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Get started with your new Fasthosts account
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Get started with your new Fasthosts account
Table of contents
Get started with your new Fasthosts account.........................................................................................................1Table of contents ......................................................................................................................................................1
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................................2Your control panel ......................................................................................................................................................2Preparing your domain name....................................................................................................................................3Setting up your email .................................................................................................................................................4
Adding a new mailbox ..............................................................................................................................................5
Using your new email address .................................................................................................................................7
Creating and uploading your website ....................................................................................................................10Creating your website with SiteBuilder...................................................................................................................11
Uploading your website with FTP...........................................................................................................................13
Your test domain ....................................................................................................................................................16
Where to find additional help and assistance .......................................................................................................17Glossary of terms .....................................................................................................................................................17
Get started with your new Fasthosts account
Introduction
Welcome to your new Fasthosts account.
Before we begin, we recommend you print the welcome email that we sent when you
opened your account. This includes important information, such as your account login
details.
Your control panel
Your new Fasthosts account can be managed through your online control panel. This
control panel provides full access to your account, and allows you to setup and maintain
the services you use, such as your email addresses, SiteBuilder, databases, website
optimisation, and blogs.
To log into your Fasthosts control panel open your web browser and visit
http://www.fasthosts.co.uk, then click on Customer Login at the top of the page.
Enter your username (this is most likely your email address) and password and click the
Login button.
Note: The Fasthosts control panel is hosted on an encrypted server to
protect our customers’ personal and business data.
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Get started with your new Fasthosts account
Don’t worry if you ever forget your login password. You can reset it by clicking on
Forgotten your password?
Preparing your domain name
When you opened your Fasthosts account, you told us which domain name you want to
use for your website and email. If you registered a new domain name this will also be
configurable in your new account.
You need to make sure your domain name points to your new account, otherwise your
website visitors won’t be able to see your website and you won’t receive their emails. It will
depend whether you bought your domain through Fasthosts or another registration
provider as to the steps you need to take to do this:
I registered a new domain name with Fasthosts
When you opened your account, we registered your new domain name straight away for
you. You don’t need to do anything else to ensure your domain works.
Important: It can take up to 72 hours for your domain name to become fully
active.
I am transferring my domain to Fasthosts
Full details on transferring domain names are available in the following guide:
https://help.fasthosts.co.uk/euf/assets/pdf-guides/transfer-domain.pdf
I chose to leave my domain name with its current provider
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Get started with your new Fasthosts account
If you’d prefer to keep your domain registration with your current provider,
you can still use it with your new Fasthosts account. Simply ask your domain
registration provider to change the domain’s nameserver records to:
• ns1.livedns.co.uk
• ns2.livedns.co.uk
If your registration provider supports more than two nameservers, you can also ask them
to set the optional third nameserver to
• ns3.livedns.co.uk
Important: It may take up to 72 hours before all ISPs know that your
website and email are now hosted with Fasthosts, so not everyone will see
your new website straight away.
Setting up your email
Fasthosts offers four different types of email address, and you can add any of these to
your Fasthosts account.
Mail forwarder
Automatically forwards email directly to any other email address that you specify. For
example: You could set new.business@yourdomain.com to forward to
sales@yourdomain.com.
Quick tip: You can also set up a “catch-all” email address in your Fasthosts
control panel to forward any mail sent to email addresses that do not exist
on your domain, to a mailbox of your choice.
Standard mailbox
A POP3 / IMAP mailbox that is compatible with email software such as Windows Mail,
Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird and Mac OS X Mail, and provides Webmail
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access.
Advanced mailbox
Ideal for most people's needs, the Advanced mailbox takes the Standard mailbox's
features and adds:
• Virus and spam protection
• Roaming SMTP – You can use Fasthosts mail servers for outgoing mail, rather
than your broadband provider’s. This means when you’re using different
connections (ideal for laptop users) you don’t need to change your SMTP settings.
