- How do I order
website hosting or an Artist Page?
Just go to our order
form. Your options are:
- Submit your credit card information via our secure order system. This allows for
the fastest set-up time.
- Fax the form with your credit card information to our secure fax machine. This
also allows for the fatest set-up time.
- Print the form and mail it with your credit card information. We will set up your
account when we receive the form.
- Print the form and mail it with a check. We will set up your account after the
check clears.
- What is FrontPage?
This is a software package that some website
designers like to use because it generates HTML code for you, makes it easy to manage your
links and includes some special scripts. It does require that files called
"FrontPage Extensions" be installed on the server. Our servers have
FrontPage extensions available.
- What are traffic reports and raw log
files?
Each time someone accesses your website, every
file accessed, as well as some additional information is collected in files called
"log files." Software packages have been developed to analyze these files
and give you information such as: how many visitors you had and when, which pages they
looked at, and which websites and search engines referred visitors to you. We can
provide traffic reports to you produced by a software product called Webalizer. If
you prefer to get your own software for analyzing traffic logs, you can also have access
to the raw log files, but they will have to fit in your allotted storage space. The
raw log files can also be emailed to you. They are very large so your email account has to
be able to handle them.
- What does it mean to have POP3/SMTP email
accounts?
POP3 stands for Post Office Protocol version
3. This allows you to use an email software progam like Outlook Express or Eudora to
check the mail server for mail and download it.
SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. This allows you to send email through
our mail server. Most ISPs (Internet Service Providers) will let you send email
through their server using any email address. AOL is a notable exception.
Many hosting comanies will allow you to receive
mail at an email account that uses your domain name, eg. info@bandname.com, but when you
want to respond to the email you have to use your ISPs mail server. For many people
this is not a problem because their ISP will allow them to use their info@bandname.com
email address as the "FROM" address. If you have AOL as your ISP, however, you
will have to use your AOL account and not your info@bandname.com account. With our
service, you can send as well as receive email through our mail servers so it doesn't
matter which ISP you use, you can send mail from your info@bandname.com account.
- How do I move my website?
Copying the files is very simple. The best
way to do it depends on a couple of things:
If you currently use FTP to copy files to
your website - You probably have a full copy of your website on your computer, but if
not, first copy all the files and directories from your current website to your
computer. Then, log in to your new server with FTP and copy the files from your
computer to the new server. You can check your website by typing your IP address
into your browser address box.
If you use FrontPage - Log in to your
current website using FrontPage. Choose File - Publish FrontPage Web, then
click on "More Webs" and enter your IP address. After FrontPage finds your
new server it will show "<root web>" in the dialog box. Click on
"<root web>" and open it. You will be prompted for your user name
and password. When FrontPage is finished copying, you can check your website by
typing your IP address into your browser address box
If you do not have FTP software, WS-FTP LE is
available free for personal use at http://www.wsftp.com/cgi/download_eval.pl?product=WL-1000
. After you install it, launch the software. Create a new profile with the
following information: hostname/address (your IP address), username and password. On
the left-hand side of the screen find the directories and files you just published to your
computer. If you need to change directories, double-click on the green arrow to go
up a level. Double-click on a directory to go down a level. Click once on the file
or directory you want to copy - don't click twice because that will copy it. On the
right-hand side of the screen double-click "mainwebsite_html" to get to the
directory where your files should go. For copying text files (e.g. .htm, .html,
.asp) make sure the radio button for ASCII is on. For pictures or sound files, make
sure the radio button for binary is on. Click on the arrow that points to the right
and your selected files/directories will be copied to the server. When you are
finished copying, you can check your website by typing in your IP address. When
you are satisifed that everything is working, move your domain name to the new server.
(Note: if your Frontpage website uses include bots, you will need to open each
page, reinsert the include, and save.) If the links on your website are not
relative, i.e. they begin with your domain name, you will not be able to check for proper
operation of your website until the domain name has transferred.
- What is a domain
name vs. a canonical or sub-domain vs. a URL?
A domain name is registered through an Internet registrar such as Network
Solutions or Register.com. It looks like chicagogigs.com - notice there are two
parts to the name. If you register a domain name it belongs to you and can to be
moved to any hosting service at will.
A canonical, or sub-domain looks like bandname.chicagogigs.com - notice there are three
parts. A canonical name cannot be registered or owned like a domain name. The
owner of the domain name can set up canonical names and they act just like domain names.
If you type the canonical name into a browser, it will bring up a website, just
like the domain name does. If your website uses a canonical name from a hosting
service like chicagogigs.com you cannot take the canonical name with you if you change
hosting services. You will either have to find another hosting service which will
provide you a canonical name, or you will have to register your own domain name.
A URL can be a domain name, a canonical name or a page within a website. For
example,
http://www.chicagogigs.com
http://www.bandname.chicagogigs.com
http://www.bandname.chicagogigs.com/directories/artistdirectory.htm
- How do I move my domain name?
Check your domain registrar's website for
directions. If you are with Network Solutions,
go to their website and click the "Make Changes" button at the top of the page.
Enter your domain name and follow the wizard. If you don't know who your
registrar is, go to http://networksolutions.com
and click "Who Is Lookup" in the top right corner. Enter your domain name
in the search box. The result page should tell you who your registrar is.
- How do I get a domain name?
You will need to register one through what is called a registrar. There are many,
and the registrars our clients use most frequently are Network Solutions, Register.com and GoDaddy. The cost varies greatly among
the services. If you are uncomfortable setting this up yourself, contact us and we
can reserve your domain name for you. Just submit a support
request
