Hosting Service Features

Hosting Service FeaturesAll hosting package features shown here are INCLUDED AS STANDARD !

Disk Space Quotas: Our hosting packages are allotted generous disk quotas (web space) to accommodate media-rich content which is now common on the World Wide Web, and the Internet. Your website files can be uploaded to your web space using either FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software or the File Manager in the client cPanel (webmaster control panel).

Disk space is used by static web content (e.g. HTML and PHP files), MySQL databases as well as Emails stored in IMAP folders and Inboxes.

The disk space quotas can be upgraded in 250MB units.

bandwidthabstractEach time any data is sent to or from your site, it is transferred across the Internet and this is referred to as 'data transfer' or 'bandwidth'. Our hosting packages come with generous monthly data transfer allowances, see the Hosting Packages page for details. Data transfer can be monitored day-to-day via the stats utility in your webmaster control panel (cPanel). All services contribute towards the monthly data transfer usage: all website traffic, email sending / receiving / downloading, FTP uploads and downloads.

(Strictly-speaking the term 'bandwidth' actually refers to the rate at which data can be transferred to and from the server. All of our servers have 100 mbps (megabit per second) port connections to the internet with no throttling applied. This ensures responsive data transfer).

cPanel - Webmaster Control Panel

Manage your hosting and webmaster facilities with an easy and feature-packed web based control panel. Using cPanel you can install many web applications, manage your email accounts, subdomains, MySQL databases, phpMyAdmin, FTP users, File Manager, Password Protected directories and so much more. We now provide the INSTALLATRON web application installer FREE via cPanel, providing a huge range of web applications for you to install / uninstall quickly and easily, with smart upgrade and management capabilities.

(Note: most of these applications will use up one MySQL database from your hosting package per installation).

PHP - Web Programming LanguagePHP 5.3.x Server including Zend Optimizer 3, GD 2 and Imagick. PHP is a powerful server-side scripting language ideal for the creation of dynamic data driven web sites, especially when used in conjuction with MySQL databases. PHP 5.2.x is currently installed on our web servers and includes the GD 2 graphics library, and the powerful PHP Imagick module allows PHP functions to interface directly with the Image Magick graphics tools. We also have Zend Optimizer 3 installed which improves PHP performance and security for complex scripts.

MySQL5 Databases

logo-mysqlMySQL is a truly powerful database engine designed to provide fast access to stored data. Databases can be created using the web master control panel (cPanel), and managed using phpMyAdmin, which is also accessible via cPanel. MySQL is used to store web content in an efficient and secure manner and is the database engine used by many popular web applications such as WordPress, Joomla, Magento, ZenCart, osCommerce, Moodle and many, many more.

The MySQL database engine has proved itself over the years, and is now accepted as a business-grade and enterprise level database server. MySQL is a central component of the widely used LAMP web application software stack - LAMP is an acronym for "Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP". Its popularity is closely tied to the popularity of PHP. MySQL is used in some of the most frequently visited web sites on the Internet, including Flickr, Nokia.com, YouTube, Wikipedia, Google and Facebook.

The Apache web server has consistently been the most popular web server on the Internet since April of 1996. The April 2013 Netcraft Web Server Survey found that almost 60% of the web sites on the Internet are using Apache, thus making it more widely used than all other web servers combined. The combination of Apache's reliability and flexibility will no doubt ensure that it continues to keep it's place as the top web server.

We currently have Apache 2.2 and 1.3 on different servers, although all newly commissioned servers are being installed with Apache 2.2.

All hosting packages include a number of POP3 and IMAP mailboxes for use with your domain name. This allows your domain name(s) to receive emails sent to addresses such as This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and the messages are collected in designated mailboxes on our server. Email can be retrieved from the mail server using either the POP3 or IMAP protocols.

The POP3 method is generally used for downloading messages from the mail server onto your computer (or mobile email application), and removes the messages from the mail server by default. Any mail folders created for filing messages away are created on the local computer or device only.

The IMAP method stores email messages on the mail server even though a copy the emails can be downloaded onto your computer (or mobile email application). This is very useful if you want to check your mailbox from more than one computer or device, or if more than one person need to check the same mailbox simultaneously. IMAP folders can be created to file messages away, and these folders also reside on the mail server. (An implication of using IMAP to bear in mind is that it uses up more disk space on your hosting account than POP3 because all messages are stored on the server until explicitly deleted).

All mailboxes created can also be viewed using our Webmail interface. This means that you can login to any of your domain's mailboxes via the web using a web address in the following format - http://www.mydomain.com/webmail. In effect Webmail uses the IMAP system, except you are viewing emails via web based pages rather than an email application on your computer or mobile device.

Email features such as Anti-virus filtering, Custom filter rules, SpamAssassin, Forwarding, MX records, SPF records, SMTP server (sending), Auto-responders are aslo included - AS STANDARD!

(If you are geeky enough, you may actually wish to know what the POP3 and IMAP acronyms stand for. POP stands for 'Post Office Protocol' and the '3' refers to version 3. IMAP stands for 'Internet Message Access Protocol'. There, now you know).

You can easily create sub-domains of your main domain name from your control panel. Sub-domains are in the format http://subdomain.yourdomain.com. This is useful if you wish to segregate and identify different sections of your website by host address, e.g. http://sales.mydomain.com, http://enquiries.mydomain.com, http://support.mydomain.com etc.

Sub-domains are created with their own content directory on the file system, and can be assigned unique FTP login details appart from the main account FTP login.