In the last 12-18 hours, some of Bluehost shared servers suffered DDoS attacks rendering hosted websites and cPanel inaccessible.

In the digital era, almost all large hosting sites are vulnerable to denial-of-service (DoS) or distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks but the key is to keep customers apprised of the situation via multiple channels. It is pointless telling customers to use an online chat facility (which in the case of Bluehost was also malfunctioning due to the attacks) or email technical support when their emails is hosted by the same provider that is under attack.

Now I am beginning to appreciate the importance of have separating different providers for DNS, email and web hosting.

Cheaper hosting fees and free website migration lured me from GoDaddy to Hostgator. But in a span of 1 week, I moved between 3 different hosting providers. Fingers crossed, I will be staying with Bluehost for the foreseeable future.

What started as a simple proposition of pain-free migration from GoDaddy ultimately blossomed into mammoth tasks of backups, restoration and plenty of trial and error with server settings. Signing up with Hostgator was the easy part. After choosing the hosting plan and making payment, I completed an online form providing Hostgator with the relevant user names and passwords at GoDaddy to enable their migration team to start the process. What I did not realise is the process could take up to 72 hours since it is a “free service”. 36 hours into the wait, I decided to have a go at the migration myself. After minor headwinds, I completed the entire migration in 2 hours and arranged for my hosting account at GoDaddy to be terminated.

4 days after the initial sign up, I received a cryptic email from Hostgator asking me to provide a scanned copy of a Photo ID such as a passport, or driver’s license. In addition to a photo ID, I was asked to include a scanned copy of the credit card that was used in my account purchase. Suspecting that it could be a scam, I tried logging into Hostgator but discovered that my account had been suspended. I no longer had access to my files and my site was redirected to a landing page. Thankfully this is a personal blog but it would be disastrous if it is a business site. After contacting customer service by telephone, I was told that there are alternative verification methods but I had to reply to the original email as they could not assist me over the telephone. The agent claims that it is within their Terms of Service that they could suspend any site on their server at any point in time if they determine the account to be of high risk. Personally I have no objections in client identification but it should be performed at the outset and for existing customers, Hostgator should have at least provided a grace period before suspending access. I followed the instructions of the agent but 24 hours later have yet to receive a response¹.

Armed with the original backup files, I migrated this site to Bluehost. Both Hostgator and Bluehost offer cPanel, FTP access and MySQL. With minor tweaks to the server settings, I completed the migration in 45 minutes and bid goodbye to Hostgator.

The lesson from this episode is always to maintain a copy of backup files on the local drive. I would have been held hostage by Hostgator otherwise.

¹Update – Hostgator did send a reply 36 hours later but not offer an alternative method of authentication.

Eaton House, a residential block of flats, which forms part of the Canary Riverside Estate was designed by Koetter Kim & Associates International and developed in 1999 by the Canary Wharf Group. Situated beside the Four Seasons Hotel Canary Wharf, it is one of many upmarket residential developments on the Isle of Dogs that is out of reach to many. I have always wondered what it would be like to stay in an apartment that overlooks River Thames on one side and the financial district of Canary Wharf on the other.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I was fortunate to be given an option to be put up in a one bedroom apartment for over 4 weeks; just enough time to experience staying in a premier service apartment that cost £130 per day or £1000 per week (the latter is marketed as a short-let apartment by Foxtons).

Canary Riverside Estate – My temporary abode for 4 weeks

As a place of residence
In terms of size, the flat is about 65-70 square meters, which makes it one of the larger one bedroom apartments in the area. Both the bedroom and living room are squarish and is of a decent size and proportion. The bedroom is large enough to house a king size bed, large chest of drawers, book shelf and study desk. The kitchen is functional but lacks storage space for appliances. I do find standalone kitchens more practical than open planned kitchens especially when one spends a fair amount of time cooking. The flat boasts a large ensuite with both a bath and walk in shower enclosure, as well as a guest washroom.

Bedroom

Living room

Kitchen

Bathroom

The view on the 12th floor is slightly compromised by the roof structure of the Four Seasons Hotel but spectacular nonetheless. At night, watching the river boats sail by against a backdrop of glittering lights from the tall buildings in Canary Wharf proofs to be rather relaxing.

View from bedroom

View from living room

For a new build, the sound insulation is surprisingly good. Throughout my stay, I did not hear a cry from the newborn that was living in the adjourning flat.

The apartment is cooled and heated centrally. However with the age of the building, the cooling system was substandard, resulting in sweaty summer nights.

One minor shortcoming is the lack of ceiling lights in the living room and bedroom. Whoever designed the lighting system for the apartment should be sacked!

The current price tag of this apartment is between £600,000 – £700,000. Despite the large size and fantastic location, it is hardly value for money. There is substantial wear and tear in the bathroom and risk water leaking onto the floor board or the apartment below if left unattended. But if money is of no object, then this bachelor pad would appeal to the selected few. Although to enjoy unobstructed views of the River Thames, one needs to be on one or two floors higher.

 As a service apartment
The amenities and kitchen utensils provided are fairly basic. A weekly cleaning service including a change of linens is included for stays over 7 days. However, the service is superficial. I can accept that housekeeping is light during each stay but a thorough spring clean should be performed between each tenancy. For 4 weeks, I was resigned to a dirty kitchen floor and unsanitary sofas.

Dirty floor

Food particles trapped between sofa cushions

The building is fibre enabled but sadly, the service apartment provider opted for ASDL. Apart from frequent lapse in broadband service, download speed is a miserable 3-5 Mbps.

 Given its location, this should be a popular short-let apartment but there are telltale signs suggesting otherwise. For starter, 33% of the light bulbs in the living room, 50% in the bedroom and 40% in the bathroom were out of order when I moved in. They were promptly replaced though.

 The dinnerwares were either heavily stained or chipped. The oven unit was greasy. The rim of the washing machine was mouldy and the iron provided was clogged with limescale. But what I found most unacceptable was a waste bin without a lid.

Chipped kitchenware

Stained mugs

Virgin Active Gym

The estate has an amazing gym with a swimming pool that has views of the River Thames. However, access to the gym is not included as part of the stay. Overall, for a weekly charge of £1000, I expected more.