I have generally good things to say about my web hosting service, Bluehost. They are very reliable, with uptime for my site of over 99.5% (at least since I started monitoring it in September using the free SiteUpTime service). Bluehost also offer lots of add-ons and free services, like high-end spam filtering and automatic installation of dozens of popular web software packages like Drupal and WordPress. And the price is reasonable at less than $7/month.
The one drag was that Bluehost used a service called Fantastico Deluxe to install or upgrade web software packages like WordPress. And for reasons I could never quite fathom, Fantastico was very slow to make upgrades available. That’s particularly annoying when said upgrades are to fix serious security holes. So I was heartened a few months back when Bluehost added a speedier install and upgrade service called SimpleScripts. But the fly in the ointment was having to manually reinstall my entire WordPress package before I could switch to using SimpleScript for upgrades.
Then today, when I was yet again bemoaning the fact that Fantastico was lagging SimpleScript for the latest WordPress upgrade, the highly-praised version 2.7, I noticed that Bluehost had added an automated switchover routine. So, after backing everything on my web site up three different ways, I had SimpleScript run its automatic changeover from Fantastico and then upgrade WordPress to 2.7 (from whence this post is being written). It went utterly without a hitch. I’ll post a review and some blog links for the much-improved WordPress shortly.
Prior coverage:
Fantastico or who won’t let me upgrade WordPress (May 8, 2008)
Speaking of simple, upgraded to WordPress 2.5 (May 6, 2008)
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