Mail Updates

Some of our Enterprise Hosting customers have had these features for a while now, but they filtering back across all packages now.

MailBox Quotes

We’ve worked with a number of customers to figure out how certain mailboxes were going over their assigned quotes and updated the system. The improvements mean that webmail, desktop and even your phone should be able to see the correct quota when set.

MailBox Search

All mailboxes now have search indexing enabled and available using full IMAP search. Roundcube, our preferred webmail client, supports the interaction with the server-side search indexes, as does Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird. We’ve already heard back on improvements from Apple users too.

Your very first search on a large mailbox may be a little slow as the system doesn’t enable the index until at least one search takes place. After that, results should be incredibly quick to return.

Spam Filtering

As with some of our previous mail upgrades, we’ve worked hard to clamp down some of the rules. This new update has worked well with some of our larger mail customers and is now being rolled out to all other accounts.

That said, we’ve much more coming. We hope to be able to port back features like our auto-whitelisting and per-mailbox auto levelling in the next couple of months too. Both of these combined have proved very effective in reducing false-positives and false-negatives.

Server Upgrades

Beyond what we’ve listed below, a number of other improvements have been rolled out to reduce disk latency, increase CPU response times and all together make your site that little bit more responsive. While subtle enough that you may not notice, we’ve seen measured improvements on site response times for some of the more complex installs.

MySQL Server

There has been quite a bit of work going on to improve the speed of MySQL. One such improvement was to ensure even more of your data sits natively in memory so there isn’t any disk lag.

We also have some upgrades to the control panel coming to help developers with MySQL over the next few months but if there is anything in particular you are looking for, please do let us know.

MySQL Backups

We’ve upgraded the scripts we use to do our MySQL backups and they’ve been running across all servers for over a month now. The benefits are that your database spends less time locked when we are doing a full backup run. Our largest database lock time has dropped by almost 90%.

In case you are wondering, why do we lock the database? This will ensure we get consistent backups. If it ever comes to recovery, we can be sure that it will restore correctly too. Things are also tested quite often so you can have piece of mind. More information on the backup system is on our blog.

New Control Panel

Okay, so not really new, but it looks so great we are calling it new. The whole look and feel has been re-vamped and things generally made easier. Log on today and let us know what you think or if there is anything in particular you’d like improved.

One major new feature we have for our resellers is the ability to brand the control panel. Yup, you read that right, a fully brand-able control panel, and no, we don’t just mean changing the logo.

Wrap-Up

We have more to come so stay tuned. For existing customers, check inside your control panel for some special…

Edit: You can replicate the old behaviour simply by renaming your php.ini file to .user.ini. We are automatically doing this on we upgrade each server to the new version.

Date/Time settings Error

Our testing has however shown up this error affecting some sites.

Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings.
You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set()
function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning,
you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier.

For those of you that are familiar with php.ini files will know that you can set this variable there. And we have. There is just a small bug in PHP which unsets this settings if you use a local php.ini file to over-ride settings. Unfortunately this means that users with these files end up with no date.timezone value, and the error above.

You can fix it by adding the following value to your php.ini file or contacting our support team who will be happy to help.

date.timezone = 'Europe/Dublin'

Additional PHP Errors

Because of the same inheritance issue listed about, some sites may see additional PHP generated error messages. The easy way around this is to add the following to your folder specific php.ini file for the affected application.

error_reporting = E_ALL & ~ E_DEPRECATED

We are working to find a fix that doesn’t require user intervention and hopefully it will be in place before your server goes live with this change. As always, we will be pro-actively monitoring and updating users of any issues we notice.

Should you care?

In most cases, knowing the operating system your website runs on isn’t going to help with much of the day to day decisions. If you are uploading standard HTML pages, then any system will do. Even when you start programming, the differences do not start showing until you begin to use some of the advanced features.

So why is Linux everywhere in the web hosting world? Simple answer, the software cost is free. A Linux webserver can be setup without having to pay for licences. But since the software costs do not make up a huge part of the costs the web hosting companies feel, there has to be more right? Giant companies such as Facebook, Google or Yahoo do not choose Linux hosting based on the software cost.

