Overview

Wikipedia defines Uptime as a measure of the time a computer system has been “up” and running, but did you know there are different kinds of uptime? Did you know that many web hosts use this common lack of knowledge against you?

Types of Uptime

• Network lifetime: This is the type of uptime many hosts use to incorporate loopholes in to their advertisements and guarantees. Based on this measurement, a network can have 9 hours of downtime each year and still fulfill an advertised 99.9% guarantee! How would you feel if your site was down for 9 hours every year?!
• Set time frame: Most commonly measured annually, monthly, weekly or daily, this is the method we use in our uptime guarantee to assure a set, recorded number each month.
• Rolling period of time: This type of measurement is counted from the last X amount of days, usually the last 30, and is a constant measurement – never ending.

A live-updating uptime graph for our beloved "lambda" server

We use Pingdom

PhireFast uses and recommends a great, paid service called Pingdom. Their global network of monitoring servers measures and reports on each of our hosting servers. If you are interested in a constantly-updated uptime graph for the server your site is on, let us know!

When shopping for hosting

Find out if the host clearly defines the type of uptime their guarantees are based on. Do they back-up their advertised features in their Service Level Agreement? We do.

For the “techies”: Finding uptime

Windows
How: From command prompt, run systeminfo | find “Time:”
Example output: “System Up Time: 8 Days, 8 Hours, 30 Minutes, 17 Seconds

Unix/Apple OS
How: From a terminal session, run uptime
Example output (taken from PhireFast’s very own “lambda” server): 22:51:47 up 34 days,  6:39,  1 user,  load average: 4.51, 4.04, 4.21

Client Portal
Earlier today, we activated our new Client Portal, which consolidates your hosting services, domain features (instant registration, renewals and transfers), invoices and support all in one place.

We also now accept PayPal and Google Checkout!

We have affectionately named this new platform after our beloved mascot “Plame”. Current clients received an email (reaaaally) early this morning with their new log in information. If you are a client and for some reason did NOT receive this email, please reach out to us.

Social Networking
By popular demand, PhireFast has entered the realm of social networking, including Facebook and Twitter, but please hold your applause – we need your help. If you like us, please stop by and say hi, and help us grow our community of clients and friends!

Links:
PhireFast on Facebook
PhireFast on Twitter (follow us and we’ll follow you back!)

During these exciting times, we hope that you share our excitement about adding great new features. In the coming days you’ll see an Affiliate Program and Dedicated Hosting services, amongst other things.

Thank you for reading!

- Mark Mutti
Founder & Head of Support

UPDATE: The problem has been solved and we apologize for any inconvenience.

Tonight a serious issue has temporarilly affected many of our customer websites and servers. NO DATA HAS BEEN LOST, although websites, cPanel itself and SSH are currently unavailable. IMAP, POP3 and SMTP appear to be working normally.

I’d like you to know we are working hard to make sure everything is back up in a timely manner, and I will update as soon as possible, as information reveals itself.

Thank you for understanding, and thank you for choosing us as your web host.

- Mark Mutti

As usual, support will be available 24 hours a day, even during this Thanksgiving Holiday here in the United States. We are also working on expanding our livesupport (live chat) hours for your convenience!

For those who celebrate the holiday, we hope you have a fun and happy Thanksgiving, and as always, we are very grateful to be your web hosting provider. Thank you!

(Gobble gobble)

- Mark Mutti
Owner, PhireFast.com

After our own research, and communication with other web hosting and email providers, we have confirmed that Verizon has started blocking Port 25 (SMTP) access on their platform.

For many years, PhireFast has run an SMTP Relay on Port 26 for our clients facing this restriction from their ISPs, which until now has mainly only been AT&T DSL and Earthlink.

The Fix: Simply access your email program’s settings and change your POP3 email account’s SMTP port from 25 to 26 and you should be alright. IMAP platform users are not affected by Verizon’s switch-over.

The Reason: Many ISPs block port 25 to prevent the transit of spam on their network. By blocking access to this common port, one extra layer of “protection” (or so they say) is added to their network.

As always, please feel free to ask us for help by submitting a Support Request.

Thank you for hosting with us!

Just download and install the latest version of Pidgin. It will automatically upgrade your current version.

US-CERT Emailed today:

Pidgin has released a security advisory to address a vulnerability affecting libpurple. This vulnerability is a buffer overflow that may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code. Libpurple is used by multiple instant messenger (IM) programs including Adium and Pidgin.

IM applications that use libpurple may distribute it as a part of their security updates. Users are encouraged to update affected IM software as soon as possible. A partial listing of IM programs that implement libpurple can be found in the “What is libpurple?” webpage on the Pidgin website. Additional information may be found in the US-CERT Vulnerability Notes Database.

Excerpted from their email blast earlier today, new features include:

* Improved search and member list performance
* Date filter options for Active Content page
* Many improvements for Sphinx searching (i.e. ability to filter by forum, ability to search titles only, ability to group posts as topics, plugin functionality for modifying the query, and misc bug fixes)
* Ability to hide an application’s tab on the front end, while still allowing it to be publicly accessible
* Improved IP address lookup tool can now support add-on applications
* Portal option to not pin pinned topics for articles
* Added link to user profile when editing a member in ACP
* Added display of time remaining for suspended members when editing a member in ACP
* Spam Monitoring Service support
* Ability to control image quality for Gallery images (jpg/png only)
* PHP version 5.3 is now supported in IP.Board except for OpenID login method. We are awaiting updates from OpenID vendors.

These features look promising, and I recommend if you can, upgrade to it! The improvements to the search are worth it alone, in my opinion.

Also from their email:

You can download IP.Board 3.0.2 and any applications you have an active license for in the client area. As always, make a backup of your community before proceeding.

If you need a hand with this, let us know! We’re here for you, day and night.

Happy foruming! Thanks for hosting with PhireFast!

Twitter.com is being DDOSed right now, and the event is reminding us that even Twitter, with their bottomless funding and technical contacts, has been unusable most of the day.

This is a grim reminder that the internet is just like the wild west. Everyone server administrator is responsible for their own “e-land,” and when the bigger boys come in to town and start wreaking havoc, you better watch out.

The winner of most DDOS attacks is the contestant with the most bandwidth. DDOS attacks often come from hundreds or thousands of IP addresses and locations which are constantly changing – A situation which is nearly impossible to block. The analogy I’ve always liked is “you’re trying to shoot several moving targets.” In this case, it’s obvious that Twitter is being overpowered, and for this, I wish them luck.

Promotion that makes no sense right now, seeing that they’re down:
Don’t forget to check out PhireFast on Twitter! twitter.com/phirefast

Regarding the DDOS attack against PhireFast two weeks ago:
Incoming DOS Attacks (Update: Federal Report Now Filed)

Wishing luck to Twitter today. Happy hosting!

If you are one of our clients who uses an iPhone, we thought you should know about a new security risk Apple has just released an update to fix.

Apple has released iPhone OS 3.0.1 to address a vulnerability in the CoreTelephony component. By sending a specially crafted SMS message to a user, an attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial-of-service condition.

US-CERT encourages users review Apple article HT3754 and apply any necessary updates to help mitigate the risk.

Source: US CERT & Apple

On behalf of the PhireFast Team, I wish you best of luck!