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Hosting Support
- General
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Getting Started
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Control Panel
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Email
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CGI / Perl
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MySQL
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Troubleshooting

 
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General  
   
What extensions do my files need to have?
Do you backup my website/users/email settings?

How much bandwidth comes with your hosting packages?

AbsoluteHosting's Hosting Network
What operating system do you use?
Do you support Microsoft FrontPage Extensions?
How do I cancel my hosting account?
 
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Getting Started with your Hosting Account  
   

Updating your domain's dns to point to our nameservers

Uploading files to your webspace
 
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Your Hosting Control Panel  
   

What control panel comes with your hosting?

Site Administrator control panel Quick Tour

Your Control Panel

 
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Email  
   

How do I setup email?

How do I send/receive emails?
Is there a limit on the size of email I can receive?
 
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CGI / Perl  
   

How do I configure cgi scripts for my hosting account?

What is the full path to my html directory?
What is the full path to my cgi-bin?
 
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MySQL  
   

How do setup a MySQL database?

How do I administer my database?
 
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Troubleshooting  
   

I type in my domain name in a browser but I get an error message?

Why isn't my new home page showing up?
 
 
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 General
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What extensions do my files need to have?  
   

HTML files should end in .html with the main page being called index.html

Perl scripts for cgi need to end in either .pl or .cgi
PHP scripts need to end in .php
SSI scripts need to end in .shtml
 
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Do you backup my website/users/email settings?  
    Yes. We take weekly backups of all websites/users/email settings in case there is a problem with the server your account is on. This ensures that in the unlikely event of a server failure we can restore your hosting account within a few hours with minimal interruption to your service. However, we cannot provide a backup copy of individual sites if you accidentally lose or delete your files or settings, and we will only use the backup if the loss of data is our responsibility. Although we provide this fail-safe, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to successfully recover all sites in the event of a critical server failure, therefore we highly recommend that you also keep your own backup.  
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How much bandwidth comes with your hosting packages?  
    All hosting accounts come with 5GB of transfer per month. This is more than enough to cope with even busy websites.  
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AbsoluteHosting's Hosting Network  
    We have ensured maximum server uptime by using one of the best connectivity providers, and in the hosting facility itself we only use top quality systems and components. Your new site will be hosted on the latest servers ensuring your website is fast and responsive. The Data Center is a state of the art carrier class data facility, and features around 30,000 square feet of total space, redundant UPS systems, generator backup, VESPA detection systems, closed circuit monitoring of all areas and entrances, card key access, 24 hour guard manned security, redundant a/c systems, and fiber from 5 separate providers.  
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What operating system do you use?  
    All servers have RedHat Linux installed.  
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Do you support Microsoft FrontPage Extensions?  
    No. Unfortunately Microsoft has stopped releasing FrontPage Extensions for all servers except Microsoft servers. Therefore we are unable to offer FrontPage Extensions with our hosting packages. This does not mean that you can't use Microsoft FrontPage to design your website, but some of the features that require the Extensions will not work. Check your FrontPage program help for details of the features that require the Extensions.  
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How do I cancel my hosting account?  
    You can cancel your hosting account by emailing our sales team using our contact form. You must include your Order ID, the domain name of the hosting account and your hosting username and password. Please note that you must give us at least 14 days written notice of cancellation. If you have hosting setup for a domain that you have cancelled or not renewed you must cancel the hosting separately, otherwise you will continue to be charged for any services which have not been cancelled.  
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 Getting Started with your Hosting Account
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Updating your domain's dns to point to our nameservers  
    To allow web surfers to access your website you must first update the nameservers for your domain name. To do this you must tell the company where you registered your domain that you wish to alter your domain's nameservers to the ones listed in the welcome email we sent you when we setup your account. Your domain registration company will tell you how to make the change - usually you have to fill in an online form on their website. Once you have done this it will take 24-48 hours for the changes to take effect, and therefore for your hosting account to become active.  
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Uploading files to your webspace  
   

The action of putting files from your harddrive onto your webspace is referred to as "uploading". You can achieve this in one of two ways:

 
   

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

  This is the normal method for uploading your website files. You will need to have an FTP program such as WS-FTP or CuteFTP. For further instructions please see here.
Online File Manager
  You can also use the File Manager from within your control panel to upload files.
Watch a demo: Edit your main page using the File Manager
File Manager Help
 
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 Your Hosting Control Panel
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What Control panel comes with your hosting?  
    All of our hosting packages come with a control panel called Ensim Pro, which is one of the leading control panels for hosting. View a screenshot.  
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Site Administrator control panel Quick Tour  
    Watch a demo.  
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Your Control Panel  
   

Introduction

  Your hosting control panel can be used for a number of administrative functions, but the main use is to add/modify users and email addresses.
How to get help
  You can click the help button in the left bar of your control panel, or to get context sensitive help about a page or subject click the ?Help link at the top of any page. Watch a demo.
Accessing your control panel
  You can access your control panel by typing the following into your browser: http://www.yourdomain.com/admin (replace yourdomain.com with your own domain name). You will be asked to enter your username and password where you should type the username and password that you were given for your hosting account (found on the hosting welcome letter that you received when you purchased your hosting account).
Useful help links
  Remember, if instructions for a particular topic are not listed here, further help is available from within your control panel.
Change your Site Administrator password
Adding Users and email addresses
 
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 Email
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How do I setup email?  
   

