Posts Tagged ‘upgrading’

Easy Joomla! 1.6 Installation and Joomla! Site Migration

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

Wendy RobinsonBack in November we introduced our new Joomla! Utilities cPanel plugin, a set of tools exclusive to Rochen hosting customers that allows the Joomla! user to easily install, upgrade, maintain and enhance the security of their Joomla websites.

Today we have two brand new features for Joomla Utilities which we are very excited to tell you about. Now when you access Joomla Utilities in your Rochen hosting control panel you will have the following additional options:

Install Joomla 1.6:

When you go to the Joomla installation section of  Joomla Utilities you will now be able to opt whether you’d like to install the most current version of Joomla 1.5 or Joomla 1.6 with a single click of your mouse. Rochen’s hosting platform is fully performance tuned and secured for both versions.

Migrate Joomla to Rochen from Another Host:

This feature is very exciting and is going make life a lot easier when it comes to moving your Joomla site from your old/current host to your Rochen hosting account. All you need is your FTP information from your current host and you will be able to migrate your entire site over to Rochen with just one click.  The migration feature supports both Joomla 1.5 and 1.6 websites.

We’ve prepared another demonstration video below so that you can check out the new features right away:

The above new features are available in addition to all of the current Joomla Utilities  features listed below:

  • Simple Joomla installation tool that unlike other “auto installers” always installs the latest stable version of Joomla
  • Ability to install multiple Joomla installations to your secondary domains,  sub domains and sub directories
  • Automatic security hardening for new Joomla installs
  • Reset the password for any Super Administrator account under a Joomla site
  • Update the Joomla Core in a single easy step
  • Security tweaks that prevent arbitrary scripts from running
  • File and Directory Permission optimization / repair tool – useful if moving a Joomla site to Rochen from another host
  • Easily password protect your Joomla Administrator panel
  • Joomla sites that were not initially installed using the “Joomla Utilities” feature can still be managed and updated
  • The “Joomla Utilities” are built directly into your Rochen account’s cPanel so there is no third-party extension to install or maintain under Joomla meaning zero hassle
  • White labeled so that resellers can offer Joomla Utilities to their own clients without Rochen being visible

The “Joomla Utilities” option is available on all Rochen’s shared servers, ready for immediate use by Business Hosting and Reseller Hosting customers. Managed Virtual Server (MVS) and full Managed Server customers, who have not already done so, can request this be installed on your server at no extra charge by opening a technical support ticket via the My Rochen customer portal.

Thanks for taking the time to check out our new Joomla Utilities features! If you have any comments or questions, please post them here as we’d love know what you think.

-Wendy

Wendy Robinson joined the Rochen team in June 2010 as a sales support staff member. She is also currently involved with the Joomla! project as a member of the Community Leadership Team.

Introducing Rochen Alert

Monday, January 17th, 2011

Wendy RobinsonWith Rochen’s leading edge hosting infrastructure we provide the most secure and production ready environment for your Joomla!, Drupal and WordPress based websites, and our technical support team is there to assist 24/7 with any server related issues you might experience.

However, the responsibility of maintaining and securing websites lies with the site owner (you). This includes core upgrades, extension upgrades, file permissions and settings. That can be a daunting task if you have multiple websites to manage, each functioning with a unique combination of addons and possibly using different content management systems.

Rochen has recently introduced a unique service that can help you keep your websites secure and avoid spending money and/or lengthy periods of time fixing your site in the event of a compromise. This new service is Rochen Alert.

What is the best way to prevent an attack or compromise and be sure that your site is as secure as possible? By keeping yourself informed about the software you use and making sure you are receiving every bit of critical security news that gets released. The reality is that it can be rather tedious to comb through all the news you receive and it’s possible that the amount of spam and irrelevant information that lands in your inbox can keep you from getting the critical news when you need it.

The advantage of Rochen Alert is that it allows you to subscribe to a security notification service that will send you automatic emails any time a critical security vulnerability or upgrade is reported. This covers not only core but also extensions, modules and plugins that pertain to Joomla!, Drupal, and WordPress. The spam, junk and irrelevant news is filtered out ensuring that only the important information gets sent to you.

