Frequently asked web hosting questions
- Do you offer any software mirrors?
- What FTP mode should I use?
- What are your name servers?
- Do you backup my website, databases and email?
- Will my website be shut down if I exceed my quota?
- Do I have to host all my services with ayuda hosting (website, DNS, mail)?
- Do you offer VPSes?
- Why would I need a dedicated IP address?
- Can I host objectionable content? / Illegal content?
- Can you help me write my website?
- I have a high traffic site, can I get a discount?
- What payment methods do you accept?
- Why should I use an Australian provider instead of a cheaper overseas one?
- Do you offer cheaper plans for personal sites?
- Can I run a forum or blog on your hosting?
- Can I send SMS from my website?
- What should my incoming mail server be?
- What is my email username?
- How do I train my spam filter?
- What is this DSPAM string appearing in my emails?
- Can I get my mail using a web browser?
- I still receive spam, even though filtering is turned on
- My PHP script cannot connect to any external hosts
- What versions of PHP are installed?
- Can I host a site using Ruby on Rails?
- Can I Host a site using Java / JSP?
- Can I host a site using haskell/c++/asp/aspx/.NET/Mono?
- Do you have safe_mode / register globals turned on
- How do I manage cron jobs?
- What permissions should my files/directories be?
- Can I use ftp to access my hosting account?
- Can I use FTP over SSL/TLS?
- Can I enable anonymous FTP access?
- Can I use SSH to access my hosting account?
- Why are some domains (ie .tv, etc) so expensive?
- How do I access the control panel?
Open FAQ in new page: Do you offer any software mirrors? Do you offer any software mirrors?
ayuda provides a mirror for the ClamAV anti-virus software. It is access via a round-robin DNS and will be used automatically if you use ClamAV in Australia.
Open FAQ in new page: What FTP mode should I use? What FTP mode should I use?
You can use both active and passive FTP modes. Depending on your firewall, active mode may not work. We recommend that you use passive mode with FTP over explicit SSL/TLS (also called FTPES) as this encrypts your password along with all the data that you transfer.
Open FAQ in new page: What are your name servers? What are your name servers?
Our name servers are:
- ns1.ayudahosting.com.au
- ns2.ayudahosting.com.au
- ns3.ayudahosting.com.au
These will need to be specified in your domain name configuration.
Open FAQ in new page: Do you backup my website, databases and email? Do you backup my website, databases and email?
Yes, we take the following backups of your hosting account resulting in a total period of 31 days:
- 3 days of backups taken every 6 hours plus
- 7 daily backups plus
- 3 weekly backups
We also keep daily backups of your database for the last 31 days. Of these 31, we store the MySQL binary logs for the last 7 days allowing us to restore your database to any point in time within the last 7 days.
Open FAQ in new page: Will my website be shut down if I exceed my quota? Will my website be shut down if I exceed my quota?
We do not block your website just because you have gone over the quota listed in your hosting plan.
Depending on your plan and excess usage we may charge you a surcharge for excess bandwidth on your next bill.
Open FAQ in new page: Do I have to host all my services with ayuda hosting (website, DNS, mail)? Do I have to host all my services with ayuda hosting (website, DNS, mail)?
You can host as much or as little of your services with us as you like.
However you will most likely to find it more cost-effective to host them all in one place. It also means you only have one company to contact for all your hosting needs.
Open FAQ in new page: Do you offer VPSes? Do you offer VPSes?
We do offer Virtual Private Servers (VPSes) for our clients. Please contact us with your requirements if you would like a VPS.
Open FAQ in new page: Why would I need a dedicated IP address? Why would I need a dedicated IP address?
If you would like to provide a secure service such as an online shopping site, you will need to purchase a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Certificate which requires your website to have a unique (dedicated) IP address. If you would like to discuss your requirements and certificate recommendations please contact us. Having an SSL certificate will put your customer at ease knowing their financial and personal details are secure.
Open FAQ in new page: Can I host objectionable content? / Illegal content? Can I host objectionable content? / Illegal content?
For both legal and moral reasons we will not host objectionable or illegal content on our services.
If you do so we reserve the right to suspend or cancel your account.
Open FAQ in new page: Can you help me write my website? Can you help me write my website?
