Below is a descriptive glossary of the features identified in our Hosting Comparison Chart. If you have any additional questions or would like an estimate on a custom-designed package, please contact us.

Fast, Free Account Setup

JavaServletHosting.com does not charge setup fees for any hosting services. Setup is always free and fast. Since we use PayPal to process payments, you can pay by credit card or electronic debit/check quickly and easily. As long as you have ordered during normal business hours, your account will be set up the same day (typically within just a few minutes of payment verification).

Domain Name Registration

Every hosting package comes with the option of registering a domain name. We can host domain names with any extension, including all international extensions. In addition we can also register .com, .net, .org, .biz and .info addresses for you at a significant discount over standard registrar fees.

99.7% Uptime Guarantee

JavaServletHosting.com is proud to offer a 99.7% uptime guarantee. If at anytime, we are unable to have our servers up and available to serve your website, we will issue a credit of 10x the downtime. The amount is prorated on a monthly basis and covers all problems within our control. Please see the User Agreement for additional details.

30-Day Satisfaction Guarantee

Try our service absolutely risk-free! If you wish to cancel your hosting account for any reason within the first 30 days, you will receive a full refund for all hosting services. This is a no-questions asked money back guarantee. This offer applies to the initial contracted term and does not include domain name registration or any additional options. If you selected an annual plan that included free domain registration, your refund will be less our standard domain registration fee. Guarantee does not apply to dedicated servers and is limited to one refund in any 12-month period per customer.

Multiple GigE Connectivity

JavaServletHosting.com is connected to the Internet via multiple private GigE (Gigabit Ethernet) circuits from Level 3, XO Communications, PCC-BTN, Telia, Savvis, Global Crossing and Savvis/Cable & Wireless, as well as a supplemental gigabit Ethernet connection to the Atlanta Internet Exchange (AIX) public peering point supplying 12 additional providers, including Earthlink and Cox Communications.

24/7 Monitoring

Your server is monitored internally and externally on all the standard ports. On the rare occassion that the monitor cannot automatically reactivate a deactivated port, a local NOC technician is notified and attends to the problem immediately.

Daily Server Backups

Full server backups are performed once every night. Our backups are intended to restore servers in the event of a catastrophic failure. They are not intended to provide customers with their own personal backups. We include a Backup Manager that allows you to make/download daily backups of your individual website. If you absolutely must retrieve data from our backups, we charge a flat rate of $20 per daily backup retrieved.

Backup UPS Power

Two 50 kilowatt 480 volt Liebert UPS's provide conditioned power to our main PDU (power distribution unit), which continually balances and monitors every aspect of the power supplied to the NOC. This provides very clean power to the hardware and virtually eliminates a service outage due to a facility power failure.

Page Hits

Page Hits include every requested element of every page on your website. Some vendors limit this number as part of their hosting costs without any regard to the size of the data actually transferred. We find this a poor measure for billing purposes, and as a result, we do not limit you on the basis of page hits.

Disk Storage Space

One megabyte (MB) of disk storage space can hold several hundred text pages or images. Most sites use less than five MBs of disk space. If you require more, additional disk storage space can be added as an option.

Domain Parking

You can have more than one domain name resolving to your master site. For example, you can park yourname.net to yourname.com.

Subdomains

A subdomain is essentially a secondary virtual server for your primary domain. It follows the pattern similar to 'subdomain.domain.com' (assuming your domain is 'domain.com'). Each subdomain is mapped to directory in the root of your primary domain's website and can run filetypes of html, php and perl. They cannot run jsp or servlets due to the way Tomcat performs its mappings. All of our packages come with at least 1 subdomain (additional are available as a paid option).

Add-On Domains

Add-On Domains (AODs) provide you with the ability to share your account with multiple domains. This is achieved by mapping the supplemental domains to a subdomain of your primary domain. AODs support PHP and Perl (they have their own CGI-BIN directory). Due to the nature of the shared Tomcat implementation, JSP/Servlets are not supported by the AOD functionality.

Premium Web-Based Control Panel

The Control Panel (CP) gives you the capability to manage all aspects of your account and is included with every hosting package. With the click of a button you can build your web site, create email accounts, manage directories, or even view your site statistics. You can even add additional features to your site the minute you need them. The CP also give you online account management. You can change your billing cycle, update your address, or even change your method of payment. With this extraordinary tool you not only gain control of the features of your website, but also the flexibility to make changes within your time frame according to your needs.

File Manager

The File Manager is a very powerful feature. It allows you to manipulate all the files in your web site. You are able to create, delete, and move your files. You can also upload files from your local PC to the server in File Manager; all via the web browser, without the need for an FTP client. Plus, you can edit the HTML in any of your files from this option.

Archive Manager

The Archive Manager will allow you to backup and compress your website files. This is an excellent and free way of versioning your website code, images and more.

