Network Structure
We pride ourselves on excellent Web Server
and email availability, security, and responsiveness! Here's how we do it:
To bring you the best service we use BGP-4 routing in our connections to our
major providers. This provides fault tolerant routing, and best path selection
for your web traffic, i.e. someone visiting your site from California might be
routed via SPRINT. A visitor from Europe could be routed via AT&T. If there is
a failure in our connection to either provider, the traffic is automatically
rerouted to prefer the other providers network!
We also give you the tools necessary to monitor our performance. You can
check general performance at our Network
Response report, update hourly. If you are having connectivity problems we
supply the interactive tools necessary to isolate the problem, just try our Net
Check Wizard.
Some info on our providers:
- AT&T - One of the
largest providers in the world. From our network center
you are only ONE hop away from the Internet Backbone!
- SPRINT - They are another worldwide
provider of excellent Internet Service!
This is an important part of any Internet Service. Some points we
like to emphasize are:
- We examine/block traffic attempting to access our network for only
approved access.
- Adaptive firewall software looks for unusual activity, automatically
protects, and alerts staff.
- Security fixes/patches are applied in a timely manner and we use the RedHat
Network to keep current.
- Internally we use best practices regarding your
passwords. We also closely monitor subscriber activity to note any
unusual command usage. Our web site control panel allows you to both
check & set security permissions on your files.
We are happy with the price/performance balance we have achieved in our
equipment! But any server can be bogged down when it is used to host
high-traffic domains -- at the TheBook we load-balance to insure our machines average
no more than 50% CPU utilization. Our multiple data links are also run at no more than 50% of capacity (before a new link is
added).
- Everyone one of our web servers is at least a dual Intel Xeon processor
machine with at
least three gigabytes of memory.
- Each of the machines is ULTRA-320 SCSI architecture for rapid disk access and
expandability -- all servers are running Seagate 15,000 RPM disks.
- Each of the machines runs the RedHat Linux
operating system. These have proven to be reliable, and high performance
platforms for Web Servers.
- Tape backups are done daily and data is also mirrored to spare servers.
- Redundant power comes from emergency UPS units and also a Natural Gas
powered generator located at our facility that could provide electricity for
days.
This is probably one of the most bothersome issues for all Internet
users. We do perform SPAM filtering at the our
servers and also give you control over the amount of filtering done for your
domain.
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