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Answers
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Common CGI related questions
- What are CGI scripts?
CGI stands for 'common gateway interface'. It is a method used by programs to send and receive information via a web browser. To expand the capabilities of your website, you will need to use CGI scripts that can handle form processing, shopping carts, counters, guestbooks etc. Our servers have the capability to run CGI scripts written in Perl.
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- How do I set permissions for my cgi script?
For CGI scripts to
work, you must set permissions to executable all (chmod 755 ).
Sample File Permissions
and their meanings.
| Command |
Meaning |
| chmod 777 |
Read, Write & Execute for owner, group & world |
| chmod 755 |
Read, Write & Execute for owner, Read & Execute for
group & world |
| chmod 644 |
Read & Write by owner and read only for group &
world |
You can use WS_FTP Pro as FTP
Software to change the permissions.
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- What are some common settings/paths for my CGI scripts?
| Location
of Perl: |
/usr/bin/perl |
| Location
of Sendmail: |
/usr/sbin/sendmail |
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- I am getting '500 Internal Server Error' when running CGI scripts?
This is a error
generally observed while running CGI Scripts. It is often resolved by making
sure you have done the following:
- When editing your cgi script use a program that saves
the file as a 'text file' type. DO NOT use Notepad that
comes with Microsoft Windows because it doesn't save files
in pure ASCII text format. Use Wordpad instead to
edit files.
- FTP your cgi scripts in ASCII mode into the cgi-bin directory.
- Be sure to set required permissions using any FTP
Software.
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Do you have a collection of popular Perl scripts?
Many different
places have collections of CGI scripts you can download. Some scripts are
free, while some cost money. Here's a short list of places where you can
get scripts:
CGI Resources.com, WebScripts Archive,
Matt's Script
Archive, The Perl Institute, Discussion
Boards
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Mail Server related questions
- What is my e-mail address?
At Widomaker, your email address will be emailaliases@yourdomain. You can setup unlimited email aliases using control panel provided at the time of setup.
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- What is POP3 email and how do I create a POP3 email account?
POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) email stores your email on the server to be downloaded locally by your email program. If you don't want to use POP3 email, you can setup an email redirect to forward your email to an outside email address.
Here's how you can create a POP3 account for your domain:
1) Log in to your control panel.
2) Select the domain name that you want to apply the change to.
3) Click on MAIL.
4) Enter the mailname that you want to create (ie. "bob", not the full address).
5) Click on ADD.
6) Check the "Mailbox" box.
7) Enter the new password and confirm the new password.
8) Click on UPDATE.
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- Can you change MX records?
Yes, we will be able to change the MX records to suit your needs.
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- How do I change the password for a POP3 email account?
1) Log in to your control panel.
2) Select the domain name that you want to apply the change to.
3) Click on MAIL.
4) Select the mailname that you want to modify.
5) Next to the "Mailbox" box, enter the new password and confirm the new password.
6) Click on UPDATE.
If you forgot or lost your control panel password, we can reset it for you. Please follow our password reset instructions. (In the Plesk Control Panel FAQ)
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- How do I change a email redirect to a POP3 email account?
1) Log in to your control panel.
2) Select the domain name that you want to apply the change to.
3) Click on MAIL.
4) Select the mailname that you want to modify.
5) Uncheck the "Redirect" box and remove the email address.
6) Check the "Mailbox" box.
7) Enter the new password and confirm the new password.
8) Click on UPDATE.
Now, email will start collecting on the server and can be downloaded to be read locally by your email program or read directly on the server using the IMP Webmail program.
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- How do I configure my email application for POP3 email?
For your incoming server use:
server name: yourdomain.com
server type: POP3 server
username: your-username
password: your-password
For your outgoing server use your ISP's SMTP settings.
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- Can I read my POP3 email directly from the server shell?
No, because of the way Plesk, our control panel operates and interacts with Qmail, it is not possible to read email on the server via mail, pine, mutt, elm, etc. If you want to read email on the server, you can use IMP, our webmail service, but its features are limited compared to true shell-based email access.
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- How can I send all unresolved email to one "catch-all" email address?
