Update on HostPC plans for the future:

[Joe]

As you all know, I try to be as open as possible with my plans for HostPC - where we are, where we're headed, and how we're going to get thtere. This is another one of those "notes". Mostly, it's just comments from me to you - and I welcome your feedback on the subject at any time.

Recently, we announced a CPANEL offering. I was very disappointed after running cpanel on a test machine... it seemed stable enough to make me feel comfortable leaving it alone for a day, maybe two. After a few days of playing with Cpanel, I felt it was NOT going to be something I was comfortable with. There were too many security questions, too many "loopholes" and bugs that we'd have to spend time fixing. I'd rather be PROactive than REactive.

We've had good success with Ensim 3.1.x There were several upgrades along the way, all went pretty well for the most part (well, except that php4.3.1 fiasco) - other than that, it's been pretty easy to keep up with security warnings, updated software, etc to make sure you have the best environment to work in. I do realize there are a couple of limitations, but trust me, we've tried to find ways around all of them - we may not have been sucessful 100% of the time, but we tried.

Here's where my mind is headed.

Starting Monday, Ensim Pro will be available to us. I'd like to bring that in, on an existing server, probably ensim1.hostpc.com and see how it goes. I think, with our support backing, it should be seamless to most, with just a few cosmetic changes to the control panel itself.

If all goes as well as I think it will, we'll install it to the rest of the servers soon thereafter.

Comments? Ideas?

[bluesguy]

Are there any advantages to using the Pro version?
Seems like upgrades (not just on HostPC) have a
tendency to break about as many things as they fix.
My squirrelmail is still broken after the last update :(

[Joe]

The only thing that SHOULD be broken in squirrelmail is the weather feature... is there something else I should know about?

[bluesguy]

S'mail still crashes when there is mail in the inbox on groovy-music.net.
I had a ticket open on it, but I never got around to updating the fact that it was still broken.

ERROR:
ERROR : Bad or malformed request.
Query: FETCH 1 (FLAGS BODY.PEEK[HEADER.FIELDS (RECEIVED)])
Server responded: Command unrecognized: UID FETCH

[molifer]

Yeah. I have the same problem. If I try to open any of the options, such as spam, new mail options, weather, spellchecker, etc. It says
Fatal error: Failed opening required '../plugins/weather/weather.php' (include_path='.:/usr/share/pear') in /usr/share/squirrelmail/plugins/weather/setup.php on line 13

Plus if you try to get a new mail notification, it comes up with that similar response. Just thought I'd let you know. :)

[Joe]

Squirrelmail authors finally responded to me - some of those mods weren't compatible with the new version. Whats left now, should leave it fully functional, and when the mods are "fixed" for this version, we'll re-install them.

Sorry for the inconvenience everyone.

Joe

[eugene]

Joe,
Which mods do people want most? Perhaps I may be of assistance.

[Joe]

Part of the problem is that in the Ensim CHROOT and our special SUEXEC setup, ALL dependencies for modules must be satisfied at both the server root, AND at the client chroot... So, I've got to narrow down what each RPM wants, and include that in the client chroot.

If the RPM is installed server wide, well of course the server has all the dependencies it needs, but there's no way to verify that alll dependencies are met in the chroot without manually disecting the RPM and locating them.

Am I making sense?

[Joe]

Just an quick update -

We've experienced exceptional uptimes from Rackshack Datacenter on our the servers we have located there. This pool of servers has been very stable, so far. Recently, we added another server to the Rackshack pool, and had nothing but troubles with it. Three times, they assigned different IP's to the server resulting in continued downtime and instability. Recently, we purchased the Ensim Pro upgrade - which proved to be a resounding failure. There's a lot of discussion over it at Rackshack, no one is happy, it appears.

So, in order to continue moving forward with our business plans, I'm making a few small modifications.

1. We're signing a letter of committment with HE.NET for a series of colocated servers at their datacenter in Fremont California. They have been in this industry since 1994.

Hurricane Electric's national backbone is ranked among the top in the nation. Connections ranging from OC48s (2.4 Gbps) to gigabit ethernet (1,000 Mbps) form rings around the nation connecting Hurricane core routers at several major exchange points including:

PAIX Palo Alto, CA
Equinix San Jose, CA
Equinix Ashburn, VA
MAE-West San Jose, CA
MAE-East Vienna, VA
AADS Chicago, IL
NYIIX New York, NY



http://www.hostpc.com/netmap.jpg

I feel, that by colocating our custom built servers in this facility, can only increase our ability to better grow and meet the demands of our clients.

We will also be offering dedicated servers in this location.

2. We will begin offering dedicated services in the new facility probably beginning in July or August. These will be both managed and unmangaged servers, with your choice of control panels (Ensim, cpanel, or plain Redhat).

3. I am, at this point, looking for sales agents in areas across the country to provide local sales efforts to small businesses. These positions will be commission based. Please contact me if you're interested in doing sales work in your area. We'll provide the materials necessary to effectively sell HostPC Services.. you provide the sales ability! Contact me at sales @ hostpc.com for more information, or to apply.


Thanks to everyone for supporting HostPC as we continue to grow, steadily and deliberately! We won't let you down!

Joe

[bluesguy]

What will happen with current ensim1 and ensim2 accounts?
Will they be migrated to the new servers or stay at rackshack?

