Hostirian is now offering FREE Uptime Monitoring For Everyone

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Overview

We monitor server availability, performance and security externally from our monitoring stations located in carrier-class data centers.

24 x 7 x 365 Monitoring

Unless you are a robot, it is not feasible for you to keep checking your website or server to see if it is available. Leave this tedious job to our automated service, and enjoy peace of mind!

Support of major Internet protocols

Monitoring of the major server types found on the Internet:

• your servers (PING)
• your IMAP4 servers (IMAP4)
• your web servers (HTTP)
• your secured web servers (HTTPS)
• your mail servers (SMTP and POP)
• your MySQL servers (MySQL)
• your file servers (FTP)
• your domain name servers (DNS)
• your services based directly on TCP

Uptime & Performance Reports

Do you know the uptime and performance of your website or server? We make all these available to you in easy-to-read reports.

Downtime Notification

Be the first to know when your website or server is in trouble! We notify via email Easy to Use  No complicated software to install; all you need is a web browser.

FAQs

1. Can I use your software on my web site? We do not allow other sites to run our software but you may link to any of our pages from your site.

2. Do I need to download or install anything to use Hostirian’s Up Time Monitoring? No, all monitoring services work remotely from our servers. All you need to do is login to your password protected member area to use our service. You will be able to view account history details and have results emailed to you.

3. How can I contact Hostirian? You may send an email to support@hostirian.com

4. How do you determine if a server is up? Our software checks the server response code from your host and if the server response code is “200″, “302″, “301″, “403″ or “401″, your hostname is considered “up”.

5. How far back do you keep monitoring statistics for my account? Detailed statistics for each domain are kept for 2 months while statistic summaries are kept for the life of the account. All statistics for our premium accounts are keep for the life of the account.

6. How many domains can I monitor? You may select the monitoring interval that you want for each domain.

7. We already have an internal monitoring system. Why would we need your system? The Internet is a node/gateway based system. Your internal monitoring may tell you that a device is broken inside your network or even that the outbound gateway is having problems, but it may not inform you that inbound connections from different nodes on the Internet are able to access your website. Hostirian provides monitoring from various geographically diverse locations on different networks.

8. What are the costs for your services? Hostirian provides all of our basic services free of charge. We ask only that you register as a member.

9. What protocols do you support? We support: HTTP, FTP, POP3, SMTP. Additional protocols are available with our premium services.

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River City Internet Group

River City Internet Group (RCIG) is an Internet delivery ‘holding company.’ RCIG (http://www.rcig.net) is a Missouri Corporation founded in 2001 that owns or invests in companies that are predominantly focused on providing Enterprise and Carrier class Internet solutions.

Through its wholly owned companies, RCIG offers a broad array of Internet solutions.

• Internet Access- MetroEthernet, OC3, DS3 and T-1 (Primary Network)
• Hosting - Colocation, Dedicated Servers and Shared Hosting (Hostirian)
• Network Monitoring Management (NPG)
• Off site data protection (E-Backups) for a variety of of industries including financial services, legal, health care, banking, state and local government, and manufacturing.

River City Internet Group is committed to fulfilling solutions for their customers in a complete, flexible, scalable and professional manner. Their customers rely upon Hostirian’s expertise in enterprise hosting, as well as other technicial matters – offering superior network connectivity, an unmatched guarantee and accommodating terms, making RCIG a logical business partner.

Hostirian

Hostirian (http://www.hostirian.com) is a leading web hosting and colocation provider in the Saint Louis area. By focusing only on web hosting and colocation, Hostirian is able to provide a level of customer support and consultation that remains unmatched by other providers, and at a cost substantially less than national web hosting companies. Hostirian offers shared and fully managed web hosting services, and colocation to businesses operating mission critical systems. Hostirian also offers web hosting services to a growing number of application service providers, enabling them to more efficiently deliver application services to their customers over the Internet. Hostirian also offers related value-added services, such as fully managed firewall services, and consulting services (including capacity and migration planning).

Hostirian provides 24x7x365 live telephone technical support, including customer requests for server re-boots (provided at no charge). Hostirian also manages two network operation centers, monitoring servers – then notifying customers when alerts are necessary - to ascertain what course of action the customer desires Hostirian to initiate. Hostirian guarantees a 15 minute response time to begin evaluation of any problem (24x7x365). The customer is given an Escalation List that contains the office and cell phone numbers of the actual engineers responsible for and most familiar with their hosted architecture.

Hostirian manages three data centers. See Tour and Technical Specifications at (www.hostirian.com/tour/)

• Network Services Headquarters
  11756 Borman Drive
  Saint Louis, Missouri 63146

• Bandwidth Exchange Building
  900 Walnut
  St. Louis, MO 63102

• Globe Building
  710 N. Tucker
  St. Louis, MO 63101

Hostirian understands bandwidth and network redundancy requirements. In it’s downtown data center, Hostirian offers free cross connects from the ‘meet me’ room for providers who supply an extension to the customer’s rack or cage. Current promotions include an assortment of plans with 2U, 10U, rack or full cage options – ranging from $99 to $4000. Each plan has an allotment of bandwidth in Mbps, power, set up options, and guaranteed uptime SLAs.

