Online Backup, Colocation and Technology Blog

Fast PC Networks | Newsroom Magazine USA Edition

2011-08-08T10:12:00.000-05:00

Fast PC Networks | Newsroom Magazine USA Edition

How to backup your Facebook profile

2011-02-28T15:32:00.003-06:00

You can now grab all you Facebook information in one zip file.
Just go to account and then account settings. On the my account under the settings tab you will see download your information. Click learn more then the download link. You will receive an email and link when the download is ready.

Houston Colocation Bandwidth

2011-02-07T09:21:00.003-06:00

10 meg un metered ports $150/month
10 megs burtst to 100 $24.99 per meg per month
10 megs burtst to 100 on our privatge 4 city CDN $29.49 per meg per month
No commit CDN $0.12 per GB 1000GB minimum

Netflix Rates Broadband Providers by Bandwidth - PCWorld

2011-02-03T08:24:00.000-06:00

Netflix Rates Broadband Providers by Bandwidth - PCWorld
If your looking for an ISP this is probably a great place to start.

Online Server Backup Deal - Pre Pay and Save

2011-01-31T11:03:00.002-06:00

1TB Online server backup space for only $80 and month when you pre pay 1 year in advance. Load Fast Backup for servers on as many servers as you need and back them all up using one account. Fast Backup for servers lets you backup to a local drive and we provide 1 Terrabyte of online space at Internap Houston or Internap New York. We use Internap for network services and your data is stored on a Raid-6 SAN. Our software included free plug-ins for Microsoft Exchange all versions and SQL. We offer mailbox level backup at $0.75 per mailbox per month. Download a free 60 day trial no credit card required.
Call 877 614 Host for a quick quote or visit our online server bakup page

Houston Colocation

2011-01-28T09:07:00.003-06:00

1U High Power Server
* Up to 3 amps
* Remote PDU
* 3 Megs Internap Flow Controlled Bandwidth
* 5 Ip's
* 30 GB Fast Backup for servers included
* Upgrade options available like extra PDU, SAN and more.
$189/month Free install up to 1 hour
Call 877 614 HOST to order of visit Houston Colocation Data Center

Online Backup, Cloud Servers, Data Center Colocation - FastPCNet

2011-01-26T16:35:00.000-06:00

Online Backup, Cloud Servers, Data Center Colocation - FastPCNet
We've added some great new deal to our homepage.

The Best Online backup server deal!

2011-01-26T10:33:00.000-06:00

Online Server Backup, Remote Secure Off Site Windows, Exchange and Sql Server
Get 1 terrabyte of online server backup to our New York City data center for $80/month when prepaid 1 year. We use Internap's data center and network. 1TB of online server backup for only $960 per year. Please call 877 614 HOST for a quick quote.

Houston Colocation, Data Center, Disaster Recovery Facility Houston, Texas, Redundant Network

2011-01-26T10:30:00.000-06:00

Houston Colocation, Data Center, Disaster Recovery Facility Houston, Texas, Redundant Network
We have bandwidth deals! Colo or cloud servers get 10 Megabits of bandwidth on an un metered port for only $150 per month. We use Internap's Houston data center and network. Get 10 Megabits burstable to 100 Megabits for $219 per month. Call 877 614 HOST for a custom quote.

Finding Colocation in Houston can be tricky

2011-01-20T11:20:00.003-06:00

If you are looking for a cabinet or more, look to the bigger data center companies and facilities with a national presence and their agents. There have been several that have gone out of business and left their customers without service. If you need to colocate just a few servers ask the bigger providers if they have anyone they would recommend in their facility that can provide space. I think it is a good idea to ask the data center company because they will recommend companies that are stable and have expertise.
By spending a little more for dual cross connect, remote reboots and dual power from separate PDU's you can have an enterprise class solution at a reasonable cost. Not all providers will offer these services so choose carefully. If you are going to colocate your servers make sure you install some type of remote management card like the Dell DRAC. This will save you from having to get in the car in the middle of the night or having to call for remote support. With the remote management cards you can even reload your servers.
If you only need a single server with small resources a cloud server is probably going to be your best option until you grow into needing your own equipment. This will save you time and money. You will have no hardware to buy and cloud servers can be provisioned in only a few minutes.

Twitter or Facebook for you business? or both?

2011-01-16T11:17:00.002-06:00

We are just getting into the Twitter game but so far we like it. For our products and services I think Twitter is going to be a better match. It seems much easier to pick up followers and there are some features or just the way it is layed out that we like better. It is early but I think we are going to do better with Twitter. What is nice is we can easily do both and use Twitter to feed Facebook and Linked in.

Online Server Backup

2011-01-14T10:49:00.003-06:00

Our best deal on server backup. 1TB backed up to our New York data center at 75 Broad $960/year that's only $80 a month for a terabyte and include software with continuous data protection. Internap SAS 70 Type II data center.

Bandwidth and Storage, New York City Only

2011-01-12T10:10:00.002-06:00

32 TB raw SAN and 10 megs un-metered only $750 at Internap 75 Broad location. 1 TB online server backup for only $80/month when you pre pay the year.

New York City Online Server backup deal for a Terabyte

2011-01-07T11:43:00.001-06:00

1 Terabyte of online server backup for only $79 per month if prepaid for year -this offer is good to the end of the month only call 877 614 HOST to redeem this offer. Add additional servers for only $15 per month per server.

2011 and 4G Phones will LTE make the iPhone the only phone?

2011-01-06T10:50:00.002-06:00

I know some will switch from AT&T to Verizon but a lot more will end up staying. I think a lot of Verizon users are going to go to the iPhone and dump their Blackberries and Droids. I'll be curious to see what the numbers will be. I feel the iPhone still has three main advantages-
1. Apps - they are still ahead of everyone else
2. Music - I still love mine as an iPod
3. Fit, Finish and Material - All the other phones just feel like cheap plastic to me and the display on the iPhone just looks better to me

The next few months should be interesting for sure

Trading VPS with the lowest latency

2010-12-28T11:48:00.002-06:00

We offer clustered VPS's in lower Manhattan starting at only $69.99. Recommended for BestNewsTrader.com or you can load any trading software you like. We provide the lowest latency and a six carrier flow controlled network because milliseconds matter.

Using desktop drives in a RAID array is a bad idea

2010-12-27T12:17:00.001-06:00

The problem with desktop drives is that they don't not fail properly. The timeout takes too long and you may corrupt the array.

$99 terabyte online server backup

2010-12-22T13:53:00.001-06:00

Use promo code "fastpromo"
Pay for a year in advance and save 50% that's six months of online server backup for free!

