KNIGHTSBRIDGE INTERNET Strategy & Planning David Pearce Training & Support Kieran Turner Marketing Arif Khan Accounts Manager Carlo Quaglia System Admin Mark Sheppard
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
The information here is designed to help you make the most from your website. Please read these carefully. If you don't find what you need, our technical support team are waiting to hear from you. Electronic mail How do I access my mail (using POP3)? What can be done to reduce spam? How can I have a mailing list for my site? Do you offer dialup facilities? Do you offer a webmail service? Domain name registration What domain name(s) should I register for my site? Website authoring Where can I find a guide to website creation? What is the best authoring tool for my site? Does the server support MS Front Page extensions? Can you build and manage a website on our behalf? What's wrong with my computer? What's a good site for Spanish-speaking webmasters? Website uploading How do I upload my web site? Can I upload using Dreamweaver? How much webspace do I have for my site(s)? What about backups? Website content Are there any restrictions on what I can publish? Logging on to the server How do I log on to the server? How do I set my preferred lanaguage? Web scripting and interaction with users What operating system does the server run? How do I get CGI scripts to work? How do I get PHP3 scripts to work? Are Server Side Includes (SSI) enabled? Why can't I successfully log into MySQL? Can I run PhpMyAdmin to access my database through a web browser? How do I include FormMail on my site? What's my full directory root path on the server? Why don't the changes I make to Javascript files take immediate effect? How do I get my ASP.NET pages to work? How can I password-protect a directory on my site? Why is security important for my PHP and/or CGI scripts? Performance and web-site analysis How busy is the server? Can I watch its traffic? What bandwidth do you offer? Are there any bandwidth resictions on my sites(s)? How busy is my site? Where are my weekly site stats? How can I improve my hitcounts? How can I best promote my site(s)? Do you offer search-engine consultancy services? E-Commerce How can my site take credit card payments? How do I access my mail using POP3? The POP3 server is at `delysid.bltc.net` (on port 110 as is normal.) Use the same user name and password that we gave you for FTP access. To collect and send mail off the server, go to your e-mail client "Options" menu and enter "mail.bltc.net" for both checking and sending mail. To send email via the server, you will need to have successfully logged into a POP account on the server in the previous 15 minutes. It is best, however, to use "mail.bltc.net" only for checking mail, and "mailhost.myisp.net" [etc] for sending mail. Your ISP will tell you its mailist of ISP mailserverslhost address e.g. "mail.btinternet.com" if you do not know already. But click here for a list of major ISP's SMTP servers (2004). If you have more than one email address ("alias") and have asked for them to be sent to separate email boxes, each one will have the same server but a different user name and password. We will have sent these to you when the service was arranged. For security reasons there is no automatic system for re-issue - instead, please contact us. < back to the questions I'm getting a lot of spam. Can anything be done to reduce it? Will I lose any messages? We use SpamAssassin and the following blocking lists: DSBL - http://www.dsbl.org/ SBL -http://www.spamhaus.org/sbl/ RDDN -http://bl.reynolds.net.au/rddn/ NJABL -http://www.njabl.org/ PDL -http://www.pan-am.ca/pdl/ SORBS -http://www.dnsbl.sorbs.net/ ORDB -http://www.ordb.org/ Blitzed -http://opm.blitzed.org/ DNSRBLDUN -http://www.dnsrbl.com/ They operate under varying policies. When combined, the lists should (hopefully) cover most open replays, open proxies and known spam sources. You shouldn't lose any messages. But in exceptional circumstances you may wish to request a manual override. < back to the questions How can I have a mailing list for my site? There are two sorts of mailing list. You should tell us whether you want 1) an "info list" to which only one person, normally you, posts announcements; or 2) a "discussion list" to which anyone on the list can post. You can have multiple lists under a single domain. A web-based administration tool allows you to subscribe and unsubscribe email addresses from the list. Alternatively, your subscribers can add or remove themselves via email. < back to the questions Do you offer dialup facilities? No, we don't offer a dialup service ourselves - only web and email services. However, there is a dialup that needs no signup or monthly charges and only costs the amount of a local call (in the UK) while you're online. Just use the following details: Phone number: 0845 609 1370 Username: uk2 Password: uk2 SMTP server: smtp.uk2.net The DNS servers should get set automatically when you dial up, but if not, then they can be set manually to: Primary DNS: 212.4.208.100 Secondary DNS: 212.4.208.106 They've also got a news server should you need it - news.uk2.net. The service is a standard PPP connection and works with modems and ISDN. To use it the number of the phone you're dialing from must be available, so if your number's withheld by default, then you'll have to add 1470 to the beginning of their telephone number. < back to the questions Do you offer a webmail service? Yes. Go to https://www.knightsbridge.net/mail/. Enter your username and password. You can now access your e-mail from anywhere in the world