Network Connections

Each server is connected to our high-speed Fast Ethernet backbone through a private, segmented network. This means that each server has 100Mbit/s of bandwidth available for Internet traffic. We also employ bandwidth management techniques to ensure all available Internet bandwidth is shared evenly amongst our customers. This prevents one site taking all bandwidth to the exclusion of the others.

Switches

We use switches rather than conventional network hubs to connect all of our servers and network equipment. With a hub, all users share the same bandwidth. This works well with a few users, but as you add users, competition for bandwidth can start to slow down traffic on the network. Switches improve performance and shorten network response times by reducing the number of users per segment

The switches connect through Gigabit rated connections direct to Juniper Internet backbone routers that are purpose-built for use in critical applications.

Routing

IP addresses on our servers are routed through the Internet by use of BGP4 routing which allows us to connect directly to multiple Internet Service Providers.

Each of our network routers have Dual SDH connections operating at between 2.5 Gbit/s and 10 Gbit/s for resilience. These routers are connected directly into the backbone of the Internet via the Cable and Wireless and Telewest carrier networks.

Network and Server Monitoring

As well as the standard automatic monitoring of the network lines and Internet connections, we also have automatic monitoring of each web server, constantly testing the operation of both HTML and ASP streams. In the event of a failure, the web server is automatically rebooted, and our System Administrators alerted, allowing quick and efficient system recovery.

Uptime Guarantee - 99.999%

If your Web Server is unreachable by ping from two or more locations for more than ten minutes, we will credit an amount equal to one week's hosting to your next bill. The ten-minute window will allow for server rebooting, a part of normal server maintenance.

We can offer this unique guarantee because by using BGP4 multihoming redundancy we can quickly switch to one of our other backbone providers in the event of a network failure. Our network is monitored 24 hours a day by on-site System Administrators.

To make a claim against this guarantee, you must provide documentation in writing or by email, and the network failure must be verified by us using system logs. The outage must be for a duration of more than ten minutes. If such a verified outage occurs, an amount equal to one week's hosting fee will be credited to your account. No more than two outages per month will be credited.

Bandwidth Allowances

There are no practical limits on the bandwidth (data transfer) your site can use. However, we can't deliver unlimited bandwidth for free. If you have you have an incredibly busy site containing very large graphics you may need to buy extra bandwidth in 1 Gigabyte per month packets, at a cost of £90 per year per Gigabyte. Frankly, we don't monitor bandwidth usage unless a site consistently pulls over 2gb per month.