djzebbie

The backup page says can't find my username or email and I'm sure I entered both correctly. Can you attach it to a zip file or something and post it as an attachment in a PM or something? AFAIK it's just a few "website in-progress" pages but I'd at least like to grab whatever I can from the old server.

I had an account on the now dearly-departed Stevie server that went offline in December. I don't believe I need to delete my old account as it was already trashed by the drive failure. (I checked the account recovery page and it did not find my username or email address there.) In addition to the main username.heliohost.org domain, I also had two .com and .net domains that were associated with it that I want to use as alias(es).

If/when I sign up for a new hosting account on one of the other servers (Tommy seems to be popular right now), will I be able to reuse these parked domains on the new server? Almost as though I had never had the previous account at all?

Are the DNS entries the same, and the records should populate (I think is the term) after a period of time to where the .com and .net domains resolve to this new account, or will I need to get in touch with my domain registrar to change the DNS to point to a new server?

Stevie crashed a few weeks ago, and Johnny crashed yesterday.

 

The only option right now is to move to Tommy, which requires an invite. You can donate to get one (any amount $1 or more is appreciated and will get you a Tommy invite sent to your paypal email address), or hope you receive a free one (odds of 1 in ~20,000).

 

If you need your email/domain/username removed so you can reuse them, please let us know and we can do that for you. Also, if you decide to donate and your paypal email address is the same as your Stevie account email, the email address on the Stevie account will need to be changed, and if your Stevie username and forum username match, the forum username will need to be renamed if you want to reuse your username.

I don't have a PayPal, unfortunately. Do you allow other methods of donation, i.e. Bitcoins, personal checks, even cash? Can I mail you guys one of those Visa/Amex gift cards people buy at the local supermarket checkout?

Is there a point in the near future when the Tommy server will be open to registration and not require an invite?

Hi, I have an account on the unfortunately troubled Stevie server that I can no longer log into cPanel with to keep my account active.

From other threads on this board I have seen that a repair may not be possible until after the new year.

So my question is will my account be locked due to inability to log in at cPanel? Or is there a grace period until the repair happens?

Let's Encrypt is an open-source project from the Electronic Frontier Foundation to promote simplified decentralized encryption on the Internet. According to this forum post, HelioHost is not in there, but the thread does mention that cPanel is working on an implementation. So, will HelioHost support Let's Encrypt as soon as cPanel finishes work on the feature? Will it be included in an update?

EDIT: OK, I think I got it! I didn't see the "Getting Started" howto up top (silly me).

Now, if I go to my website, I can see the Under Construction page. All I had to do for the index_files folder was to create a new folder under public_html (it can be for any of the domains) and upload the files there. At first I tried "view file" under the manager options (when you click on the file itself in the File Manager display and see options like "edit," "edit with code editor," etc.), and got a bunch of garbled text (evidently the html code). I found that you actually had to navigate to the site itself in order to see the page as-is (and that you don't have to type index.html at the end; the regular .com or .org or whatever domain works too).

---

I have made an index.html page for my website in Microsoft Publisher. It's a simple "under construction" page with some graphics and text. When I saved it, along with the file index.html is a folder, index_files, with the pictures and other materials in there. Obviously this will be my homepage (for now), so where should I put it? I believe that if you "move" the folder with the pictures, the index.html file must go along with it, so both would need to be in the same place.

I have two "parked" domains in addition to the main heliohost one. When I open the file manager, it asks me if I want to go to "home directory," "web root (public_html/www)," "Public FTP Root (public_ftp)," or "Document root for..." and a drop down menu containing each of my domain names:

username . heliohost . org

username . com

username . net

For now I want this index.html file to be what's seen when navigating to my website (any of the domains, obviously). Where should I put the index.html file and its corresponding folder?

If anyone needs any further information (screenshots, etc.), please don't hesitate to reply. Thanks in advance.

I X-posted this same question on WordPress' own forums just a little while ago, but I wanted to ask here as well since I figured Helio would be more familiar with the workings of their own sites (and some of my previous issues).

So I finally got my domain names set up, and now am ready to get things into gear regarding my website. I use the Multisite system of WordPress because in the future, I may be looking to add other blogs to my "network" as time goes on and I get more comfortable with blogging in general. However, now that I have a domain of my own I will need to change things with regards to how URLs in WordPress are displayed. I also am seeking to relocate the WordPress system itself to a subfolder of the root. Right now WordPress sits at a subdomain.heliohost.org URL, with the "static homepage" of my current blog at the root, and the "blog page" under subdomain.heliohost.org/myblog. Not only am I looking to change the URL (via the "Parked Domains" section of cPanel) to the top-level domains I had ordered, but want to have a physical move of the WordPress install to a subfolder on the server.

