port: 587

Connection Security: STARTTLS

Authentication method: ‘Normal password’

Username: Your e-mail address

Getting a ‘mailbox does not exist’ message can be frustrating, we know. You just need to give it half an hour.

Mailbox password changes, webmail access and sending/receiving email via a mail client are all available as soon as your mailbox has been created.

However, it can take up to 30 minutes for our MX servers to accept new email for your new mailbox. If you receive a “Mailbox does not exist” bounceback to a new mailbox within 30 minutes of its setup, this should be nothing to worry about. It should resolve itself as soon as our MX configuration updates.

For scale and redundancy reasons we operate each service from its own hostname. So we always recommend using the most relevant hostname for incoming and outgoing servers in mail clients. These are as follows:

IMAP: imap.stackmail.com

SMTP: smtp.stackmail.com

However, for compatibility reasons and to help ease migrations, we automatically setup mail.domain for each of your packages.

Any clients already using these hostnames can continue to do so when the account is moved to Host Hobbit Ltd, and any new accounts added at Host Hobbit Ltd will have the same functionality.

If you can successfully send email and view any new messages in your Inbox, but aren’t able to view additional subfolders, then it’s likely that you have an incorrect IMAP Path Prefix setting on the device.

To correct this, take the following steps:

Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts > Select your e-mail address > Account > Advanced

At the bottom of this screen, you should see ‘IMAP Path Prefix’. Leave this blank or, try entering ‘INBOX’

Save the changes, and then navigate back through the Email Account settings pages saving as required

You’ll now be able to view all folders in the account. If that doesn’t help or it’s already set up like that, you may need to remove and re-add the e-mail account on your device.

We make use of ‘autodiscover’ technology so that in the majority of cases, Microsoft Outlook can set up your account for you with only an email address and a password.

Automatic Setup

In Outlook, choose the File tab

Under ‘Account Information’, choose Add Account

On the Auto Account Setup page, enter your name, email address, and password, and then choose Next

Choose Finish

Manual Setup

If automatic setup failed, you can choose Manual setup or additional server types to enter your settings manually. Use these settings:

Account type: IMAP

Incoming mail server: imap.stackmail.com

Outgoing mail server: smtp.stackmail.com

Incoming server port (IMAP): 993

Use the following type of encrypted connection: SSL

Outgoing server port (SMTP): 587 (or 465)

Use the following type of encrypted connection: TLS

When setting up your account, please choose More Settings > Outgoing Server and check the box for ‘My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication’.

If you experience any problems with the connection or receive a certificate warning, please disable SSL/TLS encryption and change the incoming server port to 143.

SRV records – service records used in Office 365 – can be added via our DNS Management interface inside the control panel.

If the domain is registered with us, you can get to this from the Manage Domains area of the control panel. If the domain is not with us but is assigned to a hosting package, you can reach this interface via the Manage Hosting -> Select Package -> Manage DNS section.

We can automatically add these records for you using the Office 365 DNS record tool, please see the guide about that here: How do I add Office 365 DNS records?

Towards the bottom of the Manage DNS page you will see 3 inputs to allow you to add new records. To add one:

Select SRV from the Type dropdown.

In the Name field, type: _sip._tls

In the Data field, type: sipdir.online.lync.com

Enter 100 for Priority.

Enter 1 for Weight.

Enter 443 as the Port.

For the second record, select Click to add another record. A new row will appear.

Select SRV from the Type dropdown.

In the Name field, type: _sipfederationtls._tcp

In the Data field, type: sipfed.online.lync.com

Enter 100 for Priority.

Enter 1 for Weight.

Enter 5061 as the Port.

Remember to save the records by clicking ‘Update DNS’.

That’s it!

Your SRV records are now added. Our nameservers will start answering with them almost instantly – but may take up to 2 minutes. If you’re running through the Microsoft setup wizard or DNS checker you will be able to continue shortly.

Email Account Limits

The following limits apply to all messages sent via authenticated SMTP. This will primarily be used for email sent via a mail client, but can also include mail sent via your website if configured to send via SMTP.

We impose a limit of 8,000 messages per e-mail address per 24 hours.

The following limits also apply:

No more than 10,000 recipients per day.

No more than 2,000 unique recipients per day.

A single email may not be sent to more than 100 individual addresses.

As an example, if you were to send 100 emails to 5 different e-mail addresses within a 24 hour period. We would count 100 messages, 500 total recipients and 5 unique recipients.

Web Server Limits

A limit of 500 messages per day is imposed on all e-mail sent by our web servers. E-mails sent by the web servers should be no larger than 5 MB in size. This applies to all messages sent via the PHP mail() function.

Autoresponders

An autoresponder only sends once every 8 hours per sender

Zero Tolerance Spam Policy

We take a zero-tolerance stance against the sending of unsolicited email, bulk emailing and spam.

Please note: The distributed nature of our network means email can leave through different servers at different times. As a result, you may see periods when you can send a greater number of messages than the limits mentioned above. However, this behaviour should not be relied upon and is not supported. If you do wish to send a larger number of e-mails than any of the limits mentioned above, we would recommend looking at a specialist marketing email platforms such as SendGrid, Mailgun, or Mailjet.

New Mailbox Limit

When a new mailbox has been set up, the sending is limited to 50 per day for 7 days. This is actually an abuse rule to prevent new mailboxes from being set up and used immediately to send out high volumes of spam emails. To preserve the reputation of the platform and protect mail being sent from being spoofed as spam by third parties this rule was put place to protect that status.

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records help to reduce the chance of your domain being spoofed in spam messages. It can also increase the deliverability of e-mail to external providers such as Gmail and Outlook.

We maintain an SPF record that is kept up to date with all IP addresses used to transmit e-mail from our network. This ensures that any e-mail sent from our services passes an SPF check. To use this on your domain, you need to add a TXT record in DNS.

Adding SPF records ‘manually’

Firstly, access the DNS Management interface for your domain name. If the domain is registered with us, you can access this from the Manage Domains area of the control panel. If the domain is not with us but is assigned to a hosting package, you can reach this interface via the Manage Hosting -> Select Package -> Manage DNS section.

Towards the bottom of the Manage DNS page, you will see 3 inputs to allow you to add new records. To add it:

Leave the Name field blank

Select TXT for Type

Enter v=spf1 include:spf.stackmail.com a mx -all as data

Then save the changes. Your domain is now protected by an SPF record.

You can use the same record for all domains that use our mail services, however, it should be noted that the above record will tell external providers all of your e-mail should originate from our network. If this isn’t the case the record should be updated accordingly.

Changing passwords for any mailbox can be done through the Host Hobbit Ltd control panel.

Log in to cp.hosthobbit.com and select Manage Hosting.

Select Manage on the hosting package that contains the mailbox you wish to change the password on.

Choose Email Accounts under Email.

Simply locate your mailbox and enter a new password and click Update. Your new password will have been successfully saved.

Note: You will not be able to recover your old password for the mailbox. We do this to increase your security.

There are a few very common reasons why you may not be able to send emails.

Are your email settings are correct?

