SolidNode

(The Hosting News) – HOUSTON —R1Soft, developer of Linux Hot Copy (HCP), a free command line utility that takes instant point-in-time snapshots of online Linux file systems, today announced the availability of HCP Beta Version 3.3.1. This latest release furthers Hot Copy’s maturity with updates and performance improvements.

For Windows Server administrators the ability to perform online disk snapshots is easy and has been included by default since Windows Server 2003, called Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service. R1Soft Hot Copy adds volume shadow copy to Linux servers.

“In an interview with IDG in 2008 Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer claimed Linux runs on 60 percent of the servers. It has always been amazing to me that the operating system running on 60 percent of the World’s servers had no universal volume snapshot tool. Volume snapshots are a very important tool for server administration, yet for Linux administrators taking an online disk snapshot has historically been a complicated challenge. With R1Soft Hot Copy Linux, volume snapshots are easy and available to all Linux servers,” said David Wartell, vice president of R1Soft, a division of BBS Technologies, Inc.

The latest release of Hot Copy Beta adds the ability to take multiple point-in-time snapshots of online disk volumes. These readable and writable snapshots are useful for everything from backups, upgrades, testing system changes, and security audits. Hot Copy can even be used to detect corrupt file systems while the server is online, something that typically requires server down time and maintenance.

“Sure there has always historically been Linux Volume Manager Snapshots (LVM), however LVM does not directly support many of the popular storage configurations like basic partitions, virtual disks for Xen, and replicated block devices. Further, Linux LVM Snapshots require an administrator to create dedicated snapshot storage ahead of time, typically when the server is first installed, and this is often forgotten until someone needs a volume snapshot. All these challenges are a thing of the past for Linux now that Hot Copy is available” said Wartell.

Today’s release also integrates the free Linux utility with R1Soft’s newest version of its Continuous Data Protection ® (CDP) software, CDP 3 Standard Edition, allowing Hot Copies to be created while CDP 3 is performing replicas of the same device.

To download Linux Hot Copy for free and to learn more about how it works, please visit http://www.r1soft.com/tools/linux-hot-copy/

Linux Volume Snapshot Tool, Hot Copy Beta 2, released by R1Soft is a post from: Web Hosting News

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Recent statistics released by Dasient show there has been a rise in malware being hosted on web sites – many of these sites are unknowingly spreading the malicious software.  Dasient states that over  640,000 web sites are infected with malware.

Blacklisting by Google

As a result of this sudden rise, Google’s blacklist of infected sites has doubled over the past year.  How does a site end up on Google’s blacklist?  There are several reasons for Google to blacklist a site but in as far as how it pertains to malware, the culprit is doorway pages.

Parading as a doorway page

A doorway page is a page created specifically for search engines.  Anyone visiting a doorway page would be completely unaware of it as they are designed to be invisible to the regular visitor.  These doorway pages are keyword rich specifically targeting each search engine.  The malware being placed on unsuspecting web sites creates exactly this type of blacklisted action.

How malware is placed within the site

Exactly how are these pieces of malicious software being placed into unsuspecting web sites?  They are created using javascript and iframes and are inserted into web site advertisements or even widgets.  In the case of infected advertisements, the ads are designed in such a way as to fool the average user.  The usual modus operandi is to pop-up and flash a warning that the user’s computer might possibly be infected.  Once the unsuspecting user clicks on the ad in any way (either by clicking “OK” or “Cancel”), they are immediately redirected to a web site that sells anti-virus software.  The reality is the user’s computer is perfectly fine and they have been a victim of “scareware”.

How to prevent malware attacks

How can web site owners prevent their web sites from being attacked by malware creators?  One straight forward way to fend off possible attacks is to not use javascripting within the web site.  Another simple tactic is to remove any PHP scripting that requests user input.  This can often be used to use SQL injection tactics.  Placing tighter security rules within the server PHP.ini and htaccess files is also a very good step.

