What is a Push Zone?
A Push Zone is a zone where the user uploads files directly, like you would with a regular hosting account. The zone is then synced out to edge locations. Push Zones are used for distributing files larger than 10MB, or for files that rarely change (such as PDF’s, Word documents, image galleries, etc.)
When do I want to use a Push Zone?
If you are distributing large files – like software updates, file archives, large CAD files, etc.
Are Push Zones provisioned in real-time?
Yes, as you create a Push Zone, the control panel will contact the edge servers and provision your account on each edge.
How often do Push Zones get synced to edges?
Push Zones get synced to the edges every 1 to 2 hours, however the entire sync process may take 24 to 48 hours, depending on the number and the size of your files. The determining factor is the size of the files (larger files take longer to push out).
How do I add more storage?
Storage is added in an allotment package, and you can add additional storage under the “Manage Account” section of the Control Panel.
How do I access my Push Zone?
You upload to your Push Zone via a protocol called SFTP, which connects via secure shell. An SFTP client is needed to upload.
Why do you use use SFTP vs. FTP?
The integrity and security of your files is a huge priority when using a CDN. SFTP is a secure and encrypted protocol, which maximizes security and integrity over FTP.
What are some good SFTP clients?
Windows -> WinSCP – http://winscp.net Mac -> Cyberduck – http://cyberduck.ch Unix -> scp
Is there a file size limit on Push Zones?
There are no hard limits on the file size for Push Zones.
How do I change the password on my Push Zone?
Log into the Control Panel. On the Dashboard choose the Push Zone you want to edit and click “manage”. Click on “edit” and change your password, then click “update”.
Do I use Push Zone for pseudo video streaming?
No, you use a VOD Zone for pseudo streaming.
How/when do I receive my SFTP login? And what is the SFTP hostname I use?
When you create a “VOD Zone” or a “Push Zone”, you will find a button saying “How to connect” in the Zone Manager section of your Control Panel. Click on that button for detailed connection information.
Can I host my HTML files on a Push Zone?
Yes, you can, but please note that we do not support any server-side scripting over our servers (PHP, MySQL etc…)
Can I use a custom robots.txt a Push Zone?
Yes, you can. Create your robots.txt and upload it to the Push Zone. It will be effective immediately on each edge, as it is pushed with the regular synchronization process.
Where do I upload my files in a Push Zone?
You need to upload all your files to the “public_html” directory of your Push Zone.
What is a Pull Zone?
A Pull Zone is what is needed to utilize the HTTP Caching type of CDN. The name Pull Zone came from the technique used, as we “Pull” the static assets from your website to cache it and serve it from our CDN Network.
Pull Zones are simple to set up and use. It takes 1 minute or less to create a Pull Zone, and depending on your website, the steps necessary to implement the CDN on your website, will vary.
Is a Pull Zone right for me?
Pull Zones are meant to serve small-size static assets for websites. That includes stylesheets (.css), images, JavaScript files, text files, and small PDFs. As long as each individual static file is smaller than 10 Megabytes, a Pull Zone can serve it.
What can I NOT use a Pull Zone for?
Any file over 10 Megabytes of size, media streaming, or dynamic content are not supported on our Pull Zones.
Can I use a Pull Zone with Amazon Web Services such as S3, CloudFront, and Amazon Elastic Load Balancer?
Yes! Pull Zones are designed to work with any publicly available web server or storage network. If your files are reachable via normal HTTP requests, a Pull Zone can work. (Our CDN can also be configured to work with HTTPS websites)
Are Pull Zones provisioned in all the CDN network locations in real-time?
Yes, the Pull Zone setup configuration in the CDN Control Panel is designed to create and provision zones immediately in real-time.
How do I create a Pull Zone?
Please refer to our Pull Zone Creation Tutorial, here
What is the Origin URL?
The “Origin” is the destination on which your static assets are hosted/located, and from which we will pull and cache your files.
The Origin URL can be your domain name, your S3/CloudFront Bucket URL, your Rackspace Cloud Files URL, or any publicly accessible URL
Can you pull contents from a password-protected directory?
No, unless the contents are publicly available, we cannot pull them.
How frequently do cached files expire?
The default TTL (time to live) is 24 hours from the time when the file is initially cached. However, if the files are given an expiry header on the (Origin) server on which they are hosted, using .htaccess or httpd.conf for example, we will honor the expiry header.
Do you honor headers appended to contents on the origin server such as Cache Control, Vary, Expires, etc.?
Yes, we do. We will cache the file as it is, with all its headers.
Do you use any cache enhancement mechanisms?
Yes, we utilize Memcached.
What kind of web server do you run?
We use NginX to serve our CDN cached content.
Will you support .htaccess or its equivalent on the Pull Zone?
