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Frequently Asked Questions

General and Getting Started

Q. I new to this whole hosting thing. I don't even know where to begin. Can you help me?
A. Of course! If you feel overwhelmed by the whole process, take a look at our Getting Started informational page. Or, by all means, contact us and we'll be happy to guide you through the process of getting up and running.

Q. Do you provide help moving my site from another host to you?
A. Yes, absolutely! We will be glad to assist you if you are transitioning from another host to Infuseweb at no charge. We will provide you with guidance and help to successfully transition all your information, if possible, to us.

Q. How long does it take to set up my account with Infuseweb once I sign up on your web site?
A. Once your order has been reviewed to ensure it is not fraudulent, generally we will approve your signup and your account will be created within 24 hours. In cases where we cannot verify your identity, it may take longer as we may need to call you to verify you did actually sign up for the account or contact your bank to ensure your credit card has not been stolen. Therefore, it is critical you provide accurate contact information during the signup process should we need to get a hold of you or your order may be cancelled or marked as fraudulent.

Q. What are your payment options?
A. We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover credit cards. We also accept PayPal payments or payment by check to INFUSEWEB LLC, 9901 IH10 West, Suite 800, San Antonio, TX 78230. Please ensure your Invoice Number is written on all checks and allow up to 7 days for check processing. A payment is not considered received until you receive a payment confirmation by e-mail.

Q. Other hosts offer better prices and/or offer unlimited domains. Why don't you?
A. With thousands upon thousands of hosts, there will always be some companies offering better pricing or features. However, we base our pricing according to what we feel are resaonable based on the high level of reliability, features, and support we offer with our hosting that those kinds of providers can't or don't offer.

Q. Do you offer a free trial? Do you have a Money Back Guarantee?
A. We do not offer free trials due to the high incidence of fraud and abuse with free signups. However, we have a 30 day money back guarantee so you can rest assured if you are not happy we'll refund your money. You can learn more about it here.

Q. Do you have a Service Uptime guarantee? How about a Service Level Agreement (SLA)?

We do not have an SLA for shared hosting programs but our history has shown we have maintained more than a 99.95% uptime for our services. Our VPS services do come with an SLA which can be found here.

Please keep in mind, in any shared hosting environment it is much more difficult to control some things that could affect uptime, such as Denial of Service against a site, script vulnerabilities that could allow malicious scripts onto the servers that are not caught by our anti-virus, acts of God, etc. If these do happen, we work as quickly as possible to restore services, but we can never guarantee 100% uptime. Only that we will work hard to restore services when these things happen.

Q. Will you negotiate your pricing with me?
A. We'd love to, but as we already provide very competitive hosting prices, and since we already offer upwards of 15% discounts the longer you sign up for hosting, we usually don't negotiate on pricing. However, if your decision between us and another host comes down to pricing, please ask and we'll see what we can do (within reason).

Q. What kind of servers do you run? What are their specs? How are they configured?
A. Our servers are all high-end Dell PowerEdge servers with single, quad, and six-core processors, redundant power and memory, high speed SCSI, SAS, and SATA redundant disk arrays, and up to 32 GB of memory running over a redundant Gigabit backbone. Our hosting servers can recover if hardware fails by restarting automatically on another good physical system, thus minimizing downtime. We are also able to carry out much of our physical server administration without impacting our customers. We also do daily backups to provide file and server recovery in the event of a failure on our part. This gives our customers good reliability and peace of mind at an affordable price, something many other providers don't offer.

Q. Do you own your own equipment? Where is your equipment located?
A. Yes, we own and manage all our equipment. Our servers are located in a first class secure Data Center in Dallas Texas, USA.

Q. I need help designing my web site. Do you provide web design services?
A. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide web design services at this time. However, we can provide referrals if you need.

Q. What are your support options/hours? Do you offer 24x7 Support?
A. Infuseweb's phone support hours are currently from 9AM to 7PM Central Time, Monday through Friday, excluding U.S. holidays.

However, we do respond quickly to support tickets and phone calls 24x7 so you never have to worry about being left without support. We try to answer support tickets within 12 hours (usually much less) during normal business hours, and within 12-24 hours on holidays, weekends, and non-business hours. This is part of our commitment to you to provide you with great customer service.

