Frequently Asked Questions
- Hosting Services
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information and therefore can take a few moments to load.
These are the answers to some commonly asked questions about our service.
For technical support, or fault-finding help, please visit our host's
Knowledge Base.
General Technical Support
Email | Databases
| FrontPage | CGI & Perl
| ASP
Account Setup & Domain Registration |
Billing | Sales
To search this page, hold down the Control (CTRL) key and hit
"F".
What type of support do you offer?
Do you allow adult content?
How do I make my web page load automatically?
Do you support Real Audio/Video and G2?
Do you allow MP3 download sites, CD-Roms, game patches or software downloads?
What is my absolute path?
What are the server specifications?
How are you connected to the Internet?
Do you have your own staff and network?
Do you monitor your servers 24 hours a day?
How do I request Stats to be added?
Can I delete the _underscore directories in my Web Space?
I would like a MX record change, who do I contact?
I would like a password protected directory , who do I contact?
How can I find additional information about your free shopping cart?
How can I find additional information about cart32?
How can I add Midi music to my site?
Do you offer Telnet access?
Do you have a list of common error codes?
Is anonymous FTP available?
Are Custom 404 error pages available?
I've installed the HTML Form wizard and get the following error. "System cannot find file VB40032.DLL"
How can I change permissions with NT?
Can I use CyberCash on your servers?
Email
What is Imail (the mail I have access to at http://mail.mydomain.com:8383)?
Using Imail, how do I set up new email accounts?
I want my Imail to forward to an email address I have with another provider. How do I set this up?
I want to look at my Imail account through Outlook or Netscape, etc. How do I do this?
Using Imail, what is an auto responder and how do I set it up?
Using Imail, what is an alias and how do I set one up?
Using Imail, what is an email "catch-all" account?
Using Imail, what do I do if I deleted my email admin
account?
Using Imail, I notice "invalid mail folders" when I log into an account. What is this?
In Imail, can I use List feature?
Can I use Listserv?
Can I use Blat?
Can I use WinMail?
Do the NT servers have "Sendmail"?
What methods can I use to send email from a web page?
FrontPage
Do you support Microsoft FrontPage 2000?
Do you support Microsoft FrontPage 98?
What operating systems can I use with FrontPage?
What software do I need to use FrontPage?
Can I use FTP and Front Page?
What are those _ (underscore) directories in my website?
I deleted my Front Page® Extensions or I receive an error that they are not installed in my directory.
Why does FrontPage just hang when establishing a connection to my account?
Databases
What databases can I use?
Where should I put my access database?
How do I set up an Access Data Source Name (DSN)?
Can I use a DSN-less connection?
Do I replace or update my database?
Can I use a SQL database?
How do I request a full-text index for my SQL database?
How do I connect to the SQL server?
When accessing my database, I am receiving the error "Operation must use an updateable query". What does this mean?
CGI & Perl
What is CGI?
Do you support CGI? What type?
Can I chmod the directory?
Is Perl available on the servers?
What is the path to Perl on NT?
ASP (Active Server Pages)
What is ASP?
Where can I go to learn more about ASP?
Do I need to do anything to enable ASP on my website?
Do I need a special software to create ASP pages?
What COM components do you support?
Do you support custom COMs and DLLs?
Do you support Visual InterDev?
Do you support Drumbeat?
General Technical Support
You can reach a highly qualified network engineer
from 9am until 9pm EST Monday - Friday. By only offering engineer-based
technical support, you can be assured that your problem will be resolved,
not delegated by an receptionist or someone who knows less about computers
than you.
You can reach our technical support department
via email or by phone at
(800) 939-8188.
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No. We do not allow any adult content on our
servers. You can, however, attain an unrestricted development environment
by co-locating
a server with us.
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In order to have a page load automatically when someone accesses your
address, please make sure the page you'd like to have automatically open
(i.e.: the page that will open when someone goes to www.yourdomain.com)
is one of the following.
- index.html
- index.htm
- default.html
- default.htm
- index.asp
- default.asp
You should not have more than one page with the
above names. If you do, you should delete and/or rename the page that
you don't want to automatically load.
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No.
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No. We do not allow any MP3, Roms, game patches
or software download sites on our servers. You can, however attain an
unrestricted development environment by co-locating
a server with us.
