This forum post is for Zarconia Web Hosting. Please feel free to post any questions or host support related issues here. If you are a client of Zarconia, please submit a ticket at the website.

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After what happened earlier this month, Andrew gave his opinion that smaller hosts are unreliable and shouldn't be used. We disagree. In that topic, Nathan outlined what a host should be, and what it shouldn't. A host should be trustworthy - as open and transparent as possible - and remain lean and competitive. And so we came together and decided to prove Andrew wrong, and put our money and skills were our mouths are. And that end-result is Zarconia - a new hosting operation that was founded by the community, and is entirely for the community.

And so we decided that shared should be as optimized as possible and have RMS available for those who need it. To allow anyone to kick-start Dolphin on an optimized server without the investment needed for a dedicated or VPS. Install, build, and start to grow until you're ready to make the switch.

Furthermore, dedicated shouldn't have insane mark-ups. We should make it as low as we can, and offer bonuses like Plesk for 10 domains standard and a dedicated control panel to perform advanced operations (e.g., restore, recover, DNS, etc.). Basically, whatever savings we can find are passed on.

And so we concocted the following:

• Shared from $8.00/month
• Dedicated from $49.00/month

You read that right. We're offering dedicated servers for $49.00/month. All dedicated servers come stock with Plesk for 10 domains and access to our dedicated control panel, which allows you to reboot, restore, recover, and more - all without the need for SSH or support tickets. And for those who want the more familiar experience, we also have cPanel available - and we'll optimize any cPanel server for Dolphin at no cost. We hope to optimize Plesk servers as well.

And our shared is already optimized for Dolphin. We followed the BoonEx requirements and recommended server documents, and came up with a server that has:

• CloudLinux
• PHP as FastCGI
• PHP 5.2 with security backports
• eAccelerator
• memory_limit = 128M
• magic_quotes_gpc = Off

What this means is anyone can start a Dolphin site and build it for as little as $8.00/month. And for those who need it, we also have RMS available for as low as $2.00/month - and it's a free bonus on our Z200 shared plan. Developers should have an optimized playground to code and offer demos on, and enthusiasts should have a platform to kick-start their site with minimal investment.

Zarconia doesn't exist to line our pockets. It's much like a non-profit organization - we want to provide a service to the community, and we don't intend to mark-up our servers or use bait-and-switch tactics. All we want to do is break even, and with our costs as low as they are, that means only a handful of users on shared can make that happen. So feel free to make the switch and try out our shared or dedicated for 30 days. We back our commitment for excellent service with a money-back guarantee, so there's no risk involved.

Yes, it's me.  Hello.  I've teamed-up with Chris here so we can offer hosting that's tailored for Dolphin.  What's different is how the operation is run and what we offer.  For example, I'm excited to be able to offer dedicated at $49.00/month, and I hope the occasional sale can lower that further.  I'll be around to answer questions and offer support, and I'm sure Chris can help out after he's done with his beer.

very appealing. I'll really need to look into you guys. What payment methods?

We accept only PayPal at the moment.  We're open to other options, but that should handle it for most folks.

What, if any, are your mail restrictions? is SMTP allowed on a dedicated machine?

For shared, there are currently no software limits we set for sending emails.  However, this may change if we notice abuse.  Since it's a dedicated server, you have full control over the software on there.

Will you install and tune any OS to dolphin on a dedicated server, such as Debian? And I'm assuming all the CPU's are 64 bit? As well... does dedicated server have the option to use the RMS you have available?

You can reinstall the server with CentOS, Debian, or Ubuntu.  All CPUs are AMD64.

We optimize any cPanel server for Dolphin at no extra cost, but the most we can do for Plesk at the moment is PHP and MySQL tweaks.  You can have that done for no extra cost as well, but it's not as comprehensive as with cPanel.

RMS is not available for dedicated, but you can install it yourself quite easily.  We can always help with any questions or issues involving the setup.

I can't just have a bare bones Debian install? No cPanel, no Plesk... (sorry I don't really know what Plesk is)

Sure.  We setup the server with CentOS and Plesk (or cPanel), but you can always restore the server.  If you want, I can have the server setup with a minimal Debian install.

The price is very appealing but I would be worried.

As a businessman of nearly 35 years, I've learned a lot about being in business and running a business.  the small guy is great for fixing your toilet or buying a used car from but in matters of performance over the long haul, the bigger companies are more stable and more likely to still be there many years into a project.

