What’s New – February 2021

It’s been a busy start to 2021 and we’ve not had a chance to share many of the updates that have taken place behind the scenes, so here’s what’s new this month…

Harvest Migration Complete

All accounts have now been successfully migrated from Harvest Consulting. Neale has turned the old server off, and everything is now on the CloudHost.One platform.

Support Ticket System

We believe in ‘keeping IT simple‘ and have always been quite relaxed as to how you contact us. The downside to this, however, is that things can get overlooked or buried. There was a support ticket system built into the Hosting Control Panel, but this required you to login to submit or even view an open enquiry, and that didn’t sit well with us. We’ve been trialling ZenDesk and it’s going well.

Any emails sent to service@cloudhost.one will now end up there, and can be monitored more easily. Don’t worry if you forget – we can simply forward the email there and it will create a Ticket for you. There’s no need to login to anything: just email as usual and any updates will be emailed straight to you as available.

You can also contact us via Facebook Messenger (S6 Connect) and this will be logged in the support system.

Web Chat updated

Linked to this, the web LiveChat service has been replaced and integrates with the new support ticket system. You’ll see a Chat or Help icon in the bottom right corner of our website, the Control Panel, and on other pages. It will also show in the WordPress Admin Dashboard of some managed accounts to make it easy to get help.

Social Media

You may have already noticed Kirsty has been busy posting onto Social Media – primarily the S6 Connect Facebook Page – and she’s available to do the same for you. Get in touch if you want to know more.

Fighting off WordPress Spam

If your WordPress site allows comments or has a Contact Form then – sooner or later – you will receive spam. It’s just the way it is (and not really limited to WordPress particularly). Whilst there are tools out there that can help combat this, there will always be some that get through. Captchas are a common way to approach this (enter random characters, answer a maths question or click on selected pictures) but they aren’t great for accessibility, annoy visitors, and aren’t 100% effective. The best solution we have found is CleanTalk, and this can now be provided on Managed WordPress accounts at no additional cost.

Improvements for SEO & Analytics

Also available at no additional cost on Managed WordPress accounts is RankMath PRO. RankMath helps improve WordPress SEO, can track 404 errors and create redirects, and also monitors Google Analytics. Whilst Yoast has long been the go-to SEO plugin for many WordPress sites, there are many additional options in RankMath and we now use this exclusively on all WordPress sites we manage. RankMath also helps with Local SEO, and includes additional Schema options to help Google find the information you want it to find.

If you want to know more about any of the updates drop an email to service@cloudhost.one or Chat now.

 

Happy New Copyright Notice

It’s that time of year again. No, no, not talking about new year resolutions and all that jazz. This is something much more important: website copyright notice updates!

One thing that annoys me much more than it should is a website showing something like © 2012 – yes, I saw that on a site just yesterday! There’s really no need for it when a simple snippet of code can ensure that the current year is always shown, though admittedly some platforms or themes don’t make it easy to insert it.

We’ll be checking all the sites on our Managed WordPress services today, just to be sure that they have all caught up and quickly updating those that haven’t (which will probably be all the ones we didn’t build).

It doesn’t take long, but it does at least make it look like you care about your online presence and that you’re still in business.

How to add a dynamic copyright notice

 If you want to add the dynamic date then you’ll need something like this:

&copy; 2019–<?php echo date(‘Y’); ?> Site Owner

If that’s gone way over your head, you’ll need someone like us 😉

Harvest Consulting Migration

Harvest Consulting Migration

Harvest Consulting   CloudHost tr

We’re really pleased to be able to welcome Harvest Consulting to the CloudHost.One™ family.

Harvest Clients will have been contacted already to let them know about the changes, and should have received some information from us at the same time, introducing the services and outlining out the migration will work.

We’ll be migrating Hosting accounts over to our servers between 20 December 2020 and 10 January 2021, and have tried to answer additional questions below. If you have any other questions though, please either leave a comment or contact us directly.

What’s happening?

