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Frequently
Asked Questions
Section #1 - General Questions
Section #2 - Advanced Questions
Section #3 - Custom eMail Questions
Section #3 - Domain Services Questions
Section #3 - Domain Transfer Questions
Section
#1 - General Questions
What
is your Guarantee?
We
guarantee everything. We guarantee your
satisfaction. Cick
here for details.
How
can 24x7-Web-Hosting offer hosting service at a price that
is 50% to 75% below most your competitors?
Good
question. We get asked this so often, we sometimes
think we should raise our prices to eliminate the
skepticism. In most businesses, you get what you pay
for. In the hosting business, this is not always the
case. In the late 1990's, when hosting became a new
business and many of our competitors set their price, a 2
Gig hard drive cost $200. Today, you can buy a 120
GB hard drive (60 times larger) for just $140. Our
focus is to minimize costs by utilizing the latest
technologies, and reducing overhead. By enforcing
annual and quarterly billing, and given the drastic
reductions in hardware costs in recent years, it is
understandable how we can be profitable, while offering
equivalent or better service at prices 50% to 75% below
most our competition.
What
is web hosting?
Web
hosting refers to the process of publishing a web site so
that it is available to the world on the Web. Paid web
hosting also involves getting a domain name and not having
forced ads displayed on your site.
What
is a domain name?
Domain
name is the sequence of letters and number determining the
address of your site. This site's domain name is "24x7-Web-Hosting.com."
You need to register a domain name before your web site
becomes accessible at this address.
What
are PHP, SQL, Java, IP, etc.?
Those
acronyms refer to various features such as programming
languages, databases, etc. that might be available with a
hosting plan.
What
is shared (virtual) web hosting?
Shared
(or virtual) web hosting is the most fitting way of
hosting for 99% of web sites. It means that a web hosting
company will have one or more servers (computers
constantly connected to the Internet that run a web server
software such as Apache or IIS) that will be running
multiple web sites (it will be shared). Unless a web site
is exceptionally busy or requires a lot of bandwidth, this
is the least expensive way to go to get a real web site.
You can still have your own IP address with virtual
hosting and the site won't look any different to users.
Other options are dedicated, co-location, or doing it
yourself web hosting. In those options you have the whole
computer to yourself and you can do things like install
your own software.
Can
I keep my domain name when I change Hosting Services?
Yes.
That is the purpose of the DNS information associated with
your domain name. When you need to move to another host, you just need to
point your domain's name servers to this new host. If you
registered your domain name with a host and you now want
to move, you should find your registration records or
contact this host and ask them how to control your domain
name. If you have a problem, you can usually see the name
of the registrar by performing a "Whois"
query on your domain name and contact them.
Does
it make a difference what type of desktop computer I use?
No.
This will only make a difference if you develop scripts
that you want to use without changes on your web site.
FrontPage extensions can also be done on Unix (or Linux)
servers.
I
just want a basic internet presence, and I don't want to
pay too much, any suggestions?
There
are services such as Business-Web-Pages.com
that do that.
What
is domain parking?
Domain
parking lets you point your domain name at another web
page. For instance, the following two sites are
"parked" on this site
"24x7-Web-Hosting.com". Try clicking on
them to see where you are directed. www.247-Web-Hosting.com
& www.24-7-Web-Hosting.com.
Parking can also be used as a way of utilizing a domain
name without paying for additional hosting. We offer
domain parking as a free service to all our domain
registration/transfer customers. For everyone else
there is a nominal charge of $5 per domain.
What
is full-service web hosting?
"Full-service"
can refer to a variety of services offered in addition to
providing web space, transfer, and emails for a web site.
For example, it could be 24/7 toll free phone support, web
design services, or web site content maintenance services.
What
are the numbers listed under "Disk Space" and
"Monthly Transfer"?
