Yes. InstantEsites offers a secure shopping cart
system with the
Enhanced
and
Advanced Hosting Plans as well as our
Websitecandy and
bizEStore turnkey "do it yourself" systems. All
e-commerce solutions reside on a secure server using 128 bit
encryption.
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Do you accept international orders?
Yes. We are pleased to have customers around the
world and we're as close as your computer. If desired, we can host
non-US domain name extensions.
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What contract
and payment terms are available?
We bill in monthly increments and require no minimum contract.
We accept MasterCard, Visa and American Express. You can easily
update your billing information via your control panel. We also
accept personal and business checks on a quarterly billing cycle,
however you will need to call us at (877) 200-2490 for setup.
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So how much does it really cost to
host my website with InstantEsites?
If you go with the
Basic Hosting
Plan, you will pay only $14.95 per month!
Unlike the majority of web hosting companies we DO NOT CHARGE FOR
SETUP. This plan includes, unlimited data
transfer, CGI-bin, FTP, detailed monthly site statistics,
FrontPage 2000 extension and more. WE offer same
day INSTANT SETUP. We will also register your domain name through
an ICANN-accredited domain name registrar at a discounted rate of
only $15.00 per name!
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What are the primary differences between your three
"levels" of website hosting?
The main differences between the
three plans offered by Instantesites.com are: disk space, number of e-mail
accounts, e-commerce functionality and marketing/promotion tools.
Click here to review our Hosting Plan
Comparison chart.
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What hosting level should I start with?
This is a decision you must make
for yourself based on the level of functionality, such as Secure
E-commerce ability, the amount of exposure you plan to give your
website as well as the amount of information your website
provides. Due to the generous disk space limits provided by
InstantEsites, most e-commerce sites choose the affordable
Advanced
Hosting Plan and others who are just starting out go with the
Basic Hosting
Plan. Upgrading website hosting levels is a breeze and you
only pay the difference from one hosting level to the next when
upgrading - there are no set-up fees involved!
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How long does it take to set up a new account?
Our instant activation system enables
you to get up and running in minutes. In fact, you'll be able to log
into your "Control Panel" and get started immediately after submitting
your order.
Our browser based Control
Panel comes complete with everything you need to create, maintain and
manage all of the features that come with your hosting plan. This
includes; email management, traffic statistics, domain name
management, trouble ticket submission, site submitter, ecommerce store
manager and more.
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How much disk space do I get for my web pages and graphics?
Depending on the hosting plan you
ultimately sign up for, you will have from 200MB up to 600MB of
web space! To get an idea of just how much disk
space you get;
50 MB is equivalent to about 1000 average web pages!
Click here to review our
Hosting Plan Comparison chart.
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Can I resell space within my own account?
Not at this time.
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Do you provide scheduled server backups? Is there a fee to
retrieve a backup?
We provide fully redundant connections
to the internet backbone with OC3 lines to a redundant climate control
system with a back-up HVAC system ready and waiting on stand-by.
Additionally we have multiple Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS's),
backup servers and network equipment, as well as a central data backup
system.
We are continuously upgrading our
systems with the latest technologies, new tools and features in order
to make sure your site secure and reliable.
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Do you
guarantee web server uptime?
InstantEsites guarantees at least 99.9%
backbone network uptime in each calendar month. (Which is
approximately 8 hours).
If your site is
down for 1% or more of the month, InstantEsites will credit one month's
worth of service to your account. Any violation of our
terms and conditions or
AUP will void this guarantee. InstantEsites is not
responsible for outages elsewhere on the Internet that may hinder
access to your account.
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Can I depend on fast downloading speeds when others access my
site?
YES! We employ multiple Dual
Processor Intel Pentium servers with each system running on either
an Apache or IIS Web Server with load balancing. We are also
currently running redundant OC3 connections. Unlike other
providers that may utilize their bandwidth for dial-up accounts,
ISDN, and frame relay, we dedicate ALL bandwidth to our
hosting customers!