Hostirian is the fastest growing and most reliable web hosting company in the Saint Louis region. It is profitable, consistently adding significant new web hosting business each month. And it has a track record of greater than 99.9% uptime.

More importantly, every customer receives the ‘home town’ and individual attention that it deserves – so that they can do what they do best – run their business.

I remember when I first learned how to use print screen - to capture screen images. I thought to myself, “Wow, imagine the possibilities!” Technology has advanced so rapidly, it’s impossible for one person to keep pace with new developments and software, even with something as seemingly simple as screen capture programs.

Doing a Google search for “screen capture programs” just now returned over  – 37 million results. Some of the more highly recommended programs are:

SnagIt 10 by TechSmith® (free trial/$39.95)

Snagit gives you the tools you need to create engaging images for presentations, feedback, tutorials, and training documents.

The only con I saw was that it could only save video files in .AVI format.

FullShot 2012 by InBit. (free trial/$49.99+)

FullShot is a professional screen capture (print screen) application designed for any Windows user who needs an effortless, effective way to take screenshots of Windows screens. It’s perfect for capturing on-screen images you want to include in manuals, training handouts,presentations, marketing materials, and web pages.

Cons - This product doesn’t seem to offer the ability to capture video clips.

Jing and Jing Pro - by TechSmith® (free versus $14.95/year)

Jing Free - SWF Video | 5-Minutes of Screen Recording | Mark-Up Tools for Images | Screencast.com Free Account

What do I use? – the FREE version of Jing because it fits what I do for now. If you need to produce MPEG-4 videos, I highly recommend Jing Pro as it offers the best combination of features vs price.

A KVM switch (keyboard, video, mouse switch) essentially allows  - a user(s) to access multiple CPUs from a single monitor, keyboard and mouse. KVM switches are found in virtually every data center, because let’s face it; having hundreds or thousands of monitors, keyboards or mice in a DC is unrealistic.

Integrated KVM switching systems provide administrators – KVM, console, and remote power control of thousands of servers, which results in space savings, improved server management, reduced heat issues – and the bottom line, cost savings.

Data Centers typically use enterprise wide solutions – geared to Network Operating Centers (NOC), which allows their engineers to remotely access servers.

If you rent colocation space for your businesses rack servers – most KVM will usually take up 1U of space, up to a 42 port solution.  When ordering, be sure to remember rack mount kits and interface cables.

All KVMs are NOT created equal – variances can be in audio support, client platforms, supported operating systems, interfaces, sharing, remote power management and 208 volt power capability.

What about security? Enterprise level KVMs offer administrators complete control of all the devices that are attached, allowing them to set permissions for all other users.  They can create individual user profiles and assign access privileges. One example of an access privilege would be the ability to define which servers a user could view and access. Some allow time-out features for inactive users.

Run anti-spyware and anti-malware programs, and keep them up-to-date. I’ve installed Microsoft Security Essentials on all of my systems and it works great. Don’t mix anti-virus software on your system. This is a recipe for disaster. I had Malwarebytes and MSE on my Vista desktop and it constantly locked up. Once I removed MSE, no more lock ups.

Disable file indexing. Indexing extracts data from every file on your hard drive to create a searchable keyword index. The idea is sound – it allows you to search for words or phrases inside of documents, but it’s also VERY resource intensive.

Add additional memory. Memory executes in nanoseconds, while hard drives run in milliseconds, even at 15,000 rpm. Obviously, the more fast memory you have, the less often your system will have to access your slow hard drive. The same applies to CPU cache. A larger CPU cache adds another layer of speed to your system.

Not all systems use the same configuration of RAM modules. Check your motherboard manual or specs – find out the maximum RAM you can install and in what configuration.

Run a monthly disk cleanup. Temporary files can take up Gigabytes of space if allowed to accumulate over time – so schedule a monthly disk cleanup to delete these files. And even though a debate rages over rather to defragment large hard drives, in testing this has demonstrated performance boosts.

Streamline start up programs. Eliminate any programs you don’t really need from your start up routine.

Downsize programs via the Control Panel. Use the ADD/REMOVE Programs from within the control panel to delete programs you no longer need or use. Many of them run background processes that drain your systems resources. For example, if you’re using Windows Media 10 or 11, do you really need RealPlayer?

Perform Windows Updates regularly. Pay particular attention to critical and security updates.

Miscellaneous Stuff. Do you really need drivers for printers that are no longer attached to your desktop or on your network? Erase them. And do you really need 3000 fonts? Unless you’re a graphic artist, trim down the one’s you’ll never use.