Cron Job Manager

Cron jobs allow you to automate repetitive tasks on the server that hosts your web site. Our Cron Job Manager is a powerful web-based tool available in your CP that allows you to take a hands-free approach to repetitive tasks. For example, you could add a cron job that automatically copies a MySQL database to a separate location on your site as a backup; or one that automatically retrieves a closing stock price daily and adds it to a database.

URL Redirection

URL Redirection allows you to redirect Internet traffic from one web page to another. This is usually used when a web page has been moved to another location or in instances where you need to submit a dynamic webpage that uses parameters in the URL to a search engine that does not support them.

FTP Accounts

If you choose to create your website using HTML or web site creation software such as PageMill, or Dreamweaver, we offer FTP access with all account packages. To upload your files, you will need a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program. If you'd like for us to suggest a product, simply contact us and let us know what platform you are on (i.e., Windows, MacOS, Linux). Please note that you need to be logged in on your Internet Service Provider to connect to your site with FTP.

Anonymous FTP

Anonymous FTP allows visitors to your site to download files via ftp without a password. It is disabled by default, and you activate it through your CP.

Shell Access/Telnet (via SSH)

Many users are not at all familiar with telnet and just as many do not need to use it. Telnet allows you to get a shell on our Linux servers. The implementation of telnet that we use is called SSH. To use telnet (SSH), we require you to send us a fax with a copy of your photo ID requesting SSH. Users also need an RSA Key entered in the CP in order to access it. We also require you to use SSH client software.

FrontPage Extensions

Frontpage is a Microsoft page creation tool that requires special server extensions to function properly. All packages come with these extensions, but disabled by default as enabling them results in other features of the site needing to be disabled. This feature is activated through your CP. We do not provide troubleshooting support for Frontpage or any application utilizing the Frontpage Extensions. Also note that Microsoft has discontinued Frontpage and as a result the vendor of the Unix/Linux Frontpage Extensions has now ceased development/patching of the Frontpage Extensions. We have the last release installed that will exist. Should an exploit arise in this version, they will be permanently removed. The vendor of CP software may also at anytime simply remove support for them from the CP since they have been discontinued.

Site Statistics GUI

Many statistics about the usage of your web site are available through the Site Statistics option in the CP. We have implemented AWStats that will allow you to view how many hits your pages receive, the number of pageviews, what web site referred your visitors, and which of your pages is visited most often. This tool tracks your site's statistics over time so you will always know how many visitors your site has and where they are coming from. Use this information to analyze your marketing strategy or plan your next advertising campaign. This vital information is always available and updated daily to your site's CP.

Access to Raw Logs

You can download the raw access logs that contain all the recorded hit information that your site has received. These logs are only really useful if you have a preferred reporting that is not included in our suite of analysis GUIs.

Bandwidth Usage

This is the amount of incoming and outgoing network traffic specific to your domain. The majority of sites require less than 3 gigabytes (GB) of traffic per month; however, all of our plans provide for more than that amount. If you require more, additional bandwidth can be added as an option.

POP3/Autoresponder Accounts

Our email addresses are very flexible. You can set them up as POP3 accounts which store mail for remote retrieval or as Autoresponders, which respond to incoming emails with a pre-determined message.

Email Aliases & Forwarders

Email aliases and forwarders allow you to route all email coming to a specific address on your domain to another address inside or outside your domain. For example, you can set up an aliases/forwarder called info@domain.com that will forward all of its incoming mail to another internal address, like sales@domain.com (aliasing), or to an external address like joe@anotherdomain.com (forwarding). Aliases and forwarders eliminate the need to create additional POP3/Autoresponder accounts when one person should be receiving all of those emails.

WebMail (Web-Based Email)

WebMail unburdens you and your users from your PC and allows you to check your email from any computer with just a browser and an Internet connection! All the email users under your domain name will be able to send, receive, delete, and compose email with this user-friendly, web-based program.

Secured Private SMTP Server

Many web hosts require you to use your ISP's SMTP (outgoing mail) server. JavaServletHosting.com allows you to have your own private and secured SMTP server (mail.domain.com). We do require you to use authentication to access it, and as always, please try to use it only when necessary. Your local ISPs SMTP server is always the quickest route since you are physically on their network. In addition, if you are using a mail client on a local machine, the sending of mail through our servers SMTP port actually counts 2x against your bandwidth utilization since the email has to come into our server and then back out again. It is best to limit the use of our SMTP server to your web applications.

Mailing Lists

Mailing lists allow you to send email to a large number of contacts in a very efficient manner. You can manage your mailing list(s) through the CP.

Custom MX Record Modification

Many hosting providers will charge set up fees or monthly fees if you wish to set up a custom MX record (if they even offer it). JavaServletHosting.com will enter any MX record of your choice for no charge. Great if your company runs their own mail servers or if you prefer to use the mail services of companies like BigMailBox.com or Everyone.net.

