This guide explains how to transfer to Infomaniak data (Web, Mail, Domain, and even Cloud) currently hosted elsewhere. You remain the obvious owner of your data, without loss or interruption!

Specific guides

Click on the link corresponding to your current host:

• Swisscom: complete guide to migrate Web, Mail and domain name data

Guides for any other hoster

To retrieve any other data, follow the procedures below:

1. Import Web data (all PHP, HTML, etc. sites.)
   • For WordPress specifically, refer to this other guide…
      
2. Copy the Mail data (addresses and mailbox content, etc.) to kSuite or a simple Mail Service
    
3. Transfer the domain name (domain management, DNS zone, etc.)

You can also bring other types of data to the Infomaniak servers:

• Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. content: refer to this other guide
• Data on NAS Synology or QNAP: refer to this other guide

Why join Infomaniak?

By consolidating your domain names, websites, and email addresses with Infomaniak, you simplify the management of your invoices and services. Moreover, your domains will automatically link with your website and email address. You will therefore not need to manually configure the DNS of your domains with another registrar.

Learn more about Infomaniak

• Infomaniak, the Ethical Cloud
• Infomaniak's eco-responsible approach

Thank you for entrusting Infomaniak with the hosting of your website.

Preamble

• A web hosting service is a storage space available on a computer, also called a "server," connected to the Internet and managed by a web host, Infomaniak.
• This storage space, made available to professionals and individuals, is used to install websites or other types of tools (CRM, extranet, intranet...) that need to be accessible via the Internet.
• These guides allow you to quickly use the essential functions of your new product, your web hosting, which can host multiple websites.

Where to start?

1. Create a WordPress website
2. Build the site with Site Creator
3. Install a web application (ownCloud, Joomla, Typo3, Drupal, phpBB, Simple Machines Forum, Magento, Prestashop, …)
4. Manage your FTP accounts/users
5. Manage and publish files on your web hosting via FTP Manager
6. Manage your MySQL databases
7. Add a site or subdomain to your hosting (multi-sites/multi-domains)
8. Link another domain name to an existing website (domain alias)
9. Preview your site even if your domain name is not yet pointing to Infomaniak's servers

IMPORTANT: the domain name…

Web hosting, to be visible to the public on the Internet, must be associated with a domain name!

Is your domain name not managed by Infomaniak? Or is it in a different Organization than your web hosting? Then refer to this other guide to configure the DNS or the "A records" in order to link the domain name to your web hosting.

In case of a problem

To resolve an issue, please consult the Web Hosting knowledge base before contacting Infomaniak support.

Click here to share a review or suggestion about a Infomaniak product.

The Student Program allows you to obtain 1 Web Hosting and 1 kSuite Standard for free to develop your digital skills during higher education.

Preamble

• A domain name is required for the proper functioning of the products and this remains paid.
• Offer valid only in the following countries: Switzerland, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Austria, Spain, Canada.
• Offer reserved for new hosting orders (does not apply to orders already in progress or renewed orders).
• 1 Web Hosting (= storage for 20 Websites on 250 GB of SSD space) and 1 Standard kSuite offered per person.
• The student must be of legal age (or have parental authorization).
• The student must be able to prove their status with a valid registration card and a valid ID card:
  • student card or school certificate: it must be up-to-date and show the school, the current school year as well as your first and last name
  • ID card (front/back): it must be valid with a clear and readable photo
  • your official student email address: it is provided by your school, e.g.: prenom.nom@votre-école.com
• The duration of the offer depends on the validity period of the registration card and will not exceed 4 years in total.

Get free online hosting

To take advantage of this offer, familiarize yourself with the offer page and prepare the required documents.

Discover the other free Infomaniak services!

This guide details the technical and administrative aspects of hosting multiple websites on the same platform.

Technically speaking

A hosting encompasses multiple websites. It is therefore possible to add several websites to a hosting (multi-site/multi-domain management). In this case, the resources of the hosting (disk space, databases, script execution time and memory, etc.) are shared among the different websites of the hosting.

The basic Serveur Cloud plan includes a certain number of hostings (for example 5) and a higher number of websites (for example 20). In this example, this means that you can create 20 websites (with 20 different domain names/subdomains) that you can freely organize across your 5 hostings.

