The Head Geeks' Blog

PHP 8.0 and 8.1 Now Available

Matt — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 17:08:00 +0000

PHP versions 8.0 and 8.1 are finally here for all shared and reseller hosting services!

To enable one of the new PHP versions for your website(s), use the cPanel -> MultiPHP Manager interface. The new versions may appear as ea-php80 and ea-php81 (for resold accounts) or alt-php80 and alt-php81 (for shared hosting accounts).

We hope you enjoy having access to the latest PHP versions here at GeekStorage. If you have any feedback for us, please let us know in the comments below.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

cPanel Licensing Changes Coming November 1

Matt — Sun, 18 Aug 2019 21:45:00 +0000

cPanel Inc. has announced that, beginning in November 2019, all cPanel/WHM licenses are being converted to a new per-account licensing model. The change applies to all cPanel/WHM license types and is a forced change to all cPanel partners (including us). Accordingly, we must adjust our VPS & Dedicated cPanel/WHM licensing pricing and our Reseller Hosting packages to reflect the new cPanel/WHM licensing options and pricing. The bullet points below outline the important details for all cPanel/WHM licenses which will take effect on November 1, as well as required adjustments for all Reseller Hosting packages. Shared hosting services will retain current pricing with no changes.

Note: This announcement originally indicated these changes were coming in September. These changes will instead be implemented by November 1.

Reseller Hosting:

All not currently available reseller packages without an account limit will have a limit of 25 accounts (higher tier packages will have higher account allotments, 25 will be the minimum for old packages). Resellers hosting a higher number of accounts will have the option to add additional accounts for $5/month per 25 accounts.
All reseller packages will no longer include a full WHMCS discount. These licenses will need to be renewed/purchased at their new discounted rates beginning on November 1, 2019. This allows us to continue offering reseller hosting at the rates posted on our site and customers who are not using the license will not be affected by the cPanel/WHM licensing changes.

VPS Hosting:

All VPS cPanel/WHM licenses will be switched over to support the new licensing model on November 1, 2019. VPS packages which previously included a free cPanel/WHM license will receive a credit of $10/month towards their preferred cPanel license. Current cPanel/WHM licenses will be converted to the base cPanel/WHM 5 account license for $15/month, where possible. Additional licensing options are available for 30 accounts ($20/month), 50 accounts ($28/month) 100 accounts ($35/month), and from there additional accounts are $5/month per 50 accounts.

Dedicated Servers:

All dedicated server cPanel/WHM licenses will be switched over to support the new licensing model on November 1, 2019. Dedicated packages which previously included a free cPanel/WHM license will now receive the base dedicated cPanel/WHM license supporting 100 accounts. Current cPanel/WHM licenses will be converted to the new rate of $35/month for 100 accounts. Additional accounts can be added to the license for $5/month per 50 accounts.

cPanel Alternatives

We are happy to help with considerations for control panel alternatives if you wish to avoid the cPanel/WHM licensing changes, but we should advise such changes can take a long time to implement and will need to be scheduled accordingly. If you are considering such a change, you should contact us as soon as possible.

Additional Information

We will be sending an email to all affected customers with further details as the November 1 deadline approaches. If you have any questions please feel free to submit a support ticket or contact us at support@geekstorage.com.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

PHP 7.0.0 Is Here!

Matt — Sun, 13 Dec 2015 22:22:00 +0000

The much awaited PHP 7.0.0 release is now available for all GeekStorage shared and reseller hosting websites!

We've also compiled the most recent point updates to PHP 5.5 and PHP 5.6 for the latest fixes on all servers.

To enable PHP 7.0.0 is as easy as updating your .htaccess file with the following line:

AddHandler application/x-httpd-php70 .php

We hope you enjoy having access to the latest and greatest PHP versions here at GeekStorage. If you have any feedback for our sysadmin team, let us know in the comments below.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Installing Symfony on cPanel Shared Hosting

Matt — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 21:33:00 +0000

Symfony is an open source PHP framework that can help you develop your new website quickly and easily. Security, configurability, and community lie at the foundation of Symfony and we highly recommend the framework to any PHP developer that wants to create a new website or remake an established website. Symfony, however, can be difficult to install on a shared hosting account. Our shared hosting service provides all the tools necessary to make installation of Symfony a breeze and this article will walk you through the entire process.

What you will need:

A cPanel shared hosting account with SSH access and git installed. All of our super fast LiteSpeed-powered shared hosting services include SSH access.
An SSH client and familiarity with entering commands. Check out our SSH tutorial if you are new to Linux or the console.
Some familiarity with the git tool is recommended, though not required to follow along with this tutorial. We have a Git tutorial if you want to learn more.
This article assumes all requirements are met by your current hosting environment.

Symfony is a PHP framework, so some experience with PHP or the desire to learn PHP is required to work with Symfony. Make sure to bookmark the excellent Symfony Documentation on the Symfony website. It may seem that getting up and running with Symfony will be a daunting task. We'll break it down into simple steps so you can start developing with Symfony right away.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

PHP 5.6 Available

Matt — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 14:10:00 +0000

Our Shared & Reseller web developers will be happy to hear that PHP 5.6 is now available. To enable on individual files, use the ".php56" extension. Enabling for an entire folder is simple, just update your .htaccess file with the following:

AddHandler application/x-httpd-php56 .php

Use the version you prefer. All other PHP versions remain available, of course. Just replace "56" in the above examples with "55" for PHP 5.5, and "54" for PHP 5.4, and "53" for PHP 5.3. Legacy systems also have PHP 5.2 available.
Upgrade soon. We recommend moving towards PHP 5.5 or higher for major performance improvements. PHP 5.3 is past end of life; applications relying on version 5.3 should be updated right away.
Experiment with PHP. There are many new features in PHP 5.6. If you want to learn something new, now is a great time. SSH access is included with all of our shared hosting services, so you can install Composer and fiddle with a new app or site quickly.

