DLS Web Hosting FAQ's

General Sales Questions Server & File Info Front Page Info CGI Program Info E Mail Info
General Sales Questions
What is web hosting?	Very basicly, this is renting space on an internet server. You will place text and image files on the server that is connected to the internet with the ability to be seen by thousands or millions of people.
How much are the setup fees?	We do not charge any setup fees.
Do you offer a money back guarantee?	If for any reason you are not satisfied with us, just tell us within the first 21 days and tell us why. We will cancel your account and refund your full payment (domain registration fees not included).
How much disk storage space will I need?	If you are not sure then our Bronze Hosting Plan should be plenty of space for you. You can always upgrade your package if needed.
What is data transfer?	When someone visits your website, they download your webpages into their browser. If the size of your web page is 50k then you would "transfer" 50k to their computer. Our Bronze package offers 2,000 megs of data transfer a month. This would translate into 40,000,000 hists on your 50k page.
Do I get a domain name with your web hosting packages?	Yes you do! When you purchase the web hosting, we include your domain name for just $5.
How do I know what domain name I can register?	Whereas hundreds of millions of domain names have been registered, there are still plenty of names for you to choose. If you do not find a dot com to register, you may choose to register a dot net or a dot biz or a dot info, depending on your web site. Search for a domane name here.
How long does it take to set up a new account?	New accounts paid by credit card are setup in less than 12 hours from the time we receive your order. Once an account is set up, an email is sent to you which includes your username, password and instructions on uploading to the server. You can begin uploading files to your new web site immediately.
How long does it take before my domain name is active?	Once your domain name has been registered or transferred, it usually takes about 36-72 hours before it is active. All Internet providers must update their records (DNS files) to reflect the new site's location.
Can I transfer my web site to DLS Web Hosting?	Yes, there is an option in the signup process to note that this is a transfer. You must then change your nameservers that are set at your registrar. See our dns tutorials for a few registrars. If yours is not listed, you will still get a very good understanding on how it is done.
What is your DNS information?	You will use this when transferring a domain to our servers. Primary: ns1.dlswebhost.com IP: 205.209.148.30 Secondary: ns2.dlswebhost.com IP: 205.209.148.31 You may or may not need the IP addresses depending on your registrar.
What forms of payment do you accept?	We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, personal/company checks and money orders. The vast majority of our customers pay by credit card, which is billed based on your plan. Payment must be received before an account is setup.
Is my credit card information secure?	Absolutely. Your order is processed by Authorize.net, one of the largest and most secure on the internet.
Can I upgrade/downgrade my hosting plan after I order?	Yes, you can switch to a different hosting plan at any time. There are no extra charge for upgrading or downgrading your account.
Do you offer Microsoft Windows 2000 or NT hosting?	We do not offer Windows based hosting.
What is the Web-based control panel?	The control panel for your website is cPanel. It allows you to easily perform common tasks like adding and configuring e-mail accounts and viewing website statistics. You can see a static cPanel here.
Server & File Info
How do I transfer files to my hosting account?	Files must be uploaded into the public_html directory in order to be viewed on the internet. Your home page should be named index.html, index.htm, index.shtml, etc. If you use any other than index.html, then you should delete the placeholder index.html file that is in your public_html directory. The files that make up your website (HTML pages, graphics, etc.) are uploaded to your hosting account via FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Many modern website-building applications have FTP file transfer capability built in; Macromedia Dreamweaver and Adobe GoLive are two examples. If you don't have FTP capability included with your website-building software, you will need a FTP application. We recommend are CuteFTP, WS_FTP and ftpVoyager.
What happens if I exceed my allotted disk space?	Typically this is not a problem for our customers because of the ample amount of disk space that is allotted to each plan. If you need additional disk space, you may upgrade your account to the next level for a very nominal charge.
What happens if I exceed my allotted data transfer amount?	This is also very rare. The vast majority of the sites we host use only a fraction of their allotment. You will be able to monitor your usage in your control panel. Additional bandwidth costs $2 per gig or you may choose to upgrade your account to the next level.
What databases are include?	We offer MySQL and PostgreSQL Databases.
What statistics programs do you offer?	We include AwStats and Analog as well as access to your raw log files.
Do you offer SSH access?	We include SSH with our reseller accounts.
FrontPage Info
Do you support FrontPage 2002?	Yes we do support FrontPage 2002. You must have the FrontPage program on your computer to use it.
How do I activate my FrontPage extensions?	You can activate or deactivate FrontPage extensions through your cPanel.