Administratively

At the Organization level on the Infomaniak Manager, management and access rights cannot be assigned to a specific website on a hosting plan. A user you add to the Organization will not be able to have a right limited to a single site; they will always access the entire hosting plan.

However, it is possible to create an FTP user restricted to a specific folder on the server (in this case, it should be limited to the folder containing the site).

Limited management of one site among others on the same hosting can also be considered directly within the tool used for the site (WordPress user management for example).

This guide explains what a web host like Infomaniak is and specifies its role and limits of intervention.

Infomaniak, web host since 1996

According to Wikipedia, a web host is a company that provides Internet hosting for computer systems to individuals or entities that do not wish to do so themselves.

Infomaniak is also…

• … decades of experience in hosting and online solutions
• … more than a million users in Switzerland and Europe (CHF 36.5 million in revenue in 2022)
• … a company certified ISO 27001, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 50001 and committed to sustainable development
• … 100% Swiss-made technological expertise with data hosted in Switzerland
• … a rich knowledge base and customer support available

Responsibilities and limits of intervention

As a web host, Infomaniak installs, secures, and keeps servers up to date, updates its web interfaces (Manager) and guides its clients in the use of services.

However, **Infomaniak does not intervene in the content of the servers or the development of websites**.

Technical support limitations

The technical support cannot help you with…

• … solve issues related to site development or its updates
• … implement solutions (migrations, complete installations)
• … manually install WordPress
• … take control of your computer remotely

but can assist you with…

• … solve issues related to the infrastructure or the Manager
• … clarify certain processes

A Premium support and a migration service are available for more demanding needs.

Find external help

For help with your site's content or organizing your emails, use the Infomaniak tender platform which lists over 1000 verified professionals, or consult the directory.

This guide details the security measures implemented for the Infomaniak email offers to detect abusive and abnormal use of an email address.

Preamble

• Upon written, justified and authenticated request, it is possible to modify these security rules for a specific paid email address.
• For sending emails to a large number of recipients, the Newsletter tool is the most suitable.
• These measures protect you from malicious use of your computer or your account.

Daily sending limits

The number of outgoing emails per 24 hours is limited to:

• my kSuite = 500‍‍ | my kSuite+ = 1440‍
• kSuite Standard 1 max. user = 100‍ | kSuite Standard 2 min. users = 1440‍‍ | kSuite Pro = 1440‍‍ | kSuite Entreprise = 1440‍‍‍‍
• Service Mail Starter = 100‍ | Service Mail 5 addresses min. = 1440‍‍‍
• Web Hosting (PHP Mail() function - unauthenticated sends) = 50‍ | Web Hosting (authenticated sends) = 1440‍‍

1 message sent to 2, 42 or 99 people in CC/BCC counts as respectively 2, 42 and 99 messages.
 

Other email limits

• Limits on the number of recipients per email sent
• Email size limits

This guide explains how to replace the main domain name associated with a Website hosted on Infomaniak in case you want to, for example, change the name of your activity or modify the spelling.

Preamble

• It is not possible to simply change the spelling of the domain name in question.
• You must own the new domain name and install it in place of the current one by performing a swap (read below).
• You can also rename your Web Hosting product in the Infomaniak Manager but changing the name of a hosting service has strictly no impact on the URLs of the sites.
• You need to act on the domain name and, if necessary, adapt the content of the site.

Change the website's domain name

Prerequisites

• Prepare the new domain name (if necessary you need to buy it).
• If the change you are looking for is more of a "subdomain" to "main domain" type (dev.domain.xyz → domain.xyz for example) then refer to this other guide.

To replace the domain name assigned to the site with another domain name:

1. Click here to access the management of your product on the Infomaniak Manager (need help?).
2. Click directly on the name assigned to the concerned product:
   
3. Then click on the chevron ‍ to expand the Domains section of this site:
   
4. Refer to this other guide to link the new domain name to your site (read the prerequisites carefully):
   • It is this new linked domain that will replace the current primary domain name after the inversion you will perform below.
5. Once the new domain name is linked to your site, click on the action menu ⋮ to the right of it.
6. Choose Set as primary domain:
   
7. If necessary, delete the old domain name and its variants that have become alias domains alias (and no longer primary domains).

If you are using a SSL certificate, you will need to update it to include the added aliases.

