FS Related

Considering our commitment to the perpetual evolution and enhancement of our datacenter operations, it is necessary that we conduct routine environment cleansing, policy changes, inventory and overall operational consolidation to better streamline and perfect the services provided to our customers. Therefore, beginning June 29, 2007, and throughout the entire weekend ending July 1, 2007, FastServers will be performing mandatory datacenter floor maintenance to our Fremont facility. These activities will consist of the realignment of all FS-owned and operated servers, switches, and routing cores within the hosting facility in question. The purpose of this dispatch is to alert all of our Fremont customers, dedicated or co-located, of these planned events occurring at the end of June 2007.

It is imperative that all customers are aware of this maintenance as there will be multiple outages that will occur during our planned maintenance within this facility. At this time we cannot schedule around any particular customers' server operations, nor minimize the amount of downtime for a specific client; it is almost impossible to say when, precisely, we would handle a client's server during this operational window. FastServers will do its best to ensure that any downtime that occurs due to our mandatory maintenance shall have the least amount of impact on customers' hosting environments.

Customers who are interested in migrating to one of our other facilities, to ensure operations stay online for their hosting needs, should speak with a sales representative immediately to begin collectively working on a migration plan for their hosting needs. Our sales representatives will provide all of the necessary elements for customers wanting to upgrade/migrate to another facility to continue operations before this maintenance period is upon us. Please note that that if you choose to migrate to one of FastServers' other facilities, existing IP allocations will *not* be portable. This means that new IP addresses will need to be distributed to your solution within a new facility. Again, this is only for customers housed within our Fremont datacenter: by receiving this email, it's apparent that you have one or more servers housed within our Fremont hosting environment. In addition, customers running outdated operating systems, control panels, etc., will be *required* to upgrade to the latest releases supported by FastServers; co-location customers excluded, if a migration to an elsewhere facility is preferred.

If you have any additional questions about the migration, please contact a support representative who will forward your request to a FastServers.Net administrator for further clarification. If you are interested in migrating your solution prior to the outlined maintenance, please speak with a sales representative immediately.

Your cooperation is certainly appreciated!

Regards,
Terrance Bush
Chief Information Officer
FastServers.Net, Inc.
tlbush@fastservers.net

Our Chicago staff was not alone in ushering in a new season and staff members. We recently celebrated a brand-new office opening in Iowa after completing the move to 1205 Technology Parkway. Located in the Cedar Falls Industrial Park, the space designed and built around our needs is conveniently adjacent to our Midwest Data Center. Friday, employees, family, & friends relaxed Cinco de Mayo style to close out a busy a week that included settling into our new home.

Joining the party in Cedar Falls was new Server Support Engineer Josh Mattson. Former guitarist for a hardcore/metal band and avid World of Warcraft gamer, Josh’s other hobbies include staying atop the most current technologies. That commitment, along with his system administration, networking, and coding experience, makes Josh a perfect fit for his new role.

We also welcomed new Server Support Engineer Nick Shreders to our Chicago staff. The pinball guru & KC Royals fan recently relocated from Kansas City where he was involved with deploying new technologies for an independently owned and operated Video, Voice, and Data provider. In addition to his broad experience in IVR and ACD systems, Nick contributes a strong background in Unix Administration.

As always, we are fortunate to introduce such diversely experienced members to our technical group and are happy to have Josh and Nick on board!

A new feature has been added to pentagon.fastservers.net that allows you to enable "secondary logins" to your account. This login provides a limited access type account for support only based requests.

Prior to this update, pentagon.fastservers.net had only one option for user based accounts in which it provided a full access to all items within your account. This included billing related items, invoices, password changes, and server upgrades. If you are part of a larger organization or outsource you are the perfect candidate to use the Secondary Login feature. When enabled it will provide you with a "support" only based login and password that you can provide to employees, third party developers, or your favorite Outsourced IT company.

Enabling this feature requires you to submit a ticket to our Sales or Billing department with a request and the desired password. If this becomes a popular request it may be a feature we allow you to enable from your main account.

We hope you enjoy this feature and appreciate the user feedback we received in the past 30 days. It was through user based requests that this feature was brought to the front of the development line and escalated!

This week we welcomed Shon Georgie as the newest Server Support Engineer in the Chicago office. Shon joins us from Burbank, CA where he served as a Systems Administrator for Walt Disney Feature Animation. He most recently assisted with production on the movies Chicken Little & Meet the Robinsons - name in the credits and all! Shon has an extensive RedHat Linux Enterprise background and has been in the industry for nearly thirteen years. We’re excited to put Shon’s talent and experience to work for FastServers.

Also joining us in the Chicago office is Yolanda Perkins, Accounts Receivable Associate. In this newly created position, Yolanda will be assisting with account billing inquires, account audits, and general customer support. With over eight years of experience in the customer service and accounting fields, Yolanda is a welcome addition to our billing department!

