Server Up Time ~ 2358.ca provides hosting details for 235.ca Brian Ripley web hosting, web design, domain registration

Web and email server up time is important to all of us. You as an individual client and me with multiple clients all depend on the server(s) operating so that we can access our websites and email.

Web servers are prone to hardware, software and human error. The human error is borne out of the idea that one can solve problems as they occur without being overwhelmed. That is not my experience nor is it the experience of server administrators worldwide. Servers go off line either by a deliberate act of the admin to solve a problem that cannot be done while the server is on line or from the result of hardware/software failure or compromise. The latter continues to be an increasing pre-occupation of admins on every continent.

I am not a server admin. Since 2000 I have been leasing space from companies who supply the administration. I am currently on my 4th provider (since July 2007) and am extremely satisfied with their approach to management of their server and client assets. The three prior suppliers fell victim to overwhelming time management and hardware/software problems which is the reality and nature of the business of operating servers exposed to the internet and third party software and equipment.

My current provider always responds to any support ticket that I open and a response usually occurs within the hour, quite often in minutes. They employ multiple admins and are on duty 24/7/365.

I also subscribe to their server admin newsletter which logs all the problems on all their servers under management. A day does not go by without incident, but most incidents are invisible to us users of email and websites because solutions are handled without taking the problem server off line. There are occasions when servers must be rebooted or taken offline often because of third party attacks, malicious malware or security vulnerabilities. It is never "if" a breach of security will be made, it is "when".

For a daily, monthly and quarterly up time report of the server we are hosted on, see http://www.websitepulse.com/publish/s0e0i8q7x.html

See also the July 2009 report on the state of our facilities.

For diary of rational editorials and other features to do with the plague of server attacks and antidotes, see Internet Storm Center Diary Archive: http://isc.sans.org/diaryarchive.html

From their About Us page: http://isc.sans.org/about.html
"...Today the Internet Storm Center gathers millions of intrusion detection log entries every day, from sensors covering over 500,000 IP addresses in over 50 countries. It is rapidly expanding in a quest to do a better job of finding new storms faster, identifying the sites that are used for attacks, and providing authoritative data on the types of attacks that are being mounted against computers in various industries and regions around the globe. The Internet Storm Center is a free service to the Internet community. The work is supported by the SANS Institute from tuition paid by students attending SANS security education programs. Volunteer incident handlers donate their valuable time to analyze detects and anomalies, and post a daily diary of their analysis and thoughts on the Storm Center web site..."