mercedes, author at Plesk

The Digital Nomad’s 5 hour work day

Digital Nomads - Those Who Working Remotely

The Surf Office organization hosted a swanky Barcelona rooftop event last month, where aspiring digital nomads got to hear insightful chats on the ups and downs of working remotely while traveling.

Tech entrepreneur Carlos Hernández (founder of quaderno.io) shared his passion for spending 6 months of the year running his successful business from different European cities. Hernandez developed an automatic accounting application which now automates invoices for clients all over the world. But get this: nobody in his company works more than 5 hours a day!

¨We focus on being productive during those hours. No long breaks, no tedious meetings, but then we have much more time to enjoy the rest of our day¨. Vacations can also be as long as team members may request, but he insists that staff have so much flexibility in their schedule, they don’t really take more days off than the norm. Bejaysus that’s inspiring!

With Plesk Onyx general release under a month away, Pleskians attended this dynamic event as one of our aims is to give web professionals–whether working remote, at an office or on a cruise ship–a host of features that helps them gain time and gain freedom. Get Plesky, get free!

The Top 10 Hosting Review Sites of 2016

Choosing the right service provider to host your site(s) can be a daunting chore. Decisive factors like pricing plan, uptime, geographic location of physical servers and support all carry their due weight. Add VPS, dedicated, shared, or cloud hosting as another layer of options and finally, the ever-changing demands of hosting that you need to stay up to date with and it can get bewildering. You may be an experienced web professional or a fledgling dev building your first apps. One thing for certain, if you’re in the business of web creation, you’ll want to be in the know on host offerings and news.

Fortunately, a simple google search will display numerous online communities, advice sites, and well-designed comparison blogs to clear the jungle of possibilities away. Abysmally different in content and purpose, Plesk has put together a list of the 10 most useful hosting reviews sites and forums just for you.

1) Hosting Advice

This site neatly categorizes recommended hosters into cheap, dedicated, WordPress and VPS sections. We fully back up their claim to be the authority on web hosting. Well written articles on building and maintaining websites, how-tos, content marketing tips plus all your Cloud industry news keeps Hosting Advice at the top of our list.

For anyone taking their first steps as a web professional, we highly recommend their easy-to-follow beginner’s guide. This well-designed course will unravel the basics of hosting, making your guru goals far more attainable.

2) The Whir

A reference for web hosting news and general tech headlines,The Whir covers daily stories with the latest insights from the cloud and hosting industry. You can check out insightful whitepapers from IBM or VMWare. Engaging videos and timely details on new releases from the most prominent tech players are just some of the valuable content found on The Whir.

3) FindMyHost

A no-nonsense, single page view of hosts with detailed comparison of main selling points–from budget to dedicated VPS, e-commerce and managed hosting. FindMyHost does what it says it will do. Report cards for a limited number of hosts, grading them on support, sales, plans/features and usability makes this site stand out. One aspect that will delight readers is a detailed testing explanation that covers both ¨appoved hosts¨ and ¨guaranteed hosts¨. The latter group includes support for post sales from FindMyHost themselves. Now there’s some peace of mind.

4) Hosting Review

Hosting Review has a clear layout with monthly price, uptime speed and most interestingly, customer thumbs up or down. Their articles give you a general overview of the different types of hosting and even introduces Ruby. If you haven’t got much time to go through multiple reviews check out their comparison table. You can easily contrast disk space and bandwidth, customer support availability, money back guarantee and whether domain name included in the offering.

5) Who is Hosting This

Eager to snoop which service provider any number of websites are hosted on? By using WhoIsHostingThis’ search tool, you can now find out. They publish excellent articles on a handful of hosts and a list of top three along with runners-up. If you want to get down to the nitty-gritty, this site lets you compare over 1700 hosting plans and tailor them to suit your needs.

Review scores are put together through the points submitted by their user community, making this site a pretty reliable source.

6) Web Hosting Talk

Browse through lists of anything and everything related to the hosting community. This is very much a community moderated site. For the experienced web professional looking to get a special deal or discount, there is a whole section dedicated to Web Hosting Offers, where anything from reseller offers to dedicated offers have threads with thousands of posts. The advantage here is that you can see what the word on the street is and connect with other professionals out there who might have something of value to say.

7) Host Advice

A light and quirky approach makes this hosting review site very refreshing. Not only do they provide graphs to let you see who the biggest hosters worldwide are, conveniently divided by countries, but a unique tool called Hosting Hood lets you know if you might be getting ripped off by your current service provider. Genius! Categories include best web hosting, expert advice blogs and top host user ratings. Interviews with prominent individuals in the world of web technologies are insightful and well worth reading.

