Holdfire Hosting » Holdfire http://holdfire.net/blog Sun, 29 Aug 2010 20:59:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Dharma downtime due to dead mobo http://holdfire.net/blog/dharma-downtime-due-to-dead-mobo.html http://holdfire.net/blog/dharma-downtime-due-to-dead-mobo.html#comments Sun, 29 Aug 2010 20:53:00 +0000 Jordan http://holdfire.net/blog/?p=225 Continue reading →]]> Dharma’s motherboard unexpected died on us earlier this morning with no hint that it was going to stop working. Since we house our servers in a datacenter, we do not always have immediate access to them. There was a long delay with having the motherboard replaced which results in Dharma being down for more than 60 minutes (which is our own SLA we have from our provider.) Unfortunately there was nothing we could have done to sped this up as our provider did not have any extra motherboards for our specific server processor on hand. As a result they went out of there way to purchase a new mobo and as such was the reason why our server was down for several hours this early afternoon.

For those of you that contacted us via support ticket or Twitter during this issue, you will receive a month of free hosting.

Also as a result, we are working on our new newsletter system that will be sent to our clients. We will be organizing our clients by servers: Flame, Dharma, Orchid and general. We do realize that some people do not stick through with Twitter and/or our blog and would prefer to be emailed on notices such as the aforementioned and anything in the future. Be not afraid we know your want for this and we are working on this immediately! :)

]]> http://holdfire.net/blog/dharma-downtime-due-to-dead-mobo.html/feed 4 New and Improved Dedicated Server Line http://holdfire.net/blog/new-and-improved-dedicated-server-line.html http://holdfire.net/blog/new-and-improved-dedicated-server-line.html#comments Thu, 29 Apr 2010 19:40:22 +0000 Jordan http://holdfire.net/blog/?p=222 Continue reading →]]> We have made the decision to rework our dedicated server line from the bottom up. We have not been satisfied with the quality of servers from our current datacenter (HostNOC/BurstNET) in terms of hardware quality and their network’s uptime. As a result, we will no longer be utilizing their products/datacenter for new servers purchased today and thereafter. However, any current dedicated server clients will still remain under the BurstNET datacenter as our server line and pricing has changed significantly from the products previously available. Although we will allow any current client to purchase a new server and be migrated to the new datacenter if any of the new products interest you.

So without further ado, here are the new servers:

  • Xeon Dual Core 3110
    • 500GB Seagate SATA 7200RPM
    • 4GB DDR2 RAM
    • 10TB Monthly Bandwidth Allocation
    • 100Mbps Uplink Port
    • 5 Static IP Addresses
    • $125/Monthly
  • Intel Core2Quad Q9550
    • 500GB Seagate SATA 7200RPM
    • 4GB DDR2 RAM
    • 10TB Monthly Bandwidth Allocation
    • 100Mbps Uplink Port
    • 5 Static IP Addresses
    • $160/Monthly
  • Intel Nehalem Xeon 5520
    • 1TB Seagate SATA 7200RPM
    • 12GB DDR2 RAM
    • 10TB Monthly Bandwidth Allocation
    • 100Mbps Uplink Port
    • 5 Static IP Addresses
    • $240/Monthly

All servers will be located in two different datacenters in the Chicagoland area. DC1 features redundant N+1 power, HVAC, and top-of-the-line networking facilities. DC2 features ultra-redundant power, HVAC, and networking systems with no single point of failure. The building features over 200,000 square feet of raised-floor computing space; SingleHop currently has 10,000 Sqft of computing space in this location.

]]> http://holdfire.net/blog/new-and-improved-dedicated-server-line.html/feed 1 Cleaning up information on My.HF http://holdfire.net/blog/cleaning-up-information-on-my-hf.html http://holdfire.net/blog/cleaning-up-information-on-my-hf.html#comments Sat, 13 Mar 2010 08:03:36 +0000 Jordan http://holdfire.net/blog/?p=219 Continue reading →]]> We decided to do some much needed spring cleaning on our billing backend this year. We’ve removed all canceled and terminated hosting services (add-ons included) as well as canceled and expired domain name registrations.