• 1 GB storage space
• Direct Mailbox Control Panel access, which enables you to configure email
settings quickly, without needing to access your main hosting control panel. Ideal
to delegate mailbox control to staff or colleagues.
Microsoft Exchange® mailbox
Business-grade email with optional mobile push email. Features include:
• Shared contacts, calendaring, tasks and public folders
• Free Outlook 2007 software
• Outlook Web Access web mail
• ActiveSync and Outlook Mobile Access
• Microsoft Exchange Direct Push for Windows mobile devices or Good Mobile
Messaging. Pushes email directly to your Pocket PC, Windows Mobile or Palm
device
• POP3 and IMAP support
• 2 GB storage space
• Direct mailbox control panel access.
Adding a new mailbox
Before you can use the email facilities included with your account, you need to create your
mailbox through your Fasthosts control panel.
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Step 1 Log in to your Fasthosts control panel and click on Email & Web Hosting.
Step 2 Click on the domain name you would like to add the new email address to.
Step 3 Click on the Email tab.
Step 4 A list of any mailboxes created on your domain will be displayed. Click the Add Mailbox
button.
Step 5 Select the type of mailbox you would like to create.
Step 6 Enter the email address you wish to create, and choose a display name for the mailbox.
This is the name most people will see when they receive an email from you.
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Step 7 Choose a password for your mailbox, and retype it to confirm there are no mistakes. Make
a note of this password; you’ll need it when setting up your email software. When you are
done, click Create Mailbox.
Your new mailbox will be created and you will receive an on-screen confirmation
message. You need to repeat this process for each email address you would like to use
on your domain.
Using your new email address
There are three methods of connecting to your new mailbox to send and receive email.
The first is by using email software installed on your computer. The second is using our
online Webmail facility through your web browser. The third is using a mobile device.
Email software provides more features than Webmail, and you only need to be
connected to the web to receive and send mail, you can read and compose mail offline.
You can set up several mailboxes in the software, and it is easy to backup and restore
your emails, contacts, calendar, and sent items. You are also not limited by the number of
messages you can store, or the size of attachments, providing you have the space on your
computers’ hard disk.
Webmail, however, is an advanced interface with all the features most users would need.
Because it is an online facility you can use it from any computer anywhere in the world,
making it ideal for users who travel regularly or use more than one computer.
You can also use your mobile device, providing it has support for POP / IMAP email.
Users of Microsoft Exchange mailboxes can get their email pushed directly to the device
with Direct Push (for Windows Mobile devices) or by using Good Mobile Messaging.
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Using email software
Email software is widely available, and it will depend on which operating system you use
on your local computer as to which software you may choose. Some examples of
available software are:
For Windows Computers
• Outlook
• Outlook Express
• Windows Mail
• Thunderbird
For Mac OS Computers
• Thunderbird
• Mac Mail
• Entourage
We have created a guide for each mailbox type, which covers configuring the most
popular email software to use your new email address.
Standard Mailbox Email Software Setup Guide:
https://help.fasthosts.co.uk/euf/assets/pdf-guides/Standard-Mailbox-Setup-Guide.pdf
Advanced Mailbox Email Software Setup Guide:
https://help.fasthosts.co.uk/euf/assets/pdf-guides/Advanced-Mailbox-Setup-Guide.pdf
Microsoft Exchange® Mailbox Email Software Setup Guide:
https://help.fasthosts.co.uk/euf/assets/pdf-guides/MSExchange-Mailbox-Setup-Guide.pdf
Using the online Webmail
There are two types of Webmail facility, Fasthosts Webmail and Outlook Web Access. If
you use a Standard or an Advanced mailbox, then you need to use Webmail, while
Outlook Web Access is available for Microsoft Exchange® mailboxes.