Unfortunately we are not currently able to support custom .htaccess on our Pull Zones.
What is a Custom CDN Domain?
A custom CDN Domain is a CName that points to our netdna-cdn.com branded CDN URL. It can be something like:
CName —–> CDN temp URL
cdn.yourdomain.com zonename.company.netdna-cdn.com
How can I create and use a Custom CDN (CName) Domain to serve my CDN content?
First, add the Custom Domain (CName) to the Pull Zone configuration under the “Settings“ tab inside the CDN Control Panel.
Second, create a CNAME DNS record that points to our temporary CDN URL. **Note: It is important to create a CName, NOT a subdomain.
What is the Temporary CDN URL?
It is the URL that will be automatically created when you create a Zone. It is called “temporary” because most clients use it temporarily until they have created a CNAME to use on their website (explained above). However, you are free to always use the temporary URL (the CDN temp URL will not expire unless the zone or account is deleted).
Do you allow blocking certain countries or IP blocks from downloading/viewing my files?
Unfortunately, no. We do not have this blacklist functionality at this time.
Do you support Secure Tokens for Pull Zones, like S3?
We do. However, this is a feature available on the MaxCDN Enterprise platform and is not currently available on other brands.
Can I serve my entire website on a Pull Zone?
This setup is exclusive to the MaxCDN Enterprise platform and is not available on other brands.
Can I override the default cache expiry time?
Yes. You can do that under the “Advanced Settings” tab in the CDN Control Panel, which is visible when you are managing your zone. Alternatively, you can set an expiry header on your origin server.
How do I set a custom expiry header on my Apache server?
Please refer to our Custom Expiry Headers tutorial.
I’m using the Amazon Elastic (EC2) Load Balancing; Can I still use it after I switch to you CDN solution?
Yes, Pull Zones are designed to accommodate load balancers. **Note: Please contact our support team and request to have ‘Origin IP Resolution’ turned on for each zone that is using a Load Balanced Origin.
I’m using CloudFlare, can I combine that with your CDN Service?
Yes, you can. Please refer to our tutorial on working with a CDN and CloudFlare
Is it possible to strip/override all headers appended to my static assets on the Origin Server?
Yes, our Control Panel has an option that allows you to strip all headers, the option can be found under “Advanced Settings”.
There are supported plugins for most popular CMS (Content Management Systems), and many others. Search the directory for more information.
What if my website is custom made using PHP/ASP/Ruby etc…?
In such case, the only way to integrate CDN functionality is by using Custom Integration
My website uses an SSL certificate? Does your CDN support that?
Yes. We provide Custom SSL hosting services. This can be purchased through the Control Panel and will allow you to use SSL on your own CName. We also offer a free shared SSL certificate, which provides you a temporary CDN URL with HTTPS support.
Can I use .htaccess or its equivalent for NginX or IIS to integrate CDN into my website?
No, you can’t. Technically, you can forward all your requests for static assets to the CDN URL for each one. However, doing that will simply beat the purpose of using CDN as all requests will still go to your web server before forwarding to the CDN. This will not deliver the performance results you should expect from using the CDN solely, as it adds unnecessary hops between the request and content retrieval. It will also negatively affect your page load speed, SEO and Page Rank since redirects will slow your website down.
Google is crawling the CDN URL and I now have duplicate content, what can I do to prevent that?
You can enable the ‘Custom Robots.txt’ option under “Advanced Settings” if using the old CP Control Panel, or “SEO” if using CP3. This option will prevent browsers from crawling content served on your pull zone and will prevent Google from flagging it as duplicate content.
Alternatively, you can use a subdirectory as your origin, in which all your static assets will be saved. Something like www.domain.com/assets/, and under /assets/ you have your css/js etc… With this as your Origin, the CDN url itself will show a blank page and nothing will be crawled.
Is there a specific UserAgent that will identify traffic coming from your network?
We pass on the client’s UserAgent rather than our own, so there is no “special” MaxCDN UserAgent based identification.
However, if you need to filter traffic coming from our servers, contact our support team to get a list of subnets to use for filtering traffic.
Internet Explorer is not caching my files because of the VARY header, but other browsers are! What do I do?
Add “BrowserMatch “MSIE” force-no-vary” to your .htaccess file or its equivalent for NginX/IIS in order to unset the vary header and allow your content to be cached properly.
Can your CDN keep my website online if my web server goes down?
Our CDN will keep serving all static content that is directly requested, but if your Origin is unreachable, we will not be able to keep the website up, since that is not being served from our network.
When should I use the “Purge” option and is it good to purge CDN cache frequently?
