iUseful.com

Category: Hosting

  • Convert Windows Server 2019 Evaluation to Standard Retail

    If your VPS has an Evaluation version running as a free install, you can purchase a retail key and convert to a full version fairly quickly with just a few commands.

    This process works for most versions, I tested with Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022 and Windows Server 2025 Standard versions.

    If your VPS powers down every day or every few days, that means that you are over your 180 days free evaluation period and you need to upgrade to a full version of Windows Server.

    I prefer Windows Server 2019 over 2022+.

    Firstly run PowerShell (Windows control then enter Power Shell)

    Then enter the following:

    DISM /online /Get-CurrentEdition

    That will give you your current version.

    Then enter this command to get the upgradeable versions:

    DISM /online /Get-TargetEditions

    Then, once you have your Windows Server 2019 Standard key, run this command:

    DISM /Online /Set-Edition:ServerStandard /ProductKey:xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx /AcceptEula

    After a few minutes, the process will complete – let this run as it can be slow depending on the system.

    You will need to restart the VPS.

    Windows Server 2019 Evaluation To Standard
  • UK SSD WordPress Hosting – Guru Cloud Hosting

    UK SSD WordPress Hosting – Guru Cloud Hosting

    I have written a few posts in regards to UK based WordPress hosting and offered a few recommendations based on my own experience.  Well, now I have a new recommendation, Guru Cloud Hosting.  I moved to Guru Cloud a short while ago and have found their servers to be faster than my previous hosting providers.  Their support has been attentive and always online in chat or e-mail.

    Their prices are reasonable too, the package I have is reseller which is £19.99 per month for unlimited cPanel accounts and 100GB of SSD space.  They also offer standard shared hosting from £5 per month which is very reasonable.  One snag in that the £5 package does not include e-mail as this is located on a separate server, that is available for an additional £5 per month.  The reseller account is all-inclusive.

    They currently have an offer, shared hosting for just £1 for the first month on ANY package, click here for the offer and enter code TREAT.

  • Webhost Python – USA web hosting

    Webhost Python – USA web hosting

    I have several posts on UK web hosting with mentions for a few that I have accounts with.  I hadn’t dabbled with USA hosting as I did not have a need to look outside the UK but I had a look around and came across WebhostPython.

    The package I have is the SSD Python B Reseller account with 300GB SSD storage, unlimited domains, 50TB bandwidth, free SSLs and more  The interesting feature for me was what they call Venom Power – 30x faster.  What is this then?  LiteSpeed enterprise, LiteSpeed cache, Samsung enterprise SSDs and so on.

    Does this make a difference?  At the moment it is too early to say but from a wWordPressinstallation, setup, plugin installation and general speed – it is very fast!  Faster than any of my UK hosts!  How can that be, the servers are so far away?

    I have several test sites setup but nothing with substantial content or traffic, just a few testers.  I have had to contact support a few times to help me with issues I created myself, they were very responsive and had me going very quickly.

    I have no idea how big they are but I don’t want them to get big too quickly as the servers are working well for me – maybe a bit selfish of me.

    They also have well-priced web hosting accounts, VPS and dedicated servers.  I have not ventured into the latter yet but I will do at some point.

  • Webhosts merging and lack of competition

    Webhosts merging and lack of competition

    I stuck with the same webhost for over a decade, small webhost with good prices and good personal support.  Very few problems, I only recall 2 major issues in the whole time I was with them.  Then they collapsed – the server my reseller account was on died and there was no backup plan.  A bit shocking considering today’s hosting market but it wasn’t a major issue for me as I had already been sampling other hosts with SSD servers and had my own recent local backups.

    Small webhosts are good for support, no doubt about that.  They are able to deal with issues personally rather than passing it on to several people and having the issue drag out.  The issue was the infrastructure and resources.  This host had a decent setup as my sites were not particularly slow, just one ecommerce site was running slow with Magento.

    Unfortunately, my first proper webhost is no more, they were gobbled up by Krystal.co.uk in a “merger” which is good for both parties as I think they were a little stuck and Krystal rescued them.  I believe that the staff (small team) were kept on which is good to hear, they did their best with the resources they had.

    I looked at Krystal’s packages several weeks ago and whilst their servers seem very well equipped and reviews good on various review sites, the pricing was a little too high for the packages on offer.

    Smarthosting, who I was with on various packages, from the cheap and cheerful £2.50pm unlimited package to the reseller then the master reseller packages – also just got bought or merged with Krystal hosting.  This was a surprise as SmartHosting were having issues then went quiet for a few days, then there were little changes such as support e-mails coming from Krystal.  There were rumours in various forums that the deal was done before but it was poor of SmartHosting not to inform its customers of the situation beforehand.   My old host gave notice and kept customers in the loop on the process – although this was a complete take over as they no longer exist whereas Smarthosting is still running but managed by Krystal.

    It is a strange coincidence to loose 2 web hosts to the same company in the space of a week, from various hosting forums it seems that there are mergers and buyouts happening all of the time – is this really good for competition and customers?  I considered a certain reseller host and found out they are owned by another company with terrible customer reviews – who also own 2 other large hosting companies.  That is fine but they have dominance on the market and advertise their services everywhere, it is not easy to find out who the parent company is.

