secrets | DynamicNet, Inc.

Managed Hosting – What are they managing?

Mon, 07 May 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Are you being lulled into believing you are on a managed server when you rent your server from the likes of Rackspace.com and other data centers stating they are offering managed servers?

What does it really mean when a data center provider states they offer managed servers?

Most of the time, especially when the statement is coming from a company that owns multiple data centers, “managed servers” means the servers are managed when you ask for management within the limits of their terms of service.

What this means to business owners is when the managed server provider provisions a server for you, the server is insecure, the operating system is insecure, any installed server applications are insecure, the server and its applications are most likely not PCI compliant, and what’s set up is only what you put down on the order form.

Business owners and managers may be in for a rude awakening when they find out their server or sites on their server have been hacked; then when they ask their provider about it, find out that hardening the server was not included, or they only did an initial server hardening but no follow up to keep the server hardened.

Server management falls into two categories: proactive and reactive.

Proactive management typically means the provider actively works on the server on a regular basis without needing a support ticket or request from the customer

The proactive managed server will most likely be hardened, kept secured with updates applied within a reasonable time frame as updates come out, have logs reviewed daily, security reviewed daily, and so on.

Reactive management typically means the provider does absolutely nothing unless the customer puts in a support ticket asking for help; and then only helps within the terms of service of the provider.

If you want peace of mind for your hosting experience, you want proactive management.

If you are not sure what your proactively manages or does not manage, ask them.

Ask them what they proactively do at what frequency through what period of time. Get specific with questions such as when is a server hardened? How often are operating system updates checked and applied? How often are logs reviewed? What are your procedures for notifying me if I have a near full hard drive partition? If you notice one of my sites being aggressively attacked? If you see an error from one of my sites in an error log? … and so on.

Dynamic Net, Inc. is a full managed hosting provider of proactive managed dedicated servers, proactive managed vps servers, proactive managed shared hosting, and proactive managed reseller hosting.

Why cheap hosting really limits the growth of your site

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:00:00 +0000

When it comes to sayings, one of the older ones is “if it looks too good to be true, it probably is!”

The hard part when it comes to choosing a hosting provider when you have approximately 32,000 hosting providers in the United States alone tied to various groups saying, I’m using so and so for web hosting is commonly falling into the lull of not reading the fine print, not taking the time to do one’s homework.

You might be a member of the LinkedIn WordPress group or a similar business or hobby group; and ten or more people share to go with so and so provider; they’ve been with them for x period of time, and they are happy.

You check out so and so providers site, it looks clean, and they advertise so much disk space and bandwidth… wow, you are really going to get your money’s worth… so you think.

Your site starts off small, and everything appears to be working well. You might even join the band wagon sharing with others, use my host; look at all I’m getting for just $ per month.

Now for some house keeping… almost all businesses fall into one of two categories for how they choose to compete against others in their field of business.

Hosting providers who compete on price will do their best to continue being able to compete on price. That typically means cutting corners, focus on being penny smart. It typically means focusing on cost cutting rather than maintaining or adding value. Their number one priority is the ability for them to keep their price low; you, their customer only come after that number one priority.

Hosting providers who compete on value will have higher prices than those who compete on price. The hosting providers who compete on value are typically focused on maintaining and increasing the value they provide to their customers. They are focused on their customers. Human beings mean more and should receive value for what they pay.

The majority of the hosting providers in the world compete on price. And that way of competing involves a number of dirty little secrets.

One of the dirty little secrets you may never run into if your site stays small — small in traffic usage, small in CPU usage, small in disk usage, and so on.

If your site does grow, you may find yourself in a bind with the provider for whom you thought you were getting so much value for the dollar just looking at all of the resources they advertise for such a cheap price.

Yet, as your site grows you are most likely going to face problems you would not have thought about in advance.

inode limit – WOW, I thought I had so much available disk space.

You, or even worse a prospective, big dollar value, client of yours takes an action which involves adding a file to the server (it could be as simple as an online order that creates a temporary file on the server) to find out they cannot. The prospective customer leaves never to come back

You may not even know the problem exists until you try to upload a new file; maybe something as simple as adding a new image to your web site.

