Hardly a surprise to the veteran Internet users in China. Intentionally or unintentionally, malware lurks in most China sites. As detailed in the above news, malwares represent enormous financial return. This is attractive enough that webmaster intentional host malware or infect unknowing websites with it. Not too long ago even a major China bank’s Internet banking site was reported to contain malware.

One of the reasons is that most hosting companies in China uses Windows server. By itself a properly configured and secured Windows server is not a problem. However due to rapid growth, technical incompetence or sheer negligence, servers are often not secured or maintained.

Chinese web sites have demonstrated that they are easier to hack into…There is a large number of Web sites run by small mom-and-pop organizations that don’t use the most sophisticated security.

Google Security Blog noted this in their Online Security report that almost all malwares distributed out of China are from IIS Windows web server.

Another factor was attributed to software piracy. Pirated copies of Microsoft servers used by hosting companies are not updated with security patches.

With millions of unwary users coming online everyday, huge potential financial gain from malwares and high turnover in hosting providers, this situation in China isn’t going to improve anytime soon.

Bottom line. Browse with Firefox.

Cyber police started patrolling China(Beijing) websites from September.

Well “Patrolling” is not really a correct description since it is essentially like a rich media advertisements. “Click this to report illegal content.” Maybe it will start appearing in Google ads too. Interesting twist to online ads won’t you say?

Reportedly, the 2 cartoon characters will appear every 30 minutes on major websites located in Beijing like Sohu and Sina. So far I have no luck in meeting them, have you?

As a hosting company in China, we take care to ensure our services comply with the law and help our customer do so as well.

If you are looking to host your website in China, talk to us. We have experience and knowledge to lead you through the potential minefield.

As previously posted, our VPS servers are based in Singapore. Singapore is an excellent option (beside Hong Kong) China users. It does not have the registration requirement (备案) for website and yet fast enough for most China users.

If you like to try out our VPS, drop me a line and I can setup a test server for you.

More service improvement are coming your way, so if you don’t see them, just ask.

Xen is server virtualization technology that allows multiple instant of (virtual) servers to run within a (physical) server.

Unlike traditional virtual-hosting where the server space is share among users, each VPS user gets their own partition of disk space, processor time and IP address.

For the tech-enthusiasts, it means a lower cost to own a server and be the sysadmin that you had always wanted to be.

For business and website owners, it means more security, privacy and ability to run additional function which requires an unique IP such as SSL with a certificate .

Unfortunately we are not able to offer Xen VPS in China yet. We still have not managed to get more IPs from the datacenter without costing us 1000+yuan per IP. (If you know how or like to collaborate, get in touch.)

Of course we all know that it is not true that IP is running out in China. So those that are allocated IPs are basically holding on to a license to print cold hard cash. We hope things will change soon in China.

In the meantime, our servers are located in Singapore. Fast enough for China and across Asia as well as to US and Europe. More locations will be available across the globe in partnership with other service providers.

In summary, get a VPS server for

• more security
• more privacy
• full server functionalities
• lower cost compared to dedicated server

Find out more about our VPS servers and contact us for a test drive of our Xen VPS.

With PayPal you can also use your credit card for payment, simply make the appropriate selection as you check out.

We believe this removes a huge obstacle in purchasing hosting in China for foreigners.

On the credit card payment front, after much struggle we decided to drop ChinaBank (网银在线) in favor of EximBay a Singapore-Korean online payment solution. The integration is well underway, so expect yet another payment option soon.

With so many payment options, there is sure to be one that suits you. (Let us know if there is a particular payment option that you like us to have)

Online Payment in China had come a long way, but there are still nitty gritty details that get into the nerves of merchants. This is one reason why there are many individual payment using solution like AliPay but not many merchant solution using credit card.

One of our goal is to facilitate ecommerce setup in China. Talk to us if you are planning ecommerce in China.

One of the thing we are very concerned about is the effect of these long holiday season on the service respond level at our datacenter. Most people  go on extended leave during this period although there are still people on duty 24hours in the data center.

This week was the May Holiday and we decided to take this opportunity do a little stress’ test on the data centers where we have our servers located. To make things a little more challenging, we did our surprise in the wee hour of the morning.

