BellSouth Related Information What is your Service Policy?
Each of BellSouth's web hosting plans carries a Service Policy.
Setup fees are refundable for the following reasons only:
(1) the account order is canceled prior to activation; or (2) the domain name was not available at InterNIC. If your Web Hosting service is down for over 2 consecutive hours within a 30 day period (other than customer caused outages or domain propagation of 72 hours), and you have notified BellSouth of the outage, you may call to request a 30 day refund of BellSouth’s standard monthly hosting charge for your account.
BellSouth will occasionally perform routine maintenance to maximize performance and update the servers. This work will occur during off peak hours. In the event of a service-affecting emergency, the work will be performed immediately with service being restored as quickly as possible. Troubles experienced during routine maintenance will not be eligible for service credits.
Admin Change
In order to change the Administrative Contact or Contact Email Address for BellSouth Shared Web Hosting domains you must complete the form and provide the appropriate documentation.
Please click here to get the Administrative Email Address Change Form.
Bandwidth Overages Policy for Accounts paid by Credit Card
Hosting accounts paid via a credit card cannot go over their bandwidth limit as defined by the hosting plan they are on.
Any hosting account that reaches or exceeds the assigned bandwidth limits will be disabled until bandwidth goes below the assigned bandwidth threshold, or the account owner upgrades to the next available hosting plan offering more bandwidth.
If such hosting account consistently goes reaches or exceeds the assigned bandwidth limits, the account holder should consider Upgrading to the next level of hosting plan available.
Control Panel
Your BellSouth Hosting account's Control Panel is your centralized resource for all account information and changes that you may need or want regarding your hosting account. Access your Control Panel at http://yourdomain.com/manager/ to change your password, set up your e-mail accounts, administer your account, view your visitor stats, check your disk space and data transfer usage, and more. Please Note: To change your billing information, please contact BellSouth at 1-800-313-6589 and select the option for Billing.
Account Cancellation Process
For security purposes all cancel requests to Technical Support must come via e-mail from the contact address listed on your BellSouth Shared Web Hosting account. Please include your domain name in the Subject box of the email and send your request to cancel to: support@bellsouth-hosting.net.
To ensure your web site is protected, BellSouth validates the identity of the individual making the cancellation request via the main contact email address. If the request is valid we execute the request via the appropriate channels. If you have any further questions you may contact BellSouth Billing at 800-313-6589.
Internet Access
BellSouth Internet Service is the fastest growing ISP in the Southeast and offers local dial-up and FastAccess DSL service throughout a nine state region. Internet access through BellSouth is available in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Sign up with an ISP you trust. Our reliability and convenient billing services take the worry out of getting on the Internet. For more information, review our Internet access options or call us at 800.313.6589.
Web Hosting Basics Cannot Access Your Site?
Within approximately three to five days after registering or transferring your domain, domain propagation will be occurring. During this time, your domain name is being sent to the DNS servers around the world. Until the DNS servers that route Internet traffic in your area are updated, you will not be able to hit your site via the domain name.
To check to see if your domain name has propagated, there are tools you may use to “ping” your domain name. Here are two such tools used to Ping for domain names:
If after 3 days of signing up for or transferring your domain name, you are still unable to access your site via your domain name, please contact BellSouth Customer Service at 800-313-6589 to make sure there is not any problem with your domain registration.
You should also clear your browser history and cache as well, before attempting again to access your control panel.
If you have misplaced your activation email, which contains your user ID information, send an email to technical support from your primary contact email address to receive your password. For security reasons, passwords are not disclosed by phone.
If you cannot connect to your web site at all, there may be connectivity problems somewhere between your location and the data center where your web site is located. Please contact us so that we can confirm that this is the cause. If this is the case, chances are very good that your site is still up and working on the Internet although you cannot reach it. BellSouth provides connectivity to 4 Internet backbones to ensure that your site is always available. We may recommend that you contact your ISP for further assistance if we believe that your connectivity problem is related to Internet Access rather than your hosting account.
To check for connectivity issues, there are tools you may use to conduct a "traceroute" on your domain name. Here are two such tools used to Ping for domain names:
Uploading Your Web Site
If you asked to have Microsoft FrontPage extensions installed, you should only use Microsoft FrontPage to upload your site. Failure to use FrontPage for uploading where FrontPage extensions are enabled may result in all or part of your site not functioning properly.
