AcuNett | Setting the Standard in Server Management

AcuNett has been providing Premium Server Management services for 9 years and has built a strong reputation for generating happy clients.

Why choose AcuNett Management Services?

* Team of System Administrators available to you 24x7.
* Eliminate the leading cause of client headaches - a poorly maintained server.
* Well maintained servers lead to less server issues.
* Eliminate exploited and compromised servers caused by unhardened, out of date software..
* Proactive service guarantees constantly updated system software.
* Eliminate high loads and slow page queries caused by unconfigured applications.
* Optimized software results in faster connections, page loads, and queries.
* Eliminate prolonged downtime, simple as that.
* Stress-Free, Worry-Free 24x7 Monitoring Guarantees maximum server uptime.
* AIM/MSN Support on request.
* Fully staffed 24x7, 365 and sometimes 366 Days / year

------------------------------------------------------------------

All Server Setups can be applied to new or existing servers. Initial server configuration, including hostname, DNS, and Control Panel installation/configuration are included free of charge.

------------------------------------------------------------------

RatePoint Reviews: http://ratepoint.com/profile/39843

------------------------------------------------------------------

AcuNett 24x7 Premium Management w/ Compromise-Protection Guarantee - Option 1: $35 setup and $65/month Option 2: $0 setup and $75/month*

• 24x7 Server SitterTM Monitoring Included
• 5 Minute Interval Monitoring, 10 Minute Reaction Guarantee
• FREE Essential Server Setup
• Unlimited Server Administration time
• Unlimited Trouble Tickets
• 25 Minute Average Response Times
• 2.5 Hour Response Time Guarantee
• Weekly System Health Checkups
• Weekly Security Audit
• Server-required 3rd Party Software Installations (ImageMagick, Fantastico, Ruby on Rails, GD Library, etc)
• Installation of various server components (PHP recompiles, Perl Modules, etc)
• Proactive Operating System package updates
• Proactive Security Patching & Software Updates
• Proactive Backend Server Upgrades - Kernel, PHP, Apache, MySQL, etc
• Custom-Tailored Backup Scripts
• 50GB Free Remote Backup Space - a Special for WHT clients

Essential Server Setup

• Initial Setup - Hostname, Control Panel configuration, Setup DNS, etc.
• SIM - (System Integrity Monitor) - 24x7 Internal Monitoring of services.
• SPRI - (System Priority) - Sets priority to current processes being run on your server, decreasing load 10-25%.
• PRM - (Process Resource Monitor) - Monitors all resources used by all processes and if a process is being flooded or causing high load on the server, it is killed.
• BFD - (Brute Force Detection) - Detects brute force connections and automatically enters the offending IPs into the firewall to be blocked.
• LES - (Linux Environment Security) - Enforces root-only permissions on system binaries as well as other restrictions on system programs.
• /tmp & /var/tmp hardening – We harden /tmp and /var/tmp so no malicious bash scripts can be executed from this commonly used directory.
• /dev/shm & /proc hardening - Another place hackers tend to upload files to is /dev/shm. This directory is hardened as well.
• Optimize FTP Server for faster connections.
• Optimize PHP, MySQL, Apache to reduce load and speed up connections.
• Secure Apache to reduce the amount of information visible about a server's software making it less vulnerable.
• Host.conf Hardening - Prevents IP spoofing and prevents DNS poisoning.
• CHKRootKIt – Simple script that detects software used by hackers. It scans once a day and emails the client if any rootkits are found.
• Firewall Installation - APF (Advanced Policy Firewall) iptables based firewall and anti-dos rulesets.
• TCP/IP Stack Hardening – Prevents DDOS and SYN-Flood attacks.
• Logwatch – Sends a daily report to the client with all activity that has taken place on the server for that day.
• Operating System Optimization – Optimize the OS for faster operation and load reduction.
• Disable Open DNS Recursion - Prevent foreign queries that strain your dns servers and prevent it from being utilized in DNS DDoS attacks.
• Remove unused software – We remove unneeded software to minimize the number of software that could possibly be exploited.
• Remove unused services – Unused services are shutdown and their ports closed.
• Libsafe - Libsafe prevents buffer overflows and scans for exploitable software and notifies the client daily if any is found.
• LCAP - LCAP restricts certain kernel capabilities, improving system security.
• eAccelerator - eAccelerator dramatically decreases page loading times by caching php scripts in a compiled state.
• SSH Server Hardening - locks down and hardens the SSH server, including setting a wheel user.
• Zend Optimizer / Ioncube Installation - Some scripts require Zend or Ioncube in order to function.
• System Update - We bring your operating system packages completely up to date.
• Nessus Security Scan - We perform a full system security scan on your server and patch any vulnerabilities found.
• Minor Adjustments - Finally we make several minor adjustments to the system to improve overall performance, security, and system health.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Fortified Server Setup

