What are the other products/services on offer? ntl has a range of products and services for both the business and residential user. Visit our home page to find out how ntl can help with your communication needs, in business or at home.

Web hosting begins with a collection of web servers, powerful computers stored in secure and climate-controlled environments and permanently linked to the Internet through high-speed datalines. These computers store the web pages that make up websites. You can send your web pages to the host's server from your PC using a web browser interface or a dial-in connection and FTP (file transfer protocol). As soon as your pages are installed on the host server (e.g. ntl) they become available to visitors and customers on the Internet, providing they enter the correct web address (domain name) e.g. www.xyzcompany.co.uk in their web browser (e.g. Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator).

With ntl virtual web hosting, you share the servers used to store your web pages with others. It's completely secure, safe and a very economical way of hosting your website. Especially if you can't afford to buy your own server hardware and software, or hire the technical expertise required to manage a hosting service, or lease secure, environmentally controlled premises to store your servers. So you can relax with the knowledge that your website is safe with ntl, and concentrate on the day to day running of your business.

ntl virtual web hosting is for business professionals wanting the services of a resilient and reliable network to host their website. A scalable service means you can upgrade to a larger hosting option as the number of visitors to your website increases or the size of content files increases (e.g. when you add more graphics, movies, animated files etc).

This means the amount of space reserved for you, measured in Megabytes, at your website address. It is not just the space available for your web pages (content files), it also includes the space you use for storing emails and raw log files. You will need to house-keep your emails and log files to maintain a large area of space for your web pages. 25Mb of disk space is quite large. Exactly how much you will use for your website, will depend on what your web pages are made up of. For example, you can store vast amounts of plain text, but once you start adding backgrounds, pictures, animation, movies etc, the site will get quite large quite quickly. Once you have designed your web pages you can look at the size of the files before you upload them, this will give you an idea of the space you are using. Remember you want your website to be snappy and responsive to your visitors so try not to cram too much onto it.

Each time that a visitor visits your website, and downloads some information from your site, they are moving data around. If you add up all the data that has been moved or downloaded in a month, that will give you the amount (in Megabytes) of data transfer for that month. Each of the virtual web hosting options has a set amount of traffic or data transfer per calendar month (pcm) included in the monthly rental e.g. option 25 has 4000 Mb pcm.

If you have an increase in data transfer occurring, for example because your site is receiving a greater number of visitors, or because you have added more graphics or animated files, then you should upgrade your hosting option to reflect the increased usage. You can do this at any time through your virtual web hosting administration area. Simply log on via the website with your account number and password and select "admin" from your control panel. Further instructions are provided once you reach this stage. ntl reserves the right to upgrade your hosting option for you if the data transfer rates are consistently above the levels considered normal within the package you have bought. To give you an idea of what you might require, consider the following. 4000Mb is a large amount of data. If your website was all text, it would take thousands of people visiting your site to use that rate of data transfer. However if your site has large amounts of graphics files, movies and animations (more than just a couple) it is likely that you would reach the 4000Mb of transfer much more quickly.

The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a standard method for web browser software to communicate information to the server that the user inputs via a web form. The server will then pass this information to a CGI script, which is essentially an executable program that can be written in any programming language - including C, Perl etc. CGI scripts are often used for functions such as processing questionnaires, signing guest books and giving server statistics.

Standard CGI scripts are ready-for-use scripts which we provide free of charge. These scripts provide additional functions which you can use to enhance your website. Examples of scripts we supply are Search (allows visitors to search your website for a particular item) and FormToMail (displays a form for the visitor to fill in, then sends the details in the form as an email to whatever email address you list).

A custom CGI script (also called user CGI) is similar to a standard CGI script, except that you write it yourself on your own PC and then upload it to your webserver. Many other hosting suppliers do not allow custom CGIs, and some that do charge you for checking them first. With ntl virtual web hosting, you can use your custom CGIs freely.

Full details of how to use standard and custom CGI scripts are included in virtual hosting help content within your hosting administration area.

POP3 stands for Post Office Protocol 3. POP3 accounts are the mailboxes on the server where your mail is hosted. This mailbox will hold your mail for you until you log on. When your log on is authenticated, the POP3 account will download your mail for you to read. Each hosting option offers varying quantities of POP3 accounts (mailboxes).

FTP stands for file transfer protocol. FTP is what you use to copy your web pages from your own computer to your webserver so you can publish your website on the Internet. Your hosting administration area, under "hosting help", and "Getting your web pages onto your webserver" has more information about using FTP.

If you use Microsoft FrontPage 98 to design and publish your web pages to your virtual webserver, then you will not use FTP. Instead follow the instructions for using FrontPage Extensions in your hosting administration help area.

rontPage Extensions are special webserver features used with Microsoft's FrontPage 98 web design package. If you are planning to design and publish your site using the Microsoft FrontPage 98 web design package, you will need to choose the 'install FrontPage extensions' option on your account. We will install them free of charge. If you use Microsoft FrontPage 98 to publish your web pages to your virtual webserver, then you must follow the instructions summarised in the virtual hosting administration help area - when you first publish your website and when you make changes to it. If you are using any other application to develop and upload your web pages, see the instructions for publishing with FTP (file transfer protocol).

