When you select this option, it only adds it to your account, at which point you are responsible for transferring your website over.  In order to transfer your website's content to our servers you will need to either contact your web-developer to FTP your files over or do it yourself.  You will then need to have your current domain registrar change the DNS name servers to ours (these are the name servers:   ns1.qwknetllc.com   &   ns2.qwknetllc.com).

Note:  If your website has a database you will need to import that as well.

To add a domain purchased with another registrar, you will need to do 2 things:

1)  First, you will need to add the domain to your QWK.net hosting account.  To do this you will first need to log in to your QWK.net Control Panel.
    - Click on the "Domains" icon
    - Click on the "ADD" icon
    - In the "Host Existing Site" section enter the name of your domain and click "Submit"
    - Click "Continue"
    - Make sure "Include Web Hosting" is selected and "Include Mail Services" is selected, and click "Submit"

Note:   If you have a website already developed somewhere else, you will need to transfer it's content over to our servers before you proceed to step 2.

2)  Next, you will need to change the DNS Name Servers configured with your Registrar.  Simply give your registrar a call and ask them to change your DNS Name Servers to the following:
    - NS1.QWKNETLLC.COM   ->   208.71.137.131
    - NS2.QWKNETLLC.COM   ->   208.71.138.19

1)  If the website in question is Registered through QWK.net, and you have your QWK.net Control Panel credentials you can change the Name Servers yourself by following the steps below:

     a)  Open the following link in any internet browser and logging in:
     - manage.opensrs.net

     b)  Click on the "Name Servers" tab

     c)  Erase all of the old Name Servers and enter the new Name Servers

     d)  Click "Save Configuration"

NOTE:  Once the new Name Servers have been entered and saved, it will take anywhere from 4 to 48 hours before these changes propagate throughout the world's DNS servers.  Therefore, you will want to test your website every couple hours until you see that the changes were implemented and are working as desired.

2)  If the website in question is Registered through QWK.net, but you do NOT have your QWK.net Control Panel credentials, you will need to contact QWK.net's technical support either by submitting a support ticket or by calling 866.679.5638, and they will be able to assist you in making the necessary changes.

3)  If the website in question is NOT Registered through QWK.net, you will need to contact your domain's Registrar and have them make the necessary changes.

This is something that has to be done by the customer. QWK.net has no control over domain names themselves. Here is how you go about getting the information to make changes.

1. Contact QWK.net Customer Support via the Support Ticket System or by phone 208-522-7638 or 866-679-5638 and request your domain name login credentials.

• QWK.net representatives can only request that these credentials be sent to the email that is authoritative for the domain name itself. This protects you the customer from anyone stealing or modifying your domain in any way.

2. Once you have the credentials, go to manage.opensrs.net and log in.

3. Click the 'Profile' link at the top of the screen, and select 'Change Ownership of Domain'.

4. Enter the new username and password for this domain, this will be the information the new owner uses to log in.

5. Click on the Organization link at the top of the screen and enter all of the new information. Once the information is entered, tell it to apply to Admin Contact, Billing Contact, and Technical contact. Then click the 'Save Configuration' button.

6. The domain has now transfered ownership. Log out and give the credentials to the new owner. Suggest that he/she change his/her password.

Checking your domain's WHOIS information has been made very simple thanks to the folks at mxtoolbox.com, all you need to do is open the following link in any internet browser, enter your domain name, and click the orange button "Whois Lookup".

http://mxtoolbox.com/Whois.aspx

Checking your domain's registration expiration date has been made very simple thanks to the folks at mxtoolbox.com, all you need to do is open the following link in any internet browser, enter your domain name, and click the orange button "Whois Lookup".

http://mxtoolbox.com/Whois.aspx

This will display all of your Whois information.  About 7 lines down you will see a line like this:

"Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2014-10-01 22:17:48"

Note:   Keep in mind that if your domain is not renewed by this date, your domain will be automatically suspended at 12:00am the next morning.  This means your website and email will both be brought down indefinitely until registration has been renewed.

When transfering your domain from one registrar to another, you will need an Authorization Code from your current registrar.  This can be obtained by contacting QWK.net Customer Service, either by opening a trouble ticket, or calling 866.679.5638.  You will need an up-to-date email address to which the Authorization Code may be sent.

DRA (Domain Registry of America) is using very carefully (one might say deceptively) worded mass mailings to domain owners trying to get them to transfer/switch their domain management to DRA. Unless you desire to have DRA be your registrar of record, disregard any mail from them. If you registered your domain through QWK.net, your registrar of record will be QWK.net/Tucows. QWK.net is a reseller of Tucows domain registry service due to the high cost of being ICANN certified to be a registrar of record directly.

For what it is worth, these DRA mailings border on fraud and Network Solutions/Verisign has already been prosecuted for similar activities in the past. It is likely that DRA is aware of Verisign's prosecution and has worded their mailings to be one step this side of legal (check your local laws). The practice is known as domain slamming and is akin to and named after long distance service slamming that takes place in the telephone industry.

WHOIS information is just another way to say 'contact information' for your Domain Name.  This is broken into 4 different catagories, namely:  Owner, Administrator, Billing, and Technical.  You can update this information by going to your registrar's website and logging in.  If you registered your domain with QWK.net, the website where you can do this is:   manage.opensrs.net.  If you do not have your credentials to log in and make the changes, you can either, submit a ticket with the changes you would like made, or contact QWK.net support at 866.679.5638.

WHOIS Information Consists of the following:

- First & Last Names
- Mailing Address
- Phone Number
- Email Address

as well as...