If you are using the dedicated IP option, you will need to uninstall and reinstall it after performing the swap.

Adapt the site content to the new name

In some cases, the web application used to develop the site needs to be adjusted to work with the new domain name. Click on the link corresponding to the development of your site to adapt the content:

• WordPress
• Joomla
• Prestashop
• application offered in WordPress & Apps

This guide explains the differences between the web hosting offers to help you choose the best solution according to your computer needs.

Web Hosting Starter

The free web hosting

The Starter Web hosting is offered for free with each domain name registered with Infomaniak. It provides 10 MB of disk space to create a site (basic pages in HTML language only - no PHP, no database) even without particular knowledge thanks to the Welcome Page tool.

• Register or transfer a domain name with Infomaniak
• Learn more about the benefits included with a domain name

Shared Web Hosting

The flagship offer to create your sites

These web hostings are shared offers (the websites will be hosted on servers whose resources are shared with other customers). To ensure the reliability of these shared services, Infomaniak servers use on average only 40% of the CPU power and are equipped with professional, latest generation SSD disks.

Web hosting offers a minimum of 250 GB of disk space and allows you to manage multiple websites with multiple domain names. This offer includes all the technologies usually used to create professional sites: PHP, MySQL, FTP and SSH access, SSL certificates and easy installation of WordPress or common CMS, etc. It is also possible to add a Node.js site and/or Site Creator.

Cloud Server

Professional Web hosting

With a Cloud Server, the resources allocated to you are not shared with other clients and you can customize the hardware and software configuration of your server according to your needs. A Cloud Server also allows you to use components that are not available on shared web hosting (Node.js, mongoDB, Sol, FFMPEG, etc.).

• A Cloud Server allows you to easily manage your server via the same administration interface as Web hosting - you manage the sites in the same way.
• A VPS allows you to manage your server completely autonomously with the version of Windows or the Linux distribution of your choice (Debian, Ubuntu, openSUSE, ...) - solid technical skills are required to use a VPS, including VPS Lite.

Public Cloud (and Kubernetes Service)

Open, proven, and secure IaaS solution

For Infomaniak, it is the infrastructure that drives kDrive, Swiss Backup and the Webmail, services used by several million users. But Public Cloud is accessible to everyone and provides the resources you need to develop your projects.‍

With customized and tailored offers, you will have no trouble managing your development budget. No setup fees. No minimum amount. Cancelable at any time. You only pay for the resources actually used with Public Cloud at the end of each month, same for Kubernetes Service.

Jelastic Cloud

Web hosting tailored to your chosen technologies

Jelastic Cloud allows you to create custom development environments with the technologies of your choice (PHP, Java, Docker, Ruby, etc.). It is a flexible cloud offering:

• Horizontal and vertical scaling of resources.
• Payment based on actual resource consumption.
• Easy customization of your infrastructure (redundancy, IP, SSL, load balancing, etc.).

Thank you for entrusting the hosting of your WordPress site to Infomaniak.

Preamble

• For your information, the WordPress site creation tool can be:
  1. hosted by the WordPress.com infrastructure (paid) and in this case Infomaniak is not involved in the hosting
  2. installed freely but manually by the user thanks to the archive provided by WordPress.org, Infomaniak is then the web host but does not manage any updates and does not list the application in the Web Applications section of the Infomaniak Manager; you will be in this case if you migrate an external WordPress to Infomaniak
  3. installed automatically by the tool available on the Manager and in this case WordPress is maintained (in terms of security) largely by Infomaniak
• This is the third and final point that is developed in this guide.

Install WordPress & Apps

Infomaniak makes it easy to install the WordPress application (and other applications as well):

• Install WordPress using the Infomaniak installer
• Access the WordPress management interface

Using WordPress

Although WordPress is one of the easiest CMS to use, it is necessary to tame it. To help you in this process, here are external resources in several different languages to get started with WordPress:

• Essential basics to know to get started with WordPress
• WordPress French-speaking community help forum
• FAQ about backups / restorations
• Using a theme or extension ElegantThemes
• Free WordPress training provided by the site progresser-en-informatique.com. If you want to get to the point, focus on the following modules:
  • Understanding the administration interface
  • How to properly configure WordPress
  • Adding content to your website

This guide explains the limitations applied to simultaneous connections to a MySQL database of Web Hosting.

