Smart Servers General and Billing FAQs
If you have a question that has not been answered here you can also consult the Knowledge Base.
If you need advice or assistance with any sales, service or support related query or issue you can contact us via email at service@smartservers.com or complete and submit our online contact form.
| ANSWERS: General Product and Pre-sales FAQs | |
| How long will it take to set up my service? | [Top] |
| Depending on the type of server or system ordered and any special requests or non-standard installations that may be required you can expect to be in receipt of your login and configuration details within 1-6 hours. Other factors that can influence the setup time are completeness of your order and in particular whether valid and verifiable contact details have been provided. | |
| Are there any setup fees involved? | [Top] |
| There are no setup fees involved for any of our services unless you need to have non-standard software installed or have special installation or configuration requirements. | |
| Is there a Free Trial period available? | [Top] |
| Yes, no matter what the type or level of service you sign up for the first 30 days is always free. After that, if you are not satisfied with your new service for any reason there is no obligation to continue and no payment is due or expected. | |
| Do you have a Reseller / Partner program? | [Top] |
| Smart Servers is one of the longest established complex hosting providers specializing in the support of ISP's, Web Hosting Resellers, VARs, MSPs and other Internet professionals worldwide who partner with us and take advantage of the many benefits that have made us a leading provider of Virtual Cloud and Dedicated Server hosting and Cloud based Virtual Data Center services. For more information see our Reseller / Partner Program Overview. | |
| Are there "white label" options available | [Top] |
| All Virtual Cloud and Dedicated Server solutions as well as the Virtual Data Centers systems offered by Smart Servers are fully brandable with your own logos and other company and brand related information allowing you to offer a comprehensive suite of hosting and server solutions to your current and future clients under your own brand. For more information see OEM & White Label Solutions. | |
| What levels of service & support are available? | [Top] |
| Smart Servers technical support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you have a technical support related question that has not been answered in the Smart Servers FAQs or Knowledge Base or related documentation for your server operating system or control panel or if you require technical support advice or assistance with any matter related to your service you can contact support via email at support@smartservers.com or complete and submit our online contact form. For more information on Smart Servers Technical Support and Service Options & Policies see our Technical Support Overview. | |
| How do I upgrade or downgrade my service? | [Top] |
| You can generally move between Virtual Cloud Servers, Dedicated and Virtual Data Center plans at any time without charge. If you need to upgrade or downgrade your service you can discuss available options by contacting Smart Servers sales by email at sales@smartservers.com or complete and submit our online contact form. | |
| Do you offer Hosted Microsoft Exchange, Sharepoint etc? | [Top] |
| At this time we do not offer hosted services such as Microsoft Exchange however you can host any such services yourself on one of our Virtual Cloud or dedicated servers or in one of our Virtual Data Center environments. | |
| Where will my server be located? | [Top] |
| Smart Servers operates out of a world class data center that is uniquely positioned at the very heart of the global Internet at 85 10th Avenue in New York City. The facility is a Class A Data Center that has been described as one of the most technically advanced and secure buildings in the country. For more information see our Data Center Overview. | |
| What is the SLA and Uptime Guarantee? | [Top] |
| Smart Servers offers a 100% Uptime Guarantee as per the terms of our Service Level Agreement. For more information see Smart Servers SLA. | |
| How do I know my data will be secure? | [Top] |
| Smart Servers takes data security very seriously. Our data security and privacy policies and procedures are among the most stringent and comprehensive in the industry. For more information see our Data Security Policy. | |
| How long has Smart Servers been in operation? | [Top] |
| Smart Servers is one of world's oldest and most experienced hosting providers having been pioneers at the forefront of the hosting industry since 1998 when we developed the first Virtual Cloud Server systems using FreeBSD. Our understanding of the market is based upon over 20 years as a provider and partner to ISPs, VARs. MSPs and Web Hosting Providers worldwide. For more information about Smart Servers see our Company Overview | |
| How is bandwidth usage calculated? | [Top] |
| All bandwidth allocations for a given Virtual Cloud Server, Dedicated Server, or Virtual Data Center are based upon the sum total of incoming and outgoing bandwidth usage. | |
| What if I exceed my bandwidth limit? | [Top] |
