About Lighthouse Web Hosting:

Lighthouse Web Hosting is backed by a well-financed corporation that serves the online needs of small to medium-sized businesses (SME) around the world.  Our customers rely on us for award-winning web hosting, email and e-commerce hosting solutions. We are proven in the market with thousands of customers and trusted by Web Development professionals to provide the most up to date dependable hosting platform.

Technology

UNIX MICROSOFT HYBRID
A seamless blend of UNIX and Microsoft™ technologies.  Our technology combines the functionality of "Windows™ hosting" and "UNIX hosting" onto one platform. You can run ASP/MS Access and PHP/MySQL based sites from the same server farm. With our seamless blending of UNIX and Microsoft™ technologies, Lighthouse Web Hosting's hosting system is truly "cross-platform and one of the most advanced in the industry".

Scale to an unlimited number of domains on redundant servers
Lighthouse Web Hosting's architecture is designed and built from the ground up to scale to an unlimited number of domains. These domains are hosted on multiple redundant servers, which are clustered using load balancing hardware.

Take advantage of our BGP4 technology
Multiple redundant Internet connections, currently provided by UUNET, LOOK Communications, Telus and Sprint, are implemented through the use of BGP4 (Border Gateway Protocol). We monitor and upgrade bandwidth as needed.

Lighthouse Web Hosting employs multiple routers and load balancers
Our multiple routers are made redundant through the use of Cisco's HSRP (Hot Swappable Router Protocol). Our server clusters use multiple load balancing hardware, designed for failover in the event of a load balancer fault, which allows us to provide you with 99.9% Uptime reliability!

Network Appliance filers assure speed and data integrity
Data integrity and speed are assured by multiple Network Appliance Filers using RAID technology. Three back up systems are in place; one is on-site and two are off-site at geographically separated data centers. The systems are continuously monitored for reliability and performance by our NOC staff. Our new state of the art data centers are protected through electrical power backup, independent air conditioning units and physical security measures.

Data Center Facility
Lighthouse Web Hosting uses four North American points of presence, its main one being a state-of-the-art 80,000 sq. ft. Intelligent Internet Data Center. The center provides the ultimate in security, reliability and technology.

• A World Class Capital Facility   $75 million has been invested in the Internet Data Center which is housed in an 80,000 sq. ft. (7,432 sq. meter) building, to be expanded to 150,000 sq. ft. (13,935 sq. meters) of hosting solutions floor space, with the capacity of more than 35,000 servers.
   
• Clustered Server Environment  Lighthouse Web Hosting's Web server clusters are bundles of hardware, operating systems, and applications, integrated to host and serve business-critical web applications to users worldwide. Hostopia ensures that the hardware, software and network infrastructure to support websites is robust enough to handle the peaks and valleys of customer demand.
   
• Environmental Control The facility has a strictly controlled dust and pollution free environment. The climate control system maintains a consistent range of between 13-21C (55-70F) and humidity at 40 to 60 percent in a static-free facility. The entire facility has raised flooring.
   
• Physical Security  The Center provides top-level 24x7x365 perimeter security including video surveillance, biometric and card-key access and 24-hour on-site security.
   

• Fire Suppression The Center has a state-of-the-art smoke detection system with the ability to scan even the smallest (up to 3PPM) particle in the air.

• Connectivity The Internet Data Center contains a robust reliable and high quality network. It operates on a SONET ring, diverse redundant fiber-optic network connections with a capacity capable of OC-192 (10 Gigabits) connected by the latest switching and high-speed routing equipment.

Security

Perimeter security via multi-tiered firewalling
Lighthouse Web Hosting's servers are protected with software-based firewalling which look at source and destination addresses, and ports. Security administrators handle all aspects of firewall management. Our engineers are familiar with many types of firewall applications, including CheckPoint, ipchains, ipfw, ipfwadm, etc. We are able to modify response packets with masquerade responses to the remote initiator. Our systems are secured using the latest security methods including router access list filtering on inbound carrier feeds and firewalling at the SYN level on internal devices.

Monitoring security systems and processes
All security systems are tested continually. We use security scanners such as Nessus, (www.nessus.org), and SAINT, (www.wwdsi.com/saint). Automatic updates are instantly made with the latest exploit/DOS, (Denial of Service), check codes. This provides us with an accurate and detailed report on our systems. Our security team is also subscribed to all the major security mailing lists, including BUGTRAQ from securityfocus.com. These lists provide access to the latest security information, which enables us to patch newly found exploits within hours of their discovery.

Intrusion Detection
We currently use a number of intrusion detection applications such as TRIPWIRE, along with our own proprietary monitoring and logging systems. These systems notify our security response team during scans and potential DOS attacks. We react to these situations immediately, modifying ACLs as needed. In certain cases rules are implemented automatically during detection.  All suspicious activity is logged hardcopy directly to a printing station which is monitored closely. This ensures there is no tampering with conventional softcopy logs.

Anti Virus Measures
Our systems are protected against viruses by extensive built-in access controls. Regular users are unable to access or damage system files.

Offsite Backups
Automated offsite secure storage backups to our mirrored storage arrays in the southern US are conducted through secure encrypted tunnels using SSH with confidential data encryption prior to transit.