The results are some what satisfactory except for one worrying incident.

At one of the data center, we were not able to reach the technician on duty after repeated calls. The next day I called up the supervisor and he apologized explaining that the technician had fallen asleep as he was the lone person on duty over the holiday.

Upon further enquiries about how he is going to ensure that similar incident does not happen, he turned hostile and asked me if  I wanted to take things down that road.
Sensing I had pressed a little too hard, I quickly took the position of trying to improve service.

While more and more datacenters are being built (mostly stated owned), the standard of data center in China still have miles to catch up in terms of service level.If you have server in China, surely you have similar story to share.

If you are planning to put a server in China, talk to us. You could be doing yourself a favor  not having to deal with the frustration in a language that you barely understand.

• What is the speed to/from so-and-so location?
• What is the bandwidth we are getting?
• How much data can I transfer in a month?
• Why is my connection to so-and-so so slow?

Often the various terms - bandwidth, network speed, monthly data transfer and latency are used very loosely and interchanged. (Those in China - yes I know the links are to Wikipedia, read on for a summary.)

Bandwidth describe how much data can travel over a connection in given time. An analogy would be a water pipe, more water can flow through a wider pipe than a thinner pipe. So if a connection has high bandwidth, more data can flow across in a given time.

However in hosting, the term “bandwidth” is often used metaphorically, to describe the amount of data that can be transferred to or from the website or server, measured in bytes transferred over a prescribed period of time. This can be more accurately described as “Monthly Data Transfer”.

Before going further, it is important to mention that different kinds of Internet usage has different effect on bandwidth and data transfer limit. Two typical Internet usage are web browsing and downloading files.

Web pages are typically small files that take just seconds to download transfer from the server. In between web pages virtually no traffic occurs between the user and the server.

Download files, especially large files, caused a sustained transfer from the server to the user.

You can see that bandwidth is more a limiting factor for downloading than web browsing. The same bandwidth that can support a few hundreds web browsing but may be taken up by just a few download.

Now consider monthly transfer limit. If the limit is low, no matter how wide is the bandwidth, that is the limit to amount of data you can transfer. If the limit is too high, you will never reach it anyway since it is the bandwidth that determines the upper limit.

Next, network speed. Many people use the ping command as a measure of network speed. It is an indication but not a true measure of the network speed. Due to the way the Internet works, there are many factors that affects the perceived speed. In fact ping measures what is known as latency rather than speed.

Speed, as we know, measures something per unit time - in this case how much data per unit time.

Latency is measured in unit time - in this case how long (duration) it takes to go from source to destination and back.

Bandwidth and latency are also connected in that when the bandwidth is saturated, congestion occurs and latency is increased.

An example may help to illustrate the concept. During a recent earthquake near Taiwan, a number of submarine cables were damaged. The speed that data is moving through your ADSL has not significantly changed. The bandwidth was fully utilized as all traffic channeled through the few remaining cables. The latency raised to incredible level that it just stopped at certain choke points. The nett effect is that the perceived speed slowed to almost zero.

With the basic understanding of these term in mind, here are some take away for hosting and Internet usage in China

• Latency can be high when access sites overseas or when an overseas user access a site within China.
• Bandwidth between different telecom provider can be low leading high latency and what is known as the north-south divide. This situation however is improving.
• Very typically shared hosting in China do not provide a guarantee on bandwidth or monthly transfer limit.
• If you are running a website, monthly transfer limit is usually not an issue. (Unless your website is very popular)
• To be guaranteed of certain bandwidth you would have to buy from the datacenter direct or through the hosting company.

This can be a confusing topic. Please let me know if I missed anything. Hope this article helps you understand better while using the Internet and when selecting hosting.

If you are dropping by this blog from our event contact, feel free to leave a note and say hi.

From the conversations, I found that not many people know what web hosting is all about. Most think that it is creating a website. Well, it is close but not exactly that. Actually, after a website is created, the files are hosted with a company like us so that the site may be accessed from the Internet. Perhaps I should write another more detailed post on this topic.

Back to networking. As a new company in the market we certainly need to gain more exposure including networking events. I will be attending other networking sessions in Shanghai. Let me know the event you are going to and we could meet up!

