General DNS Questions
- What is a domain name?
A domain name is essentially a signpost on the Internet. Every website you've ever been to, and every email you've ever composed, has used a domain name in its address. People register domain names in order to 'stake a claim' to a particular name -- whether for business or personal reasons. Once a domain name is registered to a person or company, it is that person's to use exclusively as long as they continue to pay the yearly renewal fee.
- What is a DNS?
The Domain Name System (DNS) translates domain names into numerical Internet Protocol (IP) addresses used by computers on the internet. DNS was created to simplify navigating web sites. So instead of having to remember 123.123.123.123, you only have to remember mydomain.com.
- I don't have a website, can I still get a domain name?
Absolutely! You do not need to actually use a domain name for anything right away. This is the main reason we offer our Domain Parking service. There are about 10,000 new domain names registered daily. Chances are, sooner or later your domain name will be registered by someone else if you don't.
- How long can my domain name be? What characters can it contain?
Your domain name can be up to 67 characters long (including the four characters that denote .com, .org, or .net). In other words, you can choose up to 63 characters for your domain name. Your domain name can contain letters, numbers and the hyphen -. However, domain names cannot begin or end with a hyphen.
- Who is OpenSRS?
OpenSRS is a domain registrar that competes with other domain registrars (Network Solutions, Register.com, etc.) in the domain name market. What makes them unique is the fact that they are strictly wholesale, providing services to Registration Service Providers like us. Because they focus on 'business-to-business' relationships, they're able to avoid the costs of supporting a base of end users, and consequently, can offer their services at a significantly lower price than the competition.
- What is the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP)?
Once upon a time, not too long ago, there was a lot of money to be made by registering a domain name and then selling it to a company for thousands, sometimes millions of dollars. These days are long gone. Now if you register a trademarked name, you will get sued for thousands of dollars, and will be forced to turn over the domain. In order to deal with this issue, ICANN (the organization that currently oversees the .com, .org and .net domain extensions) has prepared "Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy" which provides guidelines for dealing with conflicting claims regarding the rights to register an internet domain name. When you register a domain name through us, you agree to be bound by this policy. You can view the policy here.
- Which Top Level Domains(TLD) do you offer?
Currently, we are registering domains for the TLD's .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .name, .ws, .us, .mobi, .co.uk, & .org.uk. We have plans to offer other TLD's in the future.
- Is there any difference in a domain registered through serve-you.net, and one registered through Network Solutions/Verisign?
There is no difference (other than the price) between a name registered with us and a name registered with Network Solutions. Network Solutions is currently better known because they ran the first domain registration business without competition for a number of years.
- Registry? Registrar? Registrant? What do these words mean?
Registrar: A "Registrar" (or "Domain Name Registrar") is an organization like Network Solutions that has control over the granting of domains within certain TLDs (top level domains, like the generic .com/.org/.net or country-specific .ca/.us/.mx etc.).
Registry: The 'Registry' is the backend that registrars have shared access to. Each registrar writes new names to a central registry database, from which the authoritative root (essentially, a table of all domain names on the Internet) is built.
Registrant: A registrant is the person or company who purchases a domain name. For example, Jessica Smith (registrant) registers the name jessicasmith.com through OpenSRS (registrar) who in turn writes the name to the central database (Registry).
- Who does a registered name actually belong to, the end user or the Registration Service Provider?
Domain names are not truly owned -- they're leased out on a first-come, first-served basis, and remain with the initial lessee until either a) the lessee does not renew the name, or b) a business with a trademark of the same name demonstrates a greater claim to the name than the lessee can demonstrate. The question is better phrased as 'who can control the domain name'. The answer is the domain's Administrative Contact. This is specified by the registrant during the registration process.
- What forms of payment do you accept?
We accept payment in the form of visa, mastercard, discover, and american express. Additionally, we accept payment via paypal for those who prefer that method. If you would like to pay by check or bank draft, you must pay via paypal. We do not accept payment via snail mail.
