Hosting.ph - Web Hosting Features Frequently Asked Questions

Web Hosting Features Frequently Asked Questions

What if I need additional disk space?
What is bandwidth?
How can I utilize my bandwidth quota more effectively?
What if I exceed my bandwidth quota?
What is a sub domain and how do I use it?
Is it possible to host additional domains/sites on my account?
Can I share a multiple-domain account with someone?
What is domain aliasing?
What is a POP Email account?
What is email forwarding?
What are autoresponders?
What is a spam filter?
How do I use my web based email?
What is Majordomo mailing list?
What are custom error pages?
Do you provide a visitor counter?
What are raw log files and how do I view these files?
What is a control panel and how do I use it?
I am a newbie and I don't know how to administer a web site, can you help?
What are Frontpage extensions and do I have to use them?
Can I Have Shell Access?
What is a CGI-BIN?
What is PHP?
Is your server capable of hosting WAP sites?
Can I run ASP scripts?
Do you have free scripts for use on my site?
Do you install scripts?
What are MySQL databases?
What is SSI or server side includes?
What is SSL and do I need it for my web site?
Why do other hosting companies charge a set up fee and you don't?

What if I need additional disk space?
Extra space can be requested for a monthly rate of PHP100.00 per 100MB blocks of additional disk space. You may however opt to upgrade your account to a more suitable package to fit your web space requirements. Package upgrades are free but can only be done at the end of your current billing cycle.
Back to top

What is bandwidth?
Bandwidth is the data transfer rate. Every time your web site is visited, files (text, image, video, etc.) are downloaded to the visitor's PC, or, in other words, data transfer takes place. More visitors mean more data transfer, and the bigger the file sizes you have on your web site, the more bandwidth is used up.

Here at Hosting.ph, we package our hosting plans with a generous amount of bandwidth. Other web hosting companies skimp on their bandwidth alottment and charge you a particular amount when you exceed the assigned limit.

Extra bandwidth can be requested for a monthly rate of PHP120.00 per 1GB block of additional data transfer. You may however opt to upgrade your account to a more suitable package to fit your bandwidth requirements. Package upgrades are free but can only be done at the end of your current billing cycle.
Back to top

How can I utilize my bandwidth quota more effectively?
You can do this by avoiding files with large sizes on your web site. Images and video clips are among the huge bandwidth eaters. Using your site to download files directly from your server can also increase bandwidth usage. Compress the images that you want to put on your site and avoid unnecessary graphics whenever you can.
Back to top

What if I exceed my bandwidth quota?
You will receive an email indicating that your bandwidth usage is nearing its quota. When you have exceeded the alloted amount for your account, you will be charged for the excess, which is PHP120.00 per 1GB block. Unless you have a very popular site or are using it for file downloads, you need not be concerned about bandwidth overages. Hosting.ph gives you a generous amount of bandwidth. You can track your bandwidth usage through your control panel.
Back to top

What is a sub domain and how do I use it?
Sub domains are technically called Canonical Domains or c-names for short.

An example would be like the following:
http://members.hosting.ph

The "domain." in front of "hosting.ph" is a sub domain. It works the same as a regular domain name.

Sub domain names can be anything you want. Some examples are:
"mail.", "sales.", "marketing.", "resume.", "mykids.", "products.", "anything."

Sub Domains are like having an extra domain name but without the higher price and without the yearly renewal fee. Sub Domain Names must be used in conjunction with your Domain Name. Both must also use our DNS information.

There are no limits to how many sub domains you may have, request as many as you like.
Back to top

Is it possible to host additional domains/sites on my account?
Hosting.ph gives you the option to host additional domains on selected packages. This means that you can host additional sites with different domain names under one account. In effect, this will give you more savings as compared to ordering a hosting package for each domain/site that you own.

For example, ordering our Corporate Package will allow you to host 2 additional domains/sites for a total of 3 domains/sites hosted under one account. Our Professional package gives you the option to host 1 additional domain for a total of 2 domains under one account.
Back to top

Can I share a multiple-domain account with someone?
Sure you can, this is the best way to make full use of our multiple domain packages.
Back to top

What is domain aliasing?
Domain Aliasing or forwarding enables you to point additional domain names to your web site. If you register other domain names and are not yet ready to build a site for them, you may use our name servers and request for domain forwarding.