When you contact the providers support department, you find out you have maxed out all of your inodes. To keep it simple, one file or folder takes up one (1) inode.

They tell you that you must now delete folders and files to free up inodes; and you are left speechless because you are using less than 5% of the disk space they advertise on their site.

Cheap hosting providers, to keep their costs low, will place limits on the number of inodes they allow per hosting plan.

Value hosting providers such as Dynamic Net, Inc. provide unlimited inodes.

CPU limit, RAM limit, process limit — what happened to my online store? Why are my online sales down?

Far worse than inodes is when customers cannot place orders on your site… and you only find out when either an irate customer calls — if they have the time — or your hosting provider shuts down your site without advance notice.

One way or the other you find out your hosting provider has placed limits on how much CPU, how much RAM, and sometimes even how many processes on the server your site can use.

If your site is shut down, you are typically told you must upgrade — where is that in the budget? — or move off their services (so much for advance notice to really plan out a move).

You feel you are being blackmailed into upgrading so you can get your site back online… but for how long? Since the upgraded plan most likely has its own limits for CPU, RAM, and processes. Where is the light?

On March 7, 2012 there was a post in web hosting discussion forum about a popular, cheap hosting provider titled, Issues with ____________ Throttling? (hosting provider name removed to respect their privacy).

I’m currently running an IPBoard through ____________ and have recently had some slow loading times. Invision suggested that I contact ____________ as it looked like my server was bogged down by other websites, so I contacted ____________ and they just said this:

This is because your account is currently experiencing CPU limiting factors (throttling). During the past 24 hours, your account has been throttled for a total of 62455.518 seconds.

Editorial Note: Is that what you want running behind the scenes slowing down your site; and you are not notified about it unless someone complains?

Cheap hosting providers, to keep their costs low, will use either home grown operating systems and tools or operating systems like CloudLinux to severely limit the amount of CPU, RAM, and processes available to a site.

Value providers such as Dynamic Net, who do use CloudLinux, will have limits high enough to allow any normal site usage including being on the home shopping club and various TV shows like QVC; and what limits are in place are high enough ceilings to catch only misuse.

If you were hunting for physical office space, a home, an apartment, etc. you would want to see the place, look at the neighborhood, check out the surrounding businesses. You would carefully review any lease or rental agreement. You would leave very little (if anything) to chance.

Why not take a more serious, proactive approach to your hosting needs?

While you may not be in a position to visit a facility or the office of the provider (not all providers own the data center where the equipment is located), you could call or email; and dig deep with questions that go beyond what’s advertised as being a part of a particular hosting plan.

The bottom line is will the hosting provider allow you to grow your business easily without ever holding you hostage? Will they be there for you over the years whether your business is growing, or sad to say down sizing?

Contact us if you have any questions about our managed hosting services. We compete on value because we know you and others like you matter far more as human beings than wanting to be the cheapest or among the cheapest provider around.

Cheap hosting Dirty Little Secrets

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, Iron Chef, Michael Symon was on the Dr. Oz show sharing with viewers, Restaurantâ€™s Dirty Little Secrets… that if you only knew… there would be certain items you would never order, always question, and so on.

Over the past fifteen plus years, I’ve the chance to read post after post, thread after thread, in a major web hosting discussion forum.

While it is extremely common to read threads titled, “How long have you been with your current provider?” with common answers of six months or less, it is just as common to read posts that would have most web hosting consumers, especially business owners, up in arms.

What are some of the dirty little secrets cheap hosting providers do not want you to know?

With the exception of the last section, Local Designers offering Web site hosting — which deals with a personal experience — the posts below are word for word quotes, sometimes from desperate hosting business owners showing a little about what goes in inside their business or what they are exposed to in their business.

My hosting website has been hacked

“Web hosting website has been hacked yesterday and the person who did it deleted all my websites and my clients websites as well.

I have lost 15 website that are mine. 47 websites for clients. Plus I kept getting emails from angry clients too.

