VPS Hosting Blog

As OpenVZ.ca continues to grow beyond what we initially thought was possible, we have had to plan ahead into our network infrastructure.

We are very proud to announce that we will be migrating all of our services to the Juniper platform due to the reliability and scalability of their platforms, as well as using one OS (JUNOS) for all devices.

Over the next few weeks (step 1) we will be implementing our new EX series switches to replace all of the legacy equipment. While no downtime will be scheduled, all customers will be updated with maintenance windows as they become available.

We hope to cut power consumption, reduce latency and increase bandwidth for everyone.

As you may already know. Godaddy CEO Bob Parsons was recently filmed shooting an Elephant in Africa. We at OpenVZ.ca and Media-Hosts.com do not support this cowboy-like mentality. As a result of his actions we are offering current Godaddy.com domain customers transfers for .com .net .org and .biz to openvz.ca for only $5.00.

Use Coupon Code GoDaddySucks at checkout for the discounts (Expires April 30 2011).

Click Here to Transfer As Many Domains As you Like

We are also offering free migration services for anyone who would like to switch to our cPanel web hosting plans with an additional 1 year of hosting added on for free (1 year and 2 year terms only). To get this promotion, place your order normally and open a ticket with us attaching your most recent Godaddy Invoice. We will then add 1 year of hosting to your account for free.

You can see the full video of Bob shooting the Elephant here:

One of the most common problems faced by anyone hosting a mail server in today’s internet world is SPAM. Whether it comes from the outside world to your clients or originating from your clients themselves. Every server administrator will need to deal with this at some point. This article is to clarify what “Greylisting” means, what it will do, what it won’t do and hopefully give you enough information to decide whether or not it’s a good idea for your environment.

In short, Greylisting does two main things. The first, is to temporarily reject the first email received from a non-whitelisted sender, the second is to keep a list of possible spam servers to chose whether or not to reject the first email.

This does sound a little weird at first, but the methodology behind rejecting the first email comes from a basic principle. SPAM servers generally send a lot of mail OUT. The faster the better (in most cases) as Administrators try to shut down these servers through blacklist databases all the time. Since these servers gernerally process a large amount of outgoing mail from potentially old mailing lists or manually created ones in some cases, most spammers don’t always know what email accounts actually exist. Going on this priciple, majority of SPAM server will not try to deliver mail more than once (ie: if it sent mail gets rejected it will not try and resend it). A properly configured mail server will try multiple times before sending it back undelivered.

As a result, Greylisting takes advantage of this by initially denying the message and waiting for the origin server to re-send it. If it receives a second request for the original message then it will accept and deliver it locally.

The most common configuration we use on our networks utilize Postfix mail servers with a plugin called PostGrey.  Although I won’t get into the configuration of PostGrey here, there are many articles online that can help you out.

Is Greylisting Right for You?

The reason you need to ask yourself this question is that it can provide benefits but at a small cost. Since Greylisting initially rejects the first email message, the immediate implications are that you will not get “instant” delivery of your mail. While most providers will never say that email delivery is instant by nature, it’s generally very fast. Normally within 1 minute of it being sent it should be received at the other end.

So if you are running a mail server that forwards messages to blackberrys or various handheld devices, these mobile users need to know that they will not get their messages “instantly” when they are sent by another user.

Also, mail servers can be configured in different ways. While most don’t wait very long to re-send a message, depending on the configuration the message could take up to 10 minutes to be re-sent. So it may not be a good idea to use this on a support or high-availability help-desk style situation.

The good news: You can exclude certain mail accounts from grey-listing. So you can still install and configure PostGrey on your server and specify which mailboxes to not Greylist.

Conclusion

GreyListing is very effective if you understand how it works and behaves. When used correctly it will reduce the amount of SPAM destined to your users by a very large factor (it did for us, but your mileage may vary).  In turn, this will reduce the amount of work other filters that are installed will need to do (IE: spamassassin etc…) thus allowing you to use much less resources for processing mail and limiting it to real mail in most cases.

We are having a sale on “Comodo Essential” SSL Certificates this week.

The regular price on the Comodo website is now $139.00 for one year.

