| Prominic.NET Newsletter
Volume I, Issue 2, August 2008
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This month is a milestone for Prominic: August 3rd marked ten years of providing managed hosting services. Anniversaries always seem to be a time for reflection, so to all of our loyal customers, we thank you for your support, your trust and your confidence.
To further demonstrate our commitment to excellence in customer support, we'll be introducing our annual customer satisfaction survey in late August or early September. In this totally optional survey, we'll give you an opportunity to tell us where we meet or exceed your expectations, as well as where we're coming up short. As always, you are encouraged to contact our Sales and/or Support teams at any time with any problem or praise you would like to share with us.
Case in point: Over the past couple months we've received a number of comments on how our Support team's phone system works Learn more. We'll be implementing a few significant changes over the next few weeks, and we'll provide details here as the changes are implemented, so stay tuned....
What is critically important to remember is that even if you have problems with your Support PIN, you can always reach our Support team. During our normal hours of operation (9AM to 6PM US CT, Monday through Friday), you can dial our Sales line for assistance with and manual verification of your credentials. After hours, a live operator is always available on our Support line to assist with emergencies.
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Don't Have a BlackBerry Yet? Here's What You're Missing!
So incredibly popular that it quickly earned itself the nickname "crackberry" (named so for its addiction-causing qualities), the BlackBerry device is the end-user instrument that allows your average Joe to play IT maestro like a concert pianist. And when combined with BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), and Notes Domino or Exchange, you can make some really beautiful music!
OK, enough with the metaphors: BES gives you real-time, wireless synchronization of your messaging environment (e-mail, calendar, addressbook, journal, to-dos). We're not talking simple e-mail forwarding here, but real replication (to borrow a Notes term) of your Inbox (from the point of activation forward) so that you can perform practically any communications task from your BlackBerry as if you were at your desktop or laptop. The latest BlackBerry software also includes viewers for common file formats and plug-ins for some applications.
If you host Domino or Exchange with us, consider our shared (BES for Domino only) or dedicated hosting plans. With Domino, we can even host your BES environment while you keep your Domino server in-house. Learn more With dedicated environments we can deploy custom or commercial applications to your BlackBerry devices via your BES environment. |
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IBM Lotus Licensing 101
This is the first part of a three-part series devoted to the intricacies of IBM Lotus licensing. In this short article we'll lay the foundation for an understanding of how IBM licensing works. In parts two and three, we'll explore Entitlements and how Processor Value Units work.
IBM Lotus licensing is based on two key concepts: perpetual license purchase/renewal and customer entity type and size.
When you purchase an IBM Lotus license for the first time, you purchase a right to use the software you are licensing and twelve months of software maintenance. After twelve months, you must purchase maintenance renewal to keep your perpetual license current. As long as you do so, you are entitled to "free" upgrades, bug fixes and patches and direct support from IBM Lotus for the software you purchased. You do NOT purchase upgrades when the next major release is available; you are entitled to them as long as you are "on maintenance."
Should you let your maintenance lapse, you can reinstate your licensing for a sum less than the full purchase price but greater than the annual renewal fee.
What kind of licensing you can purchase and how much you will pay for it depends on the size and type of your organization. For example, educational institutions and government agencies receive special discounts.
Small and medium business entities are eligible for what IBM Lotus calls its "Express" pricing. If your organization has fewer than 1,000 employees, it can purchase Express products, which can result in substantial savings in licensing purchases and renewals. To learn more, contact our Sales team. |
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Tech Savvy: Why You Need a Hardware Firewall
If you shop around regularly for hosting services, you can find some real deals, or so it would seem. One of the first things many hosting companies will skimp on in order to create those "deals" is firewalls. After all, if they work really well, they're invisible--you don't really know that you don't have one until it's too late.
Prominic puts every customer behind a hardware-based firewall. Period. Just like we don't deploy disk without RAID protection, a hardware-based firewall is a must. Why? Well, the "firewall" part of the equation is pretty straightforward: no firewall and you're compromised in hours, if not minutes.