| We provide generous bandwidth allocations on all of our plans so customers rarely experience this issue however should you go over this limit any bandwidth usage exceeding the allocation for a given server or service plan will be billed at the rate of $0.10 per Gigabyte. Unlike other providers we do not automatically suspend your service if you go over your bandwidth allocation. | |
| Are IPv6 addresses available? | [Top] |
| Currently while there is a strong movement towards the adoption of IPv6 due to restricted supply of IPv4 address space available at the present time the utility of IPv6 is still limited even though IPv6 transition technologies that provide connectivity between IPv6 and IPv4 networks are in development. As the utility of and demand for IPv6 not well developed at the present time we do not currently offer IPv6 addresses with our services although there are plans to make these available in the near future. | |
| Are there any restrictions on content? | [Top] |
| The services provided by Smart Servers are generally intended for supporting professional business, government and organizational related web sites and their associated services and as such we prohibit the hosting of any material deemed to be in violation of any federal, state or local regulations including but not limited to such things as copyrighted material, material judged to be threatening or obscene, pornographic, profane, or material protected by trade secrets. For more information see our Terms of Service. | |
| ANSWERS: General Technical Support FAQs | |
| What is covered by the technical support service? | [Top] |
| Depending on the service Smart Servers handles all issues related to the network and server hardware aspect of the service including the proactive monitoring of critical systems associated with your Virtual Cloud Server, Dedicated Server or Virtual Data Center. For more information on Smart Servers Technical Support and Service Options & Policies see the Technical Support Overview. | |
| Is debugging or troubleshooting of software code etc available? | [Top] |
| Generally we do not provide installation, configuration or debugging services for third party script or software however if you need this type of service you can sign up for a Level 2 Managed Technical Support plan which includes up to 2 hours of server or operating system administration support per month for a reasonable free. You can also engage our Managed Technical Support Service on an "on demand" type basis as needed for a reasonable hourly rate ranging from $30-$50 per hour depending on the nature and technical complexity of the assistance required. | |
| What methods of access and control are available? | [Top] |
| Depending on the server type available access methods would include SSH, Telnet and FTP as well as various control panel systems such as Webmin, cPanel, Plesk etc. The Remote Desktop service would be available for Windows based Virtual Cloud Servers and Dedicated Servers and IPMI/VNC console access would be available for all Dedicated Smart Servers and all Virtual Machines supported in the Virtual Data Center Environments. Practically all control panel systems can be installed or made available if required. If you have questions or special requirements with respect to service access methods you can contact Smart Servers Technical Support by email at support@smartservers.com or complete and submit our online contact form. | |
| Is there any data migration advice or assistance available? | [Top] |
| Our expert server migration service is included free of charge for any servers that you migrate to your service with us, whether it be a single Virtual Cloud Server or Dedicated Server or multiple servers of any type migrated to one of our Virtual Data Centers. This service is offered on a "best efforts" basis and due to the wide ranging and complex nature of migration we cannot make any guarantees that a migration will be able to be carried out completely free of technical glitches however our technical support team has extensive experience in this area and will do their very best to ensure that all server migrations take place as smoothly and with as little in the way of service interruption as possible. | |
| Can I specify Reverse DNS for my IPs? | [Top] |
| The reverse DNS for all IP numbers is supported and controlled by our main DNS systems. To activate or change the reverse DNS for any IP address allocated to your service with us simply send request to support@smartservers.com with the details of the IP address and the host or domain name that it should be mapped to. | |
| Is any type of server or system monitoring included? | [Top] |
| Basic monitoring services are included free of charge with all servers. Our server monitoring system will monitor your server for connectivity via ping or a specific port or service (httpd, smtp etc) and our technical support will notify you by email if a problem is detected. There is also a 24/7 Rapid Response Monitoring available for an additional fee depending on the type of server and services involved. With the 24/7 Rapid Response Monitoring our technical support will respond and assist with server reboots and other urgent issues required to bring a non-responsive server back online as necessary on a 24/7 basis if you are unavailable or unable to attend to this yourself. | |
