Setup and Billing

How much does it cost?
Prices start at $14.95 per month Canadian, which is under $10 US (depending on the current exchange rate of course). Click here for more details.
How do I sign up?
It couldn't be easier. Go to the signup page and follow the instructions. You'll need to agree to our terms of use, then you'll fill out a form and actually create your new account, and then you'll choose a payment option. Your account is created immediately but you cannot fully access it until we receive your completed paperwork. You can expedite this process by sending us a temporary fax copy while the original is in transit in the mail. Our fax number is (250) 383-6698. Please keep in mind that you must send us the original signed form for your account to remain active.
What are my payment options?
Every islandhosting.com account must provide either a credit card,which will be charged automatically each month, or a voided cheque if they prefer to pay by Electronic Funds Transfer. An invoice will be emailed to you on the first of each month that details the previous month's charges.
Can I pay with cash or cheque?
Cash or cheques are only accepted when you pay your initial setup fee. Recurring monthly fees must be paid via credit card or electronic funds transfer (automatic bank withdrawal).
Can I pre-pay for several months at a time?
Since your recurring fees can vary depending on the number of domains, POP boxes, and bandwidth used, this wouldn't make much sense.
How do I cancel my account?
If you haven't already sent in your authorization form and setup fee, you don't need to do anything at all. The account will be deleted automatically. If the account has already been activated, however, we'll need a request from you in writing (a fax is sufficient). An email request is not sufficient as email is easily forged. Our fax number is (250) 383-6698.
The initial setup fee is non-refundable.
How is my bill calculated?
Your first month's statement is prorated to match your account activation date. If you open your account half way through the month, your first bill will be smaller then normal.
After that, there is no prorating at all. Each bill is generated on the first of the month for the previous month, and you are charged according to the current resource usage (ie: domain names listed in the control panel, disk space, POP accounts, etc.)

Policy

Can I have more than one domain name?
You can have as many domains as you'd like. Only the first one is included in the base price however. Each additional one increases your monthly fees.
Can I house pages for other people?
Yes. However as the account owner you are responsible for the content of any web pages in your account. You must ensure that they don't violate our terms of use.
How is disk space usage calculated?
Disk space, for the purpose of calculating your monthly invoice, is calculated by adding up the sizes of all files and directories that are located within your root directory. This includes web pages, SQL databases, scripts, map files, etc.
Specifically not included in the disk space calculation is the size of any of your POP boxes, global scripts, account profile information, and web logs.
One megabyte is equal to 1,048,576 bytes.

How do I...

How do I upload my web pages?
The most popular method is to use FTP. Simply connect to islandhosting.com with any FTP client and provide your account username and password.
Note that you can only use your primary account for this purpose. POP boxes do not have FTP access.
Another way is to use our File Manager. This is a web based interface that allows you to upload files as well as maintain your directory space and files. The File Manager also provides a mechanism to allow third parties to maintain a subset of your web space.
Note that web pages must be placed within the "www" directory--any files outside of that directory will not be directly accessible to web browsers.
Further note that your root directory (or your home directory) is the "top" of your account. That's one level up from "www", "ms2", etc. You will see references to your root directory in various places.
How do I view my web site?
If you've correctly configured a domain for your site, then you should be able to view it simply by entering your domain name into your browser. A leading "www." is not required, although it will work.
If you don't have a domain yet you can still access your web site using an URL like this: www.islandhosting.com/~ACCOUNT (where you would replace ACCOUNT with your islandhosting.com account name).
How do I use the secure server?
A security certificate is tied to a particular host name. Ours is tied to "www.islandhosting.com". Although people can access your domain using an HTTPS:// style URL, their browser will give them a security warning about the certificate not matching the host name. This is probably not desirable.
To avoid this warning they need to access your site via our URL instead. This can be done with an URL like "https://www.islandhosting.com/~ACCOUNT", where ACCOUNT is your account name. It is only necessary to use this style of URL when the security is needed, otherwise use your own domain.
It is possible to obtain your own certificate which can be installed on our server and would allow secure accesses directly via your domain. This requires special setup and adds to your monthly bill. The certificate itself will cost you anywhere from $150 to $350 US annually. If this option appeals to you, talk to us prior to obtaining a certificate.
How do I get and use an SQL database?
Before you can start using an SQL database, we need to create an SQL account for you. This involves setting up an empty database and a special username and password (which are not the same as your account username and password). To get an SQL database created, just email [email protected].
You can choose a name for your database, a username, and a password. All of these should be made up of letters, numbers, and underscores and ideally they will all be different.
Once you have a database you will want to start defining tables and indexes. We provide a tool called phpMyAdmin that can help with this. You can access this tool at www.islandhosting.com/sql.
You can also use PHP, M-Script, or Perl scripts to manipulate your SQL database. In addition to your database name, username, and password, your scripts will need to know the host name to connect to. The proper hostname to use is simply "localhost".
How do I change my contact information?
Islandhosting customers must keep their contact information up to date at all times. This can be done very quickly by using the control panel.
Once logged in, select the top-most button labeled "Update Contact Info". Make whatever changes are applicable, and select the "Make Changes" button at the bottom.

