Standard Hosting:

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Basic Account – Upgraded from 1,000MB of disk space to 2,000MB (2 Gigabytes) disk space
Standard Account – Upgraded from 3,000MB of disk space to 4,000MB (4 Gigabytes) disk space
Unlimited Account – Upgraded from 10,000MB of disk space to 15,000 (15 Gigabytes) disk space

We’ve also introduced a free domain name (CO.ZA, .COM, .NET and .ORG) for new signups to the Unlimited Account – This will include upgrades. If you already have an Unlimited account, kindly contact us and we will modify your primary domain name to free billing.

The free domain applies for the longevity of your hosting account with us. Should you wish to leave Gridhost at any point, your new provider would bill you accordingly.

Local Hosting:
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Personal Account – Disk space upgraded to 500MB from 200MB ; Bandwidth increased to 1,000MB (1 Gigabyte) from 600 Megabytes
Blogger Account – Disk space upgraded to 3,000MB from 1,500MB; Bandwidth increased to 3,000MB (3 Gigbaytes) from 2,000 Megabytes
Business Account – Disk space upgraded to 5,000MB from 2,500MB; Bandwidth increased to 5,000MB (5 Gigabytes) from 4,000 Megabytes
Pro Account – Disk space upgraded to 7,000MB from 5,000MB; Bandwidth increased to 10,000MB (10 Gigabytes) from 8,000 Megabytes.

The Pro account will now also include a free domain name (CO.ZA, .COM, .NET and .ORG) for new signups – Upgrades are applicable to this offer as well. Again we remind you that the free domain applies to the longevity of your Gridhost account – a transfer will see your domain being billed by your new provider.

Additions:
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We’re also excited to introduce a new installer called Softaculous. This will slowly phase out the Fantastico Installer. The benefits of this are:

• Over 175 Scripts  (Over 125 more than Fantastico) including the ever popular Magento with tons more script categories
• True 1 click installs
• Import scripts installed from Fantastico (WordPress, Joomla etc..)
• Faster updates on Scripts

We envisage this transition to be complete over the next 4 weeks. We also wish to reiterate that no data will be lost, your Fantastico applications will remain in tact.

Better SPAM Filtering:

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We’re currently in the process of testing a new SPAM filtering application that is set to replace the old one. The ability to turn the service on and off, whitelist mail addresses and more will be available on successful completion of the testing phase.

More Powerful Servers:

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Gridhost also continues improve on it’s server architecture by employing new, modern hardware and peripherals. We do sometimes need to upgrade certain items such as memory or disk drives – All scheduled upgrades can be seen in the client area by clicking on “Notice Board”

Backups:

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We often get asked if we backup your data and the answer is, Yes! Gridhost run two backup cycles, weekly and monthly ensuring there are always two repositories on which to draw a backup of your data from. Depending on what server your on, depends on on which day your backup runs – This normally occurs on the weekend.

Referrals and Specials:

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Gridhost is on Facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/gridhost ) We often run competitions, give away prizes and offer crazy 24 hour discounts – We’d urge you to hop on and “Like” our page in order to obtain some of these specials. It only takes a minute to do

Support:

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We remind you that we currently have 3 channels available to you at anytime

• Telephonic Support
• Live Chat through our website
• Email ticket support

We are currently providing more training to our support staff to ensure that your query is dealt with correctly the first time round.

As always, we value your feedback and will endeavour to assist you with any concerning matter. Please feel free to respond to this email with any queries or suggestions.

Thanking you,

The Gridhost Team

First of all, let us apologize for not keeping the awesome blog as current as we would have liked to. We got extremely busy towards the end of last year and our priority as always is to keep you, our customer happy.

So, without further delay, let’s get into the State of Gridhost for the entire 2010 period.

State of Gridhost 2010

What a great year this was for all of us over at Gridhost. We saw record growth, recorded solid revenue increases and increased our offerings to our customers. To sum it up, here’s a short list of the achievements we accomplished through 2010:

• Jan 2010 – Increased shared hosting package limits
• Feb 2010 – Ran our first 50% off special
• March 2010 – Increased shared hosting package limits
• April 2010 – Added local hosting to the lineup
• May 2010 – Registered a record number of domains
• June 2010 – Recorded best growth in terms of new customers
• September 2010 – More package increases for shared hosting
• October 2010 – Increased Reseller package limits
• November 2010 – Price decrease for Reseller Packages alongside 50% off special

What’s happening in 2011:

We have really landed running this year at camp Gridhost – we’ve already launched our infamous 50% off special which is valid until the 14th of February 2011 – be quick and visit the homepage now and make sure you get in on the action.

