The Web Factory - Frequently Asked Questions

How do I choose a plan?
How do I sign up?
How can I pay?
What do I need to do to get started (domain name pointing)?
How do I FTP?
How long does it take to setup my account and domain name?
How do I transfer files to my web-page?
Do you provide technical support?
Can I have more than one domain name pointing to my site?
Can I get additional FTP, and POP3 accounts?
Can I install my own CGI scripts?
What type of E-MAIL accounts do I get with my hosting account?
Do you maintain backup of my data?
Can you register a domain name for me?
What is your connection to the internet?
What database access we offer?
Do you offer a web server statistic ?
What are my email settings?

 

1) How do I choose a plan?
Bronze, Silver or Gold?
Assess your needs and future plans, it is always possible to upgrade.

Basic presentation website : Bronze
Website with interactive forms, CGI-bin and supports MS FrontPage websites: Silver
Large sites, database driven, e-commerce etc : Gold

2) How do I sign up?
Let us know what hosting package you would like to sign up for, choose Bronze, Silver or Gold, quarterly or annual billing and your domain name. Click here to email us with this info or with any hosting questions.

3) How can I pay?
We accept cheques and money orders, payment is made quarterly or on an annual basis. Annual payments receive a 10% discount

Make cheques or money orders payable to The Web Factory and send to:

The Web Factory
1216 Hamilton St
New Westminster, BC
V3M 2N2
Canada

All amounts advertised are in Canadian funds! Due to processing time of cheques we will hold your domain name during processing until payment clears.

4) What do I need to do to get started?
First of all you need a domain name. Domains registered by The Web Factory are automatically correctly configured for our hosting packages.
If you already have a domain name registered we can transfer it to our system and manage it for you OR you as the "administrative contact" for the domain name must change the (DNS) to point at our servers. Contact us for DNS information.

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5) How do I FTP to my new account?
You will receive an activation email that includes information on how to upload your website to your hosting space, an example of which is below:

USERID: yourdomain
PASSWORD: ***** (provided in activation email)
FTP HOSTNAME: ftp.yourdomain.com

Keep in mind if you are transferring a domain name that has not been registered through us, that DNS records are modified at the Domain Name Registrar you used. These changes take time during which your domain name and website may not be visible to internet browsers for up to 48+ hours. To achieve a seamless transition, it is preferable to have an overlap of hosting during a change over. A temporary FTP HOSTNAME: 66.246.34.48 will remedy this shorterm problem and allow you to upload web information even before the domain name fully resolves to the new address. If you've purchchased a static IP, this will be your ftp hostname

NOTE: If you have FrontPage extensions installed, you should NEVER use regular FTP to upload your files. This will damage the extensions. Stick with one or the other all the time. By default your domain does not have frontpage extensions installed.

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6) How long does it take to setup my account and domain name?
New accounts are set up in less than 24 hours. Once an account is set up, an activation notice will be sent to you via e-mail including your user-ID, password and FTP host-name. You can begin uploading files to your new web site immediately.

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7) How do I transfer files to my web-page?
If you are using FrontPage use "Publish", type in your web address user name and password.
For any other program use FTP, direct your FTP program to the folder "public_html" this is your web server root. Check out WS_FTP program to download a free FTP program.

8) Do you provide technical support?
Yes. We encourage our customers in need of assistance to send e-mail to hosting@theweb-factory.com with questions or concerns about their web site. However, we provide technical support only, help with HTML syntax or CGI programming problems will be billed out at our regular rates. Tech support is done 5 days a week.

9) Can I have more than one domain name pointing to my site?
Yes, you can have multiple domains pointing to any site we host.

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10) Can I purchase additional FTP, and POP3 accounts?
Yes, if you run out you can always purchase more.

11) Can I install my own CGI scripts?
Yes, with our silver and gold packages you can install your own CGI scripts. We also offer several free pre-configured CGI scripts: php mychat, XMB Forum, CGI email, FormMail clone, website search engine, banners etc in the CGI center.

10) What type of EMAIL accounts do I get with my hosting account?
POP 3 accounts. Email forwarding, web mail, SPAM assassin and many other features are standard with all accounts.

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11) Do you maintain backup of my data?
Yes, all websites are backed up daily and the latest back up is available to download at any time.

12) Can you register a domain name for me?
Yes, please email us with your desired domain name and a few alternatives, we will let you know the results before registering the domain.

13)What is your connection to the internet?
The servers are located in one of the largest and most fault tolerant networks in the New Jersey region. Our connections to Internet backbones are maintained at redundant data centers located in NJ and NYC, connecting directly to most of the major networks including Sprint, Earthlink, UUNET, Genuity, Level 3, PSI, Digex, AOL, and many others. Our network infrastructure is monitored at the Network Operations Center (NOC) in Parsippany, NJ, staffed by our experienced technicians 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. With this combination of superior network and service, we are able to provide a high quality regional network which is on par with many of the nationwide networks.

If you have a connection to a single backbone, this means that you are relying on this backbone for all of your transit. They will be taking your traffic to it's destination, or the nearest NAP (Network Access Point). The problem lies in the fact that they can only be as reliable as the telephone companies they use, the equipment they use, or, just as important, how knowledgeable their staff are. Network outages occur all the time, for varying reasons; there will never be a time when they don't occur.
Because of the proven unreliability of the NAPs and the backbone, we utilize connections to multiple backbone providers. At this time, our network currently consists of multiple OC3 lines (155 MBPS each) connected to private POPs (Points Of Presence). These POPs, in turn, connect directly to over 15 major internet backbones. This allows us to easily reach remote networks even in the case that a NAP may be unhealthy, or when a specific backbone connection is down. It also allows us to make intelligent routing decisions without being limited by the number of routes at our disposal.

In additon, each of the Network Operation Centers (NOC) features high level security, raised flooring, climate-control, UPS power supply, chemical fire suppression system, backup batteries, diesel generators, Cisco routers and switches; and is staffed 24x7 by qualified system administrators and engineers. All to ensure our customers have near zero down time.

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14) What database access do we offer?
SQL databases and PHPmyadmin for Silver and Gold accounts.

15) Do you offer web server statistics?
Yes, all accounts have webalizer and analog traffic analysis facility and access to the raw log files if you use another program.

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16) What are my email settings?
User name is you@yourdomain.com
Password is set by you
Incoming and outgoing mail servers: mail.yourdomain.com