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SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free

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Re: SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free

#11

Post by robbles »

jschlesser wrote: post #2

Try s3 + cloudflare. You will have to pay for ssl but barring that s3 + cloudflare will let you host a naked domain for almost free. Suppose you want some cheap static publishing, set up a dev heroku instance (free) and have it publish to your s3 bucket.

One limitation to this setup is that CloudFlare only caches CSS, JS, and images. It won't cache HTML or other dynamic content by default.

However, it IS possible to "trick" CloudFlare into caching this content, by abusing the way it looks at the file extension and headers returned from your servers. If you can find a way to serve all your markup as JSON / JSONP with a ".js" extension and proper caching headers, it will treat it the exact same as a static JavaScript file.

You can do this easily enough with a build/deploy script that sets the right headers in S3 metadata so that CloudFlare receives them with caching headers (Cache-Control, ETag, Expires, etc.)

Re: SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free

#12

Post by julien »

taf2 wrote: post #8
julien wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, http://www.cloudflare.com/plans shows that to get your custom SSL, you need a "Business" plan at $200/month... so about 20x more expensive than GAE in this case.

are you certain about needing a business plan, it looks to me that pro for $20/month also supports SSL? perhaps I'm missing an important bullet? [update]: i am guessing from the language on the "SSL encryption type" bullet: "CloudFlare-issued" vs "CloudFlare-issued or custom" or custom must be what's required to host your own domain ssl cert?

I think, yes, that the "CloudFlare-issued" means you have to use a CloudFlare subdomain... But again I did not test. Even if it works, it's still twice as expensive as GAE, doesn't seem to cache the HTML files (as per above comment)...

Re: SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free

#13

Post by julien »

robbles wrote: post #9
julien wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, http://www.cloudflare.com/plans shows that to get your custom SSL, you need a "Business" plan at $200/month... so about 20x more expensive than GAE in this case.

You read that page wrong. It's only the Pro plan that you need for custom SSL, which is $20/month. I use it with 5 different HTTPS-enabled domains on CloudFlare.

Well, my requirement is to have SSL on my own domain... and GAE offers that for $9. I think you did not read (right or wrong) the blog post :p

Re: SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free

#14

Post by bsimpson »

pfg wrote: post #6
bsimpson wrote: post #3

StartSSL is free?! Has anyone used them before? Are their certs widely accepted/trusted?

Yes, their domain-verified certs are free. I've been using them for a while now and haven't had any problems. See this post for browser support: https://forum.startcom.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1802

Very nice, thanks.

According to that page, Windows XP+, Mac OS 10.5+, iOS 2+, and Android 2.2+ are supported.

I'll have to try them.

Re: SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free

#15

Post by jschlesser »

julien wrote: post #4
jschlesser wrote: post #2

Try s3 + cloudflare. You will have to pay for ssl but barring that s3 + cloudflare will let you host a naked domain for almost free. Suppose you want some cheap static publishing, set up a dev heroku instance (free) and have it publish to your s3 bucket.

So, http://www.cloudflare.com/plans shows that to get your custom SSL, you need a "Business" plan at $200/month... so about 20x more expensive than GAE in this case.

$20 a month for basic ssl. I have 2 criticisims of cloudflare and im a paying customer, which arent even close to making me look for alternatives. 1. They have had a few outages (but everybody does, amazon included). 2. Ive made their page rules engine do what i need but i felt their docs were not deep / technical enough about how their engine works. I had to play a bit to get exactly what i wanted. I have largely been happy though. Im not affiliated with them in any other way.

Also, though cloudflare allows it specifically for this purpose, cnaming a naked domain isnt technically in spec for dns. Every device / browser ive tried deals with it just fine though. If you are a stickler for rules go with a www. subdomain.

Re: SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free

#17

Post by jschlesser »

julien wrote: post #12
taf2 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

are you certain about needing a business plan, it looks to me that pro for $20/month also supports SSL? perhaps I'm missing an important bullet? [update]: i am guessing from the language on the "SSL encryption type" bullet: "CloudFlare-issued" vs "CloudFlare-issued or custom" or custom must be what's required to host your own domain ssl cert?

I think, yes, that the "CloudFlare-issued" means you have to use a CloudFlare subdomain... But again I did not test. Even if it works, it's still twice as expensive as GAE, doesn't seem to cache the HTML files (as per above comment)...

It is a cloudflare subdomain but it doesn't show that way in the URL, I dont know how that works though. Can anybody explain why this works? I dont have a naked domain with ssl with them but you can check this one out to see what it looks like https://www.luckybolt.com (also thats my brothers startup, if you are in SF, check it out). As you point out though, GAE is $10 / Mo. cheaper. I'll check that out for new projects.

Re: SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free

#18

Post by jschlesser »

dolphenstein wrote: post #7
jschlesser wrote: post #2

Try s3 + cloudflare. You will have to pay for ssl but barring that s3 + cloudflare will let you host a naked domain for almost free. Suppose you want some cheap static publishing, set up a dev heroku instance (free) and have it publish to your s3 bucket.

Why bother with s3? Just setup cloudflare directly with heroku (or GAE). Then setup HTML caching with page rules. Its relatively new. Works great!

true

Re: SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free

#19

Post by papsosouid »

We have a bunch of sites that are almost entirely static, but have a php "contact us" email form. Right now they are some bloated PHP CMS thing, and I would really like to switch them over to being static. Does anyone know of a cheap service that provides a form to send email we could have our contact form POST to?

Re: SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free

#20

Post by jeremyjh »

papsosouid wrote: post #19

We have a bunch of sites that are almost entirely static, but have a php "contact us" email form. Right now they are some bloated PHP CMS thing, and I would really like to switch them over to being static. Does anyone know of a cheap service that provides a form to send email we could have our contact form POST to?

Uhm, do you know you can do a post to a mailto: action with your form contents? The browser will open your email client the same as a mailto link.

http://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_for...

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