Frequently Asked Questions

We've tried to answer most all of the common questions here. Please review this page and feel free to contact us for further information.

Why should I go with NETse7en Hosting? What makes The Hosting Cloud so special?

Utter 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. NETse7en Hosting takes care of the rest - monitoring, patching, configuration, security, scaling....

There's nothing else out there like it. The Hosting Cloud 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.

True Hybrid Hosting Technology

What is True Hybrid Hosting? What can it do for me?

NETse7en Hosting's True Hybrid technology seamlessly combines Linux and Windows technologies—even on the same website.

You've probably seen other companies offer the option of hosting sites on Linux or Windows servers. NETse7en Hosting takes it a step further. With our True Hybrid technology, you can upload your .Net and PHP files to your website (gasp!) right in the same folder! In a rare display of cooperation, you'll see both ASP and PHP pages working flawlessly, side by side, on the same website. And here's the best part: it's not just that both files work. It's that both files work natively and automatically. Intelligent load balancing routes each file to server clusters optimized for either IIS or Apache. For a bit extra, you can add Ruby as well.

Can't all of this be accomplished by just emulating one operating system?

Sure, it's possible for Linux and Windows servers to sort of act like each other through clunky and unreliable emulation, but we have strong feelings about that: it's a hack and it's cheating. The fact is any technology always works best in its native environment. And providing multiple, native environments is one area where the enterprise cluster powering The Hosting Cloud really shines. No matter what technologies you use to build your site: ASP.net, PHP 4, PHP 5, Perl, Python, Ruby, or a combination of all of them—rest assured that your site will have impressive, reliable, and native performance.

Is NETse7en Hosting redundant? What if one of your servers goes down?

Technologists would say that common hosting setups are riddled with Single Points of Failure or (SPFs). One failure anywhere can wreak havoc on the entire system.

To tackle this problem, we use a radically different approach to hosting, a truly enterprise-level architecture designed from the ground up to be reliable, redundant, and secure. Proprietary technology deploys each website across entire clusters of servers, all working intelligently together, all poised and ready to instantly reroute web traffic should any component experience failure. That means when a server crashes or a hard drive fails, the other servers in the cluster automatically pick up the load.

The Hosting Cloud

What does NETse7en Hosting use for a storage system? Have you done anything there to make it redundant?

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 does NETse7en Hosting backup information?

NETse7en Hosting 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 The Hosting Cloud run? What about for Windows?

The Linux side of our platform is built on Debian 3.1 (Sarge) 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 NETse7en Hosting? Primarily for security purposes shell access is not offered on NETse7en Hosting 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.

Pricing and Scaling

What is included in the price?

We have included enough resources in The Hosting Cloud base packages to power most business needs. You get an allotment of high performance storage as well as outgoing bandwidth per month (incoming is not included in your calculation). In addition, The Hosting Cloud uses Compute Cycles to monitor your computing usage. Unlike many hosters, NETse7en Hosting 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 in the base packages, we have created fair and simple pricing beyond the base amounts; 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 0.30/GB for outgoing bandwidth, 0.60/GB for storage and 0.01 per compute cycle. For super heavy users over 50 million page views, special pricing may be available.

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.

About Compute Cycles

What are compute cycles?

Compute cycles measure how much processing time your applications require on the NETse7en Hosting cloud. Using 10,000 compute cycles in a month is roughly equivalent to running a server with a 1.2 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 1,000 compute cycles would power:

• About 210 thousand page views using a database-driven content management system
• About 1.1 million page views of NETse7en.com
• About 2.5 million requests for a static 15KB image

How do I track my compute cycle usage?

The compute cycles you use are presented in your control panel in near real time.

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.

Control Panel

I don't recognize the control panel NETse7en Hosting uses. Who makes it?

The NETse7en Hosting and client control panels were both developed by the NETse7en Hosting team to take advantage of all the performance features of The Hosting Cloud. This allows us a great deal of flexibility to make improvements in all pieces of the interface.

I'm familiar with other control panels like Plesk, Ensim and Cpanel. Can I use one of those control panels with NETse7en Hosting?

