Pre-Sales: Domain Related Questions

Q: If I register my domain through Netstarhost, do I own the domain? Can I transfer it at will?
A: Although Netstarhost registers the domain on your behalf, you own the domain. Upon request, we can provide you with a password for a web site that will enable you to transfer the domain or make any modifications necessary.

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Q: If I wish to register a second domain for an account, what does it cost me?
A: Any additional domains are $25 a year, with a minimum of one year's payment in advance.

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Q: How long does it take until my domain is registered and live on the Internet.
A: We register your domain as soon as we receive payment for the registration. If you are paying via credit card, we process creditcards at the end of the day. If your card is successfully charged, then we register it right away. If you are paying via check or money order, we wait until we receive them in the mail before registering your domain. The domain is typically live by the next morning and can be seen via WHOIS.

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Q: I need a .co.uk or other TLD domain registered. Can you register this for me? Can you host this type of domain?
A: We can only register .com, .net,.org, .biz and .info domains. We do support domains from any other TLD; however, you must register them yourselves and pay the appropriate NIC directly.

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Q: I am currently hosted with XYZ.COM and would like to switch to Netstarhost. How do I do this?
A: Simply complete our order form. We will setup your account and assist you with the steps needed to move your web site to our servers and transfer your domain.

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Q: How do I transfer my domain to Netstarhost?
A: This depends on the Domain Registrar you are using. Network solutions allows you to make changes right on their web site. Others have similar methods. We can assist you with this. You'll need our name server information.

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Q: How do I transfer my domain from Netstarhost?
A: If you're an existing customer and would like to move your domain either to your own name servers or to another provider, contact us and we will assist you.

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Q: Will my site be down for any period of time if I transfer to Netstarhost? Will I lose mail?
A: Your existing web site and mail service will not be affected provided your account is setup with us first and you've moved your web files to your new account. When the InterNIC updates the root servers pointing your domain to our servers, all new visitors will come to your new site and so will your mail. Some visitors who have cached your old IP address will continue to visit and send mail to your old site for one to two days after the transfer. Be sure to check your old mailbox during this time and you won't lose any mail.

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Q: Can I transfer my domain from my current registrar to your registrar to take advantage of your low cost yearly renewal rates?
A: We can do this for a 1 time $25 fee. This is in addition to the $25 per year registration fee. You will also have to have access to the administrative contact's e-mail address to verify the change request.

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Q: Is there any cost associated with transferring my domain to Netstarhost?
A: No, there isn't. You simply need to update your domain record to point to our name servers, which can be done free of charge with most domain registrars. We can assist you with this transfer.

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Q: How do I move the contents of my web site from another provider to Netstarhost's servers?
A: There are several ways. One way is to use FrontPage to import your existing web site and then publish it to your new server. This is extremely fast and easy. Another is to use a tool like Dreamweaver to import a web site and then publish it to another destination via FTP.

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Q: How long does it take to get an account setup at Netstarhost?
A: When you submit your order, you will get an automated e-mail confirmation immediately. If you reply to this e-mail and confirm your order, it will enter or queue and will be processed in the order that it was received. Orders placed after standard business hours and on weekends may be subjected to a slight delay, as we have a reduced staff during off hours. If you do not reply to the automated e-mail, your order will still be setup, it just will not be setup as quickly as if you confirm your order via e-mail

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Q: I am transferring from another host. I need time to setup my web site on Netstarhost's servers before I transfer my domain. Is this OK, or does the domain have to be transferred immediately?
A: You can take all the time you need because you will be the one transferring the domain. As a web host, we don't have any special authority to modify your domain. All registrars will require your permission in order to transfer the domain. Upon your request, we will put in a domain transfer on your behalf, but only if you request it. We're here to help you transfer your domain to our name servers. We do not do anything without your requesting it.

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Q: I am switching from another provider to Netstarhost. Who will transfer my domain?
A: You will. See above.

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Q: Is it safe to give you my credit card on-line?
A: Yes, it is. When you use our secure order form, the connection between your web browser and our computer is encrypted so you can safely transmit your credit card details to us.

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Q: I don't have a credit card. Can I get my account setup today and be billed so I can pay via check?
A: While we can accept orders from people who prefer to pay by check, we are unable to setup your order until we receive payment for it. This is due to the high number of fraud orders that used to be placed when we did setup check paying customers and offer 30 days for payment.

