A closer look at the tools and features that come with these plans.
Here we provide further details and explanations of the tools and features available with all Advanced Hosting Plans.
Server Space
This is the amount of webspace that comes with your account which is then used to house all your website and email files and data.
If you order the AH1 (50mb) hosting plan and use 10mb for your website pages, this will leave 40mb to receive and store email or add more site pages. Alternatively, if your website took up 20mb of server space, you would only have 30mb left to receive and store email.
If you intend using any of the premium scripts from "fantastico", be aware that some of them are quite large and will take up a lot of server space. You should therefore look to use at least the AH2 hosting plan to accommodate the space requirements.
If you intend building an ecommerce store (using our free scripts or your own) you are recommended to take at least the AH2 hosting plan in order that you have sufficient room to add all your product.
If you find you need more server space you can upgrade your account at any time and just pay the difference between the two plans. The upgrade process is very easy and does not affect the functionality of your site in any way.
Bandwidth
This is the measurement of data transfer capacity allocated to your account. If you have 1.0gb of bandwidth this means you can transfer up to 1.0gb within a single month. The data transfer records your website, FTP and email activity. If you find you need more bandwidth, you can upgrade your account at any time and just pay the difference between the two plans.
Control Panel
All our Advanced Hosting Plans make use of the cPanel user Control Panel from where you can set up and manage your website, email and domain names. The available tools are extensive and provide a number of professional utilities to help you get the most from your account.
Databases
Clients receive free databases and the tools to manage them ...
MySQL
SQL stands for Structured Query Language. SQL is an international standard in querying and retrieving information from databases. MySQL is essentially an SQL server - it responds to requests for information that are written in SQL. You can communicate with MySQL using a wide variety of programming languages (PHP being one of the most common).
PhpMyAdmin
Our Control Panel includes a web-based MySQL management tool called phpMyAdmin. This tool allows you to manage all aspects of your database structure and data.
Allocation
There is no limit to the number of databases that you can assign to an Advanced Hosting plan.
Domains
Clients can assign multiple domains to the same account ...
Subdomains
You can add your own subdomains. Subdomains are a way of creating separate accounts within your master account which are accessed as separate URLs. Example: you could set up a "timber" subdomain on your master account "http://www.hardware.org", which would then be accessed directly as "http://timber.hardware.org".
Parked Domains
You can set up a new domain name to point to an existing account. This is known as "parking" a domain. Example: you own "business.co.uk" and "innovation.co.uk", you already have a site for "business.co.uk" but you don't want to create a new site for "innovation.co.uk" at the moment. By parking "innovation.co.uk" on top of "business.co.uk", all visitors to "innovation.co.uk" will automatically go to "business.co.uk".
Addon Domains
An addon domain is a domain name that points to a subdirectory within your account. For example, you may want "http://www.innovation.org.uk" to point to "http://www.business.org.uk/innovation/".
Allocation
There is no limit to the number of subdomains, parked domains or addon domains that you can assign to an Advanced Hosting plan.
Email
We provide unlimited email utilities which means you can set up any number of email accounts ...
Pop3 Email
You can set up as many POP (Post Office Protocol) email accounts as you require. Each pop3 account will be in the standard email formation of "you@change-domain.com" and can be accessed through webmail or through your own off-line email application (Outlook, Eudora, etc).
SMTP Email We provide the smtp email service so email you send is parsed through our servers. This service is optional and you can choose to continue using your own smtp provider if you prefer.
Webmail It's easy to access and manage email from anywhere in the world through a choice of two webmail access points (Horde, SquirrelMail).
Default Address
Email sent to an unknown email account at your domain (unknown@change-domain.com), is automatically rerouted to your default email account.
Autoresponders
Autoresponders are email messages sent automatically when an email arrives for a specific account. Autoresponders are most commonly used for an "Out of Office" style message to inform correspondents that you are not available, without you having to reply manually. You can use plain text or HTML code in the autoresponder and choose from a variety of character sets.
Forwarders Forwarders simply allow you to automatically forward email sent to one account to another account. This is useful when you work at two separate locations or have gone on holiday.
Mailing Lists Mailman is a popular mailing list script. Mailing lists are an ideal tool for communication.. Mailman allows you to set up a mailing list with a large number of configurable options such as: who is on the list, where mailing lists messages are sent, whether you include welcoming messages to new subscribers.