So what I want is for the physical location of the Multisite database to be a subfolder like /wp or /wordpress, and for the individual blog(s) to have URLs like blog1.mysite.com and blog2.mysite.com or mysite.com/blog1 and mysite.com/blog2 (with content reading as blog1.mysite.com/this-is-an-article or mysite.com/blog1/this-is-an-article). I'm not even sure if this is possible; from what I understand of WordPress' own documentation (and other sites delivering howtos on this subject), it is, but is difficult (especially for "beginners"), and requires some extra steps depending on how comprehensive your Multisite network happens to be. As of right now, there is only one blog, but as I'd also mentioned, I plan to add others in the future, and Multisite allows for that without having separate WordPress installs on the same server.

What I'm basically asking, once more, as I had with the question about DNS and domain configuration, is which to do first. Do I configure my Parked Domains in the cPanel interface first, and then make the physical move, or do the physical move first (moving WordPress from subdomain.heliohost.org to subdomain.heliohost.org/wordpress) and then configure Parked Domains, replacing content as necessary (mysite.com/wordpress) i.e. with the popular, recommended Search & Replace Script? Also, since I have two domains (a .com and a .net) that I'll be looking to have as the main domain for my site (both of which pointing to the same content), how would I go about ensuring that each of these goes to the same location when relocating/changing the Multisite install, so that mysite.com/blog1 displays the same as mysite.net/blog1 or blog1.mysite.com = blog1.mysite.net? Is it enough to just have subdomain.heliohost.org point via Parked Domains to my .com and .net, or is there something in WordPress that I will need to configure too?

Hi Shinryuu,

I'm just giving you, and anyone else who happens upon this thread, an update regarding my situation with Katz Global. Per your advice, I waited until today, Wednesday 05 Sept 2012, "before doing anything rash" i.e. taking my business to another registrar.

Well, I sent Katz Global an email at about 4 PM EDT (which would be 2 PM in Arizona):

Hello,

 

I am sending a message to inquire about the status of my domain order,

placed Aug 26 2012 at your site and with payment sent Aug 27 2012 via

standard U.S. mail. Has my payment yet been received? Is there any

other action I will need to take to secure my domains?

 

Please note that if I do not hear back from you by at least Friday of

this week, and/or if I have not received my setup email by at least

next Monday, I will assume that my order has not been able to be

completed, possibly due to delivery error or other unforeseeable

conflict, and I will need to cancel my order (less payment) and seek

services from another registrar.

 

I appreciate your efforts thus far and anticipate your reply. Any

assistance or information you can offer is greatly appreciated.

 

They actually replied, and now I'm just crossing my fingers that the payment is in the P.O. box and I'm not out $280:

Hello,

 

Scott will be going to our P.O Box tomorrow for mail pickup. I am sure your payment will be in there.

("Scott," I'm guessing, is the aforementioned Mr. Hayes' alter ego.) I kept a cool head and responded with a courteous acknowledgment:

OK, thanks again for your reply.

 

Just as a refresher, the DNS servers I'll need for my domains are:

 

ns1.heliohost.org

ns2.heliohost.org

 

I look forward to receiving your email to setup my domains. Again, if

any further issues arise, please do not hesitate to contact me at this

address.

Well, that's where I stand right now, the most recent transmission. All I can do from my end right now is hope that 1) I get the setup email soon (if in fact this guy does open his mailbox and my envelope is there), and that 2) they got the memo about my Helio nameservers.

Oh, and I looked up "Publius" and found that it was not Ben Franklin's pseudonym but the authors of The Federalist Papers -- James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. (Same spirit of "libre" = "liberty," though.)

I will continue to keep you and the rest of Helio's community posted, as issues with domains and registrars must affect all of us here on the tangled Web.

EDIT -- Friday, 07 Sep 2012, 15:25 GMT-5, 13:25 GMT-7. (I sound like Joe Friday a little bit there.) Katz has sent a response after I messaged them at about 12:30 GMT-5 (10:30 GMT-7), inquiring about whether the payment was picked up in the mailbox. At 15:25 GMT-5 (13:25 GMT-7), they replied, with an apology stating that the P.O. box is an hour away from the office. Following that, I got the setup email, and per the message, my domains are indeed registered and pointed to Helio's DNS servers, and another payment is not due until 2022. I have sent them a thank-you response, and from where I stand it appears this situation has been resolved.

