Tech
Troubleshooting for the Inexperienced Introvert
The following article is intended to be a fun introduction for the relatively uninitiated introverts out there who are reluctant, for whatever reason, to call technical support. First and foremost is the quintessential “restart” (which will be clarified further), some speed troubleshooting steps, and also an introduction for those unaware of our incredibly useful wiki. […]
8 Easy Steps to Integrate Zimbra with MS Outlook 2013
Hot on the heels of the new Microsoft Outlook 2013 comes the barrage of support calls dealing with broken emails that go something like… “Help! I upgraded to Outlook 2013 and now my email is broken.” Our techs have you covered! In just minutes you will be good as new because in addition to providing awesome […]
Improve your server uptime with redundant (A+B) power
While XMission has provided our Colocation customers with the option to get redundant power feeds to their cabinets for years, we’re happy to see much more interest lately. Although the lower cost of deploying multiple power supplies (PSUs) to server hardware in recent years has helped increase adoption, experienced systems administrators all know that PSUs […]
Response to CenturyLink on Property Node Placement
Please note: As of January 1, 2017, XMission no longer sells DSL services. Don, thanks for contacting me regarding placing a node on my property. Under prior circumstance, I would be all for the placement of CenturyLink equipment on my property, even without compensation. However, since CenturyLink and Qwest determined that they would not allow […]
Today is Change Your Password Day
One of the most common security problems XMission faces with our customers are insecure passwords. Today marks “Change Your Password Day”, pushed forward by a writer at Gizmodo. XMission supports this because it is not only important to have secure passwords for the services and websites you frequent on the Internet, it is equally important […]
XMission Completes SSAE 16 Type 2 Audit
As VP of Operations, I oversaw XMission’s recent SSAE 16, type 2 audit certification. Since this was our first such audit, we decided to limit the scope to the two products where customers would benefit the most: colocation and our Stackable cloud hosting product. In recent years, XMission has greatly expanded our focus on business […]
U.S. Call Center Support Better and Growing
This NPR story discusses something most people have known for years: that the quality of off shore call center support pales in comparison to US-based centers. Interestingly, companies are starting to move support back to the US. Of course, XMission has always provided local support. All of our support technicians are based in Salt Lake […]
An XMission Customer Speaks On Qwest
Please note: As of January 1, 2017, XMission no longer sells DSL services. In response to prior XMission blog entry I wrote on Qwest’s tactics to eliminate 3rd party ISPs, along with a City Weekly article on the same topic, XMission customer Pete Doenges felt compelled to write the following. He sent it to me […]
Qwest, XMission, and DSL
Please note: As of January 1, 2017, XMission no longer sells DSL services. In 1997, XMission first started providing service over Qwest’s DSL. We have literally paid millions of dollars of revenue to Qwest for the privilege, all the while relieving them of the difficult task of providing excellent customer support. In 2008, Qwest launched […]
Systems Administration Tools Used at XMission
Since 1993, XMission systems administrators have managed a vast variety of software and hardware solutions. While we almost exclusively still run open source software on the Linux operating system, much has changed. Among other things, new technologies like virtualization and fantastic management tools now exist which enable us to systematize and standardize how we setup, […]