News Archive

Christmas & New Year Staffing Levels - 1.00PM December 20, 2004

Staff will continue to be available over the Christmas and New Year period, operating at our usual weekend levels on public holidays.

We will continue to monitor every server and ensure that your website is working as expected.

Secure Webspace Now Available with Deluxe Plans - 8.30PM November 16, 2004

Our Deluxe Plans now include the added feature of Secure (SSL) access. Clients on these plans can now accept product and service orders, and send information securely from their website.

Best of all - secure access has been added free of charge. Our plan pricing remains the same as it was previously before the feature was included.

Because of the change we will be phasing out the old specialty secure SSL plans over the months to come..

Secure access to your web site files protects them using industry-standard 128-bit encryption that is considered virtually unbreakable by computer security experts.

Major cPanel Control Panel Update - 6.30PM October 13, 2004

Last night ServerGrade upgraded all servers to the latest release version of cPanel.

The new version contains additional features such as the highly requested new bandwidth reporting system, improved account backups, speed & appearance improvements, and additional management scripts.

The update also brought the latest versions of the phpMyAdmin database management system, SpamAssassin 3, and the AWStats visitor counter.

Enjoy.

Domain Names Available - 4.00PM August 13, 2004

We are proud to announce we now offer domain names!

This highly requested option allows people to purchase their domain name and hosting at the same time, making getting a website online even easier.

No longer will you have to go through the process of pointing your domain name at our servers to be hosted by us. We'll connect them for you free with any domain name purchase.

The following domain name extensions are available:
.com
.net
.org
.com.au (For Australian organisations)

We're looking to add even more extensions in the future.

To order your domain name and hosting account, click to order one of our plans on our website, and our new-look ordering system will provide you the opportunity.

Also, we would like to thank all of our existing customers for their loyal support. Every day new clients are being introduced to us after recommendations from you. We take it as the greatest compliment about our services.

We're glad you like our service, and appreciate the trust you place in us to maintain your website.

Additional datacenter now online - 5.00PM June 10, 2004

ServerGrade is proud to announce we have now added servers at the brand new InterNap facility in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The new facility has all of the features of our existing datacenter (Hurricane Electric) in California, with the addition of an even better network configuration.

InterNap’s intelligent routing software pre-determines the optimal route to send traffic. It monitors the traffic by looking for latency and re-directing that traffic if needed to maintain the optimal speed. This differs from standard bandwidth providers, who essentially send traffic over their networks at random without regard to latency.

Maintaining a secondary datacenter opens up several new possibilities, including additional redundancy if a major problem (like a fire) ever occurs at either location. Any new hosting accounts where latency is a major issue, can be hosted at their closest datacenter.

New Contact Information Collection - 3.00PM June 10, 2004

Just a reminder to all clients that we need current contact information. If you have changed your email address, postal address, or phone numbers, please let us know.

The last thing any of us need is any downtime because we can't contact you. If you have changed any of your details please contact us.

Telstra introduces email blocking - 12.00PM April 23, 2004

Telstra has announced that they will follow the lead of Optus and introduce restrictions on the sending of email through any outside email servers.

If you are a Telstra customer who uses our email servers for sending mail through an email client like Outlook Express (Webmail is not effected), you will need to change your outgoing mail server setting to mail.bigpond.com.

Here is the announcement from them directly:

In addition to our Spam Filter service, we're launching new anti-spam initiatives.

The first step is the closure of Port 25 on 13th April 2004. Although some businesses use Port 25 to run their own email systems, spammers also use it to send Spam disguised as normal emails. Shutting down Port 25 will stop this kind of spamming.

When will the email system be changed?

The changes will be deployed in two phases: 13th April - to BigPond Home, ISDN and visiting GRIC customers 26th April - to BigPond ADSL customers.

Note: All Static IP services are exempt from these changes.

Our latest server fully operational - 8.30PM March 19, 2004

As first mentioned here on March 5, our latest server is now fully operational and online. We are pleased to say that it has been everything we thought it would be, and has more than lived up to our expectations.

