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Many small businesses are realizing they can drive big results online. By establishing an online presence via a Web site for their business, they can reach many more customers. There's a lot to know about Web hosting, and this guide will help you understand it all. We've rounded up everything you need, from basic definitions to our Web Hosting How-To. You can read the guide straight through, or skip directly to the Topic you want.

Internet Activity: The information superhighway is literally buzzing with activity as Internet pipelines pump out all manner of files, movies, sounds, programs, video, e-mail, live chat, you name it. Yet amid all this activity there are always two key players in every transaction: a server and a client.

Servers are computers with a 24-hour Internet connection that provide access to their files and programs. These can be but are not limited to educational institutions, commercial companies, organizations, government or military organizations, Internet access providers and various other computer networks of all sizes.

Clients are software programs (and the people on remote computers using the software!) used to access files on a server (typically, a Web browsing program such as Netscape Navigator or an e-mail program such as Eudora).

What are the components of is Internet?
The Internet has many components such as World Wide Web (www), email or operating systems etc. For many other components see the glossary section.

What is Web World?

A simple click can do magic!
A sound interesting isn’t it? Yes, that’s the magic of web where you’re just a click away from the largest ever source of information, excitement and lot more. But all of it wasn’t same at the beginning. Like every big thing web world too had to pass through numerous phases from being the military communication resource at one point of time to actually become this big what we call it today WWW!

In the beginning people were curious to know more about the their surroundings through a limited access with little information to share. It’s when people were beginning to collect information and trying to put it to some use. In the second phase though information was available in huge amount but it was sort of waiting to come out on the web. And it’s when people realized the immense possibilities those could be discovered once this information was freely available around. But the real excitement began when big corporations around the globe took a dive in and made web essential part of our lives by coming up with programmes and technologies that made web and its huge information accessible at just a click away.

It no longer matters what we call it today- the net, www, web, online pages or whatever- mere names that are getting renewed every fortnight. The main thing now is the change that has produced in our lives and expectation it creates for the world to come. As we have seen the web has achieved a point where every one can and should have some identity on the web.

The World Wide Web (abbreviated as the Web or WWW) is a system of Internet servers that supports hypertext to access several Internet protocols on a single interface. Almost every protocol type available on the Internet is accessible on the Web. This includes e-mail, FTP, Telnet, and Usenet News. In addition to these, the World Wide Web has its own protocol: HyperText Transfer Protocol, or HTTP. The Web gathers together these protocols into a single system. Because of this feature, and because of the Web's ability to work with multimedia and advanced programming languages, the Web is the fastest-growing component of the Internet.
Producing hypertext for the Web is accomplished by creating documents with a language called HyperText Markup Language, or HTML. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), led by Web founder Tim Berners-Lee, coordinates the efforts of standardizing HTML. The W3C now calls the language XHTML and considers it to be an application of the XML language standard.

The World Wide Web consists of files, called pages or home pages, containing links to documents and resources throughout the Internet.

What is e-mail ?

Electronic mail, or e-mail, allows computer users locally and worldwide to exchange messages. Each user of e-mail has a mailbox address to which messages are sent. Messages sent through e-mail can arrive within a matter of seconds.

Essentially, a Web site is a way to present yourself online. Your Web site is a place on the Internet where anyone in the world can visit whenever they want to find out more about you, ask you questions, give you feedback, or even buy your products. Think of the Internet as the world's biggest trade show, and your Web site is your booth.

What is a Domain Name?
Your Domain Name is your address on the Web. Just like people use your phone number to call you on the phone, your Domain Name allows people to access your site on the Web. Clever, simple, or easy to remember Domain Names are most desirable as they can play a large part in attracting visitors to your site. Most Domain Names end with ".com" (such as 2Sigmas.com), but other extensions such as ".net" and ".org" are also available. In addition Domains can be used with your e-mail accounts allowing you to send and receive e-mail with addresses such as "support@yourcompany.com"

Topic 3: What is Internet hosting or Web hosting?
A domain name can be defined as unique name that identifies an Internet site. It’s the address of your business entity on the web. A domain name is just like your office address but that can be accessed without going there physically. It’s really incredible to have your domain name if you’re having your business or even if you’re an employee in some organization.
There are many Advantages of having your own domain name-

