FAQ: Core - Basic

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Do I have to change my Domain to get a new webhost?

No, you do not.  The internet is designed to allow this kind of movement.  If you choose to change webhosts, you can change the DNS name servers on your domain registration or the IP address that the DNS servers point your hostname to. This allows you to retain your current domain  when you move to a new server or set of servers. Your registar is the company that allows you to change the name servers your domain points to. Your hosting company or even a completely separate DNS provider can host the DNS for your domain. That company (as listed in the 'whois' record for your domain) is where you would change the IP address your website or email goes to.

Changing DNS or hosting can be stressful so be sure to ask our support staff for help. We'll be happy to walk you through it and make sure your site and email stay functional during the transition.

Just make sure you don't cancel your old host before those DNS changes are all done!

How can I track how many hits or visitors I have had on my website?

There are several analytical tools out there that can track this.  In the Virtual Hosting environment, the Administration Control Panel has a stats page which makes it easy to understand.  There are also many other services that allow you to interpret those stats.  Google offers more advanced tools to track almost everything on your website. 

If you do use their service, please refer to them for additional support of their products.

How do I get Flash on my website?

Flash is basically another media type which plays in a particular plugin on the user's browser.  There are a couple of steps to using Flash on your website. 

First you will need a Flash file which usually ends in a .swf extension.  Flash files can be created in a number of different animation or video conversion applications.

Next, you have to upload the Flash .swf file to your website like any other web site file.

Last, embed it into your web page code according to the standards given on programming guides around the Internet.

There are many ways to put Flash in your website, from adding a simple animation or video file to using Flash in a complex user interface.

Please refer to the Adobe website for more information.

How do I recover lost data?

Our Virtual Hosting Servers are now backed up daily. If you delete a file and need it recovered, you can get it by using the following procedure:

In a browser go here:

http://righteous1.fiber.net/cp

The info you need will be:

Host Information - The IP address of the Hosting Server you are on.

Username/Password - This will be the same username and password you use to log in to the Admin interface.

Once logged in, you will see a directory structure of your files. Navigate to the file(s) you need andcheck the box next to it. You can also select a folder and it will include all files and folders inside that folder. Once you have selected all those you want to restore click the button on the top right labeled "Restore Selected Files." You can then specify whether you want to overwrite the existing files of the same name, or restore them to an alternate location. Click "OK" when ready. It will then show you a progress bar and any errors that might show up.

How do I upload my site online?

The easiest way to upload your site files is by using FTP.  FTP is a network protocol used to upload or download files to and from a server.  FTP is probably the easiest way to upload your site when you don't have command-line access to the server. You will have to download an FTP Client in order to do this. FileZilla by the Mozilla Foundation is an excellent example.  It is free and open source. You will need your domain name along with your username and password to log into your site via FTP. Once connected, just find the right folder for your site's public files and upload all of your files and folders.

You can also use the file manager within the Administration Control Panel to upload and manage files on a more individual basis; however, this can be cumbersome when working with a large number of files.

How long does a domain registration last?

Registrations for domains depend on the registrar that is used to register your domain, as well as the options you choose when you register your domain.  Most sites will allow you to register a domain for a variable length of time as long as you pre-pay for it.  Most registrars default to 1 year at a time but offer options for multiple years.  When the domain is about to expire, your registrar should notify you in advance and will give you an opportunity to renew the domain.

I am using too much bandwidth! Is there anyway I can use less?

Yes, there are many ways to control your bandwidth usage.  It can be something as simple as making sure your images are properly optimized for traffic, such as using a program like Adobe ImageReady.  Our website design staff can help optimize your website and find possible problems that might alleviate your bandwidth concerns. Some server environments have features or add-ons (such as Apache's mod_deflate) to compress data which reduces bandwidth use.

Depending on your needs, it may be a good idea to limit or control the amount of traffic to your website through the use of software limitations on your server. This can be effective, but may also constrain the performance and reliability of your site. Significant increases in traffic may also be the result of a security breach or abuse to your server. Our support staff can help determine whether or not that is the case.

