Servers run on CentOS Linux.

We setup hosting accounts within an hour upon notice of payment and required information. Special requests will be setup within 48 hours. Once your account is activated, you will receive a welcome email with all your information.

Note: You must already have a domain registered before we can setup your hosting account. KDWHD is not responsible for any downtime or loss due to expired domain registrations.

Generally it takes 24 to 72 hours for your domain to point to your new hosting account.

In most cases, you normally do not have to change your domain name. However, if you are transferring from a hosted site that provides your domain name for your Website, you may not own that domain and may have to purchase a new one.

Registering a domain name is very easy. First you will have to make sure that the domain you want is available using something called a WHOIS lookup at sites like Register.com or Whois. Afterwards, you simply need to visit a registration site such as www.hostgator.com (recommended) or www.godaddy.com to purchase your domain name.

Domain propagation is the process of your registrar handing off the changes to your domain to ISPs, ISPs to other ISPs and so on until you see the changes reflect on your computer with your internet service provider. Some service providers update their records more often than others and receive changes faster. As a result of this, often you will not be able to get to your Website by its’ domain name but a friend can. Simply wait out until the changes propagate to your ISP. In the meantime we provide you an IP and temporary address in your welcome email which allow you to start working on your site immediately!

Generally it takes 24 to 72 hours for your domain to point to your new hosting account.

Yes, We provide you a temporary URL in your welcome email, which can be used to view your site when your domain name is not working. Example: http://ipaddress/~yourusername/. We also provide you a temporary URL in your welcome email, which can be used to manage your hosting when your domain name is not working. Example: http://ipaddress/cpanel.

1) Sign up for one of our hosting plans. Make sure not to cancel with your old hosting provider, and do not tell them you will be canceling.

2) Upload your current site from the old hosting account to your new hosting account. This can be done by FTP or through your cPanel.

3) After you have all your files on the new hosting account you will change your Domain Name Servers (DNS). You will receive the new Domain Name Servers in your welcome email. The DNS usually looks like this:

ns1.thehostsnames.com
ns2.thehostsnames.com

You need to go to your registrar (where you registered your domain name) and modify the DNS. If you can not change the DNS yourself, you will need to ask them to make the DNS changes for you. You will tell them this … ‘Hello my domain with you is ____ my username is ___ and my password _____ please change my domain names dns to ns1.thednsyoureceived.com and ns2.thednsyoureceived.com.

4) Once your DNS changes have been made you will need to wait 24 to 72 hours before your site will be visible on the new host. During this three day period your DNS is propagating world wide, and your site will be bouncing from the old host to the new host every other minute randomly. Once the three days is up your site will only be loading off the new host. You should now contact your old host and cancel your account with them.

We will transfer Websites that do not contain any databases for free. If your Website contains a database, such as a WordPress site, we will have to look at the site and give you a quote for the transfer. Not all sites can be transferred and neither free or paid transfers carry any guarantee. The majority of transfers are completed in less than 24 hours, however, due to the nature of some transfers and depending on how many are currently in the queue, it could take up to 72 hours or more before everything is completed. Do NOT cancel your old hosting account until you have changed DNS and thoroughly inspected your site to ensure everything was transferred properly. Please use our contact form to start the request process.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral. SSL is an industry standard and is used by millions of Websites in the protection of their online transactions with their customers. It protects many things such as credit card information, sensitive account information, and other personally-identifiable information. Without it, customers might go elsewhere, reluctant to release personal information to a non-secure Website.

A Shared SSL, is a SSL used by other servers. This is usually given to all hosting accounts as a free service. These SSL’s share the same security certificates. The certificates are shared meaning that you do not own your own individual certificate nor will you be considered the sole owner of it. In many cases, when a visitor arrives on your site the browser will show the SSL verification and seal to verify your site is secure.

A shared SSL, provides your web host name as the owner of that certificate, thus creating ‘popups’ to occur on the secure pages to inform and request the visitor to proceed with adding secure information on your site or not. What is provided in that popup is information with your web host as the SSL certificate and if a customer doesn’t recognize the name of your host, or it confuses them, they will most often leave the site. This is the inherit danger with using shared SSL, although it is free.

If your offering payments off site such as Google Checkout or PayPal, these pop ups do not normally occur on your site. Sensitive financial information is not actually placed on your site. However, you will still be sharing a SSL for other information that can be compromised including customers names, address, phone numbers and emails.

Positive SSLs only authenticate the domain name and has a static site seal. These SSLs usually run around $75 a year and also require a dedicated IP. A Positive SSL is usually sufficient to meet the requirements of most payment gateways.

Private SSL are privately owned, autheticates your domain’s WHOIS information and has an interactive seal. You usually need to buy a security certificate in order to have your private SSL. With a private SSL you are the original certificate holder, and your company name and identification will be shown instead of a hosted company name you share a certificate with. Your visitors will also not see or experience the pop ups asking them if they wish to trust your site or not or providing info to them stating that your site may not be secure. These SSLs usually run around $200 a year and also require a dedicated IP.

Yes in most cases all certificates you purchase from other companies are transferable to new host. You will not be able to change the domain on the certificate, therefore you can transfer the certificate for use with the original domain assigned to it. We do charge a $50 fee for installation of your existing certificates to our host and an additional monthly charge on your hosting of $3 for the separate secure IP address required to host the certificate. Once we install your certificate, you will still need to stay in contact with the original company you purchase it from for updates and billing. We can install it but it is still not issued through us so we are not able to do the billing and upkeep for you.

If you planning to use SSL on your site, then you will need a dedicated IP. A dedicated IP (Internet Protocol) is a unique Internet address dedicated exclusively to a single hosting account. Normally, several hosting accounts reside on a single server and share that server’s IP address. Most shared hosting users have no particular need for a dedicated IP address. KD Web Hosting & Design Solutions only offers dedicated IPs for accounts that use SSLs on their sites.

