VPS.net

11/30/2015: PHP is releasing a major release titled PHP 7.0.

I decided to use this major upgrade as an excuse to switch my web sites from Westhost.com to the new SSD Virtual Servers hosted by VPS.net (Westhost and VPS.net are owned by the same company and use the same data centers). The VPS.net SSD Cloud uses the solid state SSD drives and are significantly faster than traditional cloud servers.

The starting price of the VPS.net product is $5/month. The $5/month gives you a virtual server with 20GB of diskspace. $5 a month comes to $60/year.

If a web site becomes popular, you can add additional nodes and diskspace at reasonable prices.

If you sign up for VPS.net, you can put the number 69032 in the coupon box at check out, you will get a $10 credit on your account and I will get a $10 credit in mine!

I am starting with my transition to VPS.net with my test domain yintercept.com. I intend to move my Community Sites; So, I bought two nodes to get an additional discount.

The resource project on this domain will contain a PHP Tutorial and general articles about programming. This page includes useful notes about VPS.net in specific.

VPS Specific Notes:

• VPS.net is owned by the UK2 Group, which was purchased by Llloyds Development Group (a private equity firm by Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE: LYG, LSE: LLOY)
• SSD Accounts are not listed in the main VPS.net Dashboard. You have to click on the SSD VPS tab to see your account.
• VPS has templates for differet operating system. The basic install gives a choice between Centos and Ubuntu. I went with Ubuntu as it is purportedly easier to use than Centos.
• The VPS Dashboard includes a clunky web based SSH client. I quickly switched to PuTTY.
• VPS creates a "root" user for Ubuntu. Your first step should be to create a user account for yourself. Then change the password for root. Put this password in a super safe spot and never use it again as you can use the "SUDO" function from your primary account for root commands.
• You need to install your server, PHP and your database. Utbuntu is well documented on the web. Setting up servers is usually simple thinkgs like writing "sudo apt-get whatever" in an SSH Shell.
• According to a phone call, VPS.net will give you a free SSL certifcate for each IP Address you buy from them.