With shared hosting, many websites use the same IP address. You might require your own IP address if you want to access your website by both the IP address and the domain name. This is especially useful during periods of domain name propagation when you can’t access your site by using the domain name. Don’t purchase a dedicated IP address if you are installing an SSL certificate. We automatically issue a dedicated IP address when an SSL certificate is installed on our shared hosting servers.

Moving your hosting account feels as scary as moving into a new house. Because it affects your business, you want it done correctly to avoid any costly mistakes. Fortunately, this guide removes the mystery and shows the process done quickly and easily. Web hosting is server space where you store your website’s files so they are accessible 24/7 by browsing to your domain name. The company providing this service for you is known as your host. Before beginning, you need a copy of your site’s files from your current host. Without those, there’s nothing to move. Once you have a copy of the files, purchase a hosting account that fits your needs. This article does not cover migrating websites using databases; these include common blog and Content Manager System-based websites, such as those using WordPress®, Drupal®, or Joomla!®.

When a visitor types your domain name in to their browser they are automatically directed to your website’s default file. For example, to go to Yahoo!, you type yahoo.com. It doesn’t show up in your browser, but you’re actually looking at the index.html page. Try it yourself, type yahoo.com/index.html in your browser. You might have guessed, index.html file is a default file. If it’s the only default file in the root directory, it automatically displays when someone goes to your domain name. If you have more than one default file in a directory, the server decides which one takes priority, and then displays that file. Understanding the order the files are served is key to making sure the correct page displays on your website.

Your site can feel slow for two reasons. It can take a long time to generate a given page on the server side or it can take a long time to load the site in your browser. It can also feel slow for both reasons combined! For more information, see Top 5 Website Performance Problems. If you`re using WordPress®, you can try Troubleshooting Common Issues in WordPress. W3 Total Cache is a performance optimization framework for WordPress, that is designed to work in any type of site or web hosting account. You can also use free third-party tools to troubleshoot the cause of your site’s slowness and to make a plan for your next moves. Using WebPageTest.org to Determine Site Slowness Using Google PageSpeed to Determine Site Slowness Using Yahoo! YSlow to Determine Site Slowness Using Pingdom Tools to Determine Site Slowness Using Firefox Plugin lori to Determine Site Slowness If you’re still stumped, please try to find patterns in slowness before you contact help or tech support so we can handle your case quickly. Patterns to look for: Is your site slow only during certain hours of the day? Is your site slow only from certain geographic locations? Are only certain pages of your site slow? Do you host multiple alias domains on your account? If so, are they all slow, or just one? Do you run multiple Web applications on your account? If so, are they all slow, or just one? Do you run multiple plugins, modules, or themes for your Web application? If you disable them, does your site speed up? Is your connection to other websites slow? Any additional information you can provide will help our tech support track down the issues quickly.

While we do not limit the number of visitors that can view your website, we do limit the number of visitors who can simultaneously connect to your hosting account. There’s a subtle difference there because users only count as [connecting] while they’re actively downloading content from your website. However, as soon as users finish loading a page’s content or disconnect from SSH, their connections are freed up for other users. This means if the page a user’s connecting to takes .1 seconds to fully load, she only counts as a connection for .1 seconds. After that, she no longer counts toward your total allowed connections — unless she clicks somewhere on your site that establishes another connection. This means, theoretically, a very large number of visitors could be viewing your website at the same time, as long as they didn`t all process the requests simultaneously.

The number of files per directory you can use depends on the type of hosting you have: Type Max. Files per Directory1 Web & Classic 1,024 files/inodes2 cPanel, Plesk, Managed WordPress No limit3 These limits prevents customers’ file structures from taxing the server’s resources and negatively affect its load time. If you exceed your account’s limit, you might receive an [Out of Disk Space] when trying to add or create more files in that directory. This doesn’t mean that your entire hosting account has exceeded its disk space, only that directory has. You can avoid this issue by splitting directories with many files/inodes into sub-directories, and by pruning any [cache] or [thumbnail] directories your site uses manually or with a cron job. We will warn customers exceeding this limit and may relocate files to maintain server performance. 1 Your entire hosting account cannot hold more than 500,000 files and folders (Windows) or 250,000 inodes (Linux). 2 File name lengths between 1 and 16 characters count as 1 inode, 17 and 32 characters count as 2, 33 and 48 characters count as 3, and so on. The longer your filenames, the fewer files you can have in a directory. 3 Though we impose no limit, to improve your website’s performance, we recommend limiting your directories to no more than 1,024 files/inodes. cPanel accounts also cannot exceed their account’s total inode (file) limit (more info).

