Ruggiero AV Services Site News & Annoucements

Emergency Reboot for Mail Server

2012-02-05T13:16:00.000-05:00

At about 12:50PM EST we were notified that our mail server rebooted due to an unknown problem. Aside from the downtime, the system seems to have suffered no ill effects. We will monitor for the remainder of the day and update here if necessary.

Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Web Server Connectivity

2012-01-24T19:57:00.000-05:00

For the past 2 hours, access to one of our web servers was inaccessible; thankfully few customer resources were affected, save for our FlexWindow services which are coming back online. Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Database connectivity issues resolved

2012-01-24T16:45:00.000-05:00

MySQL connections should be stable again, but we will continue to monitor for the next few hours.

MySQL connectivity issues

2012-01-24T15:22:00.001-05:00

We are currently experiencing issues with a back-end database server that handles MySQL requests; slow responses and disconnects are affecting webmail and some other CMS-based websites. Techs are looking into the issue and we will update when this is resolved. Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Mail Server Upgrade Successful

2012-01-14T03:46:00.000-05:00

We are still tweaking the new mail server but ALL current mail has transferred. IP address propagation should have taken place by the time you see this, and delivery of new mail should be normal. The majority of clients should also be able to access webmail without incident, although we are aware of some issues with our new IP addresses, and these will be resolved within the next few hours. Our POP3 gateway will also be functional soon, at most by Saturday afternoon. If you have any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

From Our Datacenter

2012-01-10T11:49:00.001-05:00

Our virtual infrastructure will undergo network maintenance, between 7AM and
8AM PST (10AM to 11AM EST) on January 11, 2012.
While only a brief period of complete loss in connectivity is anticipated,
you may see some impact to the network for up to 30 minutes.

We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. Any
questions, respond here or e-mail us.

Mail Server Upgrade Planned, Jan. 13th and 14th

2012-01-03T23:24:00.000-05:00

On the evening of Friday, January 13th, and moving into Saturday January 14th, our mail server will be transitioned to new hardware. While this is planned out and should not cause any significant issues, e-mail WILL BE DOWN during the overnight hours, and transfer of e-mail and other items is slated to take quite a while. Expect a few hiccups on Saturday morning, but we will make an update when the process is completed.

Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Celebrating 10 years!

2012-01-02T00:04:00.000-05:00

Ruggiero AV Services was started in 2002 from a home office in Union, New Jersey. Within a year, we moved to a facility in Roselle Park, and were there for two years. In 2005 we returned to Union, and in 2009 expanded to other off-site locations to provide redundancy, security, and enhanced service. We believe we still provide an unprecedented value in custom-built personal computers and upgrades, web design and hosting, as well as our audio and video conversion services, the latter of which were the hallmark of our original company vision. Thank you to all who have kept up with us throughout the years!

Quick webmail upgrade

2011-12-17T00:02:00.000-05:00

A small update to the webmail system took place tonight between 11PM Eastern and 12 Midnight. Because the webmail interface is now load balanced between two servers, most people did not even notice, but their are some minor bug fixes in place, as well as some tweaks that will happen in the coming weeks.
Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Web Server Connectivity Restored

2011-12-04T15:50:00.000-05:00

The data center corrected the issue with their network and the web server is now back online. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Web Server Connectivity

2011-12-04T14:03:00.000-05:00

An issue with an upstream provider at our data center is causing one of our web servers to be inaccessible. The server is up and running and all data is safe, but since there is no INTERNET connectivity, clients cannot connect from the outside. We will update when this issue is resolved. Any questions, respond here or e-mail us.

Mail Server Up

2011-11-29T10:58:00.000-05:00

All mail services have been restored. We will continue to monitor for lingering issues. Any questions, let us know.

Mail Server Issues again

2011-11-29T09:18:00.000-05:00

Apologies, but we are working with our datacenter to resolve the issue of our mail server being down. As far as we know, no mail has been lost, and any incoming mail is being queued. Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Out of the Office

2011-11-22T01:25:00.000-05:00

Our offices will be closed from Tuesday November 22 to Sunday November 27. Email will still be checked regularly, so please contact us if you need immediate assistance due to downtime or other issue.

webmail login issue resolved

2011-11-19T18:42:00.000-05:00

A misconfiguration in one of our firewalls was blocking the webmail client from logging in; this is now resolved. If the issue persists for some users, please clear your cache, and flush your DNS; for complete instructions on the latter, please see: http://www.whatsmydns.net/flush-dns.html

webmail login issues

2011-11-19T15:06:00.001-05:00

An unknown issue with webmail is causing logins to fail, even though the mail server is up, and mail delivery is fine. If you are checking your e-mail from a phone or other IMAP mail client like Outlook or Thunderbird, you are NOT affected. Meanwhile, we are looking into this. If you absoutely HAVE to check your e-mail on the web, you can do so at http://mail2web.com

Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us...

Countdown to new website

2011-11-16T10:17:00.001-05:00

The countdown is on! We're launching the NEW Ruggiero AV Services website in less than 45 days!

FIXED: Site News and Twitter

2011-11-15T23:16:00.000-05:00

Our SITE NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS page is now available to our followers
@RuggieroAV .... Any questions, let us know!

Infrastructure / network issues

2011-11-15T11:43:00.002-05:00

Problems with a network switch has caused issues with our mail server. Data center techs are aware of this and are working to resolve this. Mail will be fully accessible when the failed hardware is replaced or repaired.

At this time there is no ETA as to WHEN service will be restored, but we will update this post with any details.

Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Edit (12:30PM EST): Service has been restored, but may be a bit slow for a while; please contact us if you are experiencing any lingering issues.

Mail Server Upgrade this Friday, 10/28 @ 10PM

2011-10-24T16:57:00.002-04:00

On Friday, October 28, mail services will be down for anywhere from 15-30 minutes while we perform a software update. This update will improve performance of our services with IMAP mail clients and smart phones. The downtime window is worst-case scenario; we may be up ahead of that 30 minute timeframe. We will update this post after the upgrade has completed.

Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

EDIT 10/28/2011, 9:00PM EST: We had to deal with another small issue that cropped up on the mail server, so we decided to perform the software update at this time. Mail server downtime was less than 3 minutes. Our web server also needed a reboot to restore some service reliability. Everything is running normally.

Windows Updates causing server slowdowns

2011-10-13T12:55:00.001-04:00

FROM OUR DATACENTER:

In the past 12 hours, multiple Windows updates have been pushed. These updates are currently causing heavy system load, slowness or (at times) complete loss in connectivity to Windows servers. Our technicians are attempting to kill any processes that appear to be "stuck" and are detrimentally affecting other services. At this time, the best thing you can do is to wait for updates to complete. Service should return to normal within the next few hours.

We will be waiting out this update process and ask all customers to be patient. If you have any questions or extended issues, please respond to this post, e-mail us, or open a support ticket.

Mail Server downtime overnight

2011-09-05T11:29:00.000-04:00

Our mail server suffered from an unexpected shutdown during the overnight hours, and once rebooted not all services came back online right away. The server is now working properly, and we apologize for any inconvenience.

Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

MySQL switched to backup server again

2011-08-31T20:40:00.001-04:00

Again, all customers have been moved to the backup database server until further notice. Once the main server comes back online, we WILL be syncing all databases, so calendar/contact creation should not be an issue this time. This message will be amended once everyone is back on the main server.

Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Main MySQL server back online

2011-08-29T18:30:00.000-04:00

The main MYSQL connection has been restored, and clients are transitioning from our backup server now. We will keep you posted on any further developments.

Thank you for your understanding - any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

SQL Server problem currently affecting webmail and some clients

2011-08-29T16:53:00.003-04:00

At this time, one of our MySQL database servers is offline. This is affecting the login to webmail, as well as certain clients' websites. We are communicating with the datacenter and will update this post when it is back online or with an ETA for a fix.

Apologies for the inconvenience. Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

UPDATE 5:06 PM - we have switched everyone to a backup database server. One word of warning, however for people using our webmail service for calendar and contacts - the backup database has the most up-to-date information NOW but if we switch back to the main server at a later date, there is no guarantee that all info will be synchronized. Therefore, do not attempt to create new calendar events or contacts until we are back on the MAIN server/database. We will let you know when that happens.

Slow e-mail access this morning

2011-08-15T08:24:00.001-04:00

Customers have reported - and we have confirmed - slow mail server access from multiple locations. The slowdown is not felt as much if you are using an IPv6 connection vs. IPv4 (the default). We are in contact with our datacenter and will update this post when the issue has been resolved.

UPDATE 8/16: The datacenter is still monitoring but the issues seem to be resolved for now. Some network connectivity issues are still common during the overnight hours (3-5 AM Eastern) and we are investigating this.

Thanks for your understanding and patience. Any questions respond to this post or e-mail us.

And now from the "If you want something done right..." department!

2011-08-10T17:58:00.000-04:00

Recent efforts to move our webmail interface to TWO different servers for redundancy have proven futile. We were trying to rely on third-party hosting to use as a backup, and they didn't allow as granular a control as we have on our main servers.

However, as before, the plan is always about e-mail delivery, so even if you cannot access webmail in a given period, please note that 99% of the time, our mail server is up and running. People who access their e-mail accounts through a client like Outlook or Thunderbird are not affected by this.

We'll keep up with things and always "do it ourselves!" Thanks for your understanding - any questions respond to this post or e-mail us.

Mail Issues this morning

2011-08-08T13:36:00.001-04:00

An issue with one of the data nodes hosting our mail server caused it to be inaccessible from 3AM Eastern this morning to about 1PM Eastern. The node is being checked, so mail access may still be intermittent. No data has been lost, and any queued mail will soon be delivered. Apologies for the downtime.

Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Primary web server issues

2011-07-24T21:35:00.002-04:00

At this time, some clients' websites are inaccessible. We are planning on restoring from a backup taken yesterday if the system cannot be recovered. Apologies for the inconvenience.

UPDATE 1 - 12:30pm EST: We are currently restoring our web server, and will restore the remainder of client sites by tonight.

UPDATE 2 - 5:30pm EST: All data has been successfully restored. Please let us know if you are experiencing any lingering issues.

Network issues today

2011-07-14T19:23:00.003-04:00

Due to network issues beyond our control, we took the opportunity to perform our database upgrades so some websites are running better than they were before and the webmail login issue is fixed. ~~There is a slightly longer loading time thanks to the new database, but once actually logged on performance is good. We will continually update our webmail interface as needed.~~

UPDATE AS OF JULY 15TH - All issues have been resolved. The webmail interface is speedy and using script caching to perform operations like moving and deleting messages in the background so you can do more faster! Part of the fix was to reset the user interface, so if you want to turn off the side-preview style layout, click the layout option on the right.

Any questions, respond to this post, or e-mail us.

DNS Issues, part 2

2011-07-12T15:44:00.000-04:00

This morning at about 7:30AM Eastern, we were notified that some of our clients' domains were not resolving and showing as "down" when the servers themselves were up and running properly. This is similar to what happened on June 28th.

As of 3:30PM Eastern, ALL sites are resolving properly and we apologize once again for the inconvenience. This is part of the reason we have decided to perform the database upgrades in August in order to provide more reliable services.
Any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

Database Upgrades Planned for 8/5/2011

2011-07-07T15:24:00.002-04:00

To accommodate additional users and load, our DNS records for "ruggieroav.net" and database servers will be upgraded on Friday, August 5 at 10PM Eastern into Saturday at 1AM. This should fix our webmail login issues. Some clients websites and our webmail access may be inaccessible during the time. No actual e-mail will be lost, and delivery will NOT be affected.

We are already running a beta version of our new database infrastructure on a beta website and it seems to be working well. If any problems occur the changes will be rolled back and upgrades rescheduled. Any questions respond to this post or e-mail us.

Minor Issue with webmail

2011-07-02T11:50:00.001-04:00

We have noticed that - out of the blue - the webmail interface is not honoring "automatic login." While this does not in any way affect the retrieval of email, those who access a bookmark/favorite and are asked to log i, were most likely surprised. However, as a workaround, we have the following solution:

Add /webmail.php?check=1 to the end of the shortcut/link you use to access your mailbox. This will force the login process to check for new mail and should not prompt you for a username and password - assuming you had logged in successfully once. We will be adding that extension to our direct links for clients within the next day or so.

We apologize for the inconvenience. Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

DNS issues

2011-06-28T12:53:00.002-04:00

Had a minor issue for an hour this afternoon where some client websites were having issues resolving - this happens when the server itself is up, but the name services which translate ip addresses into domain names fail. We are investigating the cause, and how we can prevent this in the future. Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Webmail Upgrades - Now with Calendar

2011-06-17T20:56:00.000-04:00

Apologies for the short downtime for those using their domain's webmail interface; but now if you log in you will notice faster message rendering as well as PRIVATE CALENDAR support with REMINDERS. Just another enhancement to make our webmail service easier to use and integrate!

Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

SpamAssassin rules updated

2011-06-14T21:43:00.002-04:00

Earlier today, some customers may have been unable to reach their mailboxes. Our SpamAssassin rules reverted to an earlier level, and we noticed a lot of junk mail coming through on some accounts. Now the rules are updated to their latest levels, and junk mail should be curbed as before.

UPDATE - we just found and fixed an old bug that prevented our mail services from starting up again automatically if stopped for maintenance. Hopefully this will not be a recurring issue as it was.
Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

June Mail Upgrades Complete

2011-06-11T12:05:00.001-04:00

Mail updates were completed overnight at 4AM Eastern time, June 11th. The extra time was needed to transfer and santize some old messages from users who had written about having their mailboxes compromised or needed their addresses changed. All requests are completed.

Also, customers using mail clients could connect to their accounts fine, while webmail just became available as of this posting, due to DNS propagation issues, which are now resolved. Sorry for any inconvenience, and please let us know if you run into any problems.

On the plus side, the mail server and underlying OS are now completely 64-bit compliant, which should improve performance.

Thanks for sticking with us!

Web Server Slowdowns and Mail Server Update Reminder

2011-06-06T12:28:00.001-04:00

Over the past few days, an update to the anti-virus software on our web server caused it to over-analyze incoming traffic causing slow performance, hangs, and required us to reboot the server a few times to re-esablish normal operation. We are working with our datacenter and anti-virus vendors to see if this can be resolved permenantly.

Also, our mail server will undergo an upgrade THIS FRIDAY EVENING, after 10PM. Incoming mail will be queued, and depending on what mailboxes are processed, you may or may not be able to read your mail. We will post an update when all is finished.

Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

More anticipated downtime, 5/10/2011

2011-05-07T22:20:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday May 10, there will be a short window of downtime while core routers and switches are upgraded. This will effect e-mail only. The entire maintenance window will last from 12:30AM EST to 2:00AM EST, but the actual downtime will only be about 10-12 minutes.

We appreciate your patience. Any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

Minor issues today (5/4); planned downtime on 5/5, as well as for Friday, June 10th - 10PM Eastern until...???

2011-05-04T18:51:00.002-04:00

First, we want to apologize if some customers were unable to reach their websites today or access webmail. No actual mail was lost but we had to restart the interface a few times to clear out an old bug. What's more, our datacenter informs us that there may be intermittent downtime on May 5, from 1PM Eastern to 2PM Eastern.

Lastly, we will be performing software upgrades on Friday, June 10th which will affect e-mail and some web sites. Downtime should be limited to 90 minutes; we will post an update when things are completed.

Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Email Upgrades COMPLETE - now including Spam Assassin!

2011-03-06T18:22:00.002-05:00

After many long years of providing e-mail to our clients we have finally implemented a successful combination of greylisting, GeoIP filtering, and keyword blocking to combat SPAM, or Junk E-Mail. We have just recently added a full implementation of Spam Assassin, which should now MARK IN THE SUBJECT LINE items it believes to be Junk. In about 6 months or so, we plan to analyze the results of such tagging, make additional adjustments, and then set Spam Assassin to outright REJECT mail that fits the Junk profile.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Bulk of server updates completed

2011-03-03T11:30:00.001-05:00

Throught the week we have been working on our server, performing software updates, making small changes to services, and communicating with customers. Thank you for bearing with us. Our mail server will undergo one final update - for a while anyway - on Saturday, March 5. Mail may be unavailable from 10PM - 10:30PM EST.

Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Mail upgrade, other updates taking place tonight, 2/26/2011

2011-02-26T14:49:00.005-05:00

Sorry for the short notice, but we are going to be performing updates on our servers between the hours of 8PM and 1AM.

Some updates may require more downtime than others, and to prevent major issues, mail delivery will be queued and webmail may be inaccessible at times.

We apologize for the inconvenience, but will update this post when everything is back up and running.

Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

EDIT -- Apologies once again for the late update but our Saturday Night / Sunday Morning server changes did NOT go according to plan, so some services, especially e-mail, remained inaccessible for longer than we wanted today. The good news is that we have discovered the root of the problem, have now SOLVED it, and can provide a nearly seamless update process which we will be performing during the next few days, causing little to no downtime.

We will post a NEW status update when everything is complete, but for now assume all is well "back at headquarters." Thank you!

"Flexwindow" Service Problems

2010-09-06T16:20:00.001-04:00

We are currently experiencing problems with the Flexwindow services for some of our clients' websites, so updates are NOT taking place. If you wish to post an update to your website and you currently utilize the Flexwindow service, please know that we are working on a fix. If something urgent needs to be posted, simply send the content directly to us via e-mail, and we will be sure it gets posted.

Apologies for the inconvenience. Any questions, please respond to this post.

EDIT: As of September 9, 2010, Flexwindow services are working normally again. We will continue to monitor and adjust accordingly.

Unexpected Downtime

2010-08-20T09:44:00.001-04:00

A Windows update session on two of our servers caused them to hang from 2:00 AM Eastern to 9 AM Eastern, when the severs were manually restarted. We are sorry for the inconvenience. Any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

Mail For All - Coming in September

2010-08-08T17:28:00.005-04:00

Though we have had always offered full e-mail services for our clients, one area that was always lacking, based on customer feedback, was webmail. People do like to check their e-mail from any web brower or other device, and do not want to be tied down to a desktop mail client. Our mail server, developed by Argo Software Design, has been through many updates, stability fixes, and spam-rule testing, so we don't want to give up this system for mail delivery in general. However, the webmail interface was always lacking something, and we are always looking to offer greater flexibility to our customers in web mail.

As such we are making the following changes:

- On September 1, 2010, your web mail site will switch to http://webmail.domain.tld/, where domain.tld is your domain name. This new site is made possible by AfterLogic, and offers full AJAX web mail, robust address book with contact import capability, direct SPAM reporting capability, and more.

- The current webmail login page will remain available at http://mail.domain.tld/, at leat until December 2010. After that date, you will no longer be able to read and reply to your mail on that site, but DOMAIN ADMINISTRATORS will still be able to manage users, groups. and distribution lists. Note that the new webmail system allows even non-admin users to create and manage their own user lists and distribution groups, so the only time a domain admin would ever access this "legacy" page is in fact to ADD a new user and set or change his or her mailbox size. User password management will also still be available here.

- What's even nicer about this new system is that you will be able to check certain THIRD PARTY e-mail accounts, assuming they support POP3 and IMAP. If you login using ADVANCED mode, you can specify the incoming and outgoing mail servers, just as you would with a standard mail client, so for example you can get hotmail, gmail, and more right from our site. It will truly be one-stop-shopping for your messages.

We hope you enjoy these new features!

Yahoo POP3 Gateway issues

2010-07-28T10:13:00.002-04:00

Some Yahoo accounts are having difficulties with our POP3 Gatway, showing a network error message instead of downloading messages. We are working on getting this fixed. Meanwhile, there is a workaround, courtesy of Yahoo themselves. Please contact us by email if you want us to check your settings.

EDIT - as of August 1, 2010, our gateway works with Yahoo Mail again. Thank you to Kevin Edwards over at Freepops for providing the updated code.

Server RAM upgrade

2010-07-20T12:55:00.001-04:00

A quick restart of our servers took place this morning to allow for a new RAM upgrade and increased performance. Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Speed Improvements

2010-06-06T16:32:00.001-04:00

Over this weekend, our server was rebooted a few times causing minor interruptions in service.

These restarts were required as we are improving the speed at which our websites are served to our customers. Our file-store and download services have also improved at least 30%. If you have any questions, please respond to this post or e-mal us.

Mail and Webmail back to "normal"

2010-06-02T12:31:00.000-04:00

We have resolved the issues with our hosted e-mail and webmail services. The only lingering new issue is one involving Plaxo address book integration, but we believe it has something to do with Plaxo itself, and not our servers.

Any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

Mail/Webmail Updates

2010-05-21T11:36:00.000-04:00

For customers using hosted e-mail on their own domain (for example, http://mail.ruggieroav.net), the service works well with an IMAP and POP3 mail client but we are aware of at least one new issue that has cropped up with our web mail client, with regard to attachments. We are working with our developer to solve the issue.

And, since the server crash and rebuild, we are having an issue with our "reverse" webmail service (http://www.ruggieroav.net/webmail, where you can access ANY e-mail account on through the browser. It only affects certain domains. If you get an INTERNAL SERVER ERROR and cannot sign in, please be aware that we are working on a fix.

Thank you for your patience. Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Final Update on Server Rebuild

2010-05-19T08:31:00.001-04:00

As of 2:00 AM, May 19th, all sites and services are operational, aside from a few auxillary services that have yet to be tweaked and configured. We will be at 100% capacity by Noon Eastern today.

As we suspected, the biggest loss of data was e-mail, and although 98% of e-mail was restored, a situation now exists where messages may appear valid in your mailboxes but cannot be read. Those unreadable messages are, sadly, unrecoverable - and we wholeheartedly apologize for this issue. If you need your mailbox or account details repaired, you may submit a trouble ticket to http://helpdesk.ruggieroav.net or e-mail us.