The "hardware" part of hardware-based firewall requires some explanation. Many consumers actually use software-based firewalls on their personal computers, and they do a pretty good job (even the Windows OS firewall is better than nothing!). With servers, though, it's a different story, for several reasons:
- A software firewall uses processing power on the server it's protecting. A busy server may be overwhelmed by having to handle its normal processing load while filtering incoming traffic. It's better to leave the task to a specialized "computer" that does nothing but inspect and filter traffic.
- Software firewalls are more difficult to configure and manage. And, if you have to reset them, you might need to bring the entire server down, often an expensive proposition.
- Perhaps the most important reason to use a hardware firewall is the segregation of the work for security reasons. If your software firewall is compromised, the server on which it is running is vulnerable to the same attack. With a compromised hardware firewall, not all of the servers are necessarily compromised, and as stated before, you can disable the firewall without fear of losing application data.
- Finally, many hardware firewalls also act as a VPN (Virtual Private Network) access point. They will include additional hardware that does nothing but accelerate the necessary encryption of data on the Private network. Again, this specialized processing is better handled by a dedicated appliance rather than an application server.
Next month we'll continue this discussion with the advantages of a dedicated firewall appliance. Learn more |
WE WILL BE CLOSED SEPTEMBER 1, 2008, FOR THE US LABOR DAY HOLIDAY.
Our Office Hours: 9AM - 6PM US CT
Please note: By unsubscribing you may miss critical account information such as scheduled maintenance times and new features. | |
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DNS Settings Critical
In order for us to properly manage your servers, it is of critical importance that your DNS settings for the domains that you host with us are pointed at the nameservers: NS1.PROMINIC.NET, NS2.PROMINIC.NET,
NS3.PROMINIC.NET and
NS4.PROMINIC.NET.
Please note: NS3 & NS4 are new and should be added to your domain even if you already have NS1 & NS2.
If you are uncertain of your settings, you can verify them with any WHOIS service. For example, into any browser, enter the URL:
Important notice to customers who do NOT host their DNS with Prominic.NET:
If your servers are hosted within the IP range 209.254.132.x , then you must take action. You have two options prior to Wednesday, September 3, 2008:
1) change your DNS to be hosted by Prominic, per the instructions above--this is what we recommend.
2) If you choose not to host your DNS with Prominic.NET, on September 3rd at 11:30PM US CT, you must manually change the first three values in your IP address from 209.254.132 to 208.85.188. The final value will remain the same. If you have any questions, please e-mail our Support team at Support@Prominic.NET. |
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Update Your Contact Information On-line
If you haven't updated your records with us in a while, please take a moment to update your personal profile with us. Simply log onto our web site at http://Prominic.NET/me.
If you have forgotten your password, select the "Forgot Password" button, then provide your e-mail address and the answer to three of the four security questions.
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Know Your Account
Need to know something about your account with us? Before you pick up the telephone and call our Support team, try your Admin Portal first! Point your browser at https://Prominic.NET/Support
and then supply your 6-character customer ID. You'll then be prompted for your Password.
Need to review last month's bill? Select "Billing" in the menu at the top left and your entire Invoice history is displayed.
You've also got access to other account information such as bandwidth and disk used, and easy but secure access to management features (e.g. FTP, RDP). Learn more |
| Did You Know...
...that Prominic offers both virtual and dedicated options for hosting Open Source solutions on Linux:
PHP - the highly compatible scripting language for the web.
Ruby on Rails - libraries for developing custom applications quicker than ever.
PostGreSQL - the enterprise-class, award-winning powerful DBMS.
MySQL - Sun's newest acquisition comes in two flavors: Community and Enterprise Editions.
Apache Tomcat - the speedy, lightweight solution for smaller servers.
Visit any of the links above or contact our Sales team for more information. Find more information about all of our Open Source solutions on our web site. Learn more | |
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Coming in September
IBM Lotus Licensing 201 ... Notes, the Mac and the iPhone ... Tech Savvy: Oh, No! I Broke the Internet (Again) .. Firewalls, Part 2 .. and more!
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