Need a host for my site - which one?

[CarlBkk]

Hi, can anyone recommend one of the major hosts for a simple Actinic v.7 upload to go live ASAP with the lowest chance of it needing tweaking? I'm thinking of Hostgator, whois.com etc. It seems all support on these sites basically say "buy it, try it, if it doesn't work we'll refund you", but I'd prefer to know from experience.

Thanks.

[Duncan Rounding]

You can go with 1and1 for around £10 per month for standard hosting that will suit a low traffic store, but if you want something faster and specialised then you can consider Pinbrook or Actinic Hosting. Stick to Linux hosting and make sure that other people have used them before to save reinventing the wheel.

[CarlBkk]

Thank you, in the meantime I have managed to get a Linux hosting package with www.whois.com first to see if it works. However, with Actinic's FTP settings (Network tab) set as the attachment, I just can't get it to connect to the host.

Can anyone tell me where I've gone wrong? Whois support have confirmed that the username/password I'm using will connect to their FTP through FileZilla, so it must only be my settings.

Highly frustrated at the moment..so close yet so far.:(

Hmm took a screenprint put it into word but it's over the 100kb limit here!

[Mike Hughes]

The best way to post network settings is to 'export' them and then copy and paste the contents into the page.

Mike

[CarlBkk]

Thanks,

Here is the export:

HTTPPROXYMODE 0
HTTPPROXYADDRESS
HTTPPROXYPORT 80
HTTPPROXYUSER
HTTPPROXYPASSWORD
FTPPROXYMODE 0
FTPPROXYADDRESS
FTPPROXYPORT 21
FTPPROXYUSER
FTPPROXYPASSWORD
SCRIPTID 1
SCRIPTEXT .pl
SMTPHOST mail.sapphire-blue.co.uk
WEBSITEURL http://www.sapphire-blue.co.uk/
IGNOREPASSIVEERRORS false
USERELATIVECGIURLS false
PATHTOPERL /usr/bin/perl
USEENHANCEFTP false
FTPCLIENTTIMEOUT 15000
FTPRETRYDELAY 3000
FTPSILENT false
FTPMAXRETRIES 3
FTPCONNECTTIMEOUT 25000
SMTPAUTHREQUIRED true
SMTPUSERNAME
SMTPPASSWORD
CATALOGURL http://www.sapphire-blue.co.uk/acatalog/
CGIBINURL http://www.sapphire-blue.co.uk/cgi-bin/
PATHFROMCGITOCATALOG ../acatalog/
CODEBASE ./
FTPHOST ftp.sapphire-blue.co.uk
FTPUSERNAME
FTPPASSWORD
PATHTOCGIBIN /public_html/cgi-bin/
USEPASSIVEFTP true
FTPPATHFROMCGITOCATALOG

[JGLIGHTING]

Hi
I would delete your username and password off your last post and change your password on your server.

Elliott

[Mike Hughes]

Have you set the dns nameservers to point to your host / server?

At the moment I just get a dns error for the website.

Mike

[CarlBkk]

DNS seem to be fine....ns1.whois.com (domain, email and web host packages all purchases with whois.com). Filezilla FTP successfully connects and all web files transferred to the correct host folder and visible in the directory.

However, when I try to connect through the Actinic Network settings (or using their wizard) it just comes up with "cannot connect to host" straight away. I wonder if this is because there is no option to input the port or servertype in the Actinic options?

[pinbrook]

Mike is correct there is something wrong with dns. I can't connect to the site in a browser, indeed you confirm you "cannot connect to host"

[pinbrook]

If I browse to the site without www I get website under construction, but with www it simply fails

[CarlBkk]

The files all now seem to have put in place, so on www.sapphire-blue.co.uk the website is visible, but the images aren't. I think this must be something to do with the host's set-up as the files have all been placed in the corresponding directories.

This was all done with FileZilla FTP, the Actinic settings ALWAYS fail to connect to host despite the settings being correct. The host won't offer any support for this.

The site's been down for so long as I tried to iron out the problems with whois.com that I think I'm going to apply for a refund and try again with 1and1 hosting :-(

[Duncan Rounding]

Sending the files via ftp will not work correctly. The files need to uploaded with Actinic.

I would recommend you change hosts.

[CarlBkk]

Hi Drounding, I now have a linux hosting package with 1and1.co.uk which seems a lot more userfriendly.

The Actinic upload actually connects this time which is a good sign, however an error which ceases it says "cannot find cgi-bin" and when I look at the webspace directory structure on 1and1 there is no cgi-bin folder.

Can I create this directory on the host server and then upload to it, or is this a bigger issue??

Many thanks,

[NormanRouxel]

I use 1&1 Business / Linux. It was a long time ago but I think I just created a cgi-bin in the root of my server space and set its permissions to 755.

[Duncan Rounding]

With 1and1 you need to point your domain to a directory using the control panel (can be the root). Then set up an FTP user in the control panel to point to that directory (or root). Now using an ftp client create two directories within the directory, one called acatalog with permissions of 777 and another called cgi-bin with permissions of 755.

There are sample network settings for 1and1 here: http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=28934

[CarlBkk]

Ok, just doing that now. Altered the settings as on your link which comes up with a cgi-bin error "cannot find cgi-bin directory" even though I created it.

I just created a new directory with my shop name within Control Panel and just set up and FTP account to point to it. When the server updates I'll just create two directories within it? (acatalog and cgi-bin). I guess I can do this within the Webspace Exlorer in control panel without having to use a separate FTP client?

[CarlBkk]

I think I'm nearly there...Actinic uploaded successfully. I can see the files in the directories on the host server. The only problem is that the site doesn't open in the browser (Error 403: You tried to access a document for which you don't have privileges).

[CarlBkk]

Guys, followed all your instructions and Actinic uploads ok, index.html is up there so the website is visible but all images are broken (see on www.sapphire-blue.co.uk). Any ideas what to do?

[pinbrook]

you are confused when to use the acatalog folder

your online shop is located at http://www.sapphire-blue.co.uk/acatalog

and the jewellery section at http://www.sapphire-blue.co.uk/acatalog/Jewellery.html for example but on your front page you point to http://www.sapphire-blue.co.uk/Jewellery.html