Will new accounts for the 2 for 1 sale be placed on ensim1 and 2?

[Joe]

What will happen with current ensim1 and ensim2 accounts?
Will they be migrated to the new servers or stay at rackshack?

Will new accounts for the 2 for 1 sale be placed on ensim1 and 2?

Until the new servers are introduced to HE, yes, they'll go on ensim1 and 2... there's plenty of room on the servers, and plenty of bandwidth to go around.

When the new servers are online, I can imagine keeping the first two servers at Rackshack for the forseeable future. All customers will be given the opportunity to migrate to the new servers. Clients coming in now are guaranteed to pay no more than the current posted prices for the lifetime of their account. That is a policy I started this company on, and one I continue to uphold.

[liejian]

Hey Joe,

That's pretty exciting news.

Just a few questions:
1) What are the specs of the dedicated boxes. Ram, cpu, connnection, bandwidth, etc
2) What is the price range. Setup charge?
3) What about colocation? Pricing per U?

Thanks!
LJ

[Joe]

I should have pricing setup in the next couple of weeks...

Server specs aren't set in concrete yet either, but I should have some info for you by the end of the week.

Joe

[starfighter]

Any news on those new servers? And any ideass if that pro upgrade will ever actually work? Just a wondering.

[Nick]

http://www.hostpc.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=304

server 4 is online

as far as ensim pro...its not gonna be
ensimpro only works on new, virgin boxes, yet they're calling it an upgrade..that would mean we would have to remove EVERY modification we've done, roll back all RPM's to the original ensim version, and THEN install it. we feel it would be more of a headache for our customers than a service....however we are looking at trying some new control panels...more infomation will be said about that at a later date

[Joe]

I'm finishing the last of the servers this week - next week they'll be shipped into he.net's datacenter and put online hopefully before the Memorial Day Weekend (here in the US).

I've got 4 servers going out there initially, and plan on 2 more by July. These will supplement the 4 current servers in Rackshack (Texas) - and the 2 in Albany NY.

I'll post status updates when they're available ... and details about pricing etc.

[Joe]

Well, I did something COMPLETELY against my better judgement. I purchased 2 cpanel servers at Rackshack.

They're gonna take some work to get going, but they're online now, and I'll be making a special package for clients wishing to be placed onto these servers. There will be a limited number of clients allowed to these boxes - but those who are comfortable, or need the features on these servers will have someplace to go.

I'm anticipating having these ready for clients by Wednesday or Thursday. We're just waiting on some IP addresses to be assigned so that we can finish configuration of them. These are modest boxes, not top of the line, but no slackers either. I think they'll satisfy the requirements of some of our users. Most importantly, I actually feel comfortable knowing they're mostly secure ... but I'm working on making them 100% secure.I'm NOT planning on making cpanel a regular offering here, but this offer was too good to pass up.

These servers are officially www5.hostpc.com and www6.hostpc.com

the new servers in california will be www7,8,9 and 10.hostpc.com, and they'll all be Ensim 3.1.x machines, with all of our latest features for Ensim. I'm NOT planning on making cpanel a regular offering here, but this offer was too good to pass up.


Stay tuned for more news on these servers. If you're interested in getting in line to get a slot on cpanel, please let me know.

Joe

[Joe]

cpanel servers are online - domains moved to server for testing and security checking.

Will keep you updated.

Joe

[D9r]

I purchased 2 cpanel servers at Rackshack. These servers are officially www5.hostpc.com and www6.hostpc.com

the new servers in california will be www7,8,9 and 10.hostpc.com, and they'll all be Ensim 3.1.x machines, with all of our latest features for Ensim.
How do these compare with the ones at Rackshack? Are Rackshack's also Ensim 3.1.x?

I wouldn't know the difference. I'm guessing Californy is the place I wanna be <beverly hillbillies reference />.

[Joe]

cpanel servers are online - domains moved to server for testing and security checking.
Will keep you updated.
Joe

As you know, we've been testing some cpanel servers, and to be honest, results are very disappointing. Let me explain.

I know that from a user standpoint, cpanel is ideal for setting up new services, it's easy to handle, and it "looks pretty"

From an administrative standpoint, it's fairly easy to setup. BUT, my biggest concern is security, both for HostPC, and for their clients and their data. Since I installed these servers, I've been able to hack into them to gain full root access on at least 2 different occasions, using 2 seprate methods. Full root access allowed me to do ANYTHING to the server, including removal or tampering with data, repartitioning the hard drives, etc.

At this point, using cPanel 6, I do not feel comfortable releasing these to the general public, so as of tomorrow, we will officially be terminating our cpanel servers at Rackshack.

This will NOT affect our Ensim servers. Our Ensim lineup is very strong, we've now got 8 servers online, being used by, or ready for clients. We've got security on these boxes to a point where I feel comfortable sleeping at night, without worrying that something will happen. I'm not saying things DONT happen - but they're a lot less likely to be destructive in the Ensim environment.

So, bottom line is, cpanel plans are off, permanently. I'm not gonna waste any more time or money playing with it. I'd rather improve the service we have instead of devoting time, money and resources to something that has proven itself insecure (in my eyes).

So, what can we improve for you today?

Joe