We are receiving a growing number of queries regarding the upgrade to Helm 4.

WebHost Automation Ltd released Helm 4 last week. However at this time we will not be upgrading. The current release of Helm  does not support all the modules we require nor is it, in my opnion, completely ready for deployment by us.

We will be installing and testing Helm 4 over the next few months and when ready we will be upgrading to Helm 4. But this will not take place until all the relevant documentation and migration plans have been prepared.

As per our earlier post we are currently working to deploy Microsoft Exchange mailboxes as an additional AGUK service. The Exchange 2003 mailboxes will be a hosted service allowing easy access to your mail and contacts wherever you go.

More details on Microsoft Exchange here.

The advantages of running a hosted exchange system are massive. You no longer have the costs of installing and maintaining your own set-up. You can access your emails, calender, contacts and tasks from any internet connected system as well as sync them with your mobile device.

We understand that at present the www.viewnetworkstatus.net page is helpful but that the way information is presented may not always be perfect, especially for resellers.

Therefore we are developing a new style of system for the site that will provide greater information. It will include details of upcoming maintenance as well as any emergency maintenance taking place.

We will also be providing RSS and XML feeds which will allow resellers to include details of maintenance and network status announcements on their own website. As the information will be pulled directly from our own site there will be no need for the reseller ot have to update their site constantly with the information.

We have been receiving more and more enquiries about providing hosted exchange mailboxes. wth the potential growth in this market we have begun looking at the possibility of providing this service not only as an add-on to our existing hosting services but as a seperate service as well.

As with any product we will also provide the ability for this service to be provided by our resellers if it becomes available.

The affiliate program we launched in February has been suspended. As the business evolves we are looking to change the way we manage referals.

All referal payments have now been paid. Any new referals will no longer be tracked or credits provided although we do of course appreciate any customer who wants to continue to recommend AGUK.

We will announce details of any new programs when this is available.

We have received a number of queries about when we will be moving our set-up to Helm 4. Because of this I thought it best to clarify the situation.

Helm 4 is currently in beta testing and therefore is not yet ready for production release or to be used for actual real customers. Companies are testing Helm 4 but with dummy data and non critical domains. Any host currently runnign Helm 4 in production is not receiving any support for Helm and they run the risk of many issues.

With the recent problems surrounding the mail account creation it has been identified that mail accounts are no longer being created as IMAP capable. We hope to restore the ability to automatically create IMAP capable accounts in the near future while developers work on the integration.

We are currently testing server-side compression techniques on our web servers. This compresses your files before sending them to the clients browser. The result is faster downloads and less bandwidth used. However this can have an effect on server performance as compression can use significant processing power.

If successful we will look to roll out the compression to all sites in the future.

After a few days of testing we now have the ability to set-up Automatic Recipient White listing. This means that anyone you send mail to is automatically added to your white list and will not be subject to possible Spam filtering.

However if we enable this feature it will be on a global scale. It is not currently possible to enable on a per user basis. We would appreciate your feedback on if you would like to see this feature.

Further to our announcement regarding the development of a Hosting Affiliate Program AGUK is pleased to announce the soft launch of our Hosting Referral Program. Customer can now earn credits for each new referral to AGUK.

This is a soft launch to allow for any potential issues to be resolved before making a full announcement to all customers. Details on how to take part in the Hosting Referral Program can be found on our Support Pages.