How to repair if already attacked

What if a web site has already been attacked?  If the web site is small, a file by file clean-up can be done.  A thorough search of each file for any unwanted javascript code or iframe coding will have to done.  However, if the web site in question is rather large and extensive, contracting a service that specializes in web site malware removal may be the best option.  There are a few places that can be found on the web that would be able to help should a web site already have this malware infection.

Conclusion

All told, it is a good practice to eliminate javascript and PHP coding that requests user input.  Continuous vigilance over the security of one’s web site, unfortunately, is a fact of life.

Popularity: unranked [?]

( The Hosting News ) – H4Y Technologies LLC, an established leader in web hosting and internet services, today announced its acquisition of iWebFusion Technologies LLC of Oregon (iWebFusion.net).  iWebFusion will continue to operate as a separate brand under H4Y Technologies LLC.  iWebFusion brings an entirely new customer base to H4Y Technologies LLC.  Host4Yourself.com, the primary brand of H4Y Technologies, focuses on development, enterprise class and mission critical managed hosting, dedicated servers, and colocation, while iWebFusion.net has made a successful name for itself based on its economical shared, reseller, and VPS product lines. 

Evan Kamlet, LLC Member of H4Y Technologies, said, “As if Host4Yourself.com didn’t already offer a huge range of options to our clients, the purchase of iWebFusion.net should make us attractive to just about every conceivable consumer and business.  With the resources and capital on tap at H4Y, we foresee a very rosy picture for iWebFusion.net in the coming months and years.  It is very exciting for all of us”. 

iWebFusion.net’s staff, billing, and structure will not change.  Existing customers will encounter no ill effects as no equipment will be moved.  A portion of iWebFusion.net’s equipment was already under the ownership of H4Y Technologies LLC before the acquisition.  It is still up for debate whether the pricing model will remain unchanged, but clients have been guaranteed that existing accounts will never increase in price, nor will future sign-ups for clients with existing accounts. 

H4Y also worked out a partnership arrangement with USSHC (United States Secure Hosting Center) in Monticello, IA.  The underground bomb and EMP resistant datacenter boasts its status as “the most secure datacenter in the United States”.  iWebFusion VPS nodes and dedicated servers currently occupy a small portion of datacenter space at this facility.  The existing infrastructure will not change, but H4Y Technologies will add to it and offer Host4Yourself.com customers a new line of mission-critical hosting products based on this new partnership.

Host4Yourself.com already offered a linear upgrade path for its clientele.  With this acquisition, the entry level for prospective clients is lower than ever before and the scalability options are nearly unlimited with products and plans at nearly every imaginable price point.

Host4Yourself Acquires iWebFusion Technologies and Datacenter Space at USSHC is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.

Popularity: unranked [?]

( The Hosting News ) – DNS Made Easy announces the release of ShowMyHost.com. ShowMyHost is a free tool that administrators can use to help do their daily tasks and is available for free for all administrators around the world.  This new tool is offered by Tiggee LLC, the creators of DNS Made Easy. 

ShowMyHost (www.showmyhost.com) is a tool for network and DNS administrators to find the web hosting provider, DNS provider, and mail hosting provider of a specific website on the internet. This new tool offered by DNS Made Easy is only one of many others now available online including ReverseDNSTrace (reversednstrace.com) and IPv6Verify (ipv6verify.com).

DNS Made Easy has stated that some of the most common support related questions asked by clients involve requests for hosting company information for their website.

“Hosting services on the internet can be bought and resold several times over. There is a real need for tools like this one.“ states Bryan Hughes, Vice President of System Operations at Tiggee. “Often, web hosting services are set up once and then no one accesses the account for extended periods of time until there is a need to reconfigure something. Suddenly, no one remembers who hosts their website!”

