We are happy to inform our customers that new unique software tool is available in the Web Hosting Control Panel's Domain Manager, Subdomain Manager and File manager sections as of today. The new tool is named Elefante Toolbar and has fully automated functionality allowing one-click installation of any chosen PHP script from the Elefante Installer package (nearly 40 scripts currently available).

And that's not even slightly exaggerated. Using the new tool, customers need only choose a desired script, pick a host location to install the script and simply hit the 'Install' button! Now that's exceptionally easy, isn't it?

This handy functionality is for everyone who desire quick and easy installation of their scripts, without any complicated additional configurations, such as choosing a database, path, password, username, etc. The Elefante Toolbar generates all this information itself and installs the script in the main directory of the chosen host. For customers who wish, however, to specify all these configuration settings themselves, the Elefante Toolbar provides a quick shortcut - Advanced Installation link - to the main interface of the Elefante Installer control panel section where all parameters can be "hand" filled in.

One important issue needing your attention is that, if you try to install a chosen script in a folder where there already exists a currently installed script, the Elefante Toolbar will give you two opportunities to choose from - 'Overwrite' of the currently installed in the folder script, or 'Advanced' installation. The 'Overwrite' option will install your chosen script in the folder, but will overwrite all existing files with duplicate names. The 'Advanced' installation option will allow you to specify a different folder path for the script installation, while most of the other settings will remain automatically filled in.

With compliments, from our web hosting team

The service is very easy to set up. Customers need to choose first the type of redirection: regular - Redirect Directive, or defined - RedirectMatch Directive, then select a domain or a sub domain hosted with us from the dropdown available and enter the correct directory path (URL) of the web folder that is to be redirected. Very important part of the service is choosing a HTTP Status code - more information about the different codes follows below and is also included in the 'Help' section. After the customer has selected the desired URL path to be redirected and its HTTP status code, he/or she needs to type in the URL which the web folder will be redirected to and submit the form. If the customer has chosen to use the 'RedirectMatch' service, he/or she will need to fill in one more field - 'Regular Expression'. This is exactly the place where the customer will have to define the specific conditions that must be matched for the redirection to be performed - the so called 'regular expressions'. For example, the customer can specify that only files with .gif extension from the selected URL (web folder) should be redirected to the new URL. More details on how to enter the specifications can be found in the attached tooltip.

Dear customers,

We are happy to inform you that our site building tool - SiteStudio, coming as a free extra with all our web hosting packages, will be updated to its latest version - SiteStudio 1.8, on all our servers in the next two days. We've been receiving increasing requests about the new version from a number of customers using this website design software and impatient to see its latest release. We hope that with this new update we'll please all of them awaiting the new version of the tool and all of those toying with the idea of building a website using SiteStudio.

Here is some more comprehensive information about the features characteristic of the newly updated tool:

• Simple to use: No web design or programming skills required and no need to hassle around with programs such as FTP or Telnet.
• Content Stored Separately from Layout: Very flexible function! Customers can completely change the appearance of their websites without having to retype any information.
• Complete control over color schemes: A number of ready-to-use color themes available. Also, for full customization - users can change all colors up to their preference using a point-and-click color picker or typing in the color as a hex number.
• Layout templates: SiteStudio presently includes 21 personal website templates and 69 Small Business website templates.
• On-the-fly image generation: Professional-looking graphics! Each time a user decides to change some color combination, the necessary image is automatically created. No need to bother any more with complicated programs, such as Photoshop.
• Image Upload: With the Image Uploader included, customers can upload images from their online account without ever having to leave their browsers. They can create online photo albums, insert images into the page logo, or incorporate images anywhere in the page content or layout.
• Different pages: In an easy step-by-step process customers can create many different template-driven pages.
• One-click Publish Button: Customers can publish now their websites with one easy mouse-click! Later on, after making any updates to the website, one easy click on the 'Publish' button will make all their changes go live again.
• Information Saving: The user's information is saved the moment it is entered. A user can log out, then come back later on to continue his/her work on the website and start from the point where he/she left last time.
• Flexible setup: SiteStudio can be easily configured to operate with the customer's existing software programs. It can be also easily set up to utilize user information from the customer's current user base.
• Advanced website control: For advanced users, SitesStudio provides an option for changing buttons on the website.
• Advanced full screen text/HTML Rich Editor: Windows users only - rich browser-based text editor for Internet Explorer. Users can work with formatting, styles, tables, bullets and more, and/or copy and paste the most complex tables from a web browser or from any Office application.
• Easy integration of online shopping carts: Personal websites - users can create an Amazon.com web store. Online businesses - users can integrate a shopping Add-A-Cart system that includes everything - from secure payment gateway to merchant account issued by One-Stop Merchant Services.
• SiteStudio Administration: SiteStudio comes with its own administration control panel.

All existing customers, using the SiteStudio software, will be able to switch to the new version, using any of the 80 new templates included in this latest release. All their settings will remain valid. The log-in system however has been changed. From now on, customers will need to log in from the SiteStudio section in their Web Hosting Control Panel.

With Best Regards,
From our company

Dear customers,

We are happy to inform you that the Elefante Installer software package, available in your web hosting control panels, now features the latest stable releases of the following PHP open-source scripts:

We hope that they will provide better opportunities for your websites, as regards your contents management and incorporation of interactive functionalities, such as: galleries, photo albums, blogs, forums, e-commerce solutions, and more.

