fbpx
Call us +1-231-421-7160

What you Need to Know About Joomla 2.5 End of Life and Upgrading to Joomla 3

upgrade joomla

You may be aware that Joomla 2.5 has reached the end of life (EOL) stage in its release cycle. This blog contains some information about the history of the Joomla release cycle, a timeline for upgrading to Joomla 3 and links to tools you can use to help upgrade when you’re ready.

Joomla Release Cycle History

In the past, Joomla released minor and major releases, which they called short and long term releases. Joomla 2.5, for example, was a long term release, and the 1.6 and 1.7 versions were it's preceeding short term releases. When version 3 became available, Joomla adopted an improved release cycle ensuring longer support for major versions. There are no longer short term and long term releases. Instead, releases are referred to as being “supported”, “current”, “legacy” or “stable”. Learn more about the Joomla release and support cycle.

Millions of Joomla 2.5 Users

The Joomla Project will no longer release any official patches for Joomla 2.5. That being said, at the time of this post, there are currently millions of Joomla 2.5 sites on the web. This even includes a portion of the Joomla.org family of websites. For those reasons, we are confident that a patch would be created should any major issues arise in the immediate future. We would be willing to contribute to a patch which would be applied to all Joomla 2.5 sites on the CloudAccess.net Platform.

Read more
  16572 Hits

Understanding the IPv6 Rollout

ipv6-ready

Internet Protocol is the set of rules that governs the exchange of information and the way traffic is routed on the web. Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) is the next generation Internet communication protocol that provides an identification and location system for devices, computers and networks and will replace IPv4, the current protocol that has many limitations. This blog shines some light on IPv6 and explains the impact on Internet users and how the CloudAccess.net platform is IPv6 ready.

The Growth of the Internet and the Need for a New Protocol

Originally developed in the 1970s, IPv4 is a cornerstone of the Internet as we know it. It was developed long before anyone could really imagine all of the interconnected devices that we have today. IPv4 allows for approximately 4.3 billion unique IP addresses, which might sound like a lot and certainly was a lot in 1970s standards. Nobody in 1970, however, could have predicted that the Internet would be as popular as it is or that many of us would be walking around with high speed computers in our pockets. With close to 3 billion current Internet users, IPv4 presents some serious limitations.

Essentially, the biggest limitation is that IPv4 is running out of the 32 bit addresses that each computer or device is required to have. An example of a 32 bit IPv4 address:

Read more
  4386 Hits

Introducing the CloudAccess.net API

demo-api-logo
demo-api-infographic

The CloudAccess.net API puts the power of our entire platform directly into the hands of developers. Using the API, your site visitors will be able to launch a custom application directly from your website. The API is ideal for any type of web service provider and can be easily integrated into any site. The best part is that you can expand the services that you offer, attract new clients and earn a recurring monthly revenue stream.

How the API Works

Let’s say you’re a developer and you have a perfectly designed application including a template or theme that displays each of your extensions or plug-ins including your image rotator, carousel, gallery and accordion. Your clients typically have to install an application, purchase your software, install it, enable it, configure it, test it and more. At best, this process is time-consuming and tedious.

Read more
  4795 Hits

Site Sanitization: Cleaning up a Hacked Website

cleaning up

We pride ourselves on having an extremely secure platform, but even the most secure hosting providers see hacked websites on a daily basis. Almost always, the goal of the hacker is to steal content, send spam, spread malware or conduct some type of phishing scam. Many times we’ll see a site administrator clean a site only for it to be hacked again a few days later, and then they come to us wanting to know why. We find that some additional steps that can secure a site and fend off attacks are often neglected. This blog explains why sites are hacked, steps for cleaning up a hacked site, and preventative measures that can be taken to secure the site moving forward.

Why sites get hacked

Vulnerable Extensions

There are several reasons a site can be hacked, but the culprit we identify most often is an outdated extension. Updating extensions is critical because hackers can easily identify vulnerabilities in older versions, which are like a wide open back door to the site. If you’re using a Joomla site, it’s best practice to visit the Vulnerable Extensions List frequently. If you see an extension you’re using on this list, download and install the patches immediately. If no patches exist, disable the extension and find something to replace it.

Outdated Applications

Another reason we see sites hacked is because the site itself is an older version of the application, like Joomla 1.5 for example, which is no longer supported with security patches. We provide a managed hosting platform, which means we’ll update versions for you when a new STS (short term support) version becomes available. When a new LTS (long term support) version becomes available, it’s up to site administrators to upgrade on their own. It’s definitely best practice to stay current with the most recent version of your application.