- Domain Register 'Lock'
- WHOIS Privacy
- Manual / Automatic Renewal
- DNS Name Servers





 

The two most common causes for this are:   the domain in question has expired, or the DNS records have been incorrectly pointed.

1)   To check if your domain has expired, run a "whois" check on the domain in question.  To do this, browse to "http://mxtoolbox.com/Whois.aspx", fill in your domain, and click "whois lookup".  Look for the date labelled "Registrar Registration Expiration Date: Year/Month/Day".  If today is past this date, you need to re-register your domain.

NOTE:   To register your domain you will need to contact your Registrar.  Your current registrar can also be found by using the "whois" section from the link above.

2)   If the issue is your DNS records, you will have to check 1 record for your email and 1 record for your website.

- First, lets check the email record.  This can also be done by browsing to "http://mxtoolbox.com/", entering your domain, and clicking "MX Lookup".   Here you will see the mail server's name under "Hostname".   If it is displaying a hostname that looks like "xxxxx.qwknetllc.com" then it is correctly pointed to a qwk.net email server.   If "qwknetllc" is not in the hostname than you are being pointed to another companies email server.

- Second, lets check the website record (also known as DNS Address A Record).  To do this, browse to "http://mxtoolbox.com/DnsLookup.aspx", enter your domain, and click "DNS Lookup".   Here you will see the "IP Address" where your website's content is currently being pulled from (the IP Address will look something like this "208.71.139.24").   If the IP Address starts with "208.71.1xx.xxx" then your website is pointed to us.  If your IP Address is different than that it is currently being pulled from another hosting company.

If your email and website records are not pointing as you think they should, please give us a call and we will help you figure it all out.

Please refer to the attached image to confirm if this article will help you solve your problem.

When your website displays this default Qwk.net screen, it is because you have not yet specified in your "index.html", "index.htm", or "index.php" file, where to pull your website's content from.  This can be done either through an FTP client (such as Filezilla), or the FTP Manager in your Qwk.net Control Panel.

QWK.net uses standard file naming conventions for index pages. This means that if you do not have your home page named 'index.html', 'index.htm', or 'index.php' then the server will not know where to pull your website's content from.  Also note that the index file must be all lowercase.

If you have fixed the problems described above and your domain is still displaying a list of files, make sure that there are no other "index" files in your domains root directory.  If there are multiple index files, your website may be trying to read the incorrect one.  If there are multiple index files, simply rename or delete the one that should not be used.

This article will help you purchase a new domain name if you already have a QWK.net Shared Hosting account. You will need your login credentials for your shared hosting account and a valid credit card on file (for billing). If you do not have a hosting account, you will need to submit a support ticket or give us a call at 866-679-5638 or 208-522-7638.

1. Go to customers.qwk.net, click on account management and log in.

2. Click on the Domains icon.

3. Click the 'Add' icon at the bottom right of the page.

4. Type in the domain you wish to purchase in the field for 'Domain Name Registration' and click submit. 

5. Click submit once more.

6. At the top of this screen you will see pricing information and there will be a dropdown menu that allows you to choose how many years you wish to purchase the domain for. Please double check your information on this screen to ensure that it is current and click submit at the bottom of the screen.

7. The system will now ask your permission to bill your card. Once you have accepted, the domain name will be added to your account automatically.

The QWK.net DNS Name Servers are:

NS1.QWKNETLLC.COM   ->   208.71.137.131

NS2.QWKNETLLC.COM   ->   208.71.138.19

Note:  If you are using QWK.net's hosting services for a domain you own, you will need to have your Registrar add these servers to their Name Server records.  These servers are what tell the world where to find your website's content.

1)   Browse to qwk.net in any internet browser.

2)   Click on "Customer Portal".

3)   Click on "Account Management --- QWK.net Control Panel".

4)   Log in using your Control Panel Username and Password.

5)   Clink on the "Domains" icon.

6)   In the "Controls" column, click on the trash can icon parallel with the Domain you wish to remove.

7)   You will then asked to confirm or decline the following actions:
        "Delete resource confirmation
          You are about to disable Domain.
          All your related data will be lost."
                Click "Yes, I agree with the above"
                Click "No, I don't want to delete the domain"

7)   Next you will be asked to select which content you want removed when the Domain is removed:
        "Remove web content
         Check the boxes next to the domains you would like to remove web content for
         [] yourdomain.com          [] Remove log files directory
                 Click "Submit"

Note:  This only removes the domain from your QWK.net hosting account.  You still control the rights to this domain until it expires with your registrar.

Note:  Also note that this does not cancel your QWK.net hosting account.  If you would like to cancel your QWK.net hosting account, see KnowledgeBase article "Cancel QWK.net Services".

1)  This is what a sub-domain looks like:   subdomain.yourdomain.com

2)  You can create any sub-domain you want for any domain you own.  So if you own 'example.com', you can create a sub-domain 'checkout.example.com' and/or 'secure.example.com'.

Here are the steps:

1 - Log in to your QWK.net control panel
2 - Click on the Domains icon
3 - Click on the Edit icon under the Controls column for the domain you wish to create a sub-domain for
4 - Click on the Add icon in the Sub-Domains row.
5 - Add the name you want in the sub portion of the sub-domain
   - For example if you want your sub-domain to be "checkout.example.com" then you will only want to enter
     "checkout" and then click "Create subdomain".

3)  Sub-domains do NOT have to be registered and can be added with NO additional cost to your account.