₦airaland Forum

Reseller hosting with unlimited bandwidthTodhost Reseller Hosting will help you start your own web hosting business in minutes! We give you technical support, provide you with all of the tools and support needed to have you started and running. All of our reseller hosting plans will allow you to create unlimited web sites under your own brand name, runs on unlimited bandwidth, you fix your prices, create your packages and features. And you keep 100% of your web hosting money.

After signup you will be given access to the Todhost client area, Web Host Manager(WHM). WHM will allow you to manage and provide your customers with their own user control panels (cPanel) which will enable them to create and modify their own web sites!

View details with plans on our website: https://www.todhost.com/reseller-hosting.php

We have recently had some complaints on forums about web hosts placing some restrictions on hosting accounts due mainly to complaints about websites creating load issues, spamming and malware issues.

These three had been the cardinal issues affecting all websites, irrespective of the hosting plan - shared, reseller, VPS, or dedicated servers. But some website account holders tend to blame their web hosts and will raise issues of website security when their websites are suspended either for running a malware or running high load or is being exploited and automatically is sending out spam mails.

There are ways to deal with all these. But let us first consider who should take the blame for website security.
Generally speaking, website security should be the responsibility of the website owner. It will however be a major responsibility for both the server manager to protect against attacks like a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack and other server security issue. In any case, website owners should tae responsibility to protect their sites. On a general note, most server managers also have an in-house DDOS security team and other security experts in-house and the most complaints we have received are related to a particular websites and not a general problem affecting every server user.

What should you do to protect your website?

Read full blog post at: https://www.todhost.com/blog/website-security-guide-for-shared-hosting-accounts.html

odicity:
thanks sir, i have forgotten my login details for my locally hosted joomla sir hw can i retrive it. I have googled and they directed me to myphp where i will replace my the password dir with some long text which i did but am yet to login sir. Have can i go about it. Thnkx in anticipation sir.

Follow this link to a password recover tutorial published by Todhost.com on the kknowledgebase: https://www.todhost.com/knowledgebase/46/How-to-Reset-Joomla-Administrator-Password.html

Source: https://www.todhost.com/blog/website-security-guide-for-shared-hosting-accounts.html

This post presumes your website is hosted on a shared web hosting account. A shared hosting service allows the web hosting company to setup multiple websites on one server, usually using a common IP address. We have recently had some complaints on forums about web hosts placing some restrictions on hosting accounts due mainly to complaints about websites creating load issues, spamming and malware issues.

These three had been the cardinal issues affecting all websites, irrespective of the hosting plan - shared, reseller, VPS, or dedicated servers. But some website account holders tend to blame their web hosts and will raise issues of website security when their websites are suspended either for running a malware or running high load or is being exploited and automatically is sending out spam mails.

There are ways to deal with all these. But let us first consider who should take the blame for website security.
Generally speaking, website security should be the responsibility of the website owner. It will however be a major responsibility for both the server manager to protect against attacks like a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack and other server security issue. In any case, website owners should tae responsibility to protect their sites. On a general note, most server managers also have an in-house DDOS security team and other security experts in-house and the most complaints we have received are related to a particular websites and not a general problem affecting every server user.
What should you do to protect your website?

1. Maintain a regular and functional backup
This is an advice that will continue to be repeated everyday and every time. Backups are the last resorts for everyone when all attempts to fi a website problems have failed. Most web hosts including Todhost provide an automated backup tool in cPanel. Such backups are stored in the home directory of the websites. We will advice that a copy of your backups be maintained on a local computer or an external saving device as a security measure. Make sure that the backup had been properly done and that the website is in a functional state before the backup commences.

2. Keep up with latest updates
The best way to avoid any breaches and exploitation on your website is to keep up with the latest website updates. It is good that most popularly used web design scripts like WordPress. Joomla Magento and many others do notify their users about latest updates. By updating, you can be sure that you are keeping up with latest security advice and addressing the bug issues which could have been spotted in your current website version.

For more reading on Joomla update, check our post on A Guide on How to update a Joomla website manually

Also read: A General guide to Safe Website Updating

3. Address load related issues
Generally, a shortcut to address load issues is to enable the cache system on your website. The other thing will be to ensure that there is not exploration of any plugin to generate rogue traffic, unnatural traffic which places heavy load on your website hosting server. Because every script used in website design is unique in some way, it is advisable to check up necessary documentation on how to enable the cache system and the best way to go about it. In Joomla for instance, we advice against the use of the progressive caching method on your website.

Also read: Which is the Most Effective Way to Secure a Website?

4. Guard against malware
Malware issues attract heavy penalty and most web hosts will terminate an account found to be running malware. It may occur without your notice especially in cases of phishing websites and plugin vulnerabilities. This underscores the need to maintain regular updates to keep up with bug fixes by the script developers. There are third party scripts which can help detect malware infections and provide a guide to fixing them. We recommend Sucuri.
Also read: How to Fix The WordPress White Screen of Death

5. Avoid Spamming
Spamming is any form of sending unsolicited emails, usually of business nature. We have found that some clients who are new to web hosting rely on this kind of massive mail sending to drive traffic and business. They will generate a mailing list from contact emails and use that to send mails about new services and promotional offers. These are no longer acceptable practices today. If you want to maintain a mailing list, you will have to do that from a double opt-in system like phplist. All emails will have to be verified by their owners for you to confirm their existence before they can receive your mails.
Sometimes, spamming is the result of exploitation. When this is reported, you can carefully detect a plugin or extension that could have been exploited on your website and remove it through an un-install process or by deleting it manually through the file manager in your website control panel.

6. Maintain a safe password policy
This is an issue that is taken lightly by most website owners. It is agreed that passwords are quite difficult to guess, even in their most simple form and guessing a password correctly is mostly possible when there is a clue. However, with Brute Force Attacks, passwords like jonny@123 and 08037774560portharcourt are no longer safe and considered as secured password. Passwords today should be at least 0 digits and combining capital and small letters as well as numbers and special characters.

This safe password policy should equally be applied to your client area access password. Your client area will be the place where you can easily manage your website including gaining direct access to your website files, emails, databases without having to remember any passwords.

It also important to use different passwords for your emails, client area and cPanel control panel. Using a uniform password on all access points is not a good and safe practice.

Also read: Build Up Customer Confidence in Your Website with SSL

7. Protect your emails
Any website is as safe as the email attached to it. Usually, a password reset request will be sent through your email. It follows that if your email password is not safe, then a reset request can allow easy access to your website control panel. This will be a dangerous one as it will allow unhindered access to your account. So, maintain a strong password on your email just as you would maintain a strong password on your cPanel control panel.