In efforts to stay atop our [continually] hiring trend, http://www.fastserversemployment.com was released this week. Potential candidates can check out life in the fastservers.net offices and apply online for available positions. Perhaps the result of one VH1 Special or A.E. Biography on Billy Idol/Keith Richards/ Robert Plant too many, I think you can find a little rock star in everyone. Our employees are no exception to this rule, and we’re always looking for additional talented, committed, creative, and progressive individuals to join our staff.

On a side note: Attending HostingCon 2007 in Chicago and looking for places to visit in the city between sessions? Check out http://www.fastserversemployment.com/rock-on-chicago.php for links to museums, dining, and entertainment, along with a few of our staff favorites.

At FastServers.Net we are taking support services to an entirely new level. Introducing DEFCON 6, a new "top secret" support service available to customers at no additional charge. This new support service will help us ensure that your server is monitored to the fullest extent- saving you time, money, and server downtime.

DEFCON 6 is not a choice of support service you can "add on" to your existing server. It's not even advertised on the FastServers.Net website. Instead, it's a tool created for inventory purposes within our data centers. It's used internally to keep track of our customers that fail to notify our technical team of any server password or User ID changes.

Who qualifies?

If you are currently using DEFCON levels 1 through 4, you could automatically receive DEFCON 6. We monitor all servers that utilize DEFCON 1-4 support services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This means our technicians perform regular support procedures including operating system patches, reviews an overall health assessment, and recovery of failed services of your server. What does this do for your server? It keeps it running, allows you to sleep through the night, and know that FastServers.Net is keep closely watching your solution 24 hours a day!

How does it work?

When a service fails or updates need applied one of our Server Support Engineers logs into your server. In order for our Server Support Engineer to perform the necessary tasks they will need proper server authentication. If you have changed your server's root or administrator password without notifying them, and our Server Support Engineers are unable to login to your server, all monitoring and support services are stopped immediately. The end result is possible downtime of your server.

What happens to my server in DEFCON 6 mode?

With DEFCON 6, our technicians notify you immediately if they are unable to login to your server. Your server will not be monitored or maintained until you have taken the appropriate steps to reinstate your DEFCON 1-4 services. Below are a few reminders of what happens to your server if you are classified as a DEFCON 6 customer:

- All monitoring on your server is stopped immediately.

- All support for your server is billable at $100 an hour.

- All upgrades for software on your server are billable at $100 an hour.

Advantages of using DEFCON 6 (Sarcasm)

DEFCON 6 is free. There is nothing additional you have to pay in order to receive the service. However, since we immediately stop monitoring services on your server (assuming you have changed your password or User ID and our technicians are unable to login), any maintenance or tasks performed on your server will incur a $100 per hour fee. But with DEFCON 6, you can save hundreds of dollars in the long run by responding to our technicians.

DEFCON 1-4 customers are notified by our technical team as soon as access to the server is denied. You will also receive an email from the sales team with instructions on how to reinstate your DEFCON 1-4 services. The steps provided are shown below:

1. Login to https://pentagon.fastservers.net.
2. Click on "Server Manager" (near the bottom).
3. Click on the "Enter" button.
4. Click the link for the appropriate server.
5. Click the link "Notify Support of new root password."
6. In the textbox New access details, enter the new password.

Your server will return to its full monitoring status and our technicians will continue to provide maintenance on your server.

Preventing DEFCON 6

We understand that our DEFCON 1-4 services are very crucial to the health of your server, and consequently may affect your business negatively should monitoring be stopped. It is very possible that you may have forgotten to notify us of any password or User ID changes on your server. We encourage every customer to keep us constantly updated on any changes that take place.

To ensure this does not happen to you, make sure you read ALL e-mails sent from FastServers.Net. The bottom line - communicate with the FastServers.Net Support Team at all times.

Cedar Falls hit with an ice storm...our customers hit with a MailEnable exploit.

What a weekend a couple of weeks ago. Our Cedar Falls office was hit with a nasty ice storm (Chicago was about 2 degrees above getting the same thing). On top of that, a variant of a known MailEnable exploit was unleashed that weekend, swooping down like the freezing North wind over the cornfields.

Our DEFCON 3, 2, and 1 customers could rest easy, however. As soon as we were alerted to the exploit by one of our vendors, SWSoft, we went to work to process the latest hotfix from MailEnable and apply it to the managed servers. Consequently a very small percentage of our managed customers were affected (most likely hit before we were able to install the patch). Our unmanaged (DEFCON 4 and 5) customers, theirs was a different story.

