I was recently reading reddit and came across this list posted in the netsec discussion board. If you look at the list you will notice that nearly all the exploits are from plugins.

WordPress is a brilliant platform for creating websites and blogs and is our recommended CMS of choice for novices, however like everything you have to be careful when using it.

Take a look at the mini scenario below:

Dave likes using WordPress for his blog; it’s easy to use and looks good. He also likes adding plugins, they add functionally and enhancements to his site. Dave was searching Google one day when he found some cool looking plugins which he promptly added to his site, the next thing he knows is that his site has been hacked.

When adding plugins to your WordPress installation you need to be very careful about where you found them and what they do. Just because it says it does one thing doesn’t mean that it won’t have a malicious script within it, or has been coded by a novice and has security holes. Always keep your WordPress installation and any plugins up-to date to help combat exploits.

If your WordPress site has been hacked recently (up-to a month ago) you can simply delete your public_html and restore from a R1Soft backup, making sure to update everything once it has been restored. If your site has been compromised longer than that you will have to clear it out manually and reinstall a fresh copy of WordPress.

These are the old Hostroute servers - now with all data moved to Dual Quad Core i7s

Servers use a lot of power – to give you an idea, a typical Pentium 4-based server uses around 0.5A at 230V. Hostroute previously had sixty of these servers, so it was using in the region of 6.9KW. Multiply this up by 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and the total energy consumed by the old Hostroute systems was 60,444 KWH in a year. From a natural gas power station, that’s releasing the equivalent of 23 Tonnes of CO2 per year (based on 385g/KWH).

Over the past two months, we’ve completed the migration of approximately sixty old Pentium 4 based Hostroute servers, to brand new, Dell R610 Dual processor, Quad Core with HT systems. Each individual *core* on one of these systems has more processing power than the P4 processor used in each of the old servers. Not to mention the massive 24GB of DDR3 RAM and the super-fast RAID10 SAS drive arrays. Because of this, we’ve been able to downsize 60 old servers in to 12 of these modern behemoths, with a massive increase in performance!

Each of the modern servers uses approximately 0.8A at a moderate load – so multiplying up again for 12 servers, you get 2.2KW, which is the equivalent of 7.5 Tonnes of CO2 released, cutting the overall energy usage to a third of what it was previously.

There appears to have been a dispute between CentralNic, who are (were) the authority for .gb.com domain names, and GB COM LTD, who are the domain name holders and (possibly) licensed the use of .gb.com domain names to CentralNic.

The situation is not entirely clear as only basic statements have been released by CentralNic and GB COM Ltd.

However, this has meant that .gb.com domain names have stopped working.

As soon as this situation became clear we (Hostroute) opened up a dialogue with GB.COM Ltd and have begun restoring service to .gb.com customers.

We hope to release an update soon with further details, and we will also be in touch individually with Hostroute .gb.com registrants.

Email History

In preparation for us adding support ticket functionality to My.Hostroute (rather than the current independent support system), we’ve added an Email History.

Now, any emails sent to you by the system (password resets, account info, invoices, notifications for now, but support notifications soon) are also added to this list. This can be found through ‘Contacts’ > ‘Email History’.

We hope this makes it easier to keep track of everything we send to you, and to find old copies of emails.

Security Questions

For added security, we’ve added the ability to create a ‘security question’ under ‘Contacts’ -> ‘Security Questions’. This means that if you call us or forget your password, we can more easily authenticate you.

Affiliate System

We’re very excited to launch the new Hostroute Affiliate system.

Hostroute grows almost entirely through word of mouth, and the affiliate system is our way of saying thank you for referrals. We pay 50% commission for any referrals you make – on domain names, web hosting, reseller accounts and now servers too.

You can become an affiliate by logging into My.Hostroute and then going to ‘Billing’ -> ‘Affiliate System’. Here are a few of the features:

• You get your own affiliate URL. If you link to us using this URL then we’ll track any orders we receive and credit them to your affiliate account.
• You can also set up custom discount codes. If these are used, then the order will be credited to your affiliate account.
• You can withdraw any balance over £15. This can be paid by bank transfer (UK only), Paypal, or as account credit - that means you can even use affiliate credit to offset your hosting bill.
• Our affiliate tracking is in real time. You can see how you are doing instantly – all through the control panel.
• We add credit to the account 30 days after the signup. This is to avoid any chance of fraud due to our 30-day money back guarantee.

