NetLink IT Services

Datacenter Outage

2009-07-03T21:37:00.002+01:00

A datacenter where one of our primary DNS services is being hosted has reported some outages due to electrical faults caused by a fire.

The outage is affecting some DNS services, mainly URL forwarding.

We are currently trying to reroute traffic to an alternative datacenter and hope to have any issues resolved as soon as possible.

Fantastico Unavailable (Resolved)

2009-05-04T07:05:00.005+01:00

Fantastico De Luxe is currently unavailable on our cPanel server, ECHO, due to an issue with the installer. We are working on this problem, and will hopefully have Fantastico up and running again within a day or two. In the meantime, please feel free to contact support if you require assistance with anything.

[UPDATE 04/05/2009 19:00 GMT]

Fantastico is now functional again.

Wordpress themes infected with Trojans

2009-04-22T22:05:00.004+01:00

We have discovered that some free Wordpress themes offered on the Web are infected with Trojans. This means that when downloading and installing such a theme, the Trojan is automatically installed with it.

The Trojan discovered earlier today, which was found hidden inside the theme named "Eco-blog" and hosted at http://www.zizapixel.com/wp-themes/eco-blog-theme.html, had following signatures:

PHP.RSTBackdoor (Symantec)
Trojan.Shell-2 (ClamAV)

When installing the theme mentioned above, this backdoor PHP shell will install itself to:

wp-content/themes/eco-blog/function.php

We advise everyone to do a virus scan on any Wordpress themes not downloaded from a reputable source before uploading and installing such theme.

DoS Attack (Resolved)

2009-04-10T19:40:00.005+01:00

Earlier today, we had a DoS (Denial of Service) attack on one of our networks. The attack affected two of our servers - ALPHA and BRAVO.

Security measures were taken to block the attacks, and we are happy to inform our clients that the network is back in operation since shortly after 18:00 +0000 DST.

Server Migration

2009-03-21T18:56:00.005Z

In the next 2-3 weeks we will be migrating our Fedora server CL-T090-550CL to a new CentOS server. This migration is scheduled to start some time next week. The new server features a much more stable OS and a higher performing dual core processor.

We kindly ask all our clients on this server to download backups of their account data as well as database dumps as the old server will be taken offline once the migration has been completed.

[UPDATE 2009-03-31]

Our new CentOS server "ECHO" is now live. Please stand by for transfer of accounts. Do not hesitate to contact us should you have any questions.

Server Downtime (Resolved)

2009-03-21T16:43:00.006Z

Our Confixx server ALPHA is currently offline due to server maintenance being carried out. Unfortunately this downtime was unavoidable, but we are doing our best to get it back up asap. We apologize for the inconvenience.

UPDATE: due to an unforseen widescale power failure at the data center, the server downtime will be slightly prolonged. Technicians are currently working on this issue. Backup power is in operation and not all servers are affected.

Mail Server Problems (RESOLVED)

2009-01-12T17:19:00.003Z

We have had a few reports today about emails not being received on mail.netlink.ie. Technicians are looking into this now and we will do our best to resolve this as soon as possible.

[UPDATE]: This issue has now been resolved and held messages in the mail queue have been released for delivery.

Server Maintenance

2008-08-24T18:49:00.001+01:00

On the 25/08/2008 we will be doing some maintenance on the server at 195.137.213.66. Customers on this server may experience some downtime between 18:00 and 21:00 GMT. We apologize for any inconvenience.

E-mail will NOT be affected.

Server Upgrade [postponed]

2008-05-24T15:24:00.005+01:00

An OS upgrade is being planned for CL-T090-550CL. The upgrade will involve a complete re-installation. It will therefore be necessary to backup any important files on the server. We will do our best to fully restore all cPanel accounts once the upgrade is complete, however, it is advised that clients download a copy of their backups as a precaution. During the upgrade there will be 2-4 hours downtime.

Please check back regularly for updates.

[UPDATE: 2008-05-28]

The new operating system we are installing is CentOS. This will replace the currently installed Fedora Core 6, which has become outdated and is no longer maintained or supported by its developers. CentOS is more stable and, in our opinion, a better choice for a production server environment.

The maintenance is currently being planned. Once it has been scheduled, we will copy a complete backup of all cPanel accounts, which we will use to restore your accounts after the installation. This means that any changes to your account AFTER the backup has been downloaded will be lost after the installation. We therefore recommend that you download a copy of your own account (and your customers' accounts) about an hour before the scheduled maintenance. It is also advisable to download SQL dumps of your databases as SQL dumps can often become corrupt while moving data around.

Server Software Upgrade

2008-05-23T14:18:00.004+01:00

The web server on CL-T090-550CL has been upgraded to
Apache 2.2. The MySQL server will be upgraded to 5.x in the next couple of days, so we would like to ask all our clients on this server to make backups of important MySQL tables and data.

DoS Attack (Resolved)

2008-04-26T19:56:00.002+01:00

Over the last few days, our server CL-T090-550CL has been subject to a DoS (Denial of Service) attack. During this time you may have noticed that HTTP connections where slow or timing out. We are happy to announce that our server administrators have now resolved this problem and the attacking IP addresses are now being blocked by our firewall.

About 90% of the attacks originated from networks located in Turkey.

Server Maintenance (Resolved)

2008-03-21T14:46:00.006Z

Throughout the next few days, one of our servers, CL-T090-550CL, will be subject to some routine maintenance. This maintenance will include a RAM upgrade, and hence the server may become unavailable for short periods during this time. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

UPDATE 24-03-2008 18:50 GMT:

All maintenance has been completed and the new RAM has been installed.

