ICUK Press Releases

Reseller

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Internet Access

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" That's what I like about ICUK, you've always got something being developed... and it does actually appear as a finished service / feature! "
Adam

The following are a collection of Press Releases from the present day dating back to 2003. Any further details required can be gathered by emailing solutions@icukhosting.co.uk or calling 0845 00 99 175.

XML API RELEASED FOR HOSTING AND xDSL SERVICES
London, England, 1st May 2007

To coincide with our appearance at Internet World 2007, we have great pleasure in announcing the release of the worlds first XML API for resellers that encompasses both hosting and xDSL facilities. Utilising this interface resellers can now automatically provision new orders and deliver additional items to clients with a minimum of effort.

The ICUK development team has gone to extreme lengths to ensure that almost every aspect of the hosting and xDSL reseller platform can be controlled via our API. This ranges from setting up hosting accounts, to provisioning ADSL and SDSL orders, right through to accessing data transfer figures for an account. In excess of 80 individual requests are available. The XML API is fully documented online, with examples in Perl, PHP and ASP.

Paul Barnett, Director of ICUK, added that, “In today’s highly competitive hosting and Internet provision market places it has been increasingly hard for resellers to develop and distinguish themselves amongst a sea of established brands and bundled solutions. The release of the API provides our resellers with access to a wealth of tools to either create their own control panels, or simply to provide greater integration into their applications. This can not only aid in steering their appearance from being ‘just another reseller’, but can improve efficiency with greater emphasis on integration and autonomy.”

ICUK Control Panel
Even without the use of the API, our control panel remains in its 4 year of development providing resellers with:

Control Panel
Resellers can self-manage every aspect of their account via our web-based control panel which has been designed and continuously developed in-house. Hosting and xDSL accounts can be setup within seconds, not to mention access to our highly sophisticated SPAM Filtering solutions, dedicated servers and customer management.

Domain Name Registration
We support the automated registration of over 12 different domain extensions. All domains can be fully managed via the control panel including the updating of whois records, name server changes, lock implementation or removal, EPP code generation and a comprehensive DNS management facility.

Web Hosting
Resellers have the ability to access Windows 2003, UNIX FreeBSD, Email Only and Domain Parking facilities on shared platform. In addition to this we also provide facilities to reseller and rebrand our dedicated server ranges.

Internet Access
Wholesale ADSL and SDSL solutions are available to all resellers. Unlike most vISP platforms we provide fully automated interfaces to access advanced and privileged information.

The Future
This is our first generation of API with a large planned roadmap ahead This will see expansion into our next generation of dedicated servers, as well as expanding it across onto our telecom operations under the name of Red Telecom (www.redtelecom.co.uk).

About ICUK
ICUK Computing Services Limited is a privately owned company formed in 2001 specialising in providing Internet communication solutions. For more information on our existing products please visit www.icukhosting.co.uk.

THIRD GENERATION SPAM FILTERING
London, England, 18th January 2007

We are delighted to announce the forthcoming release of the latest ICUK Spam + Virus Filtering solution.

The new cluster will see the use of vastly superior server hardware, in terms of processing power, design, resources and robustness than the previous cluster. This will ensure that messages are filtered and relayed as fast as possible and will enable the cluster to sustain the periods of mass incoming spam without introducing delivery delays.

Furthermore, the extra power has enabled us to employ the use of additional advanced filtering techniques. These new and exciting methods will help detect emerging and evolving techniques used by the spammers; our studies have shown that by using the new rules, they increase the filter's effectiveness dramatically.

Vipul's Razor
As well as the standard networking tests, the new version will utilise a "Razor client" to link in with Vipul's Razor network. This technology has not been used before now due to the large overhead that is involved in its use.

The following summary of Vipul's Razor, taken directly from the author, explains the ins and outs of the protocol:

Vipul's Razor is a distributed, collaborative, spam detection and filtering network. Through user contribution, Razor establishes a distributed and constantly updating catalogue of spam in propagation
that is consulted by email clients to filter out known spam. Detection is done with statistical and randomised signatures that efficiently spot mutating spam content. User input is validated through reputation assignments based on consensus on report and revoke assertions which in
turn is used for computing confidence values associated with individual signatures.

Pyzor
Pyzor is a Python implementation of Razor, which runs much in the same way but via an alternative network. Consulting both networks greatly improves the filter's capability to catch otherwise low scoring messages.

