Over the past month, I have seen a groundswell of opposition against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). Both of these bills attempt to control copyright infringement on the Internet by attempting to control the Domain Name Service (DNS) by which software finds websites. When you enter a website into the address bar of your browser, a transaction takes place with DNS where it translates the text of the first part of your address into an IP address. For example, the easy to remember “xmission.com” is translated in the harder to remember.. || Continue Reading →

As VP of Operations, I oversaw XMission’s recent SSAE 16, type 2 audit certification. Since this was our first such audit, we decided to limit the scope to the two products where customers would benefit the most: colocation and our Stackable cloud hosting product. In recent years, XMission has greatly expanded our focus on business products, including colocation, advanced web hosting (with our Stackable cloud product), hosted email (with Zimbra), and business telephony. As those products matured, it was only a matter of time before we saw the need to perform this audit,.. || Continue Reading →

For more than eleven years, XMission has proudly sponsored the Utah Arts Festival. This year’s festival kicks off today at Library Square (June 23-26) with XMission once again presenting the popular Sponsor Patio. Our advanced hosting division, Stackable, now hosts the Utah Arts Festival website (designed by our good friends over at Third Sun Productions). If you require festival information, ticket information, or want to make a donation, their beautiful site has everything you need. For the first time, our 400 S. window display features Utah Arts Festival graphics.. || Continue Reading →

It’s science fair season in Utah schools and XMission is again sponsoring the Salt Lake Valley Science & Engineering Fair on March 22-25 at the University of Utah. Each year, the Fair features the best young Utah scientists in grades 5 to 12. Students present their experiments and compete for a chance to represent Utah at the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair. Local companies, including XMission, support the Fair by volunteering, donating needed funds, providing door prizes, and offering scholarships and grants. Last year, five Grand Award-winning.. || Continue Reading →

Recent actions by American technology companies have been disappointing to watch. For 17 years of XMission’s operation, we have consistently fought for the freedom and privacy of our customers. On many occasions, our customers have been attacked by individuals or groups who disagreed with what they were saying or publishing. Threats of legal action, unfounded claims of illegality and copyright, network attacks and demanding we agree with their judgment are all tactics that have been used over and over. I and the staff of XMission have turned back them all. In addition,.. || Continue Reading →

This NPR story discusses something most people have known for years: that the quality of off shore call center support pales in comparison to US-based centers. Interestingly, companies are starting to move support back to the US. Of course, XMission has always provided local support. All of our support technicians are based in Salt Lake City, Utah although some do work from home these days, for at least part of the week.

In response to prior XMission blog entry I wrote on Qwest’s tactics to eliminate 3rd party ISPs, along with a City Weekly article on the same topic, XMission customer Pete Doenges felt compelled to write the following. He sent it to me for accuracy checking and I asked him if it would be OK if I reposted it here. I echo Kaylynn’s experience (from the City Weekly article: Qwest Accused of Lying to Customers, Wholesale partners say company has ‘Qwestionable’ motives). My wife and I had XMission as an outstanding ISP from their early days with phone dialup.. || Continue Reading →

My three year old boy doesn’t understand the concept of broadcast television. I fully admit to being a technophile by hobby as well as trade, and so my house is filled with the latest in digital distribution devices:  every television receiver has a DVR, and half of those have Internet video streaming devices like the Roku or Playstation 3, and they relay Hulu Plus and Netflix and Amazon on Demand in HD.  I have Blu-ray players and DVD players and the digital movies stored on my iPhone and computer hard drives can fly between devices over my wifi network. Every desktop.. || Continue Reading →

Big thanks to all of our artists who submitted work for XMission’s Digital Display Contest. We received so many creative and beautiful pieces and were thrilled to see them on our tubes at night. After reviewing the popular votes, and making their own final decisions, our judges have concluded that the Digital Display Contest winner is: “Summertime” by Bryce Buchanan Congratulations Bryce! XMission will continue to rotate all of the submissions on our display in the coming weeks and months. To see the animations at their LED finest, you will want to drive.. || Continue Reading →

XMission has great news for BlackBerry fans interested in mobile integration using our Zimbra Collaboration Suite. For just $5 per month XMission Email Hosting users at the Premium level receive a native BlackBerry OTA (Over The Air) sync solution for mail, contacts, calendar, and task data. Features include over-the-air synchronization of mail, address book, and calendar in the native BlackBerry UI
; the ability to search messages by content; management of calendar events, including meeting accept or decline; and attachment view. While beta testing this product, XMission.. || Continue Reading →