Disaster Recovery Procedure
Our disaster and recovery site is currently located in the South Eastern United States. This site is for the sole purpose of emergency fail over. This NOC is capable of handling all traffic in case our eastern operations is interrupted, however we have taken every precaution necessary to ensure our services will be available under all circumstances. This site is also set up in a redundant, robust, high availability clustered environment. This allows multiple equipment failures with zero degradation in service. All sites are designed and implemented as exact duplicates to ensure the operating environment remains the same. Users are unable to access or damage system files.

Recording and determining access to data
Every employee with access to internal computer interfaces that includes customer data is assigned a unique username, ID number and password. Access to customer data is restricted based on the responsibilities of each employee. Each user is assigned an appropriate access level. Employees are only granted access to information that is essential for them to efficiently perform their job requirements. The actions of each individual on the computer system are recorded and logged by employee ID number.

Printed documents that include sensitive customer information are protected in locked file cabinets. An access control system that uses key fobs restricts access to server rooms and programming areas. Individuals are granted access to these areas only if it is essential for them to effectively perform their responsibilities.

Our practices regarding the protection of customer information are captured in our Privacy Policy. The Privacy Officer is responsible for ensuring the responsible management of all customer information.

Passwords
All passwords must be changed from vendor-supplied defaults upon initial use. To ensure the effectiveness of security parameters, we recommend a combination of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers and symbols for each password. Employee passwords are regularly tested to ensure that they are not easily compromised.

Secure Server Details
We are using Linux-based Apache with 128 bit SSL encryption.

Offsite secure storage is performed at both of our remote NOCs. These backups are done through secure encrypted tunnels using SSH, with confidential data encrypted prior to transit.

Service Level Agreement

1. SERVICE UPTIME. Lighthouse Web Hosting target uptime for the Service is 99.9% of the time in every calendar month and Lighthouse Web Hosting provides you with a 99.7% Critical Services Uptime Guarantee as defined below. If Lighthouse Web Hosting fails to meet the 99.7% Critical Services Uptime Guarantee you will be entitled to receive a credit in accordance with the Credit Table below if: (a) you apply for the credit within sixty (60) days of the last day of the month in which the 99.7% Critical Services Uptime Guarantee was not met, and (b) more than 20% of Lighthouse Web Hosting customers are affected. Such credits may be deducted from amounts otherwise payable by you to Lighthouse Web Hosting hereunder. In the event there is a dispute regarding credits, Lighthouse Web Hosting reserves the right to make the final decision about whether credits will be provided to you. If the availability for any three (3) month period is less than 98.00%, you will have the right to terminate your Services Agreement with Lighthouse Web Hosting.

a. “99.7% Critical Services Uptime Guarantee” means that Lighthouse Web Hosting guarantees that Down Time with respect to the Critical Services shall not exceed 0.3% of the time during a rolling two (2) month period (computed by reference to a 31 day month).

b.  “Critical Services” means the email services, web hosting services, DNS services, and the Lighthouse Web Hosting network to the extent that such services do not include Closed Source Applications, as defined in Section 4.

c. “Down Time” means periods of time that the Critical Services are not functional and available to Lighthouse Web Hosting customers and does not include any period of time during which services are not functional or available as a result of:

i. maintenance, scheduled or otherwise, performed by Lighthouse Web Hosting;

ii. third party intrusions, including without limitation denial of service or similar attacks;

iii. downtime resulting from misuse by End-Users (as defined in the Terms of Use);

iv. errors or non-performance of third-party software, including without limitation, Microsoft Access, .asp, .jsp, Cold Fusion or Miva Merchant; or

v. any event that is not within Lighthouse Web Hosting’s control.

2. WEB HOSTING. Lighthouse Web Hosting will use commercially reasonable efforts to ensure that your web site is available online, twenty-four (24) hours following receipt of payment from you for services.

3. MAINTENANCE SERVICES. Lighthouse Web Hosting will provide system maintenance as long as this SLA has not been terminated or amended. Maintenance is performed at times which least impact Lighthouse Web Hosting customers based on minimal overall activity on the Lighthouse Web Hosting systems. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Lighthouse Web Hosting reserves the right, in its reasonable discretion, to perform any emergency work at any time.

4. CLOSED SOURCE PLATFORM APPLICATIONS. ColdFusion, ColdFusion MX, ASP, ASP.NET, JSP, and Miva Merchant applications are hosted on a closed source platform (“Closed Source Applications”).

5. PRIVATE LABEL DNS. Private label DNS (domain name servers) require 3 DNS entries, the third of which is Lighthouse Web Hosting's generic DNS.

6. ACCESS DATABASES. Microsoft Access databases are not designed for, nor recommended for use on web sites which receive high volumes of Internet traffic. Lighthouse Web Hosting does not guarantee the performance of web sites which make use of Microsoft Access databases.

7. EASYMAIL/MAILING LISTS

a. EasyMail E-Mail Accounts are restricted to a maximum size of 50MB. If you exceed this limit we may suspend or terminate your account and your email messages may be lost.

b. EasyMail E-Mail Accounts’ e-mail transfer limit is a maximum of 20MB for each separate request by the mail server.