Scotserve.co.uk

30/10/2023

Update
On the 1st Nov it will be 29 years since embarking on providing internet related services, I thank each and every one of our past future and present clients for their business over the years.

HOSTING
Over that time there has been significant changes not only to the internet but my business and the services it provides.
Since the covid years the business has seen significant changes and with that costs, some of our customers are still paying what they were 20 years ago.

It is now time for a re-alignment and review, not only prices but the overall packages that is on offer, many will know that Scotserve is flexible when it comes to space and bandwidth and changes are made without cost or penalty, this creates an issue as it becomes uncertain what is needed to provide the overall level of service. A classic example of costs, cPanel the customer control panel was a server based licence but they moved the goalposts about 10 years ago and made it a per customer licence, increasing price every year and adjusting how many clients per band the licence covered, this minor cost 10 years ago is now a major cost, plus we are not immune to all the current inflationary pressures.

Nothing is changing immediately, over the course of the next couple of months every individual client will be contacted with a review of their service plan along with any options for changes that will be needed

DOMAIN PRICING
Some pricing has not changed in 15 years despite prices on TLD's increasing yearly, we have always been cheaper than the big three of 123reg, Godaddy and LCN however we are now wildly out of sync and in danger of domains becoming a loss leader ( in fact a couple are ).

SUPPORT
The support sytems is now on its knees, over the past 30 years, I have accommodated customers contacting me in whatever way they want but this has now become unworkable, various email addresses, FB personal, FB business, Whatsapp, ticket system, phone calls and text message, monitoring this is incredibly difficult and support is suffering.

From now on there will be 3 forms of contact, default is email to [email protected] :: :: from within the billing control panel (upgrade currently being tested) and for emergencies phone call - In the interim period I will try and forward/direct any other requests into the email support system, where a ticket is created and can be addressed quicker as well as have a history, but please bear with me until this becomes a cohesive package.

I ask for your understanding in the above which is to ensure customers still have the level of service they are used to for the next 10 years and more.

Bryon

03/10/2018

We are seeing an increase in the amount of the following types of email. Normally of no concern however the correct email password is supplied to verify.

I you are using a decent virus scanner then almost certainly this password has been fished out from a compromise somewhere else - people still have a bad habit of using the same password for everything so when some company has its data stolen it doesn't take a genius to marry the stuff up.

Always use SSL (https) for connections for mail or any login pages - this makes sure your data is encrypted in transit and cannot be sniffed

Use the following applications to make sure your passwords are kept safe These are not affiliate links I have no connection to the companies other than using their product and knowing how effective they are

lastpass.com - password manager - create ultra secure passwords without having to remember them - its even free

Eset.co.uk - Virus scanner/firewall - been using this for nigh on 20 years - its as close to install and forget as you can imagine and an excellent product

Whatever you do you MUST ensure your passwords are different for every site you log into or you will just become a victim at some point - guaranteed !!!

*****************************************************************

Hello!
I'm a member of an international hacker group.

As you could probably have guessed, your account ***@****.com was hacked, because I sent message you from it.

Now I have access to you accounts!
For example, your password for ***@****.com is **********

Within a period from July 7, 2018 to September 23, 2018, you were infected by the virus we've created, through an adult website you've visited.
So far, we have access to your messages, social media accounts, and messengers.
Moreover, we've gotten full damps of these data.

We are aware of your little and big secrets...yeah, you do have them. We saw and recorded your doings on p**n websites. Your tastes are so weird, you know..

But the key thing is that sometimes we recorded you with your we**am, syncing the recordings with what you watched!
I think you are not interested show this video to your friends, relatives, and your intimate one...

Transfer $800 to our Bitcoin wallet: 1CMQMKmvT4hz
If you don't know about Bitcoin please input in Google "buy BTC". It's really easy.

I guarantee that after that, we'll erase all your "data" 🙂

A timer will start once you read this message. You have 48 hours to pay the above-mentioned amount.

Your data will be erased once the money are transferred.
If they are not, all your messages and videos recorded will be automatically sent to all your contacts found on your devices at the moment of infection.