via a browser-based interface. < back to the questions Where can I find a guide to website creation? For information on beginner's guides, web design and development tips, and online HTML tutorials, visit the excellent Google Directory. Or explore the web developer's resources at webmonkey.com. < back to the questions What is the best authoring tool to use for my website? If you don't want to hand-code your webpages in HTML using Notepad, then we recommend Macromedia Dreamweaver MX. Another option is to use Microsoft FrontPage. < back to the questions Does the server support MS Front Page extensions? No. Sorry. < back to the questions Can you build and manage a website on our behalf? We recommend that you choose a professional web design company. Whether you're after simple html pages or an innovative, high-specification web site using the very latest technologies, e-mail web-design@knightsbridge.net for a free consultation and a price quote. < back to the questions What's wrong with my computer? Your computer is probably riddled with spyware, malware, Trojans, rogue dialers and the like. It is important to have up-to-date antivirus software, a firewall, and antispyware etc software installed on your computer. Avast is an excellent free antivirus program. Two good free antispyware etc programs are Ad-Aware and Spybot. They can be downloaded from Download.com. < back to the questions Can you recommend a site for Spanish-speaking webmasters? Perhaps try WebEstilo. Other useful sites are Cómo construir un sitio Web and Construya un Sitio Web Website. < back to the questions What domain name(s) should I register for my site? Ideally, your domain name should be short, memorable and authoritative. Domain names can generally be between 2 and 67 characters long (including the extension), and contain the characters a-z, 0-9 and '-' (hyphen). Domain names cannot start or end with '-' (hyphen). Domain names are not case sensitive and should generally be displayed in all lowercase. You can now also register multi-lingual domain names. If you are based in the UK, then it probably best to register the .co.uk and the .com; and perhaps also the .org, .net, .info and .biz. We can set up your domains as separate hosts, or alternatively, they can point to the same address. You may also wish to register any likely misspellings of your domain, hyphenated and unhyphenated versions where appropriate, and any particular goods, products or services with which your company is associated. You can check domain name availability by going to the whois lookup. Sometimes, if a domain is taken, it may be available on the secondary market, but prices are typically expensive. To register an unclaimed domain, you will need to send us the name you wish to appear as the legal registrant (i.e. the domain "owner"), your address, post-code/Zip code, phone number and an e-mail address. When you own a domain, it is also possible to set up an unlimited number of extra sub-domains i.e. subdomain.mydomain.com. < back to the questions How do I upload my web site? We recommend that you first download CuteFTP. When you have installed the program, open it, then click on "file", then "site manager", then "new". Choose any label you like for your site. In the FTP host address field, type "www.mydomain.com". Then type the FTP username and password we have allocated you: a username and password ensures that only you can upload or modify files on your site. In the default local directory field, type the folder address on your local computer with your website [e.g. "C:\mywebsite"]. You can ignore the other fields. Then click "connect". The left-hand panel in CuteFTP represents your web site on your local computer; the right-hand panel represents your site on the Internet. You should try to keep them identically matched. When you connect via CuteFTP, you will see two yellow folders on the right hand panel. Ignore the folder called "www.yoursite.com-logs"; this contains your raw log files. Instead, doubleclick to open the folder called "www.yoursite.com". To upload your site, simply select and then drag-and-drop your files from the left-hand panel to the right-hand panel in CuteFTP. Do not upload files to anywhere outside your "www.yoursite.com" folder; they won't work. It is a good idea to use exclusively lower-case file names. It's also best to name your main web page "index.html"; delete the index.html holding page already there. The server is configured to default to the index.html file if web users simply type in your domain in their browser address bar without specifying a particular file name. If you publish your pages and the changes don't seem to show up, then your browser is probably showing you an old page that it has cached on your local hard drive. To force the browser to reload the current page from the server, hold down the SHIFT key while you click on the Reload button (Netscape) or Refresh button (MS Internet Explorer). Or, if you are using the built in AOL browser, hold down the CTRL key while you click on the Refresh button (Normally just ot the left of the address bar and Home Icon). < back to the questions Can I upload files to my site using Macromedia Dreamweaver? If you are using Macromedia Dreamweaver MX or later, then the answer is yes. The software includes its own FTP client. Even though Dreamweaver lacks the advanced functions of some dedicated software like the highly recommended CuteFTP (see above), Dreamweaver should be sufficient to manage most sites. To set up a site in Dreamweaver and connect via FTP follow these instructions: In Dreamweaver’s "Files" window, click ‘Site’ and from