FileZilla is an open source and is platform independent so it’s available on Windows, OS X and Linux. You can find it at filezilla-project.org. It supports both the FTP and SFTP protocols. The team behind FileZilla is also very active so updates and bugfixes are delivered on a regular basis.

Site Manager

One of my favorite features of FileZilla is the Site Manager that allows you to save your most commonly used connections for quick and easy access. Utilizing the site manager makes it easier when you have multiple logins and sites to keep track of.

A fair number of Weberz customers have multiple domains setup under one user account. You can utilize some of the advanced settings in Site Manager and set a default remote directory for the domain.

For example, with the weberz.com account I have my FileZilla set to automatically set the default local directory to /weberz.com. Thus every time I login to make modifications or transfer files to the server I’m automatically placed in the correct directory.

You could set the default remote directory for each domain you have hosted in your Weberz account within the site manager for quick and easy access to your files.

SFTP

Security should never be an afterthought. Our team at Weberz have implemented various policies and procedures to help keep our servers safe, secure and online. We recommend our customers do the same. SFTP is a protocol that carries the FTP traffic across an encrypted connection using an industry standard protocol called SSH. Using SFTP is an easy step our customer can take to help protect the identity of their accounts.

All of the Linux servers at Weberz are configured to allow SFTP access to our end users. Currently our control panel does not support SFTP with our Windows servers. The only requirement to use SFTP is shell access to your account. You can request shell access from within the control panel. Once shell access has been granted you can use SFTP to securely transfer your files to your Weberz hosting account.

FileZilla is an excellent and lightweight opensource piece of software that packs a powerful punch. We’ve made it part of our standard workstation configuration at Weberz. Will you?

This article was originally posted by Weberz Hosting at: FileZilla – Excellent Open Source FTP/SFTP Client" rel="external" target="_blank">FileZilla – Excellent Open Source FTP/SFTP Client

After finding the exploit, Weberz & our reseller both attempted to notify the BANS creator of the problem and received no response after multiple attempts. The creators of the BANS script also have not yet released an update fixing the issue with the admin login. Since the creators of BANS do not seem to have any intention on fixing the problem, Weberz is releasing the information here so users of this script will be able to secure their own installations of the Build A Niche Store software.

The Exploit
The basic information for making the exploit work is fairly simple. The exploit is called a SQL Injection which places database instructions into the system via poorly coded scripts. This is possible because the developers who created the script do not properly check, or prepare, user input before sending the information to the database to be used. Thus is the case with the BANS login page. The username field on the admin login page is sent directly to the database call without being sent through any input filters. This means the field can be used to delete database information or force a admin login without the correct password. Here’s an example:

1. Browse over to a BANS admin login page:
   
2. Enter the following username, with or without a password: ‘ or 1=1 or ”=’
   
3. Click the login Button and you will be delivered to the admin page with full access:
   
   
4. Perform Malicious Activity (Don’t really do this!)

As you can see from the above, this isn’t very difficult to do. Unfortunately it provides the user with full access to the admin section and can be used to add/remove products, change templates, and even upload phishing sites to the images directory of the site. All of these things happened to our reseller customer.

The Login Fix
After having this happen to our reseller a number of times, Weberz took the time to find and fix the problem with the BANS admin login page for our reseller. The sad part about this is that the fix is a simple 1 line of code that the creators of BANS could easily put into their files. To fix the problem we simply need to properly sanitize the user’s input into the username field before we send it to the database query. A single PHP command can perform this function for us and close the above exploit. To fix your BANS installation you simply need to edit one function in the cont/Control.php file of the system. Here are some instructions:

1. Open the cont/Control.php file in your favorite text editing program, Like Notepad!
2. Find the checkLogin function which starts on line 196 and looks like this:
   

   function checkLogin($username,$password) {       
        $pass = md5($password);
        $d = new DB;
        $d->q("SELECT * FROM options WHERE username='$username' AND password='$pass'");
        if($d->nr()){
             $d->nx();
             if (!$d->fn('id')) {
                  return false;
             }
             $_SESSION[SES_1]['SUPERCONTROL'] = md5(ADMIN_CODE);
             $_SESSION[SES_1]['AdminID'] = $d->fn('id');
             $_SESSION[SES_1]['AdminName'] = $username;
             return true;
        } else{
             return false;
        }
   }