Our team is currently working also on the integration of few more popular PHP scripts in the Elefante Installer package coming in the near future. Also under development is the incorporation of the package in the Domain Manager and the File Manager of your web hosting control panels, which will provide new possibilities for script administration and easy installation into your web hosting accounts.

Accept our best regards, we'll be back with more positive news soon!

We are happy to inform all our customers that the File Manager software tool available in your Web Hosting Control Panels has been generally updated. The new version 2.01 contains more features and improved functionality. Since the very launch of the File Manager version 2.0, we've been carefully reading the feedback and comments you've been sending us, and since it is our own in-house developed product, we again put all our efforts to respond to all your requirements and suggestions.

The new update includes the following functionalities:

1. On the tooltips that you can open clicking on a file name/or a folder type icon, the 'Download option is featuring separately. (So far it was offered together with the 'Open' one - Open/Download).

2. 'Download' action is available for selection also from the up and down Actions toolbars. The new buttons enable you to select multiple files for download. The chosen items are automatically generated in a .ZIP archive and downloaded to your PC.

3. Folders are also possible for download. The feature will be working on the same principle as the multiple files download.

4. Archive/ZIP option is also available for folders from now on. It creates a .ZIP file from a chosen directory, and saves the archive on the server.

5. Each file/folder information field is featuring a new type icon now. It gives access to the permissions set for each directory location, and allows changes to be made by simply clicking on it.

6. 'Enter Custom Path' - this new field allows users to enter the name of a directory that they wish to open. This option is especially useful for often visited host destinations, the name of which you know well. It saves you the time-consuming process of browsing through files and folders along to the desired directory path.

7. 'Quick Links Path' - if the name of the current directory is not fully displayed in this field, you need to only mouse over the name and a tooltip will appear showing the full directory path of the current host location.

8. This function will be also available for the file/folder names not fully displayed in the information fields of the File Listing Panel -mousing over a file/folder you can view in the tooltip appearing its full name.

9. Another new option has been added to the File Listing Panel's functionality, giving you the possibility to view your files listed by Name and Size. NOTE: By Name can be sorted all files and directories, while the Size option will be available only for the files list.

10. Most substantially upgraded is the Plain text editor of the File Manager. Many fixes have been performed to be improved its functioning. Few new features have been added, as well:

• 'Go to line' field - this is a new input field where users can enter a number of a line and then, by pressing the 'Enter' key, move directly to the desired line in the document. This option is especially useful in cases when you need to edit something in a particular line, e.g. "syntax/fatal error on line 54".
• The Save and Close functions have been slightly altered, as well. Up until now, there was one button - 'Save', that was performing the whole action of saving the last changes and closing the window. With this update, a new button was added - 'Apply Changes', which will perform only the saving/applying the last changes function, while another one - 'Save And Close', will be confirming the saving process and closing the window.
• Saving with Ctrl+S key combination is also possible in the new File Manager version.
• Support for syntax check of the PHP code has been added, as well.

We are really looking forward to hear your comments and suggestions. We hope that the new 2.01 File Manager version will meet your expectations and facilitate your account administration and file management through our Web Hosting Control Panel.

With compliments, from our web hosting company

New updated Domain Manager has been released and is already available to all our clients in their Web Hosting Control Panels.

The part that has been substantially updated is the display field of the domains' status. Unlike the previous version of the Domain Manager, this section now contains up-to-date information about the current status of each domain name, as well as extended administration options. Four new types of domain name status have been added and will be displayed with an according type icon if a particular domain name has fallen into one of those groups. The type icons will be opening a tooltip with more detailed explanation about the particular status. From the Expiration/Renewal column of your Domain Manager you can open another tooltip providing option for according domain action.

New domain statuses overview:

Redemption period - a period of up to 30 days after a domain name's expiration. During this period the domain name owner can retrieve the domain name from deletion and renew it against a small redemption fee. Automatic renewal option will be displayed in the Domain Manager in such cases, while the amount of the redemption fee will be added to the renewal price of the domain name. If you open a tooltip from the Expiration/Renewal column of a domain name in RGP (Redemption Registration Period), you will be given the opportunity to retrieve the domain name and renew it.

Extended redemption period - a period of another 7 - 30 days when the domain name can be retrieved from deletion and renewed. The renewal however cannot be automatic in this period and the domain name owner should contact our supports team with renewal request. Open support ticket option will be displayed in the domain tooltip opened from the Expiration/Renewal column of the Domain Manager.

Pending delete period - this is rather informative than requiring any action, since during this period the domain name can be neither retrieved, nor renewed. It only shows that the domain has been blocked by its Registry and will be returned in 3 - 5 days back into the public pool of domain names.

Released from registry - this status shows that the domain name is now publicly available for registration. An option will be provided in the respective Expiration/Renewal Domain Manager field with registration of the domain name preserving its old WHOIS information. Also, in the case that the domain name has been already taken, an option with new domain name registration will be available.

We hope that the new update will please all our web hosting customers and will further facilitate the administration of their accounts.

Dear clients, we have the pleasure to inform you that, short after the official launch of our new File Manager, its first substantial update was performed:

• Our new in-house developed software is showing now excellent performance when run under Internet Explorer v.7.0. You shouldn't encounter any further problems, using this web browser to upload your web hosting files.
• A new option has been added, as well. You can open now each folder of yours in a separate window/tab. Isn't this much more convenient?
• Some bugs came up after the File Manager launch in the different languages' encodings (incl. Russian). We can assure you now that they have been all fixed.
• You can edit many more different file types now, and the range of file extensions allowing editing of the files will be further enhanced! Choose also between the options for editing with a plain and with a WYSIWYG editor - both are available now for each of the editable files.

