This guide explains how, after purchasing a domain name from Infomaniak, to get for free a Mail Service + Web Hosting.

Preamble

• For each domain name registered or transferred with Infomaniak, you can benefit for free:
  1. of an email address that gives you access to the Mail app Infomaniak
  2. and a 10 MB Web space for a basic page.
• It is also possible to have a free Mail Service while having a paid Web offer, or vice versa.
• Instead of a Mail Service of type Starter, it is recommended to order a kSuite (for example the Standard 1 user offer which is free).

Activate the Starter Mail + Web offer

Prerequisites

• Own a domain name with Infomaniak (a DNS zone is not sufficient).
  • If necessary, order or transfer a domain.
• Depending on the type (Mail or Web) desired, not to have a corresponding product already associated with the domain name and this in any existing Infomaniak Organization.

To order a Starter Mail Service and Starter Web Hosting included with each domain:

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 the Connect a service button:
   
4. Click on Create an email address:
   
5. Click on the search field, then on Order an Email Service:
   
6. Click to select the free email address on the Shop Infomaniak (as below) and click the Next button at the bottom right to proceed with the order:
   
7. Click to select the basic Web page on the Shop Infomaniak (as below) and click the Next button at the bottom right to proceed with the order:
   
    
8. Complete the order:
   ‍
9. Go back to your Manager Infomaniak to discover and use your new products.

Using your Starter products

• Create the desired email address on your Starter Mail Service.
• To use the 10 MB Web space and create a basic web page on your Web Hosting Starter, use:
  • the page editor
  • or the FTP file manager to manage your HTML pages
  • or any FTP software/client with the classic FTP protocol

Evolve a Starter offer

• Modify a Mail offer (click here).
• Modify a Web offer (click here).

This guide details errors of type Rejected, too many connections from this host if they occur while visiting a website.

Error origins

429 Too Many Requests

This error occurs when the server is overwhelmed by a large number of requests in a short period of time, which can be due to heavy site usage or abuse.

503 Service Unavailable

This error can be caused by several factors, including planned maintenance work on the server, server overload due to high traffic, or the execution of a script that exceeds the server's resource limits.

Rejected, too many connections from this host

This error occurs when the server rejects connections due to a high number of simultaneous connections from the same IP address. Check the "Access and error logs" on your hosting dashboard to find multiple entries in the following format:

[Fri Sep 02 11:40:31] [error] [client 222.111.123.123] Rejected, too many connections from this host. (vhost:domain.xyz uri:/js/modules/blocktopmenu/js/superfish-modified.js current:34 limit:30	

[Fri Sep 02 11:40:31] [error] [client 222.111.123.123] Rejected, too many connections from this host. (vhost:domain.xyz uri:/js/modules/blocktopmenu/js/hoverIntent.js current:34 limit:30	

[Fri Sep 02 11:40:31] [error] [client 222.111.123.123] Rejected, too many connections from this host. (vhost:domain.xyz uri:/js/modules/productscategory/productscategory.js current:34 limit:30	

[Fri Sep 02 11:40:31] [error] [client 222.111.123.123] Rejected, too many connections from this host. (vhost:domain.xyz uri:/modules/feeder/rss.php current:35 limit:30	

[Fri Sep 02 11:40:31] [error] [client 222.111.123.123] Rejected, too many connections from this host. (vhost:domain.xyz uri:/js/modules/favoriteproducts/favoriteproducts.js current:34 limit:30	

In this example, the IP 222.111.123.123 is making 30 simultaneous connections on each page, and is therefore automatically rejected as this may resemble an attack or scan.

Resolution paths

Some ways to resolve these errors:

• Check the scripts that make multiple connections to the server to display data.
• Optimize the relevant script(s) so that they require fewer resources.
• Increase the limits of the concerned site to allow the script to do everything it needs to do and/or limit the number of simultaneous connections (especially on a Cloud Server where the limits — RAM, execution time, simultaneous connections — can be significantly increased).
• Migrate your hosting to a Cloud Server.

This guide explains how to migrate a Web Hosting from MySQL to MariaDB.