8. Remember to change your passwords regularly
You need to review your passwords regularly and check to se your current practice conforms with recommended length and complexity standards. As the attackers are getting better, you have to get smarter and step up the security standards as well.


9. Understand Your Website Script and settings
Every web development script is unique and requires some tweaks to operate optimally. For instace, the methods used to secure a WordPress website will not be the same methods used to secure a Ghost blogging platform or a Joomla website. The script you run will determine you will implement your security guidelines. It is a worthwhile practice to carefully available documentation on your website script so be properly guided on what to do to secure your website. Sometimes, experience teaches better and some users provide a better guide. Looking up independent posts outside official documentstion will be a good idea to understand how others are approaching the security of websites.
Warning: It is not good to implement every recommendation. Always double check and be sure it is a safe and worthwhile practice before you implement on your website.

Do you have any recommendations or suggestions which could help strengthen and improve website security? Share it in the comment box.

Source: https://www.todhost.com/blog/website-security-guide-for-shared-hosting-accounts.html

RushO2:
Is it possible to add google adsense on a blog
URL: www.entrepreneursxpress.

Yes!! But because your blog is on the WordPress website, you will have restrictions on adding adsense to your blog. There wouldn't the fleibility you will probably want. Maybe you contact WordPress for help.

Blazing99:
Can you webhosts warn every customer about that?
Or better still do a autobackup for customers like foreign hosts do.

Yes! You see, foreign or local, auto backups are not reliable and even the biggest hosting firms do change the rule in difficult times.

Consider this: Why do foreigners change hosts if they are all so good? Why do we have from Britain and the U.S hosting on Nigerian platforms if we are so bad? Why do people still move from Hostgator, Bluehost etc? My advice is that you have to take a web space that allows for at least an online backup. The best option is to download at least a functional backup to your local computer.

A complete guide on how to move a Joomla website from localhost to a live server and secure it

source: https://www.todhost.com/blog//a-complete-guide-on-how-to-move-a-joomla-website-from-localhost-to-a-live-server-and-secure-it.html

A complete guide on how to move a Joomla website from localhost to a live server and secure it

source: https://www.todhost.com/blog//a-complete-guide-on-how-to-move-a-joomla-website-from-localhost-to-a-live-server-and-secure-it.html

We have received numerous questions regarding how to upload a Joomla website from localhost to a live server. In this article, we will try to d a step-by-step guide on how to upload from local host to a live server and also provide some clue regarding the net steps which should follow a successful installation of your Joomla website.

We presume that you have successfully installed your Joomla website on your local machine and you are also done with your website design on your local computer. Let's now get started with uploading to a live website.

Prepare for the upload

You will need to get your files ready for upload to a live server. If you have a filemanager tool on your live server, you should be able to upload without issues.

Locate your joomla files on your local computer. This should be located somewhere in /wamp/ on your drive C. You can simply clic the WAMPServer icon and click the www directory to access your joomla files.
It is presumed you have a utility software like WinRar or WinZip installed on your local machine. If not, then you will have to install immediately, it will save you some trouble.
Right click on the applicable folder and click "add to archive" You will now have a zipped file with the same name as your Joomla folder.
Upload the zipped file to your live server. Before you do that, make sure that you have created a static index page so that your website will show your blank page instead of allowing your zipped file to be accessible to visitors.
To create a blank page, simply click the create new file button in file manager. Name your new file as "inde.htm" and save. Now you can proceed to upload your zipped Joomla file.
Extract your zipped file when upload is complete. To do this, Check on the top icons and you will find "extract" Highlight your zipped file with a simple tap and click the extract button. The extraction will commence and display all extracted files when complete. Make sure it does not show any errors. Any errors will suggest that the uploaded file was corrupt. You will need to re-upload the files as bad internet connectivity can create a problem for safe upload.
The other way to do a safe upload is to use an FTP software.
Now, lets assume your upload was successful without issues, you now have to move on to the next steps which is to setup your configuration.

Create Database Information

Now you will need to create your website database and password. There is a simple tool available on your web hosting control panel to do this.

Login to your website control panel at domain_name/cpanel

Authenticate your login with the appropriate username and password.

Now, scroll down to the section on databases and click create database.

Enter database name - just a simple word which could correspond with your website name.
Enter the database password - you can use the online password generator to have a strong password.

PLEASE save this information as you will need it later.

Configuring Your Live Joomla Website

Open the configuration.php file. You can use the online file editor to do that. There are a few edits that will be necessary at this time.

Locate the database name: enter the name of the databas you earlier created along with your site username. Something like: username_database name
Locate the Database password: Enter the password you used when you created your database earlier.
Lacoate user: change it to the username of your website.

At this point, if you have provided the right information, your website should now be live on the internet.

If you try to view with your domain name, you will still come accross the white screen. Remember we created it to protect our uploaded files. But wait, there is still a couple of changes to mae before you delete the index.htm file which will remove the white screen

You will now need to change the admin password.

To do this, login to the administrator section of your website. This will usually be located at http://yourdomain.com/administrator

Enter your username, by default, the Joomla admin username will be "admin"

Enter the password you used while you setup your Joomla installation on localhost.
From your Joomla backend, Go to users > user manager.
A list of all the users will be displayed. Click on the admin username to proceed. Now you can change the password and even change the admin username to something else. Caning the admin username from the default is a security measure and helps to strengthen your Joomla website security.
Save your changes.

The Next steps

Now you will need to rename the htaccess.txt to .htaccess, adjust global configuration settings like fix the path to your log files, temporary files, enable cache settings, session duration, error reporting, captcha-recaptcha, and restrict access to some folders for security reasons.

Begin by renaming the .htaccess file.
You can open the htacces.txt file with a file editor like “context programmers editor” You can install that software in few simple clicks on your laptop. Then save it as .htaccess and upload to the server. You will then need to delete the htaccess.txt file once you complete this upload.
The other way to rename the htaccess.txt file to .htaccess is to use the online file manager. Simply tap on the htaccess.txt file and click the rename button. Tpe the new name and save your changes.
Once you have done that, you can now proceed to change some global configuration settings.

Adjust Site settings in global configuration
Go to system > Global Configuration > SEO settings and set Use URL rewriting to yes. Before you do this, make sure you have renamed the htaccess.txt file to .htaccess. You will leave other SEO settings the way they are. Except you have good reasons to do so, it won’t be necessary to add suffix to url, all site name to page titles or set Unicode aliases to yes.
Set Captcha setting to Captcha-ReCaptcha. To get this working, also go to Extensions > Plugins > Captcha-ReCaptcha and get a site and secret key for your domain from Google Captcha at http://www.google.com/recaptcha Once everything is done correctly, save the settings.