OCR
The introduction of Optical Character Recognition scanning techniques is the latest addition that we are most excited about. With the latest trend of spam messages bestowing sole image files, previous attempts at filtering them have largely been ineffective and has affected many spam filtering providers.

With this new method, as well as the body and headers of messages being scanned for common spam words and phrases, any attached or inline images are also scanned using OCR functions.

Whilst some images are crafted in such a way that they simply cannot be recognised by OCR, we have seen that over 75% of messages containing spam images are detected.

Additional Rules
As well as the above new methods, new filtering rules have also been added alongside the existing rules to tackle common spam themes such as:

* Adult orientated
* Message obfuscation
* Stock/finance related
* Spoofed legitimate emails (including phishing techniques)
* OEM software
* Drug related

The existing filtering cluster is due to be migrated to the new cluster this afternoon (18/01/2007). This will be a seamless migration with no downtime, as the existing cluster will continue to work alongside the new cluster until its decommission later this week.

If you require further information, or details on our pricing, please contact support on 0845 00 99 175, or email solutions@icukhosting.co.uk.

About ICUK

ICUK Computing Services Limited is a privately owned company specialising in providing Internet communication solutions. For more information on our existing products please visit http://www.icukhosting.co.uk.

SDSL NOW AVAILABLE TO ICUK RESELLERS
London, England, 1st June 2006

As part of our continuous development plans all resellers can now benefit from the SDSL plans for resale. Recent reductions in BT wholesale costs for these plans have made them a more attractive solution to Business ADSL or even leased lines.

As with our wholesale ADSL solutions these SDSL plans are provided with white label usernames, with no references to ICUK. They benefit from the same functionality as the ADSL accounts such as radius logs, session history, data usage, and the ability to assign static IP addresses, amongst others.

Further details can be found on our website at:

http://www.icukhosting.co.uk/reseller_adsl.asp

If you require further information, or details on our wholesale pricing, please contact support on 0845 00 99 175, or email solutions@icukhosting.co.uk.

About ICUK

ICUK SMS TEXT MESSAGE UPDATES
London, England, 1st June 2006

For service affecting issues on the both the Reseller Hosting, xDSL and Dedicated Server platforms we will make any important announcements using SMS text messaging, as well as in the service status page, and email.

This latest feature is the result of suggestions from existing users to be kept better informed should any problems develop on our networks. It is the first in a number of new features to keep our customers, and those of our resellers better informed.

This is only possible thanks to the unique way ICUK has designed and developed its own systems and control panels.

About ICUK

ICUK Dedicated Reseller Servers
London, England, 31st May 2006

We are delighted to announce that as the result of feedback, from resellers in our recent survey, we can now release the ability to resell ICUK's dedicated servers. In short these dedicated servers provide resellers with:

Windows 2003 (Web or Standard Edition) and UNIX FreeBSD Servers
Unmetered data transfer
Dedicated 10mb connection into our switches
100% guaranteed network up-time
Your own server hardware - not a virtual server
Full root privileges
5 minute engineer response time
Instant hardware replacement
2 IP addresses
Control panels for account creation for admin and end-users

The admin control panels function much like they do in our ICUK reseller platform. These can be re-branded as your own, and you have ultimate responsibility of issuing login details, as well as the ability to issue full root access.

In the event of servers becoming unresponsive we have also provided the ability to hard reboot a server at the click of a button. However, should a server develop a more serious fault ICUK engineers are available around the clock to ensure that mission critical servers have the highest possible up-time.

Full details about this latest development can be found on our website at:

http://www.icukhosting.co.uk/reseller_dedicated.asp

For details on our wholesale pricing please contact support who will issue a pricing guide.

About ICUK

ICUK External SPAM Filtering Development Complete
London, England, 6th April 2006

We are pleased to announce that we have now extended our SPAM + Virus filtering to include the ability to filter email hosted externally. An example of which is mail routed to a customer’s Microsoft Exchange,
Dedicated server or a domain hosted by a third party ISP.

External SPAM + Virus filtering works on our powerful spam filtering servers to provide your network with the ultimate protection against harmful Spam and malicious virus email, without the need to invest in expensive software or network management tools.