Purge is designed to flush your CDN cache in order to re-cache file(s) from your origin and as such you should use it only when you have updates on your server that needs to be pushed to CDN and these changes are edits of EXISTING files, new files don’t require purging. Frequent purging is not recommended, because it will take additional time for cache to re-build each time you flush it. Remember, more purges = slower speed = bad performance.
Am I going to be charged for usage of storage space as well?
No, Pull Zones use caching space which is dynamically allocated and we don’t charge you for usage of it. Only bandwidth is charged according to our pricing table, but not storage.
What is a VOD Zone?
A VOD (Video on Demand) Zone is a Content Zone that allows for direct upload of video files to our media storage server via FTP or SFTP.
When do I want to use a VOD Zone?
To distribute video that has been pre-recorded.
What is the difference between a Live Zone and a VOD Zone?
VOD Zones are for pre-recorded video. Live Zones are for streaming a real-time live event from an encoder. With VOD end-users will be able to play the file at any time while, with a Live Zone the video is played as it is streamed.
Are VOD Zones provisioned in real-time?
Yes, as you create a secure or non-secure zone from within the Manage Zones -> VOD Zones management screen in the Control Panel, the storage upload zone as well as all DNS records get provisioned in real-time and usually takes less then 3 minutes.
How do I access my VOD Zone?
We give each zone the ability to access the storage location by FTP or SFTP using regular computer software, or by using an online encoding service which uses ftp://username:password@storage_hostname for its connection file path.
On VOD Zone creation all customers will be given instructions to connect to a hostname URL, for example:
URL: ftp.zonename.alias.netdna-cdn.com
Username: zonename.alias
Password: Randomly generated on zone creation
The password can be updated at anytime through the zone management screen inside the Control Panel.
What are some good SFTP Clients?
Windows -> WinSCP – http://winscp.net Mac -> Cyberduck – http://cyberduck.ch Unix -> scp
Why do you use SFTP vs. FTP?
The integrity and security of your files is a huge priority when using a CDN. SFTP is a secure and encrypted protocol which maximizes security and integrity over FTP.
What is the difference between RTMP and Pseudo Streaming?
RTMP is a real-time streaming protocol. Video packet size is smaller and delivered to end-user as consumed.
More secure than HTTP. Video streams have less of a chance to be “stolen”.
If people replay the video, the traffic is consumed again since it’s not in memory.
Video is unwatchable if a user’s bandwidth is lower than the bitrate of the stream
HTTP Psuedo Streaming
Simple, reliable and lightweight. Used by YouTube ®. Good if your videos are shorter than 10 minutes.
Once the video has been viewed, it is cached into the browser’s memory, and does not need to be downloaded on the next view.
On slow connections people can wait until a sufficient part of the stream is downloaded, and then hit the play button. When used with a Flash player the video can be buffered before it starts to play.
HTTP progressive streaming is also called “pseudo streaming”, because it’s not a real-time streaming protocol. Pseudo streaming CDN URLs can be loaded directly into a browser window.
Features shared by both RTMP and Psuedo Streaming
Rich in features. Support for slow motion, fast forward and bandwidth switching during playback.
A file uploaded to a normal VOD Zone can be played in both formats simultaneously depending on encoding.
How do I add more storage?
Storage is based on your package plan. All storage pricing can be found on our pricing pages. For all pre-paid bandwidth packages, storage is calculated, invoiced, and paid automatically each month based on usage, there is a 100GB max storage limit per account for all storage zones allowed. For all monthly bandwidth and storage packages, only an upgrade to a higher package will add storage to an account. For Enterprise CDN accounts, storage is billed and calculated based on usage for each monthly contract renewal period and has no storage caps.
What formats can I deliver the video in?
Wowza Media Server 2 supports the following media file formats: FLV (Flash Video), MP4 (QuickTime container) and MP3 content (see table below for common file extensions). To play video on demand content, the proper prefix must be appended to the file name to create a stream name. For example to play the MP4 file *mycoolvideo.mov{*}use the stream name *mp4:mycoolvideo.mov*. The following table lists the more common file type prefixes (for a complete list consult the User’s Guide):
flv:FLV (Flash Video – this is the default media type so the qualifier and the file extension can be omitted)
Example: “flv:mycoolvideo.flv”
mp4:MP4 (QuickTime container – .mp4, .f4v, .mov, .m4v, .mp4a, .3gp, and .3g2)
Example: “mp4:mycoolvideo.mov”
mp3:MP3 (.mp3)
Example: “mp3:mycoolsong.mp3″
smil: SMIL (XML files used to configure multi-bitrate streams – .smil)
Is Flowplayer supported?
Yes. Flowplayer is a partner of ours and we are their CDN provider as well.
Is JWPlayer supported?
Yes. all versions of JWPlayer are fully supported on our system.