MySQL simultaneous connection limits

MySQL always has limits on simultaneous connections to ensure that the server runs reliably, securely, and efficiently while effectively using the available system resources.

This limitation helps to prevent the MySQL server from being overloaded to the detriment of other websites hosted on the server.

Once this limit is exceeded, new connections are impossible and the following message appears: User has already more than 'max_user_connections' active connections or Warning: mysql_connect(): Too many connections in /home/www/...

This limit is rarely reached in practice and it is possible to bypass it easily by creating several MySQL database users for the different scripts of a website.

No connection limit per user per hour

Infomaniak does not limit the number of MySQL connections per user per hour. The values MAX_QUERIES_PER_HOUR / MAX_UPDATES_PER_HOUR / MAX_CONNECTIONS_PER_HOUR are not present on Infomaniak hosting.

Unlike other hosts, you are not at risk of receiving an error message like this: SQL Error : 1226 User 'data_forum' has exceeded the 'max_questions' resource.

Learn more

• Modify the MySQL limits of a Cloud Server
• Modify the limits of a website

Infomaniak continuously improves its products and customer service by prioritizing your suggestions shared through support, social media, or the Web. These suggestions are then discussed during the relevant department's meetings.

Provide feedback on...

SERVICE INFOMANIAK	FR	EN	DE	IT	ES
DOMAIN [ ☍ ]
HOSTING / Site Creator [ ☍ ]
CLOUD SERVER [ ☍ ]
PUBLIC CLOUD [ ☍ ]
JELASTIC CLOUD [ ☍ ]
SYNOLOGY [ ☍ ]
HOUSING [ ☍ ]
SWISS BACKUP [ ☍ ]
kSuite / my kSuite [ ☍ ]
MAIL [ ☍ ]
MAIL iOS app [ ☍ ]
MAIL Android app [ ☍ ]
kDrive [ ☍ ]
CALENDAR [ ☍ ]
CONTACTS [ ☍ ]
NEWSLETTER [ ☍ ]
SWISSTRANSFER‍ [ ☍ ]
STREAMING RADIO [ ☍ ]
STREAMING VIDEO [ ☍ ]
Video On Demand / Audio On Demand [ ☍ ]
GUEST MANAGER‍ [ ☍ ]
kChat [ ☍ ]
kMeet [ ☍ ]

Infomaniak support is also at your disposal by email, chat or phone if needed.

This guide details the offer of Serveur Cloud which allows you to create several hostings (FTP "spaces" for which you create your FTP/SSH accounts) on which you add sites (Apache "vhosts" for the indicated domain), and the VPS offer intended for a different use.

Breaking free from shared hosting limitations

With a managed Cloud Server, you can distribute your sites across your hosting environments as you wish. You can configure them by specifying the root directory as well as certain information such as the memory_limit and the max_execution_time beyond the limits imposed by a shared environment.

Web tools are available such as cronjobs, Site Creator, WordPress (which allows for the installation and use of the WordPress tool with ease) or access and error logs. It is quite possible to add a specific Apache module or to install a caching system.

Server Cloud or VPS?

Managed (Serveur Cloud)

Infomaniak manages the software part of the servers under FastCGI and PHP-FPM without allowing you to freely configure the server (for example, no custom installation). Only specific programs can be installed.

Unmanaged (VPS)

Infomaniak handles the hardware and installs the chosen version of Linux or Windows upon order. There is no software-level intervention. The server is under "your responsibility". You can restart the server via the Infomaniak Manager and a snapshot system is available (excluding VPS Lite).

If you are hesitant to take a Server and you mainly plan to have a large amount of video content, you can pair a shared hosting with a VOD space. This solves the problems of overload on a site since it allows you to separate the audiovisual content from your shared hosting and thus have a video storage space that easily supports significant load increases. You will also have detailed statistics at your disposal regarding the viewing of your videos.

Switching from one to the other...

To migrate a **Serveur Cloud** to a **VPS**, or vice versa, there is no "turnkey" solution. For this type of migration, you must cancel the product that is no longer desired and then order the product you need in its place. Infomaniak will refund upon request any purchase of a new server if the cancellation occurs within 30 days of the order.

This guide explains the differences between a Domain (or main site), a Subdomain and an Alias.