Best Online Server Backup Deal, Cheap Backup but Quality

2010-12-15T11:54:00.002-06:00

Cheap Online Server Backup

New promo code - fastpromo - 50% off Fast Backup for Servers 1TB plan Till January 1st 2011. Includes 1 copy of our software, add additional servers for only $14.99 per month. Our software includes continuous data protection. Don't recover from the night before, recovery from the minute before. This is our best deal ever for server backups. Download a free 60 day 10 Gigabyte trial no credit care required!

Dell D830 & D630 will upgrade up to 8GB of RAM

2010-12-15T10:46:00.003-06:00

I'm reading from numerous sources that you can go up to 8GB in the Dell D830 and the Dell D630 as long as you update to the latest bios. Even with win 7 64bit and 4GB I'm still at very high utilization.

error: the iphone cannot be synced 13019

2010-12-13T16:04:00.003-06:00

The iPod cannot be synced. An unknown error occurred (13019).

To try to solve this issue, try the following steps:

1. Open iTunes.

2. Select the iPhone under Devices on the left side.

3. Click the Music tab.

4. Under the Sync music option, choose Selected playlists.

5. Uncheck the Voice Memos playlist.

6. Click Apply
For me the problem was with music and I have to go through and figure out what song of playlist is corrupt.

Does Outlook's 2010 Junk E-mail Filter still filter?

2010-12-06T10:16:00.000-06:00

Disable Outlook's Junk E-mail Filter
This drove me crazy till I saw this web page. I don't understand why it would still filter unless obvious but a lot of the email going to the junk folder is legit. I think Microsoft may have pushed out an overly aggressive update. Good intentions bad execution.

Verizon 4G LTE and the Iphone, is this the Droid Killer?

2010-12-04T11:05:00.003-06:00

When Verizon goes 4G LTE and is able to offer an IPhone, will this be the perfect match that the competition just can't handle? I know the Droid is catching up with their apps. Will the best phone once paired with a better carrier completely dominate the market? 2011 should be the best year yet for smart phones yet and I can't wait to see what the new year will bring.

stop: c0000135 this program can't start because %hs is missing from your computer

2010-12-03T12:37:00.003-06:00

I got this the other day from an AVG update. Reboot and keep hitting F8 and select repair. Safe mode and start up repair will not work!
Go to a command prompt and rename the following -
program files (x86)/avg/avg10/avgrsa.exe
program files (x86)/avg/avg10/avgchsva.exe
you should be able to reboot, you will need to reinstall or repair AVG.
http://forums.avg.com/ww-en/avg-free-forum?sec=thread&act=show&id=132999 here is the support link from AVG

Hurricane Earl is gaining strength and heading up the east coast

2010-08-30T13:12:00.002-05:00

If you are worried about getting hit by the storm, download a free trial for Fast Backup Server and run a local backup job to a USB drive and take it off site. You can send the drive to us to seed at one of the data centers if needed or use it to restore you data. This is a 30 day free trial and should get you through the storm if you get hit.

Only Six Days Left for the $99.99 Terra Byte

2010-08-25T19:09:00.000-05:00

Online Server Backup, Remote Secure Off Site Windows, Exchange and Sql Server
You have until next Tuesday to use promo code: digg to get 50% off a Terra byte for the next year. Free trial but you have to order service by Tuesday to get this deal. Limited one per new customer.

Most Visited Web Sites

2010-08-23T02:58:00.000-05:00

Most Visited Web Sites
This is the top site data page from Netcraft. It looks different compared to Alexa because they count the page not the just the top level domain name.

Alexa Top 500 Global Sites

2010-08-23T02:45:00.000-05:00

Alexa Top 500 Global Sites
This is one of my favorite sites to check out every once in a while. It's a good way to pick up on some of the trends. When I was a kid we looked the Billboard Hot 100. I'm sure today's generation looks at this stuff. There are a few other services that rank web sites, they all have their pros and cons. Alexa ranks the domain overall. Another service that ranks web sites is netcraft and I’ll post about them next.

The Beal Ever Deal for Online Server Backup

2010-08-22T01:40:00.004-05:00

Use promo code: digg
Get 50% off 1 Terra Byte Online server backup. We can back up most operating systems and have plug ins for exchange and SQL. Exchange is $0.50 per mailbox. This offer will expire August 31st 2010.

Make your web site stand out using Reverse DNS

2010-08-19T17:28:00.004-05:00

One thing I like to do and I am not really sure if this helps with SEO is to configure reverse dns on my dedicated web site IP address. By performing a reverse lookup and having it resolve to your web address I feel add a certain amout of credibility. If you are on a shared web hosting plan your site may be with hundred of other web sites on that same IP address.
To perform a reverse dns lookup go to dos or open a command prompt. Type nslookup and the numeric ip you want to check for reverse dns.

Coupons Fast PC Networks Corporation & Promotional Codes fastpcnet.net

2010-08-19T15:07:00.001-05:00

Coupons Fast PC Networks Corporation & Promotional Codes fastpcnet.net
We have $25 off promo codes floating around the internet. Get a 1 year subscription to Fast Backup PC for only $44.99 with promo code. Pick the data center where you back you data up.

Fast PC Networks Line Quality and Speed Test

2010-08-19T06:18:00.000-05:00

Fast PC Networks Line Quality and Speed Test
We are testing the line quality test from Ookla and we love what we are seeing so far. We have it set up at Internap Houston in 1301 Fannin. The test checks speed, ping, packet loss, jitter, and firewall. I hope to have the test deployed at the other three data centers by tomorrow morning.

Some screen shots of our online backup software for PC's

2010-08-18T21:44:00.007-05:00

Here are some screen shot of the GUI for our online backup software. As you can see it is very simple and easy to understand.

The backup source tab makes it very easy to select you most common files. The advance tab lets you specify folders to be backed up that are in non standard locations.

Give me a little more credit

2010-08-18T20:54:00.003-05:00

I love these fun little scripts. This one looks at the keywords you rank for and does calculations based on keyword value.

My website is worth

$213,948.

How much is yours worth?

Online Remote Backup Service for Desktops and Laptops Unlimited Storage

2010-08-18T16:33:00.000-05:00

Online Remote Backup Service for Desktops and Laptops Unlimited Storage
Use Promo code: backtoschool
$25 off a 1 year subscription to Fast Back PC with unlimited storage.
Pick the data center where you back you data up to. Pick from New York City, Oakland, Houston or Columbus Ohio.
Our online backup service give you unlimited storage for your backups. Our software includes continuous data protection to back you up as you work.
Get one year of service for only $44.99 with promo code!

