System Notice

Web Hosting System Platform Upgrade -- Important Information and Changes

We've launched the new hosting platform! Designed specifically to support shared hosting Web sites, the new platform offers access to an improved Control Panel with great new tools for Web site management, providing a secure and reliable hosting environment.

Over the next few weeks, we will be upgrading our customers' Web sites and e-mail to the new platform. Once you have received the e-mail confirmation that your account has been upgraded, please carefully review the important information and changes below to understand the impact the new platform will have on your account.

We realize change isn't always easy, but we know you understand that this platform upgrade -- and all the account management changes that go along with it -- offers the best overall performance of your Web site and e-mail. We appreciate your careful attention to the following changes, and we hope you'll contact us with any questions or concerns.

The New Online Control Panel
You are going to love the new Control Panel. It offers access to all aspects of your account, including file management, e-mail, CGI and more! Now that your account is on the new platform, you can log in at: http://www.lynxz.com/support/login.html

Unless otherwise noted in the e-mail confirmation we sent you, your username and password have not changed. However, you now have a single username and password for all aspects of your account. (On the new platform, you should log into FTP and FrontPage with your Control Panel username. If you used to have different usernames for either FTP or FrontPage, you will need to update your information for those programs.)

For security reasons, subusername logins (which may have provided limited access to your account) are no longer supported. Only your main account username and password can access your Control Panel.

You will no longer be able to log in at Clientcentric . To access your upgraded account, log in to your Control panel at http://www.lynxz.com/support/support/login.html.

To learn more about the new Control Panel, please visit our tutorial.

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Your E-Mail
Review Your Mailboxes
Review all your e-mail accounts through the "Manage E-mail" section of the Control Panel. (You can no longer manage your e-mail by visiting www.yourdomain.com:911.) For more information about managing mailboxes on the new platform, please review our E-mail Tutorial.

Update Your E-Mail Client Settings
You may need to update some settings in the e-mail client you use to send and receive e-mail (like Outlook or Eudora). Please review the information below and adjust your e-mail client appropriately.

When we upgraded your account to the new platform, we made your e-mail more secure and private by requiring "authentication" for all outgoing messages. This added security will not slow down delivery of your messages; however, if you haven't already done so, you do need to make a quick update to the settings of your e-mail client.

detailed instructions

Please do not use an IP address as a server name in your e-mail client. This will no longer work. If you previously used an IP address in your mail settings, you need to set your POP and SMTP servers to be "mail.yourdomain.com".

WebMail Changes
To access your e-mail on the Web, visit http://www.lynxz.com/webmail.html. You can use this interface to log into your individual mailboxes -- enter your e-mail address and the password for that mailbox. (You can no longer access your mail at http://mail.yourdomain.com.)

We are now using a WebMail program called @Mail. Visit our new WebMail Tutorial to find out how powerful this new WebMail solution can be. (Horde and TWIG are not supported on the new platform.)

Spam Filters
HostCentric now offers a tool that will allow you to establish your own Spam settings.

Review your Spam Filter settings. (The Spam Filter tool is also available through the e-mail tools in the Control Panel.)

Learn more about how you can combat spam.

Sending E-mail to Multiple Recipients
Due to growing concerns about spam, the new platform comes with a few modifications in the way we send e-mail to multiple recipients. On outbound messages sent through our SMTP/CGI servers, there is a size limit of 15 MB per message, and the number of recipients per message is limited to 100.

A better way to send messages to multiple recipients is through our new E-mail List Manager. The list manager allows you to send 200 messages per hour and 2,000 messages per day.

You can no longer send messages using Lyris. To provide you with advanced e-mail marketing options -- and ensure that both of us avoid being blacklisted by ISPs -- we've partnered with Constant Contact.

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Your Web Site
Your domain names will continue to point to your Web site as they always have. And now, you'll also be able to access your Web site through a subdomain (http://yourusername.hostcentric.com).

Review Your Web Files
Take a minute to review your site to be sure the most recent versions of your Web pages are displayed. If you notice an outdated file, you can either upload the latest version or contact Lynxz Support for assistance.

Changes to Your Document Root Directory
Due to the configuration of the new hosting platform, any files you had in your docroot directory (one level above your Web directory) have been transferred to a subdirectory called /docroot_yourusername/, located within your Web directory. This change should not affect the performance of your Web site -- we have updated your paths so that your site continues to function as it always has -- but you will now access these files (via FTP, etc.) in this new location.

CGI Changes
In many cases, to make sure your scripts function correctly on the new platform, we have updated the absolute path to your files, making every effort to convert your scripts to the correct paths. For example, we have updated all instances of cgibin to cgi-bin.

Still, we encourage you to take a moment to check your CGI scripts. If you discover a pathname issue, you can check the path by visiting the CGI Management tool. (A link is also available through the Control Panel).

Please update any scripts that are not working correctly or contact Lynxz Support for further assistance.

Form E-mail
On the new platform, you now have access to our ready-made form processor, a basic script that converts the contents of a form to an e-mail message: http://www.hostcentric.com/scripts/formemail.bml (More information about using this script is available through the CGI Management tool in your Control Panel.)

If you normally use FormMail.pl as your form processor, you now need to update your path to /usr/sbin/sendmail.

As a reminder, we do not support cgiemail.cgi. Please use the new form processor instead: http://www.hostcentric.com/scripts/formemail.bml

SSH Changes
To connect to SSH, you'll need an SSH client like SecureCRT or PuTTY.