You should always think about your security.
We hope this case will teach you to keep secrets.
Take care of yourself

06/10/2017

We will be using a new page for all our services after a bit of re-branding and grouping of services - please come over and like the page - all future discounts and information will be posted there
https://www.facebook.com/pg/caledoniaitlimited

Caledonia IT Ltd was brought about to integrate all the services created and run by Alba Trading / S

20/02/2017

https://www.facebook.com/JasonSquiresSM/?fref=ts

This guy just spammed me multiple times even sending an email to abuse@ yet wants us to trust him that he knows best

All its done for him is successfully got him and his mailshot provider banned from our entire network of around 50 servers. Well done that man!! ( sic) Named and shamed.

We will take action to protect our clients from people like this who feel they have a god given right to fill your email account with crap

19/04/2016

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-36080667

Interesting how the big boys respond quickly ( sic) to a disaster.
Wonder if i could get away with saying to a client "I screwed up - you fix it! "

22/01/2016

Myths and legends No1

"The Cloud" is some magical mystery place defended by dragons and in the realm of the Gods
The truth is much simpler, "The Cloud" is a presumptuous name for online storage, it is nothing more than disk storage accessible via the internet. Think of it like renting a storage unit where you can put and collect files over the internet.
The good
Online access to files is fantastic if you need to gain access while on the move, no matter where in the world you then you have access as long as you have internet. Security - you may hear stories about clouds not being secure but as they are inherently only computers they are as secure as the cloud provider wants to make them so if you have confidence in your provider then dont listen to the naysayers.

The Bad
When its bad its bad, the biggest downfall is that you MUST have internet access to be able to read or view your files, not only that you need GOOD internet access, just imagine you have uploaded your 200Mb videa of you bungee jumping  and you nip round for Sunday dinner to your Grans and decide to let he watch it on her 512k adsl connection - be prepared to have a long dinner, even worse she asks you to upload her Christmas party video from her phone so she can show her friends in Oz just not feasible.

One of the great uses is for online backup - it is good to keep backups but if you are only on a standard adsl connection then forget it , there is a 2 tier society now when it comes to broadband and those without are being shortchanged by the providers.

Conclusion - Overall "The Cloud" is just a dress up of systems that we have all been using for decades now - functional and useful for many but frankly useless for most - dont get drawn into the hype  

04/05/2015

Looks like people are getting emails apparently from Scotserve with .doc invoice attachments
We did not and are not sending these, the emails are spoofs and by the sounds of things the attachments are viruses.
We have already received a couple of calls but there is nothing we can do as it is a basic problem with email in that the sender header is easily changed to make it look like it came from us.

Do not open the attachment if it is a .doc - we only send PDF files and will come with an email addressed to you with your name i.e. not to dear customer or dear client etc

13/03/2015

Just helping someone out with clearing out sites, it never ceases to amaze me the amount of people that create backups ( good thing) and then store them on the same account they are backing up ( incredibly silly thing )
Two issues are created one is the fundamental one - if indeed your service goes down then your backups are not accessible, the second issue is if storing the backups on the same account when you backup again you end up backing up the backup creating an ever increasing spiral of space being used for no or little benefit.
Backups should always be stored offsite.

Scotserve provides up to 3 levels of backups, 1) a shell based backup for our own purposes to cover disaster recovery 2) R1soft backups to a server in a different datacentre which allows recovery down to file level, 4 times a day and retained for 30 days and lastly for users using cPanel servers full cPanel backups taken daily.

How much does all this cost you - £0.00 if hosting with us its included in our pricing
Our backup service is also available to external clients ( certain restrictions may apply depending on your host )

17/12/2014

We are now setup to accept payments by Direct Debit - fully protected under the Direct debit guarantee scheme ( UK payments only ) Please contact us if you would like to avail yourself of this service - as an incentive we will offer a no price increase promise for 2 years ( with exception of VAT changes) for anyone using this method of payment.
Its a simply online registration so no complicated forms to fill.

12/11/2014

Scotserve - Premium hosting and domain registration services since 1994