Category: Product Updates

SiteGround has always been focused on providing feature-rich hosting solutions. As we continue expanding our extra services to portfolio, we have recently enabled SSH access on our shared hosting servers.

What is SSH?

Secure Shell (SSH), known as Secure Socket Shell, is a network protocol allowing secure remote access over an encrypted connection. It is widely used by network administrators and web developers looking to enable direct secure access to their host server.
Through an SSH connection you can easily manage your files and folders, modify their permissions, edit files directly on the server, etc. Both ends of the client/server connection are authenticated using a digital certificate and passwords are encrypted, providing a means for secure large data files transfer .

In-house developed SSH technology

So far so good, you probably already knew that – but why launching the service just now? As you know, at SiteGround we take great pride in our in-house technology innovations. We believe that technology should be designed to serve our clients’ specific needs, not the other way round.

The SSH technology we offer has been developed exclusively to meet the demands of SiteGround clients. Here are some of its main advantages:

1. Our SSH is installed in a chroot environment that is much more secure than what other SSH hosts offer. To put it simply – every customer with SSH gets access to their own secure, but restricted environment. The client is the only one allowed into it, but at the same time it blocks any access to the rest of the accounts hosted on the server. This is how we ensure providing greater flexibility for operations to those who need it, without affecting the rest of our clients in any way. In short – it’s a win-win combination.

2. The only authentication method we accept is through authentication keys for greater security. That way we ensure that even if someone has your login details, they will not be able to break into your account via SSH connection without the authentication keys.

3. We have designed the SSH service to allow greater flexibility to those who use it. The new SSH service allows you to set SSH connection permissions to your account depending on the IP address. Meaning, you have the opportunity to limit the SSH access to connections requested , for example, from your own IP address only.

4. For faster and easier management we integrated the custom SiteGround SSH solution in our cPanel. Therefore, all SiteGround clients can conveniently manage all features of their hosting accounts from one and the same place.

For more information on our SSH extra service, go ahead and visit our SSH tutorials section. All registered SiteGround clients can order the SSH extra service as an upgrade from their Customer Area.

On a final note, let me just give you a hint that the SSH upgrade is just the beginning of a campaign of delivering new and better extra services to the large and growing SiteGround community. So stick around for our season treats this winter.

Dima
Product Development – Marketing

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For quite some time now SiteGround’s unique server setup has allowed our customers to use 4 different PHP versions – 4.4.7, 5.0.5, 5.1.6 and 5.2.5. on one and the same hosting account. Needless to say, our customers loved this feature. And there were three serious reasons for this:

1. No hassle with older applications when a new PHP version is released

In terms of backward compatibility, the implementation of 4 PHP versions on one server was a small technical miracle. It saved a lot of hassle to regular users in cases when the applications they used needed serious code modifications or complex upgrades to work with the next stable PHP version. With our setup they did not have to do anything to keep their sites running, as they just continued to use the older PHP version, while the other users on the same server could still use the newer PHP.

2. Different PHP in each subfolder

Another great option for our customers was the fact that they could have different PHP versions in one and the same account under different subfolders. This way you could run your main website on PHP 5.2.5 and at the same time have an older application running on PHP 4.4.7 in a subfolder.

3.Test code on different PHP versions

The availability of different PHP versions on one account was also loved by web developers because they could test their code on several PHP versions without having to purchase several hosting accounts on different servers just for testing purposes.

New PHP versions available now

Given that most hosting companies offer only one PHP version per server, having 4 PHP versions on one and the same account already gave us a serious edge over the competition. However, we like to spoil our customers even more! Now we decided to up the ante a little and offer 7 (that’s right, seven) different PHP versions that each and every account on our shared servers can use. Along with the new PHP versions we’ve added, we have also upgraded and improved the previous ones:

• PHP 4.4.9
• PHP 5.0.5
• PHP 5.1.6
• PHP 5.2.9
• PHP 5.2.9 + Suhosin patch
• PHP 5.3.0
• PHP 6.0.0 (Beta) [Update: PHP 6.0 no longer available]

As you can probably see, we’ve upgraded PHP 4.4.7 to 4.4.9 and PHP 5.2.5 to 5.2.9. The new PHP versions are 5.3.0 and 6.0.0. All PHP versions now come with IMAP SSL support (useful if you want to connect your application to GMail for example).

Since security has always been one of our top priorities, we decided to add a special PHP version that has been patched with the Suhosin advanced protection system. Basically, Suhosin protects your applications from many known vulnerabilities (bufferoverflows, remote URL inclusion, format string vulnerabilities and many more). See a list of Suhosin’s features.