3. Add a new line of code at the beginning of the function that contains the following:
   $username = mysql_real_escape_string($username);
4. The modified function should look like this:
   

   function checkLogin($username,$password) {      
        $username = mysql_real_escape_string($username);     
        $pass = md5($password);
        $d = new DB;
        $d->q("SELECT * FROM options WHERE username='$username' AND password='$pass'");
        if($d->nr()){
             $d->nx();
             if (!$d->fn('id')) {
                  return false;
             }
             $_SESSION[SES_1]['SUPERCONTROL'] = md5(ADMIN_CODE);
             $_SESSION[SES_1]['AdminID'] = $d->fn('id');
             $_SESSION[SES_1]['AdminName'] = $username;
             return true;
        } else{
             return false;
        }
   }

That’s it! Adding this one line of code will stop the SQL injection in the BANS system by no longer allowing special text to be sent directly to the database calls. We hope that the creators of the BANS system find and fix this error with their next release. As of the time of this post version 3.0 EPN is still the latest release of the Build A Niche Store system and the downloadable package from the website still contains this vulnerability.

This article was originally posted by Weberz Hosting at: Build A Niche Store Admin Login Exploit" rel="external" target="_blank">Build A Niche Store Admin Login Exploit

All internet services and functions are based off of Internet Protocol, IP, addresses. The old version of these addresses, IPv4, only allowed for 4,294,967,296 total addresses to be used. This seemed like a unlimited amount in the 1980′s when this version was originally designed. As of Feb 3rd, 2011 the last of those addresses have been allocated to internet providers for use.

Noticing that the IPv4 address pool was going to run out, the internet gods designed a new IP address version, IPv6. The IPv6 pool of addresses has 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 total addresses available for use. This allows for many more devices to be connected to the internet without the need for IP address sharing.

The problem is that IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are significantly different and can not talk to each other directly. Such as a desktop computer on IPv4 can’t view a website hosted on only a IPv6 address, unless it goes through complicated IP conversions by the internet providers.

This is significant since the IPv4 addresses have all been allocated, Internet Providers will eventually (in the next year or so) will be forced to give customers IPv6 addresses to connect to the internet. Web Hosting companies, such as Weberz, need to work on making their customer’s websites available on IPv6 so those customers can view them.

Overall it’s not a real good problem to have at the moment.

Currently there are a few things blocking us from deploying IPv6 across our entire web hosting network including:

• Linux Firewalls – CentOS 5.x, the version of Linux used by Weberz, does not support firewalling of IPv6 addresses in a sufficient manner.
• Windows Firewalls – Windows 2003 Server, the version of Windows used by Weberz, does not support firewalling of anything in a sufficient manner. Windows Server 2008 does.
• H-Sphere – Our control panel system does not support IPv6 at the moment. There has also not been any announcements as to when it will.

These problems are huge since they effect the very core of the Weberz Web Hosting system. The Weberz staff already has plans to get our IPv6 addresses deployed on the network and to solve the problems listed above. We have setup a new page on our site at http://www.weberz.com/network/ipv6/for users to monitor the current status of our IPv6 deployment.

This article was originally posted by Weberz Hosting at: Weberz Web Hosting Services and IPv6" rel="external" target="_blank">Weberz Web Hosting Services and IPv6

Here are some quick details about the program:

• Affiliates will be paid monthly for their available commissions.
• Commissions will be paid on 60% of the customer’s recurring hosting fee’s.
• Commissions range from $68 – $2159 per sale.
• Sample banners, text ads, and other marketing materials are provided.
• Affiliates will have control panel to monitor and track their click-throughs, conversions, and commissions.

For more information about the new affiliate program, please visit the affiliate program page on our site. Anyone who is interested in helping us out and beta testing the affiliate program should sign up and we will review your submissions.

This article was originally posted by Weberz Hosting at: Affiliate Program Beta Testers Needed" rel="external" target="_blank">Affiliate Program Beta Testers Needed

What is Web Hosting?
Website hosting is a internet based service offered by web hosting providers, such as Weberz and many other companies, who provide website owners online storage for their website files. The scope of web hosting services can vary widely and often changes from one hosting provider to another. In the most basic form of web hosting the service should include a limited amount of space on a server to place website files and the internet connectivity for internet users to view them. Other additional services that can be included in a web hosting package are email addresses, databases, visitor statistics, and advanced website security features.

Many internet service providers, ISPs, offer basic web hosting services to their internet access customers as part of their monthly internet access fee. This works well for the most basic of websites however most sites on the internet require additional features and processing that are not available from most ISPs. This is when website owners start to look at 3rd party web hosting providers such as Weberz.

There are many different types of web hosting available on the internet from providers. Depending on the features offered and the limits on storage space and internet traffic allowed, the costs can range from free to thousands of dollars per month. Generally with today’s competitive web hosting market most sites tend to fall into the lower end of the cost range.

