Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Cloud Questions
- Can I host more than one web site?
Absolutely! We don't set any limits on the number of sites you can host. You'll just need to ensure that you give your server enough memory, disk space and processor to handle the demand. If you're not sure how much to allocate, get in touch and we can advise you.
- Can I install Windows?
If you need to use Microsoft Windows as your operating system, please get in touch as this may be available on a custom basis.
- Do I get root access?
Yes - unless you take a fully managed server, in which case we administer everything for you and as a security precaution no root access is provided.
- Do I need to be a server guru?
Not at all! If you've never managed a server before, we can help you. Our range of management plans mean that even a complete novice can take advantage of the benefits of the cloud.
Of course if you do know how to manage a server, you'll find it to be just like any other Linux-based dedicated server you've used in the past.
- How is my data backed up?
Every file you upload to your cloud server is 1:1 mirrored elsewhere in the cloud. Should hardware fail, your data will remain available. We can additionally provide Snapshot backups of your entire server for a small extra fee. If installed, H-Sphere can also be configured to automatically schedule daily, weekly and monthly backups of your data within your available space.
- How many IPs do I get?
As IPs are a scarce resource, each server is supplied with one IP. If you have a legitimate requirement for more, you may purchase more on request.
- How much bandwidth is included?
We include 500GB of monthly data transfer free of charge with each server up to 1.2Ghz CPU, 1000GB between 1.2GHz CPU and 2GHz CPU and 2000GB over 2GHz CPU. Additional data transfer can be purchased over and above this amount.
- What happens if hardware fails?
The Cloud has a completely self-healing architecture. This means that if any hardware node should fail, any cloud servers running on resources on that node will be re-provisioned on alternative hardware. This happens without the need for any human intervention.
We can also engineer solutions for instantaneous failover for customers with specific availability requirements. Get in touch and we can discuss the options available.
- What's the minimum contract?
We just require a minimum of one month. You can even scale up or down within the month should you experience a sudden change in demand for your web site.
- Will it function like a regular linux box?
Yes! It will function like any other dedicated server, just with much more flexibility and built in high availability.
- Where are your servers located?
Our servers are located in USA through 3 DataCenters ( Dallas, Seattle and Washington )
- Do you have technician onsite to replace hardware like HDD etc ?
Yes, we have a "Satellite team" that is available 24 x 7
- Do you Cloud Virtual infrastructure has high availability ?
Of course, this is the purpose of a Cloud Virtual infrastructure to have high availability.
- Can I install everything that I want in a Cloud Server ?
Yes, you can install what you want because you have the full access like root for Linux or Administrator for Windows. ( As long as you respecting our TOS regarding Spam, abuse etc )
- If I have my own Operating System (OS), can you install it for me ?
Sure, we can install your OS as long as it is compatible with our Cloud Virtual infrastructure.
- What is your network uptime ?
Our network uptime is 100% because of our network redundancy
- What is your Cloud server uptime ?
Our uptime of a Cloud server is 100% because of our high availability.
- What is your Cloud Web server service ?
Our uptime regarding a Web service is 99.9% ( Shared hosting plan and Cloud sites )
- What is your uptime regarding Databases ( Mysql and MSSQL express ) ?
Our uptime regarding our Shared databases is 99.9% minimum.
- Can you transfer my websites and databases from a competitor free of charge?
Yes, we transfer your website and database from a competitor with care and it is subject of an approbation.
- Do you offer a backup service in case of if I deleted a file or folder by mistake?
Yes, we offer the best suitable restore backup on the market. ( R1soft ), this service is free of charge and included in your hosting plan.
- Do you offer a Cache application with your Apache Servers ?
Yes, we support Zend Optimizer because it is compatible with the most popular of applications without any issues and its performance is excellent.
- Do I will have access to a cron job ?
Yes, the cron job service is included free of charge with all of our shared hosting plans.
- Can I have SSH access through my Cloud shared Linux hosting plan ?
Yes, you are elligible to SSH service depending of the payment terms, please refer to our shared hosting plan from our website for further details.
- What type of SAN are you using ?
We are using the best combination of Raid 10 with SAS Hdd with redundancy.
- Do you have a Disaster Recovery ?
Yes, we have Replication, snapshots, and network storage help eliminate single points of failure and provide a restoration path for mission-critical data.
- Do you have high availability ?
Yes, we use Load balancing and mirroring between servers in addition to data backups increases data availability and mitigates the risks of any part of our network going down.
- What is your High Performance Computing Solutions ?
We are using a combination of load balancing and clustering integrated with most advanced applications Like Windows Hyper V and Citrix NetScaler VPX .
- What is the limit of my shared hosting plan regarding Cpu ?