We have taken steps to mitigate damages in the future, including taking daily bit-by-bit snapshots of the entire server, as well as a full file backup in the evenings. Our hosting data center has afforded us additional backup space - the least they could do considering what happened - and we plan to use every bit of it.

SERVER DOWNTIME UPDATES

2010-05-16T15:28:00.008-04:00

MAY 16, 2010, 3:00 PM EST.

A problem in our primary datacenter has caused the majority of our sites and services to be unavailable. This page will change back to our main website once the problem is resolved. All data is fully backed up and sites may remain down pending a restore of lost data.

MAY 18, 2010, 8:00 AM EST.

After working for two days with our data center technicians, it was determined that NO DATA could be restored from their end. We have no choice, therefore, to rebuild our servers from scratch, and restore our own backed up data. Restoration began overnight, and completed earlier this morning, however, our software still needs to be reinstalled, and accounts recreated. We are looking at a massive effort, but hope to have e-mail and websites back online by this evening.

UPDATE 2 -- We are 90% rebuilt. Email is still the hardest thing we have left to restore, and we fear this is where there is the most data loss, although it will NOT be more than 4 days worth of messages on all accounts combined.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for understanding.

- Joseph Ruggiero

RUGGIERO AV SERVICES

Mail Updates Planned Friday, April 30

2010-04-10T22:51:00.002-04:00

A minor upgrade to our mail system will take place on Friday April 30, 2010, at 10PM Eastern Time. Downtime should be limited to about 10-15 minutes while the old software is removed and new software installed, however we are keeping a one-hour window open for all possible issues that may arise. If you have any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

"Form Processor" upgrades

2010-03-04T21:22:00.001-05:00

We are currently performing upgrades and optimizations on our form processing system, which may affect all fill-in forms on our clients' websites. Not all sites will be affected, and if they are, speed may be reduced for a brief time. All upgrades should be completed by midnight, Friday, March 5.

Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

New for 2010: Ruggiero AV Services Help Desk!

2010-01-07T12:27:00.001-05:00

Ruggiero AV Services is proud to announce the availability of our new technical support help desk system! We have been receiving many requests for help by email over the past few months, and sometimes it is just not possible to respond to them all in a timely manner. In fact, while this message is being posted on our blog, some of our previous customers are receiving this message AS a direct email, but we hope that they will utilize this new system to request help in the future. We believe this will facilitate quicker response time and allow you and us to track and save commonly asked questions and responses.

We will strive to respond to and resolve your issue in 24-48 hours. If your issue cannot be resolved through the system, we can schedule an in-person technical support visit or remote computer session through Crossloop.

Using the help desk is easy! Simply go to:

http://helpdesk.ruggieroav.net

...and fill in your name, email address, and other important information. Once submitted, the system will then issue a ticket number and access key to your specific problem so that you may check on its progress at any time. In addition, you will STILL BE NOTIFIED BY EMAIL when there is a response made on the website. The email will include the response from us, but in order for YOU to add to an open ticket, you must use the website, which will be accessible via direct link.

Once an issue is marked SOLVED in the system, it currently remains accessible to both you and us for a total of 30 days. We may change this retention to 60, 90 or more days in the future. You can begin submitting help requests right away on this or any other issue, and we hope this proves useful for you.

Watch for more updates and enhancements as we improve our sites and services. Here's to a prosperous 2010!

Webmail failure for approximately two hours

2010-01-06T15:52:00.001-05:00

Due to a server configuration error and other network factors, webmail for hosted accounts was down for 2 hours this afternoon, January 6, from 1:45 to 3:45 Eastern. NO EMAIL WAS LOST and physical e-mail messages / boxes were never at risk; it was only the interface to ACCESS mail that was affected. People using mail clients like Outlook were NOT affected.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Email port 25/587

2009-09-28T14:51:00.000-04:00

It appears that more and more ISPs are blocking port 25 for outgoing e-mail. Customers are being informed about this through announcements on their ISPs websites or even getting warning e-mails on the subject. Some of the e-mails are such that the user is "tagged" for sending out an extraordinary amount of e-mail, and THAT's the reason for the port 25 block.

Whatever the case, we have enabled an alternate SMTP port 587 - and this will let you send out without incident.

To change your outgoing mail port - this is an example using Outlook 2007:

Open Outlook, and click on TOOLS -- > ACCOUNT SETTINGS

Double-click your existing e-mail account.

On the bottom right, click MORE SETTINGS.

Click the ADVANCED tab. Incoming mail should be 143, and change outgoing mail from 25 to 587. You can also slide the server timeouts slider all the way to the right, to ensure large messages don't get cut off.

Click OK, NEXT, and FINISH.

Click CLOSE on the Account Settings window.

Most times, the port 25 blockage applies to residential customers only and does not apply if customers are paying more for business-class services.

Any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

Mail Server Updates planned Friday, 9/11/09, 10PM EST

2009-09-03T00:56:00.002-04:00

A maintenance upgrade to our mail server will take place on Friday, September 11, 2009 at 10PM Eastern. Downtime should be no more than 10-15 minutes while the old software is removed and upgraded software installed. After that time, there will be a slight change to the way users access webmail, but ONLY if you were entering the URL to your e-mail directly, and not using the link[s] provided on your respective websites, which have already been updated to the new form.

Simply put, we are now running our webmail interface on PORT 80, which is the standard WWW port. Prior to this, customers may have had to enter http://mail.yourdomain.com:8080 - now, the address is simply http://mail.yourdomain.com, of course replacing the yourdomain.com portion with your actual domain name. Try it now by going to http://mail.ruggieroav.net - you should be presented with our mail login page.

Thanks for your understanding and patience in advance. Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

EDIT - Mail server upgrade took a bit longer than usual, but all is working as of 10:35PM EST, 9/11/09

OpenDNS and Comcast Network issues

2009-08-11T17:54:00.002-04:00

Ruggiero AV Services promotes the use of a third-party DNS [domain name system] service known as OpenDNS. OpenDNS is a free service that provides geographically stable lookups for all the addresses you type into your web browser - so that the time it takes to find a site and then connect to a site is reduced.

Over the past week or so we have noticed that OpenDNS has NOT been working well with Comcast's Internet service, especially when accessing sites like this one - blogger.com - and some other Google services, including Youtube.

OpenDNS is aware of this, and Comcast techs are also working to resolve these issues. This may be related to the fact that
Comcast recently rolled out their own "DNS Helper" services, which performs similar functions as OpenDNS, to a degree. The
fix for these issues is to return your computer or router to their default DHCP settings, and have it use Comcast's default
DNS servers. If you are having trouble getting those, the national server IP addresses are:

68.87.66.196 Comcast (national) Primary DNS Server.
68.87.64.196 Comcast Secondary DNS Server.

For more information, please see:
http://forums.opendns.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=4562&page=1#Item_0

and also
http://www.comcastvoices.com/2009/07/domain-helper-service-here-to-help-you.html

Also note that the D-Link router mentioned in our post about "being a SPAM-bot" and "network access protection" includes advanced DNS services which work similar to OpenDNS, may be superior to your own ISP's DNS servers, and are currently not subject to the same problems as OpenDNS at the moment. However the servers may also work with NON D-Link routers. So, an alternate suggestion for Comcast users, if you do not wish to use Comcast's DNS servers is to use:

PRIMARY - 204.194.232.200
SECONDARY - 204.194.234.200

Otherwise, if you "blank out" the DNS Servers entries in your computer or router, and reboot the device, you should be able to pull the default DNS servers from your ISP. If you don't, see above for the IP address numbers so that you may enter them manually.

