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The FAQ section is organized by topic to allow you to help answer your questions more rapidly. Just click on the topic banner and you will see the questions included in that topic. If you have questions that still remain unanswered please email george@texwebhost.net or call 325-944-2212. If you wish to call toll free please email me and I will return your call promptly

Why should I go with Cloud Sites? What makes Cloud Sites so special?	SIMPLICITY. Period. For the first time in the history of web building, there's finally an easy way to run your applications. Code it and load it. We takes care of the rest - monitoring, patching, configuration, security, scaling... There's nothing else out there like it. Cloud Sites is an advanced, enterprise-level platform that lets you focus on what you're good at: developing in the technology you love. All the headache of server administration is our responsibility.
What is used for a storage system? Does the system of storage have any redundant features?	Nothing as important as your website should be served from a single hard drive, but you'd be surprised by how many web hosts have little more redundancy than a pair of crossed fingers. We're different - and for good reason. The advanced architecture powering our hosting solution uses groups of high-performance, network attached storage devices to reliably serve every web page, image, and email. Inside each storage device, drives are mirrored to each other in a RAID configuration to create a first level of redundancy. And, as a final precautionary measure, all data on the system is automatically backed up on a repeating schedule.
How often is a backup made of my information?	The system makes backups of your data on a nightly basis. However, its purpose is for disaster recovery on the server side. If for any reason a storage node on our side were to crash, our backups will be there to replace any lost data. That should give you peace of mind. With that said, we recommend that you make periodic backups of you site and data to your local computer since we are unable to extract an individual site's data from the nightly backups. If you need a backup of your MySQL or MS SQL databases, they can be exported through our online utilities or by connecting directly to the servers using desktop software.
What version of Linux does Cloud Sites run? What about for Windows?	The Linux side of our platform is built on Debian 4.0 (Etch) and Red Hat Enterprise Server. On the other side of the fence, The Windows platform runs on Windows 2008 and IIS 7.
I've had shell access in the past. Why isn't it offered on Cloud Sites?	Primarily for security purposes shell access is not offered on Cloud Sites at this time. We know that shell access has its benefits and we expect to have some level of access available for our customers at some point in the future. Keep in mind however that many functions typically accessed via shell are possible on our system, including cron jobs, file permissions, and unzip.

What is included in the packages?	We have included enough resources in the Cloud Sites base package to power most business needs. You get upto 5GB of high performance storage as well as upto 12GB of outgoing bandwidth per month (incoming is not included in your calculation). In addition, Cloud Sites uses compute cycles (see below) to monitor your computing usage. You get 10,000 compute cycles per month across all your sites and applications. Unlike many hosters, we will never cut you off for using what we sell you.
What happens if I exceed the included amount?	While most customers will fall well below the included amount, we have created fair and simple pricing beyond the base amount that means you pay ONLY for what you use and nothing more. There are no onerous penalties for exceeding the included plan amounts. Our price sheet is here for all scaling metrics. The key items include $0.50/GB for outgoing bandwidth, $1.00/GB for storage and $0.02 per compute cycle. For super heavy users over 50 million page views, special pricing may be available. Other needs that exceed the package specifications call or email for a quote.
How far can I really scale?	In truth, there are no limits. We currently have users pushing hundreds of millions of requests on single domains. The most important issue is whether your site will be compatible with the Cloud. Please refer to our technology section to ensure you can run your applications successfully on the Cloud.
What are compute cycles?	Compute cycles measure how much processing time your applications require on the cloud. Using 10,000 compute cycles in a month is roughly equivalent to running a server with a 2.8 GHz modern processor for the same period of time.
How many compute cycles will my applications use?	Since web applications vary so greatly, it's hard to make a perfect guess. However, there are some guidelines that can help. First, you can think of 10,000 compute cycles as being about the same processing power as you'd get from a decent dedicated server or Amazon EC2 instance. For example 10,000 compute cycles would power: about 2.1 million page views using a database-driven content management system about 11 million page views of texwebhost.net about 25 million requests for a static 15KB image The compute cycles you use are presented in your control panel in near real time.
How do I track my compute cycle usage? What goes in to calculating a compute cycle?	Mostly, CPU processing time. However, compute cycles also account for the disk I/O your application's operations consume. For example, a page with heavy database queries will consume more compute cycles in part due to the larger volume of disk I/O it requires.