Your accounting department has been complaining – about your network slowing to a crawl, but your sales reps are finally making cold calls – because they can’t surf the web or use email (Or they’re out on the golf course ).

What’s the problem? Could be a collision domain. Computer networks can be segmented physically as well as logically (Ethernet protocol), leading to circumstances where one single network device can send packets throughout a network segment forcing every other device to acknowledge those packets. Or it could be a group of Ethernet devices in a LAN running on CSMA/CD, connected via repeaters competing for network access. If two devices follow the exact procedure at the exact time, their transmissions will collide, and they will both become unusable. Simply put, a collision occurs when two or more network devices are trying to transmit packets at the exact same time.

As collisions increase on a network – the less efficient the network is. So how do you combat collision domain? Utilize switches and/or network bridges that filter and forward packets by their MAC address. A switch or network bridge will forward frames with addresses that are not in its domain, and will duplicate and broadcast frames to the devices inside its network.

Routers can filter, forward or drop packets – based on MAC addresses. Routers reduce collision domain by broadcasting to the LAN only packets that have addresses on that specific network. Routers are able to redirect packets not only by  IP or MAC addresses, but also by data type (email, graphics, plain text), function or port used (FTP, HTTP, SMTP, POP3) plus other variables and functions (acting like a firewall) in order to improve network performance.

Contrast your network to – data center networks that occupy entire buildings and house thousands of servers. They’re designed to host mission critical computer systems, with fully redundant subsystems and security zones. They contain routers and switches that transport traffic between those servers and the outside world. Redundancy of their Internet connection is usually provided via BGP bandwidth, blending multiple upstream providers.

How would you like to reduce your advertising cost - on Google AdWords or Facebook, yet improve your click through rate (CTR)? Without going real deep into how and why this works, price per click or impression is a factor of a quality score – and that score is determined by how well your ad performs. Essentially the lower your click through rate, the lower your quality score and the higher your resulting cost per click or impression.

Combining poorly performing - keywords, keyword phrases or interests with those that perform well lowers your overall click through rate and also your quality score. It’s far better to create multiple separate campaigns with fewer keywords or interests, first to sort out what works from what doesn’t work and second, to create better performing keywords and interests campaigns to improve your click through rate, thus improving your quality score and reducing the resulting cost per click or impression. Sometimes this means reducing the keywords, keyword phrases or interests in your campaigns to as few as two or three top performers.

Often, a poorly performing – keyword, keyword phrase or interest is simply a bad match with its associated advertisement. You’ll never know this though if you lump sum all your keywords or interests into one campaign. In Facebook, it’s easy to create multiple similar campaigns and simply change out interests. Stop paying for interests that perform poorly and focus on those that do perform well. Click through will improve, quality score will improve and the corresponding cost of your campaigns will decrease.

I frequent quite a few forums and often stumble upon some threads that stand apart from the crowd – providing tips that I find lend real value to their members and guests. I read a thread this morning that resonated with me, and I’m sure, with others reading this. It was written by Juan Gonzalez, the CEO of  HostLeet.Com, LLC.

First of all, most people think they have to transfer their domain name over to a new host in order to have it hosted on their servers. This is NOT true… You can always leave your domain name with your current registrar or host, and simply change the nameservers to point to your NEW registrar/host.

Now, for those of you who DO wish to transfer your domain name away from your current registrar/host. You will need to make sure you follow these steps BEFORE starting the transfer process..

1. Have your domain’s EPP Code (Security Key) handy so you can provide it to your new registrar/host (this can be obtained from your current registrar/host). When you order a transfer, you will be asked for the domain’s EPP code. The transfer can NOT be initiated without this security key, so make sure you have access to it.

2. Unlock the domain. Make sure your domain name is UNLOCKED before you initiate a transfer. This can be done from your current registrar’s domain control panel. If your domain name is locked, the transfer will fail.

3. Don’t have WHOIS protection enabled. Make sure to DISABLE WHOIS protection on your domain name before initiating a transfer. This can be done from your current registrar’s domain control panel. If your domain name has WHOIS protection enabled, the transfer will fail.

4. Make sure the domain’s Administrative Contact Details or WHOIS Information (email, address, phone, ect..) MATCHES your own personal info with your new registrar/host. This can be changed from your current registrar’s domain control panel. If your domain name’s contact details DO NOT match with the new registrar/host, the transfer will fail.

Once you have initiated the transfer process, your new registrar/host will send a transfer request approval email to the email address listed in the WHOIS details for that domain (your email address). The request MUST be approved by the domain name holder/owner.

Once approved, your new registrar/host will then send the request to your current registrar/host so they release the domain name over. If your current registrar/host does NOT release the domain, it will NOT be transfered. Make sure you can contact your current registrar/host for assistance.