The server is down…. my website is not working …. etc

Also, I have an ebay store with +800 lists and all my images for the listing were hosted in my account. Now everything is gone.

I have lost all my emails, hosting packages, and more.”

(Editorial note: The overwhelming majority of cheap hosting providers DO NOT secure their servers. Some of those who state they do, did so only one time — that’s not security, that’s being cheap! Most cheap providers do not review their logs and security reports throughout the day — every day. Most do not review security blogs daily, check for updates daily, etc.).

Ripped off and or lied to!!!

“Is there any true 24/7 tech support you can talk to these days? We tried 2 different out, and the support was either never available, available with someone who could do something very simple, and least but not least something usually got done, either a day or 2 weeks later. What the heck? We do a pretty good back ground check on a host before we check it. Make sure it is not a reseller or if it is a reseller, we try our best to find as much pro’s and no con’s. Every company starts some where and with more clients they expand and last long one hopes.

The worst part is that the one client we were dealing with shortly ago was a non-profit and helped lives.

To host owners out there that take advantage of false advertising, over charging, delaying / excuses, and so much more…Good luck. One day the government will catch up and probably audit as much as the u.s. as they can online. Any unpaid taxes or scams (false advertising to back up a case they may have) will arise. That’s just a fact on google.

Sorry guys. Had to let this out here. After 2 vps hosts in a row we are not happy campers.

Where is the best place to go and or can someone offer some Tylenol to a repeat of headaches we go through. This time it just happened 2 in a row so the frustration had to be left out.”

(Editorial note: This is from a business that tried a number of VPS hosting providers who said they provide support, and where not there when needed).

Big Mistake – Underestimating my web hosting business

“Well, it looks like I made a mistake on the packages I set up with my web hosting service. I only had a total of 50gb I could resell. The packages I set up on my site for sale was an increment of

5000mb – package 1
10000mb – package 2
15000mb – package 3
20000mb – package 4

I already got one customer for package 4. Got 2 customers for package 1. Got one customer for package 3. Guess what that leaves me? With basically nothing, in the negatives. Now I have to recalculate and adjust my packages + pricing. Anyone have any advice on the best way of going about in this?”

(Editorial note: the hosting provider did not measure twice to saw once, and basically set up four customers that now uses all of the space on the server.).

Making absolutely no profit. Might have to shut down.

“Well, I offer very cheap prices and shared hosting with unlimited disk/bandwidth…

I am getting no business.

I have Virtual Private Servers, Reseller Hosting, Shared Hosting, and SEO.

Any suggestions on how to get some customers? I might have to shut down my hosting business soon.”

(Editorial note: When did you last see unlimited hard drives on sale?)

Making Profit From Web Hosting Business

“Friends, I am planning to start a web hosting business. Now i am studying many things related to this business. But i am confused, how hosting business make profit.”

(Editorial note: Unfortunately, it is so easy to start a web hosting business, it can be done without any special skills, certification, experience, etc.)

Tips on improving my Web hosting business

“I started hosting exactly 8 months back…

I’m been very honest here!! I only managed to get 10 clients which is ridiculous…”

(Editorial note: While not all cheap providers have a “get rich quick” mentality, a large number do not understand the time and money investment needed to do the job correctly.)

Local Designers offering Web site hosting

Last year when we went to have our Web site redesigned, we looked at a number of local design firms; one of whom uses the word, “axiom” in their company name. It is interesting to note that one of the definitions of the word, axiom is “self-evident truth that requires no proof.”

When I saw this particular company offers web hosting, I was curious to see if they had their own data center, if they were a reseller, a reseller of a reseller and so on. So I did less than five minutes of homework to find out they are using The Planet. The Planet is a reputable data center provider.

When we met with the owners of this company, I put the “self-evident truth that requires no proof” to the test by asking them if they own their own data center. They stated, “yes.”

When I asked them how can that be given they are using The Planet, they stated they own The Planet (the company and its data centers).

