HostDime Blog

Discussion on Data Center Infrastructure

HostDime Partners with Attracta for SEO Plugin

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Guest post by: Dan Silber

VP of Sales

HostDime has partnered with Attracta to provide all customers on our Shared and Reseller servers a free SEO plugin for cPanel.

A few quick facts about local search and advertising:

A recent report by comScore for Yellow Pages Association shows that the number of mobile subscribers accessing business directories on a mobile phone increased 14 percent year-over-year to 17.3 million users in March 2010.

It is also estimated that 95% of Google’s Revenue comes from it’s Google AdWords service. That means in Q3 of 2010 advertisers spent roughly $3 billion on paid advertising through Google and it’s affiliated sites.

It’s a trap! Phishing Scams and Malware

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Guest post by: Jonathan S.

Abuse & Security Analyst

Phishing scams and malware infected sites are some of the many problems that the Abuse & Security Department is in assigned to handle here at HostDime. It’s also one of the most common issues that we will find when clients inform us of warning labels placed on their sites.

Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome browsers are featured with “Phishing and Malware Protection” which will alert the visitor that the page they are about to view may try to steal their information. The alert message is spawned from a published list of known attack sites which is maintained by Google and StopBadware.org.

The primary reason this message will appear is either a phishing scam attempting to lure the visitor into updating their personal information on fake (but very real looking) website, or malicious scripts that have been injected into the source of the website which cause your browser to download malware.

Resolving 500 Internal Server Errors

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Guest post by: Paul A.

Server Analyst III

One of the most common support requests we receive is regarding 500 Internal Server Errors. The 500 error itself covers a vast range of possibilities. This specifically covers common PHP 500 errors running on servers utilizing suPHP (all of our shared and reseller servers utilize suPHP).

The most common cause for the error is permissions. In a suPHP environment, PHP files and directories that they are executed from cannot be writeable by group or everyone (maximum of 755 permissions). Ensure that all PHP files are 755 or less, and the directories that they are in have permissions of 755 or less as well.

Errors can also be caused by php_flag or php_value entries in an .htaccess file. Since suPHP runs as CGI and not as module like mod_php, it cannot be controlled through an .htaccess. Any php_flag or php_value entries will cause a 500 error on a suPHP server.

A 500 error can also be caused by a malformed PHP header that contains a non-printable character prior to the PHP tag opening. This will cause a premature end of script headers error and a 500 error.

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 2010 Update

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On Sunday, the HostDime.com / HostingCure team ran in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. This race was important to us running for family members and also contributing to a greater good for our community. We are planning a few more charity 5k’s for the next few months.

Our chip runners had the following times:
#102 – Alex Font – 25:01
#226 – Michael Kahn – 27:38
#227 – Greg Prepetit – 27:39
#347 – Alex Vargas – 29:07
#1104 – Hector Santos – 54:54

HostDime Launches HostingCure to Fund Breast Cancer Research

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HostDime today launched HostingCure, a first-of-its-kind initiative for the web hosting industry to raise money for breast cancer research. Except for skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, and more than 200,000 women are diagnosed with the disease each year alone in the United States.

Through HostingCure, any individual or web hosting company can donate to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, which is the only breast cancer organization to receive an “A+” from the American Institute of Philanthropy and the only cancer organization to currently hold the same ranking.

Web hosting companies who contribute to the effort financially with a donation of $500 or more will also be recognized publicly. HostDime has already donated $600 and will be initiating more efforts to raise money. All participating web hosts will be honored on the HostingCure website at http://hostingcure.com/participating-hosts.

Deploying Enkompass on Xen VPS

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Guest post by: Alex Vargas

Windows Department Manager

We’ve been testing Enkompass since its first trial version and we’ve recently began testing on our new Windows VPS packages. The idea was to test Enkompass as a distributed system at a much lower cost than running on a dedicated server cluster. We’ll try and release some benchmarks in the future but for now we wanted to show how to setup a cost effective virtualized Enkompass cluster.

In our test environment we used three of our HostDime Xen based WVPS.2 packages. One server is running active directory which handles DNS and users , another is running IIS and the Enkompass control panel storing all domain content. Our last server is running MSSQL, MYSQL and the mail server, Mail Enable.

Servicio de Soporte Técnico en Español Oficial de HostDime

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Guest post by: Jose B.

International Project Supervisor

Les queremos dar a todos un gran saludo de parte de la familia HostDime. Hoy es un gran día para el equipo de HostDime, especialmente para nuestro equipo HostDime en Español. Por varios años nuestra empresa ha dado soporte técnico y asistencia a todos nuestros clientes de habla hispana, ganando bastante experiencia en el proceso.

Durante este tiempo hemos perfeccionado y crecido como equipo y como empresa. Hoy HostDime.com, Inc. siente gran orgullo en anunciar oficialmente este servicio de Soporte en Español que durante este tiempo hemos ofrecido. Con la experiencia global que HostDime ha adquirido con el tiempo, hoy contamos con varias ramas en países de Latino América como México (HostDime-Mexico) y Colombia (HostDime-Colombia), ofreciendo servicios de alojamiento web local, y próximamente Hostdime-LatinoAmerica el cual proveerá servicios de soporte técnico a todos los países de habla hispana.

Para HostDime ha sido un placer ofrecer este nivel de servicio a nuestros clientes Internacionales así como a nuestros clientes de los Estados Unidos. Como todos los servicios de HostDime, nuestro servicio de Soporte en Español sigue manteniendo los mismos logros, los cuales son proveer un nivel de alta calidad técnica, pero con la atención y amabilidad de nuestra cultura.

Susan G Komen 2010 Race for the Cure

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This year the HostDime Cares team will be participating in our 2nd annual Susan G Komen 2010 Central Florida Race for the Cure 5k on Sunday, October 17, 2010. At HostDime we are always working to better our communities and to help make a differences in peoples lives. As you…

What Customer Service means to HostDime

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Guest post by: Dennis Henry
Support Manager

In our industry, everyone talks about “customer service,” but what is it, really? What does true customer service entail? What limits does it have? Where does “good” customer service become “great”? These are questions I have struggled to understand in my years in the field. According to Jamier L. Scott in Electronic Commerce: A Managerial Perspective, “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation.” I feel that HostDime.com has really embraced the concept of customer service and taken it even further. As Support Manager here, I have worked to push the limits of customer service as traditionally defined to higher levels never seen in our industry. Impeccable customer service is my goal here at HostDime and it should be the goal of every Customer Service department at every company.

After taking on my position of Server Analyst I, I quickly learned that HostDime.com has an approach to support which is different than the other companies I had worked for. At other companies, the focus is on quantity and speed, rather then quality. In contrast, the support goals at HostDime are to respond quickly, but not at the expense of quality results. Providing excellent support and pushing oneself to always ensure the customer is satisfied was something that was ingrained into me early on.

HostDime is the latest exhibitors at cPanel Conference 2010

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HostDime, Softlayer, PingZine!, Webhosting Magazine, and OpenSRS are the latest exhibitors at cPanel Conference 2010 — Automation Bootcamp. cPanel Conference 2010 will provide participants with great insight into cPanel operations, access to networking opportunities, and content-driven sessions focused on advancing the knowledge of all attendees. These five additions are sure to add to that vision.