Managed Dedicated Server BLOG | FastServers.Net

Possible Pentagon Problems!

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:48:56 -0600

Hello FastServers.net Community,

We have just received notice that our billing software provider will be performing maintenance and updates on one of their servers tomorrow morning. This will not affect the servers/services you lease through FastServers, however it could potentially affect you ability to log into or perform tasks in your Pentagon account while the maintenance is being performed.

The maintenance is scheduled for tomorrow - Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 - from 8:00 AM EDT (12:00 UTC) to 9:00 AM EDT (13:00 UTC). Efforts will be made to minimize downtime during this maintenance window.

If you have an emergency based support request and are unable to log into your Pentagon account to submit a support ticket during the scheduled maintenance time please call our support team at 1-866-753-3278. If you have non-emergency questions/issues during the scheduled maintenance time and cannot log into your Pentagon account please try logging in again after 9:00 AM EDT.

Thank you for your time.

Good or Bad Press: What do you do with it?

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:19:36 -0600

So what do you do with a passing listing or comment about your company in the public domain? Good or Bad? In my opinion, leave well enough alone.

The new "King" of Browsers?

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:58:37 -0600

Back in the day when Elvis could enter the building without turning sideways, coating himself with WD40 and wriggling in, there was a saying, “500,000,000 Elvis fans can’t be wrong” (based on disputable record sales). Totally valid or not, it’s hard to argue with those types of numbers. The big “E” has sold a ton of vinyl, tape, and digital media…and still does…from that Heartbreak Hotel in the sky (or spaceship or secret room on the top floor of Graceland if you believe the conspiracy theories.)

New Orleans, Fat Tuesday, Gumbo, and a Horrendous Crime

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:08:44 -0600

Everyone here at FastServers.Net knows that I have an affinity of New Orleans…the music, the food, the atmosphere, and of course, the Abita beer. So it’s pretty obvious that I’d do a little somethin’ somethin’ (or should I say lagniappe) for Fat Tuesday here at the office.

Spring Training and Everything Baseball

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:36:08 -0600

As winter is in full effect there is one sure sign that spring is just around the corner… Pitchers and catchers report in less than one week! Not only does this mean that there is an end in sight to the bitterly cold and snowy winter but it also means opening day for the 2008 Major League Baseball season is almost here. Every team and every player has a fresh start: Even the Devil Rays technically have a chance to win the World Series and Alfonso Soriano could conceivably hit a curve ball. Pot holes will eventually get filled and your favorite ball parks will eventually reopen to thousands of screaming fans and all the good things that come along with America’s pastime; beer, hot dogs, bench clearing brawls, home runs, double steals and great entertainment.

The FastServers’ team has great camaraderie but the baseball season definitely makes FastServers’ employees choose sides… FastServers’ President Ian Andrusyk and VP of HR Jara Andrusyk root for the Minnesota Twins, Chief Technical Officer Travis Schaffner is a Cardinals fan, Director of Business Development Mark Luptak is a Blue Jays fan, Account Rep Mo Kabre and Tech Team Member Nick Shredders are KC Royals fans, Director of Inside Sales Steven Anderson and Tech Team Member Greg Kuiper root for Chicago's south side White Sox. As for myself, I root for the 1907 – 1908, back to back World Series champion, Chicago Cubs. Although other Chicago teams haven’t fared well this year, could this be the year that Cubs return to the World Series? Not likely as most sports books have them at 12/1 but what the hell do they know, the New York Giants were 12 point underdogs.

The last time I wrote a blog post I predicted that the Chicago Bears would win the Super Bowl (we all know how that turned out) so I won’t go that far for the Cubs but I will say that they will win the National League Central. Other prognostications include the following playoff teams…

National League:
West - Diamondbacks
Central - Cubs
East - Mets
Wild Card – Dodgers

American League:
West - Mariners
Central - Tigers
East –Red Sox
Wild Card - Indians

I apologize to those FastServers employees whose teams aren’t listed, better luck next year.