First, I’m very pleased to say that the billing migration is complete. We’ve moved away from ‘Core’ to a new system at My.Hostroute.com, which has solved a lot of the issues that Hostroute customers were experiencing.

We have had excellent feedback on the new system so far, which allows a lot more visibility and is more flexible. We’re now doing a few things to neaten up records, including auditing existing systems and adding new functionality. There are a few areas I’d love to cover here, so for convenience I’ll put them as bullets:

Here are some of the audits we have been running in order to fix incorrect records:

• Removed duplicate accounts, including where there were both free and paid hosting packages
• Fixed incorrect cPanel authentication details on around 1,000 accounts which has fixed a lot of cPanel login issues from my.Hostroute
• Fixed domain name authentication details where nameservers / renewals did not work
• Merged/split My.Hostroute accounts where requested
• Marked cancelled accounts as inactive

Here are some extra features we have added:

• Renew hosting and domains at any time. Domains can now be renewed for their full registration length (e.g. 10 years for a .com)
• Easy upgrades between hosting packages
• Due to customer feedback, domain name registrations don’t automatically setup the free hosting – this can now be enabled (for free) on the domain details page after registration.
• Free hosting now displays as a hosting account, allowing for easier management and auto-logins
• Create sub-accounts for contacts, so that they can login and view products/invoices for example
• Mass Pay invoices in one go
• … and much more

Here are some features we’ll be adding in the coming weeks:

• Domain Transfer Management with status updates
• DNS Management/ free e-mail forwarding from the domain details pages (for those without a hosting account)
• Reseller Upgrades
• Move Services to other clients
• History of Emails
• Support Tickets in My.Hostroute (rather than in a separate system)
• More TLDs available

Secondly, we’re making progress with the server migrations with almost half now completed.

You can see a full list of the migrations so far on our forums at http://forums.hostroute.com/index.php?threads/server-migration-list.23/#post-115

As always, if you have any questions or problem we’re here to help – via ticket at http://helpdesk.hostroute.net or call us on 020 3137 7651.

Server Migrations have been moving quickly.  We are around 35% through the server migrations at the present time. We prioritised the servers with the most issues, and those that would be most difficult to move. We estimate that all the moves should be complete within the next two weeks or so.

The migrations have been almost seamless. While we have tried to do things with as little disruption as possible, we have had to solve a few problems, mostly with some of the more complex scripts. Where there have been issues, we think we’ve been quick to resolve them, and set up scripts to deal with them in future.

By way of an example, one of the main issues was that some users were connecting to their mail using the old server IP address.  It’s much better to connect using the server’s hostname, because we can change what that points to and it also allows SSL to be used, increasing security and lessening the chance of ISPs interfering with your connection (some ISPs block/limit outgoing mail to help prevent spam). Please contact us if you’d like to know the new hostname for your server. We will be checking to see if anybody is connecting to the old servers and notifying them, but if you do have any problems with emails please just get in touch.

A note on Spam. It became apparent that many servers were on spam blacklists or had poor mail reputations, and tickets on this issue weren’t being handled correctly. We found one server which had been on a blocklist since March, and other clients contacting us who’d never been able to send mail reliably.

We very quickly dealt with the sources of spam on the affected servers and outgoing mail traffic dropped by more than 80% as a result. Most servers are now clear of all blocklists however, it can take a little time for some spam lists to remove listings. We have been migrating these affected servers first but if you still experience any blocks let us know and we can prioritise your move to one of our new servers, where this issue doesn’t exist.

Support has been going well. We’ve found the Hostroute clients to be very friendly and understanding. We’ve also received good feedback on what you’d like to see changing and will be implementing most requests as soon as the migrations are completed.

I would stress that it is important that if you have any issues, you can get in touch with us straight away. We don’t mind dealing with simple issues at all. If you are not sure if the problem is at your or our end, it’s best to check with us anyway. We are also open at weekends, so if you have any problems even on Sunday morning, feel free to ask us immediately rather than waiting until Monday morning. The internet is 24/7 and we believe you should be able to easily contact us on any day of the year.

The Billing Migration is almost there too. We have set up the new system and are currently testing migration scripts between the current billing system and the new system. As soon as that is done we’ll send a email.

