Feb 4 |
PHP 8 is now available
Posted by Paul Woodland on 04 February 2021 01:48 AM |
PHP 8 is now available to use on all of our servers! As not all scripts will be compatible yet, we have not made it the default version (this is currently PHP 7.4), but you can choose to switch to it at any time by clicking on the "Website Settings" icon for the domain in our control panel, and choosing it from the PHP versions dropdown box. If you need any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us. Read more » | |
Dec 31 |
Minor Changes to Policies due to Brexit
Posted by Paul Woodland on 31 December 2020 07:03 PM |
As many customers will be aware, in 2016 the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. Although this happened earlier in 2020, it is only now at the end of 2020 that the transition period is ending and so changes have been needed. We have therefore had to make a few minor changes to our legal agreements to comply with the new laws. As the UK government only announced what rules would apply a few days before they would take effect, this could only be completed at the last minute. The new updated agreements apply from the 1st January 2021 (tomorrow) and are available on our website: https://www.liquidsix.com/legal Only minor changes have been made, including changing references to GDPR to the equivalent new UK law and references to the UK being within the EEA needing changing. A few other minor changes have been made at the same time, including removing our old payment processor, WorldPay. No changes have been made to how we process your personal data. For customers within the EU, there will be VAT changes required (including us being issued with a new VAT number for EU use - the current number will stay the same for UK use). Due to the law, these changes can not be made until after the 1st January, so you will see these changes take effect in the first half of January. If you have any questions about these changes, please do not hesitate to contact us. Regards, Read more » | |
Nov 21 |
.Net 5.0 Available Now!
Posted by Paul Woodland on 21 November 2020 02:50 AM |
The latest release of Microsoft's .Net Platform is available on our services now. The new .Net 5.0 brings together the best of the .Net Framework with the best of .Net Core, and is the future for both of these existing platforms. It is available now on all plans that include ASP.Net, and can be turned on from the "Website Settings" page for your domain in our control panel. All existing versions of the .Net Framework (2.0 to 4.8) and .Net Core (1.0 to 3.1) are of course still available to use as well. If you have any questions about using the new platform, please do not hesitate to contact us. Read more » | |
Aug 16 |
SQL Server 2019
Posted by Paul Woodland on 16 August 2020 09:36 AM |
The upgrade to SQL Server 2019 for all customers was completed yesterday as scheduled and notified by email a few weeks ago.
If you have any questions or problems, please do not hesitate to contact us. Read more » | |
Jul 22 |
July 2020 News: Upgrades & Domain Prices
Posted by Paul Woodland on 22 July 2020 09:53 AM |
CONTENTS
Dear Customers, We hope that all of you are doing well and keeping safe during this strange time for everybody. We have been continuing to operate as normal since the beginning of this outbreak, and expect to continue to do so. If there is any way that we can assist you or your business during this time, please do not hesitate to contact us. We have a few updates for you this time about upgrades to SQL Server and PHP, as well as changes to some of our domain registration prices. If you have any questions about these, please get in contact so that we can assist you.
SQL Server 2019 Upgrade On Saturday 15th August, we will be upgrading all of our customer Microsoft SQL Server instances to SQL Server 2019, the latest version of SQL Server that Microsoft has released, so that all of our customers have access to the latest technology. This will be being done as an in-place upgrade to reduce the disruption. The window for the work will be between 12.30am and 6.00am UK Time (GMT+1) on Saturday 15th August, we will be doing each server one at a time. The downtime for each server during this period should be less than an hour and will be kept as short as possible. It is being done overnight to reduce the disruption that this will cause. No changes will be required to connection details, and there are not expected to be any script compatibility issues - however you may wish to check with your developer that scripts are compatible with SQL Server 2019. The only impact that the upgrade is expected to have on customers is that older versions of SQL Server Management Studio will no longer be able to connect to the server properly. Microsoft make the latest version of Management Studio available for free to all users, so you can simply download the latest version from the Microsoft website here: This affects Microsoft SQL Server databases only, and not any MySQL or other databases, which will remain as they currently are.
