What is a domain name?
A domain name is a sequence of letters and numbers which determine the address of your site. This site's domain name is "www.eastwave.com" You need to register a domain name before your web site becomes accessible at this address.  EastWave.com will register your domain name if you host your site with our company, or you are free to register the domain name on your own through a registrar of your choosing.

What is HTML, ASP, ASP.NET, PHP, PERL, JavaScript, etc.?
Those acronyms refer to various programming languages in which the majority of websites on the internet are based upon.  Static web pages are usually written in some form of HTML, while ASP, ASP.NET, PHP, PERL and other languages allow the developer to create dynamic websites in which much of the information contained in the site is based off a database on the server.  This allows the site owner or other users of the site to post changes to the site themselves.  EastWave.com currently only sells hosting plans on Windows based servers.  ASP & ASP.NET are programming languages primarily for Windows based websites, and are the main languages that we support.  It is possible to run other programming languages on Windows servers. If you have a question about a certain script that you would like to use, please contact us to determine if our servers will support it.

What is shared (virtual) web hosting?
Shared (or virtual) web hosting is one of the cheapest and most cost effective ways to have your website on the web. It means that a web hosting company will have one or more server computers which host multiple websites. Unless a web site is exceptionally busy or requires a lot of bandwidth, this is the least expensive way to get a real web site. You can still have your own IP address with virtual hosting and the site won't look any different to users. Other options for more traffic intensive sites include dedicated hosting and colocated hosting. Contact us if you have questions on dedicated or colocated hosting.

Can I keep my domain name when I change a host?
Yes. Depending on the registrar you choose to register your domain with, it is usually as easy as logging into your registrar's website and changing a few details around in the control panel to point a domain to a new web hosting company.

Do you host adult content and MP3s?
EastWave.com does not monitor the content of our customers sites.  As long as the content is legal, we have no problem with whatever is hosted on our customer's sites.  If we happen to catch illegal material on our customer's sites, we will shut the site down at our discretion.

Does it make a difference what type of desktop computer I use?
Usually the answer is no. The only difference it will make will be the type of software you must use to develop your website.  EastWave.com supports Microsoft FrontPage publishing, MacroMedia Dreamweaver publishing, as well as publishing through an FTP client.  The majority of Windows users will be able to publish their website fine.  If you happen to have an Apple Macintosh computer, you will most likely have to use FTP to publish your site, as there is no up to date version of Microsoft FrontPage for that particular operating system.

Will I have forced advertising on my site like I do on Geocities, etc.?
No. You have complete and total control of the content of your website.  EastWave.com does reserve the right to place a small text link on any websites that we develop, however.

I don't have any experience in creating a site. Can you help?
Definately.  Please visit our web design section to learn more about having EastWave.com design a professional website for you.

What are your DNS Servers?
Primary DNS - NS1.EASTWAVE.COM
Secondary DNS - NS2.EASTWAVE.COM

What is domain parking?
Domain parking lets you cheaply reserve a domain name for future use and display an "under construction" default page on it. Many registrars include domain parking when you purchase a website.

What are the numbers listed involving "disk space" and "bandwidth"?
Disk space is the amount of space you have to put "stuff" into your website.  Bandwidth refers to how often that "stuff" is actually seen or transferred to users of your site.  The biggest mistake people make when purchasing web hosting is buying too large of a hosting plan.  Most HTML sites are really small size wise, regardless of the amount of pages within the site.  Sites which receive a lot of traffic per month, or sites that have large audio/video files are really the only type of websites that usually come close to exceeding their allocated disk space and bandwidth.  The professionals at EastWave.com can look at your website and usually tell which plan you would need within minutes.

How do I pay for web hosting?
EastWave.com accepts Visa, MasterCard & Pay Pal.  We only accept checks from customers within our local area (Eastern North Carolina).  Web development projects from outside of our local area can be paid by check, although we do require a deposit of half the amount quoted before work can begin on your website.

How do I upload my site?
EastWave.com supports FTP (File Transfer Protocol), FrontPage & Dreamweaver.  Various FTP programs can be downloaded free on the web, and Microsoft FrontPage & MacroMedia Dreamweaver can be purchased from nearly anywhere computers are sold.

What is uptime?
Uptime is the percentage of time that a web site is working. Our normal uptime ratio is 99.9%.  Credit is given to customers when your sites uptime falls below our standard uptime ratio.  Network failure not resulting from any fault of EastWave.com or our data center does not count as a deduction from our standard uptime ratio.

Can I use JavaScript and Flash pages on my site?
Yes. Those are client-side technologies, and supported by all web hosting plans at EastWave.com.

How much data transfer will I need?
You can figure out how much data transfer you will require by estimating your average page size (including graphics!) and multiplying it by the number of page views you expect to have in a month. For example: with an average page size of 50 KB, and around 2000 page views per day, you will transfer an average of 3 GB per month.

Can't I just get a DSL line or a cable modem and host the site or my own?
Sure, you could do that, but it's not a good idea for several reasons. First, a vast majority of ISPs won't let you legally use a residential cable modem or a DSL line to host a public server. You would have to get a more expensive business package. Second, ADSL and cable lines usually have lower upstream bandwidth than downstream bandwidth, so your site may appear to be sluggish under heavy traffic. Third, DSL and cable lines have a much lower reliability than dedicated T1 or better lines. Fourth, you wouldn't have the benefit of data security, data backup, UPS power, or technical support that a host can provide.

What are stats?
EastWave.com provides a free website statistics program to all websites we host.  Our statistics program gives you detailed information about site traffic for your website.  For a demo of our statistic program, contact us.

Do I need a static IP address for my site?
Usually No. There are some advantages to having a unique IP for your site. When you change servers, you can point your users to a new IP, so they don't have to wait for the domain name change to propagate. With a static IP, it can also be simpler to upload and test your site before transferring the domain name to a new server. Setting up SSL is also much simpler. You may also not want to share your IP with some sites that could lead to your site being banned by search engines or spam lists.  EastWave.com provides a dedicated IP number for each site at the added cost of $5 per month per site.

How do I get my site listed on search engines?
The only way to get traffic to your site is having your site show up on the popular search engines.  But the problem is, there are so many sites out there, that it is easy to get lost in the shuffle when trying to get good listings on search engines.  EastWave.com provides search engine optimization packages in which we will analyze your current site's ranking and show you ways to improve site traffic.

Should I simply choose the cheapest plan you offer?
That depends on the type site you have.  If your site is based solely on static HTML pages, our Windows Starter Hosting plan would be perfect for your web presence. Other sites requiring databases, dynamic pages, Ecommerce and features of that nature would require a higher level hosting plan.

Are there any extra costs involved in hosting a secure site?
Yes.  For Ecommerce sites you will need to purchase an SSL secure certificate to keep all transactions secure.  EastWave.com offers GeoTrust secure certificates and will install all certificates for a $100 installation fee (Certificate costs $49 per year) on any site we host.

Does EastWave have its own data center?
No.  There are many reasons for this, but the main one is low overhead for us which is passed down to savings for the customer.  We lease server space from one of the largest data centers in North America and stand behind our network speed and system uptime.

Can I reduce the amount of data transfer my site needs?
Usually yes. Try to optimize all the graphics on your site. Many GIFs don't look noticeably worse with fewer colors. Don't duplicate graphics files, let the browser cache them. Try to clean up your HTML by using relative paths, short filenames, less extras, and reducing the number of spaces and new lines.  Most bandwidth intensive sites are the result of high site usage and the type of files (audio/video) that the site is hosting.

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