The team at ayuda develops websites for clients on a regular basis. If you are unsure about how to build one, contact us for a quote. Whether you would like us to build a website from scratch, or build one with you, we are happy to discuss your needs. All development work is charged on an hourly basis per staff member involved in the project.
For more information on us and other projects we have completed, go to our main website at http://www.ayuda.com.au
Open FAQ in new page: I have a high traffic site, can I get a discount? I have a high traffic site, can I get a discount?
If you believe your site stands out from the rest, feel free to contact us to discuss your hosting requirements. We will try to accommodate your needs.
Open FAQ in new page: What payment methods do you accept? What payment methods do you accept?
We accept credit card (VISA and MasterCard) as well as electronic funds transfers and cheques in Australian Dollars (AUD).
Open FAQ in new page: Why should I use an Australian provider instead of a cheaper overseas one? Why should I use an Australian provider instead of a cheaper overseas one?
Having your website hosted in a similar timezone to your business will make communicating with your hosting provider much easier as you both have the same business hours.
Your website will also load more quickly if it is located in the same country as your business and it's target audience.
Open FAQ in new page: Do you offer cheaper plans for personal sites? Do you offer cheaper plans for personal sites?
We do not differentiate based on whether you are a person or a business. However feel free to send us a message with your requirements if your website is for personal or non-profit use.
Open FAQ in new page: Can I run a forum or blog on your hosting? Can I run a forum or blog on your hosting?
Definitely! Our small plan is perfect for this type of site. As long as your site runs on PHP, Perl or Ruby you are fine.
Open FAQ in new page: Can I send SMS from my website? Can I send SMS from my website?
While ayudaHosting does not provide an SMS service, it is possible to send SMS from your website via various SMS providers. You access these from your web application by sending an HTTP, SOAP/XML or similar request. Depending on your chosen provider you may need to contact us to allow requests from your website to the provider's server.
Australian SMS providers include MessageMedia and MessageNet.
Open FAQ in new page: What should my incoming mail server be? What should my incoming mail server be?
Your incoming mail server should be set to mail.your.domain.name. For example, John's email address is john@example.com, so his incoming mail server is set to mail.example.com.
Open FAQ in new page: What is my email username? What is my email username?
The username of your email account is your full email address, for example, john@example.com.
Open FAQ in new page: How do I train my spam filter? How do I train my spam filter?
Training fine tunes your spam filter to ensure that it performs optimally. Training of your spam filter is performed by forwarding messages to predefined email addresses.
For example, John has the email address john@example.com. If John receives a spam email that wasn't caught by the spam filter (also called a false negative), he would forward the email to spam-john@example.com. Similarly, if John receives a legitimate email that was marked as spam (also called a false positive), he would forwadr the email to notspam-john@example.com.
Open FAQ in new page: What is this DSPAM string appearing in my emails? What is this DSPAM string appearing in my emails?
This string of text is inserted by the spam filter to identify the message so that it can be trained in the event that it was misclassified as spam/ham.
This string can be removed by disabling (opting out) spam filtering for your email account from the control panel. This will however disable the spam filter meaning that you will receive more spam emails.
Alternatively, advanced users may choose to change the location of the DSPAM identifier from the email body to the email headers. In this case, training your spam filter requires you to not forward your emails, but redirect them instead. Unfortunately, not all mail clients support this option.
Open FAQ in new page: Can I get my mail using a web browser? Can I get my mail using a web browser?
Yes, ayuda provides a full featured webmail client for your use.
Our webmail client is accessible at webmail.ayudahosting.com.au
Note that your username is your full email address, including your domain (ie. john@example.com).
Open FAQ in new page: I still receive spam, even though filtering is turned on I still receive spam, even though filtering is turned on
There are several reasons why you may be receiving spam. Here are some things to check or consider
- Even if you hosting account has spam filtering activated, check that the actual mailbox does too
- Spam email is changing all the time, and so do the patterns. It is therefore important to keep training your spam filter to ensure that it recognises newer trends in spam email.
Open FAQ in new page: My PHP script cannot connect to any external hosts My PHP script cannot connect to any external hosts
By default ayudaHosting blocks all outbound requests as a security measure.