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d:\html\users\yourdomain\html
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Currently, we are running Windows NT 4.0, Internet
Information Server 4.0, Service Pack 5, Active Server Pages, Microsoft
FrontPage (latest release), Cold Fusion 4.0 and the latest 32-bit ODBC
drivers. We will upgrade to Windows 2000 and FrontPage 2000 when it is
finally released to ISP's late in June.
Our hardware requirements, at a minimum, are:
Pentium III 450MhZ (Dual), 256MB PC100 RAM, 10.2GB SCSI with RAID V drive
configuration.
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We are connected to the Internet through a burstable DS3 configuration.
We currently utilize less than 35% of this connection for our website
customers. One thing you can be sure of - we will never be in need of
bandwidth. When we exceed our 50% threshold, we add more.
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Our associates have been in the web hosting industry since late 1994.
They have always had our own network and staff. Many companies that profess
to be web hosting firms do not. Be careful of the promises made by some.
Many will lie about the bandwidth they have and will hide the fact that
they are simply a reseller for another company.
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Yes. We have a team that monitors the servers
and network 24 hours a day. This includes major holidays.
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You can add statistics to your site by going
to the Control Panel.
Remember that it may take up to two weeks after your site has been created
for statistics to work.
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You may delete these files if you don't use FrontPage.
These files and directories are a necessity to run FrontPage.
If you use FrontPage and you have accidentally deleted these files, please
go to the Control Panel
and reinstall them.
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Please email our Systems Operation Center at soc@world-homes.net.
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Send us an email. Be sure to mention
your domain name and the directory you would like to have password protected.
Please note there is a $25 fee for this service.
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Please visit http://cartexpress.net
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Please visit http://www.cart32.com
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You can add sound or music to spice up your web
site by embedding a MIDI file in your page. MIDI files are typically only
about 15k to 25k in size, so they do not take very long to load. You can
use MIDI files as background music on your page by adding the following
code to the section of your html file:
<embed src="yoursong.mid" autostart=true hidden=true>
<noembed><bgsound src="yoursong.mid"></noembed>
Replace "thesong" with the name of the MIDI file
that you are using. This code excerpt will support people using Netscape
or Internet Explorer.
To make a MIDI file play "on request" in the
foreground, you link to directly to the MIDI file using a hyperlink.
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No, we do not offer Telnet access.
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Unauthorized 401: The parameter to this message
gives a specification of authorization schemes which are acceptable. The
client should retry the request with a suitable header.
Forbidden 403: The request is for something forbidden.
Authorization will not help.
Not found 404: The server has not found anything matching the URL given
Internal Error 500: The server encountered an
unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request.
Not implemented 501: The server does not support
the facility required.
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No.
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Custom 404 Error Pages are used in place of the default 404 Not Found
page. This page is used by creating a page named 404.htm and placing it
inside your web site directory. There is no charge for this. To activate
it, create the custom error page and then email us.
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You can download this file at http://www.mysecureserver.com/formwizard/vb40032.dll.
Copy this file into your c:\windows\system folder.
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Our technicians will assist you in changing permissions, please email us. Be sure to
include your domain name, the directories and/or files you'd like to change,
and what permissions you need.
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Yes. In order to use CyberCash, you need to set up a merchant account
with CyberCash. They will then let you know which files need to be installed
on the server. Simply email those to us, and we'll take care of it.
Email
IMail is a mail server product by IPSwitch, Inc. World Homes Network
uses this product for our mail servers, and you use it to manage your
mail from your Web browser.
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Go to http://mail.yourdomain.com:8383 and type
"admin@yourdomain.com" in the UserID box. Put your password in the password
box. The default password is "admin". You should change this password
IMMEDIATELY.
Once you are logged into Imail as the administrator,
you will see "User Administration" on the lower right hand side. Once
you click this button, you will see a list of current users, and a button
to "Add." Click the "Add button, and then it should be self-explanatory.
Make sure that you click "allow web access".
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When you log into any Imail account (including
the administrator account), you will see a "Change Mail Forwarding Information"
link. You can click here and forward all your mail to an email address
on another provider.
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You will need to contact the vendor for your
email product and ask them how to set up a POP mail account. You will
need this information:
The incoming and outgoing SMTP servers are mail.yourdomain.com.
User or account name is user@yourdomain.com.
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An auto responder is a message that is automatically
sent to anyone who emails a particular address. For example, when you
email HPH Technical Support, you automatically get an email thanking you
for contacting us and containing important news and information.
