SSH is a secure protocol for exchanging data between two network hosts. It is most used by system administrators and developers (Ruby on Rails and others). Usually admins remotely access the server to configure/update software, setup permissions, monitor server performance and other admin related tasks. Bluehost allows SSH access, but first you need to enable it. You can do this by following the steps in this article: http://helpdesk.bluehost.com/index.php/kb/article/000180 . With SSH enabled you can use a SSH client software to connect to your Bluehost server. Best clients are Putty(windows OS) and OpenSSH client (linux). Once you login with SSH you can perform tasks such as creating files, folders, backing up mysql databases, view/terminate processes started by your user account and other tasks. Probably you will never need SSH access to your bluehost account, but is good to know that Bluehost allows SSH.
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Archive for the ‘BlueHost Hosting’ Category
BlueHost Ruby On Rails
Ruby on Rails (ROR) is a web framework to the standard Ruby language. ROR uses the popular Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture pattern for development of web applications. It also offers tools for faster web site developement. I personally have never tried ROR but I have heard that is a good programming language, focused on object-oriented programming. Web server (Apache HTTPD) is required for ROR, and a module like mod_ruby or cgi interface to run ROR application. Ruby on Rails is not as popular as PHP, and because of that many web hosting providers do not offer support for it. But BlueHost do offers support for Ruby on Rails, but you need to configure your account to use it. Linux knowledge is required. In the guide here: http://helpdesk.bluehost.com/index.php/kb/article/207, it is explained in details, how to setup your Bluehost account to use ROR to run your application. Steps involve Enabling SSH access, creating files/folders and setting up rails. For first time user might be hard, but for Rails Developer should not be a problem. After you setup your account you can run your first application.
Bluehost Fantastico cPanel Tool
Fantastico is the most popular commercial one-click installer. It is a addon in cPanel that allows easy installation of popular open-source scripts. Fantastico only install the software to a specific directory/domain, and setup initial settings or user names. For example if you want to install wordpress, you enter administrator name, e-mail and the rest is setup by fantastico. Files are automatically copied, mysql database table is automatically with options saved. This is the easiest way to install web application, but it is not recommended. Software developers do not recommend installing via fantastico because the latest version is not always available. The following applications/scripts are available for installing: wordpress, b2evolution, drupal, joomla, phpbb, mambo, zencart, mybb, forums, galleries, shopping carts and various others popular scripts. I personally use fantastico only for installing wordpress. After wordpress is intalled I immediatelly update it to the latest version via wordpress automatic update tool. Support for the scripts is not provided. Here is a screenshot of the installer (Fantastico de luxe is the latest version):
BlueHost FTP Review
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is the standard protocol for exchanging files and/or folders over the world wide web (internet). FTP works on port 21, which is different from the HTTP port 80 on which web servers work and serve websites. To use FTP and transfer files and/or folder over the internet you will need an FTP client and FTP server. Good client is FileZilla. Servers can be configured to allow anonymous transfer of files, or can be setup to require authentication of users and apply permissions to specific users or files/folders. On Bluehost FTP accounts can be configured via cPanel. cPanel allows you to even setup different permissions for directories and setup quota (how much megabytes can be stored or transferred and permissions) per user. The tool is really handy when you have more domains and you want others to upload and setup websites. When you add addon domain via cpanel there is also an option to setup FTP account for that domain, and the account will only allow operations for files of that domain only. I asked on bluehost live chat if they allow multiple FTP connections and the answer is yes. This can speed up process when downloading/uploading files. Really handy!
BlueHost phpBB hosting Review
PhpBB or PHP (HyperText Preprocessor) Bulletin Board is free web forum software for building online communities created in 2001. It is powerful, open-source licensed under GNU General Public License, written in PHP. The latest version phpbb3 offers many features including: support for most database management systems (mysql, postgresql, microsoft mssql, oracle and others) powerful admin control panel and user management system, usergroups, moderators and administrators with permissions per group or per user. These features are also included in the previous version of phpbb. Other that are worth mentioning here are the extension system (modifications), which allows to extend phpbb by adding new features, or upgrading existing ones. Many extensions are free. Templating system is also supported where you can easily change your forum look. PhpBB is very popular forum software and have large community of developers and users. Other also good forum software is MyBB. BlueHost is PHP Hosting provider, and have everything you need to run phpbb. Latest MySQL version 5 is available on Bluehost servers, so you can run phpbb with the best optimization. You can install it via fantastico one-click installer but I would not recommend you that way, because with fantastico not always the latest version is available.
Bluehost Drupal Hosting Review
Drupal is one of the best CMS (content management systems) around. It is originally created by Dries Buyteart, now being developed by large number of drupal community users. It runs on PHP and uses MySQL (other database management systems are supported too) as a back-end for storing data, settings, permissions and other necessary things for running a drupal based web site. Drupal offers many features: create posts, static pages, add menu items (primary and/or secondary menu), supports blocks (or called widgets on wordpress), users and user management (add, edit users) with powerful permission system, rss feeds and many others. It also supports theme system where you can easily change the look of the website, there are many free and professional templates available and it is very easy to create drupal theme. Other feature worth noting is the extension system (modules). Modules add new features and functionality to drupal and there are many free available in drupal module directory. Many popular websites use drupal, like the whitehouse.gov, many fan sites etc.