When buying switches for your cloud go dense and stackable

2010-08-18T14:19:00.002-05:00

With more services being run on a server that is virtualized you will need a lot of switch ports. Our servers have ten one Gig ports plus 10 one Gig ports for the SAN. If you run firewalls and physical appliances you will need switch ports for these devises. If you are running virtual host servers you will want redundancy so you will need two switches. If the switches are not stackable you will need to trunk them and this will burn up four port per switch.
When we open up a city and deploy a cluster we use 44 ports right away. 30 for servers, 10 for the Storage Area Network, 2 for our remote PDU's and 2 data center cross connects. If the data center facility is doing maintenance to their infrastructure you will not go down. That is 22 ports per switch which leave us 26 ports per switch for expansion. This will leave room for about four or five more servers to add to the cluster. Buy 48 port switch if your budget allows, your cost per port will be lower. When you order your switches don't forget to order a stacking cables if not already included.

Chase iPhone app is great but limits you to $1000 deposit

2010-08-18T14:16:00.003-05:00

I really like the new app for the iPhone and that you can make deposit using the camera. But they do put a limit of $1000 per deposit. This is not really a big deal, I can't drive more than 5 minutes in Houston without passing an ATM or branch location.

Houston Colocation Just Got Better

2010-08-17T23:54:00.003-05:00

Fast PC Net is rolling out our new Fast Cloud V Colo service. Servers starting at only $69.99 per month hosted at Internap's Houston data center. We offer our new Fast V Colo at our other data centers at Internap New York and Oakland. Plus you have this service optioin at our disaster recovery facility in Columbus, Ohio. We can provision your server and have you up and running in as little as 15 minutes.
Click here to order a Fast Cloud Server

Online Backup for PC, desktop, laptops and workstations $25 off promo code

2010-08-17T20:52:00.004-05:00

Follow us on Facebook and get a $25 off a 1 year subscription promo code. Fast PC Networks has data centers in New York, Houston, the Bay Area and Columbus Ohio. We let you pick any of these facilities to back your data up to. Download a free 30 day trial no credit card required. Plus with our software you get continuous data protection.
Click here to download the Windows version
Click Here for Mac

What can you do with cheap bandwidth?

2010-08-15T02:22:00.004-05:00

You can get a very fast connection now at a very low cost. Cable service providers have upped their connection speeds. New high speed broadband services are entering the market. What I like most about this is the upload speeds are increasing. Here at my home office I have the new Comcast Blast service and outside my firewall I'll hit upload speeds close to four megabits. I’ll get 61 megabits download. Comcast offers this as an upgraded service for $57.95 per month. Comcast business class offers this service on their premium package for $99.95 per month. Now they offer an even higher speed Deluxe package for $189.95 per month.
What can you do with these low cost connections? Redundancy, most SOHO firewalls support multiple internet connections. For less than the cost of a T1 you can have cable, dsl and wimax to keep your office online. With low cost high speed connections disaster recovery can become a reality. Replicating data off site and keep it in sync is now possible as the cost of fast upload connections drop. Most small and medium businesses have some backup procedures in place. What they lack is a disaster recovery plan to get them up quickly. Using a tape backup and leaving the tapes sitting next to the server is not good. What if the server is lost to fire, theft or flooding? How long will it take to get a server and have back up and running?
There are new products on the market that can make this process easier. My favorite feature is physical server conversion to a virtual server. An exact duplicate of your server and all its data is replicate to another office or data center. In the event of a disaster or long term outage the server can be turned on and quickly reconfigured to go back into production. With even more advance software this whole process can be automated. The best part is the cost of these products and services has converged to make enterprise quality disaster recovery a reality for businesses of all sizes.

We Optimised our Houston Data Center Speed Test

2010-08-14T21:21:00.005-05:00

Our speed test at the Houston Internap data center has been optimised for higher speed connection and provide more accurate speed test results for both uploads and downloads. We hope to have the speed test up in our other cities soon. We use this test for our cutomers to check their connections to us. The speed test server sits on a 1GB connection and we use Internap bandwidth.

How much data center space do you need?

2010-08-13T09:21:00.002-05:00

With the explosion of hypervisor and virtual technology you can consolidate most of your server infrastructure down to a few host servers. Instead of having one physical server running on one server machine with enough resources (CPU, RAM, network and storage) you can run several virtual servers on one physical server machine. Today’s modern servers can hold several CPU’s and hundreds of Gigabytes of ram which allows you to pool and divide resources. It is not uncommon for organizations to consolidate twenty or more physical servers down to 20 virtual servers running on one power full host machine.
You will require less data center space but your host servers running all the virtual serves tend to use more power than servers from just a few years ago. You probably will not be able to fill a full 42U with equipment as the power density will be too high. Data centers have an 80% rule for power. If you order a 20 amp circuit you can only use 16 amps because you will need headroom for the equipment to power on. Modern servers fully loaded with drives CPU’s and RAM can consume 1.5 to 3.5 amps of power. Plus you will have other equipment in the cabinet like switches and firewalls. Some firewalls now will run as a virtual machine and eliminates the need for addition power and space in the cabinet.
Most data centers depending on their infrastructure will allow 40 amps 110 power or 20 amps of 208. With today’s equipment power density you will probably never be able to fill a rack with equipment the heat and power draw will be too much. Most data centers have a one cabinet minimum, a few data centers do offer locking half cabinets but this is not common and you will have to check with the facilities.
If you only need a server or two collocated the best option is to find the best data center facilities in your area or region. Look for computer and consulting companies that operate out of those facilities. A lot of smaller computer and consulting companies will offer shared colocation space. Your server will be in a locking cabinet with other customers. The advantages of doing this are that you only pay for the space you need. This is a great option to start out. The pricing per U will vary from data center to data center. Quality carrier class facilities start at around $80 per U. Modern redundant facilities may be more up to $175 per U. The disadvantages are security and easy access to your server. With so much running on one physical server you want to order your server with dual power supplies. If possible you will want to plug into separate PDU’s (power distribution units). Better PDU’s will let you meter your power and remote reboot the server if needed. This will save you from having to go to the data center or have data center personal walk out to your server and have to manually push the power button.
When you order your server get a remote access card. This allows you console access to your server even if it is hung on a screen. You will be able to see error messages or even do maintenance and installations. This does cost extra but will save you downtime and allow you to come quickly or recover from disaster.
Make sure you pick a data center with multiple carriers or ISP’s. I suggest a minimum of three or more. You will also want to have redundant cross connects to your switch or server. This way you will not be down due to accidents or facility maintenance.
The most important consideration when picking your facilities is how much redundancy they have and how much redundancy you have built into your server.

FastPCNet now offers trading VPS machines in Manhattan New York

2010-08-12T09:31:00.002-05:00

Fast PC Networks has partnered with BestNewsTrader.com to offer trading virtual private servers at our New York City data center in Manhattan. We are less than two blocks from the stock exchange on Wall Street and ping times are less than 3ms to all markets in the city. The facility in Manhattan offers a robust infrastructure with redundant power, several internet carriers and multiple layers of physical and digital security.

