Saturday evening at 4:55 in our H1 in Houston Texas data center, electrical gear shorted, creating an explosion and fire that knocked down three walls surrounding our electrical equipment room Thankfully, no one was injured. In addition, no customer servers were damaged or lost.

We have just been allowed into the building to physically inspect the damage. Early indications are that the short was in a high-volume wire conduit. We were not allowed to activate our backup generator plan based on instructions from the fire department.

This is a significant outage, impacting approximately 10.000 websites, including our main Customer Service and Customer Center portals. All members of our support team are in, and all vendors who supply us with data center equipment are on site. Our initial assessment, although early, points to being able to have some service restored by mid-afternoon on Sunday. Rest assured we are working around the clock.

We are sorry for this inconvenience.

Posted by Alex | 3 Comments »

We have received a lot of requests from our users to publish some coupon codes so that you can  get our services at a great discounted price.

Here you are :

- LNXPROFDISC9924 - 10$ discount for Linux Professional plan

- WINPROFDISC0290 - 10$ discount for Windows Professional plan

- RS2LNXDISC - 10$ discount for Linux RS-2

- COLDMEAL - 20% discount for Linux RS-3

- VERYCOLDMEAL - 20% discount for Windows RS-3

- HIGHTREASON6 - 10% discount for Linux Medium

- WINMED10OFF - Free activation fee for any account

That is all for now. Contact us by live chat and maybe we can get you some more codes

Note: use these codes in the Coupon Code area before checkout page. Only 1 code can be used at for an order.

Now just go to www.byohosting.com and get your discount!!

Posted by Alex | 3 Comments »

I like to send mail direct from my home network for various reasons, not least being that I used to work on my current ISP’s mail servers and I know that they are in and out of blackholes these days like Hawking radiation. By sending mail directly from my dynamic block, the results are at least somewhat consistent.

Some may suggest changing ISP, but I am happy with every other aspect of their service, and there is no guarantee that any other ISP won’t run in to the same problems at any point in the future. Exim makes it easy for me to maintain a list of domains that do require me to use my ISP’s smart host, and even has the decency to read it dynamically, so it’s little hardship for me to: echo painintheass.net >> /usr/local/etc/exim/smarthost.domains for those domains that do need it.

Occasionally, however, I run into problems whereby the recipient that I am trying to mail won’t accept mail from me or the upstream smart host at the ISP. In the past, that has meant that I’ve been stuffed, which would normally be the would-be recipient’s problem, but every so often I really, really want to send them the message.

This just happened twice in the space of ten minutes, so I worked out how to get exim to relay mail via smtp.gmail.com:

• First, enable POP for your gmail account. You do that in the “Forwarding and POP” section of the settings. Strangely enough.
• Next, add a domain list to your exim configuration:

  domainlist use_gmail_domains = /usr/local/etc/exim/gmail.domains

  This domain list will hold the list of domains to send via gmail, one domain per line. If you don’t have any to add now, create the file empty with touch(1) so that you don’t forget later. Exim won’t complain either way.

• Create an authenticator. Note that although we’re using the plaintext mechanism here, we’ll force TLS in the transport so your details will not get transferred in the clear:

  gmail_login:
    driver = plaintext
    public_name = LOGIN
    client_send = : YourGmailUsername@gmail.com : YourGmailPassword

  Note that in a default exim configuration there are usually no authenticators, so don’t forget the begin authenticators statement if this is your first one.

• Add a router:

  send_via_gmail:
    driver = manualroute
    domains = +use_gmail_domains
    transport = gmail_smtp
    route_list = "* smtp.gmail.com byname"

• Add a transport, forcing it to use AUTH and TLS:

  gmail_smtp:
    driver = smtp
    hosts = smtp.gmail.com
    hosts_require_auth = smtp.gmail.com
    hosts_require_tls = smtp.gmail.com

That’s all it requires. You may now need to lock down the permissions on your configuration file to stop anyone reading your username and password from it. Advanced exim users can work out how to put this information in a separate file easily enough.

