At Conquest Hosting we want to make getting your web site up and running as easy as possible. So we have prepared this step by step guide to help you out. If at any time you need help please contact us. We will be more than happy to help.

There are a few things you need to get your site up and running...a domain name, a web site and a place to put your web site. We provide all of the tools to make this happen. Through Conquest Hosting you can register your domain name, use our site building tools to develop your web site and then publish your site to any of our hosting plans. Here are some more details:

Registering a Domain Name

Domain names are the easiest way for people to find your web site on the internet. You just need to find one that is available and purchase it for your own site. Just go to our domain name registration area and see if your domain name is available. Once you find the right one fill out the information and register. It is that easy!

Signing Up For a Hosting Plan

Signing up for a hosting plan is quick and easy. Review our hosting plans and fill out the secure form. Once you complete the ordering process, you will receive an email within 10 minutes that will include your user name and password. The email will be sent to the 2 addresses you specified on the form. It's important to give e-mail addresses that you currently use, and not e-mail addresses you plan to use once you set up your account. The information contained within our "Welcome Letter" will allow you to access your Control Panel and upload your web site should you already have it designed. Also, you will be able to setup your email accounts, load FrontPage extensions and load the different programs that we provide (Web Calendar, Shopping Cart, etc.).
Something to keep in mind is your domain name will take about 24 to 48 hours to be seen by (propagate) everyone on the internet. In the interim, the access information from the Welcome Letter will work, and continue to work after the domain does finish propagating. This also effects e-mail, so do not expect everyone to be able to send you e-mail to your accounts until 24-48 hours have passed.

Designing a Site

Your website can be designed with most any kind of web development software available. If you have created or plan to create your site in Microsoft FrontPage, you will first need to log into your Control Panel and turn on the FrontPage extensions. Once these are on, you can upload your site and modify it right through FrontPage. If you are using any other design package, it's better to keep the extensions off. Many of the more feature rich programs have built-in ways to upload your web page files to our servers. For some, you may need to get what is called an "FTP" or "File Transfer Protocol" program. These programs provide a means to move your files to and from our servers. There are a few to choose from:

CuteFTP and AceFTP

Using Our Web Site Building Tools

Conquest Hosting offers numerous web site building tools. Our newest site builder is SiteXpress 2.0. SiteXpress 2.0 is a unique site builder that has 300 templates to choice from with interchangeable images. 

Click here to sign up for a 30 day trial SiteXpress account or once you sign up for a hosting plan you can install it from your control panel.

Setting Up Email

You will need to set-up your email accounts on our servers in order to receive mail. Email accounts are setup through the “Mail Manager” icon in your account’s Control Panel. You may specify a name for the account and a password. Repeat this process until you have all your email accounts set up. Some changes may need to be made to the settings in your email software to read mail from our servers. You can also setup aliases, auto-responders and many more options through your Mail Manager.

Transferring Your Existing Site to Our Servers

Looking for a new web host? This quick guide will layout the steps you need to take to get your website up and running on your new host. This guide is for people who are currently hosting elsewhere and have their own domain names already registered. It is intended to minimize downtime for a site. The change of DNS information can be done at any time if you are not concerned with downtime for the site.

Sign Up - Ordering online is quick and easy. Just go to our secure form and fill out the required information. Once you complete the ordering process, you will receive an e-mail with our "Welcome Letter" to the 2 addresses you specified on the form within 10 minutes. It is important to give e-mail addresses that you currently use, and not e-mail addresses you plan to use once you set up your account. Please note that it is very important that one of these addresses NOT be at the domain you are currently setting up, even if you currently have e-mail on other servers. Our e-mail system checks our local accounts first before sending mail, even if the DNS information points elsewhere. E-mail would then be sent to our local account of the same name before going to the account to which the DNS information points. In most cases people will use a hotmail or Yahoo account for this purpose.

Uploading Your Files - Once your account is setup you can upload your web site to our servers. You may have your site saved on your local computer or you may have to download your current site locally and then upload it to our servers. To accomplish this you may need an FTP or "File Transfer Protocol" program that will allow you to move information from your local machine to your host servers. There are a few to choose from:

CuteFTP and AceFTP

Make sure you have uploaded and tested your new account to be certain it is working the way you want before proceeding changing your DNS settings. Also, recreate any e-mail addresses you were using at your previous host through the Mail Manager icon in your site's Control Panel.

Changing Your Domain Name Server Information - To change your DNS settings you will need to know who your registrar is, and, if the registrar requires it, have account log-in information in order to modify information about your domain name.

What needs to be changed is the "name server" information. This is basically the information that tells browsers reading the internet where to find a website when someone types the domain name in or follows a link to the domain name. Conquest Hosting's name server information is as follows:

Primary Server Hostname: NS.CONQUESTHOSTING.NET
Primary Server Netaddress: 65.109.200.83
Secondary Server Hostname: NS2.CONQUESTHOSTING.NET
Secondary Server Netaddress: 65.109.200.147

Many registrars will only require the hostnames, but some will also want the netaddresses. Replace any existing name server information with Conquest Hosting's in order to point the site to us. The exact procedure for doing this will vary from registrar to registrar, and if you have any specific questions, you will need to contact your individual registrar.

Name server information changes take about 24-48 hours to propagate. During this period, both old and new sites need to be active so that a version of the site is available from any location. This will avoid any unnecessary downtime. After 48 hours, virtually everyone should be going to the new host. This same period applies to e-mail as well. You will probably receive mail to both old and new accounts during this period.

Cancel Your Old Account - Once everything is going to your new account, you can cancel the old one. Changing name server information and setting up a new hosting account will not automatically cancel any existing accounts at other hosts. The best thing to do is contact the hosting company and cancel so they do not keep billing you.