Preamble

• MariaDB is an enhanced version of MySQL, featuring numerous powerful integrated features and many improvements in terms of usage, security, and performance:
  • MariaDB has a larger connection pool supporting up to 200,000 connections, while MySQL has a smaller connection pool.
  • When comparing the performance of MariaDB and MySQL, it is noted that replication is faster in MariaDB and slower in MySQL; MariaDB is generally faster than MySQL.
  • MariaDB is Open Source, while MySQL uses proprietary code in its Enterprise edition.

Using MariaDB to replace MySQL

To migrate a Web Hosting to MariaDB:

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 Databases in the left sidebar.
4. Click on the link Migrate to MariaDB.

To migrate a Cloud Server, refer to this other guide about migrating to a new generation of Cloud Server.

Remote connection to an Oracle database is not available with shared hosting and servers.

However, you can install OCI8 for PHP on VPS Cloud / VPS Lite.

This guide details sending emails from a website hosted by Infomaniak using the PHP function mail() which is disabled by default.

Preamble

• Infomaniak strongly discourages the use of the PHP mail() function for sending emails from your applications:
  • Emails will be considered as “unauthenticated” and will therefore be subject to limits.
  • Their deliverability will be affected, which can harm your website.
• It is strongly recommended to use an authenticated SMTP sending method for your email sends from your applications; Infomaniak offers a corresponding service for this purpose.

Specify the sender's address

To ensure that messages are sent correctly from your CMS/web application (and to avoid errors such as Could not instantiate mail function or sender mismatch) it is necessary to specify a valid address in the site parameters on the Infomaniak side:

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 Manage under Advanced settings:
   
4. From the General tab, enter an existing email address in the Sender Email field.
5. Click on the blue Save button:
   

Re-enable the mail function

If you still want to use PHP's mail function, you will need to enable it for each of the sites in your concerned Web Hosting:

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 Manage under Advanced Settings.
4. From the PHP / Apache tab, enable the mail function:
   
5. Click on the blue Save button.

PHP mail() examples...

... on WordPress

Configure the sending of the default contact form included with Divi Builder:

1. Log in to the WordPress admin panel.
2. Go to the Divi editor of the page containing the contact form.
3. Click on the Settings icon ‍ to configure the Divi contact form:
   
4. Under EMAIL, enter the email address that will receive the form submissions and save:
   
5. By default, when a visitor uses the form to contact you, you will receive an email from mail@le-nom-de-votre-site and if you reply, the recipient will automatically be the email address indicated by the visitor when filling out the contact form.

... on Prestashop

Go to the advanced settings of Prestashop:

1. Specify the SMTP mode.
2. Enter localhost as the server.
3. Enter the port 25.
4. Do not specify a username or password.
   

... on Joomla

Configuring email sending via PHPmail (not recommended) in Joomla:

1. Log in to your Joomla site's administration panel.
2. Go to Configuration then Server.
3. Do not enter anything in the Site Email field:
   

Unfortunately, this prevents any test send via the button, but it will work if you configure a contact form on your site. Click Save once the box is left empty.

Reply-To address for PHP mail()

When sending an email with PHP's mail() function, the return-path will be in the form of root@h2web3.infomaniak.ch for example. However, the Reply-To: header present in your form code allows you to specify a valid reply address.

This guide explains how to add a free extension from Elegant Themes (Monarch, Divi Builder, Bloom, etc.) or a theme to an already installed WordPress site via the Infomaniak installer.

Prerequisites

• Your WordPress site must be installed via the Infomaniak WordPress tools to use these themes and extensions.
• The extensions can be added during installation (step 16 of this other guide) or later.
• To benefit from Elegant Themes support (customer service) you must subscribe to an Elegant Themes offer.

Add an Elegant Themes plugin

For this:

1. Click here to access the management of your WordPress site on the Infomaniak Manager (need help?).
   • If your site does not appear here, it means it was not installed via the Infomaniak tools… Refer to the prerequisites above.
2. Click directly on the name assigned to the product in question:
   
3. Click on the action menu ⋮ located to the right of the relevant Web Application.
4. Click on Settings for the application:
   
5. Click on Add under Extensions:
   
6. Activate the desired extensions.
7. Click on the Save button:
   
8. The extensions are then available in your WordPress admin interface:
   

Use an Elegant Themes theme

Take note of this other guide to install an Elegant Themes theme with Infomaniak.