For example, your hosted domain at Hosting.ph is www.mydomain.com and you register two more domains like www.mydomain2.com and www.mydomain3.com, with domain forwarding, you can have your 2 extra domains point to your main web site so that when a visitor types in www.mydomain2.com they will be forwarded to your actual website at www.mydomain.com
Back to top

What is a POP Email account?
POP boxes are currently the prominent type of e-mail boxes in use on the Internet and can be accessed with most major e-mail programs such as Eudora, Netscape Communicator, Outlook Express, and so on. Creating separate POP email boxes for different email accounts is a good way to keep email separate between departments or users.

You have access to one Master POP Account and additional unlimited POP accounts. POP accounts can be created only for specific email addresses. For example, email addressed to specifically sales@yourdomain.com could be held in a private POP mailbox accessible with a unique POP ID and password.
Back to top

What is email forwarding?
Email forwarding allows you to configure any particular email address at youractualdomain.com to automatically forward to another valid email address.

For example, you might want all email sent to president@youractualdomain.com to forward to the email address of your company president.

Any email addresses that are not explicitly set to forward to another email address or designated as a POP box are handled by the Default Email Forwarding Address.
Back to top

What are autoresponders?
If you have a personal site, you can setup a vacation autoresponder for example, so that when someone sends you an email, the system automatically sends out your pre configured response indicating that you are currently on vacation and will be writing back soon.

For corporate sites, autoresponders are essential tools to send out instant replies to customer inquiries. You can setup separate autoresponders corresponding to each POP email account you have.
Back to top

What is a spam filter?
Spam is any unsolicited email message. You can control spam by creating a spam filter to block specific email originating from outside the server. When you create a spam filter in your control panel, it blocks the specified email from all domains on your server. You can view, add and remove spam filters through your control panel.
Back to top

How do I use my web based email?
Your account comes with a free web based IMAP email program. This will allow you to check your email directly on the internet anytime, anywhere. This is similar to free email accounts on the Internet. You can read and send emails by using any browser from anywhere you are.
Back to top

What is Majordomo mailing list?
This allows you to create and manage mailing lists. Mailing lists are commonly used to circulate topic discussions. A mailing list includes a set of list members. Whenever a list member posts an email message to the mailing list email address, that email message is distributed to all list members.
Back to top

What are custom error pages?
When someone visits a website or area there is always a possibility that the link they followed may be out-of-date or broken or they may have typed the address in wrongly. When this happens an error page is displayed. By default a standard error page is received. This does not give the user much information about the area they were in or any details of who they should contact.

A custom error page allows you to specify a set of links the visitor could try, as well as a contact for help. If a site is re-developed and pages are moved/renamed this ensures that visitors will receive some useful local information and continue to explore the site. A complete tutorial on how you can create your own custom error documents is available in the hosting.ph members area.
Back to top

Do you provide a visitor counter?
Hosting.ph gives you more than a simple counter. All our hosting packages include a free web log analysis software. More than a page counter, Wusage™ is a complete web statistics program that helps you determine the true impact of your web site. By measuring the popularity of your documents, as well as identifying the sites that access your server most often, Wusage™ provides valuable marketing information. By determining the paths your users follow and analyzing the sites from which they come, Wusage™ helps you find out which outside sites are most important to you. Practically all organizations, whether commercial or educational or nonprofit, need solid numbers to make credible claims about the World Wide Web. Wusage™ fills that need.
Click Here for screen shots of this valuable web site tool.
Back to top

What are raw log files and how do I view these files?
The Apache log reports (commonly known as raw log files) can be helpful in monitoring your web site for problems with visitor access. The Apache Web server provides two log reports, CustomLog and ErrorLog. These reports can be viewed directly through your control panel or downloaded to your computer. This feature is not often necessary since our log analysis software Wusage™ already does the parsing and interpretation of your raw log files and organizes them in an easy to read format.
Back to top

What is a control panel and how do I use it?
You have complete control of your web site through our easy to use web based site administration control panel.

The Ensim Webppliance™ includes many useful administration tools, such as a file manager to help you work with directories and files, a user account manager to allow you to maintain the accounts on your domain, and a backup manager to allow you to perform your data backups.