- How can you offer domain names for so much cheaper than other sites?
Being a Registration Service Provider, we are able to purchase domains at bulk rates. We then pass these savings on to you.
- Can I upgrade my account?
Yes, you can upgrade your account at any time. There are no additional fees for doing so, you just pay the difference in your current plan.
- I made a mistake. Can I cancel my domain name?
You can cancel your service with us at anytime, but we will not be able to refund your money. Once a domain is registered, it cannot be canceled.
- How long does it take for my domain name to become active?
Within 12 hours of receiving payment, your order will be processed, and your domain name will be registered. Your domain will be accessible shortly thereafter.
- Can I register more than one domain name with my account?
Absolutely! Once you have an account with us, it's very easy to register more domains. We also offer discounts on bulk registrations of 5 or more domains.
- Can I use your forwarding service to forward my domain to an adult site or warez site?
Absolutely not! These sites use up way too many resources. If we find that a domain is being forwarded to such a site, the domain will be disabled immediately.
- I heard that some browsers do not support frame forwarding. Is this true?
Yes this is a fact, OLD browsers will not support this. With old being the equivalent to windows 3.1. This technology uses frames to make the magic happen. So if a user is using a browser that does not support frames, they will not be forwarded to your site. All major browsers have had support for frames for several years now.
- What requirements are there for transferring a domain name to serve-you.net?
Your current Admin Contact email address is valid, and you can respond to a confirmation message sent to that address.
Your gTLD domain registration is at least 60 days old, or has been with the current Reseller for at least the same period.
Your domain is no more than 40 days past it's present expiry date.
You can verify any aspect of your current domain record, including expiry date by using our "Check Domain Availability" tool at the top of this page.
- Do you offer reseller services?
No, we do not.
Email Service Only Questions
- What happens if someone sends an e-mail to a locked, suspended, cancelled or terminated account?
If an e-mail is sent to a locked, suspended, cancelled or terminated account an automated reply message will be sent to the sender of the message advising them that their e-mail message was unable to be delivered. The original message will be included as an attachment within the body of the automated reply message.
- If I change my e-mail address will e-mail sent to my current address be forwarded to my new address?
No. Be sure to let people know that you are changing e-mail addresses before doing so. Otherwise, messages sent to your old e-mail address will be returned to the sender, marked "undeliverable".
- How can I access my Web Based E-mail system?
To access the Web Based E-mail System use your web browser. The login page for your web based E-mail is unique for your domain name. Type in the appropriate URL (web site address) for your domain name (mail.yourdomainname.com) and click the "Check Mail" link.
Once you're at the Web Mail log in page enter your E-mail address (you@YourDomainName.com) and your password and click the "log in" button. Now you will be able to send and receive E-mail. The Web-based e-mail system can be accessed from any computer with a browser and a Internet connection.
Once All E-mail boxes under your domainname.com can access the WebMail by entering the appropriate URL (mail.YourDomainName.com) and entering his or her E-mail address and their password.
- Can I Change My E-mail Address?
At present e-mail addresses can only be deleted and re-created. This has to be done within the first 30 days of purchase.
- Can I Change My E-mail Password?
Any account that has been activated with Email Administration functionality has the ability to reset the password for a any given account on a that domain. This can be accessed by logging on to https://mail.YourDomainName.com. The first screen is a list of accounts on that domain. Find and select the account which for which you would like to change the password. Once selected you will see an option labeled "Password". Enter the new Password and select "Update". The password is now updated.
- I forgot/lost my password. What should I do?
In the webmail interface you can identify an external e-mail to which the password can be e-mailed. If you have identified an email address for that purpose when you select "Forgot My Password" at the email login screen, http://mail.YourDomainName.com. You will be presented with a screen that requests your Login name. Enter your Login Name (the portion prior to the @ symbol) and select "Email Me My Password". Your current password will be sent to the e-mail address you have specified. If no e-mail address has been specified for this purpose, you will need to contact one of your E-mail Administrators to have a new password issued. Note, if a new password is issued you will have to reset the password in the Account information on e-mail application as well. Please refer to the user documentation for your e-mail client software to see how this is done.