See you.

Like most IT issue however, hosting multiple-language site either works just fine and you never think there is a problem or it can turn out to be a full-blown nightmare.

In the time of nightmare, don’t you wish there is someone around to help? Well, we had been through numerous scenarios and can confidently say we can help.

Let me share just one example we just encountered a few days ago.

Internationalization problems (or challenges) come in many permutation. In this particular case, it was a case of programmers working in one language assuming people who use their software also speaks the same language. Having dealt with just one language all the time, they are not equipped to solve problem arising from interaction with another language.

Indeed as Einstein put it, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.“So happily one fine day, an English speaking user brought a Chinese software and install on an English-based server. And like they said, all hell broke loss.
Was it the hosting company problem who did not configure their server to handle another language? Or was it the software company problem who did not anticipate someone using their software with another language?

While they are deciding, we already decided to get the customer’s site up, without starting a global war.

• Do you have a multiple languages website?
• Are you localizing and migrating your web application to run in China?
• Are you thinking of moving your Chinese website from an overseas server to a server in China?
• You have website in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Arabic and they just don’t work the way they do compared to the server back home?

Leave us a comment.

Or better yet, come host with us.

Indeed, many webhosting companies in China are not aware of the details since they  operated in the local market context. Amazingly even some of the accredited registrars are not able to give the right answer if you query them (whether out of ignorance or on purpose I do not know).

Backgrounder

First let’s get to know some background information. The .cn domain, also know as the countr-code top-level domain (cctld) for China is administrated by the national body CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center). This means that the domains you had registered are governed by their policies.

There are 6 .cn cctld - .cn, .com.cn, .net.cn, .org.cn, .edu.cn, .gov.cn. Of which .cn and .com.cn are the ones of interest to most people.

Although you can register .cn and .com, .net domains at the same time, the .cn domain is not governed by the body that manage the .com, .net global domain. This brings us to the next point.

How to register? 

Like most other top-level domains, the .cn domains are distributed by domain registrars. The top registrars are accredited directed by CNNIC. These registrars then distribute through a network of sub-registrar or resellers.

59Box, for example, is a domain reseller.  There is nothing wrong with getting from a domain reseller who may differentiate based on service, price, product bundle or other creative offers.

So far so good, but here’s where things start to turn interesting.

The price you paid

If you register your domain in China, most likely through a Chinese provider, the price you would had paid is likely between ￥60 - ￥200 (about US$7.80 - 26).

If you had registered your domain outside of China, the price you would had paid is probably from US$25-50.

Imperfect market information and price discrimination aside, one of the least known fact about CNNIC accreditation is that it is divided into domestic and international. Domestic registrar (within China) are handled by CNNIC directly. International registrars are handled exclusively through an organization known as NeuLevel, Inc.

Beside pricing, this little known division also cause some problems to the unaware.  Chief of which is transferring.

Transferring domains

Why do you want to transfer domain? There are a few reasons. You may have a few domains registered with different registrars and want to consolidate them with one registrar. Or you simply want to save money. Sometime you may need to transfer because of some restriction or requirement imposed by the hosting company.

If you had been used to the ease of transferring .com domain, trying to transfer a .cn domain is an exercise in patience. Lots of it.

Transferring between a domestic registrar and an international registrar is a gray area! Previously it was not allowed but Neulevel’s FAQ seems to indicate it is possible in one direction. Transferring from an international registrar to a domestic registrar is highly unlikely.

Before you start thinking that transferring between domestic registrars would be simple, stop. Many domestic registrars still practice the unscrupulous tactic of holding a domain name hostage. We had have a few clients whose domain were systematically obstructed when transferring. But you legitimately owned a domain, going through some paperwork should solve it.

Your Options?

If you are operating in China, register your domain with a domestic company (like us!). There is no reason to register with an international provider and pay much more (for less).

Previously if you do not have a presence in China, an international registrar is the only alternative. However companies such as 59Box (us) are starting to appear and fill the gap. Providing lower cost .cn domain registration at a service level that international clients are accustomed to expect.

Do you have any other problems with .cn domains? I certainly hope to hear any feedback and try to help any much as I can.