Posted by Alex | No Comments »

Are you a website developer looking to establish a long-term relationship with a web content provider that could make money over the long-term for both of you? Have you considered becoming an expert in the providing of website audio content — in webcasting and podcasting? Knowing how to present web audio and how to manage such a site can be your key to making money over the web.

It is hard to pick up a periodical about the web these days without coming upon an article about the ever increasing use of substantive audio content in websites. Webcasting and podcasting are the rage. These websites can make money through banner ads, click-throughs, and charging for downloads of audio content.

An audio-based website can include, for instance real-time streaming of a radio talk show or an interview. It can also contain archived materials, such as past shows, the equivalent of books-on-tape, and the like.

A web site developer can team up with the audio content provider, using cost and revenue sharing in order to make the enterprise beneficial to both.

The success of such a venture can be heightened by the use of low-cost audio. For instance, the audio could consist largely of streaming or recorded conversation about hot topics in international affairs, national politics, the economy, and trends and issues in our ever-changing culture, philosophy, and religious expression.

The likelihood of success can also be heightened if the format involves the same basic co-hosts, with the occasional invited guest, where the co-hosts are knowledgeable, clear-speaking, with a sense of humor; but who also often find themselves on opposite sides of the issue under discussion. The spark of life attracts the visitor.

And believe me, there are audio content providers with in-demand audio ready to team up with the right web developer. I know, because I am co-host of the US Virgin Islands-based and currently broadcast-based talk radio program known as Island Insight, with my co-host Randall Scott Johns. We are ready to move on to the web with live, streaming conversation, as well as archived shows. There must be others out there as well, ready to provide you with the content you need.

So, get ready for the future, for the future is now. Get the word out that you know how to do it and you are ready to design a high-quality product. Be a part of the future, and have fun doing it.

Posted by Alex | No Comments »

NUMBER 1 : INTERNET USERS REMEMBER WHAT THEY HEAR
Did you know that Internet users remember only 20% of what they read while remembering an amazing 70% of what they hear? Audio on your website will help your message stay with fresh your visitors for longer.

NUMBER 2 : AUDIO INCREASES SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Using audio to convey a personal message to entice visitors to subscribe to your newsletter will result in up to 400% more subscribers than using traditional subscription marketing methods.

NUMBER 3 : AUDIO WILL KEEP VISITORS ON YOUR SITE FOR LONGER
Using audio on your website helps to keep visitors on your site for longer. The longer visitors stay the more informed they are about your product and services and the more likely they are to buy your product or service.

NUMBER 4 : AUDIO ADDS CREDIBILITY TO YOUR WEBSITE
Adding your own voice to your website helps prospects identify with you personally, warming them to your products and services in a way that cannot be achieved by any other existing marketing technique and converting more prospects to buyers.

NUMBER 5 : AUDIO PUTS YOU MILES AHEAD OF YOUR COMPETITORS
While your competitors still hang around in the dark ages of Internet marketing, placing audio on your website gives you an enormous competitive advantage. Visitors will trust you more than your competitors and trust is the number one vital ingredient for making visitors part with plastic.

NUMBER 6 : AUDIO EHANCES EMAIL AND NEWSLETTER COMMUNICATIONS
Used in emails and ezines, audio allows you to communicate personally with your clients and subscribers, creating rapport and warming your market in a way not possible with text and graphics.

NUMBER 7 : AUDIO IS CHEAP
Basic streaming audio buttons can be put on your website for as little as $19.95. Even the most advanced solutions cost around the $97 mark! Considering the uumph these little audio buttons give your site, a once off payment of 97 bucks is not a lot to part with!

NUMBER 8 : AUDIO IS SIMPLE TO USE
You don’t have to be a techie geek to put audio on your website. Most of the solutions out there require no html or flash know how at all. They are designed to be user friendly so even the technophobe should have no problem getting the job done quickly and easily!

What are you waiting for … go add audio now!

Posted by Alex | 1 Comment »