1) Log in to your control panel.
2) Select the domain name that you want to apply the change to.
3) Click on PREFERENCES.
4) Under "Mail to nonexistent user:", check the radio button for "Catch to address:", then enter the address where all unresolved email should go. You can enter either one of your domain's POP3 or email redirects or an outside email address.
5) Click on UPDATE.
This will create a catch-all email account (global maildrop) for all undefined/unresolved email addresses. Any other email accounts that you create for this domain will override this catch-all email address.
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- How can I force all unresolved email to bounce back with a specific message?
1) Log in to your control panel.
2) Select the domain name that you want to apply the change to.
3) Click on PREFERENCES.
4) Under "Mail to nonexistent user:", check the radio button for "Bounce with phrase:", then enter the text that you want your unresolved email to display when they bounce.
5) Click on UPDATE.
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- Do you offer webmail so I access my email via a web browser?
You can use the following url to access your local email via the IMP webmail interface:
http://webmail.yourdomain.com (replace "yourdomain.com" with your actual domain name).
IMP Webmail is really useful if you need to access your email while traveling or if you do not have access to your home/work comupter, but it should not be considered a replacement for a standard email program that downloads email to your computer. The storage space that you have on the server is limited (the amount depends on your hosting plan), so you want to make sure that you periodically download or delete your email from the server.
PLEASE NOTE: IMP Webmail can only be used to read email that is stored on the server through a POP3 account, not email that is redirected to another address. IMP Webmail is not as as fully featured as a standard email program that downloads email locally to an email program such as Outlook or Eudora. We do not offer any specific support for this program and it is offered free of charge, but you use it a your own risk. Please refer to the help screens that are integrated into IMP for more information on how to use the program.
The IMP Webmail program uses IMAP4 which accesses your email directly in your mailbox (it is not copied or downloaded anywhere) instead of downloading it as POP3 email. This means that there are some limitations and since it cannot write new files, so you are not able to have a "sent" folder, since the accumulated sent messages would cause storage quota problems. If you have problems using IMP or do not like how it works, you might want to consider using a standard email program that downloads your POP3 email or reads it as IMAP4 on the server.
PLEASE NOTE: IMP Webmail is not available with subdomains, ie name.yourdomain.com
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- How do I setup an autoresponder or vacation reply?
1) Log in to your control panel.
2) Select the domain name that you want to apply the change to.
3) Click on MAIL.
4) Select the mailname that you want to modify.
5) Check the "Mail autoresponders" box.
6) Click on ADD.
7) Enter a name for the autoresponder.
8) Configure the properties for the autoresponder.
9) Click on UPDATE to take you back to the email configuration page.
10) Click on UPDATE
PLEASE NOTE: Autoresponders normally sent out a reply each time an email is sent to them. If you would like to configure the autoresponder to behave like a vacation reply, you'll need to set the "Reply to unique e-mail address" to one or more days. This is important, because of you have a vacation reply send out a response for every email, you will probably be removed from any mailing lists that this address is subscribed to.
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- Are you running a SMTP mailserver to relay outgoing email?
In general, you should always user your ISPs SMTP mailserver for outgoing email. You can usually find this information in the support section of an ISP's website or on the setup email that they sent you when you signed-up.
If for some reason, you do not have an SMTP mailserver, it is possible you might be able to relay email through our mailserver using SMTP Authentication. To use this you'll need to configure your email program settings to enable authentication and you will need to supply the same username and password that you use with your POP3 email account for outgoing email as well as incoming email. Use your domain name as your outgoing SMTP mailserver.
PLEASE NOTE: Not all email programs support SMTP Authentication. Also, many ISP's do not allow any relaying at all except through their own SMTP mailserver. This is know as Port 25 Blocking and it is used by ISP's to prevent spamming through open relays. For example, EarthLink/Mindspring has a Port 25 Blocking policy.
Always try using your ISP's SMTP mailserver first, before trying to relay through our server. Because of these issues, we are not able to provide any kind of tech support for our SMTP service. If you can get it to work with your email program and ISP, great, if not, you may have to investigate other options if you are unable to use your ISP's SMTP mailserver. The majority of the time you should be able to use your ISP's outgoing mailserver to send out your email and of course this will not prevent you from displaying your domain-specific email address on your outgoing email.
