I'll keep publishing

Well after years using multi-protocol chat programs like Adium to access my Hotmail, Yahoo!, .Mac and Jabber accounts I’ve made the switch to a ‘pure’ XMPP (Jabber) chat client. At the moment that’s Psi as it’s multi-platform running on Mac, Windows and Linux.  I’ll be recommending it to clients when they sign up to our new hosted XMPP service ClearIM.

So you’re wondering if I’ve ditched my buddies on networks like MSN and Yahoo!, well no I haven’t. That’s because I’m using the Cleartext ClearIM service public IM gateways to connect to the ‘legacy’ networks that the big brands are still running. This means all my chat, whatever network it’s coming from or going to, is being routed via ClearIM, it’s being archived as well, online, isn’t that neat

With multi-protocol desktop clients you don’t get the benefit of single ‘pipe’ for IM that can add processes like archiving or content filtering, you’re tied to a desktop solution. This also means that I can run XMPP software like ProcessOne’s OneTeam on my iPhone, no need for a multi-protocol app or multiple apps to handle all my buddies when I’m mobile.

If you’re interested in how all this works or how you can get a similar setup contact me via the Cleartext web site or leave a comment here.

At Cleartext we’ve been using the @Mail platform from Calacode, chosen because they are an Australian company (so there’s local support.. cough) and because their platform is in use by lot’s of ISP types, like iiNet. @Mail has been very reliable, is easy to use and looks good. However we need to move on, with additional services, and Calacode aren’t moving on as quickly as we’d hoped so I’ve been looking around for new platforms. Read more…

I’ve been looking for a VPS solution that offers 2Gb or more for a while now, and Slicehost have something that may run Clearspace!

I used to wonder why companies would want to archive their email externally, given they’d almost certainly be charged a premium. That is until I got a call from a client needing help ‘fixing’ a tape archive that wasn’t restoring.

Of course, it’s all about media rotation, or not having to do it. Hosted archiving not only removes the tedium of having to backup and restore email archives, it removes the need to continually refresh the media archives are stored on.

We all know how difficult it is to find a floppy disk drive now, imagine digging out a 5 year old tape and wondering if there’s still a working rape drive to match!

No it makes sense, let your service provider handle the data and worry about backup, restore and media rotation. Just make sure the service is secure and that the search and retrieval works well.

My previous post has prompted me to drop this post in from the new Cleartext Systems web site, which isn’t live yet. (will be by the end of the week).

We’ve (Cleartext via Cool Bananas) been a NetRegistry reseller for many years and recently started using Media Temple in the USA for customers asking for virtual servers. Recently customers have been asking about offshore hosting.

When should I use Australian hosting?

Australian hosting is fine for most companies hosting requirements, if you’re a typical Australian small to medium business then any of the myriad of hosting companies can provide enough storage and data at a reasonable cost. We recommend NetRegistry because they are reliable and provide excellent customer support even if their plans aren’t the cheapest.

Why use offshore hosting?

If you’ve been watching the news you may have realised that Australia is ‘broadband challenged’, the cost of internet connections and the amount of data (stuff you can download) is far more (and far less respectively) than you can get from US based hosting companies.

This becomes an issue when you want to deliver rich media content like audio and video via your web site or web based application. Most Australian based hosting plans just don’t offer enough disk space and data transfer at reasonable price points. This is when you should consider US based hosting.

What is hybrid hosting?

We’ve coined a new phrase, “Hybrid Hosting”, this is a hosting setup where your main web hosting is based in Australia, probably because your primary audience is in Australia, but rich media hosting is offshore, typically in the USA.

This setup has several advantages;

• It keeps your web site ‘local’ and always available in the event that Australia suffers a ‘disconnect’ from the rest of the world. This is rare, but has happened.
• It keeps costs down by allowing you to select a hosting plan from an Australian provider for your web pages and then store your rich media content on a comparatively cheaper host with lots of space and data in the USA.
• Any outage in international connectivity only effects your rich media (audio and video) not the main web site pages.

This approach produces some interesting options for organisations moving into Web 2.0 with all the things that entails, RSS, Podcasts, streaming video and audio.If you’d like to discuss hosting then please give us a call with your web site requirements and we’ll work out a reasonably priced, reliable hosting solution for you.

Whilst looking for stats on broadband I went to the OECD Broadband Portal and spent an hour getting depressed by reading the various reports, snippets like this aren’t good reading if you live in Australia!;

Prevalence of explicit bit/data caps among surveyed offers, by country.
Australia was one of four countries with 0% of plans with ‘No explicit bit cap’, the USA was one of 10 countries with 100% of plans with no explicit bit cap.
(OECD Broadband Statistics, October 2007.)

Average broadband monthly price per advertised Mbits/s in USD.

Australia was $21.34 compared to the USA at $12.60, in a range from $3.09(Japan) to $97.43(Turkey).
(OECD Broadband Statistics, October 2007.)

I’m finally retiring the 6 year old Mac G4’s that have been hosting for friends and family. They run OSX Server but as Apple piles on the upgrades, updates and fixes they’ve been getting slower and slower to the point where they’re just not good enough to serve web sites any more. Read more…

And while I was looking for Flex related content I found Slingshot another excellent idea for deploying desktop apps. This one is a bit like Google Gears allowing browers apps to run offline.

I’m re-organising my servers and have to make some hard decisions about what hardware and OS’ to use for various applications, what to run myself and what to move to virtual or dedicated hosting. I’ll update this post when I’ve worked out what to do. Read more…