If you have a basic knowledge of computer key-board functions and can manage word processing at a very basic level, you will be able to use e-combuilder to build a very professional looking web or e-commerce site.  You do not need any html or other programme language skills.

For adding pictures and images, which is very easy, see Q 18-20.

No, the software we have developed does all the programming for you automatically.  All you have to do is drag and drop images and type in text where you want it.  If you are able to write in HTML you will be able to easily access the code and write direct on the HTML pages if you wish. 

We offer a free email service to answer your questions within 24 hrs during working days (Mon - Fri).  We also have a telephone hotline service direct to our technical team to help you if you have any technical or design issues you need to be helped through.  Calls are charged at £1.00 per minute (UK).  Lines are open from 8.30 am to 6.30 pm Monday to Friday

When you purchase the site and register a domain name, your new site is automatically live on our server.  This triggers propagation of the web, which can take up to 24 hours. 

How long it takes you to build your site depends on how complex you make it.  You can expect to have created a one or two page website in a matter of an hour or so.  The beauty of our system is that you can go live with a simple site and continue to add and improve it at your leisure.  Adding and removing products on an e-commerce site is a simple matter of keying in the information.

You have complete control and can add, delete or edit any content of your website at any time you like 24 hours a day. 

It is very easy to do.  Simply log in to your control section using your username and password and use the control system to edit your site.

You can make your website look totally unique.  There are many basic template designs to start from.  You then create your own colour scheme for your chosen template. 

The design of each page is completely your own.  You add whatever text and images you want and place these in any positions to create your design.

This is very easy.  Simply click on the image button on the Page-Editor tool bar and follow the step by step instructions.

You can create your own or if you don't have the time and equipment we can do it for you.  You can post your pictures to us at the contact address.  We will scan these for you and size them for the web.  Please see our Product Prices for price guides to this service.

To create and manipulate images is quite easy once you get the hang of it. 

If you want to create your own pictures and images, you will need a scanner to scan in photographs and other pictures. You will also need image manipulation software. For basic image sizing and manipulation you can use Paintshop Pro, which you can download from their website. If you need professional software we recommend Adobe Photoshop or Corel Draw. These are not difficult packages to use but you will need a reasonable level of competence to get the best out of them.  Importing and placing finished images on the website is then very easy.

You will need all your images in a correct format, .jpeg or .gif, and small memory size for quick uploading.  Resolution should normally be 72dpi and maximum file size 20K.

JPG format is best used for photographic images or images with many different shades of colours. GIF images are best for images with big areas of the same color, e.g. logos or plain graphics.

Yes, you can import animated images in exactly the same way as any other images.  Simply create or download the images and import with the image tool.Enabling online payment processing is an efficient and relatively safe method of collecting payment from your customers.  You save time otherwise spent manually processing credit card payments.

You can upgrade your website, whichever e-combuilder package you start with, to any product above it to expand the size and functionality of your website.  And you don't have to pay twice.  You only pay the difference for the level of upgrade.

If you decide to purchase e-combuilder you need to do so within the 7 day period otherwise you will lose any work you have done on the site.  We will send you an email 24 hours before expiry to remind you.

You can use e-combuilder on any windows based computer system with a processor capacity of 386 or above. You need a browser that can support ActiveX, currently this includes all versions of Internet Explorer newer then 4, running on Windows. Currently Apple Macintosh computers and Netscape/Mozilla browsers are not supported.

There are two alternative payment systems available.  The default system is a fax-back form that is produced automatically.  Your customer enters all personal and delivery details online and prints off the fax-back form.  They then enter credit card details in the appropriate space on the form and fax this to you.  You will then process the payment manually on your PDQ machine.  You will also be able to accept cheque payments with this method.  The reason for entering credit card details off line is for security.  Unless you set up your site with a Secure Socket Layer as described below, you cannot allow credit card details to be entered on line.

Full online, secure payment processing is available.  You choose this option with the click of a mouse.  The cost is an additional (£400 incl vat) for the annual Payment Service Provider (PSP) licence and Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Web Server Certificate.

Using the fax-back option is an excellent, low cost method of entering e-commerce for the small to medium enterprise (SME).  It also means that you can get selling online without delay while you arrange your Merchant Account for online processing, which can sometimes take a little time, especially for new businesses.

The costs of online payment processing are in three parts. 

1)  An annual fee is payable for the Payment Service Provider (PSP) license and your Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Web Server Certificate.  This is currently £340.42 + vat (£400 incl). 

2)  A PSP processing fee.  The standard rate for payment processing is currently 2.5% of transaction value with a minimum £10 per month.  These rates should be verified with our PSP, SECURETRADING.