This guide explains how to delete a folder or file via SSH, which can be particularly useful when it is impossible to delete a file with an FTP software/client or the FTP Manager.

SSH command to delete a folder/file

To delete a file or a directory, you must use the rm command.

To delete the files NomDuFichier.php and NomDuFichier.txt, you should for example execute the following command:

rm NomDuFichier.php NomDuFichier.txt

To delete a directory, you must first delete its contents and then use the following command:

rmdir NomDuDossier/

To delete all files in html format, you need to run the following command:

rm *.html

• Other useful commands (external link)

This guide concerns Django, an open-source web development framework in Python.

Django Installation

It is only possible to install Django on VPS Cloud / VPS Lite.

Discover the various web hostings of Infomaniak.

This guide explains how to enable compression of resources such as css, html, json, xml etc. on your chosen 'Web Hosting.

Introduction

• This way, you will reduce the size of the resources to be loaded by your visitors, which will have the effect of reducing the loading time of your web pages.
• The .htaccess and .user.ini files will be automatically updated with the necessary directives.
  • As a security measure, a backup copy of these two files is made with each change.
• Any change may take several minutes to take effect.

Compress files with Gzip

To enable compression with Gzip:

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 the Advanced Settings button.
4. Click on the APACHE tab.
5. Enable the File Compression option.
6. Click the blue Save button:
   
    

Test compression

It is possible to easily test the compression of your pages using tools like:

• whatsmyip.org/http-compression-test
• gidnetwork.com/tools/gzip-test.php
• pagespeed.web.dev/analysis

This guide explains how to activate a CDN to optimize an Web Hosting Infomaniak.

Preamble

• CDN stands for "Content Delivery Network" in English, which translates to "Content Delivery Network" in French.
• A CDN stores a copy of your site's content (images, videos, CSS/JS files) on multiple servers spread geographically.
• When a user accesses your site, the CDN delivers this content from the server closest to their location, thereby reducing load times:
  • Your site loads faster for visitors, which can reduce the bounce rate and improve the user experience.
  • By distributing the content, the CDN reduces the load on your main server, improving its performance and availability.
  • Some CDNs offer security features like protection against DDoS attacks and data security.

Setting up a CDN

To use a CDN, you will generally need to make adjustments to the configuration of your domain name, specifically at the DNS record level. This will direct the traffic of your website to the CDN's network of servers. In general:

1. Create an account on the website of your chosen CDN and add your site to it.
2. Modify the DNS zone of your domain name according to the instructions provided by the CDN.
3. Test your site to ensure that the CDN is working properly.

Cloudflare Specific Guide

For customers who want to optimize their site against overloads caused by the intense passage of bots, the use of a CDN like Cloudflare is often recommended. The Cloudflare CDN allows you to optimize the performance and security of a website with the following features:

• caching of a site's static content
• minification of HTML, CSS and Javascript code
• basic anti-DDoS protection
• etc.

To set up Cloudflare:

1. If necessary, create an account with Cloudflare.
2. Add the domain name of the site in question.
3. Report **all** DNS zone records for the domain in question to Cloudflare (A, MX, TXT, NS records, etc.).
4. In the Infomaniak Manager, modify the DNS of the domain in question with the DNS servers indicated by Cloudflare.
   • Configure DKIM and DNSSEC if necessary.
   • Any DNS addition/modification can take up to 48 hours to propagate.

Note: mod_cloudflare is enabled by default on all paid web hostings.

Enable Cloudflare Rate Limiting

By default, Cloudflare acts as a mere intermediary between the site and Infomaniak, forwarding all requests to Infomaniak's servers. Thus, during traffic spikes or attacks, requests still reach the origin server, but with Cloudflare IP addresses, making it difficult to manage mitigation on a shared server.

Implementing "rate limiting" rules in Cloudflare's web application firewall is now an effective solution offered. This feature limits the number of requests sent to the server, blocking aggressive scans and protecting the server from excessive overloads.

And also…

… Amazon CloudFront

If you already use AWS services, CloudFront is easy to set up. Create a distribution, configure the settings and link it to your site.

… Fastly

Sign up on Fastly, configure your service by adding your site and setting the cache parameters. Fastly offers advanced configuration options.