Another thing worth mentioning is the support for PHP 6. Although it is still in development, there’s no doubt that soon this PHP version will be widely used. PHP developers will certainly appreciate the option to test their work on the latest PHP branch. Of course, you don’t need to be a PHP developer to use PHP 6. As we all know, some people just like using the latest software available. In any case, we’ve done our best to make sure you are not caught unprepared 😉 [Update: The PHP 6.0 project was officially postponed March 2010]

As I mentioned above, all 7 PHP versions are already available on all SiteGround shared hosting servers. If you are a SiteGround customer, you can check them right away:
Learn how to switch different PHP versions on your account

And if you are not a SiteGround customer, you can check our website and sign up for an account at any time:
Sign up for a hosting account with 7 PHP versions

Hristo
Product Development – Technical

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SiteGround web hosting has recently added the EV (Extended Validation) SSL certificate to its website. Now the green color in the address bar shows that SiteGround company has gone through a thorough validation process. The advanced SSL technology is also available for all SiteGround customers, who can add it as an upgrade to their hosting accounts.
Continue reading “SiteGround implements highest assurance SSL Technology”

Recently tried visiting  SiteGround web hosting by https? Then you can’t have missed the latest addition to our homepage – the soothingly green address bar in the browser. The reassuring color pops up thanks to the highest assurance SSL technology we have recently added to our website – the EV (Extended Validation) SSL certificate.

How does the EV SSL work?

As each other SSL certificate the EV SSL guards by encryption the information on its way between the browser and its final destination – the server. What is more – the EV SSL is the only certificate ensuring that the final destination itself is secure too.  We trust the green bar not only because of its reassuring color, but also because it contains company information verified by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA). In seconds, it indicates that a domain is owned and a website is operated by a legitimate organization. It gets even more reassuring – this has been checked personally by an authorized professional as opposed to the automatic checks done when a standard SSL is issued.

How EV SSL brings happiness to everyone?

1.    Our customers are happier
Now our customers feel safer when submitting sensitive information on our website. After all, an authorized professional has checked us thoroughly before letting us turn on the green light on our website.
2.    Our sales people are happier
The more comfortable people feel about submitting their information on our website, the better the results of our sales people.
3.    Our website designers are happier
No more wondering where to place the annoying SSL site seal banner, which never matches the website design and always looks awkward.
4.    Our marketing people are happier
We now have a new tested technology to offer to our customers! EV SSL certificates are now available on our SSL page. Which helps us add to our number one goal:  Keeping customers happy!

Having added one more options to our SSL offers portfolio has made it easier for you to find the best solution to your needs. In addition, you now know how to give green light to your website visitors and turn them into customers. So, make sure to check out our SSL offers and choose the one that suits you best.

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If you happen to be one of those SiteGround-true fans who have the SiteGround.com as their browser homepage, you can’t have missed it: We’ve had a redesign.

We’ve introduced the new design of SiteGround.com to bring it more in line with the company’s identity today and, generally make it cleaner and easier to get around. We’ve been meaning to do this for a long time now, but finally found the time to do it right.

There are structural as well as aesthetic differences to the website. Structurally, we have tried to make things simpler and clearer, with better labelling and easier navigation. We’ve also added some new sections to the website as well as re-arranged and expanded some of the old ones. Here are some of the major changes in short:

The SiteGround Homepage: So, whereas in the past, you would find general information about our company and services scattered on several different pages all over the website, it now all goes into one place: the slides on our index page. This is an uninterrupted, 5-slide run of the most important things to know about SiteGround web hosting services.

About Us section: We’ve also expanded the About Us section of our website. The idea here is for our pages to reflect the company culture at SiteGround. We are an ever-developing organism. Behind the SiteGround brand stand people with their ideas, knowledge, skills and hopes. What we aim to provide are details of the few that, in our opinion, you will really find interesting. It’s also an attempt to give readers some short, sneak peaks of what’s cooking in the SiteGround kitchen and shed some light on what makes us who we are.

Resources section: We’ve gone out of our way to compile valuable and comprehensive information and make it easily accessible to both our clients and our website visitors. So far we have created and compiled thousands of free website templates to download, hundreds of tutorials to read, videos to watch, Knowledge Base questions to look up. The idea of our new Resources section is to act as a portal. It’s an attempt to give readers some short, easily-digestible snacks of information of where to find what.

The new Siteground.com is already live. And we’d love to hear what you think about it! That is why we decided to ask you to vote on how you like the new website design. To show your support or simply to congratulate us on our new look, please vote in the voting poll below. All other comments are welcome as well, so do drop us a line in the comments section.