We hope that you will find our new software tool much more user-friendly and convenient to work with. Should you have any inquiries or recommendations, do not hesitate to contact our Support. We are always gratefully considering your feedback, to help us further improve our web hosting system and your Web Hosting Control Panel.

Dear clients, our Software Developers Department is happy to announce that the development of the new File Manager, we recently informed you about, is completed and the new software was launched online today!

This advanced File Manager version was developed by our professionals to suit the utmost requirements for ease, convenience and high-tech features within user-friendly interface. Key basis for its creation was the need for better navigation, time-savier and visualization tools.

Features and functionalities include:


1. Create New File/Folder - In this field you can create new empty files and folders. You can choose either option by selecting the corresponding radio button.
2. Disk Usage - This field provides for you up-to-date graphic and numerical information of how much disk space you have utilized and how much remains free.
3. Quick Links Path - In the previous File Manager version, the history path name, displayed above the panel with your listed files, was static. Here, it is replaced by a dynamic 'quick links' path name, providing for you easy access to each sub-level of your current directory. The 'Quick Links Path' field actually displays the name of the current directory, you have selected by browsing through the folders in the File Listing Panel, in the form of dynamic history path name links.
4. Quick Host Shortcuts - This dropdown enables you to directly select a host from a list containing all your hosted domains and sub domains.

   

   
   
5. File Listing Panel

   5.1. Check boxes - By means of check boxes, in the first column of the File Manager's File Listing Panel, you can select multiple files/folders in order to perform certain actions (Copy, Delete, etc.).
   

   5.2. Type Icons - By means of type icons, this column gives you easy orientation and quick information about the type (folder/file - text, image, archive etc.) of the document related to the icon.
   

   5.3. File/Folder names - Our new File Manager introduces a new approach to the management of your files and folders in the form of intelligent tooltips, providing you with an easy access to all actions that can be performed per selected file/folder.
   

   • File tooltip - is activated upon left-click of the mouse on the name of the file. Opens an Info panel containing details about the file's name, type and size, and two dropdowns. The Permissions dropdown allows you to reset the permissions for the selected file. The Actions dropdown lists all actions (Edit, Copy, Delete, Open in web, View image, Open in WYSIWYG Editor, etc.) that can be performed per selected file.
     
     
   • Folder Tooltip - is activated upon left-click of the mouse on the type icon of the folder and opens an Info panel containing details about the name of the folder, and two dropdowns. The Permissions dropdown allows you to reset the permissions for the selected folder. The Actions dropdown lists all actions (edit, copy, delete, download folder as Zip archive, etc.) that can be performed per selected folder. * Note that, if you click on the name of the folder, instead of the folder type icon, the folder file content will be listed.

   5.4. Actions icons - next to the file/folder names are displayed all action icons available per file/folder - for quick selection of a desired action to be performed for the corresponding file/folder. Each button opens a smart tooltip, showing details for the action that is to be performed.
   

   5.5. File Size - presents information on the size of each file.

   5.6. Permissions - presents information on the current permissions set for each file/folder.

   5.7. Last Accessed/Last Changed dropdown menu - allows you to switch between both options - 'Last Accessed' and 'Last Changed', upon your desire or need to view the corresponding class of information displayed in the last column of the File Manager's File Listing Panel.

   

   
   
6. Actions Toolbar
   

   The actions toolbar contains a convenient set of tools for multiple files/folders editing. You can select a number of files/folders and press any of the buttons available - Move, Copy, Delete, Change Permissions, to perform the according action. If you use the option 'Select All' files/folders, the changes you make will take effect in all files/folders in the current directory.
   

   With the newly added 'Reload' button you can reload the File Manager's File Listing Panel without the need to refresh the whole web page.

   

   
   
7. File Upload Field

   With the new File Manager you can upload an unlimited number of files, without exceeding, however, a total size of 20 MB at once. For your convenience, the file upload boxes have been organized now to appear in an intelligent cohesive order - right after you have filled in a box, the next one will show up.
   

   The new file upload functionality also supports an option to upload .ZIP, .RAR, .TAR.GZ and .GZ archives with automatic unpack of the files/folders in the current directory. In order to upload archived files/folders, you have to browse and select a desired archive, then check the box that will appear - 'Unpack archive after upload'.
   

   

   
   

   Our new File Manager comes as a high response to the needs and expectations of our users for better, easier and quicker navigation between all hosted domains, files and folders. We sincerely hope that our new release will meet the highest demands of our clients and set a new model in the web hosting Control Panel management. Take advantage, as of today, from our latest in-house developed software, and enjoy all benefits that the functionality of the new File Manager provides!

Dear clients,

It us our pleasure to inform you that, as of today, support of PHP v6 is available on all servers in our web hosting network.

This is a brand new version of PHP that still needs to be stabilized online. Therefore, the version is still recommended utterly for test purposes and experimental use. We are introducing the new version in our system earlier in advance, as there are already lots of users interested in developing and maintaining dynamic web sites through PHP v6 enabled software. We would like to advice you, however, to restrain from relying fully only on this version until PHP v6 is officially confirmed as a stable release.

Considering the global software world's trend of moving towards language and cultural sensitivity, the most outstanding feature in PHP v6 - the Unicode support - comes as a timely response! For all of you interested in implementing the new PHP support, please, switch to the new version from the 'PHP settings' section in your Web Hosting Control Panel, or simply by running your files with the extension of ".php6".

