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Commercial Network Services FAQs

IBFX has partnered with Commercial Network Services to offer you our latest technology solution. A virtual private server, or VPS, will ensure that your trades are made accurately without tying up your personal computer.

We’re received a variety of questions regarding our VPS service, and have done our best to answer them below.

Q: How do I sign up?

A: Interbank FX users go to https://cp.commercialnetworkservices.net/cart.php?promocode=IBFX. IBFX Australia users go to https://cp.commercialnetworkservices.net/cart.php?promocode=IBFXAU.

Q: What is the monthly cost? Is there a contract required?

A: The monthly for CNS VPS starts at US$30.  The actual cost will depend on the subscribed resources.

The value plan ($30) has 2 CPU cores and supports up to 1GB of RAM, with 384MB included.  The standard plan ($65) has 4 CPU cores with 512MB of RAM included and supports up to 3GB.   Each additional 128MB is US$2.56/month.  Both include 15GB of disk.  Extra disk space is $1/GB/month

The Market Maker ($300) has 4 CPU cores and 4GB of RAM in a low density configuration and supports up to 22GB.

Windows 2008 R2 (like Win7) is available in any plan with a minimum of 20GB of disk and 1GB of RAM.

We do not require any contracts.  Subscriptions are available in monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annually.

Q: How does IBFX reimburse me?

A: The amount sponsored by IBFX will be posted to your renewal invoice when the invoice is due.  The balance remaining, if any, will be charged to the subscriber.

Q: I am a current CNS VPS subscriber.  How can I join the IBFX sponsorship program?

A:  Please contact CNS Support and provide the coupon code. (IBFX or IBFXAU).  We will add you to the brokers sponsorship group, where it will be activated upon IBFX approval.

Q: How can I check if IBFX is sponsoring my subscription?

A:  Sponsorship status can be checked at any time by logging into the CNS Control Panel and click “My products & Services” at the top, then “View details” next to the respective subscription.

Q: What are my payment options?

A: Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Paypal, Liberty Reserve, Money Bookers and Google Checkout.

Q: Are non-English versions of Windows available?

A: Yes, simply select the “MUI” image during signup.

Windows 2008 OS is available in:  Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese (Hong Kong SAR), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian (Latin), Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian

Windows 2003 OS is available in: English, French, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese

Q: Is the trading platform pre-installed?

A:  If you are a new subscriber, the trading platform will be pre-installed for you.  If you are a current CNS VPS subscriber joining the IBFX program, then you will by default keep your same VPS and simply need to run the platform installers, just like you would do on any other PC.  If you prefer a fresh VPS then please open a support ticket and we will take care of that for you.

Q: Can I install other software?

A: Yes!  Our Trader’s VPS’s are genuine Microsoft Windows Virtual Machines which we have optimized for the online trader.  You have full administrative access and can install any software you wish.  As a MS VM, our VPS’s will have no trouble at all with EA’s that use DLL’s either. 

Q: How much Ram is guaranteed?

A: All subscribed RAM is guaranteed.  We use Microsoft Hyper-V, a hardware virtualization platform.  The RAM subscribed in your plan is truly real RAM on a physical server dedicated for your exclusive use.

Q: What is my storage/hard drive size?

A: Our 2003 OS’s start at 15GB, with about 5GB open for use by the trader.  The remaining space is used by Windows.  Our 2008 OS’s start at 20GB.  Additional disk space is only $1/month/GB.

Q. How many platforms can the VPS handle?

A: It is not possible to make a blanket statement that one VPS can handle a specific number of platforms.  Each EA is a unique computer program and will have its own resource requirements. It's not so much about how many MT4 terminals you are running but what's running inside them (i.e. the EA’s).  Please feel free to contact CNS support and request a resource evaluation at any time

Q. How are Windows updates handled?

A: We do not force a reboot on subscribers in order to install updates.  Our VPS’s are configured to download updates but not install them.  This will keep your VPS from rebooting unexpectedly.  When updates are available for your OS, you will see an icon in the lower/right of your VPS desktop.  To install updates, double click on the icon and follow the prompts.  Keep in mind many updates will require a reboot of the VPS, so you should install them only when you can tolerate a VPS reboot.  If you would like to configure updates to install automatically and reboot over the weekend (with the possibility of a reboot), please contact CNS Support and we will configure it for you.   It is possible to schedule reboots and use CNS Autoboot to restart your terminals for you.