• Everything in the Essential Server Setup Package.
• Mod_Security - Extensive rule-sets add additional layers of security for your web applications.
• Mod_Evasive - Provides evasive action in the case of a DoS attack.
• Smartd - Hard Drive reliability monitor. Provides i/o analysis and failure rates.
• RKHunter - Comprehensive security analysis. Rootkit scan results will be emailed daily.
• Disable php functions - Disables potentially harmful php functions.
• LSM (Linux Socket Monitor) - Identifies rogue services.
• Spam Protection- Enables mail server to use spam blacklists, filtering out 99% of internet spam.
• Spamassasin Rules - Extensive spamassassin rulesets to help combat many common types of spam.
• Dictionary Attack Prevention (Cpanel only) - Detects and blocks incoming dictionary attacks to your email system.
• LFD - (Login Failure Daemon) - A more heavyweight brute-force attack detection/prevention system, running as a daemon instead of via cron.
• CSF - (ConfigServer Firewall) - A more heavyweight firewall than APF, including BOGON packet detection and a built in Intrusion Detection System.
• Apache 2.2 + Suhosin + suPHP (Cpanel & DA only) - Provides extra security enhancements to your web application server.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Supported Operating Systems: RedHat/CentOS Enterprise Linux [all versions], Fedora Cores [all versions], Debian [all versions]
Support Control Panels: CPanel, PLESK, DirectAdmin, Webmin, and non-cp servers.

Please visit our website http://www.acunett.com/ (http://www.acunett.com) for full service and pricing details.

Please review our Industry-Leading Server Management SLA (http://www.acunettmanagement.com/sla.php) for more information on our Compromise-Protection Guarantee.

AcuNett, LLC is a Tennessee Limited Liability Company, and a member of the Middle Tennesse Better Business Bureau.

I want share my review. No body is better for the price. If you look for a good one, go with Acunett, they are pretty nice, I use them since 3 years now, I give them tons of money, but they answer me tons of ticket.

Their monitoring are really reliable, so you can sleep and they take care of everything, they are not just reboot monkey, they can restart and fix services when apache crash by exemple.

They also keep servers updated, so I don't have to worry about anything. They give me advice as well on the version I need to use.

They have some pretty good staff, and some who are more competant than others, but in most of the case, your issu will be resolved in a very fair amount of time (depending the gravity, complexity, and if it's an emergency).

So go with them and you will never have spend money, you will have invest it at the right place!

Greetings [all]

I have had the chance to write about Acunett in other thread (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=669425). Yet I'll allow myself to extend some considerations here because AcuNett deserves that and as a (very) satisfied client, I'm really willing to help them in their current advertising campaign. Also, because I know how hard it is to a new client, making that first decision when he/she does not know the staff in advance but has to handle them the house keys -- and sit and watch. My words here are aimed at giving my personal view as a sample and an aid to back this decision.

Chosing a management service to ongoing production servers is quite a step to make. The average webhosting client is very intolerant to downtime and frequently turns on the flame flag from a minor incident, sometimes even from nothing at all. When a service breaks serverwide indeed, then that's where madness lies at. Our support goes fastly flooded and definitely there'll be losses we'll have to assimilate at our best.

I have been fighting since 2002 with these two sorts of incidents: minor glitchs that pops up here and there very often, due to the known complexity and variety of a living Cpanel/Linux environment; and big crashes due to faulty hardware or system breaks/crashes/hacks. I did it by myself, ups and downs, at a high personal cost till I find AcuNett in 2004. Then my pain was eased. After AcuNett coming in charge of my servers (some firstly, all now) I have *never* had a serverwide crash again.

Their top security setup will leave the hacker definitely *out*. And I found unique companions to kill those every-day small glitches, playing fastly the tricks to wash them away, fixing little and bigger things, deploying workarounds, doing research when required - so that my time was released to do what I really know and want to do: namely, bringing new clients to my stage and making money out of my fine-tuned servers. Yes - I realized with AcuNett presence that I was paying hidden costs as applying my own time in trying to (poorly) manage my own servers and that this cost was expressively higher than AcuNett costs for any given sample period. This was a fortunate insight which eventually led me to increase my business with them along the years we've been working together.

Outsourced management relies upon two tenets: high trust and top expertise. Meeting them both together as a sure blend is rare. Some say that whatever is rare is not to come cheap. But I found in AcuNett a company to be trusted; their staff are gifted with expertise and nevertheless I can afford their top plans for each of several servers (which entails they are not that expensive). I'm a *very* happy AcuNett client and recently, I moved part of my critical services to servers they are offering themselves: this move being a result of my highest level of trusting them.