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What are FrontPage extensions and do you support them?
There is a "do-it-yourself" alternative
when designing your own professional web site. Microsoft's FrontPage
is one of the most popular and easy to use web site design and
management tools on the market today. In fact, many of InstantEsitess'
clients have built and maintained their web sites using FrontPage.
All of our hosting plans support
FrontPage2002 (and older) extensions.
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Do you offer secure server space for transferring
credit card information?
SSL is
used to transmit sensitive information via the Internet and properly
considered when selecting your hosting plan. SSL uses a public key to
encrypt data that's transferred over the SSL connection. Web sites use
SSL to obtain confidential user information, such as credit card
numbers. URLs that require an SSL connection start with "https:"
instead of "http:".
InstantEsites
provides the secure server and secure server certificate in order to
support SSL to its clients free of charge with most plans. (This is a $400/yr. value!)
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Can I
upload pages frequently? And will I have unlimited access to
update my pages?
Each account comes with one
FTP/Telnet account. You have full, unlimited access to your space
via FTP* 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week, via a unique password, so
you can update your site at any time. As such, you can create and
maintain your web pages on your own computer and upload files to
your web site at your leisure.
* What is FTP?
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It is the most popular way
of transferring files across the Net.
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Do you have any restrictions on the content that is placed on our
website?
InstantEsites has only one true website content
restriction and that is we do not host adult entertainment
websites.
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What is
a CGI-bin and do I get one?
Will I have
access to FREE CGI Scripts?
A CGI-bin is where you can store CGI scripts.
These "scripts" are used to generate online order forms,
guestbooks, shopping carts, counters, and more! YES, every account
comes with a local CGI-bin with access to our on-line CGI Library
of FREE scripts.
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What are auto-responders and how many do I get?
You can set up auto-responders to
automatically respond to incoming email. For example, if you had
an order form which your customers email to you, you can set up an
auto-responder to email the customer a confirmation message.
They're also known as Infobots. There are many
other uses for auto-responders/infobots, such as giving
information to people who don't have access to the Internet but
still have an email account. An unlimited amount of
auto-responders can be created with each web hosting account!
There is no limit to the number of auto-responders you can have.
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What are email aliases and how many can I use?
Email
aliases are email addresses that you set up such as;
support@yourdomain.com, info@yourdomain.com,
sales@yourdomain.com. Any mail
sent to these "aliases" would automatically be forwarded to your
existing POP email account or redirected to another third party
account. With our advanced mail system, you can have unlimited email
aliases when you sign up any of our hosting plans.
Click here
to review our Hosting Plan
Comparison chart.
What is E-MAIL
FORWARDING?
If you move, you fill out a card for the US
Postal Service. This card tells them to forward all mail from your
old address, to your new address. This same idea can be applied to
electronic mail. We can forward all e-mail from your domain name
to your current e-mail account.
What is a POP3 E-MAIL
BOX?
A Pop3
account is equivalent to a "PO Box" on the Net. It is a separate
e-mail box to which you connect over the Internet. You will still need
an Internet access connection to reach your POP3 e-mail box.
How is my e-mail
configured? Your e-mail is
configured through a web interface. This interface is accessible
from your on-line site administration area. You can create both
POP3 and e-mail forwarding accounts instantly.
How do I access my
POP3 E-MAIL BOX? Quite simply!
We provide access and will configure your e-mail account and give
you the necessary tools to setup your local user email accounts.
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Do you support Real Audio and Video streaming?
Yes. We support Real Audio and
Video streaming for an additional fee. This service can be
"added on" to all hosting packages.
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Does your Real Audio and Video streaming support LIVE streaming?
No. You can not stream live content
through our servers without licensing a live streaming server from
Real Networks. Our administrators are well versed with the Real
Network products and we can assist you in doing virtually anything
you wish.
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What types of multimedia files will your hosting servers support?
