by: Chris Hudson
26 August, 2009
A quick call to our existing customers to ask you to vote for Intrahost in the Webhostdir.co.uk monthly awards for August 2009.
Please click on the link to go to the voting page.
Each month webhostdir rank the 25 most popular companies on Web Host Directory UK.
So if you’re happy with your Intrahost web hosting, colocation, dedicated server or virtual dedicated server then please take 30 seconds of your time to vote for us.
Thank you.
by: Chris Hudson
Crederity has announced the launch of an identity verification service for Twitter users in the US.
It tries to combat the problem of online identity theft by enabling Twitter users to prove their real-life identity.
Crederity validates the offline, real-world identity of the person who has created a Twitter account.
To learn more about Crederity’s new service for Twitter users, please visit: http://www.crederity.com/twitter.html
Presently, the service is free for US and Indian residents.
by: Chris Hudson
Apple’s latest version of OS X, Snow Leopard, will ship in the UK this Friday, 28th August. The price is £25 with free shipping from the UK Apple Store.
This is good news for Apple Mac users who are looking forward to finally getting true 64-bit performance from their Intel-based Macs. Finder, Safari, Mail, iCal and iChat are now 64-bit native but Grand Central Dispatch and Open CL will make the most difference to your Mac’s performance.
For a detailed overview of the benefits of the Apple Snow Leopard upgrade please take a look at my preview.
Meanwhile, I’m off to order a big beautiful cat for my MacPro!
by: Chris Hudson
25 August, 2009
Recently BT Retail announced that it will boost its top tier broadband downstream rate from a theoretical headline speed of 8 Mbps to up to 20 Mbps.
Upload speeds will also increase, theoretically, from up to 448 Kbps to up to 1 Mbps.
However, these faster broadband speeds will initially only be available through exchanges covering 40 per cent of the UK’s homes and businesses. Even in six months time coverage will only increase to 55 per cent.
It will take almost two years for all exchanges to be upgraded, during which time businesses in those areas will be disadvantaged. Businesses outside the major urban areas are the ones with the longest wait.
Steve Weller, of uSwitch said in the Daily Telegraph in June: “There will still be a second class of internet citizen who will not benefit from this move from BT.”
Living in a small seaside town that was very late to get broadband at all I was curious as to our fate under this new initiative. I discovered two things, that living close to an telephone exchange my current maximum speed is the full 8Mbps and that there seems to be, currently, no date for me to enter the 21st century and 20Mbps.
Then I checked my parents phone line - they live in a populous suburb of Leeds, and discovered that their current maximum broadband speed is 6.5Mbps- which isn’t bad - and, as expected, they have an upgrade date - of 28th February 2009. I was about to grumble when I noticed that their expected maximum speed after the 20Mbps upgrade was just 9Mbps - barely faster than I am getting under the 8Mbps regime in our east coast isolation!
So, by increasing the downstream theoretical maximum speed by 150% BT will actually increase my parents’ broadband speed in Leeds by less than 39%.
Does this mean that the millions of people who currently enjoy broadband speeds of less than 2Mbps will max out at well under 3Mbps even when their exchange has a headline downstream speed of 20Mbps?
I can predict even more complaints about headline speeds being forthcoming next year if these results are in anyway representative of the experience of BT’s subscribers.
by: Chris Hudson
21 August, 2009
To create a Virtual Dedicated Server (or Virtual Private Server) you take a physical server and use software or hardware virtualization to create a number of “virtual machines” on the physical host server; these are virtual servers, each possessing its own dedicated RAM, allocation of CPU power, hard disk space - in fact, everything you would physically need to create a server.
Finally, you install on each virtual machine the operating system that you desire, Linux or Windows and then you have virtual dedicated server.
Each virtual server on the host server can run its own operating system, it is not limited in anyway by OS already being run by other virtual dedicated servers on the same physical host server.
A virtual dedicated server enables you to enjoy all the benefits of a dedicated server while reducing some of the negatives of owning a dedicated server, e.g. you share the expense of acquiring the server hardware and network connections and to eliminate the difficulty and cost of maintaining them.
The virtual server is referred to as a dedicated server in the phrase VDS because although several VDS customers share the same hardware node, or physical host computer, they do not have access to each others hardware resources (RAM, CPU, HD). In other words the VDS has its own OS, dedicated application software and complete directory structure. You can restart the virtual dedicated server without it affecting any other VDS machines which share the same physical host server.
See our article on the benefits of a Virtual Dedicated Server
See also our article on when is a VDS better than a dedicated server
by: Chris Hudson
All VDS accounts are setup once verification has been completed.
Verification usually takes around 24 hours following the placement of your order.
If you make a virtual server order over a weekend, your VDS account will not be operational until the Monday.
by: Chris Hudson
Yes.
You can upgrade from any Intrahost virtual dedicated server (VDS) plan to any other virtual server hosting plan. Please note that we do not offer the inferior virtual private server (VPS) hosting.
If you wish to upgrade to a plan utilising the same operating system (Windows or Linux – same version), then we can perform this in a way that enables you to you keep your existing files and settings. Please call us if you need more information before making your upgrade choice.
by: Chris Hudson
(Intrahost provides Virtual Dedicated Servers not the inferior VPS which are less reliable and are usually provided because they cost less for the hosting company to set-up).
There is no simple answer to this as the mix of customers hosted on each physical server have different virtual dedicated server plans i.e. value, extra or pro. Each Intrahost VDS plan promises a different level of exclusive resources to the customer.
But be assured that to ensure the maximum performance of all virtual dedicated servers at all times, our physical host servers are more than adequately equipped with resources to meet the requirements of the the VDSs hosted upon them.
Our physical servers hosting VDS accounts are the latest HP ProLiant DL360 G6 servers that each have 72GB of RAM installed and limitless HD space through the use of advanced network disk arrays.
So the important fundamental point to understand is - as each VDS is guaranteed to have its own exclusive use of physical resources (RAM, HD space etc) that are not available to any one else on the physical hosting server then the number of VDS on each server is irrelevant as they will not impact on the performance of the each individual VDS.
This is contrary to the experience of those used to shared web hosting where the number of websites hosted on each physical server can directly affect the performance of the website to the end user if the hosting company tries to put too many on each physical server. Websites hosted on “free” servers often suffer from this syndrome because the websites packed onto each server do NOT have any exclusive resources and suffer if one website on the server is very popular.
by: Chris Hudson
There is no compulsory long-term contract with either our standard shared web hosting or virtual dedicated server hosting services.
Both accounts can be operated on a month-by-month basis and come with a 30 day money-back guarantee.
You can sign up for longer periods if you wish and there are often incentives for you to do so. This link will show you Intrahost’s current offers on VDS (VPS) or web hosting.
Our dedicated servers and UK colocation services do have a minimum 12 months term as standard.
by: Chris Hudson
Essentially, a VDS (or a VPS) is, to all practical intents and purposes, the same as a dedicated server. Consequently, software that runs on a physical server should run on a virtualised host.
You can install most web–based applications, software, and utilities within the virtual server without any modifications.
Both open–source and commercial applications that are widely tested and utilised will also run successfully on your virtual dedicated server account, as most applications and services do not have to be aware of virtual dedicated server technology.
If you have particular software that you wish to run on an Intrahost virtual dedicated server, which is a superior form of virtual private server (VPS), please contact Intrahost and we will try to assist you. Remember, there is a 30 day money guarantee on our VDS (VPS) so you can give our software virtual server