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You do know what spam is, right? Well, if you don’t – open your email. I am sure you will find out a dozen emails there, that you did not request to receive and don’t have ANY idea who their sender is. They are annoying, irritating and can drive you crazy with their high volume – that is SPAM.

So, how do you fight SPAM? Well, there isn’t any universal method that can get rid of ALL the Spam you receive. However, there are some things you can do. And certainly, there are some things your email provider can do to prevent SPAM emails being received by YOU, the End User.

SiteGround as a web hosting provider aims to prevent most of the SPAM emails which are sent to or by our servers to reach their destination. At first, we do the common and obvious things:

• We check the sender’s domain name and IP address versus several large RBL (Real-Time Blackhole List) lists. If we find out any of them is listed in any of the lists, we discard the email message.
• We check if the message contains a valid ‘HELO’ request. By RFC (Request For Comments) definition, each email client should start the email communication with a ‘HELO’ request. If no such are present, we ban them.
• We check in an internal database if the IP address of the sender or the domain name of the email has tried to send too many emails for a short period of time. If it has, we discard the emails and send a warning message to the customer.
• We screen each message and the sender’s address and identify it as spam.

So, let’s assume the email passes our phase-one checks. Then, it is relayed to the Spam Assasin (http://spamassassin.apache.org/) daemon which gives a SPAM score to each email. Emails with score lower than 7 are directly delivered to the customers’ mailbox. Emails with score higher than 7 might be flagged for a manual or automatic review by our internal in-house built systems or might be discarded.

If the email passes the Spam Assasin score system, it’s checked for bad attachments (for example .dll or .pif files – which may and will harm your computer) and is discarded if such are found.

We further check if the user trying to send emails to any of our servers is brute forcing email addresses and if we catch him to do that, we automatically discard the email. The same applies to a user trying to identify to the server with too many usernames and passwords for a certain period of time.

The latest addition to our Anti SPAM filters is an ACL (Access Control List) filter which denies sending emails from a spoofed domain name. This means that if you, for example, host the domain name “yourdomainname.com” with us and “yourdomainname2.com” with another hosting company, you would not be able to send emails from the “yourdomainname2.com” domain from any of the SiteGround servers.

With all that said you should already know that SiteGround has invested a lot of time and effort to build automatic systems to prevent SPAM. And we’ll keep doing more and more. Fighting spam is a continuous process and we make sure we stay ahead!

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There are so many new and interesting things happening around here that I just didn’t know where to start my post. So, I thought I should go talk to Marian. He is our chief system administrator and is a real source of inspiration when it comes to servers and technology. After an hour spent chatting with him, I decided that “the kernel” is the answer. Marian’s team has just upgraded our kernel again and was quite excited about the new tweaks they made.

For those who haven’t encountered the term ‘kernel”, here is a brief explanation I took from Wikipedia: -– “A Unix kernel — the core or key components of the operating system — consists of many kernel subsystems like process management, memory management, file management, device management and network management.” Although you may run a system with a default kernel, the well- built, stable and secure kernel is essential for offering top notch web hosting services.

Nowadays it’s not that big of a deal when you say you are using the “Latest Linux Kernel”. Everybody does that and most of the modern Linux OS will update their kernel with a click of a button. So, “What’s so special about SiteGround’s Kernel then?” you will ask. Read on and you might just find out:

Continue reading “Server security and reliability – Kernel Upgrades”

We promised that this blog will be about life behind the scenes. So, this time I will tell you about the main projects our team is working on. Here is what’s next in line:

1. Brand new automated server monitoring system – the current server monitoring system performs server checks within 9-10 seconds and in case of server load signals to the system administrator to fix the problem manually. The new monitoring system will practically solve problems on its own and will reduce the need for human action – artificial intelligence software. In the end of the day most of the problem resolution will be invisible for you and you will experience much shorter, if any at all, service interruptions due to high server loads or service instability issues.
Continue reading “What are we working on?”

After we started our Facebook page and Twitter account, I have been really happy with all the positive feedback we have received. This once again proved that our collaborative effort for bringing good customer service is worthy.

As customer service importance varies by product, industry and customer, I thought it will be interesting for many people to read what SiteGround does about this. This post turned out to be a bit long, so take a cup of coffee before reading below 🙂

Continue reading “Customer service at SiteGround”

SiteGround web hosting company has recently announced launch of secured IMAP, POP3 and SMTP services. As part of its main goal to ensure the most secure and reliable web hosting environment, the company has dedicated time and resources into upgrading its email service by implementing an encrypted connection (via SSL) for sending (SMTPs), receiving (POP3s) and reading emails (IMAPs).
Continue reading “Secure Email via IMAPs, SMTPs, and POP3s now Supported by SiteGround”