Adjust system settings in global configuration
Go to system > Global Configuration > System settings and change the path to log folder from something like: C:\wamp\www\galileemarine/logs to something like /home/site_username/public_html/logs
Change your cache settings to the conservative cache settings. We recommend that you do not bother use the progressive caching option. To enable the cache settings to work, enable cache from Extensions > Plugins > System-Page Cache. Once done, save your settings.

You may want to change session lifetime to 30 mins or more so that you do not get sign out interruptions when updating your website.

Adjust Server settings in global configuration
Go to system > Global Configuration > Server and change the path to temp folder to: /home/site_username/public_html/tmp
You will not need to bother adjusting the GZip compression settings.
Set “error reporting” to “none”
Leave the https settings except you run an SSL on your site and want to enable the use of SSL.

Secure Your Joomla Installation From Exploitation
There are several measures that should help your website security. For our purposes here, we are concerned with the basic measures need to be taken after an installation. This will include securing all the folders with an access restriction. Take the following steps:

1. Create a .htaccess file in all the folders you need to secure which must include all folders on your Joomla installation apart from the images folder. Makke sure you secure all the folders on your installation and take nothing for granted.
2. Below is a sample code you could place in the .htaccess to secure it from unpermitted access:
order deny,allow
allow from 28.206.
allow from 20.74.121.102
allow from 308.74.121.106
allow from 108.74.120.227
allow from 180.229.24.78
allow from 19.211.
deny from all

When you create a.htaccess file in each folder and place these codes in it, you actually deny access to the IP addresses not listed in the code. That way, unpermitted access is not allowed. This way, you will be able to deal with most exploitation caused by outdated but genuine plugins and other extensions.

At this point, you can proceed to delete the inde.htm, that static page you used to keep visitors away from all the installations you were doing, if you have not done it already. Your website is now good to be promoted to users.

A complete guide on how to move a Joomla website from localhost to a live server and secure it https://www.todhost.com/blog//a-complete-guide-on-how-to-move-a-joomla-website-from-localhost-to-a-live-server-and-secure-it.html

Though a sad experience, it cannot go for every Nigerian web hosting company.

CallMeNJay:
Help!!

My blogger pageview counter shows over 2,500 daily Visits.

Analytics shows only 22

Adsense less than 20.

How do i correct this?

http://fbtrick..com

What do you mean? Do you expect to get more adsense hits with the traffic?

Have you been able to buy the domain?

buharisbae:
I've been trying to buy domain but I dunno how to go about it help explain

A General guide to Safe Website Updating
https://www.todhost.com/knowledgebase/818/A-General-guide-to-Safe-Website-Updating.html

The Ghost project is led by John O'Nolan and Hannah Wolfe, both of whom have been involved with Wordpress in the past. With WordPress, when you just want to blog and maybe have a couple of static pages, there's a lot of useless features cluttering it all up. Ghost is an attempt to build a back-to-basics, clean and efficient blogging system. It is designed to function purely as a blogging platform.

Ghost is a blogging platform for knowledgeable developers. A WordPress install can generally be hacked together with enough reading and tutorials, however Ghost is currently a bit touchy, and unless you are a developer you’re likely to find yourself spending a lot of time debugging issues. If you aren’t a developer, I suggest paying for someone to host and manage a Ghost website for you.

To actually migrate to Ghost is a pretty easy 3 step process:

1. Set up a new Ghost blog somewhere,

2. Migrate your images: Back up your wp-content/uploads folder, and upload it to a wp-content/uploads folder under your ghost install so that things all match up.

3. Install the Ghost Export plugin for WordPress, and then export your WordPress blog to a .json file that you can then upload into Ghost

All in all the installation is quick. The hardest part is getting all of the redirects set up in the web.config. WordPress handles 301 redirects for you if you ever change a permalink, however Ghost has just introduced the concept of plugins, so the majority of things, like 301 redirects, you have to do yourself.

We can look at all these in greater detail below. But first, let’s look at the benefits of moving from WordPress to Ghost. These major benefits are attributable to Ghost:

• Page speed goes up and can load in as fast as 1 second (awesome!)

• Actual writing experience in Ghost is amazing and can inspire more writing. Remember that Google likes freshness.

Also read: How to Increase the Size of Maximum File Upload in WordPress

Before you decide to move from WordPress to Ghost, consider these recommendations:

Use Ghost if:

• Your blog is just starting out (301 redirects for a lot of history require setting them up the old fashioned way)

• You care more about getting your ideas down than having people read everything you’ve written

• Are a hacker/dev and want a site that runs on Node.JS (this is a big reason people love Ghost)

Also read: How to manually install a WordPress plugin

Now Back to Migrating From WordPress to Ghost

Migrating to Ghost from WordPress does take a few steps at this point in time, but we will cover everything you need to get all your data over.

In this post we will be discussing the following aspects of migrating from WordPress to Ghost. If you have an existing Wordpress blog and want to migrate the blog posts over to Ghost, below are the steps.

Install the Wordpress Ghost Plugin (http://wordpress.org/plugins/ghost/faq/)
In the Wordpress admin console, on the left side go to Tools -> Export to Ghost
Scroll to the bottom and press "Download Ghost File"
Save the file to your Desktop

Keep this file for now, we will come back to it after we do the images.

Also read: How to move a website from Joomla to WordPress

Here are the necessary steps:

To move from WordPress, begin by installing the official plugin which exports the contents of your posts in a formatted JSON file. It is recommended that if you have posts with images, you should install Cloudinary’s plugin. Cloudinary is a CDN network where you can host images. You can create a free account with some limitations if you have small image hosting needs. Make sure to upload your entire media library to Cloundinary before exporting (the plugin provides a bulk upload feature). Once your images are mirrored, any posts that contain images will have their links replaced with where they reside on Cloudinary. This is not a huge deal for people whose posts are just texts. Such people will not want to bother about images hosted anywhere else other than on own server, so a little time can be invested in manually correcting some posts that contained links to wp-content.

Installation

If you run on Todhost or a server that has a one-click installation option, this make things simple. If your webhost doesn’t have one click install, the manual method won’t take you much longer to do. Within a few minutes you can have Ghost running. To import WordPress JSON file, Just go to enterdomainhere.com/ghost/debug (where enterdomainhere is your real domain). It only takes a few seconds for it to import large number of posts. Once the posts were uploaded, you look into URL redirects to make sure existing RSS feed wouldn’t break for readers. Ghost developers smartly included a redirect for /feed which is the default path for RSS on WordPress.

Transferring Wordpress Images to Ghost

Now that you have a local copy of your WordPress content, we shift over to migrating your images over to Ghost. There are two steps to handle the WordPress images:

Move the images from the server hosting WordPress over to the new server hosting Ghost.