Space
is the amount of "stuff" you can put on your web
site. Available space is usually listed in megabytes (MB,
millions of bytes). Single letter takes up one byte. HTML
files are usually rather small (this file is about 25,000
bytes) but pictures and programs can get quite big. Your
scripts, emails and stats will also take up space on your
host. Transfer is the amount of "stuff" that
visitors to your site can download before you reach your
monthly limit. Transfer is usually listed in gigabytes
(billions of bytes). After the transfer limit is reached
for the month, you will need to pay extra for additional
transfer at higher rates. For example, if an average
visitor to your site views 3 HTML pages of 20 KB
(thousands of bytes) each and 8 small embedded pictures of
10 KB each, and you get 500 visitors per day, you will
require at least (3 * 20 + 8 * 10) * 500 * 30 = 2,100,000
KB = 2.1 GB of transfer per month.
Can
I Upgrade or Downgrade my plan at any time? If so,
what is the Cost?
Yes.
We are very flexible with respect to upgrading or
downgrading an account. Changes of this sort ar
accomplished in the "Hosting
Services" section of the web site - Click on
"Upgrade or
Downgrade". Changes are permitted on a
month-by-month basis. Since all our packages are
prepaid 3 or 12 months in advance, the prorated change is
calculated based on the difference in hosting costs
between your existing plan and the one you wish to change
to, pro-rated based on the number of months left in your
billing cycle. Changes of this sort require
considerable administrative labor. We ask that you
do not abuse this feature.
How
do I pay for web hosting?
Hosting
services are paid for in advance. Our hosting fees
are 50% to 75% cheaper than most our competitors.
One of the ways we are able to offer such low fees, is to
minimize our accounting costs. Towards this end, our
Plan #1 and Plan #2 accounts are billed on an annual
basis. Our Plan #3 and Custom accounts are billed on
a quarterly basis. Our prices are so low, this amounts
to less than a $100 charge. We currently accept
Visa, MasterCard and Paypal as payment.
How
do I upload my site?
The
main method of uploading files to your site's account is
by using FTP. When you sign up with a host, you will
probably get an FTP account that lets you access files in
your account (usually ftp.yoursitename.com and your main
account name and password). Then you can use a built-in
Windows or Internet Explorer FTP client, or some other
software that supports FTP such as CuteFTP, WS_FTP, or
Windows Commander, to transfer files from your hard drive
to your account. If you don't get an FTP account or if you
prefer a Web interface, you can use your account control
panel's File Manager instead. Yet another method is to use
an SSH or telnet client software, such as SecureCRT, to
upload using Zmodem protocol (sz and rz commands). All
these methods will work fine, but we recommend using
dedicated FTP programs as the preferred solution because
these programs have the best user interfaces and support
advanced options like setting file permissions and
resuming aborted file transfers.
What
is uptime?
Uptime
is the percentage of time that a web site is working. For
example, if some host has an uptime average of 99.86%,
this means that your site will be down for a total about 1
hour each month. We monitor uptime of customer websites of
many web hosts and we display this data on the host's
details page. Some hosts also offer "uptime
guarantees" but this is not as valuable as it might
appear.
Can
I use Java applets, JavaScript, and Flash pages on my
site?
Yes.
Those are client-side technologies, so the host doesn't
have to do anything to support or enable them. Any browser
(such as Internet Explorer or Netscape) that supports them
is enough, so any host will do. It doesn't matter whether
Java or Flash are listed among plan's features, they are
supported by default.
What
is involved with canceling an existing account?
As
a consumer, there is nothing more bothersome than a
hosting company that makes it hard to cancel. We
realize that sometimes, customer will cancel, and we have
made the process as simple as the process for signing
up. Visit http://www.24x7-Web-Hosting.com/cancel_account.html
or simply click
here to
cancel an existing account.
Section
#2 - Advanced Questions
How much data
transfer will I need?
You
can figure out how much data transfer you will require by
estimating your average page size (including graphics!)
and multiplying it by the number of page views you expect
to have in a month. For example with an average page size
of 50 KB, and around 2000 page views per day, you will
transfer an average of 3 GB per month. In this case, you
should get our Plan #3 with 4 GB of data transfer limit
per month, so you don't have to worry about overstepping
your account's limit, which may cause extra per GB
transfer charges.