8) Top 11 Hosting

Combines a single view table comparison as well as articles that outline how to choose your host, environmentally conscious hosting and even financial guides to increase revenue. We’re particularly impressed with the importance they give to green hosting. Have a look at the encouraging information regarding optimized green servers and data centers, what we can do to diminish carbon emission and sustainable hosting solutions.

9) Top 10 best website hosting

Don’t want to bother rooting through categories and lists of possible hosting solutions? Here’s a handy list that offers you a rating of their best host service providers, ranked from highest scoring to lowest. They point out which ones give you a free domain, support, bandwidth and extra perks like free advertising credits. Let’s not forget the added bonus of discounted price should you purchase through their site.

10) Web hosting Forum

A well-known forum with lots of good input from contributors, you can start with hosting tutorials and move on to advice on who to host with from users worldwide. Q&A forums on technical issues ranging from control panels to Git , Docker and lots more.

Remember, your needs will vary depending on the size of your web or application, who you are building it for, whether you want shared or dedicated hosting, cloud hosting, managed hosting, increased scalability or flexibility. Support is also a prime factor as you want to keep your clients and yourself confident at all times that you can count on a team of experts if downtime occurs.

With these 10 sites you should be well on your way to becoming an a hosting wizard or sorceress and the many ways to make it work for you.

9 Ways to Optimize your Work Hours and Enjoy Summer as a Web Professional

1. Scope out cool local spots with great Wi-Fi

In most cities, you’ll find that café, hotel or restaurant terrace with a pleasant view and the possibility to work under leafy shade. Hotels usually have a guest only policy for their pool but will let the laptop-laden hang out once they order a drink.

Perhaps you live nowhere near a city but have a picturesque port town nearby where baristas will happily serve you 6 consecutive cups of coffee while you code away for hours.

A refreshing mocktail (or cocktail for the brave) overlooking a beautiful spot beats spending August locked away in your home office, knocking back the cans of Red Bull. Do some online research or ask around to find comfortable, work-friendly areas. You might be surprised at the hidden gems near you.

2. Invest in a mobile hotspot

Ok if you’re going on a hike through the Appalachian Mountains, these pocket-sized gadgets might not serve you as needed. But with rapidly expanding 4G LTE networks and 5G only around the corner, more and more web professionals are relying on 4G modems to work from sun-filled destinations. Our experience reveals that depending on the speed and carrier you choose, costs can skyrocket. So weigh out the options available to you. Read more here.

3. Work from an outdoor location

The summer months go by too quickly for most of us. Weekend escapades provide a sublime break from the Monday to Friday routine. Then why not organize your work week so that some hours can be done remotely and preferably, near a body of water? Find a location you can work from while enjoying the cool breeze for say, two out of five days. Flowers smell oh so sweet while you’re making money so anywhere that inspires you to design, code and deliver your project will do. Just aim for a place that’s relatively mosquito-free!

4. Get a house somewhere awesome with other web pro friends

Rent a log cabin by a lake, or maybe a sick apartment in a city you’ve always wanted to see. Beautiful spaces work out cheaper than you think when expenses are shared. You’ll be able to code or design to your heart’s content while taking breaks with your friends in gorgeous surroundings.

If this goes over your current budget, organize a coding barbecue where each of you takes turns on the grill.

Working solo frees you of certain constraints but can often result in tunnel-vision. What better way to re-invest your freedom than with people you like to bounce ideas off?

5. Sign up for a conference that’s happening at a must-see destination

You’ve got WordCamps, PHP cruises and last year even saw the birth of the spectacularly named Code on the Sea event.

This will help you network while treating yourself to a vacation of sorts. Todd Motto, designer and developer, says “The biggest mistake I made when I started freelancing at 17 was thinking putting a site online would be all I needed,” he recalls. “What I really needed to do was establish relationships, learn from people, ask them to pass my details on and utilize existing contacts.” Today, Motto spends plenty of time talking to people, and recommends marketing yourself “as if you’ve never had a website and never will”.[1]

So pack your shades and swimwear because networking has never been more exotic.

6. Work in sprints

This could vary from 50-minute sessions to 25-minute sprints inspired by the Pomodoro Technique that so many people swear on. If you want to enjoy the sunshine for longer, schedule evening time sprints. You’ll soon grasp what system works best for you. The key is to take full advantage of this time to get as much done as possible.

