FAQ — Frequently Asked Questions

How do I...

Email

Plesk Control Panel

Ready-to-Run Web Applications

How do I...

Check my web site statistics?
Visit http://www.yourdomain.com/astats/ and log in with the username and password from your Hosting Welcome Documentation. You can change this username and password in Plesk 7.
Change my passwords?
Stop other web sites from linking to my images?
Create a plain-text file named .htaccess (dot-htaccess) with the following lines and upload it to your images directory:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http:([a-z0-9]+\.)?yourdomain\.com\.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule \.(gif|GIF|jpg|JPG|png|PNG|swf|SWF)$ - [F,NC,L]
There are four lines, the third one shows here as wrapped. Keep them on one line. Of course, replace yourdomain.com with your domain name. You may have to name the file something else on your computer then rename it to .htaccess after uploading.
Turn off PHP’s safe mode?
You can’t. Safe mode is a security measure designed to keep different users from accessing the same files on a shared web server such as ours. We will only disable safe mode for the Ready-to-Run Web Applications that require it, (see below). We will not disable safe mode for any other application.
Many times the issue arises when an application attempts to use the server’s temporary directory. Re-code your application so it uses a temporary directory within your web space. CHMOD that directory to 777.
Set up a test server?
There are four ways you can do this, listed from easiest to more difficult (but still pretty easy):
  1. You can set up a test server online by creating a subdomain, like testing.yourdomain.com.
  2. We offer testing subdomains in separate space on the server to our Small Business, Non-Profit and eCommerce clients for $25 per year. These carry hard limits on disk space (32 MB), bandwidth (128 MB), databases (1), Ready-to-Run Web Applications (1) and have several other features, including email, disabled. Limit one per client.
  3. For offline testing and development, we use and recommend XAMPP for Windows.
  4. You can make an offline testing and development server that replicates our server environment quite easily and cheaply. Here’s how:
    1. Obtain a used PC to use as your server on your home or office network. We use an old 500MHz Pentium-III we bought used for $100. There’s no need to buy a “server”. Any old PC will do.
    2. Install Fedora Core Linux 3. You can download it for free. You don’t need the SRPMS files, just the i386 files. (Or if you’re new to Linux, try Ubuntu Linux instead.)
    3. Install all updates:
      • If you used Fedora Core Linux: Save this file to /etc/yum.conf then run
        yum -y update
        Then, run (all one line)
        yum install http-devel ImageMagick snort rkhunter chkrootkit joe netpbm jhead ffmpeg
      • If you used Ubuntu Linux: In the Synaptic Package Manager, add “Universe” and “Multiverse” to your repositories, then Mark and Apply all upgrades and install the packages listed in the yum install command above.
    4. Download and install the single-domain, evaluation version of Plesk 7.5 You can download it for free. The installer is the easiest way to go but you can install from the rpm too. Read the files that end in .txt for instructions.
    5. Optionally, install Zend Optimizer or ionCube PHP Accelerator.

