Client News 8.29.16

A message to my website clients from Copperwoman

Please read about these important changes regarding your websites.
I know it is very wordy and I have a lot to communicate about changes.

My dear clients and friends,
After being offline for about 2 weeks this summer, I came back to several emails about hosting renewals, server changes and wordpress updates. I realized that I am managing about 60 website renewals and several wordpress site updates. I have been doing all of this without a charge to you, my clients, and I am noticing how much time it is taking. It does not take much time to handle something for one client, and multiplied by 60 it adds up. So I am making some changes to give each of you the power and knowledge to handle some tasks without my having to be the middle person.

FantasyHamock13409984I have logged into the control panel for each of the websites I have hosted with ICDsoft. I have entered your email address in addition to mine. From now on, the renewal notices will come directly to you. (some of you were already set up this way.) I will only forward a renewal notice if I get the final warning that your hosting “will expire tomorrow.”


When you do receive a notice to renew your hosting, select the economy plan.
Even though you might be a business—in this regard it is just about size of website and most of you can get by with the smaller allotment of the economy plan.

ICDsoft has recently informed me that the domain registration fees are going up. The fee was 2.50 along with the hosting cost of $36 and $15 for extra parked domains. Even though ICDsoft is raising the domain fee to what they are currently paying for it, the hosting cost will remain the same very reasonable $36 per year.

Here is the message directly from them:
“As of August 15, 2016, domains that are purchased/renewed in a package with an Economy hosting account will cost exactly the same price as the one we pay to our registration providers. The current prices that we pay to our registration providers (Enom Inc and EURid) are:

SettingFree10153753_original.com, $8.38 USD,
.net, $8.74 USD,
.org, $10.49 USD
.biz, $10.02 USD,
.info, $9.32 USD,
.us, $9.00 USD,

Parked and standalone domain registrations will be priced at our domain costs with the domain provider, plus $5.00 USD flat fee, but no less than a total of $15.00 USD. That means, a separate domain registration will cost $15.00 USD or more, depending on the TLD cost in the table above. Our domain providers may change prices over time, which would reflect to the prices for our customers accordingly.”


Please note: Each year, you will receive a notice to update your contact information for the whois database for your url.

Screen-Shot-2016-08-27-at-2.31.38-PM

Screen Shot 2016-08-27 at 2.29.00 PMWhen you click on the link in the email you receive, If the page you are directed to doesn’t show your personal contact information, it means privacy is turned on. You still need to check that the information is accurate. (Many times when I signed a client up for hosting, I used my own contact information.) Note: You can turn privacy on and off on the domain management panel.

Here is what you will need to do when you receive a notice to update your information. Please read carefully!
The WHOIS information can be managed using the domain management panel:
https://domains.suresupport.com/
When you go to this link, you will need to enter your domain url and use the “Forgot your password?” link on the log-in page. Password reset instructions will be sent to your email address. You will then be able to log in and update your address and phone number.


Important information for those of you who are using a webmail client on your computer.
The setup has changed. So if you have problems receiving or sending emails, please read the following.

From ICDsoft:
Birdtransparent“We want to let you know of a slight change in the mailbox login process when using a local e-mail program (e.g. Thunderbird, Outlook, Mac Mail etc.).

Up until recently, it was possible to log in to any mailbox using as username either:
– the full mailbox name, e.g. “username@domain.com”
or
– the “bare” name, e.g. just “username”

We are in a process of phasing out the ability to use the “bare” name, as it represents a minor security risk, as well as an obstacle to future developments. To achieve this, the following changes are already in effect on our servers:

Email setup in AppleMail

Email setup in AppleMail

1. Newly-created mailboxes will not be able to use the “bare” name as username. Any new mailboxes must be set with the full mailbox name as username in the e-mail program.

2. Existing mailboxes which we have detected to use the full mailbox name as username will be marked so that they no longer are able to log in with a “bare” mailbox username.
Example from apple mail above

3. Existing mailboxes that are using the “bare” name as username will continue to be able to do so. This will be valid until the next change of the mailbox password, either through the Mail Manager or the Webmail program. This means that the next time the mailbox password is changed, besides the password, the mailbox user will have to adjust the username in the e-mail program they are using.

Generally, we advise you to make sure that you and your customers are using the full mailbox name as username in any local e-mail programs. If you are receiving a “wrong password” error when setting up an e-mail account in a local program, but you are sure that the password is correct, please check the username as well, and make sure the full mailbox name is set as username.”


Helpful Email setup links
Here is a link to support documents on setting up email in different mail programs as well as on smartphones: https://tickets.suresupport.com/faq/category-202/en/configuring_an_e_mail_program_outlook_thunderbird_mail_etc

And a link for general email issues: https://tickets.suresupport.com/faq/category-177/en/e_mail_1


Depositphotos_10184367_lIf I have created your site in WordPress, you are now the Administrator of your WordPress website. (If you weren’t already.)

Those of you who have wordpress websites and weren’t assigned the administrator position will now begin to receive update notices from wordpress. Sometimes they will let you know that an update occurred automatically, and sometimes you will receive a notice to update your site. It is important to keep up with the updates, as they are often security fixes. You can do the update yourself or hire me to do the update for you. It will usually be a minimal fee of about 1/2 hour if I handle it for you. You may be warned to back up your site first. The good news is that ICDsoft makes regular daily backups. If you notice anything that goes wrong after an update you can contact me and I can restore the previous version of wordpress or troubleshoot any plugin that might need to be updated to work with your site. There will also be a fee for this.

If you don’t have a login for your wordpress website, send me an email and I will set up a user for you with admin privileges. You will be sent a password link by email and be able to log into your wordpress site and change the password if you wish.


Support Link for ICDsoft
https://tickets.suresupport.com
If you are having problems with email or other questions about your hosting you can use ICDsoft’s ticket system. I have found their support to be excellent. They respond very quickly and will stick with you until all of your questions are answered. The first time you use support you will need to create a username and password.

If you have any questions regarding anything I have explained here, please feel free to contact me for clarification.

Of course I am willing to take care of any of this for you, just know that I will be charging a fee for my time to assist with these sorts of tasks.

Depositphotos_20141127_originalThere could be unexpected things to deal with because of the changes I have made. So we might need to iron a few things out to make this all run smoothly. Just let me know about any glitches you encounter.

Always with love
Copperwoman
care@copperwoman.com
707-978-1078