Mechphisto FAQ

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Design
Q: How do I get a web site made through you?
A: To start with, using the CONTACT button on the left there, send me as much as you can on what your needs and wants are. Approximately how much text you'll have (eg: how many 8.5"x11" sheets it takes,) how many pics you know you'll have, any cool geegaws you know you want it to do. At least as much as you can think of. Even if you only have a rough idea, that's fine too, but the more preliminary info, the smoother the process.

Then, I'll contact you back and we can solidify the kind of content and the goals or purpose of the site. What do you want out of it? What kind of role does it play in your business or group, or whatnot?

After enough information is accumulated and a concept is divined, I can give you an estimated cost and time. (Unless it's an issue of a lot of custom graphics or server-side programming, the estimate will almost always be the final price.) If all is agreeable, I send you a contract indicating terms of agreement and you send me back one half of the estimated cost. Once the final product is agreed upon, you send me the final payment and I'll send you a CD copy of your site and if you desire upload it to your host of choice (preferably Mechphisto *grin*).

After that, all designs get 30 days of free site maintenance. That includes thing like corrections of mistakes that may have been missed in the final review (obviously, only a cad would charge for THAT, yet many do!), and things like name or title changes of products and people, swapping pics out with new ones, things like that. (Continued maintenance is available for a small fee after the first 30 days.)

And that's it.

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Q: Are there any discounts for designing?
A: Well, as mentioned above, there's the $15 off per month for maintenance if you host with Mechphisto. But some non-profit groups, persons, and individual jobs may qualify for a discount on the design fee. Check to find out if you qualify.
Also, if you choose to use a template, that will discount 25% off the per page cost of the site. So the starting base cost of a 5 page site will go from $325 (5*65) to $243 (5*65-25%).

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Q: I see you are using some sites you designed as templates. Will mine be?
A: NO, any site/page that someone pays money for will not be used as a template unless you specifically say it can be.

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Q: Many of the sites in the Portfolio say designed by CelticBear S&D. What's up?
A: For the last few years I've been doing web design pro-bono under the "pen name" of Celticbear. It's still the name of my personal web site, I've simply decided that a separate name identity would be a good move when entering the commercial market.

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Q: Will my site be added to the Portfolio?
A: By default, yes, unless you ask for it not to be. But why would you? It would be good additional advertisement for your site.

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Q: What if I need maintenance on my site after the initial design is done?
A: All sites designed by me get a free 30 day period of site maintenance. After that, continued maintenance is available for a small fee. (See the Design page for more details.)
What this includes are small changes such as swapping out a photo with another one, modifying the text to a degree, things of that nature.
If your maintenance needs will be more significant than that, such as database maintenance, that will have to be negotiable.

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Q: Do you offer Flash designs or animation?
A: At the moment, no. But I will soon. When soon? I don't know. Look for it sometime in Winter 2002-03.

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Hosting
Q: How do I sign up for an account?
A: Very quick and easy! Go to the CONTACT page, select the Plan you want, enter the pertinent info, and you'll be sent back a confirmation letter.

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Q: How long will it take to get everything running?
A: After receiving the confirmation letter, it can take approximately 24 hours for the account to be created, but usually it's within only a few hours. With the 2nd e-mail to confirm the creation, you will receive all the info you need to start uploading your files and setting up your site.
Then, it will take 24 to 72 hours for your new domain (or in the case of a transferred domain name, where it's now located) to propagate across the Internet. During that first 2 to 3 days you and others may receive slow page loading or even host not found errors.
If these problems persist beyond 72 hours from account creation, please contact customer service!

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Q: What are the charges for an account?
A: 1) The Plan cost, either by the month or the year. 2) That's it. No Domain fees (either new, or transferred,) no setup fees, nothing. Pretty simple, eh?