In present scenario when everything is becoming globally accessible through increased use of communication tools, it’s really very important for any business or information to have its global presence. Your web space is like your home where the information about you and your business resides on the web and is accessible to the world community. It’s like having a your office or address on the web.
Advantages of having your Web Space-

It’s very easy to manage web pace than managing your physical office.
Your web space gives you insight in to the future form of business that is going to be the most preferred form of conducting business in the next few years.
It’s also very economic to conduct business online as it reduces time and cost of transactions which take lots of time in normal case. That’s all possible because you have your web space.
It’s more economic to rent office space on the web than renting it physically.
You can run online business using your web space.
You can run different applications using your web space and can make it available throughout the world.
You can create awareness about your brand with ease and in less time.
It opens new vistas for entrepreneurship-
You can propagate your art, profession to a wider customer base.
You can show your expertise, talent with ease and without incurring much cost
This way your business or your product has global reach- wider customer base.

Making public announcements
Providing support to your customers
Receiving feedback from your visitors
Sharing/distributing files and images
And, of course, selling your products
Those might not sound impressive, but don't forget that you'll be able to do those things for people around the world at any time of day or night. You have the potential to become a household name 10,000 miles away.

How does a Web site work?
A Web site is simply a collection of files that reside on a computer connected to the Internet. When someone visits your site, they are actually contacting that computer, and that computer (called a Web server) gives the visitor the files they want to see. It sounds very simple, but most normal computers don't have the power or the software needed to constantly respond to all the requests made by all the visitors to a site. And even if they did, they'd need an extremely fast connection to the Internet to keep up with all the requests. Most people and small companies don't have the resources to run a Web server, and that is where Web Hosting comes in. You know what a Web site is, but what is a Web Host? What part does 2Sigmas play in your Web presence?

What is Internet hosting or Web Hosting?
To have a Web site on the Internet you first need to have a Web server. Unfortunately, owning a Web server can be very costly and requires technical expertise that most businesses don't have. This is where Web Hosts come in. Web hosting companies provide the equipment and other technical resources that you need without the headaches that come when you have to do it yourself.
Think of a Web Host as the landlord of building. A landlord rents out storefronts to various businesses. Each business decorates and runs their store differently, and doesn't worry about the maintenance of the building. In a similar way a Web Host rents out space on a Web server, (or entire Web servers), to various businesses. Each business builds their own Web site and never has to worry about the maintenance of their Web server.
In other words, the Web Host provides the place on the Internet where your Web site lives. It's a lot cheaper than buying you own server, and you don't have to hire the technical staff to take care of it.
It looks like:
What kind of server options available?
SERVERS

A Server is a computer, or a software application that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers. The term can refer to a particular piece of software, such as a Web Server, or to the computer on which the software is running. A single computer may have several different server software applications running on it, thus providing many different servers to clients on a network. Server can be of different types depending upon the operating system they use. They can be Linux based servers, Windows servers, Linux servers etc. further they can also be differentiated on the basis of tasks they perform. For example a web server, database server and mailing server etc.

Web Servers

A Web Server is software application that uses the HyperText Transfer Protocol. A Web Server is usually run on a computer that is connected to the Internet. There are many Web Server software applications, including public domain software from Apache, and commercial applications from Microsoft, Oracle, Netscape and others. A Web Server may host or provide access to content and responds to requests received from Web browsers. Every Web Server has an IP address and usually a domain name, e.g. www.murdoch.edu.au or a sub-domain, e.g. www.it.murdoch.edu.au. Some Web Servers are Virtual Servers.

Database Servers

A database installed as a back-end or server component of a client-server system, which can be accessed over a LAN by one or more client, or front-end applications through the use of query language, typically SQL. The server part of the program is responsible for updating the records, ensuring that multiple access is available to authorized users, protecting the data and communicating with other servers holding relevant data. The client end of the program requests records and then modifies them, while the server tracks records down for the client and adds new ones.

Mail Servers

Remote or central computer that holds electronic mail messages for clients on a network. When the user requests his or her e-mail they contact the mail server which delivers all mail being stored to the client's computer. In the real world a mail server is similar to the post office. Where mail is stored and sorted before being sent to its final destination.