Now I'm not trying to pee on everyone's Wheaties, in fact, nothing could be farther from the truth but lets face it, what happens Zarcon (god forbid) that some life changing event happens to you and you can't manage the servers anymore or your team (for whatever reason) implodes on itself or worse yet, many sign but not quite enough to make a go of it financially?

This would be a great program for the beginning Dolphin users looking for someone to help them get started and learn what it's all about but I think there would need to be consideration about at what point a particularly successful site would need to consider their safety on a smaller server as compared to a larger farm with a long standing successful track record.

On the server side.... There's a reason Ded's cost more. At $49, I would be concerned that you may well become a victim of your own success ending up with more people wanting Deds than your server setup can handle.

I know you here and have nothing but the utmost faith in your abilities and I will give my kudos to anyone joining your farm, especially the beginners. I also think it might also be a good idea to answer some of my concerns here to give us all a better idea of what your full intentions are.

To be clear - none of what we offer cost more than what we sell them for.  So if someone orders a dedicated server, it's paid for until the next due date.  And if a server type becomes unavailable in either data centers, a notice is made and either the ETA is increased or the product is temporarily removed from sale until the stock returns.  And in case for some reason a server can't be ordered, the client would have their full payment refunded or the chance to switch-out their order for something else (and either pay the difference or receive a partial refund or credit).

I understand Root Baron and John caused a lot of distrust, but to be clear, this isn't Root Baron.  It's not a business in that we have to make a lot of money or else we're done.  This isn't Chris' main source of income (or at all - all he wants is for the everything to pay for itself, and that's automatic with dedicated), nor is it mine.  I think that is an important part of this.

In the unfortunate event neither of us could continue Zarconia, you would not be met with a dead site and no emails.  No, that would be unacceptable.  You would instead be told in advance 1) what is happening and 2) what you should do.  Because this isn't run for a profit, there's no reason for either of us to hold onto clients until the end.

I'm more than happy to explain how the finances are divided. 

Ok I just signed up. I am interested to see how this works! CPanel please.

All the best,

Stuart038

I see the report.  Your service will be provisioned shortly after a quick reboot to resolved a server update.

I see the order.  Your service will be provisioned shortly.

Heads up, due to a needed fix, the Zarconia site will be unavailable for roughly several minutes.  It will then be back up.  All services not provisioned will be once the site returns.

I have about 8 licenses, I am trying to update one re my new web site, I cannot. All it does is show me the details....

Do you mean from Unity?  You should be able to click on the license's domain, which will open a new display that includes a reset button.   If not, a ticket to BoonEx may be required, since neither I, nor any moderator, have that kind of access.

Yep, did a reset re my existing domain and now I cannot do anything else. I will submit a support ticket!

 Hey Stuart, If you are wanting to re-register a new Dolphin website (new domain) to a license, then once you have reset the license as you did, you will need to install Dolphin on the new domain. Once installed, enter the license you want to register from there and click submit. You new domain should show up on your license once it validates to the Boonex servers.

Try reloading the page.  It should say "unregistered" if it was reset or new.  In that case, you should be able to add it to any Dolphin site.  Just remember you need to:

1. Remove the current license from Administration -> Advanced Settings -> Variables
2. Clear the cache
3. Logout
4. Login to the administration panel and enter the new license when asked

That should do the trick.  Man, it's been a while since I typed that.

Ok, waiting on you guys for my new domain login etc. details!

On another note, if I read Nathon's post correctly, you guys are not making any money on this (everything at cost). that bothers me...

I think you should make a couple of bucks for your time so instead of US$8 and US$12 you should charge 10 and 14 accordingly.

Stuart

 Did all of that...

Well, we do make a little money off this venture, but most is meant to be used to keep services online.

You were sent an email with your cPanel login a little while ago.  In case that's missing, you can view your emails from your account over at Zarconia.

To be clear on that, we are making a couple bucks. We are just not trying to kill anyone's wallet. As stated previously, this is NOT my main source of income nor is Nathan trying to become a millionaire. My current job pays me just fine. This is just another way for us to give back to the BoonEx Community.

@SkyForum - I know that Nathan replied to your topic, but I would also like the chance to address your concerns as well.

First off I would like to thank you for your support/backing on Zarconia. You mentioned a couple of legitimate concerns that I wanted to explain a little further.