All other customers will use an FTP program such as WS_FTP or CuteFTP for uploading. These programs contain instructions for their use. Your activation notice provides you with the information you need to configure your FTP program: your IP address, userID (user@your-domain-name.com), and password. You will need to use your IP address until your domain name propagates. Always upload your web pages and text files using ASCII mode and upload images and most other files using BINARY mode. These should be options within your FTP program. Please consult your product's documentation for additional information on enabling these different modes.
LINUX users Please Note: Our LINUX-based servers are case sensitive so Faq.html, FAQ.html, and faq.html will all be considered different files.
Other HTML Editors
You may use tools called HTML Editors to create your web site offline. You then upload the site you designed to your BellSouth Shared Hosting account. HTML Editors include Frontpage, Dreamweaver, and HomeSite.
Usage Statistics
By using the built-in statistics program (AWStats), you can see who is visiting your web site, when they visit, what sites referred them to yours (if any), and more. If you would like to use your own statistics analysis program, raw log files are generated for your account and are made available for your use from your control panel.
Your Home Page
In order to make your home page appear when someone visits your web site you will need to create a home page with a proper file name.
Our LINUX-based servers look for a home page in the following order: index.html, index.htm, index.shtml, default.html.
Windows 2003-based servers look for a home page in the following order: default.asp, default.htm, index.htm, index.html.
However, you may use any of these names for your homepage.
Domain Parking/Pointing
Hosting customers should use BellSouth's Domain Pointing plan to easily set up additional domain names for their main LINUX or Windows 2003 Hosting account. This plan makes it easy for customers to have 2 or more domain names - www.yourname.com and www.yourname.net for example - for the same web page. This way you can be guaranteed not to miss out on customers who try to reach your site using a different domain name.
Please see DNS server information for your primary and secondary addresses.
Directories
For UNIX Accounts:
You should ignore all the directories in your BellSouth Hosting account except "cgi-local" which is where you should upload your personal perl, C, or UNIX shell cgi scripts. This directory has been specially set up to allow scripts to run properly. All other directories are special system directories.
For Windows 2000 Accounts:
You should upload your files to the webroot/directory. A cgi-bin/ directory has been set up for your personal Perl scripts. An anonymous/ directory has been set up for anonymous FTP access. You may create new directories for your own use by either clicking "mkdir" in your FTP program or by uploading a folder from your hard drive. You cannot password protect any directories.
Promoting Your Site
Please visit our Web Site Marketing section for tips and information.
Domain Names DNS Server Information
Customers of BellSouth's Linux Shared Web Hosting and Windows 2003 services both utilize the following DNS servers.
Primary DNS is ns4.web.bellsouth.net.
Secondary DNS is ns5.web.bellsouth.net.
If you are transferring your Domain Name to BellSouth please use this information to insure minimal downtime associated with your transfer.
Transferring Or Changing An Existing Domain Name
There is no charge to transfer your domain name from another hosting provider to BellSouth. To transfer your domain name to BellSouth, please specify a "domain transfer" when ordering. We recommend that you keep your service at your current provider while waiting for your domain name to transfer. All e-mail and web pages will still be accessed from the old provider until your domain name propagates over a period of approximately 72 hours.
Once a domain name is submitted for registration, even if the domain name was placed in error, the domain name cannot be changed and the requesting party will be charged for the registration. If you have placed an order for a domain name in error, to ensure that you have a correct domain name for your web site, you must place a new order for a domain name. In the case of a domain name error, it is often useful to keep the incorrect domain name as a pointer to the correct web site. Chances are that if you made the error so will others. BellSouth offers Domain Pointer plans for a small fee. Please contact our Sales Team at 800-313-6589 for help in setting up a Domain Pointer account.
Registering A New Domain Name
BellSouth can provide Domain Name Registration at the time of your hosting account registration. Domain Name Registration is provided at a cost of $35 for a period of 2 years. BellSouth is not responsible for incorrectly entered domain names during the ordering process unless we entered the order for you. If you receive an activation notice that has an incorrect domain name on it, contact us immediately. Where BellSouth has placed the order for a domain name incorrectly on behalf of a customer, BellSouth will refund the charges for the domain name registration if we are notified immediately of the error otherwise fees associated with Domain Name Registration are not refundable.