Another storm is firing up in the Gulf of Mexico, Is your DR plan ready and tested?

2010-08-11T10:43:00.002-05:00

We are coming up to the peak part of the hurricane season. If predictions are right we could have a rough next few weeks. When we were hit with IKE in 2008 here in Houston, a lot of business's were intact with no physical, but they went up to four weeks without power.

There are many different levels of disaster recovery. The first and most import is to backup you critical servers and PCs. The next part that needs to be taken under consideration is work-site recovery. If power is down can the infrastructure be moved physically or virtually and be put back into production? When Ike hit we ran out of space at the data center space within hours. We were about to get some client back into production converting their physical machines into virtual machines. This is a process that can now be easily automated. As cost of hardware and software continues to fall, advanced disaster recovery solutions are now realistic for small and medium size companies.

A SAN makes it easy to achieve maximum uptime

2010-08-10T12:47:00.002-05:00

Does downtime cost you money and lost production? Do you cluster your most critical applications? Do you run a SAN?
With the falling cost of storage a SAN for your servers is now a reality. SAN's with full redundancy have come down in price to the $10,000-$20,000 range. While this is still expensive it does allow for more small and medium size companies to run their applications in high availability mode. You can use Windows built in clustering or virtualization technology like VMware. Even if you are not using HA with VMware you can lock the virtual machine into a spare hosts inventory and still be up and running in minutes, because the storage is on the network.

Another one of our happy cutomers

2010-08-07T03:26:00.002-05:00

I want to thank you for the great service you are providing. I am a new customer and have had some rare issues. I already feel at home, and that someone is taking care of me!
"I am serious, you guys are great"

Yohay Azulay
OMC Computers and Communications LTD

vps in China

Backup to our Houston Data Center we then Replicate your Data to Ohio

2010-08-04T14:00:00.002-05:00

One of our best features is that we can keep a second copy online for you. Here in Houston where we are vulnerable to hurricanes and flooding this can give you extra assurance that even if our highly redundant facilities were to go offline in downtown Houston you will be able to restore your data from our Columbus, Ohio data center. In Columbus we offer cloud servers that can be use to restore your data to. This service is available in our Houston, New York and Oakland data centers. We can also replicate all your servers realtime physical to virtual and virtual to virtual. We can even automate the process with site recovery manager.

Using a Chat script to monitor and Chat with your web site visitors

2010-08-04T10:50:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite programs is Livezilla. It lets us monitor and watch visitors surf real time on our web site. It also allows us to force a pop up to engage our web site visitors in a chat sesesion. This has helped us to increase sales by answering questions about our product fast. Some users are not comfortable on the phone and are more willing to chat over the web. The best part is that it leads to instant sales.
Livezilla tells your where the visitors are coming from whether it be a google or yahoo search. The program will also tell you the searchstring they used to find you. Livezilla can tell you the city and region the visitor is from. You can even co-browse with the user. Even if you are not selling products and services it is fun to see where they go on your site and how they found your site. The program is shareware and is fairly easy to install.

Stupid Smartpnones

2010-08-01T13:26:00.002-05:00

Even with the updates from Apple I'm not having much luck holding a call. I can see that the signal where I live is a bit weak and this is why I'm dropping calls especially indoors. If you are a 3G user beware 4.01 makes the phone useless once you start to install apps. The battery just runs down and won't hold a charge. If you leave it basis with no apps the battery works fine. Even Verizon has a weaker signal and the Motorola Droid bought in January was acting up and had to be erased and setup again to return to normal function. The phones are starting to remind me of PC's in that you need to wipe and reload every few months to keep them speedy.

Best Online Backup Service

2010-07-30T18:34:00.003-05:00

We are the best, and we do offer the best values. Our software is robust and feature rich. We can backup almost all operating systems. We have plug ins of Microsoft Exchange Server and SQL. We allow you to pick which data center you can backup your data to. Our data centers that run the service are New York City, Houston, Texas, Oakland and Columbus, Ohio. We can provide dedicated servers for you to use in case of a disaster. Try our service for free for 30 days and 10 Gigabytes of data. Monthly plans start at $19.99 per month for servers and $44.99 per year for desktops and laptops.

Does your online backup software do this?

2010-07-29T11:21:00.001-05:00

Can you backup locally? can you restore from a local backup? Our service lets you do that and our online backup software contain continuous data protection. Download a 30day free trial and see. Download a free online backup service trial for 30 day and 10GB. If you have servers to backup try our free online server backup trial which includes plugins for Microsoft exchange server and SQL.

Our Best Deal for Online Backups Only $44.99 per year

2010-07-26T06:30:00.003-05:00

Unlimited online storage for Desktop, Laptops and workstations. Only $44.99 and our software has continuous data protection - Backup your work as you go!
This is our best deal ever for online backups. Pick one of our four data centers where you would like to have your data backed up. We use Internap data center and our Columbus Ohio DR facility uses Internap's FCP.
Try Fast Backup PC Free for 30 days! 10 Gigabytes and continuous data protection included!

Houston Data Center Colocation Deal at 1301 Fannin Internap

2010-07-23T00:57:00.002-05:00

1u, 450watt power supply or less single plug on managed pdu includes 1 meg Internap bandwidth and cross connect for $129.99 per month.
Colocate at 1301 Fannin at Internap
The best carrier hotel in Houston and in my opinion the best infrastructure
We also have dedicated servers that can be ready in minutes -
2008 R2 64bit 50 Gig SAN HDD, 2GB RAM and 1 meg of Internap premium bandwidth $149.99 per month Pick - Houston, NYC (Internap), Bay Area (365 Main and Internap), Houston (Internap) or Columbus, Ohio (YourColo) 6 carrier data center network with Internap FCP
30GB online Backup includes server agents (Exchange Server, SQL) $19.99 per month $29.99 per month for 2 copies we replicate your backups to Columbus Ohio.
Spam Filtering $19.99 up to 12 email addresses
Blog only deals

Imaging and Online Backup for Maximum Protection against Data Loss

2010-07-22T18:49:00.000-05:00

One of the best features added in Vista and now in Windows 7 is system imaging. System imaging is the best way to back any computer system. I have backed my system up using this utility and I'm lucky to have not had to restore yet. I've used other products with great success in the past especially when upgrading to larger hard disk drives.

