I realize we've been quiet lately at Adaptive Hosting Solutions. One of the reasons for this is we've been working on getting ready to update our hosting offering. We are doing this to offer our hosting customers the following:

• Better support
• Better and more current technology
• Lower prices

We're doing this with our current customers in mind so we can give them more bang for less buck. This also helps us remain competitive.

At this point, we have some new and existing customers on the new system and will be getting their feedback before rolling it out to everyone. Here's a teaser of what you can expect to see:

• Windows and Linux technologies on the same site--no more choosing Windows vs. Linux
• 1GB/email account storage (not tied in to your total account storage like the current Linux hosting plans)
• PHP5 and MySQL5
• ASP.NET Framework 3.5
• 24/7 live chat and toll-free phone support
• A new customer account control panel and billing system
• A single hosting control panel
• A new order system

With this move, we are trying to eliminate the shortcomings of our current hosting, billing, and control panel systems and make it easier for customers to manage their hosting, billing, domain names, SSL certificates and other products and services we offer.

I know there's not much detail here but I wanted to let you know that we are working on improving your hosting account and have taken your feedback into consideration in doing so. We plan to be able to roll this out by the end of March so stay tuned.

If you are interested in testing this new system out, please submit a support request and we'll get your account set up and you can test/move your current site or a set up a new site on the system.

While we'd love it if all our customers registered new domains through us, we understand that for various reasons this isn't always the case. If you have been using Network Solutions to search for new domain names, we recommend you stop doing so since they are now using your domain search data and registering the domain to themselves. This is what has become known as "domain frontrunning" and until a few days ago when Network Solutions was exposed doing this, it was thought that none of the large, reputable registrars did this.

When you search for a domain on their site they register the domain to themselves and then hold on to the domain for four days. If you want to register the domain before the four days is up you are forced to register it through them at an increased fee. If you don't, they will let the domain drop before the five day registry grace period expires. This means that it costs them nothing since they get refunded the cost of the domain by the registry. This is what is know as "domain tasting" and is usually done by domain speculators to test a domain's popularity and revenue potential--profitable domains are kept and others are dropped and the fee refunded.

While what amounts to holding a domain hostage is bad enough, an unfortunate side effect is that since the domain was registered and dropped it is almost certain that other domain tasters will re-register the domain within seconds of it dropping. So, even if you wanted to wait four days for it to drop and register it elsewhere, the likelihood of it being available when you decide to try again with another registrar is close to zero since you won't be able to beat the thousands of automated systems continually checking to see when a domain drops.

We use Tucows to register our customers' domains as well as provide the domains search feature. We've used them for over seven years because they've always been one of the few ethical domain registrars. Here some relevant information from their statement on Registrar Reputation and Trust:

Specifically on the subject of domain tasting, Adam stated that Tucows works to prevent domain name tasting by charging our Resellers a monetary fee on domain name registrations that are cancelled within the five-day Add Grace Period (AGP). In addition, Tucows does not engage in front-running. Adam is clear on this point: Tucows doesn’t use WHOIS query data or search data from our API to front-run domain names. You can trust our WHOIS and domains lookup search boxes.

Unfortunately, the domain name industry has some bad actors and it is hard for most consumers to keep track of the good guys and the bad guys. That's why it is important to use a company you can trust to register, manage, and protect your domain name.

Reflexion has added a new feature to our Email Defense service to block email based on the language it is in. We have prepared a screencast you can view (opens in a new window) to show you how to enable this for your enterprise (domain) and give you the details on how it works.

If you just want to skip straight to setting it up for your enterprise:

1. Log in to the Reflexion control panel as a domain administrator
2. Choose Permitted Languages from the Enterprise Options menu
3. Check the checkbox for Check Permitted Languages
4. Add any other languages you want to permit
5. Save your changes

Emails in blocked languages will be quarantined, not rejected. If you have any questions on this new feature, please submit a support request.

Intellicontact, our email list hosting provider, has changed their name to iContact. If you are using our co-branded site at http://ahs.intellicontact.com/ please update your bookmarks to use http://ahs.icontact.com/

Effective today, Adaptive Hosting Solutions will change ownership from RedRocket to LoanProposals.com.  I will still be managing Adaptive Hosting Solutions and there will be very few changes.

