Pre-Sales Questions

Your hosting fees are so low, what’s the catch?

There is no catch, we own our own servers which enables us to offer feature packed hosting at an awesome, low price. We host our own multiple websites on the same dedicated server we offer to you. We have guaranteed 100% uptime for your peace of mind and ours.

Are there any hidden fees in your hosting plans?

No.  Our small business web hosting services are $4.00, $9.00 or $14.00 per month and payable annually. We charge absolutely no set-up fees! The shopping carts included in our hosting plans are priced as listed. NO INSTALLATION FEES for first time installation!

Do you offer bi-annual payments for the Business and BizPlus Web Hosting Plans?

No, we feel that the annual rate is a reasonable investment for small starter businesses. To increase billing cycles would cause us to have to raise our prices, as it would increase our hours spent following up with clients and leave us with less time for customer service and technical support.

But what about if I want to move my existing website over to your server? Is there an extra charge then?

Not if you are capable of uploading your website yourself. If you do not currently use cPanel and require our help, we can move your website for you. There is a charge if you select this option. The charge varies depending on what type of programs you are running. We can evaluate your website prior to moving it so there will not be any surprise fees. The minimum fee for moving your site will be $25.00

I do not have a domain name, where do I start? I want to host with you.

This is simple. We can register your domain for you. We will request a prioritized list of your preferred business/domain names and we will check their availability and register the domain name that is available.

How long before I receive my log-in information?

Your account will be available within 24 hours from the time of purchase. If you do not
receive your welcome letter within this period of time, please contact us.

How long before I can upload my site?

As soon as you receive your welcome letter, you will be able to follow your site specific instructions and log into your account using the IP address, even before your DNS has not resolved.

Pre-Sales Questions

I see you offer Add-On Domains. What is that?

Add-On Domains allow multiple domains/websites to run on a single hosting account. An Add-On Domain is basically a separate domain that is added on top of your main domain’s hosting account. You create a sub directory within your main web hosting directory. PLEASE NOTE: The Add-On Domain shares all the same resources (disk space, bandwidth, emails, etc…) of the main site, but (and this is important) it does NOT have its own cpanel (web hosting manager).

Add-On Domains can be money savers and are beneficial when a hosting client does not use all the allocated space on their hosting plan for their main site. They may choose to add a blog or a personal site that will not take much disk space or bandwidth away from their main site.

If you register the domain name, www.DomainB.com, and desire it to be an Add-On Domain to www.DomainA.com you can access the add-on domain through the following: www.DomainB.com; www.DomainB.DomainA.com; www.DomainA.com/DomainB.

An Add-On Domain DOES require an independently registered domain.  Very Commerce does not pay the expense of registering your additional domain name as part of our small business hosting services.

The need for an independent domain is what separates an Add-On Domain from a Sub-Domain; a sub-domain does not require the registration of a separate domain account. If your current domain is www.DomainA.com, then you will need to register www.DomainB.com before we can apply it to your Add-On Domain.

Add-On Domains are applied to our small business hosting services as follows: Economy = 1 Add-On Domain; Business = 3 Add-On Domains; and Business Plus = 5 Add-On Domains.

Moving Existing Websites to Very Commerce

I already have a website, how do I move to you?

A.  Complete the following steps if you desire to move your website from your current host to Very Commerce by yourself..

1. Order your desired small business web hosting services.
2. Download a copy of your web site to your local pc.
3. Upload the copy of the site to your new hosting account.
4. If you had any databases on your old account, create dumps of them.
5. Restore the dumps at your new web hosting. This is done with phpMyAdmin in your new CPanel.
6. Transfer your domain name to our registrar or just change your DNS settings to the ones mentioned in our welcome email.

B.  If desired, you can have us move your website for you for a fee (recommended if you are moving a shopping cart* and are unsure how to perform database dumps).

1. Order your desired small business web hosting services
2. Contact us with your user name and password for the FTP access on your current website. If you have other user names and passwords (for example, to the admin area of your shopping cart or if your databases have a different set), send them as well.
3. Wait for us to access your files, create database dumps and move you to your new web hosting account.
4. After we are done, we will send your welcome letter with your temporary IP address which you can use to view your website and make sure everything is there and functioning.
5. Inform us of any missing files or errors so we can fix them.
6. Finally, transfer your domain name to our registrar or just change your DNS settings to the ones mentioned in our welcome email.

*Some shopping carts are not able to be moved to a new server, check with your current webhost or the person who installed your current shopping cart before attempting to move to a new account.

Changes to Existing Hosting Account

Yes, you can change your domain name on any existing hosting account at no cost, however, the username will remain the same. If you desire for your username to change with your website, then there is a fee applied of no less than $80.00. Changing the username requires deleting the current hosting account and creating a new hosting account. Your
databases, shop files (if a business), images, products, and anything else will have to be dumped and re-uploaded to the new hosting account.

Getting Started

How do I connect to my control panel?

You can connect to your control panel at http://yourdomain.com/cpanel; this information, along with your user name and password needed to connect, will be contained in your welcome letter.

Because the connection is encrypted, a pop up menu will ask you whether you trust our server and whether you would like to proceed. Choose “Yes” and proceed to your control panel. If you have a pop-up window blocker, you may want to turn it off prior to attempting to log into your CPanel. The pop up window should only appear once.