Make sure the email account username and password that you enter in your email client are correct. The details you’ll need to be using are found below:

Account type: IMAP

Incoming mail server: imap.stackmail.com

Outgoing mail server: smtp.stackmail.com

Incoming server port (IMAP): 993

Use the following type of encrypted connection: SSL

Outgoing server port (SMTP): 465 (or 587)

Use the following type of encrypted connection: TLS

Are email sending limits being hit?

Our mail platform has several limits in place in order to protect the reputation of the mail platform and prevent large quantities of spam emails being sent. Currently, our mail limits are as follows:

Web servers: 500 emails a day.

Mailboxes: 8000 emails a day.

Message size/attachments: our webmail system accepts attachments up to 32MB in size, and the maximum message size in our network is 50MB.

If any of these limits are breached, then it won’t be possible to send mail from that hosting package or mailbox. In the case of the message size/attachment limit, you’ll simply need to look at reducing the size of the email or the attachment being sent.

Where do the MX records point?

You can easily ensure Host Hobbit Ltd serves the emails by using the tool here: https://mxtoolbox.com/

If we host the emails then you’ll see mx.stackmail.com returned. If anything else is returned you may wish to contact the provider to determine the cause of the issue.

Is the mailbox disabled for suspicious activity?

If you’re receiving the following error when trying to send that the mailbox may have been disabled for sending suspicious emails.

“SMTP: Error (550): Failed to add recipient “[email protected]” (Sending mail from this address has been disabled due to suspicious activity).”

If you’ve received this error, please get in touch with our Support Team, they’ll be able to get this resolved for you.

MX stands for ‘mail exchanger’.

It tells a ‘sending’ mail server how to find the ‘receiving’ mail server, given in order of priority, where the lower numbers are given higher priority. The MX records for Host Hobbit Ltd are ‘mx.stackmail.com’.

SMTP or Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is a TCP/IP used to send and receive email. The majority of email systems use SMTP to send messages from one server to another. Messages can then be retrieved using an email client using an email download protocol such as IMAP or POP3.

SMTP also delivers email from a mail client to a mail server, thus the need to specify both an incoming and outgoing mail server when setting your email client.

SMTP uses ports 25 or 587 as some ISPs will block port 25.

Email forwarding refers to the operation of re-sending an email message delivered to one email address on to a possibly different email address. There are two types of email forwarding. Individual email forwarding and catch-all forwarding.

Individual email forwarding lets you create an email address that does not have a mailbox or apply forwarding to an already existing mailbox.

With catch-all email forwarding, emails will only forward if there isn’t an existing mailbox or forward in place. Catch-all refers to a mailbox on a domain that will ‘catch-all’ of the emails addressed to the domain that does not exist in the mail server. Configuring a catch-all address can help avoid losing emails due to misspelling.

With Host Hobbit Ltd all mailboxes have a certain limit on data storage. It’s unlikely that you should ever fill this unless you’re receiving a lot of spam, or have a lot of emails with large attachments.

All the emails and attachments you have in your mailbox are stored on a server, and each mailbox is given a specified amount of space on the server. Once that space has been filled by email and data, you will no longer be able to receive emails.

To check your mailbox usage:

Log in to cp.hosthobbit.com and go to Email Accounts.

Locate your mailbox and the usage will be displayed next to it.

To resolve this issue there a few options:

Order a Mailbox Quota Addon. You can increase the size of your mailbox in 10GB increments by ordering a Mailbox Quota Addon, available from the Mailbox Usage page.

Empty your trash within your mail client. When you delete emails from your inbox they go into the trash folder which means they are still taking up space on the server. Make sure there are no emails that you may need from the trash folder because to clear them from the server will mean permanently deleting them. Usually, you can right-click on the trash folder on select an option such as ‘Erase Deleted Items’ or ‘Empty Trash’. There are also settings in some mail clients that will automatically delete items when you send them to the trash, but if you accidentally delete an email it will be gone permanently.

Clear your sent messages. Similar to messages stored in the Trash folder, sent items will still remain on the server. Deleting your sent items will not mean they are deleted from the recipients’ mailbox, just the mailbox they were sent from. You can either go into the Sent Items folder and choose which emails you wish to delete, or you can right-click and select “Delete”.

Both IMAP and POP3 are protocols that allow you to receive emails from a remote server. Your email client uses these protocol to connect to your mailbox server. You may have your email client on your smartphone, laptop and desktop, and this is where IMAP and POP3 have different uses.

Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) downloads mail from the server and often deletes it from the server after it has done so. This means that depending on when your mail client checks for mail, you’ll only receive the email on one device or mail client. This also means that when you delete an email from one device, it will not be deleted from another. For example, if you receive emails on your smartphone, deleting them won’t also delete them on your desktop mail client, so you will have an email that you have viewed appear as unread.

Since POP3 downloads emails from the server and saves them in a local storage area, losing or damaging your local storage may cause you to lose all of your emails.

Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) on the other hand, is suited for people who want to receive email on more than one device, which nowadays is most people who carry a smartphone. IMAP stores email on remote servers rather than downloading them to local storage, which is how the emails can be viewed on different devices. When you read, download or make any changes to emails on one device, it will synchronise across any other device using the same account. IMAP has the ability to only download the header of an email so it can be much quicker.

We recommend you use IMAP.

POP3 offers very few, if any benefits. When you are setting up your mail client, you will have the option to choose from IMAP or POP3. To set up either, you simply need to access your email account information through cp.hosthobbit.com.

IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol and is a protocol used to access emails via an email client on a remote server.

IMAP is suited for people who want to receive email on more than one device, which nowadays is most people who carry a smartphone. IMAP stores email on remote servers – rather than downloading them to local storage – which is how the e-mails can be viewed on different devices. When your read, download or make any changes to emails on one device, it will synchronise across any other device using the same account. IMAP has the ability to only download the header of an email so it can also be much quicker.

POP3 stands for Post Office Protocol version 3 and refers to the protocol used to receive emails to your local email client from a remote server.

POP3 downloads mail from the server and often deletes on the server after it has done so. This means that depending no when your mail client checks for mail, you will only receive the email on one device or mail client. This also means that when you delete an email from one device, it will not be deleted from another. For example, if you receive emails on your smartphone, deleting them won’t also delete them on your desktop mail client, so you will have an email that you have already viewed appear as unread.

Since POP3 downloads emails from the server and saves them in a local storage area, losing or damaging your local storage may cause you to lose all your emails.

DKIM, like SPF, is a standard that enables a specific aspect of the email sending process to be authenticated. The premise of DKIM is to check that an email is really from the domain or sender that it said it was sent from and if it has been altered in any way in transit.

Specifically, DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), provides a foundation for distinguishing legitimate mail. A DKIM signature is placed in the header of emails sent by Host Hobbit Ltd’s mail servers so that the receiving mail server can then validate the signature using a public cryptographic key (2048 bit). It’s added as a TXT record in the Manage DNS section for the domain name.

DKIM does not outright mean all emails will be delivered. However, it does provide the receiving mail server with further information so it can make a more informed decision on the best way to handle the email.

To add one at Host Hobbit Ltd:

Head to Manage Hosting and ‘Manage’ the package you want to add a DKIM record.

Select the DomainKeys icon.

Firstly, we’ll explain how to add a simple DKIM record to your DNS.