With compliments, from our company

We'd like to urgently present to your attention more information about the latest email service disturbance, the server your account is hosted on was suffering last night, in the period between 19:40 GMT+2 - 6:00 GMT+2, and give you correct explanation of the situation.

The e-mail functionality interruption was caused by a series of continual mail server requests, that is great amount of faulty mail server requests at a time, leading to very high load volumes and inbound/outbound service disruption.

With our administrators' timely intervention, the problem was quickly diagnosed and corrective measures were immediately taken. During the time-consuming resolutioning process, the temporary full discontinuation of the SMTP and the partial unavailability of the POP3/IMAP servers were inevitable. Our administrators had to manually block flooding IP addresses in order to make sure that no legitimate requests are denied access to our mail servers. It might have been much more time-saving to use the automated ways of access-blocking, however that would have surely led to the blocking of entire networks with IP addresses not connected in any way with the problem. After the flooding was successfully deflected at 70-75%, our administrators' were able to block all connections to the server for around 3 hours to retain the low load volumes and process faster the pending mail queue. During that period the SMTP service was completely unavailable while the POP3/IMAP retained partial availability.

Thanks to the urgent measures taken, our administrators managed to retrieve all e-mails received prior to, during and after the mail server disruption, and the ones that made it to the mail queue. All of these e-mails have been successfully delivered to the corresponding mail boxes. E-mails that did not reach the mail queue were bounced back to the sender's mail server, leaving a corresponding temporary unavailability notice.

We take the full responsibility for the email functionality problem that you have been encountering during the up-mentioned period and would like to assure you that all necessary steps are now taken to be reduced the risk of such disruptions happening again and to be lowered the amount of any eventual damages.

Dear customers,

As we recently announced, our company is becoming VAT registered. We would like to inform you now that the official date of our VAT registration, previously scheduled for March 1st, has just been confirmed to be April 2nd, 2008.

The re-scheduling of the dates and the hence extended preceding period of time provide us with the enormous advantage to have opportunity to introduce the new VAT invoices earlier in advance, to take time to monitor the performance of the system and to guarantee, in result, an ultimate stability, fluency and trouble-free transition to the new VAT scheme on April 2nd.

Our Management Department has decided to introduce the new VAT type-a invoices into our system in the period between 4-6 March, 2008. The VAT field on the invoices will be featuring with a 0.00 value (in the currency you have chosen) until April 2nd, as no VAT will be charged during that time.

Should you have any questions regarding the new VAT scheme, please, refer to the Detailed VAT Overview in our news section or contact our Supports Department. Should you have any comments or recommendations regarding the new VAT invoices, please, do not hesitate to feedback us.

To the attention of all our clients! We are glad to inform you of the latest updates to our Elefante Installer scripts package that are currently in progress and will take effect within 24 hours.

Thoroughly renewed Joomla and phpBB scripts are being incorporated. To the current Joomla 1.0.12 (updated to version 1.1.15) new Joomla 1.5.1 is added. To the current phpBB 2.0.22 (updated to version 2.0.23) new phpBB 3.0.0 is added. The new versions will not replace the older ones, but both versions of each script will be available for you to choose from, according to your individual needs and requirements.

Hereby follows a list of several scripts that will be updated to support newer versions:

• Joomla 1.0.12 - version to be supported 1.1.15
• phpBB2 2.0.22 - version to be supported 2.0.23
• phpWebSite 1.1.0 - version to be supported 1.4.0
• Drupal 5.1 - version to be supported 6.0
• Wordpress 2.2.1 - version to be supported 2.3.3
• Coppermine 1.4.10 - version to be supported 1.4.16

All system failures or any other problems you might have been facing when working with PHPTickets, Maian Events, phpWebSite, b2evolution or OsCommerce are to be removed! All these scripts are expected to show highest-level performance afterwards.

The XML response error in Internet Explorer, caused by "`" or "-" symbols present, is to be fixed. The Phpformgenerator will be modified not to generate invalid forms.

We hope that the new adjustments will contribute to the fluent integration of the Elefante Installer scripts within our system and guarantee satisfactory performance of the package to our most demanding users.

All updates are to take effect in your control panels within 24 hours. Should you encounter any further problems, while working with our scripts package, please do not hesitate to immediately report them to our Support Department.

To the attention of all our clients! We are glad to inform you of the latest updates to our Elefante Installer scripts package that are currently in progress and will take effect within 24 hours.

Thoroughly renewed Joomla and phpBB scripts are being incorporated. To the current Joomla 1.0.12 (updated to version 1.1.15) new Joomla 1.5.1 is added. To the current phpBB 2.0.22 (updated to version 2.0.23) new phpBB 3.0.0 is added. The new versions will not replace the older ones, but both versions of each script will be available for you to choose from, according to your individual needs and requirements.

Hereby follows a list of several scripts that will be updated to support newer versions:

• Joomla 1.0.12 - version to be supported 1.1.15
• phpBB2 2.0.22 - version to be supported 2.0.23
• phpWebSite 1.1.0 - version to be supported 1.4.0
• Drupal 5.1 - version to be supported 6.0
• Wordpress 2.2.1 - version to be supported 2.3.3
• Coppermine 1.4.10 - version to be supported 1.4.16

All system failures or any other problems you might have been facing when working with PHPTickets, Maian Events, phpWebSite, b2evolution or OsCommerce are to be removed! All these scripts are expected to show highest-level performance afterwards.

The XML response error in Internet Explorer, caused by "`" or "-" symbols present, is to be fixed. The Phpformgenerator will be modified not to generate invalid forms.