Security

In today’s world, the number of hacking attempts is truly astronomical. The majority of them are automated scanners that search the internet looking for vulnerable websites. While simply running on a Linux web server will now protect everything, it definitely does help if and when a website is breached. Because Linux is Open Source Software, meaning anyone can work on the code, updates, patched, and security fixes can come from anywhere. This means a rapid fix for problems once they are discovered.

Reliability

The same fact that helps with security also helps with reliability. The open source nature of Linux means operating system patches come quicker and get reviewed by more people. The biggest benefits is the lack of reboots required. This means security patches can be updated without downtime. No downtime means your site is not offline.

Here at Vade, having your site online and accessible is our number one goal. We’ve talked previously about uptime and how our guarantee is different. Experience it for yourself with our Primus Irish Web Hosting package.

Lets step back a bit.

What is a Domain Name?

A domain name quite simply is the bit between the dots up in the address bar. So for our website, normally you would see www.vade.ie meaning our domain is vade, on the Irish registry, or .ie. For www.coca-cola.com, the domain would be coca-cola.

You probably already know that the domain usually follows the company name, or a well known word for them, or just a persons name. This is the format we recommend too.

Why Multiple Domain Names?

Have you ever typed a website name in and ended up on the wrong site? I know I have. And this does happen quite a lot across the internet. Spelling mistakes are another big one, so if you have a name that can be misspelled, this is something to look out for.

The other reason is because end users can forget which extension you are on. In most cases this simply means getting some other domain extensions for your domain. If you are starting out and they are available, grabbing as much of the top level domains like .com, .org, .net etc is a good idea. Our sales team can help you with the list of domains to get should you need any help.

Redirecting Domain Names

Since you have multiple domains, now what do you do with them? For most people, the simple answer is to pick a primary domain, then redirect the other sites to it. It’ll help with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and is easily achieved using our web alias feature under account utilities in the control panel.

Ordering

You can get your domain names over on our mail website. Alternatively, contact us if you need any assistance.

Customisation

One of the best features of WordPress is its extensibility. There are hundreds of useful plugins and thousands of themes freely available, all installable by a few mouse clicks in the Admin Suite. Some themes will layout your blog in a default post by post basis, quite similar to our blog, others can change the whole look into something you would barely recognise. From custom post names, to static pages, to full galleries, it is all possible. If you are ever stuck, our friendly support team are here to help.

Plugins

WordPress doesn’t try to be all things to all people. That is actually a good thing. You really don’t want to be overwhelmed by buttons or options when you start. However the plugins allow you the freedom to expand out to achieve just about anything you want.

Some plugins you may find helpful are listed below in no particular order:

• Google Analytics – For tracking visits to your site. This allows you to use the Google service.
• Google XML Sitemaps – This plugin automatically builds a sitemap of your blog, a very useful feature so search engines (not just Google) can find you.
• Feedburner Plugin – Blogs are built around RSS and feedburner is a popular service for hosting your blog feeds. It’ll also give you a nice reader count and help build statistics.
• All in One SEO Pack – Search Engine Optimisation is the art of “helping” search engines understand your web pages. While search engines do love WordPress, this plugin surely helps you climb up the rankings.
• WP Captcha Free – The downside to WordPress lies in its popularity. Automated spam bots will try to post comments quite often which can ruin the experience, however plugins like this one make it much more manageable. Akismet also provide another spam solution for blogs.
• Lightbox 2 – Lightbox, those clickable popup images, may be one of most seen features on the internet and this is how you make it part of your blog.

Expandability

While this may not be on your mind now, your blog may one day receive a huge amount of web traffic. Generally if you stick with it and write a lot of quality content on a regular basis, your readership will grow. The last thing you want is to have to migrate your blog to another platform or system when that happens. Luckily WordPress is able to grow with you due to its plugin system. The same plugins will help it handle correctly under high traffic and keep it responding quickly. Our team can offer any advice when you need it to help your site to grow with you.

Additional Services

After you have ordered your web hosting, if you want help, just ask. Our team can even install the blog for you. We also understand that sometimes you just want to write, and not have to worry about the management of the blog. There is the ability to leave all that to us, let us handle the upgrade, the plugins, the spam comments etc. Contact our sales team to discuss your unique needs.

