The first thing we do after we receive your payment is to register your domain name. It usually takes less that 5 minutes.

It takes from 24 to 48 hours before the new domain name (yourdomain.com) is online. The reason for this delay is that the DNS information on all Domain Name Servers around the world has to be refreshed.

It doesn't matter where you register the domain name - this delay is always there. Until your domain name is online you can access your site by IP, as specified in the welcome email.

In other words, immediately after you receive the welcome email, you will be able to access/upload your site like this: '70.84.250.228/~your_username/'
In 24 to 48 hours, your site will be visible all around the world by the domain name, like 'yourdomain.com'.

Also, there is a delay when you transfer a domain name, however it is usually shorter.

Although we register the domain name for you, it is your property.

Yes, we do. We can host any domain name on our servers.

However, we cannot register international domains names because the registration of country specific domain names requires that the registrant specifies an administrative contact in the respective country. We can register .com, .net, .org, .in, .us, .biz .name and .info domains.

But if you are able to register such an international domain name, there is no problem to host it on our servers.

Yes, we offer domain name registration services to all customers.

Domain pointers allow you to "point" or "park" additional domain names to your existing hosting account. This will allow users to also reach your website when entering the "parked" or "pointed" domain into their browsers.

For example: if you park 1domain.com at your hosting account for 2domain.com, users visiting 1domain.com will see the contents of 2domain.com web page.

You can park additional domain names from your control panel - Parked Domains section.

DNS technically stands for "Domain Name System" although it is sometimes used to stand for "Domain Name Server", sometimes just called nameserver.

Simply put, the name server is a pointer from your domain at the domain name database to wherever your actual website is (the server). Nameservers are usually referred to by either their ip's (an ip looks like 4 groups of numbers, or a "dotted quad" separated by dots e.g. 70.84.250.230) or by ns1.something.com or ns2.something.com etc.

Simplifying here, if you punch in "www.mydomain.com", your browser will look for the domain's location online. It finds the name server information from the domain database, which tells the browser what server to access. Once the server is found it shows the pages for that domain's account on the server - and bingo yourdomain.com is visible in your browser. So in order for your web site to be visible online, your domain name has to "point" from the database to our servers -- that means your domain registration account has to have the correct DNS information in it for our servers.

We provide a convenient domain "WHO-IS" Lookup feature for you right at our Fame Hosting web site. Enter http://famehosting.myorderbox.com/whois in your browser and enter the domain name in the whois search box. Our WHOIS database will make you enter a case-sensitive letter/digit code before displaying the information; this is to guard against spam email spiders which try to harvest bulk contact information about domains. When the information page is displayed scroll down. Nameserver information is usually shown near the end of the domain's information.

You can change your DNS/name servers by a few different methods:

	If you purchase your domain at Fame Hosting at the same time you purchase hosting, don't worry about it. Your domain will be automatically set to work with the server your hosting account is on.
	If your domain is not registered at Fame Hosting, you may be able to transfer your domain name registration to Fame Hosting's Domain Registrar. The transfer process itself takes approximately 1 week to 10 days if all goes well. After the transfer is complete, you will be able to login to your Domain Registration account here at Fame Hosting, and will have the ability to manage your domain name including the DNS/Name Servers as described above.
	You can log in at your domain registrar -- wherever you bought your domain name -- with whatever username/password they gave you when you bought the domain. Find their DNS (or Nameserver) modification area, and set the nameservers to the new ones given in your Fame Hosting account Welcome info email.

For non Fame Hosting registered domains, it usually takes approximately two days for the new information to get through the domain database & finally start pointing to a new server / nameservers. This is called DNS resolving or propagating. For domains registered at Fame Hosting the wait can often be significantly shorter because we do frequent updates.

Unfortunately there are disreputable and unethical domain registrars out there which don't allow any control of a domain by the purchaser. If you didn't buy your domain through us and you can't transfer it to our servers because of Registrar-lock, or because the Registry database cannot determine the WHOIS Admin Contact for your domain, AND you also cannot login at your domain registration account elsewhere to change the nameservers, you need to either contact your domain registrar by whatever means you can, and request they change the DNS information for you; or you need to purchase a new domain of your own at a domain registrar such as fame Hosting which does give you control over your own domain.

Certainly you can, as long as the registrar you choose gives you modification access for your domain. If you purchase a new domain of your own somewhere other than through Fame Hosting simply make *sure* you pick a reputable domain registrar who actually makes you the owner (Registrant) of the domain you buy, and that you will have access to modify the DNS for your domain. After you get your new domain registered (purchased), set the DNS to our nameserver info as specified in the new account email we sent you.

Yes. You will have full control over your domain and you will have access to all the tools (login, Contact changes, Nameserver changes, renewals, notifications, etc.) to manage your domain. Therefore you can change nameservers and Contact information for your domain anytime you want.

