VN-Jonathan

For testing speed under load, have a look at Blitz (https://www.blitz.io/). It's VERY useful and provides all kinds of configuration options and metrics for analysis. Just be careful using it, as with the wrong settings you'll essentially DoS attack your own system . Jon

Currently have some very basic thing that came out of an office clearance a few years back - it's past it really, but a vast improvement over the wooden folding chair I used for 2 years prior. Before that I had a really nice ergonomic chair, but that got left behind when I moved back in '06. Probably the only chair I've ever managed to be comfortable on. Really need to get something similar sorted, as like mentioned above your health can be seriously affected by sitting in the wrong way for too long. All that said, a fancy chair is usually not much help when you spend vast amounts of time working on the datacentre floor, at the workshop bench, on trains or over at your co-workers places on the sofa . Jon

Bought the .com many years back (2003 I think?) when Virgo Networks was just the name under which I did freelance work and hosted a few clients and contacts. Then bought the .co.uk a few years later. When we started up properly back in 2010 we'd also bought .net a year prior in preparation, which is used for our internal space and technical resources. Then came the .dk, and various others - some of which are related to our main brand and some which are not (used for other projects or development work). It's always good to have all the extensions you think will be appropriate, however do bear in mind when deciding how to run them that if you need SSL things can get needlessly costly. (Multiple sites vs redirects) I always used to advise clients where possible to also get .com, as if a user can't remember the extension this will always be the first they try. Jon

Yes - that can be a major advantage, as PayPal have in the past been known to shoot first, ask questions later with things such as disputes. And when they fall between the regulatory cracks you're out of luck with any serious kind of independent appeal. The main disadvantage is, as I say, what BitCoin is tied to - nothing stable. With major currencies they are tied to the economies for their parent nations, and certainly did used to be tied to commodities such as gold (although probably not anymore, as it will have all been sold off long ago no doubt!). BitCoin's value is based solely on the supply of tokens against what can be bought with them. As this changes (sites shut down, etc), the currency can spike or plummet overnight. Still a very interesting experiment though - and the stability can only improve, as acceptance becomes more widespread leading to higher usage. Jon

Do you have any specific requirements in terms of location? (i.e. 1 cloud 1 local, etc). What OS is your machine running, as this will also affect the available options. Do you have any requirements in terms of encryption or speed of access? If its just to archive things the likes of Amazon Glacier may be of use. Jon

There are a few hosts that accept it, however I can say we don't have any plans to at present. The main issue is the highly volatile value of the currency, largely caused by the fact that a substantial use of it can be to purchase things that you can't/wouldn't with traditional means and the fact that it's not actually tied or indexed to anything. Jon

Those above have got it bang-on. The only other thing to note is that they will usually set a cookie in the user's browser, which is what can help when determining new vs returning visits and such. The approach you take in writing a custom system all depends on what data you're wanting to capture. A very basic system could be easily embedded into each page with PHP, just to pull the browser versions, IP and such. Throw this data into a MySQL database and then find a way of presenting it, and you're done. It's worth remembering though, that the data any scripts like this can collect are easily falsified by the end user. This once again feeds back into your design, as you need to ensure that data you gather is useful and you understand the context fully. As with all projects - begin by identifying what data you want to collect, how it should be processed, and what the output should be. Jon

IBM Model-M or one of its derivatives (which I believe Sam G posted a picture of above). They are just bog-standard keyboards, but are built VERY heavily and have rather nice tactile feedback. Perfect for anyone who has to type for long periods of time! Now if only there was an Apple version, or better yet an ergornomic/split Apple version. Jon

Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear for me. Some of our team are located in Harrogate, North Yorkshire too. Jon

