If you have any questions on webmail email me here

Exciting New Feature: Mobile Mail!

While there are several new features, I would like to make mention of the new mobile interface for your webmail. Just point your mobile device to the same address you would on your computer (http://webmail.YOURDOMAIN.com) and DynamicMail will automatically forward you to a mobile email interface!

Screenshots

• Greater Northwoods MLS Search: [ click here ]
• Central Wisconsin MLS Search: [ click here ]
• Upper Peninsula MLS Search: [ click here ]

The server was off-line for approx 1hr in total between 2am and 5am CST. The primary purpose for this maintenance was to upgrade to php5 and as a result we also upgraded several other systems. This upgrade to the latest version of php will allow us develop more efficiently and utilize new software specifically designed for php5.

This php upgrade may cause some minor issues in existing sites. We will be monitoring things over the next several days to catch any said issues. Please notify us in the event of any strangeness.

We apologize for the short notice.

Dynamic Administrative Staff
- Proudly bringing you the latest and greatest in Internet technology!

What is Overselling?

When a company oversells hosting they are selling more resources than they currently have. For example, If you have a 200 GB Dedicated Server and you sell 30 X 10 GB Hosting Packages on that server you have sold 300 GB of server space and have oversold the server by 100 GB. However, the typical website uses about 50 Megs of space and 1 GB bandwidth per month, so the odds that any of your 30 clients will use up their resources is low.

Imagine the number of 50 Meg websites you could hold on a 200 GB server. For those not good in byte conversions, you could fit 4096 X 50 Meg websites on a 200 GB server!! So the temptation to do this and the potential profits are huge! But it doesn’t seem very ethical does it.

What types of hosting are there?

There are basically three types of hosting:

1) Shared Hosting – Your site is on a server with any number of other websites all sharing the resources of the same server. How many sites are on your server? Only your webhost knows for sure – and he’s not telling. The actual resources available for your site are largely unknown.

2) Virtual Dedicated – Here you in effect have your own server with all the control that comes along with it. You are allocated a set amount of resources and possibly might get them. The problem is, a Virtual Dedicated, just like Shared Hosting will have multiple accounts on one server. The difference is the host expects you to use more resources so they hopefully put less accounts on that single server. How many accounts? Again, only the webhost knows for sure.

3) Dedicated Server – Finally, a breath of fresh air! The resources you buy are the exact resources you get and you have all the control you need. The down side? You are going to pay for it: $80 - $400+ per month. The dedicated server is a computer in a datacenter with no other sites on it but your own. There is no sharing of the resources so you know they are all yours to use.

Ok, now that we have a better picture of the types of hosting, back to overselling.

How prominent is Overselling?

So, how many companies are actually overselling their resources? I think the following example should shed some light on this:

The following numbers are taken from GoDaddy.com as an example:

First let’s take the biggest pre-configured dedicated server currently at GoDaddy.com:

• 600 GB of Storage
• 2000 GB Bandwidth/month
• Price: $271.90/month

And now the biggest shared hosting option:

• 200 GB of Storage
• 2000 GB Bandwidth/month
• Price: $14.99/month

Already a little red flag should go up, why such a price difference for 400 GB more space? The truth is, every hosting company I have seen do not expect their ‘shared hosting’ customers to ever come near their resource limits (Remember when I mentioned the average site uses about 50 Megs of storage and 1 GB bandwidth per month). So the numbers are inflated to look like more than you will actually get. It’s a numbers game between hosting providers to out sell the competition through marketing. This concept is also where ‘unlimited’ storage and/or bandwidth comes from. But instead of flashing a number higher than they ever expect the average site owner to use they just say unlimited. Another marketing ploy. In my experience with shared hosting, the numbers will never reflect your actual resources.