We’re really going to be focusing on improving our customer service experience as well as concentrating on our current product offerings with ways to improve them.

Overall, we’re going to go after our competitors this year in a big way – we’ve got some interesting products up our sleeves and we cant wait to show it to you.

Another aspect that we want to improve is our communication with you. We’d love you to “Like” our Facebook page which available at : http://www.facebook.com/gridhost We often give away loads of freebies and special deals to our Facebook fans.

You can also follow us on twitter by visiting: http://www.twitter.com/gridhost

We’ve decided to draw a monthly item on our blog entitled “State of Gridhost”. It’s important to us to know that our customers are being filled in on the going’s on within our company and also, the achievements that our group produce over a month. By doing this, we feel that we can produce a detailed summary of the past month and keep everyone in tune.

September saw some events that really got us excited over at Gridhost. We introduced our brand spanking new branding and also ran some amazing specials throughout the month. In addition to all of that, we introduced live support was has been received extremely well and made communicating with us that much easier. Here’s a short description of our movements in September 2010:

New Products and tweaks:

• New WordPress Hosting Package introduced for web developers and clients
• Live Chat Sales and Support added to our website
• Ran a 50% off special for new hosting accounts
• Branding and website updated
• Standard hosting upgrades across accounts (More disk space and features)

Security Updates/Other:

• Kernel upgrades across all servers
• Tightened spam filtering and updated rules
• Added additional monitoring to all servers

While others might be rounding down for the year, Gridhost is just revving up – We’ve got some exciting news to share with you all over the next couple of weeks and are sure your going to just love us even more for this upcoming announcement

As always thanks for the support – We couldn’t have done it without you, our most valued asset.

The Gridhost Team

New Website Launched

Today, Gridhost unveiled it’s new website with a brand new logo and strap line. We figured that people can see for themselves that our pricing is the best in town, so why not tell everyone what the service is about? We all thought that Web Hosting Made Simple was the penultimate choice and really emphasized what our brand stands for – We hope you like it

Package Upgrades

Let’s delve into the more juicy tid bits. This month see’s upgrades to some of our packages, namely our Standard and Unlimited Package.

Standard Package: Upgraded Disk Space by 1,000 Megabytes, now 3,000 Megabytes

Unlimited Package: Upgraded Disk Space by 5,000 Megabytes, now 10,000 Megabytes

New Products!

This month also brings some exciting new products to the Gridhost lineup. Today, we’ve introduced our WordPress Hosting Package – A first within South Africa.

The package is built and optimized for WordPress and includes HUNDREDS of gorgeous pre-installed themes so you can be up and running quickly. We also included a plethora of plugins to help optimize your website for search engines and, have better control over all. You can view more information on the package by visiting: http://www.gridhost.co.za/wordpress-blog-hosting

Pricing starts at R39.95 Per month and comes with 30 email accounts , 2 Gigabytes worth of disk space and includes all the bells and whistles you’ve come to expect from Gridhost.

SSL Certificates

Let’s catch our breath for a minute and tell you about another great addition to our product lineup. Say hi to our lineup of SSL certificates. With prices starting at R279,95 per year, it’s possible for anyone to secure their site and start selling good online in a secure manner. Our entry level SSL certificate is issued within minuted and provisioned straight away. Please remember, you need to order a dedicated IP address should you be hosting with Gridhost

Online Sales and Support Chat

We think, out of all the features, this one shines out above all the rest. We’ve added another means to communicate with us. Introducing Live Chat. We must stress that 24/7 availability is coming soon, but for now, it will be running for business hours (8:30am – 6:00pm) Monday – Sunday. If the chat button says we’re online, feel free to click it, otherwise, kindly leave a message, call us or submit a support ticket.

You can now chat with a Live Gridhost Representative anytime during the hours listed – So hop on and give it a try even if you want to compliment us on our 100% customer focused service.

Easier Navigation

Find what you need quicker and easier. We’ve restructured our menu to provide access to information on our services quickly and efficiently. We hope you like the improved navigation system.

The Current State of Gridhost

The month of August saw extremely great gains for Gridhost in terms of customer signups and general product growth. Once again, we have you to thank for spreading the word about us and telling your friends what great work we’re doing over at camp Gridhost.

