ETC Blog, The Tech Resource
ETC Maryland grows with new partnership and the addition of a reseller
Lots of things going on for ETC Maryland. Thanks to the partnership with Solinkit I have picked up another reseller for web hosting. I have also picked up a partnership with a vendor who does cabling and other types of installs. I met with him today at a client site...
ETC Maryland Webserver Maintenance Annoucement.
Next Sunday night the oldest of ETC Maryland's webservers(web1) will go offline for approximately 3 hours as the operating system gets a much needed upgrade. I have run CentOS7 from the outset of my hosting business and while it is still supported, I am spending way...
Windows 10/Server 2016 Update Quality and the Effects on The Industry
I was interviewed for an article on the state of Windows 10. Windows 10/Server 2016 REALLY needs to have the QA team brought back. Microsoft is seriously affecting the security of their products. I am not the only one holding off on multiple versions(not several as...
A Client Testimonial on ETC Maryland’s Rescue of Their Site
This is from one of my hosting clients The Christian Gamer's Alliance. They used to be on a dedicated server and now they run inside my standard hosting plan. Their site now runs faster on my shared hosting platform than it did on their dedicated server. Here's the...
RedHat Linux Gets Borged
Just like Sun got borged by oracle IBM has borged RedHat: Press Release by RedHat I posted I am moving to Ubuntu in a recent post. This has the effect of moving me even faster. This also explains why there has been ZERO movement towards a RHEL 8 alpha. In order to...
Research Revived and an Infrastructure Upgrade in Planning
It has been a while since I have been able to post about any kind of research I am doing. Right now I am figuring out just exactly how I want to build my new rack mounted PfSense firewall to replace my USG-pro-4. I want this machine to be fast enough to eventually...
Even Linux Vendors Cannot Resist The Call of Lock-in
RedHat is out to make money...I do not begrudge them that. However they have now resorted to moving things into their own form of lock-in via directory services: RedHat KB Page Considering that directory services is a HUGE portion of any large network layout, it...
ETC Maryland’s New Official Browser Is…Firefox!
I have been an avid Google user for nearly a decade. For the longest time I have used the Google stack in nearly every area I can. Today I am removing one piece of that stack...the Google Chrome Browser. Why? Speed and system stability. I know I am extreme...
WordPress Minimal Security. A Video by Wordfence
Does your webhost provide everything in this video? ETC Maryland hosting does. One of the biggest security lapses is ongoing maintenance of the website code. This is keeping the sites code updated, protected, account isolation, and multiple layer(and as a...
Microsoft is All in For The Cloud. Welcome Microsoft365
Microsoft started this transitioning the desktop to the cloud back in 2015 with the trademarking of Windows365. Microsoft then began the move in earnest with Office365 being pushed as the primary way to get Office. Microsoft has now announced Microsoft Managed...
If Your Site is NOT HTTPS Google is Going to Derank You Severely
ETC Maryland has been HTTPS only for a long time now. Google has been warning of its intention to start deranking and marking sites as insecure as of today, July 24, 2018. For both business owners and web design professionals, if your host is not providing HTTPS by...
Domain Privacy, Data Security, and WordPress.
I have seen other web hosting companies claim they have free backups, but what do those backups consist of? The backups that are offered are simply a copy, compressed into one file and then stored locally on the machine that hosts the site. Worse yet most times...
When your outsourced security vendor outsources it’s own security…and things go boom.
Verizon is trying to make itself out as a security firm...but they failed to ensure their own outsourced vendor had proper security policies and procedures in place: An Israeli technology company has exposed millions of Verizon customer records, ZDNet has learned. As...
Make Sure Your Webhost Has Proper Backups
Many web providers out there might have one backup...most do not give you two unless you pay extra. I hate to see stories like this one...an Australian web host has their systems compromised and they lost everything. They lost not only their own data but all of...
Major Internet Outage Affecting Comcast and Other Providers
There have been multiple fiber cuts affecting the largest Tier 1 backbone providers. This is causing connectivity issues for Comcast, Verizon and other providers. If you are experiencing Internet issues or communications issues this is going to be why. ETA right...
How Important is Your Website Security?
Many businesses think their website is just a piece of advertising. However a website needs to be maintained in terms of updates from a security standpoint. If your site gets compromised there are tangible detrimental consequences for your business. Many webhosts...
ETC Maryland Rescues Gaming Site
There is a site I frequent called the Christian Gamer's Alliance. I used to be many things on the site, server administrator, forums administrator, chat administrator...just to name a few. Over time I faded away from the site as the clan I was in(God's Frozen...
The FBI’s Nonsensical Advice to Reboot Infected Routers
The gov't is a dubious source of information about cyber security. I have personal experience in this area..... Rebooting an infected router will do NOTHING to stop this botnet. Rebooting the router(and the FBI is aware of this) will only stop the active payload...
ETC Maryland Now Offers Free Private Domain Registration For All Domains
ETC Maryland is proud to announce that effective today, May 31st, 2018 all domain registrations or renewals will now get private domain registrations at no additional charge. With online privacy being a large concern and online privacy regulations like the EU GDPR...
Managed IT and ETC Maryland
ETC Maryland has not jumped into the "managed IT" for quite a while now. My main concerns were anything cloud based. While ETC Maryland sees the market demand for network monitoring I was unable to find a solution that met my security standards. One of the things I...
How does ETC Maryland’s Hosting Stack up Against Bigger Companies?
I am a Brunswick based webhost and I wanted to let you all know you do not have to overpay the bigger boys for many things that can be provided at a much more reasonable cost..or even for no additional cost. If you look at only the bottom line you will miss out on...
My Local Backup Strategy
I have not been at my computer as much and I missed the fact that March 31st was world backup day. This article on extremetech details some of the author's backup plans. I wanted to have ransomware resistant backups at all levels so my system is a bit more elaborate:...
The Upcoming SSL Deadline. ETC Maryland Has Been Ready.
ETC Maryland has been offering free SSL certificates for nearly two years now. ETC Maryland saw quickly the need to moving to SSL as Google was already informing SEO partners of their intentions to add SSL as a major ranking signal. ETC Maryland is determined to...
If You Pay The Ransom Do You Get Your Data Back? It Is A Coin Toss.
Ransomware is now making it into mainstream television. Chicago Med(Season 2 Episode 19) has an episode where they get hit with ransomware. Unlike Hollywood though most folks who pay loose not only their money but also their data. I have never been an advocate of...
Comcast Business Fiber Fiobles..Temporarily Stymied
November, 2017: I received an e-mail saying that Comcast has pulled fiber into this area and that their gigabit pro service was available to me as a business class customer. This is a pure fiber to the premises service that would net me 2 gigabits both up and down. ...