DNS Made Easy first deployed the tool DNS Made Easy support representatives who would then provide clients with the correct hosting information for their domain. The whois listing for a domain displays authoritative name server information about a domain and this caused clients to mistake DNS Made Easy as a web hosting company when they viewed this information. In order to alleviate some of the confusion, DNS Made Easy decided to go public with this tool and provide it to the Internet community free of charge. Now, whether your organization has switched hosting companies, hired a new administrator, or simply needs to update your web site for the first time in years: showmyhost.com can point you in the right direction.

More information about the showmyhost.com service is available at www.showmyhost.com.

DNS Made Easy Offers Free Web Hosting Tools for Administrators is a post from: Web Hosting News

Popularity: unranked [?]

(The Hosting News) – CLEVELAND, OH – Hosted Solutions, the East Coast’s premier provider of IT infrastructure as a service (IaaS), announced that they have entered into a partnership with the Cavaliers Operating Company, LLC., whereby the Cavaliers will use Hosted Solutions’ Stratus Trusted Cloud(TM) to power the team’s official arena website, theQarena.com.

Because the arena’s website is anticipated to draw much heavier web traffic this year, the Cavaliers selected Hosted Solutions in an effort to increase the availability and robustness of theQarena.com. Reasons for increased traffic include:

– The team and arena recently launched their own single-game primary and
secondary market ticket sales service with Veritix – the industry’s
most cutting edge digital ticketing, event marketing and relationship
management platform. The public is directed to theQarena.com to
purchase tickets to all Quicken Loans Arena events including the
Cavaliers and AHL Lake Erie Monsters.
– The Cavaliers begin their 40th season with a powerful team of proven
players and high expectations and projected record attendance (The
Cavs set two franchise records during the 2008-09 season with an
average attendance of 20,512 and the number of sellouts – 38 total.)

– The Q now heads into an entertainment season with a jam-packed
schedule of special events expected to generate record website traffic
levels.

Stratus Trusted Cloud provides the availability needed to handle spikes in traffic at any time. “The upcoming year is sized up to be ‘XL’ in every way, including our fans’ interest in tickets to see the Cavaliers, Lake Erie Monsters, concerts, special events, and family shows,” said Jeff Lillibridge, Web Services Director. “We feel the scalability and dependability of Hosted Solutions’ Stratus Trusted Cloud is a perfect match to support our needs, which in turn allows us to provide our fans the level of service they deserve.”

Introduced earlier this year, Stratus Trusted Cloud dramatically improves the efficiency and availability of IT resources and applications for small and mid-sized enterprises. Stratus offers a massively scalable, multi-tenant infrastructure that enables customers to access a secure, enterprise-class cloud environment with built-in high availability and automated resource balancing. As a result, businesses can move faster without compromising availability or security and significantly reduce both their capital and operating expenditures, whether Stratus is deployed on an enterprise, private or hybrid cloud basis. Moreover, Stratus is designed to provide an added level of assurance to companies that their data and entire infrastructure is being administered in a trusted manner, acting in accordance with a full range of governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) regulations.

“The demand for an ‘always on’ IT environment is not unique to the Cleveland Cavaliers,” said Rich Lee, Hosted Solutions’ founder and Chief Executive Officer. “Any company doing business online requires the highest degree of reliability; even a short amount of downtime in this competitive economy can hurt significantly. The Cavaliers’ decision to deploy the Stratus Trusted Cloud for their arena website confirms its value for firms seeking a reliable, consistent and secure approach to ensuring that their website is up and running when they, and their customers, need it most.”

Lee added that several other companies have chosen the Stratus Trusted Cloud in the last several months. He noted that 80 percent of Hosted Solutions’ clients run their production environments through his firm, a further testament to the superior level of performance delivered by the Hosted Solutions team.