Also remember, ‘shared hosting’ is really just multiple hosting packages on a single dedicated server. And with a dedicated server you actually get the exact resources you pay for. Here is what hosting companies do: Take the numbers in our previous example. How many of the ‘shared hosting’ accounts would have to be on the ‘dedicated’ server in our example to cover your costs? 19!! ($217.90 / $14.99) But that would mean we sold 3800 GB of storage and 38000 in Bandwidth for our 600 GB, 2000 GB Bandwidth server! This is a rough example, but is a good example of the sort of ‘overselling’ that is standard in the industry.

What happens if I use most of the resources on my ‘shared hosting’ account?

If you happen to actually use the resources stated in your ‘shared hosting’ agreement a few things will most likely happen. One, your site performance will be horrid. The server your site is on is sharing resources with potentially hundreds of other websites. As you use up resources you take away from all the other sites on the server. And as they compete for those resources your site will slow down and potentially just stop serving your site altogether (If you have ever seen a ‘too many requests to server’ or ‘server is too busy’ message when trying to visit a site this is one of the reasons for it). Two, your host will most likely contact you and either tell you they are shutting off your account or give you the option to upgrade to a virtual dedicated or dedicated server. You see, they were betting on you never using what they offered and they lost the bet. However, they have an out in their hosting agreement that says they can deny service for whatever reason they deem fit.

What type of hosting should I get?

For most sites shared hosting is where you want to be. You just need to know what it really is and that you could potentially outgrow it way before you hit your resource limits. Working with a host that is trustworthy and has a good reputation for taking care of their clients is key. If you need more they will let you know and move your site to a hosting option with more resources. Most sites never outgrow shared hosting. For sites that you know will need a large amount of space or high traffic avoid shared hosting from large companies. If you are sure that your site will have a very large amount of traffic from day one a virtual dedicated or dedicated is better.

So is Overselling Wrong?

While I personally think overselling is unethical in many cases, fighting an industry standard is hard to do. When I was first exposed to this technique I was appalled, but as my business grew I came to understand it more. The concept is similar to that of the electric company. The reality is, if everyone turns on all the appliances in their house at the same time there will be a power shortage. Same goes for internet access: If everyone tries to download a huge file at the same time the download for everyone will screech to a halt. From a business standpoint you must maintain a healthy ratio of resources to demand and up the resources as the demand increases all while keeping everyone happy, your service strong and your business in the black.

So is overselling wrong? Not really, as long as the company behind it is responsible and makes sure everyone has a good experience using their service. I personally believe that if one site in a shared network is using most the resources the host should move them around to better spread the load for as long as physically possible without changing the package or affecting other sites. This however takes a great deal of management that is sometimes impossible with larger companies. It will also mean you are loosing money with that specific site. But those are the caveats of overselling from a responsible business standpoint.

Hosting Practices at Dynamic Digital Media

For those wondering where we fit in. We manage our own dedicated servers and while we have virtual dedicated and dedicated offerings, most of our hosting falls under the category of ‘shared’. But we don’t consider it your typical ‘shared’. We have the unique position of being a relatively small company with only a few sites per server. So, in effect, you get something more like the real resources of a virtual dedicated without the extra cost. What really sets up apart from every other host out there is we get to know the actual business of every client we work with and constantly manage your hosting to make sure it fits with your needs. We act as an extension of your company and support the site and what it does for your business, not just the hardware your site is running on.

Our hosting prices are figured a little different than other companies – you get access to more resources than ‘shared’ hosting and you get more support of not only your hardware, but of the site itself and what it does for your business. You don’t have to worry about your site or your hosting, because we do it for you.

What this boils down to is we do everything in our power to make sure your website is doing all it can for your business.

About the Author

Dustin J. Czysz is the founder and president of Dynamic Digital Media, LLC. He has been developing Internet solutions for over 10 years.
dustin@ddmdata.com

First take server logs…

Server Logs
The log files on your server can be analyzed with software designed to read them. Common software examples would be AWstats and Webalizer. Where the problem comes in is log files are very literal and every single request is tracked without much filtering or classification. At this time, there is no efficient mechanism to distinguish between real visitors, robots, etc. The software often has rules that dictate what constitutes a visit or a unique visit, but this is rarely accurate and the rules are different from vendor to vendor.

