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http://ozreport.com/pub/images/564771_4187533138621_2132781114_n.jpg

Select your own GoDaddy Data Center Location

Have you noticed that when you sign up for the 4G web hosting from GoDaddy they detect your location based on your IP and automatically give you the closest server?

Well, sometimes this is helpful, but suppose you want to host a site in another region, or you are travelling when you purchase the plan?  Usually you have to email support and go through a complex process of getting them to cancel and re-order the service you want.


I figured out the GoDaddy URLS and so I can give you the direct links right here!

Just click on the link for the region that you want and then choose your hosting plan, easy!


For 4G hosting based in the US data center click here.

For 4G hosting based in the European data center click here.

For 4G hosting based in the Asia (Singapore) data center click here.

Save up to 30% on all Web Hosting and Domains

GoDaddy are having a sale! 

 Use this link to get a great deal http://x.co/rolf 

 Priced from just $75 for a whole year of unlimited 4G web hosting.

Fast linux servers with 25GB of MYSQL database space.
150GB Storage Space.
Unlimited bandwidth.
Unlimited emails and up to 1000 accounts.
 Unlimited DNS and Domains and subDomains.
Shell & FTP Access.

You can choose from a server located in Europe, the USA or Asia to ensure you get the lowest possible latency and fastest service.

The GoDaddy control panel is really easy to use, it let's you manage every aspect of your server even if you are not a computer geek (like me).

If you are looking for serious performance for a site that will see millions of hits, you want a dedicated server (GoDaddy have these too) and this will cost you around $30 a month for a VPS solution or around $150 a month or a true dedicated server with an i5 processor. However this is overkill for 99% of people.

GoDaddy Linux Webserver & SpiderOak Backup just $7 a month

Linux + GoDaddy + SpiderOak = ;-)

If you are looking for a Linux based solution for hosting your website, here is one to consider.

GoDaddy are one of the biggest and oldest web hosting companies around.
Now I'm not saying they are the best for everyone, however it is very hard to beat their price/performance ratio.

For just $7.65 a month you can get a linux based server (Centos 5) with

150GB of hard drive space,
Unlimited DNS,
Unlimited Domains,
Unlimited Websites,
Unlimited Bandwidth,
500 Email Accounts,
25 MYSQL Databases,
And Also Shell Access.

(Use the link below to get the special discounted rate from GoDaddy)

GoDaddy.com Hosting for as little as $7.64/month

Their 4G shared servers are capable of going very fast indeed and they have plenty of bandwidth. The 4G servers are located at different places, so you can keep the latency down by selecting a server in your region (US/Asia/Europe) .

In general I have found their servers to be very reliable with great uptime and they perform well. As always with shared hosting there are other people on the same node that can affect your performance and so if some other site on your server gets slashdotted expect things to slow down.

If you are hosting a big site that is complex and going to see millions of hits, you really should be looking for a dedicated host.

If you have a small to medium site, that perhaps requires access to a mysql server and is mostly PHP the cheap GoDaddy options work well. Let's face it , they are so cheap you can try it for a few months without much risk.

The GoDaddy control panel is very easy to use and you can do most things from there if you understand the concepts behind the various servers & services.

If you love Linux (like me) you will find the shell access allows you to do many clever things.

Automating the Backup -  For Free!

One thing that every computer needs is a backup strategy. The only sure thing is that if don't have a good backup strategy, you will suffer a loss of data. It doesn't matter if your hard drive fails, or you accidentally delete or overwrite something, once it's gone, it's gone.

Having a fully automated and intelligent backup solution is essential.

SpiderOak exist only to backup. They have fast redundant connections to the Internet and secure & redundant server farms on which to store your data. Where they differ is that all your data is encrypted before it leaves your machine, and they don't hold the keys, only you do.
This means that your data is not just safe, but very private too.
SpiderOak use an advanced algorithm (think Rsync like) that only copies the changes across to the backup server, this keeps the time and bandwidth required down to a minimum.
SpiderOak also keep multiple versions of your files, so that you can go back in time if needed to recover a file from a previous state.
When you first install the client you can also choose to do a complete restore of a particular machine that you have backed up and so you can restore that Linux server to it's previous state in short order.

SpiderOak give you 2GB of free space for LIFE with a standard free account, however click the link below and you can open a free account with 3GB free for life.

https://spideroak.com/download/referral/2aef3c1be970b57726b27f795ab6253f

Now 3GB is pretty cool, but after you have opened your account you can log in and in the Account Type section you can enter the code WORLDBACKUPDAY and your free allowance will increase to 5GB. Should you decide that you need more space, you can get 25% off all their standard pricing by using the code SNOOZE when you checkout!

