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Select a question, or scroll down to learn more about
Internet & Hosting Basics:
Why does my business need to have a web site?
Here are a few reasons:
- To increase sales... At a minimum a web site makes it easy
for you to showcase your goods and services, which will generate
more business leads from potential customers and cause your present
customers to buy more. Now that secure online payment is a reality,
a company or organization can complete point-to-point sales
transactions from seller to buyer; eliminating costly distributor
expenses. Moreover, with the advances in shopping cart software, a
fully enabled ecommerce web site has never been easier to set up and
maintain. In no time, you can create a virtual storefront or office
that can be open twenty-four hours a day, all year long.
- To increase communication... A key advantage of the Web is
that it allows for the instant distribution of information. People
from all over the world use the Internet on a daily basis to search
for various products and services. Using web sites to distribute
information in a timely manner is a key reason sales organizations
are building web sites. Visitors can easily find the information
they are looking for, whether it is product specifications or
availability and pricing. Altering the information contained within
a web site makes more financial sense than phoning, faxing, or
mailing your customers every time new information regarding products
or services is released.
- To reduce expenses... Although a web site shouldn't simply
be an online brochure, delivery of similar information, immediately
and internationally over the web decreases distribution expenses of
related printed material. To reduce faxing and mailing costs,
automated mailing lists can send the same email message to 100
customers for nearly the same cost as sending one. Email is cheaper
than courier services, postal mail, faxes or phone calls – and
faster than most. If you have suppliers on the Internet you may also
be able to do your purchasing cheaper and easier.
- To reduce service costs... Customer service support phone
lines are expensive to maintain. Moving customer service to the web
site could save a bundle. Your web site will be open 24 hours a day,
7 days a week for service and support. The service area of your web
site can be as simple as a dedicated email box and published answers
to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ); or as sophisticated as an
interactive, online chat feature where your qualified service staff
respond directly to customers in real time discussions. The ability
to have service and product updates, provided on a web site, adds
value to a company's service, as well as additional visibility to
their customers.
- To increase marketing.... A web site creates opportunities
for additional marketing and joint marketing with other
organizations. There is no greater image builder for a company than
a compelling and informative web site that can be seen all over the
world. Your organization will be placed into dozens of online
directories and search facilities, increasing your visibility and
creating new markets by opening additional advertising channels.
- To create a network... A web site gives you the ability to
do surveys, qualification cards, and subscriptions. It can be a
cost-effective way to qualify potential customers and get valuable
feedback from existing ones. It can also be used to experiment with
ideas by highlighting a product prototype online and sampling
visitor opinions.
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How experienced must I be to build a web site?
If you can create a document in your favorite word editor, you can
create a website. If you can click on a few buttons on a webpage, you
can create a website.
Building webpages has grown very simple in the last
few years, as more small companies get on the web and lack an in-house
webmaster. We can also either design and maintain web sites for you, or
just get you started and tell you how to update it yourself later.
Built i nto our Control Panel is a useful tool that
helps you create end edit webpages. We also support Microsoft's
FrontPage which is an Office-based program that makes it all nice and
easy.
Check out our Web Management
page and our Webmaster Links for
some help.
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What
do I get with my account?
When you order an account with us, you receive
the disk space and data transfer necessary for your
website or email addresses to be accessed on the
World Wide Web. Additionally, you will receive a
software suite that enables you to manage that space
and build your website. You will manage your site
through a web-based Control Panel
that guides you through the more than 30 features
that are included with your account.
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What
if I don't like something?
Don't worry about it because you can try
our service absolutely risk-free! If you
wish to cancel your account for any reason
within the first 30 days, you will receive a
full refund for all hosting services. This
is a no-questions asked, full refund, 100%
money back guarantee. You have nothing to
lose! We can offer this because we are sure
that you not be unsatisfied. This offer
applies to the initial contracted term (not
including domain name registration).
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Are
there any hidden fees?
Nope. We do not charge any setup fees or
anything else like that. The price you are
quoted is the price that you will pay.
Period.
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How does the Internet work?
The Internet is a collection of computers around the world, connected by
a "backbone." Clients (the user's software) make data requests
of servers, and the data is transferred to the client. For more
information, see How
the Internet Works.
