Hosts of America Documentation Reseller Guide

For more information contact us at webmaster@hostsofamerica.com

Understanding Users, Accounts, and Domains

 

On the user side, Hosts of America operates with three different tiers: users, accounts, and domains.

Users

A user, for the most part, is nothing but a login and password to enter Hosts of America. One user can have many accounts (control panels) created under the same or different plans, and switch between them without having to log in every time.

Accounts

Hosts of America primarily operates with accounts, not users. One account, also referred to as Actual Account, equals one license and one control panel with its own balance, traffic usage, disk quota and usage, online invoice, menu tree, cp look and feel, etc. The unique thing about each account is not username, but a numeric account ID. The common account types are:
- administrative account - used to administer the entire hosting system;
- tech support account - used to answer/manage trouble tickets from customers;
- customer account - used by end users to administer their services;
- service account - a variation of a customer account used to host your promotional corporate site.

Sometimes you can see an Actual Account opposed to a User Account. A User Account refers to an FTP account with its home directory on the web server.

One user can have many accounts created under different plans. e.g: an account with a windows-based plan, an account with a Unix-based plan, and an account with a realserver plan. You, as Hosts of America administrator, can have an admin account and a regular customer account. When a user logs in with the username and password, Hosts of America offers the list of all accounts created under this user. The user can enter any of these accounts, and in each account the settings will be different. This is done for convenience, so users don't have to log in every time they switch between their accounts.

Generally, if one user has several accounts, it allows to:
  * use only one set of login/password to all accounts within one user;
  * use the same billing and contact information;
  * have several accounts signed up under different plans in one user;
  * switch between accounts easily without logging in every time.

In order to create a new account under the same user:

  1. Select Add Account in the User menu. You will get to signup page.
  2. Follow the signup process. Note that the system uses the contact information previously entered.

To switch between accounts within the same user:

  1. Select Choose Account in the User menu.
  2. Click the Select icon to log into chosen account.

Domains

Domains represent the third tier in the end-user side hierarchy. Your customers can have as many domains as they want under their one control panel license, unless you limit the domains they can have. In terms of a web server, a domain is little more than a correspondence to a web-site. Domains within one account share one control panel (one menu tree with the same look and feel), and, having no traffic usage or disk quota of their own, are billed in bulk with the same invoices.



Home   Products   Services   Partners   Support   News   Contact   Forum
© Copyright 2003. Meridian Data Systems, Inc.
All rights reserved.