Couponstore.ORG Self-HelpCenter - "Getting Started Using your virtual server"

Contacting us and Tech Support
• Contact Information
• E-mail contacts
• Phone contact
• Tech Support Information
Brief Introduction (recommended forbeginners)
• Brief explanationabout your virtual server
• Brief glossary ofterminology
Working with your Virtual Server
• E-mail
• FTP
• Logging in with FTP

Contact information

E-mail contact is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
When contacting us with technical support questions, please give us the following:

• Your domain name
• Your e-mail address
• Your name
This information will allow us to bring up your records to help facilitate answering your technical support questions.
 

E-mailcontacts

SALES: seema@couponstore.org

Any questions regarding sales (server orders, special options, features, etc.) should be directed to the e-mail address above.

TECH SUPPORT: support@couponstore.org

Any and all technical questions (configurations, basic info., specific info., etc.) should be directed to the e-mail address above. Questions will be forwarded to the appropriate parties needed to answer your questions quickly. You can usually expect a response to your question(s) within a few minutes to several hours. Our support technicians answer e-mail 24 hours a day, so you should expect an answer relatively quick.

BILLING: billing@couponstore.org

Any questions regarding billing (changes, information, etc.) should be directed to the e-mail address above.

Phonecontact

PRE-SALES and Billing: 519-979-5496
Hours: weekdays - 9am-8pm EST

It is recommended that you e-mail any questions of a sales or billing nature to: seema@couponstore.org

 

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TechSupport Information

Please attempt to e-mail any tech support questions to us FIRST.
Tech support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via e-mail.
Please remember that these are self-service accounts, tech support is available mainly for technical oriented questions regarding configuration of your server/web site.

For tech support questions, we will do one of the following:

• tell you how to fix the problem
• fix it for you
• have one of our tech support personally call you

Reminder: Please try to e-mail us your questions first before calling for tech support.
 

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Brief explanation about your virtual server

Welcome to the wonderful world of web-hosting. If you are currently a customer, congratulations, you now have a very powerful tool for your web site needs.. a virtual server. We have provided the tools, the connectivity, and the server software to run and maintain an efficient web site, as if you were running your very own web servers, hence the name, virtual server. Our system administrators have engineered a fully functional virtual server for your usage. You, essentially, have access to all parts of your server, from configuration files to your own CGI-BIN. Access to your virtual server is provided 24-7in the form of, FTP for uploading your web site to your virtual server or modifying configuration files to your VSMT (Virtual Server Management Tool - commonly known as the "control panel") for web site administration/configuration through a graphical user interface developed by our system administrators. Your virtual server acts as a web server, mail server and FTP server, allowing you to utilize the functions of your web site to its fullest potentials through these conventions, as well as with all the utilities and tools provided by our system administrators that allow you to configure and modify settings for your site to achieve functions you normally can't find with some web hosting services.

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Brief glossary of terminology

If you are new to web hosting or the internet in general, here are a FEW of the terms you may want to learn.

• ISP - (Internet Service Provider) provides connectivity to the Internet, usually via modem and dialup lines (we DO NOT provide ISP services)
• IPP - (Internet Presence Provider) provides presences on the Internet, usually provides web hosting and e-mail services (this is what we do)
• WWW - (World Wide Web) refers to the vast web sites and such that span the Internet
• POP - (Post Office Protocol) physical e-mail accounts you log into with a username and password to pick up any e-mail sent/forwarded to that account
• Email Alias - aliasing allows you to have multiple e-mail addresses sent to a specific POP e-mail account (ie . pick up webmaster@yourdomain.com, sales@yourdomain.com, etc. from one POP account rather than from several separate ones
• Email Forward - forwarding allows you to have e-mail forwarded from a specific address or POP account to another POP account (ie. have all e-mail sent to webmaster@yourdomain.com sent to your POP account provided by your ISP)
• FTP - (File Transfer Protocol) this is how you will upload and download your web pages etc. to and from your computer to and from your virtual server
• ASCII - used in FTP and the WWW, this is a type of file, usually any kind of file that you can read (like a text file) falls under this classification (HTML files should be ASCII files)
• BINARY - used in FTP and the WWW, this is a type of file, usually any kind of file
• HTML - (Hyper-Text Markup Language) the name of the standard coding used to create web pages, most web pages are written/coded in HTML
• Domain - this is the convention used to access a web site (www.whatever.com , etc.) Domain names must be registered with InterNIC to be valid and usable on the internet
• Non-domain - this is usually a sub-site on someone's domain (www.whatever.com/sub site) Non-domains do not have to be registered with InterNIC
• InterNIC - the regulatory agency that handles the assignment and database tracking of active/inactive/available domain names.  Each country has their own NIC registry service for handling foreign (or domestic) domain names.
• Propogation - a period after a domain name is registered or transferred when the domain name is updated among all the name servers found on the Internet around the world. This period
  usually lasts 3-7 days and may result in visitors not being able to visit the domain name
  until the period is over.
The list could go on and on, but these are some of the standard terms that you may find yourself using when dealing with web hosting. We may expand the listing with other terminologies, if needed. Otherwise, we recommend perusing through the internet for some online resources that can help you with the terminologies, if you are not familiar with them.

