Posts filed under 'Hosting in China'
According to this news on Devshed, servers in China host almost half of the malware in the world.
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.
October 13th, 2007
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.
September 5th, 2007
Without much fan-fare, we launched our VPS hosting service based on Xen technology. We are probably the very few that sells Xen VPS hosting in China.
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.
June 15th, 2007
China has 3 long holiday seasons each year each lasting a week . The May First holiday (五一, Labor Day) , the October First holiday (十一, National Day) and the Chinese New Year (春节) that falls between the month of January and February (determined by the lunar calendar).
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.
May 4th, 2007
Some of the questions that we got asked a lot are
- 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.
April 19th, 2007
Internationalization. Other than being a mouthful to read aloud, it is a real challenge if you are trying to host multiple languages website, across multiple locations.
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.
March 30th, 2007
IP here is not Intellectual Property, yet another hot topic in China, but Internet Protocol, as in IP address.
Here’s an interesting visualization of IP allocation per capita (via Ip Assignment, Per Capita).
The colors indicate 1 IP is available for how many people in the country.
Notice that China, among most other countries have less than 1 IP per capita. (Exact value is not provided, interested to work that out?)
If the rate of Internet growth in China holds true, China may be running out of IP soon. Or is it?
My interest in this was aroused recently I enquired about getting more IP addresses to provide VPS service. To my horror I was told that IP is assigned 1 per rack space and would cost almost as much as a co-location to get another. Checking with a few more providers gives basically the same answer. The reason? “IP demand is very ???” (interesting term here, how do you translate it succinctly?)
According to 2006 IPv4 Address Use Report (somewhere near the bottom), China distributed 98.02M addresses compared to US 1366.53M. This information, if put together with another data - China’s 137M Internet users, second behind US’s 207M users but with only 10% penetration - does make the IP shortage scenario look very real.
But Andy Oram presented the other side of the argument - there isn’t an IP address crunch. In fact, Asia-Pacific used up only 13.9% of the IP allocated. This is much inline with the rest of the world.
So what is the true picture of IP allocation in China? This article and this APNIC article may enlighten.
But my question still remains - how to get more IP? Is anyone able to introduce me into a guanxi circle to get a block of IPs?
March 4th, 2007
Many things are cheap in China unfortunately web hosting is not one of them.
I not saying this so that we can get our customer to pay more. (And we will never do that, ever.)
Before we became a hosting company in China ourselves, we tried to find hosting with rock-bottom price like those American hosters (for like $5 a month, unlimited everything!). After talking to people and understanding the market, we learnt that the are factors with make cheap hosting very unlikely.
On critical factor is IP scarcity (more on this topic another time). Economic 101, scarcity increase, demand increase, price increase. There are just too few IP to go around. I recall a source mentioning the whole of China has as many IP address allocated as Stanford University.
Monopoly of infrastructure. Again Econ 101, monopoly or oligopoly props up prices. Datacenters, backbones are owned by a few powerful players. There isn’t any real competition to drive down price or push up service level.
Finally, surprise, surprise, server hardwares are not cheaper (and often more expensive) in China. For example, check out Dell’s price for the PowerEdge 860 in US and in China.
So with a high base cost, the price can only go so low. As price goes lower, service and reliability suffered.
Our journey to drive down cost and improve reliability for our own hosting usage led to the decision to set up a new hosting company and share our effort with customers.
As we grow, we are committed to find innovatives way to push the standard and value of hosting services.
March 2nd, 2007
Before we officially launch (after the Chinese New Year), here’s a little survey about hosting in China.
Let us know your thoughts about hosting in China. Leave a comment here if the survey is inadequate to express yourself.
Getting and maintaining a hosting in China can be challenge. For those that had experience with hosting outside of China, it is just not “what you know it to be“.
Let us know what your concerns, hopes and wishes are for China hosting. Our pleasures are in getting those solved.
February 15th, 2007
沪B2-20070010. That’s our newly minted permit as an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Shanghai China. This string of code is a must, according to China’s regulation, for company providing ISP (or hosting) service. Look for it if you are looking for hosting in China.
So what does the number means to you? For the start it is an indication of our focus on providing a legitimate hosting service that meets the expectation of customers and the society that we operate in.
Our services include web hosting, domain name registration, managed server, server co-location and related web services - services to help companies launch and maintain their web presence, specifically in China.
Having used many hosting providers in China over the years for our own hosting needs, we have had enough of endless issues and decided to take things into our own hand. After going through the channels, we finally got ourselves approved as an ISP.
We are probably the first hosting company in China to launch in English and with a company blog. Hopefully this brings some familiarity to customers accustomed to the language and to open communication channels.
If you are new to this market or you had been going around in circles looking for the right hosting partner in China, we might just be THE ONE that you are praying for.
Thank you for dropping by our blog. We are expecting to start business after Chinese New Year. So in the meantime, leave us your comments and we look forward to serve you!
February 11th, 2007