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About the Internet
More than 25 years ago, large companies started using a computer filing system which
allowed employees to send messages back and forth within the office. As technology
advanced companies found that it was more advantageous to have many small computers than a
single large one. This lead to the development of the Ethernet (a system which links a
group of computers so as to share information between them).
As electronic mail (e-mail) gained popularity it became apparent that this form of
communication would be even more valuable in a world wide economy than a local one. Lo and
behold; the Internet!
It has grown to include all elements of communication: e-mail, file transfer, world
wide web, newsgroups, gopher, finger, archie, telnet and internet relay chat. These tools
have been at the fingertips of Unix people for years, but just recently has become
increasingly accessible to the general public.
Many factors have contributed to the explosion of the Internet. First, Linus Torvalds
released "Linux" on October 5, 1991. This operating system allows people to run
Unix applications on a personal computer, and consequently has allowed the Internet to
touch many more people.
The World Wide Web
So, by 1991 the Internet had become reasonably easy to use and its popularity was growing
steadily. The World Wide Web, however, had a very small role in this success, as it was
still non-graphical and bland.
This changed in 1991 when CERN (a European physics laboratory which is greatly involved
in advanced computer technology) released the first version of html (hypertext markup
language). Although it was originally developed as a means of allowing physicists around
the globe to communicate more effectively, it didn’t take long for free enterprise to
capitalize on its potential. In February 1993, NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing
Applications) published Mosaic, the first graphical Web browser. This development made the
Web into what it is today. It provided an interesting, fun and most importantly, easy, way
to transfer and view information pertaining to absolutely anything! In just three years
the Web has become, by far, the largest source of traffic on the Internet.
In January 1993, there were only 50 known Web servers. By October 1993, there were over
500, and by October 1994 - more than 10,000. In 1998 there was an excess of 100,000
servers world wide and 50 million people on the net. Of those 50 million, approximately 30
million are wired to the World Wide Web, and it is predicted that these numbers will
double every year.
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What is traceroute? How can I perform one? Why would
I need to?
Traceroute is a handy tool in determining where problems exist on the
Internet at a given point in time. It is an even better tool when used
in conjunction with ping, outlined below.
A traceroute is a utility that records the route through which data
travels between your computer and a specified destination computer on
the Internet. As it determines the route, it is also tracking the amount
of time each hop takes. (A hop is the distance between one machine along
the route and the next machine on the route). Each time you go to a
different web site on the Internet, the data you request is likely
traveling down a different route due to the various physical locations
of servers on the Internet.
To try out traceroute, you can do one of three things. If your account
with us is equipped with the Control Panel/Administration Suite, click
on the "Network Troubleshooter" icon and do what it
says.
You can also use the MS Windows MS-DOS prompt (usually found in the Start menu) and
type in the following command, after which pressing Enter. (Please
replace "microsoft.com" with the destination address you would
like to run a traceroute from your computer to).
tracert microsoft.com
Or, you can use a web based traceroute utility, such as the MAE
East or MAE
West looking glass.
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What is a ping? How can I perform a ping? Why would I
need to?
Ping is a basic Internet program that lets you verify that a particular
Internet address exists and can accept requests. Ping is used
diagnostically to ensure that a host computer you are trying to reach is
actually operating. If, for example, a user can not ping a host, then
the user will be unable to use the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to send
files to that host. Ping can also be used with a host that is operating
to see how long it takes to get a response back.
Ping operates by sending a packet to a designated address and waiting
for a response. Ping and traceroute (defined above) work well together
when troubleshooting a problem in relation to Internet connectivity.
To try out ping, you can do one of two things. In MS Windows, you can
typically go to your MS-DOS prompt (found under the Start menu) and type
in the following command, after which pressing Enter. Please replace
"microsoft.com" with the destination address you would like to
ping).
ping microsoft.com
Or, you can use a web based ping utility, such as the MAE
East or MAE
West looking glass.
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Where can I learn more about the Internet?
There are many sites on the web that are geared towards teaching you
more about the Internet. Some of our top picks are CNET
Help.com, Internet.com,
WhatIs.com, Yahoo!
Links to Internet Help, ZDNet's
Internet Resources. See our Webmaster's
Bookmarks for more links.
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