Frequently Asked Questions

Click on any of the questions below to see the question and answer.

Q. Why should I use The Web Factory to host my website?
A. For many reasons, we're located in beautiful Vancouver BC, we've been providing hosting for over a decade and we pride ourselves on great customer service. If you call us, we'll either answer the phone or call you back so you get to speak to a real person. We like talking to real customers.

From a hosting perspective, our systems are top notch and are kept current by our Network Administrators. click here for complete details. A few of the technical reasons; our back up systems are some of the best in the industry, we do incremental daily back ups (any slight changes you make to your site), full weekly backups that are archived for 4 weeks! AND we back up not only your website files, but your database files, Webmail (email) systems and all your Cpanel settings. So if anything happened to your site or account, we would be able to restore EVERYTHING. Many companies provide 24hr backup, meaning you can only go back up to 24hrs at any point in time and they only back up website files. Make sure when your shopping around, ask about backup systems. The last thing you want is to lose all your hard work!

We offer our customers over 200 scripts that you can install on your hosting account with only a few clicks. Scrips include; Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, Mambo, phpbb to name a few. Click here for a full listing of the scripts we offer


Q. Do you host Wordpress websites?
YES we would be happy to host your Wordpress site. If you don't have one and want to build one, you can install Wordpress with just a few clicks and your ready to start editing your theme, content etc. Or if your not quite sure your up to the few clicks....ask us, we would be happy to do the installation for you and provide you with all the Wordpress Dashboard access information.


Q. What type of hardware/software do you use on your servers?
A. We are currently running Linux as the server operating system, MySQL and PHP. If your interested, contact us to find out what versions we're running.

Q. What type of back up do you provide?
A. At the Web Factory we provide some of the most comprehensive back-up services in the industry for shared hosting. Incremental daily backup (means any slight changes to your site are backed up on a daily basis), full weekly backups and these are archived for four weeks. So there are a minimum of 4 restore points going back up to four weeks.

We can go back as far as one month and retrieve a copy of your accounts: website files, databases, email configurations etc. Bottom line, this means everything in your hosting account. These backups are stored on a SAN, which is housed completely separate from the physical hard drives in the server.


Q. What is hosting?
If your really interested, the easiest analogy we like to use around here is think of the internet as millions of computers that are hard wired together........yes, physical cables and yes, trans Atlantic and Pacific wires move info to the other continents. Each of these computers has a hard drive just like the hard drive on your computer and these hard drives are carved up into parking spots. Anyone who wants their website viewed by others needs to have a parking spot to upload their website and database files for others to see. There is a lot more to it, but this is probably the easiest way to visualize it.


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Q. Do I really need a host?
No, you could set up your own email, website and database servers on a home computer and then purchase an expensive connection from your local ISP and you would be off and running. Oh wait, you would need to set up the Operating System, set up security systems and host of other components to make it all work well. And to be honest you would need a very expensive connection from your local ISP as you benefit from high download speeds, but upload speeds are usually a fraction of the download speed and everyone pulling files from your server would be uploading files......so don't worry about it. If you want to know more, just google 'setting up a server'.


Q. Who owns the internet?
We do! Honest, but it's just a small piece of it. Telco's, datacentres, infrastructure companies who own the fiber optic cables etc all own bits and pieces of the internet. No one person or entity owns it, there are thousands if not millions of companies big and small that own bits and pieces if it.




Q. What is a Content Management System (CMS)?
A. It's a website that we build for you, then you manage it through an easy to use Administrative area. No special computer knowledge required. Contact us for a demonstration of our easy to use CMS.

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Q. Why would I use a Content Management System??
A. So you can change content on your site anytime....at no charge! Delegate the task of updating your website to anyone now, no special knowledge required.


Q. Who uses Content Management Systems??
A. The majority of our clients are businesses who need to be able to change content on their site anytime.

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Q. Why use our Content Management System?
A. It's 100% easy to use. If you are looking for a solution that is easy and quick to get up and running, easy to maintain and looks great, this is the answer.


Q. Do you provide training on how to use the Content Management System??
A. Once your site is completed we will train you in person or over the phone on how to use the CMS. This usually takes 30 to 60 minutes, remember it's simple. We then 'hand over the keys' but are still available to answer any questions you have along the way. Best of all there are no hidden fees.

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Q. What if it breaks or something goes wrong with the Content Management System?
A. It's rare, but when it happens, we support what we sell, any problems and we'll fix it on our dime.


Q. How long will it take to build my CMS website?
A. Once we have a draft of all your content (text, photos etc) to post to get you started. A draft of your site will be ready for viewing in 7-10 business days.

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Q. How do we get started on my future website?
A. You would provide us with the following: a document or email that includes what buttons you want your site to have (down the left side of the site), a draft of the text for each of these pages, photos you want placed on each page (see the resources page for stock photo sites) and some direction on how you want your header graphic to look (or you just give us the pieces and some creative license). Finally, a deposit equaling half the amount of the project. **Keep in mind you will be able to change all of this, we just like to get you started.


Email Systems


Q. What is my Incoming Mail Server setting in Outlook (Express), Thunderbird or other email program?
Your Incoming Mail Server setting will be: mail.example.com where you replace example with your domain. And it will most likely be a POP3 account vs. anything else unless you have special requirements.

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Q. What is my Outgoing Mail Server setting in Outlook (Express), Thunderbird or other email program?
For the least amount of interruption to your sending capabilities, your Outgoing Mail Server should be set to whatever your Internet Service Providers Outgoing Mail Server settings are. For example:
Telus - smtp.telus.net
Shaw - shawmail.vc.shawcable.net
Rogers - smtp.broadband.rogers.com (*see additional information below)

You can also set it to mail.example.com where you replace example with your domain. But ISP's have been known to block ports from time to time and this could disrupt your ability to send mail.

* Rogers requires some work: make sure the outgoing mail server is set to: smtp.broadband.rogers.com port 587. Then you need to create an additional @rogers.com email account which needs to be set up using the "my server requires authentication" checkbox in the email program. You then need to log into your @rogers.com mail account you created and go through a complicated process of verifying each individual email address that you want to use in your Outlook (Express), Thunderbird etc.
The Rogers help page for this is: http://www.rogershelp.com/yahoo/article.php?id=10H-F

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Q. How do I access Webmail?
Go to www.example.com/webmail replace example.com with your domain. Your username is your email address and your password is your email password.
You can also access Webmail through Cpanel. Once logged into Cpanel, (*DO NOT CLICK ON THE WEBMAIL ICON!) click on the Email Accounts icon, then beside whatever email address you want to check, click the 'more' drop down and chose 'Access Webmail' option. *The Webmail icon in Cpanel will take you to the 'default' account which is part of the underlying structure of your hosting account and not part of the email accounts you use on a day to day basis.

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Q. How do I change my email password?
Two options, log into Webmail for the email account you want to change the password for and the first screen you are presented with upon log in, provides you with a 'change password' option. Make sure you change your password in your email program as well.
Option two is to log into Cpanel, click the Email Accounts icon and beside your email account there is a 'change password' option.


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Q. Do you provide Search Engine Optimization Services (SEO)?
We decided a few years ago to leave these services to experts as it has turned into somewhat of a science. We recommend and have worked with the following SEO firms. The each have their own area of specialty so I recommend contacting more than one to get quotes.

Brand Services provide internet marketing services focused on increasing your businesses effective presence on major search engines. Everyone knows the value of being on page 1 of Google, Brand Services will help your business get there. Brand Services affordable solutions all come with a page 1 guarantee and require no payment until your business is page 1.


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