- Is there a way to securely check my e-mail?
You can check your email securely by typing in https://webmaillogin.com. For "Login Name" use the full e-mail address and appropriate password for which you are attempting to access the WebMail interface. Once logged in you will be viewing your e-mail in a secure environment. Note: this ensures that your e-mail cannot be intercepted or viewed between your browser and the e-mail server; this does not result in secure end-to-end e-mail from the sender to you or from you to the recipient.
- When will my E-mail and Domain name become accessible throughout the Internet?
Domain name registrations, once submitted, take the standard Internet activation time of 24-72 hours to be fully accessible on the Internet. Your new E-mail address will also be accessible when this process is complete.
- How will I know if my Domain and E-mail has been activated?
To know if your service is active, please visit the appropriate URL for your domain name (mail.yourdomain.com). If the login page appears, your account is active.
- Why can't I access my Web-based Mail System?
To access your Web-based Mail System make sure you are visiting the correct URL (mail.YourDomainName.com) replacing YourDomainName with the domain name you purchased.
If you are having trouble logging into your account or accessing your mail page, please consider the following issues:
Have you entered your complete E-mail address you@YourDomainName.com and password correctly?
Note: All passwords in this system are case sensitive. To ensure that you never have a problem it is recommended that you make all passwords lower case.
Has your Domain Name been activated throughout the Internet? New Domain names generally take 24 - 72 hours from the time of submission to be fully recognized throughout the Internet. If you recently registered your Domain name, please ensure that you have allowed for proper activation time before logging into your E-mail account.
- Why can't I access my E-mail Administration Area?
You can access your Mail Manager by visiting https://mail.YourDomainName.com:9010.
If you are having trouble logging into your account or accessing your mail page, please consider the following issues:
Have you entered your Domain Name (YourDomainName.com) and password correctly? Note: All passwords in the e-mail system are case sensitive.
The password for this area is the same as the password for the Master E-mail Address. Additional E-mail accounts that you set up do not have access to this area.
- What is a Vacation Message?
Vacation messages notify anyone that sends an email to this address that the user to whom this email was sent is currently out of office / town. For example - "I am currently out of the office and have limited access to email. I will be back on Friday, 5th Oct. In case of any urgent work, you may contact Mr John Smith at (123)-123-1234 in my absense."
- Can I set my e-mail to deliver automatic replies?
Yes. You can set your e-mail address to automatically reply to e-mail when you cannot. Compose an auto-reply message and turn it on or off whenever you need, within WebMail.
- How do I send attachments?
Sending attachments is quite easy with current E-mail programs. Just click the attachment option in the e-mail program you are using and a window will appear, asking you the location on your computer of the document/file that you want to attach to your e-mail. For example, if you are using Eudora, there is a button on the Compose Mail screen called Attach. You will need to browse your hard drive, find the file you would like to send, select it and click OK. The file is automatically appended to your e-mail message. One thing to keep in mind is that the recipient of the e-mail must have a program that can read your attachment. For example if you are sending a graphic, you need to make sure that your recipient has the graphic program as well.
- I have received an attachment - what do I do now?
If you have received an e-mail attachment from someone, usually all you have to do is double click on it and it will open in the appropriate program. However, some e-mail programs save the attachments in a special folder on your hard drive. For example, there are some versions of Eudora that will save attachments in the Eudora/attach folder. In this case, you would have to open Windows Explorer or File Manager and go to your Eudora/attach folder to double click on the attachment. If the file does not automatically open in the correct program, it may be that you do not have a program that can read the file, or the file association with a specific program has not been made.
- Why does my e-mail show up blank for some people?