Can Tex Web Host support my clients as well?	With our customer support option, time-consuming support calls become a thing of the past. Our services include unlimited 24-hour phone and chat support for $6/month per supported domain. You can choose to have us handle support for some or all your domains - it's entirely up to you.
How can my clients contact the support team?	Once you have activated support for a given domain, that customer can then select to enter live chat directly from his control panel. He will also be given a local and toll-free number in which he can call to speak directly with our support team. Live chat, phone and email support are both available 24x7.
What hours is support available?	TexWebHost.net support is staffed 24x7x365. Chat or call us anytime and talk to a real human being at our headquarters in Texas.
Who will answer my client's phone call?	TexWebHost has a team of dedicated support and billing specialists, ready and willing to tackle any account related questions your client's can throw at them. And remember, the support team that will help troubleshoot your issues is the same team dedicated to helping your clients as well.
If asked, who will the support team say they work for?	If asked, our support team will respond that we work for you (that's the truth, isn't it?!). We avoid the whole "outsourced support" line that can end up sounding so lame to your clients. But never fear, if there's something the support team can't answer - perhaps something regarding one of your other designs or development projects with that client - we can and will pass along your contact information (but of course, this choice is completely up to you!).
What is the standard phone greeting my clients would receive?	The support team has been trained to answer phone calls and live chats with "Web Hosting Technical Support, this [Rep's Name]. How can I help you?" This is the standard white-label greeting that gives your client the impression that the entire support team works directly for your company.
Is phone support incoming only or outgoing as well?	The support team prides itself on getting things done. That means we'll do whatever it takes to resolve your client's issue. Sure, most of the time your clients will be calling in with a question, but if need be, our support reps won't hesitate to pick up the phone to call them back. Of course there's no extra charge for outgoing calls, anywhere in the world.
Where is your support team located?	We know how frustrating it can be to try and receive support from someone you can barely understand halfway around the world. You want to be able to offer something better for your clients, and TexWebHost is the answer. Our entire technical support team is located in Texas; we refuse to offshore any portion of support. By closely monitoring service interactions, we can ensure your clients will receive a worthwhile interaction every time. And our team is structured to promote cooperation to resolve your customers' issues quickly.
What support will they provide my clients?	The support team will assist you and your clients with all aspects of the control panel, general connectivity issues (I.E. web, mail, webmail, ftp, and database) and basic website troubleshooting concerns. The support team members, however, are unable to assist in the installation of paid, open source, or custom code (PHP, ASP, .NET, etc.). With that said, our support team will do everything they can to help point you or your client in the right direction if you need help installing a particular script.
What type of response times should my customers expect from your support team?	Our technical support team is staffed around the clock to ensure fast resolution of all customer issues. Whether your customers call in on our toll free support number or they chat live with us from their control panel, they should expect to interact with a live person within 60 seconds.

How does The Hosting Cloud handle IP addresses? Do I have to request multiple IP's?	Cloud Sites actually hosts your website on multiple IP addresses on multiple servers - so you don't have one unique IP address tied to your website. This logic is built right into our load balancing layer and ensures that if a server with a particular IP address fails, any one of the other servers is able to serve out your website content.
Do you provide the IP addresses or do I have to provide them?	You bring the sites and we'll handle the IP space.
I'm used to running my own DNS. Can I do it on Cloud Sites?	That's another great thing about Cloud Sites... you have the flexibility to do most things you would do on a dedicated server. If you'd like to run your own DNS, go right ahead. But know that it is recommended to use the built-in DNS on your account. If you decide to go it alone you'll be missing out on the unlimited access to Cloud Sites' clustered, geographical redundant domain name system, which is all included in your account. Plus, DNS is easy to configure using our intuitive web interface.
What name servers do you offer? Can I select "private" name servers?	Our name servers are dns1.stabletransit.com and dns2.stabletransit.com. They are intentionally "white label" - so your clients don't have to know that you're outsourcing their hosting, unless you want them to. Although we do not currently offer private label name servers, it is something on our roadmap.