Modify the WordPress export of your content to point at the images on your Ghost server.

Note: If you are hosting on Todhost, once you download your images, contact the support team and we can finish getting you setup since you don't have access to the backend

For the first step you can either:

use an FTP application to pull down your WordPress images to your computer and push them up to your Ghost server (easiest)

If you are unsure how to do this, it can differ for every host. It is usually best to contact the support team of the hosting company for your Wordpress blog and they can help you get the images.

Regardless of which method you use, on the Ghost server, the images need to end up in:

/var/www/ghost/content/images/

If your ghost blog is somewhere other than /var/www then adjust the path above.

Once the transfer is complete make sure you set the ownership on all of images

How To Migrate WordPress Comments to Ghost

At this time, Ghost does not have any built in commenting system. The most popular alternative is Disqus, so this section will detail how you can migrate all of your WordPress comments to Disqus and how to integrate your Disqus comments into Ghost.

The basic idea is:

Sign up for Disqus account

Install Disqus plugin in your WordPress blog

Export comments to your Disqus account from within WordPress plugin

Add Disqus comments into your Ghost blog

The details:

Disqus Account Sign Up and Integration into Ghost

If you purchased or download a theme, a bunch already have the disqus code in place and all the theme needs is your account number. Check out your theme documentation to see if it has that ready for you, but this section will assume there is nothing built in.

Head over to Disqus and signup for an account

Once you have signed up check your email and click the Disqus verification link. You will be taken to a Disqus welcome page and you will need to click on the Dashboard button in the upper right

Click on the +Add button in the upper left

Fill out the Site profile details and click Finish registration

On the "Choose your platform" page click Universal Code

On this page you will need to copy the Javascript code in the first. This Javascript code is going to be added to your Ghost theme to display your comments.

Inside your theme, the file you are going to edit is post.hbs and is located at:

/path/to/ghost/content/themes/casper/post.hbs

Open up this file with a text editor

If you scroll down a little bit inside the file, you will see this code (assuming you are using the Casper theme, may be different if you are using another theme):

<section class="post-content">

{{content}}

</section>

Paste the code you copied from Disqus right below that section and save.

Upload your theme to get the new files in place. If you have Ghost running, stop and start it. Now when you navigate to a post, you will see a comment section

Now we just need to migrate your existing comments over to Disqus.

Migrate WordPress Comments To Disqus

On your WordPress Dashboard click on Plugins

Click on Add New

Search for Disqus

Click Install Now

Click Activate Plugin

Click on Configure

Fill in your Disqus username and password that you just signed up with

Select Disqus site name and click Next

Click on the Export Comments link

Click on the Export Comments button

Wait until you receive an email from Disqus saying the import is complete.

Click the link in the email that Disqus sent to check on the status of Disqus processing your comments.

If Disqus is done processing your comments you will see a message at the top saying so.

Now all of your comments are over on Disqus, so when you switch to Ghost, as long as the posts are the same domain name and URL (they should) the comments will come over no problem.

How to point your domain from WordPress To Ghost

The steps documented will be to point a domain to your desired hosting account running Ghost

Almost every domain name registrar has similar steps. If you have questions, contact your provider and they can probably just do it for you.

Log into current registrar (or whatever host you are using).

Click on the Manage Domains. Next click on your domain name.

On this page click on Transfer DNS to Webhost. Then you have the option to input custom DNS Servers. By inputting custom DNS server you can configure where your domain name points to. In this example, we will input the nameservers for todhost.

In custom DNS servers, fill in the following

ns1.todhost.com

ns2.todhost.com

Now click Save Changes.

That’s it! It may take a couple hours to propagate through the system.

Again it may be different for your specific domain name registrar, but it should be a similar process. If you run into trouble, most of the web hosts have 24/7 online ticketing support who can do it for you or show you how to. This should have given you everything you need to transfer from Wordpress over to Ghost.

Please post your comments and share this post with others.

Read more: How to migrate your website from WordPress to Ghost https://www.todhost.com/knowledgebase/761/How-to-migrate-your-website-from-WordPress-to-Ghost.html

Source: https://www.todhost.com/knowledgebase/818/A-General-guide-to-Safe-Website-Updating.html

Regular website update is recommended for security and improved website performance. Definitely, before a new version of software is released, there are some bugs and improvements that are fixed on the older version. The new version is expected to be better and more user friendly than the old. So running a website update is not suppose to be optional but a highly recommended practice.

On one of the client websites hosted on Todhost, we have found that the website had been updated to the latest software version without a corresponding update on the modules, plugins and components. This created a functionality issue for the database as some of the plugins are not compatible with the newer versions of the software.

The client runs on Joomla and you will remember that Joomla had made public some bugs which has forced nearly over 90 percent of users to upgrade to a perceived safe version. At Todhost, we have been designing with Joomla for over 6 years and we have also been compelled to run upgrades given the alarm raised about the security of running an outdated version.

How Does This Problem Affect You

This kind of problem could occur if you have setup your website using custom setup or installations or you have installed some third party extensions for some reasons. So there are four considerations you need to make before deciding on running an update for your software:

1. Do you have some custom extensions that would require update following your new and planned upgrade.
2. Is your website dashboard showing that there is need to update extensions – plugins, modules or components?
3. Will there be need to change some settings, say php settings, to get your new installation to function properly and will these changes affect the functionality of installed extensions.
4. Will your upgrade be compatible with your website templates?

What’s The Safe Approach

You will simply need to check up updates for your extensions - plugins modules or components and be sure there is no extension requiring an update. If you find any, simply hang on and do not continue with an upgrade of the core installation. Ensure that you have access to the latest version of every extension on your database before you proceed.

What About Old and Outdated Extensions?

Yes! There are extensions that have not been updated by the developers and they have become outdated. You will simply need to uninstall all such extensions and install an up to date extension. Outdated extensions can create complex problems including a white screen of death error, spam email sending, high load issues and even a hack can be possible with a bad extension. Be careful in choosing extensions from the outset and it is recommended that you look up user reviews before you decide on any extension.

Monitor Updates on Your CMS

Joomla
The latest version of Joomla will display updates on the backend dashboard. This will alerst you on any latest updates regarding new version releases and extensions that need to be updated.

WordPress
Sometimes you may know that a theme or plugin has an update available, but you don’t see it in your dashboard. This tends to happen more with commercial themes/plugins that rely on their own update systems.

If this is happening to you, there’s a simple way you can force the update to show. To force an update check, install and activate the Force Plugin Updates Check plugin. This plugin works for both plugins and themes. Once activated, hover over the updates icon in the toolbar, and click on the new Check for Plugin Updates link. The page will refresh and any available updates will be found. It’s as simple as that.

