vps – Alex's Blog

The surprising power of an iPad

Recently I have been testing my skills/patience by trying to make and develop websites using an iPad (Pro 10.5 with smart Keyboard).

SSH

SSH initially seemed like a big hurdle since many web based SSH Clients are Java based Applets. However using an IOS app called Coda which comes with a SFTP/FTP client and SSH this was no longer and problem, however there are is probably a limitation with the usage of PEM, however I have limited usage with PEM, so your mileage may vary.

MYSQL

This is probably the weakest part of the whole experience, there are many apps however which can help with database management, in addition using phpMyAdmin might be the easiest and cheapest for most people.

Web development

A major problem which I found is that the iPad cannot run any server-side code (php, Ruby, Node.JS). So It was limited to just HTML and JS. However the workaround is to use a VPS, to use as a development server, and run and modify the code remotely, this is not ideal however at a pinch it is a viable alternative, especially if you create a disk image of a pre configured server, then all you have to do is start a VPS with the disk image and transfer the file you need to work on.

In iPad review

Though it is possible to deploy and run websites just from an iPad, it can be very frustrating especially when moving files around, however IOS 11 has helped the file experience on iOS. The experience is still sub par compared to a desktop. However it is nice to know it is possible, however I would only consider doing this with either an external keyboard or a smart keyboard since using the onscreen keyboard seriously limits usable space.

My situation

I was a tenant on a larger server. I was suffering a lot of outages which for my US readers was an issue. In addition the package I was on, limited my access to the server, so I could not add php code(Server side programming language) which limited the usability of the domain.

The VPS hosting provider

I had a few choices before I made the move do I do a windows environment, or Linux. I was on a windows provider and I did not see a reason to justify the cost of windows server license. Also I did not really see any benefits vs Ubuntu server LTS(which is what I am using now). The VPS host, I had used both Linode and DigitalOcean before I was more impressed by both. I chose DigitalOcean since I preferred its choice in servers, and configurations. Both offer SSD servers at reasonable prices. They can also allow me to easily add more servers if I need them in the future.

Worth it?

Hell yes!, I have full control over the server, so if I want to turn one into a game server at any time I can. I can easily run all the applications I want(Email murmur). It makes me much more flexible.

Is it for you?

Hard to say. If you are familiar with Linux and servers then probably, if not you will get very confused since the learning curve for server is sharp. I would recommend getting a raspberry pi loading Ubuntu server and seeing if you can run WordPress on it before you start paying for a VPS. In addition hold onto the old hosting provider for emails since setting up emails on a server can be a massive issue. Since there are many pitfalls like ip blocking which you can run into.

In the end it all down to personal preference.