Getting Started Using your Virtual Host or Server
Contact Information
E-mail contact is available 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week.
Phone contact is available during weekdays from 8am - 5pm EST.
When contacting us with technical support questions, please prepare
to give us the following:
- Your domain name
- Your email address
- Your name
This information will allow us to bring up your
records to help facilitate answering your technical support questions.
Email
contacts
Sales: contact us
Any questions regarding sales (server orders, special options, features,
etc.) should be directed to the e-mail address above.
Billing: contact us
Any questions regarding billing (changes, information, etc.) should
be directed to the e-mail address above.
Tech Support: contact us
Any and all technical questions (configurations, basic info., specific
info., etc.) should be directed to the e-mail address above. Questions
will be forwarded to the appropriate parties needed to answer your
questions quickly. You can usually expect a response to your question(s)
within a few minutes to several hours. Our support technicians answer
e-mail 24 hours a day, so you should expect an answer relatively
quick.
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Phone
Contact
Tech Support: 561-752-3391
Hours: weekdays - 8am - 6pm EST
Tech support is available via this number. It is
recommended that you email any and all questions of a technical
nature to: contact us
Pre-Sales: 561-752-3391
Hours: weekdays - 8am - 6pm EST
Questions about fees, prices, etc. for your server
needs can be answered via this number. It is recommended that you
email any questions of a sales nature to: contact us
Billing: 561-752-3391
Hours: weekdays - 8am - 6pm EST
Billing questions and problems can be taken care
of via this number. It is recommended that you email any billing-related
queries to: contact us
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Important URL's
The following is a listing of URL's that pertain
to working with your Virtual Server:
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Tech Support Information
Please attempt to email any tech support questions
to us FIRST. Tech support is available
24 hours a day, 7 days a week via email. Please remember that these
are self-service accounts, tech support is available mainly for
technical oriented questions regarding configuration of your server/web
site.
For tech support questions, we will do one
of the following:
- Tell you how to fix the problem
- Fix it for you
- Have one of our tech support personally
call you
If you wish to call in your tech support questions,
please call 561-752-3391. Phone tech support is limited to basic
configuration, general questions, etc. Tech support cannot answer
questions regarding technical server information. For specific technical
information, please email: contact us
They will forward your questions onto the appropriate party to answer
your questions. You can usually expect a response to your questions
within a few hours at most. If you do not receive a response within
24 hours, please try to email your questions again or call the tech
support phone line.
Reminder: Please
try to email us your questions first before calling for tech support.
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Brief Explanation
Welcome to the wonderful world of web hosting. If
you are currently a customer, congratulations, you now have a very
powerful tool for your web site needs.. a virtual host or virtual
server. We have provided the tools, the connectivity, and the server
software to run and maintain an efficient web site, as if you were
running your very own web servers, hence the name, virtual server.
About your virtual host
Our system administrators have engineered a fully
functional virtual host for your usage. Access to your virtual server
is provided 24-7 in the form of, FTP for uploading your web site
to your virtual host or using your VPanel (Virtual Host Management
Tool - commonly known as the "vpanel") for web site administration
/ configuration through a graphical user interface developed by
our system administrators. Your virtual host acts as a web server
and mail server.
About your virtual server
Our system administrators have engineered a fully
functional virtual server for your usage. You, essentially, have
access to all parts of your server, from configuration files to
your own CGI-BIN. Access to your virtual server is provided 24-7
in the form of, FTP for uploading your web site to your virtual
server or modifying configuration files to your VSMT (Virtual Server
Management Tool - commonly known as the "control panel")
for web site administration / configuration through a graphical
user interface developed by our system administrators. Your virtual
server acts as a web server, mail server and FTP server, allowing
you to utilize the functions of your web site to its fullest potentials
through these conventions, as well as with all the utilities and
tools provided by our system administrators that allow you to configure
and modify settings for your site to achieve functions you normally
can't find with some web hosting services.
If you are a beginner to web hosting or the internet
in general, it is advised that you find some of the rich online
resources available on the Internet to help guide you in these first
stages. Regardless, consider this Self Help section your "instruction
manual" for your new virtual server and utilize the information
provided.
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Brief glossary of terminology
If you are new to web hosting or the internet in
general, here are a FEW of the terms you may want to learn.
