Knowledge Base

Knowledgebase

FAQ Troubleshooting
What to do when you don't get the result or performance you expect.

Initial Setup
Site Performance
HTTP: Error Messages
Traceroute
Ping
FTP
Multi-Media
FAQ Initial Setup

I have posted my new Website via FTP, but when I try to access it through my domain name, I get a Hosting 4 Less "Under Construction" page instead. What's wrong?

When your account is provisioned, Hosting 4 Less posts a "Under Construction" page for you until you design and post your own pages. This placeholder page is named "index.html". When you are ready to post your own pages, you must use the index.html, for your new home page in order to overwrite the placeholder. If you do not name your new home page as specified here, your domain name will continue to direct itself to the Hosting 4 Less "Under Construction" page. 

I have posted a Website to my Dedicated server, but I cannot view it from my domain name. What is the problem?

Once your Dedicated server has been provisioned, you must contact customer service at 888-818-0444 and request to have your domain name pointed to your server's IP address. If you have multiple IP's, you must specify which address you would like your site to point to. Once this has been set up, you will be able to view your site from your domain name.

FAQ Site Performance

I cannot get to my Website. Are you down?
Many reasons can account for a user having this problem. The user or page administrator can resolve many of them. Others are more complicated, and must be resolved by the server administrator, or the user's ISP (Internet Service Provider). If you have trouble getting to your www site, try a traceroute, and look for a problem between your location and Hosting 4 Less.

If you receive the message "There is no DNS entry for http://www.yourdomain.com", there are several possible explanations. Try to reach the site using the IP address. If you are successful, the domain name is either not active or not yet propagated.

For a new domain, it may take up to a week for the name to be released by Network Solutions and propagated to Domain Name Servers throughout the Internet. (Foreign domains and transfers take longer.)

If it is an older domain that has previously been reachable, the name may be on hold with Network Solutions. Contact Network Solutions directly to determine the reason the name is on hold. To check the status of your domain name you must also call Network Solutions. They have temporarily disabled checking domain status through WHOIS due to abuse issues.

If you can reach the site with the IP address and you know it has been more than 72 hours since the name was released by Network Solutions, clear your browser cache and try again.

  1. If you are using Netscape Navigator:
  2. Select Options | Network Preferences
  3. Choose the Cache tab.
  4. Click on the buttons "Clear Memory Cache Now" and "Clear Disk Cache Now" and OK.
  5. Click Reload.

Note: Netscape may require manually clearing the cache.

  1. With Windows Explorer, find the Netscape folder (e.g. C:\Program Files\Netscape\Navigator\Cache.
  2. Highlight and delete the files in the Cache folder.
  3. Click on Reload.

For Internet Explorer:

  1. Select View | Options.
  2. Select the Navigation tab.
  3. Click "Clear History" and OK.
  4. Click Refresh.

If you know that others are able to reach the site with the domain name but you can't (even after clearing the Cache), contact your local ISP (whoever provides your internet access). The ISP may not have updated its DNS records. If you are still unable to reach it after all of these steps, contact Hosting 4 Less Support for assistance.

Either my site or the web seems slow.

Perform a ping and a traceroute (from your location to the target location on Hosting 4 Less) to gain information on the host's status. If the host is available, there may be a problem outside of Hosting 4 Less. If the host is not available, call Hosting 4 Less Support at (888) 818-0444. Please have any information handy about the ping and/or traceroute you performed, in order to share it with us.

FAQ HTTP: Error Messages

I am getting an error code in my browser. What does this mean?
Here is a list of HTML Error codes and what they mean.

HTML Error codes:

  • 200 - OK - Successful transmission. This is not an error. The file you requested was found -- here it is.
  • 201 - Created - The request has been fulfilled and resulted in a new resource being created. The newly created resource can be referenced by the URL(s) returned in the URL-header field of the response. The most specific URL for the resource will be given by a Location header field.
  • 202 - Accepted - The request has been accepted for processing, but the processing has not yet completed.
  • 203 - Non-Authoritative Information - The returned META information in the Entity-Header is not the definitive set as available from the origin server, but is gathered from a local or third-party copy.
  • 204 - No Content - The server has fulfilled the request, but there is no new information to send back.
  • 206 - Partial Content - you requested a range of bytes in the file, and here they are. This is new in HTTP/1.1

Here are the most common 300 Error Codes:

  • 300 - Multiple Choices - The requested source is available at one or more locations and a preferred location could not be determined via content negotiation.
  • 301 - Moved Permanently - The requested resource has been assigned a new permanent URL and any future references to this resource should be done using one of the returned URLs.
  • 302 - Moved Temporarily - The requested resource resides temporarily under a new URL. Redirection to a new URL should be provided. This is not an error, most browsers invisibly fetch the new page upon seeing this result.
  • 303 - See Other - The requested resource resides under a different URL and should be accessed using a Get method on that resource.
  • 304 - Not Modified - If the client has performed a conditional GET request and access is allowed; however, the document has not been modified since the date and time specified in the If-Modified-Since field - then the server responds with this status code and does not send an Entity-Body to the client. If it also says, "Use local copy." This means that the copy of the file on the web server is not more recent than the copy which your web browser or proxy server has cached locally, so there's no point in sending the file again. This is not an error. I'm not going to send it again.
  • Other 300's - Redirected requests are those with other codes in the 300s. The most common cause of these requests is that the user has incorrectly requested a directory name without the trailing slash. The server replies with a redirection ("you probably mean the following") and the user then makes a second connection to get the correct document (although usually the browser does it automatically without the user's intervention or knowledge).
    If you have a large number of 300 level result codes in your logs, you have probably specified links without the trailing "/" (slash).

Here are the most common 400 Error Codes:

  • 400 - Bad Request - The request could not be understood by the server because the syntax was incorrect. A bad request was made by the client.
  • 401 - Unauthorized - The request requires user authentication. The response must include a WWW-Authenticate header field containing a challenge applicable to the requested source. The user asked for a document but did not provide a valid username or password.
  • 402 - Payment Required - This code is not currently supported, but is reserved for future use.
  • 403 - Forbidden - The server understood the request but is refusing to perform the request because of an unspecified reason. Access is explicitly denied to this document. This might happen because the web server doesn't have read permission for the file you're requesting.
  • 404 - Not Found - The server has not found anything matching the requested URL. 04 errors are the result of requests for pages which do not exist, and can come from a mistyped URL, a bookmark which points to a file no longer there, search engines looking for a robots.txt (which is used to mark pages you don't want indexed by search engines), people guessing filenames, bad links from your site or other sites, etc.
  • 405 - Method Not Allowed - The method specified in the request line is not allowed for the resource identified by the requested URL.
  • 406 - None Acceptable - The server has found a resource matching the request URL, but not one that satisfies the conditions identified by the Accept and Accept-Encoding request headers.
  • 407 - Proxy Authentication Required - This code is reserved for future use. It is similar to 401 (Unauthorized) but indicates that the client must first authenticate itself with a proxy. HTTP/1.0 does not provide a means for proxy authentication.
  • 408 - Request Timeout - The client did not produce a request within the time the server was prepared to wait.
  • 409 - Conflict - The request could not be completed due to a conflict with the current state of the resource.
  • 410 - Gone - The requested resource is no longer available at the server and no forwarding address is known.
  • 411 - Authorization Refused - The request credentials provided by the client were rejected by the server or insufficient to grant authorization to access the resource.

Here are the most common 500 (and beyond) Error Codes:

  • 500 - Internal Server Error - The server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from filling the request. There is usually nothing that can be done from the browser end to fix this error. The server administrator will probably need to check the server's error log to see what happened. This is often the error message for Hosting 4 Less for a CGI script which has not been properly coded.
  • 501 - Not Implemented - The server does not support the functionality required to fulfill the request. Application method (either GET or POST) is not implemented.
  • 502 - Bad Gateway - The server received an invalid response from the gateway or upstream server it accessed in attempting to fulfill the request.
  • 503 - Service Unavailable - The server is currently unable to handle the request due to a temporary overloading or maintenance of the server. Server is out of resources.
  • 504 - Gateway Timeout - The server did not receive a timely response from the gateway or upstream server it accessed in attempting to complete the request.
  • 8181 - Certificate has expired (secure server only).
FAQ Traceroute

How do I perform a traceroute?
It is a good idea to perform a ping and a traceroute if you believe the network is having problems. "How to ping" is outlined in another question "How do I perform a ping?." Here's how to perform a traceroute
  1. In Windows 98/98/NT/2000, click on the Start button (usually located in lower-left corner). If you're on Unix, skip to step 3.
  2. Select Programs -> MS-DOS Prompt (may be called Command Prompt in Windows NT).
  3. At the Command Prompt, type in traceroute ipnumber or traceroute domainnname at the command line and look for asterisks or times around 1000. If you see either of these symptoms, please call Hosting 4 Less Support at (888) 818-0444.
FAQ Ping

How do I perform a ping?
Here's how to perform a ping:
  1. In Windows 95/98/NT/2000, click on the Start button (usually located in lower-left corner). If you're on Unix, skip to step 3.
  2. Select Programs -> MS-DOS Prompt (may be called Command Prompt in Windows NT).
  3. At the prompt, type ping -c 5.

This will send 5 ping packets to the address specified, such as domainname or ipnumberofserver.