PHP Upgrades At the same time (12.30am to 6.00am Saturday 15th August) we will also be applying the latest upgrades to PHP available on the server. As each website will continue to use the same major version as it already does, but be updated to the latest minor update of that version, there should not be any action that customers need to take. There is not any expected downtime during this process. We do recommend that customers upgrade to the latest major version of PHP (7.4) wherever the scripts on their website are compatible. This can be done from the "Website Settings" page for the domain in the control panel. Where scripts are not compatible with the latest version of PHP, we do recommend that customers talk to their developers or software suppliers about making them compatible, in order to ensure that websites remain stable and secure, as older versions of PHP can have security issues that are no longer patched.
Other Updates and Maintenance There will also be other miscellaneous updates and maintenance being performed at the same time (12.30am to 6.00am Saturday 15th August). There is not any extended downtime expected for these, but they may require brief server reboots during this window.
Changes to Domain Prices Since October when we last updated our prices, there have unfortunately been further large increases by some registries on the cost of their domains. Although we have absorbed these costs so far, we are having to increase the cost of some of the domains we sell. These price changes will take effect for domain registrations and renewals that are paid for on or after the 1st August 2020. Renewals paid before this date will be at the old price. The prices that will be changing are as follows: All Nominet UK domains will change from £5.99 to £6.99 per year excluding VAT, this includes: .uk .co.uk .org.uk .me.uk .plc.uk .ltd.uk
.net domains will change from £14.99 to £15.99 per year excluding VAT There will be no changes to domains not listed above, including .com domains. These prices have been kept as low as possible, and are still cheaper than a number of the large UK domain registrars, especially our prices for .uk and related domains, which are significantly below the renewal prices of the large registrars. Hosting plans, servers, SSL certificates and other services are not affected. We have never increased the price of our hosting services for existing customers, and this will not be changing. Only domain prices are affected, due to the registries increasing the costs to us.
As always, should you have any questions regarding anything in this newsletter, or need any assistance with any aspect of your service with us, please do not hesitate to contact us via the helpdesk at https://support.liquidsix.com.
Kind Regards, Read more » | |
Oct 30 |
Oct 2019 Announcement: MySql Migration and Last Day To Save on .uk Registrations!
Posted by Paul Woodland on 30 October 2019 05:12 PM |
Dear Customers, As you may remember from previous messages, last Saturday (26th October), an upgrade to MySql 8.0 was scheduled in the early hours of the morning, along with a move onto new upgraded hardware at the same time. As some may be aware from announcements on the support site, this eventually had to be cancelled. The other updates and maintenance scheduled for that night were completed as expected. The MySql move was begun as scheduled, and the databases were moving across without issue. However, as part of this upgrade, a random selection of sites were tested after their database's moved to ensure that they were still working on the new server. Part way through this move it was deemed that the number of sites that were failing these tests was unacceptably high - whether due to scripts still being out of date or being incompatible with MySql 8. As such, to avoid these sites going offline, we were forced to abandon the upgrade, and leave everything running as it was before. Although the move to MySql 8.0 has had to be abandoned, it does mean that we have new hardware for MySql that is sitting empty and waiting. Therefore, we are scheduling a shorter maintenance for this Saturday (2nd November) between 12.30am and 5am, during which we will be moving MySql onto the new hardware, whilst staying with the existing version of MySql, 5.7. The expected downtime during this window is approximately 30 minutes. There are no changes to sites needed to prepare for this, as the major version is remaining the same, as well as the configuration. We are currently working out what is best to do in order to offer customers that would like it access to MySql 8.0, without affecting the websites of customers whose websites are not compatible with the latest technologies. If MySql 8.0 is something that you are interested in, please contact support to register your interest, and we can then plan the best way of doing this and keep you up to date.
LAST DAY FOR .UK PROMOTION -------------------------------------------------------------------------- At 6pm GMT tomorrow, our October promotion on .uk, .co.uk, .org.uk and .me.uk domain registrations is finishing. Don’t miss out! For only £5.00 exc VAT, register a new domain in one of these extensions for 2 years. This is a saving of £6.98 exc VAT. For more details, and to register your new domains, please see here: https://www.liquidsix.com/twoyearuk/ Only about 24 hours left to qualify for the promotion! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As always, please contact us via the support helpdesk - https://support.liquidsix.com - if you need assistance with anything in this newsletter, or anything else to do with your hosting service. Kind Regards, The LiquidSix Hosting Team Read more » | |