Do you support referrer checking to minimize content leaching?
HTTP referrer protection is not supported for our VOD zones, however, if security is important to you, we encourage you to not consider referrer checking, but rather RTMP streaming.
What do you use on the server side (web server) for VOD?
VOD Zones support both HTTP pseudo streaming and RTMP out of the box. All of our servers use only the most stable release.
For HTTP pseudo (progressive download) streaming we use Lighthttpd.
For RTMP we use Wowza Media Server 2.X.
Can I insert pre-roll or post-roll ads into my video?
Yes. We recommend using FlowPlayer and OpenX if you do not currently have a solution.
Can I deliver videos to iPhones/iPods?
Yes. We can stream through HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) to all iOS devices by using a .m3u8 playlist wrapper for VOD files and Live Zone feeds. Compatibility will depend on the correct encoding format of your video and audio.
How often are videos synced to edge locations?
Each hour, we have automatic sync that pushes the content to edges, however, due to amount of traffic, it can take up to 12 to 24 hours.
Do you support Quicktime and Silverlight?
Yes. We can support streaming through Silverlight for both VOD and Live Streaming to most Silverlight video players. Compatibility will depend on the correct encoding format of your video and audio.
Is multiple bitrate streaming supported?
Yes. While our media server can’t do on the fly transcoding of a file to split a single file into different bitrates; a user can upload multiple versions of a VOD file to our media storage server for their VOD Zone or send multiple published streams to their Live Zone.
How long will it take files I just uploaded to my VOD Zone to propagate to each edge location?
This strictly depends on which video cluster you signed up or had your VOD Zone created on. In general, inside the United States, you will typically see your file within 5 minutes to an hour after you upload your file to the network. For those visitors who are hitting an edge location outside the United States, you may see propagation times up to 24 hours depending on replication queue size and ordering. After upload the VOD file will instantly be available through your VOD Assets Manager, and will take time before the View URL and paths are accessible to the public for streaming.
How can I setup rsync to upload files to my VOD Zone?
Rsync is no longer supported, we now allow LFTP.
How can I setup LFTP to upload/synchronize files to my VOD Zone?
Please refer to our “LFTP How To“ article for more information.
My mp4 files will not play in RTMP, what is wrong?
Nothing is wrong. When using RTMP, for any file other then FLV you need to prefix the video URL “vod/zonename_alias/filename” with the file extension, for example “mp4:vod/netdna.company/myvideo.mp4″. The same technique works for other extensions.
Another reason why an mp4 file will work on our HTTP progressive download (pseudo streaming) servers and not our RTMP media servers would be due to video encoding. In general mp4 files need to be encoded in h.264 video, and use AAC audio. They must also have keyframes of no less then 2 seconds/60 frames applied in encoding (most common reason for a file not to play). There also can’t be any fragmented mp4 encoding applied to the file as we can’t support this type of file encoding yet.
If you can use RTMP for the test file on Video Debug tool, then all is fine. Remember we also make RTMPTE (ex. rtmpt://r.zonename.alias.netdna-cdn.com/play) available for use to get through corporate firewalls that might block RTMP’s standard 1935 port.
How can I see my videos playing from different PoPs?
Because we like to empower our customers and make our service as transparent as possible, we do have a Video Debug tool inside the Control Panel under ther VOD Zone management page.
Go to Manage Zone -> Browse VOD Zones -> Choose the zone where your video is and then click on the “Debug Tool” button.
On the proceeding screen, choose the location you want to view the video file from, either Anycast (closest datacenter) or a specific datacenter location from the drop down menu. Then, choose your stream type: either Pseudo or RTMP (we will be adding RTMPT and other formats in the future). Lastly, choose your clip location in the form of filename.ext.
How do I create a secure token (video)?
This can be done by going to your CDN Control Panel and creating a normal VOD Zone. There will be a checkbox located on the page that will generate a secure token to be used during implementation. When checked, you will be asked to agree to and accept the Secure Token billing terms. Secure Tokens are billed monthly recurring and remain active until a formal cancel notice is sent to billing(at)maxcdn.com. Failure to notify the billing department of the cancellation request for the add-on specifically will result in future recurring billing. Also note; that all add-ons used or not are non-refundable.
What is your maximum bitrate for streaming?
We don’t limit the maximum bitrate that can be allowed on a VOD file. However, we do recommend that the file be no greater then 700kbps as most end-users with slower connections will not be able to download the bitrate chunk for a bitrate higher then this. Most ISPs will also limit video streaming download speeds for their end-users connections as well. Bitrate levels go as follows; low = 300kbps or below, medium (web quality) = 500Kbps and High Definition (Web quality) = 700kbps, TV High Definition = 1000kbps+.
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