Shared Server
Shared servers offer clients the ability to host their Web site on a powerful, professionally managed server, at a low monthly cost. Shared servers provide individual Web sites with redundant connectivity, 99 percent uptime and 24/7 monitoring for a fraction of the cost of a dedicated server.

Shared server hosting provides a cost-effective way for entry-level Webmasters to maintain a reliable Web presence without extensive technical resources.

Virtual Private (VPS) Server
A virtual server is part of a computer that is used to host your web domain (if you have one). The word 'virtual' means that the computer is not a dedicated server. In other words, the entire computer is not given over to running the server software. Virtual web servers provide a vehicle for cheap web hosting services. Instead of needing a separate machine for each server, dozens of so-called virtual servers can exist side by side on the same host computer. Virtual Private Servers (VPS) combine the flexibility of a dedicated server with the economical prices of shared server hosting. VPS Web sites reside in private and protected areas on a shared server and maintain an independent set of applications, allowing the client to share the expenses of hardware and network connections while maintaining a secure allocation of RAM and CPU.

Virtual Private Servers provide customers with an independent set of Web applications to handle more advanced Web-based applications, without the costs associated with a dedicated server. Dedicated Server

Dedicated Server
A dedicated server is a computer that only runs one type of server software, and is usually constructed according to the user's specifications. Dedicated servers are typically used for websites that have high traffic, and need many resources and much processing power. A Web Server is software application that uses the HyperText Transfer Protocol. A Web Server is usually run on a computer that is connected to the Internet. There are many Web Server software applications, including public domain software from Apache, and commercial applications from Microsoft, Oracle, Netscape and others. A Web Server may host or provide access to content and responds to requests received from Web browsers. Every Web Server has an IP address and usually a domain name, e.g. www.2Sigmas.com or a sub-domain, e.g. mail.2Sigmas.net. Dedicated servers are a single computer fully devoted to the needs of one customer. They allow for faster access to information and provide the customer with greater flexibility to add advanced database and e-commerce applications. As the customer does not share RAM, disk space or a connection to the router, dedicated servers provide customers with the most advanced Web hosting solutions.

Dedicated servers provide high levels of security, connectivity and scalability, to support high volume and mission critical Web-based applications.

Why should I choose 2Sigmas as my Web Host?
Because we're the best. Here are a few reasons why:
Experience - 2Sigmashosts more than 10,000 Web sites all over the world. More and more businesses are choosing to host their Web sites with us every day. Unlike other hosting companies, Profitable since 2002, 2Sigmas is a member of an elite group of companies in this industry sector that can boast of being in the black, and we are fast becoming the new Hub to small, medium and large enterprise companies seeking security coupled with advanced datacenter services. Our who's who list of clients will impress you and we continue to beat the competition on aggressive pricing and leading edge technologies.

Vision of Service - We are guided by our vision to be recognized and respected as one of the premier single-source Internet & Related Services Providers and to be able to compete with the best in the Industry, where satisfied customers, quality services and a desirable bottom-line go hand-in-hand. We strive to provide our customers everything they need, ranging from exclusive products and features that you won't find anywhere else to Customer Service representatives that are there to help you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Mission & Methodology - We follow a very Customized approach emphasizing on One to one interaction with the client and its team and ensure standards in quality and service are constantly improved. We measure our success in term of increase in numbers of satisfied customers. We create a win-win situation with our customers and follow our Mission to continue to be a preferred Internet service partner, by providing successful, qualitative, innovative and cost effective solutions to our customers helping them realize their business goals more effectively.

Our Code of Business Conduct -
To maintain long-term relationship of trust with Customers;
To establish win-win association with partners;
To carry out social responsibilities as a legal business entity;
To be fair and sincere to the Internet professionals competing with us,
To build trust and respect to our employees;
To achieve sustained growth for our shareholders;

Capacity - From high-speed Internet connectivity to e-commerce solutions, security services, and Virtual Private Networks, we have the infrastructure, resources, and expertise to give businesses of any size a clear competitive advantage in the emerging On-line economy.