Since these customers do not get the benefit of automatic updates to their OS’es and services, they were exposed to the exploit if they weren’t on top of the fixes. These customers found their servers spewing out SPAM and chewing up their bandwidth…or worse. The remedy was a reinstall of the OS and all the patches applied…all at additional support cost.

Every few days I respond to a customer about their DEFCON level, most of the time at the request of the tech department. Usually these customers are DEFCON 4 or 5 (self-managed or unmanaged). These levels require a certain level of expertise as well as a higher level of diligence when keeping the server updated. It’s a daunting task, especially with the constant march of technology, updates, (and yes) bad guy hackers. More than likely, it’s just a matter of time before bad things happen.

So a move to our managed services allows you to rest easy while listening to the wind howling outside, coating everything with that weird clear frosting. You’re nice and warm and your server is nice and secure with FastServers.Net staff working 24/7/365 to keep things up-to-date. Let us weather the issues.

New and veteran FastServer's employees brave the subzero conditions to continue with roll out of a fully staffed third data center.

It’s certainly not cold in Chicago. No, cold was last experienced sometime in January -- we’ve reached full fledged, nose-hair-frozen-eyelashes-sticking-together-10 minutes-to-frostbite FREEZING with little sign of a warming trend on the horizon.

Likewise, busy is a word that barely begins to describe the past few weeks at FastServers. Everyone has been working toward a smooth & successful data center launch, and departments have been expanding across the board. As alluded to in recent data center news, FastServers has continued to augment staffing to accommodate sales and support for our third facility.

New Data Center Engineers Raymond Powell Jr. and Robert McFedries join us at the Switch & Data facility. Working alongside our NOC Admin, Raymond and Robert will be maintaining the FastServers internal network and client environment.

New Server Support Engineers Chris Montanaro and David Long join us in the Chicago and Iowa offices, respectively, supplementing our growing technical group.

New Inside Sales Representatives Miguel Villegas and Carl D’Amico round out the sales team in Chicago. These gentlemen will be helping current and potential customers create tailored managed hosting solutions.

You can get to know more about the new staffers as they are profiled in our upcoming newsletter. It is certainly an enthusiastic and talented group of individuals, and we are extremely happy to have them with us!

Wishing warm thoughts for those of you sharing in our current weather conditions – and a terrific rest of the week to all!

FastServers.Net the fastest growing, award winning, fully managed dedicated service provider, has selected Switch and Data’s Chicago data center for its expansion and continued growth. Switch and Data, a leading provider of Internet exchange and colocation services, will provide FastServers.Net with up to 15,000 sq ft of space, power and interconnection services. FastServers.Net will continue to provide its full range of services – from customized single server solutions to enhanced Enterprise-level cluster based solutions.

FastServers.Net initially started its expansion to the Chicago area with the establishment of its Chicago Headquarters in May, 2005. Due to tremendous growth experienced by FastServers.Net in 2006, a new data center was selected to provide significant room for continued expansion and to provide direct access to multiple carriers. The new data center facility is located at 427 South La Salle Street, less than one mile from the West Jackson Blvd Chicago Headquarters.

Establishing final preparations for the new location, FastServers.Net has been testing network connectivity, increasing staff, and preparing the new space for its delivery of colocation and managed hosting services. Availability of services is projected for the first week of February.

“Switch and Data’s Chicago data center provides FastServers.Net with the opportunity to expand immediately in the growing dedicated server and colocation market,” said Aaron Phillips, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at FastServers.Net. “Switch and Data’s reliable colocation services and access to top tier bandwidth providers in one facility has made this an extremely easy choice for us. We are ecstatic about this opportunity and will continue to build our infrastructure to accommodate the needs of our customers.”

Most of the FastServers.Net Sales team will be enjoying an extended weekend with the exception of Shane Reisner. Mr. Reisner has opted to make Friday a full work day and take on the challenges of handling the department on his own. To make things exciting and provide him with some activity I thought I would challenge the world to give him a call and see if you can brighten his day and become another very satisfied customer.

If by chance your website or current server is overload because you didn’t properly prepare for Black Friday (the busiest shopping day of the year), don’t worry FastServers.Net is standing by ready to help. Shane Reisner our Sales Manager will be available throughout the day to help provide you the perfect solution for your managed hosting and dedicated server needs.

Traditionally FastServers.Net offers up front pricing right on our website and discounts are rare, but with the Holiday weekend in full swing Mr. Reisner has been provided some flexibility in regards to selling some dedicated server.

Here are some tips in procuring a new managed dedicated server and secrets in dealing with Mr. Reisner.

* Have a credit card handy, Mr. Reisner is more likely to provide you a discount or special server deal if you are ready to buy at the moment you call or email him.

* Be specific on your needs, Mr. Reisner has the keen ability to zero in on your exact solution if he is provided all of the information in advance.