Other CMSs
There are procedures to update all other Content Management Systems and you need to follow the recommended path to perform relevant updates.

How to Identify a Bad Plugin or Extension
Here are some simple guides to identifying a bad extension.
1. Test it on a trial site. May be you can use localhost to test it and see how it performs.
2. Be weary of requests to do a favorable review before you can download and install. In fact any request for a review for a review before you can download or use or have access to certain functionality should be suspicious and we will recommend you drop such extensions.
3. Check up user reviews for any extension you intend to use. This is the most reliable way to know how safe it is to use an extension. Be mindful of functionality complaints and separate it from complaints about not getting the expected support. Most free extensions do not come with regular support and so poor support for any free extension will be sufficient basis to discredit the extension.

Know How to Un-Install a Bad Extension

It is pretty good to arm yourself with this knowledge. Sometimes, you need to unstall a bad or malfunctioning plugin and you find that you just can’t do it. You will need to know how to do it manually. Generally, all un-installation of extensions should be possible within the backend dashboard area. It does not matter the script involved, WordPress, Joomla, Magento and a lot of others. You can uninstall them from their backend.

But there are actually times when you find that unistalling them from the admin area is just not possible. This happens with bad extensions and your solution will be to do the un-installation manually. Follow these steps to uninstall an extension manually. Please note that the suggested steps do not always apply to all website development scripts. They will apply to WordPress and Joomla and a whole lot of others but definitely not to all of them. Now, follow these steps to un-install an extension manually:

1. Locate the folder into which the extension had been installed. It could be in the plugin, module or plugin folder.
2. Open the folder and locate the name of the extension. You will have to be very sure of the folder name so you do not do damage to another useful extension.
3. Rename the relevant folder name once you are able to confirm it is the folder you actually desire to disable.

Website Security Issues

Now, we have recommended that you be mindful of updating when you are not sure of having everything updated. We have also noted the risks associated with running outdated plugins, modules and components. It has also been said that running updates can affect the functionality of templates and other aspects of your website.

So, essentially, when running custom plugins, modules and components, the safe path appear to see how one can stay safe with current versions. A classic example will be a situation where you have bought a WordPress template which includes the full installs and custom plugins. After a period, your subscription runs out and do not see the need to renew or simply does not have the means to do so. How do you now manage the newer updates on WordPress?

Website Security Suggestions

There is one approach we have used to strengthen the security of websites which has helped to keep all the websites safe from external intrusion or compromise. We have used a small file called the .htaccess file.
With the .htaccess file, we have been able to use the rule for access restriction to protect every folder to which we do not want to allow public access or we feel that allowing access to them could a security breach. In some cases, we have restricted access to all folders apart from the image folder.

Below is a sample code you could place in the .htaccess to secure it from unpermitted access:
order deny,allow
allow from 28.206.
allow from 20.74.121.102
allow from 308.74.121.106
allow from 108.74.120.227
allow from 180.229.24.78
allow from 19.211.
deny from all

When you create a.htaccess file in each folder and place these codes in it, you actually deny access to the IP addresses not listed in the code. That way, unpermitted access is not allowed.

General Security Guide for Every Website

1. Be password-savvy: This is an issue that has been re-emphasized over and over again. If your password is still “Password@123,” it’s time to get serious. Create unique codes for each of your accounts, and make sure they’re at least 8 characters long (with a few special ones thrown in). I suggest you use the cpanel password generator if you have access to your website control panel.

2. The security of your email is as important as that of your website. This is because every website is always linked to an email address. Ths is one key area that has been neglected but it's as important as the other items. However, it should also be mentioned that most website hacks have not been linked to weak email passwords. I will still recommend you take your email security important to be protected all round from those who will go all out.

3. Encrypt emails and valuable information. If a hacker does breach your system, encryption makes it that much harder to get away with critical data. Voltage, DataMotion, and Proofpoint are industry leaders worth checking out.

4. Back up your data: Copying your key company data onto a cloud-based system, such as Dropbox or OneDrive, or a USB hard drive takes minutes, and will save you time and anxiety if your system is ever compromised.

5. Maintain updates: This is an aspect that hed been neglected by many. It is important that you check for updates daily on your most critical websites to be able to take action as quickly as possible once there be need for an update. Always ensure that your keep your website up-to-date especially if you run a content management system. Keeping your system updated with the most recent software updates will help you overcome expolitation associated with discovered vulnerabilities.

6. Finally, you will need to check up specific security suggestions associated with your website design tools so that you can implement relevant security advices. The popular website design tools are WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Magento, OsCommerce, (not in order of popularity). Check specific security guides for these applications to stay safe.

Hope this post was helpful. Please share with others using the Facebook, Twitter and other social sharing links on the page. Remember to share views and suggestions in the comment box below.

Read more: https://www.todhost.com/knowledgebase/818/A-General-guide-to-Safe-Website-Updating.html

thundabot:
Nice, quite informative

Read more WordPress articles at: https://www.todhost.com/blog//wordpress

Read more WordPress articles at: https://www.todhost.com/blog//wordpress

thundabot:
Nice, quite informative

Source: https://www.todhost.com/blog//how-to-find-and-clean-backdoors-in-a-hacked-wordpress-site.html


There are times when you have your WordPress website cleaned up and the attacker is still able to gain access. This happens if you did not clean it up properly and there was a backdoor created by the hacker which allowed a bypass of normal authentication. In this article, we will show you how to find a backdoor in a hacked WordPress site and fix it.

What is a Backdoor?

Backdoor simply means bypassing normal authentication and gaining remote access to the server while remaining undetected. Most smart hackers always upload the backdoor as the first thing. This allows them to regain access even after you find and remove the exploited plugin. Backdoors often survive the upgrades, so your site is vulnerable until you clean this up.

Some backdoors simply allow users to create hidden admin username. The more complex backdoors can allow the hacker to execute any PHP code sent from the browser. Others have a full fledged User Interface (UI) that allows them to send emails as your server, execute SQL queries, and everything else they want to do.

Where Do Hackers Hide BackDoor Codes?

Backdoors on a WordPress install are most commonly stored in the following locations:

Themes – Most likely it is not in the current theme that you are using. Hackers want the code to survive core updates. This is why we recommend deleting all the inactive themes.
Plugins – Plugins are a great place for the hacker to hide the code for three reasons. One because people don’t really look at them. Two because people don’t like to upgrade their plugins, so they survive the upgrades (folks keep them up to date). Three, there are some poorly coded plugins which probably have their own vulnerabilities to begin with.
Uploads Directory – You never really want to check your uploads directory. Of course, you really do not find a reason to do so. Why would you? You just upload the image, and use it in your post. You probably have thousands of images in the uploads folder divided by year and month. It is very easy for the hacker to upload a backdoor in the uploads folder because it will hide among thousands of media files. Plus you don’t check it regularly. Most folks don’t have a monitoring plugin like Sucuri. Moreover, the uploads directory is writable, so it can work the way it is supposed to. This makes it a great target.

wp-config.php – This is also one of the highly targeted files by the hackers.

