Pre-Sales Questions (17)
Email Questions (4)
Support Questions (2)
Billing Questions (6)
Reseller Questions (12)
DNS Nameservers Questions (2)
E-Commerce Questions (2)
Network, Data Center & Servers (3)
If you do not see the answer to your question(s) on this page, please
contact us and we'll answer your questions promptly.
Are your prices in US Dollars?
Yes, even though we are in Canada, all prices are quoted in US
Dollars. That's because the vast majority of our customers are
located outside of Canada, and are therefore more familiar with the US
Dollar than the Canadian Dollar.
Which web hosting plan should I get?
OK, so this is a trick question. Since we only have one (1) web
hosting account, there is no choice to be made. Our Web
Hosting Plan is the only hosting plan we offer, and it has
everything you need in a web hosting account.
How many web pages can I have in my
hosting account?
That depends on how much information and how many images you include
in your web pages. The web hosting plan allows 5,000 MB of storage
space, and a typical web page takes up no more than 100 KB. Based on
that, you could have 50,000 web pages! Indeed, there is way more
storage space available to you than you'll likely ever need.
What about Data Transfer or Bandwidth? How many "hits" can my website have?
Our web hosting plan allows a full 50 GB of data transfer per month
(sometimes referred to as bandwidth). That roughly equates to 5 million "hits"
or "visits" per month. But that is a generalization. The number of hits your website can have in a month depends on the size of the web pages being
viewed. If someone visits your home page, and your home page takes up 100 KB of storage space, then 100 KB of bandwidth has been used. That holds true each time anyone visits that home page. 100 KB will be used each time. Now, when someone "returns" to your website after having already been there, their computer's cache memory will likely have already stored your web page, so returning will not use up any more bandwidth. Because of this, and because returning visitors will likely be part of your monthly visitors,
5 million hits may only result in half (or less) of your available bandwidth being used.
Do I need to register my domain name with TGHC?
No, you do not have to register a domain name with us. However, you do need a registered domain name to use our
web hosting accounts. In other words, if you don't register one with us, then you must register one with someone else. Or perhaps you already have an existing registered domain name that you would like to use... that's fine too.
Domain registrations can cost up to $50.00 per year, depending on who (which registrar) you register them with. The most popular domain name registration companies are register.com and Network Solutions. However,
TGHC are one of the most affordable domain name registrars, especially
when you consider the advantages you get with us. Click
here for more information on registering domain names.
You will only be charged for domain name registration by us, if you want to register a new domain name through us.
There is no charge for using an existing registered domain name with our hosting accounts.
Will there be any ads on my website?
We do NOT place ads on your website. Your hosting account is yours, and yours alone. You are free to place ads on your site if you wish, but that's entirely up to you.
Many hosting companies that provide cheap hosting accounts, require that you place an ad or a link back to their website. Or worse yet, they'll place the ads there for you, and you have no way of removing them. It's a form of advertising for the company, and in return they provide low pricing on their web hosting
accounts. We do not promote our company this way.
Does the monthly price include the registration cost of a domain name?
No. Beside getting your web hosting account, you will also have to either:
1) register a new domain name with us, or
2) register a new domain name with another registrar, or
3) use an existing domain name that you have already registered.
What is Fantastico Deluxe?
Fantastico DeLuxe is the leading auto-installer of content management systems for servers running CPanel web hosting software. It gives you the ability to quickly and easily install dozens of popular MySQL and PHP based scripts for use in your website.
We have more detailed information about Fantastico here.
Are your order forms secure?
Absolutely. You will notice on the page where you have to enter your credit card information, that the page link begins with "https://" and that there is a yellow "lock-box" located somewhere on your browser...
typically in a pane at the bottom right of your browser. This ensures that your information will be passed to us securely, through our 128-bit encryption process.
We value your privacy. The information you provide to us will be kept strictly confidential.
Read our complete Privacy Policy
here.
Do you allow adult content?