7. Optimize your breaks with doses of fresh air

Utilize those short breaks in between to stand up and move around. Get a longer break in twice a day to go outside and breathe some fresh summer air into your lungs.

Short, scheduled breaks help eliminate burn-out risk. Bursts of sunshine boost your vitamin D production and can offset potential health risks caused by overexposure to technology. Remember to stay within reasonable time limits. Cycling is a great way to take a break and be back at your workstation in less than 30 minutes.

8. Set times to read your email

Or any other inputs bombarding you through social media or messaging apps. To maximize sprint times mentioned above, make sure you block out all distractions–including cellphone, landline, Viber, dog, laundry and just focus on your set task. Every 2 hours is a healthy time to check your inbox and will save you valuable minutes in the long run.

9. Eat smart

No better climate than when it’s hot to really feel the benefits of fruit and salads. Walks in nature or skating through the park just aren’t as invigorating after a bag of Doritos. Forget so-called energy drinks and treat yourself to our favorite geek booster liquid – fresh pressed juice.

Yeah, cleaning the juicer can be a pain so take a few minutes to watch best practices. You’ll feel more energized and may even experience increased focus power.

Consider fibre-rich, high-quality foods. Cutting down on processed products is one huge recommendation. Just don’t buy them. It’s tough at first but you’ll see and feel the progress. Replace with nuts and organic, wholemeal baked goods if possible.

The main point we want to drive across to our beloved web developers and web designers is to become aware of your sugar intake. Don’t fall for what the labels say. Many ‘low-fat’ foods have high sugar content. The drinks you think are helping you stay alert and make that deadline are just adding sugar to your system and may pose other health issues.

No need to be extreme though. Start changing the way you shop for food and arrange your time week by week and you’ll be more likely to stick to your new healthy summer habits.

[1] Source> http://www.creativebloq.com/netmag/20-pro-tips-web-design-freelancers-4145555

WordCamp EU Vienna 2016

Last month, Plesk sponsored the biggest WordPress event in Europe. Check out our video with highlights from the weekend in Austria’s beautiful capital, including talking to Mike Little, co-founder of the world’s most popular open-source CMS:

Plesk invites you to HostingCon 2016

Plesk is excited to be present at HostingCon Global 2016, a major event for the Cloud and Service Provider Ecosystem. We hope you’ll be able to join us at the conference this year from July 24th-27th in the wonderful city of New Orleans!

As our guest, you can attend HostingCon Global 2016 entirely for free! Just go to their website and enter the coupon code FREE5514 on the registration page for a Free All Access Pass (valued at $699).

Who Attends HostingCon?

2,500+ Cloud Providers, Web Hosts, MSPs, VARs, Telcos, Hardware & Software

Providers, Datacenter & Colocation Providers & others.

We look forward to seeing you in New Orleans at HostingCon Global 2016!

Support Cease for some Components

In Plesk Onyx we are ceasing support for the components and operating systems detailed below. This list expands on the reasons behind each cease and suggests steps for affected customers.

Customer and Business Manager

Customer and Business Manager is now owned, maintained and supported by Odin (subsidiary of Ingram Micro), so we are removing it from Plesk Onyx distribution. As this product belongs to a different entity, we are dropping its support.

New installations of Plesk Onyx do not include CBM as a part of their distribution and are not manageable with CBM. If you have a remote CBM instance used for managing multiple Plesk servers, we cannot guarantee that it will be able to manage Plesk Onyx. If you were using CBM, we recommend switching to a different billing and provisioning system e.g. WHMCS.

Windows VZ Templates

Plesk Onyx will not support installation and upgrade using Windows VZ templates due to extremely low use of Windows VZ templates among Plesk users.

If you were using Windows VZ Templates to install Plesk, we recommend installing and upgrading Plesk using Plesk Installer.

x86-based distributions of operating systems

Plesk Onyx cannot be upgraded to or installed on x86 (x32) versions of OSes supported by Plesk Onyx due to lack of popularity, reduced efficiency and overall usage decline of x86 architecture compared to x64. The x64-based distributions of OSes are required in order to install Plesk Onyx on the following OSes:

Centos 6 / RHEL 6 / CloudLinux 6

Debian 7

Debian 8

Ubuntu 12.04 (note: will be EOLed in April 2017)

Ubuntu 14.04

Ubuntu 16.04

All other OSes supported by Plesk Onyx are x64-based only.