Some people have asked why we are doing this billing migration away from the current system so quickly.  The support we offer should mainly be about hosting issues and configuration. Instead, most problems are due to billing and domain administration, which we believe are responsible for around 75% of the issues that Hostroute clients experience.

I was explaining the problems to my sister this weekend. She works in Theatre Design so I used an analogy. I explained that I was going to see a play. Getting in was difficult, but after a lot of work I managed to get a ticket. When I arrived at the theatre I realised that not only was my seat taken, but that all the seats were facing the wrong way. The complications meant that all the actors putting on the play had to help sort the mess out. Those actors should have been putting on a play, which is the whole point of the theatre. The administration of where people sit is just ancillary.

The point is that we can run a fantastic hosting service, but we need to sort the long-standing billing issues urgently because they cause too many problems.

Here are a few of the issues that a move to our own billing system in (hopefully) less than 72 hours will solve. I’ve also included notes on the points if you need to do anything urgent.

• Login Failures. After a reset, the current system sometimes does not let you login. If you need to do something urgently, let us know and we can do it for you manually. Our new billing system does not have this issue.
• Domain Activations. Sometimes the current system does not immediately register or renew domains. We’re running audits at the moment, but if you are concerned that your domain name has not been renewed, let us know. Again, our new billing system deals with this correctly.
• Errant Suspensions - We’ve encountered a few cases where accounts have been incorrectly suspended. We believe this is either a bug with the current system not updating due dates, or a glitch in the suspension script. We will be disabling account suspension after the move away from the current system, and auditing any suspended accounts. Obviously, our new system does not errantly suspend accounts.
• Double Invoices – We have found a few double-generated invoices where customers were invoiced twice for services, such as domain renewals. We will shortly be auditing invoices to check for any duplicates, and getting in touch accordingly to issue refunds and credit notes.

Finally I would like to thank all the Hostroute customers for their patience during these migrations. I’d also like to reiterate the invite to join and contribute to our forums, where we’d love to have some feedback and suggestions.

PS – This blog is now running on WordPress 3.2!

The running of Hostroute has been taken over by Paragon Internet Group. We run some other hosting companies in the UK, where we’re known for excellent support and excellent hosting.

Over the next few weeks, there are going to be some big upgrades taking place. We’ll go into more depth about the changes in later posts, but here are some fundamental points:

• We are going to make Hostroute better. A google search for ‘Hostroute’ shows many negative reviews – we intend to improve things such that no-one should feel the need to leave a bad review. Of course, we’re always open to feedback and ways of doing things better – just get in touch and we’ll be happy to hear your ideas.
• Prices will stay the same or decrease – we won’t be increasing prices for existing customers at all.
• We’re stepping up support. We think support is fundamental to web hosting.  For example, Hostroute has historically not had any weekend support. That doesn’t really work in a world where people visit your website (and you work on it) at weekends. From now on you can expect a reply within minutes, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, between 9am and 11pm. Just email us at support@hostroute.com.
• Phone hours are also increasing. You can call us on 020 3137 7651 within the same hours (9-11, 7/365). That’s no longer just for billing enquiries – we’re all technical here and happy to help.
• Hardware is getting a big boost. Pretty shortly we’re going to be rolling out some serious upgrades to all the Hostroute infrastructure. We’ve got racks of empty top-of-the-line dual quad-core Dell servers ready to migrate your sites to. You will notice a massive difference in loading times and performance on your websites.
• As a sidenote, we’ll obviously keep you very much in the loop in terms of upgrades and migrations – we’re experienced and know how to manage a mass-migration with no disruption.

There’s so much we want to tell you about. Some of it will be specific – i.e. we’ve got a lot to offer to Resellers (we’re planning free billing software licences, free OpenSRS/Enom accounts and lots more!)

But all of that can wait until later posts. For now, we’d like to hear from you.

We’ve setup a forum at http://forums.hostroute.com and we’d love you to become a member. We have one area entitled ‘suggestions’ where we’d like your comments on what you’d like from Hostroute.

My name’s Seb – I’ll be posting on there (and this blog) quite a lot. You can also reach me (or anyone else you’d like to talk to here) on 020 3137 7651 and ask us any questions you’d like.

We all really look forward to working with you. I hope it’s clear that our intentions here are very good. In all the businesses we focus on making the customer happy, and that’s what we’re going to do with Hostroute

Seb