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. It is an encryption layer that encodes information that is exchanged between a client and a server, protecting the transmission of sensitive and private data. An SSL certificate allows you to apply SSL encryption technology to your site, so that information traveling from it is encrypted. SSL certificates are expected by consumers for any site that handles sensitive information like identity information, credit card numbers, or confidential records.

An SSL certificate is a file installed on the web server that a web site is running on. This file is composed of two segments. The first is the public key, which encrypts data. The second is the private key, which decrypts data. When a client, such as a web browser, connects to an SSL secured server a unique session is created using these two keys. All data transmitted during this session is protected, and cannot be decrypted by any party other than that specific client and the server.

If your site sends or receives sensitive information, customers expect it to be secured with an SSL certificate. Many will leave your site if they see that it is not secured.

Yes you can. The domain you wish to secure doesn’t need to be in your account or even registered with us.

Yes, all of our certificates are chained to a CA (certificate authority).

CA stands for certificate authority. A CA is the company issuing the SSL certificate.

Domain Validation certificates authenticate that the purchaser of the cert also owns (or administers) the domain name to which the cert will be applied. This lowest level of authentication also offers the lowest prices and allows you to secure your web site the most rapidly. Organization Validation certificates receive some scrutiny to confirm the relationship between the domain name, domain owner, and the business for which the certificate will be used. Extended Validation certificates require the certificate authority (the company issuing the certificate, such as GeoTrust or Symantec) to perform a more extensive verification of the purchaser’s business and their authority to purchase a certificate on behalf of that company. Once installed, EV certificates turn the browser address bar green to give visitors a visual cue that this is a trustworthy site.

Low assurance certificates encrypt the connection. Higher validation certificates perform the same encryption, and add peace of mind for your visitors by showing them that the certificate authority has validated your site as belonging to a legitimate business.

The green address bar gives an intuitive visual cue that your business is legitimate. The green bar is only available with Extended Validation (EV) certificates. In contrast, major web browsers have integrated anti-phishing protection so that known phishing sites will display a red address bar. Studies have shown a strong, positive impact for businesses that use EV certificates.

Functionally, all certificates with the same level of encryption perform similarly. However, for discriminating customers, branding in certificates has the same effect as designer clothing: it gives sophisiticated customers assurance that you’re a sophisticated business.

To find out what SSL certificate you use, visitors simply click the lock icon in their browser’s address box. A new window pops up with information about your certificate.

SSL Certificates are compatible with 99.9% of all browsers, including all major web browsers.

Yes. On your new web server, generate a new CSR for your certificate. Contact the certificate issuer with the new CSR and they will provide you with a new certificate.

Once you purchase a certificate, we can’t upgrade it. However, if you need a more secure certificate immediately, you can purchase it and install it on the same web server as the old certificate. If you don’t need the more secure certificate immediately, you can wait until your current certificate expires and install a more secure one at that time.

Server Gated Cryptography (SGC) was developed for legacy computers and browsers that only support 40 or 56-bit SSL encryption to [step up] to 128-bit SSL encryption. Without an SGC certificate, web browsers and operating systems that do not support 128-bit strong encryption will receive only 40- or 56-bit encryption.

Installing a certificate is not difficult, but it does involve a process that’s specific to each individual web server. Certification Authorities publish instructions for generating the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) and installing the certificate.

CSR stands Certificate Signing Request. A CSR is a special key generated by a web server using that server’s unique private key. The CSR is sent to the certificate issuer, which generates the final certificate.