Ensure you’ve selected the domain you want to add the DKIM record-to.

Add a Selector. This can be any value or name you like. It’s simply a field to identify the DKIM record. Then select Add Signature.

If your nameservers are with Host Hobbit Ltd, we’ll automatically add the correct TXT record for you.

The signature will be added immediately to emails sent from the mailboxes under the domain selected. We will have automatically added a DNS record to Manage DNS. You may wish to wait for this to resolve for DKIM to be effective.

From here you’re all done: your emails will use DKIM as a method to authenticate email.

You can also use the Advanced Options section.

Selector – This is a unique identifier for the DKIM record and can be set to any value you like. For example, you could set it to indicate the name of an office location or the signing date (e.g. “october2019”).

Granularity/Identity – By default, this is set to a wildcard value: ‘*’. You can use this field to set the DKIM record to be assigned to a specific mailbox, allowing you to constrain which mailbox can use this selector legitimately. For example, if you set the value of this field to be ‘sales’, only your [email protected] mailbox will use this DKIM signature. This field must match the local part of the signing address (mailbox).

Note – This field does not form part of the DKIM record or signature and is simply there so you can record any information about this record for your own information.

Service Type – Currently, DKIM only supports signatures added to messages sent via ‘Email’ (i.e. SMTP). However, in the future, the DKIM standard may add more service types such as IM or VoIP, which we’ll then be able to support. This field can be left to either ‘*’ or ‘Email’ – changing this won’t influence behaviour at present.

Canonicalization – Some mail servers and relay systems may modify an email in transit, potentially invalidating a DKIM signature. There are two options you can set: ‘Simple’ and ‘Relaxed’. If you expect your email to be modified in any way, you should select Relaxed which is more forgiving to changes made the header and body of the email.

Expiry Time – This is the time which, when elapsed, the DKIM signature will be invalidated in the mail header. By default, it’s set to 86400 seconds (1 day). You may wish to extend this if you believe deliverability of the email will take longer than 1 day.

Flags – There are two flags available: ‘Production’ and ‘Testing’. If you select Testing, you’ll still receive a response to the email and the DKIM signature from the remote mail server, but the email won’t be treated with different behaviour. Verifier systems may wish to track testing mode results to assist the signer. You’ll mostly want to use Production.

Here are the best ways to stop emails from being put in the junk mail folder.

Add an SPF Record

SPF – Sender Policy Framework records help reduce the chance of your domain being spoofed in spam messages. It can also increase the deliverability of e-mail to external providers such as Gmail and Outlook. You can add them individually by adding a TXT record to the domain with the data v=spf1 include:spf.stackmail.com a mx -all. This tells other providers that Host Hobbit Ltd is a confirmed sender of your domain’s emails.

Add a DKIM Record

DKIM, like SPF, is a standard that enables a specific aspect of the email sending process to be authenticated. The premise of DKIM is to check that an email is really from the domain or sender that it said it was sent from and if it has been altered in any way in transit.

You can add one by going to the hosting package for the domain and to the DomainKeys section. You then need to select the domain you wish to add on to and add a Selector. This can be any value or name you like. It’s simply a field to identify the DKIM record. Then select Add Signature. If your nameservers are with us we’ll automatically add this as a TXT record for you. If your name servers are elsewhere you’ll need to go to ‘Options’ for the newly created DKIM and copy the DNS Name and DNS Value to a TXT record with your current DNS provider.

Edit the Junk Mail Filters

If incoming emails are the issue then you can whitelist the mail in the Junk Mail Filters section of any hosting package. In the Junk Mail Filters section, you can set the general filtering level to tell us how strict we should be with incoming spam filtering.

If you just want to allow a particular address this can be done by whitelisting it for a domain or the mailbox on the package. If you want to white list a single mail address then you would need to whitelist ‘[email protected]’ and if you want to whitelist a whole domain then you would want to whitelist ‘*@thedomain.com’. This will allow mail from the address/domain to bypass our spam filtering.

To create an HTML or plain text email signature that will be appended to all emails:

Select Settings

In the left column, select Identities

In the next column along to the right, click on the email address for which you want you to create or edit a signature

Fill in signature details as necessary

We encrypt all FTP, email and database passwords so they are not visible as plain text inside your control panel.

The exception is the very first FTP account: this password is visible on the right hand side when you manage your hosting. You’re able to change all passwords and changes are usually processed immediately.

Please note: the majority of database passwords will be saved in the configuration or connection strings for your website. For example, for WordPress, the database password is visible inside the wp-config.php file.

You can log in to webmail by going to our webmail URL here: www.hobbitmail.co.uk

Or you can log in through your control panel.

Head to Manage Hosting.

Select the package you want to access webmail for.

Select the Webmail icon.

You can then login to webmail using single-sign-on.

There are a few common reasons why you may not be able to connect successfully via FTP.

1. Make sure you’re using the correct hostname. If you’ve not switched the nameservers to point to Host Hobbit Ltd, you’ll need to use a different hostname to connect via FTP. For Linux and Windows, you can use: ftp.hosthobbit.com. For WordPress you can use: wordpressftp.yourdomain.com
2. Make sure you have the FTP DNS record. If you’ve made any DNS changes you need to make sure that you have a CNAME from: ftp.yourdomain.com -> CNAME -> ftp.hosthobbit.com (or wordpressftp.yourdomain.com on the WordPress platform). Without this CNAME you won’t be able to connect using ftp.yourdomain.com. Please note DNS changes can take roughly 1 hour to propagate.
3. Make sure FTP is unlocked. At Host Hobbit Ltd we utilise an FTP lock system to ensure FTP can only be accessed when required which greatly reduces the risk of compromise to a hosting package. You’ll need to make sure this is unlocked to connect via FTP, to do this: Login to https://cp.hosthobbit.com. Select the hosting package you want to unlock FTP for from Manage Hosting. You can then select to unlock FTP by time, or by a specific IP address. When FTP has been unlocked you’ll be shown the time the unlock expires and the option to lock it again.
4. Use the correct password. Make sure you are using the correct password! You’ll need to use the password that is located within the FTP Details section of the package.

The maximum FTP upload/download size is 5GB, above which you’ll need to use another method to transfer larger files sizes.

One way we’d recommend is to enable SSH action and then use a client like WinSCP to upload over SSH. There are no limits in this case.

If you wish to access the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) service before you point your DNS to Host Hobbit Ltd, you can use the hostname of our FTP service directly.

• For Linux and Windows, please use: ftp.hosthobbit.com
• For Managed WordPress, please use: wordpressftp.hosthobbit.com

Each domain has at least two nameservers assigned to it and these nameservers hold the records for the domain.

If a server somewhere else in the world queries the nameservers for DNS records, it will most often take a local copy of the DNS record. This means that next time it needs to know what IP a domain resolves to, it will have the answer already stored.

Once the initial changes have been made to the two original nameservers, the changes will filter out through the rest of the servers in the world until everything else is up to date. It is this that can take 24-48 hours and is known as propagation.

We encrypt all FTP, email and database passwords so they are not visible as plain text inside your control panel.

The exception is the very first FTP account: this password is visible on the right hand side when you manage your hosting. You’re able to change all passwords and changes are usually processed immediately.