SPAM + Virus filtering for externally hosted domains is priced £30.00 + VAT per annum per domain name, with an RRP of £75.00 per annum. However, in order for you to show the effectiveness of the filtering to your clients, a free 14 day trail can be installed. This includes filtering of an unlimited number of recipient addresses and emails!

SPAM + Virus filtering for external domain names works by mail delivered to our service via SMTP mail. Our server filters and scans the mail against a myriad of checks and tests before forwarding the mail on to the client’s server via direct SMTP feed, so the original recipient, message body and format is kept fully in tact.

Customers have the option to configure the sensitivity, handling with the ability to view statistics on the number of spam and virus mails filtered on their account with the reseller’s own unique custom branded
control panel.

Such is the power of the filter that since its implementation on 25th March 2006, it has already identified 475,633 spam messages and 7,514 viruses. Supplying this external spam and virus filtering allows you to generate an extra revenue stream whilst mitigating bandwidth lost, productivity decrease and harmful threats to your client’s network.

About ICUK

.EU Registrations
London, England, 6th April 2006

ICUK is pleased to announce that all ICUK customers and resellers will have the ability to register domains in the new .eu extension from 09:00 BST on 7th April 2006. Domains will be charged at £15.00 + VAT per year.

In order to register a .eu domain name, registrants must meet one of the following criteria:

o Be an undertaking having their registered office, central administration or principal place of business within the European Community,
o Be an organisation established within the European Community without prejudice to the application of national law; or
o Be a natural person resident within the European Community.

If the press is to be believed then on the opening day of registration some 100,000 domains will be snapped up. It is advised that large companies, or anyone who values their brand consider purchasing these domains, otherwise it can lead to exploitation by brand thieves of for other people to sell back to you for extortionate amounts.

Domains will be issued on a first-come first-served basis.

About ICUK

ICUK ADSL Capacity Upgrades Complete
London, England, 6th April 2006

Following the success of our ADSL Services and Reseller platform, we have put in place measures to sustain speed and reliability of the service. A BT core central 34Mb pipe has been upgraded overnight to a 155MB without disruption to connections and customers; resulting in a quadrupling of existing capacity.

This has instantly filtered through to all users on the system and has resulted in much faster connection speeds. In addition, it gives us the ideal platform to now launch the new ADSL Max services with speeds of up to 8Mb, details of which should be available in the forthcoming weeks. We hope to release details of our next generation LLU services by July.

About ICUK

Data Transfer Allowances Increased on ICUK Reseller
London, England, 1st November 2005

With immediate effect all new and existing hosting resellers will benefit from increased data transfer allowances at no additional cost. The increase comes at the end of recent infrastructure changes that make this now possible, with all servers still remaining in the UK.

From Tuesday 01/11/2005, quotas will be as follows:

*Reseller UNIX - 10GB Per Month*
The Reseller UNIX Hosting package allows you to host an infinite number of web sites and domains on UNIX/Apache with MySQL, PHP and Perl scripting features at just *£20.00 per month*.

*Reseller Windows - 10GB Per Month*
The Reseller Windows Hosting package allows you to host an infinite number of web sites and domains on Windows 2003 IIS 6 web servers, providing full scripting features for ASP, .NET, Access, MS-SQL, MSXML, PHP and Perl at just *£20.00 Per Month*.

*Reseller Enterprise - 50GB Per Month*
The Reseller Enterprise Plan package allows customers to host an infinite number of domains on both Windows 2003 and UNIX web servers for just *£50.00 per month*, with a fivefold increase in data transfer complete under one control panel.

Additional data above and beyond these new limits can still be purchased using ICUK's unique Data Blocks system designed to allow your reseller platform to grow as your company does.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Pricing and further details of our Hosting Reseller plans can be seen at:

http://www.icukhosting.co.uk/reseller_home.asp

About ICUK

ICUK Introduces Windows 2003 to Reseller Platform
London, England, 11th July 2005

ICUK is delighted to announce the launch of its combined UNIX and Windows Reseller Hosting package in our newly released version 3 of our reseller control panel.

Our new UNIX hosting features are the result of hundreds of hours of in house development work. In brief, they allow users to use the world class open source Apache 2 web server with MySQL, PHP, Perl, Password Protected Directories, Shared SSL, custom error pages, error logs and FrontPage 2002
extensions, all at no extra charge!

