Dedicated Server Options

Set up additional websites for you (including DNS, website, FTP and graphical stats).

Set up additional email facilities for you (including domains and mailboxes).

Carry out day-to-day management of your server, including monitoring your disk space usage and general smooth operation of your server, just as if it were one of our own hosting servers.

Register UK domain name (.co.uk, .org.uk, .ltd.uk, .plc.uk, .me.uk) for 2 years: £ (  ) for 2 years.

Register international domain name (.com, .net, .org, .info, .biz) for 2 years: £ (  ) for 2 years.

Register European domain name (.eu) for 1 year: £ (  ) for 1 year (we can only register .eu domains for 1 year at a time).

GeoTrust RapidSSL for £ (    ) per year. This certificate offers compatibility with 99% of web browsers and is suitable for most applications.

GeoTrust QuickSSL Premium for £ (    ) per year. This certificate offers compatibility with over 99% of standard web browsers and over 99% of smartphone and mobile devices, so is ideal for the widest compatibility requirements.

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Secure Server Space

If you don't need an SSL certificate for your domain name, but still want to carry out secure transactions, Pro-Secure provides 10Mb of your own secure server space on an SSL-encrypted domain on one of our Windows or Linux servers, for £ (    ) per year. The URL to your space will be of the form https://twsecure1.co.uk/youraccountname/

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Automated Failover

If it is absolutely critical that your website (or websites) are available as near 100% of the time as possible, you can guard against failure of one webserver (resulting in your website not being available) by hosting your website on two separate servers and using an automated failover system to switch to the second server in the event of a problem on the first server.

This can be achieved through hardware or software. A hardware-based solution has the advantage that, in the event of a failure in the first server, the switch to the second server is more or less instantaneous. For highly critical requirements, this is normally the preferred solution. The disadvantages of this solution include higher cost, and the fact that it does not of itself cater for network issues: it is therefore crucial to ensure a very high reliability datacentre network setup is used. Please contact us for a custom quote.

A software-based solution has the advantage of significantly lower cost, and is also able to work with two or more servers in different physical locations (even different countries). The disadvantage is that switching to the second server is slower: by how much depends partly on internal settings (which can be tweaked to suit), but mostly on the speed with which other locations on the internet respond to the changes made by the software.

How does it work? Your website is hosted on two separate servers, which can be in different datacentres if you wish. Your domain name is hosted on our DNS servers. Failover software, running on two systems in two different datacentres (actually in different countries), continuously checks that your website is running on the first server. If the software detects that your website is unavailable on the first server, it automatically changes the DNS settings for your domain so that website requests go to the second server instead. When the first server is available again, the settings are switched back so that requests go to the first server. Note that the "effective" speed of the switchover is dependent on how quickly other locations on the internet "see" the change to your website's DNS. In most cases this is now within minutes: slower than a hardware-based solution, but also a lot more affordable.

How much does it cost? You will first of all need to factor in the cost of a second server, of course. The cost for our software-based failover service is £ (    ) per month for up to 5 domain names (that is, 5 DNS zones). This option can also be combined with software-based load balancing at no extra cost.

We would recommend that you discuss your particular requirements with us so that we can advise on the most appropriate solution.

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Load Balancing

If your website becomes very busy and your current server specification is having difficulty coping with the load imposed upon it, there are various solutions. One possibility is to upgrade: either to enhance the server (perhaps by adding more memory), or to change to a higher-specification server (perhaps with a more powerful processor, dual processors, and/or faster hard disks).

It's fairly obvious that there is a limit to upgrading a single server. The next step is to spread the load over more than one server. If your website is database-driven, and your database is running on the same physical server as the website itself, then offloading the database onto a separate database server machine can be very effective.

If the load of the website itself needs to be shared between multiple servers, a load balancing solution is required to split the website requests equally between the two or more servers hosting your website. As for automated failover, this can be achieved through hardware or software. For a hardware-based solution, please contact us for a custom quote.

A software-based solution can be implemented using round-robin DNS, which shares incoming website requests equally between two or more webservers. For a single domain, we can normally host your domain on our DNS and set up round-robin DNS for no extra charge. In some cases you may wish to combine this with software-based automated failover.

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Hard Disk Options (SATA, SCSI)

Our standard servers are supplied with SATA II hard disk drives. These are fine for most applications and are available in sizes up to 1000Gb per drive (depending on the server).

For higher loads and highly disk-intensive applications we would recommend SCSI drives, which can provide a higher sustained data throughput. SCSI drives are generally available in sizes from 73Gb to 300Gb (depending on the server).

