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Frequently Asked Questions

General questions about eSmartStart
Questions about logging into your account
Questions about uploading files
Questions about 'disappearing' files
Questions about Advertisments
Questions about using Frames
Questions about CGI/PHP/ASP or Server-Side Scripting Support
Questions about Microsoft Front Page
Miscellaneous Questions

Questions about eSmartStart:

Q. How can you offer this service for free?
A. eSmartStart is able to offer its services for free because, like radio, the costs involved are covered by advertising instead of subscriptions. eSmartStart inserts advertisements into each webpage when it is displayed. We also have a pay version of our service for a low monthly subscription cost.

Q. How fast of an internet connection is eSmartStart using?
A. eSmartStart is sitting on an OC3 backbone with redundant paths.  This gives us ample room for growth and expansion for years to come.

Q. How secure is my data?
A. Our servers are located in a secure facility and we do all in our power to prevent breeches of network security by hackers. Keep in mind, however, that servers can crash and hardware can fail.  While we do regular backups of crucial information such as your account login and password, we simply cannot back up everything; it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you maintain current backup copies of all your files where you can get at them easily... just in case!

Questions about Logging into your Account:

Q. What is my "login" or "username" to get into my account?
A.  Your "login" or "user name" is your full domain name (without the www).  If you signed up for johndoe.esmartguy.com, then your login would be "johndoe.esmartguy.com". Your FTP login would be the same (in this example, johndoe.esmartguy.com).

Q. I've lost my password, how can I find out what it is?
A. CLICK HERE to have your password emailed to you. If that does not work CONTACT US.  Note: your password can only be sent to your primary e-mail address (i.e. the one we have on file for your account).

Q. Why can't I log in?
A. Make sure you are using the correct username and password. Our system is case sensitive. All usernames must be in lower case characters. Your password will be in whatever case you originally typed it in. For example, if your password was "MyPaSsWoRd" then you would have to type it in exactly that way. You MUST have cookies enabled on your browser to use the File Manager. Cookies allow the File Manager to tell if you have logged in or not.  Also, make sure you are using a fairly recent web browser.

Q. I typed the correct login and password; why can I still not log in?
A. The most frequent reason is that you never activated your account. When you first sign up, you are sent an email with a code to activate your account. If it is not activated within a few days that code is deleted from our servers and the account is never created. Another common reason is that your site has not received any activity for over one month. When we do "house cleaning" we remove sites that have not been accessed in the past 30 days. Finally, if your account has been terminated for a violation of our terms of service, such as "hotlinking", hosting warez or porn, etc, you will no longer be able to log into your account.

Q. Why can I log into the my account through the web, but not through FTP?
A. To start using the FTP service you must log into your account and click on the "Enable FTP Access" link. You can also click on the above link to re-syncronize the web login password with the FTP server password if they get out of sync. If you are still having trouble logging in with FTP, make sure you are using the correct FTP server address, username, and password. If you know all three are correct and still cannot log in, it is possible that you are coming from an ISP or IP address that has been banned from using our FTP service because of excessive abuse. If this is the case there is nothing you can do. You will have to use the File Manager to upload your files. It is unfortunate that the actions of a few can ruin things for everyone else.

Questions about Uploading Files to your Account:

Q. How do I upload files to my account?
A. You have two ways to upload files to your account: (1) You can use the eSmart File Manager.  Simply log in with your user name and password, click on "File Manager", click on the "Upload" button, and browse to the file you want to upload. (2) If you have multiple files to upload, it may be easier to use "FTP", the second method of uploading files.  For this method you will need FTP client software such as WSFtp or CuteFtp (Commercial Software), or FileZilla (Free - Opensource). Alternatively, you can use your web browser or Windows Explorer as an FTP client.

TIP: Use your web browser or Windows Explorer as an FTP client

To use your web browser or Windows Explorer as an FTP client, type your FTP information into the address bar:

                ftp://YOURSITE@ftpserver.YOURDOMAIN.com
                      (e.g. ftp://joe@ftpserver.esmartkid.com)

You will be prompted for your password.  Once you log in you can drag and drop files into your account.

For this method you may need to enable Passive FTP connections. In Microsoft Internet Explorer you can do so by doing the following: open your browser and select Tools / Internet Options / Advanced.  Make sure the boxes are checked next to "Enable folder view for FTP sites" and "Use Passive FTP (for firewall and DSL modem compatibility)".


Q. I've uploaded my files to my account; why do my links not work and why are my images not displaying?
A. The most common reason is that your html links do not match the case of your files themselves. Our system is case sensitive. If, for example, you upload a file named "MyImage.JPG" (mix of upper and lower case) then the link to that image must be exactly the same. The files "MyImage.JPG" and "myimage.jpg" would not be considered the same file and could co-exist within the same directory. To fix this you can either edit your html to make the case match the file or you could use our File Manager to rename the file to match the case used in the link.

Q. I've uploaded my files to my account; why do I still get the default "This page is under construction" page when I visit the site?
A. Your main default page MUST be named "index.htm" or "index.html". The server looks for files by those names when someone types in your URL without specifiying a complete path to a particular file.

