This is a guide on everything you need to know about getting started with and using IsMyWebsite for your future hosting needs.
Although this guide does attempt to help solve many of the most common problems and misconceptions, there are many answers it does not have. The process also does occasionally change, so some information may be outdated. (You can help by reporting any outdated information.)
You need an account to manage your websites. You are only allowed to have one account.
Sure, it takes time to do so, but in the end it will save you time. The rules describe what we host, what we wont host, and what is required to keep hosting with our service. Ultimately, if you can't meet the requirements it's recommended you choose another service.
We have extensive measures in place against abuse, and we monitor all accounts on our servers. Plus, we take advanced security measures not typically taken by other hosts. You are wasting your time.
You will be asked for your name (which can be whatever you want, but keep in mind it will be used in all future communication), then a username, and finally your email address.
It is important to use a valid email address. If you are concerned about your privacy, please read our privacy policy (it's really short/simple). It is very important to be able to reach you in problem situations.
You'll notice, we never asked you for your password. This is because you have a temporary password emailed to you. Simply use that to log in and access your account for the first time.
It is recommended you change your password when you first log in to something you can remember. This can be done using the 'Change Your Password' link under 'Overview'.
You can do this as many times as you want to create multiple websites in your account.
Log into your IsMyWebsite account, and use the giant blue button on the 'Overview' page. It will say 'Create Your First Website' if you have none, or 'Create Another Website' if you already have one. There is also a button in the 'Hosting' section of your account.
You can see a full list of all our public servers, which you can choose for your website hosting. This is also where you set up your domain. Please note, you can only use a subdomain unless you own the domain you want to use already. Or you can donate $15 and we will register your domain for you for one year.
The longer the description, the easier it is for us to decide whether to give you hosting or not. We aim to respond as quickly as possible, and longer descriptions are given priority.
This description is also beneficial to you because you can use it to market your website. Most directories around the web require a description like this, and it's important to include one in the meta tags for search engines.
If you're in a rush and can't wait, then send us a message, but generally realize that we have a lot of hosting requests to process and these are all volunteers helping us out with a system that is still under development.
You can use this time to check out the rest of the site, and engage with our community.
This is how you make something from nothing. You can only do this after your website has been accepted.
The cornerstone of your development happens in your cPanel account. From here, you can:
Edit, upload, rename, and move files in the 'File Manager'.
Install new software from 'Fantastico'.
Add subdomains, webmail, databases, and much much more.
You can access your cPanel through the link mailed to you, or through the 'cPanel' link in the 'Hosting' section of your account. Every account has a separate cPanel link/login.
FTP is a protocol that helps you transfer files directly to the server, and makes it easier to modify the files on the server. Getting started is easy.
See the tutorial 'Accessing FTP Through Internet Explorer' (in your account), or install a FTP client such as FireFTP, FileZilla, Smart FTP, or similar.
All the details you need to configure your FTP are accessible through the 'FTP' link in the 'Hosting' section of your account.
The first step is to create a database using the 'MySQL Databases' section of your account.
You can edit the data in your database using 'PHPMyAdmin', or through your own PHP scripts. (Check PHP.net for help with the MySQL commands.) The host is 'localhost'. Username, password, and database are whatever you set in 'MySQL Databases'.
Check the tutorials section of your account, or any of the common problems below. If all else fails, contact us.
Send us an email with all the details you have and we will fetch any login details. See also (b).
Any of the following are possibilities:
(i) If your account was created before November 22nd, 2008, you will need to recreate it. If you had a website, you will need to resubmit it. On this date, we switched to a new system for accounts. Any accounts not transfered shortly thereafter only exist in an archive.
(ii) If your account looked largely spam, indicated by names or addresses that could easily be produced by keyboard button mashing, an invalid email address, or email addresses that are clearly temporary, we will typically delete it. (It is allowed to use services that redirect mail to another address, provided you check that address regularly.)
(iii) We may start deleting accounts with no websites in the future, but at this time, no action is being taken.
(iv) Did you have another account registered under similar details? We have systems that check for duplicate accounts, and move everything into the oldest account. (No websites are lost.) You should have received an email with the old details, or else see (a).
(v) If your account was created recently, sometimes very brief problems can happen with the database, and we have to restore from a previous version. If you had cPanel it will still be working, but please resubmit the account/websites and we will hook them up again.
(vi) If you are ever stuck, just send us an email and we will sort it out.
There are a large number of possibilities, so it's important to consider the following details:
1) When did you last have access, or ever?
2) Do you have a cPanel link? Does that work?
3) Can you access the URL of your website? What does it say?
4) Is it listed in your account, and what does it say there?
Mail or message all of these details to us for the fastest resolution.
If your website does not load at all, this is a server problem. Some of the servers have occasional brief downtime, but if it ever persists for longer than 2 hours it's likely your IP has been blocked by the server firewall.
This is part of the propagation process, when the DNS is being configured for the server you chose. Essentially, your computer is still looking at our DNS server instead of the server where your account is located. This is a one-time error only time will fix.
On most of the servers, you can access your website at the URL http://serverip/~cpaneluser. Find the server IP and username in the 'FTP' link under your website in the 'Hosting' section of your account.
DNS propagation can be sped up by configuring Open DNS. This will not fix the problem, only speed it up.
Other things you can try are Ctrl + Shift + Refresh on the page and resetting your DNS cache.