FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions:)  This FAQ is a constant work in progress.  We will post questions here as we determine them to be 'Frequently Asked Questions', and we'll post the answer as time allows.  That may mean that there are Questions without answers yet, so check back from time to time.  Thank you.

Question) I'm trying to setup a CGI to forward form captures to email.
Question) What methods do you support for sending mail from forms on my site?
Question) What's the location of my server's "sendmail" program?
Question) I have a Perl Script that says to enter the location of my Sendmail program? 

Answer) We support several methods of sending mail from forms.  We recommend using FormMail.ASP or the built in email forms in Microsoft Frontpage.  You are free to use any other method that works for you, but FormMail.asp and FrontPage are the two recommended methods.

Most of our sites are hosted on Windows NT servers and 'sendmail' is referring to a UNIX server.  On our Windows NT servers, the mail sending software is sort of 'built in' so it's usually much simpler and external programs like Sendmail are not required.  We do offer UNIX / LINUX hosting as a custom service, but our standard package is really based around Windows NT hosting.

Most commonly, when we get these kinds of questions, people have just downloaded a Form-Mail program (very often it's formmail.pl by Matt Wright).  On NT, we recommend using formmail.asp by Geocel.com instread, which is an almost exact translation and it is setup on a form and it is posted to in almost the identical way.  The primary difference being that formmail.asp file will ask for the location of an SMTP server rather than the location of your sendmail application.

As well, since our Windows NT servers directly support Microsoft FrontPage, you can just simply insert a Form, and in the form properties tell it to save the results to any email address you want.  It'll be done automatically from there.  If you use Microsoft's FrontPage, this is the simplest method by far.

Q) I was about to register my name for $9 and then got a different price on the site?
Q) I am confused about pricing.  All I want to do is simply register domains?
Q) Is the total price per domain then $9 ?
Q) How much does it cost for multiple years?
Q) How much is it to renew the name for subsequent years?
Q) Do you sell .eu domains? When?
Q) Can you register .biz names yet?  Is this $9.00 also?
Q) Hello, how much is it to register a .ca domain name with you?
Q) I notice you support .cc names? How much is a .CC name?
Q) How much are .TV names?  .EDU Names?  .EU Names? .BIZ Names? .INFO Names?

A) OK.  Normal registration of .COM / .NET / .ORG names are just $9 per year, so nothing confusing about that. Registration and Hosting prices can vary depending on exactly what services you want.  For example, if you are just doing simple registration of a name, but won't be hosting it with us, but you want us to handle the email or to forward the URL hits to some other website somewhere, then we may charge a slightly higher price for the registration than if you are hosting it with us.  Also, the prices charged for .COM / .NET / .ORG are different than those charged for .CA or .CC names, plus many other international names (.TV for example) have prices quoted on a name by name basis - with valuable names like friends.tv or comedy.tv selling for many times what a non-descript .TV name otherwise would.

In a nutshell, if you are registering a normal .COM / .NET / .ORG name with us, it's $9 per year for that registration.  If you are just using our registration services, but then will be hosting it somewhere else and want us to 'forward the URL', then it's $12 per year.    Either way, it's a fraction of what Network Solutions charges for simple regisrations services.

Currently, names will automatically renew at the same price next year as you register them at - so $9 for .COM / .NET / .ORG names.  However a major portion of our cost is the fees paid to the REGISTRY itself.  If these fees go up, then our registration fees will go up as well.  We don't anticipate this to happen, since these fees have always come down.  You will pay the same or lower price for renewal as a new regisration is.

Currently, we only automate .COM / .NET / .ORG / .CA / .CC names.  We will add .TV .INFO .BIZ etc in the future, but we need to do it in an organized way with our upstream registrar partners and our downstream registration affiates.

Q) I am attempting to pay for a site but it will not take my credit card info.?
Q) For some reason my card is getting declined?
Q) I registered a domain earlier today and now I want to register a second one and my card is being declined?
Q) I want you to host my site.  Do you accept AMEX?