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Webmail for Standard / Advanced mailboxes
Fasthosts Webmail allows you access to send/receive emails through any web browser,
and provides all the tools you need to administer and maintain your mailbox. Using
Webmail you can do the following:
• View your emails
• Reply to and create new emails
• Move emails between folders
• Update your address book
• Set up auto-responders
Fasthosts Webmail also provides the following features for users of Advanced mailboxes:
• Calendar and Tasks.
• Modify auto-responder settings.
• Spam filtering settings.
Step 1 You can access your webmail by visiting http://webmail.livemail.co.uk or you can access
webmail using http://webmail.yourdomain.com (Replacing yourdomain.com with your
actual domain name).
Step 2 Enter your email address and the mailbox password in the text boxes provided.
Step 3 Select which interface you wish to use from the drop down menu.
There are three types of Webmail interface, the advanced option which is better for
Internet Explorer or Firefox, the Simple version for any modern browser, or the Basic view
which has been designed for any other browser.
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Step 4 Click the Log in button to access your Webmail.
Outlook Web Access for Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes
Outlook Web Access allows you to connect to a Microsoft Exchange mailbox to send and
receive email through your Web browser. Outlook Web Access includes all the features of
the Webmail facility, but also allows you to:
• Create rules that can be used to automate tasks as emails arrive, such as moving
emails from a particular email address into a specific folder, or forwarding emails
to another email address.
• Administer and maintain public folders, including calendars, contacts, tasks and
email folders.
It is recommended that you access the secure Outlook Web Access interface at:
https://exchange.livemail.com. You can also login to Outlook Web Access at:
http://exchange.yourdomainname.com (Replacing yourdomainname.com with your actual
domain name).
There are two versions of Outlook Web Access, depending on the browser you use—
Premium and Basic. Premium functionality is only available to users of Internet Explorer 6
SP1 (Service Pack 1), or later. Basic functionality is available to users of any current web
browser.
Creating and uploading your website
Publishing your website is easy, and you have two different ways to do it:
• Use SiteBuilder, our easy online website creation tool.
• Create your website on your PC, and then upload it using FTP.
Important: You can only use one of these options at a time. If you try to
use both, you may lose some of your files or damage your website.
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Creating your website with SiteBuilder
SiteBuilder is a web-based utility that allows you to create websites without the need to
learn the HTML language or web design skills, or install any special software onto your
local computer. SiteBuilder comes with ready-made templates that can be modified with
text or images, allowing you to create a website that suits your needs.
SiteBuilder is offered in three packages (10, 25 or unlimited pages), to fit the size of your
website. Should your website grow, you can always increase the size of your SiteBuilder
package along the way.
Activating SiteBuilder on your domain
Step 1 Login to your Fasthosts control panel and click Email & Web Hosting.
Step 2 Locate your domain in the list and click on it.
Step 3 Click on the SiteBuilder icon.
Step 4 Choose a username and password for your SiteBuilder login, and confirm the password in
the Re-type Password text box.
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Note: The username must be completely unique on our system, so if
another customer has chosen the username already you will need to select
another.
Click on Set up SiteBuilder to add the product to your account.
Step 5 If there are any charges confirm them by clicking the Order button.
SiteBuilder will be added to your domain on the lowest plan available. You can upgrade
this later on through your control panel if you require more pages.
Logging in to SiteBuilder
You can log into SiteBuilder at http://sitebuilder.livedns.co.uk/ or
http://sitebuilder.yourdomainname.com (replacing yourdomainname.com with your actual
domain name).
You will be asked to enter a User ID and Password, so enter the username and
password you created when activating SiteBuilder through your Fasthosts control panel.
Further help and assistance
SiteBuilder has a comprehensive help system, which shows you how to build and maintain
your website. You can find it when logged in to SiteBuilder by clicking the yellow question
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mark in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
Uploading your website with FTP
If you’ve already created your website in desktop web editing software, or have a local
copy of your website, you can upload it using FTP.