Read more
  8937 Hits

Diagnosing & Fixing PHP Fatal Errors

whitescreen1
whitescreen2
globalconfig1
globalconfig2
fatalerror1
fatalerror2
fatalftp1
configuration
fatalftp2
fatalmysql1
fatalmysql2
fatalmysql3
fatalmysql4

Imagine this horrible hypothetical situation: you’re deep in development mode making changes all over your site. You’re in the zone - nothing can stop you as you move about the options as fast as humanly possible. Your site is going to be a miracle, you’re a genius, ideas keep flowing through your head and you’re going to change the world. After making several changes, installing several extensions, posting multiple articles, you refresh the page to see the changes live only to cry out in pain and anger because your site suddenly looks something like this:

Or this:

Also known as the dreaded “500 Internal Server Error”.

Read more
  13009 Hits

The Evolution of the CCP: Our Design Process

ccp1
ccp3
old ccp
notes
ipad
wireframe
adobe
cart
vector icons
full2

The Cloud Control Panel, or the CCP, is an easy-to-use interface used to manage each website hosted with CloudAccess.net. We recently redesigned the entire CCP and this blog describes the process we went through and offers a little history of one of the most important pieces of our platform.

In the beginning, the CCP was actually a custom Joomla component we built and pre-installed in Joomla sites that were launched through our platform. It was completely separate from what we called the “Client Area” at the time.

When Joomla 2.5 was released, we removed the CCP from the Joomla application and added those features to the Client Area, unifying account and application management tools. The result was the second version of the Cloud Control Panel, which you can see below.

Read more
  7531 Hits

A New Site, A New Office & A New Product: Adding WordPress to the CloudAccess.net Platform

wordpress-blog
new-site-blog
us-office2

It’s almost Spring, and there are several refreshing changes happening at CloudAccess.net. We have a new website and a new office location, and (most importantly) a new product to announce. WordPress, the world’s most popular content management system powering close to 20% of the world’s top websites, has now been completely integrated into the CloudAccess.net platform!

For the last 4 years, we've focused 100% of our attention to developing the most complete web hosting platform available for the Joomla Content Management System. We've scaffolded support services around Joomla and we've helped tens of thousands of people learn how to build and maintain their own Joomla sites. We've now set our sights on doing the same thing with WordPress.

Over the years we've received countless requests to extend our services to incorporate WordPress. After a great deal of hard work by the entire CloudAccess.net Team, we are happy to announce that we are officially providing managed hosting and support for the WordPress application. Just like with Joomla, clients can immediately provision a WordPress website through the Cloud Control Panel™(CCP) and use all the CCP features to manage their application.

Read more
  6446 Hits

Introducing the Cloud Control Panel™2.0

We take great pride in our customized Cloud Control Panel™(CCP) that is simple, intuitive and powerful. The CCP is at the heart of our platform and the main interface between CloudAccess.net clients and team members. You won’t find a better control panel at any other hosting company. Today we are launching a new version of our Joomla-specific, feature-rich CCP and we know you'll enjoy your new client experience.

blog2

Read more
  47733 Hits

A Comprehensive Guide to Joomla Compression and Caching

cache1
cache2
cache3
cache4
cache5

The Basics of Compression and Caching

When visitors come to your site, their browser displays content that is served from a web server. The web server is told what content to send based on the output of the Joomla application. Each page that the visitor loads requires Joomla to generate content into an html page for the visitor's browser. Sometimes Joomla has to generate the same content over and over. When this happens, site administrators can take advantage of caching to reduce the amount of work required from Joomla and the web server, which can greatly improve performance.

Compression comes into play when the files and data that is generated by Joomla gets sent from the web server to the browser. In many cases, compressing that data can increase the speed at which the data is sent, as well as the performance of the web server itself. In combination, these two factors can greatly decrease the speed at which your pages load for site visitors.

Read more
  84838 Hits

CloudAccess.net Reaches a PageRank of 8

pagerank

Warning to all readers: this is not a blog post. It is a shameless brag post!

Now that you have had fair warning, and you've chosen to continue reading, we would like to unveil the latest CloudAccess.net news tid-bit. Earlier today, during some routine Google PageRank checking, we found that the CloudAccess.net PageRank has risen to the astronomical value of 8!

The History of PageRank

Developed way back in 1996 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page (that’s where the “Page” comes in), the system was set to use algorithms that ranked sites on a 1-10 scale based on link popularity. Soon after this system was designed, it was put into use when the same two gentlemen founded a company you may have heard of, Google. Essentially, PageRank is one of many indicators to a sites link popularity. 

Read more
  42865 Hits