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Q: I live halfway around the world and would like to pay by check. How can I do this?
A: Paying us by check from another country is easy. Simply go to your bank and request a check made out in US dollars that is drawn from a US bank. There will be a small fee for this transaction. Some banks will even mail the check for you.

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Q: I noticed you have a 30 day money back guarantee. If I cancel my account within 30 days, am I entitled to a FULL refund including setup fees?
A: If you cancel your account within 30 days, you'll receive a full refund of all fees, except domain registration fees, since you get to keep your domain and move it elsewhere.

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Q: I have a Windows machine and you have UNIX servers. Can I still use your service?
A: Of course. In fact, many of the machines you interact with on a daily basis (web servers, e-mail servers, IRC servers, etc.) are run off of UNIX machines. You will have no problem publishing your site or sending/reading e-mail.

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Q: I like the ability to specify what options I want on my web site. Can I add or delete options at a later date?
A: Certainly. Simply contact us.

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Q: Can I send outbound mail through your servers?
A: Yes, you can. We do have anti-spam protection that mandates that you check your e-mail first so we can add your IP address to a list of hosts that are allowed to relay through us.

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Q: If I need to add more POP3 accounts, mailing lists or auto responders in addition to the ones I requested at the time I ordered, how can I do this?
A: Simply use your control panel. We'll detect the new accounts and bill you for them.

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Q: If I need support, how can I contact you and during what hours?
A: At Netstarhost, we offer real telephone support in addition to e-mail support. Our current phone and e-mail support hours are M-F 9am-6pm Eastern, Saturday 10am-7pm and Sunday 12pm-4pm. E-mail is monitored during off-hours, but we can not guarantee as fast a response time as if it were received during normal business hours.

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Q: Your prices are very low. Some low priced web hosting companies insert banner advertisements on their clients' web pages to help make ends meet. Do you do anything of the sort?
A: No! I'm surprised people ask us this. We're a real, professional hosting service. Some quasi-providers may do this, but we certainly do not.

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Q: What sort of backbone connection do you have?
A: Read details at our Data Center page Click Here

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Q: Do you offer NT based hosting?
A: Due to the unreliability, poor RFC compliance and watered-down networking protocols of Windows NT, we do not offer NT based hosting. However, we do offer the best of NT, such as FrontPage.

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Q: Can I telnet to my UNIX shell to make changes and schedule programs to run at certain times?
A: Certainly. You can even read your mail with Pine. You can compile programs such as statistics programs and even schedule them to run with Cron.

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Q: Can I use telnet access to run IRC bouncers or bots?
A: I'm sorry, you may not. Our shell access is for interactive access only and for tasks specifically related to your web site only.

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Q: What is this data transfer that you offer with each account?
A: Our monthly transfer allocation only applies to the data you send over HTTP, FTP, POP3, and SMTP requests.

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Q: Does FTP and E-mail count towards my allotted 6 GIGs of monthly transfer?
A: Yes.

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Q: Your billing lists a quarterly fee and a yearly fee. Is this offering me a choice of which billing plan I want,(Short answer: it's a choice of billing frequency, you get to pick one).
A: The two plans we give offer you a choice. You only pay one!

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Q: Do you offer catchall e-mail forwarding so I can get mail at addresses at my domain that I don't specifically predefine.
A: Yes, we do. When we setup your account, we give you a "master" POP3 account (user@domain.com). Any mail you receive at your domain that is not destined for another POP3 account is sent to this catchall e-mail account.

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Q: Do I get my own IP address with my hosting account?
A: When we began hosting 3 years ago, we offered an IP address with each account. This was because many of the browsers did not support the so called "host header" or "name only" way of doing this. Today, 99% or more of the browsers on the Internet support this method. Since IP addresses are so scarce, we must justify their use. As such, we do not give out IP addresses by default. You can request one for $5.00 per month.

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Q: Do you offer real-audio support?
A: Yes, we do. There are two forms of Real-Audio support. One is called "Streaming RealAudio" and the other is "HTTP Streaming Real Audio". The former uses a special RealAudio server and the latter is served off your web site like any .wav, .pdf file, etc.: When the user clicks on the file, they download it to a special viewer. HTTP Streaming RealAudio is suffice for 99% of the applications out there, because it allows the user to listen to the file while it is downloading. The "Streaming RealAudio" that requires a pay-per-stream server is not needed unless you are doing a live audio feed. RealAudio wants to sell their expensive servers, so naturally they'll want you to think you're going to get better performance by using their servers.