Operations – Our operations are focused on
Unlimited access to 24x7x365, 100% live Technical support.
Fully ‘managed services’ available.
99.99% Uptime supported by multiple tier bandwidth.
Emergency Hardware Replacement Guarantee for Dedicated Servers.
A world-class global IP (Internet Protocol) network.
Topic 5: What is e-commerce?
What is e-commerce Web hosting?

E-Commerce Web hosting adds an e-commerce application to a Web hosting package, which is what allows you to have a store on the Internet.

What is a Web Host?
To have a Web site or store on the Internet you first need to have a Web server. Unfortunately, owning a Web server can be very costly and requires technical expertise that most businesses don't have. This is where Web hosts come in. Web hosting companies provide the equipment and other technical resources that you need without the headaches that come when you have to do it yourself.

Think of a Web host as the landlord of building. A landlord rents out storefronts to various businesses. Each business decorates and runs their store differently, and doesn't worry about the maintenance of the building. In a similar way a Web host rents out space on a Web server - or entire Web servers - to various businesses. Each business builds its own Web store and never has to worry about the maintenance of the Web server.
In other words, the Web host provides the place on the Internet where your Web store lives. It's a lot cheaper than buying your own server, and you don't have to hire the technical staff to take care of it.

What is a Web store?
A Web store is a special-purpose Web site designed to display and sell products. Just like traditional brick-and-mortar stores, Web stores can sell just a few products or thousands of items, they can advertise their products, have sales, and accept various forms of payment. Unlike brick-and-mortar stores, however, Web stores can reach customers all over the world, instead of being limited to one city or neighborhood.

The Storefront
From a customer's point of view, a Web store is special-purpose Web site that offers products for sale. A Web store has one or more pages that display and describe products, and a shopping cart where customers can buy those products by giving their name and address and, typically, providing credit card information. Beyond that, the look and feel of a Web store can vary quite a bit, depending on the number and types of products being sold, and the taste and skill of the person who designs the store!

The Back Office
Your view of the store as a merchant is quite different. Although your store is made up of pages, and there are products for sale on those pages, you don't have to edit the store pages directly, and you don't even have to know how to make a Web site or page. You access the store's back office with your favorite browser, and add products and pages to your store by clicking on buttons and filling in fields.

Your Web store will notify you when you have new orders, and it provides easy, secure access to order information. 2Sigmas E-Vendor and Marketplace plans offer other advanced features so that you can provide your customers with the easiest and most efficient online store available.
What is an e-commerce application? An e-commerce application is software that makes it easy for you to build and operate a Web store. Online retail giants such as Amazon.com spend lots of money and hire large numbers of programmers to build and maintain their site, but 2Sigmas e-commerce applications let you do it from the comfort of your own home or office without any programming!

The e-commerce application is server software, which means that it is installed and runs on the 2Sigmas server - you don't have to install anything on your PC (except for a PGP key in the case of Mercantec SoftCart). You access it with your Web browser, and you simply click buttons and fill out forms to build your store. You can check orders and make changes to your store from any computer that has a connection to the Internet. It's easy to learn and easy to use, so you can focus on running your store instead of learning a program.

Thousands of e-stores/websites now thrive on the Web, providing people with information and tools to purchase goods and services electronically. For small businesses, which are otherwise limited to few markets, the Internet can deliver a global market.

But how do your potential customers know about your website? It may be difficult given the amount of websites of different discipline available on the net. To attract clients on your website, you have to aggressively market your website. While sending bulk mails may be a good way to reach many people instantly and also cost effective but on the other hand various forms of marketing like promotional campaign, ads, and press releases may have some cost attached to it.

Second, what kind of products do you sell? The answer is critical, because online shoppers are reluctant to buy products such as home appliances etc. What's selling well is really important. Remember, it takes time for people to adopt to new technology and modes of transactions. Many people remain reluctant to give out their credit card numbers over the Internet. But most analysts project healthy growth for online sales, especially as security issues are addressed.
If you've spent any time online, you've undoubtedly seen advertisements plastered all over the Web. Companies large and small pay for ad banners and links to their websites from other companies' websites.

What determines which sites attract advertisers? Sites whose audience demographics match those of the advertiser's customer base. For instance, if your company sells telecommunication services to businesses, you want to pitch your message to executives who making decisions in that area. The more targeted your audience is, the higher rate your site commands. Few sites can survive from advertising revenue alone. The amount of money spent by companies to advertise online palls in comparison to what is spent in media outlets like radio, TV and magazines.