Our servers will support files such
as MP3 (.mp3), MIDI (.mid), Vivo (.viv), Waves (.wav), AVI (.avi),
QuickTime Movies (.mov), Shockwave, Flash, and many others.
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Will my web site be accessible with or without typing in the
"www"?
Yes, your site will be accessible
with or without the WWW being typed in front of your domain name.
This is called "aliasing". For example, you will be able to access
your domain name by typing in "mydomain.com" or by typing "www.mydomain.com".
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What about
Traffic Statistical Software and Marketing Reports which analyze
my site?
Traffic
analysis software comes pre-installed with every web hosting account
and can be accessed from within your Control Panel.
It includes detailed information such as, how many visitors came to
your site, keywords that were used to find your site, search engines
utilized, most popular pages, average length of time visitors spent on
your site, and more.
This
detailed information is critical for online success and will help you
zero in on your marketing efforts to bring more highly targeted
visitors to your site.
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Will I have access to 24/7 Technical Support?
We provide
unlimited 24/7 support, and if that's not enough you can access a
"live" representative by clicking on the "Help" icon located
throughout the site during regular business hours of 9am - 5pm
(EST). You can also email us at support@InstantEsites.com and we will
respond within 24 hours.
You have
access to our trouble ticket system within your Control Panel in which
you will also receive an immediate response to your issue.
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How do I sign up for a New Web Hosting Account?
You can
place an order directly from our web site 24 hours a day or by
calling 877-200-2490
between the hours of 9am-5pm Monday
through Friday, EST.
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When should I upgrade my Virtual Server to a Dedicated Server?
You should consider migrating to a
dedicated server when your Virtual Server traffic grows to more
than 20,000 hits per day. When traffic reaches this level, the
performance of a Virtual Server degrades and a dedicated server
becomes necessary to ensure availability and performance.
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What is the difference between a Virtual Server and a Dedicated
Server?
A Virtual Server resides on a
computer that also hosts other Virtual Server accounts. This means
that the computer's hardware resources and associated bandwidth
are shared among multiple sites. A Virtual Server is an excellent
solution for small to medium sized businesses that want to create
a powerful Internet presence. By contrast, a Dedicated Server is
an "industrial-strength" system of hardware, operating system
software, and web server software which you control and to which
you have exclusive access. All of the server's powerful resources
and bandwidth are allocated entirely to your Internet site,
enabling you to offer features and service levels to your
customers, employees, and suppliers that go beyond the standard
power capabilities of a Virtual Server.
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What are the advantages of a Dedicated Server?
A dedicated server gives you the
ability to build an interactive web site capable of handling
hundreds of thousands of hits per day. This is the ideal solution
for high traffic sites that have high bandwidth and server
requirements. On-line malls, high-profile software repository
sites, and large e-commerce businesses generally require at least
one dedicated server to maintain top performance levels.
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How much does it cost to own and host a Dedicated Server?
InstantEsites's turn-key server which
includes all hardware, software and configuration (a complete
"ready to go" system that you own!) is a one-time cost and Server
hosting fees start at $149 per month.
Contact
sales@InstantEsites.com
for assistance or give us a call at 877-200-2490.
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Who owns the Dedicated Server hardware?
You own the server and the content
that is installed during the build. We own the hardware that the
server resides on, i.e. the router, LAN, fiber cabling and
backbone. You benefit from this because if a piece of hardware
fails we have the spare parts on hand along with the knowledge of
the configuration to repair any problems immediately. This
provides you with complete administrative control of the Server
without worrying about hardware problems and support issues.
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Who provides system administration for the Dedicated Server?
With a Dedicated Server, you have
total administrative control of the server, as if you were hosting
it on your very own server at your location. This means that you
have the flexibility to configure the system and the applications
to meet your unique business requirements. If you should need
assistance with system administration, our expert engineers can
provide you with remote "eyes and hands" support on a consulting
basis.