Please contact us to discuss your specific storage requirements.

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RAID Disk Configurations

If a hard disk fails in your server there will usually be a period of downtime while a new disk is fitted and the data restored from backup. This downtime can be avoided by using a RAID disk configuration. Basically two or more hard disks are used to store the data that would be stored on a single hard disk in a non-RAID configuration. If one hard disk fails, the other disk(s) carry on seamlessly and the failed disk is replaced.

A common RAID configuration is known as RAID 1: two identical hard disks are used, the second disk mirroring the first one. More complex configurations include RAID 5 and RAID 10, but generally we would recommend RAID 1 as it is cost-effective and simple.

A RAID configuration can be software controlled, or can use a dedicated harware controller. We would generally recommend a hardware RAID solution, for optimum performance.

Please note that RAID is not a substitute for regular backups. We strongly recommend that regular backups of your data are taken.

Please contact us to discuss your specific requirements.

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Control Panels

Our Linux server configurations all include the CPanel control panel: this includes Web Host Manager for server management (including setting up hosting accounts and lots more) and CPanel for user-level account management (including email configuration, FTP accounts, script setup and much more). This software makes day-to-day management of a Linux server a fairly straightforward task.

For Windows servers, if you wish we can provide and install control panel software, including Helm. In our experience control panel software is less important on the Windows platform, as it is easier to set up and manage accounts using Windows' GUI software. We always set up the first account for you, and provide information on how to set up additional accounts. If you choose our TDMWeb Total Server Management then we will happily set up extra accounts for you, at no extra charge.

Please contact us to discuss your specific requirements.

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Hardware Firewall

We install a software firewall on all of our supplied servers, both Windows and Linux, to ensure that only the required ports are open to external traffic on the required IP addresses. In general, we find that this works very well, imposing a minimal extra load on the server and effectively barring attack attempts.

A properly-specified hardware firewall can provide an even more robust alternative to a software firewall, giving additional options for traffic filtering and blocking unwanted traffic before it gets to your server. We can provide a range of fully managed hardware firewalls: which is right for your needs depends on the traffic you expect and any specific functionality you require. Beware of low-specification firewalls that are offered by some providers, which are are severely limited in their throughput capability and in our view are not suitable for webserver use.

Please contact us to discuss your specific requirements so we can prepare a quote for you.

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Connecting Servers Together

If you have more than one server it can be very useful to have a private connection between your servers. This makes transferring files between servers easy and quick, and avoids using your internet data transfer allowance for such transfers.

We can provide server interconnects using various techniques, depending on your requirements and on the datacentre used: from a simple cross-connect cable to a dedicated switch, or by making use of the private internal network available at some datacentres. Please contact us for more details.

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Consultancy and Software/Script Development

We are able to provide a wide range of consultancy and development services to help you. Script development can be undertaken using PHP and ASP (we can help with limited tweaking of existing Perl scripts too). Web application development of all kinds can be provided for the Windows platform. We can also provide specialised system-level and security consultancy for both Windows and Linux.

As well as our in-house resources, as publishers of The Delphi Magazine we have excellent contacts with a number of superbly able techies with world-class development and systems expertise.

Our standard pricing for development and consultancy work is   £ (   ) per hour, although for straightforward script development we try to give you a fixed lump sum price. Specialist consultancy may be charged at a higher rate. Please ask us for a quote. For simple and quick tasks, where possible we will not charge you.

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Important Notes

VAT Tax. The prices shown above exclude VAT (European Union sales tax) which is currently chargeable at 17.5% on all services (no matter which country you are in). We accept VISA, MasterCard or American Express, as well as Sterling cheques drawn on a United Kingdom bank, made payable to iTec.

Currency Price Estimates. The currency prices shown are estimates of the amount which will appear on your credit card statement, based on current exchange rates using the exchange calculator shown.

Additional Costs: If you require additional consultancy or support work from us, our standard pricing is £ per hour. Specialist consultancy may be charged at a higher rate. Please ask us for a quote. If your dedicated server requires a re-setup, including an operating system reinstall, this costs from £ (if this is required out-of-hours please check with us for specific pricing); however, if you have our optional TDMWeb Total Server Management then re-setup is normally carried out at no extra charge.

Prohibited Scripts And Applications: To protect the security and integrity of our customers' files and accounts, we maintain a list of scripts and applications that are prohibited from use on our web hosting and email hosting servers. This list can be found here. Please check that a script or application you wish to use is not included on this list before placing your order. We are happy to advise on alternative scripts or applications where relevant.

Terms: Please make sure you read our Terms and Conditions carefully before placing your order.

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