We also have a great support section available 24x7 with self-help tutorials, knowledgebase, and support forums located here.

Q. What are your billing terms and cancellation policies? How do I cancel service?
A. Our current billing terms and cancellation policies can be found here. We hope if you are considering cancellation that you'll let us know before you cancel or switch hosts so that we can have the chance to win back your business if possible. We always like to keep our customers happy and want to know what we can do better to keep them happy.

Q. What is your Acceptable Use and Privacy Policy?
A. The following links will take you to our policies: Acceptable Use, Privacy Policy, Copyright Policy

Q. I have questions not answered here. How do I contact you?
A. We have a number of contact options located on our Contact Us page. We know it's frustrating when you call and no one answers, but rest assured if you call and we don't answer, please leave a detailed message and phone number to call you back we are good about returning phone calls. Often we are just busy helping other customers.

Windows Shared Web Hosting

Q. I'm moving from another host to you. Will my web site be down during this time?
A. Whenever you move to a new host, there is always the risk of some down time as you update your DNS settings at your registrar to point to a new host. To minimize the effects of downtime, ensure you set up your domain and e-mail with us prior to making any changes at your registrar before you cancel with your old host. Then, initiate the DNS change at your registrar. It can take 48-72 hours for the DNS changes to take effect and for everything to switch over to our servers. In the meantime, you should continue to use your old host. When the changes are complete, everything should be getting redirected over to our hosting service and you can cancel with your old host.

We are more than happy to help you with the move process if you need it to ensure a smooth transition. Just Contact Us and we can discuss your move requirements to ensure a successful transition.

Q. If I sign up for a web hosting plan with Infuseweb, can I upgrade to a higher plan at a later time?
A. Yes, this is easily possible. This can be done through our support/billing system. Not only can you upgrade to a higher level plan, but you can also adjust individual options within your plan if you only need, say, additional disk space.

Q. Can I upgrade to a reseller account if I currently have a shared web hosting account? Will I be able to keep all my settings?
A. Yes, we can upgrade your shared hosting account to a reseller account if you desire. Just let us know by submitting a support ticket and we'll be happy to help.

Q. Can I sign up for a free trial account to see if I like Infuseweb?
A. Unfortunately, we do not have a free trial account due to the potential for abuse of allowing free accounts. However, we have a 30 day money back guarantee so you can sign up for Infuseweb services knowing you can cancel within the first 30 days and get your money back (minus any domain name registration fees).

Q. What hosting management platform do you use?
A. We use Parallels Helm3 to manage our shared hosting servers.

Q. What web server do you use? Do you support Apache?
A. We currently use Microsoft's IIS web server on our Windows plans. We support Apache on our Linux plans.

Q. Do you support any third party components such as image resizing or upload components? Will you install custom components for my application?
A. A current list of Windows components is available on the Windows Web Hosting page, and for Linux, on the Linux Web Hosting page.

As a policy, we do not install custom components (DLL's, CFX tags, etc) unless the component is commercially proven, stable, and economically feasible to be placed on ALL of our servers (to ensure standardization). If you need more customization, you should consider a Virtual Private Server which will allow you to install the apps and components you need on your own private machine.

Q. Do you allow anonymous FTP access to users sites?
A. No, we do not permit anonymous FTP access to any of our servers for security reasons. Anonymous FTP sites tend to attract hackers, illegal file sharers, pornography, and many other things harmful to our customers and our servers.

Q. I have a web site that is hosted elsewhere, but I want it to connect to my database at Infuseweb. Can I do this?
A. No, per Infuseweb's Acceptable Use Policy, we do not allow connections from non-Infuseweb hosted web sites to our databases.

Q. Can I access my e-mail over the web?
A. Yes, depending on the Operating System, we offer different webmail clients such as SmarterMail and Squirrelmail free with all mail accounts, and a wireless mail as well (with SmarterMail), so you can check your e-mail from your cell phones or PDA's.

Q. Do you offer Microsoft Exchange services or Microsoft SharePoint?
A. At this time we do not. However, there are a number of features bulit into our Windows SmarterMail servers that allow Exchange-like synchronizatoin and sharing functionality.