Tomcat 5.5 (Java Servlets & JSPs)

We currently offer Tomcat 5 (specifically Tomcat 5.5). Our Tomcat 5.5 platform extends Java Servlet 2.4 and JSP 2.0 specification capabilities to each virtual server. Our shared servers are designed for the deployment of previously built solutions and are not intended for 'from scratch' development. As such, we provide JRE 1.5 support, rather than JDK 1.5 support. All Java code must be executed through the Tomcat container. Please be sure to review our Usage Policy for application/framework/API exclusions. Also note that WAR files are not supported on the shared platform; the contents of the .war must be decompressed and deployed into the industry standard /WEB-INF directory structure provided.

PHP 4

PHP is a very robust scripting language, similar in mechamism to ASP and is compiled as a module with MySQL support. We also include the Zend Optimizer for increased speed in parsing.

Python and SH

We have enjoyed being the preferred hosting provider for computer programmers building web sites. For this reason, we strive to give programmers the necessary tools needed to build their web applications. Python access is provided and on accounts with SSH access you do have the ability to implement your own shell scripts.

Private CGI-BIN Directory

We encourage development of highly interactive successful sites. For your site to be truly interactive you need to be able to run computer programs/scripts in your own cgi-bin. This is standard with all packages.

MySQL Databases

MySQL is our GNU database of choice. We develop all of our own products with MySQL. We encourage all mSQL users to migrate to MySQL. Each MySQL database allows for 10 concurrent connections. We recommend the use of connection pooling for active sites.

MySQL DB WebAdmin

This interface is located in your CP and allows you to create and manage MySQL databases, user accounts and more.

phpMyAdmin Web Interface

This is a web-based tool that allows you manage your MySQL databases. You can create/edit/delete/replicate tables and fields, backup your data and schemas, add/modify/delete data and much more.

SSL Support (https://)

Due to the nature of virtual mappings within Tomcat, we cannot provide a shared SSL certificate. Servlets must run within your mapped domain and utilizing an SSL certificate on another domain in a virtualized fashion (as is done with shared certs) would render your servlets unusable. We will be happy to help you install a test certificate (for those of you that need SSL but do not require one from an approved Certificate Authority (CA)) or a real certificate, which we would recommend, to perform secure transactions on the web using https://www.yourdomain.com. You must acquire a secure certificate from an approved CA such as GeoTrust, Thawte or Verisign. We will generate the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) and install the certificate for you. A small fee applies.

Password-Protected Directories

You can use the CP to specify which users are allowed to access certain areas on your site. When visitors click on a certain URL, they are requested to enter a username and password which you have configured.

GnuPG (Open-Source PKI)

GnuPG is the open-source version of the popular encryption tool PGP.

osCommerce Shopping Cart

The osCommerce Shopping Cart is a full-featured shopping cart that can be installed with the click of a button. The product is fully documented at the osCommerce website. Please refer to the osCommerce website if you have any questions about using the shopping cart. Limited support is provided by JavaServletHosting.com.

24/7 Support Helpdesk

Our integrated billing, knowledgebase and trouble ticket system is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The knoweldegbase contains FAQs to customers most common questions and includes sample code for such things as authenticated JavaMail and JDBC. If there is a planned outage or known issue, announcements are also proactively made within the Helpdesk to keep you informed.

Shockwave & Flash

Macromedia Shockwave and Flash allows you to bring your web content to life with unique animated capabilities.

Quicktime & VIVO

Quicktime and VIVO allow you to bring your web content to life with streaming video technology.

Real Audio/Video Streaming

We support RealMedia (Audio/Video) streaming via HTTP at no extra charge.

Form to Email

Our special form to email program takes the contents of a form submission and emails you the results to the address you specify.

MIME Type Manager

The ability to manage mime types gives you full control of which software programs will work with your site. Mime types are managed through the CP.

EntropySearch & Entropy Banner

EntropySearch is a script that enables a nice, quick search engine that can help your visitors find information that they are interested in more easily. If your site requires a local search engine, this is great way to start. EntropyBanner is a script that allows you to create a set of revolving banner images, normally used for advertising. You can upload and delete files, set priority on the images, and set URLs to which each image points.

Page Counters & Clocks

We offer a number of page access counters and clocks that can be installed on as many pages as you choose at no extra charge.

CGI Wrapper

Allows you to run secured CGI scripts from a special directory that executes the scripts under the privileges of your master user ID.

Custom Error Pages

Instead of having the standard browser-generated error pages appear when someone encounters some problem with your site or files, you can create your own error pages with a simple tool in your CP.

Apache Handlers

Apache is the web server software we use to serve your site. Apache Handlers tell the server how to deal with web files that need to be processed on the server. For example, Apache is set up to process files with .pl extensions using Perl. However, if for some reason you also wanted to process files with .script extensions using Perl, then you can easily configure that using the Apache Handler tool in your CP.