: website design and hosting, e-services, e-learning

KnowledgeBase

Top web hosting FAQs

- I've got my setup email - now what do I do?

Your account is now ready to use.
Please note that your domain name may take 24-48 hours to begin working correctly, but until then you can access your site using the information we provided in your welcome email.

The basics of getting your website online are as follows.

1) Create your website using either purpose-built software such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver, or have us design a site for you.
2) Upload your files to the 'public_html' directory of your new web space using your website editors FTP utility or FTP software such as CuteFTP. The details needed to connect to the server using FTP were provided in your account setup email.
3) Once the files have uploaded, your site should be visible via either your domain name or the IP address we have given you to use until the domain name resolves correctly. Remember to name the 'home page' index.html or similar.

Any changes you make to the site via FTP will generally be visible instantly, so if you can't see the changes you've made, try refreshing the page. Your cPanel also has a built in HTML and WYSIWYG webpage editor that you can use to edit pages 'live'.

- I can't login to my account.

There are many possible reasons for this type of problem.

If you receive no response from our server at all, you may be experiencing a network problem, or the server your account resides on may be temporarily down (which is unlikely).

If you do receive a prompt when connecting by FTP or your control panel but your login is subsequently refused, please check the following issues:

:: Are you using the right server name? This is in your setup email.
:: Check your password - uppercase and lowercase are important. Also check that you're not confusing 'l' and '1', or 'O' and '0'.
:: If you have changed your password recently, make sure you are typing the new password.
:: If your account is overdue, it may have been suspended. Please contact us.
:: Doublecheck the username of your account in your setup email.

If you continue to have problems, please log a HelpDesk call at swiftsupport.com.

- The server seems to be down...

Please check that you have typed your domain name correctly, and that your internet connection is working - can you visit other sites?

If you still think that the server you're on may be down, please log an urgent HelpDesk call - we'll respond as soon as possible.

- What is my username and password?

These are given to you in your setup email. Until you change them, they're needed to access our services - FTP, email, and your control panel.
Please note that you will be asked for a username and password when submitting a request via the HelpDesk. DO NOT use your standard username and password for this login. Your HelpDesk username and password will also have been sent with your setup email.

- Where do I load my index and other html files?

You need to FTP your files, including your index.html page, to the public_html directory.

- Where do I put my CGI and Perl programs?

Normally you would place all scripts in your cgi-bin. However, our servers will allow scripts to function anywhere on the server.

- Control panel overview

cPanel is a web-based interface that you can login into via www.yourdomain.com/cpanel. It provides various functions, eg.

E-Mail menu

The E-Mail menu area allows you to manage all aspects of your email, including adding and deleting accounts, reading your WebMail, setting your default address, configuring autoresponders, blocking email addresses, setting forwarders, managing mailing lists, modifying MX entries and using Spam Assassin.

You should use cPanel to create new email accounts for your domain. You can do so by:

First, login to your control panel.
From here, you can add POP accounts (that can be checked using Outlook or similar POP3 programmes), set up forwarders and other email tasks - these options are accessed under the 'E-mail' menu.
The 'default account' is the email address to which you'd like all email to be delivered if not addressed to a POP3 account address or forwarder. For example, wrongaddress@yourdomain.com will be delivered to the default email address unless you've created a POP3 account or forwarder called wrongaddress@yourdomain.com.

Setting up common POP mail clients:

OUTLOOK EXPRESS
Click on TOOLS > ACCOUNTS > ADD > MAIL (in the box that pops up)
Follow the instructions presented to you.
Incoming mail server is POP3, and is called mail.yourdomain.com
Outgoing mail server is from your ISP - smtp.yourISP.com or similar
Your username is username@yourdomain.com
Your password is in your setup email (unless you have subsequently changed it)
Click 'FINISH'

NETSCAPE
Open Netscape Communicator.
Go to the top of the menu and Choose Edit.
Choose Preferences (a box will show up with a list of categories)
Choose Mail & Groups under the categories and choose Identity.
Enter your name and e-mail information.
Choose Mail Server under the Mail & Group Category.
Outgoing mail server is from your ISP - smtp.yourISP.com or similar
Your username is username@yourdomain.com
Your password is in your setup email (unless you have subsequently changed it)
For Mail Server Type, choose POP3

EUDORA
Select Tools > Personalities.
Right click the left-hand side of the screen. Select 'New'.
The 'New Account Wizard' will appear.
Type in a name for this account and select 'Next>'.
Select 'Create a brand new email account' and select 'Next>'.
Type in your actual name (not your email address) and select 'Next>'.
Type in the email address you wish for people to send email to (this can be an alias or a true POP3 account). Select 'Next>'.
Type in the true user for this POP3 account (username@mydomain.com). Select 'Next>'.
Select 'POP' for type of incoming mail server.
Type in mail.yourdomain.com and be sure to use your actual domain name, in 'Incoming Mail Server' field. Select 'Next>'.
Select 'Finish'.
Right-click on the new personality created, and select 'Modify'.
In the 'SMTP Server' field, type the name of your ISP SMTP server (smtp.yourISP.com or similar). Select 'OK'.

OTHER EMAIL PROGRAMMES
Use this information:
Mail host (POP3): mail.yourdomain.com
Username: username@mydomain.com
Password: your password
SMTP server: Your ISP SMTP server (smtp.yourISP.com or similar)

Stats

The stats area gives you access to Webalizer Web Stats, Webalizer Ftp Stats, Analog Stats, a quick summary of your latest visitors, an estimate of your bandwidth usage, error logs, and your raw log file.

CGI Scripts

This section allows you to activate various pre-installed CGI scripts, including:
Interchange Cart, Agora Cart, Bulletin Board, HTML/Java Chat Room, phpMyChat, CGI Wrapper, Random HTML Generator, Simple Guestbook, Advanced Guestbook, Counter, Clock, Countdown, FormMail Clone, cgiemail, EntropySearch and EntropyBanner.

Site Management

This area is used to create backups, protect directories, change your password, create custom error pages, setup redirects, configure Mime and Apache setup, add Frontpage Extensions and protect your images against hotlinking.

FTP

All aspects of FTP management, including addition / editing / deletion of accounts, are accessible from here.

Advanced

The Advanced area gives access to SSH sessions, allows for the setting up of cronjobs, and allows the administration of GPG keys.

Network Tools

A traceroute / lookup utility is accessible from here.

Databases

Use this menu to configure your MySQL users and access phpMyAdmin.

cPanel also has a built in instruction manual.