FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

WEB TRENDS
1. What is WebTrends?
2. Why was my WebTrends report not emailed to me?
3. How do I get demographics on my WebTrends Reports?

MISCELLANEOUS
4. How do I transfer my domain?
5. Why does it take so long for my new domain information to propogate throughout the internet?
6. Where do I administer my site?
7. How do I publish a Web site?
8. What are SonicInet's nameservers?
9. Does the server have a global.asa file?

1- What is WebTrends?

Solution: Sure, you have a Web site. But how effective is it? Wouldn't you like to see how many people have accessed your site, from where, and how often? The WebTrends™! report offers an easy way to read the log file that holds this valuable information about your site.

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2- I requested that my WebTrend report be emailed to me, but I didn't get it. What's going on?

Solution: There may be several reports generated by your single request (if you specified a daily and weekly breakdown) and each report will take about 1MB. So it is possible that your report will be over 10MB total. Since most mail providers have a maximum limit of 2MB to 5MB for a single email message, your mail provider will reject the emailed report if it exceeds this size limit.

To avoid this scenario, request that the reports be put on your Web server.

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3- Why can’t I see demographic information on my WebTrends reports?

Description: I would like to receive demographical information on my WebTrends reports. Specifically, I'd like to see information regarding origin of visitor, whether they are International or from the United States. I see a tab on my report that looks like it contains this information, but it displays all demographical information as "Unknown Origin". How do I get this data?

Solution: The demographical information is determined by the hostname of the visitor. In order to obtain the hostnames to calculate demographical information, DNS Lookups must be enabled. To enable DNS lookups, submit your WebTrends report requests at by logging on to your administrative control panel at www.example.com/admin/, where “example.com” is replaced with your actual domain name. Be sure to click the radio button to enable DNS lookups, as it is disabled by default.

With the information obtained from the DNS lookups, your WebTrends reports will contain better demographical data. However, it is a time-consuming process to resolve the IP into hostname, and gather demographic information by hostname, so it may require more time to complete your reports if this option is enabled. We recommend that you disable DNS lookups if your log files are larger then 100MB and if you want to receive the reports within 4 hours.

To request a WebTrends report, log on to your administrative control panel at www.example.com/admin/ (where "example.com" is replaced with your actual domain name. The WebTrends feature is usually located under Account Report. If you need specific instructions on filling out the request form at this location, see the article What is WebTrends?. Please be aware that customers on other SonicInet hosting plans may not have access to this feature.

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4- How Do I Transfer My Domain?

Your new Web site will be hosted in our state-of-the-art data facility, where our DNS servers have the stability and reliability your business needs to compete and grow.

In order for your domain name to point to your new site, you must notify your domain registrar that your domain name needs to be pointed to the SonicInet name servers listed below. Please allow your registrar time to update their systems (usually about 72 hours), and allow time for the information to propagate throughout the global Internet, which may take up to 7 days.

Use the following SonicInet name servers:

Some domain registrars do not require the numeric IP addresses of the name servers; in such a case, you only need enter the name of the name server, as in “DNS1.REGISTEREDSITE.COM”.

To request the transfer follow the instructions on your registrar's website. Typically, you must login to your account at the registrar to make the change.

If you are pointing your domain to SonicInet, you must notify us. SonicInet’s part of the domain-pointing process is to create a zone file that allows our name servers to recognize your domain. When you ordered your Web hosting account, you probably notified us that you would be transferring a domain to us. If so, you don’t need to let us know again. If not, you should e-mail us at support@sonicinet.com notifying us of the domain you will be pointing to SonicInet’s name servers.

If you are unsure of who is your domain registrar, you may go to www.nsiregistry.com http://www.nsiregistry.com/ and use the 'Search WHOIS' function. Simply enter your domain name and the 'WHOIS' output will display your domain registrar.

While we have provided this information to ease your DNS transition to our name servers, SonicInet is not responsible for the content listed in these steps, as we are not the authoritative source of this information. If you have further questions with this process you will need to contact the respective domain registrar.

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5- Why do I have to wait for my domain name to propagate throughout the Internet?

Solution: Once you register a new domain or transfer an existing one, you must let your domain registrar (the company with whom you registered your domain) know where your site will be residing so they know where to point your domain. You do this by providing your registrar with your Web host’s name server information

The Internet is a worldwide network, and is not based on one central computer. Therefore, when your registrar sends out the information that your domain needs to point to a new server, it takes several days for this information to spread to all the computers on the Internet, all over the world. Once all computers on the Internet “realize” the name servers and Web site to which your domain is now pointing, propagation is complete.

This process is not controlled by your domain registrar, your Web host, or any other single factor. The fact that it is not a centralized process may contribute to the amount of time it takes to occur.

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6- Where do I go to perform administrative functions? Where do I learn how to use my administrative interface?

Solution: SonicInet customers can log on to their administrative interfaces at www.example.com/admin/, where "example.com" is replaced with your actual domain name. (Log on with your user name and password.) Complete instructions on using your administrative interface will be found on the administration page for your domain.

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7- Where Can I Find Information on Publishing a Web Site?

Solution: Please refer to the help section in the web design software you are using for detailed instructions on how to publish your website. You may also upload your files using an fTP program, if you have already created them.

Some of the most common programs are listed here:

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8- What are SonicInet's nameservers?

Solution: To ensure thta you are using the correct DNS information, please email us at support@sonicinet.com with your domain name and we will provide you with the correct nameservers for your account.

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9- Does the server running my Web site have a global.asa file that sets certain configuration defaults for Active Server Page scripts?

If so, where is it on the server, and can you tell me what is inside the global.asa file?

Solution: There is no global.asa file set for the global settings on the server. However, you can add your own global.asa file to your Web site that you can use to establish connections, set variables, session timeouts, etc.

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