Known Quirks of Specific Hosts

A2Hosting

Karelia recommends A2 Hosting for Sandvox users who need powerful features such as databases, PHP, or for use besides Sandvox publishing. However there are some quirks to be aware of:

URL Format

This should be your domain name. E.g., http://www.example.com/

Server

This should be your server's name: a2sXX.a2hosting.com

You should refer to your A2 Hosting Welcome email for which server number you should use in place of XX; for example, 65.

Upload Method

From the drop down menu, choose "SFTP (Most Secure)"; enter 7822 in the Port text field; and then put in your SSH username and password. Both of these are available in your Welcome email. Your SSH username and password are the same as your cPanel username and password.

Document Root

This is the directory that the server uses to host files. Use: public_html

There is a video that may be helpful if you are having trouble at http://www.karelia.com/screencast/sandvox/a2_hosting_setup.mov

The main thing to remember with A2 Hosting is to use SFTP (Most Secure) and specifically set Port 7822 in order to properly connect.

GoDaddy.com

Host URL

http://www.godaddy.com

Possible Issue

New accounts contain a welcome.html file. You must manually access your account via FTP and remove the file before anything published with Sandvox will appear online.

We have had reports that asking GoDaddy to switch you from Windows-based hosting to Linux-based hosting clears up many problems. GoDaddy's Windows-based hosting does not support SFTP. SFTP is supported by GoDaddy with their Linux-based servers but is not set up by default and not recommended. If you are have problems uploading your site to GoDaddy, we recommend asking to be switched to Linux-based hosting and using FTP to connect. (You might also consider encouraging them to properly support SFTP across their products in the future.)

The document root might be public_html, /, or blank, depending on which server configuration you are using with GoDaddy.

Webstrike Solutions

Host URL

http://www.webstrikesolutions.com/

Possible Issue

You may need to leave the document root field blank.

Yahoo Hosting

Yahoo requires FTP with SSL/TLS for connecting to their hosting. While the certificate used is valid for Yahoo's own domain, their instructions ask you to connect to your own custom domain instead, rendering the certificate unable to be verified. Sandvox has some special behavior built in to handle this.

Other Possible Quirks

Most hosts give no trouble when uploading a website there, but a few have some odd configurations that make it difficult to use. In some cases, a host will not allow you to upload a new version of an existing file without deleting it first. And while most hosts will effortlessly deliver the contents of the special "index.html" file that shows the contents of a collection page, some hosts insist that this file be named something different, such as index.php.

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