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- I want to create an email list for my site, what would you suggest?
First off, DO NOT use the mailgroup feature for a full-blown email list. Mailgroups should only be used to redirect to a few outside emails.
Consider hosting your lists offsite. If you can find someone to host your lists for you using true email list software like ezmlm, majordomo, listserv, etc., then we can create a DNS entry (lists.yourdomain.com) for you at no charge and point to the new list host server.
Try using one of the numerous free email list services like Topica.com. They have fairly advanced list functionality such as list digests, custom headers & footers and so on. Usually they will provide you with code that you can add to your site so people can subscribe/unsubscribe themselves.
Some ISP's offer email list services. Check with your ISP and see if they have that option
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- What is IMAP and can I use it to read my email from an external email program?
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) allows you to read your email directly from the server, unlike POP3 which has to first download your email before it can be read.
IMAP4 is enabled on our servers and you can use it to read your email using your email program. You'll need to change your email program's settings from POP3 to IMAP4.
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Nameserver Related Questions
- What is Nameserver?
Every computer on internet is connected through an Internet domain. Each Internet domain has nameserver that maintains database of the hosts in its domain and handles request for domain names. To host your domain, you must use the nameservers provided by your hosting company while registering your domain or making changes to domain after registration
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- Nameservers used by Widomaker
Our nameservers are listed as follows:
Primary:
ns.widomaker.com
IP address: 204.17.220.5
Secondary:
ns2.widomaker.com
IP address: 204.17.220.1
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PHP related questions
- What is the PHP Version?
We Use PHP Version 4.0.
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- What is PHP?
PHP Version 4.0 is an HTML-embedded scripting language. Much of its syntax is borrowed from C, Java and Perl with a couple of unique PHP-specific features thrown in. The goal of the language is to allow web developers to write dynamically generated pages quickly. It is good alternative to ASP.
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- How to run php3 & other php files?
Convert the files into .php extension and put in your web directory to run php files.
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- Where can I get free php scripts?
Good collection of PHP scripts is available at http://php.resourceindex.com.
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- My PHP script is not working, can you help me with it?
Our support does not cover PHP script debugging. We consider this a function of web development.
We make sure that PHP is enabled for your site, but we do not have the resources to debug any PHP scripts for our customers. If we did we would need to charge an hourly rate for web development, but that's not really our focus. The same is true for the troubleshooting of html, CGI, javascript, and so on.
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SSI related questions
- Do you support SSI?
Yes. We do support SSI command.
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- What are SSI?
Server Side Includes (SSI)
are special set of commands included in your HTML file that are executed by the
server as it parses your HTML file. They are generally used to include external
documents such as your company logo or signature file on every HTML document.
You can also use SSI to display current date and time of your server.
Sample SSI used
| Command |
Meaning |
| <!--#flastmod
file="index.html"--> |
Last File Modification Date of file "index.html" |
| <!--#include
file="index.html"--> |
Include file from the same directory to your html file. |
| <!--#echo var="DATE_LOCAL"
--> |
Includes date & time on your html page |
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- SSI Troubleshooting
Q - I have
placed an SSI command within my HTML file but nothing
happens.
A - Make sure the extension of your HTML
file .shtml and not .html or .htm
Q - I keep
getting the following error: [an error occurred while
processing this directive]
A - If you are trying to
include a file make sure it is in the same directory as the
main file. Also make sure you have spelled the filename
correctly in your SSI command.
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Getting Started
- Uploading To Your Account
| How Do I Upload My Files? |
All transferring of files to our servers is handled by
FTP. We feel there are several advantages of using FTP over a file
manager.
Your FTP program can run from your desktop or systray and has a vast array
of options not readily available in a File Manager.
FTP programs can range from $0 - $50. |
| Uploading Your Website Files |
The first thing you will need before uploading files to
your account is a good ftp client. Popular ftp clients include CuteFTP and
WS_FTP.
