D is for Donut

Comment on Philhosting.net - web hosting service

2008-07-04T08:15:00.000-07:00

I have two websites hosted with Philhosting.net, one site has been with them for more than a year now, and the second site is quite new (barely 1 month old). I acquired both the domain name registration and web hosting package.

RATES
Sure the web hosting and domain registration rates are very affordable, very cheap indeed.
An overview would be 500 pesos ($6) for a year of domain name registration, and 30 pesos ($1) for 150mb web hosting! Payment is through bank deposit or paypal. No contracts, no commitment, no lock-in subscription plans

CUSTOMER SERVICE
Been a casual poster on the Philhosting support site, so i really cant say much..

TECHNICAL
One thing i noticed though, is that some parts of the web hosting CPanel, stop working at almost every night (Manila time), - particularly the Fantastico package. Not really a big deal, but may be somewhat of a show stopper if you plan to tryout the pre-loaded web applications on the Fantastico Package..

CURRENT RATING
Id recommend Philhosting.net to anyone who wants an affordable and hassle-free domain registration and web hosting. The negative reviews that ive previoulsy found on Philhosting seem to be at least a year old, maybe ive got them at the right time - when theyve upgraded their service and support.

*btw, this blog isnt hosted in Philhosting, its just on blogger - ive multiple uses for my philhosting account right now- as ftp and online photo galleryies :)

Daily Donut

2008-07-04T07:25:00.000-07:00

Bought two donuts today (Dunking Donuts of course)
1 Choco honey dipped
1 Choco wacko

Total price: 26 Pesos or $.050
Had it for a quick breakfast while i was on my way to the SSS office.

SSS ID Card - failure - twice

2008-07-03T20:16:00.000-07:00

Today is the second time this week that i tried, and failed, to get my picture taken for the SSS ID Card (that's the Philippine "Social Security System" Agency).

The nearest SSS office to my place couldn't take the required digital ID pictures - their "digital camera" (is) has been broken for more than a year now. (Yes, you'd also wonder why not buy a new digital camera? And what happened to the previous staff who "operated" the camera)

Today is a Friday, I tried to see if I'd have luck from work straight to the next SSS Office..
I sure did make it.. Definitely a long abysmal line of people with brown envelopes, bags, and umbrellas on their arms..

Good news is that this branch could take pictures, bad news is that they can accommodate only up to 120 pictures taken! WTF?! A 128MB memory card would store about 125 high resolution mug shots.. I dont know...

Anyway, just this Monday, I tried a different office, they didnt say of a quota for the number of pictures they can take, but fortunately they had one big surprise for everyone - the SSS main computer network is (was, is usuall) down. It's been down since 8am (the supposed office hours is 8am to 6pm/ top that with an hour of lunch break - where the entire SSS staff and service comes to a thrilling halt), and is not yet online by the time i had been there - which was 2pm.

SO, yeah.. another branch/agency/whatnot-goverment-funded-and-managed-and-constitutionally-law-established- office of the Philippine Government has failed me.

I plan to go again, this time to that second SSS office on monday. If all goes well, ill be there at 5:30 am - probably enough to make it to the 50th to 80th person in the queue.

Nokia 1208 - Flashlight FTW!

2008-07-03T13:20:00.000-07:00

My first cellphone was a Nokia 3310. It had the basic call and sms features, and most of all, it was rugged and durable. From the default case, to a slight change in the LCD screen backlight, to countless unintentional mobile-phone-falling-from-pocket-or-bag-drop-mishaps, to replacement phone cases, and eventually keypads. It worked fine for 4 and a half years!

Now, meet my second phone, yet another price wise, basic featured, cheapo but hopefully durable phone. AND IT COMES WITH A BUILT-IN FLASHLIGHT!! WOOOT!

Meet the NOKIA 1208!
PHP 2,000 - basic call and sms, phonebook, colored screen, no camera, no infrared, no bluetooth, no GPRS, no Snake game, repeating alarm (huge new feature coming from a 3310 user..

and a BUILT-IN LED FLASHLIGHT!!!

Virus!

2008-07-03T12:12:00.000-07:00

Was greeted by my Helpdesk colleague today - that our two Helpdesk desktops had just gotten a virus!

HOW
PC 01 got its virus when my Helpdesk buddy tried to download a supposed dll error fixing program. Prior to the virus, she was troubleshooting a slow IE 7 and MS Outlook problem on another user's laptop. An initial Google search led her to trying out a "dll error fixing program". The trial version seemed to work, it supposedly fixed 7 out of 150 dll errors! So she thought "get a cracked version and fix it all in one shot". Well, unfortunately the "cracked" version of that program contained several nasty trojan viruses..

PC 02 got its virus (most probably) from its shared folder - which that virus most probably came from the already spread-out infection in PC 01.

TEMPORARY FIX
I havent really fixed it yet - though PC 02 now boots. It did get a virus infection which was tried for a fix using AVG. Well, AVG supposedly cleaned the virus and deleted the infected file - which included user32.dll - which is a critical Windows XP file - which when deleted, caused the computer to continuously restart. After several reboot attempts in Safe Mode and even after the Last Known Good Configuration settings have failed, you'd initially think its time to reformat..

However, look closely into the Safe Mode boot options, there's this long text of starting the computer with the Reboot on error settings turned off. I chose this option - it booted the computer, then gave the much needed BSOD - which fortunately descriptive enough and complaining of the missing user32.dll. Got a copy of user32.dll from a clean machine, saved it to the PC 02's directory, and presto, a bootable machine.

REAL FIX
Reformat!
I think ill leave the computers to scan one more time in McAfee and AVG. By the time my shift is over, it should have finished scanning and hopefully some other immediately harmful virus should have been cleaned. Then ill suggest that they backup their files and do a reformat.