The only way to test now is to configure my domains in cPanel and wait 48 hours for the configuration to take place and the cache to clear. If I run into any problems with configurations, I will start a new thread rather than continue to update this one. Thank you again, Shinryuu, for your advice and understanding. Helio needs a kudos box just for users like you.

Personally I'd wait it out a bit till maybe wednesday end of business before doing anything rash. If you do go through another registrar right now you're guaranteed to lose the money, but if you wait and file ICANN/BBB claims (if necessary) you have a shot at getting your money/domains back.

OK, I'll wait it out a little while more.

I'm not sure how the anonymous registration would work out though, it seems a bit one-sided. You're basically asking a company to be your 'face' on the ICANN registry yeah?If nothing is under your name I think it might be exponentially harder to try and get any help because you are using another entity as a front and putting your trust in them that they won't leave you out in the cold.

Yeah, that's pretty much how it works. Or if I go with another company that actually has a front-end for managing domains, I would register under my own (or something "generic") and then add-on the "private" registration service. Anonymous registration seems different from private registration in that with anonymous registration, you don't even provide your personal info, and with private, you do, but it gets covered up by the company. Trouble is, there have been instances where the registrar caves to the slightest bit of pressure -- not even from the government or law enforcement, necessarily, but even, say, someone who just doesn't like what the person had on their site and pushes the company to cough up the record.

The CNet article I linked to up top, "Private Domains Not So Private," talks about exactly that: A librarian intending to blow the whistle on the alleged drama and politics involved in poetry competitions did so under a pseudonym, and used Go Daddy's "Domains By Proxy" service intending to protect his identity. Go Daddy caved to the pressure of the people involved in the poetry competitions, and the guy got in major shiitake for exercising his right to freedom of speech. Pretty interesting when considering the root of "library" -- libre, from which we also get liberty and the word libro meaning book in Romance languages -- itself means free. ("Free as in speech" is even part of the Free Software philosophy, the "libre" part rather than "gratis" as in no-cost.) After all, didn't Benjamin Franklin organize the first public libraries in the U.S., and didn't he also write under a nom de plume, "Publius"?

Then at the bottom is where a commenter on the article talks about Katz Media, in response to someone else's question about anonymous registrations. And as I also had mentioned, Katz itself was able to shut down the anti-scam website that blew the whistle on the company's allegedly dubious practices. Talk about a chilling effect from a not-so-cool Katz.

Thing is, people often think this service is either just so spammers don't bombard your site address, personal email or even send old-fashioned junk mail to your home/business address, or harvest information from the registry that could be used to do so. Or that only someone with surreptitious purposes for registration would want to be "covered." When actually, there are legitimate purposes, such as whistleblowers (like the librarian and CattyShaq), political/social activists and nonprofit groups, and like mine, keeping one's personal info closely guarded because of people I've known personally who I don't want to get in contact with me. It's why I don't use Facebook or Twitter either to talk to people from "the 'good' old days." Like Billy Joel said in "Keepin' The Faith," "the good old days weren't always good."

 

However since there is a transfer of money, as long as it's not cash it can be traced, money orders and cheques both have identification numbers and when cashed out a record of their value is stored within the bank or Western Union or whatever's systems.

It was cash.

If you also read the first Yahoo! question you'd see I sent them money.

That's why I'm hoping they'll get back to me, so at least I can still have my domain from them, and then maybe transfer the 10-years' agreement to someone else after the minimum 60-days' (or 90-days') registration period. But per your advice, I'll sweat it out over the weekend and then get back to them on Wednesday. If I don't at least hear from them by the following Monday I'll file a claim with the BBB and ICANN. Luckily I still have my initial confirmation record (and the subsequent threads, as well as the bookmarks and even this thread), not that it's good for much but it does show even a minimum of something regarding this situation. And I really appreciate your support and encouragement, Shinryuu. If there's a place to vote for member of the month here at Helio, I'll put my (metaphorical) $.02 in for you.

The only thing I'm honestly looking to is a precognitive algorithm that'll tell law enforcement about crimes that are 'likely' to be commited by individuals. When police start taking orders from an AI we as a society are surely screwed.

Ever read (or see) Minority Report? That's basically the core of the story. A man searching for the abductor of his son is arrested for murdering him, even though he hasn't even found him yet. But then again, there's not much intelligent life to be found in Congress (or Parliament) either.

Also, police have been taking orders from corrupt authorities for years. Including the seemingly permanent racist/supremacist culture in the U.S. -- the Rodney King beatings are a classic example, the "brotherhood" that protects one another and attacks whistleblowers as criminals themselves, and the issue of law enforcement spouses having to call the other cops on the (usually husband) who is also a cop, and either nothing being done or the woman getting in trouble for wasting police time. It sounds stereotypical and "Law & Order" drama, but I know this last one to be true firsthand, because I come from a family of law enforcement and this has always been the case for the women in the household.

I've seen countless times cops speeding in traffic or breaking traffic laws that they don't get ticketed for, but us regular folks do. Not all, probably 0.01% of what I've seen on the roads, are involved in high-speed chases. Again, it sounds stereotypical, but from personal experience I can tell you: When I was a kid I was in the car with my mom and we almost got in a terrible accident, all because a black-and-white cut us off -- to get into the McDonald's lane. The tires literally screeched and left trackmarks in the mall parking lot. After that we decided to go to BK instead. An AI sort of traffic light that stops the car at a red might not be a bad idea.

Oh dear, so much reading, I'm worried for you after reading through all the links you had. I'm not sure about the BBB but to file a report about a registrar to ICANN:

 

http://www.internic....roblem_reports/

 

your problem seems to fall in the last category. I hope you can get your domain names or money back, but it seems unlikely to happen based on those forum and news posts you linked to.

Thanks, Shinryuu, for that link to ICANN. Based on the info at the end of your reply (about the mail time), I may just bite my nails and wait it out. But the other thing I'm pondering is to just go ahead and re-register the domain at another registrar -- One & One (1&1) appears to offer "private" (albeit not "anonymous") registration as a free option with all standard domains (like .com, .net, .org).

1&1 - Domain Registration | Info

HostGator, another company I thought about going with, does not seem to offer this option free:

HostGator - Domain Registration | Registry Rocket

YoHost.org is another so-called "anonymous" registrar, but doesn't take payment in "standard" arrangements; they do allow PayPal, but PayPal requires an actual "credit card" (i.e. linked to a bank account) and doesn't allow for, say, a Visa Vanilla card.

How is billing handled?

 

Currently, all payments are handled automatically via PayPal, Liberty Reserve, WebMoney, cashU and moneybookers. Use our WebMoney Z-account: Z112088671007 if you wish to make a payment via WebMoney Transfer.

NameCheap doesn't bundle the private registration with the domain. It's a separate fee that you have to repay every year, even if you register on a period of more than one year. And as I said, I'm boycotting Go Daddy on principle.

I Whois'ed my domain(s) and found that they were still listed as unregistered. The only dilemma with that is if Katz does get back to me in the meanwhile and I've already gone with someone else, would there be a basis to initiate a "transfer" under "special circumstances" (even though I wouldn't technically be "transferring" if "no one owns" the domain "yet")?

EDIT:

So after much web crawling, I've found that to file a BBB claim: http://www.bbb.org/t...ile-a-complaint

however Katz Global Media is not BBB Accredited, I found the link on Katz Global site that says they belong to the BBB but the link leads to a BBB Page not Found error page. They do have a BBB A+ rating, but they 'earned' that by being in business a long time, having few BBB complaints, and responding to complaints filed to BBB, which doesn't really say much. I also checked and they are not members of the GDCA.

GDCA = Global Digital Currency Association. I had a read about "digital currency" and truth be told, I'm not too trusting of these bitcoin/e-gold-type marketers. I get that people are totally disgusted with what the global bankers have done to the world economy -- Bank of America, Chase, UBS just to name a few -- and that there are people who want to set up something new to topple them, people who really regard the Internet as the society of the future and the world governments as irrevocably bought and corrupt. But, we're not there yet, and it seems to me that a lot of these bitcoin/e-gold folks are 99% scammers... scamming the "99%." One of the threads talked about the CEO of Katz actually having started one of these things, something called Phoenix Dollars. Allegedly he sold people silver bits for $250+ that were worth no more than $7. Fools' gold, it sounds like. Or fools' silver in this case.

Overall, the company seems legit because they are still in busines after so long, but something does feel off. I also think the 3 day response you got on the mail question is totally unrealistic, standard mail generally takes a week to 10 business days, I once ordered a book in-state that was shipped standard; this book took three days to ship from panhandle to coast. I expect your post to take about 6-8 business days, 5 on a good run.

So that'd likely be this Friday anyway or next Monday because of the holiday, maybe not until the Friday of that week, and there's still no guarantee customer service will respond. So what would your advice be, or anyone else who happens to catch onto this thread -- should I sign up with another registrar (leaning towards One & One as of this point), explain my circumstances to their customer service, and maybe try and initiate a "pseudo-transfer" (or not)? Or should I wait it out for maybe 2 weeks (rather than just this upcoming Friday) to see if my payment gets received, take a chance Katz will get back to me with the setup email, bite the bullet for the requisite 60 days with them and then try and transfer to someone else?

I think either way I'm out $280 bucks, because I ordered the 10-year option (it was about $14/domain for 2 domains, 10 years). I'm leaning towards re-registering, but once again I'm a little trepid about what to do. Any help is very much appreciated. Also, just as a humble recommendation, maybe HelioHost can offer a list of domain registrars to avoid, Katz being one of them (and Go Daddy as a :maybe," perhaps with an asterisk and a note at the bottom about "principle"). I'd gladly offer my customer horror story. But as a plus for you guys, I've gotten better service here with a freebie web host for $0 than I've gotten for close to three hundred bucks from some vulture in the wild west of Arizona.

I guess it's not always true that you get what you pay for.

A good source of information on just this very subject are the writings of Ray Kurzweil, scientist, inventor, philosopher and author. He's described as a "futurist" and has written tons of stuff about where we're headed in terms of technology. Many of his predictions, such as solar electricity and even the demise of the USSR, have already come true. He's a controversial figure in science and technology but a prolific one, sort of the Asimov, Da Vinci and Nostradamus of this generation.

He's aided in the invention of text-to-speech synthesizers such as used by fellow genius scientist Stephen Hawking, who suffers from a crippling neurodegenerative disease, and musical instruments such as used by genius musician, singer and composer Stevie Wonder, blind since birth but who has had some of the most beloved hit songs of any generation. Kurzweil is also active in the discussion and study of subjects such as Artificial Intelligence, cybernetics and nanotechnology.

Philosophers are often thought of as being right-brained creative, inventive thinkers, which often attracts them to careers in the creative/aesthetic arts like music, visual art and fiction. Neil Peart, famous drummer of Canadian rock band Rush, was a philosophy major in college. Rush's songs are often considered thought-provoking philosophical diatribes in and of themselves, and I believe Peart, besides being the drummer, is one of the primary lyricists in the band, if not the main one.

A major hit for Rush was "Free Will," one of the core talking points of philosophical discourse (cf. Nietzsche, Kant, etc.), written by Neil Peart. If you've ever heard the song or read the lyrics, you can see the philosophical influence there.

Just announced: There's a new video on YouTube of TV kids' host Bill Nye, "The Science Guy" in which he

In a thread I started, I believe yesterday, I mentioned that I had purchased a domain -- two, actually (a .com and a .net) -- for which the company had yet to reply with an email indicating receipt of payment, and that yesterday they emailed me asking what DNS servers I wanted for my domain. I responded in turn, expecting that someone would at least acknowledge they got the email about DNS, but no one did. Thinking maybe it was my own error or some glitch in the system, I also cc'ed a copy to other addresses, one for Billing, one for Accounts, one for General Info, and another for Orders.

No reply has yet come into my email, and I'm getting a little apprehensive -- especially after reading some reports about this company online. The company is called Katz Global Media, and reportedly is run out of some fellow's trailer park in Arizona, named Gordon Hayes aka Scott Morgan. (The first email was signed by a "Paris Hayes," either a family member/spouse or pseudonym, I can't be sure.) A legal battle ensued over a possible cybersquatter case involving a family-owned restaurant in California for which the owner, a man named Tom, had neglected to renew the domain TomsFamilyRestaurants.com (which is now unreachable), and saw it snapped up by an anonymous registrant who bought it with Katz and was accused of using it for "bad faith" purposes.

This Tom's Family Restaurants case was back in 2005, I believe, and there's another (archived) thread at a forum called Web Hosting Talk dated from the same year or thereabouts discussing the allegedly dubious merits of Katz as a webhost and registrar. The thread mentions another site known as CattyShaq.com (via Internet Archive), on which a series of threads (not readable, only viewable via the Wayback Machine) issuing complaints was deleted when the owner of Katz threatened legal action for "defamation of character." CattyShaq appears to no longer exist in the form it once existed, and is now some other site written entirely in what appears to be Japanese.

But this was, of course, seven years ago, and this being 2012, Like Mulder (or was it Scully?) said on The X-Files, "I want to believe" -- I want to give Katz the benefit of the doubt in terms of processing my account, so I am going to wait until at least Friday of next week, since Monday is a holiday in the United States and Katz, as mentioned above, is located in Arizona. I also don't know how long it will take for the payment to even get to Arizona from where I mailed it (the East Coast, so cross-country), especially considering the sadly ever-decreasing staff and schedule of the once stalwart U.S. Postal delivery.

Several surreptitious fly-by-night sites operating in the MLM, HYIP and "discount RX" realms (99% of these from countries like China, India and various former Soviet republics) are hosted and/or registered with Katz, and it has been speculated that the owner is either involved somehow in some of these, or intentionally denies knowledge of the websites under the Katz trust, "pleading the Fifth" but with dubious merit. Just to point out, I am NOT running any of these kinds of services. I simply registered my own name (well, a pseudonym), not for illegitimate purposes but because I do not want certain people in my past/private life to be aware of my personal blog/website. I have suffered threats and harassment from personal acquaintances in the past, and hoped "anonymous registration" would have allowed me to make a "fresh start." Unfortunately, I feel as though I'm one of the gullible honest folks caught up in something screwy, one of the few golden eggs out of a rotten dozen all broken in the same spoiled omelette. (You kind of get what I'm saying here, right?)

I went through Katz because I do need something like they purport to provide -- completely anonymous registration that not only masks your personal information in Whois records, but doesn't even ask you for it when you sign up. I also do not have a credit card or checking account and would have needed to pay by paper currency, which I (foolishly?) did. I am also boycotting Go Daddy because of Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons' abhorrent passion for elephant hunting and his company's stance on the recent SOPA initiative (I also am patently disgusted by the Danica Patrick ads). Katz promises that Whois anonymity is bundled with registration and is not subject to an extra fee, like other hosting providers and registrars, another aspect that attracted me because of my extremely limited budget.

Now, however, I am unsure the status of my domain registration and what to do regarding contacting customer service. I cannot claim copyright infringement because the name I registered is one that would be applied to a person and not a company. I am posting here, for advice, after asking a similar question on Yahoo! Answers about the situation (a few days after asking another one about how long mailing takes from NY to AZ). The responder of that last one said it would take no more than 3 days. It is now Friday, 5 days after mailing, and I'm still waiting on an email to confirm they got my DNS request. I know it's a desert out there, hence no water, but something smells fishy out in Tucson, Arizona.

So should I wait until Friday of next week to contact them, which is what I intend to do, to either call up their line, email the "emergency" address, or IM via their ICQ #? If so, what should my next course of action be if (1) my DNS is not ready, (2) they haven't received the payment or (3) they don't get back to me? How can I make sure I can still use my domains? As I said, I'm on not even a shoestring budget -- more like a frayed thread -- and obviously can't afford legal fees if there is a legit red flag. My whole purpose for going with Katz was to avoid paperwork and identity requests in the first place. Does it cost money to file for an investigation with the BBB? Is it possible to request help from ICANN if something goes wrong?

A domain that is pointed to HelioHost's nameservers gives DNS zone control to HelioHost. However, the domain is not associated with an account util it is added through cPanel. So, the sequence would be as follows:

1. Have Customer Service set nameservers to HelioHost's nameservers(I think you already did that).
   
2. My understanding is the domain does not become active until you receive your receipt, which means the domain really isn't pointing anywhere yet. Once you receive your receipt add the domain through cPanel.
   

The domain MUST be pointed to HelioHost's nameservers before it can be added through cPanel. Hope this helps!

Thank you so much! That's exactly what I needed, a "First do this, then do this" type of how-to. I've copied the email response below so you can see if I did this right:

Support: Once payment has been picked up, you will receive a domain setup email. What dns are you wanting for your domain name?

Me: Thanks for your reply. The DNS servers I'll be needing for both

domains point to:

 

ns1.heliohost.org

ns2.heliohost.org

 

If there are any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Where it says "both domains," I had bought both a .com and a .net domain to guard against "squatters" using my name. I believe if you want a .net to point to the same content as .com (like an alias) you still point it to the same DNS records, from my understanding of the wiki.

As far as I can see the payment receipt is just a formality, might be a good idea to just get everything set up now and be ready to go when the receipt is sent to you.

So which should I do first: add the domains to cPanel and then reply to the email, or inform the support rep of where to point them and then add the domains to cPanel?

I have just purchased a domain name for use with my HelioHost website. I bought it through Katz Global, a company that allows for alternative payments of purchases without credit or checking (like the standard GoDaddy, HostGator and NameCheap, etc. require). I received an email from their Customer Service dept. asking what DNS records I want to use with the domain(s). Obviously I know the answer to be ns1.heliohost.org and ns2.heliohost.org, but I'm just confused about when I should have this configured.

Technically, I do not "own" the domain as of yet; the purchase is pending (paid by U.S. mail), and I'll only "own" it once I've received an email with further details, which I haven't yet received. Katz takes care of everything nameserver wise on their end; there is no control panel to manage your domains, and configurations are achieved by sending tech support an email. I read in the HelioHost wiki the information about parked, addon and subdomains:

After logging into your personal cPanel, click on the 'Parked Domains' button and enter the domain you wish to park into the text box provided, and submit the form. After that, navigate to your domain registrar's website and configure your domain with the following nameservers: ns1.heliohost.org ns2.heliohost.org

 

The parked domain you have just setup will be automatically be configured to reflect your public_html directory. If you want it to reflect a different directory then you will need to configure an Addon Domain. You can also configure the domain to be redirected to another URL, just click on the 'Manage Redirection' button and enter the URL you wish to redirect.

I read also on the HH wiki that

You will need to wait approximately 24 hours until your parked domain will become active. If you still see a message saying 'HelioHost Account Queued' after that period, then please clear your cache.

The problem is that they seem to be asking to change the nameservers first, and I cannot add a domain to my Parked Domains that I technically do not own yet. My understanding is that the sequence seems a little backwards, at least comparing their setup requirements to HH's domains section on the Wiki, which states to enter your domains first to cPanel and then configure it with your registrar.

Per the Katz Global domain registration FAQ:

Will I get a login area to manage my domain(s)?

 

No. All anonymous domains are held in trust accounts and are managed by our company. In order to make dns changes, or administer your domain, all you have to do is send us an email with your request that includes your account # and password and the URL you wish to modify and dns attendant with personally take care of changes quickly. If you have many domains and require rapid changes frequently, please send your domain attendant a special request for DNS control.

So what should I do to go about pointing this domain to the yourname.heliohost.org URL? Should I enter the domains I just purchased (but which are not "mine" yet) into cPanel anyway and then tell Customer Service what DNS servers to use? Should I let them know which servers to use but ask them to hold on on updating until I "have" the domain (payment receipt) and can subsequently configure it on my site? Will my custom domain(s) still work if I tell tech support to point them to Helio's DNS records before I enter them into my cPanel?

I'm just confused from a sequential standpoint as to which I should do first and how long it will take for the domain I don't yet have to become active on my site. I'm going to wait to respond to the setup guy until I hear from support on this end. Thanks in advance.

Thanks for your replies, anush and Ice IT Support. User Krydos sent me a message with more info about my question, so thanks to him too. Glad to see there's more than one way in besides the "front door." Like the Beatles once said, you can come in through the bathroom window.

Hello,

I was just curious about something having to do with cPanel with regard to maintaining active status of a HelioHost account. I realize that users must login to the cPanel interface at least once per month to avoid having their sites suspended for inactivity, and was wondering if I am doing this correctly. (I have finally been able to set up my site and even add some WordPress content.)

In another thread, I mentioned that I was unable to login via the interface on the HelioHost front page, or by the form yoursite.heliohost.org/cpanel. However, I was given an alternate address that does successfully enable me to login, in the form cpanel.yoursite.heliohost.org. So just for clarification, I am able to login to and access cPanel without any problems.

My question is, does it matter in what way one accesses the cPanel to be "counted" as a login allowing the user to maintain active status of a HelioHost account? Does HH have a better way of "knowing" that the user logged in if s/he did so via the front page of this site, or is access logged either way? Is there a place on cPanel that lets the user know when s/he last logged in? All I see on the left is an indication of what IP address had the last login -- I don't normally see anything involving a date or time of most recent access.

Thanks in advance.

We have no restrictions blocking WordPress multi site.

Great! Thanks to everyone for your quick replies!

Congrats to Ice I.T. -- pretty cool indeed.

I should add that I am very impressed with their support ability -- just posted a question not too long ago and very quickly received a reply.

The Ice Folk Cometh.

You should be able to upload your files from your local machine to your HelioHost account through FTP and import your databases using phpMyAdmin (or the admin interface for your database engine). I don't see why it wouldn't work, unless there are system-wide setup changes.

When you say, "I don't see why it wouldn't work," I'm inferring that "it" describes any WordPress install, including Multisite -- so just to clarify, HH does support WP-Multi?

Per the Wiki article, will I need a "BitNami key" for any reason?

When you add another domain, it should not affect include paths and links, unless you remove the domain you created your site with. To be safe, I would recommend updating your paths when you add/park your new domain.

Thanks for that clarification. Always good to err on the bright side of life -- er, side of caution.

OS: Win7 Professional x64 +SP1

CPU: AMD64 Mobile Sempron

Screen: 1366x768 (13.1")

Graphics Chipset: AMD M880G with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4225

RAM: 5GB (Expandable to, I believe 8GB -- will upgrade when the $$$ permits)

HD: 500GB (Eventually plan to upgrade to a 1TB... again, when the $$$ permits)

Addons:

• Adblock Plus
  
• Adblock Plus Pop-Up Addon
  
• Add to Search Bar
  
• Beef TACO (Targeted Cookie Advertising Opt-out)
  
• BetterPrivacy
  
• DownThemAll!
  
• DownThemAll! AntiContainer
  
• Element Hiding Helper for Adblock Plus
  
• Facebook Disconnect
  
• Firebug
  
• Google Disconnect
  
• Greasemonkey
  
• HTTPS-Everywhere
  
• More Tools Menu
  
• NoScript
  
• NoUn Buttons (No Unified Buttons)
  
• Nuke Anything Enhanced
  
• Organize Search Engines
  
• PixelZoomer
  
• Remove It Permanently ("R.I.P")
  
• Restartless Restart
  
• Twitter Disconnect
  

Greasemonkey Scripts installed:

• Don't Track Me Google
  
• Google Images Direct Link
  
• GooglePrivacy
  

Software I Use/Recommend:

• Classic Start Menu (Classic Shell)
  
• HostsXpert (+ Hosts Files: MS MVPs | Peter Lowe's Lists | Someone Who Cares | Spybot S+D -- installs its own when you click "Immunize")
  
• Microsoft Office 2007 +SP3
  
• Microsoft Security Essentials
  
• Notepad++
  
• Virtual Clone Drive
  
• VLC Media Player
  

That's all I can think of for now.

I have been playing around with an offline (localhost) install of WordPress, using a program called BitNami WordPress (Multisite) Stack. One of the reasons I was trying out BitNami was to use the WordPress Multisite option, which enables you to have several WordPress sites/blogs using just one install of WordPress (rather than installing WP in several areas of the site, i.e. home/wp1, home/wp2 or home/wordpress/wp1, to simplify things a bit and save a little server space).

Apparently, BitNami installers are supposed to streamline this process (at least in terms of navigating the WordPress system itself), but as I am having a bit of trouble figuring out how to upload my offline site to my HelioHost account (their Wiki article, about migrating your local BitNami WordPress to the cloud, states that "the steps are very similar for any cloud or hosting provider," but don't go into much detail -- if any -- about using anything other than their proprietary for-fee service). I'm wondering if a regular install of WordPress (i.e. from scratch, and just using the same settings -- themes, plugins, content, etc. -- as I have on the offline site now), with the option to enable Multisite right off the bat, would be a better option in terms of "real-time" use, rather than fiddling with how to upload BitNami.

I have explored the Softaculous interface a bit, and got to the point just before installing WordPress, where there is an checkbox to enable Multisite. As I'm not too sure if the Softaculous software offers the same options for every system without regard to "official" support or not, I want to make sure if it's supported/allowed on a HelioHost account to use WordPress Multisite, or if ticking the box would throw an error or (worse) give me a red flag on my account. (Some free hosting providers are limited in what features you are allowed to install. I just wasn't sure.)

Is it OK to, when I get to the screen for installing WordPress, check off "Enable Multisite"? Also, if I do not have an "official" domain when installing the first time (and just put the WordPress install on my subdomain of heliohost.org), will I have to re-update things like paths and locations if/once I do (example.heliohost.org/wordpress vs. example.com/wordpress), or can I just use parked domains/redirects and everything will remain the same?