All existing resellers have been upgraded FREE of charge to our new 'Reseller Enterprise' hosting plan, which enables you to host unlimited UNIX and Windows domains from just £50.00 per month. All monthly charges remain the same so existing resellers can begin using the new UNIX hosting
platform with immediate effect.

We would like to announce this is the first of many planned improvements, which include wholesale ADSL broadband, improvements to domain management, bulk discounts, fax to e-mail, search engine submission and customer management facilities. As always, we welcome and encourage feedback from our existing resellers to further help the continued development of the reseller platform.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Pricing and further details of our Hosting Reseller plans can be seen at:

http://www.icukhosting.co.uk/reseller_home.asp

About ICUK

ICUK Introduces Windows 2003 to Reseller Platform
London, England, 30th May 2004

We are delighted to be able to inform you that we have just brought online a Windows 2003 server running Internet Information Services 6 for all new full hosting accounts to be placed on.

Windows 2003 brings with it a wealth of additional features, improved security and reliability and a more robust platform for shared and scripted hosting. It also brings with it Frontpage 2002 extensions which
are now available to new accounts through the control panel.

Existing full hosting accounts setup prior to 18.00 30/05/2004 BST will remain on Windows 2000 with FrontPage 2000 or, more precisely, server 3. However, we do plan to migrate the full set of plans across in the very near future to the new Server 6.

Should you experience any issues or have any questions regarding this upgrade, please do not hesitate to contact us.

About ICUK

ICUK Live Extends Product Portfolio
London, England, 24th November 2003

ICUK has launched 4 new products to add to it's already extensive range of ISP products. The products are:

Unlimited 64K & Unlimited 128K packages (with Static IP addresses) - Surf as much as you like with a 1:1 contention ratio and no cut-off times! Ideal for gamers or companies without Broadband access.

SuperSurf Xtra (Static IP) - Extended hours of our top ISDN package to 800 hours (single channel), and with a FREE IP address.

SuperSurf Plus *Extended* cut off - Extended the standard cut-off time to 4 hours (from 2) due to popular demand.

We welcome feedback from all our customers, and these new packages are the result of previous requests.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Pricing and further details of our ISP plans can be seen at:

http://www.icukhosting.co.uk/internet_home.asp

About ICUK

ICUK Computing Services Limited is a privately owned company specialising in providing Internet communication solutions. For more information on our existing products please visit www.icuknet.co.uk.

ICUK Simplifies Hosting Prices
London, England, 12th November 2003

ICUK has simplified the pricing structure for their shared hosting plans. Windows and UNIX platform hosting plans now carry the same basic specification and prices. This is to enable customer to make comparisons easier between the two platforms. Webspace, monthly bandwidth limits, as well as email specifications have all now converged into one of three plans: Professional, Advanced or Enterprise.

This does not affect the Windows Plus hosting plans. Pricing and specification changes have come into immediate affect. They will not affect existing customers until their renewal date. If you would like further information or would like to provide us feedback please email the team at solutions@icukhosting.co.uk.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Pricing and further details of our hosting plans can be seen at:

http://www.icukhosting.co.uk/hosting_home.asp

About ICUK

ICUK Computing Services Limited is a privately owned company specialising in providing Internet communication solutions. For more information on our existing products please visit www.icuknet.co.uk.

ICUK Hosting Reseller Solution Launched
London, England, 30th September 2003

First announced on the 21st July was news on the development of our own in-house hosting reseller solution. After careful tests undertaken by BETA testers, we are proud to announce the launch of our reseller control panels.

ICUK's reseller solution gives companies the ability to setup an unlimited number of hosting plans for a fixed monthly fee. Plan specification, and features are all controlled by a main central control panel. All client control panels are free from ICUK branding, and can be totally customised.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Pricing and further details, as well as our new vISP solution, can be found at:

http://www.icukhosting.co.uk

About ICUK

ICUK Computing Services Limited is a privately owned company specialising in providing Internet communication solutions. For more information on our existing products please visit www.icuknet.co.uk.

ICUK Live! Launch New Home ADSL Services
London, England, 5th September 2003

ICUK are proud to announce the launch of their 1 and 2MB Home ADSL packages. The launch of these two new services brings the total number of Internet packages available to 15 ensuring that we have a solutions to cater for all users in all locations. The 1 MB connection is available at an industry leading £40 per month and the 2Mb connection at £50 per month both at a 50:1 contention ratio. Our 512k connection remains at £25 per month.