With our custom installer, the process of getting WordPress setup really couldn’t be easier. In fact, our Support Team will install it onto any new account if you request so, free of charge. This guide will walk you through the steps if you want to do it yourself.

Pre-information

The most common setup for people is to use http://blog.yourdomain.ext just like we have here, but you can of course use whatever layout you want.

Step 1 – The Subdomain

Start by logging into your control panel. Proceed through to Account Utilities and Subdomains. Click Add a new subdomain.

Subdomain = The bit before your domain where you want it to appear
Domain = Your domain
Path = This is the location you want to install the files inside of your public_html folder. Usually the most misunderstood part. At Vade we try to keep things neat so we recommend you install the blog into a subfolder, even if it is the only item on your website.

Step 2 – Installing WordPress

The next step is to hit Web Applications in the menu, select WordPress from the list. Then you choose blog from the subdomain drop-down and ensure your domain is selected in its drop-down.

As seen above, leave the installation path blank. This is used when you are pushing the install into a sub folder of a domain. For example if you wanted the site to appear at
http://blog.vade.ie/subfolder, you would put subfolder into the installation path.

Once the details are in, scroll down and hit Install Application to have WordPress installed for you.

Step 3 – Login to WordPress

After the install, follow the link to the admin section and enter your username and password as specified by the oneClick installer. When you first login, you will probably be presented with the following notice. (The version number will most likely be higher)

WordPress has a very good updating method so just click to update now. You will be transferred to the following page.

Select Upgrade Automatically and after a short wait, you’ll be on the latest version.

The next message you’ll likely notice is about the auto generated password. It is recommended that you follow the steps and change your password to something you’ll remember.

Step 4 – Configure a mail account

While this step is optional, it is recommended. By default we set the admin mail account in WordPress to admin@yourdomain.ext. You can either choose to change it inside of WordPress, or setup an alias for this in the Mail Manager. Either will work fine.

Summary

All that is left now is for you to customise your blog and write your first post. If that means using our own web design services or any of the many free WordPress templates, we wish you the best of luck with your new endeavour.

As always, please contact us with any questions or comments.

Over the past year we have been working quietly behind the scenes upgrading our mail infrastructure and adding features to the control panel. What began as a simple upgrade to improve speed has expanded out all the way to additional server side – user level spam filtering, and lots in between. Read on to get an overview of the different features we have added, and even those you may not have known existed.

Server Side – Out of Office

An out of office reply is what you need for those times when you are off work. The server sends a nice email to anyone to emails in your absence, all while your email client is not turned off.

Even though this features has been in the control panel for some time, it is still regularly requested. You can find it in the Mail Manger section when logged into your control panel.

Mail Relay / Non-Local Email

Sometimes referred to a Backup MX, you can now use Vade as a secondary email server should you run your own. While previously you needed to contact Support for this, all the settings are inside of the Mail Manager under Mail Domains. First set the domain to Non-Local, then adjust the transport to where you want the email to be forwarded to.

You can also choose not to use Vade for email and simply turn off local email here. This will force our email server to use whatever DNS entries you have specified.

Updates to Spam Filters

Spam filtering is one of those items that is constantly being worked on. And we here at Vade are continuing to update the different sections to make it more effective.

Over the past year we have improved the hit ratios, both for detecting spam correctly, and reducing the number of incorrectly tagged emails. Because we understand that you’d rather not miss an important email, we always side to less false positives rather than less spam getting through.

All these updates tie closely into the rest of the features.

Customisable (per user) whitelist/blacklist email addresses

For those times when you want to block a particular email from sending mail to yourself, a black list is the way to go. We have expanded it out so that the lists are done per user and you have the ability to set the scoring on them. As such you can determine if you just want it filtered as spam, or even to a level that gets it deleted.

Multiple Notifications

One thing we heard back was that one invoice notice wasn’t enough. We are all human, and getting the renewal notice doesn’t always mean that that we’ll pay right there and then. Sometimes life has to take preference and we forget. We’ve all been there.