* Call him direct, 1-866-753-3278, ext 104. Getting him on the phone and discussing your dedicated server solution will surely speed the process up.

While the rest of us will be enjoying a long weekend, eating turkey, doing our holiday shopping, spending time with our family, and relaxing Mr. Reisner will be hard at work standing by ready to take calls, provide solid solutions, and provision your dedicated hosting solution.

From the entire team at FastServers.Net, have a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend and for those of you that will be hard at it this Black Friday don't hesitate to give Mr. Reisner a call!

Email: shane@fastservers.net
Call: 1-866-753-3278, ext 104

In July a client of FastServers.Net was featured in Business Week Online with the featured articled called "InstantBull.com: Speed Demon". I took some time to do a Q&A style interview with CEO, Gal Arav to find out how more about InstantBull.Com and his interaction with FastServers.Net.

The full article can be view online via "InstantBull.com: Speed Demon".

(0) Tell me what www.InstantBull.com is, who uses it, and how they use it.
CEO Gal Arav: InstantBull.com is a free website that just launched at the end of July and serves as a "lightning fast" interface to the world of stock market investing. There are 3 main types of information that we aggregate: Stock Message Boards, Stock Market Blogs and Investor Portal Information. Thousands of investors have already adopted InstantBull.com - from amateurs to professionals, and from day-traders to long-term investors. Users are telling us that they are delighted to be able to use our technology to quickly view all their favorite websites without having to open up multiple browser windows.

(1) What are the competitive advantages you are bringing to the market?
CEO Gal Arav: Faster, all-in-one access to best-in-class stock market information. For example, compare our patent pending message board aggregation to the originating websites such as Yahoo Finance, users can now blaze through lots of messages by just hovering over the message titles. We've done away with all the awkward back and forth clicking between message lists and their corresponding messages. Here's what Phil Lynch, former CEO of Reuters America, said about us with regards to competing sites: "After using the InstantBull.com site, I was impressed by many innovative, helpful and time-saving features that I have not yet seen on other financial websites."

(2) Please tell me why you selected using a dedicated server setup for this website?
CEO Gal Arav: Some startup companies do everything on the cheap and end up paying with downtime, bottlenecks and overall user dissatisfaction. Thanks to some good early angel investments, from the outset we decided to splash out on top tier infrastructure. It made a lot of sense to setup a powerful dedicated server solution capable of providing us with the horsepower required for a real-time market research platform. I'm aware of dedicated server solutions that FastServers.Net also have for customers with tighter budgets, but in our case we decided to overshoot the norm. Our early funding also enabled us to go down the expensive path of filing patents for our key technologies.

(3) After launching the website Business Week Online featured an article about you, describe the overall article?
CEO Gal Arav: I think they liked it:
"InstantBull.com: Speed demon"
"Faster than a speeding bullet"
"The site is lightning fast, and there's no software to download to get started. Oh yeah, it's free."
"Saves a bundle of time for investors who scan and participate in a number of message boards"
"If you prefer to use one site to find essential financial information, stick with Yahoo Finance or Google Finance. But if you like a variety of choices, InstantBull has the goods."

(4) Tell me how you rely on FastServers.Net in regards to your website hosting?
CEO Gal Arav: We've had almost no service hiccups and I can vouch for the quality support we have received on those rare occasions - FastServer.Net's support people were polite and professionally resolved our issues as quickly as possible.

(5) Tell me briefly about some of the challenges you have faced with launching the website?
CEO Gal Arav: Spreading the word (we couldn't resist calling this "spreading the bull") about our new service is always going to be one of the biggest uphill challenges and since we're up against some real heavyweight competitors (e.g. Yahoo Finance, Google Finance, Dow Jones MarketWatch) we really hope that our own users will help out by either telling their friends or by posting links and reviews. On the technical side, we had to overcome many software hurdles in order to optimize for speed and simplicity. I'd like to thank the guys at FastServers for helping us with some of the initial IT setup decisions, as certified professionals they helped us figure out our best options in areas where we had less expertise. No robot-like automated answers, instead they presented us with viable solutions that had been clearly thought out.

(6) What are the goals of www.InstantBull.com 1 year from now?
CEO Gal Arav: More time-saving features for our users and some modest advertising revenue for ourselves - on the importance of money from one of the greatest minds of our times:
Homer: Aw, twenty dollars! I wanted a peanut!
Homer's Brain: Twenty dollars can buy many peanuts!
Homer: Explain how!
Homer's Brain: Money can be exchanged for goods and services!
Homer: Woo-hoo!

(7) Please provide any additional information you would like to tell us about www.InstantBull.com
 CEO Gal Arav: We'd love to get people's comments and suggestions as we continue to improve our free service. A BIG THANKS to anyone who has actively helped to "spread the bull" about our new service, check us out: http://www.InstantBull.com