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is a method of connecting to your web hosting
server to upload and update your website. You will need special FTP software installed on
your local computer in order to do this. There are plenty of different FTP applications
available, and all perform the same task, including:
• FileZilla
• SmartFTP
• WiseFTP (provided free of charge from your Fasthosts control panel)
• CuteFTP
• WS_FTP
• Dreamweaver
• CyberDuck (MAC OS only)
Quick tip: If you don’t already have any FTP software, Fasthosts provide a
free copy of Wise-FTP which you can download and install from your
control panel.
Internet Explorer also has basic FTP capabilities built in, making it as easy as dragging
and dropping files from one folder to another.
Your FTP connection details
Once you have selected and installed your FTP software, you can use one of the following
hostname / IP address to connect to your FTP space.
• ftp.yourdomain.com (replacing yourdomain.com with your own domain name)
• ftp.livedns.co.uk
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Get started with your new Fasthosts account
• 213.171.193.5
You also need to know your FTP username (typically your domain name) and password,
which are available through your Fasthosts control panel.
Setting or changing your FTP password
Before you connect to your FTP for the first time you need to set your FTP password. It is
also a good idea to change your FTP password regularly for extra security.
Step 1 Log in to your Fasthosts control panel and click on Email & Web Hosting.
Step 2 Locate and click on your domain name.
Step 3 Click on the FTP icon.
Step 4 Make sure the Master tab is selected, and click Set Password.
Step 5 Enter your new password in the Choose Password text box, and confirm it in the Re-type Password text box then click Save Password.
Your new password will be saved, and may take a few minutes to register before you are
able to login to the FTP with it.
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Uploading your website
After connecting to your web space with an FTP program, you should see the following
directories listed:
• htdocs: All your web content should be stored in this directory, or a sub-directory
of this. Your home page should be within this directory and should be named
index or default. The htdocs folder contains a folder called cgi-bin, which is for
files that require execute permissions. For example Perl or Python scripts, or
compiled CGI. HTML and PHP files will not work if placed in this directory.
• logfiles: The logfiles directory contains the raw logfiles for your domain. This is
where any monitoring software such as Matrixstats will get the information needed
to show you website statistics. You should not upload any files to this directory.
• private: This directory contains private files that are not accessible to anyone
accessing your site from the Internet. You should use it to hold information that
the site needs to run, but which is not displayed (e.g. files and databases
containing the names of users and their passwords). Any scripts running on your
site have access to this directory.
What to call your home page
When someone visits a folder on your website, the webserver will look for the default
document within your htdocs folder. Our webservers are configured to look for a file called
index or default, to display as your home page.
While it is good practice to have just one default file within your htdocs folder, if you have
more than one, the server will display whichever is highest on its precedence list. The
order that it chooses a default page is slightly different, depending on the type of server
you are using.
Below is a list of default files, with the highest priority at the top.
• default.html (Static HTML page)
• default.asp (Microsoft Active Server Pages)
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• index.htm (Static HTML page)
• index.html (Static HTML page)
• index.php (PHP page)
• index.pl (PERL page)
• default.aspx (Microsoft ASP.NET page)
Your test domain
Fasthosts provides a test domain for you to use while your domain name is becoming
active on your new hosting account.
The test domain is a web link which points to your web server, and is independent from
your own domain name. Its main purpose is to allow you to visit your website without
having to use your domain name, so you can test your hosting account before you point
your domain to Fasthosts. Simply enter the test domain URL into your web browser’s
location bar, and you will be able to see if your site is working properly and correct any
issues or problems before you start directing your visitors to the new server.
Your test domain link is available from your Fasthosts control panel.
Finding your test domain
Step 1 Login to your Fasthosts control panel and click Email & Web Hosting.
Step 2 Locate and click on your domain name.
Step 3 Scroll to the bottom of the Package Overview page, and click on Enable.
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Your test domain will be generated and displayed in your control panel.
Where to find additional help
Fasthosts provide a comprehensive support site, complete with a searchable knowledge
base and various guides and manuals. The support website is available by clicking
Support from your Fasthosts control panel.