No. We do not allow any pornography, adult-related material, or links to such websites in our hosting accounts. People caught abusing this policy will have their hosting accounts terminated without warning.
Can I have MP3's and/or Video's on my websites?
Yes, provided you own the copyright to them.
Do you offer a money-back guarantee?
Yes. We are so confident that you will be happy with our web hosting services, that we offer a
100% money-back guarantee within the first 30 days of placing your order. This includes all web hosting and setup fees, but not domain name registration fees (if applicable).
Do you offer an uptime guarantee?
Yes. We guarantee that our network will be available to the internet
99.9% of the time, or you get a month of free
hosting.
Are you a reseller for another hosting company?
No. We own or lease all our own equipment, and manage it ourselves.
How long have you been in business?
We've been in the hosting business, developing, managing and hosting websites since 1998 under Bishmore Holdings Ltd. or Bishmore Internet.
How often do you run backups, and where are my files stored?
Daily. We run backups of all accounts on all our servers, every day. At any given time, we'll have a daily, weekly, and monthly backup of your hosting account, including all database information, email accounts and stored messages, log files and web statistics.
All backups are made to separate hard drives from where your original files are stored. That means that if ever there's a problem with the hard drive in the server where your hosting account is, we can simply replace the bad drive, and restore your accounts from the backup drive.
We can also restore your hosting account if you accidentally delete your account, or any information in it including databases,
web pages, images, etc. If needed, our technical support department can help you with this.
How long will it take to get my welcome email?
In most cases web hosting accounts will be setup and welcome emails sent out
within one (1) hour. However, during non-regular business hours
(weekends or at night) it may take up to 12 hours.
If receiving your welcome email is an urgent matter, feel free to call our sales desk toll free at 1-866-905-HOST (4678). In most cases we can set you up and generate your welcome email while you're on the
phone, provided you've already placed your order online.
Can I have my own email accounts?
Of course! If your registered domain name is "yourdomain.com", then you can create email addresses like:
you@yourdomain.com
him@yourdomain.com
first.last@yourdomain.com
etc...
You also have a choice as to what type of email accounts to create. You can setup brand-new stand-alone email accounts (called POP3 email accounts) where by your new email account would have it's own username and password. You can also setup email aliases or forwarders, which look the same as POP3 email accounts, but don't actually have a storage space for email. Instead, you would specify another existing email address where emails would be forwarded to.
What is a POP3 email account?
A POP3 email account is a "real" email account. Emails sent to POP3 email accounts get stored on our server, within your hosting account. To get your emails, you have to
login and retrieve them. You can easily setup your own email program (i.e. Outlook Express, Eudora, etc) to automatically login and download your emails periodically, as well as send your emails out.
To create a POP3 email account, you must login to CPanel and click on the "Mail" icon. From there you click on "Manage/Add/Remove Accounts", and follow the step-by-step directions on how to create your new email account.
Click
here for a live tutorial on creating POP3 email accounts. Emails stored in your hosting account use the storage space assigned to your hosting account, so you'll want to be sure to setup your email program to NOT leave a copy of your emails on our server. This is the most common reason for customer's hosting accounts filling up.
You can also use WebMail to access email in your POP3 email account. This can be done from any computer with access to the internet, and so is a great tool when
traveling. To use WebMail, simply type "www.yourdomain.com/webmail/" into a browser, and then use your email address and password to gain access.
Click
here for a live tutorial on using WebMail. From WebMail you can read, reply and send new emails.
Note: DON'T forget the "trailing slash" (/) after the word "webmail" in the above link. And of course, substitute your own domain name for
"yourdomain.com".
What is an email forwarder?
Also known as email aliases or aliasing, email forwarding is a way to use email and have an email address, without actually having or using a POP3 email account. Email forwarders do not use up storage space in your hosting account, but instead, simply forward emails sent to it, to another email address you specify.
To setup an email forwarder, login to CPanel, click on the "Mail" icon, then "Forwarders", and then "Add Forwarder". enter the new email address, and also the email address that emails are to be forwarded to.