As of right now, you’ll get a notice at 30 days out, 14 days, 7 days, 3 days and then 1 day. You can pay anytime during this period too. Once it goes overdue, we can make no guarantees about things staying online as usually the domain registries shut things down, but we’ll give grace on the hosting side. And of course your data remains safe.

Invoice History

In the past we’ve used more than one system for generating invoices for different sets of customers. Since we have it all centralised and accessible by you, our customer, you can easily gain access to invoices, account balances and statements. Not monumental by any stretch, but our aim is always to make your life easier.

Other Features

The developers are adding order features quite regularly as well as finishing the integration right back to the control panel systems. For those with multiple accounts, you will be able to manage them all from one, central location. The authorised user list as well as contact details are all update-able through the new billing interface. In fact, its goal is eventually to become something more…

Watch this space.

One question we get every now and then is about data backups for our servers. Hopefully this article can clear up what is included and what extra can be done if and when you require it.

What is a backup and why is it important

There are two types of people in the computer world when it comes to backups, those who have lost data, and those that will. When it comes down to it, it is critical to understand that there are multiple ways for data loss. Anything can play a role, from application corruption, to hardware failures, to malicious actions, to natural disasters. And any of these can require a trip to the backup data.

Recent statistics have shown that 1 in 10 harddisks fail or have a critical error each year. And since a harddisk is where your data is being stored, they are some important odds. Here at Vade, we use high quality, server grade disks as well are technologies such a RAID to lower these risks and make the hardware failures transparent to you, the end user.

The biggest reason we get asked to restore data is in fact accidental deletion. We have all experienced it. Just as you are about to copy that file, something happens that takes our attention for a split second, and the wrong file is put in the wrong place, or the wrong file clicked and deleted. In these cases, it pays to have another copy, a backup copy.

Off site backups

A backup really isn’t a backup until it has been transferred from the machine it came from. Even then, it rightly should go somewhere geographically disperse to cover in case of fire or flooding. So that is exactly what we have done.

Vades backups are all located in a complete physically separate location from our web facing servers, on a separate network, with different providers. The equipment is even using different vendors for everything from servers to the raid cards, and right down to the harddisks. Data is also fully encrypted during the transfer between locations to ensure it is protected. This gives the benefit in that if a once in a lifetime event like a meteor striking the data centre were to occur, your data would still be secure.

Does your existing web hosting provider take as much precautions for the safety of your data?

File based vs Server Based

Firstly let us explain the differences.

File based backups backup the individual files and store them either in another, usually larger compressed file, or in a full copy somewhere else.
Server based backups read the 1′s and 0′s from the harddisks and then store that in another big file.

The main difference is that a server based backup will allow the full machine to be recovered easier, but individual files will take longer.

At Vade, we understand that should you need your data back, you will want it back quickly. As such we maintain primarily file based backups. We can still restore full systems, but it is geared around recovering individual files or directories. This gives us very fine grained control over what can be restored if and when needed. If we had chosen server based backups, a single file recovery might day hours, if not days.

Additional Options

Beyond what we do above, we can offer some additional features to cover your needs. Below is just a small snapshot of what is possible.

• Real time email backups.
• Near realtime file backups.
• Near realtime database backups on shared hosting or realtime on managed hosting.
• Application specific backups.
• Weekly / Monthly / Yearly data archiving.

Restore costs

Good practice

What is a Web Hop / Web Alias

A web hop is the ability to redirect a URL on your domain to another location, be that on your own domain, or another domain. Usually it is used for shortening those long, hard to remember URLs that sometimes become necessary for different web applications.

An Example

Say you have a web based application that you use, and you regularly find that you and others regularly need to go to a special part of it that has a long URL. You use this application to manage the addresses of people you deal with and want to be able to get to it quickly from where ever you are. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just type http://address.yourdomain.ext instead of http://customapp.yourdomain.ext/web/modules/?section=address&type=search

A web hop gives you this ability. In the control panel, you enter address in the Subdomain field. Select your domain from dropdown menu, then enter http://customapp.yourdomain.ext/web/modules/?section=address&type=search into the redirect Url box. Simple as that. The control panel takes care of everything needed to get it to work.

As always, we welcome your suggestions or feature requests. Please contact us with any you may have.