Any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

HowTo: prevent your computer from being a SPAMBot

2009-07-26T20:47:00.001-04:00

We interrupt our usual news feed with a tutorial:

Along with building new computers, and selling customized software solutions, I am often faced with the task for which Ruggiero AV Services was originally created - repairing computers for friends, family members, and clients. Most of the time these repairs are not hardware-related, but rather related to the operating system (read: Windows). And being that Windows has a fair amount of the market share, with Mac OS being a close second, most of my software-related fixes include malware removal. Sometimes I don't know what specific malware I am dealing with UNTIL I run an anti-spyware and/or anti-virus scan, and most of the time that includes connecting the problem machine to my private network so that I can update the latest definitions, and then run a scan knowing I'll detect the latest threats. Problem is, malware may use the window of time a given system is connected to a netwok to spread. While I haven't had a virus transfer itself from a client's "infected" computer to one of my own via my private network, twice I have had "public network" issues after repairing a machine, most noteably in the area of e-mail.

My personal ISP happens to be Comcast Cable; when this business began, its services also ran off this provider. Ruggiero AV Services now utilizes a dedicated and isolated multi-server network in multiple geographic locations, so we are not tied to one ISP. However, the fact that I have Comcast for personal use plays into the e-mail issue I describe. At least two times, a piece of malware on a client computer contained a built-in mail server, which instantly spewed out multiple SPAM e-mails without my knowledge. This stopped my ability to send outgoing e-mail through Comcast's mail servers.

Some tech-saavy friends may be thinking, yeah so just change your outgoing mail servers to ones that are not Comcast-run; and I would - also, Comcast themselves offers a workaround to continue using their servers. I'll explain in a second. What Comcast ends up doing if they think you are a spam-bot is to shut off your ability to send ANYTHING over OUTGOING MAIL PORT 25. This applies even on servers that are NOT run by Comcast. The theory is that most malware sends bogus mail on that common port, so by blocking it at the network level, they are stopping the spread of the malware itself. If you want to continue using Comcast for outgoing mail, you must set your outgoing mail port to 587.

It was only recently that I sucessfully discovered and implemented my OWN version of what Comcast did to me. After calling their "security" department and explaining myself, I was able to get my ability to send over port 25 restored. Then, I diligently went to work investigating the settings of my home network router. My trick will NOT help you if you are a single-computer user with your modem hooked directly into your machine, but if you do have a router, the idea is to look into the settings that control access to the network or port blocking. This is not the same as port forwarding, although the port-blocking or access control settings may be in the same area as your port forwarding section.

PRE-REQUISITES:

1. You must have a fairly recent router - not all support access control.

2. Your computers must be set for DHCP and have "reservations" set up in the router's configuration. This may work with static IP addresses, but a DHCP reservation works easier, as you will see later.

3. You must have a limited DHCP scope to assign to "visiting" computers.

I am going to go over the steps to set up the Dlink DIR-655 router for personal port blocking.

Log into the router with the admin user and password.
At the top, click SETUP, then NETWORK SETTINGS
Make sure the DHCP server is enabled. Set the last digits in the range from 10 to 15. For example, if your router's address is 192.168.0.1, the DHCP server range should be 192.168.0.10 - 192.168.0.15. That's assuming you have LESS THAN 5 computers. It can be more or less. Always increment the number by one or two to allow for additions later.
Restart all connected computers and return to the DLink router setup pages. You should see your computers listed under DHCP Clients.
Click RESERVE, and adjust any settings in the DHCP RESERVATION section. Save your settings, and reboot the router.
Once all of your network computers have a reserved IP address, we can move to setting up access control. Click ADVANCED at the top, and ACCESS CONTROL on the left.
Click ENABLE ACCESS CONTROL, then ADD POLICY
Click NEXT, then type a short policy name - for example PORT25 BLOCK.
Click NEXT, keep the policy schedule at ALWAYS and click NEXT again.
Under ADDRESS TYPE click OTHER MACHINES, click OK, and click NEXT.
Choose BLOCK SOME ACCESS, APPLY PORT FILTERS and click NEXT.
Enable the first check box. Under NAME, put Port 25.
Keep the IP range the way it is, and change the protocol to TCP.
Change DEST PORT START and DEST PORT END to 25.
Click SAVE.

Now we have essentially blocked port 25 from ALL computers on our network. If that is your intention, you may stop here. However, if you wish to override the block for certain machines, follow the below example.
Type a new policy name - for example PORT25 OVERRIDE.
Click NEXT, keep the policy schedule at ALWAYS and click NEXT again.
Under ADDRESS TYPE click IP. Choose a "reserved" computer from the list, and click OK.
Repeat that for each computer you know is on your LAN.
At the bottom of your screen, click OK, and click NEXT.
Choose BLOCK SOME ACCESS, APPLY PORT FILTERS and click NEXT.
Enable the first check box. Under NAME, put Port 25.
Keep the IP range the way it is, and change the protocol to TCP.
Change DEST PORT START and DEST PORT END each to a bogus port number that is not in use, like 1234..
Click SAVE.

Reboot the router, and your computers.

To test your settings, use the following at a command prompt:

telnet smtp.comcast.net 25

On your "reserved" computers, you should get a response in the form of a single line that shows where the server is coming from. For example: 220 OMTA05.comcast.net comcast ESMTP server ready

On ANY OTHER MACHINE you connect, like a friend's machine, the request should TIME OUT or not connect at all. This is what you want. This way you may continue to use your [hopefully protected] computers as normal, but any new machines will not be able to access port 25. If you add new machines to your lan that you WANT to access port 25, you'll need to add a reseveration, and add the computer to the PORT 25 OVERRIDE policy.

Rather long post, but I hope this helps some folks out! I will re-publish this on my website with photos of the settings pages, and adapt it to additional routers.

Webmail Update - "Powered By Plaxo"

2009-04-27T12:38:00.005-04:00

As of today, our webmail interface, which at it's core is powered by ArgoSoft Mail Server, has an added enhancement. When composing a new message, you can add recipients (currently in the TO: field only) from your Plaxo address book! Plaxo is an online service that allows you to sync, store and reference your contacts anytime and anywhere, and now you don't need to manage individual contact lists on the web interface and in a mail client. For those who want to sync their outlook or outlook express address books with Plaxo, so that they are likewise available from our web client, download their free toolbar from http://www.plaxo.com/downloads. The Plaxo integrated enhancement is currently in beta and the code is subject to change. Any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

Mail System Update planned March 27

2009-03-09T10:39:00.004-04:00

A minor upgrade to our e-mail system and webmail interface will take place between 10PM and 11PM Eastern time on Friday, March 27, 2009. Mail delivery should not be affected, as the incoming and outgoing mail flow should only be disrupted for a few minutes while the actual software gets updated. However, webmail access may be down a bit longer, hence the 1 hour window. We will post updates if we run into any snags and when the process is completed.