Neale has been running Harvest Consulting for the past fifteen years, but his other business is taking up an increasing amount of time and he approached us in late-2019 to discuss some options. Harvest Consulting will be closing at the end of January 2021 but we both care about our customers and are now working together to ensure that the Hosting and Website Design aspects of the business can continue uninterrupted.

Harvest Consulting Clients will be contacted by Neale to determine if they want to transfer across to CloudHost.One™; and to get permission to pass on account information. We’ll then be in contact to arrange a date to undertake your data migration.

Why is my account moving to a new server?

Rather than taking over the existing server, we will be moving all websites and email accounts to our existing server infrastructure.

The server migration will bring several improvements to the Hosting Platform and Email services. We are happy to provide more information and explain this in more detail, but the key benefits are:

  • Powerful UK-based server infrastructure, with scalable resources for optimal reliability
  • Dedicated WordPress Hosting resources to improve speed and performance
  • Mailboxes increased to 10GB as standard with mail sending limits also increased
  • Built-in Malware scanning, Web Application Firewall and Spam Filtering on emails

Will this affect what I am paying?

Possibly, yes.

CloudHost.One™ Hosting Services are great value, but they are slightly more expensive than Harvest. Standard Hosting accounts are usually £9.50 per month or £95 annually. We also offer Managed WordPress services from £30 a month, but we’re not intending to push for any upsells, and will discuss individual business needs and use cases before completing the migrations to ensure you are getting the best value from us. We recognise that a lot of businesses are struggling right now so please do let us know if this slight increase in price is going to be difficult.

We will be honouring existing account renewal dates, so if your account usually renews in October, you won’t be charged until then. We may charge a nominal amount for the migration and initial security updates, but this would then be applied as a credit at renewal.

Who are CloudHost.One™ and S6 Connect Ltd?

CloudHost.One is currently a part of S6 Connect Ltd (but may be become a separate company) providing Hosting services directly and through Partners/Associates, and has previously acquired the customer base of Hosting providers in Stockport and South Essex where, despite the London address, our offices are.

Your website will be hosted on the CloudHost.One™ platform in the UK, and supported by S6 Connect Ltd. Your account manager will be Steve Westrop.

How do I get help and support?

The obvious change is that there will be a new email address and phone number going forward.
You can email enquiries to service@cloudhost.one or call local number 0161 806 0616.

Chances are you’ll end up with the occasional email directly from Steve occasionally – steve@s6connect.com – and if ever you have any urgent issues, option 0 on the main phone line connects to his mobile…. but don’t tell everyone!

Steve lived and worked in Stockport for a few years, and looks forward to working with and supporting you.

How will the migration work?

Once you have agreed to Neale sharing your details, we’ll determine a date to migrate your account.  This will usually be done out of hours – so an evening, weekend, or over the Christmas holiday period – to minimise disruption. We don’t expect there to be any ‘down time’ but can’t guarantee it.

There is a small possibility that some email accounts will need to be move manually, in which case we will need to either know or reset your email password, but we’ll let you know if this is necessary.

Email will be re-rerouted as soon as the mail accounts are transferred, and web traffic once the site has been tested. SSL certificates will be applied on completion. There may be a short period where traffic goes to either or both servers, or an even shorter one where a security error shows (20 mins). This is why the migrations will be scheduled outside of the times that you site is expected to be busy.

We’ve already transferred and tested things on most of the Harvest accounts, and there were a few things that came up in doing so due to the different server setups. This means that when we do the official migrations, we’ll be able to get these small issues sorted as we go without disruption to you. We’ll keep in contact throughout and if there are any issues we’ll let you know.

Do I need to change my email settings?

We should be able migrate all your email accounts automatically, and will manually recreate any mail forwarding rules that you currently have. In some cases we may need to import your email manually into your new mailbox, in which case we will need to know the existing password, or reset it for you in order to transfer the mail. In previous tests, all mail accounts migrated over ok as part of the automated process.