Why Does Someone Need Web Hosting?
In general the average person on the street does not need web hosting services. That is unless they want to run their own website. If that was the case then they will need a place online where their site will be available to internet users on a constant basis. Website owners not only want a place where the site will always be online but will load quickly for their web visitors.

Web hosting providers typically own servers that are much more powerful then the average home computer and often have internet connections that are multiple times faster then your home internet access. Many of these providers also invest the money for multiple servers and internet connections for redundancy purposes. This allows their customer’s websites to stay online even if an internet connection goes out or a server happens to break.

Why Can’t I Host My Own Site?
Here is something many other web hosting providers won’t tell you, You CAN! All you need is the knowledge of how to setup the server, or the time to learn it, and a internet connection that’s always online. Typically users run into a few problems when trying to host their own website though. Here are a few examples of those problems:

• ISPs, the people who provide your internet access, typically block the common access ports needed for you to run your own server. This is because they want you to use your internet access for personal use and not trying to run a hosting company from it.
• Knowledge – Running a web server is not always a easy thing to do. There’s always some cryptic error message that needs to be decoded so you can figure out the real cause of the problem when it arises.
• Internet Addresses – To run a web server you really should have a internet address that never changes from your ISP. Most ISPs can provide you this service for a nominal fee and some reserve these kinds of services just for businesses.
• Redundancy – As a general rule, people only have one internet connection and one computer. This provides you with no redundancy if something goes wrong that could cause your website to go offline. The cost of a secondary internet connection alone per month is probably more then paying for the average web hosting service online.

As you can see there are many reasons why it may be cheaper and easier to purchase hosting services from a web hosting provider rather then trying to do it yourself. With that in mind sometimes it does make more sense for users to host their own sites. This typically only happens to larger business users who have in house individuals who can run the servers and already have the internet connections available.

Why Should I Pay For Hosting Services?
Earlier in the article I did mention that there are free hosting services available. Actually there are multiple types of free hosting available. Free hosting can be obtained from a free web hosting provider or from a paid hosting provider under a sponsored web hosting deal.

Generally free hosting providers are not ones I would recommend for anyone who wants to run a serious website. If your looking to put up a website with pictures of cute kittens or fluffy bunnies then by all means go try some free hosting. If your looking to put up a site for your business or a site you want to grow and take seriously then I would look at other options.

The reason for this is that free hosting providers tend to put additional limits or requirements on their web hosting services. Limits such as only being able to have X number of pages viewed per day or requiring random ads to be displayed on your site. Website visitors tend to frown upon such things and may not take your site seriously because of your hosting choice. Free web hosting providers also tend to not offer many of the advanced features that paid web hosting providers offer such as programming languages or extra website security options.

Getting a sponsored web hosting deal from a normal paid hosting provider is another option. This typically involves you placing a image or text on your site that links to the hosting provider’s site to promote their services and in turn they provide you with the hosting services free of charge. This is normally a good deal for both parties as you get the hosting for free and the web hosting provider gets some free advertising to your visitors. Many of the paid hosting providers on the internet, including Weberz, will do these kinds of deals if they feel that your site will provide the type of visitors they are looking for or if your website is about a topic they are interested in.

How Does Someone Get a Sponsored Hosting Deal?
Well.. That’s the tricky part! You will never get a sponsored hosting deal if you never ask. Before you go off emailing a bunch of web hosts asking for sponsored hosting, make sure you do your home work first.

Typically you will want to put in your request via email and make sure you get the right person. Find out who the owner or general manager is and start with them. Don’t bother the person with a large number of requests, it will be better if you just send one request. Once you have sent your request, give them a few days to respond and see what they say.

In your request make sure to include a description of your website, any visitor stats you might have and a link to the website if it’s already online. It will also go a long way if you can explain why your site would be a good place for a web hosting provider to sponsor and what they will get out of the deal. The more benefit you can show to the hosting provider the more likely you are to receive a positive response.

Don’t worry if you get a negative response, it’s bound to happen. You can always try another provider. What you don’t want to do is email a bunch of providers all at once. This is because if a host says yes and you put the site on a different host, you will be leaving a negative vibe with the host that’s associated with your website.

If you get a lot of negative responses you may need to dismiss the idea of getting sponsored hosting. It may just be that your site is not likely to bring anything of value to the web hosting provider in their eyes. After all the idea behind sponsored hosting is a partnership so both parties get something out of the deal. It’s not just a method of getting free hosting.

If you want to petition Weberz Hosting for a sponsored hosting package, please feel free to do so. We will even make it easy for you and tell you that rob@weberz.com is the person you should talk to.