In any event, enjoy the last few weeks of winter because baseball season is just around the corner. Get your office fantasy team started and get ready for another great season!

RSS, Google, and other useless tools?

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 12:58:33 -0600

One of my good friends works for a major marketing firm specializing in SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Well “works for” sounds like he grabs people who know what they are doing coffee. No, this guy more or less runs the SEO division of his company and is in constant high demand. (Parents take note: if your college kids are marketing majors and you want to do them the greatest favor of their lives, steer them in the direction of SEO.) Well onto my point. “Gilbert,” as we’ll refer to this guy, showed me this diamond in the rough which, well for lack of my ability to use certain less than FCC approved words, caught his goad.

Behold: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22504312/

Now Gilbert is a somewhat opinionated guy when it comes to this stuff. Somewhat in the way Rush Limbaugh is opinionated when the name “Clinton” is brought up. For entertainment purposes I’ve copied and pasted a post from his personal blog with about 30 edits to bring it up to FCC standards, Enjoy!

Walk-Ins Welcome!

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 11:28:35 -0600

I almost made it through the day without a holiday post. With a great post already handled by our CEO, I didn't see the need to provide everyone with a duplicate message. That was until a unique event took place in Chicago and I became filled with "Blog Posting" Energy (it's the same as 3 Red Bulls.

Wishing everybody a wonderful holiday season!

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 08:10:33 -0600

Many people look at the Holidays as quite simply the most joyous time of the year. Who can blame 'em? Bright flashy lights, free candy, parties, family.the list goes on and on. And there is the other half, the ones who look at this season as one of the most stressful of year.

We Have Holiday Debutantes...

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 22:15:08 -0600

FastServers knows people that know people. On television. But before we get to that, which might be the best video since the creation of New Zealand, you'll have to endure a handful of required seasonal elements from yours truly. Because these days, we all have so much more time to spend on those things we should already be doing 365 days a year... right?

Hahaha... yea. Right...

Get Ready. Get Set…Start Shopping

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:10:18 -0600

Only 3 weeks to one of the biggest holidays of the year. If you’re like me, you probably haven’t started shopping for friends and relatives yet. So what to get those techy people? Here are some things that I came across that might just do the trick.

Software as a Services: Proworkflow

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:37:07 -0600

Almost 1 year to date I did an interview with Julian Stone of Proworkflow to discuss his business model and software as a service. During this interview he discussed the future of his organization and I wanted to follow up with how things have transpired over the last year. In case you didn't get a chance to read the first interview you can jump over to that post below.

November 2006 Proworkflow Interview

Thanksgiving

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:31:36 -0600

Well the holiday season is officially upon us, or as someone commented at a pre-holiday Sunday brunch last week, “It is now officially the season of eating.”

Free Rice Powered Dedicated Servers

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 19:23:24 -0600

Over the past 6-8 weeks both our Sales Team and Technical Support teams have been deploying servers for a new viral website that is gaining international media attention and driving massive amounts of traffic to their load balanced web hosting solution.

FreeRice.Com (http://www.freerice.com)
FreeRice has two goals:

1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

New Pricing For Our Anti-Spam and Urchin Services – Why Not Give Them A Try?

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 09:23:52 -0600

Hello and greetings from FastServers,

As of November 1 2007 we have restructured and changed the pricing for both our Barracuda Anti-Spam service and our Urchin service.

I'm hacked?! What now?

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:17:24 -0600

It's a question in the back of every sysadmin's mind. What am I going to do if/when I get hacked? Well, in all actuality there isn't much of a choice. Once you've been compromised, the only option is to wipe it clean and restore from backups (you do have backups, right?) It makes perfect sense that we prefer avoiding the situation altogether as opposed to picking up the pieces afterwards. Unfortunately there isn't anything you can do to guarantee your server's safety, but there is a lot that can be done to increase your odds. FastServers wants to help keep you out of a painful situation, and we've just taken a big step in the right direction.