This will be especially relieving to clients that may have leftover domains and/or hosting accounts mixed in with your active accounts. No longer will you need to see them clogging up your list.

Have a great weekend and be safe for St. Paddy’s day!

]]> http://holdfire.net/blog/cleaning-up-information-on-my-hf.html/feed 0 Dharma DNS Changes http://holdfire.net/blog/dharma-dns-changes.html http://holdfire.net/blog/dharma-dns-changes.html#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:28:39 +0000 Jordan http://holdfire.net/blog/?p=159 Continue reading →]]> In an effort to keep up with our client’s growing needs, we have migrated from our old IP addresses to new IP addresses. 173.212.202.154 and 173.212.202.155 are now the new IP addresses for nameservers on Dharma.

We have also suspended the use of all previous nameservers except for ns1.holdfire.net, ns2.holdfire.net, ns3.holdfire.net and ns4.holdfire.net. Although some users on Orchid may still utilize orchid1/orchid2 for the time being as those have not yet been flushed out.

We are also in the process of making our hosting more transparent so that if you want to resell to your own clients with the Holdfire label attached to it, you will be able to do so. We’ll be straying from using ‘Holdfire’ itself on our reseller servers to allow you to have private label hosting for you and your own clients. More details will be made shortly.

Thanks!

]]> http://holdfire.net/blog/dharma-dns-changes.html/feed 0 Holdfire clients using Mint, disable mod_security http://holdfire.net/blog/holdfire-clients-using-mint-disable-mod_security.html http://holdfire.net/blog/holdfire-clients-using-mint-disable-mod_security.html#comments Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:01:20 +0000 Jordan http://holdfire.net/blog/?p=154 Continue reading →]]> We have currently changed around some of our mod_security settings on all of our servers and as a result have noticed a growing issue with Mint.

We receive the error “ModSecurity: Access denied with code 406 (phase 2). Invalid UTF-8 encoding: invalid byte value in character at ARGS:resource_title” from all instances of Mint on all of our servers. We looked into it and according to several posts on Mint‘s troubleshooting forum, Shaun has recommended the user include an .htaccess file in the mint directory with the following which will disable mod_security for that directory only.

<IfModule mod_security.c>
SecFilterEngine Off
SecFilterScanPOST Off
SecFilterCheckURLEncoding Off
SecRuleRemoveById 950801
</IfModule>

References:

]]> http://holdfire.net/blog/holdfire-clients-using-mint-disable-mod_security.html/feed 1 Celebrating 4 years of service http://holdfire.net/blog/celebrating-4-years-of-service.html http://holdfire.net/blog/celebrating-4-years-of-service.html#comments Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:11:35 +0000 Jordan http://holdfire.net/blog/?p=152 Continue reading →]]> This past October Holdfire celebrated it’s 4th birthday. While we were a little late on celebrating another year of business, we did manage to launch our new website. Along with our new website, we have decided to retire one of our shared plans and on of our reseller plans.

This decision was based on the lack of interest in the two plans removed as well as simplifying our selection for potential clients. While more options are great to have sometimes it can be too confusing–we’re going to keep it simple! And since we removed two plans we decided to “upgrade” the remaining packages with more disk space or bandwidth (or both.)

We also expanded in other areas and now offer the ability to purchase virtual private servers and dedicated servers. Each have three plans to chose from and give you the ability to customize them based on your needs. On either of the servers you can select your operating system, control panel and add the option for fully managed support. However, with our dedicated servers while there is a main setup, you can opt to add extra harddrives in any RAID configuration, order extra IP blocks, upgrade/downgrade your main harddrive, and of course opt for other add-ons available.

You may see some bugs here and there with our website and other products (forum, blog, support area) but we’re trying to squash them as we see them. If there’s something we’ve missed, send an email or support ticket letting us know–it’s greatly appreciated!

