| Date |
Description |
| 2007-10-09 |
You may now manage stored credit cards
in order to configure them for automatic monthly payments or expedite manual payments. We have also developed a new
payment form allowing the use of
stored cards, connecting to the bank immediately for transaction results, and providing the option of storing cards
during the payment process.
These forms run on top of a bank-independent Java credit card processing API.
This API simplifies the process of connecting to merchant services. It also allows applications to be developed against a
consistent interface, while we provide connectors for different banks. This results in an application being able to switch merchant
accounts quickly and easily.
If supported by the merchant services provider, the Java API enables securely storing credit cards and initiating transactions
using the stored cards. This facilitates Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance by eliminating the need to store credit card
numbers for any reason. We use this mechanism for our stored card manager.
Finally, we will soon be providing merchant services to round-out our services. Combining our merchant services with these
supported Java APIs will greatly simplify the process of obtaining merchant services and integrating card processing to applications.
However, you can be assured of no vendor or provider lock-in because we provide the source code for the Java API, and the API is
designed to allow applications to easily switch providers.
|
| 2007-06-16 |
We now support MySQL replication as an extension to our existing file-based
fail-over systems. With this
option, all files are replicated by scanning the filesystem periodically while
MySQL database contents are replicated, near real-time, to the fail-over
server(s). Transactions will typically be replicated within a second. This
results in little or no transactional
data loss in the event of a catastrophic hardware failure.
We have also developed a monitoring interface
allowing our clients to see the current state of the MySQL replication(s).
Those who subscribe to Managed Servers
may request this additional feature either during sign up
or by requesting the option through our support channels.
|
| 2007-06-08 |
We now support PostGIS 1.2.
You may add PostGIS-enabled PostgreSQL databases in the
PostgreSQL Database Control Panel.
|
| 2006-11-03 |
SMTP over SSL can now be enabled in our IP Address Control Panel.
|
| 2006-09-01 |
We have been performing operating system upgrades on all virtual hosting
servers. The most significant change for customers is an upgrade to Apache 2.0.
We will start upgrades of managed servers in November.
|
| 2006-04-17 |
We have added TXT entries to our DNS Control Panel in order to support SPF records.
|
| 2006-04-03 |
We have expanded our Web Sites Control Panel
to allow the configuration of parameters and data sources on a per-context basis.
|
| 2006-03-03 |
We now support the latest MySQL 4.1 and 5.0.
|
| 2006-02-22 |
We have installed ZendOptimizer 2.6.2. It is not yet turned on by default.
Those who would like to try it, please contact us to have it enabled. In our
benchmarks, it provided about 25% more throughput.
|
| 2006-02-14 |
We now support the lastest PostgreSQL version 8.1.2. Anybody needing this
version on either virtual hosting or managed servers, please contact us to have
it configured.
|
| 2006-01-27 |
We have installed the latest of PHP 4.4 and PHP 5.1. We no longer support
PHP 4.0, 4.2, 4.3, and 5.0. Those using now-unsupported versions have been
upgraded.
|
| 2005-12-13 |
We have improved our firewall rules in three significant ways:
-
All services must be registered with AO Industries and opened on our
firewall prior to clients being able to connect. Previously, any service
on ports above 1024 were allowed unless blocked. We have switched to a
block-unless-allowed policy for all ports.
-
All servers now route their packets through our firewalls, even when on
the same network. Previously all servers on the same physical network
had unfiltered access to other servers on the same physical network,
where each physical network is comprised of servers of the same type
(virtual, dedicated, managed, colocation, ...). Now, each server is
isolated from one another by the firewalls just like they are isolated
from other networks. This has somewhat reduced the efficiency of
inter-server communication, but we believe the loss of efficiency is
well worth the added security.
-
We have restricted all outbound UDP traffic from all of our networks.
If you need to provide of access any UDP service please
contact us with the
specific list of IP addresses and ports you will need to allow access
to or from.
|
| 2005-12-04 |
We are happy to announce the installation and support of AWStats, Java 5, and
Tomcat 5.5.
AWStats:
Many of you have noticed that we turned off Analog reporting a couple of
months ago on some servers due to Analog causing high load averages. We
have now integrated AWStats into our Control Panels. We have parsed all
log files back about one year. You may see your reports in our HTTP
Servers Control Panel, or at this URL:
https://www.aoindustries.com/clientarea/control/httpd/AWStats.ao
Java 5:
Java 5 may be used for any existing site by udpating your profile script to
include /opt/aoserv-client/scripts/jdk1.5.0.sh See this FAQ for more details on how
to change Java versions:
http://www.aoindustries.com/clientarea/FAQ.ao?category=jvms&page=profile
Tomcat 5.5:
New sites may now be created running Tomcat 5.5. We cannot upgrade existing
sites automatically. So in the case of an upgrade please create a new
installation (Web Sites Control Panel), install your content, test, and
then switch the DNS settings to the new IP address.
|
| 2005-06-01 |
We have reduced the number of cache invalidation signals being sent from the
AOServ Master
to the AOServ Clients.
Previously, certain API calls would result in all connected clients being
notified of the update. This would result in all servers verifying their
configurations concurrently, causing a short-term, high load on the master
server.
|
| 2005-06-01 |
We have added indexing within the
AOServ Client Distributed Caches
to improve the performance of many API calls.
|
| 2005-06-01 |
We have completed our new
Reseller Package Builder.
This new tool allows our resellers to define custom packages. Once approved by
AO Industries, the package definitions may be used for new accounts.
|
| 2005-05-19 |
As part of our operating system upgrades, we are now running SpamAssassin 3.
SpamAssassin 3 will help us keep up with the latest efforts of bulk mailers.
We have also greatly improved the performance of the IMAP server when training
the SpamAssassin Bayesian filters. Previously the IMAP server would directly
call sa-learn, the SpamAssassin Bayesian filter training tool, and
only complete its task when the sa-learn process completed. Now
the IMAP server places a copy of the relevant messsages into a temporary
directory, and another processes trains SpamAssassin in the background. As far
as a user can distinguish, our modified IMAP server is now as fast as an
unmodified server.
When an email inbox has its SpamAssassin integration mode set to "POP3", any
emails considered to be junk by SpamAssassin will now have "*****SPAM*****"
prepended to the subject lines.
The required_score may now be set on a per-inbox basis in either
our Email Inbox Control Panel
or WebMail Interface.
Our default value of 3.0 is fairly aggressive. Individuals who want less
chance of valid emails being flagged as junk may raise this value to 5.0 or
10.0.
|
| 2005-04-03 |
Upgraded our MySQL installation to MySQL-Max to support InnoDB and transactions.
|
| 2005-02-22 |
Our WebMail
interface now supports nested IMAP folders and is more tightly integrated with
our new SpamAssassin installation.
|
| 2005-02-22 |
We have now implemented
SpamAssassin
on all of our servers. We have also modified our IMAP server to automatically
train the Bayesian filters for SpamAssassin based on email use. Please see our
Anti-Spam FAQ
for more details.
|