Please note: the majority of database passwords will be saved in the configuration or connection strings for your website. For example, for WordPress, the database password is visible inside the wp-config.php file.

Connecting via FTP to your web hosting is quick and easy.

1. Ensure you have an FTP client available. We’d recommend FileZilla.
2. Head to Manage Hosting. Select Manage. On the right-hand side of the control panel, you’ll see the FTP panel. You’ll need to unlock FTP by either time or IP address.
3. You’ll see the FTP Details section that contains your FTP Server (Host), Username and Password.
4. Enter these details into FileZilla and select Quickconnect. You should now be connected to your web hosting via FTP.

If you’re having trouble connecting via FTP, we’d recommend reviewing the guide called “I can’t connect via FTP, what can I do?” for common steps to diagnose what’s wrong.

Introduction

Managed Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting is an increasingly popular solution for businesses seeking a balance between cost-efficiency and robust server capabilities. This article delves into what Managed VPS is and its key benefits.

What is Managed VPS?

A Managed VPS is a hosting solution where a service provider manages all the technical aspects of a VPS. Unlike traditional VPS, where the user is responsible for server management, a Managed VPS offers expert support for server maintenance, software updates, security, and more.

Benefits of Managed VPS Hosting

• Expert Management: Managed VPS hosting removes the need for in-depth technical knowledge. Providers handle server setup, maintenance, updates, and security, allowing businesses to focus on core operations.
• Enhanced Security: With dedicated professionals overseeing the server, Managed VPS hosting provides enhanced security measures including regular updates, security audits, and proactive threat monitoring.
• Improved Performance: Providers ensure optimal performance through regular maintenance, updates, and efficient resource allocation, resulting in faster website loading times and improved user experience.
• Scalability: Managed VPS hosting offers easy scalability, allowing businesses to adjust resources like bandwidth, storage, and processing power as per their changing needs.
• Cost-Effective: While Managed VPS comes at a higher cost compared to unmanaged options, it saves businesses from investing in a dedicated IT team for server management.
• Customization and Control: Despite being managed, these servers offer significant customization and control over hosting environments, making them suitable for specific business requirements.
• Reliable Support: Managed VPS providers typically offer robust customer support, ensuring quick resolution of issues and uninterrupted server uptime.

Conclusion

Managed VPS hosting is an excellent choice for businesses seeking a middle ground between shared hosting and a dedicated server. It offers the advantages of a private server with the ease of managed services, suitable for businesses prioritizing efficiency and growth.

The best SMTP details to use when configuring an SMTP plugin within WordPress when you’re using Host Hobbit Ltd WordPress hosting are:

• Outgoing mail server: smtp.stackmail.com
• Outgoing server port (SMTP): 587
• Use the following type of encrypted connection: TLS

Using these details will allow emails to be sent via SMTP from WordPress forms or allow any other SMTP-based plugins to send.

It’s not possible to rename a mailbox once it’s been created.

To get around this, you can create a new mailbox within Host Hobbit Ltd and use the Email Migration tool to sync one mailbox to the other, then remove the original mailbox.

You’d use the hostname imap.stackmail.com within the Email Migration tool and set the mailbox password of the new mailbox to match that of the old mailbox. You can then copy emails from one to the other.

Yes, you can import a contact list from a previous mail client into Host Hobbit Ltd webmail. To do so:

1. Log in to Webmail for the mailbox.
2. Head to the Address Book.
3. Select the Import icon from the top-left.
4. You can then select either a .CSV file or a vCard file.

No, the email migration won’t remove any emails from the mail server where emails are being migrated from or any emails on the Host Hobbit Ltd mail server.

It’s a ‘non-destructive’ form of migration, so emails won’t be duplicated or deleted. Changes will simply be added into the emails already at Host Hobbit Ltd.

No, the email migration won’t cause any downtime to emails.

It doesn’t affect DNS or the ability to send or receive emails: it simply performs an IMAP sync to move emails from one server to another. There will be no downtime caused by the use of the email migration tool.

An email migration will usually take about 30 minutes to complete.

However, this can vary depending on the size of the original mailbox being migrated. For an average size mailbox of 1-2Gb, an email migration will usually take 30 minutes.

Our WordPress platform has been specifically designed to offer the best security, performance, and reliability for WordPress.

As a result, we have specifically tuned firewall rules and layers of protection to help keep WordPress sites secure. As part of this protection, a small number of PHP functions have been disabled, as we’ve found that they’re often used for malicious purposes.

The following functions are disabled for security reasons:

• exec
• opcache_get_configuration
• opcache_get_status
• passthru
• parse_ini_file
• popen
• proc_open
• shell_exec
• show_source
• system

In our experience, it’s highly unlikely any of your plugins rely on any of the functions above. However, if you have a genuine use case for any of these functions, you can still host your WordPress site on our Linux platform.

ASP Parent Paths are disabled on our platform.

As a result, Classic ASP scripts using “../” notation for includes will not work correctly.

As an alternative to using parent paths in your ASP code, you can use virtual paths. Virtual paths need you to enter the full folder path from the URL root of your website. For example, changing:

<!--#include file="../_fpclass/fpdblib.inc" -->

To:

<!--#include virtual="/_fpclass/fpdblib.inc"-->

By default, Windows Server hides application errors from your website. You can override this by adding the following inside a ‘web.config’ file that will cause IIS to output any errors to your browser:

<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
        <httpErrors errorMode="Detailed" />
    </system.webServer>
    <system.web>
        <customErrors mode="Off" />
        <compilation debug="true" />
    </system.web>
</configuration>
                

The availability of ionCube can differ between our different platforms and PHP versions.

• Linux: ionCube Loader is available on our Linux platform for all currently supported PHP versions. That’s 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 7.0, 7.1, and 7.2.
• WordPress: ionCube Loader is available on our WordPress platform.
• Windows: ionCube is not available on our Windows platform. If you are running PHP software and don’t need any of the Windows-specific languages like ASP.NET, we recommend using our Linux platform.

As standard, we run PHP 7+. If you wish to switch version, head to cp.hosthobbit.com > Manage Hosting > [Select Package] > “Switch PHP Version”

Our Linux platform has the ability to run different versions of PHP:

• PHP 5.3
• PHP 5.4
• PHP 5.5
• PHP 5.6
• PHP 7.0
• PHP 7.1
• PHP 7.2
• PHP 7.3
• PHP 7.4

Version changes may take up to 60 seconds but are usually instant.

On our Managed WordPress Platform, we run PHP 7.0 (and above) and this cannot be changed.

Our web servers run PHP 7+ as standard. In this version of PHP, the MySQL module has been replaced by either the ‘mysqli’ or ‘PDO_MySQL’ extension. Read more about the MySQL extension deprecation on PHP’s website.

If you have a website using this module, we recommend updating your code to use the latest modules. However, if this isn’t feasible or you’re using third-party software, you can run older versions of PHP on our Linux platform. You’re able to switch between PHP 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6 – all of which support the older MySQL module – by using the ‘Switch PHP Version’ icon inside the control panel.

It’s only recommended that you connect to your package via SSH if you’re familiar with the command-line interface. Here is how to connect using two-factor authentication (2FA).