E-mail can be blank for a number of reasons, the most popular reasons being incompatible e-mail programs and differing encoding mechanisms in e-mail programs. The two most popular encoding mechanisms are MIME and Bin-Hex. If you have a Macintosh and send your e-mail encoded in Bin-Hex, and your recipient does not have an e-mail program that can decode Bin-Hex, they will most likely have a problem reading your mail. Thankfully, most popular e-mail programs have overcome this issue by being able to decode both MIME and Bin-Hex encoding.
- How do I find someone's e-mail address?
There are many resources on the Internet to find people's e-mail addresses. However, most rely on people "registering" their e-mail address, or having posted to a newsgroup at some point in their Internet career. Some popular E-mail Finders are:
- Does it cost more to send e-mail overseas?
No, there is no additional charge for sending e-mail outside of the country of origin. This is one of the benefits of the Internet - no long distance charges regardless of where you send your e-mail message or where the website you want to look at is located!
- What is my E-mail address?
Your e-mail address is your: username@YourDomainName.com For example, if your usename was jsmith and your domain name is smithdomainname.com, then your e-mail address would be jsmith@smithdomainname.com Your username is the name you created when you registered your e-mail account. Your username is also the name you use to log into the E-mail system.
- What is a catch-all?
A catch-all is an address that is specified to 'catch' any e-mail that is addressed to your domain name but does not match any of the e-mail addresses set up for that domain name. So if an e-mail is sent to an address that you have not setup, then the system will catch it and route it to a pre-defined e-mail address.
For example:
A company has three e-mail addresses setup for YourDomainName.com. They are: Info@YourDomainName.com
Sales@YourDomainName.com
Webmaster@YourDomainName.comWhere Info@YourDomainName.com as the catch-all. A customer sends an e-mail to advertising@YourDomainName.com which is not set-up. The catch-all then routes that e-mail to Info@YourDomainName.com.
Please note that you can only have one catch-all address per domain.
- How long does it take for e-mail to be received?
The length of time it takes to receive an e-mail can depend on many variables - the speed of the local network, the amount of traffic on the Internet, and the speed of the recipient's Internet provider. Generally, e-mail can be received from within 10 minutes to 2 days.
- How can I be sure my mail was sent OK?
There are many factors involved in the delivery of an e-mail message. Our mail server tries for up to three days to deliver a message. If you do not receive a message stating your e-mail was "bounced" or rejected after that time, it is safe to assume that it left our server intact. Here are some additional conditions which influence e-mail:
The server on the receiving end.
The path (other servers, etc.) that an individual message takes to reach its destination.
The type of system receiving the mail (UUCP, etc.)One way to test a mail message, is to send a carbon copy (CC:) to yourself. If our mail server returns it, it was properly sent out.
If you are having trouble sending e-mail to a specific individual, it may be with their e-mail system, Internet connection or e-mail program.
- How long will my e-mail be stored on the mail server?
E-mail sent to your address is stored on a mail server until you retrieve it using e-mail software (Outlook Express, Netscape Messenger, Eudora, etc.) or read then delete it using the WebMail.
- How will I know when my mailbox is full?
You will be warned before your mailbox becomes full. If you regularly check your e-mail using an e-mail program, your mailbox should never become full. If, however, you have inadvertently activated the "leave mail on server" option in your e-mail software, your mailbox can quickly become full.
When the mailbox reaches capacity a warning e-mail message will be sent to you.
However, if you ignore the warnings or are unable to check your e-mail regularly, and your mailbox becomes full, subsequent e-mail sent to your address will be returned to the sender as "undeliverable". Similar to when a telephone voice-mailbox is full, as soon as you empty your mail box by retrieving your messages from the server, you can receive new e-mail messages.
If you read your e-mail using only WebMail the warning message will appear in your WebMail Inbox. If you receive this warning message, you should delete some or all messages from your WebMail folders, including the Trash folder, and especially those messages which include attachments.
- What happens if I leave my e-mail on the mail server?