Any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

EDIT, March 27, 2009 10:10PM : And we are upgraded ahead of schedule! Mail delivery and web interface are working as they were previously - any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

New Year, New Services - Followup

2009-01-14T14:07:00.001-05:00

All web services and e-mail should have fully transitioned to the new system by now. Two things to note:

As you have probably heard on our outgoing phone announcement, we are now reachable at www.ruggieroav.com! Our previous address - ruggiero.cjb.net - will continue to work for everything, but we encourage people to bookmark the new address. There is also a a second web address - www.ruggieroav.net, which will be used for extensions to our existing sites and services.
We have recently installed a new front-end to our webmail service. This was installed on January 14, well after our initial January 5 rollout, because we wanted to ensure mail delivery was stable on the new platform FIRST. The new webmail interface has defaulted to requiring your full e-mail address as login name. So, if your username and password do not work, try your full e-mail address instead. Also, the webmail interface is more full-featured, allowing for better SPAM management, better user folder management, and the ability to compose full HTML e-mail (yes, I know that this is a feature that is standard on most webmail clients and it was a long time coming on ours). You can also save draft messages, which is another popular feature now being realized on our client.
We have moved the cutoff deadline up to February 28th for those customers using ravras.cjb.net and avserv.cjb.net. Again, those using webmail without a specific domain should use mail.ruggieroav.net in their e-mail clients, and pop.ruggieroav.net if using our webmail to POP3 service.

Any questions, please respond to this post, or e-mail us.

Happy New Year to all, and to an all new Ruggiero AV Services!

2009-01-05T11:10:00.001-05:00

Welcome to 2009!

We hope the new year finds you well and will bring you happiness and prosperity. Over the last week or so, you may have noticed some minor downtime , and for a good reason - we have migrated ALL of our services and sites to a much more robust server platform, that at its root, is much like our previous system, but will scale easier for additional sites and services down the line.

Migration took place during the evenings of December 29-31, 2008 with a final sanity check on all data on Saturday, January 3, 2009. The e-mail migration took the longest, and it required a shutdown of mail services, but it and and all of our customers' websites have transitioned successfully. That being said, we WILL be keeping our old systems online for the next month to ensure that any old client data can be migrated over if it was missed. Email cannot be restored, as some messages were removed from our system if they contained viruses or other malware. As always if you have any questions, please contact us by e-mail or by responding to this post.

Network downtime, 8:45AM EST, December 2, 2008

2008-12-02T08:54:00.004-05:00

Due to circumstances beyond our control, both our primary and backup webservers are unavailable from certain areas. Webmail is also unavailable. Not every customer is affected. We will post when we are back up and running, and be in touch with any customers individually concerning the downtime. Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Edit - 11:00AM EST - And we're back. Main webserver is back online. Backup web and webmail is coming online at this time. Please be patient as we restore remaining services.

Network problems part 2, upgrade cancelled, and DTV FAQ coming!

2008-11-05T14:52:00.001-05:00

More IP problems caused client websites to be transparently directed to our mirror server this morning, until about 2:30PM EST. RAVMAS was unavailable. Our apologies, and hopefully this outside network change will become persistant soon, and will not require this extensive downtime. Again, CLIENT WEBSITES ARE NOT AFFECTED BY THIS. The only thing currently affected by these outages is our Webmail to POP3 services.

The network upgrades plamned for November 15, 2008 have been cancelled. Howver, please take note of slight changes to our RAVMAS and WEBMAIL / DOMAIN MAIL server addresses, which work NOW (as of November 1) but will be in full effect by April 5, 2009. This will give people plenty of time to transition.

Speaking of transition, I will be posting a concise summary of DIGITAL TV information for people confused by the February 2009 cut-off of analog television. We personally do not offer Digital Televisionn services, but I have so many customers call me on this, I have decided to put together a FAQ of my own. Meanwhile, you can check out www.dtv2009.gov for their up-to-the-minute accurate information on this process, and how you can save on Digital Converter boxes.

Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Network Issues / Upgrades

2008-10-30T17:29:00.003-04:00

Our ISP (Comcast) has been doing work on the node in Union, NJ which carries our primary web and RAVMAS services. We have had short downtime periods over the past few weeks relating to RAVMAS, and for that, we apologize.

edit 10/30/08 / 7:25pm est. We are planning yet another network upgrade for our backup web and webmail services; this will happen on Saturday, November 15th, between the hours of 8AM - 1PM EST. Please be aware that if webmail access is lost during this period, any incoming mail will be queued and stored until our new network structure is in place. We will certainly update this announcements page EITHER WAY, so our customers will know what to expect in the coming weeks, if we do indeed migrate to a new network infrastructure.

Any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

IP Address Issues

2008-10-13T10:47:00.002-04:00

Over the past few days, we have had an issue relating to IP address changes on our primary network. Website clients were not immediately affected, but RAVMAS (webmail to POP3 email) may have been. Apologies for any inconvenience. We will continue to monitor this issue and will report back on any changes. Any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

Webmail Down due to regional weather conditions

2008-09-06T21:50:00.002-04:00

Due to weather and related electrical and other cabling issues, our webmail server is down as of 8:30PM Eastern. Technicians are aware of these factors outside of our control and are working to resolve them as soon as possible. No e-mail has been lost. New mail is being queuedand will be delivered once our server comes back online.

Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Webmail SPAM filtering enhancements

2008-08-30T21:38:00.002-04:00

As of Sunday, August 31st, we will have fully implmented LEVEL 2 SPAM FILTERING using UCEPROTECT blacklisting. This is in addition to the other lists we employ. We know that some of our customers' accounts receive a lot of SPAM, and while there is a lot that users themselves can do to protect their e-mail accounts from getting unsolicited junk mail, we would like to do our part as well, as it makes for a smoother e-mail experience for all.

If you have any questions about our latest filtering measures, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

Network Upgrade, Part 1 Completed

2008-08-07T13:34:00.001-04:00

Our webmail / backup web server is back online with a 10x increase in performance to boot! Remember that our main webserver and RAVMAS will be offline on Friday, starting around 11PM Eastern, and coming back online by 1AM Eastern. There will be no further status updates for now, unless there are unforseen problems with our Friday evening upgrade.

Thank you for your patience through the mail server issues, and we believe they are truly solved once and for all. As always, if you have ANY questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

Network Upgrades, August 7 and 8, 2008

2008-08-06T15:02:00.001-04:00

To our webmail customers and some website clients...

We realize that there are still intermittent network problems with some of our clients' mail services. We want to reassure everyone again that NO MAIL HAS BEEN LOST due to these problems. However, we understand that a less-than-consistant connection makes people feel uneasy. Therefore:

On the morning of August 7, most likely during the hours of 11AM and 1PM Eastern,webmail and our backup server will be unavailable ON PURPOSE, as we re-configure new routers on our network. The timeframe is considered worst-case-scenario; e-mail services may be available prior to 1PM.

On the evening of August 8, most likely during the hours of 11PM and 1AM Eastern, our primary webserver will be unavailable, along with RAVMAS, also while routing equipment is upgraded. Again, this 2 hour-long downtime is for worst-case scenario; we will work to get our services back to normal as soon as possible.

Thanks for your understanding. If you have any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

CJB.NET down. 9PM Eastern July 21

2008-07-21T21:53:00.001-04:00

Due to a technical issue with our third-party DNS host, all CJB.NET addresses are not responding. We cannot readily correct this problem, but our clients' websites are not affected, and neither are their e-mail services. We apologize for this inconvenience!

Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Resolved: Webmail issues, ongoing

2008-07-17T11:09:00.001-04:00

Our ISP has performed maintenance work on our outside lines, which has apparently cured our disconnect issues. We will continue to monitor things for the next few weeks to ensure this does not happen again.

