DotNetted - Windows hosting specialists
 
 
   

Below we have endeavoured to answer the questions that potential customers most commonly ask about the services we provide. However if you can't find the answers you're looking for please check our technical support area or contact us.

Can I use my existing domain name Can I include a mailing list in my site
Do you charge for domain transfers Can I host .mp3 files in my account
Can DotNetted host all domain types How much web space is included
How soon will my account be set up How much bandwidth is included
Can I use my account immediately Can I take credit card details securely
What is your Acceptable Use Policy Can I add extra domains to my account
How reliable is your network What ASP components are installed
How long have you been in business Does my account include MS SQL Server
What software runs on the servers Can I use Microsoft Enterprise Manager
How do I upload my web site files How can I see statistics for my site
Can I easily upgrade my account How can I access my raw visitor log files
What payment options do you offer Do you support DreamWeaver MX
Is there a minimum term or contract Do you support MS FrontPage Extensions
Do you offer spam / virus scanning Do you support MS Visual Studio .NET
How many mailboxes are included Can visitors see my site without the www.
How can I collect my e-mail Do hosting accounts include a cgi-bin
Does my account include webmail Do hosting accounts support PHP scripting
How do I administer my mailboxes How do I contact DotNetted for support
Do you provide an SMTP server Will my files be backed up regularly
Can I use my existing domain name with DotNetted
 
Yes you can, you can either leave your domain name with your current registrar and change the nameservers to point to ours ( ns1.dotnetted.com / ns2.dotnetted.com ) or do a full transfer of the domain to DotNetted.
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Does DotNetted charge for domain transfers
 

Dotnetted do not charge for transfers - either incoming OR outgoing.

The only situation in which payment is required is if you do a full transfer of a non .uk (.com .net etc.) domain to us as these domains can only be transferred at the same time as renewing the domain for an extra year.

There will be a charge of £10 +vat to transfer in a non .uk domain BUT a year will also be added to the life of the domain. This charge can be avoided by, rather than doing a full transfer to DotNetted, leaving the domain with your current registrar and pointing it at our nameservers.

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Can DotNetted host all domain names types
 
We can host most types of domain names, if you have a particularly unusual requirement or need advice on your domain name please contact us
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How soon will my new hosting account be set up
 
Generally account setup is completed within 3 - 4 hours of the order being received though it could be slightly longer if the order is received outside of normal office hours.
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Can I use my new account immediately
 

Yes, you can begin using your account immediately setup is completed - when creating accounts we also create a temporary URL and FTP login so that you can start uploading and testing your account whilst your domain registration or transfer propagates.

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Do you have an Acceptable Use Policy
 
We do, the full document can be read here. Basically we do not allow any adult or illegal material to be hosted on our servers and have a zero tolerance policy on SPAM, we enforce these policies rigorously.
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How reliable is your network
 

Our network and servers are robust and extremely reliable, averaging 99.99 % uptime over the past year (this is can be verified by an independent tracking service here).

Our servers are located within the Reynolds House datacenter on the Manchester Technopark a leading UK facility boasting four upstream bandwidth providers at three different facilities, providing complete independence from the failure of any individual bandwidth provider or facility.

All critical hardware, such as routers and firewalls are duplicated assuring that failure of an individual piece of hardware will have little or no impact on the overall running of the network.

The facilities also boast two independent mains electricity supplies plus two 2MW generators able to sustain the facility for a minimum of 7 days without mains power. A full VESDA system that provides early detection of smoke is in place so that any potential fire is detected before it can develop - in the unlikely event a fire did develop an FM200 gas fire suppression system is in place.

The facility is based on Manchester TechnoPark which has security staff on site 24/7 with offsite backup to deal with any major event. CCTV cameras (both internal and external), motion detection and a key fob access system ensures a high level of security with multiple layers of defence.

Our servers are all based on Dell chassis populated with 3 Ghz+ Dual Core Pentium or Xeon processors with hardware Raid mirroring and minimum 3 GB ram. Our backup server is hosted in a separate facility and all servers are backed up fully each night.

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How long have DotNetted been in business
 

The company that is now DotNetted was originally started as a web design and development agency back in 1998 under the name 'Bulldog Web Design' by proprietors Lee and Tara Davison, who still lead the company today.

Frustrated by the lack of reliable Windows / asp based hosting available to host our clients sites we commissioned our first dedicated server in 1999 to host our own customers. Due to the high quality of the service provided word spread and we were soon being asked to host third party sites - over the course of the next two years the hosting side of things became the largest part of the business and the company name changed to invectis as we ceased to offer web design services.

Invectis continued to grow and over the past couple of years we concentrated exclusively on offering Windows / Microsoft based hosting packages, in August 2004 the company was again renamed to DotNetted to better reflect the fact that we specialise in .NET hosting services.

