I have a challenge.

I / Spiderhost would like to adopt a school in Central Florida. We want to adopt a school that is willing to embrace technology.

A school that will reduce paper by communicating with parents and faculty via email and the web.

A school that will use web 2.0 and allow the students, teachers and parents to come together online as one community.

A school that will stream it's sporting events online so parents far and away can watch their son or daughter compete.

A school that will share it's graduation with grandparents out of state.

A school with an open mind.

We will provide the technology. The cost, $0.

Email us at spiderschool@spiderhost.com

It's time to kick the old school!

Can you take your server, right now, and toss it out the window and recover by the end of the day?

Most will answer yes. Because they think they have backups. They put the tape in every night, it makes noise, then they put the tape in a "fire proof" safe in the morning when they come in.

If the tape is good (check your backups!) then all you have are the files.

To recover from a server being tossed out of the window here are the steps you will have take:

1) Find hardware (new server)
2) Install Operating System (windows or linux)
3) Install any applications (Exchange, web server, 3rd party software, etc...)
4) Patch the applications (if you can remember)
5) Spend the day figuring out why the applications will not work as you try to remember the registry hacks you did 3 years ago to get it working :)
6) Install the backup software
7) Restore the files
8) Take a nap!

This will most likely take at least one day but more like two.

To prevent this you should take snapshots of your servers. A snapshot is an identical copy of your server. Once you have this snapshot you can restore to another server in an hour or two. This takes care of all of the steps above. A common and popular program for Linux is rsync. Symantec makes a great product for Windows Servers. You can also use virtual servers which allow you to take snapshots. The most common virtual server software is vmware. Microsoft has Virtual Server 2005 which is free, if you can believe that.

Rethink your backup strategy. Just having the files on a tape is not enough. Have your IT guys toss the server out the window and ask them how long before you will be back up :0

Enjoy!

Labels: backup plan disaster recovery

There are a few companies out there that sell bandwidth dirt cheap. The most notorious is Cogent. Their bandwidth is about 85%-90% cheaper than everyone else. How? Well when your server is on their network your connection will run slower as it has more latency. When a customer needs to get to your server, instead of going from their provider to your server directly they will have to skip around to one, two or even three OTHER providers just to get to you. Why? Well Cogent, and companies like Cogent, do not have connections with all of the other Internet Service Providers out there. An analogy is if you had to avoid I-95 getting from Florida to New York City. You CAN do it, but who the heck would want to? Providers like Level 3, At&t and MCI can get you to where you need faster and shorter. That is why they are more expensive. So before just looking at pricing when finding a home for your server, check out who the upstream (internet) providers are.

Remember, you get what you pay for!

We talked earlier about evil web hosts. They are getting worse. Not only are they keeping your domain name hostage, they are keeping your files and your database hostage. Make sure you have FTP access and constantly backup your web files. Make sure, whether you use a tool of your own like phpmyadmin (phpmyadmin.net) or your web hosting company's control panel, that you backup your database daily. These simple tasks will save you hours and days of frustration, time and downtime.

Together we can fight the evil hosts!

I just checked amazon and Microsoft Office 2007 standard edition is $325. Even if you "know a guy" and can get it for half that price you are still shelling our $162+ for a copy of office per person. Why? Check out open office http://www.openoffice.org/ . It is a free office program that runs on Windows or Mac. It comes with a word processor, spreadsheet program and a power point like program. It is compatible with Microsoft Office products. No one will even know that you are using open office. At least try it. Download it now! A five person office can save any where from $800 - $1600.

Even if you only have a handful of computers in your office, managing them can be overwhelming. You may have an in-house geek that helps out, you may have an IT company on retainer or you may not being doing anything at all. Regardless of what you are or are not doing there is a free software tool out there that will help. Most IT companies that are "managing" your computers remotely use a similar tool. Spiceworks is an easy to install and use software package that can help you manage your computers. Check them out at http://www.spiceworks.com/ . Yes it is free.

"Do you want it fast, cheap, or right? Pick two."

Hopefully you have heard this before. If not, here it is!

We often try to do all three and that is almost impossible. What is most important to your company? Do all your employees agree? Do your customers agree? Does your web site agree? Do the services you offer agree?

For example - You are a cheap and fast web hosting provider that can get a virtual server up and running in 5 minutes for $10 a month. Your web site says that you can customize the server to our need and have a 100% uptime guarantee. How?

There is no right answer. Walmart chooses cheap. Target chooses right.

The only right answer is to pick two and stick with it. Make sure your message(s) are consistent. Make sure your employees understand who you are. Make sure you signup customers that understand who you are. Make sure your marketing materials (including your web site) agree with who you are.

It may even make sense to just pick one....

Here are a few ways to protect yourself (as a business owner) as well as your employees from the dangers of the world wide web. Some of these were designed for children, but some will argue that children and employees are the same :)

1) Firewall

Firewalls are not just for keeping the "bad" guys out. They can also be used to protect the "good" guys inside. You can block certain web sites, restrict which programs employees can use (such as chat, video / audio streaming, file sharing, etc...) . You can also group employees together into groups and setup different policies based on the group or the individual

2) 3rd Party Web Filtering

You can buy an appliance that acts like a proxy. Which means all Internet traffic goes through this appliance or server and you can filter what goes through. You can buy a high end appliance or install software on a server. The most popular and FREE program you can use is Squid - http://www.squid-cache.org/ .

You can also install a program on one or all computers. A popular and free program is K9 from Blue Coat. Blue Coat makes an awesome appliance for the office. This software is also very good. You can download it at http://www1.k9webprotection.com/

3) OpenDNS

OpenDNS is a new and revolutionary way to protect your computers. You simply set your network or computers to use their DNS servers and viola! OpenDNS gives you the option to block dozens of categories on your networks, for free. From social networking to job sites, from gambling to video sharing, from webmail to alcohol and more: with OpenDNS, you make the choice about what's available on your network. Check them out at http://www.opendns.com

4) When all else fails you can shut the internet off. Unplug your routers and computers and you are guaranteed not to have any hack attempts or unproductive browsing from employees. But then again they might not be able to get work done either.

There is no right answer. Every business is different. The right answer is somewhere between doing nothing and some or all of the options above.

Every industry has them. A bad apple. Or a bunch of bad apples. It seems, lately, that there are a lot of evil hosting companies out there that want to keep people as customers. They have decided that the best way to do this is not through personalized service, but by holding their domain name(s) hostage. They will turn their phones off, ignore email while your site and email remains down. Evil! How can you protect yourself? Make sure the domain name you paid for is registered under your name. You can check this by doing a whois search. An easy to use site is http://www.whois.sc . Put your domain name in and make sure the registrant is your name or the company name. An active and proper email address also makes it easier to switch your domain name to another provider. YES, you can switch providers. Your new provider should help with this transition. But the first battle is to make sure the domain name is owned by you.

Together we can fight the evil hosts!