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FAQ's
Here are some commonly (if not frequently) asked questions from Web hosting seekers. If you have any others, please visit our Support Database.
This FAQ is not meant to replace the standard support section.
Please visit our Smart
Support Database to ask a question not covered here.
How can I pay for your service? And when do I pay?
We accept American Express, Visa, Mastercard, bank drafts, wire transfers, personal checks and Paypal. All processing is done off-site by a major commercial service on secured servers. Hosting and domain registration fees are due and payable in advance. New clients may try hosting with us for 30 days at no risk.
How soon can I upload my site?
If you do not receive your Welcome Letter the same day you sign up, please contact us. The email contains all the information you need to get started with our exclusive, easy, web-based tools.
What does it cost to transfer a domain name to you?
If you already have a registered domain name, there is no fee. If you want to register a new domain, you are welcome to use NovaRegister.com.
Do you charge additional
fees for using the mySQL database or PHP?
No. Both are included in most hosting plans.
Do I get my own IP address for my own domain name, and can I use my own domain name with NOVAHosting?
Yes. You will have your own domain name with any of our hosting packages with no ads or other junk cluttering your pages. Please note that we give all of our clients their own unique IP address. Many other hosting companies provide only one IP that must be shared with thousands of users. We do not use that system.
How do I get started?
Simply sign-up by completing our online order form or contact us if you have questions.
We will assist you anyway we can.
How long will I have to wait before I can start?
Not long at all! We will set aside space and a unique, static IP address for you very quickly. You will receive your official Welcome Letter by email, which you should store in a safe place as it will contain important information. NOTE: As soon as you receive your IP address, your new Web server is ready for you. Just upload your files using the Control Panel's File Manager or a good FTP program, or MS FrontPage. Even if your domain name is not yet "propagated" on the Internet, at any time you can access your site on the web at the IP address we'll provide to you.
How do I register a new domain?
To register a new name, you may go to NovaRegister.com, complete the form and pay the discounted registration fee.Once we send you your permanent and unique IP address, upload your site to our server through your Control Panel's File Manager, or through WS_FTP or any FTP software unless you want to use Frontpage.
How long will it take for my new site to come up on the web, and how will I avoid downtime when I transfer my domain name to your hosting service?
Not long at all. Once you have (1) uploaded your site and (2) changed your nameservers in that order, your new IP and domain name will go through the Internet system for "propagation." We suggest waiting 3 to 4 days before cancelling your old hosting service to avoid downtime.
Can I use a .ws or a .co.uk domain, etc?
Yes you can. For a list of possibilities, please see NovaRegister.com, where you may also use our Naming Wizard to help you find a name that fits.
Can I register or transfer the domain myself? And do you offer dial-up Internet access?
Yes. You can register your own domain or transfer it to us by providing our DNS--nameserver information--to the registrar. Complete information will be in your Welcome Letter. They are as follows:NS.SECURE-HOSTING.NET
209.239.57.140
NS2.SECURE-HOSTING.NET
209.239.47.54 No. We are dedicated to hosting sites only. We do not provide Internet access services.
Does NOVA Hosting support MacIntosh systems? What about telnet?
Sure. You can use the Fetch program to transfer files from your MAC to your virtual server. You can also "telnet" via secure shell programs. There are two companies we recommend who sell client versions of SSH. They are Datafellows and SecureCRT. For a free version, and users outside the United States who are precluded from downloading the preceding two, should check out this site. Here you will find the totally free, internationally available ttssh. There are so many web based tools you can use in your Control Panel however, that SSH is an option you should not want to use.
Whom can I contact if further questions come up?
Feel free to send us an email or visit our support database: Support Database reaches our entire Support Team.
Are your servers connected 24
hours a day, 7 days a week? If not, when and why are they disconnected?
Yes. They are always connected, except for routine maintenance and security upgrades, and always monitored. Our uptime is on average 99.9%
Do you run Apache?
Yes. We run Apache on the Linux OS.
What do autoresponders do and are they included? How many?