To set up an auto responder, log in to the account
you'd like to add an auto responder to. You will see an option called
"Auto Response". Simply click it and follow the directions.
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An alias is a nickname for a real email account.
You use aliases to create several email addresses that all point to the
same mailbox.
For instance, let's say you have an employee
named William B. User. You can create a mailbox called williamuser@yourdomain.com.
You can then log into that mailbox and create aliases, such as will@yourdomain.com,
wuser@yourdomain.com, and wbu@yourdomain.com. Let's also assume that William
is the head of marketing. You could also create an alias marketing@yourdomain.com.
ALL of these emails will now go to the main mailbox, williamuser@yourdomain.com.
William only has to log in to williamuser@yourdomain.com to see the email
from all of these addresses.
To create an alias, log in as the administrator
(admin@yourdomain.com). Click "Alias Administration" on the lower
right hand side. Then click "Add". Make sure that in the "Destination"
box you enter an email address of a USER, not another ALIAS. The address
should be entered in this format: williamuser@yourdomain.com.
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Have you ever sent an email to the wrong address
because you made a typo? Did you get a response back saying that your
email couldn't go?
A catch-all alias will ensure that any email
sent to your domain will be received, even if the email was sent to a
non-existent user. In Imail, setting this up is simple. Just create an
alias (directions are in the previous section) and name the alias "nobody".
Do NOT create an email account called "nobody".
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Please send us an email.
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No need to worry. Just send that email account
a test message. This will clear the invalid mail folders up.
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No. We do not allow this option due to spam concerns.
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No. We do not support Listserv, winmail, or Blat.
We do not support these due to spam concerns.
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Send mail does not run on our NT servers.
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Depending on what plan you have with us, you
can use a ColdFusion mailto script, accessed at the Control Panel,
ASPMail, ASPEmail, and CDONTS. CDONTS is not supported on our earlier
servers.
If you are using FrontPage to create forms, you
can send the results of forms using the built-in feature.
Front Page
Yes. If you'd like to use FrontPage, simply go
to the Control Panel.
You will see an option for FrontPage® extensions.
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Certainly, though you will be missing out on
the any new or enhancements to existing features released in FrontPage
2000®. While the server extensions we install on your
account are meant for FrontPage 2000®, they are also
compatible with FrontPage 98® or any other previous version
of FrontPage®.
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Microsoft has developed versions of its popular
FrontPage® web authoring program for the Windows 95/98/NT/2000
environments, as well as the Mac OS.
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In order to author your website with FrontPage,
you will need to install FrontPage 98®, FrontPage 2000®,
or FrontPage Express® on your computer. FrontPage Express
comes bundled with some versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer. While
any of these programs will work, to use all of the features available,
you need to use FrontPage 2000® for your client software.
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There a number of reasons why FrontPage® hangs, the biggest reason is
related to the amount of data in your public_html directory, both in size
and number of files and directories. The more files/directories and size
of data, the longer it will take FrontPage® to log in. Large amounts of
data (> 50MB) and/or a large number of files or directories ( >
500) can cause FrontPage® to hang and perhaps even timeout. If there are
connectivity problems between your ISP and HalfPrice Hosting, then this
can also lead to FrontPage® hanging or even timing out.
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Do not use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to publish
your site. FrontPage® expects that webs will be published through the
FrontPage® Explorer. If you use FTP, components of your web (web bots
in particular) may not function properly, and you will have to reinstall
your FrontPage® extensions (see below).
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Go to the Control Panel
and reinstall the FrontPage® extensions. If this doesn't
work, email us.
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If you are using FrontPage, those _folders are
very important. They hold all the information your website needs to run
FrontPage. Do NOT delete them!
Databases
You may use Microsoft Access, FoxPro, Excel,
etc. Depending on what type of account you have, you may also use SQL.
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Databases should be put in a /database directory.
This /database directory should be at the SAME level as the /html directory
(also called the root directory), not within it. If you are having trouble
with this, please call or email Technical
Support and we will create the /database directory for you.
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If you have properly placed your database in
a /database directory as mentioned above, you can create an Access DSN
by going to the Control Panel.
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Yes, you can use a DSN-less connection. However,
we can not offer technical support for DSN-less connections.
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It is better to update your database, especially
if you are using SQL.
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If you have a Corporate Plan or InstAccount plan,
you may use a SQL database. For Corporate Plan customers there is a one-time
$50 setup fee for a SQL database. This setup fee is waived for InstAccount
customers.