Once you have created your web pages, you simply copy them across the Internet to your webserver's www directory where your website is located. Your webserver then looks after the running of your website and makes it available to people who visit it. You can upload your web pages using an FTP application (or Microsoft FrontPage extensions if you used Microsoft FrontPage to design and publish your site).

An FTP application doesn't come with your virtual hosting option, but you may well have one already with your PC software. The virtual hosting help content within the hosting administration area (located under help once you've logged on with your account number and password) explains more about FTP applications. Modern FTP programs make copying files to your webserver much like copying files on your own PC. You may also find that your web page creation program contains built-in facilities for uploading web pages to your webserver. Although anyone can visit and view your website, only you can upload web pages to it, or change the pages when they are in place.

If you are planning to design and publish your site using the Microsoft FrontPage 98 web design package, you will need to choose the 'install FrontPage extensions' option on your account. We will install them free of charge. If you use Microsoft FrontPage 98 to publish your web pages to your virtual webserver, then you must follow the instructions summarised in the virtual hosting administration help area - when you first publish your website and when you make changes to it.

You can make the changes to your website, e.g. your content files, graphics, etc offline. We suggest you keep a copy of the old files as well as a copy of the new files. Then you upload or publish your new files on your website using FTP or FrontPage extensions (if you used Microsoft FrontPage to create and publish your website).

Yes. You can set up your hosting website so that it automatically records details of all visits to your website. Details of what items were viewed and when, are stored in special files called "raw log files". These files can only be accessed by you, and remain on your website until you delete them. Raw log file take up disk space so you should remove these files when you no longer require them to ensure your disk space is utilised fully for your website files. You can download your log files to your own PC and analyse the data with special programmes (e.g. Analog, or Web Trends) which are freely available.

Full instructions for generating, downloading and analysing raw log files (and other reports) are given in the administration area of your hosting help, under the heading "Webservers, Websites and Web pages". You can only access this area once you have purchased a hosting option and have been allocated your account number and password. Below are details of raw log files and other reports available.

• Raw log files tell you about visits to your website. First though, you need to set up your web server before raw log files will be generated. Each time a viewer's browser sends a request to view an item on your website, a line is added to the log file. So if you want to know when visitors are looking at your website, which parts of it visitors seem to be finding particularly interesting, and what files people are downloading, the information is all there for you in your raw log files.
• The Site Quota Report shows how much disk space you are using for your website, and the total amount available to you. If you need more space, there are two things you can do:
  • 1. increase your disk space quota by leasing additional disk space (refer to the comparisons table for price details)
  • 2. upgrade your hosting option to one which offers more disk space
• The Site Traffic Report shows a list of dates on which material was moved onto or off your website. The total for each date is listed, together with the grand total for all the dates in the list.

The monthly cost of the virtual web hosting will depend on which option you decide on and whether you choose to include any additional features e.g. more mailboxes. Please refer to our product options or comparisons table for up to date pricing and details on each option.

Yes. You can upgrade your hosting option at any time. Simply log on via the website (link http://www.ntl.com/ecommerce) with your account number and password and select "admin" from your control panel. Further instructions are provided once you reach this stage. The upgrade will be automatic once you select your new option. You will be charged the new monthly rental for your selected option from the date you select your new option.

Here at ntl, we have invested in the very best hardware, software and technical expertise with back-up systems to support this when required. This means that we don't need to completely shut the system down for maintenance, as we can do that in relay, and if one system should fail, all the traffic can be routed through another back-up system. There shouldn't be a reason from our side why visitors cannot visit your site. However, if your visitors cannot access your website, it means there is a fault somewhere. You should report it as soon as possible, either by email hosting@business.ntl.com or call our support centre on 0845 6500107.

We sincerely hope that this will never happen, but if it does there is a full support team - customer support and technical - who will be happy to answer your queries.

Here are our contact details:

• email: hosting@business.ntl.com

• Write to:
  

  Business Customer Support Centre Ntl House Dunleavy Drive Cardiff CF11 0WW

• Telephone: 0845 650 010

Our systems are backed-up but you should always back up the files you use to upload your website. If you are making changes to your website, it would be wise to keep a copy of the original as well as the new site, in case you have problems.

We suggest you check your mailbox and server set-up first and if you can't see any problems here then please contact our support team either by email hosting@business.ntl.com or call our support centre on 0845 6500107.

Yes, you can access your hosting account from any PC that has an Internet connection. Simply enter the website address, www.ntl.com/ecommerce in the browser and log onto your account administration area using your account number and password.

When you first register for your virtual web hosting option, an account number and password are automatically generated for you by our systems. These details are also emailed to you at the email address you entered during the registration process. You should keep these details in a safe place.

You can change your password when you are logged onto your hosting account. You can also set up an additional security password for actions which would affect your bill. (This means you can delegate the day-to-day running of your hosting account to someone else but keep control of spending decisions yourself.)