Want to sign up for a .Net account on Lily - How to?

[Aaroneus]

Greetings:

I would like to sign up for a .Net / C# account on Lily.

I've got  2 questions to ask before hand...

I am interested in setting up a simple contact form that emails the contact data to a client.

From reading the forums/wiki it sounds like emails from HelioHost might not go through to a google email account.

1) Is that the case?

I am interested in having an SSL certificate on my HelioHost account. Somewhere on your site it is suggested that SSL certs might be automatically created.

2) Is that the case?

Thank you in advance.

[wolstech]

1. Gmail users can receive our email provided SPF and DKIM are configured for the sending domain, but it will likely end up in their spam folder until they "Not spam" the messages once or twice.

2. Automatic SSL is supported on Plesk servers and is available by request on Lily.

Keep in mind that Lily has no control panel, it only has FTP access. Many settings can be changed using the web.config file if you're familiar with IIS. To get a Lily account, you need to have  a Plesk account first, and then request the Lily account be added as a second account. The Plesk account's email accounts and database functions can be used with Lily (databases will require you enable remote database access from Lily's IP for them to work).

 

[Aaroneus]

1 hour ago, wolstech said:

1. Gmail users can receive our email provided SPF and DKIM are configured for the sending domain, but it will likely end up in their spam folder until they "Not spam" the messages once or twice.

2. Automatic SSL is supported on Plesk servers and is available by request on Lily.

Keep in mind that Lily has no control panel, it only has FTP access. Many settings can be changed using the web.config file if you're familiar with IIS. To get a Lily account, you need to have  a Plesk account first, and then request the Lily account be added as a second account. The Plesk account's email accounts and database functions can be used with Lily (databases will require you enable remote database access from Lily's IP for them to work).

1) I looked up SPF and DKIM records. Looks like they are specially formatted DNS TXT records. I have created NS and TXT records for other sites I have created. How do I get the contents for SPF and DKIM TXT records, assuming that I use Lily / .Net / C#?

2) I use (and would like to transition from) Plesk on GoDaddy. I assumed (I know what assuming does to you and me) that Plesk was the control panel for Lily. Is there something I am missing or not understanding?

A) Should I initially create an account on Tommy, then add Lily as a second account?

I've modified the web.config file for debugging, connection strings, and other purposes in the past, but certainly don't consider myself a wiz at it. I am willing to give it a shot. I think I'll give it a whirl just because the price point is so reasonable.

C) You have my permission to post this and responses to this in a public forum (except responses that contain sensitive material) if you think it would be helpful for others to learn how to use HelioNet.

[wolstech]

Quote

2) I use (and would like to transition from) Plesk on GoDaddy. I assumed (I know what assuming does to you and me) that Plesk was the control panel for Lily. Is there something I am missing or not understanding?

Lily is a weird server...it's the only one we have that does not run Plesk (or anything else for that matter). We have so little demand for Lily that I actually configure it manually for each individual user (and if you can't figure out web.config, I can probably just change the settings in IIS for you if you let me know  ). I think we have like 20 accounts on Lily compared to several thousand on the Plesk boxes.

There's been talk about converting Lily to Plesk to make it easier to use and eliminate the dependency on the other servers, but we don't have an extra license for Plesk at this time (the 3 we have are allocated to Johnny, Tommy and the upcoming Morty server), and doing so involves a full rebuild, so there is no estimate for when or if this will ever be offered.

If you want a Lily account, you can pick either Johnny or Tommy to start, then request Lily here and I'll PM you a username and password for Lily. Your Lily account will appear as a subdomain of your Johnny or Tommy account (i.e. if you pick aaroneus.helioho.st, your lily account will be at lily.aaroneus.helioho.st unless you ask for a different domain). 

[Aaroneus]

2 hours ago, Aaroneus said:

4 hours ago, wolstech said:

Keep in mind that Lily has no control panel, it only has FTP access. Many settings can be changed using the web.config file if you're familiar with IIS. To get a Lily account, you need to have  a Plesk account first, and then request the Lily account be added as a second account. The Plesk account's email accounts and database functions can be used with Lily (databases will require you enable remote database access from Lily's IP for them to work).

2) I use (and would like to transition from) Plesk on GoDaddy. I assumed (I know what assuming does to you and me) that Plesk was the control panel for Lily. Is there something I am missing or not understanding?

Just to make sure I understand... Plesk only controls emails and database functions on Lily. It doesn't support the other functionality in Plesk depicted in the attached image?

 

[wolstech]

Correct. The other options only control the features on the server where the plesk account is. Technically for databases Lily actually has its own mysql that's accessed independently as well, but you can use the plesk one with Lily by enabling remote access.

Most Lily users never touch the plesk account for anything beyond maybe email once they get their .net app running.

That said, you can use both at the same time since the two sites operate independently (I.e. you can have something like a php site on Johnny/Tommy and also have a .net app on Lily).

Lily was originally intended to be integrated into the other servers as an addon that would've appeared as an option within the normal accounts back in the days when we ran cpanel, but when we dumped cpanel for plesk, plans changed. Lily mostly takes a backseat these days due to limited demand and more pressing projects.

[Aaroneus]

Greetings Wolstech:

Got a tough question for you...

Background: I find that I usually have to dink around with settings to get my websites going, depending on what it is that I am doing. I prefer a GUI like Plesk to configuring the site through the web.config (and I guess now it is a JSON file). 

So the question is this: Do you think I would be successful in using Helio? I don't want to be a pain in the a## by bothering you to experiment with site settings. I am used to self-serve on Plesk with GoDaddy. Based on what I am saying, should I go with a company like WinHost.com? Or would you be able to support me on Helio?

[wolstech]

It really depends on what you're trying to do. If you're using the platform for development, a service with a GUI might be a good idea since you'll need to change things a lot during testing. Restarting IIS application pools to free in-use files for example is a bit of a pain on Lily at the moment (though that is one thing you can do yourself, it involves creating an empty file and waiting to stop it, then repeating to restart it).

If you're hosting a finished production site, I'd be more than happy to help you get it set up here. We have several other users running applications without issue using a variety of .net versions. I just need to know what you're working with (e.g. version of .NET, dependencies you need installed if any, etc.). The bulk of applications people have deployed have been "deploy-and-go" in my experience (it's pretty common for people to just publish from VS using the FTP option)...the only 2 I've really had to spend time on were one that needed crystal reports runtime and one that runs on Classic ASP (yes, we support non-.NET ASP) and we didn't know it needed Parent Paths enabled...

If you want, I can create a Lily account sans-Plesk account for you and just let you play around to see if your code works (while we don't advertise this, it is possible). There is no real technical reason that the Plesk account needs to exist just to play around with .NET itself (though as I said above, it's needed for email and perhaps for things like postgres if you need it).