Website FAQ

Why do I need a website?
It is an advertisement for the whole world to see your business and a method of presenting your goods and services. It provides a means for people to find out more about what your business offers and provides information about location and ways in which they can contact you.

How do I order my website?
Call us now on 01495 717115 and ask for an information pack. This will tell you everything you need to know about how to order the website you want. If you already have an information pack, you will need to fill in the contract provided and send it back to us using the pre-paid envelope. We will then send you out an artwork sheet(s) which you can use to fill in all the details about your business that you want to be displayed on your website. We recommend that you take this opportunity to send us photos (as high resolution as possible), brochures or anything else you may think is relevant for your new website.

We will use the information and resources you provide us with to design and construct your website. You will receive a online proof to approve the design and content upon completion of the website, and amendments can be made at this stage if deemed necessary.

Do I receive an email account?
Yes, you will get eMail accounts with our hosting package that you choose or is designated for your site. A Basic Hosting package which you will get free for one year with your website package allows you to have up to 500 eMail accounts.

Do I have to pay for the domain name?
No. This is included within the website package price stated.

I already have a domain name, are you able to use it?
Yes, this shouldn't be a problem. You will still receive your free domain name from us - this will make it possible for your existing domain name to link to your website on our server. If you want us to host your website, you will need to redirect your existing domain name to point to your new website on our server.

As only you have access to your existing domain name, (i.e. username and password), you may be required to contact your domain name provider to redirect your domain name. Some domain name providers have a control panel that will allow you to manually redirect your domain name, in which case, you are able to carry out the action yourself.

How much will it cost to make changes to my website?
Once your website has been approved and made live on the Internet, you will be charged for changes. The fee incurred will depend upon the changes you require and the amount of work required. We charge £5 for a simple amend (for example, one picture change, or a small change to text content). Thereafter, you will be charged at a rate of £10 per every half hour, so if you require extensive changes to your website, and it takes our designers a duration of 2 hours to complete those changes, it will be 4 x £10 = £40.

Judgment of the extent of work required for your particular change(s) and the estimated duration will be at the discretion of Griffin Internet Computing Web Design and the designer involved in the construction of your website.

How do I make a change to my website?
You can use any of the methods of contact on my Contacts page to send your instructions for changes. The preferred methods by our customers is eMailing instructions of changes that are needed to be made. I will need to then assess the amount of work that is required for your specific change(s) to give you a quote on charges to be incurred.

What happens after my 1 year hosting is up?
When your year's free hosting is up, you will receive an offer from us to renew your website hosting for another year - Our Basic Hosting package is currently £35 for 1 year. You may choose not to take up our offer, but if you wish to keep your domain name registered by us, you will need to arrange with us to redirect your DNS to your new server or Complete a TAG change (£50), to direct your Domain name to your new server.

Will search engines be able to find my website?
Your website will be manually submitted to major search engines such as Google and Yahoo. This will enable the search engines to locate your website. However, as we do not have control over search engines, we cannot guarantee a prominent position in the listings - this can only be achieved through Search Engine Optimisation, a complex, costly and time consuming process and is therefore not currently a service that Griffin Internet Computing offers at this moment in time.

Having said that, during the design of your site, the insertion of keywords, and other techniques will be used to make your site more easily found by search engines so your site may naturally progress to a more favourable position in listings after a few months of being live.

Instead of paying the costs in three payments, can I pay it all in one payment?
Yes.

If I buy a website from you do I own it? Will I get to keep it if I want to change hosts?
Yes. Once the website is completed and fully paid for, it is yours. If you want to host your website elsewhere after a year, you can do so.

Hosting FAQ

What are the setup fees?
G.I.C do not charge a setup fee. It is all done Free of charges.

How am I billed?
G.I.C invoices you via email. You can request a monthly statement via email as well, at any time. Hard copy invoices can be mailed for those people that request such. Your payment will automatically be sent from your Paypal account to our account at the correct time, i.e. every month or every year.

Are there any hidden costs?
No. All costs are stated plainly on our website. We do not hide fees in fine print, or in our terms of service pages. The only costs that are commonly found to occur beyond your expected flat monthly rates per service, are those due to increased disk space or bandwidth usage. Pricing for such is plainly stated on our website. G.I.C very often will allow you to upgrade your packages to the next size up, should you see an increase in disk space levels or bandwidth usage for the current month, and not want to pay for such additional usage. Disk space usage and availability, as well as estimated bandwidth usage, is available to you in the majority of the control panel versions included with the hosting packages.

Is there a discount if I pay several months in advance?
offers 2 months free for all yearly advanced payments. Pay for 10 months of service, and receive 2 months free.

How is extra bandwidth billed?
G.I.C maintains software on every server and on the switches to monitor individual website usage and server-wide usage. Bandwidth is billed per Gigabyte (GB) over your monthly allocation, rounded up to the nearest Gigabyte. Usually between the 3rd and 5th of the month you will receive your bandwidth overage billing, if applicable, for the preceding month's usage.

Does my website have it's own IP number or is it shared?
This depends on the type of hosting packages you order. Traditionally all G.I.C hosting packages come with a shared IP address. Please contact us if you would like more information on dedicated IP's.

How is my website monitored?
G.I.C maintains internal and external monitoring systems for every server in the G.I.C Data Centre. The servers are checked every 5 minutes via network monitoring software. G.I.C monitors uptime as well as individual features and services running on each server. G.I.C staff is notified via alarms, email, screen pop ups, and paging, if a problem occurs.

What if the server my website's on is hacked or attacked?
Individually hacked websites are rare. If such occurs, usually they are a target for a reason; hate sites, pirated software, etc... G.I.C does not host such websites. If such material is found on a G.I.C server, it is deleted immediately and the user's account cancelled. Usually the target is the whole server itself. Hackers usually go after a server just to say that "they did", or to use the server to bounce off of to hack something more important. Rarely are any users' files on the server damaged, erased, or modified. For this reason, once a hacker is detected, a server can usually be cleaned up and the hacker locked back out within a matter of hours. At that time the server is restored to full security levels, as if the hack has never occurred. Most hackers get into a system through valid user accounts. We recommend you use complicated passwords for your account. G.I.C strictly reviews all orders for new clients, to make sure they are legitimate. Unfortunately, some fake orders do get thru the system, and that is one way a hacker can gain initial access. G.I.C runs security checks on the servers daily, so even if a hacker does get in, they are found and dealt with quickly. Most hackers are not malicious, they are just playing or testing their abilities. If an individual attacks the whole G.I.C Data Centre, measures are in place to cut off such floods and attacks automatically at the backbone level and the router level. G.I.C also uses firewall technology to fend off most common methods of flooding and attacks to the network.

Can I have adult content on my website?
G.I.C does not host adult sites. Please contact us before placing your order if you believe your site may fall into this category.