At Netstarhost, we offer HTTP Streaming RealAudio support.

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Q: How can I upload/publish my web site to your server?
A: You can use a variety of methods. One is simple FTP using a client such as CuteFTP. Another is to use FrontPage. Yet another is Dreamweaver, which we use (when we're not using vi :-). You can also use the publish feature of your web browser.

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Q: Do you offer Unlimited Bandwidth?
A: Unfortunately, we do not.

Bandwidth is a commodity. Just like any other commodity, there is a cost or a value associated with it. Since it costs us for bandwidth, we must pass that cost to you.

Each package comes with a set monthly transfer. You can upgrade at any time.

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Q: Can I have more than one domain pointing to a web site, for example domain.com, domain.net and domain.org?
A: Yes. This is called "Domain Aliasing". Aside from the inexpensive $25/yr. domain registration fees, it's free. If you are transferring an already registered domain to us that you would like aliased, we charge a one time $10 setup fee.

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Q: Can I have these subdomains point to different content, pages or subdirectories on the same web site?
A: Yes, you can have subdomains point to a different folder and it requires a sub-account at $5/mo. If you wish to have a subdomain point to the same folder as your main website, there is just a 1 time $10 setup fee charged.

We currently do not support the pointing of different domains to different subfolders of just 1 website.

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Q: I would like to be a reseller, is there any special procedure I need to follow?
A: You can fill out our reseller application at netstarbusiness.com

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Q: I do not want my customers to know I am a reseller for another company. How do you isolate your company from mine so that my customers don't know I am hosted with you?
A: We have several ways of doing this, and there are some costs associated with it.

1. We can offer you virtual DNS service. This will allow you to register your clients' domains using ns1.yourdomain.com and ns2.yourdomain.com with you listed as the technical contact. This service is free for any reseller with more than 20 accounts, otherwise it's $40/mo. The fee is charged because we must allocate you two dedicated IP addresses.

2. We can set you up with a special virtual server with it's own IP address. This way, if your customer inputs their IP address in their browser, they'll get YOUR web site, not ours. This is $10/mo. or free for any reseller with more than 10 accounts.

Netstarhost is not interested in contacting your customers. In the event we detect one of your customers attempting to switch from you to us, we will kindly inform them that an agreement with you prohibits us from hosting them.

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Q: As a reseller, is there a convenient way for me to sign up new customers instead of using your default features?
A: We are working on this. Eventually, we'll have a web interface that will allow you to setup the your customer accounts, configure them in DNS and even register their domain. Currently, we do offer a separate reseller area which contains different order forms designed for resellers.

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Q: I am trying to publish with FrontPage and it is not working. What am I doing wrong?
A: FrontPage extensions are FREE with all accounts. However, you must request them. This is because FrontPage installs hidden files in your document root that most people who don't use FrontPage do not wish to have.

If extensions have been installed, here is a step by step how to publish:

If you do not have an existing site saved on your PC:

Open Front Page 2000.

Click on “File” .

Click on “Open Web” .

In the “Folder Name” box enter your actual domain name including "http://" . Do not put the www in front.

Click “Open”.

A box will pop up asking for your username and password. These are the same as the username and password that was assigned to you for our servers.

Click “OK”.

The box will display the folders in your account.

Click on “Open”.

There should be three columns listed. On the far left will be “views” in the middle will be “Folder List” and the far right will be whatever page you have open. If you do not see “Folder List.” You will need to click on “View” button and then select “Folder List” option.

You can now edit and create your pages (see below if you want to just publish an existing page to your new, blank space).

When you are finished, and would like the page to be online, you just need to select “File” and then “Save As.” Name the file, and click “Save”.

If you have an existing website on your PC that you want to publish:

Open Front Page 2000.

Click on “File” .

Click on “Open Web” .

In the “Folder Name” box choose the existing web on your hard drive.

Click “Open”.

Click “OK”.

The box will display the folders in your web on your hard drive.

Click on “Open”.

There should be three columns listed. On the far left will be “views” in the middle will be “Folder List” and the far right will be whatever page you have open. If you do not see “Folder List.” You will need to click on “View” button and then select “Folder List” option.