Can't
I just get a DSL line or a cable modem and host the site
or my own computer?
Sure,
you could do that, but it's not a good idea for several
reasons. First, vast majority of ISPs won't let you
legally use a residential cable modem or a DSL line to
host a public server. You would have to get a more
expensive business package. Second, ADSL and cable lines
usually have lower upstream bandwidth than downstream
bandwidth, so your site may appear to be sluggish under
heavy traffic. Third, DSL and cable lines have a much
lower reliability than dedicated T1 or better lines.
Fourth, you wouldn't have the benefit of data security,
data backup, UPS power, and technical support that a host
can provide.
Do
I need stats?
Absolutely.
Stats give you the information required to evaluate the effectiveness
of your site. Our CPanel software gives you access
to detailed stats about your web traffic on a daily or
hourly basis. Stats are available as raw data
(numbers) or in an easy-to-read graphical output.
Alternatively, you could also use a service like WebTrends,
theCounter.com,
or Site
Meter to get more detailed stats on your users
than any host's stats program can provide.
My
site is database-driven and uses 50 GB per month in
transfer. Can I simply use a host with an unlimited
transfer plan for $10 per month?
No.
Most hosts are in business to make money and they would
lose money hosting your site. They have to pay from $0.3
to $5 per GB of transfer to upstream providers themselves.
Almost all hosts that have "unlimited" plans
specify in their acceptable use policies that no site can
use an "excessive" amount of resources. If you
use too much disk space, bandwidth, or CPU time, these
"unlimited" hosts will ask you to upgrade or
leave.
Is
there any advantage to a host that uses a Cobalt RaQ to
one that uses a normal Linux computer?
No.
RaQs are made specifically for hosting and they have
pre-installed software that is optimized for hosting but
experienced hosts can build and administer their own
server just as well for less money. RaQs do have an
advantage of being physically smaller.
Can
I run my own software on my site?
All
our plans allow running scripts in languages such as Perl
or PHP. These scripts must be uploaded to your cgi-bin
subdirectory. Our CPanel software allows you to run
"cron" which enables you to automatically
execute programs or scripts on at a specific time and
date.
Do
I need to use a search engine submission service?
Not
really. Some search engine submission tools are better
than others and some big search engines don't like
automated submission. You should submit manually to major
directories like Yahoo! and Looksmart, and you may also
prefer to submit manually to major search engines like MSN
and Google. Contained within our CPanel software is
a utility that automatically submits your site to a number
of major search engines and directories. There is no
need to pay extra for this service, it is included with
your 24x7-Web-Hosting.com web site.
Should
I simply choose a cheapest plan?
We
wouldn't recommend choosing any plan below $5 per month if
you expect to get a reasonable level of technical
support. In most businesses, you get what you pay
for. In the hosting business, this is not always the
case. Read closely to see what you are paying
for. Six years ago, when many hosts set their price,
a 2 Gig hard drive cost $300. Today, $200 buys you a
120 GB hard drive. Given these drastic reductions in
cost, it is understandable how we can be profitable,
offering equivalent or better service at prices 50% to 75%
below most our competition.
Will
the bandwidth prices fall soon?
Bandwidth
prices are gradually decreasing. It is now possible for
hosts to pay less than $1 per GB of transfer in chunks of
100 GB. New companies like Cogent
Communications are building fiber-optic
networks and promise 100 Mbps of bandwidth across their
network to multi-tenant office buildings in major cities
for $1,000/month. The question is whether they will be
able to peer with established telecoms without raising
prices.
How
can hosts make money offering high transfer limits for low
prices?
They
count on the fact that the majority of sites won't use
anywhere close to the full amount of transfer available.
This overselling is usually a valid assumption and it is
done in many other business (ex. airlines).
Are
there any extra costs involved in hosting a secure site?
Yes,
you'll need to get a digital certificate from Certificate
Authority such as Thawte
or Verisign.
Should
I worry that my host is a reseller?
Probably
not. It is quite possible to get better support or prices
from a reseller than from a base company. Resellers are
usually smaller companies and since they don't own the
server, sometimes they have to wait for the parent company
to perform some tasks.
