SoftCom Corporate Blog

Hello,

Just a quick update to let customers on our Windows hosting plans know that we now provide support for ASP.NET AJAX.  Formerly known as ATLAS, this is a free framework for building rich, interactive, cross-browser web applications. This Microsoft technology integrates cross-browser client script libraries with the ASP.NET 2.0 framework.

This is mainly a development tool for advanced web designers and developers and will have no effect on our existing customer’s web sites. If you do want to use this technology, please make sure you have .NET 2.0 enabled on your account.

With all our Windows accounts we offer the option of running ASP.NET 1.1 or ASP.NET 2.0. By default your account will run ASP.NET 1.1 but you can update that instantly through your account control panel by going to Site Management > Site Settings > ASP.NET Version.

ASP.NET AJAX makes it possible to take advantage of AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) techniques to create ASP.NET pages with rich user interfaces. ASP.NET AJAX allows for the creation of web applications in ASP.NET 2.0 which can update data on a web page without a complete reload of the page.

Check out these examples of what some people are doing with AJAX.

I still don’t know what Web 2.0 is. In a recent speech, Andrew Schroepfer from Tier 1 Research said it is the version after Web 1.0 and before Web 3.0. However, without having to assign some meaningless label to this phase of the web, I know this technology is introducing a whole new class of website development.

John Carthy
V.P. Sales and Marketing
SoftCom Technology Consulting Inc.

One of the key ingredients of a Shared Hosting account is the domain name. Without a domain name, it’s either difficult or even impossible for your visitors to reach your website. Which is why it’s so important to make sure your domain name is renewed every year at its expiration date.

There are a few different states a domain name passes through after it has expired. Of course, these rules don’t apply to all domain names, including most country-level domains, are operated by different registries with unique rules. However these guidelines generally apply for the big 5; .COM, .NET, .ORG, .INFO and .BIZ. Once your domain name expires, it enters a “Grace Period” where you have approximately 40 days to renew your domain name at the same renewal rate. On the 45th day after expiration, the domain name enters what is called the “Redemption Period”. During the redemption period it is still possible to renew your domain name, but the redemption fee is quite costly and does not even include the renewal fee. The redemption period lasts approximately 30 days, after which it’s no longer possible to renew. The domain will be deleted within 5 days from the end of the redemption period.

So you can see how it’s possible to go from a fully functioning domain name to a completely expired and deleted domain name in 80 days — less than 3 months. And the moment your domain name is deleted, there’s always the possibility that someone will snatch it up for their own use. Even if your domain name is only 1 day into expiration and you renew it, it can still take a day or two before its working again. This is why it’s so important to make sure your domain name is renewed before it expires, not to mention that you can avoid all the confusion and potentially complicated procedures to get your web site back on track.

There are a couple ways you can make sure you don’t miss the expiration date. Some people simply choose to renew their domain name for as long as possible in one shot, which is 10 years at a time. This way you don’t have to worry about it for quite a while. But that’s not all that helpful if you’re not sure how long you’ll need your domain name for, or if you simply can’t afford the 10 year renewal fee. This is where our auto-renewal feature comes in handy. For all domain names registered through myhosting.com and mail2web.com we will by default process an automatic renewal for your domain name 10 days prior to the expiration date. So all you have to do is make sure your account remains active and has up-to-date billing information, and we’ll take care of the rest. Of course, we also recommend keeping your contact information and email address up to date, since we do send renewal reminder emails regardless of whether you use the auto-renew feature or not. In addition, make a habit of logging into your control panel at myhosting.com or mail2web.com periodically to look for alerts and updates.

For those of you who have hosting services with myhosting.com or mail2web.com but don’t have your domain name registered with us, it’s not too late! If you want to make use of our renewal system or auto-renew feature, you can transfer your domain name by contacting our Customer Support Department for more information.

And a word of warning to all domain owners – there are some unscrupulous companies who try to take advantage of the domain name renewal and transfer process by sending unsolicited snail mail to domain name owners, trying to get them to renew their domain name at inflated prices. Beware of these unsolited mail campaigns. If you receive this kind of mail and the sender doesn’t look familiar to you, check with your domain name registrar first so you don’t fall into the trap!

Regards,

Tim Attwood
Product Manager
SoftCom Technology Consulting Inc.

We recently partnered up with DataViz to provide our customers with RoadSync, an easy-to-use application that provides wireless ‘direct push’ synchronization of mail2web.com’s exchange email, as well as calendar items, contacts, attachments and more, to a broad base of mobile devices. Direct push refers to the technology that delivers content to your mobile in real-time as it’s being received on the server and keeps all your data perfectly synchronized.

Similar to how the BlackBerry works or ActiveSync works with Pocket PCs and Smartphones, the RoadSync application provides the same functionality for Palm Treo owners (with the Palm OS), many popular Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Sony, HP and Nokia devices – to name a few – who can now get all their PIM data delivered in real-time to their mobile device.

Click here for a list of supported devices (click on the ‘devices’ tab for a complete list)

Unlike the BlackBerry service, there is only a one-time fee with no recurring subscription fees (cost varies depending on your device) and there is even a 30-day trial available.

Of course for this to work you must subscribe to an Exchange email plan first (the RoadSync technology is based on ActiveSync). All of our mail2web.com Exchange plans are compatible with this application and come with a free 30-day trial. You can also test this with our mail2web.com LIVE service which will provide you with a free Exchange account.

If you haven’t noticed yet, we love mobile devices at SoftCom and we are always looking for new technologies that extend our messaging platform to the mobile user. If you are a vendor with a mobile solution you think we could use, please leave a comment and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

If you have any mobile related questions, please leave a comment. We have a number of mobile experts on staff armed with almost every mobile device on the planet. Chances are, if you have an obscure question, we have the answer.

John Carthy
V.P. Sales and Marketing
SoftCom Technology Consulting Inc.