You Get

• Domain validated, 2048 bit Industry Standard SSL Certificate
• Immediate “No Hassle” SSL certificate issuance 24/7
• Automated validation – no paperwork
• FREE site seal
• Unlimited Re-Issuance Policy
• Free Registration in IdAuthority
• Licensed for unlimited physical servers
• 99.3% Browser Recognition
• $10,000 relying party warranty

We are offering the same Certificate for only $25.00 per year! Over 80% off!

Use this promo code at checkout: comodo-essential-blog-deal

Click Here to Order

How can I install a VPN server on my VPS in order to access the internet through it? If you want to skip the background and methodology behind the script, skip to the section called “Installing OpenVPN on OpenVZ.”

One of the pre-requisites to run common PPTP and IPSEC VPN protocols is PPP. Due to the nature of OpenVZ virtualization, it requires it’s own custom version of the Linux Kernel to run. As a result, ppp is not available for us to use.

So, OpenVPN is the simplest way to get a VPN server running on your VPS since it utilizes the TUN interface /dev/net/tun and creates a tunnel to your client software running on your PC. Then, using simple IPTables rules, you can masquerade or NAT your traffic to your public interface. Sounds complicated? to a degree it can be (depending on your linux knowledge level).

So we have come up with  a script that will allow you to install a “simple” version of OpenVPN server and allow you to download the appropriate configuration file (.ovpn & certificate) to import into the OpenVPN client software. This requires no configuration from your side other than running the script and answering some questions in the wizard.

Installing OpenVPN on OpenVZ

The following script will do the following things:

1. It will check to ensure tun/tap is enabled. If it isn’t you will need to contact your support department and have it enabled before continuing.
2. It will download and install the RPMForge Repository for CentOS (where OpenVPN packages are located)
3. It will use YUM and install all the required packages (openvpn openssl openssl-devel)

Once the required packages are installed the script will create a sample easy to use configuration for OpenVPN and put the required files you will need for your Client to connect in /root/openvpn-keys.tgz

It will set OpenVPN to run on boot and create the necessary iptables NAT rules to route your traffic to your primary Public IP address and save it so it will remember when iptables is restarted.

Installation Steps

Download the following script (tested and supported on CentOS 5 32bit) and run as root:  OpenVPN Install Script

or

Type the following commands as root:

cd ~
wget http://www.openvz.ca/scripts/install-openvpn.sh
chmod 700 install-openvpn.sh
./install-openvpn.sh

Wizard Instructions:

• When asked to enter a “Passphrase” do not enter one, leave it blank and just press “enter”
• When asked for Country Code, Province, City… These do not have the be accurate. Any values will do.
• When asked if you want to build/sign the generated certificates enter yes (y).
• It is normal for it to ask you two times for the same information (Since you are generating both client/server keys)

The final step is to download the /root/openvpn-keys.tgz archive, unzip it on your PC and import the .ovpn file in your OpenVPN Client (you can download it here if you haven’t already). This will create a simple button in your client and allow you to quickly establish a VPN connection to your VPS whenever you need it.

Questions? Contact Us or post a comment on this blog so we can clarify anything not mentioned.

To all the bloggers out there, a solution has finally come. OpenVZ.ca is proud to offer WordPress users a simple solution to install wordpress with no technical knowledge right from your control panel. No matter what Web Hosting Plan you have. Your blog will be setup in the time it takes to type in your administration username and password!

We know that blogging is a very important aspect to most websites today, and blog website in general are gaining very high amounts of traffic. Canadians are starting to recognize credible up-to-date blogs as a way to get unbiased news as an alternative to the mainstream media.

If you’re up for the challange, OpenVZ.ca is willing to support you though implementing the most professional, reliable, stable and FAST blog for you so that you can spend your time thinking about what you’re going to write about.

How to Install WordPress

Already have a web hosting account with us? You can install wordpress in three simple steps.

1. Login to your control panel (http://www.yoursite.com/cpanel)
2. Locate the section called “Software/Services” and click on “Site Software” and then “WordPress”
3. On the installation page, specify the administrator username/password and select create new database.

Thats it! Your blog is now live and ready to go.

I have one thing to say about your service.

It is Absolutely AMAZING!

I had my site running on one of those “DEDICATED” servers that hosting companies advertise “at low cost”, the VPS I have from you blows it out of the water!