An autoresponder, in short, is a robot that sends an "instant message" once any email is received at your POP account. Sometimes called "vacation or holiday replies," simply go to your Mail Manager in your Control Panel Toolkit, choose your own email address, and fill in the blanks.
What programs can be used to access e-mail (pine, elm, Thunderbird, Outlook, etc.)?
Any program which downloads mail to your computer may be used. You may also use mail user-agents, which run on our servers, such as pine or elm.
Do you offer webmail?
Yes. We give all clients access to their own web mail program.
Can I access my domain address
with or without the "www"?
Yes. You will be able to access the domain
address with or without the "www" in front of the domain name.
What is an email alias and is
it unlimited?
An email alias means if you send mail to support@your--name.com, that address is aliased to whomever needs to receive it. It can be one person or multiple people, and you have access to your own Mail Wizard! These aliases are unlimited--get as many as you need for no extra charge!
Do you have a database system?
Cold Fusion? mSQL? Other?
We use mySQL, which is a very powerful database. You may learn more at http://mysql.com. Combined with PHP, you have a solution that can't be beat for on the fly interactivity via a database backend.
Do you have FTP and FTP
Anonymous access?
Yes. We provide both FTP and FTP-anon with all accounts. With ftp-anon, your address for any files you might wish to download to others would be ftp://your_own_domain.com/pub/.
Do you have a limit on the FTP
transfer?
No. There is no limit. You can update your
pages anytime, day or night.
Can I run two cron tasks to
update pages daily?
Yes.
Are your virtual servers able
to work with old and text-mode browsers such as Lynx, or will users with those browsers
not find our index.html when putting in only www.our__domain.com (in other words, are they
truly virtual)?
They are truly virtual--you get your very
own IP address on the web server. They will work with Lynx (as well as search engines).
How many client sites are put
on each web server? Do you move sites to different servers if a given server has a high
load? Is this monitored?
We load-balance all servers to maximize efficiency. All servers are continuously monitored, and the exact amount of sites on each server varies greatly based on demand per site. We never squeeze sites on a server as "cheap hosts" do. We pride ourselves on our quality hosting environment.
I would like to know if you
support VRML 1.0 and 2.0 mime types, wrl and mus?
We support these. You can set your own mime
types with your .htaccess file, and you can do this easily via the Control Panel.
Does each virtual server
have its own log files? We already have our own custom web stats apps, so what we really
need is the raw log files and not just summaries.
Yes. You have your own downloadable log files. If you are interested in very thorough analysis of your web traffic patterns, an excellent desktop program called FastStats is available to NovaHosting clients at an exclusive discount.
Do you provide a CGI-BIN
personal directory?
Yes. A CGI-BIN is provided with each account.
What is CGI access?
CGI scripts (Common Gateway Interface) are
used to provide things like counters, form responses, guestbooks, and many other interactive components.
NOVA Hosting gives you full CGI access.
Which languages are
supported in CGI (eg., Bourne, secure shell, Perl, Java)?
Bourne, Secure Shell (SSH), Perl, and Java are all
supported and available.
How can I manage my email users (add/remove/update). How can I setup mail redirection for my users?
You can manage mail folders and accounts through your personal Mail Manager that's inside your Control Panel. Here you will be able to forward mail to any email account and perform many other functions.
Do you charge additional fees
for hosting a secure web site?
You may use our serverwide secure cert free after a nominal one-time fee.
Do you offer backward
compatability browser detection?
Yes.
Can I set up forms for
secure transmission?
Yes. A special secured version of FormMail available in the Control Panel can be used.
Can we set up password
protected areas with htaccess?
Yes. The Control Panel makes that a lot easier too. With one click, you can set up a password protected directory (folder).
May I promote my Web site with bulk email?
No. Never. Spamming is in violation of our service agreement. There are legal and ethical issues involved in mass mailing of unsolicited email. Any users of our services who send spam will have their accounts closed within 24 hours with no refunds. Before you use ANY service that claims to be a legal bulk emailer, contact us first.
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