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How do I set up my
email?
How do I upload my
files?
Is there a
money-back guarantee?
How fast are web
sites set up?
Do I have a
control panel?
How am I
billed?
How much
assistance do you provide for my web
site?
What if the
hardware fails?
Are there any
hidden costs? Set-Up
fees?
What is
cPanel™?
What happens if I
decide to leave?
What type of
support do you offer? Average Response
Time?
What are the
hardware specs of the
servers?
Can I have adult
content on my website?
May I view your
Terms Of Service?
How long have you
been in business?
Do you support
International domain names and
clients?
How do I transfer
my domain name?
What if my web
site breaks your "acceptable usage policy"
rules?
What if I want to
upgrade my web site?
How is my web
site monitored?
What is the
uptime?
Do you have
battery backups and
generators?
What about
software upgrades?
What if the
server my web site is on gets hacked or
attacked?
What is included
in my web site package?
How do I get
started?
How do I set up my
email?
Our web hosting clients can set up POP Accounts,
Forwarders/Aliases, & Auto-Responders in the web-based
control panel that comes with every web hosting plan. This
can be done by yourself and without any assistance from us.
We have step-by-step videos showing you exactly how to do
it.
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How do I upload my
files?
All web hosting plans allow the use of FTP, File Manager, MS
FrontPage™, and other web development publishing
programs, to upload files to your web site. We have
step-by-step videos showing you exactly how to do
it.
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How fast are web sites set
up?
We strive for a setup time of no more than 4 hours per
order. If an order is placed during normal business day
hours, orders may be processed in only a few minutes. If an
order is placed in the middle of a night, when the least
number of staff is on-site, orders may take longer to
process, but never longer than 8 hours. You will receive a
welcome email once the setup process is complete. Once your
account is set up 12-72 hours before the domain name
propagates through the internet backbone.
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Does my website get a control
panel?
Yes. Every web hosting package comes with the web browser
based "cPanel" control panel. The control panel includes
many features including email configurations, chat rooms,
mailing lists, pre-installed cgi scripts, databases and
much, much, more. You can access the cPanel Manual via your
Control Panel; we also have step-by-step video instructions
for using all aspects of the Control Panel.
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How am I billed?
Hosting fees are paid annually, the first annual payment
being made at the time of the account set up. We notify you
via email prior to your hosting fee being due at 28, 14 and
7 day intervals prior to the expiration date of your
account. We do not charge your credit card automatically at
any time.
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How much assistance do you provide
for my website?
We will assist you with all support for services provided
directly through us. We will help you with basic settings
for your email software and ftp client, as well as assist
you with using the web browser control panel. We are not
responsible for teaching you how to use another company's
products. Example: Users of MS Frontpage™ - we will not
teach you how to actually use the product itself. You need
to contact the software maker in such a situation, who
provides tech support for using their product. We cannot
even attempt to support all the thousands of software
products on the market. We will attempt to provide some tech
support for the most popular programs our clients use. We
are not responsible for assisting with your own programs and
cgi scripts. If you choose to install your own programs and
cgi scripts on your site, you are responsible fully for
installing them. We will provide support for any program or
cgi script that we provide pre-installed with your web
hosting package. We are not responsible for designing, nor
developing, your website, including HTML and/or images. We
will attempt to assist with your design/development problem,
and offer a suggestion if it is a small issue. Anything
complicated relating to design/development is not our
responsibility.
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What if the hardware
fails?
We stock replacement parts for all servers. We are always
building new servers for our shared hosting clients, as well
as our dedicated server clients, so a full inventory of
parts is maintained. Hardware failures are uncommon, but
they do happen, and are a part of the hosting business. We
repair all failed hardware promptly, to minimize any
downtime caused by such.
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Are there any hidden
costs?
No. All costs are stated plainly on our website. We do not
hide fees in fineprint, or in our terms of service pages.
The only costs that are commonly found to occur beyond your
expected annual rate per service, are those due to increased
disk space or bandwidth usage. We will allow you to upgrade
your packages to any size, should you see an increase in
disk space levels or bandwidth usage. Disk space usage and
availablility, as well as estimated bandwidth usage, is
available to you in the control panel included with the
hosting packages.
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What is
cPanel™?
cPanel™ is the brand name of the web browser control
panel software that we utilize on our web hosting packages.
It is very simple to use. You will find additional details
in our "Hosting Support" section. We also have step-by-step
video instructions for using all aspects of the Control
Panel.
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What happens if I decide to
leave?
You are free to leave at any time. Your services are on a
year to year basis, without any required contract. If you
decide to leave within the 30 day money back guarantee
period then all monies will be returned to you, payable on
the last day of the month in which you advise us of your
decision to leave. In line with normal web hosting company
practice, hosting fees are non-refundable after 30 days.
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What type of support do you offer?
Average Response Time?
We offer support to our customers 24/7/365 via email. We
strive for response times of no more than a few hours.
Response times of just a few minutes are quite common during
normal business hours, however can be longer depending upon
the number of staff on site and the time of day / night. Our
aim is to provide a fast response time, with courteous and
helpful service.
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What are the hardware specs of the
servers?
Every server has different specifications. Whenever a server
reaches what we feel to be the limit, another server is
built or leased. We are constantly upgrading the server
hardware on our network. If more drive space, memory, or
faster processors are needed, they are added in at that
time. All servers run spare hard drives for backup
requirements. We are currently moving all our clients on to
leased servers.
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Can I have adult content on my
website?
Please contact us about this; certain 'adult' sites are
permitted, however we do not allow pornography nor gambling
of any kind.
