[UKFSN Status] Changes to hosting platform

[Jason Clifford]

I will soon be making some changes to the web hosting platform as
follows:

* Removing php safe mode
  I'm aware that safe mode causes problems for customer's using php. To
  date I've felt the security implications of not running php in safe
  mode were too great to do otherwise. A reasonable solution is now 
  available that will provide a similar level of security and extend
  that to perl and python so I am going to remove safe mode 
  restrictions.
  
* running the apache processes within a chroot jail
  This will help to secure the web server against malicious code that 
  may find its way onto customer websites.

  Note that I am setting things up so that this will not require any 
  changes to customer web sites.

I expect to have this change completed this week.

I am also completing development of an extension to our MyAccount
control panel to give customers with hosted domains full control over
the DNS for their domains. There are still a couple of bugs to iron out
with this but I expect it to be done this week.

The control panel is also being further developed to give customers
control over web and email subdomains so customers will be able to
create separate websites under subdomains and have distinct email
addresses and mailboxes under subdomains all controlled directly through
the MyAccount control panel.

Jason Clifford