Windows

If you’re using Windows, you will want to download an SSH client to access SSH. You can download PuTTy from the following page: https://www.putty.org/

1. You will want to first download the Google Authenticator app which is available for both iOS and Android devices.
2. Login via cp.hosthobbit.com, and head to Manage Hosting and select the package that you require SSH access for. Then select SSH Access from under the Security section.
3. Under Set SSH password, set the password and make a note of this for later on. Then select Set up Authenticator and proceed to scan the QR code on your iOS or Android device.
4. Note: You will need to wait 30 minutes before making any connection attempts.
5. Open PuTTY. Enter the hostname ‘ssh.stackcp.com’ and select Open.
6. The command-line interface will request you for a login. Log in with your domain (e.g. example.co.uk).
7. You will then be prompted for a verification code. Open Google Authenticator and enter your code.
8. Enter the SSH password which was set up earlier. You’ll now have access to SSH through 2FA.

A common reason for this relates to the address not matching your site domain.

To help improve email deliverability and help prevent spam from being sent from our network, the ‘Sender’ address for your message must match the domain name of the website used to send the message.

If this header is set to a domain not assigned to your hosting package, the message will not be sent. If you have any further issues, please contact our Support Team.

At Host Hobbit Ltd we run multiple different versions of PHP.

On our SSH servers, the execution of commands like “composer” will run with our default, system-level PHP that is also used for internal tools at Host Hobbit Ltd. This is a thin version of PHP without all the modules you may be used to on your website. To enable the use of this command, you need to specify the full path to the version of PHP that you wish to run the script as. You can do this on the command line itself.

Here’s an example of using PHP 7.1 to execute Composer:

/usr/bin/php71 -f /usr/bin/composer

So the complete command would become:

/usr/bin/php71 -f /usr/bin/composer install

A list of available PHP versions is presented to you in the message of the day (MOTD) once you login to SSH.

To connect via SSH on a Mac you can follow the instructions below:

1. Log in to cp.hosthobbit.com.
2. Head to Manage Hosting and select Manage on the hosting package you want to connect to.
3. Select the SSH Access icon.
4. You’ll now need to generate a public key, on a Mac this is done via the Terminal utility. Open Terminal on the Mac.
5. Enter the following command into the Terminal:

ssh-keygen

6. Press Enter. You’ll be prompted to enter the location that you want the public and private keys saving. In this case, we’ll keep this as the default location. Press Enter.
7. You’ll be prompted for a passphrase. In this guide, we’ll just leave this empty. If you enter one, make sure you remember this as you’ll be prompted for this later. Press Enter.
8. You’ll be asked to confirm the passphrase. Since we’ve left this empty just press Enter.
9. Your keys will have been generated and the public key will have been saved in a specified location, in our example, it has been saved in:

/Users/user/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

10. Copy the path and enter the following command:

cat /Users/user/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

11. The key will be outputted. Copy the whole key from the start to the end.
12. Paste the key back into the Public Key field in the SSH Access section. The handle should be added automatically. Press Add Public Key.
13. Please note that it can take up to 5 minutes.
14. Head back to Terminal and enter the SSH username and hostname found at the top of the SSH Access section, it should be something like [email protected]. You’ll need to prefix it with the ssh command as follows:

ssh [email protected]

15. You’ll be prompted to confirm you would like to connect. Simply type yes and press enter. You should have successfully connected via SSH from your Mac to your hosting package at Host Hobbit Ltd.

If you’ve set up SSH access for a package then you can run the following command-line instructions to import a MySQL database:

mysql -h hostname -u username -p username < databasefile.sql

The above command connects to your database with the -h (hostname) -u (username) -p (database name in this case) then the unzipped file < databasefile.sql

You will then be prompted to enter a password for the database. Input the password and press enter.

Compressed files

If the database file is zipped then you will need to unzip it first, then you can use one of the following commands:

For a .zip file you can use the unzip command:

unzip databasefile.sql.zip
mysql -h hostname -u username -p username < databasefile.sql
                

For a .gz file you can use the gunzip command:

gunzip databasefile.sql.gz
mysql -h hostname -u username -p username < databasefile.sql
                

It’s only recommended that you connect to your package via SSH if you’re familiar with the command line interface.

Windows

If you’re using Windows, you’ll need to download an SSH Client to access SSH.

This guide uses PuTTY which is a free SSH client and can be downloaded here: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html

1. Once you have downloaded PuTTY, search for and open PuTTY Key Generator on your computer.
2. Select Generate and move the mouse around in the gray box to generate some Randomness. This will generate a public key.
3. Add a passphrase (password). This is what you’ll need to put into the command line interface.
4. Log in to cp.hosthobbit.com, head to Manage Hosting and select the package that you want SSH access for. Then select, SSH Access from under the Security section.
5. Then input the public key that was generated from PuTTYgen into the Public Key box. A handle will be generated automatically. Then select Add Public Key.
6. Head back to PuTTY Gen and select Save private key. Save this as any name you want.
7. Open PuTTY. Down the left-hand side, select to expand the SSH menu and then select Auth.
8. Select Browse and add the private key you have just saved.
9. Head back to Session using the left-hand menu and add the host name ‘ssh.cp.hosthobbit.com’ and select Open.
10. The command line interface will show. Then login with your domain (e.g. domain.co.uk).
11. You’ll then be prompted for the passphrase that you set earlier. Enter this. You’ll now have access to SSH for your site.

If you’re trying to access the temporary URL (i.e. example-co-uk.staging.com) you may get an ERR_SSL_UNRECOGNIZED-NAME-ALERT error.

This will be because the temporary URL can’t load over SSL (via https://). To allow the temporary URL to resolve you’ll need to ensure it loads over http://.

• Check the WordPress site and home URL and make sure it’s set to load over http://
• Disable Force HTTPS in the control panel
• Ensure you don’t have the Really Simple SSL plugin active, you can disable it to prevent it forcing https://
• Remove any redirects in the .htaccess file.

You may need to try an incognito browser tab after making any corrections to ensure https:// is not cached in your browser.

Yes: if you have an existing external or third-party SSL certificate you can install this at Host Hobbit Ltd.

Your certificate provider will need to provide the following sections for us to be able to install the SSL certificate:

• Certificate
• Private Key
• CA Bundle / Intermediate Certificate

These details will need to be entered within the SSL/TLS section within a Host Hobbit Ltd hosting package: Manage Hosting -> [select package] -> SSL/TLS.

Note: Your Private Key will have been provided when you generated a CSR using your organisation’s details. If you have any questions about this, the certificate provider will be able to help.

Please also note that SSL certificates can take up to 30 minutes to install on to the web server. If your A records are then pointing to the IP address of the hosting package then your site should show as secure.

If you don’t have an external SSL then you can either apply the free Host Hobbit Ltd SSL, or purchase a Host Hobbit Ltd SSL from cp.hosthobbit.com.

When ordering an SSL certificate, you’re often required to generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). This is an encoded block of text that the Certificate Authority requires when issuing an SSL certificate. It contains information about the organization, domain name, and locality.

Using a CSR Generator

The easiest way to generate a CSR is to use the online generator here:

https://csrgenerator.com/

You will need to make sure that you keep a record of both the CSR and Private Key that are provided to you.