We hope that the new adjustments will contribute to the fluent integration of the Elefante Installer scripts within our system and guarantee satisfactory performance of the package to our most demanding users.

All updates are to take effect in your control panels within 24 hours. Should you encounter any further problems, while working with our scripts package, please do not hesitate to immediately report them to our Support Department.

To the attention of all our clients! As we announced recently, after mid-February our company is becoming VAT registered! The official VAT registration, and respectively the date from which the new VAT tax will be charged, has been scheduled for 1 March 2008. However, it will be our duty to confirm the date well in advance.

We would like to present to your attention now more detailed information about the new VAT scheme that will come into force from the beginning of March. Hereby we shall explicate all clauses in our future billing and invoicing policy. And most importantly, we shall differentiate the cases that will reflect the VAT changes, and those (that is the bigger part) that will remain the same.

To bring here once again clarity upon the VAT classification groups, all clients are to be referred to as Businesses or Individuals. Thus:

1. UK VAT at 17.5% is applicable to: Businesses (no VAT/VAT registered) and Individuals from the United Kingdom; and Individuals from the European Union.
2. Clients where VAT is applicable but WILL NOT affect the service pricing (i.e. equals to NIL): Businesses from the European Union.
3. Clients outside the scope of VAT: non-EU clients (Businesses and Individuals).

IMPORTANT for clients defined as VAT applicable, according to the above clarified classification: After 1 March 2008, UK VAT at 17.5 % will be applicable to all service prices in your future money-related actions, and you will be served by new VAT Order Forms, adequate to the new VAT financial relations.

To give here visual examples of the price calculations that will be displayed in the new VAT Order Forms, a $100.00 USD value will be used in all cases to explain the purchasing of a web hosting account:

• Individual Client from the UK (in accordance with item 1 of the 'VAT Classification Groups'):
  
  Amount Due: $100.00 USD
  VAT 17.5%: $17.50 USD
  Total: $117.50 USD


• Business Client from the UK (in accordance with item 1 of the 'VAT Classification Groups'):
  
  Amount Due: $100.00 USD
  VAT 17.5%: $17.50 USD
  Total: $117.50 USD


• Individual Client from an EU country, but not from the UK (in accordance with item 1 of the 'VAT Classification Groups'):
  
  Amount Due: $100.00 USD
  VAT 17.5%: $17.50 USD
  Total: $117.50 USD


• Business Client from an EU country, but not from the UK (in accordance with item 2 of the 'VAT Classification Groups'):
  
  Amount Due: $100.00 USD
  VAT 17.5%: $0.00 USD
  Total: $100.00 USD

IMPORTANT for all clients remaining outside the scope of VAT, according to the above clarified classification: Service prices will remain VAT unaffected and you will continue to be served by Regular non-VAT Order Forms.

Upon each purchase all clients will continue to receive a type-a invoice. The new type-a invoices will reflect the VAT changes when the client is VAT applicable.

As we have already prepared for launching all VAT system updates in terms of billing (pricing, order forms) and invoicing, our Technical Department has decided to activate some of them ONLINE earlier in advance, so as to have plenty of time to collect your feedback and to monitor the operating of the system. For that purpose, AS OF TODAY, in all Order Forms the VAT price field will be featuring with $0.00 value, simply informatively, as no VAT is to be charged until 1 March 2008.

As you hopefully see, we tried to adapt our system to the new VAT clauses with a minimum of new introductions and updates. We will do our best to make the VAT integration process fluent and easy for all parties. Please, follow our news section for up-to-date information and should you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us.

For us, 2007 was an intensive year, fulfilled with new entries, brilliant ideas and fruitful collaboration between you and us. Throughout these 12 months of hard work we were completely devoted in our efforts to keep higher and competitive the level of our web hosting system, and to provide better and more interesting opportunities for you - our clients. Eyeing back on the year, we are happy to acknowledge that all our efforts had been worth making, in terms of numerous innovations implemented, as well as upgrades performed. Big part of those were inspired by the valuable feedback you were sending us, together with your highly appreciated recommendations. Let's preserve this rate of supportive work and collaboration also throughout the new year and cast an eye back now at some of our most important 2007 events.

Most radically reformed was the Domain Manager. It now provides opportunity for full control of your hosted domains through centralized management of all features (multi-year registration and renewal, transfer, hosting, DNS, parking, Lock/Unlock, WHOIS, ID Protection, EPP).

The recently updated Custom DNS Records section also supports now extended functionality. You are able to set CNAME, AAAA and TXT records, as well as additional NS, MX and A records.

Substantially renewed is the Upgrade section of the WHCP (Web Hosting Control Panel). The Add Services range of features has been enhanced. The interface of the Upgrade Plan and Renew Plan functionality fields is now much friendlier.

A new section was introduced - Set up New Account, enabling you, upon need, to immediately purchase a new web hosting account.

Special attention was paid to our Elefante (Free Scripts) Installer. It was upgraded to a new version, containing better features and more user-friendly interface.

An Administration Tools section was differentiated, with its latest implementation - the .htaccess generator, supplying you with an advanced tool for generating .htaccess files.

Two new languages - Dutch and Romanian - were introduced to the language family of the WHCP. A new link - Visit Store, was added, as well, providing a direct connection to our dynamic up-to-date service offerings.

The Round Cube webmail software was added to the Web Mail tools currently in use for web-based e-mail management.

