Web Site Hosting Frequently Asked Questions

What is web site hosting? We specialize in web site hosting, meaning that you can place your web site on our state-of-the-art SunSparc® and Dell web servers and establish a presence on the Internet. If you wish, we will register your own domain name for you. This will become your unique address on the World Wide Web (www.yourdomainname.com). How does it work? First, you must have your own domain name. This involves checking for name availability and registering the domain with INTERNIC, the organization appointed by the government to handle domain name registrations. Registration costs $35/year. SecureHost.Net will register the domain for you free of charge but you will still have to pay INTERNIC for the domain, which they will bill you for directly. If you already own a domain and wish to have it hosted with SecureHost.Net, we will transfer the domain free of charge and INTERNIC will not bill you again. Will I be able to access my domain name with or without the www? Yes, you will be able to access the domain name with or without the www in front. For example, you could access the domain name "yourcompany.com" by going to "www.yourcompany.com" as well as "yourcompany.com". Do you offer dial-up Internet access accounts? No, you will need local Internet access in order to maintain your web site and retrieve email addressed to your site. ISP's that provide dial-up access crowd their bandwidth with residential use. We devote our bandwidth to provide the fastest Internet speed to our business customers and to the addition of enhancements to their entire sites. Our SunSparc® web servers are connected to the Internet via T3 lines to ensure a high level of performance. Do you offer web page and graphic design services? No, SecureHost.Net's mission is to innovate in the field on web hosting. For web page design, we have an extensive list of knowledgeable and professional graphic designers, to whom we are happy to refer our customers. How do I upgrade or downgrade from one hosting package to another? You can change packages by emailing your request to sales at securehost.net or calling us at 1-727-595-7150. A new setup fee will be charged upon any change, but you will not need to do anything. However, all remaining balance will be transfered to the new plan and pro-rated. We have made the package switching process seamless and worry-free for your convenience. Is it possible to see if my domain name is available? Yes, you can check domain name availability on our web site to see if your domain is available. Will SecureHost.Net handle my domain registration? Yes. We will contact InterNIC once your account is activated to request either a new domain name registration or transfer. You do not need to contact InterNIC yourself. Can I transfer an existing domain name to SecureHost.Net from another ISP? Yes. When you place an order with SecureHost.Net, you will specify whether it is a new domain name or a transfer of an existing domain name. You should keep the service at the present site while waiting for InterNIC to complete the transfer. We will provide you with a temporary IP address so you can mirror the site on our server. When InterNIC announces the completion of the transfer there is a 72 hour period where visitors could go to either site. InterNIC will send an e-mail to your previous host informing them of the change. Your previous host will authorize and e-mail back to InterNIC. Sometimes it may be necessary to contact your old host by phone. How soon will my domain name be active once I sign up with SecureHost? Once the InterNIC announces that your domain name has been or transferred it usually takes about 48 hours to become active. We will have your domain and e-mail ready to go before we hear back from InterNIC. What is the InterNIC fee for domain registration? The InterNIC charges $70 to register a new domain name. This fee covers the first two years of ownership. After the first two years, the yearly fee is at $35. The InterNIC will send you an invoice via email and regular mail between 3 weeks to 1-1/2 months after the domain is registered. Are 2,000/MBs of data transfer going to be enough to support my web site? Very few sites will exceed 2,000 MB of data transfer per month. If your site is a high traffic site, we can work with you to provide an estimate of your expected traffic. We have numerous packages that are tailored to suit the traffic requirements of any site, no matter what size the monthly data transfer. How do I transfer files to my web site? File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is used to move files from your hard disk to your web site. The necessary software can be downloaded directly from our site, and step by step instructions are available in the control panel that we provide you, for both PCs and MACs. Don't worry, it's really quite a simple process. Will I have unlimited access to update my web pages? We offer unlimited FTP access to your site. You can upload and download as many files as you like 24 hours a day, with no extra or hidden charges. Can more that one domain point to the same web site? Yes, you can register multiple domain names with InterNIC to point to a single web site for only $49.95. Just e-mail support at securehost.net specifying your existing domain name, your main username and the name of the new domain to be pointed. Will I be able to use my account for commercial purposes and secure transactions? Yes, many of our current customers use their web sites for electronic commerce. Our ProWeb package offers a secure server as a standard feature of the plan, and will allow your customers to send you secure encrypted information via the Internet. Commerce on the Internet is the fastest growing facet of the World Wide Web, and businesses are quickly realizing the vast potential of using the Internet for commercial purposes. Do you have a reseller program? Yes. We have both a referral and reseller program. Please visit our referral & reseller page of our hosting section for complete details. Can you accept international orders? We are happy to accept hosting orders from around the world. The Internet is a worldwide industry and marketplace, and SecureHost.Net is proud to have customers from all parts of the globe. At the latest count, we host customers from over twenty-five different countries on four continents. How long has SecureHost.Net been in business? SecureHost.Net has been a premier ISP for over two and a half years, and specializes in web site hosting and server co-location. We have our own dedicated network and facility located in the Tampa Bay area. How do I pay for my web site, and what contract terms does SecureHost.Net offer? We accept Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. If you like, you may also pay by company or personal check. We require that our customers sign a quarterly minimum contract for any of our web site hosting packages, and require a 12 month contract if you wish to pay by check for any web site hosting or server package. All web sites are subject to our terms and conditions. How do you handle technical support questions? We ask that our customers e-mail any technical support issues to support at securehost.net. We will respond via e-mail immediately 7 day a week, 365 days a year. If we feel we can not resolve your issues, we will invite you to call us or call you directly with the necessary assistance. How long does it take SecureHost.Net to set up my web site? We will have your account ready to FTP within 24 hours upon receipt of payment, 7 days a week. We will notify you via e-mail that you can begin to transfer files to our server and start using the features included in your package. How do I order my web site? You can activate your site 24 hours a day online by following the prompts at our web site, or you may call one of our sales staff at 727-595-7150 between the hours of 7:00 AM and 8:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.