I strongly recommend AcuNett to all webhosters who need external management for Cpanel servers. They certainly are worth our trust and will feed us back with expertise and a high ethical standard in work.

I wish AcuNett a good luck.

Paula

This is my 1st post to WHT. When I saw that Acunett was promoting their Server Management Service, I had to register and post this message.

Thought I would ad a light view but a strong recommendation for Acunett.

Before meeting up with Acunett I had started out with reseller accounts that had many up's and downs. Mostly Downs.

After a short time with Acunett Shared Hosting I out grew the account and required a dedicated server for my business. They took care of every aspect seamlessly and i was left with an evening off and worry free.

We ran for 3 months with out a hitch and next we set up a client with their own dedicated fully managed server that took place as above. Seamlessly and worry free.

Well that was back in 2004. Now 4 years later (A life time in this industry) I would not trust my server in any other hands. their attention to detail, very fast turn around speed and professionalism get the job done and always lets me get a good night rest.

For the 1st time in 10 years I finally have a management firm I can trust and take a week off and not worry if the server is running as expected.

If your tired of the "We are working the problem" day in day out then Acunett has a remedy for that. A fully managed server with all thee trimmings at a very reasonable rate.

To date I have not been required to focus on client retention the service has been rock solid and as met or exceeded my clients expectations.

Acunett keep up the great work. To the staff behind the scene at Acunett pat your self on the back. Job well done and I appreciate all the hard work you do.


Well my day is done. Time for a worry free dinner :)

Dan Connaghan.

A month ago I found AcuNett here on WHT. To be honest, I tried them, because they won the "Web Host Magazine's Editor's Choice Award". :D

Best company ever seen (I have never tried expensive companies).

What I like most: Many times I have directly contacted the president and he *personally* wrote back in order to help me. I had strange problems with my CGI. He gave me a VPS for free in order to figure out the bug.

Also there network seams very solid: I am from Europe and my ping to AcuNett is most stable (+/- 2ms).

Two thumbs up!

A few questions:
1. Do you work on non-cpanel servers?
2. Do you have extensive experience on optimizing large vbulletin boards?
3. About your 50 GB managed remote backup, do you take complete backup and restore responsibility? How often would you do the backup? Would it be a full backup every time or incremental?

1) Yes.
2) Yes.
3) We provide you with the backup space. If we manage your server, we will also write a script based on exactly what you need in order to back up your data to the backup server. How often would be determined by you. You can specify whether you would like a full back up or incremental backup. You let us know exactly what you want, and we will do it.

Which means I can specify if I want a bi-weekly full backup with two restore points and you would help me setup the same?

I will send you a PM now. I may get one soon for review.

your services look good!

however,

post 4+5 seem a little fishy to me.
I may be wrong, but could a mod just confirm these?

Alright I signed up. I will post an initial impressions review once the initial setup is completed and a detailed review in a few weeks' time.

Phoenix: Yes if you want a bi-weekly backup, we will set up a bi-weekly backup. Looking forward to working with you!

Natsh: Request has been sent to the mods to confirm the validity of posts 4 + 5.

Ronny

Do you reply to pre-sales questions? I've submitted a ticket 2 days ago to your Sales/Billing dept, but still awaiting for your response.

Do you reply to pre-sales questions? I've submitted a ticket 2 days ago to your Sales/Billing dept, but still awaiting for your response.

I would like to know this too

We have been having a particularly busy week so I had our focus put on support instead of sales for the past few days. We do have a back log of billing and sales inquiries which should all be answered today. I do apologize for the wait on this.

Ronny

I couldn't find anything fishy with that post. If there's anything else you need, you can always contact us at the HelpDesk (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/helpdesk/).
your services look good!

however,

post 4+5 seem a little fishy to me.
I may be wrong, but could a mod just confirm these?

I can tell you all that I have been with AcuNett for almost two years now. I have tried other services out there and hands down AcuNett is the BEST. With a few test servers I have some another service for $29.99/mo. The other company does not perform any proactive service. They only work or check the server if I submit a ticket.

AcuNett does this all automatically. Several times a month they login to the system and check if it needs updates to the software, kernel, etc. and do it automatically.

For the price of $65/mo you can not go wrong. If you consider having to hire a direct systems administrator, you are like going to pay them half that or more per hour.

You can confirm my post seeing how long I have been a member here on WHT. ;)

-Doug K.

I second every positive opinion about AcuNett. We had some troubles with our old server management provider so we decided to give AcuNett a try.

After reading so many good reviews here, I can tell for sure they are all true. Thanks for your great work guys! ;)