Global Reach
Because a website is lying on a server 24 hour-a-day and accessible around the world, it gives you wider reach and a healthy customer base that is really impossible in the usual office format. You can interact with your customer instantly, any time, without being there physically. Also, it’s your day and night business considering we all live in different time zones.

Offer new kinds of services
This way you can encourage people to order online. You can ask them to send mail. This way you can have more information from your clients to cater them accordingly.

Create relationships with your customers
With the help of e-mails and certain chat programs you can remain in touch with your clients. You can send data instantly through mails/chat programmes. For example, if your company manufactures bicycle gear, initiate chat rooms where your customers can discuss cycling; if your company provides financial services, consider an investors forum.

Make your customers feel at ease
Remember when you had to wait in line at a bank to get cash. Thanks to ATMs, those days are over forever. Banks now make you do much of the work of imputing data; in return there's the convenience of 'round the clock banking. A website can help your business in much the same way.

Market research
Your website can be a valuable source of data about your customers. By examining the traffic reports generated from your site, you can find out when they access your site, where they come from and which features they use.

Reduce your business costs
Saving money can be just as important as making it, right? Your website can do that by streamlining costs for customer service, ordering, printing and postage, among other things.

Build brand awareness
According to Internet pundits, the World Wide Web is the first medium where you can build a brand and track the results.

Reach new markets
The Internet spans the globe, allowing your company to offer its products and services internationally, an option once open only to large corporations.

Make new business buddies
A website is a good way to having a one-to-one interaction. For example, a computer accessories website might link to a computer store and can be benefited thru referral business it generates for that store. It's a win-win situation for both businesses.

what e-commerce applications does 2Sigmas offer?
2Sigmas offers two market-leading e-commerce applications to meet the needs of any size store. SoftCart by Mercantec and ShopSite both provide easy-to-use store building tools and secure shopping carts. See the feature comparison chart for a complete list of features in each application and hosting plan.

How do I get started?
There are two primary tasks involved in building and opening a Web store: planning and implementation.

Planning
Having a successful Web store involves much more than just an "If you build it, they will come" mentality. You aren't ready to get started until you've done a significant amount of planning.

Decide What to Sell
The products that you offer for sale are - of course - a critical factor in ensuring the success of your store. Here are some questions that you should consider when evaluating your product offerings:

Uniqueness - Are you offering unique items for sale, meaning that they are either one-of-a-kind or are not offered for sale anywhere else? Or are the products in your store easy to find in other Web stores?

Competition - If your products are also available from other Web stores, have you spent time browsing in those stores? Have you compared their prices with what you plan to charge? What is it about your store that will draw customers away from competitors' stores?

Profit Margin - For products that you buy at wholesale, is your markup enough to provide you with some profit? For products that you make, will you earn a fair return on the time that you invested? Most merchants aren't trying to run their Web stores as non-profit organizations!

Organize Your Products
The ease with which customers can find the products that they're looking for is a critical factor in sales. If you are planning on selling more than one type of product, you need to have planned out the organization of your store prior to building it. You should categorize your products in ways that your customers are likely to look for them, and then plan to place them on pages that reflect those categories.
Obviously, a store with thousands of products will require a more advanced organization.
Even great advertising can't replace good organization in helping your store to succeed.

A Picture is Worth...
Your store will be more useful and appealing to customers if you include pictures of each product. You should also consider having an appealing logo on the first page of your store, and perhaps a smaller version of the logo on all other pages.
Pictures must be in jpg or gif format. If you have the ability to scan and edit images yourself, you can simply create the images and store them for later. Otherwise, hire a graphic designer to take photographs, or use photographs that you supply, and use them to produce images in jpg format. When you receive the images from the graphic artist, store them on your computer. You'll be able to upload them to your Web store when you're building your store.

Gather Product Information
Knowing what you're going to sell and having pictures of those items is a large part of the preparation for building your store, but you should also gather other information about your products. Having product information on hand will make building your store much faster and less frustrating. Specifically, you should have:

Planning Payment, Tax, and Shipping Policies
Once you've planned your products, you need to plan for transaction processing and fulfillment. Specifically:
What types of payment methods will you accept in your store? If you're planning on accepting credit cards, how will you process those payments? You can perform offline credit card processing, such as with a POS machine, or you can perform online credit card processing with some e-commerce plans. Any method of credit card processing requires that you have a merchant account and an account with a transaction processing company.