Conclusion
Hopefully by now you have a clear idea of what web hosting is and who might need web hosting. With any kind of luck at all we were able to answer some of the questions you had rather then creating more questions. Please feel free to share your comments below.

This article was originally posted by Weberz Hosting at: What is Web Hosting and Why Does Someone Need Website Hosting?" rel="external" target="_blank">What is Web Hosting and Why Does Someone Need Website Hosting?

Well upon further investigation we found that every new domain alias in H-Sphere was using up a free domain slot in the users billing. The concept of this just seems rediculous to me. Why would anyone want to give up a free domain slot to use for a domain alias that doesn’t really require any additional resources? At this point we are unsure what we are going to do about the situation or if there is anything we can do, however just keep in mind that for the time being that this is happening and to watch out for it.

This article was originally posted by Weberz Hosting at: New domain aliases scheme on H-Sphere isn’t good" rel="external" target="_blank">New domain aliases scheme on H-Sphere isn’t good

The general idea to virtualizing the servers is so Weberz can provide a load balanced hosting environment to our users while providing redundancy in the event of a hardware failure. Basically in english that means we will have two servers providing the services that “Mail1″ currently provides and if one of the servers dies, the system stays online. This should definitely help increase uptime and provide for more stability on the network.

Also by Virtualizing some of the servers we will be able to offer new products and services to our users. Such as allowing a end user or reseller to have a dedicated web server instance for their websites at a fraction of the cost of one of our dedicated servers.

More information about virtualization and how Weberz plans to use it is sure to follow in the future.

This article was originally posted by Weberz Hosting at: Research & Development: Virtualization" rel="external" target="_blank">Research & Development: Virtualization

As for 2008, well.. it’s over. It was a good but flat year for Weberz. It was good because everything we did was positive for the company and user base. We replaced part of our technical support team with new individuals and we merged our two brands Relio and Weberz into a single entity. We also worked to move more of our support documents and tools off site so they are available to users during an outage. With that being said, it was a flat year as we didn’t make a significant amount of changes or improvements during the year. As for 2009, I am looking to have a new focus and direction for Weberz…

Increased communications with users is going to be my #1 focus in 2009. I plan on using the Weberz Blog more like a blog then an announcement tool. This will mean more frequent postings about happenings around Weberz, the occasional webmaster tip and anything else I can think of that will be relevant. This will also mean more interaction with users on the user forums.

Along the same lines as increase communications, I am also planning on being more involved with the day to day operations of Weberz. This will mean you will see more support tickets answered by me, more network and website changes, and just generally being more involved. This should allow me to get a better feel for the concerns of our users and allow me to focus our resources on getting those fixed.

One of the other things I will primarily be focused on this year is the planning and building of our new office and Data Center. The construction plans for the building are close to being complete and currently we are planning on breaking ground for the new building in June. If this happens we could be looking at roughly Dec 2009 or Jan 2010 on moving into the new building. This would simply be great for Weberz and our Users. I will be sure to post more about this as it unfolds.

As for the network in the new year, I have some plans for that as well. As mentioned in the last emailed newsletter we have some big plans for the future of our network. These include upgrades to the latest version of H-Sphere, load balancing of servers and upgrades to Apace 2. These will be some of the hardest things for us to get done this year but are certainly on the schedule for getting done. We are hoping to start on these in late February.

That’s about all I have for the time being. I am looking forward to worker closer with our users once again and getting all of the above in place over the course of the year. If you have an idea of what you would like to see from Weberz this year.. Let us know by leaving a comment below.

This article was originally posted by Weberz Hosting at: 2009 – A new year with a new focus" rel="external" target="_blank">2009 – A new year with a new focus

This article was originally posted by Weberz Hosting at: Website Updates" rel="external" target="_blank">Website Updates

Roughly 45 days ago we announced that all customers were going to be migrated to new hosting plans as of Nov 15th. Yesterday when migrating our users to these new plans the system emailed all of the users invoices who’s new plan had a price difference with the old plans. The invoices/order confirmations that were emailed to the users are real and have been applied in the billing system.

Many users who were on annual billing on their old plan have also emailed inquiring what happened to their billing during this change. In these cases the system has prorated the customers usage on their old plan and given them an account credit for the unused portion of their prepaid time. The system then changed their plan and took and new fee’s from that account credit. Many of these annual customers still have credit on their account and they will not be billed until that credit runs out.

If anyone has any more questions that were not explained in this post, please email support at support@weberz.com.

This article was originally posted by Weberz Hosting at: Order Confirmation Support Requests" rel="external" target="_blank">Order Confirmation Support Requests