I had a bit of a scare on Sunday. I got an email from Bluehost that my server had been infected and deactivated and if I did not clean it up it would be deleted in 15 days.
A little technical background. I know very little about web hosting, servers, coding et al. Ten years ago, decided I wanted to go from using a free blogging site to hosting my own blog. A couple of years later, I bought another domain that I still use as my portal page.
Having a server meant I could host and create websites for other people. I did that for a few folks but have since stopped doing that because of time and interest.
While having your own domain and hosting service, it’s not without problems. As I said, I don’t know a whole lot about technical issues and so when things don’t work, it’s a bit like me and vehicles. I need a guy or a girl to fix it. I don’t always know what’s happening so support that is simple and responsive is highly valued. My first hosting company service started to degrade and I decided to move. I had been quite pleased with Bluehost, they resolved my issues and were easy to contact. That is until Sunday.
After the email, I called them and they said my site was infected and I would have to use a service called SiteLock to get my site back up. SiteLock told me my only choice was to purchase their minimum fee of $120 a month for 6 months. A smart person would have investigated more options but I didn’t. Like others who are in over their heads, I felt I had no choice. I gave them my credit card information and they started cleaning up my server. After their first email came back saying my site was clean, I contacted my Bluehost who told me that it was still infected and not able to be reactivated. This cycle happened a few more times, site still not restored.
I posted my issue to Facebook and my friend Alec reminded me of a new company Reclaim Hosting. It’s the brainchild of Jim Groom and Tim Owens who have been spreading the gospel of people owning their online stuff for a long time. Their service is uniquely designed for educators. Tim responded to my post. Within a day, Tim had taken all my stuff, migrated it over to the service, cleaned all the files, was in constant contact with me and had me up and running in record time.
As I said, I know very little about the technical side of webhosting but I know what great service looks and feels like. They are trusted, smart and fast. They are also very inexpensive. So if you’ve not yet bought a domain. Do it. Better yet, they’ll give you one for free and host it for a very reasonable price. Use this link, Use “shareski” as a coupon code for 20% off which makes it really cheap. Just do it. I’ll vouch for them. These guys are good.
cross-posted at ideasandthoughts.org/
Dean Shareski is the Community Manager of the Canadian DEN (Discovery Educators Network) and lecturer for the University of Regina. With 24 years of experience as a K12 educator and consultant, he specializes in the use of technology in the classroom. Read more at ideasandthoughts.org.
Disclaimer: This weblog contains the opinions and ideas of Dean Shareski. While there may be references to my work and content which relates directly to my work, the ideas are mine alone and are not necessarily shared by my employer.