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What software is running on the servers
 
The Operating System on our servers is Windows 2003 server or Windows 2008 server, web servers also include IIS 6 / IIS 7, ASP.NET 1.1 / 2.0 / 3.0 / 3.5, ASP Classic 3.0 plus a number of commercial components. Our statistics servers run SmarterStats, mail servers run SmarterMail and database servers run SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005.
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How do I upload my web site files to my account
 
You can publish your files to your account via FTP, this is a built in publishing option in most development environments such as DreamWeaver or Visual Studio but you can also use any other FTP client program to upload your files. For Windows 2003 / IIS 6 accounts we can also enable Frontpage Extensions on your site to enable you to publish via the Frontpage publishing protocol within Frontpage or Visual Studio.
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Can I easily upgrade my account
 
Very easily, our whole philosophy centres around providing the customer with exactly what they need in as straight forward a manner as possible. If you pay monthly then when adding extras we'll upgrade you straight away and you pay the new rate from your next billing date, if paying yearly we'll just bill you pro-rata for the new service until the end of your yearly term.
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What payment options do you offer
 
For monthly billing we only accept payment by credit or debit card only, if the account is billed annually you also have the option to pay by cheque or directly via bank transfer. Card billing is handled through our payment processor WorldPay and payments are automatically processed on each billing date.
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Is there a minimum term or contract
 
No, it's as easy to cancel as it is to sign up and you can cancel your account at any time, even the day before your next billing date. We have great confidence in our product and know that customers stay with us because they receive a quality service, not because we tie them down with contracts or long cancellation notices.
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Do you offer spam filtering and virus scanning
 

All DotNetted accounts include user configurable spam filtering and virus scanning of incoming e-mail as standard.

Our mail server has extensive spam filtering options and performs a number of checks against incoming mail including checking the sending IP against a number of public spam databases. From these checks each mail is 'scored' and you can set up filtering on your account by domain or individual user mailbox to perform actions based on this score such as moving the mail to a 'potential spam' folder or deleting outright.

Incoming mail is scanned with the Trend Micro Server Protect virus scanner, with the massive increase in the number viruses over the past couple of years this can no longer be considered an option but an absolute essential on any web hosting account.

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How many e-mail accounts are included
 
Our base package allows you 10 separate e-mail account and 50MB of storage space that you can split between the accounts, also included are 10 e-mail forwarding aliases, you can also set up one of your e-mail accounts as a 'catchall' account which will receive all mail sent to your domain not to a recognised user. Additional mailboxes can be added in blocks of 5 (plus 25MB additional space) for just £1 month.
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How can I collect my e-mail
 
You can collect your mail using any conventional pop3 e-mail client, such as Outlook, Outlook Express or Pegasus, you also have access to your mail through our webmail interface.
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Does my account include a web mail service
 
All of your e-mail users have access to their own mailbox via a webmail interface. Through this interface they can read, send and delete mail complete with contact list and spell checker.
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How do I administer my e-mail accounts
 
The webmail interface also doubles as an admin area and each e-mail user can view their mail statistics and set various options such as spam processing. The account administrator also has additional options to enable them to add, delete and configure mailboxes and other global domain settings.
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Do you provide SMTP with hosting accounts
 
Your preferred SMTP server would usually be that of your ISP but if they do not offer an SMTP server or it is not suitable for any reason then you can send outgoing e-mail through Dotnetted. Please note that our mail servers are very closely monitored and must not be used for sending unsolicited mail or bulk mail.
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Can I include a mailing list in my site
 
Your site may include a small mailing list but you must be able to prove that all recipients have actively opted into your list using a 'double opt-in' system, i.e. they elected to join the list and were sent an e-mail to which they had to reply to confirm membership before being added to the live recipient list. You must also provide a simple way to unsubscribe from your mailing list and act on unsubscribe requests promptly.

This service is provided for small mailing lists only, if your list has thousands of recipients or is mailed out very regularly then you should be using a specialist mailing service. All mail passing through our mail server is logged by domain and user, if this service is abused you will lose the right to host a mailing list.
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Can I host .mp3 files on my site
 
Generally the answer is no, the only exception is if you can prove that you own the copyright to the file or have written permission from the copyright holder to host and distribute the file. If you will be hosting 'legal' .mp3's please let us know in advance.
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How much web space is included
 
Our base package includes 100MB of web space which is enough to hold approximately 2000 average sized web pages, additional space can be added for just £1 month per extra 50MB.
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How much transfer allowance is included
 
Our base package includes 4 GB of data transfer monthly which, based on a typical web page size of 50KB equates to 80,000 page views, additional transfer costs just £1 month per GB.
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Can I take credit cards securely
 
Our accounts offer two options to allow visitor to securely enter card details on your site, for £1 per month we can provide you with use of a shared SSL certificate or for a £50 initial setup fee and £5 per month ongoing we can provide your own secure certificate.
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Can I add additional domains to my account
 
You can add additional domains to your account for a one off £10 setup fee, the extra domain(s) will be set up as an alias of your main domain so that visitors can reach your site, or send you mail at any of the domains aliased to your account. Please note these are aliases of the account only and not separate hosting accounts in their own right.
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What components are available to use
 

With the advent of .NET the 'old' system of the host providing many third party components has become somewhat redundant as most of the functions that these components carried out (e.g. sending e-mail, uploading files, creating graphics) can now be done natively in .NET. Also .NET commercial components are usually sold on a per site basis where you would own the license and install to your site rather than the component installed server wide.