A) Our Credit Card Processor has sophisticated Anti-Fraud protection software to try and eliminate false charges.  This protects both the merchants (us) and the Card Holders (you).  However, sometimes the Anti-Fraud software get's confused and regects a transaction when it shouldn't.  Most commonly, we see this when a person puts though a charge for a domain name ($9) and then later the same day tries to buy another name.  The CC Processor sees two 'identical' charges and figures it's a mistake - with somone re-submitting an already paid for charge.   It fails to protect the customer from 'overpaying'.  The fix is to simply wait for several hours and try again.

Also, once the card is flaged by their computer as 'suspicious' which can happen if it thinks you're entering the wrong ZIP code or the wrong customer name, it may refuse all transaction that day from that card, even after you get the name / zip correct.  Again, it does this to try and protect everyone from a 'hacker' that's guessing at your zip code or your complete name spelling.

Q) I don't know how to create/upload my new site.
Q) Could  you please send me some information in regards to logging in and your FTP site?
Q) Please provide ftp access instructions so that I may start uploading my files for hosting.
Q) I have software to build a site now.  How do I do this and how do I upload it?
Q) I just signed on with your service, so I would like to know how to start uploading my webpages via ftp for you to host.

A) OK, first, thank you for your business!  :-)   Second, you can upload via FTP or FrontPage to our Windows NT servers.  FTP is more 'low level' with more control over what you do, while FrontPage is prefered by some people instead.  Whatever method you choose, we support it. When you register a new name and set it up for hosting, you'll recieve an email message that reads simular to the following.

"Hello.  Thank you for your order for Domain Name Registratin and Hosting with 9DollarDomains.com.  We are pleased to notify you that your choosen domain name has been registered and has been setup for hosting on our servers.  As soon as the WHOIS datebase is updated (updates are started at 5 AM and 5 PM dailey) your domain name will be findable and you'll be able to upload your content to your site.

To upload your content, point your FTP program (like CuteFTP) or Microsoft FrontPage with the following settings.

Host Address: www.yourdomainname.com
User Name: yourusername
Password: yourpassword

The only real rules to remember is that your main page (the page our servers will feed when someone simply lands on your site) needs to be called "index" or "default" and end in .htm or .html.  Any other pages can be any valid HTML filename, but the first page (your 'homepage') needs to be default.htm, default.html, index.html or index.htm"

Once you see this email, you know you are good to go, so simply wait till www.yourdomainname.com shows you an 'under construction' page, which let's you know the domain information has been propogated around the world in the WHOIS database, and then you can upload your content.

If the 'under construction' page isn't visible within 24 hours, email us as soon as possible to find out why.  It's probably simply that your registration missed a cutoff time and it'll be there on the next update, but it may also be a typo somewhere.  Computers are really, really dumb, so a single typo will stop the whole process from working and our techs are still human (and make human typos from time to time.)

Q) If I registered a domain on your site would it be possible to host the webpage files on a free-based hosting service? (ie: www.domain.com  gets its files from www.geocities.com/area51/somewhere/) Or do you support domain forwarding? I'm not sure as how this domain/hosting system works.

A) Yes, we support it and Yes, that's exactly how it works. You register a domain name with us and you provide the URL of some webpage somewhere that you want the users to land on.  We tell our servers to forward all hits to that domain name to that website. 

Q) How long will it take after I provide you the information?

A)  It should be 12 to 18 hours, although sometimes it can be 24 to 36 hours.  If it's longer than that there may be a typo or other problem so email us and inquire what's up to make sure there is no mis-communications.  As always, please make sure you include your domain name in all emails.  We prefer the subject is simply MYDOMAINNAME.COM so we can easily track the messages.

Q) Do you offer custom written CGIs, modified perl modules, installed MOD_perl, SQL, TELNET and SHELL ACCESS, plus I need at least 500 Megs of space, unlimited bandwidth (or at least 50 Gigabytes ever week) and a private SSL certificate for less than $10 a month? 

A) No.  :-)  We offer really good deals, but we're not crazy.  There is really no such thing as 'unlimited bandwidth' for $10 / month anyway.  A T1 line cost a provider $1000 or so, and a single website could potentially saturate it.  Obviously no one stays in business charging less than it costs to provide the services.  For almost every site we've ever hosted, this is a total non-issue.  Our standard sites can handle as many separate pages and graphics as you need, and allow as many hits and as much transfer as you'll ever need.  Only a couple percentages of sites will need more than our standard guidelines, and these sites are usually Adult and/or Multimedia sites that end up with millions of visitors and many GB of transfers.