A successful ping to www.yahoo.com would look like:

C:\> ping -c 5 www.yahoo.com
PING www.yahoo.com (204.71.200.72): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 204.71.200.72: icmp_seq=0 ttl=248 time=99 ms
64 bytes from 204.71.200.72: icmp_seq=1 ttl=248 time=80 ms
64 bytes from 204.71.200.72: icmp_seq=2 ttl=248 time=95 ms
64 bytes from 204.71.200.72: icmp_seq=3 ttl=248 time=85 ms
64 bytes from 204.71.200.72: icmp_seq=4 ttl=248 time=83 ms
--- www.yahoo.com ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 80/88/99 ms

A ping with problems would hang at the "PING ....: 56 data bytes" line. Either there is a network problem or the address itself is down. Give the ping a few seconds to return packets. Poor network conditions (either within Hosting 4 Less or upstream) will slow responses or make responses impossible. Given enough time, you may see error messages like "Host is down" or "No route to host". That means the host is unreachable at the present time and that you should call Hosting 4 Less Support. You may also want to perform a traceroute, as outlined in the previous question.

FAQ FrontPage®

Common FrontPage Error Fixes


Please Note:
The Copy Web/Publish Web function will not work properly until your domain name is “Live” on our servers. This is because when the FrontPage extensions are installed, they must be configured for your domain name. If you have requested that your site be FrontPage ready, you will receive an E-Mail when you can begin using FrontPage. If you have any questions, please call Hosting 4 Less Support at (888) 818-0444.


Recalculating the links for your site
Recalculating the links for your site directly on the server is the general fix-all for many FrontPage errors. Always recalculate the links every time after you make any changes to your site. Follow these directions to recalculate the links for your site:

  1. Open FrontPage Explorer
  2. Open Existing Web (www.domain.com)
  3. Enter your username and password
  4. Click OK (This should open your site on our server)
  5. Click on the “Tools” menu
  6. Select “Recalculate Links”

'www.your_domain.com' is not a valid host name or IP address:
This error occurs when:

  • Your site does not have the FrontPage extensions installed, or
  • You are not connected to the Internet, or
  • You are not connected via a standard 32-bit PPP/SLIP connection.

FrontPage will not function properly with some online services like America Online unless the version you are using supports 32-bit Internet applications. Contact your Internet Service Provider to find out about compatibility for FrontPage 2000.

Table of Contents Web Bot problems (returns hundreds of incorrect links or doesn't show up at all):
This error occurs when your WebBot is not starting its search at the correct HTML page in your site. Try to recalculate the links for your site (see above). If this does not work, follow these steps:

  1. Open FrontPage Explorer.
  2. Open Existing Web (www.yourdomain.com).
  3. Enter your username and password.
  4. Click OK (This should open your site on our Web Server).
  5. Double-click on the page that contains your “TOC WebBot.”
  6. Right-click on the “TOC WebBot” and select “WebBot Component Properties.”
  7. Browse to the correct start page for the TOC.
  8. Save your changes.
  9. Recalculate links for your site.

Search Page returns pages in stats directory
This will happen when your Search Page is located in the same Web as the “stats” folder (which is supplied to every Hosting 4 Less customer). To keep the search engine out of the stats directory, the stats directory will have to be created as a FrontPage Web. (Note: This is also the same way to password protect your stats directory with a FrontPage account.)

  1. Connect to the Internet through your Internet access provider.
  2. Open your FrontPage Explorer.
  3. Go to File|Open FrontPage Web.
  4. In Destination Web server or File location enter your domain name.
  5. Click List Webs. This will connect to the site and report back the FrontPage Webs on the site.
  6. Choose the Root Web.
  7. Enter your username and password.
  8. Click OK. This should open your site on our Web server.
  9. Go to File | New | FrontPage Web.
  10. Select Empty Web. Make sure that add to Web is not selected.
  11. Name the FrontPage Web stats (keep lowercase.)
  12. Leave the Web server information "www.yourdomain.com" which should already be selected.
  13. A dialog box will pop up which will notify you that the server needs to be restarted (you can ignore this).
  14. Your stats directory has now been converted into a FrontPage child Web.

 

FAQ FTP

FTP seems slow. What can be done?

Ping your account at Hosting 4 Less Networks; whether or not that shows that the host is responsive, you may want to try a traceroute. If you need instructions on how to perform a ping or a traceroute, just click the links.

Also keep in mind the speed of your modem. If you have a slower modem, transferring large files will take longer and go slower. A cable modem or a 56.6 will transport your data faster than a 28.8!

FAQ Multimedia

RealAudio Technical Notes and Information

  • RealAudio Data Type - The RealAudio Codecs range from 5Kbps to 16Kbps voice quality and 8Kbps to 80Kbps music quality. The music quality ranges from 8, 12, 16, 32, 40, and 80Kbps for mono sound and 20, 32, 40, and 80Kbps for stereo sound. RealAudio is used by more than 90% of the live radio stations on the Internet and more than 85% of all static streaming audio sites.
  • For more detailed technical information, please visit the RealAudio Content Creation Tools, Service and Support section at: http://service.real.com/help/library/