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Web Hosting What is Web hosting? Web hosting is the practice of outsourcing the storage, hardware and software requirements for your Web site. You are renting space on a server maintained by Covad that is external to your business. top Will my Website have redundant connections to the Internet? Yes, Covad's Web servers are connected to the Internet via diverse, high-speed connections. That means even if our primary connection fails, your customers will still be able to reach your Web site. top How often is my Web site information backed up? Web site information is backed up 8 times during an 83 hour period at various intervals. Using "File Restore" in Website OS, you can restore web content in periods ranging from 5 to 83 hours. To Access File restore click on Manage My Website in My Covad Account. Once Website OS launches click on the Website Management link, then File Restore. We strongly recommend that you always keep local backups of your site content. Below are our recommended backup strategies for working in conjunction with File Restore: 1. Make backups of your site content and store them locally or at an off-site storage location. 2. Create a backup schedule and adhere to it. 3. Use an FTP client with recursive directory traversing capabilities to make your local backups. 4. File Manager's download function can be used for small backup jobs. 5. Make frequent backups of crucial/rapidly changing data in addition to your regular backup schedule. top How is Web server security maintained? Covad has many different active forms of security on its server site. These security measures include 24 by 7 Network Operations Center (NOC) coverage, firewalls, encryption, user ID and password authentication as well as physical measures that ensure a secure and environmentally controlled location. top What about Web server maintenance and upgrades? We continuously maintain and upgrade our shared Web hosting servers to ensure the best performance for your Website. Our normal maintenance window for all DNS, email and Web hosting services is 2 am to 6 am EST on Saturdays or Sundays; however, emergency maintenance may be conducted during the week between 2am and 6am EST. top What is the operating system of your Web server? Covad hosting services run on Suse Linux servers running Apache Web server with the latest versions. top What speed will the access to my Web site be? Covad's high performance Web servers are connected to the Internet through DS3 (45 Mbps) and OC-3 (155.52 Mbps) connections. This means that your customers will be able to access your website and get the information they want fast, even during peak demand periods. top What is a domain name? Your domain name is your identity on the Internet. It is like having your own phone number. Essentially, domain names serve as routing addresses on the Internet. Each domain name corresponds to its IP address. top What is allowed in a domain name? The only characters allowed in a domain name are the 26 letters of the English alphabet, numbers 0-9, and hyphens (-). A domain cannot begin or end with a hyphen, but it may contain one or more hyphens. You may use up to 63 characters plus the gTLD (generic Top Level Domain such as .com, .net, and .org) as part of the domain name. Domain names are not case sensitive and are usually displayed in all lowercase. You may, however, use capital letters to emphasis words in your domain name, like: JoesHardware.com top Who owns my domain name? The Registrant or person or organization listed in "WHOIS" owns the domain name for the time their registration fees are paid. WHOIS is a database that contains information about all domain names, DNS servers, and other information. top Will Covad host my Web site if I receive my DNS service from another provider? At this time, you must set up your domain name services with Covad. Once the domain name services are set up, you can set up the hosting services for your website. top What is Website OS? Website OS is your control panel to manage all aspects of your Covad hosting service. Applications included in Website OS include: EasyMail to manage your domain email service, FrontPage Manager, FTP Manager, Security, Web Stats, EasySite Wizard, Plug-In Scripts, DNS Manager, File Manager, File Restore and much, much more. top How do I get to Website OS? Website OS can be accessed directly from My Covad Account. When clicking on Manage My Site, Manage My Email or Manage My DNS, you will be launched into a specific place within Website OS. From there you can navigate Website OS to perform other tasks. top What if I want to learn more about a specific function or application in Website OS? Where can I turn for this information? Detailed FAQs are included directly in each of the applications that run inside of Website OS. FAQs are denoted by a small question mark in the corner of the individual application. top Can I purchase additional Web site storage? You can purchase additional Web site storage at any time in My Covad Account. Click on the Hosting Add-Ons link in My Covad Account. Select the + button to indicate the amount of extra storage you wish to purchase. Click Submit. Covad allows you to add storage in 5 MB increments. top How do I change my FTP or FrontPage password? Your FrontPage password is always your My Covad Account log-in password and will only be changed when you change your My Covad Account password. Your FTP password can be changed in FrontPage Manager, located in Website OS. To get to FrontPage Manager, click on the Manage My Site link, then Website Management. Select the FrontPage Manager link in the sub-menu to open the application. top What should I do if I forgot my FTP password? Remember that your FTP password is always your My Covad Account log-in password. top Does Covad support any type of database(s) on its Web servers? Yes, Covad supports SQL and limited MS Access databases. It is recommended to use MySQL rather than Access since Access was not really designed to be a server side database. top Can I enhance my site to include electronic commerce functionality? Yes. Store Maker with credit card support is available to customers who have Enhanced or Premium Web Hosting services. top What is Covad's policy for hosting sexually explicit material? You are solely responsible for any information contained on your Website. However, if complaints are received regarding language, content or graphics contained on your site, we may, at our sole discretion, remove the website from our servers and terminate your Web hosting service. You may not use your website to publish material that Covad determines, at its sole discretion, to be unlawful, indecent or objectionable. For more specifics please refer to Covad's Acceptable Use Policy. top How do users alert Covad to any complaints/concerns about a Covad-hosted website? Please forward any complaints or concerns to our abuse email box, abuse-team@covad.com. Please include the full Internet address of the site (URL) in question and your specific concerns to enable us to promptly investigate the complaint. Web site Design Tools top What Options does Covad provide for me to create a Web site? With Covad, you have the flexibility to choose the design method that works best for your specific needs. You can design your option in one of three ways: 1) Use your own software, such as Microsoft FrontPage or Dreamweaver to build your site and then transfer that content to Covad servers. 