Great number of TLD extensions (top-level domain names) was added to the list of domains available for registration/transfer in your WHCP, together with WHOIS / ID Protect Service activated and multiple domain registrations/renewals for multiple years.

Throughout the past year our network administrators invested a great amount of efforts in improving the performance of our servers - the "backbone" of our web hosting system. Together with the adding of new servers, a few hardware and software (php 5 and MySQLv5 library) upgrades were carried out.

Special attention was focused on the rejuvenation of our billing system, aimed at substantial tightening of its efficiency regarding the payment verifications and order processings. The switching to multi-currency billing and the PayPal Pro payments solution now guarantee you increased stability and higher level of security in the processing of your incoming payments through our Web Store or through your Web Hosting Control Panel.

For us, 2007 had been a fruitful year, fulfilled with benefits. And bringing to mind the rich array of projects and ideas already scheduled to be performed, we dare say that, even from this early time-point of view, 2008 already outlines as an incredibly interesting year, packed with events. Let us slightly "uplift the curtains" for those of you who most impatiently await:


UPCOMING:

• New Improved Web Hosting Platform - we have firmly headed upon the track of a Cluster System - to be entirely implemented by the end of the year. The stable architecture and design of the new Cluster System will enable us to successfully step on the next level - Load-Balancing System, hopefully shortly afterwards.
• Intelligent Website Builder - a new WYSIWUG software is being developed by our professionals. It will suit your utmost requirements of an intelligent and intuitive tool for creating websites.
• Recurring Billing - the new facilitative option will be implemented soon in your Web Hosting Control Panel, to enable automatic renewals of your active account services - time-savingly and effortlessly for you.
• Essential update of the Email Manager is to be performed - the new Email Manager will be supplied with cleverer interconnections, auto webmail logins, visual display of all settings of an email account, intelligent tooltips and much friendlier interface.
• Essential update of the File Manager - a bright new File Manager will be integrated in our system. The new File Manager is developed by our professionals to suit the utmost requirements for ease, convenience and user-friendly interface. Key basis for its creation was the need for better navigation, facilitation, time-saving and visualization tools. Enormous accent was put on some significantly important aspects regarding its upload functionality and editing system tools.
• Completely new version of the Web Hosting Control Panel - you will have at your disposal several interfaces to choose from (graphic, text and mixed). Full customizability will be enabled, together with improved interconnections, smart tooltips and much user-friendlier functional approach.

To the attention of all our clients from the European Union! We would like to inform you that from the first half of February our company will be VAT registered.

Due to our fast development and increased operation on the European market, this procedure has become a necessary step on the track of solid course and confirmation of our company reputation. New renommee label will be stitched to our name, to speak volumes of our stability, reliability and guaranteed quality business environment.

We will, with certainty, make the process of VAT integration simple and uncomplicated for you and will make all necessary updates in our system automatically, upon the receiving of your verified account owner details information.

To bring here clarity upon the VAT classification groups, clients will be referred to as Businesses or Individuals, to differentiate the following cases:

• UK VAT at 17.5% is applicable to: all Businesses (no VAT/VAT registered) and Individuals from the United Kingdom; all Individuals from the European Union,
• Clients where VAT is applicable, but WILL NOT affect the service pricing (i.e. equals to NIL): Businesses from the European Union,
• Clients outside the scope of VAT: non EU clients (Businesses and Individuals).

Very detailed information will be presented to you, shortly. Please, follow our news section, and do not hesitate to feedback us, as soon as you have any comments in regards to the forthcoming VAT registration.

We are pleased to inform you that on Thursday, December 06th, the following upgrades will be made:

• PHP v4 and v5, available at present on our servers, will be upgraded to support MySQL v5 library. This procedure was recently performed on two of our SupCenters. After being positively evaluated by our administrators, the upgrade will now be applied to all our servers.
• Support of mysqli (MySQL Improved Extension) and PDO_MYSQL will be added, as well.

We are glad to inform you that the .COM.MX domain extension has just been made available in the Domain Manager of the web hosting Control Panel. As you probably know, the .MX TLD is for Mexico but, unlike the most of the country domain names, there are no restrictions for nationality or residence in this country and anyone can order and use such domain names. However, there is a special requirement set by the nicMX registry that imposed an additional step to be added to the domain registration process. Here comes some more information regarding the features of the new extension:

Registration Period: .COM.MX domain names can be registered only for a 2-year period.
Domain Renewal: Domain renewal is possible for 1 year and must be ordered before the expiration date. If a domain name expires, it is removed from our account with our registrar, and becomes available for registration at least 16 days after the date of expiration.
Pre-Configuration: The step that follows the WHOIS information form requires the registrant to agree with the aforementioned domain renewal requirement.
WHOIS Management: Once a .COM.MX domain is registered, the registrant can modify the WHOIS only with a trouble ticket opened from the Help Center that is available in the Control Panel. The support team will forward the request to the attention of the domain registrar for approval and will inform the registrant whenever there is a resolution for approval or rejection, sent by the nicMX registry.
WHOIS / ID Protection: This service in not available for .COM.MX domain names.
Registrar Change / Transfer: It is possible only to transfer .COM.MX domain names away to another registrar, while transfers to us is not supported by our registrar.

The .DE top-level domain (TLD) will also be made available for registration and management soon. We will let you know as soon as this is done.

The .EU top-level domain (TLD) has been added for registration and management in the Control Panel of the web hosting accounts. We believe that our customers from Europe will take advantage of this TLD when searching for appropriate domain names for their websites.