Will using FTP corrupt my FrontPage Extensions?	Microsoft does not recommend you use any FTP program when FrontPage extensions are installed. However, you can use FTP to a certain extent: You can download/upload log files, scripts, zip files, and change permission on scripts with problems. There is a possibility that FrontPage extensions can be corrupted if you upload/download HTML files with FTP.. Do NOT edit or FTP the ".htaccess" files, any "*_vti" directories or any other FrontPage extensions. It will corrupt your extensions.
Can I use cgi-scripts when FrontPage extensions are installed?	You can use cgi-scripts with FrontPage, but this will be at your own risk. This is considered a non-standard FrontPage site - this implementation is not recommended or supported by Microsoft. If you choose to have FrontPage Extensions and use cgi, you must do so with caution and at your own risk. You will see a "cgi-bin" in your home directory when your account was setup. You can upload your scripts there.
Can you help me with FrontPage problems?	We will make sure FrontPage extensions are properly installed for your account. Please note, however, that we do not provide technical support for FrontPage. Microsoft requires that they provide support for their software, and having developed it, they have a thorough knowledge of how it works and any known bugs in the program. We therefore ask that all questions regarding the use of FrontPage be addressed directly towards Microsoft. You will find that they have extensive online tutorials and help, as well as toll-free technical support for the program.
How do I prevent FrontPage from uploading several large files that are already on the server?	There's a simple way to make sure files do NOT get uploaded when using the Publish command. 1) If you're in the Page view, choose View > Folders to go to the Folder view. 2) Locate the file you do not want published. 3) Click the file with the right mouse button. A menu will pop up. Choose Properties, then click on the Workgroup tab. 4) Click the "Exclude this file when publishing the rest of the Web" check box (so it is checked). 5) Click OK. This file will no longer be uploaded the next time you publish the web.
CGI Script Info
Do you allow shell access?	Yes if needed, please contact us after sign up.
Do you allow CGI to run on your servers?	Yes, you get your own cgi-bin with your hosting account.
What cgi scripts do you include?	We have an exceptional offering of scripts not only on the server but with easy install with fantastico. You can see our cgi scripts here
Can you help me troubleshoot my script?	Our support team would be more than happy to help you with problems you encounter. However, we will only provide free support for our system and services. We will help you with basic problems associated with getting scripts running, but if you need help with third-party software, please contact the authors of that software.
Do you have formmail?	A secure Formmail is included. We also have cgiEmail offered. Formmail is installed in your cgi-bin. You will need to download it and customize it with your information. Secure Formmail will also hide your email address from the spambots which add you to junk mail lists. How to customize is commented in the script and you may also see this help page
Do you have cgiEmail?	Yes. cgiEmail is a very flexible mail script. You will find it very useful in some situations. cgiEmail uses a text template to take the form information that is submitted, and send it to the email address that is designated. You can even place html tags within the template so that if this is info that is to be placed on a web page, it's just cut and paste. For the formatting for cgiEmail, here is a text page for your reference. It would be a good idea to save it to your computer for future reference and cut and paste.
Why do I keep getting a 500 Internal Server Error?	There are many different possibilities. If you have a problem, misconfiguration or syntax error in you script. You will probably be able to find it by checking your error logs which can be found in your your control panel under "Statistics -> Show Error Logs". Although this is sometimes caused by a problem within the script, most times it is caused by incorrect file permissions either on the script itself or another file or directory used by the script. You should also verify the that the script paths are set correctly. You should verify that the first line of your script is the path to Perl, and that it is correct. It should be set to: /usr/bin/perl. You should also verify that the scripts were uploaded in the correct mode (ASCII or Binary - check the readme for the scripts to see any special instructions. Normally it is ASCII). Another problem could be permissions of the file or directory. Your script permissions should be 755, or rwxr-xr-x.
Where can I put my CGI scripts?	CGI scripts are executable from anywhere within your "public_html" directory, or from within the cgi-bin directory in your home directory. If you use Microsoft FrontPage, it is recommended that you put them within your cgi-bin directory so FrontPage will not change your permission settings on these files.
Why am I getting a 403 Forbidden Error?	A 403 Forbidden error occurs when the web server finds itself with insufficient permissions to run your script. Make sure you have given the script proper permissions. Your FTP client should have the ability for setting file permissions. You can also set file permissions via your file manager in your control panel.
Why doesn't my CGI work?	Make sure when you upload the CGI file DO NOT upload in binary mode, instead use ASCII mode. Uploading in binary will cause the server not to recognize the scripts as executables. Most FTP clients will upload .pl or .cgi files in binary mode by default so you will need to change this. You will need to upload the scripts into your cgi-bin directory for security reasons, however they will execute from anywhere within your account. The last step is to set the file permissions. This is otherwise known as chmoding and can be done from most FTP clients. Make sure you CHMOD your scripts to "755" otherwise you will get errors.
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