Your 2Sigmas sales representative can help you sign up for those accounts.
How much tax do you need to collect, and from whom? If you are not already an experienced merchant, you need to consult a tax expert who is familiar with tax laws in your jurisdiction. Sales tax on Internet sales is still debated and misunderstood, but generally you need to collect tax from customers in states where your store has nexus - which is defined as a physical presence - even if it is just your office or warehouse. You may also need to collect at a higher rate from customers in your home city or county. You generally do not need to collect sales tax from customers in states where your store does not have nexus. These are just general guidelines and may not apply to your situation-consult a tax professional to make sure that your store complies with the laws of your location

What shipping methods will you offer and how much will you charge? 3000 and 4000 level plans offer real-time UPS shipping charges, and all plans offer many other methods of calculating shipping charges, such as shipping by weight, shipping by currency (price), and charging a base rate plus an additional amount for each product. You should register or contract with a shipping service and find out what you need to know in order to charge the correct amount for each product and shipment.

Implementation
Once you've completed your planning, you're ready to get started with the implementation. Study the plan comparison chart (link) and find the plan that best meets the needs of your store. Remember that you can start smaller and then upgrade your plan when your business grows, but the additional features in the 3000 and 4000 level plans can help your store to grow more quickly.

After you've picked a plan, call a 2Sigmas sales representative and sign up for that plan. Your account can be active in just a few hours, and your sales representative can help you apply for merchant accounts and credit card processing, too. You can start building your store while you wait for your application to be approved.
Once your account is set up, you'll receive an e-mail message that has a link to the back office of your store. Click on that link and log in with your username and password, and then the store building wizard will walk you through the steps of setting up your store.

2Sigmas has a Web hosting plan for just about everyone. Unfortunately, that means we have so many different plans that it's not always easy to know which one to pick. We could have made it easier by slimming down the great selection we offer, but instead we created the Web Hosting Wizard to help you choose a plan.
If you still can't decide on a plan, keep this tip in mind: It's better to over-estimate the popularity of your site than to under-estimate it. Choose the higher capacity plan to ensure that you're not swamped by your visitors!

Topic 6: What are other critical issues in Web hosting decision?
Linux is a very versatile and stable platform that serves a number of Internet functions well. It is great for email, live or canned streaming of audio and video, web page servicing and as a test-bed or scripts, programs or security measures. Linux is the cost leader as its cheaper to operate and maintain. Over 80 % of the world's web servers are Linux-based Linux is very versatile in the fact that there are thousands of free applications available on the Internet.

NT/Windows GUI makes it the most user-friendly as it provides a familiar feel and operation like that of your desktop office machine. It integrates well with other Microsoft applications and there are tons of commercial applications available for this platform such as MS SQL, Exchange, Access and Microsoft Office. NT/W2K is less stable that Linux and cost more to license and operate. With our Server Monster administrator controls on the Linux side, 2Sigmas's Linux-based servers are as easy to use as a NT/W2K machine.

What is the difference between SCSI and EIDE?
The primary difference is that SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) has a processor built into the drive which allows for faster read / writes. The EIDE (Enhanced IDE) drives rely on the CPU. SCSI is a good option if you are planning to run a database. EIDE is suitable for standard web serving.

What is RAID5?
RAID Level 5 distributes the parity among the drives. This can speed small writes in multiprocessing systems, since the parity disk does not become a bottleneck. Because parity data must be skipped on each drive during reads, however, the performance for reads tends to be considerably lower. RAID Level 5 is n-1 meaning you lose the disk space of one drive in order to stripe data across the drives. A minimum of three drives is required for RAID5.

What is RAID1?
Raid Level 1 means that one drive mirrors the other. In the event that one of your drives fails, the other will immediately continue to serve data. An additional feature with Raid is that, if one drive is overtaxed, the overflow requests will be handled by the second drive. RAID1 requires two drives, but you will lose the disk space of one of the drives.