I have had nothing but hassle from my previous host. Their dedicated server doesn’t even come close to the VPS that I have from you! MediHosts.com has reaffirmed my trust in hosting companies.

Media-Hosts.com is the ONLY host that I have been with to send a “follow-up email” to see how things are going! I plan to move all of my sites over to you guys.

Keep Up the great service and hosting. You guys are the best!

Joe
Canada

My Experiences and Unbiased Review

A huge buzz on Forums, Blogs, Newspapers and Television in Canada has started. The topic, Netflix.  Even though this is a new service in Canada (just launched last week) We’ve been dealing with this for a while. The Reason? We’ve had hundreds of questions as to whether or not we can provide American IP addresses so that Canadians can use our service as a VPN to access American content.

But now it’s in Canada! So why the blog post about it? It seems as though this move to Canada hasn’t been very well planned… Just the other day I went to Future Shop and purchased a Seagate Freeagent GoFlex Tv box. A very simple device, has a huge Netflix logo on the box and even allows you to install a hard drive and store conent on it!

I signed up for my free trial on Netflix.ca and said to myself “Lets go.” After about 30 minutes of fiddling with the box to set it up to my network  (I noticed WiFi was an optional item, so I had to run a network cable to my Home Theatre…) I finally hooked it up to my tv surround sound.

The first thing I did was go to the Netflix page on the screen to try an watch my first movie. Instead of being able to watch this movie it got a wonderful message that said: “Netflix is not authorized for use in your region.”

What? How is Netflix not available in my region? It’s Netflix.ca now, not just Netflix.com… So I started googling my experiences (which I probably should have done first) and found that NO devices other than Wii, PS3, iPhone and iPad will work with Netflix in Canada.

Knowing that many of these devices were running some type of embedded Linux OS I decided to take an extra 1U supermicro chassis that I was using for Vyatta testing and re-imaged it with Ubuntu Desktop.

The size was about the same as my BluRay player and it sat in my stand very nicely. I opened up Firefox and went to Netflix.ca with the intentions of streaming my first movie. The second setback… “You are using an unsupported browser/operating system.” Apparantly Netflix only runs on Windows and Mac!

I said to myself, there must be a work around. I installed the “Change UserAgent” addon for firefox and installed Moonlight (Silverlight equivalent for Linux). I then changed my UserAgent to make it seem like I was an OSX Safari browser and got passed the “You are using an unsupported browser/operating system.” screen.

I saw the video begin to load when setback #3 happened, this time, an error from the Moonlight Plugin. It seems that Netflix requires the end-user have a version of silverlight that supports DRM (Digital Rights Management) to ensure that the feed isn’t being copied illegally.

At this point I stepped back and said to myself… “Why the hassle?” I’m definitely not going to watch movies on my iMac, and I’m definitely not going to buy a Wii or PS3 just for Netflix. So I decided to look through the content and see if it’s even worth it to go any further.

About 20 minutes later, after looking throug the content selection, my decision was made. As soon as I saw Terminator 2 in the “New Action” category it seemed my previous 2 hours of effort was all down the drain.

Why bother releasing a service that is Sub-Par to the American equivalent, doesn’t work on any platform that is common (at least in my household) and charge the same price for it? It doesn’t paint a bright picture for the Netflix brand in Canada, and we all know how important first impressions are.

Conclusion

Feel free to sign up for the free trial, but I would not recommend Netflix as a replacement for buying the movie channels or extra theme packages from the TV companies just yet. Even if there was a simple way of getting it on your TV, the subscription is still lacking some solid content.

In order to win me over, Netflix will have to provide a service where I want to watch something on it rather than forcing myself to watch things so that my $7.99 is justified.

Hopefully the new AppleTV will be able to work in Canada right out of the box. Until then I’ll be hooking up my OSX86 hackintosh to my home theatre whenever I want to watch something.

Hello Joseph,

This message is targetted at all current and future customers of the OpenVZ.ca family.

Media-Hosts.com (OpenVZ.ca’s Parent Company) has been providing web hosting to the advanced user niche using the Virtualmin.com control panel since it became available back in 2004.

Since we recognize that majority of our potential customers prefer cPanel and all of it’s benefits we have decided to offer the same level of service at a very competitive price point.

Click Here to view the packages and price point of our three new plans.