How do I upload my website?

1. Using the file manager built into your control panel (uploading through your web browser).
   ·  Connect to your control panel.
   · Click the “file manager” icon.
   · Go to your “www” directory, as it is the default directory where your HTML documents are stored.
   · Choose “upload files”, and choose the files (up to 12) that you wish to upload.
   · If you want to overwrite existing files with the same name, check “existing files”
   · Click “upload”, and the selected files will be uploaded to the selected directory.
2. Using an FTP client.
   · FTP clients have many features, and are very useful when uploading a large number of files.
   · A free FTP client is FileZilla
   · Instructions to upload files using an FTP client are included in your welcome letter.
3. Using Front Page
4. Using Dreamweaver

How long before my website is viewable online?

Once an account has been activated it takes up to 48 hours before the newly registered domain name (www.yourdomain.com) is online. The DNS information must have time to propagate. It does not matter where you register your domain name, the delay is always there. Until your domain name is viewable at the www.yourdomain.com recognizable address, you can access your site by an IP address which is specified in the welcome email you will receive when your account is activated.

E-Mail

How do I create an e-mail account?

1. Log-in to your control panel
2. Click on the “Mail” icon.
3. Click on “Add\Remove Accounts”
4. Click “Add Account”
5. Type the desired name of the account, the password and the quota.
6. Log-in to the newly created email account at: http://yourdomain.com/webmail

How do I configure my E-Mail Client to receive e-mail?

Thunderbird * You can download Thunderbird for free. Thunderbird has built in junk filters and is easy to use. It is very similar to Outlook Express. You can also use Gmail, Hotmail, MSN, AOL, or Yahoo! Mail with Thunderbird.

This link will walk you through installation and set up for Thunderbird. You can
import all of your settings from Eudora or Outlook. And here is the Thunderbird E-Mail FAQ.

Outlook

1. Open Outlook, and click on tools->accounts
2. Click Add->Mail
3. Enter your name as you would like it to appear in the “from” field of all outgoing mail.
4. Enter the email address you would like people to send email to.
5. Incoming (POP3) server: mail.yourdomain.com
6. Outgoing(SMTP) server: mail.yourdomain.com
7. Enter your username and password as defined in the welcome letter.
8. Click Finish.

Accepting Credit Cards and Securing your Website

What is the difference between a Merchant Account and a Payment Gateway? Do I need them both?

One of the most confusing credit card processing concepts for online merchants is the difference between the “payment gateway account” (the online card processor) and “internet merchant accounts”. Though these are two seperate components of credit card processing, they are both necessary and work together to handle payments automatically.

Commercially available shopping carts will typically have configuration settings allowing a number of gateway choices. An internet merchant will usually want to select the shopping cart and web site hosting company and then order their merchant account based on the gateways that are available in the shopping cart.

The following information diagrams the payment process from the time the order is
placed in the shopping cart to the funds being deposited in the merchant’s bank account.

Merchant Accounts are separate bank accounts for the approved merchant and are capable of receiving credit card payments from credit card providers. Internet merchant accounts do not usually hold funds for any extended period of time as your bank account may, but transfers payments to another bank account designated by the internet merchant on a daily basis.

A Payment Gateway is the online credit card processor or transaction handler which is capable of hooking into credit card accounts belonging to the online shopper and the merchant’s internet merchant account (above). The payment gateway handles the
verification and transfer requests. The term ‘account’ when used with “payment gateway” is not a funds holding account, but rather a “service account” that has a log in where you can configure your payment gateway settings.

In essence, you need both of a merchant account and a payment gateway in order to process credit cards online. Some start-ups have been known to get these two mixed up, meaning they carefully apply for a payment gateway, but did not begin by applying for the merchant account. This is why we have partnered with Authorize.Net® to bundle
both together to make things simpler for you.

Re-Printed in portion from Our Shop, for more detailed information, visit their website.

If I have a Merchant Account and Payment Gateway, do I still need a SSL Certificate?

Yes, SSL Certificates secure your website, thereby protecting your customer’s sensitive information (such as credit card numbers) from being intercepted by a third party. While the merchant account and payment gateway are secure, your website needs to be secure too, otherwise there will be a window of opportunity for someone to steal your customer’s credit card number.

What about shopping carts that have the SSL built right in?

Shopping carts are usually SSL ready, which means a SSL can be used with the software to secure the website. However, some shopping carts, such as SecureNetShop, process customer orders outside
of your website on their own secure server. In this case, the price of a SSL is built right and you usually need to pay a monthly or yearly fee to the shopping cart provider. Please note, it is still necessary to obtain a Merchant Account and Payment Gateway.

Shopping Carts

How do I know which shopping cart to choose? Is one better than the other?

We know that one of the biggest decisions in starting an online store is choosing your shopping cart. We have created our own shopping cart software comparison chart

detailing the pros and cons of the shopping carts that we offer. In addition, our shopping cart pages offer more detailed information.

Do you have any FAQs or online support for VeryCart™?

Yes. We do have a Frequently Asked Questions page for VeryCart™. We will add to it as our question base grows. If your questions cannot be found in the FAQ, please contact us.