WP Super Cache is a static caching plugin for WordPress. It generates html files that are served directly by Apache without processing comparatively heavy PHP scripts. By using this plugin you will speed up your WordPress blog significantly.

Download and Installation
1. Download the newest version of the WP Super Cache plugin from the WordPress.org plugin db and follow the instructions contained in the readme.txt file. If you have installed WP-Cache before this shouldn’t be any more difficult.
2. After installation, go to the WP Super Cache options page and set your desired cache time.

Installation shouldn’t be a problem, but should you have any issue just submit a support ticket in our client area and we’ll be only too happy to help.

Here’s to happy, speedy bogging!

The full list of new features and benefits of Apache 2 can be seen here.

The upgrade is now complete, and out of our eight servers we have only had one report of there being an issue - which was quickly resolved. As always, if you have any issues they we be quickly addressed via our secure client area.

Thank you,
Gareth Hodson

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself as the latest member of staff; Mark Horsfall. I will be working on the staff support team and will answer most queries along with Gareth. I’m here to answer and provide assistance when Gareth can’t - but so far, he seems to respond instantaneously to support tickets meaning I’ll have to wait until he sleeps to get a chance to respond to a ticket. I have an pretty established three year history in hosting, having owned my own hosting company before leaving the company due to time restraints. I now enjoy being a part time photographer at the young age of 16! As they say, age is merely a number, hosting is a passion of mine and I consider myself extremely knowledgable in the field.

I am located in the United Kingdom and am up around the clocking checking that clients are satisfied and everything is running smoothly. Gareth has set up an email address so you can email me directly if a support ticket doesn’t satisfy your needs. The email address is: markhorsfall@hostedfx.com - no spam please, unless it is something that will interest me.

I really look forward to helping out and getting started. If there’s anything else you’d like to know about me, either submit support tickets night and day to find out about my anger issues, or simply ask away in the comments section of this blog post.

Oh, and please keep ordering from HostedFX, else you’ll see me jobless. And you wouldn’t want that, would you?

Thank you,
Mark Horsfall,
Support Staff at HostedFX.

A new payment gateway - Google Checkout
Google Checkout is becoming quite popular lately. If you haven’t heard of it, it is quite similar to the ever-popular PayPal. “With Google Checkout you can quickly and easily buy from stores across the web and track all your orders and shipping in one place.” So far, we have found the fee’s on transactions to be slightly lower than PayPal’s and the whole interface is extremely pleasing on the eye and pleasant to use.

For this reason, HostedFX now accepts Google Checkout as a payment method for all new orders and invoices for existing customers. Simply select Google Checkout from the drop-down box when paying an invoice. The only downside that I’ve found of Google Checkout is that there is no option for subscriptions; so for those of you who prefer to use a subscription, Google Checkout probably isn’t for you just yet.

The client area is now even more secure
We’ve decided to go ahead and add SSL encryption to all of our transactions and activity within the client area (notice the new URL). For those of you who are not aware of what this means; “An SSL Certificate refers to the digital certificate used with the most popular security protocol on the Internet. When you make a purchase on the Web and notice the closed lock icon at the top or bottom of your browser or the HTTPS:// prefix in the URL, it means you have established a secure SSL connection.”

Two simple updates, which have meant more flexibility along with a greater sense of security for all of our clients. As always, if you have any suggestions just let us know.

Thank you,

Gareth Hodson

HostedFX Web Hosting CEO.

The clients/order/support area for HostedFX has always been located at hostedfx.com/clients/ - but now I have decided to move it onto the domain of clients.hostedfx.com.

This is predominantly for two main reasons;

1. Having the area on a subdomain means we will be adding an SSL certificate to the clients area to make logging in/ordering even more secure.

2. We will soon (hopefully this week!) be offering Google Checkout as a payment method, so you will be able to choose between Google Checkout and PayPal in order to pay invoices. Additionally, Google Checkout happens to require an SSL certificate in order to use it…(see point 1).