the pop-up menu select ‘New Site’. Give it a name and click 'Next'. Now choose whether or not to use a server technology (e.g. PHP). If you are unsure, select 'No' for now. This can be changed later. Click 'Next'. Now you should select ‘Edit local copies on my machine then upload to server when ready (recommended)'. Select a folder on your machine to act as your local development folder. Click 'Next'. From the server connection options dropdown menu, select ‘FTP’. The questions below it will then change. Enter your ‘hostname’ in the form www.yoursite.com or www.yoursite.co.uk [etc]. Next enter the folder you want your files stored under - e.g. www.yoursite.com for the top of the site, or www.yoursite.com/myfolder to put everything in the folder ‘myfolder’ and below (assuming this already exists). Finally enter your username and password. These will have been given to you when you arranged your FTP account. Now click the "Test Connection" button. Dreamweaver will then attempt to connect to the server to verify that it is able to upload using these details. If it does so, then you are ready. Most single users will probably want to answer ‘No’ to the "Checking In/Out" question. To upload a file, right-click it in the local view in the Files window and select 'Put'. You should now be able to locate it with your browser by going to, for example, www.yoursite.com/file.htm. Select 'Remote view' to see the files and folders in your site. < back to the questions How much webspace do I have for my site(s)? Knightsbridge Online standardly offers 1Gb disk space per website. Most websites do not exceed 10Mb. We do not impose absolute disk space size restrictions. But clients who may require more than 1Gb are requested to drop us a line first. < back to the questions What about backups? A backup runs every night, starting at 01:15 (GMT/BST). Backups are archived on the 1st and 15th of the month and are kept for a few months. < back to the questions How do I log on to the server? If you have a login account (you'll need specifically to ask for one - an FTP account is the default) then you can use SSH to log in to the server. Telnet access is disabled since the ssh alternative encrypts all traffic over the internet and is available for all common platforms. Most recent unix and unix-like implementations (including Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris and Cygwin) include a command line ssh client as standard. Ssh clients are also available for Windows and older versions of MacOS. Alternatively there's a Java applet implementation of ssh at http://delysid.bltc.net/ssh/ that you can use to save having to install any software. All you need is a Java-capable browser so you can even log in securely from an internet café! < back to the questions How do I set my preferred language? To change the language that messages are displayed in you need to specify your "locale" using the LANG environment variable. Under bash (the default shell) you do this using the command "LANG=ll_CC" where "ll" is a two-letter language code and "CC" is a two-letter country code. We currently support the following locales: de_DE German, Germany en_CA English, Canada en_GB English, Great Britain en_US English, United States es_CO Spanish, Columbia es_MX Spanish, Mexico fr_CA French, Canada pt_BR Portuguese, Brazil If you would like more supported, please ask. < back to the questions Are there any restrictions on what I can publish? Knightsbridge Online is opposed to all forms of censorship. We do not monitor, nor accept liability for, the content of any of the websites hosted on our servers. However, all our clients are urged to exercise responsibility and discretion in what they publish: we are constrained to operate within the laws of the land. If instructed by court order, we will remove any content judged unlawful. Moreover, potential clients intending to set up their own warez, illicit mp3 download, etc., sites are requested to look elsewhere. < back to the questions What operating system does the server run? Our London Telehouse server runs Debian, a free operating system using the Linux kernel. Our North American server runs Red Hat Linux. < back to the questions How do I get CGI scripts to work? Our web server - Apache - is configured to recognize script and program files in all document directories - i.e. anywhere you'd normally put HTML files - with the extension either ".cgi" or ".pl". So you don't need to put the files in a special cgi-bin directory outside of your site. Your CGI files must have execute and read permission set for "other" users in order to work. Otherwise you'll get the "You don't have permission..." or "Premature end of script headers..." error messages. To set execute and read permission you can use a good FTP program - see the documentation for your chosen one. Or if you have "telnet" access to your site, send the file by FTP then login, find the file, and type something like:
    chmod a+rx myscript.cgi
The file must also have UNIX-style line endings. Sometimes your DOS or Windows computer may change these, so if you're FTP-ing from a non-UNIX machine, it's best to use ASCII mode rather than binary. Naturally, we'd recommend that you also get a good programming text editor, like TextPad, so the problem won't arise. Otherwise, once the file is uploaded, login and type:
    dos2unix myscript.cgi
Finally, if you want to use Perl for your CGI you need this "magic string" on the first line because Perl lives in different places on different computers. So if you have downloaded a freebie script from the internet, this is something you will have to change.