If you find you are using more bandwidth than you expected, you might want to look at a VPS, a Dedicated Server, or Colocation.

I don't ever want my site down. What should I do to guarantee this?

Due to various needs, such as server maintenance and unforseen complications,  no hosting company can provide 100% uptime.  However, you can take steps to assure your site will be available as much as possible. In order to do this for our clients, Nethosting.com uses high quality server and infrastructure equipment, such as redundant cooling and power systems in our Data Center. 

Also, we closely monitor our equipment to provide the highest level of availability. The best way to approach 100% availability is to have your site on multiple redundant hosts or multiple servers. Of course, this incurs additional costs and administration concerns and can become very complex. If you need help ensuring your site is reliable and available, or if you need help scaling for new growth, please contact our sales office.  They can provide information about our Dedicated Server solutions or custom server implementations for Highly Available systems.

I have a fast internet connection (DSL/CABLE) - can I host my own site?

This is possible, but it might violate your Terms Of Service with your current broadband provider.  Most providers have a slower upload speed than download speed as well. This means that you might be able to download quickly, but uploading is very slow in comparison and serving a website would use that upload which would result in your site seeming slow to your users.

Our datacenter is designed with hosting in mind. We have multiple providers coming into our hosting environment using Gigabit or larger connections to facilitate fast connections to their server. We also have dedicated power and cooling, as well as detailed monitoring to ensure servers stay functioning at their peak performance.

Is it easy to setup an e-commerce site?

If your site is a complex e-commerce site, it can take a lot of time to develop and adminster; however, the results can be very effective and feature-rich.  If you need a simple store with a shopping cart, it can be fairly easy to get going with several add-on shopping cart products or services.  Many people find that the most difficult part of e-commerce can be making sure your site is secure so that you can process orders online.  There are several types of software packages that can help you in setting this up.  We also offer support to help setup your site.  Also, our design team can completely redesign your website with e-commerce in mind.

What are PHP, ASP, Perl, etc?

These are scripting or programming languages, often called interpreted languages.  These are mainly used to script in building a website.  PHP is one of the most popular languages powering some of the most popular sites on the internet.  It is used, as with ASP, mainly to help create database driven or dynamic websites. These languages allow you to create a website with dynamic content that is interactive to the user, compared to a traditional static HTML webpage.  Perl can be used in a similar fashion, but is also used for many other administrative and programming functions.

For more information, see the following sites:

PHP.net
ASP.net
PERL.org

What are subdomains?

A Subdomain is part of a larger domain.  Subdomains separate areas of your website to point to different servers.  Rather than trying to access a server via their IP address, it is easier to give it a hostname or DNS entry.  Instead of having an individual domain name for each server, you can use a subdomain.  An example of a subdomain would be: subdomain.yoursite.com.  This can be used as a way to separate out different services offered.  If you look at your mail configuration, it may point to mail.yoursite.com, whereas mail is a subdomain of yoursite.com.  Another option is that you can use it to point to different parts of your site.  You can run a blog off of blog.yoursite.com so that people don't have to go to yoursite.com/blog. Basically it is a naming relationship system that allows a hierarchy of naming levels to help you organize your network resources.

What exactly is space and bandwidth/data transfer?

Space - The term 'space' or disk space is used in reference to website hosting.  It usually refers to the actual amount of disk space available for you to occupy with files or other data for your website and email.  If you are on a 10GB plan, you have 10 GigaBytes of disk space to use for your website or files (this often includes mail, logs and other system files critical to the functioning of your hosting service).  Once you reach that level you cannot store any more files on the server until you free up space or upgrade your account.

Bandwidth/Data Transfer - The amount of Data you are allowed to transfer through the network either to or from your server account.  This is the amount of data that is sent to and from the server for your users or website/email.  If you upload and download 1GB worth of data a month, you have essentially sent and received 1GB worth of data.  This can either be visitors coming to your website or people downloading and uploading files to your server.

What is Domain Parking?

