Web Hosting FAQ

This page should help answer some of the most common questions regarding Im1's advanced web hosting products. Click on the links for more information.

Email Administration

Control Panel

Unlimited Domain Names with Hosting

Access Database

Upgrade Anytime

Search Engine Tools

Support Multiple Domains

Active Server Pages ASP

PHP

Dedicated IP Address

URL Redirect

Web Mail

Virus and Spam Filtering

Site Studio

Online Invoice

Billing

Server Alias

Web Protect

Secure Web Server (SSL)

Server Side Includes

FrontPage Extensions

Web Statistics Log Analyzer

Secure Shell - SSH

POP Email

Vacation auto responder

E-mail aliases

Mailing List

FTP

MySQL

File Manager

Disk Space

Disk Quota

Python

Perl

CGI

Email Accounts

Data Transfer or Bandwidth

CGI- cgi-bin

The Common Gateway Interface, or CGI, is a standard for communication between Web documents and programs or scripts you write. CGI scripting is the act of creating a program that adheres to this standard of communication. A CGI script is a program that communicates with your Web documents. They can be HTML documents, text files, image files, or any number of other file formats. CGI scripts are used for feedback forms, chat programs, BBS's, and many other applications. CGI scripts are often written in PERL, C, or shell scripting languages.

Top

Close Window

Unlimited Domain Names with hosting.

Get a Unlimited domain nameshosting with any Im1 Web Hosting Plan. As long as the plan remains active, the feature remains intact.

This offer applies to any hosting account in good standing with Im1.

Our hosting accounts support multiple domains and additional domains may be added for only the cost of the registration itself- no monthly fees.

Please note that domain name registrations are not covered under our Money Back Guarantee. Should you cancel your hosting account prior to the expiry of your term, the normal domain registration fee will be deducted from any refund due.

Top

Close Window

SSL Secure Sockets Layer

The Secure server is a method of encryption of data transferred between a web browser user and a web server via HTTPS or SSL. While SSL ensures the data is encrypted it does not ensure the identity or trust-worthiness of the party it is transmitted to. A third party trust mechanism such as TrustLogo would be used to ensure trust in a potential transaction.

Top

Close Window

Dedicated IP Address

A Dedicated IP is a unique IP address not shared by other sites. It is unique to your web site and your space on our servers. If you want to enable SSL or anonymous ftp, you will need to have your own unique IP address.

Dedicated IP address assignments are subject to change from time to time and are not portable. Please keep this in mind and be aware that you should not hard-code any IP addresses into applications or services as a matter of good design.

Top

Close Window

Virus and Spam Filtering

Our hosting servers offer Clam Antivirus scanning and SpamAssassin mail filtering. Virus filtering is extremely effective and incoming mail only is scanned as it reaches the server. This Anti-virus is not meant to replace your desktop AV solution and is intended as a supplement to curb email borne infections.

Spam is filtered from the incoming mail on a global basis and as such is not individually configurable for a particular mail domain or account. This server level spam filtering is set at a fairly low level. If you find you need more spam protection than the basic level, you may want to look at our VirusGator service which has individual settings per domain, per email account and per sender as just a sample of many features.

Top

Close Window

Upgrade Anytime

With Im1 you can make changes to your account whenever you like. You may upgrade from a Budget to Corporate account anytime or visa-versa. You can also change your billing rates by changing your subscription length at any time. It's entirely up to you.

Please note that you while may upgrade your account anytime, if you wish to change platforms (e.g. from UNIX to Windows) you will need to coordinate that with our support team. Like anything; it will require coordination to change from one operating system to another.

Top

Close Window

Search Engine Tools

With Im1 you can easily submit your new site to multiple search engines directly from within our control panel.

Presently we offer submissions to: Webwombat, HotBot, Google, BrainFind, Walhello, Googley, TopSitesNet, AllTheWeb, Whatyouseek, Infomak, Lycos, MasterSite, Northernlight, and NetSearch.

Please note that you while we offer a submission feature, we cannot guarantee indexing or inclusion of your site in any particular search venue. The submission feature should represent a portion of your web site promotion activities.

Top

Close Window

Support Multiple Domains

A hosting account with Im1 is like several accounts in one. You can host multiple domain names on a single account up to the limits of the resources you have available at no extra cost.

When you order a new domain name from within the control panel, it is provisioned and set up immediately- your only cost is the domain name registration fee.

Just be aware that as you add more domains to your account, you may eventually need to increase your resources such as email accounts or total storage space- no worries there either. You can upgrade your account or add more resources at any time. It's all fair and flexible.

Top

Close Window

ASP - Active Server Pages

Active Server Pages- ASP- is server-side scripting which may be used to create dynamic and interactive Web applications. An ASP page is an HTML page that contains server-side scripts which are processed by IIS before being sent to the user's browser.

ASP is a feature of Microsoft® Internet Information Services- IIS. As the server-side scripts build a regular HTML page, it can be served to almost any browser. An ASP page may be created by including scripts written using any of several technologies inside a HTML file.