Two simply reasons to further improve the whole HostedFX experience. Please let me know your thoughts on this, especially with regards to the new payment method of Google Checkout.

Thanks all,
Gareth

P.S you may still access the client area via hostedfx.com/clients, but in order to use it more securely from next week I strongly recommend using the subdomain of clients.hostedfx.com.

August Profit Will be Donated to Charity
This brings me on to my next point. The event at the restaurant really got me thinking - with me at the helm of HostedFX I’m in a postion to make quite a substantial contribution to any charity. By donating August’s income to charity, I will effectively be placing several thousand dollars into the hands of one (or several) charities.

So it’s decided. I’m going to foot the cost of our servers out of my own pocket for August, and donate all of the HostedFX income to the chosen charities.

Simply post a comment to this blog post recommending a charity that you would like to see the money go to, and I’ll make it happen.

Thank you for your time,
Gareth Hodson

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the summer time. The weather here in England isn’t that great, I got drenched in a huge monsoon earlier. I’ve rarely seen rain fall so hard and we’re nearly in the peak of summer! Still, I guess it’s good for plants…and rivers…and things that like to be wet…

Swiftly moving on,  a few nights ago I worked on the about page of our website. I decided to add a new feature called ‘The 10 Commandments of HostedFX’ - it basically outlines the morals and beliefs we operate our web hosting company by. In my mind, they are thoroughly honest and I believe we meet each ‘commandment’ every day. Take a look;

The 10 Commandments of HostedFX

- We maintain at least 99.9% uptime each and every month
- We answer all emails/support tickets within a short period of time
- We are friendly, helpful and honest at all times
- We work with the best interests of the customer at heart
- We keep all server side software up to date, secure and feature packed
- We maintain state of the art hardware
- We never overload our servers - customer service is priority
- We keep our servers safe and secure - so your site will be too
- We keep our clients informed of any changes that may affect them
- We will continue to upgrade our services, yet never increase our prices

So guys, how are we doing? Would you say HostedFX abides by its own rules? Is there anything else you’d like to see in the commandments? Remember -; we’re not limited to just 10. Let me know in the comments. It may seem like a small thing, but this can serve as a constant reminder to the company that we try to be.

As promised, I am extrememely pleased to announce that Reseller Web Hosting is now part of the product line offered by HostedFX! If you want to get straight to the point, you may go ahead and view our reseller plans.

As you can see, we’ve crammed in the highest possible specs at ridiculously low prices. Here’s a brief overview of what your money gets you;

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Small Reseller - $14/Month; 12GB Space, 250GB Bandwidth, cPanel/WHM and Fantastico.

Medium Reseller - $22/Month; 20GB Space, 500GB Bandwidth, cPanel/WHM and Fantastico.

Large Reseller - $32/month; 32GB Space, 1000GB Bandwidth, cPanel/WHM and Fantastico.

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As you can see, we’ve gone above and beyond what is expected in terms of specification for the price we are providing. Any existing customers who wish to turn their account into a reseller, simply submit a support ticket to be upgraded.

As of this blog post, reseller hosting is now available to order!

Thank you
Gareth Hodson

This is just a quick notice that it’s in the pipework for a release soon. July will see reseller hosting added to the product line of HostedFX. And I almost forgot, reseller account will go on our brand new server

Stay tuned.

What’s your thoughts on this?

On June 12th, at 11:59 P.M. CDT we will be upgrading network switches and the primary router. This means your website will be down for anywhere from one hour to as many as three. In turn, you’ll gain significant benefits as we upgrade other parts of our network in the next few months, including a Gigabit network connectivity when it’s made available later this month.

We’re providing advance notice of this maintenance window to ensure you have ample time to plan and prepare for the down time, so we can minimize the impact.

We appreciate your patience on this maintenance upgrade. We know you have a choice in hosting providers, and we work each day to earn your business. We appreciate you entrusting your hosting needs with HostedFX.