Email Trace You can trace the delivery path of an email address, from server to server, to your web site.
Security
We provide the tools to make your site safer, smarter and more secure ...
Spam Filters
If you have a problem with unsolicited email and want to take charge of your inbox, we have the tools to help. All Advanced Hosting plans come with a choice of filters ...
Simple Email Filter ... Easy to set up and effective to use. Highlight known spam phrases that appear within an email (subject, from, to, body, header) and filter the information (equals, matches, contains, begins with) then decide what to do with that mail (discard, send to spam bin, send to designated address). Quick and effective, this simple email filter will work on the majority of known spam emails.
Advanced Email Filter ... Spam Assassin is an automated mail filter that uses a wide range of predefined heuristic algorithms on mail headers and message body text to identify spam. Once identified, the mail is tagged as SPAM for later filtering by the user's mail client. Users can create white_list and black_list addresses and rewrite subject headers in order to highlight the spam email.
Note: Spam Assassin has been replaced on most Advanced Servers by a super-intelligent server-side email filter that is presently undergoing final tests. We will let clients know when it is available for use.
Password Protect
You can set personal passwords for directories within your site. This means that a visitor needs to enter a user name and password to access any files within that directory. You can set an unlimited number of password protected folders.
IP Deny
You can prevent specific visitors from viewing your site. By creating a list of banned IP addresses, you can block specific users and stop them accessing your site whilst everyone else is free to browse as normal.
Trace / Look Up
You can check email and IP addresses to find out the route of any given user. Useful if you need to track or check a users authenticity.
Anti-Hotlinking
You can specify domains that are allowed to link to content on your site. If you have a list, photo, page or daily information that is unique or specifically created by you, others may be copying it in real time. Now you can stop others from getting a free ride by blocking all hotlinking activity.
Data Back-Up
If your computer crashes, or is stolen, or you accidentally delete specific site files, you can easily retrieve them by downloading a back-up from your webspace. Excellent for off-site data storage and to back-up any important information you have.
Virus Protection
Our servers have pre-installed firewalls against hackers and virus distribution. Regularly updated to stay in touch with new attack developments, our virus protection is switched on all the time, running unseen in the background of each of our servers.
Secure Socket Layer
All clients have access to our free shared SSL (secure socket layer) for 128-bit secure encryption of website information. Necessary when collecting secure information online, SSL is ideal for online shopping carts or sites where payment details are collected.
Ecommerce
You have a choice of shopping cart scripts included as standard. With simple "point and click" installation, you can quickly and easily create professional online stores ...
Easy Setup
Each shopping cart script can be installed with a simple "point and click" procedure. With just a few clicks and a little information, the auto-wizard will install a script to your personal webspace and setup and define all database parameters. You don't need to mess around with the script paths or database setup ... it's all done for you.
Trial the Scripts
Uninstalling a script is made easy through a single "uninstall" button. This means that you can easily trial each of the free shopping cart scripts before deciding which one is best for you.
Secure Server
If you collect credit card information from your site you will need to parse this information through a secure server. All Saffas clients receive free use of our shared SSL which provides 128-bit encryption for collecting information online.
Other
Our Advanced Hosting plans are also fully compatible with other ecommerce scripts including Actinic and you are free to install your own ecommerce script at any time. We do not place any company ads or banners on client sites. All client hosting accounts are on unbranded platforms which means there is no mention of Saffas.
Scripts
The "fantastico" scripts library gives you access to a wide range of premium scripts which are too numerous to list here. Premium scripts are free to use and are available to all clients with an Advanced Hosting plan. An auto-install wizard makes installation easy with immediate setup of the script, database, directory and access links. It really couldn't be any easier. Please note that the list of available scripts is subject to change and updates without notice.
Site Access
All clients have unrestricted 24/7 access to upload files to the server ...
FTP
You can set up and manage any number of FTP accounts. An FTP account creates a folder on the public_html level of your site that allows external users that know the password to upload and download files to and from that location. You can create an unlimited number of FTP accounts for your clients and colleagues to access secure areas of the server. Clients can also view and terminate FTP sessions using the provided FTP session controls.
FrontPage
Support for FrontPage extensions has been discontinued on our Advanced Servers. However, the Standard Servers still support FrontPage 2000.
Control Panel
Clients can upload, manage, edit and delete files online through the user Control Panel 'file manager' interface.