    #!/usr/bin/perl -w
You can run your script with a simple link to its URL, like this: http://www.mydomain.org.uk/myscript.cgi?extrainfo=likethis or with a form, in which case your form has the "action" set to be the URL for the script, like this:
    <form action="http://www.mydomain.org.uk/myscript.cgi">
    <input name="extrainfo" value="likethis">
    <input type="submit"  value="Submit Query" name="submit">
    </form>
If you have problems getting your script to run, have a look at recent entries in your "error_log" file, since that's where the error streams from CGI scripts end up. Use a command like `more` to page through the file, or just use `tail` to see the last line. The file will have a name of the form:
    /home/me/www.mysite.com-logs/error_log
For more information on our web server and its capabilities, See the Apache RTFM pages for a very brief explanation, or see the User's Guide. < back to the questions How do I get PHP3 scripts to work? Name files with the extension ".php4" instead of ".html" or whatever. The file will be passed onto the PHP module in Apache. For PHP, you can put the files anywhere you'd put an HTML file, but use the suffix ".php4". No special configuration needed. < back to the questions Are Server Side Includes (SSI) enabled? Yes. Give files the ".shtml" extension. < back to the questions I can see MySQL after logging into the shell successfully. Why can't I now log into MySQL? MySQL uses its own usercode/password system - it doesn't rely on the normal usercode/password unix system used by telnet/ssh. So if you'd like to use MySQL as well, first ask the sysadmin to set you up a MySQL account and a database (or databases). This account will have a username/password separate from the username/password you log in with. You need to specify the name(s) of the database(s) you want creating when requesting your MySQL account from the sysadmin. When connecting to the MySQL server from within your program use the hostname "localhost" if needed. < back to the questions Can I run PhpMyAdmin to access my database through a web browser? Yes. The URL is https://www.knightsbridge.net/phpmyadmin/ < back to the questions How do I include FormMail on my site? The path for sendmail is "/usr/sbin/sendmail". Note that the FormMail CGI script has the potential to be abused by spammers. The way to avoid this happening is to hard-code the recipient address into the Perl script rather than using the "recipient" hidden input field in the HTML. < back to the questions What's my full directory root path on the server? You can find can find your folder via the UNIX path /var/www/www.mywebsite.com ... This path will always work even if your username ever changes. Therefore it's ideal for including in scripts which would otherwise just break when for any reason your username is changed. On the other hand, for authentication purposes (such as the .htpasswd method) you should use the path /home/ftp/username/www.mywebsite.com .... This allows you to access other directories, such as your own FTP directory, needed for this purpose. < back to the questions Why don't the changes I make to Javascript files take immediate effect? When I make changes to HTML pages, and cgi scripts they are displayed as soon as I refresh the page. The Javascript files are probably being cached by your ISP. Even if you don't set any proxy in your browser's preferences, your ISP can transparently force all web requests through a proxy. HTML pages and CGI pages are usually the "top level" files referenced directly by the address bar in the browser. When you refresh the page in the browser, they will be fetched again from the site. The browser does this by sending a "Pragma: no-cache" header in the request to the web server which the intermediary web cache will notice and therefore contact the server again for an updated copy. However, JavaScript and image files usually aren't directly referenced by the address bar in the browser - they're normally "second level" files that are fetched in separate requests only once the browser's parsed the top level HTML and discovered references to them. When you do a normal refresh on a page only the top level file is refreshed. To refresh all files, including second level ones, you should hold down the shift key when clicking on refresh. < back to the questions How do I get my ASP.NET pages to work? Just follow these instructions: http://www.gotmono.net/tutorials/mod-mono-howto.html Note that existing ASP code tends to be for the older non-.NET version which won't work using Mono: Mono is specifically a .NET Framework implementation which includes ASP.NET as a sub-project. Also, there are differences between Microsoft's implementation