Are ASPnix server times synchronized at all?

This is a question we get asked regularly and the answer is yes they are! Over the years we’ve heard from many sales calls, chats and tickets about how many other providers have servers with times that are either many seconds or even many minutes off from the actual time.

All of our servers sync to the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) time servers.

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Can you change the server timezone to a specific timezone?

We cannot change our server timezones. We receive numerous requests each month to change our server’s timezones to a specific timezone. Your application would be responsible for formatting and displaying dates and times in the timezone of your choice or UTC.

Most applications store dates and times as UTC and then display them in the required timezone offset.

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What are the differences between FTP Implicit and Explicit modes?

The difference between these 2 modes comes down to how the connection is established from your client to the server and what commands are issued.

Implicit

Assumes that the server is expecting everything to be encrypted and using SSL. When your client establishes a connection to the server, it immediately negotiates the SSL connection and command connection. This is normally the mode used for FTP over port 990. It is also a deprecated protocol.

Explicit

Establishes a normal (unencrypted) connection to the server. Once connected, the client will send a command to tell the server it wants to switch to an encrypted (SSL) connection. The command here is “AUTH SSL”. When the client sends this command, the server response back saying it is ready to accept the encrypted connection. This is normally done on the standard FTP port, 21.

No matter what mode you use, the data connection is always encrypted.

Recommendation

We recommend that all customers use Explicit FTP with port 21. This is the standard and prefered method for FTP security. If your FTP client supports it (such as FileZilla or WinSCP), you may want to consider using SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) with port 22.

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Allow Let’s Encrypt automatic renewal when redirecting HTTP to HTTPS

Let’s Encrypt requires HTTP (port 80) to issue and renew certificates, however, if you have a HTTP to HTTPS redirect or rewrite rule in place, this will cause issuing or renewals to fail. We have the following recommendations for IIS URL Rewrite (web.config) and Apache (or IIS Helicon Ape) .htaccess rules to allow the .well-known folders to be served over HTTP.

IIS – web.config or Helicon Ape

For URL Rewrite, add the following rewrite rule to your web.config file’s <rewrite> section, this rule must be first in the rewrite section…

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<rule name="ACME / Let's Encrypt Verification" stopProcessing="true">
    <match url="^\.well-known(.*)" />
    <action type="None" />
</rule>

For Helicon Ape, add this line to the .htaccess file in your wwwroot under the RewriteEngine On directive

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RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.well-known/acme-challenge

Apache – .htaccess

Add this line to your site’s root .htaccess file directly under the RewriteEngine On directive

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RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.well-known/acme-challenge

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How to force redirect HTTP to HTTPS

Forcing or redirecting your visitors to https automatically is the best way to make sure that your website can only accessed through SSL and that all traffic to and from your website is secured. We recommend that all customers who use SSL make sure that their sites contain one of the below rules.

IIS – web.config or Helicon Ape

For URL Rewrite, add the following rewrite rule to your web.config file’s <rewrite> section, this rule must be first in the rewrite section…

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<rule name="HTTP to HTTPS Redirect" stopProcessing="true"> 
    <match url="(.*)" /> 
    <conditions> 
        <add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="off" ignoreCase="true" />
    </conditions> 
    <action type="Redirect" redirectType="Permanent" url="https://{HTTP_HOST}/{R:1}" />
</rule>

For Helicon Ape, add these lines to the .htaccess file in your wwwroot under the RewriteEngine On directive

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RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !on
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}

Apache – .htaccess

Add these lines to your site’s root .htaccess file directly under the RewriteEngine On directive

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RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !on
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}

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Is PHP opcache supported?

Yes. The new Zend Opcache PHP extension is supported under the 7.x. 5.x releases do not support that Zend Opcache extension at this time. In order to make use of opcache your site and application will need to support PHP 7.x.

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What is IMAP IDLE?

IMAP IDLE is an extension of the IMAP protocol to allow the client (Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird etc.) to receive real-time notifications of mailbox changes without the need for the client to keep checking the server for new messages.

While this does provide real-time notifications for changes, it does have limitations. For example, you can only receive updates for the folder you currently have selected / viewing in your email client. IE if you have the “Inbox” folder selected and you receive an email in a folder called “Job Listings” the email client will not be updated until it does a standard refresh / check for new messages.

The reason for this is due to how IMAP IDLE works. When you select a folder, the client establishes a connection to the server’s IMAP service and states that it supports IDLE and the connection remains open and constant to the server. So imagine if you had 25 folders… That would be 25 connections to the server. That may not seem like much, but do that across thousands of IMAP email clients, some with 1 folder, others with 25, some with hundreds… You can quickly see this can become a connection nightmare for the server to handle.

(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Is the IMAP IDLE extension supported?

Yes, our Windows and Linux shared services provide support for IMAP IDLE and are enabled to allow IMAP IDLE. Though while the server supports this extension of the IMAP protocol, it is up to your email client application to implement this. Email clients such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Apple Mail, Windows Mail, Thunderbird and Opera provide support for IMAP IDLE.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Is the Event Scheduler enabled for MySQL? Am I allowed to create custom events in MySQL?

Yes, the MySQL Event Scheduling system is enabled for our MySQL servers, you can set up custom events on your MySQL databases. You can also create events easily through PHPMyAdmin as well as 3rd party tools such as Navicat.

(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Is the WordPress JetPack plugin supported?

Yes, the JetPack plugin for WordPress is fully supported on our shared hosting services.

(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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