However, sometimes customers don’t know who their domain name registrar is, or their current host has vanished from the face of the earth without a trace.. Most of the time, you can do a simple WHOIS search on your domain name to find out who your registrar is. A good WHOIS search tool is “ http://www.domaintools.com/ “.

Ok, I admit that – I didn’t jump on the Twitter bandwagon right away. I didn’t perceive a great deal of value with a lot of tweets I read. Twitter has evolved though, and I now realize there are plenty of super ways to leverage Twitter to grow your business.

Brand awareness – is huge on Twitter. The key to branding is keeping your business in the public eye, using promotions to increase conversions for your products and services.

Engagement with your target audience – lends to a heightened perception of know, like and trust, a crucial element in the sale of ANYTHING. And you don’t have to be the originator – simply show an interest in their tweets by reposting them or commenting on them.

Listening to tweets can identify market trends – What are people interested in today – RIGHT NOW?

Gain a competitive advantage – by monitoring your competition’s tweets. Are they coming out with a new product or service? Or are they using Twitter in a way you haven’t thought of yet?

Reputation management – is another critical app for Twitter as it allows you to know what’s being said about your brand in real-time. Quite often, simply by responding that you’re working on an issue helps quell any negativity.

Directing tweets to landing pages – can help with conversions, especially if the offer is so compelling that your tweet gets reposted. A significant side effect would be higher ranking in SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages) leading to increased organic conversions.

Participating in industry discussions – may help others perceive your business as EXPERTS in the field.

Set up your corporate blog – to feed Twitter your URLs automatically. WordPress plug-ins are great for this.

Don’t forget mobile apps – for people on the move. Twitter is ideal as a mobile communications tool.

Just issued a Press Release – and want to get your announcement out quickly? Spread the word by Tweeting it.

More and more I see entire websites that consist entirely of RSS feeds – and while most of them contain content relevant to the theme of the site, that content is often not categorized, so I lose focus and move on to other sites (as I suspect others do). And on the rare occasion a headline captures my attention, more often than not, once I read the summary and click to ‘read more,’ I’m taken to another summary, then another summary and finally the complete article (four or five times removed). 

On the flip side, if someone is looking to add – content to their site and your RSS feed contains content exactly matching what they’re interested in, you’ll have a better chance of getting syndicated. The good news is, if you’re using WordPress (as millions do) and publish a variety of topics, you can publish multiple feeds – matching your categories. When you submit your feeds to feed directories, instead of submitting a feed for the entire site, submit your category feeds. 

How do you know – your category feed URL’s? If the category page URL looks like “http://example.com/blog/category/web_hosting/”, then the RSS feed URL for the category is “http://example.com/blog/category/web_hosting/feed/.” 

My recommendation – If you want your feed syndicated, publish interesting information and publish it often. If your readers are looking for regularly updated content, they’ll be less tempted to move elsewhere. Be careful not to trade quality for volume though

All in fun – I actually love Microsoft products and technology, but these are still hilarious.

If Microsoft built houses:

• the oven would say “Are you sure?” before heating up
• they’d all be leasehold
• would take 5 mins between hitting the switch and the lights going on or off
• the roof would only be finished two years later as a patch

And if General Motors had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

• For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day.
• Every time they repainted the lines on the road you would have to
  buy a new car.
• Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason,
  and you would just accept this, restart and drive on.
• Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn, would cause
  your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would
  have to reinstall the engine.
• Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought
  “Car95″ .” But then you would have to buy more seats.
• Apple would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable,
  five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would only run
  on five per cent of the roads.
• The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be
  replaced by a single “general car default” warning light.
• New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
• The airbag system would say “Are you sure?” before going off.
• Occasionally for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out
  and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the
  door handle, turned the key, and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
• GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of
  Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they
  neither need them nor want them. Attempting to delete this option
  would immediately cause the car’s performance to diminish by 50% or
  more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the
  Justice Department.
• Everytime GM introduced a new model car, buyers would have to learn
  how to drive all over again because none of the controls would
  operate in the same manner as the old car.
• You’d press the “start” button to shut off the engine.

I first saw Let Me Google That For You  on a web hosting forum this morning. One of the members asked a question he clearly should have Googled first. OMG, he was flamed by the moderator with a response from www.lmgtfy.com that started a trend by others on the board.

I tried to think of some good keywords for examples, but you can use any search term you want. Click on any of the links below to see why this made me smile.

What is a Virtual Private Server?

Is the correct term bandwidth or data transfer?

What does BGP mean?

What is a favicon?

Why can’t dogs fly?

Super Bowl Champions – Saint Louis RAMS

The Best Places to SELL Domain Names? 

If you have a domain you’re not interested in anymore, here are some options to consider. 