Domain Related Questions

How do I add domains to my account?
The first step is to log into the control panel and select the Manage Domains option. There you can add new domains, change the directory that a domain points to, and more.
Once your domain is entered into the control panel, you need to have the DNS settings for it changed to point at 199.175.106.230, which is this server. This is something your DNS host must normally do for you.
If you want us to be your DNS host (recommended), then you must update your domain record to use "ns1.islandnet.com" (199.175.106.253) as your primary name server, and "ns2.islandnet.com" (199.175.107.253) as your secondary name server, then email [email protected] and ask us to create the DNS entries for your domain.
Can I have more than one domain name?
You can have as many domains as you'd like. Only the first one is included in the base price however. Each additional one increases your monthly fees.

Server Questions

What web server software do you use?
We use Apache, which is the single most commonly used web server software on the planet. For secure transactions we use Apache-SSL.
How secure is the secure server?
The secure server uses a 128 bit certificate which provides the highest level of security available.
Can 40 and 56 bit browsers access the server securely then?
Yes. Older browsers and those that haven't been upgraded to 128 bit can still make secure connections at 40 and 56 bits.
NOTE: There is a known bug in certain releases of Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x when running in 56 bit mode that prevents it from loading pages properly (you get an error that implies a DNS issue). The fix is to upgrade the browser to the 128 bit version. Older versions of MSIE work fine, as does Netscape and every other browser we've tried.
What should my homepage be called?
Islandhosting.com supports the following default page names: "index.html", "index.htm", "index.php", "index.pl" and "index.cgi". If you want just your domain name on its own to bring up a page in a web browser, you will need to name your default page one of the above names.
Why can't the server find my "icons" directory?
Islandhosting.com uses the Apache webserver which happens to reserve "icons" as a special directory alias to its own collection of icons. You'll need to use something other than "icons" within your site.

CGIs

General Questions

What languages are supported?
We currently support CGIs written in M-Script II, PHP 4, and Perl
What is the path to the sendmail program?
/usr/sbin/sendmail
Why do all my images come up broken?
You need to use absolute references instead of relative ones. When your page is generated via a CGI the base path becomes the CGI itself, so the browser winds up asking for things like "/cgi-bin/image.jpg", which obviously won't work. Instead of using a reference like "src=image.jpg", try adding a slash: "src=/image.jpg".
Are there any CGIs I am not allowed to run?
For security reasons, we do not allow CGIs with known security problems to be used on on Islandhosting.com. The most common offenders would be the Perl script "FormMail.cgi" and it's PHP based counterpart "formmail.php". Any instances of these CGIs found will be removed without notice. Similarly, customers may not install copies of the portal engine "PHP-Nuke" or any of its derivatives such as "Post-Nuke" as these programs have a long history of problems.

M-Script II

Where do I put MS2 scripts?
MS2 scripts can have any filename you wish as long as it ends with a ".ms2" extension. They must be placed in the "ms2" directory, which is within your root directory.
Where do MS2 scripts run?
When an MS2 script is executed, it's current directory will be set to your root directory. This means an MS2 script has full access to all files and directories within your account.
How do I invoke an MS2 script?
Use an URL like this:
http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/ms2/username/script
where "username" is your islandhosting.com account name and "script" is the name of your MS2 script without the ".ms2" extension.

Alternatively, you can trigger the execution of an MS2 script using an Apache include statement like this:
Where can I learn more about MS2?
www.islandnet.com/mscript

PHP

What version of PHP is available?
PHP 4.2.2 - Click here to view a phpinfo() screen
Where do I put PHP scripts?
PHP scripts can have any filename you wish as long as it ends with a ".php" extension. They may be placed anywhere within your "www" directory tree.
Can't I use the .PHP3 extension?
Yes, the .php3 extension is recognised, however the "official" extension you should be using as of PHP 4.0 is simply .php and if you want your pages to be portable it's probably best to use that extension instead.
Note that using the .php3 extension does not cause PHP3 to be used, it's still going to run PHP4.
Where do PHP scripts run?
When a PHP script is executed, it's current directory will be the same as the location of the script itself.
Wht can't my script write to a file?
Unlike Perl and M-Script, PHP scripts do not run under your username, which means they don't have permission to write to anything in your account. If you have a PHP script that must write to a file, then that file must have world write permission. You should be able to set permissions via most FTP clients.
How do I invoke a PHP script?
Simply reference it like any other file:
http://www.yourdomain.com/script.php
How do I use True Type Fonts with PHP's image functions?
To use True Type fonts you need to first upload the desired font to your Islandhosting.com web directory. When referencing these fonts within PHP, you need to use a relative path of "./".
Where can I learn more about PHP?
www.php.net