3)  The Merchant account charges, which are likely to be about 2.5% of transaction value, depending on volume of business.  These will be negotiated with your merchant account provider (generally your bank).

To conduct online credit card payments you need a PSP.  The PSP authenticates the credit card entered on your site, debits the card-holders account and pays this money into your merchant account.  e-combuilder uses the advanced SECURTRADING technology to provide this service.

You will need a Merchant Account into which credit card payments collected on your e-commerce site are paid.  The PSP collects the money from your customers credit card account and transfers this to your Merchant Account.  In turn, your Merchant Account provider will transfer this money to your Bank Account according to the arrangements you make.  For a list of approved Merchant Account service providers see: "Which financial institutions does e-combuilder SECURETRADING work with for merchant accounts?" question below.

The SSL security certificate is the encryption software located on your website server that ensures the security of all sensitive information provided by your customers.  It is this facility that gives the security 'padlock' symbol on your website secure areas.  e-combuilder uses Thawte certification to provide 128 bit encryption to your e-commerce site.  SSL protects all communications with your customers, so that you can:
- take credit card orders
- protect sensitive personal information and
- ensure that hackers cannot detect your password.

The SSL certificate is located on the e-combuilder server and included in the price of your secure trading licence for online credit card processing.  You do not need to take any action on this.

When you choose your e-commerce website, you will be given the option to sign up for online payment processing by clicking the appropriate check box.  Payment for this service, currently £340.42 + vat (£400 incl), will be automatically added to the price you pay.  This includes the license fees for both your Payment Service Provider (PSP) and security Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate.  Full online credit card payment processing is then carried out using SECURETRADING e-payment technology.  That part is simple to enable, you just click on the check box and we do the rest.

You will also need to have or open a Merchant Account to operate this system.  See "Which financial institutions does e-combuilder SECURETRADING work with for merchant accounts?" question below for information about financial institutions offering merchant account services.

SECURETRADING work with a number of banks and other financial institutions. Here is a list showing contact details:

  AMERICAN EXPRESSPhone: 0800 339911Website: www.americanexpress.co.uk 
  BANK OF SCOTLANDPhone: 01383 743734Website: www.bankofscotland.co.uk 
  BARCLAYS MERCHANT SERVICESPhone: 0800 616161Website: www.barclaysmerchantservices.co.uk 
  HSBCPhone: 08457 585150Website: www.hsbc.co.uk 
  LLOYDS TSB CARDNETPhone: 0870 9017915Website: www.lloydstsb.co.uk 
  NATWEST STREAMLINEPhone: 0800 010166Website: www.natwest.co.uk 

With OnlineStore you are able to include up to 50 products.  With OnlineStore Plus you will be able to offer for sale an unlimited number of products.  You can upgrade OnlineStore to OnlineStore Plus with unlimited product numbers at any time or add to the number of products in batches of 50.  Prices for these upgrades are listed in 'Prices'

Every transaction processed is monitored by the SECURETRADING fraud control system.   An Address Verification System (AVS) is also implemented where your bank runs integrated software for this service.  AVS verifies the address registered to the card-holder to the address registered on your website.  At the present time NatWest Streamline and Barclays Merchant Services can integrate AVS.  There is no additional cost for this service.  To activate the AVS service for you we need to know your bank details.  When you register for online payment processing we ask you for your merchant account details for this reason.  The form is automatically emailed to us and we will ensure the AVS service is operational.

Each transaction is given a security rating.  It is then up to the trader to decide whether to allow the transaction to continue or to make further checks on the card user.

Yes, you get up to 5 emails with your domain extension free.

Please contact us and have the usernames and passwords you would like to use ready at hand. We will then set up your e-mail accounts. E-mail services are available as either a single account (£ 20 p.a.) or a package of up to 10 accounts (£100 p.a.), Either of these include unlimited aliases (i.e. names that point to another mailbox).

We can also provide you with instructions on how to configure your PC to send and receive e-mail through our mail servers.

Our servers are hosted in a professional server farm with high security access control, diesel generator, 40GBit redundant connectivity, CO2 fire extinguishers and a host of other goodies. In addition, all our web servers have RAID5 disk arrays and redundant power supplies. It is extremely unlikely that you will have a service interruption due to hardware failure.

We will submit your new site to the top search engines FREE of charge.  You need to notify us as soon as you are ready for this service. 
We also offer a specialist Search Engine Optimisation service to keep your website at a high ranking for your business sector and key search phrases.  Please call us for more information on this service.