1. As a businessman of nearly 35 years, I've learned a lot about being in business and running a business.  the small guy is great for fixing your toilet or buying a used car from but in matters of performance over the long haul, the bigger companies are more stable and more likely to still be there many years into a project. I too have ran my own business before and have been employed by some of the biggest companies in the world (IBM, Microsoft, etc. ). By no means is that bragging but I also have a very good concept as to what makes a business work. Regarding the 'small guy' analogy, every business starts as a 'small' business. That guy that fixes your toilet may seem small to some, but your toilet may be just 1 of thousands he fixes every year. So does that still make him 'small' ?

2. Now I'm not trying to pee on everyone's Wheaties, in fact, nothing could be farther from the truth but lets face it, what happens Zarcon (god forbid) that some life changing event happens to you and you can't manage the servers anymore or your team (for whatever reason) implodes on itself or worse yet, many sign but not quite enough to make a go of it financially? Well I am definitely not ready to 'check-out' yet. At 40yrs old, I hope that I still have quite a few years ahead of me :) However, in the (God forbid) event where it was completely impossible to carry on with Zarconia, as Nathan stated, we would be sure to notify our clients of any upcoming changes in order to make sure they had ample time to make the necessary transitions.

 3. On the server side.... There's a reason Ded's cost more. At $49, I would be concerned that you may well become a victim of your own success ending up with more people wanting Deds than your server setup can handle. I may be overlooking the comment here, but when it comes to dedicated servers, there is no 'your server setup can handle'. Each dedicated server is its own. The only way a dedicated server wouldn't be able to handle something is if the person who purchased it overloaded it somehow. Even then, it would not have an effect on Zarconia, just them.

Again, I would like to thank you for your comments and legitimate concerns and I hope I addressed them appropriately. Who knows, maybe one day you just may give us a shot and see for yourself :)

It would be wise of you guys to go into more detail about what your value added services are as a reseller.  In other words, what advantages are there by dealing with you guys, as opposed to dealing directly with the hosting provider you are a reseller for? 

 Sure thing!

One of the things that separates us from other hosting providers is our years of relationship with the BoonEx community. A lot of people do not want the hassles and/or costs involved with hosting. Most people just want an affordable, reliable, supportive host where they can upload their Dolphin site and go. Zarconia is committed to offering just that.

Of course, anyone can go out and get whatever hosting they want, wherever they want. As stated in the post, some are more comfortable with only hosting with 'bag name' companies and that's fine. What Zarconia is offering is same hosting available at any other 'big name' company at an affordable price (if not better).

Another thing that separates us is.. Zarconia is only advertised here at BoonEx. We meant it in the first post where we said "a new hosting operation that was founded by the community, and is entirely for the community."We are not out to take over the world of hosting, we are just giving the people of BoonEx another option...

looks very interesting. 

I can vouch for Nathan giving great support and being very helpful with Dolphin issues...

 RE:

 Nice sales pitch, but you didn't answer the question, so let me ask it more directly.  You resell hosting at a marked up monthly price.  Other than the initial server configuration, which involves general server setup, and a few changes to php.ini, what do customers get for that monthly markup in terms of service? 

@HL - Glad ya like it.. I though it up myself :)

So a more direct answer to your more direct question here is what you get for the price:

When it comes to 'customer service', we offer our customers:

- Access to our ticketing system for questions or issues

- Assistance in troubleshooting server setups (dedicated)

- Free server optimization for dedicate server clients (requires cPanel)

- Assistance in helping with Dolphin related issues (shared or dedicated)

- Response times within 24 hours

- Multiple levels of communication

- 99% Uptime (excluding planned outages)

- Professional and Courteous at all times

- 30 day money back gaurantee 

- And a cookie (sent via email)

Just to name a few..

As for the 'Hosting Service', its best to visit the site to see what all you get. Too much to list here. But here is a very small snippet:

Shared Hosting:

- Power servers configured with CloudLinux for better stability and efficiency

- eAccelerator for reducing the server loads and improving speed of PHP

- RMS

Dedicated Hosting:

- Choice of 3 power server setups

- Free Plesk for up to 10 domains or a choice to purchase cPanel

- Choice between a USA or Europe location

If I still missed it, let me know.

