FlockHosting Blog

New Servers (This Month!)

Well God is Good – some things have come around and it looks like the server moves and upgrades are coming sooner than expected! Some great deals have been worked out and as some customers have helped me test, were moving to some really fast housing!

I am working out all the final details of the servers, and prepping to get software all configured and online for the move – but some details on the move include as originally planned 8-Core systems (2 x Clovertown 4-Core CPU’s), also winged some great hardware in the hard drive dept. 4 drives in a RAID-10 Configuration, and all the latest and greatest that cPanel has to offer as well, and I am working on one possible change in regards to Fantastico, but working out the budget on that – and I’ll have more on Monday!

So lots to plan for, lots to do, some hardware should come in and online tonight, and I’ll get to configuration and installation, and quite possibly as soon as next weekend there will be some migrations! So stay tuned here, and be sure to check your email next Monday for updates on the moves – but for customers on Faith, the upgrade is still on for tonight, so keep an eye on your website, and if you need any help please open a ticket for more assistance.

Have a Wonderful Weekend!

Billing FAQ’s

Some mini-problems have cropped up for some users in the new billing system, and with all things new – that’s a given. I have been grateful to customers for their patience, goodwill, and in some cases even a sense of humor about the situations that have arose from the transition to the new system – but to nail down a few things, here are some points everyone should read, and understand:

1. PayPal Payments – this is no longer a “one-time” payment, if you look closely when hitting the payment button your setting up a subscription. So try to get to your invoice before you due date, and you’ll get all sync’d up and never have to manually make a payment each month, PayPal will simply keep the subscription active for you.
2. Time to Pay? – Several customers have asked when they need to pay. Basically you can pay any time once the invoice has been generated, so if it’s active in the system, your good to go. If you have a card on file, or a subscription with PayPal active, there’s nothing left for you to do. On your due date the card will be billed, or when your subscription was setup, it will process automatically.
3. Canceling – While I am sad to see customers go, it is the way of the web sometimes, for some the site has run it’s course, for others it could be finances, none the less, please be sure to cancel your service before your new invoice is generated for service. Currently there are no “One-Time” payments options, they are being worked on, but for now if you sign up for a year, every year it will automatically renew. So be mindful of your renewal date, invoices are generated 15 days before the invoice would be due.
4. Trouble Tickets – Tickets are no longer at MyTroubleTicket.com – it will soon become a outsourced IT troubleshooting system so if you used to email the address there, please re-direct yourself to the customer portal and open a ticket there, there are email addresses, however we ask that you keep them for Ticket Use only – if you want to open a ticket via email please be sure you are doing so with the email address on file or it will not be accepted.
5. Visa / Mastercard Only? – With the new system FlockHosting now accepts all major credit cards. So if you have always longed to use your American Express for points, put it in our system, have a Discover card and want it to pay you back? Now you can, it’s 100% supported. So if you have a different preferred card vs. a Visa/Mastercard – your good to go.

So there you have it – a few points to know about the new Billing system! More FAQ’s to come!

Faith to PHP5

The date has been set, a newsletter will go out Monday to confirm, but Faith will be migrating to PHP5 on Friday (01/11) at 11:45PM – the last upgrade went very smoothly so I am doing it a little earlier, downtime like last time will be under 30 minutes as services are backed-up and re-compiled to migrate the systems to PHP5 and Apache 2.

If you have not done so already, please ensure your applications are up to date – out of the entire server we only had 2 tiny blips, so Praise the Lord! Thanks to everyone for their prayers, and their promptness to upgrade applications to ensure compatibility.

The new year is getting started, some minor rocky spots, but God is Good. So stay tuned, once all servers have migrated to a PHP5 configuration, other upgrades are coming, and some server migrations as well, over a year, and I like to keep the hardware new, fresh, and giving you the best stability/speed as possible. If you have not been getting the newsletter, do let me know, and I’ll get you added ASAP! A sign-up will be eventually added to the new homepage (coming soon!).

Lots coming, lots to do, prayers are appreciated! Happy New Year Everyone!

Merry Christmas!