I'm an email junkie—I have to check my mail all of the time. Please tell me that you offer webmail services.	We run a customized mail environment with one of the best webmail interfaces on the planet. (It's a modern ajax-powered application, so you can drag and drop to your heart's content. It works so well that some people use it as their primary means of checking email.) There's even a mobile view formatted for cell phones and PDAs. Finally, you can check mail in desktop clients using standard IMAP or POP protocols.
I'm worried about getting a virus. Do you offer any anti-virus protection? If so, what programs do you use?	Antivirus protection is set up and enabled for all of your email accounts. Our email gateways filter incoming e-mail into two stages using two different software technologies. The software will automatically delete any suspected virus, and then deliver the message. Virus definitions are rapidly synced with the latest updates, and we have the capacity to handle large virus outbreaks without slowing down email delivery.
What about spam protection?	Our advanced email platform utilizes multiple levels of anti-spam protection. The spam filtering system protects your mailbox by gathering real-time spam intelligence from a number of sources and then actively using this intelligence to block spam. Tens of thousands of recent spam email characteristics are tracked, which alone identify t he majority of spam. In addition, a number of third-party spam databases, several DNS checks, and several message-formatting tests are used when analyzing every email that comes in. Also, you and your customers can control personal safe lists and blacklists to further keep your inboxes clean. Safe lists allow certain senders (email addresses, domains, or mail server IP addresses) to bypass the anti-spam system. Conversely, blacklists allow customers to block mail from certain senders. Customers can also control what to do with spam once it has been identified. We aggregate all of this data into a collection of several thousand constantly improving spam tests, which are performed on every email that enters the email hosting system. The results of these tests are combined together to identify almost all spam with virtually zero false-positives.

Are there any applications installed by default onto my account?	Nope. We prefer to think of your account as a blank canvas for you and your customers to install the scripts and programs you need. We do have some cool new features in the works - of which all the details can't be made public just yet - that will make setting up some of the more popular Web applications quick and easy.
Can most programs be loaded onto Cloud Sites?	Just about any Web application should run well on our clusters as long as the script meets standard server requirements. Generally, you just load an application onto Cloud Sites and it should run unmodified. If you have questions about a specific application, just ask.
Do you offer any tools to aid in the creation of my websites?	Any sort of web creation tool is outside our sweet spot - so we will leave that to the talented professionals who do web design for a living.
Do you support Ruby on Rails?	Yes! We have a powerful new Ruby on Rails offering. We power Ruby sites with the LiteSpeed webserver and provide from 2 to 8 processes per site coupled with 128 to 512 megabytes of memory. Learn more about our Ruby features and pricing.
I see that you support .NET. Which versions do you support?	We now supports .NET 2.0, .NET 3, and .NET 3.5 frameworks.
What about other add-ons like shopping carts, e-commerce applications, or SSL certificates?	You are welcome to install any shopping carts or other web applications you'd like to your hosting account. SSL services are now available. For a small additional monthly fee, you can enable SSL on as many of your sites as you'd like.
I'd really like to add streaming video to my site. Does you offer anything to make it easy for me?	Although we currently do not offer streaming video to our customers, this is one of the major development projects we're working to roll out. Stay in touch and we'll let you know when our streaming media offering is ready for prime time.

What is your support like?	Unlike most discount hosting offerings, our support team is instantly available 24x7 through online chat and by phone. We do not outsource support. That means they can always get you the urgent help you need and make sure your suggestions are heard.
How can I contact support? Am I limited to a certain number of incidents or credits? And what does all of this cost?	As one of our customers, you have our full attention. Not only will you have a dedicated Account Manager who's only a phone call away, you can call or chat with any member of our support team 24x7. You are not limited to the amount of time you can spend with the support team and you have a host of different ways to contact us. We're here via live chat, phone, user forums, and an ever-growing knowledgebase - all of which is included in the price of your account!
What level of support should I expect?	Our support team will assist you with all aspects of the control panel, general connectivity issues (i.e. web, mail, webmail, ftp, and database) and basic website troubleshooting concerns. The support team members, however, will be unable to assist you in the installation of paid, open source, or custom code (PHP, ASP, .NET, etc.). With that said, if you contact our support team they will do everything they can to point you in the right direction if you need help installing a particular script.
What hours is support available?	We're staffed 24x7, so no matter when you're in jam, there will be a friendly support representative ready to assist you.
Do you offer member forums?	Yes, the company was created by industry veterans specifically for web designers and developers. We're all about building the designer and developer community - and what better way to spread the love than to offer some very active member forums. New users are always encouraged to post comments, questions, and feedback. What's more, we take your feedback so seriously that your feature requests help guide our development path.