Propagation
When you register a new domain or transfer an existing domain, it will take a few days (normally 3) for all the Internet Service Providers around the world to update their DNS records. Because DNS is managed by individual Internet Service Providers, your domain name may appear in some areas in less than 3 days. This delay, known as propagation, is normal and occurs with all hosting providers.
Foreign Domain Names
BellSouth can host any available domain name that is ICANN licensed. This includes most common domain names (.com, .net, .org etc) and most international domain names. BellSouth has not enabled its DNS servers to serve domain names not recognized by ICANN.
Email Services BellSouth Webmail Access For Hosting
BellSouth Windows Shared Web Hosting will now have webmail access available on most plans. This allows customers to send e-mail and retrieve e-mail sent to their web site via a webmail interface. This eliminates the need to have multiple profiles or e-mail clients to use e-mail for different users or from different locations. To use the BellSouth webmail interface, after connecting to the Internet, simply go to http://webmail.bellsouth-hosting.net/express/. You will need to enable your webmail client first via your control panel.
This will present you with a login screen which requests a "User ID" and a "Password". You should enter the information you specified when setting up your custom POP accounts or your account username and password if you are only using the Master POP. Please see "Custom E-mail Accounts (POPs)" for more information on setting up individual e-mail POP accounts. Once authenticated, you will be able to view current messages in your mailbox, delete messages, compose messages, build an address book, as well as, specify mail options to allow the webmail interface to perform much like your stand-alone e-mail client. For additional assistance, our webmail comes with extensive online Help which can be used at any point by clicking the "Help" icon in the top corner of all webmail screens.
Configuring Your E-mail Program
By default, all e-mail sent to yourdomainname.com is forwarded to the e-mail address you used when signing up (your default forwarding address). Therefore, you do not need to do anything special to receive your e-mail. However, if you create custom e-mail accounts at your domain (POP accounts), you will need to configure your e-mail program to retrieve e-mail from these accounts. All e-mail clients require the same basic information. This information includes the following:
Incoming (POP) Server: mail.yourdomainname.com (do not include the www.)
Server Type: POP3 server
Outgoing (SMTP) Server: smtp.yourdomainname.com
Note: If your DNS is not currently with BellSouth Shared Web Hosting, please try to use mail.yourdomainname.com for your outgoing SMTP Server.
E-mail Address/Reply-To Address: The e-mail address you want to appear when you send e-mail messages
User Name: The user name (username@yourdomainname.com) of the POP account you wish to check
Password: The password of the POP account you wish to check. Some programs do not ask for your password until you check your e-mail
Here are instructions for configuring your e-mail with some common e-mail programs:
Microsoft Outlook Express
From the Tools pull-down menu, select Accounts.
Click on the Add button and select Mail.
Use the Account Wizard to fill in your account information
Microsoft Outlook 97/98/2000
From the Tools pull-down menu, select Accounts or Services depending on your version.
Click on the Add button and select Mail.
Highlight Internet mail and then push the properties button.
Netscape Communicator
From the Edit pull-down menu, select Preferences.
Expand the Mail & Groups section, and click on Mail Server.
For version 4.5 and above, click on the Edit button.
Fill in your user name, SMTP server, and Incoming mail server.
In the Mail & Groups section, click on Identity.
Fill in your real name and your e-mail address. These will be used when sending messages.
Eudora
Select Options from the Tools pull-down menu.
Click on the Getting Started icon and enter your info
Autoresponders
Each BellSouth Hosting plan has a specified number of e-mail autoresponders. An autoresponder will automatically send out a text response when a person sends an e-mail message to a specified e-mail_address@your-domain-name. The text of the response can say anything you would like it to say. To set up an e-mail autoresponder:
Create your response message (we recommend using a simple text editor like Notepad), save it as a .txt file, and upload it to your hosting account using your FTP client.
Go to your Control Panel.
Click on the "E-mail Settings" link.
Scroll down to the "Autoresponders" section.
In the first box, enter the e-mail address to which you wish to automatically respond.
In the second box, under "File to Send", specify the name of the .txt file that you uploaded.
