Knowledgebase

Welcome to Stratus Hosts!

Congratulations on signing up for a shared web hosting account with us.

Step 1: Determine Your Needs

Getting started with your web hosting account is not complicated. The first step is determine what you need to do.

Step 2: Uploading Your Web Site

You can begin uploading to your account now by using an FTP Client or cPanel's File Manager.

• If you are using an FTP client, put in your site's IP address under the "FTP address" field. Use the username and password sent to you in your welcome email. FTP always runs on Port 21.
• Once your FTP is connected, go into the "public_html" folder and begin uploading your site. To replace the default place holder page, you must upload an index.html in all lowercase lettering or delete the page and replace it with your own index page.
• Please note that by default, you do not have an email address setup with HostGator. You will need to configure this yourself in cPanel (link below).

Step 3: Change Your DNS

In order to get your web site working, you must change your name servers. This is an easy, but necessary step you must follow to get started.

• If you registered your domain name with Stratus Hosts during signup, we have taken care of this step for you.
• If you have registered your domain name with another company (i. e. GoDaddy, NameCheap, etc.), you must follow the steps outlined on this page (http://www.stratushosts.com/dns.php).

Once your DNS changes have been made, it takes roughly 24-48 hours for your web site to start resolving to Stratus Hosts servers. To avoid downtime during the move, please read our moving page. If it takes longer than two days for your web site to start working, please contact our support team.

Step 4: Note These Useful Links

"Before propagation" as it is defined below is the point between when you sign up and when the changes to your name servers take effect (usually about 24 hours after you change your name servers).

• "After propagation" is once your site is up and running normally.
• During propagation you should use the "Before propagation" format.

Be sure to replace the information in red with the information from your welcome email.

Step 5: Get More From Your Hosting Account

Step 6: Get Help

Stratus Hosts is here in case you ever have any questions. Our team of customer service representatives, server administrators, and sales professionals are here to support you and your hosting needs.

Looking for immediate answers? Check out our informative and useful video tutorials and video tours of some of our most popular features.

When to use ticket support:
If you feel your issue is more complicated and more technical than an average question, we suggest that you log into our Customer Support Portal and Submit a Ticket, email our support team at support@stratusbusinesssolutions.com.

Immediately after you email our support team, you will receive an email confirming we have received your email and that the issue has been placed in our 24/7 support queue. If you do not receive this email, we did not receive your support ticket.

Our best administrators work in our ticket system all the time. It is the best place to go to get your complicated issues resolved in a timely manner.

We do have a few suggestions for using our ticket system, though:

1. Only submit one ticket per issue. If you submit multiple tickets for the same issue, it actually slows down the support process.
2. Always be sure to include your primary domain name, username, and as much detail as possible. If a login or URL is needed to duplicate the problem, please include that as well. The more detail you provide to our administrators, the faster they can resolve your issue.

When to use phone support:
We are available over the phone, our phone support representatives can address most of your basic issues and concerns. The most complicated issues will require a support ticket to be submitted.

Step 7: Manage Your Billing

You will be billed automatically for your web hosting on the appropriate date after your purchase was completed (i. e. if you pay monthly, you will be billed monthly on the day of the month that you signed up). Please ensure that you have an updated credit card on file. If your bill is not paid in a timely manner, your service may be interrupted.

To manage your billing, including to update your credit card, view invoices, change your primary email address, cancel, upgrade, update information, get SSL certificates, IP addresses, or anything else related to billing or hosting, please go to our Customer Service Portal and submit a ticket.