Q. What are your Shared Hosting backup policies?
A. Infuseweb backs up Shared Hosting servers weekly, and in many cases daily. In the event of a catastrophic server failure on our part we should be able to restore your site to a recent state prior to the failure. If you accidentally delete your files, we can usually restore them for a fee ($15 minimum; beyond 15 minutes labor to restore, the fee is an additional $15/15 minutes time). This helps defray the cost of providing continual backup services, expanding data storage costs, and backup software for our servers.

While we make every effort to ensure reliable backups, we do not guarantee that your data will always be recoverable. Therefore we advise customers to ensure they have an off-site copy of their critical files at all times. Please see this KB article for more about our backup policies.

Q. Are your Windows Shared Web Hosting servers PCI compliant?
A. No, our shared hosting servers are not PCI compliant. You should never store sensitive personal information or financial information on a shared server due to a much higher risk of compromise from factors beyond on our control. If you need PCI compliance, it is best to consider a VPS or Dedicated server (or a Managed hosting service offering PCI compliance) to ensure you can fully control all elements of activity on your server.

Q. How do I find out more about your Windows Shared Web Hosting plans?
A. Please visit our Windows Shared Web Hosting web page for more information on our current Windows Reseller Hosting plans.

Windows Reseller Hosting

Q. What level of control do I have over my customers web sites?
A. As a reseller, you have the ability to manage all of your customers domains, including creating/editing/deleting FTP accounts, mail accounts, databases, stats and other aspects of your customers accounts from your Helm control panel reseller log in.

Q. What hosting management platform do you use?
A. We use Parallels Helm3 to manage our shared hosting servers.

Q. As a reseller, can I have my own resellers?
A. No, our control panels do not support resellers of resellers. However, this may be possible in the next version of the Helm control panel software we use.

Q. Do I get a personal DNS for my reseller account?
A. Yes, we will configure a personal DNS server for your reseller account upon your request. We will then provide you with two name server IP's (at no additional cost) which you must then set up with your registrar so that your DNS resolves correctly.

Q. Do I have FTP access to all my customers domains from one FTP account?
A. No. Due to the distributed nature of our web servers, it is not possible to have one login that provides access to each of your customers FTP accounts. You would need to log in separately via FTP to each domain to transfer files.

Q. Under the reseller plans, how many MS SQL databases am I allowed to create?
A. This depends on the reseller plan you are under. Please visit our Windows Reseller Hosting page for more information on our current reseller hosting plans.

Q. What are your Reseller backup policies?
A. Infuseweb backs up Reseller Hosting servers weekly, and in many cases daily. In the event of a catastrophic server failure on our part we should be able to restore your customers sites to a recent state prior to the failure. If your customer accidentally deletes their files, we can usually restore them for a fee ($15 minimum; beyond 15 minutes labor to restore, the fee is an additional $15/15 minutes time). This helps defray the cost of providing continual backup services, expanding data storage costs, and backup software for our servers.

While we make every effort to ensure reliable backups, we do not guarantee that your customers data will always be recoverable. Therefore we advise you to inform your customers to ensure they have an off-site copy of their critical files at all times. Please see this KB article for more about our backup policies.

Q. Are your Windows Shared Reseller Hosting Servers PCI compliant?
A. No, our reseller hosting servers are not PCI compliant. You should never store sensitive personal information or financial information on a shared server due to a much higher risk of compromise from factors beyond on our control. If you need PCI compliance, it is best to consider a VPS or Dedicated server (or a Managed hosting service offering PCI compliance) to ensure you can fully control all elements of activity on your server.

Q. How do I find out more about your Windows Reseller Web Hosting plans?
A. Please visit our Windows Reseller Web Hosting web page for more information on our current Windows Reseller Hosting plans.

Linux Shared Hosting

Q. What hosting management platform do you use?
A. We use the latest cPanel control panel to manage our shared hosting services.

Q. What Operating System do you use?
A. We run FreeBSD and CentOS on our Linux servers.

Q. What components do you offer with your Linux Shared Hosting plans?
A. Please visit our Linux Shared Web Hosting web page for a list of components currently offered with our Linux Shared Web Hosting plans..