Every Host Hobbit Ltd hosting package comes with a free wildcard SSL certificate, enabling you to use the more secure ‘HTTPS’ protocol to keep your site users secure. To activate the SSL, you’ll need to make sure you’ve pointed the domain name to our nameservers.

With that done, you need to:

1. Within Manage Services, select Manage Hosting.
2. Within Manage Hosting, select Manage on the hosting package on which you wish to activate the SSL.
3. Under Security, click on the SSL/TLS icon.
4. You will then see your domain name and an option to Activate Free SSL next to it. Select this and the SSL will be applied to your domain.
5. If you’d like all your visitors to use SSL connections (i.e. for HTTPS to always be used), simply select the Enable option at the bottom of the page.

Once the SSL Certificate has been activated, it will take up to 30 minutes to secure your website. This is due to the changes needed to be made on our load balancers.

Using HTTPS instead of HTTP means that communications between your browser and a website are encrypted via the use of an SSL (Secure Socket Layer). Even if your website doesn’t handle sensitive data, it’s a good idea to make sure your website loads securely over HTTPS. It’s now becoming a requirement for many new browser features as well as potentially having an impact on search engine rankings.

To make sure your website loads securely, you need to make sure that it is prefixed with HTTPS instead of HTTP. This can be done in a few different ways. Outlined below are the most common ways to do this.

Use the Force HTTPS tool

1. Login to cp.hosthobbit.com and head to Manage Hosting and select Manage on the package you want to force HTTPS for.
2. Select the SSL/TLS icon.
3. Select Enable Force HTTPS. This will redirect website users to HTTPS. As long as the website has an SSL certificate and all content loads via HTTPS, the site should show as secure.

Using a .htaccess file

Another way that has the potential for more specific configuration is to use a .htaccess file rule. If you don’t have a .htaccess file, you can create one via FTP or File Manager and then add the code:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{env:HTTPS} !on

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.example.com/$1 [R,L]
                

If you already have a .htaccess file, then make sure you don’t duplicate the line:

RewriteEngine On

If after enabling force HTTPS the website shows insecure, then you’ll need to make sure that:

• You have an SSL certificate on the site
• You don’t have mixed content.

Please note that if you have recently activated a Host Hobbit Ltd SSL certificate for your domain, it can take up to 30 minutes to be installed across our load balancers.

After an SSL has been installed, the website still loads with an insecure warning

If the website is now showing your certificate but still has an insecure warning, this is often caused by ‘mixed content’ on the website. This means there is content on the page that is being loaded through a ‘http://’ URL. For a webpage to be classed as secure, all content must be loaded over HTTPS. This includes external images, JavaScript, and CSS. You should search the source code of your website to locate the ‘http://’ references and update or remove them.

Finding Mixed Content

When visiting an HTTPS page in Google Chrome, the browser alerts you to mixed content as errors and warnings in the JavaScript console. You can open the console either from the View menu: View -> Developer -> JavaScript Console, or by right-clicking the page, selecting ‘Inspect Element’, then selecting ‘Console’. You need to remove or update the ‘http://’ URLs listed in these errors and warnings in your site’s source.

Alternatively, you can use the site ‘Why No Padlock?’ to identify mixed content: https://www.whynopadlock.com/

If the site is running WordPress, you can use the SSL Insecure Content Fixer plugin that should identify all mixed content and replace it with a secure version for you. You can find the plugin here: https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/ssl-insecure-content-fixer/

Once all references on your website are called using https:// URLs, your site will load securely in your browser.

Introduction

Unmanaged VPS hosting is a popular option for tech-savvy users and businesses seeking full control over their server environment. This article provides an insight into what Unmanaged VPS hosting is and its various aspects.

What is Unmanaged VPS Hosting?

Unmanaged VPS hosting offers a virtual private server without additional management services from the hosting provider. Clients are responsible for all aspects of server management, including software installation, updates, security, and maintenance.

Key Characteristics of Unmanaged VPS Hosting

• Complete Control: Users have root access to their server, providing the freedom to configure and manage the server according to specific needs.
• Cost-Effectiveness: Since it requires users to manage their servers, Unmanaged VPS is typically more affordable than managed alternatives.
• Customizability: It allows users to tailor server configurations, install custom software, and adjust resources as needed.
• Technical Expertise Required: To effectively manage an Unmanaged VPS, users should possess technical knowledge in server administration and troubleshooting.
• Performance: Unmanaged VPS hosting can offer high performance, as users can optimize the server for their specific applications and workload.
• Scalability: Similar to Managed VPS, these servers offer scalability in terms of resources, suitable for growing businesses and fluctuating demands.
• No Frills Approach: This hosting type is ideal for those who prefer a hands-on approach and have the necessary skills to maintain a server environment.

Who Should Opt for Unmanaged VPS Hosting?

Unmanaged VPS is best suited for users with technical expertise in server management, including system administrators, developers, and businesses with IT teams. It’s ideal for those who require a high degree of customization and control over their hosting environment.

Conclusion

Unmanaged VPS hosting is a powerful and cost-effective solution for those who are comfortable with managing their server infrastructure. It offers flexibility, performance, and scalability, making it a suitable choice for technically proficient users and businesses with specific hosting needs.

You can set up a cron job or ‘scheduled task’ in the Scheduled Tasks section of your hosting package’s control panel.

Manage Hosting -> Manage -> Scheduled Tasks

These are commands or jobs that are set to run regularly. They can be set to run at intervals of minutes, or the same time every hour, day, or month.

On the Scheduled Tasks page there are three things to consider:

1. What command you are wanting to run? This is usually something like a WGET to a certain domain name or a PHP script. If you want to run a particular file such as WordPress’s cron, you’ll need to use the correct version of PHP for the website. To select a particular version of PHP to run the command, you use the commands to the right of the screen.
2. How often you need your cron to run? This is selected from the drop-down boxes under where you enter the command. You can either use the first box to run it every 5, 10, 15 minutes or you can be more specific and select particular minutes in the hour, hours in the day, or days in the month for the cron to run.
3. Would you like to have emails sent to a specified address when a cron is run? An email will only be sent if the cron produces an output, so if the cron doesn’t output anything, no email will be sent.

The File Permissions Checker allows you to easily view and fix file permission issues that don’t match our recommended settings.

To use the File Permissions Checker:

1. Login to cp.hosthobbit.com, head to Manage Hosting and select Manage on the hosting package you wish to check file permissions for.
2. Select the File Permissions Checker icon.
3. To begin a scan of the file permissions, select Scan Permissions.
4. If any permissions are found to differ from our recommended settings, they will be presented to you in a list with the current permission level and our recommended level.
5. You can either select all files and select Fix Selected or fix files individually by selecting Fix Permission.

ImageMagick – the open-source image tool – is supported. We currently run Version 6.7.2. The path to the ImageMagick binary is:

/usr/bin/convert

Alternatively, some scripts may require just the directory path, in which case please enter:

/usr/bin

Imagick PHP Extension

While all customers have access to the convert command line program, unfortunately the PHP extension is not available on our hosting platform.