When your account is created you have one user setup already - your main Site Administrator. The email address of this user is admin@yourdomain.com (replace yourdomain.com with your own domain name). It is important that you check for new emails to this address (either in an email program or with webmail), as this is where messages regarding your hosting service will be sent.

You may wish to add further users/email addresses to your account. To setup or configure additional users, you should use your hosting control panel (see instructions above).

 
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How do I send/receive emails?  
    Using an Email Program:
To be able to receive your email messages you can use one of the many available email programs that are on the market, such as Microsoft Outlook Express, Eudora or Pegasus. You should refer to the user manual of your email program for exact details on how to add a new account. However, to complete this process you will invariably need the following information:

Account Type: POP3

Incoming (POP3) Mail Server: mail.yourdomain.com
(replace yourdomain.com with your own domain name).

Outgoing (SMTP) Mail Server: mail.yourdomain.com
(replace yourdomain.com with your own domain name).
Account Name/Username: This should be the FULL email address of the user you wish to login to, e.g. you@yourdomain.com.
Password: The password you chose for this user.
Outgoing mailserver authentication: In order to send emails, you must turn on 'outgoing mailserver authentication' in your email program settings. Please refer to your software help for further instructions on how to turn on this setting.
SSL Settings: Most email programs will have the correct SSL settings by default, so you should not have to change these settings. If you do, you should set all SSL options to OFF/Disabled.
Port Numbers: Most email programs will have the correct port numbers by default, so you should not have to change these settings. If you do, you should enter "110" for the incoming port and "25" for the outgoing port.

Using Webmail:
You can also use your web-based email facility to send and receive emails. You can access your webmail by going to www.yourdomain.com/mail (remember to replace 'yourdomain.com' with your own domain name). Login with the username and password of the user you wish to send/receive emails with.

IMPORTANT: It is important to always keep enough space in your account to allow any new emails to be delivered to you. To make life easier when using webmail, the default setting is to automatically remove any old messages in your Sent and Trash mailboxes each time you login, to help you keep plenty of free space in your account:
Sent Mailbox: Any emails older than 90 days will be removed.
Trash Mailbox: Any emails older than 30 days will be removed.

If you wish to keep a record of your older messages, you should regularly store/archive your emails onto your local computer before they are removed. You can either use an email program to log in and download them, or you can download the emails from within your webmail.

 
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Is there a size limit on incoming email?  
    Yes, the limit is 10MB per email for incoming mail. We set this limit as a safety measure against virus attack, as some viruses send out many very large files which can shut down your email service. If someone needs to send you an email larger than 10MB, most email clients allow a message to be broken up into parts. In Outlook this setting can be found in 'Tools -> Accounts -> Properties -> Advanced tab'.
 
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 CGI / Perl
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How do I configure cgi scripts for my hosting account?  
   

Where should I upload my cgi scripts to?

  You should put all cgi/perl scripts into your cgi-bin which is located at /var/www/cgi-bin. Any scripts placed outside of this directory will not work, so you must ensure that you place all scripts in the cgi-bin. You can however create subfolders within the cgi-bin.
How should I upload my cgi scripts?
  You should always upload your cgi scripts using ASCII mode unless the script author specifies otherwise.
What is your server path to perl and sendmail?
  Our server path to perl is /usr/bin/perl and sendmail is /usr/sbin/sendmail
How do I set permissions for cgi scripts?
  You will need to use the chmod command to set the permissions for your cgi scripts. You can use your FTP program or the File Manager to do this.
Where can I get pre-written cgi scripts?
  You can see a list of websites that supply scripts and information on cgi and perl in the Resources section.
 
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What is the full path to my html directory?  
    /home/virtual/yourdomain.com/var/www/html
(Remember to replace "yourdomain.com" with your own domain name).
 
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What is the full path to my cgi-bin?  
    /home/virtual/yourdomain.com/var/www/cgi-bin
(Remember to replace "yourdomain.com" with your own domain name).
 
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 MySQL
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How do I setup a MySQL database?  
    Please note that you must have either a Standard or Pro hosting package in order to use MySQL. For instructions on how to setup a database from you control panel, please see here.  
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How do I administer my databases?  
    You can administer your MySQL databases using phpMyAdmin. phpMyAdmin is a very easy to use MySQL management system, which you can access from your control panel. For instructions please see here.  
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 Troubleshooting
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I type in my domain name in a browser but I get an error message?  
    It usually takes 24-72 hours for a new or transferred domain name to start resolving to our servers.  
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Why isn't my new home page showing up?  
   

There are several possible causes for this problem:

1. Make sure that you have uploaded your page to the correct directory - all pages should be uploaded into your /var/www/html directory.

2. When you open an account with us, your homepage will initially be a default page setup by us. The name of this file is index.html. You need to replace this page with your own homepage called index.html. If you upload your own home page and don't call it index.html our servers will continue to recognise the default page as the home page. Just delete or overwrite our index.html file and your new home page will show up! File names are case-sensitive, so index.html must be in lowercase.

3. Your browser or isp is caching the old pages. Press and hold the CTRL key and click refresh on your browser. This does not work with all browsers, so please wait a few hours before contacting us for support, as most dial-up isp's refresh their cached pages every few hours.

 
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