What This Means for Our Clients

Your accounts and billing will not be affected by this change.

We will now have new toll-free and local phone numbers which will be published on the web site. The new numbers are:   

• Toll-free: (866) 819-2517
• Local: (407) 641-0300

As always, submitting a support request by email to support@adaptivehostingsolutions.com/ or online at http://adaptivehostingsolutions.com/support/ is the quickest way to receive support for your hosting account.

Our mailing address has changed and will be reflected on our site and invoices.  Our new mailing address is: 

2582 S. Maguire Rd.
Suite 108 
Ocoee, FL 34761

Another change is on my end since I’ll be working virtually instead of from a dedicated office.  For our Orlando area customers this means we’ll need to coordinate a location for in-person meetings.

About LoanProposals.com

Launched in 2001, LoanProposals.com is a privately held software development firm that develops and licenses software to financial institutions and loan officers nationwide.  LoanProposals.com has been a hosting and development client of Adaptive Hosting Solutions for over five years.

Why the Change?

By changing ownership to LoanProposals.com, Adaptive Hosting Solutions will be able to take advantage of their technical, support, and other resources.  This will allow us to continue to provide quality services and support for our clients as well as expand our development capacity and expertise.

What about Red Rocket?

We will still maintain a relationship with Red Rocket to provide hosting and development for their customers and for them to provide design and marketing services to our customers.  The team at Red Rocket has been great to work with over the past year and a half and I’m glad we’ll be able to continue to work together.

Moving Forward

In the future, we’ll be taking advantage of some of the resources this new ownership brings to add new hosting features, upgrade current features, or make using your account easier.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

As of 2/19/07, we will no longer be providing our legacy hostorlando.com email list hosting. When we changed to Adaptive Hosting Solutions two years ago we stopped advertising this service and accepting new list hosting customers.

For the few customers still using our email list hosting, we have teamed up with IntelliContact to provide you an option to continue hosting your list. They offer many more features than our service and their pricing is comparable in most cases and competitive for even higher volume lists. This service is not limited to current list hosting customers and can be used by anyone wanting email list hosting.

You can sign up for a free 15 day trial to test out IntelliContact before deciding if you want to use them. You are not obligated to use them and can use any provider of your choosing. We will provide a list of current subscribers to all current email list hosting customers which can be imported to IntelliContact or another service. Regardless of which route you choose, you will need to have your list migrated by 2/19/07 since we'll be shutting down the current list hosting server on that date.

To view pricing, features, and more visit http://ahs.intellicontact.com/

If you have any questions about this change, please submit a support request.

For Blogzerk we have upgraded and simplified plans. See all the details at this post on the Blogzerk blog.

In March we noted that the backend software for Email Defense filtering was going to be replaced at the end of June. Tucows updated us yesterday that they are still in the final testing of the replacement software and have postponed the release until the end of August. We will have more information at the beginning of August on the exact details of the migration to this new system. From the preliminary information we have, this will be very smooth and won't require any changes to the way our customers currently use Email Defense.

We are having problems with our T-1 which provides our voice and data services at our office. At this time, our phones are not working. If you need to contact us, please submit a support request or online chat at http://www.adaptivehostingsolutions.com/support/ This is always the quickest way to get in touch with us.

We are waiting for BellSouth to arrive onsite to fix this problem and don't have an ETA for a resolution at this time. Once we have more information, we will update this post.

UPDATED 12:35 PM ET: Our phones are now back up.

Over the past few weeks, we've seen an increase of credit card renewals being declined even though the card and billing address information is correct. In all these cases, the issuing bank is declining the card since the CVV card code wasn't provided. Since we can't store the CVV code, we can't provide this for automatic renewals.

If your credit card payment is being declined and you have verified your card and billing information is correct, your card is likely being declined for this reason. In this case, you'll need to pay your invoices manually using the Billing Control Panel. Once you are logged in, click on the My Finance tab to get a listing of your invoices. The Total Now Due section will have a link to your outstanding invoices. Click that link to get a list of the invoices. Click the invoice number to view the invoice and then use the Pay Online link at the top right of the page. This will let you enter your credit card information, including the CVV code, and process the payment.

If you have any questions or problems paying an invoice, please submit a support request.