Thank you for your understanding. Any questions, respond here or e-mail us.

Webmail issues, ongoing

2008-07-09T18:46:00.001-04:00

For the past few weeks we have been aware of minor connectivity issues which has plagued our backup web server, which also runs our webmail services. Note that no mail is lost during the process, but webmail becomes unavailable - there is no rhyme nor reason for these disconnects and we have opened tickets with our ISP to attempt to troublshoot with them. This may also be releted to network enhancements that are being carried out, as not all domains and users are affected at the same time. Again, please know that we ARE aware of these issues, but cannot readily correct them. We will update you if any major developments occur.

Thank you for your understanding. Any questions, respond here or e-mail us.

Webmail to Pop3 Services (RAVMAS) update

2008-05-21T08:57:00.001-04:00

For those Yahoo Mail users who are still using our free service to retrieve their e-mail to their favorite client, such as Outlook Express, we have some great news. After extensive testing we have deployed a fix for INLINE ATTACHMENTS which had plagued the Yahoo module for many months. Previously, sometimes your mail program would NOT download the attachment, or there would be grey boxes where inline images should have been. This new improved version should now work for those of you on the Yahoo Classic as well as their newer mail interface, but even if you do not regularly use Yahoo Mail on the web, I urge you to switch to the newer interface if you plan to continue to retrieve your mail through our servers.

Once again the settings for your mail program are as follows:

server: avserv.cjb.net
username: your full e-mail address
password: your e-mail password

This works on standard POP3 port 110.

Thanks for your understanding and cooperation; any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

Update: Network Issues

2008-04-05T21:16:00.001-04:00

Network connection issues have been resolved. Equipment upgrades are planned for late April or mid-May - we will post another message when we actually carry out the upgrades. Any questions or problems, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Network Issues

2008-04-05T13:41:00.001-04:00

Our technicians are currently tracking intermittant network problems this weekend. Updates to equipment may be taking place tonight between the hours of 11:00PM - 1:00AM, during which time our websites should be operating exclusively from our mirror location. We will update you on our progress. Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Sync Software Update

2008-02-28T13:39:00.000-05:00

We have upgraded the software that runs our mirror/main server synchronization process, and some updates to our web pages may not be seen right away from all locations on the Internet. This is partly because some ISPs cache old web pages; to ensure you're looking at the most recent version of a page, REFRESH your browser. The sync process happens daily, and I just ran a manual sync a few minutes ago, so pages should only be behind by a maximum of 12 hours.

Any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

Ruggiero AV Services is now IN THE LOOP!

2008-01-24T11:19:00.001-05:00

Announcing an extension to our Remote Assistance Services powered by CrossLoop!

With your permission, we can provide Windows-based software support on YOUR computer, even if you are hundreds of miles away. This remote house call is made possible by the CrossLoop application, a small free download that you set up on your computer to allow us to connect to your machine. It works through all types of firewalls, so there's no extensive setup required, however a broadband connection to the Internet (cable, dsl) is preferred.

This remote service is best preceded by a call toll-free to 1-800-856-3702, to ensure we are available in the office. Or, if you are local to us (click here to see if you are), you may dial 908-209-1469. Once you confirm availability, you will need to set up your machine for CrossLoop.

Once you DOWNLOAD CROSSLOOP, and install it, simply launch the application.

Click the SHARE button, type your name, and make note of the access code. The code is randomly-generated each time you start CrossLoop, but you can CHANGE this code to any 8 digit number to ensure consistancy, especially if you plan to establish more than one session with us.

Once you have the code set up, drop us an e-mail from our website homepage with the access code. Or, if you are still on the phone with us, you may relay the code that way. Next, click CONNECT on your CrossLoop application and wait. It can take up to 2 minutes for us to establish a connection to you.

Assuming we have previously established contact with you, the connection should not time out. If the connection times out on your end, simply reconnect right away. You can also set up a session that is VIEW ONLY - click the mouse/keyboard icon so that a red X is displayed over it. This way, we'll be able to SEE what is on your screen, yet not CONTROL your system. Most times, you will want us to take over control, but if during the session you need to disconnect, you can certainly do so. Once disconnected, you will be asked to rate your session... please answer the short survey, and if you have any suggestions, they are appreciated at any time.

Tech Note: this service makes use of Virtual Network Computing (VNC) software, available for free under the GPL; while VNC technology is currently cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux), CrossLoop's current implementation is Windows-ONLY, requiring a Windows 2000 or better operating system to work. We'll keep you posted on updates to this technology if and when Crossloop becomes truly multi-platform.

If you have any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

Redundant Server Enhancements

2008-01-22T13:42:00.001-05:00

As you know we employ a mirror server system for all of our websites; if one goes down, the other starts accepting requests. Previously, it would have taken anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes for our DNS servers to "fail over" from the main site to the backup, but this change should now be nearly instant.

Mail services are still handled differently - if the mail server goes down, incoming mail is queued off-site, and the webmail interface is not accessible. I am looking to add additional redundancy to our mail services in the coming months, but it will always be about saving data (mailboxes) and providing consistant delivery, even if you cannot always access your mailbox.

As always, if you have any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Downtime / IP Address Change

2008-01-17T23:32:00.001-05:00

On Thursday, January 17, between the hours of 8PM Eastern and 11PM Eastern some services were unavailable and our websites were automatically redirected to our mirror server due to an unplanned change in our external network; all systems and services are working normally now, on a new IP address, with an added "fresh boost" of performance. Any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us directly.

Unexpected Downtime

2007-12-02T19:53:00.001-05:00

Router issues are affecting our main webserver. If these problems continue I will redirect sites to our mirror server on Monday, December 3, 2007. Otherwise, I will simply monitor network status for the next few days and make sure these issues do not come up again.

Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail us.

Reboot for Main Webserver, Midnight, November 19

2007-11-18T15:30:00.001-05:00

After running for over 89 days straight, a reboot is scheduled for our main webserver to clear some memory and refresh settings.

Downtime will be limited to a maximum of 10 minutes.

Update on Current and Future Services

2007-11-14T12:25:00.001-05:00

2007 has proven to be very successful for us, and we thank our many clients and other patrons who have helped us along. We are aiming to move full speed ahead in 2008, and with that I would like to mention some changes which will take place in late December and early January.

· First, let me mention that there will be a short downtime for some of our services on the evening of Friday, November 17 (from 10:00PM Eastern to Midnight). RAVMAS (webmail-to-POP3 service) will be unavailable. Websites will be unaffected during this time.

· On or around the evening of Friday, December 28, 2007, all websites will transition to our mirror server for an undetermined period of time, while we upgrade to new server hardware. While we have always run our websites on dual-CPU hardware, our new server will be of the "dual-core" CPU variety, at double the speed of our existing server. Disk arrays will also be upgraded. This process should not take too long (with some of the planning and processing taking place during the November 17^th downtime phase), but they may be intermittent access problems with certain websites while our "name servers" rebuild.

· We are still planning to convert our mix-of-the-month service over to a flash-based audio player, but have run into some technical problems out of our control. For this service we rely on third-party servers, and they have not always been up to the task when it came to uploading new content or managing existing content. So, while it may look as though the Mix of the Month is dead, it is not it is very much alive, and the current "Real Audio" versions of the mixes will remain until confidence is high enough to do the conversions. We are hoping the New Year brings about new reliability for our current stream host "MediaMax", and also hope to utilize the new DivShare file hosting service to allow our listeners to enjoy our music mixes.

