Frequently Asked Questions
As a website developer with many years of experience, we stand ready to work on your project. We know that sometimes the terms and conditions of our business may not be well understood by you. Please use the information present below to your benefit. If you have a question that you do not see answered on this page, please email us at info@designedinternet.com.
Choose an FAQ Category from the list below or scroll down the page to browse the questions and answers.- General Information
General information about our company, the services or products that we offer. - Billing (Invoices and payment)
Information about our billing, bookkeeping and payment of invoices. - Reporting Problems
Information about how to report problems to us and the expected response from us. - Content Management Systems
Information about our Self Maintainince websites and their included Content Management Systems. - Security
Information about the security of our hosting data centers, products and services we offer. - Technical Terms
Information about the terms used in descriptions of our technology or the work products we create.
General Information- How long has Designed Internet Solutions been in business?
We formed in 1990 and have focused on providing Internet services since 1997. We are a California corporation.
We specialize in business website development, hosting of business websites and Internet Marketing (search engine placement, keyword targeting, etc.).
Billing (Invoices and payment)- How do you bill for website services?
We do all of our website creative and programming work under a fixed-fee contract. We typically require a 40% retainer at the time you authorize us to do the work by signing our contract. We may ask for another 40% payment about 30 days after we start. (If we do this, it is clearly spelled-out in our contract.) The final payment of any remaining fees is due prior to the website being placed online.
- Why is there an item on my invoice for 'Extra Charge for Storage'?
When you see an Extra Charge for Storage, it means that you are using more disk storage of website and support files than covered by your hosting agreement. This can occur if there are lots of large images or supporting files like PDF documents that you use on your website.
To remedy this, you can do the following.
1). If your website has one of our Content Management Systems, you can go to the 'Files' area to view all of the files on your web server directory. You can then delete any that you do not need.
2). If you want us to send you a listing of the files in your server area, request this by email and the information will be sent to your company's authorized representative for review.
- Why is there an item on my invoice for Extra Charge for Bandwidth?
When you see an Extra Charge for Bandwidth, it means that you are using more data through-put of website files than covered by your hosting agreement. This will happen if your website becomes extremely popular or if you have a website with numerous images. Bandwidth is the equivalent of water flowing through pipes. The 'pipes' are the Internet connection to your website. We provide a generous amount of bandwidth to each customer.
Reporting Problems- How can I get the best responses from Designed Internet Solutions when I have a problem?
We have a special system for you to use when you have a problem. Throughout our website you will see a graphic button that says "Need Help". When you need to contact us, click on that button and our key support people will immediately be contacted. Of course if your problem occurs during normal business hours (8:00 am to 5:00 pm Pacific Time) then please call us at 619-421-2107. However, if it is after hours, we can serve you better when you use the "Need Help" button featured on our website.
Content Management Systems- What is a Content Management System?
It is a special feature appended to your website. You can think of it as a "website in back of your website". The Content Management System (CMS) is protected so that only your staff can get into it. Once inside you will find lists of all of the pages in your website. Some CMS's are created so you can not only change pages, but also add new ones or delete existing ones. We tailor the CMS to fit your budget and your needs. We also provide you with a complete User Manual showing how each feature works. And we are glad to come to your office and train you. Phone training is usually enough though.
A CMS will usually pay for itself within 9 months of use because you save so much cost by not needing a website programmer to make your changes.
Security- How secure is the data center where you host my website?
The short answer is that it is "very secure". But that needs to be explained by informing you of the many levels of security we employ. First of all, we use the most advanced "Firewall Appliances" to keep out hackers and to prevent volumetric attacks that try to take websites down by overwhelming the web servers. Your website is protected from connectivity outages by our multiple (redundant) sources for Internet connectivity. We use a minimum of two separate Internet providers at each of our data centers. Two of our centers have as many as 5 independent Internet connectivity providers. We protect you from power outages by supporting all of our equipment with back-up battery power for a substantial amount of time. If that proves to be inadequate, we also have automated power generation equipment which can sustain all our data centers for as long as it takes to get the power back up and stable. Finally, twice each day we back-up all of the data in each data center and then back that up off-site each day as well.
Technical Terms- What is a Firewall?
A Firewall is the first-line of defense of our datacenter. It is a device that analyzes each piece of information coming into our data center. It determines if it is an allowed type of information. If not, it is immediately blocked. Firewalls today are very "smart" devices and can even chase an attempted hacking event back to its origin and report it to the authorities.
- What is bandwidth?
Bandwidth is the measure of the quantity of information that is coming into and out of our data center. Because we buy Internet connectivity from major Telco providers according to our anticipated collective data flow (bandwidth) we also charge our customers for that which they use. Bandwidth is measured in Megabytes per second (MBS) and occaisionally in Gigabytes per second (GBS). A typical business website will use between .5 - 2 GB per month.
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