The short answer is "No." Switching control panel software can be a hassle. They all seem to do virtually the same thing, but in just different enough ways to leave you dazed and confused. NETse7en Hosting's management software is different because it focuses on tasks like creating websites, databases and email accounts rather than server administration.

Can I buy just the control panel software and load it on my own dedicated server?

Nope, that's the beauty of our proprietary control panel software - it's built in house and designed specifically for managing your applications that are deployed across NETse7en Hosting's data centers and clustered servers.

DNS and IP's

How does The Hosting Cloud handle IP addresses? Do I have to request multiple IP's?

NETse7en Hosting's all about making your life easier. One way we do that is handling all of the IP address hassles behind the scenes. The Hosting Cloud 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?

NETse7en Hosting's got you covered! You bring the sites and we'll handle the IP space.

I'm used to running my own DNS. Can I do it on NETse7en Hosting?

That's another great thing about The Hosting Cloud... 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 NETse7en Hosting account. If you decide to go it alone you'll be missing out on the unlimited access to the Hosting Cloud's clustered, geographical redundant domain name system, which is all included in your account. Plus, DNS is easy to configure on NETse7en Hosting 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 as we develop reseller and white-label solutions our partners can take advantage of our infrastructure.

Mail

I'm an email junkie! I have to check my mail all of the time. Please tell me that NETse7en Hosting offers webmail services.

NETse7en Hosting runs 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 the 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 users 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.

Software Applications and other Features

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 The Hosting Cloud?

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 The Hosting Cloud 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 automated web creation tool is outside our sweet spot - so NETse7en Hosting will leave that to the talented professionals who do web design for a living. If you require assistance with website and/or creative development please refer to NETse7en Web Services.

Do you support Ruby on Rails?

Yes! NETse7en Hosting has 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 NETse7en Hosting supports .NET. Which versions do you support?

NETse7en Hosting 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 your site.

I'd really like to add streaming video to my site. Does NETse7en Hosting offer anything to make it easy for me?

Although we currently do not offer streaming video to our hosting 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.

If you are interested in managed content services, audio, video and news feeds published to your site automatically, please visit review our Content Management Offering.

Support

What's NETse7en Hosting's support like?

Unlike most discount hosting offerings, NETse7en Hosting's support team is instantly available 24x7 through online chat and by phone. And our unique team approach means that our support technicians sit right next to the admins who manage the hosting clusters and the developers who write the application. That means they can always get you the urgent help you need and make sure your suggestions are heard.

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. Our entire technical support team is located in-house (in San Antonio, Texas, to be precise); 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 issues quickly.

How can I contact support? Am I limited to a certain number of incidents or credits? And what does all of this cost?

As a customer of NETse7en Hosting, 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?

NETse7en Hosting's 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 NETse7en Hosting support representative ready to assist you.

Do you offer member forums?

Not at this time, however we are looking into adding member forums in the future. If this is something you are interested in, please let us know.

Billing

How does NETse7en Hosting bill me?

NETse7en Hosting bills you every 30 days based on the day you sign up for the service. Your credit card will be charged for your monthly hosting fee on the first day your account becomes active. After 30 days have gone by you will be billed again for the next month of service. The exact charge will be based on recurring charges in addition to whatever additional fees you have incurred during that previous month.

What will appear on my credit card invoice?

"Web Hosting Billing Systems" will appear on your credit card. We have set up a generic billing solution in preparation for our reseller and white-label offerings. If you ever have any questions regarding your bill, please contact our in-house support team.

What forms of payment does NETse7en Hosting accept?

At this time, NETse7en Hosting only accepts credit card payments. We allow payment by Visa, MasterCard, or American Express.

How do you close an account?

To close your account, please contact your account manager or by calling our support department.

Is there a referral bonus or any discounts available?

There is not a referral offer in place at this time, but please stay tuned for any news on when this type of program could be offered.

Is there a solution partner program?

No, NETse7en Hosting does not currently have a solution partner program.

Will there be a discount if I prepay for a full year?

We currently only offer month-to-month billing terms only. We earn your business every month.