· Our service fees will increase from $30.00 / hour to $35.00 / hour for onsite work. Those web host customers under our original yearly payment plan will now pay $30.00 / year for domain renewal, or $35.00 / year if paying via our Paypal account.

· Contact information will NOT change. If you have any questions about this post or anything else concerning our business, please respond to this post directly, or e-mail us.

Server Reboot

2007-08-22T08:41:00.001-04:00

A reboot of our main webserver was required at around 8AM Eastern, due to a Windows configuration change; downtime was limited to under 10 minutes. Any questions or comments, please respond to this post or e-mail us. Thanks!

Scheduled Network Upgrades, July 12 and 13

2007-07-03T10:34:00.000-04:00

Starting Midnight, July 12th, until 6PM, July 13th, our websites will be running from our secondary server facility. Some backend database functionality, as well as Exchange and RAVMAS services will be unavailable during this time, although this downtime will be intermittent while network upgrades take place. These upgrades will provide more bandwidth and more reliable services for all of our clients.

If you have any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

Webmail Services Downtime Update

2007-06-25T11:36:00.001-04:00

On the evening of Saturday, June 23rd our webmail server was cut off from our network due to a cable problem. When the webmail server goes down, incoming mail is still queued, but customers cannot log in to the webmail interface or IMAP. The server is now operational again, and I am now re-delivering any queued mail.

Any questions or comments, respond to this post, or e-mail us.

Power issues

2007-06-19T11:51:00.001-04:00

At around 10:20AM June 19, we experienced a power failure. Since I am away from the main server facility, I manually redirected the majority of our sites and services to our secondary server facility. Some mail-related services are down (Exchange and RAMAS), but basic webmail is still up. I hope to have everything running from our main facility by 3:00PM today.

Any questions, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

Short Downtime

2007-05-31T13:03:00.001-04:00

For about 1 hour today, between 11:59AM EST and 1:00PM EST, some web sites were inaccessible. We have restarted our web service control and things are running normally now. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Any questions or problems, please respond to this post or e-mail us.

Mix on Demand - in a Flash!

2007-05-29T12:50:00.001-04:00

Coming Soon!

In keeping up with the Web 2.0 trends for play-anywhere music, we are looking to convert our Mix On Demand services to a platform which utilizes an embedded Adobe Flash-based player. Our Myspace page utilizes such a player, but the new one promises to be more robust.

As you probably realize from existing services like YouTube, the Flash player allows for high quality content over any connection, and eliminates the need for external software such as RealPlayer or RealAlternative. Our mixes remain our exclusive property, and as such will not be able to be linked or embedded on any of the social networks at will. (We are considering taking "requests" to make certain mixes available for services like MySpace). We are still working out the logistics, and as we perform the conversion, our mixes may not be readily available. However, keep watching - and listening - and we'll keep you updated on our progress. We hope to have everything converted by the Fall of 2007.

Scheduled Downtime, May 26

2007-05-25T11:02:00.001-04:00

RAVMAS will be down on Saturday, during the hours of 11PM - Midnight EDT while we perform some server updates. Web services should not be affected, but will be directed to our mirror server if problems arise.

Any questions or comments, respond here or e-mail us.

Services Update

2007-04-17T09:06:00.001-04:00

During the week of April 8, our servers went through some maintenance procedures including database cleanup, HTML optimization, and search engine (re)submission for all of our web customers. In addition, websites were working from our mirror / backup machines on Sunday, April 15 due to a video card failure in our main server - no data was or has been lost, and all sites are operating from our main server at this time.

Webmail services continued to operate non-stop through this period. RAVMAS services were updated to support additional domains and features, and was unavailable for a short time during the late evening of April 13th.

Sorry for the "after-the-fact" notice, but we thank you for your understanding. Another period of downtime is planned for the end of May (most likely Friday, May 25th, Midnight EDT) which will affect RAVMAS access. If our web server needs to be updated, sites will be re-directed to our mirror server ahead of time.

Any questions or comments, please respond to this post, or e-mail us.

Reboot for Main Webserver, Midnight, April 2

2007-04-01T20:41:00.001-04:00

After running for over 89 days straight, a reboot is scheduled for our
main webserver to clear some memory and refresh settings.

Downtime will be limited to a maximum of 10 minutes.

OT: A Morphable Model of 3D Faces

2007-03-21T14:27:00.001-04:00

from Wired News:
Volker Blanz and Thomas Vetter of the MPI for Biological Cybernetics in Germany have come up with a morphable model for three-dimensional faces. What their system does is build a single master face out of a series of two hundred source faces, differentiated from one another by a vast spectrum of different features. This master face can then be easily morphed into any combination of features, allowing it to easily transform into any possible face (barring disfigurement).

Webmail down "on purpose" - RAVRAS Discontinued

2007-03-20T11:29:00.001-04:00

IMPORTANT ANNOUCEMENT:

At approximately 9:30 AM Eastern today, our webmail server was taken offline. It will remain this way until later on tonight, most likely around 8:00PM. Because of our backup systems, NO e-mail has been lost. The shutting down of the mail system was done because the mail server also handles backup website and remote application duties (RAVRAS), and up to this point this applications service was being well-utilized. However, due to recent problems and security issues arising from MISuse of the service, I have decided to discontinue the RAVRAS service.

Apologies for the inconvenience. No plans are being made for future reinstatement of the applications services. From this point, our backup server will handle e-mail and web requests ONLY. Anyone looking for "office-like" online application access should consider the services provided by Ajax13, at www.ajax13.com or through Thinkfree Office Online, at www.thinkfree.com. In addition, Google also has online applications available.

Thank you for your understanding, and hang in there as we revamp our server once more to handle e-mail more efficiently. If you have any questions or concerns, please respond to this post or e-mail us directly.

Downtime due to DST?

2007-03-11T12:09:00.001-04:00

For some unknown reason, both of our webservers were down overnight - for those of you in the Eastern Time Zone, it may have not mattered, as you were sleeping, and your websites would have been cached by other servers (folks on AOL, for example, tend to see two-day-old versions of websites). However, I have added another tweak to our main AND backup servers which will check the server process every 12 hours, and restart if necessary.

No actual content or application errors have come up due to the newly-imposed Daylight Savings Time adjustments. See previous posts concerning these updates, and visit our main page for relevent links. Any questions or comments, respond to this post, or e-mail us.

Webmail down 8AM Eastern -- IP address changes

2007-03-09T08:16:00.001-05:00

Seems our ISP, Comcast, has been playing "IP address of the day" and is cycling through various dynamic IP addresses, which makes it hard for our webmail services to remain online. However, due to backup systems in place, no e-mail has been lost, and is being queued. I will force delivery of any queued mail around 4:00PM Eastern after firmware-updating our secondary router, as I did with the primary last week. Any questions, respond to this post or e-mail.

10-minute downtime, Feb. 26th

2007-02-26T21:10:00.000-05:00

Web and Ravmas services were down for a few minutes this evening, while some networking updates took place; this also allowed us to upgrade our mirror server software to a more "industrial" version. Another short period of downtime is due for Friday, March 2, starting at 11:59 PM Eastern for a primary router firmware upgrade.

Any questions, respond or e-mail.