For those who use Plesk on x86 (x32) versions of OSes supported by Plesk Onyx we recommend migrating your Plesk installations to Plesk Onyx installed on x64-based version of the same distribution. You can use our new Plesk Migrator extension for migration. // NOTE: it would be great to have a link to our website where Plesk Migrator is explained and promoted, but I couldn’t find it //

CentOS 5 / RHEL5 / CloudLinux 5

Plesk Onyx cannot be upgraded to or installed on CentOS 5, RHEL 5 and CloudLinux 5 OSes. These OSes are outdated, their share among Plesk server OSes is very low and they soon will be obsolete and unsupported. Also, a lot of new software doesn’t work on these OSes, which prevents us from delivering new features and fixes.

For those who use Plesk on these OSes we recommend migrating to CentOS 7, RHEL 7 and CloudLinux 7 respectively. You can use our new Plesk Migrator extension for migration. // NOTE: it would be great to have a link to our website where Plesk Migrator is explained and promoted, but I couldn’t find it //

Microsoft Windows 2008 (not R2)

Plesk Onyx cannot be upgraded to or installed on Microsoft Windows 2008 OS. It is outdated, its share among Plesk server OSes is very low and it’s difficult to deliver new features and fixes on it.

For those who use Plesk on Windows 2008 we recommend migrating to Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2. You can use our new Plesk Migrator extension for migration. // NOTE: it would be great to have a link to our website where Plesk Migrator is explained and promoted, but I couldn’t find it //

Note: Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 is still supported by Plesk Onyx.

ASP.NET 1.1

Plesk Onyx does not support ASP.NET 1.1 on Windows platform. This particular version of ASP.NET is EOLed, does not work on newer Windows Server OSes and is barely used on Plesk servers.

Those who are upgrading to Plesk Onyx from previous Plesk versions will still have ASP.NET 1.1 handlers available on their sites. However, ASP.NET 1.1 will be removed after any reconfiguration of these sites. If this happens, Plesk will switch to ASP.NET 2.0 or 4.0, depending on OS version.

SmarterMail 6.x – 9.x

Plesk Onyx does not support SmarterMail 9.x or earlier. SmarterMail supports only the two latest versions of their mail server software, so they only support SmarterMail 14 and 15 as of the time of this publication. Plesk continues to support SmarterMail 10 and higher.

If you have SmarterMail 9.x or earlier, you won’t be able to manage mail via Plesk when upgrading to Plesk Onyx. We strongly recommend you upgrade SmarterMail to version 10.x at least before upgrading to Plesk Onyx.

Miva

Plesk Onyx does not support Miva scripting. Miva usage among Plesk users is very low and Miva usage overall is steadily declining over the years

If you’re using Miva, your sites and servers using Miva might be able to continue using it after the upgrade to Plesk Onyx, but we do not guarantee their functioning. You will be using Miva at your own risk. We suggest using Plesk 12.5 if you need Miva support in Plesk.

Shared SSL support on Windows

Plesk Onyx does not have Shared SSL feature on Windows platform anymore. This feature was unpopular among Plesk users and with the advent of free Let’s Encrypt SSL/TLS certificates there is no value in it anymore.

If you were using shared SSL on Windows, the shared SSL links will be left in the system during the upgrade to Plesk Onyx. The UI for shared SSL feature will not be available. The domains which used SSL certs provided by another domain will be able to use these SSL certs until the virtual host configuration of these domains is changed. We suggest installing Let’s Encrypt extension for Plesk and using free Let’s Encrypt SSL/TLS certificates to secure your websites.

Unity Mobile

Plesk Onyx does not support Unity Mobile. The Unity Mobile service was shut down some time ago by its authors and it’s not possible to provide it to our customers anymore.

If you were using Unity Mobile, we suggest you find a different solution for creating mobile versions of your websites, if that’s still required.

10.4 upgrade drop

Plesk Onyx does not support direct upgrade from Plesk 10.4 because Plesk 10.4 was EOLed on May 3, 2015. Users of Plesk 10.4 are still able to upgrade to Plesk 12.5.

If you are using Plesk 10.4 and you want to upgrade to Plesk Onyx, Plesk offers free migration assistance from older versions, other panels, legacy solutions or any hosting environment to the latest available Plesk version. The option is available for Plesk commercial license owners and covers the installation of migration tools, environment preparation, fixing/preparing some custom scripts and execution of a single server migration as a test case. With the Free Migration Assistance, migration of the rest of servers is carried out by the owner. Alternatively, you can have Plesk do the job for you by purchasing our Professional Service hours”

The details are available at  https://www.plesk.com/professional-services/