As announced last month, tonight we completed the upgrade to the latest version of SmarterMail, version 16, on both our UK and US networks.

The new features and interface are available to use straight away. Please be aware that the login screen (and all other screens) will look different, as this is a complete overhaul of the look and feel for SmarterMail.

If you have any questions or problems with the new interface or any other aspects of your account, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We are currently investigating an issue with the mail server in the UK, please accept our apologies for the issue. We will update this post as soon as we have more information.

UPDATE: Our apologies for the delay, the issue has been identified as a major hardware problem. We are replacing the affected hardware at the moment, and will update this post once we have an ETA for the server being back on line.

UPDATE: The mail server has had to be completely reconfigured, a process that will be finishing shortly. We are ready to place the mail server back online as soon as this completes.

UPDATE: The mail server is now back online. Please accept our apologies for the disruption tonight.

Overnight tonight there has been disruption on our UK SQL Server. The problem has been identified as a hardware issue. The timing of this is unfortunate, as the server was due to be replaced by a new higher spec server during the SQL Server 2014 upgrade in 3 days time.

Because of this, and the fact that the new server was already ready and prepared for the migration, the quickest way to recover from this hardware failure was to perform the migration early, as everything was already in place for it. This has now been completed, and all UK SQL Server databases on our shared and reseller hosting are now moved to SQL Server 2014 on new hardware.

We apologise for the disruption that this has caused overnight and we have worked as quickly as possible to fix the problem. Because the migration has been completed, it does mean that those customers on shared and reseller hosting in the UK will now not need the maintenance that was scheduled to take place on the 31st December.

Customers with databases on our US servers and our Low Density service are unaffected by these issues and their migration will take place as scheduled on the 31st December.

Again, please accept our apologies for these issues. At this time, with the migration completed, all services appear to be functioning normally and the migration was fully successful. However, if you are seeing any issues with your database after the move to SQL Server 2014, please open a ticket at https://support.liquidsix.com and we can assist you.

CONTENTS

I. 12 Days of Christmas Offers
II. SQL Server 2014 Migration
III. US Websites and Control Panel Migration
IV. VAT Changes
V. Windows 2012 Servers Update
VI. 2015 Plan Updates

Welcome to another LiquidSix Hosting newsletter, the last one of 2014. It has been an exciting year for us, with the launch of our Windows 2012 hosting and new plans in the first few days of the year. We hope that 2014 has treated you well, and we would like to wish all of our customers that celebrate a very Merry Christmas and we look forward to serving you further in 2015! In this newsletter we have some special offers to finish off the year, details of migrations for SQL Server and US websites, details of EU mandated VAT changes, and updates on Windows 2012 and our new plans. As always, should you have any questions or comments about anything in this newsletter, please do not hesitate to contact us at https://support.liquidsix.com!

I. 12 Days of Christmas Offers

Starting today and lasting for 12 days, we have 12 exciting offers available for both new and existing customers. All 12 offers will be available for all 12 days, and they are available to view on the website now! 

Included are offers on Single Domain Hosting, Multi Domain Hosting, Reseller Hosting, VPS and Dedicated Servers, along with addons such as disk space, bandwidth, domain registrations and SSL certificate packages. Savings of up to £799 a year are available in some cases!

For full details of all 12 offers, please click here:
http://www.liquidsix.com/christmas2014

Offers are available until 11.59pm on 20th December 2014, although some are only available while stocks last, so don't delay!

II. SQL Server 2014 Migration

On Wednesday 31st December 2014 between 12am and 6am GMT, we will be moving all SQL Server databases hosted with us (both in the UK and the US) on to SQL Server 2014, the latest version. In the UK, this is also being combined with a move onto new improved hardware for the database server.

There will be no changes required to scripts, the address to connect to SQL Server will remain the same. If you connect from your PC to manage databases, you may need to download an updated client from Microsoft, depending on your needs.

The downtime for each database server during the window should be no more than 1 hour. After the migration is completed, as well as the new features of SQL Server 2014, you should also see improvements to performance provided by the new hardware.

III. US Websites and Control Panel Migration

As part of our continuing service improvements, we will be moving some services in the US onto new hardware shortly. This will only affect the Helm control panel and websites hosted on Windows 2003 (websites on Windows 2012 are unaffected). Because of this, and the recommendation to move sites off of Windows 2003 in the next few months, if you would like to avoid moving the sites twice we recommend using the automated tool in the control panel to move the sites to Windows 2012 before the migration date.

The migration will take place between 12am and 6am GMT on Saturday 3rd January 2015. There will be IP address changes during this process, which will be communicated to the affected customers a few days beforehand. All customers using our nameservers (which is strongly recommended) will not need to take any action as we will make the changes automatically. Customers who are using nameservers elsewhere and pointing domains to our servers via A records will need to make these changes themselves. The websites will continue to be served from the old IP (although this also means they come from the old server and old copy of the files) for 7 days after the migration. The old server and IP address will be shutdown on the 10th January.

Helm will be unavailable in the US for a few hours during this process. The websites will not experience any downtime, as they will remain online from the old IP during the propagation process, however there could be some minor disruption during the migration window.

IV. VAT Changes

On January 1st 2015, new EU laws will come into force regarding VAT which will affect how we have to bill a small number of customers. To get a summary of how (and if) these changes affect you, please read the section relating to you below:

Customers inside the UK: There will be no changes, you will still be charged VAT at 20% as normal and any VAT registered businesses can claim it back from HMRC.

Customers outside the EU: There will be no changes, you will still not be charged any VAT.

Customers outside the UK and inside the EU with a VAT Registration number: If you have registered your VAT number with us, there are no changes - no VAT is charged on our bills and your local tax authority can advise on how you report the purchase to them.

Remaining customers outside the UK and inside the EU: All purchases from the 1st January 2015, including new purchases and renewals that have not been paid before that date, will now have VAT charged on them at the VAT rate for your own country (whereas previously it was charged at UK VAT rates). You will see Helm reflect this as from the 1st January 2015.

Hopefully this explains the changes that are being made to comply with the new laws without causing unnecessary confusion. If you have any questions relating to VAT, please contact your local tax authority who will be able to assist you.

V. Windows 2012 Servers Update

As communicated in our last newsletter, the default operating system for new domains for all resellers is now Windows 2012. We strongly recommend moving existing sites onto Windows 2012 as soon as possible (using the automated tool in the control panel), as Microsoft are ceasing support and patches (including security patches) for Windows 2003 in July 2015. We will be contacting customers again before then with any additional changes that are being made. We expect to stop allowing new websites on Windows 2003 in the first half of 2015. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

VI. 2015 Plan Updates

After the launch of our complete new plan range at the beginning of 2014, we are planning to make updates to our range each year. For 2015 the changes will only be small, with a few tweaks to some of the limits. As all of the changes will be increases, we will be applying the changes as well to anyone who has one of the existing 2014 plan range at no extra cost. For customers on a pre-2014 plan, there will not be any changes.

You will see these small changes reflected on our website and in Helm in the first few days of 2015.

Thank you for reading this newsletter and for your continued custom. We hope that 2015 will be a good year for you and should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at https://support.liquidsix.com.

Regards,
LiquidSix Hosting

As you may have read recently in the media, a flaw has been discovered in the SSL v3 protocol that leaves SSL vulnerable to having the secure data decrypted and read by third parties.

In order to protect our customers and their visitors, we have disabled the SSL v3 protocol on all servers. This will not affect most people, as only very old browsers still use this protocol. The newer protocols remain secure and available for use. If you have any trouble accessing SSL sites, please ensure that you update your browser to the latest version.