]]> http://holdfire.net/blog/celebrating-4-years-of-service.html/feed 0 Chirp – Server Migration http://holdfire.net/blog/chirp-server-migration.html http://holdfire.net/blog/chirp-server-migration.html#comments Sat, 05 Sep 2009 17:58:51 +0000 Jordan http://holdfire.net/blog/?p=124 Continue reading →]]> Chirp has been our main (shared) server for over two years now, and has served us quite well. However, in the last few months I have noticed that the server specs are no longer providing the quality of service that I expect for Holdfire. Server loads average 1.5 or higher on a daily basis, and when I’ve accessed cPanel throughout the day, I notice in increase in wait time for it to load.

Because of this we have deployed a new server to replace Chirp. As we have many clients on Chirp, we will only be migrating accounts on certain days. To organize this process as best we can, we will only migrate via alphabetical order per day. A-G will begin migration on Sunday September 6th, H-N on Monday September 7th, O-U on Tuesday September 8th, and V-Z on Wednesday September 9th.

When your account has been migrated over in full, you will receive a new account details email which will include new nameservers, and the new server IP address. The chirp nameservers will remain in effect (although will be pointing to the new server on 9/10) until September 20th to allow all users time to change them. After this they will be deactivated and if you have an account still using these nameservers, the domain will be unable to connect properly.

If you have any questions about our migration, please submit a support ticket.

]]> http://holdfire.net/blog/chirp-server-migration.html/feed 0 Free .com domain with annual purchase http://holdfire.net/blog/free-com-domain-with-annual-purchase.html http://holdfire.net/blog/free-com-domain-with-annual-purchase.html#comments Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:40:46 +0000 Jordan http://holdfire.net/blog/?p=101 Continue reading →]]> It has been quite some time since we’ve had a promotion here at Holdfire. We decided to go ahead and change things up a bit since the summer has been quite placid. With any annual order, you receive a fee .COM domain name (or transfer) with your purchase.

To receive your free domain, simply chose any shared or reseller package from our order cart, then enter in your desired .COM domain. You will then be taken to the package description page where you will select annual from the billing options.

Voila!

]]> http://holdfire.net/blog/free-com-domain-with-annual-purchase.html/feed 3 New Look for Holdfire! http://holdfire.net/blog/new-look-for-holdfire.html http://holdfire.net/blog/new-look-for-holdfire.html#comments Thu, 30 Apr 2009 02:41:32 +0000 Jordan http://holdfire.net/blog/?p=83 Continue reading →]]> It’s been a year since we last gave Holdfire a great new look. We originally promised to have this design done by the start of the new year but we fell behind schedule and eventually we cast it aside for the time being.

Over the past few weeks we’ve been hard at work getting things put together, as well as a bunch of other features and extras that we plan on offering here at Holdfire. With the addition of our blog, we also added on our Twitter account, and while we have yet to really push this, we have our forum that we are aiming have active and an integral part of our community.

As for our other new extras, we have a few Holdfire ventures that we’ll be presenting soon, and hope that you take advantage of the services offered up!

And last but surely not least: For awhile we’ve maintained our account center at holdfirebilling.com, but have recently decided to stray from using a 2nd brand. Our account center is now accessible by my.holdfire.net. Because we have a lot of URLs floating around that point to Holdfirebilling.com, we have set up a 301 redirect via .htaccess so that all files are redirected to their respective URLs on my.holdfire.net.

]]> http://holdfire.net/blog/new-look-for-holdfire.html/feed 7 Client Account Center Status http://holdfire.net/blog/client-account-center-status.html http://holdfire.net/blog/client-account-center-status.html#comments Sat, 28 Feb 2009 03:57:41 +0000 Jordan http://holdfire.net/blog/?p=81 Continue reading →]]> Currently we are working on our account center for Holdfire clients. We’re making live edits and changes as we go along so you may see some features removed, and some added. Don’t worry though, we’re just finally getting things situated so that your stay here as a client with us is as comfortable and perfect as it can get.

For the time being our site redesign has been put on hold, as well as our blog. Don’t fret though, we’re going to try to get back into the grove of things shortly. If you’ve got any recommendations for features you’d like to see here, please feel free to comment and let us know. We’re all eyes!

]]> http://holdfire.net/blog/client-account-center-status.html/feed 0