What is a Vhost?

A Vhost is a separate web site running within your account, which appears from an external point of view as a totally autonomous web site. A Vhost usually uses a full domain name of its own (which you can either register with us, or transfer in) or it uses a subdomain of your main domain (eg. <anything>.yourdomain.com).

Vhosts operate from separate directories within your standard home directory. They consume your standard space allowance and share a single raw log file. This log file is in a special format which allows it to be easily split up using a script to individual standard log files. We do not provide standard analysis with additional Vhosts, however any good log analysis software will make this possible.

Do Vhosts get their own username and password access?

No, Vhosts share the same username and password as your master account (and therefore other Vhosts on your account). Therefore, they are not necessarily suitable for reselling complete web hosting solutions, but can be highly useful for additional web sites you manage yourself or manage on behalf of your clients.

Additional usernames and/or passwords are not normally available for use with Vhosts. It is possible however to combine Vhosts with our VFTP facility to enable them to have their own FTP passwords.

How many Vhosts can I have on a standard account?

You may have up to 4 vhosts operating from a standard account. If you require more Vhosts, you would need to open a further standard account and then continue to add Vhosts to that.

How much does a Vhost cost?

Each additional Vhost costs £25 + VAT per annum.

What email options are available with Vhosts?

We offer two choices for handling email for Vhosted domains:

1. We can map all emails for a Vhosted domain to your main POP3 email server, administered via your main web-based email admin system. This arrangement means that the Vhosted domain would share any settings set up for your main domain, and if duplicate mail users or aliases exist they will map together and point to the same place. In other words, fred@maindomain.com would arrive at the same place as fred@vhostdomain.com. There is no charge for this service.

2. We can set up a standalone POP3 email server for a Vhosted domain with its own web-based admin interface to configure specific mail users and aliases. This is, essentially, a complete, self-contained email package separate from your main email system. This service costs an additional £50 + VAT per annum.

Do I get extra space or MySQL databases with a Vhost?

No, Vhosts use the same space allowance as your main account. Vhosts do not normally have their own Mysql database. However it is usually possible to have a single additional Mysql database to share between your vhosts, and to keep this seperate from your main account's Mysql database. There is a charge of £25 + VAT per annum. Please ask about this.

Why only 4 Vhosts per main account? I need lots of Vhosts for my clients

Vhosts are intended to be a cost-effective way of hosting additional sites within a main account. Since for £25 + VAT you can host a whole extra site in your web space, Vhosts are not particularly scalable in terms of large numbers or if they are high traffic or resource intensive sites. This is to ensure that system resources aren't over-used and we stay in business and can continue hosting your sites for many years to come!

If you think you need to provide a service with many more than 4 Vhosts, you can either open up another standard account enabling 5 more web sites (main plus 4 Vhosts) or else please enquire about our other options. We can usually give healthy discounts on additional main accounts for those customers who envisage requiring several. We also offer other services, such as cost-effective dedicated server solutions, which may be more suitable for running lots of different web sites.

How do I set up a Vhost?

1. What domain name(s) or subdomain(s) you wish to use with your Vhost
2. What email option you wish to use for your Vhosted domain(s) (see above)

/home/username/domainname_html

Please let us know if you wish us to register any domain name(s) for your Vhost or if you will be transferring an existing domain in from elsewhere (there's no extra charge to transfer a domain) so we can advise on transfer instructions.