Server Information
This page describes some of the servers on our network that end users may have a need to know about:
ns1.islandnet.com, ns2.islandnet.com
These are DNS (Domain Name Service) servers. These are strictly for handling DNS lookups for domains that we host. These should not be used by end users for general purpose lookups. These are the servers you would specify when registering a domain name, and for that you'll also need to know their IP addresses, which are 199.175.106.253 and 199.175.107.253 respectively.
dns.islandnet.com
This is also a DNS server, but unlike NS1 and NS2 this one is specifically intended for general purpose lookups. If your internet software requires you to specify a name server (most don't and will learn it automatically) then this is the one you should enter. You might also want to add this to your computer's configuration if you are using another ISP and want a backup name server. The IP address for this server is 199.175.106.252.
tick.islandnet.com, tock.islandnet.com
These are NTP (Network Time Protocol) servers. All other machines on our network set their clocks by these machines. They, in turn, set their clocks according to a variety of "stratum 1" servers (ie: machines that are directly connected to atomic clocks or GPS systems, etc) and "stratum 2" servers (machines that are only one hop away from stratum 1 servers). Customers may configure their computers to connect to either or both of these machines to keep their computer's clock in sync and accurate.
mail.islandnet.com
This is actually a "cluster" of several servers that handle email services (ie: SMTP, POP3, IMAP, spam & virus filtering, etc). All the machines in the cluster are identical and the load is divided evenly amongst them. They also act as automatic backups for each other: should one machine in the cluster fail one of the others will take over for it to avoid any disruptions. As long as at least one of the mail servers remains online everything should continue to work normally. When you are configuring your mail software and it asks you for things like an "outgoing" or "incoming" server, or your "SMTP" or "POP3" server or "IMAP" server, "mail.islandnet.com" is what you need to enter.
www.islandnet.com
Like the mail server above, this is also a cluster of several servers. Each one knows about all customer web sites and the load is spread across all of them. In addition to the load balancing and fail-over features mentioned above, a cluster is also better able to absorb load spikes and DoS (Denial of Service) attacks.
news.islandnet.com
This is our NNTP (Network News Transport Protocol) server. Customers can use a news reader program to access tens of thousands of world wide public discussion groups (aka "Usenet") through this server. Newsgroups are available that cover just about any topic imaginable.
hd.islandnet.com
This is the helpdesk server that provides our customers with documentation, webmail, a file manager, forums, and many other tools and resources.
mysql41.islandnet.com, mysql55.islandnet.com
These are our various SQL database servers. When you request a MySQL databases it will be placed on one of these machines. Your web scripts will connect to these servers to manipulate your database.
Others...
Of course, there are many other servers on our network that perform various duties. These include machines that do data backups, consolidate and process log files from all the other servers, and various other internal tasks. End users do not need to access any of these directly however.