Perl

What version of Perl is available?
Perl 5.8.0
What's the path to Perl on this server?
/usr/bin/perl
Where do I put Perl scripts?
Perl scripts can have any filename you wish as long as it ends with a ".cgi" extension. They may be placed anywhere within your "www" directory tree.
Where do Perl scripts run?
When a Perl script is executed, it's current directory will be set to the same directory that the script is located in.
How do I invoke a Perl script?
Simply reference it like any other file:
http://www.yourdomain.com/script.cgi
Where can I learn more about Perl?
www.perl.com
Why do I get the error "SafeCGI: could not exec script"?
This usually happens because you uploaded your script from a DOS or Windows machine in binary mode. DOS and Windows systems terminate each line of a text file with a newline and a carriage return. UNIX systems, like this one, expect only a newline character at the end of each line. Upload your script in ASCII mode or use a different file editor.

Email

Where does email sent to my domain go?
If we are handling email for your domain (ie: the MX entry for your domain points to our server), then all email to any address at your domain goes into your primary POP box by default.
What's an MX entry?
An MX entry is part of the DNS or Name Server setup for your domain. It tells the rest of the world where email for your domain should be routed.
Does my MX entry have to point to islandhosting.com?
Not at all, although we think you'll want us to handle your email for you when you understand all of the extra features we offer.
What if my MX entry points somewhere else?
Then email sent to your domain never passes through our server and you won't be abel to use things like map files and PEP.
How can I have "unlimited" email addresses?
By default the local part of an email address (that's the part to the left of the @ sign) is ignored and all messages go into your primary POP box. So people can send mail to "[email protected]", "[email protected]", "[email protected]", or any other address they care to use.
What's my "primary POP box"?
This is the mail box that's attached to your account when you first signed up. It is the default destination for any and all messages that arrive for any domain you own. It is the only mail box that you can't delete or modify. It's called a "POP" box because you use POP software (POP stands for Post Office Protocol) to access it. You can add up to 10 additional POP boxes for a total of 11 without incurring any extra charges.
How do I use extra POP boxes then?
With a map file. A map file allows you to direct incoming email messages to any one of your POP boxes or back out of the system to addresses that are located elsewhere. Map files can do a lot of things which would take up to much space to describe here. Click here for more detailed help.
How to I download email from a POP box?
Use any POP mail software (like Eudora, Outlook Express, Pegasys, etc.) and configure it to connect to "mail.islandhosting.com" on port 110 (the standard POP port). To access your primary POP box you will need to provide your islandhosting.com account name and password. Accessing an extra POP box is similar, but the username consists of your account name plus a dash plus the ID you assigned to the POP box. And of course you'd use the password for that POP box instead of your primary one.
For example: if your account name is "jbond", then to fetch mail from your primary POP box you'd use "jbond" as the username. If you have a POP box called "007", you'd access it via the username "jbond-007".
Can I set my mail to forward elsewhere?
Yes. Forwarding mail is one of many things that you can do with PEP. PEP can forward, copy, filter spam, extract attachments, send automatic replies, and more. All you need to do is set up a simple set of rules.
Can I use PEP with my extra POP boxes?
Yes. Each extra POP box you create has its own subdirectory within the "pop" directory in your account. Simply place a mailrule file for each POP box in its directory.
How can my POP box users change their passwords?
By using the "change password" tool on the help page.
What do I use for the SMTP server (outgoing email)?
For outgoing email your mailserver is "mail.islandhosting.com". Please keep in mind that if you wish to use Islandhosting.com as your SMTP server (i.e. for outgoing email) you will need to use one of the following methods: Pop Before SMTP or Authentication.
- Pop Before SMTP: each time you check your email on Islandhosting.com, the server caches your IP address for short period of time so that it knows you are a valid user. During this period, you can send your outgoing email freely through the server. This process is called "Pop Before SMTP" and is the easiest option for most users since it requires no extra configuration on the user's end generally (just check your mail before sending any).
- Authentication: The Islandhosting.com mail server supports user authentication as an alternate method of allowing users to send their email. With Authentication you must configure your email program to send your username and password when attempting to send email. The server also supports secure connections for email clients that support it (please note that Eudora currently has a bug that stops TLS initiated sessions from working properly).

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