Yes. You can purchase both right from our site.

Disk space is the size your Website can be. Every single letter on your Website has to be stored somewhere on your web host’s server. Each letter is one byte, and a megabyte is roughly one million bytes. HTML pages are usually very small, but it is the extra images, scripts, and even databases that can take up large amounts of disk space. Bandwidth/Transfer is the amount of data the server will allow your site to send in a month. Transfer is usually measured in gigabytes – billions of bytes.

There is no way to determine the number of Websites you can host on your account. The number will depend on the disk space each site uses, including emails and databases.

There is no way to determine the maximum number of visitors your site can sustain. Each site is different and the amount of traffic you can handle will depend on the resources each visitor is using.

We do not allow any sites that infringe upon any copyright/trademark, hateful/racist/harassment oriented sites, porn sites, hacker focused sites or sites promoting illegal activities. As long as you can upload the install files to your root directory for the program to work, yes. Programs that need to be installed on the server are not supported. For more information, we recommend reading our Terms of Use.

Nope. Accounts may not be used for backup purposes of files not related to your website. ie: MP3s, videos.

Uploading your website can be done in many ways, but the most popular is FTP. You will also be able to upload your files through your cPanel. You can find a few recommended FTP clients on our Resource page.

You are responsible for your backups and Web content so it is very important that you maintain your own backups.

You are offered several choices of webmail programs through your cPanel. You can pick whichever one you are most familiar with, or the one you learn to like over time.

Incoming mail server (POP): mail.yourdomain.com
Incoming mail port: 110 for POP3, 143 for IMAP
Use secure connection: no.
Outgoing mail server (SMTP): mail.yourdomain.com
Outgoing mail port: 25 (If 25 does not work, try 26, as some ISPs block port 25)
Use secure connection: no.
Username is the same one as you use for webmail (the full email address). If entering ‘username@yourdomainname.com’ does not work, try ‘username+yourdomainname.com’.

1. Open Outlook Express.

2. In the top menu, click Tools.

3. Click the Accounts link.

4. Select the Mail tab.

5. Click the Add button.

6. Click Mail.

7. In the Display Name field, type any name you wish to associate with this email. This is only for aesthetic purposes. It doesn’t matter what name you use in this field.

8. Click the Next button.

9. In the field to the right of E-mail Address, type the full email address including the domain name.

10. Click the Next button.

11. For the Incoming and Outgoing servers, put mail.yourdomin.com.

12. Click the Next button.

13. For the Account Name, type the full email address (including the domain name).

14. In the Password section, type the password for the email.

15. Click the Next button.

16. Click the Finish button.

17. You should still see the Mail tab, so click the Properties button.

18. Select the Servers tab.

19. Check the box at the bottom which says ‘My server requires authentication’.

20. Select the Advanced tab.

21. At the top you will see ‘Server Port Numbers’ and ‘Outgoing mail (SMTP)’ with a value of 25. You need to change this to port 26 if you are not able to send emails using 25.

22. Click the Apply button, OK button, and the Close button.

23. Now you can test your email.

1. Open Thunderbird.

2. In the top menu, click Tools and select Account Settings.

3. Set up your outgoing mail server by selecting Outgoing Server (SMTP) in the left column.

4. Click on ‘Add”.

5. Description: Generic name for account.

6. Server Name: mail.yourdomain.com.

7. Port: 25 (If 25 does not work, try 26, as some ISPs block port 25).

8. Select Username and Password: enter your full email address.

9. Use secure connection: no.

10. Click ‘OK’.

11. Click on ‘Add Account’.

12. Select ‘Email Account’ and click ‘Next’.

13. Enter your name and your email address. Click ‘Next’.

14. Select ‘POP’, enter your Incoming Server: mail.yourdomain.com. Click ‘Next’.

15. Incoming User Name: enter your full email address. Click ‘Next’.

16. Account Name: enter the name you would like to call this account. Click ‘Next’.

17. Click ‘Finish’.

18. In the left column select your account and make sure you have select the correct Outgoing Server (SMTP) if you have more than one Outgoing Server available.

19. Click on ‘Server Settings’ under your account name and check settings.

20. You can now test your email.

If you are sure your settings are correct and still not able to send email this usually means your internet provider is blocking you from using anyone’s outgoing mail servers but their own. Many major ISPs are blocking outgoing emails to prevent their internet connection from being used for spam. In order to work around this issue, we have opened Port 26. Please change the outgoing mail (SMTP) from the default Port 25 to Port 26. If you use Outlook, please be sure that you select the option for ‘Outgoing SMTP Server Requires Authentication’ and check to use your login/password.

Either your domain is over quota, or your email address itself is over quota. You will need to increase the amount of disk space to receive mail again. Sign into your cPanel and look in the left menu for Disk Space Available. Make sure this is a positive number. Then click the Email Accounts icon. Check the column that says Usage, and make sure it is not higher than the Quota. How can the email go over quota? The last message may have been large, or the quota may have been decreased while the email account was at its current size. Also, if you have not checked ‘remove email from server’ when setting your email account up in your email client, the messages will have to be manually removed from your server.

It is your responsibility to ensure the email address on file is current and up to date at all times. If there is ever an abuse issue or we need to contact you, the primary email address on file will be used for this purpose.

Updating Your Contact Information

To cancel your account, please use our contact form and supply us with your domain name and request for cancellation. You will receive an email confirming we have your request. Once you know we have your request, please allow us 48 hours to verify your identity and close your account. Your account will remain active until you receive our second email confirming you were canceled successfully. We do refund a pro-rated amount for yearly hosting plans when you have not used the time for which you paid.