Shore Network Technologies - Web Hosting - Virtual Servers - VDS - VPS

Hosting User's Manual

Virtual Server Control Panel
E-Mail Client Configuration
Domain Names
FTP Access/Uploading Your Site
Anonymous FTP Access
Using cgi-scripts
SQL Database Access

How am I billed?

How do I get support? How do I report a problem?

Virtual Server Control Panel

The Virtual Server Control Panel allows you to configure settings for your domain.

Features Include:

Create/edit/delete POP3 mail boxes
Password Protect directories
Change Contact Information
View Billing Transaction History
Access to detailed server statistics
Set cgi-scripts executable (chmod)
Access to System Status

To access your VSCP, click on the Members button in the button bar above, and use the username and password provided in the Account Activation e-mail sent to you.

E-Mail Client Configuration

To configure your e-mail client for your virtual mail server, use the following configuration (replace yourdomain.com with your domain name):

SMTP Server: yourdomain.com
POP3 Server: yourdomain.com

Use the username and password for the POP box you want to check.

NOTE: We use special anti-spam laws in our mail servers. You *MUST* check your mail before being allowed to send mail (relay) through the mail server. This logs your IP address, adding it to a list of valid IP addresses that are allowed to relay mail through the server. IPs in that list are valid for aprox. 15 minutes.

Note for Earthlink dial-up users: Earthlink requires you to use their SMTP server for sending email. They block access to all other SMTP servers for users on their service. You will still be able to check email using your domain in the "POP3 server" field of your email profile.

Domain Names

Your website can be accessed with or without the www suffix. For example, http://www.yourdomain.com and http://yourdomain.com will both work. In addition to that, your domain is also accessible using ftp.yourdomain.com.

Your website/ftpsite are accessible using the following domains:

yourdomain.com
www.yourdomain.com
ftp.yourdomain.com

FTP Access/Uploading your site

Using an ftp client (shareware versions are available the downloads page), enter the domain name or IP address of your server. Log into the server using the same username and password that you use to log into the Virtual Server Control Panel. You will see the following directory structure:

/anon-ftp/
/anon-ftp/incoming/
/anon-ftp/pub/
/cgi-bin/
/htdocs/
/htdocs/stats/
/logs/

Anonymous FTP root directory
Anonymous FTP 'Drop Box' folder
Anonymous FTP Download folder
Location for cgi-scripts
Website files go here
Statistics for your website
Location of raw log files

Anonymous FTP Access

Anonymous FTP access allows FTP access into your server without an account username/password. However, they are restricted to the /anon-ftp/ directory, can only upload files to the /incoming directory, and can only download files from the /pub directory. In an FTP client, connect using the following setup:

Host: yourdomain.com
User: anonymous
Pass: your@emailaddress.com

Also try leaving the username and password fields blank.

Using cgi-scripts

CGI, or Common Gateway Interface, is a way to manipulate data received from a form of a web page, and do something useful with it. An example is formmail.pl, which e-mails you the contents of a form, or a shopping cart script. CGI Scripts can be written in PERL, C/C++, shell scripts, Java, and other languages. These scripts belong in your cgi-bin directory and are accessed like this:

http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/myscript.pl

Two very important links for cgi-resources:
http://www.cgi-resources.com/
http://www.scriptarchive.com

The path to perl on our servers is /usr/bin/perl. You must have "#!/usr/bin/perl" as the first line of a perl script. The full UNIX pathname to your directory on the server is:

/virtual/yourdomain.com/www/cgi-bin/

NOTE: Make sure once you upload a cgi-script into your cgi-bin directory, that you set its file permissions to executable. You can do this with most FTP clients, or by using the "Set cgi-scripts executable" option from the Virtual Server Control Panel main menu.

SQL Database Access

Industrial Strength mySQL Database Server is available. A number of interfaces are available, including DBI.pm perl module, and a special cgi script that answers queries. E-mail caker@theshore.net to set up your database account.

A very good SQL tutorial is available at:

http://w3.one.net/~jhoffman/sqltut.htm

How am I billed?

Billing is done on the 1st of every month. If you sign up in the middle of the month, you will be charged a prorated amount for the difference. We accept Visa and Mastercard.

How do I get support? How do I report a problem?

We prefer to receive support questions via e-mail. If you have a problem or question, e-mail a detailed description to support@theshore.net. Support is also available via ICQ software, ICQ#9147430. You can reach us via telephone at 615-293-3169.