The downside to imaging is that it does take some time and usually requires a second or external hard drive. You can also image to DVD's but this will require several disks. I just upgraded from Office 2007 to 2010 and make a system image in case something goes wrong. By the way it didn't and I really like the new office. Outlook is a lot quicker.
The issue I have with external USB drives is as a tech I tend to carry them around with me from time to time and they do not seem to last very long. If you have a fire, flood or other disaster at your home or business your external hard drive will probably be lost with your computer along with external hard drive and the data on it.
With an online backup service your data is encrypted and then copied off-site to a remote location preferably a data center. The Fast PC Networks online systems is located in four data centers through out the country. Our service also gives you the option to have your data replicated to a second data center. Where and the quality of the facility where your data is stored should also be taken into consideration. Data Center storage facilities should have multiple levels of security and properly trained staffing. Most hacking occurs because of social engineering. Data centers usually have redundant network connections. We consider backups a business critical application. FastPCNet also deploys its backkup servers in clusters, three per data center so if we have to perform upgrades or maintenance we still have two servers online to balance the load.
To protect your machine you should image it every 3-6 months or when you make major changes to the system like installing new software, then use an online backup service to save your machine image and the files you change on a regular basis.

Tropical depression may move into gulf and Macondo drill site

2010-07-22T10:37:00.001-05:00

The storm is over the Bahamas and may move into the eastern or central gulf possibly threatening the oil spill site.

10 minutes 19 seconds is how long my laptop now takes to backup to our online service

2010-07-20T14:20:00.003-05:00

I worked in Quickbooks and email and backed up my laptop as I was getting ready to get out the door. Tonight my data will be replicated to our diaster recovery facility in Columbus Ohio. Even if disaster strikes I can go to http://fastbackup.fastpcnet.net to web restore any files I may need. Even if One Data Center is down.

Top 20 cities that visit Fast PC Net

2010-07-18T23:44:00.003-05:00

I was playing with Google Analytics and found this interesting, something I do not normally look at. I was just surprised by the number of international hits we get. Our site is very informational which is why we get so many Asian cities.

The Fast PC Net top 20 visits by city

Houston - our base of operations
New York
London
Columbus, Ohio - Our Disaster Recovery city
Mumbai
Singapore
Bangalore
Dublin
New Delhi
Los Angeles
Atlanta
Chennai
Sydney
Seattle
San Francisco
Hyderbad
Kuala Lumpur
Chicago
Melbourne
Seoul

Cheyenne And Tristan, Dealing with Joubert Syndrome

2010-07-18T16:08:00.000-05:00

Cheyenne And Tristan, Dealing with Joubert Syndrome
I just wanted to say the parents I feel and know your pain. I also know the happiness and joy that all children can bring to life. Chey & Tristan will be in my thoughts and prayers.

Saudi Gazette - New oil fields saved for future generations: King

2010-07-17T22:25:00.000-05:00

Saudi Gazette - New oil fields saved for future generations: King
Is this their way of saying it's over? Has Saudi Arabia peaked? Saudi Arabia is not that big a country, how much oil can possibly be left? How much conventional versus unconventional oil do they have left? Are we starting to really see peak oil?

Why Bill Gates is embracing clean tech

2010-07-17T14:50:00.000-05:00

Why Bill Gates is embracing clean tech
Steve Jobs should take a lesson from Bill.

Melt Gibson's Anger Management Soundboard

2010-07-17T12:55:00.001-05:00

Melt Gibson's Anger Management Soundboard
Somebody just created this site. You are a sick man, not as sick as Mel.

So now with all the Apple iPhone 4 problems will the Stock Price rise if Steve Jobs retires or dies?

2010-07-15T18:23:00.004-05:00

Oh how things can quickly turn. Do you remember when Apples stock dipped when Steve Jobs was sick?
Software glitches, design flaws and doors being kicked in. Steve's arrogant comments about how end users hold the iPhone and his AT&T bashing. I can't look at the news and not see Apple bashing.
Steve - Just fall on the sword, admit your wrong and fix the problems. Try to do what can be done to make it up to the endusers like giving everybody $50 in iTunes or something. Make Apple cool again!

4.01 seems like less drops, and the bars look weird

2010-07-15T18:13:00.002-05:00

I added the update and made two call inside my home office. Was on quick for one and the 2nd call was long distance and dropped after two minutes. Called back while outside and held call. Walked into office and was able to complete a six minute phone call. This is so sad that I'm happy to stay on the phone and not have a call drop. Put the ego's aside and please fix the problems.

If you can not send email to AT&T and SWbell

2010-07-15T12:05:00.000-05:00

AT&T
This is a link to their automated get yourself unblocked page, it may take a couple of days. You can go here and give the reason or reasons why you should be allowed to send to their domains.

New Cap for Macondo Delayed 24-48 hours pending pressure tests, Matt Simmons Please be wrong

2010-07-14T17:02:00.003-05:00

I guess we will finally find out if BP fractured the well bore. High pressure will mean the well bore is probably intact. Low pressure will mean that there are leaks which will complicate stopping the blowout once and for all. I give Matt Simmons credit, he was the first to say this is much bigger than BP is reporting. He is also saying that BP fractured the sea floor possibly causing several other leaks which may be leaking a lot more oil that the riser pipe that we are being shown on the Internet. This is one time I hope that Matt is wrong, but he said the spill was bigger and that the containment efforts tried would fail which they all have so far.

Matt Simmons, you are a very smart man. I just wish you could be wrong this time. I know you say the relief wells only have a 0%-5% chance of working. It would be nice if your wrong just this once. And yes, "This is Peak Oil."

Fun Day at the Mall but not at the Apple store

2010-07-13T08:21:00.002-05:00

I droped by the Verizon Kiosk and saw the new Droid X. It is thin and the screen looks amazing. It will be available this Thursday and it looks like they will go fast. Even in this prolonged recession all the premium smart phones seem to be doing really well. The market still has a bunch of stinkers.
I dropped by the Apple Store, Iphone 4's are not to be found unless you have reservation. It will probably be that way for another month or so. I asked about all the dropped calls which has been getting out of hand for me the last couple of weeks. I now start my phone conversations with a warning that I'm on an Apple Iphone and the call may drop. The nice young lady in the Apple store told me to turn off 3g. I walked out of the store.

What makes a data center Tier4?

2010-07-13T07:01:00.003-05:00

To get to Tier4 status a dual power design is required with two primary feeds. If a data center is a true Tier4 it will have S+S or 2(n+1) design. If a data center is using an ATS which is a single point of failure then they are not Tier4 or Tier4 designed. The other requirement where a lot of facilities fall short is being in a stand alone building. Tier3 and Tier4 design require the data center be in a stand alone building - not multi tenant.