Preamble

• Although they are related, these three elements (Domain, Subdomain and Alias) have different functions and purposes.
• They can impact a Web Hosting via its domain name, or even the email since it is quite possible to have email addresses on a subdomain for example.

What is a Domain?

The domain or domain name is the main entrance to your website. This is how your users will access your content. This main domain determines what will appear in the URL bar of your users' browsers.

Prerequisites

• Own a domain.
• Have a Infomaniak Web hosting.

Familiarize yourself with the guide Create a new site on your web hosting.

What is a Subdomain?

The Subdomain is symbolized by an additional word that appears before your main domain name. This is very useful in several cases, for example:

• It can be used to display "exclusive" or targeted content, for example, by going to faq.infomaniak.com you arrive at the knowledge base where all the guides are located
• It can also be used (temporarily or permanently) when creating a new site or redesigning an existing one, by creating for example new.domain.xyz when the main site was previously domain.xyz

Prerequisites

• Own at least one domain.
• Have a Infomaniak Web hosting.

Familiarize yourself with the guide Adding a subdomain to your web hosting.

What is an Alias?

An Alias or Domain Alias is a second domain name that points directly to your main site, sharing the same web pages. The alias is another access point to your website. For example, the main site of Infomaniak Network SA is www.infomaniak.com and www.infomaniak.ch is its alias.

The benefit of an Alias is to allow you to increase the visibility of your site to your target audience by offering them more entry points to access it.

Prerequisites

• Have multiple domain names.
• Have a Infomaniak Web hosting.

Familiarize yourself with the guide Add an alias to your web hosting.

The equivalent also exists for a Service Mail.

This guide explains how to customize the limits of a site hosted on a Web Hosting or a Cloud Server.

Unlock or adjust the limits of a site

To access website management:

1. Click here to access the management of your product on the Infomaniak Manager (need help?).
2. Click directly on the name assigned to the relevant product:
3. Click on Manage under Advanced Settings:
   
4. Click on the PHP / Apache tab.

You will be able to…

• … unlock for 60 minutes the memory limit (memory_limit = 1280 Mb) and the maximum script execution time (max_execution_time = 60 minutes):
  
  • This unlock is possible up to 10 times a year.
• … customize the limits of:
  • max_execution_time (in seconds)
  • memory_limit (in MB)
  • post_max_size & upload_max_filesize (maximum file size for upload, in Mo)
  • Cloud Server only: Max children (refer to this other guide)
  • Cloud Server only: Max input time

Maximum values by hosting type

In terms of free software for handling multimedia files, FFmpeg is a powerful and flexible tool. It can be used to convert, edit, and stream videos and audios.

However, using FFmpeg on shared hosting presents certain challenges and limitations for both users and hosts.

You should opt for the Cloud Server offer for using FFmpeg.

You can also turn to the service of VOD/AOD Infomaniak.

This guide relates to the execution of scripts launched via SSH on various types of machines.

No time limit

There is no predefined time limit for the execution of scripts launched via SSH, meaning that the script can run as long as necessary. However, if the SSH session ends, the script will also be interrupted.

It is possible to run scripts in the background to avoid this issue. In this case, the script will continue to run even if the SSH session is interrupted.

Other resources may be limited either by the machine's capacity or by the configuration (PHP scripts limited to 512 MB of memory, for example).

It is possible to change these limits on Serveur Cloud machines, but not on hébergements mutualisés.

Jelastic Cloud is a platform as a service (PaaS) that allows you to easily create development environments on the fly. This solution is particularly advantageous if your resource consumption (CPU, RAM) varies greatly depending on the time of year.

A Cloud Server allows you to manage applications and websites as easily as shared hosting while giving you the advantage of being able to install additional software as needed. This solution is very advantageous if your resource consumption (CPU, RAM) is stable and predictable.

A VPS Cloud or VPS Lite allows you to manage your entire server with the Linux distribution of your choice. Solid technical skills are required. This solution is very advantageous if your resource consumption (CPU, RAM) is stable and predictable.

In all three cases, you benefit from fully dedicated resources that you can freely adjust according to your needs.

Also, check out the Public Cloud offer.

This guide explains which protocols and ports can be used with Infomaniak's email services (Service Mail in particular).

Mandatory ports and parameters

When this is requested during a software or email application configuration, use only these parameters:

If you specify other indications, email errors may occur.