Server Downtime (Resolved)

2008-02-29T12:11:00.006Z

We had to temporarily switch off one of our servers [CL-T090-550CL] to carry out necessary maintenance work. We assure you that we will have it back online as soon as possible. We thank you for your understanding and apologize for any inconveniences.

UPDATE:

As of 2008-02-29 12:49 GMT the server is back and operational again.

Server Downtime (Resolved)

2008-02-21T13:41:00.005Z

We are currently experiencing some network problems with affecting our servers at 195.137.213.66 and 195.137.213.94. Technicians are working on this issue and the network will be restored as soon as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience.

UPDATE [2008-02-21 13:52 GMT] :

All services have been restored.

Server Downtime (Resolved)

2007-10-16T20:42:00.000+01:00

Two of our servers are currently down, including the server at netlink.ie and one of our secondary servers. The problem is network related and has nothing to do with the actual servers. Technicians are working on the issue.

The servers went down at 2007-10-16 19:57 GMT, and the downtime affects all services including mail. Mail, however will be delivered once the server is back up.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

UPDATE [2007-10-16 21:30 GMT] :

All services are up and running again.

Mail Server Maintenance

2007-10-11T20:35:00.000+01:00

Today, 2007-11-10 between 20:30 GMT and 22:00 GMT, we will be carrying out maintenance to one of our mail servers, mail.netlink.ie. During this time, we may need to stop the server. If you experience any difficulty in sending or receiving mail during this period, we kindly ask you to be patient and apologize for any inconvenience. If you experience difficulty in sending or receiving mail after this period, please contact support to report any issues.

The maintenance carried out today will aid in our fight against spam.

IMPORTANT: Server Upgrade

2007-09-28T21:38:00.000+01:00

This announcement is for all our cPanel hosting customers.

We are going to be migrating to a more powerful server this week coming. The new server will have an Intel Pentium E Dual-Core processor, double the memory and double the storage capacity. This is to give you more power, more security, and to cater for our growing customer base.

We kindly ask our resellers to be on stand by for this migration in case of issues that may arise from this move. A change in IP addresses may be possible. We will be keeping you updated with announcements throughout the migration process. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

[UPDATE 2007-10-03] IMPORTANT!

All accounts have now been moved to the new server. The primary IP address of the server has changed to 72.55.179.42. Any customers using their own nameservers should change the A records to this new IP address. Also, if using branded nameservers, the new IP address should be registers for the primary NS via your domain registrar.

IMPORTANT: Please note that the old server will remain up for approximately 7 days before accounts will be removed from it. It is therefore important to check your accounts on the new server to make sure everything has been transferred correctly. If you find that there was a problem with the transfer, we would be more than happy to restore the latest backup for you.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions.

Server Downtime (Resolved)

2007-09-25T20:57:00.000+01:00

2007-09-25 20:57:39 GMT

Our servers at 195.137.213.66 and 195.137.213.94 are currently down. The issue is network related and not a direct server problem. Technicians at the data center are currently working to resolve the issue.

Services affected by this downtime include mail and web server. However, customers using the local mail server will not lose any mail. Any existing mail should get delivered as soon as the server comes back up.

We apologize for any inconveniences.

UPDATE [2007-09-25 22:28 GMT]

The issue has been resolved and services are up and running again.

Server Downtime (Resolved)

2007-09-10T03:10:00.000+01:00

Due to some technical issues, our server at cl-t061-091cl.netlink.ie is currently down. We are aware of this problem and have a team working on it. We hope to have the server back up asap.

[UPDATE 2007-09-10 03:45 GMT]

The server is back online. There was a problem with one of the switches the server is connected to, and the issue has now been resolved.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Deprecated php.ini directive

2007-08-24T04:27:00.000+01:00

The directive allow_call_time_pass_reference is deprecated in PHP5, and will be turned off on our servers.

The setting is used to define whether or not to warn when arguments are passed by reference at function call time. This method is deprecated and is likely to be unsupported in future versions of PHP/Zend. The encouraged method of specifying which arguments should be passed by reference is in the function declaration.

You are encouraged to make sure your scripts work properly with this directive turned off in order to ensure they will work with future versions of the language (you will receive a warning each time you use this feature).

RVSkin now Available

2007-08-03T02:02:00.000+01:00

RVSkin is now available on our cPanel servers. The RVSkin manager can be accessed by resellers through the WHM control panel.

From the vendor:

"RVSkin is a multi-language, multi-theme advanced skin management software for cPanel server. RVSkin is the best choice to differentiate your hosting services, lesser support needed, which results in lower operating costs for your business."

Network Upgrades

2007-07-13T22:12:00.000+01:00

The maintenance is now completed, and technicians will continue to monitor the network for any problems. Two of our servers were down for approximately 1.5 hours between 15:00 and 16:30 GMT.

Network Upgrades

2007-07-13T14:50:00.000+01:00

The network which two of our servers are on will be upgraded today, the 13th of July. It is very likely that the servers on this network be unavailable for an extended period, but we hope to have them back up very shortly thereafter.

Server Maintenance

2007-05-20T18:00:00.000+01:00

During maintenance routines on Sunday, the 20th of May, the web server may become unavailable for short periods in the evening. The server needs to be stopped while configuration files are being updated. These maintenance routines are carried out for your security and better functionality.

Mail services will remain active during these updates, however, the webmail client may also become unavailable for a short period.

File Permissions

2007-05-17T16:46:00.000+01:00

It has come to our attention that permissions for files and folders on some user accounts have changed, and may have disabled write permissions. This was caused due to the various server updates and maintenance carried out over the last few weeks.

Issues may become noticeable if for example images are not uploaded and stored correctly.

If you experience any issues with write permissions on your website, please do not hesitate to contact support.