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Q: How do I get my own URL (www.yourname.com)?
A: Start by seeing if what you want to use is available. Go to http://www.internic.net/whois.html and plug in your ideas for what you'd like to use. If you have one that's not taken, input it in the Hosting order section under CONTACT.
(You probably already know this, but here's some tips: .com is used for any commercial or private entity, but primarily commercial, .org is the same but preferred for organizations, .edu is reserved only for recognized educational institutions, .gov is only for government institutions, and .net is preferred for Internet related providers. Nowadays you can also have .info, .biz, .name, and .ws (web site).

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Q: Who retains ownership of my domain name?
A: You do! It will be registered in your name and as long as you continue to remain a customer. If you leave Mechphisto hosting, though, you'll have to find a new domain registrar to transfer your payments to.

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Q: What if I already have a domain name?
A: Simple. When ordering your Hosting package, select that option and input your domain name. When the account is created, you will receive an e-mail which will include two NS addresses. You will then need to replace whatever you currently have for NS pointers with your current domain name registrar with the two I give you. Within 24 to 72 hours the change will become recognized around the Internet.

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Q: Discounts off hosting when purchased by the year? How's that possible?
A: When my accounts are paid by the year, I get certain breaks upstream which then allows me to pass the savings on to my customers. Also, I use it as encouragement to pay yearly which is just a lot more convenient for all parties concerned.

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Q: So I pay for a year, what if I have to cancel before the year's up?
A: You will be refunded for all remaining unused time starting with your next full month.
So, if you bought your account on February 10th, and had to cancel your account on August 20th, your account will remain active until September 10th and you will be refunded the cost for the next four months. The refund rate for a yearly paid account is determined by dividing up the yearly cost by 12, not by the cost of a monthly plan.
So if you bought a Basic plan for $126 for the year and not the $15 per month, and I owe you for the aforementioned four months, you would receive $42 back (126/12=10.50, 10.50*4=42), not $60 (15*4=60).

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Q: How do I pay monthly?
A: At the moment I'm only accepting PayPal subscriptions as monthly payment. Alternate methods are being worked out, though.

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Q: OK, you're obviously a sole proprietor; how's the tech/customer support here?
A: The best I can humanly provide. But let's get more specific.
Like 99% of all web hosts out there, I have an upstream system that provides my pipeline and hardware support. Sometimes things may affect that which will cause unexpected outages or slowdown. But less than only 0.5% of a year is that expected. I monitor the traffic and server performances and can usually catch issues before they're felt by my customers and deal with them. I will provide full support for all technical issues regarding connection and performance of the servers and connection. That's my job as host, to put in 110% to make sure your site is up and running and accessible to the Internet at large.

On a smaller scale, for support regarding the various features of your account, it depends. You're going to be expected to manage your account to a great degree using the Web based Control Panel. Setting up a forum or listserve or a shopping cart, and the like. And unless your site was designed by me, the transfer of your files back and forth is also under your control either via FTP or Web based file management via the Control Panel. (It's a very useful Control Panel!)
But no one is expected to be an instant expert. The Control Panel itself has a good amount of Help and How-To built in, and I will provide some help here in this FAQ as well. You can even write to support@mechphisto.net for some additional assistance, and if it's regarding an issue that's not directly in Mechphisto's realm of jurisdiction or technical expertise, I can at least provide you with sources for additional help. I have to be honest, I can't hold your hand, you will be expected to administrate your own site, but I will do my very best to lend guidance.

In short: If it's broken I WILL fix it. If you don't know how something works, all I can do is try to point you in the right direction and give you whatever info I can to help you out.
If you have any questions regarding support for a specific topic, feel free to write me at support@mechphisto.net and I'll explain in more detail what level of support I can provide on that.

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How-To
Q: What are the settings for the e-mail for my domain?
A: POP or Incoming Server: mail.yourdomainname.com . SMTP or Outgoing Server: mail.yourdomainname.com .
Remember, to use your domain as your outgoing mail server, you HAVE to turn on server authentication. If your mail client does not have that option, you may just have to set it so your mail sends only immediately after checking for new mail.

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