Olm Blog!

Spam Filtering

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:23:55 +0000

OLM recently launched a new cloud based spam filtering service called Inbox Sentry. It uses a cluster of high end servers to process even the most excessive levels of inbound spam. It makes e-mail a more pleasant experience, and saves valuable resources on your hosting server. For some clients, this is a cost effective alternative to expensive hardware or account upgrades.

We now have hundreds of clients actively using this service, with lots of positive feedback. Why not try it for your domain? With the FREE TRIAL there is nothing to lose. Click here to learn more!

13 hour power outage Saturday night -And all was well…

admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:31:01 +0000

There was a 13 hour power outage Saturday night and not a single server down. This is the type of thing that goes on behind the scenes that many customers don’t see or hear about.

Saturday night we had a pretty wicked storm that blew through Connecticut knocking out street power to our Stratford data center for 13 hours -and not a single server went down.

We went through about 260 gallons of diesel fuel but we had plenty left for another couple days if it was needed.

The last couple years OLM stepped back and completely overhauled our network and redundancy so it feels good knowing all the hard word and money paid off knowing all our customer’s websites were up and running despite what mother-nature sent our way.

PCI Compliance

admin — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:18:17 +0000

There has been a lot of talk recently about PCI compliance. Ask 10 people the same question about PCI and you’ll get 11 different answers. OLM has thousands of small business customers selling everything under the sun online and margins are stretched thin. And in this economy, the last thing a small business owner wants to hear is that they have to spend more money on something that “technically” gives them nothing in return.

There is a great thread going on over a WHT for anyone interested in the topic of PCI compliance. Click Here to read it.

And this post here pretty much sums up what we have to tell many customers who are expecting full PCI compliance on a shared hosting account or $99 server.

“Originally Posted by JohnCrowley
Can’t wait to tell all of our smaller merchants that they need 4 dedicated appliances at a minimum to sell their candles online that bring in less than what it will cost to sell online now”

The standards for most small merchants are the self assessment questionnaire, and above that it gets very complicated and expensive.

But of course there are many things you should be doing as a normal course of online business to mitigate security risks such as:

—Keep everything (shopping cart, OS, any-virus, etc.) updated with latest patches.

—Don’t store CC, or any customer data online.

—Use up to date anti-virus on everything.

—Use a secure payment gateway.

—Use SSL for any data transmitted online.

—Use effective passwords (fido123 is not effective, #3re$0opS@ is).

—Back up everything, twice.

—Watch logs for suspicious behavior.

And these things are not just for your hosting plan or server, these precautions should be taken at home too. Right now, can someone break into your house or office and steal a computer with thousands of customer credit card numbers?

Maybe I’m off-base with my thoughts on PCI compliance… let me know what you think.

New “Off-Site” Dedicated Server Backups at OLM

admin — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:13:07 +0000

Pretty much every dedicated server in our network has a backup drive, they are critical in ensuring your data is recoverable in the event of a hardware failure. And sooner or later it’s gonna happen so you need to be prepared.

Hardware failure is one of the reasons while Google’s infrastructure relies on hundreds of thousands of smaller servers rather than fewer large ones.

On that note, you do have copies of all your irreplaceable family photos that are on your PC, don’t you???

Well we just came out with a new and very cost effective way of backing up dedicated server data with USB thumb drives. Nothing is more secure than having the data that is on your dedicated server safe and sound in your own hands. We can send the USB drive right to your door, or you can have the leave solid-state drive attached to the server in case of primary disk drive failure. We can also rotate, two, so you are never without one.

USB Dedicated Server Backup Drives

Lot’s of options and you can check it out HERE.

And after you check it out, go buy yourself small inexpensive storage drive and back up those photos on your PC. Imagine losing years of photos and personal documents because of a $20 disc drive? Don’t let it happen.

New Transfer Switch …and just in time!

admin — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:03:43 +0000

Our automatic transfer switches and generators get tested once a week automatcially (imagine that). But this week one of the transfer switches in our Stratford Data Center failed to cooperate. Unfortunately no amount of pleading and prodding would get it to work so we called in the professionals. They determined that the switch was “bad”. We hoped that the $$$ box of metal would have a better prognosis, but no such luck - it’s getting replaced Friday morning. Everyone who will be affected should have gotten an email with more details.

And the switch replacement came just in time because THIS HERE is headed our way!

OLM Behind the Scenes - Part 2

admin — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:35:32 +0000

OK, finally part 2 of OLM’s behind the scenes. We’ve been very busy installing a monster Liebert HVAC unit, and some custom made switching equipment for a new 2400 AMP power service. Let’s see what it all looks like:

Lots of sheet metal for the new HVAC ducting…

Fans for our new MONSTER Liebert HVAC unit!

Networking equipment for our Lightpath fiber…

One row of many many many rows of server towers…

The new Liebert HVAC unit with the cover off…

The Power Company’s “Crane Truck”…

APC fan units…

Custom made 2400 AMP switch-gear. Lot’s of questionable language trying to fit that through the door…

Servers, servers, servers…

Servers, servers, servers, and more servers…

One of our Kohler generators. 1000 gallon gas tank, and diesel fuel is how much now?

Decommissioned…

OLM G4 Tech TV Commercials

admin — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:19:14 +0000

A couple years ago OLM ran a series of commercials on Tech TV, or what is now known as G4 TV. When they changed the name to G4 the programming, focus, and target audience also changed and now geared more toward gaming.

The other day we received a call from a guy who was an actor in one of the commercials requesting we send him a copy for his resume. A little strange as it’s about 3 or 4 years since that one aired, but we had it, and was happy to oblige and sent him a copy.

So if anyone is interested in a little “blast from the past”, here are a few of the commercials OLM ran on G4. Maybe in the future we’ll run some on prime time!

“OLM True Tails”

“OLM Great Host”

“OLM In the Garage”

Dedicated Server RAM Special (ENDS July 20th, 2008)

admin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:04:11 +0000

Our last inventory check was being completed the other day and it came to my attention that we have a LOT of extra RAM and disk drives in stock. So many in fact that a very large storage room was being utilized just for RAM and disk drives. And this was above and beyond what we stock for spare parts for customer servers! This here is is just one of many shelves dedicated to just RAM…

All this extra RAM would be much better utilized inside my office computer your dedicated server where it can live up to its intended potential. So up until July 20th, 2008 we’re offering a 1GB standard RAM upgrade for a one time $75 fee and 1GB ECC RAM for a one time $125 fee. No setup fees, no monthly fees, just 75 or 125 bucks. If you’re interested, just drop sales an email at sales@olm.net with subject “RAM Special” and they will hook you up with the deal.

OLM Behind the Scenes - Part 1

admin — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:40:54 +0000

I always thought it was interesting to see what makes a Company work, and what it looks like behind the scenes. So if you are interested in what makes OLM tick, check out below for Part 1 of our behind the scenes series.

It’s quite possible we have enough network cable to reach the Mars Rover and back again:

We keep hundreds of different types of System Boards in stock. Besides new inventory, every single server in our network has a compatible System Board ready for action in case of a failure:

More RAM, and a plethora of spare Cisco networking gear. Amazing that each one of these Cisco boxes holds a small device more expensive than the average luxury car:

More System Boards, power supplies, and a few spare servers:

This photo does not do disk drives justice. In part 2 of “Behind the Scenes” I’m going to shoot a few more photos of the massive amount of disk drives we have in stock. We may possibly have into the thousands of them:

If you ever have a failed power cord, stop on by OLM’s warehouse, we have plenty:

A disk drive “glamour shot”:

Few dedicated servers:

Stay tuned next week for “OLM Behind the Scenes” Part 2…