Includes Folder – /wp-includes/ folder is another place that we find backdoors.

In all cases, the backdoor is most likely disguised to look like a WordPress file.

For example: the backdoor can be in wp-includes folder, and called wp-user.php (this doesn’t exist in the normal install). There is user.php, but no wp-user.php in the /wp-includes/ folder. IYou can also find a php file named hello.php in the uploads folder. It is disguised as the Hello Dolly plugin.

It can also use names like wp-content.old.tmp, data.php, php5.php, or something of that sort. It doesn’t have to end with PHP just because it has PHP code in it. It can also be a .zip file. In most cases, these files are encoded with base64 code that usually perform all sort operations (i.e add spam links, add additional pages, redirect the main site to spammy pages, etc).

Now you are probably thinking that WordPress is insecure because it allows for backdoors. The current version of WordPress has no known vulnerabilities. Backdoors are not the first step of the hack. It is usually the second step. Often hackers find an exploit in a third-party plugin or script which then gives them access to upload the backdoor.

It can be all sort of things though. For example, a poorly coded plugin can allow user privilege escalation. If your site had open registrations, the hacker can just register for free. Exploit the one feature to gain more privileges (which then allows them to upload the files). In other cases, it could very well be that your credentials were compromised. It could also be that you were using a bad hosting provider.

How to Clean the Backdoor

Cleaning up the backdoor is as easy as deleting the file or code. The difficult task is finding it. You can start with one of the following malware scanner WordPress plugins. Out of those, we recommend Sucuri.

You can also use the Exploit Scanner, but remember that base64 and eval codes are also used in plugins. So sometimes it will return a lot of false positives. If you are not the developer of the plugins, then it is really hard for you to know which code is out of its place in the thousands of lines of code.

Recommendation: The best thing you can do is delete your plugins directory, and reinstall your plugins from scratch. Yes,, this is the only way you can be sure unless you have a lot of time to spend.

Search the Uploads Directory

One of the scanner plugins will find a rogue file in the uploads folder. But if you are familiar with SSH, then you just need to write the following command:

find uploads -name "*.php" -print

There is no good reason for a .php file to be in your uploads folder. The folder is designed for media files in most cases. If there is a .php file that is in there, delete it

Delete Inactive Themes

As mentioned above, often the inactive themes are targeted. The best thing to do is delete them.

.htaccess File

Sometimes the redirect codes are being added there. Just delete the file, and it will recreate itself. If it doesn’t, go to your WordPress admin panel. Settings » Permalinks. Click the save button there. It will recreate the .htaccess file.

wp-config.php file

Compare this file with the default wp-config-sample.php file and delete any strange file.

Database Scan for Exploits and SPAM

A smart hacker will create numerous backdoor. Targeting a database full of data is a very easy trick. They can store their bad PHP functions, new administrative accounts, SPAM links, etc in the database.

Exploit Scanner plugin or Sucuri (paid version) both takes care of that.

Double Check

Open your browser in an incognito mode to see if the hack comes back. Sometimes, these hackers are smart. They will not show the hack to logged in users. Only logged out users see it. Or better yet, try to change your browser’s useragent as Google. Sometimes, the hackers only want to target the search engines. If all looks great, then you are good to go.

If you want to be 100% sure that there is no hack, then delete your site. And restore it to the point where you know that the hack wasn’t there. This may not be an option for everyone.

How to Prevent a Future Hack

We advice that you keep strong backups (VaultPress or BackupBuddy) and start using a monitoring service. Like we said earlier, you cannot possibly monitor everything that goes on your site when you are doing tons of other things.

Read our article on 5 Reasons Why We Use Sucuri to Improve our WordPress Security

What Next

Use Strong Passwords – Force strong passwords on your users. Start using a password managing utility like 1Password.

2-Step up Authentication – If your password got compromised, the user would still need to have the verification code from your phone.

Limit Login Attempts – This plugin allows you to lock the user out after X numbers of failed login attempts.

Disable Theme and Plugin Editors – This prevents user escalation issues. Even if the user’s privileges were escalated, they couldn’t modify your theme or plugins using the WP-Admin.

Password Protect WP-Admin – You can password protect the entire directory. You can also limit access by IP.

Disable PHP Execution in Certain WordPress Directories – This disables PHP execution in the upload directories and other directories of your choice. Basically so even if someone was able to upload the file in your uploads folder, they wouldn’t be able to execute it.
Stay UPDATED – Run the latest version of WordPress, and upgrade your plugins.

Lastly, don’t be cheap when it comes to security. We always say that the best security measure is great backups. Please please please keep good regular backups of your site. Most hosting companies DO NOT do this for you. Use solutions like BackupBuddy or VaultPress. This way if you ever get hacked, you always have a restore point.

More articles available at: https://www.todhost.com/blog

Blazing99:
I have been using whogohost for 5 years
I have been using smartweb for 4 years
i have used registeram for 2 years
i have used ihostafrica for 2 years

Better have a strong backup cos when they will show you, na apology email go end am

We do now that the issues you have raised happen everywhere! The golden rule which applies everywhere is that you must maintain a functional backup even if you host on the best infrastructure. You have to keep a backup.

16 Mistakes That Turn People Away From Your Website

Websites are impersonal ways of communication and so they require strong confidence building measures to keep visitors and get them to return to the site. In this post, we have compiled 16 things that could turn people away from a website. Web builders/designers do forget to note and implement some of these recommendations even when they have themselves been irked by some of these things on other people’s website. That happens to most of us but working with a simple guide like this one can help overcome some of these problems. This guide could therefore be simply referred to as a guide to what not to do when designing your website.

16 Reasons Visitors Hate Your Website

1) Slow Website Speed.

People have real trouble waiting for websites when the load time is very high. According to a KISSmetrics report, 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in two seconds or less, and 40% abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load. Even a one-second delay decreases customer satisfaction by about 16%. This can have very strong and negative impact on website bounce rate. Faster loading website can help reduce bounce rate more than most other factors.