Should
I go with a big or small hosting company?
This
depends on your preferences. Large companies might be
considered to have better chances of staying in business
for a long time and may be able to negotiate better deals
for their customers, but small hosts are usually cheaper,
provide better support for individuals and small
businesses, and are quicker to offer new features.
Are
there any advantages to getting a domain name with Network
Solutions instead of a cheaper company?
No.
I
don't want my site to be down. Ever. What host should I
use?
No
host can provide 100% uptime. We monitor uptime for many
hosts and you could use these data as a guide, but even
the biggest and best multi-million dollar sites go down
from time to time due to various unforeseen circumstances.
The best you can find is an uptime guarantee, with the
host offering refunds for downtime.
Can
I reduce the amount of data transfer my site needs?
Usually
yes. Try to optimize all the graphics on your site. Many
GIFs don't look noticeably worse with fewer colors. Don't
duplicate graphics files, let the browser cache them. Try
to clean up your HTML by using relative paths, short
filenames, less extras, and reducing the number of spaces
and new lines. If your site is mainly text-based, ask your
host about using HTTP compression module like mod_gzip.
Section
#3 - Custom eMail Questions
Question:
Will my custom email account work with free email accounts
like hotmail, yahoo, excite etc?
Yes, your email will be forwarded to any valid email
account of your choice. 
Question:
Do I have to reconfigure my email software? No. Your custom email will forward email to your
existing account. Question:
Does this mean getting a new Internet Service Provider? No, this is a separate service being provide by
24x7-Web-Hosting. Your new account will forward
email to your existing account (yahoo, hotmail, your work,
your home, any valid email account). Question:
Can I change the email address to which my custom account
will forward? Yes, absolutely, any time. Click on the link labeled
"change my target email address" in the "Email
Services" section of our web site. Question:
How much does it cost? The
cost is very reasonably, just $4 per month billed annually
($48 per year).
Section
#4 - Domain
Services Questions
With
each domain registered, you receive a free
business card web page, domain forwarding,
unlimited e-mail forwarding, and access to a
password-protected account manager.
How
do I sign up for the free business card web page,
e-mail forwarding and domain forwarding?
Once you've registered your domain, simply go to
the account manager through the client
login area using your domain and password.
Once inside, click on "additional
services," and pick the service you would
like to add. 
How
much does e-mail and domain forwarding cost?
There is no charge associated with these either of
these services. However, if you use our free
domain forwarding service, a small banner will be
placed at the bottom of your web site.
How
do I set up e-mail or domain forwarding if I am
not going to buy hosting?
1) Check to make sure that your domain is parked
on the following DomainPeople name servers:
ns1.domainpeople.com
ns2.domainpeople.com
2) Go to the client
login area, click on "additional
services," and choose e-mail and/or domain
forwarding from the drop down menu.
NB:
If your domain was registered through a
DomainPeople reseller (such as
24x7-Web-Hosting.com) that offers e-mail and
domain forwarding through us, follow the same
steps listed above or follow their instructions.
What
features does the business card web page come
with?
Our customizable business card web page is a great
way to establish an immediate web presence using
your new domain name. It's easy to set up, and
allows you to insert a photo, a page of text, and
several links.
Where
do I go to edit and update my web site?
It’s in the client
login area and you don't need any specialized
technical or HTML knowledge to set it up. This
simple template allows you to add your contact
information, text, a graphic, three links and
choose from one of eight background designs. For a
step-by-step guide to getting your web page on the
Net, read
more.
I
already have a web site. How can I get my new
domain name to point to my web site?
With our free domain forwarding service, you can
direct visitors from your newly registered domain
to your existing web site. When a visitor enters
your new web address, for example,
www.newdomain.com, in the web browser, your
existing web site appears on the screen. To use
our free domain forwarding service, a small banner
will be placed at the bottom of your web site.
What
web address will people see when I forward my
domain?
Our domain forwarding service is framed, which
means that when a visitor enters your newly
registered domain in the web browser, your
existing web site appears on the screen. However,
instead of the existing web site's domain (such as
www.Domainpeople.com/~userid/index.htm) appearing
in the address field, the newly registered domain
is displayed.