Top

Close Window

Monthly, Quarterly and Annual Pricing Plans

With Im1 you can choose to pay by monthly, quarterly (once every three months), or annually. The normal rate is the monthly rate. All discounts are from the monthly rate. If you sign up with quarterly billing you save 15 percent and with annual billing save 30 percent over the monthly rates! The longer your term the greater the savings.

You can change your term and your effective monthly rates at any time you wish. In other words, if you signup for monthly and decide to change later to annual billing, our control panel calculates the difference and applies your remaining credits at the new lower rates.

This policy allows us to pass the savings of decreased billing burdens directly to you while offering the best hosting values.

Top

Close Window

Email Administration

The web based control panel allows for easy administration of your email user accounts.

You can add and remove email accounts through the web browser based interface at any time.

You can also change passwords, configure forwarding, autoresponders, mailing lists, and access web mail from anywhere on the Internet.

Top

Close Window

Control Panel

The control panel is a web based interface which allows you to completely configure and manage your accounts in real-time. This allows you to manage your web site billing, order new domain names, update site configurations, add SSL, forwarding, email, Site Studio, and more.

With our context-sensitive help, no special knowledge or experience is needed. Im1 makes it easy to manage your site!

Top

Close Window

Access Database

The Microsoft® Access database format allows for a light-weight database to be placed on the server and used in combination with your site. All information in any web-based Access database should be considered public in nature. This format is useful for product or contact lists.

Access Databases require a DSN (Data Source Name) in order for your pages to connect to the database. The Access database format is only available on Windows based hosting accounts.

Top

Close Window

URL Redirect

You can use URL redirect to point one site to another.

For example, with a redirect you cna make it so when you type in www.xyz.com you are actually taken to www.123.net- or any location (URL) you desire.

This type of feature is easily set using our web based control panel.

Top

Close Window

Web Mail

With our web mail you may check your mail where ever you may be, on the road, at a friend's house- anywhere.

All you need is a web browser and you are in business.

Top

Close Window

Site Studio

With our powerful, user friendly Web site creation tool Site Studio- you can quickly build and maintain your Web Site.

You can build and publish your own professional-looking Web Site in minutes using the supplied layouts - including custom made graphics! Our browser-based design tools let you customize all aspects of your Web Site, without knowledge of HTML programming, FTP, or image software.

Top

Close Window

Online Invoice

You can review invoice history from within the web based control panel interface. Should you have any questions regarding past invoices or need a reprint of an old invoice, you may do it at your convenience.

Top

Close Window

Online Billing

You can review invoice history from within the web based control panel interface. Should you have any questions regarding past invoices or need a reprint of an old invoice, you may do it at your convenience.

Top

Close Window

PHP

PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. You have probably been to a PHP enabled site in the past. Most of the pages on php sites end with the suffix .php on the file names.

There are thousands of scripts written using PHP and MySQL for database driven, interactive sites. Our servers support most popular scripts written using PHP.

Top

Close Window

Server Alias

Server Aliases allow you to have multiple names for the same site. For Example we could have foo.bar.com as an alias for www.123.com. If you type either host name you would end up at the same site in your web browser.

Top

Close Window

Web Protect

Web Protect allows you to set up protection levels on folders in your site. You could have a list of authorized users for a folder and only allow access to those visitors that provide a correct user name and password.

Access Web Protect from within our control panel- no special HTML or programming skills are needed to protect your web site folders.

Top

Close Window

Server Side Includes

SSI (an acronym for Server-Side Include) directives allow static HTML documents to be enhanced at run-time (e.g., when delivered to a client by Apache).  Apache supports not only SSI but xSSI (eXtended SSI) directives.

Processing a document at run-time is called parsing it; hence the term "parsed HTML" sometimes used for documents that contain SSI instructions.

Top

Close Window

Microsoft FrontPage

The FrontPage extensions allow for publishing, web site management, and the use of FrontPage components to enhance the features and usability of your web site. On a FrontPage enabled server, you do not need to know how to use FTP to publish your site- FrontPage does this for you.

FrontPage extensions make it easy for multiple users to work on the same site (via light weight document control), web based forms require no CGI scripting, and discussion webs as well as other features are easy to implement via wizards in the FrontPage client. You can also build your pages using any HTML editor and import into FrontPage easily without clobbering your code.

Top

Close Window

Web Statistics and Web Access Logs

The web server logs each request for a document or file from your server. These files are called the access and error logs. You have full access to these raw log files. You may download them to your local machine to run through a log analyzer program and archive them, or use the default Webalizer program to view reports in your web browser based on your web traffic.