Q: How do I reach CNS Support?

A: CNS Support is available 24/7 and staffed by in-house technicians (we do not farm out support).  To reach the helpdesk, login to your CNS Control Panel and click “Help Desk” at the top.  Then “submit ticket”.

If you are exposed in the market and experiencing a problem, please use the Trader’s Emergency queue.  This is a special queue we have setup to handle emergency situations.  The average response is 3 minutes.  If you are not experiencing an emergency then please use the “Virtual Desktops, including Trader's Desktops” queue.  Support is also very fast, we simply prioritize the emergency tickets first.

Q: I see 2FA on the order form.  What is 2FA?

A: Two-factor Authentication secures your VPS from hackers.  It is free worldwide and completely up to the subscriber whether to use or not.  The CNS 2FA solution combines something you have - your mobile phone - with something you know - your password - to complete a strong authentication solution.

When a subscriber logs into a system protected by CNS 2FA, they must first enter their regular user name and password.  We then send the registered mobile device a random PIN code via SMS, and prompt for the same code on the login screen.  The subscriber must enter the correct PIN code to complete the login procedure.

2FA renders key loggers ineffective because the PIN code changes every login attempt.  A stolen password is only 1/2 the information needed to login - the attacker must also have your mobile device in their hand to read the PIN code and enter it.  Brute force hacks are out of the question

Q: I see a program called “Autoboot” installed in my VPS.  What is Autoboot?

A: Autoboot is software developed in-house by CNS to support our traders.  It can/will:

• monitor terminals and if they crash for some reason (usually buggy EA), it can email the subscriber an alert, restart the terminal, restart the VM, or any combo of these actions.
• restart terminals if the subscriber has configured the VM to install updates over the weekend and reboot
• monitor MT4 logs for events, such as ‘trade context busy’, or anything really and can do the same actions
• monitor the health of the VM for events such as low RAM (most common issue)
• delete old log files to keep the disk clean
• ...and more

Autoboot features are a direct result of subscriber feedback, so if you have any special feature requests then please let us know!

Q: What kind of uptime am I guaranteed as a subscriber?

A: We realize any down time can be costly to our subscribers. Our goal is to provide 100% uptime outside scheduled maintenance hours. Our maintenance window opens Friday evenings at 7PM Pacific time and typically closes Saturday night. During these maintenance periods services may experience brief interruptions as we maintain our network and platform. In no case will our maintenance result in a reboot of a hosted server.

In order to accomplish our goal of 100% uptime outside of scheduled maintenance, we have built our network and our platform from the ground up to be 100% redundant. This starts with using only premium datacenters, who provide us with redundant power and Internet access through multiple carriers with diverse points of entry. We have built our internal networks to also be redundant, impervious to any network equipment failure or cable cuts.

Our servers are fully owned and custom built to our precise specifications – we are not locked into a lease with a proprietary server and only proprietary options. Everything in our servers that can be redundant is redundant, namely power, disk and network. We use only high quality server components by the highest quality brands.

We stand behind our commitment to 100% uptime outside scheduled maintenance with this guarantee:

If a hosted service fails as the result of a fault on our side, we will issue a service credit of 5% of the monthly fee for every 30 minutes of down time, up to 100% of the monthly fee. In order to qualify, the fault must be on our side. i.e. a problem in a hosted OS as a result of conflicting software or resource exhaustion will not qualify. However, a crash of the OS as a result of a crash of our equipment will qualify.

Our network uptime is independently monitored by HyperSpin from multiple locations. Our network status is always displayed on our network status page. We will also issue the same service credit whenever HyperSpin records unplanned network downtime, unless the report is due to a problem with the HyperSpin service.

Q: Where are the servers located and what is the connection speed to the trade server you want to connect to?

A: We operate out of three datacenters, located in San Diego (California), New York City and London. Please be sure to select the “NYC” datacenter during signup. Our NYC servers are located in our data center in Lower Manhattan, in New York City. NYC is the financial capital of the USA and our subscribers enjoy <1ms latency to IBFX.

Q: How do I login to the CNS Control panel?

A: You can login to the CNS CP here:  https://cp.CommercialNetworkServices.net/ClientArea.php

Q: Where can I read more information?

A: We maintain an up to date knowledge base and troubleshooter at our helpdesk::  http://helpdesk.commercialnetworkservices.net/

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