Announcements
Advantages of upgrading to the Premium DSL package
DSL customers who contact us to upgrade their Basic or Standard DSL package to the Premium DSL package can enjoy faster speeds and other premium Internet services that work better with the faster DSL speed. The following services benefit from the faster Premium DSL speed. Many of these services offer a free trial period for new customers…
Call (757-253-7621) or e-mail our office to inquire about upgrading your DSL speed to the Premium DSL package!
Plesk Web Server Anti-Spam
In an effort to block more spam, and better avoid spam related issues, new anti-spam software from Parallels has been added to the Plesk web hosting server. Any web hosting customers who notice any new issues regarding spam blocking should contact our office to report them.
July 4th 2013
Our offices and phone support will be closed during Thursday July 4th, 2013. We will resume normal hours on Friday July 5th. All systems will remain monitored during the holiday.
Have a safe and fun weekend 🙂
Change of Business Hours from June 12 – 17
Widomaker’s telephone sales and support hours will temporarily change from June 12 – 17. During that period our weekday telephone sales and support hours will be from 10:00 AM until 6:00 PM. Our Saturday telephone hours will be from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM. Our office hours during that week will be by appointment only. We anticipate returning to our normal telephone hours on June 18.
We apologize to anyone the slightly shortened hours may effect. If you call outside of, or during, those hours and are prompted to leave a message, please do so. Leaving a detailed message allows us to research the information provided so we can better help you when we return your call.
Memorial Day Holiday and Change of Business Hours for Week of May 28-31, 2013
Widomaker’s office will be closed on Monday, May 27, 2013, for the Memorial Day holiday. In addition, Widomaker’s telephone sales and support hours will temporarily change for the week of May 28, 2013 to May 31, 2013. During that week our telephone sales and support hours will be from 10:00 AM until 6:00 PM. Our office hours during that week will be by appointment only. We anticipate returning to our normal telephone hours the following week.
We apologize to anyone the slightly shortened hours may effect. If you call outside of, or during, those hours and are prompted to leave a message, please do so. Leaving a detailed message allows us to research the information provided so we can better help you when we return your call.
[updated 5/23] Plesk Web Hosting Server Changes to Begin Thursday 5/16
[update 5/23/2013] The migration process will be complete this evening (Thursday). One last sync of e-mail data from the old server to the new one is scheduled for this evening or early Friday morning. That will copy over any messages that happened to go to the old server address after the switch to the new server address was made. You may notice that messages you previously saw and/or deleted may reappear when this happens. Due to our efforts to not miss anything, that is unavoidable.
Additionally, for customers that have databases hosted on the Plesk hosting server, any changes made to MySQL databases on the old server, between early Thursday morning (5/16), when the migration began, and when the DNS was pointed to the new server (for most sites, between 5/21 & 5/22), may not be reflected on the new server. That was one of the reasons we suggested to not make any changes to the site during the migration process. If any of those changes are critical, we may be able to have our migration team retrieve database records from the old server (during that time frame), if necessary. However, we must be notified ASAP, in order for our migration team to be able to help because they are only available for a limited period of time.
[update 5/22/2013] The migration process is mostly done. The DNS switch was made on 5/21. The final steps will be completed on Wednesday (5/22). Anyone who controls their own DNS (instead of Widomaker) should contact us to get the new IP address.
[update 5/17/2013] The migration process is mostly done. The final steps will be completed on Monday (5/20) when the new server and IP address go live. Anyone who controls their own DNS (instead of Widomaker) should contact us to get the new IP address to start using on Monday.
[update 5/15/2013] The migration process has been scheduled to start early Thursday morning (12:00 AM) and last through noon on Friday. It’s possible that it could go though Saturday.
[update 4/30/2013] The migration process has been postponed and is being rescheduled for the week of, May 13th, 2013, It may last for several days. This date may change.
[update 4/19/2013] At this time we are planning to begin the migration on, or around, Monday, April 29th. It may last for several days. This date may change.
There are some upcoming changes that may affect Web Hosting customers who have a domain name hosted with Widomaker. Please pass this message along to your IT staff or Webmaster.
Beginning in the next couple of weeks, we will be migrating all web hosting accounts to a new, upgraded, server. We do not anticipate significant problems with this process. However, when moving from one server to another, sometime issues can arise.
An exact date that this process will begin will be posted on Widomaker’s web site (http://home.widomaker.com/) soon. At this time, we are planning on starting this process toward the end of April or the beginning of May.
Before this process begins, we suggest that you…
– make sure you have an up-to-date backup of your web site data including any databases
– make sure you have an up-to-date backup of any settings, such as a list of your e-mail accounts and/or custom DNS records
– if you had any unusual customizations made to your web hosting or DNS setup that was not done via the normal features of the Plesk Control Panel, please contact us regarding themOnce the migration date has arrived…
– avoid making changes to your web site or e-mail addresses
After the migration process has completed…
– Verify that all aspects of your web site, e-mail, mailing lists, password protected directories, etc., are working properly. If you notice any issues, notify us immediately so our migration team can investigate.
CISPA, the Privacy-Invading Cybersecurity Spying Bill, is Back in Congress
A coalition of Internet advocacy organizations and individuals are launching a week of action to combat the CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act.
Please take a moment to learn more about why CISPA is a bad idea, then send a message to your Representatives asking them to oppose this bill. Visit the sites below for more information…
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/02/cispa-privacy-invading-cybersecurity-spying-bill-back-congress
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/03/week-action-opposing-cispa
https://action.eff.org/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=9048
Changes to Paper Billing
For customers that do not use a credit or debit card, but instead receive a paper statement or invoice via US Mail, we are changing when we mail out paper statements. Services have always been paid in advance of the next service period. We had been mailing out paper statements about two weeks before the beginning of the next service period. We will now be mailing out paper statements about a week earlier. This was due, in part, to technical reasons regarding the time it takes to suspend, cancel, or reactivate DSL service and DSL lines of customers that use broadband DSL Internet service.
We ask that any customer who, as a result of this change, or for any other reason, needs a few extra days to pay their bill to please e-mail or call our office so arrangements can be made to accommodate their needs. Also, any customer who would like to adjust the day of the month that statements are sent out or are due may call our office to make that kind of adjustment.
Holiday Hours for Widomaker
Our Christmas / New Years Holiday Hours are as follows:
Christmas
Monday, December 24th: Office Closed – Phone Support 8am to 2pm
Tuesday, December 25th: Office Closed – No Phone Support Hours
Normal Office / Phone Support hours resume on Wednesday, December 26th.
New Years
Monday, December 31st: Office Closed – Phone Support 8am to 2pm
Tuesday, January 1st: Office Closed – No Phone Support Hours
Normal Office / Phone Support hours resume on Wednesday, January 2nd.
56K Dialup Account Changes
Sometime this week (week of Tuesday, Dec. 18th, 2012) we will be making some changes to our 56K dialup services. This should not affect most of our 56K dialup users. However, in some cases, if the user hasn’t connected via dialup recently, they might not be able to log in after the changes take place. In that case, affected users should call our office to have any dialup login issues quickly resolved. These changes do not affect any of our other services such as DSL.