So, optimizing your website load performance should be a priority and you need to spend time and research into getting it right below 2 seconds. If you are running a content management system, you need to pay attention to caching. Page load time can also be impacted by poorly optimized images, code, videos, and other factors This can be addressed by plugins if you built your website with content management systems like WordPress and Joomla
2. Website is Not Mobile Friendly

If you are a mobile phone user and browse with your mobile phone, you should have come across some websites that you will have to scroll from side-to-side to read copy on a website or zoom to view the text content of the website. These are the painful UX people can have on websites that aren't optimized for mobile.

Google announced a major mobile algorithm update in summer 2015 that penalizes websites that aren't mobile-friendly, and it announced it would strengthen the ranking signal from mobile-friendly websites starting on May 1, 2016. That simply means you have to take mobile friendliness very seriously.

The major reason why Google continues to make these changes is to improve the web browsing experience for mobile users. So if your site isn’t optimized for mobile devices, you'll likely lose out significantly in the organic search rankings.

Read full article on our blog: https://www.todhost.com/blog//16-mistakes-that-turn-people-away-from-your-website.html

ITyUNIT:
One of the main reasons bloggers (especially new ones) get many 404 errors is when they keep changing their templates.

If you notice too much 404 errors on search console especially after you install a new theme, do not worry just finish you work. Once you are satisfy, test and resubmit your sitemap and mark all the previous errors as fixed, Google will forgive you and continue ranking your site/blog

Changing the template should ordinarily not be a problem for a WordPress website or for any other content management system. The real problem is that when they change the template, they also make adjustment to the existing categories - That is what can lead to a 404.

Another reason is that in changing a template, you try to an entirely new installation. This is usually seen when people buy fresh templates along with installation packages and in other to have their website look exactly like the demo, they have to do an entirely new installation. For sure, there will be lots of 404 errors. Making adjustments to your css rather than just running an entirely new install will be recommended.

akomst:
My blog akomst..com seems to have one of the errors - "blank white page" - that you mentioned above, particularly the mobile page. I used a free third party template on blogger, any help ?

What did you use for the design? WordPress, Ghost or Joomla etc? Just trying to know so one can see how to help. In any case, try debugging and identify the cause of error. It could be a plugin or something else. Let us now if you are able to login to backend or not.

These two articles will help if you are running a Joomla or WordPress website:

1. WordPress: https://www.todhost.com/blog//how-to-fix-the-wordpress-white-screen-of-death.html

2. Joomla: https://www.todhost.com/blog//how-to-fix-the-joomla-white-screen-of-death.html

Source: https://www.todhost.com/blog//how-website-errors-affect-search-engine-rankings.html

Website ranking is for many, one of the most critically mportant aspects of their online business. Apart from the information websites provide, staying in business actually depend on how much traffic and conversion a website can get.

There are several errors a website can generate. The most common of them is the 404 error. And we will dwell a little more on the 404 error and other errors. We will discuss how these errors can be fixed and how they affect search engine rankings.

According to Google, 404 errors are normal errors and they do not affect rankings on their SERPs. Google specifically in a response to a question on this said:

"404s are a perfectly normal part of the web; the Internet is always changing, new content is born, old content dies, and when it dies it (ideally) returns a 404 HTTP response code. Search engines are aware of this; we have 404 errors on our own sites, as you can see above, and we find them all over the web. In fact, we actually prefer that, when you get rid of a page on your site, you make sure that it returns a proper 404 or 410 response code (rather than a “soft 404”). Keep in mind that in order for our crawler to see the HTTP response code of a URL, it has to be able to crawl that URL—if the URL is blocked by your robots.txt file we won’t be able to crawl it and see its response code. The fact that some URLs on your site no longer exist / return 404s does not affect how your site’s other URLs (the ones that return 200 (Successful)) perform in our search results."

When Google maes a comment, you tae it and work with it without bothering anymore what anyone could want to say. Google's opinion is the alpha and omega of search engines. This statement was made in 2011 and Google has not made a new comment o warrant a change in opinion.

However, following recent changes to the Google Algorithm and with greater emphasis on user experience, one is persuaded to think that 404 errors can affect user experience and this could have some impact on bounce rate and ranking as well.

Consider this scenario, someone makes a search for fast and reliable web hosting in Nigeria and finds your post made some two tears ago. Let's assume you have moved the content to another category without properly redirecting to the new page. The result gives the user a 404 error and he leaves your page. If this happens to other pages you have moved in a similar way, your bouncerate will likely increase and Google will spot this trend. Google will definitely not want to reward you with higher rank given your high bounce rate.

So, it is doubtful that if your website returns a lot of 404 errors, these comments will still hold true in your case. So, you need to worry about lots of error pages on your website. Though it is not a factor that Google uses to reward or rank a website, it could indirectly have some effect on your website.

Remember that no one actually knows how Google or any other search engine rankks. Our gueses are only based on the information released to us. There are several reasons to believe that website errors can affect search engine ranking. The bottom line is that Google is increasingly focusing on user experience and will rank a website favourably for its user-friendliness. User eperience will including mobile friendliness, un-broken links, navigational elements and friendly urls.

It has also been well established that Google does not lie broken links - which is one of the reason for errors.

The idea here is that if your website contains lots of broken links, it will also report poor user experience. What that means is that with Google's increasing focus on user experience, your website will get poor ranking as a result.

Our recommendation is that despite all the assurances not to so much bother about website errors, it will be wise to be properly guided to avoid errors as they affect your users and can actually lead to high bounce rate and a blacklist by users.

Now we will need to look at some of the most common errors and how to cope with them.

500 Internal Server Error

The 500 Internal Server Error is a very general HTTP status code that means something has gone wrong on the web site's server, but the server could not be more specific on what the exact problem is. Most of the time, "Opss" means an issue with the page, .htaccess file or extension code quality.

Resolution:

Wait at least 30-60 seconds and reload the web page. You can do that by clicking the refresh/reload button, pressing F5, or trying the URL again from the address bar. The issue may only be temporary. Trying the page again will often be successful.
Clear your browser's cache and stored cookies. If there's a problem with the cached version of the page you're viewing, it could be causing HTTP 500 issues.
If your script uses a .htaccess file, rename .htaccess back to htaccess.txt - maybe one of rule inside is not acceptable by your server settings.
Remember what extension you lastly installed or published, if you have access to back-end, just turn it off (disable) and remove link from Menu.
If all those tips won't help, contacting the server support directly is your last option.

504 Gateway Timeout Error

The 504 Gateway Timeout error is an HTTP status code that means that one server did not receive a timely response from another server that it was accessing while attempting to load the page or request by the browser. Most of the time, this means that the other server is down or not working properly. Relax and check website later. Unfortunately, at this point, that this error is no doubt a problem outside your control that will eventually get fixed by server admin only.