All our hosting accounts allow you to setup an unlimited number of email forwarders.
Click
here for a live tutorial on setting up email forwarders.
Do you provide SMTP email servers?
Yes, we allow you to use our SMTP servers to send outgoing email.
However, some local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) limit your
ability to use 3rd party SMTP servers. You may want to contact your
ISP to find out whether you have to use their SMTP servers, or if
they'll allow you to use ours.
Do you offer technical support?
Yes! We have several levels of support available to our customers, all of which are free! We have lots of documentation in our website to help you out, all of which can be found
starting from our Technical Support page. If you cannot find the help you need, use our online ticketing system to submit a ticket to our help-desk. The help-desk is monitored 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and
response times are almost always less than 1 hour.
We also have dozens of online tutorials
that can be very helpful.
For more details and ways to contact us, please see our Contact
page.
Is Technical Support slower during non-regular business hours?
No! Our support staff is always staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, including all holidays. We feel it is important to be available to existing customers at all times in case you need help. It is only our sales staff that is not always available outside of regular business hours.
What methods of payment do you accept?
We accept the following credit cards for payment: Visa, Master Card,
American Express, Discover, Diner's Club and JCB. We also accept
PayPal. We do not accept
debit or money orders. Checks will be accepted on a limited basis, but
only on an annual term (i.e. not monthly), and it becomes your
responsibility to ensure your renewal payment is made prior to the end
of your term.
Do I need a credit card to order web hosting?
No. If you do not have a credit card, then you can make your payment from a PayPal account. PayPal accounts are free, and can be setup at
www.paypal.com.
How will I be billed/invoiced?
As soon as you place your initial order from our online order form, your credit card will be charged the amount shown on the order form. This will
include your first months fee (if paying monthly), and a setup fee (if
applicable). Your next months charge will be due on the same date of the next month. So if you placed your order on January 5, 2005, then your next monthly fee would be
charged on February 5, 2005. The same applies no matter what billing term you choose... your next bill will be
charged relative to the date you placed your order. These monthly (or
annual) charges will occur automatically, as all customers are setup
in our recurring billing system.
How will charges show up on my credit card statement?
Charges will show on your credit card statement as having come from
2Checkout.com with either TGHC, The Great Hosting Company or Bishmore Holdings Ltd. Bishmore Holdings Ltd. is the parent company of
The Great Hosting Company (TGHC).
What company do you use to process payments?
2Checkout.com is the company we use to process credit card payments.
2CheckOut.com Inc. (Ohio, USA) is an authorized retailer for services
provided by TGHC, The Great Hosting Company.
How do I update my credit card information?
This is for existing customers who already have recurring billing
setup. If you need to update your credit card information perhaps
because your credit card has expired, you have a new credit card you
want to use, or your address has changed, contact
us and we'll send you a link you can use to update your
information in the 2CheckOut billing system.
Can I resell your web hosting plans?
Absolutely! You can order as many plans
as you wish, and resell them to your own customers for as much as you
like. We remain completely anonymous.
Do you offer a discount if I order more
than one web hosting plan?
Unfortunately no. Our web hosting plans are already discounted as much
as possible.
But I have many accounts that I want
hosted. Can you do better than $5/month?
Depending on how many web hosting accounts you want, you may be better
off with one of our reseller plans. With our unlimited reseller plan,
you can actually host 100 plans or more for just $30/month.
If I get a reseller plan, can I be sure
my customers won't know I'm a reseller of yours?
Yes, provided you don't tell them! The control panel used for all
web hosting accounts whether they be in a reseller plan or not, is
CPanel. This is a non-branded control panel, meaning our company name
is no where to be seen. In fact, a great many hosting companies use
CPanel... it is the world's most popular web hosting control panel
software.
What about your nameservers?
For web hosting plan customers, the DNS or nameservers you'll
have to point your domain name(s) to use the generic domain nameserver11.com.