2) Outsource the development of your Web site entirely to an professional Web site designer. In both of these cases, all Covad hosting plans support the necessary tools, including FTP and Microsoft FrontPage extensions, to upload your Web site content to Covad servers. 3) In addition to that mentioned above, Covad offers yet a third option. EasySite Wizard, located directly in Covad WebsiteOS, is an easy-to-use software tool that allows those with little or no Web design experience to build a professional-looking Web site in just minutes. You can choose from multiple Web templates, each with unique images, pages and styles. There is no software to download and it is accessible in Website OS via My Covad Account. To get to EasySite Wizard, click on the Manage My Site link in My Covad Account which will open up Website OS in a separate window. Once in Website OS, click on Site Builders and then EasySite Wizard in the sub-menu. Here, you can create a new site or edit an existing one. top How do I access my existing site for editing? If you built your site using EasySite Wizard, click on the Manage My Site link in My Covad Account which will open up Website OS in a separate window. Once in Website OS, click on Site Builders and then EasySite Wizard in the sub-menu. Select the option to edit your existing site. If you use FrontPage or any other design software to design your site, then you should use those programs to edit your site. top How do I use File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to access my site? There are two options for FTP access to your website, using an FTP application or using the browser based FTP tool located at the top of Website OS. The FTP tool should not be used to upload your complete website and should only be used to make changes. Some examples of use are as follows:
top Do you support end-user FTP for my customers? Shared Web hosting customers cannot set-up an FTP site to allow their customers to upload or download files from the server. This practice is called "Anonymous FTP" and it conflicts with the security that we have in place on our Web servers. However, customers can provide almost the same functionality using HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) instead of FTP. Covad does support adding secondary FTP users for specific folder access. This is done via the FTP Manager in Website OS. Use the tool to select the folder the user will have access to. Note: the user will also have access to all subfolders below the folder selected. After selecting the folder, create a new username and password and click Apply. To log in the user will use the domain name as the host, the username will be username.mycompany.com and the password will be the password selected at creation. top Can someone at Covad help me fix my Web pages? Our technical staff is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to assist you in troubleshooting your website. However, we will not debug your HTML, ASP, or Perl code. Please refer to your software manufacturer for assistance. top What are FrontPage server extensions? FrontPage server extensions are CGI programs that provide the server side implementation of FrontPage. FrontPage communicates with the extensions via Hyper Text Transmission Protocol (HTTP) using a Remote Procedure Call (RPC). When the server sees the "POST" request addressed to the FrontPage server extensions it directs the request to the appropriate CGI program. The extensions implement authoring (uploading/downloading documents, to do lists), administration (setting end-user, author, and administrator privileges), and dynamic content (browse-time WebBot components). Without the FrontPage Server Extensions you will not be able to take advantage of the WebBots that are available through FrontPage. Also, without the extensions you cannot author and administer your website using the tools provided as part of the FrontPage Editor/Explorer package. top What version of FrontPage extensions is being used? We are currently supporting FrontPage 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2003 extensions. top Do I need to choose between FrontPage and FTP? By default FTP is enabled and it is turned off when FrontPage is turned on using the FrontPage manager in Website OS. To switch back to FTP enabled you will need to disable FrontPage. If there is a need to have both enabled simultaneously, you will need to call 1-888-642-6823 to open a ticket to have FTP enabled while FrontPage is turned on. top What is a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) script? A CGI script is an interface between an application and the Web server that allows your site to do something interactive or dynamic. top Will I have a CGI-bin directory? Can you assist me with CGI-bin questions or problems? In Website OS, Covad provides a limited set of CGI scripts.. Many CGI scripts can be commonly found on the Internet. At this time, we do not provide technical assistance for CGI usage or configuration. top Will I have access to a CGI Library of common scripts? In Website OS, Covad provides a limited set of CGI scripts.. Many CGI scripts can be commonly found on the Internet. top Is Secure Socket Layer (SSL) supported? At this time, Covad does not provide these services, although we are constantly looking into ways to improve our services and expect to offer this in the future. top Are Active Server Pages (ASP) supported? Yes, we do support ASP. We use Sun Java System Active Server Pages 4.0 (formerly ChiliSoft), a Web server plug-in that gives Web servers the ability to process ASP code. Sun Java Systems ASP 4.0 supports the most common and frequently used ASP standards including ASP 3.0, VBScript 5.5 and Jscript 5.5 as well as support for ActiveX Data Objects (ADO). This allows you to easily deploy your new or existing ASP application with little or no changes to code. We also support authentic Microsoft VBScript and JScript scripting engines. This is the only way to guarantee complete code compatibility and prevents extended cycles in debugging ASP applications. Web Reporting top How can I access Covad Web Reporting? You can get comprehensive reports on your Web Site directly in Website OS. Click on the Manage My Site link in My Covad Account which will then open up Website OS in a separate window. Click on Website Management, then Web Stats in the sub menu. Here you have a full range of reporting options. More detailed FAQs on Web Stats are included in Website OS. top Where can I gain a better understanding of the statistics presented in the Covad Web Stats? Detailed Web Stats FAQs are located in WebSite OS in the specific Web Stats application. top Can I download the web log data from my web site into an application of my choice? Yes. In Web Stats, you can pull very detailed log data from your Web Site. Click on the Manage My Site link in My Covad Account which will open up Website OS in a separate window. Click on Website Management and Web Stats in the sub-menu. Here you can submit your request to pull detailed logs in the format you wish. More detailed FAQs on Web Stats can be found in WebSite OS. top |