Email

What is the limit for email attachment sizes?
There isn’t one. We don’t limit email attachment sizes for either incoming or outgoing messages. There are two exceptions:
  • Webmail: Horde can only accept attachments for outbound email of up to 8MB. This is due to a file upload size limitation imposed by PHP, and Horde is written in PHP.
  • Mailman lists: List attachment options are set by the individual list’s administrator, not by The Secret Labs.
Why can’t I send email?
Our mailserver requires authentication. In the SMTP or Outgoing server section of your email setup, be sure the choice pertaining to authentication is checked and that either:
  1. The choice pertaining to “Use same settings as my incoming server” is selected, or
  2. The username and password settings are the same as for your incoming mail.
We do not use Secure Password Authentication (SPA).
See our Email Setup Tutorials for specifics pertaining to your email program.
Frontiernet (or Earthlink) says my outgoing mail is refused.
Frontiernet, Earthlink and other ISPs block all traffic to private outgoing mail servers. This includes ours.
Frontiernet: Change your outgoing mailserver settings to smtp.frontiernet.net . Frontiernet also requires SMTP Authentication in order to send mail. You will need to know your or your agency’s/company’s username and password, then follow the instructions for your email program at http://support.frontiernet.net/smtp/config.htm
Alternatively, you can switch to Frontier Business DSL and a “static” IP Address, or you can change to another ISP. See Frontiernet’s Email FAQ for details.
Earthlink: Change your outgong mailserver to smtp.earthlink.net . See Earthlink Basic Settings for details.
When using webmail (or another email application) I get attachments (winmail.dat) that can’t be opened
This is an issue with the email sender. They are using a method specific to older versions of Microsoft Outlook to send pretty, formatted emails. Have them turn off this feature and re-send the message. Refer them to this link for specifics: Dealing with the winmail.dat file: the problem and the solutions.
Plesk says that anti-virus is disabled and it won’t let me enable it.
Plesk was late to the party with their own anti-virus add-on. Since we had already purchased 4PSA Clean Server anti-virus, we opted not to buy Plesk's anti-virus. That explains why when you look at a mailbox setup, it says anti-virus is disabled. Plesk’s anti-virus is disabled, but Clean Server’s is enabled.
Mailman holds my messages in moderation even though I’m a member of the list.
Once you’re past the trauma of rejection, look further down in the rejection note for the reason it is being held. Some common reasons are:
  • “Too many recipients to the message.” Mailman does not like to be part of another mass mailing. That’s a good policy.

    Rationale:  It’s so that non-members don’t try to include the list in their reply (causing even more problems for the list’s moderators), and so that non-members don’t report the list as a source of spam (causing problems for all clients on the server). If non-members aren’t included in list mailings, things like these cannot become problems.

    Solution:  Send your notes to lists separately from mass mailings to addresses in your address book.

  • Your list has restrictions on attachments or attachment sizes: Contact your list administrator

  • Your list has restrictions on topic or message sizes: Contact your list administrator

Plesk Control Panel

I can’t log in to Plesk. It says there’s already someone logged-in.
Either someone else in your office is presently logged in or you forgot to log-out the last time you used Plesk.
Inactive sessions are automatically closed after a half-hour. Either wait a bit or call us at 585-298-9394 and we can close the offending session for you.
I can’t remember my Plesk password and tried several. Now it says my account is locked.
As a security measure, Plesk allows only three failed attempts at entry, then locks the account for a half-hour. Wait 30 minutes and try again. If you still can’t remember you password, use the “Forgot your password?” feature to have Plesk email it to you.

Ready-to-Run Web Applications

I just installed a Ready-to-Run Web Application and it’s complaining that Safe Mode is on.
Contact support, , and we can disable Safe Mode for that specific application.
WordPress comments, archives and permalinks don’t work.
Under Options | Permalinks, copy-and-paste the Rewrite rules at the bottom of the page into a plain-text document. Name the document .htaccess (dot-htaccess) and upload it to the directory where you installed WordPress. You may have to name the file something else on your computer then rename it after uploading.
Certain combinations of custom URI structure tags can cause the problem even with a correct .htaccess file. Be careful with combinations of %monthnum%, %day% and %post_id% as they will not always be unique. The combination %monthnum%/%day%/%post_id% (the three separated by slashes) is known to work correctly.
I’m configuring Gallery and it can’t find the paths to ImageMagick, jhead and jpegtran.
The path to ImageMagick is /usr/bin the path to jhead is /usr/bin/jhead and the path to jpegtran is /usr/bin/jpegtran
Gallery says that components of ImageMagick and NetPBM are missing.
Yes, one optional component of each is not installed. This will not adversely affect your enjoyment of the program.
How do I customize Gallery so it looks like the rest of my site?
If you want to go beyond skins, you need to edit the css and html_wrap files.
After I login to Gallery and select a choice from the Admin Options drop-down box, nothing happens.
The Admin Options open in a pop-up window. Turn off pop-up blocking in your browser or internet security program or add your domain to your “safe list” for pop-ups.

More to come…