All new cloud shared hosting plans include 25% of 8 Cpus with maximum of 120 seconds distributed through our computing system for better performance. (Please take note that 120 seconds is based on only one process and we never saw a process using more than 35 seconds with a high peak of traffic, so for your benefits, we multiple 3 times the time of a process to make sure that your domain will never be suspended).
- What is the limit of my shared hosting plan concerning Ram ?
We don't have any real limit regarding the Ram resource because the real concern is the space and CPU.
- What is the limit of my shared hosting plan regarding the space ?
Tophostingcenter.com doesn't offer any unlimited space because it is not true, Any hosting companies shouldn't say "unlimited space", because somehow it is not possible.
- Do I have full control on my php.ini ?
Yes, with Cpanel you have full control of your php.ini
- Do you offer 30 days money back guarantee ?
Yes, of course, we offer it !
- Do you offer Mysql remote access ?
By security, we don't offer officially remote access. However, if you request it through a ticket, our security department will study your request and try to find a way to provide you a remote access . This request is case by case.
- Where is your Head office ?
Our head office is in Montreal, Canada
- Are you offering Windows server 2008 ?
Yes, we are offering all Windows server 2008 editions.
- How your server perform ?
Our nodes are custom built multi-processor with 32 cores minimum.
- How many domains per Cloud server are you hosting ?
Depending of the segment of our cloud virtual infrastructure you are hosted, we will never have more than 40% domains hosted per Cloud server. The reason is we keep a ratio of 60% free of resource in case of high peak of traffic ( New since 3 months ).
- What is the difference between Cloud Servers and a dedicated server?
With our Cloud Servers you can deploy one in a few minutes vs. waiting for a physical server deployment. You can also resize the plan and bring up multiple Cloud Servers quickly and easily for much less money. Dedicated servers usually involve contracts and setup fees while they take time to alter the RAM, etc.
- Are Cloud Servers just a VPS?
Short answer, no. Cloud Servers can be resized to a different plan through our control panel, all the way up to 8 GB of RAM. Most common VPS offerings only offer the equivalent of 128MB up to 512MB RAM at most. With most VPS offerings, you are not guaranteed the resources that you are paying for, which means other customers could be infringing on your allotment. We not only guarantee you will have the resources you are paying for when you need them, but you can also burst while additional resources are available.
- Is bandwidth free between Cloud Servers?
Yes, you will get a private IP for each Cloud Server that offers free bandwidth between them.
- How often does the Cloud backup is done?
We do backups every 12 hours.
- I'm familiar with other control panels like Plesk and Cpanel. Can I use one of those control panels with the your Cloud?
Yes, of course, we offer already cPanel in our cloud virtual infrastructure.
- What's the Tophostingcenter Cloud's support like?
Unlike most discount hosting offerings, The Tophostingcenter Cloud's support team is instantly available 24x7 through online chat and by phone with a respond time of an average of 15 minutes.
Pre-sales Questions
- How do I place an order?
Orders are placed from the order page.
- How soon will my account be set up and ready for use?
When you order your Linux or Windows shared plan account online, our automated system will set up your account immediately. You will receive a welcome email with your login and other important information. All other accounts are setup manually. Such accounts are typically set up within one day. As soon as your account is set up you can immediately begin uploading your web site files. It may take up to 3 days for your DNS to resolve. Most resolve within 1 day or less. But don’t worry, with THC we give you a temporary domain name that will be effective right a way after your signup and this will permit you to start your upload. Please signup for a shared hosting plan by clicking here.
- Is there a minimum time contract/commitment?
There is no commitment or contract. You can pay monthly or yearly. You can also cancel at any time.
- What kind of support can I expect?
We have an excellent and well-trained support team in place to help you 24x7. While we do not troubleshoot users' code, you can expect us to resolve and technical issues relating to the server, or programs we provide on the server, in a timely manner. To view the complete list of support options available to you, please see the support page by clicking here.
- How can we offer such a good deal?
First of all, we are a true wholesale hosting provider. Most hosting sellers on the web are not wholesale web hosting providers but just hosts offering reseller plans. Second, most of our customers run small businesses or personal web sites, which don't use much disk space or bandwidth on our servers. As a result, even our most demanding business clients are able to save money by signing up for the same packages as everyone else. Third, we don't spend a lot of money on advertising. We rely primarily on word-of-mouth advertising, which doesn't cost us anything (we just have to offer a product that people want to tell their friends about). For more details, please refer to our blog.
- How can you offer an "unlimited" account? Is it really unlimited?
Unlimited hosting accounts have no defined limit as per our Terms of Service (TOS), which states that shared account usage must be reasonably accommodated by a shared server. Think of an account offering unlimited email addresses. This does not mean you can host 34 billion accounts on a shared web server, but at the same time there is no defined number you must stay under. The idea is for us to give resellers freedom to grow their accounts large enough that they can easily afford to upgrade to their own dedicated server. Please signup for a shared hosting plan.