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Although it is not included with our package
price, a mirrored hard drive and tape backup unit can be installed
on every Dedicated Server, enabling you to have access to daily
backups of your data. Contact
sales@InstantEsites.com
for assistance or give us a call at 877-200-2490.
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Your server will reside in a state-of-the-art
hosting center utilizing the latest technology, environmental
controls, and access-restriction. These facilities utilize
hot-swap redundant hardware, multi-homed redundant Internet
connections, redundant internal networks, 24 x 7 monitoring, large
UPSs, and power generators.
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Each Dedicated Server has a dedicated 10 Mbps
connection to our network which utilizes redundant Internet lines
through multiple bandwidth provider.
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A Dedicated Server gives you the ability to add
unique functionality to your site by installing today's hottest
third-party applications, such as advertisement management
software, streaming multimedia capabilities, and specialized
statistics packages. We provide a wide range of software that's
included with the server that you can install remotely. For the
physical installation of additional software that cannot be
installed remotely, we provide two options. You may schedule an
on-site appointment during regular business hours at our
supplier's facility and install the software yourself at no
charge. Alternatively, you may mail or drop off a CD, and we will
coordinate installation with the on-sight tech staff. The charge
for this service is $125.00 per hour with a one-hour minimum.
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We understand that your web site is unique. We
can provide assistance with adding custom functionality to make
your web site stand out from the rest. 877-200-2490
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Dedicated Server setup will range from 48 hours
to a maximum of 2 weeks depending on configuration requests, and
receipt of executed Dedicated Server Contract and initial fees.
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Do I have to register my domain name or do you do that for me?
We can register your domain
(www.yourname.com) for you!
InstantEsites registers all domains through an ICANN-accredited domain
name registrar (ICANN is the new
non-profit corporation that is assuming responsibility from the
U.S. Government for coordinating certain Internet technical
functions, including the management of Internet domain name
system). If you choose to register your
domain name on your own, we can transfer your domain name to our
server at no additional cost when you sign up for one of our
affordable hosting plans.
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What is the fee for domain registration?
The current fee for registering a
domain name is only $15.00 per name - for one-year!
The renewal fee after the one year is only $15 per name. This fee
is discounted compared to Networksolutions.com's and
Register.com's current rates and InstantEsites does not charge any
additional fees to set-up or transfer your domain name(s). In
fact, we'll even purchase your domain name for FREE when you sign
up for the bizEstore System.
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How can I check domain name availability?
You can check domain name
availability by clicking
here.
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Can multiple domains point to the same HTML files?
Yes, we offer a service whereby you
can use a domain name as a "pointer" to another domain name of an
active domain account. The domain which serves as a pointer will
point to the IP address of the existing domain web hosting account
(i.e. the main home page, index.html),. It cannot be set up to
point to a subdirectory. This service includes 1 e-mail account,
but does not include an IP address. There is a one-time $25 setup
fee and $10 monthly fee for each domain pointer.
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How long does it take before my domain name is active?
Once your domain name is registered
(or once a transfer request is submitted) it usually takes about
72-hours before it is active. All internet providers must update
their records (DNS tables) to reflect new site locations. This is
called propagation.
You can begin uploading files to
your new web site immediately via your Control Panel. Domain
account users will be given a temporary URL to access their site
via the web prior to the completion of either domain registration
or transfer.
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Can I transfer an existing domain name to InstantEsites.com?
Yes. Whether you place an order by
telephone or via our on-line order form, be sure to specify that
you are requesting a transfer and NOT a new domain. You should
keep the service at the present site while waiting to complete the
transfer. We will provide you with a temporary IP address so we
can make a mirror copy of the site on our server. All email and
web pages will still be accessed from the current site. Once the
transfer is completed there is usually a 72 hour propagation
period where visitors can go to either site. At the end of the 72
hours you should contact the previous host to have them delete the
old domain from their records and update their DNS record. If you
use this same provider for your Internet access you will not be
able to access your domain site at InstantEsites until they update
their DNS.
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