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May I view your Terms Of
Service?
The link to our Terms of Service (TOS) is on our main
page.
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How long have you been in
business?
Since 1997, initially trading as SpiritOfProgress.com (which
is now our primary Domain Name Registration web site);
currently we have 4 hosting companies operating
independantly in 3 countries (USA, Australia, Malaysia).
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Do you support International
domain names and clients?
We can host all international domains on its servers. We can
accept foreign clientele, just please be advised that all
correspondance must be conducted in English. The client is
responsible for handling the registration process of foreign
domain name(s). This must be pointed to nameservers as
assigned. We cannot handle the foreign domain registration
process for you, due to the fact that we do not speak all of
the potential foreign languages that may be involved. We
will assist you however, with any technical information
needed to accomplish this.
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How do I transfer my domain
name?
We will send you instructions on how to do this, including
all necessary technical details. You do not have to register
your domain name with us to be hosted by us.
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What if my site breaks your
"acceptable usage policy" rules?
Users' sites may be suspended for violations of policy, or
if extreme, or second time offenders, sites may be
cancelled. Each occurance is dealt with on a case by case
basis and we try to work things out with every client.
Notifications will be sent if we take any action on your
account.
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What if I want to upgrade my
website?
You may upgrade your web hosting plan at any time. You will
be required to pay the difference in the hosting fee for
your current plan, and the plan you are upgrading to, should
you decide to choose a larger plan. You can downgrade your
current web hosting plan at the end of the current paid
period.
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How is my web site
monitored?
We maintain internal and external monitoring systems for
every server. The servers are checked every 5 minutes via
network monitoring software. We monitor uptime as well as
individual features and services running on each server. Our
staff is notified via alarms, email, screen popups, and
paging, if a problem occurs.
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What is the
uptime?
We strives to maintain a 99.9% network and server uptime
service level. This uptime percentage is a monthly figure,
and does not include any scheduled hardware/software
upgrades, nor "Acts of God". Our definition of "Act of God"
includes; fire, flood, tornado, earthquake, telco fiber
issues (e.g....Verizon™ cutting a fiber line
somewhere), backbone peering point issues (ie...UUnet™
having a router go down in Virginia that wipes out internet
service for an entire area), hard drive failure (faulty
hardware is rare, but cannot be predicted nor avoided), as
well as network floods, hacks, and attacks. Our uptime
average for 2006 is currently 99.72%
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Do you have battery backups and
generators?
Our Network Operations Data Center is backed up and
protected by UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) systems. In
a very rare case of utility outages, our auto-start
generators start automatically, taking over for the UPS
system and supplying all necessary power for our Network
Operations Center. APC™, Tripp-Lite™, &
Liebert™ UPS Systems provide the power backups, along
with Kohler™ generator systems.
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What about software
upgrades?
We handlesall software upgrades/patches on the shared
hosting servers. We fully follow all trends in the industry,
and monitor all support/bug announcement groups. If a new
bug or security vulnerability is found, we immediately
upgrade our systems. We auto-update the Linux systems every
night from security patch websites. As new software is
released, including new versions of operating systems, we
evaluate the new software; if the software's new version
does not have any security issues, or bug problems, the
upgrade is implemented.
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What if the server my web site is
on gets hacked or attacked?
Individually hacked websites are rare. If such occurs,
usually they are a target for a reason; hate sites, pirated
software, etc... We do not host such websites. If such
materal is found on our servers, it is deleted immediately
and the user's account cancelled. Usually the target is the
whole server itself. Hackers usually go after a server just
to say that "they did", or to use the server to bounce off
to hack something more important. Rarely are any users'
files on the server damaged, erased, or modified. For this
reason, once a hacker is detected, a server can usually be
cleaned up and the hacker locked back out within a matter of
hours. At that time the server is restored to full security
levels, as if the hack has never occurred. Most hackers
get into a system through valid user accounts. We
recommend you use complicated passwords for your account. We
strictly reviews all orders for new clients, to make sure
they are legitimate. Unfortunately, some fake orders do get
through the system, and that is one way a hacker can gain
initial access. We run security checks on the servers daily,
so even if a hacker does get in, they are found and dealt
with quickly. Most hackers are not malicious, they are just
playing or testing their abilities. If an individual attacks
the whole Data Center, measures are in place to cut off such
floods and attacks automatically at the backbone level and
the router level. We also use firewall technology to fend
off the most common methods of flooding and attacks to the
network.
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What is included in my web site
hosting package?
We provide full hardware, software, support, and system
administration for your shared hosting solution. The
software provided includes the operating system, ftp &
email software, web server software and a control panel. We
also include free e-commerce shopping cart software and
Fantasico software on every account. Everything you need to
conduct business on the Internet, or maintain a personal
website, is included. We will provide basic support on
services/software that we provide with your account. We do
not develop your web site for you, nor provide tech support
on how to use software products that we do not provide to
you directly...even if we do support them. We are always
more than willing to help you if we can though with external
issues, time permitting.
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How many sites are currently
running per server?
We do not have a set quantity of domains running on each
machine. We find that ten domains can utilize more resources
than 200 others. We monitor each server's performance levels
and attempt to maintain a low server load average and high
CPU availability. As needed, we will upgrade the hardware to
increase server performance. Individual domains that become
too much for the server to handle, and utilize too many
server resources, are moved to servers set up specifically
for such resource intensive accounts.
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How do I get started?
Simple! Just fill out one form on the SignUp link on our
main page. You will receive details shortly afterwards about
how to proceed with your new web hosting
account!
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