What software is included with Windows servers?
Windows servers come with IIS5.0 and Terminal Services. You will have full control of your server. Although you may install any software you like on your server without restriction, we only support software that we have tested to our satisfaction. If you need assistance with software installation we will provide this service at INR1000.00/hour with a 1 hour minimum billing period. To see a complete list of Windows pre-installed software visit:

How long does it take to get my server after ordering?
Generally 3-5 days. All our systems are custom built by our NOC engineers and are pre-tested for 24 hours before releasing the machine to you. If you are in a hurry we have some pre-configured, pre-tested machines that will be ready-to-use within 60 minutes of ordering guaranteed! For more information on our instant setup servers visit:

Can I add more IPs if needed?
Yes see our pricing schedule below:

What type of support can I expect on a dedicated server?
We monitor the machines 24/7 to make sure your machine stays up and running. Any system operation questions may be directed to support. Individual domain support for your customers such as CGI problems and other things that may arise will be your responsibility. You also get unlimited toll free technical support in our dedicated server call center. We have a dedicated server coordinator to help you with upgrades, sales and quality assurance questions during normal business hours. Our technical support center is open 24x7x365 for your dedicated server support needs.

Can anyone run a dedicated server?
Yes. We have developed exclusive systems and programs that we install on every dedicated machine - MonsterControlsD. With this system anyone with little to no knowledge can run a dedicated server. MonsterControlsD is completely menu-driven and allows you to setup domains, administer the mail and multimedia server and do everything imaginable to the server, a user or a domain. If you are using your server as a multi-hosting server (i.e. using it to offer virtual domain hosting to multiple clients).

How do I set-up accounts/features on my server?
We have designed a powerful easy-to-use MonsterControlsD administration system to help you set-up accounts, features and users in minutes, without the need to learn the complexities of LINUX based configuration files.

With your administration system you can:
Add/delete domains
Add/delete users
Park domains
Install FrontPage Extensions
Activate Wusage
Set-up MySQL databases
Set-up mySQL databases
Update name servers
Allocate disk space limits
Add Majordomo lists
Add/remove users and POP accounts
Add Real Helix Media Server
Add/remove FTP only access
Additionally you can install and customize numerous free ware scripts we provide:
Guestbook
Simple search
Click and go query box
Random text script
WWW board
Free for all links page
Formmail.cgi
Cgiemail
Graphic counters
Setup PHP
Install shopping carts
Click and go script
Add Referrer logs
Delete a user.
Wipe out a domain.
Modify user's name.
Batch remove domains.
Disable login access.
Disable email access.
Completely disable a domain.
Enable login access.
Enable email access.
Completely enable a domain.
Install a SSL certificate.
Restart the Real Helix Media Server.

Install the following free, pre-configured scripts
1. All standard scripts
2. Guestbook
3. Wusage
4. Simple Search
5. Click and Go query box
6. Random text script
7. WWW Board
8. Free For All Links page
9. Whois Query
10. Formmail.cgi
11. Cgiemail
12. Miva
13. ShopMonster
14. Banner Rotation
15. Resellers Scripts
16. User Database
17. MonsterControls
18. Password protected web page
19. Boutique shopping cart
20. Graphic Counter
21. Chat
22. Miva Order
23. Sitepop
24. Let's Take an Order
25. Miva Merchant 4
26. PHP 4
27. Miva Merchant 2.22
28. Auction
29. Mail.cgi
30. SiteInfo
31. VBPro Guestbook
32. Monsterbook
33. Raw Access Logs
34. BWI (Banner Wheel Industrial)

What's name-based hosting?
Name Based hosting allows you to serve multiple virtual domains from a single IP address. Name based hosting does not affect the performance or appearance of the domains hosted.

The advantage of using Name Based hosting is that it is much easier to administer a single IP address. It also means that number of sites you host is not limited by the number of IPs you have available.

Will I have root control (switch/super user access)?

Yes, you will have complete "root" access on your server. You may install any software you like on your server without restriction and can resell services at any rate you like.

Will there be a statistics program installed on my server?

We provide Wusage Graphica stats for our Linux-based servers and MediaHouse LiveStats for our Windows-based servers. These software packages will provide each domain with statistics and visitor usage information. You will also be provided with total traffic statistics broken down by domain.