Q. How do I find out more about your Linux Shared Web Hosting plans?
A. Please visit our Linux Shared Web Hosting web page for more information on our current Linux Shared Web Hosting plans.

Q. Do you offer SSH access to your servers?
A. Yes, we offer jailed SSH access to your account. Please contact us to request SSH be turned on for your account.

Linux Reseller Hosting

Q. What hosting management platform do you use?
A. We use the latest cPanel control panel to manage our resller hosting services.

Q. What Operating System do you use?
A. We run FreeBSD and CentOS on our Linux servers.

Q. What components do you offer with your Linux Reseller Hosting plans?
A. Please visit our Linux Reseller Web Hosting web page for a list of components currently offered with our Linux Reseller Web Hosting plans..

Q. How do I find out more about your Linux Reseller Web Hosting plans?
A. Please visit our Linux Reseller Web Hosting web page for more information on our current Linux Reseller Web Hosting plans.

Q. Do you offer SSH access to your servers?
A. Yes, we offer jailed SSH access. Please contact us to request SSH be turned on for your reseller account.

Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting

Q. What is a VPS and what's the difference between a VPS and a Dedicated Server?
A.A VPS, or Virtual Private Server, is a completely independent server operating system designed so it can run side by side on the same physical server as other VPSes.

Traditionally, each physical server has one operating system which is tied to that physical server's specific hardware and resources. With virtualization, the virtual server sits on top of a virtual core operating system which manages virtual resources, and that in turn speaks to the physical hardware. Meaning, to the virtual machine the physical hardware is transparent.

This has a number of advantages. Memory and processor allocation can be adjusted on the fly. A virtual machine can be easily moved to another physical server running the same core virtualization software and won't know the difference, making hardware upgrades and restoring a virtual machine when a physical piece of hardware fails much easier. Backups and restores of entire virtual machines can be done quickly and easily. And many VPSes can fit on one physical machine now, reducing overall power consumption, heat generation, cooling needs, and space requirements.

So, really the only difference is that a dedicated server is a complete physical server and one operating system devoted to you, whereas a VPS shares the server hardware and resources with other VPSes on the same server. Even though your VPS may share resources with other VPSes, because VPSes are very efficient and completely isolated your allocated resources are always available to you when you need them.

For more information on the Virtuozzo core virtualization software we use and how it is able to manage VPSes so efficiently, please visit http://www.parallels.com/virtuozzo.

Q. How do I manage my VPS features?
A. VPS management is quite easy. When your VPS is set up, you can log into it as if you were logging into your desktop by using the Remote Desktop Client connection software which comes preinstalled with Windows XP and Vista by default. When you sign up, you will be provided with a server IP and username/password that you can use Windows Remote Desktop to connect to. Or you can install any VNC/VPN client you wish on your VPS.

You can also manage your server through the Web Based VPS Management Console provided with your VPS. The web-based client allows you to stop and start your VPS, transfer files to and from it, view resources, backup and restore your VPS, and connect remotely to it.

Q. Do you provide managed VPS services?
A. Infuseweb does not provide fully managed servers, in that we do not perform the day-to-day server administration for you. However, we do keep your VPS Operating System patched when new updates become available through the Virtuozzo platform.

We may be able to provide limited consulting support at $60/hr if needed.

Q. How difficult is it to administer my VPS?
A. An Infuseweb VPS is pretty much like any other Windows desktop computer. However, if you wish to use the more advanced server features, which most people do, then you will need to have some experience administering a Windows Server. While server management and maintenance is your responsibility, we will be happy to help point you in the right direction if you need help. However, we do not provide managed services, so we can only provide advice, not administration support.

Q. Who maintains server updates and patches?
A. Infuseweb will ensure that your servers are patched with the latest Microsoft updates when they are deemed ready to be installed with our Virtuozzo infrastructure.

Q. How long does it take to set up my VPS?
A. We will have your VPS set up within 24 business hours. You will receive an e-mail with your server and login information, and any additional instructions on getting started with your VPS once your VPS is set up.

