SiteHost

Frequently Asked Questions :: Websites

The following questions are answered:

  1. Website Statistics
    1. How often are the website stats updated?
    2. How do I access the stats?
    3. Are the stats secured?
  2. Standard SSL vs Wildcard SSL?
  3. Why is my website not working using 'www.'?
  4. Why do I need to create a sub-account to add more websites?
  5. What is the 'hosts' file and how could I use it?
    1. Where do I find my 'hosts' file?
    2. What will I find in my 'hosts' file?
    3. How do I add an entry to my 'hosts' file?

Website Statistics

Each website created using the SiteHost Control Panel will have website statistics enabled by default. SiteHost currently use AWStats to collate statistics for your website.

How often are the website stats updated?

The Website Statistics are collated using AWStats - a log based statistics tool. This reads through the Apache log files and generates the statistics for your website once a day - early each morning.

How do I access the stats?

To access your website statistics simply go to the "/stats" folder of your website. So for example if your website is http://example.co.nz then your stats subdirectory can be accessed at http://example.co.nz/stats.

Are the stats secured?

By default your website statistics are secured, requiring users to enter a username and password to view the stats. A default user was created at the same time the Website was created.

The default username is "stats". The default password was shown onscreen when the Website was created. The password for user "stats" can be changed at any time.

To add or edit users who are allowed to access the statistics follow these steps. If you delete all the users then the website statistics can be viewed by anybody - a login is no longer required.

Standard SSL vs Wildcard SSL?

While a single standard SSL certificate covers one single domain a wildcard certificate covers not just your domain, but all sub-domains for the chosen domain.

For example:

  • A Standard SSL Certificate would work on one domain only, such as exampledomain.co.nz.
  • A Wildcard SSL Certificate would work on, support.exampledomain.co.nz and info.exampledomain.co.nz etc, along with exampledomain.co.nz.

Why is my website not working using 'www.'?

If your website is loading using your base domain, eg 'example.co.nz', but not when using 'www.example.co.nz' there could be two issues:

Why do I need to create a sub-account to add more websites?

The number of websites that can be created under an individual account is limited, however the number of sub-accounts is not limited. Meaning as long as you keep adding sub-accounts the number of websites is effectively unlimited.

These restrictions are in place to reduce your (and potentially your clients) exposure to hackers. Each account has access to all of the websites beneath it, meaning if one site is compromised potentially all sites are compromised.

Creating multiple accounts results in multiple, isolated, spaces for websites. In fact our advice, as a step towards optimal security, is to create a unique sub-account for each website you host.

What is the 'hosts' file and how could I use it?

The 'hosts' file is a file that resides within the operating system on your local machine and allows you to manually map hostnames to IP addresses.

The 'hosts' file can be particularly useful when testing a website which does not yet have a domain name pointing to it.

For example, you may have recently setup a new website to be used at the hostname example.org. However, the DNS for your example.org domain name may not have been configured to point to the web server's IP address yet. Adding an entry to the 'hosts' file on your local system for example.org will allow you to override the real DNS for example.org and essentially "trick" your system into thinking it points somewhere else.

Where do I find my 'hosts' file?

  • On a Unix-based operating system (e.g. OS X or Linux), the 'hosts' file will normally reside at: /etc/hosts
  • On a modern version of Microsoft Windows, the 'hosts' file will normally reside at: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

What will I find in my 'hosts' file?

The default contents of the file will usually look similar to this:

127.0.0.1    localhost
::1          localhost

Each line in the file represents a 'hosts entry'. The entries contain two fields separated by white space (tabs or spaces). The first field represents the IP address that the entry maps to, while the second field represents the hostname that is mapped. In the example above, the first entry is mapping the hostname of localhost to the IP 127.0.0.1

Any blank lines in the 'hosts' file will be ignored. Lines that begin with a '#' symbol are comments within the file and will also be ignored.

How do I add an entry to my 'hosts' file?

Adding an entry to your 'hosts' file is as simple as editing the file with a plain text editor of your choice and appending an additional line with an appropriate IP address and hostname.

Please note that administrative privileges are usually required to edit the 'hosts' file on most systems. On a Unix-based system (e.g. OS X or Linux) this will most likely require you to be logged in as the 'root' user or to use the 'sudo' command to elevate your privileges.