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E-mail

E-MAIL (Electronic Mail) is used for communicating by "mail" with other people on the Internet. There are many e-mail programs currently being used on the Internet, please note that our tech support is versed in using Netscape Mail, Internet Mail, and Eudora Pro/Light and will not have information on how to configure/use other E-mail programs.
When setting up your e-mail program , the following settings will most likely be used when configuring the program.

Incoming (POP3) Server: yourdomain.com
(NOTE: DO NOT put 'www' or 'pop',etc. in front of the domain!)

Outgoing (SMTP) Server: yourdomain.com
(NOTE: DO NOT put 'www' or 'smtp',etc. in front of the domain!)
**SomeInternet Access Providers require you to use their SMTP server. 

POP3 account/user name: youraccountname
(This would be whatever account you configured in your control panel)

You will most likely be prompted for a password when you first try to log-in to your mail server. This password that it prompts for will be the one that you chose when you first set up that particular POP3 account through your control panel.
 

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FTP

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is used for transferring files (HTML pages, graphics, etc.) to/from your server.  We suggest using programs specifically designed for FTP'ing (transferring) your files. Listed below are some suggestions for FTP programs to use.  

For Windows (tm), we suggest the following ftp program: WS_FTP from Ip switch, Inc.
You can get a shareware (evaluation) copy of WS_FTP from: ftp://ftp1.ipswitch.com/pub/win32/ws_ftple.exe

For Macintosh (tm), we suggest the following ftp program: FETCH
You can get a copy of FETCH from:http://tucows.tierranet.com/mac/files/Fetch-3.0.3.hqx
 
 

Logging in with FTP

Based on the assumption you are FTP'ing with WS_FTP (as recommended above) the following section will give you a basic run-down on how to configure and use WS_FTP for transferring files.

1. You will need your initial e-mail from Couponstore.ORG containing "NEW SERVER INFORMATION". 
2. You will need to start up WS_FTP. You should first be prompted with a "Session" dialog box.
 

You will start configuring WS_FTP in the following areas:

• Profile Name: This is any name you wish to identify your ftp information.
• Host Name: Your IP address ("IP#" in your initial e-mail)
• Host Type: Automatic Detect
• User ID: Your login name ("Login" in your initial e-mail)
• Password: Password (BE SURE to put a check in the Save Password box)
• The remaining entries should remain empty.
 

- Click the "OK" button and WS_FTP should start logging you into your FTP site. If there are any login error messages in the message box in the lower part of the WS_FTP screen, please check your IP #, Login, and Password (the password is CASE sensitive, meaning 'YOURPASSWORD' is different from 'yourpassword', we suggest that you cut-n-paste your password DIRECTLY from the initial e-mail we sent you into the WS_FTP password area).

- Once you have correctly ftp'd to your server. You will see your server directories in the right-hand window.

1. Double click the 'www' directory.
2. Then, double click the 'htdocs' directory.
3. This is where you will ftp your files.
(Note: When setting up your HTML files,  BE SURE name your homepage (your main page) - 'index.htm'
Files are case sensitive. If you document says MYFILE.HTM then your file must be saved as MYFILE.HTM not myfile.htm.

Any subdirectories you would like to create may be created in the 'htdocs' directory.

• The 'MkDir' button creates a directory.
• The 'RmDir' button removes a directory.
 

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Telnet

Telnet is a very powerful tool for logging directly into a server to perform advanced (and some basic) featureslike compiling a program, archiving files, etc. Most likely, if you don't know what Telnet is.. you don't need it. Actually, most telnet features(like CHMOD, which is used to change file permissions) can be done through a good FTP program and through the virtual server control panel.
TELNET Access:
Telnet Access is ONLY available to Virtual Server #2 (reseller) accounts and above. If you have a Reseller account and would like telnet access, please send us a request at support@couponstore.org. 

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Windows, WS_FTP, Fetch, Thawte, Verisign,PGP, and any other company references are affiliated with their respective companies and
remain a copyright/trademark of said respective companies.  Couponstore.ORG claims no affiliation with any of the aforementioned companies nor
claims any warranty or support for any products mentioned herein, in regards to aforementioned companies.