This is where you perform the following administrative tasks:
Set up protected directories on the Apache Web server
Set up your domain email and FTP features
Work with the directories and files on your domain
View traffic reports (bandwidth usage) about your domain
Back up data from your domain
Screen shots of our Ensim Webppliance™ control panel is HERE
Back to top

I am a newbie and I don't know how to administer a web site, can you help?
Yes. We know that seeing the control panel for the first time can be overwhelming specially if you just wanted to create a site and do not have the time to tweak the server side of your web site. When your account is initially set up, we make sure that everything is already configured and ready to use. So you just have to create the contents of your web site, upload them, check your emails and relax. You don't even have to log on to your control panel. Besides, our members' help desk is always open when you need help.
Back to top

What are Frontpage extensions and do I have to use them?
FrontPage extensions are CGI programs that provide for the server-side implementation of FrontPage™. This includes remote authoring, administration, and dynamic browse-time features. If you use Microsoft Frontpage™ as your web authoring tool, and you are familiar with its site management features, then we recommend that you make use of this time saving feature.
The Microsoft Frontpage™ 2002 server extensions is turned off by default, you may check the box on the sign up form to have this feature available to you.
Back to top

Can I Have Shell Access?
For security reasons, we do not give shell access to our virtual hosting clients. Most site management tasks can be executed and accomplished through your control panel and FTP.
Back to top

What is a CGI-BIN?
A cgi-bin is a location or a directory on your web server where you can place binary scripts or programs that can interact with your visitors. CGI is an acronym for a protocol known as "Common Gateway Interface" BIN is short for the term binary. CGI scripts can be written in a variety of formats such as PERL, C/C++, Visual Basic, Apple Script, etc. We have a basic CGI tutorial in our members' area, links to sites offering cgi scripts and of course, we've got free scripts for you to use on your site.
Back to top

What is PHP?
PHP, which stands for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor" is a widely-used Open Source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. Its syntax draws upon C, Java, and Perl, and is easy to learn. The main goal of the language is to allow web developers to write dynamically generated webpages quickly, but you can do much more with PHP. We have a basic tutorial in our members' area, links to sites offering PHP scripts and we've got free scripts for you to use on your site.
Back to top

Is your server capable of hosting WAP sites?
Yes. You may create a subdomain in the form of http://wap.yourdomain.com to host your WAP (Wireless Applications Protocol) sites/contents. We have a wml/wap tutorial included in our members area to get you started.
Back to top

Can I run ASP scripts?
No, sorry. Our server uses the Red Hat Linux™ operating system, and ASP scripts are native to the Microsoft Windows™ operating system. Although it is possible to run ASP scripts on a Linux system, we suggest that ASP scripts be run where they truly belong. PHP is the open source alternative to ASP that runs on multiple operating systems, including Linux and Windows. And in our personal opinion, PHP code runs faster and are more reliable than ASP.
Back to top

Do you have free scripts for use on my site?
Yes, in our members' area, you can download all the scripts you need for your site. We've got PERL and PHP scripts, all for free.
Back to top

Do you install scripts?
No, sorry. We don't install scripts for our clients.
Back to top

What are MySQL databases?
MySQL is the world's most popular Open Source Relational Database management system for SQL databases. Designed for speed, power and precision in mission critical, heavy load use. A database is 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. A database management system allows you to add, access, and process data stored in an SQL database.

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 standardised language used to access databases.

phpMyAdmin is included in your Ensim WEBppliance™ control panel, you can use phpMyAdmin to set up, configure, and view your databases easily.
Back to top

What is SSI or server side includes?
If you've ever seen a counter on someone's page that says "You are visitor #1000" or a greeting that says "Welcome, visitor from yoursite.com", you have seen server-side-includes at work. SSI is sort of like using your HTML server as a cut and paste editor. Here is basically what happens when your server handles a request for an SSI document.

The server reads the document and parses (techie word for chops up and looks for special instructions) it for directives. (another techie word for directions!)
Follows the instructions that it finds and merges their results into creating a finished document.
The document is then sent to the client browser.

SSI pages end with the .shtml extension rather than the usual .html or .htm
Back to top

What is SSL and do I need it for my web site?
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. If your domain stores sensitive data, such as customer profiles or credit card numbers, we recommend that you secure your domain. To secure a domain, you need an SSL certificate. SSL is a protocol that transmits private documents through the Internet. It creates a secure connection between a client and a server over which any amount of data can be sent securely. SSL works by using a private key to encrypt data transferred over the SSL connection.
SSL certificates are available from a Certificate Authority (CA), such as VeriSign™.
Back to top

Why do other hosting sites charge a set up fee and you don't?
The truth about set up fees: Other web hosting companies charge their customers set up fees. What for? The truth is, setting up a new hosting account for a client does not involve any additional expenses on the part of the hosting company, they just have to add the client's details, configure their account, give them their username and password to access the server. Here at Hosting.ph, we don't believe that clients should be charged for these simple tasks.
Back to top