Web hosting guides
Everything you need to know about managing your websites and hosting settings on EGPHP servers.
31 articles in this category
Uploading Your Website
Learn how to upload your website files using FTP, SFTP, or file manager.
Connecting Your Domain
Point your domain to EGPHP servers and configure nameservers.
Managing DNS Records
Add, edit, and manage DNS records for your domains.
Setting Up WordPress
Install and configure WordPress on your hosting account.
PHP Version Management
Switch between PHP versions and configure PHP settings.
Choosing a PHP version
Newest is usually fastest and always the most secure. The exception is a dependency that has not caught up, and there is a way to check in a minute.
Behind a CDN: everyone looks like the same visitor
With a proxy in front, your server sees the proxy. Three things break quietly until you tell it where the real address is.
Composer on shared hosting
Running composer install on the server is slow, memory-hungry and sometimes impossible. Build somewhere else and upload the result.
Custom error pages
A default error page tells the visitor nothing and tells an attacker your server version. Two blocks fix both.
Removing a site without losing what you needed
The order that keeps what matters and the four things people discover were only on that server.
Turning directory listing off
A folder with no index file lists its contents to anyone who asks. It is one line to close, and it is found by scanners in seconds.
DNS changes that have not taken effect
Nothing propagates. The record changed instantly and the world is holding an old copy until its cache expires - and you can see exactly how long is left.
The domain expired
The site and the mail both stop, and hosting has nothing to do with it. What happens week by week, and how long you really have.
Hosting a site for visitors in the Gulf
What the distance to the server costs a visitor in Riyadh or Dubai, what takes most of it away, and when data has to stay inside the country.
Log rotation
Logs fill the disk, and a full disk stops everything. Rotation is one configuration file, and there is one flag that decides whether it works.
Maintenance mode, done properly
A maintenance page must return 503 with a Retry-After, and must let you in. Both are one line, and both are usually missing.
Several domains on one plan
One server can host many sites. What to keep separate, what can be shared, and the mistake that lets one site reach another.
.htaccess rules on an Nginx server
Nginx does not read .htaccess and never will. What that means for a site being moved, and how each common rule translates.
Running Node behind Nginx
Node should not face the internet directly. Nginx in front handles TLS, static files and restarts, and takes ten lines.
Parked and alias domains
A second domain can redirect to your site or serve it. One of those is right and the other quietly costs you search visibility.
Password-protecting a directory
HTTP basic auth is two lines and is the right tool for a staging site or an admin path. What it protects and what it does not.
Allowed memory size exhausted
What the number means, where to raise it, and why the page that needs 2GB has a bug rather than a limit problem.
Moving to a newer PHP without breaking the site
Newer PHP is faster and still supported. How to find out what will break before you switch, and how to go back in one click if it does.
Reading a hosting price before you buy
The advertised price is rarely the whole story. Six things to check: the renewal, the term, the currency, the tax, what is included and where the server is.
A staging site, and going live from it
A copy to break safely. The three things that make a staging site dangerous if you get them wrong, and the order for pushing it live.
Subdomains and where they live
A subdomain needs a DNS record, a server block and a certificate. Missing one of the three produces a different symptom each time.
Trailing slashes
/about and /about/ are different URLs. Serving both is duplicate content; redirecting between them badly is an infinite loop.
An upload that is too large
Three limits have to agree and people usually change one. Which three, where they live, and how to confirm the change took.
Wildcard subdomains
One record answers for every name that does not exist yet. Useful for per-customer subdomains, and it needs a matching certificate.
WordPress cron is not cron
It runs on page loads, so a quiet site never runs its jobs and a busy one runs them too often. Two lines fix both.
Redirecting www to non-www, correctly
Pick one, redirect the other once, and never chain two redirects. Which you pick matters far less than being consistent.