- ISP - (Internet
Service Provider) provides connectivity to the Internet, usually
via modem and dialup lines (we DO NOT provide ISP services)
- IPP - (Internet
Presence Provider) provides presences on the Internet, usually
provides web hosting and email services (this is what we do)
- WWW - (World
Wide Web) refers to the vast web sites and such that span the
Internet
- POP - (Post Office
Protocol) physical email accounts you log into with a username
and password to pick up any email sent/forwarded to that account
- Email Alias -
aliasing allows you to have multiple email addresses sent to a
specific POP email account (ie. pick up webmaster@yourdomain.com,
sales@yourdomain.com, etc. from one POP account rather than from
several separate ones
- Email Forward
- forwarding allows you to have email forwarded from a specific
address or POP account to another POP account (ie. have all email
sent to webmaster@yourdomain.com sent to your POP account provided
by your ISP)
- FTP - (File Transfer
Protocol) this is how you will upload and download your web pages
etc. to and from your computer to and from your virtual host or
server
- ASCII - used
in FTP and the WWW, this is a type of file, usually any kind of
file that you can read (like a text file) falls under this classification
(HTML files should be ASCII files)
- BINARY - used
in FTP and the WWW, this is a type of file, usually any kind of
file that is unreadable as text falls under this classification
(graphic images, sound files, etc. should be BINARY files)
- HTML - (Hyper-Text
Markup Language) the name of the standard coding used to create
web pages, most web pages are written/coded in HTML
- Domain - this
is the convention used to access a web site (www.whatever.com
, etc.) Domain names must be registered with InterNIC to be valid
and usable on the internet
- Non-domain -
this is usually a sub-site on someone's domain (www.whatever.com/subsite)
Non-domains do not have to be registered with InterNIC
- InterNIC - the
regulatory agency that handles the assignment and database tracking
of active/inactive/available domain names. Each country has their
own NIC registry service for handling foreign (or domestic) domain
names.
- Propagation -
a period after a domain name is registered or transferred when
the domain name is updated among all the nameservers found on
the Internet around the world. This period usually lasts 3-7
days
and may result in visitors not being able to visit the domain
name until the period is over.
The list could go on and on, but these are some
of the standard terms that you may find yourself using when dealing
with web hosting. We may expand the listing with other terminologies,
if needed. Otherwise, we recommend perusing through the internet
for some online resources that can help you with the terminologies,
if you are not familiar with them.
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Email
EMAIL (Electronic Mail) is used for communicating
by "mail" with other people on the Internet. There are
many email programs currently being used on the Internet, please
note that our tech support is versed in using Netscape Mail, Internet
Mail, and Eudora Pro/Light and will not have information on how
to configure/use other email programs.
When setting up your email program(s), the following
settings will most likely be used when configuring the program.
Incoming (POP3) Server:
yourdomain.com
(NOTE: DO NOT put 'www' or 'pop', etc. in front of the domain!)
Outgoing (SMTP) Server:
yourdomain.com
(NOTE: DO NOT put 'www' or 'smtp', etc. in front of the domain!)
**Some Internet Access Providers require
you to use their SMTP server.
POP3 account/user name:
youraccountname
(This would be whatever account you configured in your control panel)
You will most likely be prompted for a password
when you first try to log-in to your mail server. This password
that it prompts for will be the one that you chose when you first
set up that particular POP3 account through your control panel.
Netscape Mail Settings
Open Netscape Browser
Go to Options menu bar and choose Mail and News Preferences
Choose the Servers tab:
Outgoing SMTP should be the mail server address of your dial-up
company
a. Incoming POP server should be mail.yourdomain.xxx (substitute
your domain name)
b. POP3 username is the account you set up in your IMail Administration
Page
Click the Identity tab:
a. Enter your name
b. Enter your full e-mail address
c. Enter your reply e-mail address
Click Apply
Internet Mail
Open Internet Mail
Go to Mail menu and choose Options
Click the Servers tab and enter your personal information
Outgoing SMTP server should be the mail server of your dial-up
account
Incoming POP server should be the mail.yourdomain.xxx (substitute
your domain name)
In the Log On Settings, enter the mail account username and the
password you set for that account
Click Apply
Outlook Express
Open Outlook Express
Go to Tools menu and choose Accounts
Select the Mail tab and the Add button
Setup Wizard will appear. Follow the Wizard until Finish is selected
Repeat above steps to create multiple email accounts in Outlook
Express
Eudora Mail
Go to tools, options
Click getting started:
a. Set the pop account to user@mail.domain.com
b. Set real name to the name you want to display when sending
e-mail
c. Set the return address as the email address you want people
to reply to (usually user@domain.com)
Click hosts, set the SMTP server to the one that your ISP provides
Everything else should be set up correctly.