I'm not asking all this for myself, just so you know.  I can understand dealing through a reseller for shared hosting, because there's no other option.  I quite honestly don't know why anyone would go through a reseller for dedicated hosting, unless it added some tangible value to do so.... recent events have caused me to feel quite strongly about this point.  Tangible meaning things like weekly site backups, or a restore from backup.

Quite frankly HL, the prices they are offering will beat pretty much anything you can find and for dedicated service, IMO, the only thing one should expect is uptime and connectivity. If you need a babysitter for your dedicated server go pay for it. With what they're saying they'll do, they're already going way beyond what they should be for the prices. Exceptional value. I'll be switching. I can get twice the machine for the same price and better services from Zarconia (unlimited BW and the ability to run SMTP) .

Anyway, I feel your needlessly digging at them, especially since you say it's not for you.

 RE:

 I could prove you full of **** on every single one of these points, but I will respect the fact that these guys are just trying to make a few bucks, and refrain from doing so.   Being well informed is a wonderful thing:)

Digging them?  I only asked a question that any well informed person should ask..... it's called prudent business. 

@HL, I appreciate your restraint for being well informed. I know those questions weren't specifically for you as I am well informed too :)

@Crack_foo - We surely appreciate your comments and hope to see you soon.

We do not mind questions being asked or concerns being pointed out. We are here to answer any question anyone may have. Let's remember that this topic was created for that specific reason. We want people to know what we have to offer and why. Some may view them as positive while others see them as negative. To us, we see them as 'inquiring minds want to know'.

Well, I for one will be subscribing tothis post and watching it closely.... The way I see it you guys couldnt be any worse than HFW lol. In fact, there are plankton in the Pacific that could run things better than HFW, but thats another story.

If things appear stable for your users over then next month or so and if I can learn enough not to have to be babysat, then I will also make the move to one of your shiny new dedicated.

 Hey DRautenbach,

I think that was a compliment..

I definitely intend to keep things going to the best of our ability. Even right now, we have made the decision to take our shared hosting to a new platform doubled in size, speed, and capacity. We wanna Rock Dolphin like it's never been Rocked before!! (faster, faster, faster)..

We can surely take care of getting you into a shiny new dedicated server. We hope to be adding more dedicated options very soon too. And don't worry, If you need help or have some questions, we are here to help you. Not too sure on the babysitting part though :)

Due to requests for additional payment options, we have decided to implement Google Checkout along with PayPal. We believe that these solutions together should cover the broadest of all countries and currencies for everyone.

Google Checkout is NOW AVAILABLE for those who cannot use PayPal!

I tend to agree with the HFW comment. having said that, I have one more question.

I have some 40-odd domain names. Are you providing me an interface to manage those? Some I use, mostly I just hoard the rest. Currently HFW has an absolutely abysmal interface for domain management.

We've looked into this a bit.  Domains aren't one of our services at the moment, but we may use eNom with WHMCS to make domains a breeze for clients.  I don't think this will be implemented until after Google Checkout is done, but I'll update this topic when that happens.

Dedicated currently includes Plesk and a control panel which does include FTP backup options.  I hope to make that better than it is now.  I don't care much for extra service fees, so feel free to ask me for help with the server, and I'll see what I can do.  Plesk servers do have some PHP and MySQL tweaks at the moment, but the best experience for dedicated out-of-the-box requires cPanel.

We don't increase the fees on dedicated much because we don't care much about that - dedicated automatically breaks even when ordered.  What matters for us more is shared, but the old server broke even immediately, and the new one should also break even soon.  We decided that Dolphin does need a better server and a better connection state-side.  And since we also use the server, it's not much of a business expense (the business expense would be the CloudLinux license).

I suppose I could move them to godaddy or sumthin. Doesn't much matter who handles the domain names. Just thought it might be another revenue stream

Good!

Well, when I said that "small guy" hosting is not a good idea I was mostly suggesting that it's more risky than dealing with a larger company. Clients have to rely heavily on just a few people, and even the best people sometimes fail. 

With that said, I must admit that if I were to trust my Dolphin-based site hosting to the "guys next door", then Zarcon and Nathan would be the best possible pick. Also, we owe both guys a lot for being supportive and helpful for many many years now.

We are looking forward to the future growth of your service, and possible partnership deal with BoonEx. There is definitely space for good hosting service specialising in Dolphin. Hope you'd grow soon to lose that small-guy risk factor. 

Good luck! 