However, we do still provide a number of standard components for backwards compatibility with your .asp scripts including AspEmail for sending mail, AspUpload for uploading files, AspJpeg for image processing and AspEncrypt to allow you to encrypt files and send secure e-mail.

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Does my account include MS SQL server
 
Our base package includes the use of Access databases only and SQL Server 2000 / 2005 can be added as an option for just £6 per month per 50MB database.
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Can I use Microsoft Enterprise Manager / SQL Server Management Studio
 
If you have purchased an SQL Server database with your package you can use MS Enterprise Manager / Management Studio to administer the database remotely, you can in fact use any database administration package compatible with SQL Server and able to connect on a nonstandard port.
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How can I see stats of my site visitors
 
Comprehensive graphical visitors statistics are provided for all accounts via our SmarterStats software which offers over 100 different reports covering everything about your visitors, where they came from and what they did whilst browsing your site. You can also create your own custom reports.
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How can I access my raw visitor logs
 
If you want to keep your raw site logs for future reference or run further offline analysis of your visitors they can be downloaded through SmarterStats.
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Do you support DreamWeaver MX
 
We do, our hosting accounts offer full support for Macromedia's DreamWeaver design software and are compatible with both the ASP and ASP.NET server models for MX / Ultradev.
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Do you support FrontPage Extensions
 
FrontPage Extensions are a free option on Windows 2003 / IIS 6 accounts and you can either request that they be installed installed on your account at the time of ordering or contact our support department to have them added at a later date. Please note that Windows 2008 / IIS 7 does not support Frontpage Extensions.
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Do you support Visual Studio .NET
 
Certainly, our web servers are based on Windows 2003 / 2008 and ASP.NET 1.1 / 2.0 /3.0 / 3.5 as required by Visual Studio .NET 2003 / 2005 / 2008.
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Can visitors see my site without the www.
 
Yes, your site will be reachable using both 'www.yourdomain.com' and 'yourdomain.com' - it's becoming more popular to omit the www. in offline advertising as the domain alone is easier to quote and remember.
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Do hosting accounts include a cgi-bin
 
We do not support CGI / PERL or offer a cgi-bin. CGI is an antiquated and inefficient method of scripting, anything that can be done in CGI / PERL can be done faster and more efficiently in ASP / .NET. Your ASP / .NET scripts can be run from anywhere in your account so a cgi-bin is not required.
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Do accounts support PHP scripting
 
We don't, as with CGI anything that can be done in PHP can be done with ASP / .NET. We have taken a conscious decision to install only native Microsoft technologies on our web servers, this leads to improved performance and much better reliability than can be obtained on a 'hybrid' server.
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How do I contact DotNetted for technical support
 
Our technical support area includes a large amount of information which will cover most of the common questions you are likely to have when using your account. If the information you need can not be found there then you can open a ticket with our support department, turnaround on support tickets is very quick and queries are typically answered in under 4 hours.
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Will my site be backed up regularly
 

All servers are backed up daily, however these backups are for our use to restore the servers in the event of a hardware failure, they are not generally available to clients and there may be a charge involved if restoring files is required due to an error by the client.

 
You should ensure that you always have an up to date local copy of your web site, Access databases should be downloaded regularly via FTP (some FTP software can automate this process and run each night or similar) and data from MS SQL databases should be downloaded regularly to your local development machine using DTS - again this can be set up as an automated task on your local PC.
 
reliability and security
separate application for each site
unique 'sandboxed' user per site
windows 2008 / IIS 7 web hosting
windows 2003 / IIS 6 web hosting
virus / spam protection
all incoming e-mail virus checked
fully configurable spam filtering
scripting support
full support - asp.net version 1.1
full support - asp.net version 2.0
full support - asp.net version 3.0
full support - asp.net version 3.5
full support - asp.net version 4.0
full support - asp 'classic' 3.0
quality asp components installed
complete e-mail service
pop3 and smtp e-mail services
industry leading webmail interface
web based administration interface
development software
compatible with dreamweaver
compatible with visual studio .net
compatible with MS frontpage
database support
MS access databases included
sql server 2000 database £6 mth
sql server 2005 database £6 mth
statistics reporting
comprehensive web based stats
pre-defined or custom stats reports
optional SSL support
shared SSL access just £1 / month
your own SSL cert just £5 / month
 
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