Q) If I register for example www.mydomain.com can I also use mydomain.com without the "www" in front ?

A) Yes you can.  Our 'standard' packages support both mydomain.com and www.mydomain.com URL's.  Many hosting companies only support names with the WWW. hostname, but with sites hosted on our servers, the 'www.' is optional, so you can simply refer to your site as mydomain.com.

Q) We do our own hosting, including running our own DNS servers. Can we simply register domains with you and point them to our own DNS servers?

A) Yes you can.  If you want to use us simply as your registrar, with no hosting, you can do that.

However, if you are a web-designer that wants to sell and design sites for a living, but who doesn't really want to get dragged down with the complexity and cost of your own T1 / servers, we also offer discount hosting and private branded hosting with bulk discounts.

Q) You said I had to modify the "DNS" server information to get my already registered Domain Name hosted with you.  What specific DNS information will you be looking for?

A) Every domain name needs to point to at least two DNS servers, which contain the SOA (Source Of Authority) records for the domain.  If we are hosting the domain, then these SOA records must reside on our servers.  When we register a domain for hosting on our servers, we automatically put our DNS information in the SOA records. If you have a domain already registered with another registrar, you can either transfer the registration to us, or simply put our DNS server information in the record.

Q) Can you tell me how modifications to domain contacts and so on are done?
Q) I need to know what information I need if I have to make an update to the whois record with internic.
Q) Is there a cost for changing the dns entry at a later time?

A)

Q) How do I set up the e-mail accounts?

A)

Q) The Affiliate Program sound exciting.  How does it work?

A) Simply put, everyone who registers with our affilate program can earn credits for referring people to our site.  We pay these credits simply for each 'hit' that's refered to our site from yours, plus we pay these credits for each purchase made from these referals.  Depending on a number of factors, you can earn up to $9 credit for each purchase your referrals make! 

Q) I received the March statement. It shows $11.98 for hosting, I thought the cost was only $5.99 a month.

A)  On your particular plan, we've charged you $11.98 every two month's to cut down on the Bank's per-transaction fees.  This charge on your March statement would have been for two month's hosting fees, and the next charge shouldn't be till May.

Q) Is it possible for me to mail a payment ?

A) Yes you can, but you'll need to be on the Annual plan.   Sending in payments via mail is a fairly manual process, since we can't actually register the name until we've been paid for it.  Normally, this is done via a credit card, and the actual registration of the domain is fairly automatic.  On a mail in plan, we have to wait for your funds to get here and have to make sure they clear, so a Money Order is quickest.  If you want to mail in your payments, email us for more details.

Q) Hello, I already have hosting setup with another provider.  If I were to register it with you and provide my own hosting, would be any extra charge to do this.

A) Currently, there are no extra charges for this.   You can use us simply as your registrar and supply the DNS information for your hosting.  When we register the name for you, the DNS servers you supply will be entered as the DNS servers on record and whatever hosting setup there will be in effect.

Q) I have just received a deactivation notice from Network Solutions regarding my domain name?

A) OK.  First, letting us know as soon as possible is the best step.  As indicated with our offer, you don't have to pay anything to Network Solutions when we register the name, or even when you transfer and host a registration to us.  However, some names originally registered with Network Solutions will still crunch on through their billing system and will still get invoices and deactivation notices spit out a year later.  It is important to let us know this so we can make sure it's their error and not ours.  If it's their error, then we can all ignore it and it'll be of no consequence.  However, if it's our error, then the domain name will become deactivated!  If it is deactivated, it's not the end of the world - it simply needs to be paid for to Network Solutions, but the site will be non-active for a day while this happens, so we want to avoid this nasty surprise.

Q) After regestering the name, I noticed I mispelled the domain name. Can I fix this?

