About Us

What is R-fx Networks?

In the spring of 2001, R-fx Networks was born as nothing more than a simple web hosting/design site with a single project fostering growth from the then budding Ensim & Cpanel web host community, System Integrity Monitor (SIM). That project, SIM, was a convenience tool for being sick of failing ProFTPd & Apache services at 4am and the parent control panels being unable to automatically restart them for one reason or the other. The project and subsequently the site then grew to be much more over the years, spawning a number of other projects while taking the site through an identity crisis which ultimately ended up as a Linux Managed Services Provider since then. Throughout the years one thing that has dominated is my commitment to maintaining free and open projects for the web hosting community at large, which I am proud to say is still a commitment going forward.

The projects have always been made first and foremost for myself and those that employee me, then in turn I publish those projects to the community as surely if they create convenience in my life they can do the same for others. This sometimes conflicts with the interests of the community who require or desire certain features that are not inline with my own development path, however at the end of the day most people understand and are very patient with development requests. The bottom line is, typically if I can not find a use for a requested feature in a project then it will not make it it into the public release – it is that simple.

Where did the old site go?

The old site was an antiquated relic of the past, representing R-fx Networks in a broken and rundown state from the days when it was a hybrid of a community project site and managed services provider. Although the projects have continually been maintained, the old site did not serve them justice and was no longer actively updated which gave a bad impression for attracting new users to the projects.

Ok, What now?

This new site will serve as a development blog and the continued source for our maintained projects (apf, bfd etc..) along with expanding the lack-luster documentation that currently exists into a more defined version. The projects will receive the attention they have long deserved along with expanded resources for feature ideas, bug reporting and more.

In addition, the new site will also serve as a personal blog spot for work, life and what ever else I feel like bantering about on a particular day. This will not detract from the top priority which is the projects but they are nevertheless my projects so take my bantering as a necessary baggage.

Who are you?

I am Ryan MacDonald, The founder of R-fx Networks and author of all associated projects. I am 24 years old (born: Sept. 6th 1984) and am currently employed as a Network and Systems Administrator residing in Troy, Michigan – USA (originally from Montreal, Quebec – Canada).

My love of all things technology is something that has followed me since childhood, from our families first computer, which I do not particularly remember as my mother managed to delete the boot disk weeks after we got it, to our then second family computer a Tandy 1000, to my first personal computer, a toshiba 386sx laptop running MS-DOS & Windows 3.11. Added to this was my over ambitious use of the computers at school that had in my later years of elementary school received upgrades from ancient 1980′s era Macintosh’s to then modern Pacard Bell computers running Windows 3.11 followed shortly after by Windows 95 upgrades. I was ever-glued to these computers and often grilled for breaking one thing or another on them.

My industry experience began early when I was still in high scool at the age of 16; my first role was with cheetaweb.com as an assistant administrator of FreeBSD and Linux servers. I took this experience onto leasing my first Linux system, a Cobalt RAQ 3i that I ran for some time till it was no longer sufficent to foster my growth. In the subsequent years I continued to consult with cheetaweb.com along with taking Administration and Technical Support positions on a part-time basis with pihost.com (now lacolo.com), loballhosting.com (now hostreflex.com) and a number of other then-startup hosting providers. This in time lead me through a vast expansion in knowledge and experience in the web hosting and linux administration field, that ultimately found me increasingly dealing with new challenges on a daily basis especially in the realm of host and network security.

As my experience in the subsequent years matured and became more well known through my projects, I was offered many opportunities and consulted for small and large sites alike such as 2co.com and wagerstreet.com. This eventually lead me to a solid position with unitedhosting.co.uk as there lead systems administrator and technical support operator. Although I still maintained a thriving consulting business on the side through R-fx Networks, my focus was shifting to a more career oriented path while I worked with unitedhosting to further my experience and opportunities.

I ended up working with unitedhosting.co.uk for two years and part time for a third year on a consulting basis, followed shortly after by taking a consulting position with totalchoicehosting.com, my current employer. The consulting position with totalchoicehosting.com quickly evolved over time as there needs expanded and my desire for a more regular pay check, figuratievely speaking, became a reality of growing up. I have seen totalchoicehosting.com through some rough times as any weathered internet service provider goes through and this experience has fostered greater opportunities.

Fast forward to the present day, I have been employed by TCH for 4 years of as of April 2009. I am currently working full-time out of Troy, Mi with TotalChoiceHosting.com as the Data Center Manager in our Troy facility in addition to duties outside of that as the lead Network and Systems Administrator. Further, TCH has always been a supporter of my projects and understanding that the continued development of my projects not only makes their servers safer but is an important part of what I enjoy doing.