Gzip is a great way of compressing files for faster network transfers – helping them load faster, so improving site speed. It’s also a file format.

We encourage the use of and enable Gzip Compression by default across all of our platforms. Compression is handled automatically by our Edge Cache systems, so no configuration is needed on your part.

Note: Our temporary URL system does not utilise our edge caching, so any external tests for compression against the temporary URL will show compression as disabled. This is expected and will not be the case when testing against your actual domain name.

Manual Configuration

If you’re experiencing problems or want to enable compression manually, you can do so via a “.htaccess” file.

1. Create, or edit if one already exists, a file named “.htaccess” in your public_html directory.
2. Add the following line:

AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml text/css text/javascript application/javascript

3. Save your changes.

Occasionally, applications in your webspace may run checks to help ensure your website is secure. As part of these checks, the application reads the version number of various pieces of software on our servers. Sometimes, these version numbers are old and hence raise warnings. One of the most common examples for cURL is “You currently have version 7.19.7 of cURL installed. This version is known to have security issues. Please update to the latest cURL”.

We understand how that could worry you! However, an update is not required and your site is still secure.

Our Linux/WordPress platforms run Redhat Enterprise Operating Systems, and Redhat uses a process known as ‘backporting’ into slightly older, stable versions of software to ensure security and stability throughout the entire operating system. Put simply, while the version number may appear to be out of date, you can be assured any security fixes have been retrospectively applied to guarantee they remain secure.

To find out more about backporting, please see this article on Backporting Security Fixes on Redhat’s website.

Due to the distributed nature of our network, the IP address your site uses to make outbound connections will differ from the IP the domain resolves to, and hence inbound traffic routes through.

External connections made by shared websites will appear as from either 185.151.28.62, 185.151.28.63, 45.8.227.175, or 45.8.227.176

If you have a Scheduled Tasks/Cron Job that requires external connections, these will appear from 185.151.28.61 or 45.8.227.174

However, the above addresses are subject to change. So if possible, we’d recommend whitelisting the IP range 185.151.28.0/24 and 45.8.227.0/24.

Your machine’s local hosts file allows you to override DNS for a particular domain or subdomain name.

This is a great way to test the site ahead of changing real DNS: you’re able to test the website at Host Hobbit Ltd while the rest of the internet continues to use DNS to point to the existing website.

The way to modify this file and the location of it differs by operating system.

To modify your hosts file, you can add two entries to the file that contains the IP address that you want the site to resolve to and the IP address. Adding the following two lines, for example, would point www.domain.com and domain.com to the IP 1.2.3.4:

1.2.3.4 domain www.domain.com

For Windows:

1. Press Start and Search for ‘Notepad’
2. In the search results, right-click Notepad and select Run as administrator.
3. Use File -> Open and navigate to the following file: c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts
4. Make the changes (below)

For Mac OS 10.0 to 10.6:

1. Open Applications > Utilities > Terminal
2. Type sudo nano /etc/hosts
3. Enter the administrator password
4. Make the changes (below)

To save changes in nano, press Control+x and then y when prompted.

For Mac OS X 10.6 through 10.11:

1. Open Applications > Utilities > Terminal
2. Type sudo nano /private/etc/hosts
3. Enter the administrator password
4. Make the changes (below)
5. Type dscacheutil -flushcache into Terminal and press enter.

To save changes in nano, press Control-x and then “y” when prompted.

For Linux:

1. Use your favourite editor to open /etc/hosts (i.e sudo vim /etc/hosts)
2. Make the changes (below)

Making The Change

The hosts file takes arguments of the format:

XX.XX.XX.XX domain.tld www.domain.tld

The IP address for the website is displayed down the right-hand side of our control panel, under the ‘IP Address’ heading. They’ll usually start with ‘185.151.2x.xxx’:

185.151.2x.xxx domain.tld www.domain.tld sub.domain.tld

After you add this line and save the file, your system begins resolving to the specified IP address.

After testing is finished, please remove these entries so you start using “real DNS” once again.

It’s important to ensure that when making this change, you have entries for both your domain and all relevant subparts. For example, if you just add an entry for “domain.tld”, then “www.domain.tld” will point the original server.

The type of platform you should choose depends on the software you plan to use to power your website.

• Generally, you should choose Windows if your website is built in ASP, ASP.NET or requires a Microsoft SQL database.
• If your website is built in PHP, Perl, Ruby, or Python then choose Linux. WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal, and all other Web apps we provide through our one-click installers are optimised for our Linux hosting platform.
• If you’re only using WordPress, then we recommend using our WordPress hosting platform (it has WordPress-specific speed-boosting features).

If you’re still unsure, we’d recommend choosing Linux as this platform meets the majority of our customers’ needs.

If you’re managing DNS elsewhere, or simply wish to know the IP address of a package, you can find this within your hosting control panel.

1. Head to Manage Hosting and select Manage for the package you wish to know the IP address for.
2. Down the right-hand side under Account Information you’ll find both the IP Address and the IPv6 Address.

In general, it’s only the IPv4 address you’ll need.

When you create a hosting package you’re given a temporary URL.

There are a few reasons why you may want to use the temporary URL.

Viewing a hosting package when you have used a domain reference

At Host Hobbit Ltd you can create a hosting package using a domain reference. This means that the hosting package won’t be connected to a live domain name via DNS, so to view the files you’ve uploaded to the site you can use the temporary URL. It will display the site as if it were live, except it will be on our temporary URL servers and the URL is something like stackstaging.com.

Viewing a site that you’ve migrated, before you switch the DNS to Host Hobbit Ltd

When migrating a site to Host Hobbit Ltd, we recommend the following process:

1. Migrate the site files, emails and databases to Host Hobbit Ltd
2. Check the site works at Host Hobbit Ltd via the temporary URL
3. Point the nameservers to Host Hobbit Ltd.

Step 2 is where the temporary URL comes in. After you’ve copied all the site data to Host Hobbit Ltd, you may want to check that it works. Selecting the temporary URL will show you what the site will look like before you’ve pointed the nameservers to Host Hobbit Ltd’s.

Showing your client their site before making it live on the actual domain name

You may want to show your client a site that you’ve developed for them, without it being accessible on the live domain name. You can give your clients the URL:

stackstaging.com

Alternatively, you create a redirect from the domain name to the temporary URL.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the temporary URL the same as a Staging Environment?

No, the temporary URL is not the same as a staging environment as it will always reflect what will be on the live site, so it’s not possible to perform work and then “push” changes to the live domain name.

Does the temporary URL support SSL?

The temporary URL does not support SSL, so if you have a hard-coded redirect that forces http:// -> https:// this will need to be removed. Similarly, when you are switching between the live domain and temporary URL, you need to make sure you add http and not https.

Are there any alternatives to using the temporary URL?

Yes, you can modify your hosts files. Your machine’s local hosts file allows you to override DNS for a particular domain or subdomain name. This is a great way to test the site ahead of changing real DNS: you’re able to test the website at Host Hobbit Ltd while the rest of the internet continues to use DNS to point to the existing website.

Does my website perform the same on the temporary URL servers?

No, temporary URL servers are reduced capacity as they’re just for trialing a website on the platform before going live, so they’re not intended to benchmark performance.