If your business is looking for public colocation you are only going to find that there is only two Uptime Institute certified facilities in the United States. One is a Tier2 DR facility is Oklahoma and a Tier3 in Virginia. Almost all the Tier3 and Tier4 designed and certified facilities are corporate owned. In my opinion most of the better public colocation facilities are Tier2 with Tier3 design. This is not a bad thing, a facility might be stuck at Tier2 because of being in a multi tenant building but has Tier3 design and infrastructure. The Uptime Institute certification only covers inside the four wall of the data center. The Tier certification does not take into account the outside of the building and how infrastructure is brought into the building or other variables in the area of the facility.

Lifetime Sponsored Listings in our directory

2010-07-08T15:24:00.002-05:00

For only $25 get a lifetime sponsored listing in our technology relevant internet directory. Regular listing are $15 and we allow keyword rich anchor text to help with your search engine results. If you need we can create a new relevant category.

The best online backup service and deal for servers

2010-07-08T08:54:00.003-05:00

Backup 30 Gigs of your critical data to 2 Data centers your choice for only $29.99 a month.
New York - Internap Data Center
Oakland - Internap at 365 Main
Houston - Internap Data Center
Columbus - 101 Town
Or you can just pick one for only $19.99 a month

Our online backup is now fully Windows7 compliant

2010-07-05T14:09:00.001-05:00

We just released version 5.5.7.2 which properly supports windows 7 libraries.

Our web directory is now half off! $15 per listing and only $10 more to sponsor

2010-07-05T00:51:00.004-05:00

We have cut the price for listing on our directory. List your company and web sites, only $10 more for a sponsored listing. We will allow keyword rich anchor text as to help your rank in the searches. We can create a proper category if we do not have one currently.

http://directory.fastpcnet.net

The Update to the Chase Bank app for Iphone is awesome!

2010-07-04T02:29:00.003-05:00

I can now use the camera on my Iphone to make deposits to my chase accounts. No more trips to the bank or ATM for deposits. I was happy with their ATM features I'm very happy with their Iphone app. There are so many useless Iphone apps but this one is great. I hope more companies create apps that make life easier for their customers.

It can take several days to seed your online backup

2010-06-28T16:47:00.002-05:00

With hurricane season here and the first named storm, do not wait for hurricane warnings to start backing your data up off site. If you have several gigs of data and a slow connection to the internet it can take several days to complete your first backup and if you lose power and get flooded you will not have had enough time to backup your data.

Tied Down Cabinet in Public Colocation Data Center Facility

2010-05-25T03:28:00.005-05:00

Had to do some late night work at the Houston Data Center. While I had the chance I took some ok shots of a beautifully tied down cabinet. It is very hard to get the wiring right in a public colocation facility. This is at Internap where they use a slightly larger cabinet and you can do some wire management. The cabinets are Mid Atlantic and you can put in larger servers and SANS. I hate how at a lot of public colocation facilities the door almost slams the back or front of my servers. Notice the use of Panduit stress relief bars. The wire management that comes will Dell equipment usually does not work well in a public colocation facility. I never use it on 1u servers as this creates a microwave in your cabinet. I also recommend using 208 power where possible less circuits to manage.

New Speed test up at Houston Internap

2010-05-24T16:17:00.003-05:00

http://www.fastpcnet.net/speedtest
We just put up a speed test at 1301 Fannin at Internap Houston. We will be putting the same speed test up at our o ther locations in the Internap Data Center in New York at 75 Broad and 365 Main Oakland facility. We will also have the test in Columbus Ohio at DC101 which runs the Internap flow control platform.

Clear Wimax in Houston so far so good Fast Speeds

2010-05-17T14:19:00.003-05:00

Clear let me have a few USB cards and the Motorola home modem to play with. I really like what I see so far. The USB has been quicker than I expected and the home modem is good I just wish it could be bridged so I can pass the public IP address to my firewall. I think the modem is a very economical redundant connection most firewall support multiple isp's and this is easy to add.

As for speeds I'm seeing max 12megs down and 2 megs up in some areas. The modems tend to work best the higher you go in your building or house. You will also notice that the signal strength will vary greatly. The nice thing about the Motorola home modem is that you can move it to get a better signal on the laptop this is not so convenient. In the Woodlands I got 8 megs 1 meg up. In Cypress I'm seing 12 down and 2 up on both usb and the modem. In the energy corridor I was having trouble getting a good signal 3 megs down and half a meg up. Downtown in an office building was tricky, but I was able to pull 5 megs down and 1 meg up. If you go deeper into a building you will slow down on your upload, downloads slow but not nearly as much as the upload.

Oil is over $84, is it 08 or will if be different this time?

2010-04-01T08:49:00.004-05:00

Is this just a weak dollar? End of recession? Shortages?
I think a combination of all of the above but I don't think we will see it crash again. I just don't think there has been proper investment to expand capacity and that there is just not that much oil left that is easily recoverable.
Bring on the Volt, Leaf and Tesla

Top Seven considerations and advantages when choosing an Online Backup Service

2010-03-25T13:14:00.003-05:00

Where will your data be backed up to? Is it a data center? What tier is the data center? What kind of physical security do they have?
How do they charge? For data stored? Do they also charge for transfer? Is there a charge for software?
How long are you able to retain your data? Are you limited on the amount of time you can retain you data?
What features does the backup software client have? What operating systems can be backed up? Can they do servers? Does the backup client software have continuous data protection?
What kind of bandwidth does the service have and use? How many carriers does the service utilize?
How redundant is the backup system? Is the service clustered(multiple servers)? Is the service geophysically clustered(can you back up to a different data center)?
Do you have the option to have your data replicated to another facility?

We meet or exceed all of these considerations, we use quality data centers with multiple long haul carrier connections. Our software is fast and works with almost all operation systems. Our software utilizes continuous data protection. We let you retain your data as long as you like
and give you the option to backup to where you want plus we give you the option of a second copy is a different city. Our system is clustered in the data center minimum three servers and we cluster so data centers can fail over.

How to pick a Data Center Network

2010-03-25T10:23:00.003-05:00

When you are considering data centers consider the number of carriers on their blended network and who the carrier are. Are the carrier region? national? or global? Do they run bgp4? Do they use flow control or intelligent routing? Does the data center own their IP? Who are their peers? What is the network track record?

Now is the time to Virtualize the American workforce to offset terminal decline we are facing after peak oil and keep our economy growing

2010-03-18T10:50:00.004-05:00

With crude oil and gasoline prices increasing again we need to virtualize all in the workforce that can be and pay them for productivity. Baseline employee performance now so when we do switch to telecommuting their performance and productivity can be tracked. I know this can not be done for all jobs, manufacturing, medcal and others will have to be exempt.

The switch to smaller fuel effecient verhicles has to happen quickly. I will be doing this myself next year when my current lease is up. This is a win-win for everyone. We will get more miles per gallon which will save the consumer money plus keep demand for oil down which will keep the price low and help with the trade deficit. Maybe we will all be able to breath a little easier too.