Remote File Access
A free server-side FTP application where clients can login to access server files. Whether working from behind a corporate firewall or logging in from the other side of the world, you can access and manage your website files and folders from any PC browser. This is a free tool and does not form part of any paid service. It is provided as an interim solution to aid clients who do not have their own FTP application. May not be 100% compatible with Mac computers.
Professional Tools
Further professional tools are available from the user Control Panel ...
Cron Jobs
Cron jobs allow you to automate repetitive tasks on the server that hosts your web site. This is a powerful tool that allows you to take a hands-free approach to repetitive tasks. For example, you could add a cron job that automatically copies a MySQL database to a separate location on your site as a backup.
Keys
OpenPGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is a tool for secure online communication. Our Control Panel uses GnuPGP for its public-key cryptography so that users may communicate securely. Each person gets a pair of keys, called the public key and the private key. Each person's public key is published while the private key is kept secret. Messages are then encrypted using the intended recipient's public key and can only be decrypted using their private key.
WAP
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a communications protocol that allows mobile phones and other wireless terminals to access the Internet. WAP uses an XML (eXtensible Markup Language) syntax called WML (Wireless Markup Language).
Custom Error Pages
You can customize five error page types: 400, 401, 403, 404, 500. Error pages are displayed to Internet users when website errors occur such as when a user enters an incorrect URL or is not authorized to access a specific directory in your web site. You do not have to customize these pages as the error pages are shown whether customized or not.
Mime Types
MIME types tell browsers how to handle specific extensions. Most MIME types are set globally on the server. For example, the text/html MIME type equates to htm, html, and shtml extensions on most servers, and this tells your browser to interpret all files with those extensions as HTML files. You can alter or add new MIME types specifically for your site (note that you can not alter the global MIME type values, only add to them). MIME types are often used to handle new technologies as they appear. When WAP technology first appeared no one had these extensions set up on their server. With MIME types, however, you could have set it up yourself and begun serving WAP pages immediately.
Apache Handlers
Apache is an open-source HTTP server, and is used to serve your site. Apache handlers tell the server how to deal with web files that need to be processed on the server. For example, Apache is set up to process files with .pl extensions using Perl. However, if for some reason you also wanted to process files with .script extension using Perl, then you would have to set up a custom Apache handler for your site.
Chmod
All files on Unix machines have access permissions that can be changed. These tell the operating system how to deal with requests to access these files. You can change the chmod permissions at any time from the Control Panel or via your FTP application.
htaccess
All directories on our Advanced Hosting plans come with an "htaccess" file that users can access to edit and manage specific privileges for their files and directories.
Logs and Stats
Clients have extensive tools to view and profile site visitors ...
Webalizer The Webalizer tool creates a graphical summary display of usage of your site. This is useful to give you a quick and clear overview of your web site activity.
Awstats
The Awstats reporting tool combines a comprehensive coverage of web server statistics available for your web site with very attractive reporting pages.
Analog
The Analog reporting tool presents a comprehensive coverage of web server statistics available for your web site.
Latest Visitors
This quick tool lists the last 300 visitors that have visited your site in the last 24 hours. Note that visitors are defined as requests from servers, not individual people.
Bandwidth
The Bandwidth tool generates an overall summary of the amount of bandwidth that your site is using.
Error Log
The error log contains all HTTP errors that occur when visitors attempt to view your site, such as requested files not found, etc. The Error Log tool is a presentation of the last 300 entries in your error log. A central use of this tool is to locate suspicious server activity, such as attempted virus attacks.
Raw Logs
You can download the raw access logs that contain all the recorded hit information that your site has received. These logs are only really useful if you have a preferred reporting tool that you prefer to use, rather than the variety of reporting tools presented in this section.
Raw Log Manager
Raw access logs contain all the recorded hit information that your site has received. You can set the Raw Log Manager to archive this information every month and/or delete the previous month's log at the end of every month.
Statistics Configuration
Site visitor logs and statistics can build up over time to take up quite a lot of webspace. As we offer two main types of statistical recording (Awstats and Webalizer), you may not want them both to be in operation at the same time. With the Statistics Configuration tool you can decide whether to use one or both of these recording options for each of your domains and/or subdomains. By managing these settings you can reduce the amount of webspace allocated to recording visitor statistics.