The .EU TLD is for the European Union and, thus, can be registered by any person or organization established within the European Union. Hereby follows some information about the management of .EU domain names:

Registrant Location: There is a requirement for the registrant (person or organization) to be established within the European Union.
Registration Period: The registration period for .EU domain names is 1 year, which applies also for their renewal.
Domain Renewal: Renewal requests will be accepted by the date of expiration (e.g. September 14th, 2008) or by the 20th of the month of expiration, in cases when the date of expiration is after that date (e.g. September 25th, 2008).
Example: If the name expires on Sept 14th, 2008, then a renewal request must be received by Sept 14th, 2008. If a name expires on September 25th, 2008, the renewal request must be received prior to September 20th, 2008.
Pre-Configuration: As there are requirements for the registrant's location or origins, the domain registration interface will prompt the registrant to enter a valid address within the European Union. The .EU registry EURid will check the information and the registration request will be approved or rejected. Of course, the registrant will be notified via a trouble ticket in case there are any problems.
WHOIS Management: Once the domain has been registered with certain WHOIS information, the information can not be edited. However, minimal corrections are possible as an exception. Such requests must be sent to our support team via the ticketing system available in the Help Center of the web hosting Control Panel. One should have in mind that the registrant's personal or company name can not be modified because such changes are considered as 'formal transfer'. In order to execute transfer of the domain ownership, the registrant must contact directly the EURid registry using the information on their webpage.
WHOIS / ID Protection: This service in not available for .EU domain names.
Registrar Change / Transfer: It is not possible to change the registrar of an .EU domain name.

In addition to .EU domain names, in the next couple of days the .DE TLD will be added to the domain extensions' list as well. We will let you know as soon as it is done.

We are glad to inform you that the new TLD .ME.UK has been released and is now available for registration through the Web Hosting Control Panel. The management policy of the .ME.UK top-level domain is relevant to the rest of the .UK TLDs that we offer for registration and comes with the same special features, the most important of which are:
- 2-year registration period
- renewal available again for a 2-year period
- renewal requests processed only during the 5-month period before the expiration date
- the WHOIS information cannot be altered directly from the Control Panel - the UK registry, Nominet, must be contacted by the domain name owner for WHOIS changes.

To learn more about the specific .UK domain features, please refer to the previous news that concerns the CO.UK and .ORG.UK domains' release.

New TLDs coming soon - .EU and .DE!
The .EU and .DE top-level domains are to be available shortly, as well. They have the following specifications:

.EU - The .EU TLD is the unique TLD set for the European Union and, thus, can be registered by any person or organization established within the European Community. Registration of .EU domain names is possible for 1-year period only, and renewal must be ordered before the expiration date for the same period. Typically for the most of the TLDs (country code domain names), WHOIS / ID Protection is not supported.

.DE - This is the TLD for Germany - probably the chociest country TLD lately. However, there is a special requirement set by the registry of this domain, DENIC, referring to the registrant's address information that needs to be presented at the time of registration. According to that requirement, it is obligatory, when entering the administrative contact information, a street address or P.O. Box within Germany to be presented, in order to gain approval of the registration. There is no WHOIS /ID Protection service available for .DE domain names and it is possible to choose a registration period from 1 to 10 years.

We are pleased to inform you that today we have made available for registration through the Web Hosting Control Panel the .UK and .CA domain extensions (top-level-domains or TLDs). We know how desired they are and hope that these extensions will satisfy the needs of our clients from the United Kingdom and Canada.

Let's present the new TLDs and have a look at their special requirements now.

.UK (.CO.UK and .ORG.UK) Domain Names
The .UK TLD stands for the United Kingdom. We've made available the .CO.UK and .ORG.UK SLDs (second-level-domains), which can be used for registration or transfer purposes. The domain names registered with these SLDs possess some special features that make their management different from that of .com, .net, etc. TLDs. The differences concern the registration period, the renewal policy and the WHOIS info management.
Registration period: The registration period for the .UK domains is 2 years.
Renewal policy: Domain renewals are possible for a 2-year period only. What's more, renewal is only possible in cases when 5 months, or less, are left until the expiration date.
WHOIS management: Modification of the WHOIS info is not possible through the Control Panel. The UK registry Nominet must be contacted directly by the domain owner when the WHOIS info must be changed. The reason for this restriction is that there are certain fees that must be paid to Nominet and that such changes are considered as formal transfer.

.CA Domain Names
The Canadian registrar CIRA has some special requirements for the registrants and for the management of the WHOIS information.
Registrant requirements: .CA domain names can be registered by Canadian citizens, individuals having permanent residency in Canada and companies under the laws of Canada. Because of this requirement, additional contact details are required during the registration procedure itself and that is why we have made a separate page as a step of the domain registration process. This page allows you to choose the correct attribute from the list of options.
WHOIS management: The registrant cannot change the WHOIS in order to transfer ownership from one person or organization to another, but can change registrant's address, phone number and other contact details. However, in order to modify this info, you will have to submit a trouble ticket to the Customer Support staff from the Help Center section in the Web Hosting Control Panel.

It should be noted that both domains are transferable between different registrars and that no EPP authorization key is needed for that. Unfortunately, both of the registries do not support WHOIS / ID Protection for their domain names, which is characteristic for most of the "country domains".

What should you expect after these TLDs?
We are now working on the implementation of .DE and .EU domain names. Our developers will do their best to complete these TLDs by the end of November.