We hope you enjoy developing with our hosting platform! If you need a PHP module or other software installed for your development environment, in most cases we can install it for you. Send us an e-mail to support@geekstorage.com and let us know what you need.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Geek Storage partners with WHMCS to offer discounted client management software

Jay — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 20:29:00 +0000

The partnership with WHMCS provides clients with discounted client management software, which will help them with automating tasks and billing customers.

NORMAN, OK – July 21, 2014 – Web hosting provider Geek Storage (www.geekstorage.com) announced today that it has partnered with WHMCS (http://www.whmcs.com). Through this partnership, Geek Storage clients are able to purchase a license to the WHMCS client management software at a discounted rate of only $10 per month for the branded license and $12 per month for the unbranded license.

WHMCS offers an all-in-one billing, support, and automation solution for online businesses ranging from small start-ups, to multi-million dollar companies. WHMCS provides direct integration with over 100 different APIs for provisioning systems, domain registration providers, payment gateways, and other services. WHMCS is now a worldwide leader in online recurring billing & automation, particularly among web hosts, but being used in ever increasing numbers for many other purposes. With a strong focus on customer support, and with development being driven by custom feedback, WHMCS is a secure, extendable and scalable solution, that will enable you to grow and develop your business, while optimizing and reducing the costs of billing and supporting clients.

“We are always trying to find ways to assist our clients with tools which can help them with growing their business and achieving success, so it was a natural fit to partner with WHMCS to provide automation and billing software to our clients, many of which are just beginning a new website hosting business”, said Matt Eli, Managing Member. He added, “WHMCS has proven itself to be a respected industry leading solution and we are glad that we are able to help our clients acquire a license to the software at a discounted cost.”

WHMCS is excited to see Geek Storage as one of our newest partners. Through this partnership our clients will be able to automate their reseller and web hosting businesses by utilizing a solution that is designed to reduce administrative burden and increase productivity in all areas of their business. “Partnerships with companies like Geek Storage help extend our software to their customers and we are thrilled to work with Geek Storage and their customers through this partnership", said Matthew Pugh, CEO of WHMCS.

About Geek Storage

Geek Storage.com, LLC is a provider of website hosting, VPS, dedicated servers and website development for small to medium-sized businesses. Founded in 2007, Geek Storage now provides hosting for clients out of three U.S. data center locations and one location in Europe. Contact Geek Storage at 1-888-865-6515 or visit www.geekstorage.com for more information.

About WHMCS

WHMCS, a private company based in the UK, was established in 2005 as the first company to develop a system to combine billing and support solutions into a single package. Since then, WHMCS has developed an all-in-one client management, billing & support solution for online business in over 90 countries worldwide supporting everything from signup to termination, with automated billing, provisioning and management. WMCS has been able to provide one of the most popular billing and support solutions for web host by partnering with numerous strategic partners to provide its customers with the products and services to allow its end users to achieve success.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

PHP, MySQL, and Resource Enhancements

Matt — Sun, 13 Oct 2013 02:18:00 +0000

We are excited to announce our new Helios shared hosting server with MariaDB 5.5.31 and PHP 5.4.20 (5.5 and 5.3 are also available)!

All shared hosting instant resource limits have been increased up to 100% CPU with access to up to 4 cores, as well as an increase on all reseller accounts up to 100% CPU with access to up to 2 cores.

We have also updated PHP versions across the board! All shared & reseller systems now have PHP 5.3.27, 5.4.20, and 5.5.4 accessible. You will find your default PHP version accurately displayed within cPanel on the left hand sidebar of the main page, while other PHP versions are accessible via the appropriate .htaccess setting:

PHP 5.3.27: AddHandler application/x-httpd-php53 .php
PHP 5.4.20: AddHandler application/x-httpd-php54 .php
PHP 5.5.4: AddHandler application/x-httpd-php55 .php

Further updates have been made to the PHP builds to improve performance, with OpCode Caching support (via Zend OpCache) rolling out over the next few days to all servers! We are already noticing a significant improvement in site response speeds on PHP builds running the new OpCache module.

We are also rolling out MySQL updates across all shared & reseller systems. The new Helios server has already launched with MariaDB 5.5.31, while the Titan server has been updated with MySQL 5.5.32. The remaining servers will receive an update to MySQL 5.5.32 over the next few days during off-peak hours.

As always, we strive to offer the best performance in our shared & reseller hosting, and we hope you enjoy the new service updates!

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Server Name Indication (SNI) is now supported: Install one or more SSL certificates without a dedicated IP address

Jay — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 03:42:00 +0000

All of our shared and reseller hosting services now support Server Name Indication (SNI). This new feature allows you to do two things that weren't previously possible in a normal shared or reseller hosting environment:

You can now install one or more SSL certificates for your domains (including add-on domains) on the same account.
You no longer need a dedicated IP address to install an SSL certificate and, instead, can use the shared IP address of the server that you are on.

Most modern web browsers support SNI and there are only a few exceptions:

Chrome 5 and older browsers on Microsoft Windows XP
Any Internet Explorer browser on Microsoft Windows XP
Android mobile phone default browser on Android O.S. v. 2.x.
Blackberry web browser
Windows Mobile cell phones up to v. 6.5.

With IPv4 depletion on the horizon, this is an awesome change that allows you to secure your website without the added expense of needing a dedicated IP.

If you have any questions or would like to order an SSL certificate for your primary or add-on domains, please feel free to contact us!

Original post blogged on b2evolution.