One thing we can’t directly control is how emails appear on your devices. If there are any problems here (eg folders not syncing) the best option is to re-add the mail account. All you will need for this usually is the email address and password. If you are prompted for server details they are below. If this does happen and you need help, we can connect remotely to assist (Windows, Mac or Android)

Do I get an SSL (security) Certificate?

Absolutely, and it’s all included in the price too!

We won’t be able to apply the new SSL certificate until the migration is complete and the DNS (domain name) records are updated.

If you see any message about a security certificate issue, refresh the page or try again in 10 minutes. If it continues, let us know and we’ll double-check everything as a priority.

What about site updates?

We’re happy to continue making updates for you in a similar way to before.  Just drop us an email or give us a call and we’ll get onto it.

If you find that you need updates and edits made to your site most months, our Managed WordPress maintenance plans may work out better value, but there is no obligation to upgrade to this at all. CloudHost Connect Pro starts at £30 a month and includes all Hosting charges, daily backups and advanced security, meaning that custom work is essentially just £40 an hour. You also receive access to a range of premium (paid) themes and plugins to add further functionality to the site, and will receive a report each month of any work done and the updates and enhancements made to the site.

If you are wanting to make any significant changes to your website, redesign it or freshen it up, then let us know: we may be able to spread some of the cost of this over the year to help keep it affordable.

Are there any limits for sending emails?

Our Webhosting service includes unlimited 10GB mailboxes, with a limit of 8,000 emails per sender address in a 24 hour period. The following limits also apply:

  • No more than 10,000 recipients per day.
  • No more than 2,000 unique recipients per day.
  • A single email may not be sent to more than 100 individual addresses.

When a new mailbox has been set up, the sending is limited to 50 per day for 7 days. This is actually an abuse rule to prevent new mailboxes being set up and used immediately to send out high volumes of spam emails. To preserve the platforms reputation and protect mail being sent from being spoofed as spam by third parties this rule was put place to protect that status.

If you are looking to send a high volume of emails, such as a newsletter or regular updates to customers or supporters, our CloudHost.Email service may be more appropriate – contact us for more information.

A limit of 500 messages per day is imposed on all e-mail sent by our web servers, for example from forms on a website (unless they are connected to a mailbox for SMTP sending). E-mails sent by the web servers should be no larger than 5 MB in size. This applies to all messages sent via the PHP mail() function.

Autoresponders will only send once every 8 hours per sender

We take a zero tolerance stance against the sending of unsolicited email, bulk emailing and spam. Please be aware that recipients may incorrectly report emails in this way, and we may have to take action on those reports regardless of the intention.

Not all mail folders are showing

This is something we’ve seen occasionally in Outlook, if there was a different setting on the account before it moved to us.

To fix this, you’ll need to go into the Account Information, by first clicking on File in the Outlook ribbon:

OUTLOOK 210105 2352

Once you’re there, follow the steps below:

  1. Select the email account from the dropdown list;
  2. Click on Account Settings to see other options;
  3. Click on Account Name and Sync Settings,
    another window will appear with the settings;
  4. Ensure the Root folder path field is empty (delete ‘inbox’)
  5. Click on Next and then Save changes.
OUTLOOK 210105 2351

Click the image to view full size

What are the Email Server Settings?

Most email applications will automatically detect the server settings once you enter the username (email address) and password. You should select IMAP account or ‘other’ depending on the application used.

If settings are not automatically applied you can use the following server settings:

• Incoming Mailserver: imap.cloudhost.one on port 993 with SSL (143 without)
• Outgoing Mailserver: smtp.cloudhost.one on port 465 with SSL (25 without)

Authentication is required for both, and you may need to re-enter your email address (username) and password to complete the server setup.

If your settings are autodetected, you may see the server names showing stackmail.com or your own domain instead of cloudhost.one – that’s ok.

You can also access your email at any time via our webmail service in your browser at https://webmail.cloudhost.one using your email and password.
The webmail interface also lets you set out-of -office replies or change password.