Category Archives: Network/Server Activity Log

Updates about our Network and Servers are posted in this area.

Lambda Server Experiencing Temporary Difficulties

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Valued clients,

Our Lambda server has been experiencing intermittent difficulties over the past hour. We are currently monitoring the situation in the spirit of diagnosis, and ultimately patching against the problem.

Your data is of course safe, thanks to our daily backup system which stores a copy of your entire hosting account outside of this server.

I will update this entry with a fully detailed report as soon as possible. Thank you.

Problems Affecting our Lambda Server

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IMPORTANT: This issue was resolved on June 3rd 2011, 2:19am PT

Earlier this evening, our Lambda server fell victim to a massive incoming DDOS Attack which reached 1000mbps at its height.

Per our server provider’s decision, Lambda’s main IP address was null-routed/terminated, and all DNS entries on that server were converted to accommodate its new main IP address, 174.136.62.3

This server is currently experiencing an issue where some webistes are being redirected to the default cPanel page. We are investigating this right now and it is our top priority.

If you host your DNS at PhireFast:
We have already updated your DNS entries and if your site is not already back to normal, it should be soon, pending DNS propagation.

If you host your DNS elsewhere:
You must update any affected records by updating to 174.136.62.3

Please create a Support Request if you have any questions or comments. We are sorry for the inconvenience. Unfortunately the internet is the modern Wild West. We cannot control who attacks our network, how powerful the attack is, or when it happens. We can only make quick decisions and take aggressive action as thee events occur and try to prevent them in the future.

Thank you for hosting with PhireFast.

- Mark Mutti
Founder/Owner

Uptimes: Types and Guarantees

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Web host uptime

Overview

Wikipedia defines Uptime as a measure of the time a computer system has been “up” and running, but did you know there are different kinds of uptime? Did you know that many web hosts use this common lack of knowledge against you?

Types of Uptime

  • Network lifetime: This is the type of uptime many hosts use to incorporate loopholes in to their advertisements and guarantees. Based on this measurement, a network can have 9 hours of downtime each year and still fulfill an advertised 99.9% guarantee! How would you feel if your site was down for 9 hours every year?!
  • Set time frame: Most commonly measured annually, monthly, weekly or daily, this is the method we use in our uptime guarantee to assure a set, recorded number each month.
  • Rolling period of time: This type of measurement is counted from the last X amount of days, usually the last 30, and is a constant measurement – never ending.
Pingdom

A live-updating uptime graph for our beloved "lambda" server

We use Pingdom

PhireFast uses and recommends a great, paid service called Pingdom. Their global network of monitoring servers measures and reports on each of our hosting servers. If you are interested in a constantly-updated uptime graph for the server your site is on, let us know!

When shopping for hosting

Find out if the host clearly defines the type of uptime their guarantees are based on. Do they back-up their advertised features in their Service Level Agreement? We do.

For the “techies”: Finding uptime

Windows
How: From command prompt, run systeminfo | find “Time:”
Example output: “System Up Time: 8 Days, 8 Hours, 30 Minutes, 17 Seconds

Unix/Apple OS
How: From a terminal session, run uptime
Example output (taken from PhireFast’s very own “lambda” server): 22:51:47 up 34 days,  6:39,  1 user,  load average: 4.51, 4.04, 4.21

22:51:47 up 34 days,  6:39,  1 user,  load average: 4.51, 4.04, 4.21