    In my opinion, it is best to try a host with a free trial so you have the safety net to cancel.  I have tried a few hosts by installingWordPresss and installing loads of plugins to see how the site copes.  Basic packages will not usually run well with more than a handful of plugins but midlevel packages and above should work fine.

    I have nothing against Krystal, their servers appear to be of high specification and their base packages seem to be reasonable but for my needs, their reseller account is not priced suitably and the specification of the package is not high enough.

    If you are looking for a new host, check out my post on WordPress hosts, Smarthosting, Siteground hosting and Jolt hosting.  I have sites with all of these hosts so I think they are good.  Side note, wordpress hosting usually means that a host has technology in place to optimise wordpress installations, they also do standard hosting.

     

  • UK SSD Reseller Hosting

    UK SSD Reseller Hosting

    There are plenty of UK hosts offering reseller accounts whether cpanel or custom panel.  I have had accounts with 6 in the past 2 months alone!  There does not seem to be a single perfect host (within an affordable price range) but most now offer SSD at a minimum.

    I have just signed up with a new host, Jolt.co.uk.  A host that I have never used before and I associated with Counter Strike game servers from many years ago rather than affordable web hosting.

    I had a look at their standard webhosting offers and reseller options.  Their cheapest reseller package is £7.99pm + vat if paid for 12 months upfront at £95.88 + vat (£115.06).  The monthly option is £9.99 and 6 months (don’t see this much) £8.99.

    The mini package is 25GB SSD, 1000GB bandwidth and 50 separate cpanel accounts.  I was considering the next package up with 50/2500 and unlimited cpanel for £187.06inc vat per year but I will take advantage of the 45 day trial and try to push the server with some heavy wordpress sites to see if it performs well.

    I had a chat with sales, Lets Encrypt SSL is not included yet and R1soft backup is extra but they do backup every other day.  For wordpress I use plugins anyway but it is good to have daily backups – especially if you are actually a reseller which I am not.

    Having only just signed up, I can’t say how good the servers are, I will post an updated review of sorts in a few weeks of Jolt.

    Update:

    I needed free SSL certificates for my mini sites as paying £10-20 wasn’t worth it as they were not ecommerce sites.  Jolt said that they can enable AUTOSSL for Cpanel and thus offer free SSLs!

    If you are looking for reliable web hosting services in the UK, look no further than UK SSD hosting. Our SSD hosting packages are specifically designed to meet the needs of individuals and businesses alike. With our state-of-the-art infrastructure and lightning-fast SSD servers, we ensure optimal performance, speed, and reliability for your website.

    As a leading provider of SSD hosting in the UK, we also offer SSD reseller web hosting packages. These packages are designed for individuals or businesses who wish to become resellers of our high-quality hosting services. By choosing our SSD reseller hosting UK plans, you can easily start your own web hosting business and offer top-notch hosting solutions to your clients.

    Our SSD hosting servers use Solid State Drives (SSDs) instead of traditional hard disk drives (HDDs). This cutting-edge technology provides significant advantages over traditional hosting, including faster data access and improved reliability. With our SSD reseller hosting UK plans, you can harness the power of these SSDs and offer your clients lightning-fast website loading speeds and enhanced performance.

    At UK SSD hosting, we pride ourselves on our excellent customer support in English. Our friendly and knowledgeable support team is always ready to assist you with any queries or technical issues you may encounter. We understand the importance of communication, and that’s why we communicate with our customers in their preferred language, ensuring clarity and understanding throughout the process.

    So, if you are in search of SSD hosting solutions in the UK, choose UK SSD hosting for reliable and high-performance hosting services. Explore our SSD hosting packages or SSD reseller hosting UK plans today and experience the power of SSD technology for your website.

  • New contender for best UK WordPress host – SiteGround

    Web Hosting
    After searching for a few months to find the most reliable and fastest host for WordPress I think I have the perfect host.  SiteGround offer a starter package (on offer at the moment) which is quite generous for £2.75pm.  You get 10gb space, SSD storage, free Cloudflare CDN, free SSL and all sorts of other bits and bobs.  I took a trial account and I can tell you without hesitation, my Amazon affiliate site has never run faster!  They give you a cpanel account which is a little customised, one missing feature was the site backup and restore, you can raise a ticket for that.  Their support from the little I have used is it very very quick.

    SiteGround Reseller Package Pricing

    I intend to buy a reseller package, this has a very different pricing plan where you buy credits (no expiry) and you can then allocate the credits to 1 year of hosting per credit or keep them for renewing hosting.  The minimum is 5 but the best value is 11+ where the price comes down.

    The pricing for the credits is as follows:

    • 1-4 Credits £32/Credit
    • 5-10 Credits 29/Credit
    • 11+ Credits £27/Credit

    The minimum starter of 5 credits will cost £145+vat, I would go for the 11 credits option for £297+vat as they don’t expire and you can use them to renew packages rather than add new ones.

