cPanel changes to account-based licensing

In early 2019 cPanel was acquired by a venture capitalist group named Oakley capital. This group already had several web hosting companies and another control panel called Plesk under its belt, and with the purchase of cPanel they have now taken complete control over the web hosting control panel market.

Late June 2019, cPanel announced a price increase that shocked the entire web hosting industry. For years, cPanel has always had simple flat-rate pricing for VPS and dedicated server licenses regardless of the number of hosted accounts per server.

This is now changed to a new pricing model based on the number of hosted accounts per server which results in a significant price increase, not only for us but for our customers. 

Here at WireNine, we have always tried our best to absorb cost increases over the years for infrastructure upgrades, software licensing etc, and never increased hosting fees for our clients in over 15 years of being in the hosting industry. Unfortunately due to the significant price increase and change of the licensing model for cPanel, some customers will see an increase in their hosting fees starting November 1st, 2019.

How will this impact me?

Shared Hosting

While we’re not anticipating any increase in our Managed Business hosting plans. Our legacy grandfathered shared hosting plans may see an increase in their hosting fees, due to the new cPanel pricing we can no longer sustain to keep these plans running at the grandfathered prices.

Reseller Hosting

Unfortunately due to the fact that cPanel will now be billing us per cPanel account created, Reseller hosting customers will likely see adjustments to their hosting fees and/or limits being placed on the number of accounts they can create.

VPS and Dedicated Servers

VPS and dedicated server clients will feel the impact of cPanel price increase the most. We will be personally contacting each VPS and dedicated server client to explain the details of their new licensing costs moving forward.

You can voice your opinion to @cPanel regarding the pricing model change over twitter or facebook!

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to our team from the client portal.

How to speed up your WordPress website

Today we’re going to share with you a few simple tips to speed up your WordPress website. With just a few clicks from your cPanel control panel, you can have your WordPress site performing optimally in no time.

Before making any of these changes, make sure your WordPress core, plugins and themes are all up to date.

Upgrade to PHP 7.3

Firstly, you will want to make sure you are using the latest PHP version. The latest version of PHP help reduces memory and CPU utilization while implementing performance improvements to help keep your site performing optimally.

  1. Login to your cPanel control panel.
  2. Type in “Select PHP version” using the search bar. Click “Select PHP version” icon.
  3. Select PHP 7.3 from the drop-down menu beside PHP version. (Note: Don’t forget what version you were using prior to changing to 7.3 in case if you need to revert changes.)
  4. Click on “Set as current”.
  5. Verify your site is 100% functional by testing all the functionalities.

    If there are any issues, revert back to the previous PHP version.

Enable “opcache” from PHP settings

While you are on the PHP selector page, you can enable “opcache” by selecting it from the available PHP extensions. Changes are automatically saved.

If you are wondering what “opcache” is all about, you can learn more from the PHP.net manual here.

“OPcache improves PHP performance by storing precompiled script bytecode in shared memory, thereby removing the need for PHP to load and parse scripts on each request. “

What this means is when a PHP script is executed, its compiled into opcode, code that the server understands. OPCache stores this code into the server memory on the first execution to be reused afterwards thus improving your site’s performance.

Once again, you will need to test the functionality of your website to make sure your contact forms, etc are all working. If you notice any errors, deselect “opcache” from the PHP selector page.

Increase PHP memory_limit from PHP options

From the PHP selector page, click on the “Switch to PHP options” button. By default, your memory_limit may be set to 64M or 128M. Change this value to 256M. Changes are automatically saved.

Install LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress

  1. Search for “LiteSpeed Web Cache Manager” from the search bar on top of cPanel.
  2. Click on “WordPress Cache” under LiteSpeed Cache Management.
  3. Click on the “Scan” button to find your WordPress sites.
  4. Once the tool finds your WordPress installations, you will find them listed under “Discovered WordPress Installations” click on “Enable” to install and enable the LiteSpeed cache wordpress plugin.

If you have any other WordPress cache plugins installed, this installation will present an error requesting you to remove the other caching plugin before proceeding to avoid conflicts. We highly recommend removing any other caching plugin and installing LiteSpeed cache plugin for the absolute best possible performance.

Once again, test your WordPress site functionality to make sure everything is as it should be and there are no errors or warnings on any of your pages.

If you need help, our WordPress experts are standing by 24/7 to assist you! Simply log in to your client portal to contact us.

How to reduce time to first byte to Improve WordPress Page Load Times

This article is going to explain what TTFB is, how it affects your WordPress Page load times and how to reduce it. When troubleshooting a slow website, TTFB (time to first byte) is one of the metrics all site benchmarking performance tools use to determine how fast your website starts loading from a specific location or setting.

Firstly, you must understand that TTFB (time to first byte) is not measuring your website speed. TTFB is a measurement of responsiveness.

What is TTFB?

Time to first byte (TTFB) measures the duration of time browser has to wait before receiving its first byte of data.  A common misconception is that this is calculated post DNS lookup, however, the calculation of TTFB always includes network latency.

A lower TTFB means fewer dynamic calculations being performed by the server most often due to caching. A very low TTFB is observed with static HTML page, while larger TTFB is often seen with dynamic data requests being pulled from a database.

When a visitor views your website an HTTP request is sent from the browser to the server. There are various factors that can cause delays during this process. Slow DNS lookup times can contribute to increased time for the request. If your site’s geographical location is far away, this can increase latency due to the distance the data must travel.