As
a business, how can I use domain forwarding to
increase sales?
With domain forwarding, you can point all your
domain names for a variety of product lines to
your main web site. For example, the owner of a
business called bikes.com might have other domain
names that reflect product lines such as
bananabike.com, kidsbike.com, and speedbikes.com.
Domain forwarding ensures that all visitors to
these product domain names are automatically
redirected to bikes.com. You can modify the
destination domain at any time.
Can
I use my new domain name to receive e-mail?
Yes, by using our free e-mail forwarding service,
this allows you to create an e-mail address that
matches your newly registered domain name.
Messages sent to your new e-mail address are
automatically forwarded to your existing e-mail
address. If your new e-mail address is president@newdomain.com,
you could have your e-mail directed to dianne@exisitingISP.com.
Can
I use these services if my domain is not
registered with 24x7-Web-Hosting or another
DomainPeople agent?
No. You need to be a DomainPeople customer;
however, you may transfer
your domain
How
do I retrieve a lost/forgotten password?
Submit
your domain name, and we'll e-mail your
password to all the contacts listed for your
domain.
I
have a business card web page, but I require more
features. How do I upgrade?
If you require a hosting account with advanced
features such as, POP e-mail accounts, webmail,
Spam Assassin, control panel, FrontPage
Extensions, e-commerce and much much more, please
go to our Hosting
Services or our Custom
eMail.
How
do I check the status of my domain name
registration?
Go to your account manager through the client
login by entering your domain name and
password to find out the status of your account.
My
domain name is not registered after several days.
What should I do?
First, access your account by going to the client
login, Enter your domain name and password.
Once you login, it will display your current
registration status. If your domain name is not
registered within three business days, e-mail us
at support@domainpeople.com
and request a domain name registration status
report. Please include your domain name and the
date of payment.
What
should I do if I do not receive a confirmation
e-mail?
Please e-mail support@domainpeople.com
with your domain name and the date of order.
How
do I change my contact information?
You can make changes to your contact information
in the account manager. Go to the client
login, enter your domain name and password,
and change your contact information.
I
want to move my domain name to my new web host or
Internet Service Provider. How do I do it?
Simply use the client
login to modify the Domain Name Server (DNS)
information for your new web host. They will
provide you with this information. For
24x7 Hosting customers, the DNS information is as
follows:
ns1.business-web-pages.com
(207.22.218.161)
ns2.business-web-pages.com
(207.22.218.155)
Section
#5 - Domain Transfer Questions
What
is a registrar transfer?
A registrar transfer is the act of moving a domain
name from one domain registrar to another. For
example, you might move your domain name from your
current registrar to 24x7-Web-Hosting ( agent for
DomainPeople) to take advantage of our stability, free
Business Card web page or live customer support. Transferring
registrars will not affect your e-mail or existing web
site in any way.
What is a domain name
registrar?
A domain name registrar is the organization or company
responsible for providing domain name registration
services to the public. A domain name registrar is
either authorized by ICANN (the Internet Corporation
for Assigned Names and Numbers, an organization
dedicated to Internet governance) to provide
registration services for the .com, .net and .org
global top-level domain names, or is authorized by its
respective government to register domain names within
a specific ccTLD (country code Top Level Domain name
extension). CIRA provides this function in Canada. A
registrar must also be authorized by the registry of a
Top Level Domain to act as an agent of the registry to
process domain name registrations, where the agent is
not a reseller. The registrar is also responsible for
creating and maintaining a WHOIS database for its
customers.
What are the benefits
of transferring my domain(s) to DomainPeople (24x7 Web
Hosting)?
Here are some of the benefits you can enjoy by
switching to DomainPeople:
-
Absolutely No
Transfer Fees
-
Discounted annual
registration cost - $14.95/yr
-
Free one-page web
site
-
Unlimited e-mail
forwarding
-
Domain forwarding
-
Customizable DNS
zone manager allows you to create CNAMES, A
records, MX entries, and more,for your domains.