Q. Can I use my VPS for marketing purposes, and/or use the server for mass e-mail?
A. No, Infuseweb does not permit its servers to be used for any mass marketing purposes. This includes using the server as a mass mail server, mail relay, or any other service that could be construed or misconstrued as producing spam (opt-in or not), to include creating heavy unreasonably high demand on the servers that affects the overall server performance or other customers, If these activites are found, your VPS will be immediately terminated and you will forfeit any refunds.

Q. Can I have more than my alloted IP's?
A. Yes, you can have up to a maximum of 6 IP's per VPS. There is an additional cost of $3 per IP per month.

Domain Name Registration

Q: What is a domain name?
A: A domain name is a web site address that makes it easy for people to find your web site on the Internet. Examples are www.mydomain.com or store.mycompany.com. A domain name is pointed to a web server hosting your web site using DNS host records.

Q: How do I register my domain name?
A: To register a domain name with Infuseweb type in the domain name you want in the form at the top of the page and click Check Availability. The results page will tell you if your domain is available or not. If it is, you can add the domain to your "shopping cart" and check out like you would any online store.

Q: What is a Registrar?
A: A Registrar is a place where domain names are registered and maintained. There are probably thousands of registrars around the world today. You can register with any one you wish and as long as they are a legitimate registrar, your domain name can be registered for your use only. Infuseweb integrates with a major and extremely reliable registrar behind the scenes to provide domain name registration solutions to its customers.

Q: What is a Domain Name Server?
A: A Domain Name Server (or Name Server, or DNS Server) is a server that acts as a "phone book" translating your domain (i.e. www.mydomain.com) name to the IP address (or "phone number") of the server that has the files for your web site. There are tens of thousands of DNS servers across the world. When someone types your domain name into their web browser, the first thing the browser contacts is a Domain Name Server which looks up the address of servers that know where your web server containing your web site files resides. Eventually, after traveling to numerous DNS servers, the request makes it to its final destination, the web server containing your web files and t:he web pages display in the browser.

When you register a domain name, you'll need to provide the registrar with the DNS servers responsible for your domain. Usually, this is your web host's DNS servers and your web host will provide you with their DNS servers to use (usually something like ns1.webhost.com and ns2.webhost.com). Standards dictate you should always provide two name servers to the registrar for redundancy.

With our registration, you have the option to use your host's DNS servers, or use ours, in which case you would need to provide the correct DNS records to resolve your domain name to your web host. This is an advanced procedure and can result in your web site having problems resolving correctly so you should only do this if you understand the implications and know how to make the changes manually.

Q: Can someone steal my domain name from me?
A: It is possible, though very difficult these days, for someone to steal your domain name without your knowledge. Registrars have a feature called a Registrar Lock or Domain Lock which prevents the transfer of the domain to anyone unless the lock is removed. In order to transfer a domain name today, you need to provide a Domain Key/EPP Code and only the domain's account owner can request this.

Q: How long are domain names registered for?
A: A domain name can be registered in increments of 1 year, up to 10 years.

Q: I'm not happy with where my domain is currently registered. Is it easy to transfer to you?
A: Domain name registrations are fairly straightforward to transfer. However, before you can transfer, you need to ensure you have the Domain Key (also known as an EPP code) which you can get from your current registrar. Keep in mind, any money that you have paid to the current registrar is not refunded back to you, nor do we apply a credit to your account for money not used. Each registrar is an independent company.

To transfer a domain name, type in the domain name you wish to transfer in the box at the top of this page and click Check Availability. Choose the "I want to transfer my domain to Infuseweb Web Hosting Services" and ensure the correct domain name appears in the box. Then, click Add to Cart and follow the directions.

Q: How much does a domain registration cost?
A: Please see the chart above. Domain registrations through Infuseweb are very competitive compared to many other registrars.

Q: What happens if my domain name expires? Can I get it back?
A: If your domain name has expired, you can reactivate it within 30 days of expiration without any penalty. However, between 31 and 60 days there is a $160 fee charged in addition to the domain renewal fee to reactivate the domain. A significant fee is standard at most registrars (though ours is typically less than other registrars) and is not waivable. It is the cost for the registrar to continue to maintain your domain name for you and preventing it from being re-registered by someone else. After 60 days, the domain name is assumed to be abandoned and is released to the general public where it becomes available for someone else to register it.

 

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