If you don’t find the help you require in the support site, our helpful support staff are on
hand 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to handle your query by phone or email. Details
of how to contact us are also available in the support website.
Glossary of terms
While setting up and maintaining your hosting services and domain name, you may come
across a few terms that you are unfamiliar with. This glossary describes some of these
terms, with the aim of making the process a little clearer.
Alias
Emails and website requests sent to the alias will be forwarded to the parent domain and
any changes made to the parent domain will be mirrored in the alias.
Catch-all forwarder
Also known as undeliverable email handling, the catch-all forwarder simply catches mail
sent to email addresses that don’t exist on a domain, and forwards the caught messages
to an address that does exist. Catch-all forwarders can be useful for catching genuine
email which is sent to misspelt addresses, but can also increase the level of spam
received.
Domain / Domain Name
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A domain name is essentially a signpost on the Internet. Almost every website you've ever
been to, and every email you've ever composed, has used a domain name in its address.
People register domain names in order to 'stake a claim' to a particular name -- whether
for business or personal reasons. Once a domain name is registered to a person or
company, it is that person's to use exclusively as long as they continue to pay the yearly
renewal fee and abide by the terms of use.
DNS – Short for Domain Name System
DNS is a method for resolving human friendly domain names to numerical IP addresses.
DNS uses a database to map a host name, such as www.yourdomain.co.uk, to the IP
address of the machine that hosts the site. DNS is built on the notion that some of the
server’s are “authoritative” for certain domains. There is a distributed name server
hierarchy, beginning with the A Root Server and ending at the thousands of nameservers
active on the internet. This ensures that the naming and directing system will work the
same from anywhere. For example www.google.com will translate to 209.85.171.100.
Email with web forwarding
Space on a server where you can store email content, including email accounts and the
space to store emails. The website records (A Records) will point to another destination of
your choice. There is no FTP space associated with this type of account.
Forwarder
An email forwarder simply forwards email received to one address to another. For
example you could set up you@yourdomain.com to forward to you@hotmail.com.
FTP
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) allows you to easily transfer files to and from your web space
to publish your website.
Hosting
Space on a server specifically for website or email content.
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HTML
HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the name given to the code that tells web
browsers how to display a page. An HTML document contains the text displayed on a
page, along with a set of tags to determine how to layout and display the page.
IP address
Numerical address of a server on the internet. They usually take the form
123.123.123.123.
ISP
An Internet Service Provider (ISP) is a company who provide an internet connection. The
company who supplies your broadband or dialup account is your ISP.
Mailbox
A mailbox is used to store email on the mail server, until you receive the messages to your
local computer. Each email address has its own mailbox.
Nameserver
Nameservers will resolve a human friendly address into a numerical IP address and will
guide browsing machines to the server hosting your website using DNS.
POP3
Short for Post Office Protocol version 3, POP3 is the standard method that most
mailboxes use to download mail to your email software.
Propagation
Propagation is the time for all outdated DNS information to be cleared from all hosts and
ISPs across the internet. This can take up to 72 hours for all content across the internet to
be updated.
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Registrant
The person or company who registers a domain name. The domain name is legally
registered to the registrant.
Registrants Agent / Registrar
The agent of a registry that can make changes to the record of a domain name. The
company through whom you registered the domain name is the registrar.
Registration period
The length of time you are able to register a domain name for. The registration period
varies for different domain types. You are able to register top level domain names such as
.com, .net and .org for between 1 and 10 years.
Registry
The company responsible for the administration of the top-level domain database. Any
changes the registrar requests to the domain name are made by its registry.
Registry settings
Any changes to your domain name (such as changing the DNS, or contact details for a
domain) will result in a change being made at the registry.
SMTP
Short for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, SMTP is the standard method used by email
software to send mail. In your email software you specify an SMTP server to use to send
the mail.
Transfer
Move the records of a domain name to another registration provider.