August 2003
We have moved our offices and data center from the First Mutual Plaza in Bellevue, Washington to Fisher Plaza in Seattle, Washington. Please note that we now have a new mailing address and new local phone numbers, including a new number for your technical support questions. New Mailing Address: New Local Business Telephone Number: Unchanged Toll-Free Business Telephone Number: New Business Fax Number. New Local Support Telephone Number: New Toll-Free Support Number: Due to the high level of security in the Fisher Plaza building we request that you notify us 24 hours before scheduling a visit or meeting at our new offices. This will allow us to inform building security of your plans and will expedite the sign-in process. Please Note: If your server has not yet moved from our Bellevue data center and you require physical access to the server, please call technical support or a Webmaster at 206-404-9500 to schedule your visit. As we have notified you in previous newsletters, this summer Adhost is moving its offices and network operations center from Bellevue to a new, state-of-the-art facility at Fisher Plaza in Seattle. As a result we will be having maintenance windows for every server in the Adhost network. The maintenance windows for these moves will generally be between 10:00 PM and 4:00 AM on weekend nights (Friday-Saturday, Saturday-Sunday and Sunday-Monday). These windows correspond to the lowest traffic period for our network as a whole. We will make every effort to minimize downtime for any server. We will also be forwarding traffic for all affected IP address to a generic "down for maintenance" page while the servers are in transit. This "down for maintenance" page will include your domain name, an apology for the down time, and asks the viewer to please try again soon.
IN THIS MONTH'S ISSUE:
1) Our Offices Have Moved
2) Shared Server Move Schedule
3) New Email Filter Keeping Busy
4) New Support Hours
5) New Adhost Site
6) Refferal Bonus
Our Offices Have Moved!
Adhost Internet
140 Fourth Avenue North
Suite 360
Seattle, WA 98109
206-404-9000
888-ADHOST-1 (234-6781)
206-404-9050
206-404-9500
888-3-ADHOST (323-4678)
Shared Server Move Schedule
Co-located and dedicated server customers have already been contacted by our system administration team with their specific schedules. Our shared server schedule for August is as follows:
If your site resides on one of these servers or uses one of these servers (such as sql.adhost.com) your site will be affected during the above maintenance windows.
We'd like to address some questions in advance:
Q: Will my IP address change?
A: With a small handful of exceptions, IP addresses will stay the same. If there is a need to change an IP address, we will contact you separately. The base IP addresses of our shared servers will not change.Q: Will my DNS change?
A: No, DNS will remain the same.Q: What should I expect for downtime?
A: Expect that the server(s) will be down for the entire maintenance window. Although all of our moves to date have been well less that the full six hours, we cannot guarantee to beat this time (although we will make every effort to do just that).Q: Why doesn't Adhost replicate my site to prevent any downtime?
A: This is simply not practical to do for our shared servers. These servers are, on average, hosting 50 or more clients per server, many with specialized applications and configurations. To work through each of these issues with each client simply won't be possible in the time frame allotted to us to complete this move.Q: Can the schedule be changed?
A: Unfortunately, we cannot accept input from customers on the schedule. Again, this is because there would be no possible way to accommodate every client's schedule on our shared servers. We are also working with a limited time window to get this move accomplished.Q: What happens if my site doesn't come back up?
A: Although we will be testing every server to ensure that all systems return to normal after the move and planning in advance to eliminate any potential problems, there remains a very slight chance of unexpected problems. Please contact our support team if you have any problems that are a result of this move at support@adhost.com or 888-ADHOST-1 (888-234-6781). Please don't report problems until after 9AM of the day the move was completed as we will most likely be aware of most minor issues and our system administrators will be working on them.Q: What kind of complications should I expect?
A: We expect there to be few or no complications. No IP addresses will change, there will be no updates to DNS, etc. Essentially, the move will simply be an extended reboot of the server(s): We will be powering the server down at one location, taking it out of the rack, transporting it to the new location, installing it in the already prepared and waiting rack and powering it back up.Q: You list your mail system as going down, will I lose any mail?
A: You shouldn't, although some mail might be delayed. Mail destined for an email address on or through our mail system should queue on the sending mail server while our mail system is being moved. Once our system is back up, that queued mail will get redelivered by the sending mail server (it may take several hours for the queued messages to be delivered). Of course, while our mail system is down, you will not be able to check mail or send outbound mail through the system. Again, we are moving our mail server during its lowest traffic periods and we hope that this will minimize any impact to our customers.We appreciate your business and understanding and deeply regret any inconvenience. We also want to reiterate that we will do everything we can to minimize the effect that this move will have. We strongly believe this move will provide significant long-term benefits to Adhost and all of its customers.
If you have pressing concerns, please contact our support team at support@adhost.comNew Email Spam Filter Keeping Busy
The Adhost Spam Filter is currently rejecting between 30,000 and 40,000 emails per day (this represents around 20% of our total incoming volume). On top of that, another 7,000 messages per day are blocked that match client spam criteria. Lastly, "marked spam" accounts for another 30,000 to 50,000 pieces daily. "Marked spam" include messages that match the client's criteria for "mark as spam but do not block" (this number is harder to pin down to an exact number, but the above is close). These messages reach our clients, but are plainly marked as ****SPAM**** in the subject for easy filtering by the customer's email program.
If you need more information or help in customizing your filter you can click on the "Mail Filter Help" link in your control panel at https://client.adhost.com or browse to http://adhost.com/support/email/spamfilter.shtml. Should you have additional questions please email support@adhost.com or call us at 206-404-9500.
New Support Hours
Adhost is excited to announce the expansion of our Support Department hours. Starting Friday, August 1, we will have someone available to answer your questions 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We are available via 3 channels, email: support@adhost.com live chat (see link on homepage of Adhost.com) and phone (either 206-404-9500 for local calls or for those of you out of the area, our new support toll-free number is 888-3ADHOST or 888-323-4678).
New Adhost Site
Keep your eyes peeled for the new and improved Adhost Web site coming soon! It will contain an expanded support section, easier navigation and eye-catching graphics to help you quickly find what you need.
If you are interested in updating your site please feel free to contact our sales department at 206-404-9000 or email sales@adhost.com.
