Webhosting & eCommerce

Getting Started Guide

This page will allow you to familiarise yourself with important areas on the Server101 web site such as Member and Merchant Services, Support, Forms, etc.

Member Services
The Member Services is the central area where all of your account configurations take place such as email forwarding, mailbox setup, admin and billing details. This is a secure area which requires your User ID and password to gain entry.

Merchant Services
For customers who have an account with ecommerce functionality, the Merchant Services is the management area for an online store. This area is user friendly with a wizard facility to assist customers in setting-up and designing their store, maintaining products and processing orders. Your User ID and password is also required to access this area.
Further information is available here.

DNS
DNS (Domain Name Service) is the means by which you are able to type an easily remembered name to go to an internet address (URL), instead of trying to remember an IP (Internet Protocol) address, which is a number. The DNS "resolves" the URL to an IP address then homes in on the site.

    � Setting up an existing Domain
    You will need to amend the Name Server records with your Registrar to have the domain function with your hosting account. This process is called a delegation and can take approximately 24-48 hours to update around the world. It is recommended that an existing hosting account remain activated during this transition period, to avoid downtime in services. The domain will also need to be mapped to your account within the Member Services section.

    Primary Server Hostname....: launch.server101.com
    Primary Server Netaddress..: 216.218.196.178
    Secondary Server Hostname..: launch2.server101.com
    Secondary Server Netaddress: 216.218.196.181

    � Registering a new Domain
    You can register a (.com .org .net .au .tv .co.uk .org.uk .ca .us .info .biz) domain at Server101. Domains registered with Server101 will be automatically delegated to our name servers. The registration process takes approximately 24 hours to propogate to the internet. If you are looking at registering a country code specific domain you can find a list of cc domains here. The domain will also need to be mapped to your account within the Member Services section.

    If you register your domain elsewhere, the registrar will either request the DNS servers to use for your domain or default the settings to their DNS servers. If the settings are defaulted, you will need to go the the account management area for the Registrar and amend the records as described above.

    � Transferring your domain
    If you wish to transfer your domain to Server101, you can complete a transfer request. Prior to completing a transfer request, you should ensure your contact details are up-to-date as your existing Registrar will forward an authorisation request to the contact email on record as part of the transfer process. Requests should be made no later than 14 days prior to the registration expiry date. Regardless of when the transfer request is submitted, the renewal period is added to the existing registration period.

Mail Configuration
Once your domain has been delegated and mapped to your account, you can set up your mail options within the Member Services section.

    � Pop Mailboxes
    Setting up a POP email account creates an actual mailbox, where your mail is stored on the server. To read and download your mail you either use an email client such as Outlook Express (where email is downloaded to your PC) or you can use the Webmail facility through your web browser. An Email Helper feature is also available. If you wish to use a client-side program to retrieve and send your mail, (such as Microsoft Outlook Express or Netscape) follow these links to more detailed instructions on each program. Microsoft Outlook Express Netscape 4.7x General Mail FAQ

    � Email Aliasing
    Email forwarding/aliases simply forward email to an existing email account. So you could have me@mysite.com being forwarded to your_mailbox@yourISP.com for example.

    Please note - You cannot have an Alias and POP mail account of the same name, as the POP will take priority and the email will not be forwarded. Enter the Alias account name in the first field then the target email address in the second.

Microsoft FrontPage
If you are using Microsoft FrontPage, you will need to enable the FrontPage extensions within the Member Services section before publishing your site. The FrontPage server extensions support the Microsoft FrontPage HTML editor allowing page upload and server-side functions such as feedback forms. Server101 offers the Microsoft FrontPage server extensions to all users. Please review our Frontpage instructions to learn how to use FrontPage with your Server101 account.

Creating your Website
Whether you hand code your web site or use a WYSIWYG editor such as FrontPage (remember to enable the extensions) this part is up to you. You can use a variety of languages such as PHP, Perl, JAVA/script, Flash, D/HTML, and many others. If your new to web site design Builder.com has a fairly thorough list of articles about all aspects of website design and concepts. To upload your site use ftp.server101.com and your username and password. However, if your using FrontPage please remember to use the publish function from within FrontPage or else your site will not be uploaded properly. If you have any problems please don't refrain from sending an email about the issue and we'll return you a speedy response. Good Luck with your new web site!! :)

Perl and PHP Websites
Server101 offers Perl and PHP scripting facilities on your hosting account. For further instructions on using CGI's on your account, please review our CGI Instructions page.

For security reasons, scripting is not enabled by default. Please use the CGI Request Form or email your request to support@server101.com to enable this facility.