There are currently a number of emails circulating around claiming to be from Network Solutions and Enom (probably other registrars, too). They claim that there is a problem with your registry information and want you to log in, with a provided link, and make changes. These are not real emails, they are phishing for your information. If you are ever contacted legitimately about your domain(s), the group doing so will know your name and the name of your domain, and one or both will be in the email. Furthermore, and this is the more important part, they have no way of knowing if your information is good or bad. Frankly, if you move and don't change the address, they don't particularly care.

If your domain is registered thru Candledark, and if there is a problem, we will contact you. Periodically you may get an email from BulkRegister asking that you check your information to verify its accuracy. This usually only happens with domains that have been around a long time. If you are registered elsewhere, always use caution when receiving email from someone that says they are your registrar. These people have detailed records, they know who you are and what domain(s) you have registered with them. And, they only send emails to the email address you have on file with them. Candledark will track down new email addresses for clients that forgot to notify us of a change. Your registrar will not. If in doubt, contact us and we'll help you out.

Due to an unbearable and unending mountain of spam (read 1500+ a day), we are changing the email address used to make payments to PayPal. Effective immediately, the address money@candledark.net no longer exists. If you make payments via PayPal, be sure to make note of this change. The new address will appear on your invoices, but will not be listed on the website.

To stem a reoccurring problem with slow and no pays, we are making a one-time, unprecedented offer. For all long-term clients currently not set-up for automatic credit card payments - sign up by March 1, 2008 and receive one month hosting free. Never have to remember to make a payment again, we'll do it all for you, and receive April on us! This offer is good for any account size, and is good with all discounts. Sign-up to prepay and save even more!

If your account is behind, you can still take advantage of this offer. And, if you like, we can double bill you each month to clear the balance. What this means is, if you are on a small account, instead of charging you $5.00 a month, we'll charge $10.00 each month until the balance is settled. Slowly work down your balance with little effect to you. If you wish to clear your balance separately, simply say so in the comments when you sign up. To sign up visit our online payment page before March 1.

To improve your hosting experience we are currently developing a support ticket system to be launched with a new and improved website. At some point this month you will receive an email with your login information to access the system. Once you have your login info, you can begin using the new system at your leisure. Support through regular email will still be available. The support ticket system allows you to keep a running record of your support requests and see what progress is being made. If you have questions, feel free to email us.

Spam and hackers brought down the first version, but a new one has come. The User Forum has returned. As before, there is a portion expressly for Enterprise clients, however, only users in the enterprise admins group can access these forums. Once each enterprise owner has registered I'll add them to that group. If you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know.

Move to Houston means improved connectivity and state-of-the-art disaster protection and recovery

Disaster prevention and recovery in today's market is crucial to any business, and more so to an online entity. It is a growing concern that a detailed disaster recovery/business continuity plan should not only exist for every company, but should reflect the real and on-going needs of a progressive world. On July 29th, 2003 Candledark's recovery plan was put to the test when a transformer in the building that houses our Network Operations Center exploded, and while the servers were running, their connection to the outside world was cut. For us, this was unacceptable. So, to improve our service we have been moving our entire NOC not only to a new building, but a new state. Good-bye sunny Nevada, hello sunny Texas. We've traded in sand for, well, sand. At the same time we have changed from a dual-homed connection to a multi-homed connection and increased our bandwidth to over 4 gigabits/second using the providers Time Warner, Verio, AboveNet, Savvis, and Cogent.

Launched February 14th, 2006, the new NOC utilizes a building and infrastructure rated as one of the best in the world. The state-of-the-art NOC is located Houston  building gaining ever-growing attention for its robust building infrastructure, advanced certifications and award-winning architecture. It is known as one of the most intelligently designed buildings in the United States and we are proud to be a part of it.

This move does not affect where you send payment. Those will continue to be sent to our forested Kentucky offices in a building that, while not as appraised, does have an abundance of trees and just a little fog. The natural stuff, not the L.A. variety.