General

Our Web Hosting and Domain Name Registration Service is Being Discontinued

The web hosting industry has significantly changed since Speedata Web Technologies (SWT) started providing web services back in December of 2007. It has been a very exciting journey this far and we have simultaneously hosted more than 1000 different domains on our server at one point.

One of my vision when the company was started back in 2007 was to become the leading provider of web services in Africa by the close of 2015. It is a vision that is still possible, but not without some major changes and not within that original time frame. One of the changes I decided to make is to discontinue the provision of web hosting and domain name registration services. SWT will now only focus on web development projects.

Starting January 15, 2015 we stopped selling new web hosting or domain name registration services. We will decommission our web hosting server on May 31, 2015. We hope that 90 days is enough time for you to find an alternative web hosting provider and successfully move your website(s) and domain name(s). We will assist you with the process.

You probably have lots of questions. We have created a FAQ list available here: http://www.speedataweb.com/blog/frequently-asked-questions-web-hosting-service-discontinued/

Thank you for doing business with Speedata Web Technologies. Your patronage throughout the years is appreciated.

Lionnel Yamentou
SWT Co-Founder
Email: sales@speedataweb.com
Tel: +1 714 818 4828

Frequently Asked Questions: Web Hosting Service Discontinued

Question 1: Is Speedata Web Technologies (SWT) closing its entire business?

No. We are not closing our entire business. We will now only focus on web development projects.

Question 2: Why is SWT discontinuing its web hosting and domain name registration service?

We no longer have the resources to improve the quality of the service we are providing our customers. Instead of providing a mediocre service experience, we prefer to refer you to alternative provider who will hopefully take better care of you and provide you with a much better service than we currently can.

Question 3: What other web hosting companies can I move my website(s) or domain name(s) to?

You can move your website(s) to any of the following providers in Ghana: www.DigiGhana.com, www.DTechGhana.com, www.Web4Africa.net. To find a list with ranking of hosting providers in Ghana, you can visit this web page: http://www.webhosting.info/webhosts/tophosts/Country/GH.

We had a discussion with DigiGhana.com and they will work with any of our current customers to make the transfer as painless as possible.

In the USA, providers we have personally done business with and would recommend are: www.ServInt.net, www.LiquidWeb.com, www.HostGator.com

Question 4: What happens if I am not able to move my website before May 31, 2015?

From May 31, your website will be suspended. On June 30, all websites and files will be deleted from our server and not recoverable.

Question 5: I want to transfer my domain name. How do I get my EPP (domain password) code?

Send an email to sales@speedataweb.com with your domain name and we will reply within 24 hours with the EPP code. We will also unlock the domain name to ensure that your website can be moved out of our registrar successfully.

Question 6: Do I get a refund for the months I did not use?

Yes. If you ask for a refund, we will give it to you. Just send us an email to sales@speedataweb.com with your domain name and how many months you have left of hosting with us, we will calculate your refund amount based on the amount and number of years you last paid for.

Question 7: How and when do I get refunded?

We will issue refunds through two channels: MTN Mobile Money (Ghana), or GT Bank (Ghana), and Paypal (Worldwide). You will receive your refund within 7 days after sending us the email.

Question 8: I have a web hosting related issue I need to discuss with someone on the phone. Who do I call?

The preferred and most effective method of communication is email. However if you absolutely need to speak to someone, you can call Lionnel Yamentou at +1 714 818 4828.

Security advisory regarding WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla CMS

It has come to our attention that a malware dubbed “CryptoPHP” is being distributed through pirated themes and plugins for popular content management systems such as WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla.

The information available to us indicates that the author of this malware lures site administrators into installing the malware on their sites by publishing pirated themes and plug-ins free for anyone to use instead of having to pay for them. The majority of pirated plugins are downloaded from the nulledstylez.com, dailynulled.com sites or some other site that specializes in providing “nulled” (pirated) software. However, installing the themes/plug-ins also installs a “backdoor” that allows the author control.

An in depth white paper on this backdoor is available here: https://foxitsecurity.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/cryptophp-whitepaper-foxsrt-v4.pdf

A scan of our servers reveal several instances of the backdoor installed on a number of websites. If your website was found to be affected, it is currently suspended. Note: For a list of accounts affected and suspended, see this list: http://pastebin.com/mxfnb1kB. Please note that as per our Terms of Service available here: http://www.speedataweb.com/tos.php, it is your responsibility to keep your content management systems updated and secure. Any account which is found to be compromising the security and integrity of our servers will be suspended.

  • At this time, there is currently no sure/known way of totally cleaning or healing sites infected by this backdoor, as the backdoor directly integrates into the content management systems for the infected sites. See the white paper referenced above.
  • Simply removing the active malware vector alone does NOT remove the infection completely. Therefore we strongly recommend that you RE-INSTALL the sites using the latest versions of the CMS software, and avoid re-using any themes/plugins/components/modules previously used.

Should you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us and we’d be happy to assist you.