Take control of your social network, don’t let your social network take control of you!
After searching and searching for a new web host who can provide me with Windows 2008 server and decent number of MS SQL databases without breaking the bank (>$20 / mo.), I finally found one to sign up with and try out. That company is Planet Small Business hosting, wish me luck!
5/1/2009@1600:
First thing to run into, is that it seems account setup is a manual (human-driven) process. I couldn’t pay and keep going with the setup. Just for the record, I finished my payment by 1600 on Friday, May 1, 2009.
5/1/2009@1620:
OK, Site was available in about 20 minutes, that is acceptable. Well as long as it’s automated and I can set up stuff at 2am.
5/1/2009@1645:
45 minutes into this setup, and no email from them about the site. I do have access to it though. What are their DNS addresses, I can’t find them anywhere.
5/1/2009@1808:
I sent a ticket into tech support asking about DNS server address and email, and they replied in 10 minutes. I sent this at 1805 and received it at 0614, that’s good response(!). Once DNS propagates, I should be good to go. With n0t getting the email, I wonder if Yahoo! has blacklisted them; it happens.
Well not in this case, the emails where in my junk folder, not sure how I missed them the first time. Oh well, one of these days I will learn how to use an email client.
5/1/2009@2030
The host uses a new version of Plesk. Pretty easy finding things, speed is tolerable. Now it’s just taking the time to configure the server and how they run things. So far it’s looking OK.
5/1/09@2130
Hey cool! I have been a little bummed over the fact that PlanetSMB only allows one domain (unlimited aliases). I was wondering how I was going to host all of my domains. I wasn’t really interested in purchasing separate packages, as it would be a pain flipping between them. Well I discovered it just now, their reseller plans support multiple domains, and at a fair price, and still with UNLIMITED MS SQL databases. Pretty sweet if you ask me.
But before I get too excited here, I need to get my applications loaded up on the site and see how the run.
5/4/09@2259
I have loaded up two of my ASP.NET MVC applications and they are both running perfectly. One of the two uses SQL2008, and that is working great to. I must say I like Plesk 9.2 a whole lot better than HELM 3.16, which is getting quite dated. All the stuff available to me for $5 a month is just great. If you are a .NET developer and need a place to throw your stuff, this is it. The systems are ready to rock ‘n roll.
OK here is a big wtf they are pulling. The mid level developer package I am using only allow 1 mailbox. Yeah you read that correctly, one mailbox. You can alias other email addresses to it, but still only one box. Very, strange. Even their reseller packages are pretty restricted on mailboxes.
There is no doubt, if service levels remain the same, I will move all my domains over to planetsmb.com using a reseller package for multiple domain support.
5/26/2009: It’s been a few weeks I have been using PlanetSMB and everything is fine. I setup a DotNetNuke portal pretty painlessly and haven’t had any issues with my .NET 3.5 sites. I like the fact that I can setup a new database for whatever and not have to worry about running out of allotted databases. Makes life much easier when your host doesn’t get in your way.
Come this August I will be moving all my domains from iHostasp.net to PlanetSMB, as my iHostasp.net account lapses in September. I am planning for a happy future with my new host.
Chomping at the bit to get ASP.NET MVC up and running on my regular hosting environment, iHostasp.net, I sent their support a ticket today asking if they plan IIS7 installations in their shared hosting environment.
| Brett Slaski |  |
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Posted On: 29 Apr 2009 10:50 AM |
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Greetings, I just wanted to check to see if there is an ETA on any IIS7 installations for shared hosting? Thank you, Brett |
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Their response, unfortunately:
| Clint Schleeper |  |
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Posted On: 29 Apr 2009 02:06 PM |
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Hi Brett, At this time we have no plans for incorporating IIS7 into our shared hosting environment. IHOST, LLC |
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So now I have work to do, find a host with a like offering as iHostasp.net running IIS7, is there such an animal? I have tried in the past and haven’t come up with anything so any suggestions is highly appreciated.
I find it ironic that I needed to send iHostasp the support ticket today, from work, out of the blue. When I got home today, my copy of Professional ASP.NET MVC 1.0
Please post comments if you know of a good hosting company providing shared hosting of IIS7.
Thank you.
My current plan, which runs around $16/mo, $88.83 every 6 months. I have to say the two things I like the best is dedicated memory pool for each domain and 3 MS SQL databases. Three databases was the major reason I went with them in the first place.
- Dedicated application pool for each domain!
- Customer accessible database backups!
- Storage – 2400MB
- Bandwidth – 20GB
- DNN Installations – 3
- Parent portals – 60
- Child portals – Unlimited
- MSSQL 2005– 3 x 250MB each
- MySQL 4/5 – 6 x 250MB each
- Mail – Unlimited POP3/SMTP/IMAP/WEB MAIL Accounts. Accounts. MailFoundry spam & virus filtering included.
- FTP – Unlimited FTP accounts with ability to set user permissions.
- Sub domains – Create & manage your own 3rd level domains.
- Statistics – Detailed real-time statistics to track your visitors.
- ASP.NET 1.1/2.0/3.0/3.5, ASP 3.0, PHP5 supported
- Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX extensions
- Can run wide array of other ASP, PHP, .NET based web applications without any limits
This is a bit silly, but I couldn’t resist. I replied to their support email and simply said
Please?!