The questioning went on and on with various answers until finally they admitted the truth that they rent a server from The Planet; and staff at The Planet tries to help them when things go wrong.

Why they could not tell the truth when asked the first time, only they know… there’s nothing wrong with using a reputable data center provider like The Planet.

The sad parts is that the did a disservice to their company name — “self-evident truth that requires no proof”, and they lost the sale because why should I or anyone else deal with a company that lies right to your face (we met the two owners in our office). We would never recommend them to anyone.

If you think you are safe because you use a “brand name” cheap hosting provider, then think again. When you are out to deliver cheap services (hosting is a service, not a boxed product), you have to cut corners in order to lower the price or keep the price point low.

That may mean outsourcing support to India and other countries where the work ethic may be extremely different. That may mean using cheap equipment or trying to keep the same equipment longer than its shelf life. The list goes on.

Hosting providers who compete on price will do their best to continue being able to compete on price. That typically means cutting corners, focus on being penny smart. It typically means focusing on cost cutting rather than value; and rather than their customers — human beings, people.

If your business matters to you, then please do your home work. Ask very hard questions, and dig deeper than the surface when you receive answers. It is your business, and you have the right to quality service.

Please contact us if you have any questions.

Hidden Costs of Choosing a Server Management Team

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 13:49:54 +0000

Itâ€™s the age old question when youâ€™re buying almost anythingâ€¦especially in this economy: Where is that target intersection where price meets quality to determine great value for your dollar?

I was recently working with a potential client on an H-sphere migration. It seemed like a good fit and as we progressed toward coming to terms on the deal, price invariably became an important part of the discussion.

The potential client already had one quote in hand and ours was, regrettably, higher. While I think we both believed there was a good potential match here, they opted to go with the lower quote and, really, I understood. I felt we were probably the best option for their needs, but I also understand that thereâ€™s a difficult decision to be made.

Within a few days, I followed up to see how things were going and, unfortunately, the answer was not that well. There were issues with the migration that included some extended down time and while migrations are always difficult, I was left with the impression it was probably preventable with proper preparation and planning.

Further, and this threw me for a loop, they told me the price ended up quadrupling from the initial quoteâ€¦it was now twice the amount I originally gave them!

Perplexed, I asked what happened and it was an all-too-familiar story. The quote was really a â€œbase quoteâ€. It included the migration of data, but it didnâ€™t include the pre-migration work, IP mapping, etc.

It didnâ€™t include any time for clean-up, installation of the control panel on the target servers, or post-migration troubleshooting to iron out all the wrinkles. In essence, they were sold a car without an engine, transmission, or tires.

Weâ€™ve been in business for over 16 years and providing Linux server management for most of those years. While we donâ€™t often get to see what weâ€™re up against when quoting, we often hear about the aftermath of a project that either ended up costing a lot more than anticipated, took a lot longer than anticipated, or ended in disaster, whether itâ€™s an H-Sphere cluster migration, a server hardening, or a simple update.

So, really, this was just another reminder to me that regardless of what service or product youâ€™re looking for, itâ€™s always important to consider the real cost of the solution, whether itâ€™s add-ons, downtime, or lost business/reputation while sorting through the aftermath.

Migrations are always a particularly challenging project given the level of complexity and all the potential for downtime, but if youâ€™re planning for this type of project – almost any project, really – it’s critical to know who you’re working with and what corners might be getting cut to get that more attractive, base price, quote.

Are they including all the preparation and quality assurance steps? Are they using well trained, in-house server admins? Will there be any language or communication gaps that can lead to down time? Is this project part of their core business or an ancillary service they offer for a few extra bucks?

Migration Service	Dynamic Net	Other company
Pre-planning (measure twice, saw once)		No
IP mapping plan		No
Complete documented migration plan		No
Custom operating system partitioning guidelines		No
Control panel installation on target servers		No
Data migration
Estimated post-migration cleanup & troubleshooting		No

Finding the right partner for a migration (or any server management need) at the right price is always a difficult decision for any business, but possibly the most important cost to consider is the cost of choosing the wrong one for the job.