February 9th, 2020 shadmin
As part of our continuous infrastructure improvement, clients on our Aberdeen and Olympic servers in Hong Kong have now been moved to a new server. The IP address has changed and all concerned clients will receive details by email directly.
All migrated users will notice an increase in performance due to higher memory at the new server, as well as a better email deliverability.
For clients who have their domain names registered with SinoHosting, we would have updated the DNS to point to the new server already. If not, please make sure to update your DNS to ns15.sinohosting.net/ns16.sinohosting.net as soon as possible.
We thank you for your understanding on this matter. Please open a support ticket if you experience any issue with your website and we will make sure to assist you promptly.
The Management
SinoHosting.net
Posted in General | Comments Off on Server Change Notification – Hong Kong users
October 24th, 2017 shadmin
We will be proceeding to a system upgrade from midnight October 25th at 12:00AM until 3:00AM. During that time, access to the client area may be affected. This maintenance will also affect our ordering system.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
The Management
www.sinohosting.net
Posted in General | Comments Off on SinoHosting client system upgrade
April 2nd, 2009 shadmin
There are many misconceptions about the ICP concept so this post would attempt to clear them.
By definition, all websites hosted on a Chinese server are required to register for an internet content provider (ICP) license. It is basically a permit issued by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology that is needed to operate a website in mainland China. The license can be obtained through a simple registration at www.miibeian.gov.cn , where relevant information about the website owner, its content, the hosting provider etc. needs to be provided.
Once the application is submitted, the hosting provider will confirm this information which finally is submitted to the relevant bureau for the province the server is physically located in. It can take from a few days to a couple of weeks for the application to be confirmed. If rejected, reasons will be sent to the registered email for further modifications and re-submission.
In most cases, in order to avoid mistakes or repeated submissions due to rejections, your hosting provider will handle the application for you. You still need to provide the relevant information though. SinoHosting, for instance, will send to all new clients who signed up for a China plan, an ICP information form to fill and will take care of the rest.
A Chinese address and a contact person in China (with local phone number) would be required for the application, which can constitute a problem for companies operating overseas without a presence in China. In this situation, we recommend to ask a Chinese partner, agent or even friend to make the application on your behalf. He/She will not have any legal implication in doing so.
If you just have nobody to help you with the registration in China but still want to have better connectivity from the country, the next best alternative is Hong Kong. Indeed, Hong Kong is also considered “overseas” and in that regard websites hosted in Hong Kong are not required to apply for an ICP license, while being less likely to be blocked (which happens sometime though). SinoHosting provides Hong Kong web hosting services as well, feel free to contact us if you need more information on that regard.
Officially, business sites need to provide a business license number to register but in reality the registration can be successful even when done under a personal name (Chinese name + ID card)
[UPDATE: Now ICP licenses applications for business sites with a personal ID or passport are rejected. You need a a China-registered business to apply for an ICP license for such website]
Other useful facts about the ICP license:
-If your website is hosted overseas, you do not need to have an ICP license. In fact, you cannot apply for it (as during the submission you need to specify the provider, which should be in the ministry of information database, and which in most cases is China based).
-ICP licenses are not a guarantee that your site won’t be blocked.
-Without an ICP license, your site can be taken down anytime. If hosted in China, your site can be tracked down to its host who can be instructed to take the site down if its registration doesn’t appear in the ICP database.
-Applications done entirely using overseas addresses and contact persons have, to our knowledge, always been denied.
-It is illegal to operate a website in China without an ICP license. Hosting companies are required to shut down websites which do not obtain an ICP license within a certain period of going live, although this is loosely enforced.
-Domain extension is irrelevant to the need or not of an ICP license: it doesn’t matter if your domain name is a .com, .net, .org, .cn, .com.cn, .hk, .asia etc., or if you bought your domain name in China, the US or elsewhere. What matters is the physical location of your web pages, if they are in China then the ICP license would be a requirement.
-The ICP registration is free, although some hosts would charge you for it. You must understand that this fee is not paid to the government. We used to charge for it as well but now this is included in our China hosting packages.
We will be updating this resource from time to time with more updated information if any, so make sure to bookmark it and check back later.
Posted in General | 1 Comment »
March 2nd, 2009 shadmin
In relation to the notice that we sent previously to clients regarding the need to register for an ICP license if one site is hosted on a mainland China server, here is an article from Bloomberg on the issue:
China shusts 10,000 unregistered websites
Posted in General | Comments Off on China shuts down 10,000 unregistered websites
December 25th, 2008 shadmin
SinoHosting.net, and its parent company Sinovantage International in Shanghai and Hong Kong, would like to wish you and your family Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2009! We thank you for the support during 2008 and for helping us grow into one of the largest foreign-owned web hosts in mainland China. We will be adding new services and offices throughout 2009 so keep posted!
The Management, SinoHosting.net
Posted in General | Comments Off on Holiday Greetings
October 14th, 2008 shadmin
Are you a into web 2.0? If yes, then you can now follow us through our CEO’s Twitter! Promotions and important announcements will be published there as well when necessary.
The url: www.twitter.com/sinovantage
Posted in General | Comments Off on SinoHosting.net now on Twitter
August 22nd, 2008 shadmin
If you find that you are not receiving anymore visits from China, or have Chinese customers complain about not being able to visit your website, it might be because the site has been blocked by the Great Firewall. Below are some online tools that you can use to find out the truth:
1-Website Pulse: A great tool to ping websites from Shanghai, Beijing or Hong Kong. You also have the option to choose a non-China location (Seattle, Munich or Brisbane)
www.websitepulse.com/help/testtools.china-test.html
2-Just Ping: Over 30 locations available worldwide (including Shanghai), you can ping either a website or an IP address
www.just-ping.com/index.php
3-Watchmouse: Also offering pinging from 30 locations including Shanghai in China:
www.watchmouse.com/en/ping.php
Posted in General, Web Hosting | Comments Off on How to check whether your site is blocked in China or not
May 13th, 2008 shadmin
We are pleased to announce that customers worldwide will now be able to pay for our hosting services using their credit cards. In partnership with Payoneer, you will be able to use your Visa or Mastercard credit card (or debit card) to make payments for our web hosting services. If you are based in the United States, you can even pay directly using your bank account.
When placing an order, please choose Credit Card (Mastercard or Visa) as payment method. If you experience any issue or need additional information, please email billing@sinohosting.net
Please note that if you are a Paypal user, you still can use your credit card to fund your payment through Paypal.
Posted in Company News, Customer Support, General | Comments Off on Direct credit card payment now available
November 16th, 2007 shadmin
Sinovantage International is happy to start today the new China Hosting Blog, a new blog that will discuss the hosting industry news in China and abroad. It is the second blog launched by our company, the first being China SEO Blog, which is maintained by our internet marketing department.
In this blog we will be talking about web hosting, email hosting, domain names email marketing, china and global hosting-related news and more. From time to time, we will also be sharing our latest company news and information regarding promotions we might be offering on our services.
We hope this blog will become the platform of communication with our clients, prospects, and anyone with interest with the web hosting industry in China.
Patrick
Sinovantage International
Posted in General | Comments Off on China Hosting Blog launched!