Our Technical Department would like to bring to your attention that several servers are scheduled to undergo maintenances during the next week. The reason that provoked the need of the maintenances is the replacement of obsolete hardware.
All maintenances will be performed between 10.00 to 14.00 AM GMT (05.00 to 09.00 AM EST) on October 22, 23 and 24, as follows:

On Monday, October 22 - SupremeCenter servers 10, 13 and 14 with downtime as follows:
- about 1 hour for SupremeCenter10
- about 4 hours for SupremeCenter13 and SupremeCenter14, including 60 minutes downtime of the websites and MySQL servers, and about 4 hours downtime of the Control Panel, FTP and mailing services.

On Tuesday, October 23 - SupremeCenter servers 15, 16 and 17 with downtime as follows:
- about 2 hours for SupremeCenter15
- about 4 hours for SupremeCenter16 and SupremeCenter17, including 60 minutes downtime of the websites and MySQL servers, and about 4 hours downtime of the Control Panel, FTP and mailing services.

On Wednesday, October 24 - SupremeCenter servers 18 and 19 with downtime as follows:
- about 1 hour for SupremeCenter18
- about 4 hours for SupremeCenter19, including 30 minutes downtime of the websites and MySQL servers, and about 4 hours downtime of the Control Panel, FTP and mailing services.

The activities that will be performed will not affect the data that is stored on the servers.

An emergency maintenance was performed by our data center AlphaRed. Their Technical Department informed us that a whole rack, with all its servers, must be moved urgently to a new data center. The maintenance started at 06.00 AM GMT (01.00 AM EST) and was supposed to take no more than 10 hours. The downtime that each one of the following servers has experienced was 4 hours.
SupremeCenter41
SupremeCenter44
SupremeCenter45
Please, accept our sincere apologies regarding this matter!

P.S. We understand the inconvenience that the entire action has caused to you, and it is obvious that we will have to remove some failings that are common for our and AlphaRed's business models, especially in the "emergency" part.

We'd like to let you know that scheduled maintenance of two of ours network's servers, SupremeCenter10 and SupremeCenter11, will be executed on Wednesday, September 26th, and on Thursday, September 27th, respectively. The actions will take place between 10.00 AM to 14.00 PM GMT (05.00 AM to 09.00 AM EST) both days and will be aimed at increasing the performance quality of the servers' hardware.

The maintenance procedures are planned to move the data on SupremeCenter10 and SupremeCenter11 to a brand new server, so that both servers could rely on a much more advanced hardware infrastructure. The migration time completion is expected to be around 4 hours as the following services will not be accessible within that period - Control Panel, email service, Front Page Server Extensions, Site Studio and FTP. The overall downtime for users' websites is expected to be around 30 minutes.

We'd like to apologize in advance for any possible inconvenience that the maintenance procedures might cause to your online presence. However, we trust you understand our efforts to ensure the reliability and up-to-dateness of our network system.

Where is the .htaccess Generator?
You can find the .htaccess Generator in the new Elefante Administration Tools section in the Web Tools menu. The new section includes also the Hotlink Protection and IP Blocking tools that have been taken from the Elefante Marketing Tools section. If you want to create .htaccess files you can also go to the desired location using the Control panel's File Manager and click the .htaccess button that is available there.

Where is the .htaccess Generator located?
We have developed this tool taking into account your need to create .htaccess files and the fact that these files are sometimes not functioning properly due to incorrect parameters. The new generator will create the files properly so that there will be no need for you to contact our Technical Support team with regard to problems of such kind. Of course, we are always ready to help if problems with malfunctioning .htaccess files hosted on our servers appear.

What features have been made available in the .htaccess Generator?
The features have been grouped in the following six sections depending on their purpose:

How can you apply the generated .htaccess code?
As soon as the form has been completed and submitted, the .htaccess code is generated. For your convenience, the code is being displayed in a text box so that you may choose whether to add it to an existing .htaccess file, or to have the file created in the selected location.

We trust you will like the new tool, as we are always happy to make our services easier for you to use.

We aim at making our services a real pleasure for you. Our desire is to enable you to do more with fewer efforts. After the several Control panel upgrades that we have made recently, we are presenting to your attention now the new version of the Elefante FREE Scripts installer.

Considering your feedback, we've tried to improve this useful tool and the result is a more intuitive and less time-consuming scripts installer, which now offers you more scripts. We hope that you will like it. We'll give you an idea of what you should expect to see:

New Interface The new interface will allow having all the scripts displayed at once. One look at the Control Panel will be sufficient to see the various categories and the corresponding scripts.

More information Why going to each script's page to see what its purpose is? Placing the mouse on the script's name will show you a short description, which will give you an idea whether this is the software that you are looking for. If it isn't - no problem, you will have some other scripts in the list to choose from.

One click for complete management A single click on the chosen script will give you the complete information needed for its management: software name, version and description, the option of installing the given script as well as the current number of the installations with the corresponding administrator URL.

Script administration The new administration panel is available in the Installed Applications section. A single click on the link in the Admin URL column will give you full information about the script - date of the installation, the database that was used, as well as the administrative login information.

Script versions We will do our best to keep the versions of the scripts that will be available in the Elefante FREE Scripts installer up-to-date. Every time there is a newer version, we will make it available for installation. You should bear in mind also the following: It is your obligation to install new software versions and updates of the versions that you have already installed. Some programs don't have updates and thus they may cause security issues. We are not responsible for any security issues that may arise as a result of non-updated versions of the scripts. We do not provide support for these scripts. Contact the development companies or check the support forums in case you experience any problems with the installed applications.

Thank you for being with us and for helping us improve our Hosting services.