A course that incorporates the Cisco CCNA, or pure CCNA is a very good start. Don't expect it to teach you everything you need, but it's certainly a good overall starter. Semester 4 (certainly back in my day) is actually quite light, the idea being that you devote a good deal of the time both in and out of the classroom to preparing for your finals. Another thing to look at would be getting an ITIL Foundation Certificate in Service Management. It's not a technical qualification by any means, but many employers will look for someone who has knowledge and appreciation of standardised service management methodologies. Often employers will prefer someone who has ITIL Foundation and basic technical qualification to a candidate that has a large amount of purely theoretical technical credentials – there is always a degree of on the job training from a technical point of view, so a little more tends not to hurt. Having to train someone from scratch about managing incidents and change control is much more problematic. The other thing I'd reccomend is getting comfortable with Linux. Avoid Ubuntu and any GUI tools - get hold of a copy of RedHat Enterprise Linux or CentOS (either is fine), or Debian and learn the hell out of it using the command line. Linux skills are becoming VERY desirable to employers these days, and as many people are either no good at it, or it scares them off, it gives you a competative edge. Lastly - don't underestimate the role self-taught skills play in all this. Get some hardware for a home setup (eBay is a godsend for this) and/or a VPS. Build things, totally screw them up, then fix them. Better yet - if there is someone else you've been studying with, combine resources and have the other person break something and not tell you what they've done. Hope this helps, and best of luck. Jon

A VPS is your best bet here, certainly to start off with. This will provide you with unrestricted SSH access to use GIT (or anything else you may want for that matter), and give you as others have stated the ability to effectively segregate dev and live instances. You will also benefit from being able to directly control the versions of software and packages that are installed, such as the control panel, PHP/MySQL versions and so on. If your reluctance to consider a VPS is related to the management aspect, there are a good number of hosts out there who will offer VPS services on a semi-managed basis. As has been previously stated, looking at the host is more important than the raw specs, as with a VPS you want to ensure that you will be given adiquate support and not placed onto a platform that is already oversold/overworked. Remember that with a VPS you are sharing the physical hardware with other users still, so the last point is extra important. Obviously though a dedicated server removes this consideration as the hardware is then essentially yours as long as the contract remains live. Hope this helps, Jon

Oh, and another thing - may I strongly reccomend the FireFTP plugin for Firefox for FTP tasks? It's free, and works a treat! I use this extensively, and it's just so handy and easy to use. Never had any problems yet, whereas some other clients like CyberDuck and FileZilla can be somewhat tempremental at times. Jon

Generally yes, although as has been said you just need to enter the address, without any prefix or suffix. In the examples above, "ftp." is a subdomain - this shouldn't need to be put into anything other than a browser if you were wanting to try and force a directory listing. This would pretty much never be used with an IP address. "ftp://" is a string to tell the client what protocol we're going to use, much the same as when we use "http://" or "smb://". The vast majority of FTP clients will not require this - they already know you are going to try and connect via FTP. This prefix may be used with both IP addresses and domain names. Domain names do in all cases literally just point to "hosts" on the Internet or another network, and as long as in both cases you are referencing the same resource, you'll be good to go. Jon

Again, it all depends on the client, their business, and the type of content their feed is full of. Our business cards don't have anything more than contact details (phone, e-mail) and our website, but thats because our content as a service provider is fairly static. For clients who are in a fast moving industry such as fashion, however, there could be a great deal of benefit to this. Many potential connections may want to follow the Twitter feed of the organisation, as Twitter is perfect for sharing quick, concise thoughts and messages, and perhaps photos. For many it can almost have a "scrapbook" type function, where in addition to communicating with their audience, content that the account holder has an interest in can be shared very rapidly. Ultimately though, if the client is not happy with the decision, that's that. Hope this is of some help. Jon

As above, although if this is something you are going to be doing regularly, you may wish to consider installing tools like phpMyAdmin to make the job a little easier. There is also the option of Idera ServerBackup (formerly R1Soft CDP). You can use it to do automated backups of both files and databases, although you would require another machine from which to run it. Hope this helps. Jon

All depends on the model of the notebook in question - it might not actually be supported by the BIOS. If you can't find an option for it, the first step would be to check you are on the latest BIOS version. Jon