Some people like to register multiple domains for possible later use.  They are not actively using these domains for a website or email.  Domain Parking allows you to secure a domain without being forced to use it for a real website.  Usually it will route to your main website if it is typed in.  Some people use it for nefarious purposes (i.e. to cause confusion with misspelled URLs or similar), but for the most part it is used to register and secure domain names.  With the amount of domains registered everyday, it is easy to lose a domain you may have wanted, so when you have an idea of what domain you want, have our staff check it for availablility as soon as possible!

What is MySQL and MS SQL?

MySQL and MS SQL are referred to as Relational Databases.  They can store and hold data, such as text, images, etc.  This data can be accessed or queried to retrieve data based on its relational qualifications. Usually, queries are controlled or submitted to the database by a scripting language (See: What are PHP, ASP, Perl, etc?) to display the resulting data on a webpage.  For example, when you go to an online bank, they are grabbing all of that information out of a database to display it for you.  All you see is an HTML page, but there is a lot of programming that gets the information from a database to a display page.  These are just a couple of types of databases available on the market.  MySQL is popular because it is very fast and robust, and can be downloaded and used for free. It is part of what is commonly referred to as a LAMP system.  MS SQL is a similar Enterprise Database product made by Microsoft.  It has a license fee associated with it, which means you have to purchase or license it from Microsoft in order to access it.

What is the difference between UNIX and Windows Hosting?

UNIX and Windows are two different types of Operating systems. There are different operating system distributions based on UNIX.  Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris are all different types of UNIX-like operating systems.  Windows is an operating system made by Microsoft. For website hosting, Windows generally runs the IIS webserver, but may also run Apache or other webservers.  Windows and UNIX operating systems have their strengths and weaknesses and are appropriate for many different server and client uses.

What is Virtual (Shared) Hosting?

Virtual Hosting is where several websites or domains share a single physical server and operating system environment.  This allows webhosts to offer affordable hosting for customers.  Virtual Hosting allows customers who don't need custom software or a high traffic website to still gain an online presence.  By sharing it with several users we can provide this at a low cost.  If you have a high traffic website or specialized needs in software or server environment, we recommend using either a Dedicated Hosting account or a Virtual Private Server account to better fit your needs.

What is Web Hosting?

Having a web host gives you space on your server to host a website, e-mail service, multimedia (such as streaming music or video) or store files online.  Most people choose a webhost when it is not viable for them to run their own server at their home or business.  It can be expensive to run and manage a server for personal or business use.  If you don't have the budget, desire or time to run a server on your own, a webhost is your best option.  We can help maintain a web presence on a very high-speed connection without the cost and work of doing it on your own.

Why don't I just go with the cheapest hosting?

When something goes wrong do you want the cheapest or the best person on the other end dealing with your problem? Support and quality of service are what you pay more for. If you're building a house you might not hire the most expensive person, but you also don't want to hire the cheapest either.

We are there for you when you need help. We have the knowledge and experience that you may not get with cheaper hosting providers. The people you talk to are full-time, experienced technicians for our company.  We do not outsource overseas or to a third-party company that doesn't care about their customers. Our support staff has deep working knowledge on what is actually going on with the server.  We can help solve your problems quickly and effectively and suggest improvements to help avoid future difficulties.

Why would I need a dedicated IP?

In a shared hosting environment, the server has a single IP already allocated for all websites and customers to use. If you are running an eCommerce site, you will generally need an SSL certificate to provide encryption and verification of your hostname and website. When multiple websites share a single IP address, there is no way to determine which site is the actual owner of the IP address and the associated SSL certificate. Ultimately, if you want to use an SSL certificate with your website or online store, you will need a dedicated IP address for your account.

All of our VPS and Dedicated Server accounts include at least one dedicated, unique IP address.

Will there be forced Advertising on my site, such as banners or pop-up ads?

No. We never interfere with the content of your website as long as it complies with the terms of our Acceptable Use Policy. Since this is a service that you pay for, we do not force any type of advertising on you.  You pay us a fee to host your website, we promise to do so to the very best of our ability without constraining it or modifying it .

You can add advertising to your site if you wish to generate revenue for yourself.