Should you use – a broker or advertise your domain yourself? Brokers normally charge fees, but that’s not always a bad thing. Brokers offer increased exposure and sometimes that’s what it takes to move certain domains. There are plenty of free options as well, like advertising on popular web hosting forums. 

Which methods are recommended – by those in the industry? 

Surprisingly, eBay is favored among the top venues, followed by 

• Sedo
• Afternic
• GoDaddy
• NamePros and
• DNForum 

Other venues recommended are 

• Flippa.com
• Dnchat
• ddboard.com
• SnapNames
• Websitebroker.com
• DigitalPoint &
• SitePoint 

One of the great divides across cultures has always been the language barrier. Not only do I not know how to speak, read or write other languages, often I cannot tell what the language is just by looking at it – for example, Korean, Chinese or Japanese. I received an email in Chinese? today and went to my normal online translator to see what it said, but Chinese to English wasn’t one of their options.

Auto Detection
I’m thinking, what if this isn’t Chinese? Do I try multiple translators until one works, or is there a translator out there that simplifies this whole messy process? To my amazement, I found Bing Translator which has an auto detect option. Wow! I plugged in my email message and was able to instantly read Chinese spam in English. LOL.

Online Translators
Google’s language tools currently offers the following interface languages:

Yahoo also has it’s own language translator named Babel Fish, allowing you to translate a block of text up to 150 words.

Of course, there are variations of translators, like The Dialectizer. The Dialector can translate web pages and text into Redneck, Jive, Cockney, Elmer Fudd, Swedish Chef, Moron, Pig Latin, or Hacker. I just tried Redneck on our site and it’s hilarious.

I am a HUGE fan of cutting edge technology, so when I stumbled across this video http://www.wimp.com/sixthtechnology posted on a web hosting forum, I had to watch it – from start to finish (approximately 15 minutes).

Why?
Time after time, my jaw dropped as new innovations were presented, linking objects in the physical world to the digital world. The video started with a simple upgrade to a two roller mouse, enabling the user to mimic finger movements on his monitor. And it kept getting better – taking pictures by framing objects with his hands, making outbound calls via a projected keypad on his palm, projecting live weather information onto his newspaper map, and on and on.

I’m Excited
The future is here today, and I’m proud to share its contribution to innovative technology with articles that compliment the delivery of new ideas and broad vision.

Featuring the largest gathering of hosted services professionals in the world.

Join us at HostingCon 2010, the premier conference and trade show for the hosted services industry. The best and brightest from the industry will be in attendance to learn about the latest news, ideas and technology affecting their businesses. Whether you are showcasing your new services, or you are simply checking the pulse of the industry, this is your opportunity to meet and network with your business partners, in a fun and educational atmosphere.

HostingCon is celebrating its Sixth Anniversary, and with a projected attendance of over 1,500 Internet professionals from over 30 countries, the 2010 show promises to be the best yet. We’re looking forward to meeting you in Austin, Texas!

Bing was just launched by Microsoft, looking to capture a portion of Google’s success. I’m still testing it against Google, but I like what I’m seeing so far. Some changes (from Live Search) include the addition of related searches (called “Explorer pane” on the left side of search results), based on semantic technology from PowerSet, a search company Microsoft purchased in 2008, search suggestions as you type, and the ability to keep track of your search history.

Internationally

Qi Lu, president of Microsoft Online Services, announced that Bing’s official Chinese name is bì yìng, which literally means “very certain to respond” or “very certain to answer” in Chinese, yet on June 2, 2009, Bing was blocked in China, the date approaching the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

Images

I just ran through a number of image related queries about web hosting and Hawaii – my two favorite topics. Again, I was quite impressed and foresee some real possibilities. Colocation returned 60,400 images. Drilling down, colocation providers returned 5,700 results and colocation St. Louis returned 260 results. Plus, you can refine your image queries by size, layout, color, style and people. For example, under color you can refine your query to just color, all or just black & white.

Have you searched Bing yet?

The general consensus on the Internet is favorable, even from hard core Linux admins. If you haven’t tried Bing yet, give it a whirl. You should be pleasantly surprised. If you’re a hard core Google or Yahoo addict, Bing will at least give you options – the more the merrier.

There is a current draft being discussed that will allow ARIN to investigate and deny any shell transfers of ASN /IP subnets. 

Under discussion at ARIN thru 7 April 2009

 8. Transfers

 8.1. Principles
Number resources are non-transferable and are not assignable to any other organization unless ARIN has expressly and in writing approved a request for transfer. ARIN is tasked with making prudent decisions on whether to approve the transfer of number resources.

It should be understood that number resources are not “sold” under ARIN administration. Rather, number resources are assigned to an organization for its exclusive use for the purpose stated in the request, provided the terms of the Registration Services Agreement continue to be met and the stated purpose for the number resources remains the same. Number resources are administered and assigned according to ARIN’s published policies.