And their reply:
Hi Brett,
We do not have IIS7 available within our shared hosting environment and do not have any plans to incorporate it in the near future. However, we do offer virtual dedicated server hosting environments and we could set you up with IIS7 on a virtual dedicated server. Our virtual dedicated server packages can be viewed at the link below.
iHost Virtual Dedicated Server Hosting Packages:
http://www.ihostasp.net/HostedAppliance/Default.aspIHOST, LLC
Customer Support
https://support.ihostllc.net
[email protected]
Local/International: 1.440.793.0323 x2
Toll-free: 1.800.593.0238 x2UPDATE: (4/17/2010)
It was really interesting to me that the owner of iHostasp.net left a message on this blog post about their service and how it was incorrect for their technician to say what they did. But the truth holds; it is now April 17th of 2010 and still they have no known installations of II7 in their shared hosting environment. What if I would of took him for his word and stayed with iHost? I would be stuck and still without the environment I need.
Trying to make good of your company is one thing, making up stories is something completely different.
Recently I have been using Google Chrome more often. It really is wicked-fast running Javascript. Anyway, there is a small annoyance which catches me almost every time I use it.
Firefox my primary browser of choice for the last few years now allows you to right click on a link and select to open it in a new tab, window, etc.
Chrome of course has this option too, it’s nothing really special, but there is one BIG difference between the two:
Firefox right-click menu:
Open Link in New Window
Open Link in New Tab
…
Chrome’s right-click menu:
Open link in new tab
Open link in new window
…
You know they had to of done this on purpose. I am sure most of the code jockeys at Google used Firefox prior to their own browser. Even Internet Explorer is setup similar to Firefox and probably why I never had an issue with this switching between them
IE 8’s right-click menu:
Open
Open in New Tab
Open in New Window
…
See open in new tab is still the second option. I am curious to see how long, if ever it will take me to not open a new link in a new window in Chrome, when I was unconsciously trying to open the link in a new tab?
** To save you time of reading through this, you can’t cleanly use MVC on iHost**
I have been playing around with ASP.NET MVC for at least six months now and was estatic when the version 1.0 released during MIX09.
Some time around preview 3 I wanted to put one of my MVC sites out at iHostasp.net where I host all my Microsoft technology-based stuff. I first hit a roadblock because the .NET 3.5 Framework wasn’t available for my domain. I looked at iHost’s website and found it listed and asked, wtf?
It was a simple enough request, they just moved my domains over to one of their servers with the 3.5 framework installed. The only issue this caused is that I lost all of my site statistics. The moved forced me to reconfigure SmarterStats (a decent free offering from them) for the new server.
Figured I was all set now, but no, MVC required IIS7 to work with regular routing. Well it failed and I went over to godaddy and ran it on a free (came with domain purchase) server instance (which is horrible) for some testing, etc.
Now I am back and documenting my findings for whatever.
First to note is that in the ASP.NET 1.0 Release Notes.doc file a reference is made to Phil Haack’s website for Bin Deploying ASP.NET MVC. Searching for this on Phil’s site yeilds nothing, so I have linked it above.
It’s really simple to do, just set the following references to “Copy Local”.
System.Web.Mvc
System.Web.Routing
System.Web.Abstractions
From VS2008, locate the references section in the Solution Explorer. Locate each of the three references (dll’s) above, right click on them, and choose properties. From the Properies view, change Copy Local: False to Copy Local: True.
That’s it. When you compile or publish your solution the DLL’s for those three references will be added to the bin folder.
After all of that, it still will not work as the routing will not work correctly without hacking iis settings a bit. Forgot about this and I had actually tried all of this already about 45 days ago.
As stated in Using ASP.NET MVC with Different Versions of IIS there are two options available for IIS6 and below:
- Modify your route table to use filenames (ewe)
- Create a wildcard script map (requires access to IIS)
So the [my] only option is to wait for an unknown amount of time until iHostasp.net decides to start ii7 installations. Their support told me that they plan to, but have no schedule set. This is a real bummer about ASP.NET MVC, but I’ll get over it. 🙂
Hey look, ASP.NET has made it’s first live-supported release! This is great!
I have been using the MVC pattern for a good 8 months now and I just love it. It just makes so much sence to the way I think. Sure there is a learning curve to get started with ASP.NET MVC, whatever, it’s worth the trip.
I read about it here first. Phil Haack wrote about the release.
You can get the release from here.
Remember if you have a previous version of ASP.NET MVC loaded, you will have to unistall it first. A short time ago, Phil Haack, Scott Hanselman, Rob Conery, and ScottGu release a FREE tutorial to MVC, as a fist “Chapter” to their upcomming book, ASP.NET MVC 1.0.
ASP.NET MVC 1.0
These are great, from a software engineering point of view.
From the news today:
MOSCOW (AP) – The crash of two satellites has generated an estimated tens of thousands of pieces of space junk that could circle Earth and threaten other satellites for the next 10000 years, space experts said Friday.
Images from Pixar’s Wall-e are not far off at all!
“in a cup!”
One sunny day in January, 2009 an old man approached the White House
from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he’d been sitting on a park
bench.
He spoke to the U.S. Marine standing guard and said, “I would like to go
in and meet with President Bush.”
The Marine looked at the man and said, “Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer
president and no longer resides here.”
The old man said, “Okay”, and walked away.
The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to
the same Marine, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.”
The Marine again told the man, “Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no
longer president and no longer resides here.”
The man thanked him and, again, just walked away.
The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the
very same U.S. Marine, saying “I would like to go in and meet with
President Bush.”
The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and
said, “Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to
speak to Mr. Bush. I’ve told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the
president and no longer resides here. Don’t you understand?”
The old man looked at the Marine and said, “Oh, I understand. I just
love hearing it.”
The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, “Looking forward to
seeing you tomorrow, Sir.”
–Sorry not sure who wrote this.
Stuff From an IT Slug 
OK John I couldn’t wait, so I tried it out now, this is what I did. It installed for me, no problem, only took a couple of minutes.
Here are the basic steps I took:
If you like you can look at it here: http://wp.brettski.com