Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Bluehost/Hostgator

[djshades2004]

I conducted a couple of questions for each host and this is what was said, it seems HG is abit shy on giving out details, where bluehost didn't mind telling:

Please wait for a HostGator operator to respond.

Welcome to HostGator Live Chat! You are now chatting with 'Jefferson S.'

Jefferson S.: Welcome to HostGator, how may I assist you?

Stuart: evening Jefferson

Stuart: could you tell me how many shared accounts use the same ip address

Jefferson S.: no, i don't have that information

Stuart: couldn't you find out?

Jefferson S.: no, I can not see how many accounts are on a server and we do not give that information out

Stuart: ok its just a performance related question i thought you could answer and to many accounts on the same ip isn't good really as you must know... for your information Bluehost have 500accounts per server and a couple of hundred that use the same ip.

Jefferson S.: we fill our servers 80% capacity

Stuart: ok thank you for your help Jefferson

Jefferson S.: You're welcome!

AND HERE'S MY QUESTIONS WITH BLUEHOST

Ann A. [5:48:14 PM]: Thank you for contacting the Sales Team. Please give me a moment while I review your question.

stuart [5:48:14 PM]: could you tell me if you have any uptime stats and do you own your servers or lease?

Ann A. [5:48:52 PM]: Hi! We average 99.9% network uptime. You can google bluehost uptime, there's several sites that monitor uptime for different hosts. We manage our own servers, which are located in Orem, Utah, USA

stuart [5:49:47 PM]: how would you say you are as a company compared to hostgator?

stuart [5:50:59 PM]: thinking of an answer lol

Ann A. [5:53:23 PM]: Our hosting packages are pretty similar. The way we run our scripts is more secure. Bluehost's scripts run using user:user based permissions, which means your scripts and files are as secure as Linux itself. HostGator runs scripts as nobody:nobody, making the individual script security not as secure.

Ann A. [5:53:46 PM]: We also offer free backup restores, which I think hostgator charges for.

Ann A. [5:54:08 PM]: They also use cpanel, which is what we use. I'm not certain what their cpu and process limits are,

stuart [5:54:31 PM]: excellent answer thats what I call good customer service! even though you had to ask a collegue lol
[5:54:53 PM]: how many people share the same ip?

Ann A. [5:55:43 PM]: On average we have 500 accounts per server. Each server has multiple ips, let me see if I can find a more exact number. one moment please.

stuart [5:55:55 PM]: thank you

Ann A. [6:01:35 PM]: Thank you for waiting. There's probably a couple hundred that share the same ip address.

stuart [6:03:16 PM]: thank you Ann for answering the questions ohnestly..hostgator wouldn't tell me theirs they just said they fill their servers 80%

Ann A. [6:04:06 PM]: Have a good day Stuart!

[GvilleRick]

Our hosting packages are pretty similar. The way we run our scripts is more secure. Bluehost's scripts run using user:user based permissions, which means your scripts and files are as secure as Linux itself. HostGator runs scripts as nobody:nobody, making the individual script security not as secure.

Not exactly an honest answer. HostGator also runs scripts as user:user.

[Jedito]

500 accounts per server? the last time that I logged to a Bluehost server (near 1 year ago) they were running dual xeon servers (and I assume that they put new accounts on new servers)

[hostgator.com]

I'm definitely going to have a talk with this employee as we have no problem giving this information out. Our older servers usually have between 130-200 accounts on them. Our new servers we usually put a little under 300 and let the box stabilize closer to 200 as people fail to pay, cancel, etc.

[Cirtex]

Great post, thanks for the information I'm sure it'll be useful for potential customers.

[zacharooni]

All I have to say is:


Attachment of this thread

(Or http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/2...avedmaygh8.jpg for non-members)

[mheaton]

You do have most of your servers converted to a cgi instead of mod_php environment which is great. At the time that data was captured it was taken DIRECTLY from our own account that we signed up with at hostgator for testing purposes. I have talked to Brent at Hostgator about it and I don't think hes losing sleep over it. We are friends, and so are some other guys at HG such as Dave (Who is an awesome admin by the way, and I don't give complements out almost EVER when it comes to admins!).

We were running scripts as their own user since day 1 - for the record Certainly not the case with 95% of the other shared hosts our there!!

[Orien]

Matt, thanks for the insight into BlueHost's server operations. It's very impressive.

[Dan B]

Originally Posted by mheaton

You do have most of your servers converted to a cgi instead of mod_php environment which is great. At the time that data was captured it was taken DIRECTLY from our own account that we signed up with at hostgator for testing purposes. I have talked to Brent at Hostgator about it and I don't think hes losing sleep over it. We are friends, and so are some other guys at HG such as Dave (Who is an awesome admin by the way, and I don't give complements out almost EVER when it comes to admins!).

We were running scripts as their own user since day 1 - for the record Certainly not the case with 95% of the other shared hosts our there!!

What is the benefit of user:user compared to nobody:nobody besides being more secure? Better yet, how is it more secure?

[djshades2004]

Great insight I thought Id share. Thank you for HG and bluehost for posting.. for intrest im currently hosting with HG and have had no problems great service.

[ATH-Sean]

Yes thank you Was helpful for me too ...

[ATH-Sean]

Sorry I do not know the differences , lol. Bluehost is really good in my opinion though and they are very straight forward in their responses. Well Done!

[Rochen]

Originally Posted by Dan B

What is the benefit of user:user compared to nobody:nobody besides being more secure? Better yet, how is it more secure?

Many PHP scripts will need to write files and if they do so when PHP is running as a module under Apache they will be owned by the “nobody” user instead of your own account user. This creates a problem in that you can then not manage those files through FTP since they are not owned by your user and you will have to ask the host to change the ownership (CHOWN) of those files for you.

From a security prospective in order for a directory to be writable by PHP with it running as an Apache module it must be CHMOD to 777, which means it is globally writable by any user on the system. Although there are certain tools like open_basedir to help protect a server running PHP as an Apache module, generally speaking if another user’s account on the system is compromised and you have directories CHMOD to 777 under your account then the attack can easily spread.

This is not really possible with PHP running in CGI mode unless the underlying system is compromised. Don’t let PHP running in CGI mode give you a false sense of security though, because you still need to keep your scripts properly patched and updated and maintain secure account passwords. PHP running in CGI mode simply makes the hosting experience far more user friendly and more secure in the sense of better isolation from other users on the system. Tools like open_basedir and mod_security should still be run with PHP in CGI / su_php mode.

All of the being said, there is still a place for PHP running as an Apache module but just not in a shared hosting environment. For example, if you are running a very large website and it is the only site on the server then running PHP as an Apache module makes sense since there are no other users on the system and it is far more system resource efficient than running it in CGI mode. Also, tools like Alternative PHP Cache (APC) play far better with PHP running as an Apache module.

Hope that has provided some clarification for you...

- Chris

[thomase]

When I used HostGator I found their support and server to be great. I outgrew their packages though.

[dvduval]

With the very custom hosting configuration combined with the problems we had in the past (with phpLD users), I would not consider BlueHost (personally). I have several accounts with hostgator and I rarely even have a reason to contact support.