Number resources are issued, based on justified need, to organizations, not to individuals representing those organizations. Thus, if a company goes out of business, regardless of the reason, the point of contact (POC) listed for the number resource does not have the authority to sell, transfer, assign, or give the number resource to any other person or organization. The POC must notify ARIN if a business fails so the assigned number resources can be returned to the available pool of number resources if a transfer is not requested and justified.

 8.2. Mergers and Acquisitions
ARIN will consider requests for the transfer of number resources in the case of mergers and acquisitions upon receipt of evidence that the new entity has acquired the assets which had, as of the date of the acquisition or proposed reorganization, justified the current entity’s use of the number resource. Examples of assets that justify use of the number resource include, but are not limited to:

• Existing customer base
• Qualified hardware inventory
• Specific software requirements.  

In evaluating a request for transfer, ARIN may require the requesting organization to provide any of the following documents, as applicable, plus any other documents deemed appropriate:

• An authenticated copy of the instrument(s) affecting the transfer of assets, e.g., bill of sale, certificate of merger, contract, deed, or court decree.
• A detailed inventory of all assets utilized by the requesting party in maintaining and using the number resource.
• A list of the requesting party’s customers using the number resource.  

If further justification is required, the requesting party may be asked to provide any of the following, or other supporting documentation, as applicable:

• A general listing of the assets or components acquired

• A specific description of acquisitions, including:
• Type and quantity of equipment
• Customer base

• A description of how number resources are being utilized
• Network engineering plans, including:  

• Host counts
• Subnet masking
• Network diagrams
• Reassignments to customers

 8.3 Transfers to Specified Recipients
Number resources may be released, in whole or in part, to ARIN for transfer to another specified organizational recipient, by any authorized resource holder within the ARIN region.  Such transferred number resources may only be received by organizations that are within the ARIN region and can demonstrate the need for such resources in the exact amount which they can justify under current ARIN policies.

Are you seriously interested in joining the web hosting market? Don’t have a ton of money? Is your plan to start small and grow?

There’s always room in this industry for new web hosts

Consider this. Every week I bought a targeted list of 150-200 new businesses in my area. At least 80% of them did not have websites or hosting. Multiply how many times in how many places worldwide that this happens week in and week out. You’ll never run out of prospects.

It does take some investment in time and money, but it can be done and is being done by new entrepreneurs every day. The ones who survive are normally those who have enough financial resources to withstand their first year in business.

My Advice

I read a lot of threads comparing domain name services where the OPs focus is on price rather than stability. Realistically, unless you’re planning on registering hundreds or thousands of domain names, price should be a secondary consideration. Choose a domain registrar with a reputation for great service, then price.

Should you register your domain name with your reseller host? The general consensus is NO. Why not? Too many small hosting companies encounter problems with their original host, then decide to transition to a different host only to find their domain name locked in dispute. If you have your domain name with a different provider than your reseller host, then you can simply point your nameservers to the new host and you’re good to go.

I’d also suggest that you provision your domain name to auto-renew. Forums are full of horror stories of expired domain names held hostage or sold at auction.

Marketing Your Business

The first consideration should be the design of your website. Be sure it represents your niche. So many new web hosting providers use a cookie cutter approach that never gets noticed, and they post threads months later wondering why? I understand it’s difficult at times to see beyond your own work. Solicit opinions from others in the industry. There are literally hundreds or thousands of forums filled with entrepreneurs just like yourself who are willing to provide honest opinions of your design, and give thoughtful insight and recommendations. Why try to reinvent the wheel when so many are willing and able to freely help?

Another consideration is Search Engine Optimization

Volumes of information have been written about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and opinions on how to best approach this vary widely. Some will recommend starting by reading published books, but the general consensus is to follow the major search engines (current) advice because SEO evolves dynamically. What worked yesterday may not work today. What always worked and still works is relevant content and well designed code.  Use cascading style sheets, check for browser compatibility, track the keywords that surfers enter to find your site, then tweak your site as needed. Too many small web hosts pour hours of original effort into their sites, but never update anything but price (running sales). The primary enemy of sales is complacency. Google analytics and awstats are great starting places to analyze traffic to your site.

Are you marketing to a local audience?

One marketing strategy is to obtain a targeted list of newly formed businesses, normally at 10 cents per business – then direct mail them an offer and follow up with a phone call within three days (provided there is a phone number). Always leave a voicemail if you cannot reach them. Schedule follow up calls (up to 3 over the period of a couple of weeks), then if you’re still unable to reach them, consider a quarterly direct mail post card campaign. If you haven’t budgeted for an aggressive advertising campaign, growing your new business will be that much harder.

Personalize your initial direct mail offer with your picture, and sign it in blue ink. With each new client, immediately ask for referrals and testimonials. And be sure to send them personalized thank you cards.