Our normal hosting contract includes 20MB of webspace, which should be more than sufficient for any normal website. In the case of e-commerce websites the contract includes 20MB database space. Please refer to our Terms and Conditions for "Limits to Bandwidth and Disc Storage space".

Yes, we will help you transfer your existing domain name to host on our server and point this to your new website.  You can, of course have any number of domain names directed to your website, the more the better.  Therefore, you need to create a new .co.uk domain name when you register.  This is free and re-registration is included in the price of hosting.  If you provide us with the instructions to transfer any existing domain names we will do this for you.  Re-registration of additional emails will, of course, need to be paid for separately at the prevailing rate.

We can do the transfer for you.  All you need to do is email us a request.  We will send you an email form/s that you complete and send off to the appropriate place.  The actions you take differ depending on the domain type.  Instructions are provided with the forms.

You will be registered with one .co.uk domain name for FREE.  To add a .com or .co.uk suffix currently costs £20 + vat.  Please ask for the cost of other domains. 

Some registrars will mail you a paper record of your domain name registration. Others send you an email confirmation. Others simply display a confirmation screen in your web browser upon completing an order. It is always a good idea to print out any information supplied by your registrar during the registration process so that you will have access to it later.

Some registrars will charge you if you wish to move your name to another host so beware of this.  At e-combuilder we can register .co.uk and .com domain names for you at £20 per one year each.  However, the price of one .co.uk or .com is included FREE in the price of your website. 

Some registrars offer "name only" services, where they do nothing more than register the domain name for you. Others offer a wide variety of other services (but they may charge a higher registration price to reflect these additional services). The most common such services include:-

email forwarding: email sent to you@yourdomain.com is forwarded to your current email address. This is a very cheap and easy way of having your own "custom" email address
website forwarding : This comes in two flavours: pointing your website at a given IP address, and pointing your website at a directory. The latter is great for anyone hosting a site on an ISP's site, as you will not need to move the site. The name will automatically be resolved to point to the correct directory.
under construction page : depending on your personal preference, you may prefer to have www.YOURNEWNAME.com point at a standard "under construction" page rather than not point at anything at all.
sample page : some registrars allow a single free "sample" page so that visitors to the site www.YOURNEWNAME.com would see your company name and address and maybe a phone number or a simple description of the services your company provides.

You can offer to buy the name off its current owner, or look for an alternative domain name. If your company holds a trademark on the terms in the domain name, it may be worth seeking legal advice about the possibility of recovering your domain name.

The answer to this question would take up more space than this entire FAQ! Each country has its own rules, restrictions and pricing levels. A good place to start your research is the list of country-specific domain name resources.

Under the current Domain Name Service Agreement that all accredited Registrars operate under, all sales are final. If you want to register a different domain name, you'll have to pay again.

While this tactic may get you some "free" traffic, it's also a great recipe for a lawsuit. If the .com domain is trademarked, it's better to steer clear of trouble. If the .com domain is "generic" (that is, it is a dictionary word which is not trademarked) then you're safer. Ultimately, it's your decision.

This is commonly known as "typosquatting" i.e. buying a domain name with the expectation of siphoning traffic off of the legitimate site by snaring people who can't spell well. There have been a number of court cases as a result of this kind of behavior - most were decided in favor of the site owner. Ultimately, it's your decision.

Make sure that the registrar you buy the domain name through offers "website forwarding" - i.e. a service that will automatically redirect visitors from your new domain name to your existing URL.

Certainly, though there may be an additional fee to pay to your hosting company. Hosting companies typically charge a one-off fee of £10 to set up DNS services for an additional domain name, though some hosting companies include multiple domain packages free of charge.

Please see the Expired Domains guide for a good overview of the "on hold" and expiry processes.

Try and think of domain names associated with current or future growth areas, or topics that are always popular such as golf and finance. Think of domain names that specifically relate to YOUR industry or line of business. A good way to brainstorm is to sit down with a clean piece of paper, let your mind wander, and write down every idea you get as a result... sometimes you'll be pleasantly surprised at what your unconscious throws up!

You can use the characters a-z and 0-9 (in any combination). You can also use hyphens (-), although your domain name cannot start or end with a hyphen. You cannot use any other characters, nor should you use punctuation.

Many people make up interesting-sounding company names to fill this field; however, it is usually better to simply repeat your full name again there as it avoids billing and invoicing confusion later.

Most domain name extensions require a minimum of 2 characters for a domain name, although a few countries have set higher minimums for names registered under their extension. The minimum number for .co.uk domain names is 3 characters, but you would be very lucky to get such a name, as most of these combinations have been registered already.