[AktiviX-discuss] CSC website hosting

Garcon du Monde gdm at fifthhorseman.net
Thu Apr 8 22:04:23 UTC 2010


hello alan,

On Wed, Apr 07, 2010 at 12:34:44AM +0100, Alan wrote:
> I was hoping to ask here for any advice or recommendations about secure  
> web hosting for the Colombia Solidarity Campaign
>
> Our website in the past had been hacked due to poor server security (we  
> were on commercial hosts streamline.net), and so it was moved to loaned  
> server space setup with SSH and HTTPS web access which has worked well  
> for us.
>
> The website runs on an old Joomla CMS install, with diskspace usage of  
> about 170MB. The hosting would need PHP and a MYSQL database. It's not  
> particularly demanding of server resources, the main thing is that we  
> need it to be really secure.
>
> We need to be able to count on the hosting for privacy and security, and  
> that the website wouldn't be deactivated for offending Colombian  
> government supporters (our loaned server space got a letter along these  
> lines).
>
> I'm not a sysadmin so I couldn't set-up and maintain a virtual server  
> myself, but also I think the campaign could only justify hosting costs of 
> £100 or so a year. Maybe Aktivix can offer hosting, which we would gladly 
> pay for.
>
> Thanks for any suggestions you might have

i am not sure what you mean by poor server security - i would imagine
that a commercial host actually provides quite a bit stricter
permissions than non-commercial, although maybe those restrictions
also limit how you secure your website. 

what i am saying is, do you want virtual server hosting (which you
would have to maintain the server) or do you want an organisation that
provides (and maintains) a web-cms that you can then use?

the two suggestions i have are:

 * tachanka.org - for hosting a virtual server with. 

 * mayfirst.org - for hosting a website with (they provide drupal cms
   for groups: allows the groups to do what they want, but then
   mayfirst maintains the sites in terms of security updates, etc).

in both cases, you'd need to ensure that you agreed with the principles
of the relevant organisation (for example, tachanka:
https://aerosan.tachanka.org/wiki/PublicAbout ).

there are also other groups and individuals who maybe able to support
you: some in the uk and some overseas. from what i've seen, though, it
sounds like you would want to be based somewhere like the states which
tends to have stronger freedom of speech laws than the uk.

i hope that some of this is helpful to you, there are probably others
on this list with different experiences to me. also, how soon do you
plan to do this (sounds relatively urgent to me)?

solidarity,

	--gdm
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 836 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <https://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/aktivix-discuss/attachments/20100408/dc091774/attachment.pgp>


More information about the AktiviX-discuss mailing list