Does 2Sigmas provide DNS service?

Yes. We provide complete seamless entry into our DNS. This is done automatically each time you use MonsterControlsD to add a domain to your server.

What tape backup solutions do you offer?

2Sigmas offers various types of backup solutions as additional options to each of our dedicated server packages. We can install RAID-1, RAID-5, drive-to-drive backups, NAS/SAN storage solutions and individual tape drives in your servers. Please contact your 2Sigmas sales representative for current pricing information.

You advertise your dedicated servers as "Managed." What does this mean?

Our Free Managed Services include:
Server reboots
Server monitoring
Server upgrade/addon consultation
Security patches/updates
Server replacement guarantee
Our Premium Managed Services include:
Software Installation and Configuration: Client must provide configuration instructions.
Extended Server Support: Troubleshoot problems for individual domains as well as fixing/correcting errors within the stipulated monthly support time.
Install special, custom hardware
Application development and configuration
Data backups

2Sigmas provides extended managed services at the following pre-pay rates of:
2 hrs per month @INR2000
5 hrs per month @INR3500

All managed services have a minimum billable period of 1 hour.

One time admin time requests can also be purchased on a per incident basis at the rate of INR1000/hour with a 1 hour minimum. These services are performed between normal business hours, i.e. 9am and 7pm CST Monday through Friday. High priority, emergency support services are also available at INR1500/hr for after hours, nights, weekends and holidays.

Can I upgrade my server?
Yes, If we ever upgrade our plans or you require a server with more extensive resources, for a one time reconfiguration fee equal to the setup fee of the server package you currently have or are upgrading to. We will completely upgrade your server to the current specificiations listed on our web site at the time of the upgrade. For an additional fee of INR1500 we will migrate your content from your old hard drive to your new one. We build every server to that it is very easy to scale, grow and expand your machine at any given time. You will then be charged for the new monthly fee of the new plan you choose. To see our current list of dedicated package visit: To see our current list of dedicated server addons visit:

Do I have to sign a long term contract?
No. 2Sigmas's prices are the lowest in the industry. All of our advertised prices are based on a 12-month commitment. You pay month-to-month but are committed to keeping a server with 2Sigmas for 12 consecutive months. We will allow you to sign a short 3-month term. You must add 10% to the monthly cost if you elect the 3-month term payment.

What if my server hardware fails?
2Sigmas staffs our datacenters 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year with NOC engineers capable of handling any software or hardware failure. 2Sigmas stands behind every dedicated server we lease. We keep inventory on hand for every machine we build including completely built "hot-swap" machines in case of a complete system failure. We will replace any of the following parts should they break at any time during your dedicated server lease. The following system components will be replaced free of charge anytime during your dedicated server lease:

Free parts, labor and installation
Ethernet Adapters / Network Cards
Case / System Enclosure
Video Card
Sound Card
Floppy Drive
IDE / SCSI Hard Disk Drives
Surge Protector
CPU
RAM Modules
Motherboard
Device Controllers / Adapters (floppy / hard disk controllers)
CD ROM Drive
UPS Device
Any Cable (Network / Power etc.)
300W Power Supply
CPU Fans / Cooling Device
Can additional domains be pointed to my main domain?

Yes. We can alias (park) additional domains to point to the same main page as your master domain and it will also share the same mail system. There is a one-time INR100 set-up fee for each domain you add as an alias.

Can I host domains in the sub-directory of my account?
Yes, by utilizing our Fake IP addon. It is a CGI based tool that provides the ability to point additional domains to subdirectories of your main domain There is a one-time INR100.00 set-up fee for each domain you add as a Fake IP.

What type of hardware are you using?
For maximum reliability all our servers are custom-built using the best components currently available in the industry. Since there are constant improvements in the hardware industry, we ensure that we upgrade all our systems every 3-4 months, thereby providing you and your customers access to the latest machines equipped with fast processors and lots of memory and storage space.

Does 2Sigmas allow for custom cronjobs to be setup?
2Sigmas does allow custom crons. However, these must be approved on a case-by-case basis by our support team. There may be an additional monthly cost depending on the complexity and the frequency of the program the cron is executing based on the amount of server resources your cron will be using.