In a prior newsletter, we held a contest for the best feedback from customers. One of the winning entries suggested that we offer a forum for the sharing of knowledge by our customers. We are pleased to announce that the Customer Forum has been launched at http://community.eapps.com.

Posting on an empty forum is like being the first one in the group to jump into the pool early in the swimming season. No one wants to be first, but once the first person jumps in pretty soon everyone is joining in. Our forum will probably be like that. As an added incentive, we are offering a reward to customers that make an outstanding post or response. Each month we will choose the top two posts (initial or response) and give those customers a $50 account credit. Yes, you read that correctly, each month two people will get a $50 credit for their outstanding post! We will publish these winners each month in this newsletter.

We believe in an open channel of communication on the forum. We do, however, reserve the right to delete posts that are in bad taste or are intended to air grievances rather than escalate the issue to our management. This forum is for you. Your contribution to help police it is greatly appreciated.

Domains are the theme in this month's newsletter and we have some great news about the availability of three of the hottest TLDs. We now sell .tv, .eu, and .mobi domains!

.tv - various entities have tried to promote the use of .tv (assigned to the tiny island of Tuvalu) since 1996 without much success. However, due to the awareness of video brought on largely by youtube.com, the purchase of .tv domains is growing. Demand Media, the company that owns Enom and Bulkregister, has created a free social networking video platform to enhance the value of owning a .tv domain. The recent significant increase in the purchase of .tv domains by businesses and individuals suggest that their efforts are paying off.  For more information on the free video platform, see the Special Offers section of this newsletter. General info on the .tv TLD can be found at http://www.allthings.tv.

.mobi - This domain is being promoted by a commercial entity as "the" domain name for sites designed to work on mobile handheld devices. There appears to be a lot of momentum for .mobi as evidenced by a high volume of sales and high dollar auctions for recognizable domains. Please note that you must comply with guidelines for use of .mobi domains; see http://mtld.mobi/ for more info. Also, we can host your previously purchased .mobi domain but we do not accept transfers at this time.

.eu - This TLD has become very popular for businesses and residents of the European Union. Please note that you must have a place of business in, or be a resident of, the EU to puchase this domain. Also, we can host your previously purchased .eu domain but we do not accept transfers at this time.

You can purchase your new domain by going directly into our store at http://www.eapps.com/store, and then logging in with your control panel login at the account info page. You can also buy your domain using the Domains manager on the System tab of your control panel. Just click Add Domain and you will see a direct link to the store from there.

Article
Just when you thought you had a handle on optimizing the searchability of your domain name, the rules change - Google Rules that is. Website Magazine reports in an article by Paul J. Bruemmer and John Faris entitled "Google's Universal Search"  in the Fall '07 issue that Google is now employing what they call Universal Search. This is intended to find ALL relevant content for a keyword search, including blogs, maps, video and images. The article explains Google's efforts to expand the inclusion of content and what you can do to keep your domain relevant. Subscribe to Website Magazine now as explained in our Special Offers section below to get the full article and other useful information related to the use and promotion of your site.

Special Offers
The Internet has made it easier than any time in previous history to obtain information. But the vast amount of available information makes it harder to find useful information. A good old fashioned publication about a particular subject matter can be the answer.  

To help you maximize the success of your site, we are pleased to offer a free subscription to Website Magazine, an excellent print/on-line publication for those interested in building, maintaining and promoting their site. From websitemagazine.com: "Website Magazine! Providing Essential 'Net Info for Website Owners, our mission is to help our readers succeed by providing helpful and valuable information about online business trends, industry insights and best practices." We think they hit their mark. Visit our Website Magazine specials page for your subscription.

Usage of video on the Internet is expanding rapidly. Millions of people watch videos each day for entertainment, news, and learning. But have you ever thought about how you can leverage this technology to grow your business? Product training, technical support, employee education, sales and marketing, testimonials; the opportunities for video content are numerous. The time to take advantage of web video is now and the tools are available.  

Our registrar, Enom, provides a free hosted video platform with the purchase of any .tv domain! Please note that this service is not hosted on the eApps network, it is a service of eNom. You might ask "why is eApps Hosting promoting an alternative hosting service?" Well, we asked ourself that question too. The answer is simple. You need it and a group of experts with ample resources at eNom has already made it for you. As an eNom reseller we make a small margin on the sale of the .tv domain. But we think of it like this - an eApps hosted site with links over to an exceptional video platform makes for a successful customer site. Our success depends on yours. For more information on how to get started, visit the .tv video platform information page.

Tech Tip
Wouldn't it be nice to live in a place where we could leave the doors to our home unlocked? There are still some small towns and villages in the world where this is the norm, but for most of us the reality is that it is not prudent to do so. Likewise, we use an Internet where, unfortunately, bad guys are looking for opportunities to enter any open door to our computers. One of our most important protection mechanisms is the password. We use passwords every day to control access to our private areas. This month's Tech Tip is all about passwords. Please take a few minutes to read on.  You might discover some information that helps protect your service from being compromised.

Format of Passwords - All passwords must pass the cracklib test. This significantly reduces the possibility of someone running an automated password cracker on your password. To pass cracklib, all passwords must have at least one special character and contain no word or word form.

Use the Control Panel to set passwords - It is very important that you set your passwords using the Control Panel. The Control Panel needs to know certain passwords, such as the MySQL password, to function properly. This is also the most secure way to set passwords.

Lengths of passwords - We recommend that you make your passwords 8 characters. Certain passwords such as root, user, and mailbox passwords MUST be 8 or fewer characters. Long passwords are generally better, but our control panel limits the password length to 8 characters.

Being Blocked Because of Repeated Attempts - Our Intrusion prevention system will block any user that tries to repeatedly access any service in the eApps Hosting network. If you forget a password and try multiple times to login you might get blocked for 15 minutes. In this case you will not be able to access any site on the eApps network. To find out if your IP is blocked, or to request that it be whitelisted, find your IP at http://whatismyip.com and send your IP to support@eapps.com.

Control Panel password - the login to your control panel is your email address. The password was set when you purchased the hosting service. This is a powerful password because once you gain access to the control panel you have full control over the service. You can change your email login ID and your password from the Personal Profile icon on the My Account tab in your Control Panel.  If you ever forget your password, you can use the Forgot Password feature at http://cp.eapps.com/cp. If you need to add or remove users for the Control Panel, please send their name, email address and phone number to billing@eapps.com.

root access password - the 'root' user ID is also very powerful because it allows master access directly into your VPS service. The 'root' ID is also used to login to the Virtuozzo Power Panel, a supplemental control panel available on the System tab. You can change the password for the 'root' user from the Users area on the System tab of your Control Panel.

mailbox passwords - mailbox passwords are set and changed in the Mailboxes area on the System tab of your control panel. If you want the individual mailbox users to be able to change their passwords you have two choices. 1) install the OpenWebmail application from your System tab, which allows individual users to change their own password, or 2) set up the mailboxes using the "multiple domains" approach as explained in the email user guide, which allows them to us the "mycp" personal control panel.