If not already, we will soon be in the age of terminal decline of oil extraction. The big fields are starting to die or have gone into steep terminal decline. If you look up and read about Cantarell this is a great example of how enhanced production methods while will increase production or stabilize and plateau it. This will only lead to faster decline rates down the road. Cantarell peaked in 2004 at 2.12 million barrels with the help of nitrogen injection into the field. But this enhanced production is leading to a very steep decline curve and the field is now producing less than 400,000 barrels of oil a day. By 2012 Mexico will no longer be a net exporter. Ghawar the worlds largest field located in Saudia Arabia is also now rumored to be in decline or will peak very soon. We are not finding fields fast enough to offset the gian oil fileds decline rates. 5% of the worlds daily crude production comes from Ghawar alone.

Another very big issue is OPEC's amount of remaining declared reserves. Their daily quota is tied to their remaining reserve. If you look at this chart in the 80's notice that most of OPEC had a jump in declared reserves. You will also notice that most of the reserves are flat and not declining.

What bothers me most was the oil shock of 2008 that should of served as the wake up call we needed and for a while it was. But the high prices killed demand and caused the price of crude to crash and now the price is starting to recover. The price of crude oil is now approaching the levels we saw in 08.

When the recession ends and economic activity starts to pick up again so will the demand for crude. If we put the incentives in place to cut our demand we can grow our economy without having to pay ever increasing costs for our energy. The problem we face today and tomorrow is when the production curve hits the demand curve it sets off a bidding war for crude oil. This biggest challenge is going to be the transition to alternatives and keeping the demand curve below the terminal decline of the production curve. We can then divert the excess out of the transportation sector into areas that will need crude oil to help our economy to keep growing while we are still in the process of transitioning to alternative and renewable energy sources. There is so much we can be doing now that could help but we just don't. If we do act we are only helping ourselves and helping to secure an easier transition into our future.

Google Fiber for Communities: Think big with a gig, Ok I'll take one

2010-03-15T13:58:00.001-05:00

Google Fiber for Communities: Think big with a gig
Cool, Google the ISP. The virtual workforce is coming and having this kind of speed with allow almost LAN like access to servers and cloud based applications that require a lot of bandwidth. Longhaul carriers are practically giving away bandwidth, how much cheaper will it get? I'm very curious what the price point and different types of services offered.

A good article about high crude prices triggering credit crisis

2010-03-14T17:11:00.001-05:00

http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250

Have we really hit peak oil? or has demand gone down?

2010-03-14T10:16:00.000-05:00

The Oil Drum World Oil Production Forecast - Update May 2009
Even if demand is off we need to start taking heroic measures now. Can we stand another oil shock like we had in 2008? 08 was bad, but will the price come back down like the last time?

A Key to Google’s Data Center Efficiency: One Backup Battery Per Server

2010-03-10T13:15:00.000-06:00

A Key to Google’s Data Center Efficiency: One Backup Battery Per Server
This sounds very interesting and I'm very interested in learning more, it always seems to be the simple ideas that are the good ones. Dell and HP have to be looking into this or I would hope they are. I wonder how this would ripple down the data center industry because facilities try to rate their facility on the Tier system which has a heavy focus on power infrastructure.

Next-gen iPhone rumored for April • The Register

2010-03-09T13:15:00.001-06:00

Next-gen iPhone rumored for April • The Register
Is it going to be out next month? If it's not 4G speed I think I will wait, buy the rumors are interesting especially the removable battery.

BlackBerry - Enterprise Server Express - Free BES Express Download

2010-03-09T13:09:00.001-06:00

BlackBerry - Enterprise Server Express - Free BES Express Download
It's out! It's too bad I gave up on Verizon after the Blackberry Storm disaster which was probably the worst phone and customer service experience of my life. I do miss the Verizon network a little but after the way I was treated never no way ever again.
I'm glad they are making BES available for download I just wish they were not so greedy and did this sooner with full features. You want to make it easy to use your product not tax your customers, I wonder what the Blackberry market share would have been had BES always been freely available?

Easiest Way to be a Green Company

2010-03-09T12:17:00.003-06:00

Almost all of to days firewalls include some type of vpn or virtual private network access. The firewall will have software clients or you can download them from your firewall vendor. This can include ipsec or ssl, you can also use pptp which is built into windows. They are fairly easy to set up or will require about two to three hours of consulting time for a smaller company. This will allow them access to local servers and resources.
If your employee commutes 16-20 miles each way a day that's about $5.00 a day in gas. If the employee is 100% virtual that's a saving of $1250 a year or 500 gallons of gas at $2.50 a gallon. Plus the countless hours spent in the car probably sitting in traffic a good deal of the time. Providing an office and resources in the office is expensive, rent, energy and resources. Yes there are costs with going virtual and telecommuting but in the long run it is much cheaper as long as you are able to evaluate and maintain employee performance.
You can also double the efficiency of a car by adding one passenger.
We need to act fast, adapt and start to take heroic measures now and conserve what we have because the new technologies are just not going to be ready quick enough. Inflation is coming across the board. Our whole economy is based on cheap efficient energy and it will end soon. It's a fact that we just are not going to be able to afford to drive as much and we will need to off set our rising cost for products and services that we use everyday that will be inflated because of rising energy costs.
Mainstream telecommuting as I see it is probably one of the best options to conserve because we just flat out get gas consuming cars off the road. Another benefit is that the air will be cleaner in most metropolitan areas.

Why does OPEC lie about its oil reserves?

2010-03-08T21:26:00.000-06:00

Why does OPEC lie about its oil reserves?
This is going to be a big problem sooner rather than later. When everyone realizes how true this probably is it will set off yet another oil shock. There is no spare capacity especially once the recession turns around. Conservation is not going to be enough and energy will go to the richest countries. Most of the big fields are about to peak or have peaked and are in terminal decline and yes even though there have some big finds like the Sugar Loaf field this oil is years away and very hard to get at which will present several technical challenges. Cantarell is just the beginning and a sign of the future. When Gwar goes into very rapid decline because of the injection process it will be the wake up call the world needs but this will probably be too late to properly transition to a non petroleum economy.

The difference between Enterprise and Desktop hard drives

2010-03-05T14:54:00.002-06:00

Thanks Todd for finding this whitepaper on the Intel site. If you are upgrading or buying a server or SAN you should read this whitepaper first. I never fully understood the difference in the feature and design of hard disk drives. Most of the big hard drive makers make several different quality models of drives. Choose wisely especially if you are using SATA hard disk drives.