In the third box, under "Reply To", specify the address from which you would like the message sent.
In the fourth box, under "Who to Notify", specify the e-mail address to which you would like to forward the original incoming message.
Repeat these steps for each autoresponder you want to set up. You can purchase additional e-mail autoresponders if needed. Please contact Sales at 1-800-313-6589 to have additional Autoresponders added to your hosting account.
SMTP Service
All BellSouth hosting plans include SMTP service. Your SMTP server will be: smtp.your-domain-name.com. SMTP should indicate whether the port might be blocked, depending on the ISP they use. If the user is able to download mail but cannot connect to the SMTP port, the user should contact their ISP.
Note: With Windows 2003 you may also use ASP mail for sending e-mail.
Master POP Account
Our Master POP Accounts allow you to store your e-mail on our web server using the disk space available with your plan rather than have all e-mail forward to the e-mail account of your choosing. To enable the Master POP account:
Enter the "E-mail Settings" area of the Control Panel.
Delete the default Mail Forwarding address.
Click "change".
All e-mail sent to your-domain-name.com will now be stored in your "Master POP e-mail account". This account has the same username/password as your Control Panel. You can then retrieve your e-mail using the e-mail program of your choice. For help setting up your e-mail client, please see "Configuring Your E-mail Program" below.
Please Note: E-mail stored on the server will count against the total disk space available for your hosting plan.
POP Accounts (POPs)
Each BellSouth Hosting plan has a specified number of POP mailboxes. A POP account is the typical e-mail account that comes with your Internet Access account. Messages sent to your e-mail address are stored on the server and are retrieved by using an e-mail client of your choosing. For help setting up your e-mail client, please see "Configuring Your E-mail Program" below. To set up a custom POP account:
Go to your Control Panel.
Click on the "E-mail Settings" link.
Scroll down to the "POP Accounts" section.
In the first box, enter the name of the e-mail account you want to create.
In the second and third boxes, you need to specify the userID and password for the account.
Once you have the account configured, click the "change" button in the POP Accounts section.
Repeat this process as needed.
If needed, you can purchase additional POP accounts for your Hosting plan from BellSouth. Please contact Sales at 1-800-313-6589 to have additional POPs added to your hosting account.
E-mail Forwarding
By default, all e-mail sent to your domain will be forwarded to the e-mail address you used when you signed up for your BellSouth Hosting account. This is the same e-mail address that received the activation notices. You can change this "default forwarding address" at any time by accessing your control panel at http://your-domain-name.com/manager/. Once there, follow the instructions below.
Click on the "E-mail & FTP Settings" link.
Enter the new e-mail address to which you want your e-mail forwarded in the first field at the top of the page. The field is titled "All email not specifically forwarded will be sent to:"
Click the first "change" button a little down the page. Please note: This will only change the default e-mail forwarding for your account. To set up other forwarding accounts,
Enter the "E-mail Settings" area of the Control Panel.
Locate the "Mail Forwarding" section at the top of the page.
Where it says "@your-domain-name.com Forwards to:", and is followed by several boxes, in the first box on the left, enter the name of the account to which you want customers to send mail. For example, you may want to create sales@your-domain-name.com or info@your-domain-name.com.
In the second box, enter the e-mail address of the person you want to handle these types of e-mail. Please Note: More than one e-mail address may be inserted here separated by commas and no spaces.
E-mail Forwards
Each BellSouth Hosting plan has a specified number of e-mail forwards which redirect messages to another e-mail address. You can specify e-mail addresses for your domain that you would like to send to an e-mail address different than the one that is specified as your default forwarding address. For example, you could specify a custom e-mail forward of jimmy@yourdomainname.com which would forward to your brother Jimmy's personal e-mail address. You can purchase additional e-mail forwards if needed. To set up your e-mail forward:
Go to your Control Panel
Click on the "e-mail" link
Scroll down to the "E-mail Forwarding" section
Enter the e-mail addresses you want to forward to another address.
Microsoft FrontPage FrontPage Server Extensions
FrontPage server extensions are a set of server-side applications that:
Let several people collaborate simultaneously on the same Web site and Web Server (multi-user authoring).
Let users write directly to the Web server using a PC or laptop computer from anywhere in the world via the Internet (remote authoring).