    This sites’ WordPress installation is running on HostPresto who are my second favourite host (again) after I dumped SmartHost for being to slow.  HostPresto are inbetween, they are faster than SmartHost but not as fast as SiteGround.  As I have a reseller plan with HostPresto (£270 inc VAT 1 year) I will use it to work on sites and when they become complex and demanding I will switch them to SiteGround.  My stores, current and future, will all be on SiteGround.

    Why have 2 reseller accounts?  I usually start several sites and leave them on the back burner then get back to them  With HostPresto it doesn’t matter as I have unlimited domains as part of my reseller package so I can work on them without having to allocate more money towards them – plus I can create landing pages and use e-mail forwarding for my websites.

    SiteGround Extras

    I was looking around the SiteGround site for pricing on any extras or addons, I couldn’t find any information.  I had to login to my control panel and find the addons which are paid for separately:

    • HackAlert Malware Monitoring £0.67pm
    • Basic Backup Service £1.67pm
    • Wildcard SSL £48pm
    • goMobi Website Builder £6.95pm
    • Dedicated IP £1.67pm
    • Premium Support £2.95pm
    • Cloudflare Plus £7.96pm

    All are excluding GB VAT @ 20%

    The top two are recommended, you can get a free SSL but if you are going to create a store a full SSL is recommended.  Also I have read that a dedicated IP is recommended and is good for SEO.  If the reseller prices are different, I will update the list accordingly.

    Conclusion

    If you have the cash opt for SiteGround, the extra addons will push the price up a little but the site speed alone is worth it in my opinion.  The reseller package does not provide a Cpanel WHM but you will have their custom backend and from there you can add accounts with a separate white label cpanel if you plan to resell.  Siteground also have 4 data centres in various locations which is handy to target you site visitors, they have North America (Chicago), Europe (London and Amsterdam) and Asia-Pacific (Singapore).  You can choose the data centre when you setup the package.

    HostPresto, as I have said, are also very good and fast, for wordpress I would avoid their starter package.  Their reseller is priced at £270 inc VAT and you will access to a WHM to create new cpanel accounts for each domain.  Their UK technical support is amazing, very attentive and very quick.

    SmartHost were good for me to begin with, the standard reseller was £99 inc VAT for 1 year and it was good to setup multiple sites for testing.  They have a Master Reseller plan which costs £265 inc VAT which they said was on a premium platform but I had already signed up with HostPresto so I didn’t get a chance to test it.  If you are just starting out and have multiple domains you want to create sites for, SmartHost offer excellent value with their reseller package.  Again, their UK technical support is amazing, very quick.

    Finally, I would recommend signing up for a trial with the package you intend to use, as long as the host has a Cpanel option, transferring sites is usually free and is usually just a backup and restore option.

    All of the hosts offer 30 days money back guarantee.  Siteground do not refund the reseller credits purchased if they are allocated to a package, you can sign up and not allocate credits if you want to have a look at the control panel.

  • Best host for wordpress – updated

     

    Shared Leaderboard 728x90 1 300x37

    In my previous post regarding the best host for wordpress I mentioned 3 hosts, all of which I was actively using at the time.  After spending a bit more time with each host I have a favourite.  SmartHosting (also known as BestHosting) offer the best value, starting at £2.49 per month for unlimited addon domains.  It is a good starting point – that is where I started.  I have now moved onto the reseller package which is a very reasonable £8.99 per month – the advantage is that each domain is no longer an addon (can be if you want it to) but each domain can have its own cpanel account.  This is advantageous if you wish to upgrade in the future and creates an easier flow in the settings.  My previous host charged more than double than SmartHost and the service was the same.

    I have had some issues where I was not familiar with settings etc and their tech support has been very good, working all hours.  They offer very reasonable domain prices and SSL certificate prices.

    I have still maintained my accounts with the other hosting companies mentioned but this is now my main host.

  • Best UK Webhosting for WordPress?

    I have tried several hosts for my new experience with WordPress, I wanted a UK host with a money back guarantee so that I can test the service with several plugins installed.

    My current UK web hosting providers are HostPresto, SmartHosting and TSOHost

     

     

    HostPresto is now becoming my main host for my sites that are more demanding.  Their backed is cpanel (linux) which I am used to and the upload speeds are very fast.  Support is very good even on weekends.  They have all the standard software 1 click installs including WordPress, Magento etc.  30 day money back guarantee if you want to try the service and ensure it meets your requirements.

    Best Web Hosting

    SmartHosting (also known as BestHosting) offer great value as there is a single low monthly fee but you can add unlimited domains via the cpanel Add Domains feature.  I use this for starter websites, domain holders etc.  So far they have been very reliable and I have several sites set up with them.  Support has been very quick which is always good.  They offer a 30 day money back guarantee.

    TSO Discount

    TSOHost is another provider I used, they have a very good reputation for reliability and their pricing is very competitive.  My only dislike was the cloud control panel which found clunky and lacking features, they also offer cpanel so I will return to them and take up a cpanel package in the future.  They own their own large data centre and they would be a good choice for users requiring their own dedicated and managed servers.  I have a special 10% off hosting coupon to use with TSOHost, enter code iuseful and receive a 10%discount.

     

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