We’ve also introduced new servers for signups as we don’t like to overload any of our servers – This ensures that your hosting account remains quick, speedy and available at all times.

But let’s not stop there – we have some great features to pack into our web hosting offerings and we’ll be releasing these to you as the year draws down.

For now, please enjoy the new features, upgrades and feel free to contact us should you require anything at all.

The Gridhost Team

Gridhost today launched registrations for the .CO domain extension and boy, were we overwhelmed with the response from our awesome clients! This is a huge step forward for getting that domain you wanted because the domain itself is brand spanking new.

.CO is a new globally available domain extension that is a credible destination for businesses, blogs, informative sites, and more. Rapidly becoming one of the most popular domain extensions, here are some reasons to consider .CO as your next home online:

• .CO is a credible extension with many names already obtained by top name brands.
• Now you don’t need a long domain name with dashes! Get a better, shorter .CO!
• .CO has excellent SEO potential and is considered the same as a .COM in Google searches.

With many short, desirable names still available, .CO is a new landscape for ideas and business online!

Be quick Gridhosters, visit Our Domain Registration Page and register your very own .co domain today.

Costing: R270.00 Incl VAT For 1 years registration

The Gridhost Team

PS. Yes, we already registered http://www.gridhost.co  – Sorry!

We often get asked about providing guestbook scripts, shopping cart applications and comment software. Our response to these questions normally ends of with us recommending the best piece of CMS/Blogging software aptly named, WordPress.

So what exactly is WordPress and what can it do?

WordPress is a content management system (CMS) which essentially allows you to create blogs and quality websites with shopping cart modules freely available. Probably the easiest way to get yourself established in the digital world.

One of the main reasons we love using WordPress is due to the vast array of themes available. Some are free, some are paid for but the availability are many.

All Gridhost Customers can install the latest version of WordPress by logging into their cPanel and clicking the Fantastico Deluxe icon and then selecting WordPress – this will install the package automatically.

Until next time, keep on surfing Gridhosters!

Welcome to the second half of the year and our Quarterly Newsletter. We’ve got some exciting happenings over at camp Gridhost and we cant wait to share them with you.

Firstly, let’s kick off with some tid-bit’s from the last couple of months.

Account Upgrades

Over the last 6 months, all Gridhost Web Hosting accounts have been upgraded twice. The month of June saw upgrades to our Standard Package:

• Domain Increase from 5 to 10 Domains Allowed

We decided to focus on our ever popular Reseller Hosting Packages and give them some ample upgrades allowing you to host more of your clients on the same packages:

• Bandwidth Allowance doubled
• Disk Space increase to all Reseller packages
• Domain allowance upgraded on all Reseller Accounts

Solid Growth

Gridhost is happy to report that we have grown in leaps and bounds since we began operating. Our client base has grown substantially as have the caliber and numbers of our dedicated and motivated staff members.

We owe our growth to you, our clients – A big thank you for your support from all of us.

Still the best deal around

Gridhost began with the vision of offering a customer friendly service backed with affordable pricing and excellent support. We’re happy to say that we still carry that same manifesto today as we did when we began.

Our Starter package is currently the most affordable, feature packed and user friendly hosting option available in South Africa. So popular is this package, that we’ve had clients the world over signup for it to meet their hosting requirements.

The introduction of Local South African web hosting at affordable rates was well received by Gridhosters as well as potential customers. We even cracked a mention on MyADSL with a review.

While we’ve seen our competitors attempt the same structure, we stick firmly behind the saying; People copy, few follow.

Whats to come

Gridhost will be releasing a brand new package in late July. We don’t want to provide too many details just yet, but we will tell you that it’s a first and we’re excited to get it to market. As with all Gridhost offerings, we promise great value and excellent delivery for our new package.

We will also be introducing a live support / sales chat function which will be available towards the end of July for your convenience. Customers will be able to place new orders and get live support 24/7 directly from our website.

Improved client area functions are also something we’ve been working on. Some of these will include improved navigation and multiple invoice payments for your convenience.

As always, we value your feedback so feel free to comment on the blog and if your comment is selected, we’ll be throwing you a free month’s worth of hosting.

Thanks for the support,

The Gridhost Team

Gridhost always aims for what we refer to as “First Call Resolution” which simply means, we want to get your problem sorted in the first ticket or phone call you make to us.