| Do you offer DDOS protection services? | [Top] |
| No. If you require this type of service due to potential risk of attacks we do not recommend the use of our services. | |
| What if my server is hacked, attacked or abused for Spam? | [Top] |
| Generally most cases of "hacking" or unauthorized access to a server or website are due to the exploitation of vulnerable PHP or other similar scripts and applications. Usually it is the most popular applications of this type which the subject of exploitation as these are given the most attention by "hackers" and other similar individuals and groups. We recommend you and your clients and users make an effort to ensure that scripts and applications potentially vulnerable to exploitation or abuse are kept up to date with the latest versions, security fixes and patches as necessary. If your server should be the subject of some form of abuse involving hacking, Spamming or other similar activity our monitoring systems will usually detect this and notify our technical support who will respond and deal with the activity as necessary. Our technical support will provide all reasonable assistance with stopping active abuse incidents and can usually advise and even assist with resolution of these types of incidents but it is your ultimate responsibility to see that your server is as secure as reasonably possible in order to prevent these forms of abuse from happening. | |
| What if I somehow break my server and can't access it? | [Top] |
| If you make a configuration mistake which has resulted in your being "locked out" or otherwise unable to access your server the Smart Servers technical support team can provide assistance with regaining access and fixing the configuration issue. Usually there are no charges involved for this service however this would depend on the potential difficulty of gaining access to some types of operating systems and whether you require this type of assistance on a frequent basis, in which case additional changes for the service may apply. | |
| Will Smart Servers handle my DNS and Email? | [Top] |
| Smart Servers can provide DNS service for your domains if required however practically all servers would have capabilities already installed and available for supporting email related services so you would generally handle these on your own server. One thing to be aware of with respect to email related services is that unlike many other providers Smart Servers does not force you to use our SMTP servers for outbound email relay so you will be able to use your own email servers to deliver your outgoing email without suffering potential delays or loss of email due to restrictions on this service imposed by some providers. | |
| Can I host Joomla, Wordpress, Magento etc? | [Top] |
| Yes, practically any type of script or application you see being hosted anywhere on the Internet can be hosted on a Virtual Cloud Server, Dedicated Server or Virtual Data Center. | |
| Why don't you offer Core i7 etc processors? | [Top] |
| Some providers offer these types of processors on their servers however these are desktop PC processors and not server processors and as such are not really suitable for the kinds of mission critical hosting and serving applications our customers require and depend on. We use Intel Xeon processors almost exclusively as these processors have been designed to deliver the scalability and reliability required by today's mission-critical computing environments. We also do not offer AMD processors at this time however systems using this processor may be made available in future. | |
| ANSWERS: Billing and Payment FAQs | |
| What payment options and methods are available? | [Top] |
| All usual payment methods are available including credit cards, bank wire transfer, check/money order or PayPal. | |
| Are there any contracts or minimum terms? | [Top] |
| There are no contracts to sign and no minimum commitment or contract term is required. You can cancel at any time with only 30 days notice. | |
| Do you offer a money back guarantee? | [Top] |
| All of our services are covered by a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. No matter what the type or level of service you sign up for the first 30 days is always free. After that, if you are not satisfied with your new service for any reason there is no obligation to continue and no payment is due or expected. | |
| Are there discounts available for pre-payment? | [Top] |
| Discounts are available for annual (yearly) and semi-annual (6 months) pre-payment. The discount for annual pre-payment is 15% and a 7% discount is available for semi-annual (6 months) pre-payment. Full details of the various payment options and methods will be included with your invoice. | |
| Are discounts available for Resellers? | [Top] |
| Yes, discounts are generally available for ISPs, Web Hosting Resellers, VARs, MSPs, IT Consultants and other Internet professionals. To receive more information on our Reseller / Partner opportunities, please complete and submit our Reseller / Partner Enquiry Form. | |
| How do I cancel my account? | [Top] |
| Simply send a message to accounts@smartservers.com or contact us by using our online contact form and let us know when you would like to cancel. | |