Other supported but not recommended protocols

• port 143 (standard port for receiving messages via IMAP)
• port 110 (standard port for receiving messages via POP3)‍
• port 995 (secure port for receiving messages via POP3s)
• port 587 (alternative port not recommended for sending messages via SMTP)
• TLS authentication on SMTP ports 587 and 25
• STARTTLS authentication for IMAP, POP3 and SMTP
• SMTP authentication (either LOGIN or PLAIN)

The Infomaniak API does not offer any email connection as IMAP and SMTP are the "APIs"; to this end, use a Python library such as https://docs.python.org/3/library/email.examples.html and https://docs.python.org/3/library/imaplib.html or any library using IMAP and SMTP.

To display emails from php:
imap_open("{mail.infomaniak.com:993/imap/ssl}", $email, $password);

The MTA-STS mechanism is not implemented or verified, Infomaniak using instead DANE which guarantees an encrypted connection under these conditions:

• The client sends an e-mail to a domain that has DANE.
• The client receives an email from an SMTP server that uses DANE.
• In all other cases, it will be a random connection that does not guarantee 100% that the connection will be encrypted.

This guide explains how to easily set up a redirection for your domain name managed with Infomaniak.

Introduction

• A web redirection allows you to redirect a domain name or subdomain to the Internet address of your choice.
• This procedure is only valid if the domain's DNS are managed by Infomaniak and if Custom Brand is not activated.
  • Any addition/modification may take up to 48 hours to propagate.
• If necessary, create a redirection for your domain with and without the www (domain.xyz and www.domain.xyz).

Redirect a domain to the URL of your choice

To do this:

1. Click here to access the management of your product on the Infomaniak Manager (need help?).
2. Click directly on the name assigned to the product in question.
3. Click on Web Redirections in the left sidebar.
4. Click on the button Add a redirection.
5. Enter the destination address (under To).
6. Click on Validate.

This guide explains what you need to determine as a website visitor if you encounter a 403 error in order to resolve the issue.

What is the 403 error?

The HTTP 403 error code generally means that access to a resource is denied to the client by the server.

In which case does this error occur?

The user is not authenticated: the server requires the user to identify themselves to access the resource. This can be the case for private pages requiring authentication, for example.

The user is authenticated but does not have the necessary permissions: the server recognizes the user but does not authorize access to the requested resource due to permission or role restrictions. This cause of error 403 may be an incorrect permission issue, on a folder or a file. For a folder, the error message is of type "403 Forbidden", for a file, "failed to open stream: Permission denied". In this case, you must check that the permissions of your folders/files are correct, namely a minimum of 644 for a file and 755 for a folder. Learn more

The user's IP address is blocked or restricted: the server may block access to a specific IP address for security reasons, protection against attacks... Learn more

The requested resource does not exist on the server: in this case, the server returns a 403 error instead of a 404 error to avoid disclosing confidential information. If you are trying to access your homepage or a part of your site by entering an address of the type www.domaine.xyz or www.domaine.xyz/dossier/ make sure there is a homepage named "index.html or .htm or .php" placed in the correct location (at the root of your FTP space, in the /web directory, or in the /dossier/ directory). Learn more

Moreover, check that there are no uppercase letters in the file name, all file names or folders present must be in lowercase, without accents or spaces.

Script-related error: if you were running a script, filling out a form, or uploading a file online and you receive this type of message:

Accès interdit!
Vous n'avez pas le droit d'accéder à l'objet demandé.
Soit celui-ci est protégé, soit il ne peut être lu par le serveur.
Si vous pensez qu'il s'agit d'une erreur du serveur, veuillez contacter le gestionnaire du site.
Error 403

The cause may be a filter that prevents the unwanted use of scripts by spammers. Indeed, the Infomaniak antivirus blocks the uploading of files via scripts or via FTP. This concretely means that when a hacker sends a file identified as a virus via a form, an unsecured script or via FTP, its installation is directly blocked, the file is not uploaded to the server and the upload generates a 403 error.

In case of a false positive, contact Infomaniak support by providing the URL of the page where you encounter this error message to precisely diagnose the origin of the problem.

However, there are many other cases in which you might receive a "403 forbidden" message for various reasons (PHP scripts, Perl, mod_security, .htaccess, ...).