Your e-mail software may have an option to "leave mail on server". If this option is selected inadvertently or otherwise, your mailbox (on the server) may fill up and cause you not to be able to receive e-mail, even if you've already read your e-mail.
- What is Spamming?
Spamming is when someone sends their message to several thousand Usenet groups, chat rooms and/or thousands of individual e-mail addresses. These messages often promote a business or fringe point-of-view. If you send one, you risk receiving thousands of angry responses from those who received the spam (flames) and having your account cancelled.
- What is a virus?
A virus is a program designed to corrupt (and copy itself into) other programs and alter the way they work. The impact of viruses can range from making your computer crash during certain operations, to deleting important files, possibly rendering your computer inoperable.
These days, most viruses are transmitted over the Internet via e-mail attachments. A special type of virus, which is actually called a "Trojan Horse," is a program designed to look like it's doing something normal while actually playing havoc with your computer's files. However, unlike a true virus, a Trojan Horse can't reproduce itself, nor can it "infect" programs.
Viruses are programs that can only infect other programs, as well as files containing "macros" (a series of commands grouped together to automate a complex series of tasks) such as Microsoft Word and Excel files. Computer viruses can be transmitted through Web pages or complex e-mail messages. To be safe, you can configure your e-mail program to not display HTML in e-mail.
- What are all those acronyms people use in their messages?
In the heat of a chat room exchange the last thing you want to do is waste keystrokes typing common sayings. To get around this people have started using acronyms. The following is a list of acronyms commonly used:
BTW - By the way
FWIW - For what it's worth
FYI - For your information
IMHO - In my humble opinion
IMO - In my opinion
LOL - Laughing out loud
OTF - On the floor (laughing)
PMFBI - Pardon me for butting in
PMFJI - Pardon me for jumping in
ROTFL - Rolling on the floor laughing
TIA - Thanks in advance - What are those marks people put at the end of a sentence?
Those marks are called emoticons or smileys and they are used to convey emotion. Since you can't see anyone in the chat room, the expressions and inflections of voice we use to convey emotion when talking are lost. To make up for that, a system of symbols has developed which uses common keyboard marks. The following is a short list, but remember, have fun and be creative:
:-( Sadness, disappointment
:-) A smile, also :-> or :^]
8-) Goofy smile, or wearing glasses
;-) A wink
:-& Tongue-tied
:-o Shock, surprise
:-p Sticking tongue out
:-} Another goofy smile
:-{| Mustached straight-man
:-)8 Formal occasion
:-x Speechless - What is WebMail?
WebMail is a web-based e-mail service that allows you to access your e-mail from any computer connected to the Internet.
- Can I send and receive attachments through WebMail?
Yes, you can send and receive as many files as you want in a message - up to 5MB including attachments.
- How much e-mail can I keep in my account?
You can keep as many messages as you want until your account size reaches 10 megabytes (MB). You will receive a size notification e-mail when your account approaches 10 MB, and also if your account size reaches the 10 MB limit.
Additional space may be purchased in 5 MB blocks.
- How do I sign in to WebMail?
You can sign in to WebMail by using a webbrowser to go to your unique URL mail.YourDomainName.com . Please sign-in using your e-mail address and password.
- For some reason, my WebMail inbox appears empty. Why can't I access the same messages I can see at home?
WebMail generally imports only NEW messages from the server for you to view. If you have already opened them at home (on your POP account), you will not be able to see them in Web Mail, In order to collect messages, you will need to ensure that the mail program on your home computer is not running during the time you intend to use WebMail.
- Through WebMail I can't find the addresses I have entered in my e-mail account at home. Why is that?
Your WebMail address book is not connected to the address book you have created through your POP account on your home computer. You will need to create a separate address book directly in your WebMail account.
- I receive errors when I try and login to WebMail, why is this?
To use WebMail, you must have the correct browser software installed. WebMail works with Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4 and above, and Netscape version 4.7 and above. If you are using an older browser, you will need to upgrade to a later version in order to use WebMail.
