Web, HTTPS and E-mail Hosting

WEB Hosting

All of our secure servers are located in a Rackspace™ Network data center. The Rackspace data centers are engineered to support the Zero-Downtime Network™. They are designed and maintained without compromise for security or redundancy. Support staff is available 24/7/365. In addition, we provide DNS services via DNS Made Easy that provide up to 6 name servers for high redundancy for resolving your domain name to the IP address of your Web server.

• 10 Gig of Monthly Data Transfer
• Daily Backups with restores available for any of the last 14 days
• Hardware Redundancy
• High performance hardware for quick page load times
• Dedicated external Firewall for extra security
• 24/7 Emergency Support
• FTP access
• WordPress Maintenance Updates
• Permanent redirect support for SEO needs
• Creation and installation of robots.txt
• DNR renewal reminders
• Domain Name Support when transferring to Acorn Marketing
• Free E-mail forwarding to an existing E-mail Address
• Web Site tracking (Google Analytics Tracker)
• Web Hosting is included in all Advantage Plan options

Special Note: We manage all of our clients’ WordPress updates because some updates (including plugins and themes) can cause the site to not function correctly or even not load at all.

Domain name purchases, renewals, and updates are the sole responsibility of the client. However, assistance is available at our current rates, if needed. Acorn Marketing is to be set as Technical Contact, and we strongly suggest you purchase multiple years at a time through your DNR company.

HTTPS Hosting

HTTPS hosting is when your entire website data is encrypted during transmission to and from a web browser. There are several reasons to consider having your website setup as HTTPS.

• When logging into your website using WordPress and standard HTTP, the password is not encrypted, which can result in a security breach. If you are accessing your website using a private network from your Internet Service Provider, then the risks of your password being stolen are minimal, however, there is still some risk. If you access your website using a public network, then the risk can go up dramatically since the person who manages that public network could install a network sniffer and capture your password and then use it to access your website. Therefore, using HTTPS eliminates this risk because the data is encrypted.
• The only item that HTTPS is addressing is the encryption of data being transmitted over the Internet so that hackers cannot see important information such as passwords. Using HTTPS does not address other important security items such as server configuration and software updates, which could result in a website being hacked.
• Google has stated that they prefer sites be setup to run HTTPS to reduce security issues with important data being stolen that is transmitted over the Internet.

EMAIL Hosting

We provide reliable, high-quality email services for our small business web-hosting customers. This email service is offered through our Rackspace data center. We will assist you in configuring your email client and mobile devices and verify that the settings are correct. The email services include web-based email access, IMAP and POP connections from every major email client, such as Outlook, Thunderbird, and Mac Mail. An excellent spam filtering and email virus blocking service is also included at no extra cost.

• Each email account has a default of 10 Gigs of storage, which is great for using IMAP connections and web-based mail where the mail is saved on the mail server and backed up every night.
• Connections from the major mobile devices are also supported.
• We recommend that the connection to the mail server from your email client is IMAP, so that your email resides on the server and so a local computer problem, such as a hard drive crash, does not result in your email being lost.
• When an IMAP connection is used from your email client, the web-based access will be more powerful since you will have access to all of your emails. This is especially useful when you are away from your computer and need to access your email.
• Mobile Sync will sync contacts and calendar to a mobile device.
• Email hosting is included up to $10 in all Advantage Plan options.
  • Basic E-Mail Hosting:       $1 a month per E-Mail Address
  • Mobile Sync accounts:     $3 a month per E-Mail Address
  • Exchange accounts:         $10 a month per E-Mail Address

Special Note: Acorn is not responsible for lost emails being forwarded to an email destination company due to their configuration setup. If a customer chooses to change their email configuration after they have become a hosting customer, then email setup, support, and training time will be billable.