This is the WebCom Info FAQ. It briefly covers the most common questions asked about WebCom services. If you have any questions not covered by this FAQ, or want more detailed information, please feel to send a message to customer.relations@webcom.com, and a customer service representative will answer your questions.
Related questions:
Does WebCom offer access to a Unix shell via telnet?
What number do I call to dial up WebCom?
Does WebCom have a local dial up number in my area?
Related questions:
How many pages can I place in my account?
Does WebCom charge on a per page or per link basis?
What happens when I exceed my online storage allowance?
Related questions:
Can I place commercial materials on my Web site if I have a PersonalSite
service plan?
Related questions:
How can I set up my account to be accessed via my own domain name?
Related questions:
Does WebCom offer discounts to consultants or individuals re-selling its
services?
Related questions:
Can I write my own cgi scripts/install this cgi script on the WebCom server?
Related questions:
How can I set up multiple email addresses?
You may set up an account with WebCom by visiting the WebCom home page at: http://webcom.com/~webcom/ and selecting "Open a WebCom Account" from the list of choices available. No "paperwork" is needed. You will receive a copy of your initial statement via email immediately afterwards, as well as a copy of the on-line contract.
Please be careful to enter a valid email address (if you have more than one address, entering multiple addresses is recommended, in case you accidentally mis-type an address).
See also: How long will it take to set up my account?
WebCom accepts cash, cash equivalents (such as cashiers checks and money orders), checks and credit cards (MasterCard, VISA, Discover, and American Express).
Note: Checks and cash equivalents must be payable through U.S. or Canadian banks (this can be determined by whether or not an United States or Canadian banking address is printed somewhere on the check).
If you choose to pay with a credit card (WebCom accepts MasterCard, VISA and American Express), your account will normally be activated within 2 hours. Otherwise, it will be set up once we have received your payment.
When your account is set up, you will automatically be sent an email message in notifying you that your account is ready. This message also contains detailed information on how to get started with WebCom.
We charge a single fee, which includes access to all standard services, such as forms processing, full text searches, and Web/FTP service (domain name service and use of the secure server not available under the PersonalSite service plan). No "per page," "per link," "time based," or "updating" charges are imposed.
You are allocated a standard amount of disk space and a generous network transfer allowance. Any usage beyond these allowances is charged on a metered basis, at nominal rates. This policy allows us to guarantee that access to your data will not be impeded by users providing "popular" information without paying for the resources consumed.
We feel that sites providing unmetered usage will experience severe problems handling the traffic generated by their users. Our experience indicates that a few sites (such as those providing "adult" materials) tend to consume the vast majority of resources at unmetered sites, to the detriment of other users.
WebCom focuses exclusively on value added, self-service Internet publishing via the Web, FTP, and Electronic Mailing Lists. We do not provide content creation or design services. We do, however, provide an on-line utility that can create basic webpages for your site. For more information, see our Instant Site Creator.
WebCom provides a detailed guide to publicizing your site, with direct links to registration forms for the most popular indexing and search services.
For more information on our publicity services, see: http://webcom.com/~webcom/html/publicize.shtml
Since our focus as a company is high performance data service, we do not provide telnet or dial in access to user accounts or to the Internet in general (this allows us to keep our technical and administrative resources focused on serving your data in the most efficient and timely manner possible). It is therefore necessary to obtain access to the Internet from an Internet Service Provider or on-line service in order to take advantage of WebCom services.
A list of Internet service providers (sorted by area and, including extensive information about each company) is available at: http://www.thelist.com/
All access to WebCom services is provided via the Internet, through FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and via the Web (World Wide Web) with the WebCom File Manager, which permits you to create, edit, and manage your Web pages using compatible Web browsers (such as Netscape). The WebCom File Manager is documented at the following URL: http://webcom.com/~webcom/help/fmgr/.
Depending on your service plan, 5 to 85 megabytes of on-line storage are included with your basic monthly fee. Very few customers exceed this allowance, which is capable of storing hundreds of Web pages. We do not charge based on the content or organizational structure of your site.
See also: How Does WebCom charge for services?
You may use as much space as you like. Usage is measured on a daily basis, and then averaged at the end of your billing period. If your average usage exceeds your storage allowance, the extra space is billed at a nominal rate (which depends on the service plan you selected), and a fee for this will appear on your next statement.
WebCom acts as a "common carrier" and does not actively monitor or censor user accounts. We do not place any restrictions on the content of your site.
WebCom customers, for instance, may place the pages of their clients under their account (see "I would like to provide consulting/page design and/or creation services to my clients, using WebCom." for more information on this).
At WebCom you can choose the Service Plan that best meets your needs, regardless of the content of your Web site. There are also no restrictions concerning the plan you can choose based upon what kind of organization (if any) you represent.
See http://webcom.com/~webcom/info/rates.shtml for more information.
Making pages available using your own domain name is as simple as filling out a form. The registration and use of one domain name is included with every new BudgetSite and BusinessSite service plan (domain names cannot be used with the PersonalSite service plan). Additional domains can also be configured for a single account, using WebCom's Domain Name Service online forms.
WebCom's web hosting services enable your site to be accessed at http://www.your-company.com/.
Extensive information on registering a domain name is available at:
http://webcom.com/~webcom/help/dns/,
and info on Virtual Hosting services at WebCom can be found at http://webcom.com/~webcom/dns/virtual_hosting.shtml.
The most effective way to manage your client's accounts is to set up an account for yourself, and then have them open a separate account (or open it for them yourself) for their pages, choosing the appropriate service plan according to their needs.
There are several advantages to setting up a separate account for each client. These include individualized billing and usage monitoring, direct access to WebCom technical support by the client, and the ability to permit access to the account by the client, without giving them access to other clients pages.
On the other hand, there are many situations in which it is appropriate to place your client's pages under your account. WebCom does not prohibit this, and a number of our users are currently maintaining pages for clients under their own accounts.
There are a number of disadvantages to this that you should be aware of: it will be up to you to bill your clients and provide all support to them, technical and otherwise (you will receive one monthly billing statement, and all technical support calls must originate from you or your company). In other words, we provide services to the account holder (you) only.
WebCom resellers are able to achieve up to a 60% savings on each Web site they host within their account. A basic virtual domain account costs $24.95/mo., but additional sites with their own domain name and FTP login can be created within a single account for only $9.95/mo. each, or 60% less. This feature makes WebCom the most cost-effective solution for Web site resellers of any Web host anywhere.
WebCom does not allow any custom software or scripts to be installed, developed or executed on WebCom Servers. We are completely dedicated to reliability and security and do not want to compromise these features. However, WebCom does provide extremely flexible, standardized CGI services which enable you to quickly and easily set up searchable indexes of your site, as well as create sophisticated form-based applications without having to master the complexities of programming.
Additionly, in the future we will be adding even more tools, services, and applications that will enable electronic commerce and additional interactivity on our customers' web sites with no programming or custom CGI software required!
For a detailed description of our policies on this topic, see:
http://webcom.com/~webcom/help/faq/cgi.shtml
More information on our CGI services is available at the following URLs:
WebCom does not provide a "listserv."
WebCom provides Email Distribution Lists. This provides you with the ability to send a single message to an email address, and have it automatically forwarded to one (or more) recipients.
More information can be found at: http://webcom.com/~webcom/help/exp/.
Any email address you create at WebCom can be configured to send an automatic response to incoming messages, either once to each individual sender, or every time a message is received. Other than this, no other conditional processing is possible. For more information on how WebCom auto-responders work, please see our detailed documentation on WebCom's Email Services.
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