Drupal on Bluehost
Bluehost supports PHP and MySQL so there would be no problem installing drupal on your bluehost account. You can install it via fantastico one click installer cpanel tool or manually by uploading package files and setting up databases and installation, which way you prefer. .Htaccess and custom php.ini are supported by blue host if you need to further customize some settings like register_globals and/or enable clean (SEO) urls.
BlueHost Hosting Nameservers
Bluehost nameservers are:
ns1.bluehost.com – IP address: 74.220.195.31
ns2.bluehost.com – IP address: 69.89.16.4
–see http://helpdesk.bluehost.com/index.php/kb/article/1 for more info on nameservers updates.
Nameservers are required to host your website on the Internet. They are part of the Domain Name System (DNS for short) the name translation system that converts names into numbers (Internet Protocol Addresses – IP) that allows computers to communicate with each other. So when you type in the domain name example.com in the address bar of your favorite browser (mine is Firefox) and hit enter, the browser starts the name lookup process. If there is no cached version to the nearest ISP servers, or the one that you have setup when you were connecting to the Internet, parent nameservers are asked for the domain name. These authorative nameservers respond who is responsible for this domain name (primary and secondary nameserver information – in your case it would be the bluehost servers since you host the domain there). After receiving this information the browser asks the nameservers for the IP address and connects to this IP address requesting the website. Then the servers responds with web site data and the browser displays the website page.
BlueHost custom PHP.INI
PHP.ini
PHP.ini is a special file that have php (the web scripting language) settings. There is one master PHP.INI where many php.ini settings are read. Many web hosting companies allow their customers to use custom php.ini files to configure php settings that are required by some web software scripts (e.g drupal content management system requires register_globals to be disabled in order to be installed and on the web server). Also some gallery script requires some settings to be changed like session.save_path, upload_max_size and others.
BlueHost custom php.ini
Blue host allows custom php.ini on their servers. You can define either single php.ini for your entire account, or you can have custom php.ini file for every folder to further customize specific settings required by some scripts. Here is how to generate Master PHP.ini file that will set specific settings for your entire account:
- Login to your cPanel
- Click on the PHP Config icon located under “Software/Services”
- Look for the section that says “Install Default php.ini”
- Click the “INSTALL PHP.INI MASTER FILE” button
- You will now have a file inside the public_html folder named php.ini.default
- Use the File Manager or FTP to rename that file to php.ini
- from http://helpdesk.bluehost.com/index.php/kb/article/128 . When you want to install drupal set register_globals to off.
BlueHost Joomla Review
Joomla!
Joomla!, Is a free popular, fully dynamic content management system (CMS), which emerged from the Mambo Open Source project, and now the world in many different applications is used.
Joomla is Free Software and is licensed under the GNU General Public License. It is written in PHP 5 and uses MySQL as a database (other database interfaces) are in development.
Joomla and Drupal together with TYPO3 are the most popular open source CMSs(content management systems).
Many users have created extensions (modules and components) for Joomla, which they make the user community usually free of charge. In this way, Joomla offers an impressive range of functions, which covers virtually all common applications. In addition to free extensions, you have some commercial products for Joomla.
Joomla version 1.6 is currently in development. On 24 October 2009 was released the second alpha version.
Joomla 1.6 will cease support for PHP 4 final, so that the system be increased to PHP 5.2 and higher. One of the major new features in version 1.6 will be an extensive system of rights, based on an Access Control List. In addition, a hierarchical categorization is introduced and extended the simple division into sections and categories and allows a deeper structure.
With Joomla 1.6 Version 1.5 is expanded to include many new features. Since the version 1.6 will be based entirely on the newly developed framework of Joomla 1.5 an upgrade from version 1.5 to 1.6 will upgrade joomla without any problem. An update of the older version 1.0 on the new version 1.6 is not supported because of the many changes since the introduction of Joomla 1.5.
BlueHost Joomla
Joomla requires PHP and MySQL to be available on servers. Bluehost suports PHP and MySQL, thus it supports Joomla. You can install Joomla with cPanel Fantastico one-click web software installation tool on blue host or you can install it manually. Download Joomla from Joomla.org.
BlueHost phpMyAdmin Review
phpMyAdmin
phpMyAdmin is a free PHP application for administering MySQL databases. The administration is done via HTTP using a browser. Hence databases on remote computers over a network connection or via the Internet can be administered. To use the program no knowledge of SQL is required, since the application works on the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) process.
phpMyAdmin is licensed under the GNU General Public License. It is also included in many Linux distributions and it is available in 57 languages.
phpMyAdmin is a widely used application and is used among other things, by large web hosting providers.
It was initiated by Tobias Ratschiller and is based on St. Peter’s phpPgAdmin from the year 1997. The idea was to implement a web-based application for administration of MySQL. Tobias Ratschiller began in 1998 with work on a PHP-based Web front end for MySQL. In 2000, he stopped his work due to lack of time. At the time, phpmyadmin already one of the most popular PHP applications and MySQL administration tools, with large user and developer community. In 2001 Olivier Müller, Marc Delisle and Loïc Chapeaux registered the phpMyAdmin project at SourceForge, and continued the development.
phpMyAdmin on BlueHost
You can either access phpMyAdmin from bluehost cpanel or install it on your hosting account and access it from your domain. The cpanel version have more privileges than the other version. You can easily manage your databases tables, perform queries, export, import data, perform backups, restore, browse and do more with your browser. No SQL or PHP knowledge is required.
phpMyadmin screenshot:
