The purpose of this page is to answer the most common of questions that we are usually asked.  We hope that it is of help to you and if you do not find the answer to your question here, please feel free to contact us.  You can click on a link below to be forwarded to that particular section quickly:

Account Setup
Billing
Domain Names
Hosting Packages
Dedicated Servers

Account Setup

1. How do I sign up?

You can sign up easily by clicking here.  The first thing that you will be asked to do is to search for a domain name.  Once you have done this, you will be given the option of what hosting account you would like to order, if any at all.  After this you will be offered any extra add-ons, followed by the payment page.

2. How long does it take to sign up?

The sign up process on your end takes 5 – 10 minutes, including registering for an account, finding a suitable domain name and paying for the services to be provided.

3. How long does it take to activate my account?

For all shared hosting accounts, your account is activated immediately, or as soon as payment is received.  However, as answered in the next question, the use of the domain name is not immediate.  You should receive an email immediately containing login details to the server so that you can configure everything for your website.

4. How long does it take for my domain name to become fully active?

All domains, as with any provider around the world, cannot guarantee full use of a domain name immediately after purchase.  The process of the domain name becoming live, involves it passing through the entire web and in effect registering itself.  The default time period is set around 24 to 72 hours for this, although we have no control over this figure.  Depending on web traffic though, it can be significantly less than this.  Obviously, although out of our control, it often takes around 3 hours or so.

5. What happens if I want to host multiple domain names on my account?

If you want to host multiple domains through our system, this is not currently possible, although we do currently offer a range of bulk packages which are available by clicking here.

Billing

6. How do I pay you?

Once you have your items all in the shopping basket provided, you will be asked for payment.  This is done via PayPal, Google Checkout, or Nochex, which involves using a credit or debit card online, via a secure third party payment processor.  All of these details are processed, none of which are passed onto us, other than confirmation of your payment.

7. How often do I pay you?

Web hosting is paid for on an annual basis. All domain names are paid for annually (with the exception of certain extensions which are biannually). If your domain name has been transferred into us, there may be a chance that it is due for renewal during your year's hosting, and therefore you will be asked to renew that when it is due.

8. Do you charge any set up fees like other companies?

No.  Charging set up fees is like a hidden tax.  This is used by other companies to make their prices seem cheaper.  Of course, it is only when you get to the checkout you realise they have bundled on an extra £10 to ‘create’ your product.  This is a method used to hide the real burden of expense that their product actually is.  Ultimate Web Hosting does not have any hidden costs attached with any of their products.

9. Do your prices include tax?

Yes.  All of our prices are inclusive of any applicable taxes.

10. Do your fees ever change?

The fee that your pay when you sign up for a hosting package is the same fee that you will pay every time you need to renew your hosting product, for the life of your account with us.  If you originally signed up with a voucher, it may be that the voucher only covers the first payment, and therefore, your standard renewal price will revert to the price before the voucher. The same applies to free domain names, packages which include a free domain name registration, or transfer only apply for the first registration or transfer of your domain name, so you may be charged extra for the renewal of your domain name.

11. Do I get an invoice?

Yes.  Whenever you make a purchase from us, you will receive a PDF invoice from us by email within a few days of your transaction.  You will also have your PayPal receipt of payment in most cases. If you do not receive this, you should contact us.

12. I am not happy with my service, can I get a refund?

The simple answer is yes, if within the 30 day period.  However, you should check this page for more information on this.

Domain Names

13. What happens if the domain name I want is unavailable?

Unless you already own the domain name that is unavailable, there is nothing we can do about it. You can try visiting the domain on the web, contacting the owner of the website and seeing if they are willing to sell it though.

14. Can I transfer my domain name to you?

Yes.  Please visit our domain name page for more details on which domain names that we can currently accept.  If you don’t see it listed on that page, please feel free to contact us, as we can probably accept it, just not through our automated system.  In all cases of automatic transfers, you will need to contact your old domain registrar (through their control panel or support ticket), and ask them to unlock your domain name and request an Auth Code/EPP. For UK based domain names, you should request a change of IPS Tags on the domain name. You should follow the instructions in this guide.

15. Why do I have to perform all of these steps to transfer my domain name to you?

The main reason for all these steps involved in transferring your domain name across to us, is for verification that you are the owner of the domain name.  Also these steps hand us the control of your domain name so that we can manage it on your behalf and allow you to host your website on it. 

16. Can I buy a domain name but not web hosting?

Yes. Please visit our domain name page, search for a domain name and you can add it to your basket.  Simply, do not add hosting to your order.

17. Why do you charge more for some domains and not others?

The reason for different charges for different domain names is because of the different registries involved.  There is a different registry for most groups of domain name extensions.  This means that they all charge a separate price and we pass these varied prices onto you.

Hosting Packages

18. Why do you offer so many packages?

By offering so many different packages, we can offer web hosting to a broader range of people. It also gives our customers freedom to choose between different packages easily, giving them flexibility. You can easily change hosting packages at any time. To view all of the packages we have available, please click here.