404 Not Found Error

A 404 error is an HTTP status code that means that the page you were trying to reach on a website couldn't be found in the database or on their server. Technically, an Error 404 is a client-side error, implying that the error is your mistake, either because you used wrong URL alias (a spelling error or typo). Another possibility is if the page (menu item link) has been renamed or trashed/disabled from the website and in theory you should have known. Check in Menu Module if menu item link is still there and published, also if link (the URL) used in Custom HTML module or article was typed wrong or the link that was clicked on points to the wrong target URL. It's good habit to check and fix those errors regularly.

If your website is built on a script or content management system, after installation of some etensions you might have experienced an error that occurs when PHP on their server is set to strict error reporting - where they receive error messages starting with phrases: “Strict Standards: Non-static method … on line XX”. Essentially, Strict Standards warnings are not really errors; they're messages designed for developers, but I fully agree they do not like nice on working site.

create php.ini file and then inside put following code:

error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_WARNING & ~E_STRICT & ~E_DEPRECATED


Blank Page

The white screen may it be one of those extremely annoying problems like error establishing a database connection. It can be caused by everything from damaged extension or outdated installed and published plugin. But what is irriation, you do not see what is going on, because there wasn't any waring message at all you are left clueless to figure out what is the issue. ]

You will need to enable error reporting on your website. These may be able to help you determine the root cause. Note! Default error reporting is not good for each case because it's visible to everyone, including your users. That's why it is good to look for a plugin that can do this for you. A plugin changes the error reporting level depending on the selected user groups, so for example only only admins will see errors on their pages, but other users won't.

Read also: How to Fix The Joomla White Screen of Death

What is helpful in most cases the application displays a blank page due to a corrupted (not core) plugin that is currently active for the site, so check them all, disable - enable one by one to check which one is a problem. If you suspect the problem is other extension related, you can try uninstalling any component or module you recently installed. After the problematic plugin is found check whether it is compatible with your version of software. If you plan to use it contact the extension's developer and report the issue.

Also read: How to Fix The WordPress White Screen of Death

Missing image(s) or graphic icons

Technically, in most cases the error is your mistake, either because you typed the URL in wrong or the image has been moved to another folder or or maybe renamed or even removed from the website and you should have known. Check source URL using built-in browser detector or use Firebug.

My home page has changed

Extensions from suspicious websites can contain malicious code that hijacks your website and changes the appearance or settings. So your home page for example is changed to another website that you can't then change back. Or you may see annoying pop-up messages with advertisements for products you've never asked for are constantly displayed on every subpage. First step, please remember what it might have been, uninstall crappy software and then scan your site using Security Component or Online Anti-virus tools. If those steps won't help or your site was hacked, probably you have to recover site from back-up.

Hope this post helped. Lets have your comments on the comment box below.

Keep in touch, Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus

Blazing99:
Bros, if you're 100% down with this hosting business? If you are ready to your customers sites backed up on many locations in case of failures or attack. Start advertising optimal hosting and take this game to another level. Run it like a serious company. That was the seriousness i thought i saw in whogohost before they deleted me. Who knows, when considering a Nigerian host, I and many others may consider you.

We wouldn't agree with the whogohost strategy. We are simply not Whogohost. Besides, no matter where you host your site, it is always a good practice to keep a desktop backup. If you don't, then you are not going by the rule and a human erro can take you down - it will happen anywhere in the world.

Our marketing strategy is simply to build on SEO! And we think it is working. Moving from a position over 60 to less than 30 within 4 months is some good advancement.

[quote author=todhost post=48567718][/quote]It's not impossible but it can happen to anybody and any web host. Anyway, that is a rare possibility with any serious web host. What i have found again is that some customer support staff erroneously delete a website and blame it on server problem. Sometimes, the wrongly set the renewal due date causing automatic deletion.

Anyway, that is a human error and could be what you suffered. Take heart but don't think that human errors can only happen in Nigeria
Were they specific about the nature of the server problem?

On uality of web hosting, your supposition is not always the case. At Todhost.com two websites have recently moved from bluehost and 1an1 to host with Todhost.com and they acknowledged monitoring our performance for over years. the second one was on the recommendation of a Nigerian based in the Netherlands. The two websites we speak of are ogoninewsng.com(moved from bluehost and omafurufoundation.org (moved from 1and1). We also had sobazgroup.com move from ipage 3years ago to Todhost and daiik.com moved from a foreign host to Todhost about 6 years ago.

[quote author=todhost post=48567718][/quote]It's not impossible but it can happen to anybody and any web host. Anyway, that is a rare possibility with any serious web host. What i have found again is that some customer support staff erroneously delete a website and blame it on server problem. Sometimes, the wrongly set the renewal due date causing automatic deletion.

Anyway, that is a human error and could be what you suffered. Take heart but don't think that human errors can only happen in Nigeria
Were they specific about the nature of the server problem?

On uality of web hosting, your supposition is not always the case. At Todhost.com two websites have recently moved from bluehost and 1an1 to host with Todhost.com and they acknowledged monitoring our performance for over years. the second one was on the recommendation of a Nigerian based in the Netherlands. The two websites we speak of are ogoninewsng.com(moved from bluehost and omafurufoundation.org (moved from 1and1)

shorxynla:
I felt your pain.
But nevertheless, you can't just conclude all Apples are bad because you tasted one

In all honesty, there is no web host without issues and when you read the comments of some experiences with the foreign hosts, you will also be more careful.

The fact is that most of the so-called Nigerian hosts just run reseller hosting and some of them do have issues with sustainability. But again, Hostgator started as a reseller host, Todhost.com started as a reseller host but today, they do have a number of dedicated servers supporting large and small businesses.

You can always count on reviews to decide.

I forgot to mention that Sobazgroup moved from ipage to Todhost 3 years ago and still host with us. Daiik.com moved from a foreign host to Todhost.com about 6 years ago. Web hosting is dependent on the capacity of those behind the hosting firm.

Dullahi:
This is very informative. I have a question though. How possible is it to migrate an already purchased domain to a Nigerian Host?

Any competent hosting company will be able to do that for you. It is for the hosting company.
Try our hosting service at: https:://www.todhost.com

googlepikins:
No one should take anything here serious until they explain to us the difference between Nigeria Adsense and US Adsense. Nigerian bloggers will claim they know it all but can't explain to us the difference

We will all like you to provide some clue regarding your perceived difference or what informs your thinking that there be a difference. That way, we can make clarifications based on what we know.

Emeka71:
So not really advisable to use Nigerian hosting.

The fact and reality is that server security is the responsibility of clients everywhere. Firewall and server security is a private issue for most web hosts but for the website owners, it should be their responsibility to use strong passwords, secure their local computers, protect the email attached to their websites and secure their client area passwords. Just to mention a few.

We will do a full blog on this issue, may be next week.