In order for us to do that, it’s important that when submitting a support ticket, you detail as much information as possible about the problem your having.

Ticket Guideline

Here are some quick guidelines to follow when submitting a ticket:

• Always include your domain name
• Make sure your emailing from the registered email account we have on file for your account
• Detail the problem exactly and include as much information as possible
• Let us know when the problem began

By following these simple tips, our Support Agents will be able to deal with your problem more effectively and also assist you quicker.

When you submit a support ticket to our support desk, you will receive a unique ticket number which can be used to track your ticket through the Gridhost Client Area. Our SLA stipulates that all tickets must be answered within 3 hours. Our average response time to tickets has now been marked at 39 minutes.

We’re here to assist you 24/7/365 – so please let us know what we can help with!

As we continue to grow, it’s important that our clients are met with the same support levels that have made Gridhost a customer friendly environment. This is exactly why our staff compliment increases as our base expands (Good planning eh?)

We welcome Lammy to our support team and are sure that he will be of great service to you!

Being an avid Mac fan, or cult member depending on how you look at it, I was in line at the Mac shop in Sydney Australia when the iPhone was launched down under. After swiping my credit card and having the lovely store clerk hand me my beautifully boxed package, I suffered several convulsions as the reality set in. I was now an iPhone user. Albeit the phone I got was a first generation device, I couldnt care less.

The beginning was fantastic, I could touch the screen, scroll with my fingers and thought life couldnt get better. After surfing several forums and seeing the results of Jail-Breaking the phone, the inner geek took over and before you could say “Gotchya Jobs” I was taken to a magical land of Apps. Not just any Apps mind you, but completely free Apps.

Less to say that later on in the year, I would deeply regret my decision to buy an iPhone so soon after the launch. I had fallen for one of the oldest Apple tricks in the book. Get the user to upgrade the hardware so he can upgrade the software. Clever Steve, real clever.

The problem was, my first generation iPhone had no GPS, a limited camera and a very new firmware that obviously needed updating and some good ol’ fashion elbow grease. It also didn’t work all that well in South Africa considering the phone I purchased had to be Jailbroken so it could work in this wonderful land of ours.

The phone became sluggish, that delay we used to experience on the brick phones of yesteryear came flooding back, bringing with it memories of contempt, dismay and images of slamming these phones onto hard objects in the hopes that a good beating would fix the problem. What we didn’t realize at the time is that slamming the phone down on these solid surfaces has the same effect of pressing the remote buttons harder when the batteries are dead.

After two years of sacrificing MMS, all the new apps, a much needed firmware upgrade and physical hardware upgrades, the day finally arrived. My contract with my provider had expired and I was set to enter the world of mobile phone shopping yet again.

Ironically, the best advice my Ex-Girlfriend ever gave me besides the fact that I should get a dog, was telling me to get a Blackberry.

Now I know what your thinking, Girls cant give advice on technology can they? Au contraire. I was memorized. “You can get your email and send free messages to other Blackberry users!” She said while maneuvering the middle button on the phone and bashing away at the keys.

Now, I do want to put something in contrast here. I am hardly an authority when it comes to cellular phones, but I do know a good thing when I see it.

I wanted functionality – a phone that would not keep me bound by hardware and also, a fancy little leather case to go with my new toy.

Walking into the service provider’s store was simply Ayoba. My feet crossed the threshold as the automatic doors swung open and I was unleashed into mobile heaven. Little salesmen, begging for me to buy their products, trying to persuade me that their product was better than the Berry I was about to purchase.

Walking out, I felt reborn. I had my new phone and the setup and configuration was quick, the response of the phone, snappy and most of all the Storm 2 was a good looking piece of kit.

I am now at my desk whenever I want to be, surfing through cyberspace with a semi decent 3G connection I can manage our customers idea’s and feedback easily and quickly. Seamless syncing with my Macbook makes it even better. I can even sync my music.

Although the phone does indeed have some drawbacks which I’m not going to get into now, the pro’s quickly outweigh cons in comparison to most phones I’ve owned.

So, in conclusion my BB (That’s Blackberry for potential owners) has made not only my working life easier, but made communicating with friends in all manners a much easier task.

After receiving a stray BB message (which is free!) from my Ex-Girlfriend confirming a date we never had, made or even discussed, I took it all in and decided she was right. Getting a dog was the best thing next to the phone I could have gotten.

Thanks for reading!