A) If we've already registered a name, it's too late.  We can cancel one name and register another name, but we have to pay our upstream registrar at the time of registration so once you've submitted a registration and payment, there are no refunds and there is simply no way technically of going back.  Not that this is a huge deal, since registering the correct spelling is only $9 for a standard .COM anyway.

Another thing to consider is that common misspellings can be valuable names anyway.  If you are receive.com, it may not be a bad idea to register recieve.com since a sizable percentage of people are going to mistype it and you still want them to land on your site.

Q) I am interested in acquiring a .CA domain name. I do not own a company nor run any type of business that has to do with my domain name choice. Is this a problem?

A) .CA names are allowable for Canadian Citizens as well, so this is not a problem.  Of course, you are unlikely to be allowed to squat on someone else's name - good faith / bad faith registration rules are still in effect - so you will not get to keep pepsi.ca no matter if Pepsi Cola have neglected to register it or not, but pretty much anything else you want it allowable with .CA's now.

Q) I want to transfer my domain registration to you.
Q) How do I transfer my domain name to your servers?
Q) I registered my name already at Network Solutions for $70 and then found you at $9!  I know I can't get my money back, but how do I transfer to you for future years?

A) If you want to transfer a domain from Network Solutions to us - either for hosting or for simple registration - all you have to do is email us requesting that.  Currently, transfering names from one registrar to another is a manual process, since there are several steps involved.

When we recieve a transfer request, the 'gaining registrar' (us in this case) submits a transfer request to the 'loosing registrar' (Network Solutions in this example).  The 'loosing registrar' will then email the Admin contacts for the domain asking if this transfer is really what they want.  If they don't get a YES reply in a few days, the transfer is cancelled.  If they do get a YES reply in the required time, then the transfer will compete as requested.  We will then charge your credit card $9 for the transfer, which will extend the registration by one year from whenever it is scheduled to end.  This means that if it's January and your domain is scheduled to expire in July, the new registration will expire the following July (next year).

NOTE: DO NOT WAIT TILL THE LAST MOMENT TO TRANSFER!   Once you get a renewal invoice from your current registrar, it is unlikely that they will process the transfer soon enough to have it take effect before the name expires.   This 'stalling tactic' is effective, since once your domain expires there is simply no choice except to pay for the renewal with the current registrar.  From that point, it's still quite possible to then transfer the registration to us and again, the transfer will renew and extend the registraton for an additional year on top of the new expiry date.

Q) I would like FrontPage Extensions to be enabled on the site.
Q) What is the FrontPage extensions that everyone talks about?

A) FrontPage is a very commong page layout / HTML editor from Microsoft.  It's part of the Microsoft Office, plus it's available separately as a stand alone program.  While many people have their own favorite HTML editor that they swear by, FrontPage is a solid performer and is very, very common and widely supported.

FrontPage Extensions are server-side additions that allow simple 'components' to add things like Banners, Maquis, FormMail and Mouse-0ver effects that are normally only possible with CGI's or JAVA.  With FrontPage, you can simply insert these built-in components and have them work for you in a relatively simple method.

As well, the FrontPage Explorer will help organize and track your site as it grows, and will greatly reduce the chance of a broken line.   For example, if you choose to rename a page or a graphic, the FrontPage Explorer will warn you of any links that will be broken in the process, and will even re-link all the affected links in your site automatically if you choose.

Q) I had a problem uploading my pages with FrontPage 2000?
Q) What's the difference between 'opening a web' and 'publishing a web' in FrontPage?

A)

Q) When I use FrontPage Express to try and use the FrontPage Extensions, it doesn't work right?
Q) How do I upload with FrontPage Express?

A) FrontPage Express (which is a free HTML editor) and Microsoft FrontPage are two totally different animals.  FrontPage Express is provided free by Microsoft and is much simpler in capabilited than most other HTML editors including Microsoft's FrontPage.  Nontheless, FrontPage Express is still quite capable of helping you design a nice site, just that it doesn't contain all the features and capabilities of the full version of FrontPage.

Likewise, Netscape contains a free HTML editor - Netscape Composer.  Many very nice sites have been crafted with these free programs, and then uploaded with free FTP software.  While you can certainly do more with more advanced software, it's quite possible to produce competent sites with no software investment.

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