No. Although we will set up your hosting account within a few hours at most (absent any billing or payment problems), it sometimes takes approximately 24 to 48 hours for the DNS to resolve to our servers after the DNS information is set. Therefore if your domain is registered elsewhere, you must be sure that when you purchase hosting at Fame Hosting, you choose to set the name servers at that time. Otherwise you must login at your own domain registrar and make the DNS/name server changes manually, using name server information we provide after you sign up for hosting here -- the longer you wait to make these changes, the longer until the 24-48 hour wait period begins.

Yes, if you use FTP or the cPanel File Manager function to upload your files before the DNS resolves. You can also view your uploaded web pages online by http://famehosting.com/~yourusername before the DNS resolves.

Keep in mind that some functions and file types may not be fully operational until the DNS has resolved. Examples include PHP pages and scripts utilizing MySQL.

If you use FrontPage to upload your site you will have to wait for the DNS to resolve so you can publish to www.yourdomain.com. Publishing to an IP from FrontPage will cause problems in your site.

You will see an index list of files and/or folders when you access your site via your real URL both with and without the 'www' (http://www.yournewsitename.com and http://yournewsitename.com) in a browser. Often you may see your site at the url without the www first, but not with the www. This means the DNS is only partially resolved. When you can see the index list of files and/or folders at BOTH different url's you know the DNS has resolved.

A TLD is a top-level domain such as .com, .org, .net, .us, .ca, etc.

An SLD is a second-level domain such as .you.tld (or .co.in, etc.)

An EPP Key (sometimes called Code or Authorization Key etc) is like a password, and is required to transfer .org, .biz and .info Domain Names from one Registrar to another.

You can obtain the EPP Key for your Domain Name from your existing Registrar. For domains that do not require an EPP Key, you will see EPP Key:False. This is normal.

No, sorry. All domain sales are final. If you want a differently-spelled domain than the one you bought, you must purchase that also.

Hint: All is not lost -- you can still benefit from owning your misspelled domain. If you have a hosting account that allows Add-On Domains and/or Domain Parking (such as any of the paid-level hosting accounts offered at Fame Hosting), you can redirect the mis-spelled domain to your real domain. After all, if you misspelled it, chances are someone else may try to find your site that way too. Why not help them out? ;) In fact it is quite common practice among successful sites to purchase dozens of domains with different spellings for just this reason.

Say you own two domains: first.com and second.com. First.com is the primary domain for your hosting account - in other words, the domain name you specified when you got your hosting account.

Parked domain:
Go to cPanel ->Parked Domains and park second.com
Result: People type http://www.second.com in their browser, and land at the http://www.first.com home page.
When setting up a parked domain in cPanel, do NOT specify the www in the domain name, just type in "second.com" without the quotes.

Subdomain (or sub domain):
Is just a fancy way of addressing a subdirectory inside your main domain, and does not require you to own a separate domain name other than your main domain. However it is good for search engines because the search engines will see a subdomain as a separate url and will index and list it as a separate web site.
Example: Go to cPanel ->Subdomains. Make a subdomain called "second" (without quotes). A folder called "second" gets automatically created in your web space complete with its own cgi-bin. The url for the subdomain is http://second.first.com You upload your pages into the "second" folder in your first.com web space, using your normal first.com hosting username and password.

Add-on Domain:
Uses a subdomain inside your first.com web space but behaves as a completely separate web site with its own primary domain url.
Example: Go to cPanel ->Add-On Domains. Set up addon domain second.com with the folder/username "second" (without quotes). cPanel automatically creates a folder called "second" in your web space complete with its own cgi-bin. You upload your pages into the "second" folder in your first.com web space using your normal first.com username and password. However, when people type http://www.second.com in their browser, they will see whatever new web site you uploaded into the "second" folder. They will also still of course see the usual first.com site if they type in http://www.first.com
When setting up an addon domain in cPanel, do NOT specify the www in the domain name, just type in "second.com" without the quotes.

For subdomain and addon domain, there cannot be a pre-existing folder of the same name already in your web space. This is because cpanel will create the folder for you and if it finds a pre-existing folder the operation will fail.

PLEASE NOTE: Add-On domains do NOT work well with FrontPage. Therefore if you are using FrontPage to create your site/s, we do not recommend use of addon domains in your hosting account. Go with smaller separate hosting accounts instead. This is because FrontPage extensions are so easily corrupted that if you crash the extensions in one domain web site they will likely also crash in the other; and also because FrontPage tends to see the addon domain as just another subdirectory and to treat it as such.

IMPORTANT FOR ALL PARKED OR ADD-ON DOMAINS: For a parked or addon domain, you must already also own the second domain name (second.com in our examples) and you must have already set the nameservers for it to the same nameservers as your primary hosted domain uses. The nameservers DNS for both domains must be completely resolved *before* you can attempt to set up the parking or addon in your cpanel. Remember it may take a couple of days after you set the name servers for them to completely resolve.

If you try to set up your parked or addon domain before the DNS resolves, the process will fail. In the case of an addon domain, cPanel will be able to create the folder but the rest of the process will fail. This means that before you can try again you will have to delete the new folder that cpanel created in your web space.