Getting Started 

This guide is aimed at helping you out if this is the first time your have had to set up a website and email for you business or organization. It will also help if you are at all unsure on what the steps are in getting your website and email working with GoHosting.

There are essentially 4 main steps in setting up a website and email for you organization. They are listed below also with what you need to do to complete each step. If at any stage you are unsure about anything, please feel free to contact us.

• Step 1: Registering a domain name

So you want to get your organization on the internet. The first thing you need to do is register a domain name. A domain name is a unique internet name for you organization. For example gohosting.com.au. For a full description please see our domain name questions.

To register a new domain, please visit our customer order form and select the option "Register a new domain name". You will need to type in the domain name you would like to register. When you click next the website will check to see if the domain you want is available. If the domain you want is not available click the "go back" link and try a different name. If the domain you want is available then select the period you would like to register it for and click continue.

• Step 2: Selecting a Web and email hosting package

This step involves selecting what kind of services you would like in terms of your website and email. Please view our web hosting section for available packages.

The basic package is usually OK for most small websites and organizations with 5 or less staff. It comes with basic website hosting and 5 email boxes. If you have more than 5 people who need a mailbox you might need an advanced package. Also talk to your web developer, if you have one (discussed in step 4), about the requirements they have for your website. Don't worry if you select a plan that is too basic as you can upgrade it at any time.

Once you have choosen what plan you need, select it from the drop down box on the order form. Continue through the rest of the order form a fill out your contact details and payment option and submit the application.

A GoHosting operator will set up your account, domain name and web hosting. You will recive a few emails from us relating to your account, your domain name information and most importantly you will receive a "Welcome to GoHosting" email that contains both your FTP login details (give these to your web developer) and your CONTROL PANEL login details.

• Step 3: Setting up your email

In this step you will set up your email accounts in your "control panel" and configure your email client to send and receive email.

In your welcome letter you will find your control panel login details. Simply click on the link and log in with the username and password that is supplied in the in the email. After you have logged in click on the icon "mail" then click on "Manage/Add/Remove Accounts"
You will see down the bottom of this screen a link "Add Account". Simply click on this link and add a mailbox. Repeat this step until you have added all the email addresses you need.

On this account you will also see a link called "Outlook (express) autoconfig". If you have Outlook express and wish to use this for your email, you can click on this link to automatically configure your email. If you have another mail client that you wish to use please check for instructions on setting it up in our web hosting questions or contact us via telephone for assistance. You can also use our WebMail service which allows you to check your email from anywhere in the world through our website.

• Step 4: Setting up your website

This step will go through the process you need to take to upload your website to our servers so that it is accessible from the internet. This is in no way a guide to webdesign as that is a topic far to broad to discuss here.

If you have a web designer chances are you can simply give them the FTP details from your "Welcome" email and they will know what to do next. If you don't have a web designer as you desire a professional finish to your website we can refer you to one.

If you have developed your own website, then you will need to use the publishing component of your web design program or a 3rd party program such as CuteFTP to upload your website. From the FTP details, use the hostname, username and password from the "Welcome" email and make sure you upload the files to the "public_html" folder on the server. Once you have done this make sure you test all the links and pages in your site to make sure it is all working.

If you would like help with any of these instruction, please contact us.