If you’ve considered on-site sales, consider leaving personalized scratch pads, with your picture at the top left and contact info at the bottom. Scratch pads are relatively inexpensive and can be found on every desk worldwide with some company’s info displayed – why not have it be yours?

Another great on-site promotion was recommended to me by a very successful sales rep – she has prospects pick a card from a deck, then posts a winner for the matching card weekly on her website’s blog. They’ll absolutely remember you and likely visit your site, increasing your odds of making that sale.

Don’t just leave your business card or literature. Most likely, it’ll find its way to a circular recycling bin. Be unique in your approach. Set yourself aside from your competition. And smile.

Networking

So many entrepreneurs in this business opt to go it alone, or with the aid of one or two techs. Networking is a very necessary ingredient to jumpstart and sustain your business.

I recently attended a conference sponsored by Yellow Tie where the guest speaker mingled with the attendees minutes prior, then started by asking everyone he had talked to, to stand up – we’re talking twenty to thirty people he had never seen or met previously. He then proceeded to ask them to sit down if he remembered their name and association – and one-by-one he called out all but two. How many times do you meet a prospect, exchange cards, chat briefly, then five minutes later cannot remember their name? Networking is a learned skill perfected via practice.

Team up a web designer, or two or ten. Possibly a business consultant? I personally recall a sales rep that networked with an IT consulting firm that directed thousands of dollars her direction when their existing clienteles’s ISP went under. Lay the groundwork for your success by maximizing your connections in the industry.

Merchant Account

A recent Google search for Merchant Account Providers produced 744,000 results. Accepting credit cards is absolutely necessary, but through which merchant provider? My advice is to check with your bank or financial institution first to ask their recommendation. PayPal is a great starting point. Different gateways allow you to receive your funds on varying schedules.

Billing Software

Of course you’ll need some type of billing software, and here again, there are lots of options. Some are open source while most are commercially available. If you’re starting with a reseller plan from a web host, that plan probably includes pre-installed billing software. Be aware that open source software may have limited features as compared to a program such as WHMCS. Do you need all of the bells and whistles? As you grow, how easily could you transition from open source to WHMCS? If there are demos available, try them. Get a feel for what best works for you.

Should you offer Live Chat Support

If you have the time and resources to interact with your prospects online, live chat services can certainly help convert prospects to clients.

Control Panels

While cPanel is a very popular control panel offered by many web hosts as part of their package, DirectAdmin is a feature rich, fast and stable alternative.

What makes DirectAdmin different?

Ease of use. DirectAdmin is the easiest to use control panel, period.

Speed. DirectAdmin is programmed to be the fastest running control panel available.

Stability. DirectAdmin avoids downtime by automatically recovering from crashes.

Integrated Ticket Support System

With DirectAdmin’s integrated ticket support system, you’ll provide better customer service with less hassle. You have XX messages waiting is displayed every time you sign in — and you can set DirectAdmin to notify you of support requests by e-mail, ensuring that no request will be missed.  If you prefer to offer support in a different way, simply turn this feature off.

Live Updates

Server administrators can click the “licensing / updates” button to view the current license and version status.  There is no need to manually download, extract, and install — DirectAdmin performs all updates automatically.

Completely Customizable

DirectAdmin is designed to be as unique as your business.  Every aspect of the DirectAdmin interface can be changed, and new designs are easily imported through the “skins” menu. 

Automatic Recovery From Crashes

DirectAdmin TaskQueue ensures that all services are up, all of the time.  If something crashes, DirectAdmin will attempt to fix the problem by restarting the service.  If this fails, DirectAdmin will notify the server administrator immediately. 

All Licenses are Unlimited-Domain Licenses

There is no limit to the amount of domains or user accounts that can be hosted with DirectAdmin

Site-Helper.com — Helping you get the most out of DirectAdmin and your web site! has outstanding User Features

E-Mail Menu.  Users can create POP3 accounts, catch-all e-mail addresses, forwarders, mailing lists, autoresponders, and webmail.  Filters allow users to block mail by domain, keyword, and size.  Adult Filter is also available.

FTP Menu.  Users can create FTP accounts and set directory permissions for each account.  Anonymous FTP is also supported.

DNS Menu.  Users can can add and remove records, change MX settings, and anything else that goes with full DNS control.

Statistics Menu.  Users have available every possible statistic about their account.  More advanced options and Webalizer are also included. 

FrontPage Extensions.  Users can enable or disable Microsoft FrontPage Extensions at any time with the click of a button.

Subdomains Menu.  Users can list, create, delete, and get statistics on subdomains.

File Manager.  A user-friendly and fast alternative to FTP.  Includes every feature needed to build and maintain a web site. 

MySQL Databases.  Users can easily create, modify, and delete MySQL databases from this menu.

Site Backup.  Using this powerful tool, users can backup and restore only what they want to.  For example, account data but not web site files.

Error Pages.  Users can create custom messages and outputs for 401, 403, 404, and 500 error codes.

