Technologies
99.9% Uptime
Internet Connection prides itself in running a smooth hosting operation, but it is a reality that outages can and do happen. We stand by our philosophy of providing the best hosting service possible, and if problems do occur, you can be confident that our team of network administrators are on the case. Have a problem with your email or website? Our support technicians are ready and willing to assist you and get your problem taken care of right there on the phone. Days of possible downtime as experienced at other hosting operations are reduced to minutes at Internet Connection.
Our Network Operations Center
A recent survey of hosting providers has indicated that over 90% of web hosting companies in existence today collocate their servers at a remote data center, rather than hosting their servers in their own NOC (Network Operations Center). While such server collocation cuts the hosting provider's startup costs, it severely limits an ISP in many aspects, including selecting and setting security policies to personally addressing the hardware and network issues.
It also limits these companies from having the ability to design and build their own specialized internal networks with-in these resold NOC facilities. When starting out, this does not seem to be a significant problem. As they expand their client base and try to add internal security policies, fast and secure online Webmaster control systems, monitoring equipment for their systems, high end email systems, and even specialized servers - it becomes a gigantic problem for them and they will be limited in some of their choices and their ability to provide full service to their clients.
We host our servers on our very own network in our very own NOC. We were fortunate to start our business so long ago that there was no other option then but to build our own NOC, and now we would not have it any other way. Our NOC is actually the culmination of all the technologies we apply, from servers to network connectivity to maintenance of both. Managing our own NOC, we have direct control over server and network operations, which gives us several distinct advantages over other hosting providers who do not run their own NOC. Some of these advantages include the following:
- We can set a security policy that is most appropriate for our clients' needs and not the needs of some remote NOC authority.
- We have the freedom to design and expand our systems to our own specifications, including adding new lines for connectivity, additional servers, installing additional specialized server and network monitoring agents, etc.-- freedoms that would not be possible for a hosting provider collocated at a remote NOC under a remote authority.
- We hand-select the connectivity vendors we deal with, which allows us to use only the highest quality network carriers of our choosing.
- Our own qualified technicians are on-call 24/7 and have direct access to our server and network hardware, and because they are most familiar with the systems, they can resolve any system issues quickly and efficiently. (A hosting provider collocated at a remote NOC would have to rely on a remote crew that may or may not be as familiar with their systems, which could cause further delay in response and resolution.)
What does all of this mean to you? It means we can directly maximize our network performance so your sites blaze across the internet, we can properly maintain network security on your sites so you can feel assured your data is safe, and we can quickly fix any system issue on-site so you can feel confident you have a team of well-qualified technicians to keep your services up and running. In the end, we are here to deliver to you a premium service with all of the proper technology and experience backing it up every step of the way.
Server & Network Monitoring
Our network and servers are monitored 24/7 from multiple locations. Dedicated monitoring systems (including fail-safe monitoring systems) are in place throughout our entire data center network, our internal administration networks, and networks off-site from our own. They track various internal and external systems ranging from server and network loads to backbone connectivity, from network-wide services such as DNS services to server-side services such as web, email, and ftp availability. Our system monitors even watch the availability of the individual websites from inside and outside our network. If any of our sentinels detect performance degradation or inaccessibility, they automatically notify the entire staff by email and by text messaging to pagers and cell phones.
Our outside monitoring also helps to evaluate the Users experience to our network from the outside world. We record daily monitoring to first model using explicit specifications and standards, and then evaluate the experience a "User" will encounter when visiting your website on our network.
Our entire staff is on-call 24-hours a day to ensure immediate respond to any specific client's need, and to respond in the event of any server or network matter.
Some Sr. Staff have even taken the additional initiative of taking their residence within a 3-block radius of the network center, ensuring extremely short response times.
Qmail
Qmail is the most popular MTA on the internet today. More than 1,000,000 reachable IP addresses are running Qmail as their SMTP server. Qmail handles a huge percentage of all Internet mail.
Why does Internet Connection use Qmail?
- Security. Qmail doesn't let intruders into your machine
- Reliability. Qmail never loses mail
- Speed. Qmail delivers your mail much more quickly than sendmail, without compromising reliability
- Low memory use. Qmail can handle dozens of simultaneous deliveries on an old 16MB 486
- User-controlled mailing lists. Users don't have to pester the system administrator to create new lists
- Virtual hosts made easy. Qmail pioneered multiple-domain support.
- Straightforward administration. Qmail works with a minimum of fuss.
- Flexible program deliveries. Qmail provides a powerful interface for external mail processors.
- Variable Envelope Return Paths. This feature (used by ezmlm) provides 100% automatic bounce handling for mailing lists of any size.
- The maildir format. This feature makes it easy to set up high-volume distributed POP toasters.
Our solutions are compatible with all popular technologies.