Once the server receives the request, it has to process and generate a response. If your website uses a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress, the server has to do all the necessary computations needed to display the site content. PHP loads the MySQL database and fetches the content to display the appropriate output for the browser.

There can be various delays during this process such as slow database queries, too many WordPress plugins, not caching, using an older PHP version, poorly optimized code or WordPress theme. This could result in a poor TTFB value like 1-4 seconds or higher, which does not always mean your hosting server is slow or experiencing problems.

If you are seeing slow TTFB with a static HTML page, then you may want to start investigating from the server as there could be no other factors affecting the performance of your site.

How to reduce TTFB for your WordPress site

1. Utilize WordPress Cache

One of the easiest ways to lower your TTFB is utilizing cache on your WordPress site. You may think that caching only helps decrease your load times, but in fact, it can also help lower TTFB as it reduces the server processing time.

Our servers utilize LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress, which is built-in page cache to dramatically reduce page load times and lower TTFB.

Simply enable the plugin from your cPanel control panel under LiteSpeed Web Cache Manager.

If you have cache enabled and still notice high TTFB, you must check for two things.

  • Make sure you are measuring a cached result, you can do this by performing your test more than once. A slower first result is normal and should be faster with consecutive tests. Run multiple tests to verify you’re measuring cached results.
  • Are you testing from a close geographical location? If you are testing from a farther geographical location it is normal to have higher than average TTFB due to network latency. If you want your site to be fast from various locations, consider implementing a CDN.

You cannot fully cache all pages such as Checkout pages and shopping carts. You can still make sure you are using PHP 7.2 or latest with opcache enabled from cPanel control panel under Select PHP version.

You can also utilize Memcached service to further improve the time WordPress takes to pull data from the MySQL database.

2. Check WordPress Plugins

Check all the WordPress plugins you are using. How many total plugins are installed and how many are active? Are the plugins high quality and regularly updated? How much load do they add to your page rendering process?

3. Implement a CDN

Another easy way to lower TTFB is to utilize a Content Delivery Network (CDN). If your website is serving visitors from different parts of the country or around the globe, CDN can help drastically lower your TTFB.

Say Hello to Code Editor on Skype

Human capital has become quite mobile these days. Employers tend to recruit people from different countries and cities. In this process of recruitment, Skype plays an integral role. After all, how else can you interview potential employees?

Skype has ensured that the process of technical interviewing goes by as smoothly as possible with the inclusion of a real-time code editor.

What Does This Mean?

You might wonder, what will this latest feature offer to users? Well, with the help of this function, any video call you make would be placed on a code editor, which will allow interviewers to interview applicants without changing applications.

This code editor feature has the power to support over seven languages including C, C++, Java, and Ruby. Additionally, it comes with a syntax highlighting function which is built into the system to provide optimum performance.

How Does It Work?

The next question that will cloud your mind is, how can you avail this service? The answer to this query is quite simple as well. All that you are required to do is go to the Skype Interviews site online and click on the option that allows you to start your interview.

Skype will then send both the interviewers and interviewees a unique link. Once all of the participants follow the given link, the interview can begin.

Does This Sound Familiar?

If you are a tech-savvy individual, you might be rolling your eyes right now. This is because you must be aware of various other tools that provide a similar function. For those of you who are not aware of such tools, one that you can search about is HackerRank.

HackerRank allows programmers to come together and practice and compete in different elements like coding. It also allows you to get employment through a similar method as recently launched by Skype.

Conclusion

All in all, while Skype may not be the first to start a code editor feature, it certainly isn’t that late to the party. Since it is a credible way of communication, the fact that it is revamping to ensure that it meets the current needs of the masses is a step in the right direction.

Regardless of whether you are conducting the interview or are being subjected to it, the fact remains that technical interviews have now become easier to perform with the help of Skype.

Difference Between Trademark ™, Registered ® and Copyright ©

Have you ever come across brand names and encountered various symbols which you did not understand the meaning of? Well, that is usual as there exists a nomenclature which legalizes certain brand names. These naming methods include trademark, registered, and copyright. These three names give a different message and allow you to understand the brand better.

Trademark ™

Whoever has not yet been able to register their brand name with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) should be listed as a “Trademark” as opposed to a “Registered.” Similarly, even if the application has been submitted for registration but has not been accepted yet, the brand name continues to be listed under “Trademark.”

While the use of the trademark label protects an unregistered name, it does not guarantee protection under the trademark law. In order to guarantee safety under the Lanham Act, the owner of the trademark needs to ensure and prove that they were first to use the trademark and that the use of the trademark by other parties will confuse the audience from distinguishing between the good’s source.

Registered ®

Any brand name registered with the USPTO is denoted by the “R” symbol. Being registered allows you to use your trademark in a more superior manner over others and allows you to obtain damages against infringers. Registering a trademark prevents any imitators from bothering you and provides you with a heavy presumption of ownership. It is generally preferred to have a registered trademark over one that is unregistered.

Copyright ©

This “C” symbol, giving the impression of copyright, sends a message to the public saying that the work is copyrighted and the user has ownership of the work. The symbol is not necessary in order to protect your work as it achieves automatic protection upon creation.

Now that you are aware of the nomenclature, you will be able to better identify brand names. Any of the brand names which have not been registered or are waiting for registration are to be termed under the trademark symbol, whereas registered brand names have the “R” symbol right after them. Finally, any work that is copyrighted and requires a visual impression given to the public uses the “C” symbol right around the corner of the work.