Apache 2.2.9 Introduced to all Servers

Posted on September 26, 2008 by admin

This is a quick update to let everyone know that HostedFX has now officially upgraded all of our servers to be using the latest stable build of Apache – version 2.2.9. We have previously delayed the upgrade as we wanted to make certain that most, if not all, of the bugs would be corrected by the time we have upgraded. We believe now is a great time to roll out the latest version of Apache, whilst maintaining our stable hosting environment.

The full list of new features and benefits of Apache 2 can be seen here.

The upgrade is now complete, and out of our eight servers we have only had one report of there being an issue – which was quickly resolved. As always, if you have any issues they we be quickly addressed via our secure client area.

Thank you,
Gareth Hodson

Posted in Announcements, Software, Upgrades | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

A New Member to the Support Team

Posted on August 11, 2008 by Mark

As HostedFX expands and our client base increases, the need for an extra member of staff to assist with keeping our clients happy is simply a necessity. We currently have a couple of support staff, a mystery technician, and contacts on hand at our datacenter 24 hours a day. With the growth of HostedFX, another knowledgable, reliable, helpful support operator was required. But for the time being, Gareth found me – Mark Horsfall.

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself as the latest member of staff; Mark Horsfall. I will be working on the staff support team and will answer most queries along with Gareth. I’m here to answer and provide assistance when Gareth can’t – but so far, he seems to respond instantaneously to support tickets meaning I’ll have to wait until he sleeps to get a chance to respond to a ticket. I have an pretty established three year history in hosting, having owned my own hosting company before leaving the company due to time restraints. I now enjoy being a part time photographer at the young age of 16! As they say, age is merely a number, hosting is a passion of mine and I consider myself extremely knowledgable in the field.

I am located in the United Kingdom and am up around the clocking checking that clients are satisfied and everything is running smoothly. Gareth has set up an email address so you can email me directly if a support ticket doesn’t satisfy your needs. The email address is: markhorsfall@hostedfx.com – no spam please, unless it is something that will interest me.

I really look forward to helping out and getting started. If there’s anything else you’d like to know about me, either submit support tickets night and day to find out about my anger issues, or simply ask away in the comments section of this blog post.

Oh, and please keep ordering from HostedFX, else you’ll see me jobless. And you wouldn’t want that, would you?

Thank you,
Mark Horsfall,
Support Staff at HostedFX.

Posted in Announcements | Tagged , | 6 Comments

A New Payment Method and a Securer Client Area

Posted on August 10, 2008 by admin

As we expand as a company, we have to think even more so about how we can make each and every visitor to our website have a better and safer experience – regardless of if they are a customer or not. With this in mind, I have made two fairly significant updates to the HostedFX website.

A new payment gateway – Google Checkout
Google Checkout is becoming quite popular lately. If you haven’t heard of it, it is quite similar to the ever-popular PayPal. “With Google Checkout you can quickly and easily buy from stores across the web and track all your orders and shipping in one place.” So far, we have found the fee’s on transactions to be slightly lower than PayPal’s and the whole interface is extremely pleasing on the eye and pleasant to use.

Google Checkout

For this reason, HostedFX now accepts Google Checkout as a payment method for all new orders and invoices for existing customers. Simply select Google Checkout from the drop-down box when paying an invoice. The only downside that I’ve found of Google Checkout is that there is no option for subscriptions; so for those of you who prefer to use a subscription, Google Checkout probably isn’t for you just yet.

The client area is now even more secure
We’ve decided to go ahead and add SSL encryption to all of our transactions and activity within the client area (notice the new URL). For those of you who are not aware of what this means; “An SSL Certificate refers to the digital certificate used with the most popular security protocol on the Internet. When you make a purchase on the Web and notice the closed lock icon at the top or bottom of your browser or the HTTPS:// prefix in the URL, it means you have established a secure SSL connection.”

Two simple updates, which have meant more flexibility along with a greater sense of security for all of our clients. As always, if you have any suggestions just let us know.

Thank you,

Gareth Hodson

HostedFX Web Hosting CEO.

Posted in Security, Website Updates | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

The Clients Area Has Moved…(Kind Of)

Posted on August 4, 2008 by admin

Very quick update for you guys,

The clients/order/support area for HostedFX has always been located at hostedfx.com/clients/ – but now I have decided to move it onto the domain of clients.hostedfx.com.

This is predominantly for two main reasons;

1. Having the area on a subdomain means we will be adding an SSL certificate to the clients area to make logging in/ordering even more secure.

2. We will soon (hopefully this week!) be offering Google Checkout as a payment method, so you will be able to choose between Google Checkout and PayPal in order to pay invoices. Additionally, Google Checkout happens to require an SSL certificate in order to use it…(see point 1).

Two simply reasons to further improve the whole HostedFX experience. Please let me know your thoughts on this, especially with regards to the new payment method of Google Checkout.

Thanks all,
Gareth

P.S you may still access the client area via hostedfx.com/clients, but in order to use it more securely from next week I strongly recommend using the subdomain of clients.hostedfx.com.

Posted in Security, Website Updates | Tagged , , , , | 122 Comments

August Income Will be Donated to Charity

Posted on July 26, 2008 by admin

On this Thursday, I was sitting in a restaurant and noticed over in the far corner there was a lady who seemed to just basically be talking to as many people as possible. It turns out her job was to simply to gather donations from people dining for the purpose of Cancer Research. Needless to say, she enticed me over and the result was me donating £15 per month from my income to Cancer Research. Not a great amount of money, but I would have felt bad to have given nothing, and I’m sure my contribution may make a difference to somebody…right?

August Profit Will be Donated to Charity
This brings me on to my next point. The event at the restaurant really got me thinking – with me at the helm of HostedFX I’m in a postion to make quite a substantial contribution to any charity. By donating August’s income to charity, I will effectively be placing several thousand dollars into the hands of one (or several) charities.

So it’s decided. I’m going to foot the cost of our servers out of my own pocket for August, and donate all of the HostedFX income to the chosen charities.

Simply post a comment to this blog post recommending a charity that you would like to see the money go to, and I’ll make it happen.

Thank you for your time,
Gareth Hodson

Posted in Announcements | Tagged , | 23 Comments