You can now publish these files to our server by clicking on "file", then "publish web". When prompted for a location to publish to, enter your domain name as "http://yourdomain.com" (replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain name) and click "publish". It should now prompt you for a username and password, which have been supplied by us to you. Enter these in and the files will begin to upload. Once finished, you will be notified.

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Q: Do you support Dreamweaver?
A: Certainly. We use it ourselves.

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Q: Do you support the publish feature of some web browsers, like Netscape or offer help with my new HTML editor?
A: While we do support such options, we will only be able to give basic help, as we are not familiar with or use every HTML editor that is available today. For third party applications, you will get the best help by contacting the company that you obtained the software from.

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Q: How do I FTP my pages in?
A: Obtain an FTP client such as CuteFTP and login with your master username and password. You put your web pages in your "www" folder.

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Q: I just uploaded a CGI application and it does not work. What am I doing wrong?
A: Chances are you didn't make the file executable with the CHMOD feature of your FTP client. Here's some guidelines:

1. Always CHMOD your CGI scripts so they're executable.

2. Make sure they have a .cgi or .pl extension.

3. If your CGI script is a perl script, make sure it has a line at the VERY top of the script as follows:

#!/usr/bin/perl

4. Make sure you upload any CGI scripts in ASCII mode. Failing to do so will disrupt your carriage returns and the script will not run.

If you are unsure of any of these steps, please contact us.

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Q: How do I use SSI with Netstarhost?
A: Simply name your file with a .shtml extension.

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Q: How do I enable PHP on my web site? What if I want to use version 3?
A: Any pages that contain PHP code should have a .php extension. Our default version is PHP4, so if you wish to use PHP3, name your file with a .php3 extension.

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Q: How do I setup a custom Error page?
A: Edit your .htaccess file at your top level directory in your document root, the same directory (www) as your index.html file. Inside this file, put a line in as follows:

ErrorDocument <errorcode> <filename or URL>

Example:

ErrorDocument 404 http://mydomain.com/404.html

The above line will cause 404.html to be displayed whenever a user requests a page that does not exist. If you do not have an .htaccess file, you may simply create one and upload it.

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Q: How can I add my own MIME type?
A: If you ask us, we would be happy to add almost any that we do not currently have already.

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Q: How can I make a password protected directory or otherwise restrict access to my site?
A: Use the AuthType directive in your top-level .htaccess file.

For more information on how to do this, we recommend this page.

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Q: How do I turn off directory indexes to a certain directory?
A: Use "IndexIgnore */*" in a .htaccess file within the directory you are trying to affect.

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Q: How do I access my control panel?
A: Your control panel is available at

http://www.yourdomain.com/cpanel/

Simply login with your master username and password.

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Q: If I want to setup more POP3 accounts or mailing lists than is allotted to my account can I do this and have you bill me?
A: Simply use your control panel to create however many POP3 accounts, etc., that you want and we'll bill you for them. You can avoid being billed for additional POP3 accounts, etc., By deleting any unused ones.

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Q: Where can I find my raw access log at?
A: Raw access logs can be found when you telnet or FTP into your account at /home/USERNAME/logs, replacing USERNAME with the username you use for access on our system

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Q: When I try to send outbound mail through your server, I get a relaying denied message. What gives?
A: Be sure to CHECK your mail via POP3 first. Due to widespread Internet SPAM abuse, we are unable to operate an "open relay" that would allow anyone to send mail from our server. As such, we use what's called "POP Authentication based selective relaying". When you authenticate via POP3, your IP address is added to a list of IP addresses that are temporarily allowed to relay through us without restrictions. As long as you check your mail before sending, or at least once every few hours, you can be sure your IP address is in our list of allowed relay clients.

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Q: I keep getting a "login denied" or bad password error when I try to connect to your server to read mail with POP3. What am I doing wrong?
A: Be sure you use the username/domain syntax when you login. Example:

user/domain.com

Many ISPs and Web hosting companies require that your POP3 accounts actually use their domain. So when you request sales@yourdomain.com, they actually simply forward it to sales123abc@theirdomain.com. The sales123abc is necessary because each username at their domain must be unique. It is confusing to remember that in order to get your sales@yourdomain.com e-mail, you have to login as sales123abc.

With Netstarhost, your domain is part of your username. This allows you to have whatever@your-domain.com without a confusing username tied to it. For sales@yourdomain.com simply login as sales/yourdomain.com.

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Q: I do not want catchall e-mail forwarding. Can I turn this off?
A: We can help you with this. Contact us.

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