and Mono's. There are also differences due to running on top of Linux rather than Windows. But they are mostly compatible. < back to the questions How do I password-protect a directory on my site? You need to create a text file called ".htaccess" that lives in the directory you want protected. This should be a plain text file containing something like the following: AuthType basic AuthName "My protected directory" AuthUserFile /home/ftp/username/htpasswd require valid-user You then need to create the "htpasswd" file and put it in the place specified by the "AuthUserFile" line above. The "htpasswd" file is also a plain text file. It contains usernames and encrypted passwords like this: user1:jh5eDfGIrScqI user2:Ndn1lY6fqiRmQ user3:0DW.R.K0WrgVI To work out what to put in the file you can use an online tool such as http://www.4webhelp.net/us/password.php < back to the questions Why is security important for my PHP and/or CGI scripts? If you use any PHP or CGI scripts you should be very careful about security. Vulnerabilities in scripts allow malicious people to break into the server and run whatever code they want to. The main thing to watch for when writing scripts is that you validate all input that comes in over the internet as part of the request. If you're using a Perl CGI script then turning on taint checking with Perl's "-T" option is very helpful. Unfortunately, PHP doesn't have a taint mode which makes it much harder to detect such vulnerabilities. Note that the same applies to third party scripts as well as scripts that you write yourself. One popular bulletin board system called phpBB is notorious for security holes and has needed constant upgrading. If you use this (or any other third party scripts) make sure you stay up to date with security fixes. If we discover that an attacker has gained access via a script on your site we will have to shut it down until you can fix the problem. < back to the questions How busy is the server? Can I watch its traffic? Yes. Go to http://delysid.bltc.net/mrtg/ to see the traffic to and from our main apache web server. < back to the questions What bandwidth do you offer? Are there any bandwidth resictions on my sites(s)? Our London Telehouse server sits on a 100Mb feed. Beyond this physical constraint, we do not impose absolute bandwidth restrictions on your website(s), cap your bandwidth usage to prevent bursting, nor charge extra for unusually popular sites. However, we trust all our users to behave responsibily. Clients seeking to run e.g.live video streaming etc., from their websites are strongly encouraged to rent or purchase their own dedicated server for the purpose. < back to the questions How busy is my site? Where are my weekly stats? Go to https://www.knightsbridge.net/stats/www.yourdomain.com/ You enjoy full password-protected access to log files including referrer and browser fields via FTP and Webalizer graphical analysis of these logs via the web. Note your website is accessible both as http://yourdomain.com/ and http://www.yourdomain.com/ < back to the questions How can I improve my hitcounts? How can I best promote my site(s)? Submit your site to Yahoo and the Open Directory Project. For guidance on designing search-engine-friendly pages, together with registration and submission tips, we recommend Webmaster World and Search Engine Watch, formerly A Webmaster's Guide to Search Engines. < back to the questions Do you offer search-engine consultancy services? The best long-term recipe for popular success is to provide lots of original content, not obsessive search-engine optimization. "Over-optimized" websites may even incur a negative penalty weighting in some search-engine ranking algorithms. However, Knightsbridge Online does offer consultancy services and search-engine strategy seminars for clients seeking to ensure their website(s) obtain maximum long-term exposure. < back to the questions How can my site take credit card payments? Smaller companies and website novices are probably best advised to outsource their credit card payment processing to a third party. In addition, commercial sites, whether large or small, may wish to consider the option of a Paypal button for the benefit of the large percentage of the world's population who do not use credit cards. If and when you are ready to take credit card payments directly from your site, then you will need a secure server to collect credit card numbers encrypted over the Internet. The address under which your pages appear will be of the form https://www.yourdomainname.com. We will arrange to provide you with an SSL [Secure Socket Layer Web Server] certificate from an appropriate certifying authority. < back to the questions HOME