Frequently asked questions

I have compiled these answers from the most common enquiries we receive from potential customers.

Web Hosting FAQ
How do I change web host?
This is really quite simple. To move your site without any interruption please follow these instructions:

Order web hosting from us.
Upload your web site to the temporary address we give you.
Contact the company you registered your domain name through and ask them to change the name servers to mine which are included in your welcome email
Once the name servers are changed it takes about 48 hours for the domain to move over to point to your new 1337hosts account.
When this is complete, contact your previous web host and cancel your account.
Tip: to know when the move is complete add something to the version of the site uploaded to our temporary address, like an "x" at the bottom of the front page. That way you can tell if the domain is pointing to our server or the old one.

Do I have to transfer my domain name to 1337hosts.com?
You must get the name servers for your domain name changed to ours. If you fail to do this the domain name will not point to your web site. We do not require you to change domain registrar, just the name servers.

Can you host International domains?
Yes, 1337hosts can host any top level International domain. We can even register names for you in any country specific top level domain.

Can you hold a domain name for me until I have a web site ready?
All domains have to be listed on two name servers in order to be purchased. We provide free parking of domains purchased from us until you want to use them.

Can you host subdomains?
Yes!

Do you support ASP?
No!

Do you support Microsoft FrontPage?
Yes! All our Premium and Advanced hosting plans come with FrontPage 2000/2002 extensions at no extra charge. We also sponsor the Newbee FrontPage FAQ website which you may find helpful:

What sort of support can I expect from 1337hosts?
We pride ourselves on our unbeatable support service. We have developed a huge Web Hosting Support Manual which has in depth articles on all the features of your account. We encourage all our customers to become familiar with this and use its built in search facility to find help instantly.

Do you offer a guarantee?
Yes! We are so confident you will be happy with our web hosting services that we offer a 30 day, no quibble money back guarantee.

Can I have MP3's or Videos on my site?
Yes, provided you own the copyright to them..........

Can I have pornography on my web site?
No, we have a zero tollerance policy towards pornography and other adult related content.

Technical background FAQ

What sort of systems do you use?
All sites are hosted on rack mounted Pentium IV servers with a minimum 1GB RAM.

What backups do you run?
We store daily, weekly and monthly backups of each web site we host. Our servers also have spare disk drives installed so in the event of a hard disk failure we can restore all sites quickly.

What operating system are your servers running?
Our Premium and Advanced plans are hosted on servers running Apache web server under Red Hat Linux. This is a highly stable operating system, integral to our aim of achieving 100% uptime for your web site.

What sort of DNS system do you run?
We use a distributed DNS system with primary name servers in the USA and UK.

Many hosting companies run two name servers on the same server as your web site. You can spot these companies because they will give you DNS server names like dns12.hosting---company.com and dns13.hosting---company.com This is insecure, because if the web server goes down the DNS needs to propagate out when the system comes back on line.

Our DNS system continues to work regardless of any issues with your web site.

Some hosting companies will put two name servers on different physical servers in the same data centre. This is not sufficient because if they have servers in more than one data centre and the line to the first location goes down, all the sites they host will disappear from the internet.

Even having two name servers in different countries is not always enough if both are set to update from each other. When one goes down their is the risk that the other will update incorrectly.

By updating from one central server we avoid this problem. The master DNS server is protected by a firewall and sends updates to the servers that broadcast the DNS information to the Internet. This prevents the master zone file information being corrupted by worms, trojans or other exploits. In the event that the master DNS server fails we have a backup machine running in parallel.

Some of our competitors think this system is overkill, but you should take this as an indication of how seriously we treat the business of hosting your web site.

Can you change my MX record?
Yes, we can change your MX record so that your e-mail is directed to another mail server.
Note: If you choose this option it will disable all your e-mail accounts at 1337hosts.com.

Why is your bandwidth not "unlimited"?
When we set up 1337hosts we wanted it to be the most reliable and honest web hosting company on the Internet. Many companies quote "unlimited" or "unmetered" bandwidth allocations, but in the small print you will find that they have the right to remove your site without warning if you are using too much bandwidth. Put simply, this means they have a limit but they are not prepared to tell you what it is. They need to have this clause because bandwidth (or data transfer) costs money. The telecom companies that provide internet connectivity charge for every GB of transfer on their networks and many "unlimited companies" have found that they cannot sustain their service without regularly removing accounts.

1337hosts.com uses a proper, sustainable, business model which offers high bandwidth allocations to all our customers with no automatic removal of sites for exceeding their allocations. We tell you how much bandwidth you have and give you a meter (in your control panel) to monitor your use of it.

Billing FAQ

What credit cards do you accept?
We currently accept Paypal.

Can I pay by cheque
Yes, Contact me for further Info..

Can I pay in other currencies?
Yes, you will be given the choice of paying in US dollars, Canadian Dollars, UK pounds or Euros when you enter your credit card details.

How do I cancel my account?

Email me here, I will cancel it with immediate effect.

Why has my site been suspended?
The reason should be displayed in place of your web pages.

You have gone over your bandwidth allocation.
You should monitor your bandwidth usage through the control panel every week or so and contact us if you are likely to go over your limit.

Your credit card has failed.
If your credit card fails for monthly payments and you do not respond to our emails then we will suspend your site. Its possible we do not have an up to date email address for you. Please contact us if this happens. Sites suspended for non payment are deleted after 10 days unless you contact us to make other arrangements.

Your annual hosting plan has not been renewed.
We send out one reminder per week for six weeks prior to the renewal date of annual plans. If you have not renewed we suspend the site for 10 days and then delete it. By suspending the site, we hope you will contact us with an upto date email address.

www.1337hosts.com