SpiderOak do have a nice GUI that you can use on your desktop in your preferred OS, however they also have their CLI client that you can control over SSH on your Linux server.

On your own Linux server you can just install the package for your OS version, but on a GoDaddy shared Linux server we have to be a bit creative to get it installed and running.

How to install SpiderOak on your GoDaddy Shared Linux Server.

Once you have bought your GoDaddy Linux 4G shared hosting package log in using ssh and follow these instructions:


Ssh to your domain name, once you are at the shell prompt. - Commands on this side in italics!

Create a directory for SpiderOak in your home directory - mkdir spideroak

Move into that directory you just created - cd spideroak

Download the version of SpiderOak for 64bit Centos - wget https://spideroak.com/directdownload?platform=centos&arch=x86_64

Extract the archive into the current spideroak directory - rpm2cpio spideroad-centos.rpm | cpio -vid

Now you need to copy the start-up script into the root of this directory -  mv usr/bin/SpiderOak ./

Now, we need to edit this file to change the paths to reflect the current location of the SpiderOak folder, you can either edit the file using Vi or if that is too scary, use the GoDaddy file browser or you can even copy a nano binary over which is what I did.

You need to make the following changes to the file, I made the bits you need to add italic again,

NOTE: You can find your home directory path in your GoDaddy control panel, it will be /home/content/ and then  something.... Make sure to change the numbers in the path below for yours!


#!/bin/sh

SPIDEROAK_ROOT=/home/content/12/123456789/spideroak
LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$SPIDEROAK_ROOT/usr/lib/SpiderOak:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH"
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
QT_PLUGIN_PATH= ; export QT_PLUGIN_PATH
SpiderOak_EXEC_SCRIPT=$(cd `dirname $0` ; pwd)/SpiderOak
export SpiderOak_EXEC_SCRIPT
exec "$SPIDEROAK_ROOT/usr/lib/SpiderOak/SpiderOak" "$@"

So you just need to add the first line to define the SpiderOak root location, and then add that to the front of the other 2 lines. Only 3 changes...

Now SpiderOak is installed on your server!

The first thing you have to do is configure it for you account, run the program - ./SpiderOak --setup=-

It will prompt you for your username and password and then ask for the machine name, if you are installing for the first time, leave this blank! (If you are restoring an old backup then select the machine from the list.)

It will take a few minutes to complete and then exit.

Next we need to tell it what to back up.

Assuming you just want to backup your html folder with all your web sites in it, you type the following command - ./SpiderOak --include-dir /home/content/12/123456789/html

If you want to backup another folder, ie MYSQL backup folder you just change the path above.

Now you can scan the backup folders to see how big they are before we backup - ./SpiderOak --scan-only

If the backup looks OK, we can run it manually now - ./SpiderOak --batchmode

It may take a while, depending on how much stuff you have in there...

Finally we want to automate the process and so we add a line to Crontab which will run the command once every day after midnight. The simplest way to do this is through the GoDaddy control panel.

Click on CronJob Manager,  Click Add New Cron Job.

Call it something meaningful like  -  Daily SpiderOak Backup

Make it run whenever you want, once a day or more often if required.

Enter the command with the full path - /home/content/your-numbers-here/spideroak/SpiderOak --batchmode


Now your GoDaddy server is getting backed up automatically and securely for FREE every day!

SpiderOak really is a world class service and so I strongly urge you to buy one of their plans once you have tried them out, just $7 a month for 100GB of secure backup space is a great deal.

GoDaddy have a heap of other great products and are almost impossible to beat for Domain Registration as well as many other services. If you need more performance they offer VPS hosting which gives you a dedicated server instance and awesome performance.

I have a code that will give you 10% off any of their already great prices, click the link below for it:




Or check out the Special Deal of the Day of the week by clicking below:

Trans Alipine Run 2012. Scenery Shots

Trans Alipine Run 2012. Scenery Shots

They just released the finishers certificate for the TransAlpine Race.

They just released the finishers certificate for the TransAlpine Race. We got ripped off by a few kms as the real total should be at least 320km!'

I just pulled up the statistics on Garmin connect for the last couple of months, this includes all the running in...

I just pulled up the statistics on Garmin connect for the last couple of months, this includes all the running in the Rockies and the Alps. Some amazing figures there for me, considering my lack of base and experience. 
I have to attribute the success to Bernadette, her tireless support and encouragement got me through all the difficult days.

Italian sign..

Italian sign..