The launch of the new Home ADSL coincides with the reduction of a static IP address down to only £1.50 per month.

In the coming month we will have further announcements regarding our vISP and Hosting Reseller solutions.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Pricing can be found at the ICUK site http://www.icukhosting.co.uk under the top link of 'Internet'. All prices are inclusive of VAT.

About ICUK

ICUK Computing Services Limited is a privately owned company specialising in providing Internet communication solutions. For more information on our existing products please visit www.icuknet.co.uk.

ICUK Live! Launched
London, England, 4th August 2003

ICUK are proud to announce the launch of their new ICUK Live! Anytime, ISDN and ADSL Internet access products. These plans have been introduced as a result of continued listening to customers. These plans replace the ICUK Breathe plans and now use different networks to provide the fastest and most reliable Internet connections to all our customers.

In the coming weeks a new range of 50:1 home ADSL plans will be released along with satellite ADSL connections. Further details pricing will be made available nearer the time.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Pricing can be found at the ICUK site http://www.icukhosting.co.uk under the top link of 'Internet'.

About ICUK

ICUK Computing Services Limited is a privately owned company specialising in providing Internet communication solutions. For more information on our existing products please visit www.icuknet.co.uk.

ICUK Hosting Reseller Scheme Announced
London, England, 21st July 2003

ICUK Hosting have unveiled first details of the new reseller scheme. The new scheme has been solely developed in-house after existing customers requested that this service be introduced.

Initial details can be found at: http://www.icukhosting.co.uk

Further details will be announced shortly once BETA tests have got underway. For further details please contact a member of support staff. A full launch date and pricing will be announced within the month.

About ICUK

ICUK Computing Services Limited is a privately owned company specialising in providing Internet communication solutions. For more information on our existing products please visit www.icuknet.co.uk.

ICUK Mobile Launched
London, England, 12th June 2003

It is with great pleasure that we announce the launch of our latest service ICUK Mobile. ICUK Mobile is a collaboration between Fonetastic Mobile and ourselves to bring our customers the latest in low-priced mobile phones and ringtones. We believe this fits in nicely with our continued effort to bring the latest communication technology to customers though the Internet as a trading channel.

The phones are all delivered free of charge the next day and phone models are available from manufacturers such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Sharp and Panasonic. Contracts are available from all major mobile phone tariff providers including Vodafone, Orange, MMO2 and T-Mobile. To spice up your phone even more you can download the latest ringtones and logos.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Pricing can be found at the ICUK site http://www.icukhosting.co.uk.

About ICUK

ICUK Computing Services Limited is a privately owned company specialising in providing Internet communication solutions. For more information on our existing products please visit www.icuknet.co.uk.

ICUK Breathe Launched
London, England, 20th May 2003

ICUK today announced the launch of it's new ADSL Broadband and Anytime dial-up packages. These packages are designed to complement it's existing range of hosting packages and 0845 dial-up ISP. They have been introduced following continued requests from existing and potential customers as an alternative to BT and AOL products.

Unlike rivals the number of packages are quite extensive for both business and home users to suit all needs. Speeds of upto 2Mbps are achievable through your existing BT phone line without having incoming calls being disrupted using these ADSL packages. Webspace and email addresses are provided on both Anytime and ADSL packages.

An affiliate scheme is also available for anyone that would like to make a commission from placing a banner on their site or by making recommendations of ICUK's new Internet services.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Pricing can be found at the ICUK site http://www.icukhosting.co.uk.

About ICUK

ICUK Computing Services Limited is a privately owned company specialising in providing Internet solutions. For more information on our existing products please visit www.icuknet.co.uk.

ICUK Introduce Microsoft .NET Technologies
London, England, 9th April 2003

Leading the way in hosting services, ICUK today launched it's plans to introduce .NET services to it's Windows Plus range of hosting solutions.

.NET is a new coding technology provided by Microsoft. It improves speed and efficiency of coding on suitable servers.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Pricing can be found at the ICUK site http://www.icukhosting.co.uk. Prices vary between the Windows Plus plans.

About ICUK

ICUK Computing Services Limited is a privately owned company specialising in providing Internet solutions. For more information on our existing products please visit www.icuknet.co.uk.