Top

Close Window

Secure Shell - SSH

SSH (Secure Shell) Server provides users with secure login connections, file transfer, X11, and TCP/IP connections. The SSH Server's tools replace existing insecure rsh, rlogin, rcp, rdist, telnet and FTP protocols. The server uses cryptographic authentication, automatic session encryption, and integrity protection for all transmitted data. RSA or DSS is used for authentication, Diffie-Hellman for key exchange, and symmetric algorithms (e.g. 3DES, Blowfish, Twofish, Arcfour) for encrypting data in transmission.

Please note: You will need a suitable SSH client to use the SSH protocol. Our support site has links to several freely available clients. We highly recommend the PuTTY SSH client among others.

Top

Close Window

POP Accounts

POP accounts are supported on our servers. The widely used Post Office Protocol (POP) is used by applications like Microsoft Outlook®, Outlook Express, and Eudora. Using POP, messages are downloaded and then deleted from the mail server. Most POP applications can be configured to leave mail on the server until you retrieve the mail from your main account.

Top

Close Window

Vacation auto responder

The Vacation auto responder is used to notify people who send mail to your account that you are on "vacation". You may also have the auto responder automatically send a message file to the sender.

Top

Close Window

Unlimited E-Mail aliases

E-Mail Aliases- Suppose for example, you have an email account named james and want to be sure you also get email from people who presume your email name to be jim- you could create an email alias named jim which would in turn be delivered to the james email account. In other words, mail for more than one name would go to the same account. You could do the same with any account you wish.

Top

Close Window

Mailing Lists

The Mailing list program automates the management of Internet mailing lists. Commands are sent to the mailing list via electronic mail to handle all aspects of list maintenance. Once a list is set up, virtually all operations can be performed remotely by email, requiring no intervention by the postmaster of the list site.

Top

Close Window

FTP

FTP(File Transfer Protocol) may be used to transfer (upload) web site files to and from the server. If you are using FrontPage to publish your site, use the FrontPage Publish feature to publish your site. We also have a built-in File Manager program in the control panel in case you prefer not to learn to use FTP.

Top

Close Window

MySQL Database Server

MySQL is a database management system- a management system for a structured collection of data. It may be anything from a simple shopping list to a picture gallery or the vast amounts of information in a corporate network. To add, access and process data stored in a computer database, you need a database management system such as MySQL.

MySQL is a relational database management system. A relational database stores data in separate tables rather than putting all the data in one big storeroom. This adds speed and flexibility. The tables are linked by defined relations making it possible to combine data from several tables on request. The SQL part of MySQL stands for "Structured Query Language" - the most common standardized language used to access databases.

MySQL has a lot of contributed software available. It is very likely that you will find that your favorite application/language already supports MySQL.

The official way to pronounce MySQL is "My Ess Que Ell" (not MY-SEQUEL). But we try to avoid correcting people who say MY-SEQUEL.

Top

Close Window

File Manager

The web based File Manager allows you to easily manage your site to upload and download files as well as organize your site files using only your web browser.

Top

Close Window

Disk Quota

From our web based control panel you may manage the allowed storage space for a particular user or group of users (such as email account users). The quota is the maximum amount of space allowed for a user's files and directories on the server.

Top

Close Window

Python Programming Lanaguage

Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language. It is often compared to Tcl, Perl, Scheme or Java.

Python combines remarkable power with very clear syntax. It has modules, classes, exceptions, very high level dynamic data types, and dynamic typing. There are interfaces to many system calls and libraries, as well as to various windowing systems (X11, Motif, Tk, Mac, MFC). New built-in modules are easily written in C or C++. Python is also usable as an extension language for applications that need a programmable interface.

The Python implementation is portable: it runs on many brands of UNIX, as well as on Windows, DOS, OS/2, Mac, Amiga...

Top

Close Window

PERL Programming Lanaguage

PERL is an interpreted high-level programming language developed by Larry Wall. According to Larry, he included in perl all the cool features found in other languages and left out those features that weren't so cool.

Perl has become the premier scripting language of the Web, as most CGI programs are written in Perl. However, perl is widely used as a rapid prototyping language and a "glue" language that makes it possible for different systems to work well together. Perl is popular with system administrators who use it for an infinite number of automation tasks.

Perl's roots are in UNIX but you will find perl on a wide range of computing platforms. Because perl is an interpreted language, perl programs are highly portable across systems.

You'll find literally thousands of Web applications and command line programs written in perl and freely available.

Top

Close Window

E-Mail Accounts

An account for recieving email, often called a POP account because the mail is retrieved using the Post Office Protocol (POP).

Top

Close Window

Storage Space

The amount of space (in Megabytes or Gigabytes) allocated for a user and their web site as part of their quota. This is the amount of space available for storing files you have uploaded to the server, your email storage, and your log files of your site.

Top

Close Window

Data Transfer or Bandwidth

Each time a file or graphic is requested from your web site, some traffic (data) flows and bandwidth (data transfer) is used. If, for example, a 1MB file is downloaded ten times from your server, the traffic used will be 10MB. In reality, most files will be much smaller than the example given. 6 GB of transfer is enough for thousands of monthly visitors to your web site.

Top

Close Window