Netscape Communicator Mail
Open Netscape Communicator
Go to Edit menu and choose Preferences
Click on Mail and Groups and the + sign adjacent to it
Click on Identity and enter your name and mail address
Click on Mail Server and enter the following:
a. Incoming POP should be mail.yourdomain.xxx (substitute your
domain name)
b. Outgoing SMTP should be the mail server of your dial-up company
c. Choose the POP3 radio button under Mail Server Type
Click OK
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FTP
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is used for transferring
files (HTML pages, graphics, etc.) to/from your server. We suggest
using programs specifically designed for FTP'ing (transferring)
your files. Listed below are some suggestions for FTP programs to
use. Please note that our tech support is versed in using WS_FTP
and will not have information on how to configure/use other FTP
programs.
For Windowstm, we suggest the following
ftp programs:
- WS_FTP from Ipswitch, Inc.
- CuteFTP from Globalscape, Inc.
For Macintoshtm, we suggest the following
ftp program: FETCH
You can get a copy of FETCH from: ftp://ftp.dartmouth.edu/pub/mac/Fetch_3.0.3.hqx
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FTP'ing with WS_FTP
Based on the assumption you are FTP'ing with WS_FTP (as recommended
above) the following section will give you a basic run-down on how
to configure and use WS_FTP for transferring files.
- You will need your initial email from
UWS entitled "NEW
SERVER INFORMATION". Locate the part of the email with
your "IP
#" (virtual server's only, virtual host's use their domain
name), "Login", and "Password" information.
- You
will need to start up WS_FTP. You should first be prompted
with a "Session" dialog box.
You will start configuring
WS_FTP in the following areas:
- Profile Name: This is any name you wish to identify your ftp
information.
- Host Name: Your IP address ("IP #" in
your initial email)(virtual server's only, virtual host's use
their domain
name)
- Host Type: Automatic Detect
- User ID: Your
login name ("Login" in
your initial email)
- Password: Password (BE SURE to put a check
in the Save Password box)
- The remaining entries should remain empty.
Your
WS_FTP screen should look something like what is displayed
below.
- Click the "OK" button and WS_FTP
should start logging you into your FTP site. If there are any
login error messages in
the message box in the lower part of the WS_FTP screen, please
check your IP #, Login, and Password (the password is CASE sensitive,
meaning 'YOURPASSWORD' is different from 'yourpassword', we suggest
that you cut-n-paste your password DIRECTLY from the initial email
we sent you ["NEW SERVER INFORMATION"] into the WS_FTP
password area).
- Once you have correctly ftp'd to your server. You will see your
server directories in the right-hand window.
- Double click the 'www' directory.
- Then, double click the 'htdocs'
directory.
- This is where you will ftp your files.
(Note: When setting
up your HTML files, BE SURE name your homepage (your main page)
- 'index.htm'
Files are case sensitive. If you document says MYFILE.HTM
then your file must be saved as MYFILE.HTM not myfile.htm.
Any
subdirectories you would like to create may be created
in the 'htdocs' directory.
- The 'MkDir' button creates a directory.
- The 'RmDir' button
removes a directory.
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FTP'ing with Netscape
Communicator
When ft ping using Netscape Communicator you must
use ftp://yourdomain.com/www/htdocs for the "location to
publish to:".
If the graphics or other files are already on the server you can
Select None when ft ping.
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Telnet - Virtual Server
#2 (reseller) accounts
Telnet is a very powerful tool for logging directly
into a server to perform advanced (and some basic) features like
compiling a program,
archiving files, etc. Most likely, if you don't know what Telnet
is then you don't need it. Actually, most telnet features (like
CHMOD,
which is used to change file permissions) can be done through a
good FTP program and through the virtual server control panel.
TELNET Access:
Telnet Access is ONLY available to Virtual Server #2 (reseller)
accounts. If you have a Reseller account and would like telnet access,
you will need to fill out an application. You should then print
it and fax it to us.
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