Ouch! It's never nice when that happens! As a host, we don't charge overages for one-offs, but there is good reason why many do. Afterall, they incur a cost too. (Although a personal hatred of mine is when providers make a large markup on overage charges.) 36GB is a large amount to go over without noticing - does your control panel not provide warnings to you via e-mail when you are approaching those limits? We've got InterWorx setup to do this for customers automatically as a matter of courtesy. If your contract states that you are liable for any overage charges, then sadly you are stuck with this, and you'd be best to pay to avoid them taking any action against you. If your host is in the UK they could easily take you through the small claims court for this, which whilst it would be rather petty of them, could end up costing you alot more. Watchdog and the likes will be very unlikely to touch this case - they tend to go after larger companies where the story will generate more buzz. Trading Standards of the area in which the company is located/your local area may be able to help, but to be honest you've likely got better things to do with your time! Going forward, my suggestion would be to firstly settle up with them. You don't want them suspending your account, adding late fees, nor do you want to annoy them when you may require their assistance to leave. Secondly, make the decision (based on this, as well as the previous service you have receieved from them) as to how beneficial it would be to move to another host. If you decide to move, be sure to look at your historical traffic trends, as well as estimated capacity required by projects you currently have or are likely to gain in the future. Weigh this up against any plans you look at, and if need be contact the hosts you consider - find a host that will be happy to work with you as your business grows. The relationship between host and client should be mutually beneficial, as your success underpins theirs! If I can be of any help with this, both as a host or just generally as a sysadmin, drop me a PM - I'm always happy to share knowledge and experience with others. Hope this helps. Jon

Hi all, So, a long time ago when we restructured the technical side of Virgo Networks, we evaluated the options available for control panels. From a systems management point of view, we were mostly looking beyond features (which are often largely the same) and more towards how intuitive the user interface was, and aslo the support structure and company behind the software. We needed something we knew was secure, and from a company who we could rely on to offer competant and professional support from the developers (albeit in the hope we would never need to call upon the latter). Neesless to say, these priorities are rather different from those held by our end users, so I was wondering what people here think of various control panels, specifically: -Do you have a preference? -Is this something that influences your decision when choosing a host? -If you were to consider a host that uses something other than your preference, what features would be "must haves"? -Is there anything that you'd avoid at all costs? -And so on... All opinions, rants, raves and ideas much appreciated! Jon PS - In the end we chose InterWorx... those guys and their software rock

The 21.5" iMac is big enougn for most tasks (I use one myself at home, although with a second screen added). My only concern were I to buy one again, is that once you've added one monitor, adding any others is not so easily done. This is of course a matter of user preference - mine personally being that I'd rather 3 screens in total that are the same size, since much of the work I do is sysadmin type stuff. EIther way, the other half certainly seems to like using it, and since it looks good I got approval for the purchase . Jon

Thank you all for the very warm welcome! Jon

We've deployed Zopim in the past on a few projects - its very easy to use, and the pricing is reasonable. Hope this helps, Jon

Hello all, I've been lurking on here for a while and have now made some posts in other areas, so figured it might be time to actually say hi and write a little about myself! So, I'm Jonathan, and I'm the managing director for Virgo Networks Ltd. We're a small hosting and IT services company based in Newcastle upon Tyne. (More on that later at an appropriate time.) Admittedly, creativity is not my strong point (I'm just the tech guy, so someone else on my staff deals with all things creative), but I like to think I have an appreciation for good design. My background lies in systems administration and service management; I've previously worked in technical roles for several local companies, the now dead and buried Comet Group, and the NHS. Currently my time is devided between running Virgo Networks and doing work for a company that provide embedded computer systems and IP based communication systems to railway companies (think on-train WiFi, digital signage, etc). So, I look forward to offering my advice and experience with everyone here, and benefitting from that of others! Jon

Thinking about it, this is a really neat idea - maybe even branching out so that members of the site can offer their own designs of specialised systems intended for various applications for sale with the site taking a cut/commission? Sounds like a Kickstarter project in the making to me Jon

For me it would probably be a site selling aquarium hardware and tools (filters, heaters, pipe and cable, etc), but the site would make a point of reviewing everything that was carried - a "if we didn't think it was any good, we wouldn't sell it" type mantra! The reasoning being that it can often be hard to find unbias reviews for such kit, and I like playing with new kit . Jon

Whilst in design creativity will often score points, for someone in and looking for a more technical role the best strategy in my experience has been to let your technical credentials do the talking. Keep the CV tight and concise, avoid fancy formatting, fonts, etc. (My CV is literally all written in 10-pt Calibri with headings in bold). Hope this helps, Jon