 I, and surely Nathan, definitely thank you for the kinds words Andrew. We are hoping that our services do nothing but grow and improve from here. We have already started building our client base better than expected. With the additions and improvements we are planning and/or have already put into place, we expect nothing more than the best experience for our current and future clients.

Maybe we can get to that partnership level with BoonEx soon! :)

 Hey Skyforum; You can try this site for Domains; www.9XDomains.com

Zarconia helped me move over to their servers and I am very pleased.

Excellent service and certainly a great product. I have only been them for a few days but I am already very comfortable with this hosting company.

They helped me in every which way. Chris & Nathan took care of it all and answered all my questions. So far I am a believer.

I think sometimes staying small allows you to provide a better and more professional product/service. Stay strong.

Thank you.

 Hmm. Not too bad...... I had domain names everywhere. I just spent weeks consolidating them all into one place.

Let's do this. I am waiting for 7.1. Once it pops, I am building a fresh new copy of my original site - TowTalk.net - Maybe I'll build it with you and see how it goes....

 Hey Skyforum, sounds good to me. In the mean time pass it around please.It certainly would be appreciated.

Apparently our site now redirects to HTTPS and Google Checkout is a payment option.  I have no idea how this happened.

Yes, and many times I cannot get to your site, says not found or something silly. I would seriously look into this.

When did this last happen?  Our site may have been unavailable for a short moment during the SSL install (it switched to a dedicated IP address), but it's been up.

The last couple of days, even last night, I had to come to this forum and click on your link to get to your site. Just bizarre.

I mean how hard is it to enter www.Zarconia.net

Thanks

If the link in our topic works, I don't understand how entering "zarconia.net" into your address bar doesn't.  Let me know if that happens again.

 Exactly. It has happened a few times prior to yesterday. if it occurs again I will inform you.

 Just an interjection of what I found in your links from here and direct entry into the address bar.

• if you enter "www.zarconia.net" you get 'http://www.zarconia.net"
• if you enter zarconia.net you get "https://www.zarconia.net/"

not sure why that is.. or if it matters.

Must have missed a rewrite rule - I'll update it shortly.

You all need to look at what has been happening with the Frankenstorm on the east coast of the US. Even our credit card processing company (Sage) went down for several days. I suspect there was some serious outages that would have ramifications pretty much world wide....

We first introduced an economical lineup of fairly modest and incredibly low-cost servers when Zarconia launched last month.  But now it's time to roll-out the red carpet for our new line of dedicated - the ZX series!  The ZX series is double the horsepower of our classic dedicated line while still remaining a low-cost choice.  Here's the kind of specs to expect:

• AMD Opteron™ 3280, 8 Cores (Yes, that's 8 cores!)
• 16 GB DDR3-RAM
• 2x 2 TB SATA II-HDD, 7.2k RPM

All starting for the low cost of $119.00/month.  Plesk still included. (Whose idea was this again?)

But we don't want to spend all our time discussing our new servers.  We also wanted to announce that our non-existent scientists have concluded that November and December are next to each other on our seasonal calendars.  So in honor of this duo of the holiday season, we decided to do something special. When you sign up at Zarconia starting November 1st - December 31st you:

• Save 25% on the first month of shared hosting with the code STURKEY
• Eradicate the setup fee on dedicated hosting with the code DTURKEY

After careful consideration, we elected not to use the codes SGOOSE and DGOOSE for December, because both look completely ridiculous.

In case you didn't see it in the above post, we now accept Google Checkout for those who cannot use PayPal. This should cover pretty much every place in the world.

A special thanks to all of our BoonEx community members that have already joined the Zarconia team!!

YIPPEEEE To Zarconia. I vouch for them. Amazing service and fantastic products. Even my members are extremely happy.

Superb and professional support. I wish them nothing but the best and lots of success. These guys actually care about their clients.

Cannot load your site, same problem again. Thought I would advise you

Site loads fine here.  Your site loads fine, right?

 I mean your site. The Hosting is fabulous, no issues there. I just think something to do with the Domain or redirect or something.

Can you load the site at this moment?

 Yep, all good now. Quick too.

The site has been up the entire time.  I don't see any issues in the system logs.  What's the exact error message?

 Just says it cannot be found. it is all ok now. It was almost as if the domain was never registered

I can understand this happening if you were trying to access zarconia.com - we don't own that domain.

i must have entered zarconia.com rather then net. Yep, operator error AGAIN!