- Are there any restrictions to the content I can host?
Yes, there is a specific list of items which violate our Terms of Service. Please read our TOS here before signing up. In general we don't allow adult content, and our shared servers can't be used for hosting/streaming media, download mirrors, or storing large amounts of archives. Please request a custom quote if you are in need of these services to ensure you have adequate resources for your content.
- Is my site backed up and how often?
We do backups of all accounts nightly onto a second physical drive and off-site backup. Clients are encouraged to make local backups of their site from their control panel account. If, in the unfortunate event, something happens to your files, it is your responsibility to have a local copy of your files.If you needs files restored, you may request to have us restore them from our backups or from your local copy. Optional off-site backup solutions are available on the services page and are encouraged, as there is no such thing as having too many backups (A fee might be charge for the restore).
- How fast are your connections?
The primary data center that we utilize for shared servers has joined eight (8) different Tier one backbone providers together to form the best network infrastructure in the industry. Their backbone border routers are Juniper M20's and their fully redundant switching layer comprises a certified six pack design of Cisco™ 6500 series switches. All customer access switches in the data center, and there are hundreds of them, are Cisco™ 2950 series switches designed for maximum performance and uptime availability.
- Are all plans covered with the money-back guarantee?
The 30-day money back guarantee is not applicable to monthly plans of any Cloud Product or Cloud Service.
Technical Questions
- How do I create and use custom name servers?
This is such a popular question that we had to make a special page dedicated to showing you how to create your own custom name servers. Please go to the custom name server tutorial page.
- How do I get my email?
If you're familiar with your email client's setup, use the following information to retrieve email from your POP account:
Incoming mail (POP3) server: mail.tophostingcenter.com
Outgoing mail (SMTP) server: mail.tophostingcenter.com
See our knowledge base subject about SMTP servers on our helpdesk page if this does not work for you. * set SMTP authorization to on in your email program . WEBMAIL: You can login to your webmail via your Control Panel or through mail.tophostingcenter.com, click on the second option ( IMP-webclient ) and then enter your email address plus your password.
- I want to get started right away, but my domain name hasn't transferred yet. How do I do it?
You can ftp directly to the server IP using your account username and password provided in your welcome mail. You can also upload files using the file manager in your control panel.
- What is the path to perl?
/usr/bin/perl
- What is the path to webmail?
/usr/sbin/sendmail
- What is the full server path to my home directory?
/home/username
- Where should I put CGI scripts for my domain?
All CGI scripts should be uploaded to the cgi-bin folder, for your domain. Be sure to follow the instructions for the script you are uploading regarding setting permissions on the files and folders you create, as they vary from script to script. The full server path to your cgi-bin is /home/username/public_html/cgi-bin. Contact us before uploading any CGI scripts that could potentially require excessive CPU resources to ensure uninterrupted service for your account.
- I uploaded my files, but I don't see my page?
First, make sure you have placed an index file (ex. index.html) in the public_html directory. Next, make sure your domain has resolved to our name servers. You can do this at http://www.internic.com/whois.html. If you have verified that you can see the index file in your public_html file, AND that your DNS has resolved to our name servers, try one more thing. Close your internet browser, delete all temp internet files, cookies, and clear the history. Then turn off your computer, and turn off the power to your modem and router to reset the DNS information. Then turn everything back on again and try to access your site. If you still cannot access it, please contact the support department.
Account and Billing Questions
- Can I upgrade my plan or features later?
Yes, you may upgrade your account at any time. If you would like to upgrade your account, please contact the sales department with your request, and they will send you instructions for upgrading your account. There are no additional fees for upgrading; you pay only the pro-rated difference between the two plans.
- How can I change my account or billing information?
If you need to update your account or billing information please contact the sales/billing department by clicking here.
- What happens if I go over the bandwidth limit for my account?
If you go over your allotted amount of bandwidth in a given month, your account will not be suspended but you will receive a warning through an email. You will be contacted by a THC staff for overuse and may be given positive options. If you are on a dedicated server, then you will be invoiced at the rate of $0.60 per GB. Discounted Bandwidth is available if prepaid before the 1st of the month.
- What methods of payment can I use?
We accept payments via Paypal and using any credit card via 2Checkout.
- How do I cancel my account?
You may cancel your hosting subscription in your Paypal or 2checkout account. If you paid by 2Checkout, in addition please send a cancellation email to support@tophostingcenter.com. Your account will be removed from the server upon cancellation.
- What about billing and over-due policies?
Shared hosting accounts will be given a grace period of 6 days, if payment is not received within the grace period the unpaid account will be deleted from the server. Dedicated servers have a grace period of 3 days.
Privacy Policy and Terms of Service
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