Not to worry! When a hosting package is created it’s essentially allocated to our standard platform. We can, upon request, move your website to our Kopage Pro Server which removes the upgrade message and gives you full access to the Pro licence.

If you get in touch with our Support Team they’ll be able to upgrade you automatically and for free.

Please be aware that the upgrade process can take up to 30 minutes to complete.

Timeline Backups take an automatic daily backup of all your websites and databases and store them for 30 days.

If you have the Timeline Backups product, you may want to view the most recent backups of your site.

To do this:

1. Log in to cp.hosthobbit.com.
2. Select which package that you want to view.
3. Select the ‘Timeline Backups’ option from the File section.
4. Select ‘View Snapshots’.
5. After selecting ‘View Snapshots’ you’ll see the ‘Snapshot Time’ drop-down that will have all the snapshots from the previous 30 days.

Host Hobbit Ltd imposes a strict Acceptable Use Policy and Terms of Service which customers must adhere to. These cover illegal activities, prohibit certain content hosted through us, and includes a zero-tolerance spam policy.

A Host Hobbit Ltd customer breaking these terms and conditions could have our services withdrawn from them, and potentially be reported to the authorities for illegal activity.

If you suspect any Host Hobbit Ltd customer of abusing our rules, you should report them to us.

Traceroute is a tool used for diagnosing network-related issues. It does this by displaying the route to the destination specified – a domain name or an IP address – and records how long it takes packets to reach that destination. Occasionally we may ask you to perform a traceroute. Here’s how to do it on our 3 hosting platforms:

Windows

1. Click ‘Start’
2. Type in ​Run and then click on the icon that appears (a box should open)
3. Type cmd and then press OK to open command prompt
4. In the window that appears, type in: tracert yourdomain.com (or the IP address depending on the issue) and then press ‘Enter’.

Apple iOS

1. Browse to Applications -> Utilities -> Network Utility -> Traceroute
2. Enter the domain or IP address you need to diagnose, then select Trace

Linux

1. Open a Terminal window
2. Type: traceroute yourdomain.com (or replace ‘yourdomain.com’ with an IP address if requested to do so)

Yes, Host Hobbit Ltd’s hosting is fully PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant and uses ISO 27001-approved data centres so will pass PCI compliance checks.

Our WordPress platform was designed and built exclusively for WordPress.

This level of platform to software exclusivity allows us to truly fine-tune both hardware and software around WordPress. Each site is given its own PHP-FPM resource pool which is running the latest and fastest PHP 7 software with an inbuilt PHP OPCache.

Additionally, we run several edge caching systems that cache your WordPress content right at the start of our network to ensure the fastest load times for your visitors – no matter how busy things get. To manage this, each WordPress install comes bundled with our caching module which you can control via the WordPress admin interface.

Unfortunately, not all plugins were designed to run at scale and may cause problems for you and your website. In order to provide a super-fast and secure platform for all customers, we do have some restrictions on the plugins you’re able to use on your WordPress package.

Disallowed Plugins

The following plugins are not allowed on our WordPress platform due to excessive resource use:

• BackupWordPress
• VersionPress
• Broken Link Checker
• MyReviewPlugin
• LinkMan
• Fuzzy SEO Booster

Caching Plugins

Our WordPress platform comes with various layers of caching built-in. One of the most effective of these caching layers, especially at scale, is our edge cache system.

Unfortunately, most cache plugins will interfere with this and as a result, we don’t recommend running any caching plugins on your WordPress site.

This includes, but is not limited to: W3TC, Super Cache, WP Rocket, and Hummingbird.

Don’t panic! You won’t need them – all caching plugins are built for speed, and you can rest assured our caching plugin will do that hard work for you.

What about your Standard Platforms?

While we discourage the use of the above plugins across all platforms, we currently have no restrictions on what plugins you can use on our standard hosting platforms.

Yes, Sellerdeck – the e-commerce toolset – is fully supported on the Host Hobbit Ltd web hosting platform, and runs really well!

Overview

One of the major problems with malware is its persistence. This is why Host Hobbit Ltd’s Website Malware Scanner makes daily scans of all the sites within your hosting account. It uses a combination of commercial and in-house tools and provides reports detailing identified malicious content and its location within your site files.

When malware is located on a site, PHP mail is automatically disabled. We do this to preserve sender reputation across the platform and ensure that any sites that are compromised do not send large volumes of spam emails.

Best practices when dealing with malware and infected files

1. Check the Malware Report produced by the malware scanner to identify if there are any infected files.
2. Clean and remove the infected files from your webspace.
3. Identify any vulnerabilities within the site and secure them.

Taking regular backups means that you’ll always have a restore point if you do find your site with compromised files.

Checking the Malware Report

The Malware Scanner shows you a list of recently scanned sites on your hosting package. To view the report:

1. Login to cp.hosthobbit.com and head to Manage Hosting.
2. Within Manage Hosting, select Manage for the hosting package you wish to check.
3. From the Security section, select Website Malware Scanner.
4. Select View Reports.

Cleaning infected files

We’d recommend that you clean infected files from the site instead of deleting them. Removing infected files from a site can often cause the site to become broken.

Once cleaned, you can replace them with a known good backup. Once you’ve cleaned the site and files you should confirm there are no additional files within the backup that are also infected and reupload these to your web space.

Additional Considerations

Our Website Malware Scanner is a great first step to identifying and cleaning infected files, but there are some extra steps you should take to make sure your site is free from malware.

• Ensure that your computer has an up-to-date antivirus installed. If you upload an infected file to your webspace, it can trigger malware detection on our scanners.
• Make sure that any custom scripts on your site are using the latest versions and don’t have any vulnerabilities. Using software like Composer, or downloading scripts directly from the authors, will ensure you’re always using the latest version.
• Ensure that your web space is free from malicious or suspicious files.
• If using a Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress or Joomla! make sure the core version of the CMS is up to date. Using an old version of the CMS may result in a vulnerable site that malware could exploit.

Once you’re sure your site is clean and secure, you can submit your site for review. This is done within the malware scanner tool itself by selecting ‘Rescan Website’ – a manual scan is then made of the site, and any new results are presented in the report.

Unfortunately, as with all services that exist online, you can never totally remove the threat of malware or the risk of having a site infected by malicious files.

We recommend following the steps below to greatly reduce the risk of malware and malicious files being uploaded to your web space:

• Keep any Content Management Systems (CMS) up to date. This includes the core files of the system itself, as well as any plugins and themes that are being used.
• If using custom code or scripting, ensure that it is being actively maintained and kept up to date with security patches. If the author no longer supports it, you should not use the script as it could contain exploits.
• Make sure any PCs you use to manage the site have an up-to-date antivirus program installed and running. Make regular checks to ensure it is up to date and operational. An infected PC can often upload infected files without the user knowing it is happening.
• Take regular backups of the site. If the site is infected, a known good backup is the quickest way to get the site back online and remove the infection. You can use our Timeline Backups feature for this.
• If you have multiple sites, keep each of them updated. Vulnerabilities in one site can affect others on the same web space, and keeping them all up to date helps prevent this.

Following the above steps and procedures will greatly reduce the risk of having malware and malicious files on your website.