I wanted to take a minute as we roll into Christmas day, and say Merry Christmas to all! Have a wonderful day with your family celebrating the day of our Lord’s birth! Take care and don’t eat too much!

Update Completed

Greetings Users on Shepherd! (A hardy hello to the rest of you!) – All appears to of gone well with the upgrade – PHP5 and Apache 2.2 are now live on the server, not to mention all accounts now utilize the “X3″ template. No… not Xmen 3, but the newest look of the template that powers cPanel – new wizards, new help built in, very slick – I hope you enjoy it. All in all, I verified the main pages of all websites on the server (Who needs sleep anyway!?), found a few issues, and got them resolved.

So now the job is up to you, if your having problems with your scripts, please open a ticket (http://secure.flockhosting.com) about your website and paste any web page URLs having issues, and I’ll do what I can to help, please bear in mind you have till Monday for assistance, then there will be a slow day Tuesday (aka Christmas) so please be patient as this is the holiday season – but after Christmas, things pick up again, and tickets should resume 1 day resolution speed.

If you have any difficulties/dislikes with X3, please open a ticket, and I can easily switch you back to the X2 template your used to, so some things are reversible, however with PHP5, that is not going to be possible, so again, please open a ticket and let me know the difficulties your experiencing cite any and all issues you may be having, and I’ll help you out as quickly as possible. I hope you all enjoy the upgrade, I thank each of you for your prayers, similar updates will be happening for Faith and Business in the next week or so, granting no major flaws are found in the upgrade in the next few days.

Once again I do say thanks for your patience – have a VERY Merry Christmas! I hope you and yours have a blessed day!

PHP5 & cPanel Updates

Over the weekend and into this next week some things will start rolling out, one being PHP5, another is cPanel upgrades some of which have already hit the servers, also the migration to the X3 template which offers a little more “flash” to the cPanel interface, and adds wizards to simplify some tasks.

If you have not already done so do make sure your application is PHP5 compatible, if your unsure please open a ticket for further assistance.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and safe travels as we head into the Christmas season, hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

New Services Live!

Today the new options are online – Hosted Exchange is now online, also from the Customer Portal, you can now sign-up to become an affiliate!

Hosted Exchange is really meant for business / corporate customers, and I have worked my best to keep the cost low, and service quality high, but all customers are welcome to sign-up if you need Exchange services.

The last feature turned on today is the Affiliate Program, it’s still going to be fine tuned over the next few months and more graphics will be added to link with, but for now it is available to all customers in good standing – be sure to check it out in the Customer Portal and if you have any questions, open a ticket from the same location, and I’ll lend a hand! More stuff coming soon, so stay tuned!

Affiliate Program & New Services

Mark your calendars for December 3rd, that Monday some new services will be unveiled as well as the revival of the affiliate program! So soon a link can mean you get yourself some credit applied to your account, so the more folks you invite over to FlockHosting, you get a chance for earning months free, and each month if your the highest earning affiliate, some possible free upgrades!

Also not to set aside the new services, but more on that soon. A newsletter should be going out by Friday, and you’ll be able to get the full details, news about the upcoming year, and of course – a holiday deal! Stay tuned!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just want to wish everyone a very Safe and Happy Thanksgiving here in the United States – I hope you all enjoy the holiday and get to spend time with Friends and Loved Ones during the holiday season.

Orders will not be processed Thanksgiving Day, the order process will still be active, but I will not be – only technical support issues will be handled during the holiday season, all monitoring and server upkeep will remain active!

Also new mailing address is now active for FlockHosting – please review the Customer Portal for the new address. God Bless & Take Care out on those highways!

Network Trouble (11/07)

Several clients have noticed a level of packet loss connecting to various servers, we are aware of the issue, and have a ticket open with upstream to investigate the issue. I ask for your patience in this matter, I hope to have a resolution soon, in my testing some areas are not affected, and some are even more worse off.

As soon as more information is received on things, I’ll update this post with more information.

[Update: 12:33PM] – Ticket was updated with the upstream, they said they were receiving some attacks on the network we live on, they have put in some measures into place to help reduce their effect on network traffic. You should be seeing better performance very shortly, if you have continued issues, please feel free to contact_me or open a ticket and I’ll assist further.