The Result: Inaccurate and bloated numbers for visitors, unique visitors and page views.

Now compare with a better solution, like Google Analytics…

Google Analytics
While not 100% perfect, we currently use Google Analytics for all our clients that require accurate metrics for their website. Web-based 3rd party tracking systems such as Google Analytics track visitors much more accurately and do not over count like log files. A small line of javascript is inserted in to the pages you wish to track. Often a cookie is used as well. These two items allow more information to be gathered about your visitors and allows it to be presented in a more accurate and useful format. The downside is, if your visitors have very high security settings on their browsers (such as blocking all cookies or having javascript turned off) they will be partially tracked or not tracked at all. The percentage of visitors that fall into this group is said to be less than 10%.

The Result: Web Based Tracking systems are the most accurate and provide the most useful information about your site and its visitors. The only downfall is the numbers may be slightly lower than reality if some of your visitors have very high security settings.

Comparing one to the other…

At this point the problem should be clear. Server Logs are going to report much higher traffic than Google Analytics. To the untrained eye, comparing the two it looks like the redesign caused a significant loss in visits to your site. Flat out, the two can’t be directly compared. Depending on your needs you must compare server logs to server logs or scrap the old data and start working with the new more accurate data provided by Google Analytics.

If your main concern is metrics for performance of the site you may have to get creative. Measure registered users, newsletter sign ups, track revenue / sales for a period of time before and after the redesign, use a conversion tracking tool and set a goal, etc. Most often the metrics desired translates into increased or sustained revenue or ROI. Only the client knows what they really need out of the redesign.

The Bottom Line: Server Logs and Web Based Analytics can not be accurately compared. Some other form of data must be used. You could compare just the server logs before and after the change to measure some changes, but remember the numbers will not be very accurate or useful in comparison to what is provided by systems such as Google Analytics.

Start time (local): 09/01/07 at 02:00 am

End time (local): 09/01/07 at 03:00 am

Expected Outage/Downtime: 1 hour downtime

The purpose of this work is to upgrade internal network capacity as well as add redundancy in our network. During this maintenance window, you will experience one or more brief interruptions in service while we complete the maintenance activities; the interruptions are expected to last less than 1 hour downtime total. However, due to the complexity of the work, your downtime may be longer.

Our network operations engineers closely monitor the work and will do everything possible to minimize any inconvenience to you. If you have any problems with your connection after this time, or if you have any questions regarding the maintenance at any point, please feel free to email us or call us at 715-550-0001.

We appreciate your patience during this work and welcome any feedback.

For those still awaiting the official release of our proprietary real estate website solution I regret to inform that the wait is not over. The system is still in the works. On the plus side, I have learned a great deal over the last year of what should and should not be included in both the front end and admin sections from researching existing real estate websites, working with open-realty, and importing listings from several MLS databases. So, the delay will directly translate into a more robust solution.

The focus for our system will be ease of use for the site visitor and complete automation of imports from the MLS after the initial setup. The initial plan of migrating our existing clients websites over to the new system once complete is still in effect.

Until that time, real estate websites will remain my personal obsession.

About the Author

Dustin J. Czysz is the founder and president of Dynamic Digital Media, LLC. He has been developing Internet solutions for over 10 years.
dustin@ddmdata.com

Stats

The server is running 2GB DDR2-667 RAM, 2 320GB SATA hard drives on Intel E6420 Core 2 Duo CPU.

Our Network

We are located in Equinix datacenter and have redundant connections to major backbones like Savvis, nLayer, BTN, ServerCentral, Aleron, and NAC.

Support

The server is managed 24/7 by a team of network administrators. In addition, the server is pinged every 10 minutes. If any outages occur an email is immediately sent notifying the support team and a text message is sent to our president’s mobile phone.

What this means to our clients

Put simply, faster websites

Questions

If you have any questions you can email us at info@ddmdata.com