On the new platform, when you connect, use SSH2 as your protocol. Please note that your hostname path has changed. Access the SSH tool in your Control Panel to find out which path you will now need to use to connect to SSH.

Don't forget that you now have a single username and password for all aspects of your account -- including SSH. On the new platform, connect to SSH with your Control Panel username and password.

CronTabs
You'll need to use an SSH client to edit your CronTabs. (See the information above about using SSH on the new platform.) To find out which hostname path to use, access the CronTabs tool in your Control Panel.

Once you've connected to SSH, enter the command crontab -e to edit your CronTabs.

We have done everything we can to get your CronTabs working on the new platform. Still -- you know your site best. We strongly recommend that you review your CronTabs and verify that they are working as you have intended.

RealAudio Files
We've made some slight changes to the way we serve RealAudio files. On the new platform, you should call for your files with the following tag: rtsp://ra.hostcentric.com/username/filepath, where you replace username with your Lynxz username and replace filepath with the path to your RealAudio file. (Do not include your domain name in the file path, but do include any directories or subdirectories. For example, "rtsp://ra.hostcentric.com/yourusername/directory/subdirectory/audiofile.rm")

We have made every effort to update your existing RealAudio file paths to the configuration described above, so that they will function correctly on the new platform. Still, please update any paths that are not working correctly.

Please note that you no longer need to FTP your RealAudio files to a separate server. You can upload your files directly to your Web directory using an FTP program, as you would do with any other file.

PfPro Discontinued
We will no longer be able to support the PfPro module of PHP.

Message Board
As part of the security upgrade, we are now using the most recent version of phpBB. We are also now able to offer CyberMessageBoard, allowing you to add a message board to your site in just minutes.

Web Statistics

Your Web site traffic stats are available through the Check Traffic link at the top of the Control Panel or by visiting: http://www.yourdomain.com/stats (You can no longer access your traffic stats at www.yourdomain.com/logs.)

On the new platform, we are using a program called Webalizer to manage traffic stats. For more information about how to use this robust stats program, review our Stats Tutorial. (If you previously used an older version of Urchin, LiveStats, AWStats or NetTracker to manage your stats, these programs are not supported on the new platform.)

Your traffic logs will include your Web site activity on the "old" platform, up to the moment the DNS for your site moved from the old to the new platform. Of course, we will continue to log your Web site traffic here on the new platform. Your raw log files are also now available at http://www.yourdomain.com/stats.

Virus Protection
We reviewed your files for viruses while they were being upgraded to the new platform. For the security of you and your visitors, files that contained a virus were taken offline.

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Windows Platform-specific Changes

Please note: "platform" does not refer to the operating system of your computer; rather, it refers to the operating system of the servers on which your Web site is hosted. If you are not sure whether your site is hosted on UNIX or Windows servers, please contact us.

Data Source Names (DSNs)
While we strongly encourage customers to use connections strings instead of DSNs for their Windows database connectivity, our team did attempt to move all Windows-based DSNs to the new platform. Please take a moment to test your DSNs.

Reset Password-Protected Directories
If you use the Windows platform and have password-protected directories, you will need to recreate the password protections on the new platform. Please use our Password Protector tool to update your directories. (This tool is also accessible through the CGI Management link in the Control Panel .)

MS SQL
We are running MS SQL version 2000 on the new platform. If you had been using version 7, we have updated and tested your scripts so that they function correctly on the new platform. Still, we encourage you to review your MS SQL scripts on the new platform and contact us if you encounter any issues.

MySQL -- not supported on the Windows platform
MySQL databases are not supported on the Windows platform; Both MS SQL and MS Access databases are. (MySQL databases are supported on the UNIX platform.)

ColdFusion MX
We are running ColdFusion MX version 6.1 on the new platform. We have made every effort to update your paths so that they will work properly with version 6.1. Please contact us if you encounter any issues.

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FTP Changes
You now have one username and password for all aspects of your account, including FTP and FrontPage. Use your Control Panel username and password when uploading files. You can FTP using ftp.yourdomain.com. (Do not FTP your files using an IP address -- this will not work on the new platform.)

Multiple FTP Users
If your account has more than one FTP account (FTP usernames with various degrees of permissions access), these usernames have changed. We have created an FTP subuser account for each of your FTP logins. Your main account username and password will continue to have access to all of your files; you can restrict your FTP subuser accounts to specific subdirectories of your Web site.

Manage your FTP subusers by logging into your Control Panel. If you have multiple FTP accounts, you will see a link in the Web Site Management section called "FTP Sub-Users." The username of any of your FTP subusers is your account username, followed by an underscore character, followed by the old username of the secondary FTP account. It will look something like this: mainusername_oldsubusername

Anonymous FTP
For security reasons, we can no longer support anonymous FTP. The FTP subuser system that we have put in place (see above) provides a secure way for other people to access areas of your account. We have created a subuser account with your username, followed by an underscore character, followed by the word anonymous -- yourusername_anonymous (password: "anonymous").

Please update this password (by clicking the "FTP Sub-Users" link in your Control Panel) at your earliest convenience. You can also create an individualized FTP subuser account for anyone who was previously accessing your Web site using anonymous FTP. Please contact us if you have any questions.

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Contacting Lynxz Support for Assistance
We're excited about the new platform and all it has to offer! If you have questions or need assistance, please don't hesitate to contact Lynxz Support by calling us at 508-559-6730
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Term of Service
Please take a moment to review HostCentric's updated Terms of Service. By maintaining your account, you are agreeing to comply with and abide by these Terms.

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