The benefits of the new server are clear - higher reliability on a faster network with better security and monitoring. Clients are already being moved onto the server, and all new accounts are being setup on it.

Gradually over the next few weeks and months, hosting accounts on our older server hardware will be upgraded to this server and  others like it. We are encouraging clients who would like the speed boost now to let us know so we can move them in early.

To have your account on one of our other servers moved early please Email our Support Team.

New super server on the way! - 12.30PM March 5, 2004

ServerGrade is proud to announce that yet another new server will be added to our ever growing collection.

The new server will come with a much greater speed and reliability than any of our existing ones, and it is anticipated this server will improve our uptime to in excess of 99.9%.

The server will be hosted inside the Hurricane Electric datacenter which has received numerous awards over the years, and is considered one of the top 10 datacenters internationally.

In addition to being on one of the best networks available, the servers will have a significantly higher level of monitoring and technicians that will further complement our existing staff.

Technically, we will be also improving the server to provide:

• Higher speed brand-name components
• Higher capacity for larger storage and processing loads
• An improved software configuration based on the Red Hat Linux Fedora core
• Additional security and automation processes

We have made a significant financial and time investment preparing the new server launch, but our prices will not be rising for accounts placed on it.

As we anticipate demand for accounts on this server will be strong, we are doing our best to have it available as early as next week. We will also be allowing existing clients to move their accounts to this server.

If you are ordering a new hosting account and would like to be setup on this new server, please let us know in the comments section of the order form.

Web hosting articles now online - 3.00PM February 25, 2004

As a special service to our valued clients, our admins, developers, and support staff, will now be writing web development articles exclusively for our site.

The articles will be on topics relevant to all web developers and managers, and attempt to help you get the most value from your website.

Any feedback on their articles is always welcome.

OptusNet Cable Email Blocking - 4.00PM February 17, 2004

This news item only applies to customers of using the OptusNet Cable Internet service.

OptusNet have implemented new restrictions on the sending of email through external mail servers over the past couple of weeks. These sending email restrictions came in after the "MyDoom" virus appeared.

The story has been covered in The Age newspaper.

To allow you to continue to send email without interruption while using this service, please use one of the following remedies:

• Send email through their mail servers. You do this by specifying your STMP mail servers as mail.optusnet.com.au. or
• Call their customer service line on 131 344, and let them know that you would like the restriction turned off on your account.

Customer Testimonials Published - 8.00PM February 16, 2004

As some clients may already know, we have been working on collecting a few of the testimonials we have received recently into a client testimonials page.

We will be adding further testimonials as they come in, so if we have exceeded your expectations please let us know.

AWstats statistics package updated - 5.00PM February 8, 2004

The first of our server software updates to the latest stable version of the AWStats statistics package has been completed.

Clients with accounts on the 66.246.44.83 server can see the new version by going into cPanel control panel and clicking on "Web / FTP Stats" as usual. We will be upgrading further servers soon.

Australia Day weekend staffing levels - 11.00AM January 22, 2004

Staff levels for the Australia Day weekend and public holiday (26th of January) will be unchanged.

Monitoring staff, network operations technicians, support staff, sales staff, and management will be working as per normal.

Uptime monitoring now available to clients - 4.00PM January 18, 2004

We are proud to now offer client access to some of our uptime monitoring tools. Our server uptime FAQ page has the details.

We have also added a large list of reseller hosting FAQs.

Christmas / Boxing Day / New Year's Day Support - 5.30PM December 22, 2003

ServerGrade staff will still be available to answer support requests and setup new accounts throughout the holiday period.

Support requests submitted on scheduled public holidays will still be responded to quickly, but our support staff will be slightly reduced on these days. Answers to support requests will still be answered ASAP, but our average response times may be closer to 8 - 9 hours, rather than 3 - 4 hours as has been normal over the past few months.

Server monitoring staff and network operation technicians will still be scheduled as normal on these days. Downtime is not expected.