I love our multi carrier flow controlled data center networks

2010-03-04T18:25:00.002-06:00

Check out our networks! We use Internap data centers and bandwidth or center that use Internap FCP like YourColo in Columbus Ohio
ping or tracert to
ns1.fastpcnet.net Houston
ns2.fastpcnet.net NYC
ns3.fatpcnet.net Columbus Ohio
ns4.fastpcnet.net San Francisco/Oakland

Better Backups for desktop and Mac now only $4.99 a month or $54.95 a year

2010-03-04T11:06:00.003-06:00

Same price as the big boys with a choice of where to back your data up to (we have four very secure Data Centers) we use Internap Bandwidth and continuous data protection. Download our software and try it free for 30 days. You will see how fast simple and feature rich our product is.

Is the next Oil Shock about to Hit? Is the next technical revolution about to really begin?

2010-03-04T09:05:00.004-06:00

After this recession is over and economic activity starts to tick back up as will the demand for energy. Will this set off another Oil Shock like we saw a few years ago?
Most of the easy to get at oil is gone and giant oil fields like Ghawar and Cantarell have peaked, the North sea is winding down as well as Alaska. Yes we had a small oil crash but this is only temporary.
We are going to have to innovate fast if we are to avoid this long term crisis. The way our infrastructure here in the USA is based on most of the population living in the suburbs and commuting. I really do not see how we can cope unless people just stop driving. I really feel that a much larger percentage of the workforce will Telecommute as long as their job allows. If not worker will have to move out of necessity. The days of flying are coming to an end, my kids kids will probably not know what it is like to fly on an airplane.
We have squandered our most valuable resource. One barrel of oil is equal to 25,000 of human labor. At $2.50 a gallon one cup of gas cost less than 16 cents a cup. So in the city driving a mile costs you only $0.16. Imagine if you had to walk or bike that far. Imagine if you were towing your spouse and kids along. Does $0.3125 cents a cup sound expensive? or $5.00 a gallon?
I'm not trying to be all gloom and doom and I believe that there is hope like what Bloom Energy is doing. But we need more innovators like Dr. KR Sridha.

Powerful Solar Storm Could Shut Down U.S. for Months - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News - FOXNews.com

2010-03-01T13:12:00.000-06:00

Powerful Solar Storm Could Shut Down U.S. for Months - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News - FOXNews.com
How do you handle this Disaster Recovery scenario? I'm not a 2012 freak but this one concerns me a little.

With 95% of it's profit coming from Adwords is Google still a one trick pony?

2010-03-01T11:18:00.003-06:00

Don't get me wrong, I love Google and I know they are diversifying and investing in new products and services. But none have been the cash cow that AdWords has been or shows potential to generate that kind of revenue.
I think the Android OS has a lot of potential, but I'm not ready to pitch my IPhone yet. Google Apps and cloud services are making money, but will it become mainstream with all the privacy issues that Google has been facing? Another concern is the shrinking profit margin as these services become even more of a commodity.
Google search is here to stay and it is a free service they offer, the advertising they show on the top and down the right side of the page is where they make money. Will this increase? Stay the same? or drop?
More and more web sites are learning and adopting organic search. I know I don't click on search ad unless it is something very hard to find. Before our site ranked organically we used AdWords and yes they do work and are great if your just starting out. But with organic search if done right you will get a much higher return on investment. The key element is relevance to what end users are looking for. Remember Google is a research tool not an e commerce tool although if you are smart you can do that by providing relevant informant ion and inform your end users.

Dual Power supplies and Dual Power in the Data Center

2010-02-24T09:40:00.003-06:00

If you are colocating in a data center you can only use 80% of your power circuits capacity. For example you can only use 16 amps out of a 20 amp circuit. So if you are running servers with dual power supplies most server brands will split the load across both power supplies. In this scenario you can only load down both circuits to 40% so if you do have a failover the live circuit will only be at 80% capacity and you will not have to worry about popping the circuit breaker.

The going price at most data centers for a 110v 20amp is $300 with ups and generator backup. For 208v 20amp the price would be $600. For a redundant B circuit 110v 20amp is going to be half $150 and $300 for 208. I highly recommend switchable PDU's. This will allow you to power cycle you equipment remotely and most of the better models will meter the power so you can know what your usage is. You can find a good quality remote manageable PDU for $350 to $800.

There is not a single Tier 4 data center in North America that offers public colocation

2010-02-23T13:26:00.002-06:00

Watch out for data operator claims of Tier 4. Has the facility actually gone through the certification process? If they are a facility worthy of certification then they would not mind spending the extra $30,000 for the blessing of their design. Tier 4 certification for a data center or having a Tier 4 design is not easy to achieve. The link above is a list of Tier certified facilites globally.
Data centers are incorporating this certification into their marketing even though even though the Uptime Institute has not certified them. All the facilities that are Tier 4 certified are corporate data centers not open to public colocation. There is only one facility that is tiered certified (Tier 3) that offers public colocation in North America.
Another point to consider is that Tier certification only pertains to the four walls of the data center outside factors are not taken into consideration, like weather , earthquakes ect....
How does the power, coper and fiber come into the facility? Aerials? Encased in concrete?
How many Generators? Diesel or Natural Gas?
Flood Plains?

Shared Web Hosting Internap Data Center and Network Starting at $4.99 a month

2010-02-22T00:59:00.002-06:00

Shared web hosting plans starting at $4.99 a month at Internap on Internap network. Burst to 100 megs and have a geat performing site. We offer Parallels control panel chat, email and phone tech support.

Single server colocation at Internap includes 30 Gigs of Online Backup

2010-02-19T11:53:00.002-06:00

We have space and power and Internap Houston low power clone servers 350 watt $99/mth for 1 u
for 2u servers like Dell 2950 with dual power supplies $350/mth
1u firewalls $99
appliance firewalls $69
$59 per meg/mth for Internap premium Bandwidth and as $14 a meg per month with large commits 6 carrier blend with Internap flow control and 100% SLA
$200 setup per server includes engineering time to make sure you are up online and optimal
Internap New York - Same deal except $300 server setup fee
Internap Oakland - Same deal except $300 server setup fee
All Internap facilities are SAS70 type II certified
YourColo Columbus Ohio - Same deal $200 server setup fee
We have other bandwidth options as low as $7 a meg

Fast PC Networks Upgrades Its Data Center with UltraStor RS16 IP-4 on VMware

2010-02-11T21:53:00.000-06:00

Fast PC Networks Upgrades Its Data Center with UltraStor RS16 IP-4 on VMware

Here is the direct link back to Enhance Tech and the case study we did with them.

RDP from Windows XP to Server 2008 Network Level Authentication

2010-02-10T22:36:00.001-06:00

Description of the Credential Security Support Provider (CredSSP) in Windows XP Service Pack 3
Here is the registry hack to get RDP (remote desktop) to connect to 2008, after editing the registry make sure you reboot and you should be able to get in.