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Getting Started

I've signed up - now what?

After you have signed up and made your first payment, you will receive an email confirming that we have received your details. After payment has cleared (in the vast majority of cases this is instantaneous) you will receive a second email with your account login details. This will include instructions on logging in to your Control Panel, which is where you can control every aspect of your account.

Logging in to your Control Panel

Your Control Panel can be accessed at http://instahost.co.uk/login. Use the username and password given to you in your signup email to log in. 
 

Uploading your site to our servers

Your first step in transferring your website(s) over to our servers is to upload the files themselves. If you do not keep an offline version of your website, download your website to your computer via FTP - if you do not know how to do this, contact your current web-host. Then, log in to your control panel as described above and click on FTP Manager if you are familiar with FTP, or File Manager if not. If you use file manager, you just select the files and folders from your site and upload them to our servers. If you choose FTP, use the settings given to you in the FTP Manager in your favourite FTP programme to upload your files.

Transferring your site to our servers

Once the files have been uploaded, you need to tell your domain registrar (from whom you rent your domain name - www.yourcompany.com) to link to our servers rather than those of your old webhost. To do this log on to the website from which you bought your domain name, and change the Nameservers to ns.mainnameserver.com and ns2.mainnameserver.com. If you have any problems with this, contact the registrar or contact us at http://www.instasupport.co.uk for further help.

All being well, your site will now start to load from our servers rather than those of your old webhost. This process takes 24-48 hours, so wait 48 hours before telling your old web-host to cancel your account. That's it - your site is now transferred!

Setting up your email

Email is set up via the 'Email Configuration' icon in Control Panel. From here, you can set up your mail accounts, forwarding accounts, and even set up Outlook Express or similar programs to receive and send your mail automatically. If you want to set up mail automatically, use the following settings:
 

  • IMAP/POP Server: mail.yourdomain.co.uk
  • IMAP/POP Server: mail.yourdomain.co.uk
  • Username: emailaddress@yourdomain.co.uk
  • Password: the password you set up in Control Panel.

Adding New Domains

If you would like to take advantage of the extra domains included with our Standard and Advanced accounts, see below to decide which type of domain you need.

  • Mapped Domains are domains which link to another website already stored on our servers. To set up a mapped domain, make sure the registrar settings for the domain are altered as described in 'transferring your site to our servers' above, and then drop us an email with the name of the new domain. Allow 24-48 for the transfer to take place.
  • Subdomains such as subdomain.yourdomain.co.uk can be added by clicking 'Subdomains' in the control panel. Enter the site details, making sure that your registrar settings are correct, and allow 24-48 hours for the subdomain to appear.
Subdomains can be set up instantly via 'Web Tools' in control panel. For Add-On and mapped domains, visit http://www.instahost.co.uk/adddomains to add them to your account.

Transferring UK domains to INSTA Host

Transferring your UK domains to INSTA host is simple if you follow the guidelines in this FAQ.

1. In the control panel of your current registrar, change the IPSTag of the domain to EXTEND
2. Log into your control panel and select Domain Transfer
3. Enter the domain you want to transfer to INSTAhost  and Checkout

Transferring Global (.com, .net etc.) domains to INSTA host

Before you start the transfer you must ensure that the current administration contact email address is valid and that the person receiving email at that address knows that they must respond to emails about the transfer. You can view the contact details at http://whois.domaintools.com/yourdomain.com (change yourdomain.com to your domain name). The domain name must also be unlocked with the current registrar. You can check this information with your current registrar.

1. Go to http://instahost.co.uk/domain-needed (will open in new window).
2. Enter the domain name that you want to transfer to INSTA host, select transfer and checkout.
3. The administration contact will receive an email from OpenSRS with instructions on how to confirm the transfer.
4. Once confirmed it will take only 24 HOURS to become active if you are transferring from 123-reg or UKREG. With other providers it may take up to seven days.
5. You may also receive another email from the current registrar, if you do you should read this very carefully as it may contain instructions for you to authorise the transfer away from them