If you have a specific domain or IP that needs to be allowed (ie. a payment gateway, backup server, etc), please contact us and we can allow access to your host you are trying to contact.
Alternatively, if you require access to a frequently changing list of hosts, we can provide you with a username and password for our proxy server that allows you unrestricted access to all hosts.
Open FAQ in new page: What versions of PHP are installed? What versions of PHP are installed?
We provide both PHP 4.4.x and 5.2.x. PHP 5 is used by default, however you can select PHP 4 by placing the following text in a file named ".htaccess" located inside the httpdocs directory.
AddType application/x-httpd-fastphp4 .php Action application/x-httpd-fastphp4 /fcgi-bin/php4
Open FAQ in new page: Can I host a site using Ruby on Rails? Can I host a site using Ruby on Rails?
Yes! We support Ruby on Rails
Open FAQ in new page: Can I Host a site using Java / JSP? Can I Host a site using Java / JSP?
ayuda hosting does not provide any Java hosting services.
We only support PHP, Perl, Python and Ruby on Rails.
Open FAQ in new page: Can I host a site using haskell/c++/asp/aspx/.NET/Mono? Can I host a site using haskell/c++/asp/aspx/.NET/Mono?
ayuda hosting does not currently support these languages.
Open FAQ in new page: Do you have safe_mode / register globals turned on Do you have safe_mode / register globals turned on
Register globals and safe_mode are disabled by default for security reasons.
Note also that due to the security problems associated these features, they will not exist in PHP6. As such it is good practice to remove any use of them now.
Open FAQ in new page: How do I manage cron jobs? How do I manage cron jobs?
At this point in time, cron jobs (or scheduled tasks) cannot be managed by our clients through the control panel. If you require a cron job to be configured, please contact us and we will set it up for you.
Open FAQ in new page: What permissions should my files/directories be? What permissions should my files/directories be?
Your permissions should be:
Files: 640 (read/write as owner, read as group, no world permissions)
Directories: 750 (read/write/execute as owner, read/execute as group, no world permissions)
Open FAQ in new page: Can I use ftp to access my hosting account? Can I use ftp to access my hosting account?
Yes, you can use a ftp client such as FileZilla to access you hosting account. You can create FTP accounts through the control panel. You should use the following settings for using FTP:
host: ftp.ayudahosting.com.au mode: passive
Optionally, you may also use TLS (FTP over explicit SSL - FTPES) to encrypt your connection.
Open FAQ in new page: Can I use FTP over SSL/TLS? Can I use FTP over SSL/TLS?
Yes, you can use FTP over explicit SSL/TLS (also referred to as FTPES).
Open FAQ in new page: Can I enable anonymous FTP access? Can I enable anonymous FTP access?
Anonymous FTP access is not available at this time.
Open FAQ in new page: Can I use SSH to access my hosting account? Can I use SSH to access my hosting account?
Yes you can!
Providing SSH has been enabled for your hosting account, you can login via secure shell.
For Windows users we recommend Putty (download the putty.exe file).
To connect to the server simply enter your domain name for the host, and 9022 for the port.
Mac OS-X and linux users should have secure shell clients on your machines by default. If you do not please consult your distribution documentation.
If you cannot connect, check the FTP/SSH users in the control panel for your hosting account.
Open FAQ in new page: Why are some domains (ie .tv, etc) so expensive? Why are some domains (ie .tv, etc) so expensive?
Certain domains such as .tv are expensive. There are commercial interests behind these.
For example Tuvalu is a low population country with relatively little income. Their governing body decided to use the popular .tv top level domain as a source of income to help their economy. The recent popularity of .tv domains has allowed them to release domains with higher than normal cost.
Other countries may have similar reasons for releasing their top level domain's for international purchase. though at a cost. You may also find some have restrictions on name server locations and hosting requirements.
Additionally some countries have further requirements when purchasing domain names. For example a .com.au or similar .au domains required an ABN, ACN or organisation/association identification. The use of these domains is also monitored by the Australian registry.
Open FAQ in new page: How do I access the control panel? How do I access the control panel?
The control panel allows to manage your hosting accounts, domain names, ssl certificates, email accounts, spam filtering options and much much more. Your login credentials are provided when you first sign up with ayuda hosting. You can access the control panel at controlpanel.ayudahosting.com.au.