About Hosted Solutions

Hosted Solutions’ high quality Data Center and Managed Hosting services maintain and protect customers’ mission-critical IT systems and applications, enabling them to reduce operating costs, lower the risk of downtime, focus on core competencies, and achieve their top business objectives. The company operates SAS 70 Type II Certified facilities in Boston MA, Charlotte NC, Raleigh NC, and Cary NC, providing best-of-breed data center operations with hardened physical infrastructure, the highest level of security, and a complete managed services portfolio. Hosted Solutions is backed by Boston-based private equity firm ABRY Partners. For more information, please visit www.hostedsolutions.com.

Source: Hosted Solutions

CONTACT: Noreen Allen, Hosted Solutions, +1-919-882-3048,
nallen@hostedsolutions.com; or Steve Friedberg, MMI Communications,
+1-610-518-7474, steve@mmicommunications.net

Hosted Solutions Powers NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers Website is a post from: Web Hosting News

Popularity: unranked [?]

Web Platform Installer now offers a set of Media and Azure products that are not included in the set of Web PI products by default. These additional scenarios can be enabled through the options dialog:

Options dialog is a new RTW dialog that allows enabling the additional scenarios among other new features:

Media Platform offers a set of products and services to enable a server side story of the HD smooth streaming. To include all Media products, check “Media” and click Ok. The new tab “Media Platform” will appear in Web PI that will offer a full set of Media Products offered up to the date. The following set of products is available so far (together with Expressions Encoder that is available from Media Content pillar):

For additional Developer Tools products the following products are offered:

• Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio
• Expressions Web 3 Trial

Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio enables web application development on Windows Azure Platform. It is one of the offered Windows Azure Developer SDKs. Expressions Web 3 is a WYSIWYG HTML editor for faster and easier design of web sites.

To enable a set of products under Developers Tools, enable Developers scenario through the Options dialog.

Now you can install any additional Media or Developers Tools product with a full-blown Web PI experience, where Web PI pulls in the dependencies for you and checks for incompatibilities with already installed products.

These are the “extra” products offered by Web PI in additional scenarios: Media and Developer Tools scenarios. Stay tuned for more products and updates!

Original post:
Web PI Additional Scenarios: Media and Developer Tools

Popularity: unranked [?]

(The Hosting News) Santa Monica, CA.  – GreenGeeks LLC (http://www.greengeeks.com) announced today that they are sponsoring the American Lung Association’s Fight For Air Climb at the Aon Center in downtown Los Angeles.

The Fight For Air Climb will be held on Saturday April 24, 2010 to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day.

“We are all very excited to be part of the American Lung Association’s event and we’re proud to be working with our community toward the goal of being able to have cleaner air for our families,” says Trey Gardner CEO of GreenGeeks.

“I know first hand how harmful the air quality in Los Angeles can be as I have suffered from allergies all my life and I am looking forward to fighting back with the American Lung Association to decreasing the number of days where the city’s air quality is harmful to all of us in the area.” added Trey.

If you would like to attend the event and climb the stairs to the top of the Aon Center, registration starts at 8am PST at the event site which is located at 707 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90017 and the climbers start up the stairs at 9am PST.

Visit the Fight For Air Climb web site at: www.Fightforairclimb.org.
Visit GreenGeeks web site at: www.GreenGeeks.com.

GreenGeeks joins the American Lung Association in the fight for cleaner air. is a post from: Web Hosting News

Popularity: unranked [?]

Version 2 RTW of Web Platform Installer, released in September, now not only comes localized in 9 languages – English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, but also supports installations of products in supported languages. Now, users can choose the language in which they want Web PI to install the products. Though, not all products are localized in all 9 languages. Those products that are not available in the language selected by the user or not localized at all, will be offered in English.

This article will talk about the following:

• The display language of Web PI UI
• The language of products available in more than one language
• Custom products and localization

With extensibility added to Web PI story, the users will also be able to install custom products in different languages. To read about extensibility refer to the following articles:

• Web PI Extensibility: Custom Feeds – Installing Custom Products
• Web PI Extensibility: Custom Feeds – Installing Custom Applications

Popularity: unranked [?]