-
24/7 toll-free
customer support
-
Additional year,
added to your current registration term (total
term not to exceed 10 years) upon transfer
-
Real-time domain
manager allows you to easily manage your domain
names online
-
Access to the latest
top level domains, from .com to .biz
-
Knowledge that you
are with an authorized, ICANN-accredited domain
registrar
How do I transfer my
domain name to DomainPeople (24x7 Web Hosting)?
All you need is a valid credit card and approval from
the administrative contact for the domain name (on
file with the current registrar). Use our automatic
transfer form to submit your transfer request
online.
What
happens after I've submitted my request?
Once we have received your transfer request, an e-mail
is sent to the administrative contact to authorize the
transfer request. In the interest of security, each
authorization request is completed by logging into a
secure web page using a unique order number and
password.
If you do not have
access to the administrative e-mail address, be sure
to change the e-mail contact before initiating a
transfer request. The transfer MUST be authorized by
the administrative contact.
The next steps
-
Once the request has
been confirmed, DomainPeople processes the
transfer request by contacting the registry.
-
The registry then
notifies your current registrar of the transfer
request.
-
The current
registrar is given five days to grant or deny the
transfer request.
-
If no response is
received within the five-day period, the transfer
request is granted to DomainPeople.
-
The current
registrar may request additional confirmation from
you. Please reply to any such requests promptly to
ensure the completion of the transfer.
-
The transfer process
takes five to 10 calendar days to be completed.
It will continue to function throughout the
process.
-
Once your domain is
successfully transferred, we send you notification
by e-mail.
What
are the guidelines for transferring registrars?
-
All top level domain
names can be transferred to DomainPeople through
our automated service.
-
The domain name(s)
undergoing the transfer cannot currently be
involved in a dispute or on registry lock.
-
Your domain name
must have been registered for at least 60 days
with your current registrar.
-
You must ensure that
either the administrative contact replies to the
confirmation request sent to the e-mail address on
file with the current domain registrar.
How much does the
registrar transfer service cost?
There is a $14.95 USD* fee for the registrar transfer
service, which includes one additional registration
year added to your remaining registration term (term
not to exceed 10 years.) Your credit card will only be
charged once the domain has successfully transferred
to 24x7 Web hosting (DomainPeople). Please ensure that
the request will be accepted by the current registrar,
prior to initiating and paying for the registrar
transfer services.
*.ca transfers are US$19.95.
Do you offer automated
transfers for multiple domains?
Yes! You can transfer over 100 domains at once time
using our automated
transfer system. Even better, you will only
receive one e-mail confirmation message from
DomainPeople for the entire transfer.
What
types of domains can you transfer?
You can transfer most global top level domains
including .com, net, .org, .net, .biz, .info, .ca, .us
and .name.
How
long does the registrar transfer process take to
complete?
Once you have initiated and confirmed the registrar
transfer, the transfer process takes approximately 5
to 10 calendar days to be completed. Be aware that
transfers require the co-operation of both registrars,
so complications can delay (or even prevent) the
transfer from completing.
Will there be any
disruption to my web site or e-mail when I transfer
registrars?
No. Your web site and e-mail services will not be
affected. The transfer does not affect the DNS
information, associated with a domain name at the time
of transfer. You may modify the DNS after your domain
name has been successfully transferred to DomainPeople.
Can a registrar
transfer request be rejected?
Your current registrar has the ability to reject a
domain name transfer request initiated by DomainPeople
in the following situations:
-
The transfer request
was initiated within the first 60 days of the
original registration date.
-
A dispute over the
domain name.
-
A pending bankruptcy
of the domain name holder.
-
A dispute over the
identity of the domain name holder.
-
The discretion of
the registrar
-
The domain is close
to its expiry date
You will be notified via
e-mail in the event that your domain name cannot be
transferred due to one of the above reasons.
Where can I view the
current status of my registrar transfer request?
Once you have submitted the registrar
transfer form, you will receive an e-mail with a
link, an order number and AccessKey so you can track
the status of your transfer request.
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