Let users include forms on their Web site and specify how the results of those forms are handled.
Let users include discussion Webs on their Web site.
Provide full text search capability on a Web site.
Let users include hit counters on their Web site.
This "pre-packaged" functionality lets users incorporate these advanced features without having to write the complex server-side programs typically required.
Can users create a FrontPage-based Web without using the server extensions?
Yes. With the exception of the functionality mentioned above, there is no difference between a Web site that uses the server extensions and one that does not.
Precautions
You should be aware of the following issues when using Microsoft FrontPage:
Disk space usage: Microsoft FrontPage duplicates certain information into indices and hidden files on your web site. These extra files add "overhead" to your site. In some cases you may need to increase your account storage space. You can accomplish this by upgrading to a higher level plan or by purchasing additional megabytes of disk space.
Technical Support Of FrontPage
BellSouth does not provide technical support regarding the use of Microsoft FrontPage. Questions about how to use the program should be directed to Microsoft. BellSouth will only install/remove the server extensions and ensure they work properly. Please consult your FrontPage software for the appropriate contact phone number(s) at Microsoft. Microsoft's FAQs for their FrontPage product can be found here.
Scripts and Special Features SQL DSN
A Data Source Name, or DSN, is how you reference your database in your ASP applications. An SQL-interpreting database client/server primarily geared for Windows based platforms. Microsoft ® SQL Server allows efficient integration with third-party tools, such as ASP and Visual Basic modules, enabling you to generate dynamic Web pages through database queries.
DSN Name
Enter name for this instance of Application
DSN Description
Description that will be stored in DSN file for this DSN.
Server
SQL server IP address or network name.
Database
Name of database on the server.
Port
SQL server port
Username
Enter User Name
Password
Enter Password for Application
Retype Password
Retype password for this Application
Trusted Connection
Select a trusted connection
Net Transport
Network library DLL name (without ".dll")
Net Address
The ADDRESS parameter is the network address of the Windows NTserver running SQL Server. If ADDRESS is present, it is always used as the network address for the connection. If ADDRESS is not present, then SERVER is used as the network address for the connection.
Language
This parameter specifies the default national language to use
Translation for character data
Translation DLL
This parameter specifies the name of the ODBC translation DLL to use with the data source
Translation name
This parameter specifies the name of the translator to use with the data source.
Translation option
This parameter specifies whether translation should be done on the data going to SQL Server. YES specifies translation; NO specifies no translation.
Temp. preparation of SP
This parameter specifies whether the driver generates stored procedures to support the ODBC SQLPrepare function.
Use ANSI quoted identifiers
This parameter specifies whether the driver should issue a SET QUOTED IDENTIFIERS ON option when connecting to a SQL Server version 6.0 or later database. YES specifies QUOTED_IDENTIFIERS is ON; NO specifies the option is OFF.
Use ANSI nulls, paddings and warnings
This parameter specifies whether the driver should SET ON the ANSI_NULLS, ANSI_PADDING, and ANSI_WARNINGS options when connecting to a SQL Server version 6.5 or later database. YES specifies the options are ON; NO specifies they are OFF.
For more information enter http://www.microsoft.com/sql/default.asp
Secure Transactions
The secure environment refers to the transmission of information from web browser to web server. If you have a link to an order form, for example, from your home page, you would need to use a URL similar to following:
https://www##.bellsouth-hosting.net/<userid>/form.htm (## = server number)
The "s" in https:// suggests an SSL related file. Substitute the path to the order form starting with user directory name. If your account resides on server #2, you would need to use https://www02.BellSouth-hosting.net//form.htm or 03, 04, etc. respectively depending on which server the secure form resides.
If the secure form calls a cgi script, you must also reference that script securely.
e.g. <form method="post" action="https://www##.bellsouth-hosting.net/<userid>/cgi-local/order.cgi"> (## = server number)
Global.asa
The Global file is an optional file in which you can specify event scripts and declare objects that have session or application scope. An application can only have one Global.asa file. This file must be named Global.asa and must be stored in the root directory of the application. Global.asa files can contain only the following: Application events, Session events,
Requires FastAccess Business DSL service. Billing via credit or debit card only. Minimum system requirements apply.
Microsoft, Encarta, MSN, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