Once you have your ftp client you are ready to upload files to your
account. Our ftp server is loacted at: plesk3.widomaker.com. Log into this
address with your Username and Password, provided to you in your
activation email.
Once you are logged in, you will see the various directories within your
account. You will need to place all files in the public directory which is
"httpdocs". This is the directory that you will use to upload
all your website files.
You can create new directories within this directory, these directories
are known as "sub-directories"
When you upload files to the httpdocs directory you can view them by
typing in http://www.yourdomain.com/filename.ext
If you upload files to a sub-directory, you would be able to view them by
typing in http://www.yourdomain.com/sub-directory_name/filename.ext |
| Creating Subdomains |
Within your account you will have the option to create
additional domains. This allocation is for Multihosted domains and not for
subdomains. To avoid confusion, we ask that you submit a request asking
for a subdomain.
Subdomains come in 3 categories:
Physical Hosting
Frame Forward
URL Forward
Physical Hosting - Your subdomain will work exactly like a normal domain
with a complete directory structure, email capabilties, cgi-bin etc. If
you request a physically hosted sub domain you must also specify disk
space limits for it.
Frame Forward - Recommended use a subdomains. You can keep all your files
within your main account and frame forward a subdomain to a certain page.
Also, you can upload files into a subdirectory and frame forward your
subdomain to your subdirectory.
URL Forward - This works in a similar way to frame forward but keeps the
destination url in the address window. For example you create a subdomain
123.domain.com and have a link on your page that says just that. The
subdomain is url forwarded to domain.com/123. Even though 123.domain.com
has been clicked through, the visitor will see domain.com/123 as the
address when he arrives at the page.
Please specify in detail which kind of subdomain you require when you
submit a request.
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| Uploading Your Sub-Domain Files |
For Physical Hosted Subdomains
Once your new subdomain has been activated you are ready to upload your
files to your account. As a subdomain works like a normal domain, you will
have received separate ftp details for the new directory in the subdomain.
There is also a cgi-bin directory automatically created for you in this
directory. You should upload your subdomain website scripts to this cgi-bin.
Again, website files must be uploaded to the "httpdocs"
directory.
To reach your new subdomain, enter in the URL:
http://sub.yourdomain.com (replacing sub with your new subdomain name and
yourdomain.com with your accounts domain name).
To reach other files and directories using your sub-domain, enter in a URL
like:
http://sub.yourdomain.com/file.html
http://sub.yourdomain.com/directory/file.html
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MySQL Related Questions
- What is MySQL?
MySQL is an open source, relational database management system often used in conjunction with scripting languages such as Perl, PHP, etc.
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- How do I create a MySQL database?
1) Log in to your control panel.
2) Select the domain name that you want to apply the change to.
3) Click on DATABASES.
4) Enter the database name that you want to create. PLEASE NOTE: The username has to be unique on the server, so you might not always be able to use your first choice.
5) Click on ADD.
6) Enter a username that you want to create to be used with the database.
7) Click on ADD.
8) Enter a password and confirm the password.
9) Click on UPDATE.
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- How do I setup and maintain an existing MySQL database?
You can maintain your database(s) using phpMyAdmin, which is built into the Plesk control panel.
1) Log in to your control panel.
2) Select the domain name that you want to apply the change to.
3) Click on DATABASES.
4) Select the database that you want to modify.
5) Click on PHPMYADMIN.
6) For more information on using phpMyAdmin, please refer to phpMyAdmin's Configuration and FAQ pages at:
http://phpmyadmin.sourceforge.net/documentation/#config
Once you have created a database you can choose it from the left-hand menu of phpMyAdmin, then continue on with the tutorial.
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- Where can I find more information on using MySQL?
Try these resources:
MySQL (official site)
http://www.mysql.com/
Beginning MySQL Tutorial (DevShed)
http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/MySQL/Intro/page1.html
Website Database Basics With PHP and MySQL (DevShed)
http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/PHP/DB_Basics/page1.html
Build your own Database Driven Website using PHP & MySQL (SitePoint)
http://www.webmasterbase.com/article.php?aid=228&pid=0
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