20. Which is the best package for me?

In order to determine which package is best for you or your business, the best thing to look at is the features that you will require, and how many visitors you are expecting to visit your site every month. Also, if you are planning to store a lot of files on your website, you may wish to think about having more web space available to you. To compare all of the types of hosting packages in a simple table format, please click here.
We recommend that you use Linux hosting unless you specifically need Windows technology.

21. Can I buy web hosting and not a domain name?

Yes.  In order to buy web hosting and not a domain name, you will need to have a domain name already that you want to simply keep with another supplier.  You will also need to have control of this domain name so that you can change the name-servers on it to point at our servers.  In this way your domain name will be referring to our servers.  You will also be given this option when trying to buy a hosting package through us. In order to do this, you will need to add the domain name to your purchase as a transfer request, add your hosting choice and then remove your domain name from your basket before you reach the payment stage.

22. Can I get MySQL or MS SQL databases?

Yes.  MySQL is available on both Linux and Windows (limited to two per account) hosting packages, these are free of charge and included within the packages.  However, on Windows packages, you can get MS SQL Databases as well and these are available at a cost of £12.50 per month, due to licensing through Microsoft.  These are not available on Linux packages though.

23. What are the main advantages of Windows hosting packages?

Windows hosting packages can support technologies such as ASP, ASP.NET, .NET framework and Microsoft Access databases, as they all need a Windows environment to run in.  We have kept the prices as low as we can for this package, bearing in mind that Microsoft Windows Server licenses are relatively expensive compared to standard Linux licenses which are indeed free.  We have also kept all the main features from our Linux packages in our Windows packages, other than several of the CGI scripts.  This is because of compatibility with the Windows Operating System.

24. Do you charge excess bandwith fees?

Unlike most other firms, we do not charge excess fees. If you go over your bandwidth limit for your account, we simply ask that you upgrade your account to the next one up.

Dedicated Servers

25. How can you offer true dedicated servers at such a low price?

This is the most frequently asked question of all. Ultimate Web Hosting is able to maintain this everyday pricing on dedicated servers by owning and operating our own collocation facility, buying bandwidth in large blocks, utilizing our own staff for maintenance and support, and buying hardware in bulk quantities. In essence, our experience and purchasing power in this industry are being put to work for you. We always wonder why the other guys charge so much.

26. What are the most common uses of a dedicated server?

The most common uses are as Hosting Servers, Development Servers, Staging Servers, Email Servers, Data Backup Servers, Photo Servers, Gaming Servers, File Servers, Monitoring Servers, or as failover servers to existing network setups.

27. What versions of Linux do you offer?

Fedora, Free BSD, Debian, Suse, Gentoo, OpenBSD, CentOS and Ubuntu

28. What versions of Windows do you offer?

Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008

29. What Control Panels do you offer?

Our control panel options are Webmin, Plesk 7.5, and cPanel.  These options are available with Linux systems only.  For Windows systems, the only control panel available is Plesk, although you may not need any control panel at all.

30. Can I change the physical specifications of the server?

Hardware changes can be made at any time to any of our servers. Changes may affect your setup and monthly recurring charges.

31. Where will my server be housed?

Your server will be housed in a concrete reinforced, cement block facility with redundant local power feeds, Generator and UPS power backup, FM-200 Fike Cheetah fire suppression system, and Liebert Air Handlers. The facility is protected by multiple stage entry points, as well as video, and security personnel.

32. Are dedicated servers for everyone?

Our servers are designed to be 'Self Managed' computers. We can offer all of the support a customer wishes, however our services are ideally suited for those users who like to manage their own servers. These types of users will realize the greatest value from our range, but we most certainly welcome all users.

33. What type of connection will I have?

All of our customers are connected via their own 100Mbps cross connection to Infolink’s switches which have redundant Tier-One backbone connections.

34. Who will have control of the server?

This is your own dedicated server. You will have complete root access control over the server.

35. What types of applications can I load?

You are free to load any applications you wish as long as they are not in violation of our terms and conditions.

36. How many IP addresses can I have?

Ultimate Web Hosting maintains strict records of all of our IP addresses. You are free to have as many addresses as you wish as long as they are being used. There is a £15 one time processing charge for each IP address.

37. What if I want to upgrade my server plan?

All customers can upgrade to any server plan at any time with no additional fees. We will set up your second server, and give you time with both servers online to complete your migration.

38. What is the definition of a reboot?

We are referring to instances when we have to physically reboot your server. You are free to reboot your server remotely by yourself at any time, at no charge. This is one of the many benefits to having your own dedicated server.

39. What is the definition of a System Restore?

A system restore is when we have to restore your server to the same state that it was in when you first received your start up email. This is usually only happens when a customer does catastrophic damage to their system OS.

40. Do you allow resellers?

Yes, quite a few of our largest customers are hosting companies who are reselling space on our servers as shared hosting to their clients. We encourage the resale of our servers.