For example:
ns3.nameserver11.com
ns4.nameserver11.com
If you do a whois lookup of that domain name, you will not see any of
our company information listed. We therefore remain anonymous. For
reseller plan customers, you can either have all your accounts
point to the same nameserver11.com nameservers, or you can choose
to use your own custom nameservers. Using your own custom
nameservers involves an extra step in getting set up, since your new
custom nameservers will have to be registered prior to being able to
use them.
Is there any extra charge for using my
own custom nameservers?
No. We do not charge for setting up your own custom nameservers.
We will set them up for you upon request. You'll just have to return
to your registrar to register them, once we give you the nameservers'
IP addresses.
With a reseller plan, is there any
additional costs in setting up a new web hosting account?
No, that's the whole point! You can setup as many hosting accounts
as you like from your WebHost Manager resellers control panel, free of
charge.
Can I really setup an
"unlimited" number of hosting accounts?
With the Unlimited Reseller Plan, the "number" of web hosting accounts you can setup is indeed unlimited. There is nothing in the server stopping you from setting up as many accounts as you wish. What you have to keep in mind however, is that
the reseller plan has limits placed on storage space and monthly bandwidth. As long as the total amount of storage space and/or monthly bandwidth are not exceeded, you can continue to setup new
web hosting accounts.
Can I use the hosting accounts I setup
in WHM myself? Or can I sell those hosting accounts to customers of my
own?
Yes, and yes.
Is CPanel included with the hosting
accounts I setup in WHM?
Yes, CPanel is automatically installed in every hosting account you
setup in your WebHost Manager. Your customers will therefore be able
to setup their own email addresses, MySQL databases, etc, without
having to contact you to do it for them.
Can I resell domain names?
Yes, we can set you up with your own domain name reseller plan (free
of charge), where your customers can register domain names directly
from your own website. You can choose how much (or how little) to
charge your customers for domain names. When you get a domain name
reseller plan from us, you are charged just $10.00 for every domain
name registered by your customers (or yourself). As long as you are
charging your customers more than $10.00 for domain registrations, you
will make a profit from reselling domain names! Note: You must
have a TGHC reseller plan before you can get a domain name reseller
plan. To get a domain name reseller plan, please contact
us with your reseller plan details. We'd be happy to set you
up.
Can you help me setup a new web hosting business?
Absolutely! We have years of experience setting up new web hosting
companies with both reseller plans and dedicated servers. Please visit
our Reseller Center for some
very helpful links regarding this, and feel free to contact
us for specific questions. We're here to help you succeed, so
don't be afraid to ask our experts!
What are your DNS nameservers?
The DNS entries you must use to point your domain name to our severs, are different depending on which server your hosting account is setup on. Each of our servers have different DNS settings. Please refer to your welcome email for the DNS settings you should use. If you cannot locate your welcome email,
contact us and we'll re-send it to
you.
How do I change my DNS nameservers?
Changing your domain name's DNS nameserver settings must be done with the registrar where you registered your domain name. If you registered your domain name with us, then we can do it for you.
If you registered your domain name with another registrar, then you'll have to contact them about how to change your DNS settings. They may have an online domain management system for doing this yourself.
Once your DNS settings are updated and set to point to our nameservers, it will take up to 48 hours (typically 24 hours) for your domain name to start working.
Can I host an E-commerce website (online store)?
Absolutely! We have several tools you can use to host your own e-commerce website.
Shopping Carts
A shopping cart script can be used to easily create your own online storefront, or e-commerce website. We have several shopping cart scripts available for you to download for free. Just choose the one you think will suit your needs best. Here is a list of available free shopping carts, and how to access them:
- Agora Cart (access from within CPanel)
- CubeCart (login to CPanel, click the Fantastico icon. Download from there)
-
OS Commerce (login to CPanel, click the Fantastico icon. Download from there)
-
Zen Cart (login to CPanel, click the Fantastico icon. Download from there)
128-bit SSL Certificates
We have 128-bit secure SSL technology installed on all our servers, and you can access and use them for free with any of our web hosting accounts. The certificate allows your visitors to view any page that you upload to your hosting account, securely.
