FlashFXP Forums - View Single Post

bigstar · 01-01-2012, 02:14 PM

HostGator offers shared, reseller, vps and dedicated web hosting services.

But would we recommend them?

Our personal experience with hostgator is at the moment quite specific and we haven't really explored all of their services and features but we hope to update this post in the near future to let everyone know our experience.

In November 2011 we signed up for their Business plan package during their black Friday deal and saved 50% off 2 years of hosting.

We do not use HostGator to host our flashfxp.com website, but we do use them to host our iplookup.flashfxp.com service that is used to perform external IP lookups for PORT mode transfers over FTP.

HostGator provides a wide range of hosting packages and services with a price point that would appeal to just about everyone. I have spoken with quite a few FlashFXP customers who use HostGator and are quite happy.

HostGator offers FTP and SFTP access with all their packages, however customers demanding FTPS (Secure FTP) will be disappointed to learn that this is only available to VPS hosting or Dedicated servers.

Their value plans (Hatchling, Baby, Business) only allow SFTP access using the main account. You can create additional FTP accounts but since they do not provide FTPS we found this to be quite limiting, by requiring the customer to choose between having multiple accounts or security. Security should never be a compromise. Of course this is a non-issue for anyone who only needs a single account.

The FTP service implementation used by HostGator appears a bit doggy and downright confusing because in our testing we noticed that you can in fact connect and login via FTPS (we evaluated the business plan), but the FTP client was unable to establish a data connection for directory listings or file transfers making it unusable. We tried numerous configurations and no matter what we tried nothing worked, FTPS is completely unusable.

The lack of FTPS support in their value plans is a huge disappointment for us. While SFTP is provided as a alternative to FTPS, the fact that you can't create additional SFTP accounts is disappointing. Perhaps we're being too picky?

(rant about FTP security)
I am rather surprised that most web hosting companies do not provide FTP with one-time password support via S/KEY OTP, but I suppose it has to do with client compatibility or complexity. We implemented automatic S/KEY support in FlashFXP long before FTPS became popular. Perhaps S/KEY was over shadowed by the success of FTPS, who really knows, there is clearly a need for an alternative to sending passwords in plan text.
(end of rant)

Bottom Line: They offer great customer support and afford web hosting plans.

Website: Hostgator.com | Direct link: Hostgator.com (without our affiliate clickthru)

01-01-2012, 02:14 PM
bigstar FlashFXP Developer Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 8,012	[web hosting] HostGator.com HostGator offers shared, reseller, vps and dedicated web hosting services. But would we recommend them? Our personal experience with hostgator is at the moment quite specific and we haven't really explored all of their services and features but we hope to update this post in the near future to let everyone know our experience. In November 2011 we signed up for their Business plan package during their black Friday deal and saved 50% off 2 years of hosting. We do not use HostGator to host our flashfxp.com website, but we do use them to host our iplookup.flashfxp.com service that is used to perform external IP lookups for PORT mode transfers over FTP. HostGator provides a wide range of hosting packages and services with a price point that would appeal to just about everyone. I have spoken with quite a few FlashFXP customers who use HostGator and are quite happy. HostGator offers FTP and SFTP access with all their packages, however customers demanding FTPS (Secure FTP) will be disappointed to learn that this is only available to VPS hosting or Dedicated servers. Their value plans (Hatchling, Baby, Business) only allow SFTP access using the main account. You can create additional FTP accounts but since they do not provide FTPS we found this to be quite limiting, by requiring the customer to choose between having multiple accounts or security. Security should never be a compromise. Of course this is a non-issue for anyone who only needs a single account. The FTP service implementation used by HostGator appears a bit doggy and downright confusing because in our testing we noticed that you can in fact connect and login via FTPS (we evaluated the business plan), but the FTP client was unable to establish a data connection for directory listings or file transfers making it unusable. We tried numerous configurations and no matter what we tried nothing worked, FTPS is completely unusable. The lack of FTPS support in their value plans is a huge disappointment for us. While SFTP is provided as a alternative to FTPS, the fact that you can't create additional SFTP accounts is disappointing. Perhaps we're being too picky? (rant about FTP security) I am rather surprised that most web hosting companies do not provide FTP with one-time password support via S/KEY OTP, but I suppose it has to do with client compatibility or complexity. We implemented automatic S/KEY support in FlashFXP long before FTPS became popular. Perhaps S/KEY was over shadowed by the success of FTPS, who really knows, there is clearly a need for an alternative to sending passwords in plan text. (end of rant) Bottom Line: They offer great customer support and afford web hosting plans. Website: Hostgator.com \| Direct link: Hostgator.com (without our affiliate clickthru) Last edited by bigstar; 01-02-2012 at 04:30 PM.