Q. Why is my page not displaying anything? I know the requested file is not empty.
A. Our ad software is sensitive to the <head> and <body> tags. If you have more than one set of those tags (even if they are within javascript code) or if they are not using correct html syntax, it confuses the system, resulting in nothing being displayed. Make sure you do not have a <head> or <body> tag without the corresponding "</head> or </body> tag or vica versa.

Q. How do I know if I am getting close to my quota on diskspace?
A. Simply log into your account and go to the eSmart File Manager.  Near the top of the page it tells you how much space you have used and how much you have left.

Q. What is my FTP login information?
A. This information is emailed to you when you sign up since it is different for each account. But if you lose it or did not receive it, the following example should be sufficient for you to figure it out. If you had signed up for "johndoe.esmartguy.com" then your FTP information would be as follows:

FTP Hostname: ftpserver.esmartguy.com
FTP Username: johndoe
FTP Password: [whatever you used when you signed up]

You generally do not need to make any changes to FTP Port number (21), server type (Unix), or directory root (/). Before you attempt to use our FTP service for the first time, make sure you that enable FTP for your account by logging into your account at www.esmartstart.com and clicking on the "Enable FTP Access" link.

Q. Why can't I use FTP or the File Manager to transfer large files?
A. eSmartStart has size limits for uploaded files based on the type of service you have signed up for. This ranges from 512k to 10 MB (CLICK HERE for more details). Files that exceed these limits are automatically removed.

Questions about 'Disappearing' Files:

Q. Why have the files I recently uploaded disappeared?
A. Most likely the missing files violated our terms of service and were automatically removed. We have scripts that regularly comb the directories looking for accounts that are abusing our service. This keeps our service fast for everyone. Remember, no individual file may be larger than specified by the service you have signed up for (ranges between 512k to 10 MB). On free accounts, all non-html content, such as images, music files, etc. must be linked to real web pages. Sites with little html content that use our free service, whose sole purpose is for serving files for download, are liable to have all their files removed without notice. Likewise, sites that promote illegal activities or infringe on Copyright or Trademark laws are liable to have all files removed. Non-HTML content such as images, music files, movies, etc, should be uploaded AFTER your html files to ensure that they don't get automatically removed for not being part of the web pages of your website.

Q. Why can't I remote link directly to the files on my website from external websites?" What is "hotlinking"?
A. Remote linking to non html files on your website is commonly known as "hotlinking". Hotlinking occurs when non-html files, typically images, are linked to directly from other websites, forums, web boards, or from services like eBay, etc. According to our terms of service, external sites must first link to your html files and not directly to your images or other non-html files. Even if it is something beyond your control, it steals bandwidth from all the other users of our service and gives us no compensation because ads are not being displayed. This restriction is only placed on free accounts. If you need to "hotlink", upgrade your free account to one of our paid services.

Questions about Advertisments:

Q. Can I remove the Ads or or place them somewhere else on the page?
A. Yes and No. The ads allow advertisers to pay for the service instead of you. We host thousands of websites and use a tremendous amount of bandwidth which is not cheap. Moreover, we are constantly needing to upgrade our servers with huge harddrives, fast processors, and "gobs" of memory. Without the advertising revenue we would not be able to offer this service. The ads are inserted into your web pages automatically.

You may, however, remove all advertising on your site by upgrading your free account to one of our paid services. Rates start at $4.99 per month. CLICK HERE for more details.

Questions about Frames:

Q. How can I get Frames to work correctly? I'm getting unsatisfactory results.
A. To use frames your html code must be correct. Subtle problems in your code can lead to conflicts with our advertising, resulting in an unsatisfactory display of your site. Also sites that use complex javascript or style sheets to build pages "on the fly" may not display correctly. Please let us know what problems you may be experiencing with frames so that we can improve our frames support.

Q. Can I change the background color of the frame?
A. Yes. Simply add the following line somewhere between the <head> and </head> tags of your framesrc page(s):

<banner_frame bgcolor="FFFFFF">

In place of "FFFFFF" (which is the hex code for white) put the color (e.g. red, blue, yellow) or hex code of the color you wish the background to be. Do not put a "#" in front of the hex code or it will not work.

Questions about CGI/PHP/ASP or Server-Side Scripting Support:

Q. Do you offer or allow server-side scripting such as php, cgi, asp, etc.?
A. We do not offer or permit any server-side scripting such as php, perl, cgi, asp, shtml, cfm, etc. This service is for basic websites written in html. Javascript, which is client-side scripting, is permitted.

Questions about Microsoft Front Page

Q. Do you support Microsoft Front Page and Front Page extensions?
A. While you may create your website on your harddrive using the Front Page editor and then upload your pages to your free web space using our File Manager or FTP.  We do not support Microsoft's Front Page extensions. 

Miscellaneous Questions:

Q.Are there any restrictions to using your service?
A. We do have some restrictions which are spelled out in the Terms of Service when you set up an account. In short, we disallow sites that promote adult/pornographic material, gambling, hate, illegal, or unethical activities. There are also some individual filesize restrictions and a requirement that all non-html files be linked into the web pages of your site. Otherwise, you are free to use our services as you please.  You must be at least 13 years old to use our service.





 

 

 

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