Directory Password Protection.  Users can password protect any directory with a username and password.

Advanced Tools.  Users can install SSL certificates, view sever information and installed perl modules, set cron jobs, mime types, and apache handlers, and enable site redirection and domain pointers.

It also has great Reseller Features

Create / List / Modify Accounts.  Account creation, listing, modification, and deletion is done quickly and easily.

User Packages.  Resellers can create predefined account packages using this feature.  When creating an account, the reseller simply chooses a package instead of manually setting each account feature.

Reseller Statistics.  Resellers are provided with a complete overview of their total usage.  Resellers may also sort data by users to quickly assess the overall situation.

Message All Users.  Resellers can quickly send a message to all their customers by using DirectAdmin’s built in ticket support system.

Import / Manage Skins.  With this menu option, resellers can quickly import and apply new skins with the click of a button.

IP Assignment.  Resellers can allocate IP address to their customers by using this menu option.

System / Services Information.  By clicking this feature, resellers have instant access to server status and system information.

Name Servers.  Resellers can create personalized nameservers for their customers from this menu.

Check out DirectAdmin’s Administrator Features

Create / Modify Admins and Resellers.  Admins can create resellers or extra admins quickly and easily with this feature.

Reseller Packages.  Admins can create predefined account packages using this feature.  When creating an account, the admin simply chooses a package instead of manually setting each account feature.

Show All Users.  This feature allows the admin to quickly view every single account on the system and sort this list in various ways.

DNS Administration.  This feature allows the admin to create, modify, or delete any DNS records on the server.

IP Manager.  This is where the admin sets the IP address available to the server.  The admin can also allocate IP address to resellers from this menu.

System / Services Info.  The admin can view, stop, start, and restart services from this menu.

Complete Usage Statistics.  This feature provides the admin with a complete overview of system usage.  Exact input and output from the server’s Ethernet card is also monitored.

Licensing / Updates.  The admin can view his or her license status and download the latest DirectAdmin security and software upgrades from this menu.

Need online help managing DirectAdmin?

Site-Helper.com is a great online resource for getting the most out of your DirectAdmin Web Control Panel.

Summary

Web hosting is a highly competitive industry, but there is certainly room for new entrepreneurs. Hopefully this helps you with some insight. Cheers

Windows 7 beta was rolled out to the public this morning. It’s been available to developers and most threads about it are very positive – very quick. The question is, “Should you install it?” What are the pros and cons?

The Cons:

There may be an issue with trashing existing MP3s unless you install a Microsoft fix. Apparently when Media Player attempts to add album art to your MPs, it can corrupt them. Is there a workaround? Possibly set your MP3s to Read Only before you install this beta.

Release notes warn that Windows 7 will crash if your graphics card only has an XDDM driver. The only way to resolve this is to recycle power.

If you’re installing this beta on the same drive as your existing Windows, please please do a backup first. Returning to a previous version of Windows could be very tricky – don’t expect support from Microsoft.

All of your existing drivers may not be recognized. If you’re fortunate, Microsoft may be able to diagnose the problem and point you to a vendor with an updated driver.

The Pros:

The interface appears much cleaner.

This beta appears to be very stable.

This is much snappier – start up, open programs and shut down – definite improvement over Vista.

How long can you use the beta version?

If you install Windows beta 7 now, you will have to upgrade before August 2009 – little thing called a time bomb.

Has your spam decreased in the last two months?

I know mine has decreased dramatically. I only get one or two a day now, if that. If you’re like me, I hate spam. Recently one ISP was shut down that was responsible for directing systems to perform half of all spam sending attempts on the Internet.

The Good Side

ISP’s with strong content filters and multiple layers of IP blacklists saw a minimal change in the amount of spam delivered to their clients’ inbox. Why is that? They invested heavily in anti-spam infrastructure, significantly raising their level of protection.

Will more ISPs be shut down?

Removing the infrastructure of ISPs that traffic massive amounts of spam should have a chilling effect on that industry model.  I know I’d be much happier.

Financial war on spammers?

Remember what the USA did to the online gaming industry? It prohibited the online processing of credit cards for gaming purposes. That’s why I see so many OPs in forums asking for URLs of offshore hosts (for warez sites too).  Very illegal.

If we could somehow block credit card processors that process the spammer’s transactions, that would truly hit them where it hurts most – their wallets. No profit – no spam. We can only hope.

HIPAA has been around since 1996 and to this day, even though most have heard of it, few outside of the health industry fully understand this ACT. I suspect a vast majority will accurately surmise that it has something to do with protecting a patient’s right to privacy, but will have no clue what those privacy requirements are, or the punishment for not abiding by the ACT.

Does this impact the web hosting industry? If patient records are backed up on your servers and those servers go down (fried to a crispy golden brown), are you responsible as the host?