SQL setup consists of a 10MB database and a 2MB
transaction log. This is enough space for literally 500,000 records. If
more space is required, it is available for $0.50/MB per month. This fee
applies to both Corporate and InstAccount customers.
If you are a Corporate or InstAccount customer,
you may request a SQL database at the Control Panel.
This will also create a SQL DSN.
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There is a $25 setup fee for creating a full-text
index on a SQL database. You may request this at the Control Panel.
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You will be sent the information you need to connect to the SQL server
when you request a DSN.
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This means that the database does not have the correct permissions set.
Please email us at techsupport@world-homes.net with
the name of your database.
CGI & Perl
CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface. CGI
provides a method to interface a computer program with an HTML page. CGI
programs can be written to do many different things, which includes: Chat
Rooms, BBS, counters and online forms.
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We have installed and support full CGI-BIN access
written in Perl 5. You do not need to know the path of the Perl compiler
with Windows NT. Every file that has a .pl extension
is automatically executed as a Perl script.
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On IIS 4.0 servers you simply put your scripts
in the cgi-bin directory which already has the necessary permissions.
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Perl 5 is installed on all of our servers.
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This is not required on MS IIS 4.0 servers. The
path to Perl is mapped on the server.
ASP
In laypersons' terms, ASP is a simple way of interacting on the web with
users and databases. Besides ease of use, the main advantage to
using ASP is that the script contained in an ASP page is executed (run)
on the server. Most script executes through the browser, making
browser compatibility quite a challenge. ASP eliminates many script-oriented
browser compatibility problems.
The parts of the code that are to be executed
on the server are enclosed within <% and %> tags. These symbols
are referred to as the delimiters for ASP.
TIP: When a delimiter tag is left off, you will get the following error:
Active Server Pages error `ASP 0116`
Missing close of script delimiter
/bad_script_tags.asp, line 8
The Script block lacks the close of script tag (%>).
The above error is usually caused by not closing your scripting tag. Many
editors now color-code your blocks of code and let you know if you forgot
to close a tag.
Some recommended HTML editors are Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft FrontPage,
and Adobe Go Live, to name a few. However, the best development studio
for ASP is Microsoft’s Visual Interdev. Visual Interdev will also
let you manage your SQL Server database (VServer NT Pro and above).
ASP files must end with a .asp extension in order to be processed by the
server. Because ASP files were meant to deliver HTML files, you can include
normal HTML tags inside of your ASP files. HTML tags are just sent along
to the client’s browser.
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There are many places on the web to learn about
ASP. A few good places to start:
Please remember that we at HalfPrice Hosting
do not have the resources to teach our customers how to use ASP.
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No. As soon as you sign up with HalfPrice Hosting,
you are able to use ASP.
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No. As with HTML, you can create ASP pages using
Notepad or FrontPage. You can also use Drumbeat and Visual InterDev.
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Yes. We support the design of your web site with
Visual InterDev. Specific design-time components such as custom .dll's
are not supported.
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We do not yet have all the required Drumbeat
components installed. You can still use Drumbeat, however, to create and
publish your web pages. We anticipate having Drumbeat fully supported
in the coming months.
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Please look at Features to see which components are available
with different account plans.
ASPMail , a simple email
component.
ASPEmail, which support
attachments and message queuing.
ASPImage, which allows you to
create images “on the fly”.
ASPDNS, a method of looking up IP
and reverse host names.
ASPHTTP, which allows you to
GET/POST/HEAD documents using the HTTP protocol.
ASPPop3, which allows you to
POP email.
SAFileUp, which allows you to
upload and download files.
CDONTS, an email component.
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We do not allow the installation of custom DLLs
on any of our shared web servers, including registering custom components
in MTS. One of the reasons our pricing is so competitive is that we do
not maintain the staff that would be required to monitor and audit custom
components to insure our web servers' performance and integrity. With
over 30,000 customers, this alone would be a full-time job for a whole
team of developers. One poorly written component can bring a whole
web server, or even a whole network, to its knees.
If custom COM objects
are a requirement for your web site, you may want to consider one of our
dedicated server plans which start as low as $875
a month. For more information, please contact dedicated@halfpricehosting.com.
General Technical Support
Email | Databases | FrontPage
| CGI & Perl | ASP
Account Setup & Domain Registration
| Billing | Sales
|