How does it work?

The system is powered by a proprietary engine built to discover, categorize and deliver security related information. It combs the internet continuously ingesting security related topics and rejecting everything else.

  • Security notifications for scripts you choose. E.g. Joomla, Drupal, WordPress etc.
  • Security notifications for plug-ins or extensions. E.g. Joomla Extensions, WordPress plug-ins etc.
  • Clear instructions on resolving the issue contained within the security notification.
  • Alerts about threats provided within hours of release.

With Rochen Alert you can carry on with your day, manage your business, and be sure that any critical security notifications will find their way to you before most people even know about them. As the alerts arrive within a timely manner you can take necessary steps to prepare your sites ahead of time, keeping your own site safe and allowing your clients to have full confidence that their websites are in good hands with you.

Our security optimized hosting infrastructure combined with the convenience and quality of Rochen Alert notifications will always keep you one step ahead of everyone else, including the hackers.

Where Can I Sign Up?

Rochen Alert is available here for a annual subscription fee. Upon sign up you can choose your own combination of alerts pertaining to each of the three big content management systems, Joomla!, Drupal and WordPress. As soon as your order is processed you will be on the list to start receiving your critical alert notifications.

Can I get a discount?

Sure! For a limited time you can use the promotional code “alertpromo” and receive $10 off the annual subscription fee for the first year of your Rochen Alert service. The promotional code will expire January 31, 2011, so sign up soon in order to save!
-Wendy

Wendy Robinson joined the Rochen team in June 2010 as a sales support staff member. She is also currently involved with the Joomla! project as a member of the Community Leadership Team.

Top 3 Questions at the Rochen Hosting Sales Desk

Friday, July 30th, 2010

Wendy RobinsonEveryday I answer emails from existing and potential customers about our services at Rochen. The questions vary and some are more specific then others. However, I’ve noticed a trend in some of the things people ask and would like to shed some light and offer the answers to the top three sales questions here in this post.

The #1 Question at the Sales Desk is “How can I upgrade my Rochen Hosting Plan?”

As I tell people all the time, “It’s Easy.”

How Easy it?

If you are currently on a Rochen shared hosting plan that no longer meets your needs, you can upgrade anytime to a larger plan simply by opening a support ticket in our My Rochen customer portal a member of our technical support staff will be able to assist you to make the necessary changes to your account. As our support staff operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you can upgrade whenever it is most convenient for you.

Do you know what the best part is? There’s no downtime in it for you. Other then your extra storage space and bandwidth, you won’t feel a thing!

Question #2: “Can I use your services before I redirect my DNS?”

Yes, absolutely.

When you sign up for an account with Rochen we give you a temporary url to use. With access to a temporary url you are able to upload your website to our servers before you switch your DNS and transfer the site permanently. This gives you the opportunity to view and test the functionality of your website, and clear up any issues. When you’re ready, just point your DNS to our nameservers (which you receive from us via your Welcome email). All done accordingly, you should experience no downtime as the DNS propagates.

Switching your DNS may vary depending on your domain registrar but is usually a simple process. Never cancel your domain registration on the assumption that you can re-register it with Rochen. We do not handle domain registration.

The third most common Inquiry is actually a tie between: “How many email addresses can I have with my plan?”, ” How many databases do you limit per account?” and, “How many subdomains can I have?”

The answer to all of the above is that we don’t actually limit those features in number.

With your Rochen hosting plan you can have as many email addresses, databases and subdomains as your plan’s available space allows.  It’s simple too and doesn’t cost you anything extra. All of these can be managed, by you, via your cPanel account in just a few steps. Email addresses are even easier to set up now with our Google Apps utility which is an available alternative to Rochen’s own email service included in our plans.

I hope to do more posts like this as new questions come in.  That’s all for now though! Thanks for reading.

If you have any questions about our services, you can reach us at sales@rochen.com, browse our Knowledge Base or ask a question in our customer forums.

-Wendy

Wendy Robinson joined the Rochen team in June 2010 as a sales support staff member. She is also currently involved with the Joomla! project as a member of the Community Leadership Team.