Many hosting companies are not being transparent when it comes to server maintenance.

These irresponsible web hosts normally do not provide clear maintenance schedule (probably because they are not planning at all) and cause a lot of unnecessary hassles to their users. Startlogic, however, is not one of these hosting companies.

In fact I’m quite impressed with Startlogic maintenance system. They are very organized and had planned 4 months ahead in server maintenance.

Exchange Hosting servers were having routine maintenance between 11:00pm EST on Friday, February 6 and 7:00am EST on Saturday, February 7, 2009; while further maintenance is set on March 13, April 17, May 15, as well as June 12 of year 2009. Users like you and me get to schedule our work accordingly when the maintenance schedule is told clearly.

Anyhow, in case you were uninformed for the recent Exchange Hosting server maintenance, worry not. Any mail sent to you during the maintenance period will be stored and delivered once the maintenance is complete.

Users who are unfamiliar with vDeck are advised to take the startlogic product tour or visit the startlogic vdeck demo login first. For your instant guides, here is how vDeck (in StartLogic) front page looks like this:

Specifications for StartLogic vDeck.

• Platform Type: Debian
• MySQL Version: 5.0.45
• Perl Version: 5.8.8
• PHP Version: 4.4.7
• Path to SendMail: /usr/sbin/sendmail
• Path to Perl: /usr/bin/perl
• Path to PHP: /usr/local/bin/php

Not sure if StartLogic will be upgrading on its vDeck version or not but good news is that vDeck is cooking something new in their R&D department. A sneak preview on what you can do with the new vDeck 3.0:

Web site Management

• iPage site-creation tool
• SiteDelux site-creation tool
• WebSite Creator, powered by CM4all
• FileManager
• FTP Manager
• FrontPage Extensions
• CGI Support
• Enhanced Script Library
• MySQL Management
• Site Backups and Restore
• Gallery 2
• phpBB
• WordPress
• Gbook

E-mail Management

• Manage autoresponders
• More powerful spam and virus protection
• Direct WebMail Access
• iContact e-newsletters
• Constant Contact e-newsletters

Domain Management

• DomainCentral
• Manage subdomains
• Private nameservers

E-commerce Services

• osCommerce
• ShopSite NEW!

Marketing Services

• Search engine optimization services
• Search engine submission services
• Free search engine coupons ($30 or more)
• Pay-per-click advertising NEW!
• E-mail newsletter creation and distribution services
• Logo design services NEW!

Account Management Services

• Online Billing Console
• Online Support Ticketing Syste
• Customizable control panel design layouts

Reseller Account Management Services

• Historical billing records and cost breakdowns for each account.
• Detailed monthly invoices and printable receipts.
• An option for grouped billing and consolidated invoices.
• The ability to brand your client control panel with your logo, colors and fonts.

To learn more, check out vDeck official website.

A quick check on the site revealed the website server (StartLogic) uptime in September.

Quoting the site’s statement:

Startlogic uptime for september had recovered and improved to 99.86% uptime level, very near to the 99.9% service uptime guarantee level. With the average server response time of 0.196second, that is a fast server with good service uptime.

Verifying with my StartLogic hosting performance

The data seems pretty similar with my personal experience at StartLogic as I found StartLogic server is extra stable. It’s almost 100% uptime thru out past two months and I think they have been doing a good job on the server maintenance.

Solution: Delete the Home.html

Reason being is that there’s a default file (named Home.html) at StartLogic. In order for your website/blog to be running on your StartLogic account, you’ll need to delete this file first.

You can locate the Home.html at the root of your public_html folder. Just delete it and your customized index files will be shown as your website homepage. Problem solved – pretty simple, but it can be pulling your hairs if you don’t know how.

StartLogic signup step-by-step guide

StartLogic offers three major hosting plans – PersonalLogic, ProLogic, and VPSLogic. PersonalLogic is the entry level package; ProLogic is the standard shared hosting plan; and VPSLogic is the virtual server with unique IP address. First, select your desired hosting plan and click “Sign Up”. Generally most customers will go with the ProLogic package as it provides best value.

Moving on, you’ll come to a page where you’ll need to select a domain for your registration. It can be an existing domain that you wish to move over to StartLogic; or you can search for a new unregistered domain name. Registration of the first domain name is free if you’re a new StartLogic customer (so why not take advantage on this and get an extra new domain name).

Next you’ll see the summary of your order along with some other products offer. StartLogic offer private business directory submission, extra site backup tools, as well as private SSL services. Pick whatever that you desired and click “Continue”.

Account details are required on the next two steps of the ordering process. First, you’ll need to keyin your password info, full name for the registration, as well as your contacts. Upon check out, you’ll need to submit your credit card (or PayPal) info in order to complete the payment.

Click “Check Out” to finish. As soon as your payment is done you’ll receive a confirmation email from StartLogic, updating you on your order status as well as login details. There you go, you have now complete your signup with StartLogic.

How soon will my hosting account ready to be used?

While StartLogic claims instant activation on their end, I found that there are roughly 15 – 30 minutes delay on the account activation. Thus my advise is to wait for half and hour after you completed your signup and you should be able to sign in here to your StartLogic vDeck.