How to use the free shared SSL certificate:
Let's say you have a home page called index.html in a hosting account for yourdomain.com, and the username for your hosting account is "yourdoma". Let's also assume your hosting account is on the red.bishmore.com server. If you want your visitors to be able to click a link on the home page to "Order Form", and if the order form is actually located at yourdomain.com/order.html, then you would create the hyperlink for the Order Form button (or text link) as follows:
https://red.bishmore.com/~yourdoma/order.html
When the visitor arrives at the Order Form, they'll notice the "https" in the address bar, and the yellow lock-box at the bottom of their browser. They are now on a secure page.
How can I accept credit cards online?
In order to be able to accept credit cards through your online e-commerce website, you must have your own merchant account, or an account with a 3rd-party company that provides access to their merchant account. These accounts typically charge a monthly fee, as well as a per transaction fee (usually made up of percentage of sale, and flat-fee components). Once you get access to a merchant account, you'll have to integrate it with your online shopping cart software. Details on how to do this should be obtained from the merchant account company. You'll also have to refer to your instructions on using your e-commerce software or scripts. Below are some examples of places you can obtain a mechant account.
3rd-PartyAccounts
2checkout.com
worldpay.com
paypal.com
Merchant Account Providers
BluePay
PSIGate
Authorize.net
Where is your Data Center (NOC)?
Our Data Center (or NOC - Network Operations Center) resides in Clifton, NJ, just 14 miles from New York City. This new facility boasts enormous growth potential allowing us capabilities of up to 55,000 sq ft of pure datacenter floor space, and ease of access to backbone providers.
Currently, the facility incorporates over 7,500 sq ft of completed raised floor data center space, along with 5000 sq ft of corporate office space which includes a front reception area, conference rooms, and ample space for our employees. The new datacenter has been carefully planned to overcompensate for such factors as cooling, generators, UPS's, secondary generators, fire suppression, and much more. Our new facility has been set in place with 7,500 sq ft of raised flooring, 8 (eight) 20 ton AC units and double pre-action fire suppression system. Our datacenter is powered by a Liebert UPS system and a Caterpillar generator with 4 days of standby fuel.
Our datacenter is monitored 24/7/265 by an overlapping array of CCTV cameras and datacenter entry is secured by both biometric and card key access.
Click here for more information.
What are your server specifications?
All our servers are built with Intel Processors (Pentium minimum), 3Com/Intel NICs, PC100/133 SDRAM/PC2100 DDR, and ONLY major name brand components. Specifications of a typical server would be as follows:
Intel Pentium 4, 2.4 GHz processor
1 GB RAM memory
Dual (2) 120 GB hard-drives (one used exclusively for daily backups)
Linux OS
CPanel/WHM
Fantastico
Shared SSL certificate
All servers run the latest version of the Apache Server software on Linux-based systems. We quite often increase RAM memory to as high as 2 GB, to keep pace with the increasing needs of existing accounts.
We continually manage and optimize our server's resources. For example, if a server should ever get overloaded due to a particular hosting account(s) using up too many resources (very rare, but it can happen), we would move the account(s) in question to another server so the other accounts on the server will not be adversely affected.
How are you connected to the internet?
Our network runs on a dark fiber ring connecting our two redundant pops in 111th NYC and 165 Halsey (Equinix) NJ. Each fiber leg is capable of handling our entire network's traffic in case of a failure. Each leg can be upgraded to provide transport capacities up to 320Gbps totaling 640Gbps of available transport capacity. Our core consists of Dual Cisco 6509 SUP720 Routers, fully meshed to multiple aggregation switches for maximum uptime. Our multi-homed network is fueled by premium tier 1 carriers Above.net, NLayer (GlobalCrossing), Level3 and NYIIX peering.
Click here for an illustration showing our connectivity to these suppliers.
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