Once you create a hosting account with Network Solutions, when you log-in you will have access to a whole set of website hosting tools. At first the list of tools may seem intimidating, but they are all very helpful and simple to use, and I’m going to walk you through the list.
To access the website hosting tools, log in to your account at networksolutions.com and click on ‘My Hosting Package’, you will then be directed to a page with the hosting tools. I have the Small nsHosting package operating on Unix.
Website Hosting Tools
FTP/Content Publishing: FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol; simply put, FTP tools help you to move files between your computer and your web host. If you want to upload files from your computer to your website, such as images and video, or if you want to download files from your web host to your computer, you would use the FTP tools. You can use the Easy FTP tools and follow the step-by-step instructions or you can use the online File Manager. You will also find the Website Builder here, an easy to use point-and-click tool that will let you create a new webpage from a template in minutes.
Site Enhancements: Site enhancements let you customize the content of your site. From here you can add counters and trackers to your site (to keep track of how many people are coming to your site), add forms, and customize error pages that users will see if they hit a bad URL on your domain. From this page you can also add open source apps like external blogs and wikis. If you are a programmer, you can also code your website yourself using the Ruby on Rails icon from this menu.
Security: From the security menu you can set up password protection for your website or create SSL certificates so that users who connect to your website will be doing so through a secure encrypted connection.
Site Statistics: Here you can see stats about your page and who’s visiting. How many visitors are you getting? How long are they staying on the page? Where are they coming from? Which pages on your site are they visiting? You can get this kind of information from the AWstats program.
Marketing Tools: Here you can find tools to help bring more users to your site. You can submit your site to search engines, connect with Yahoo! search engine marketing, and draft professional e-mail newsletters to help market your site.
Configurations: From the configurations menu you can manage your database and backups, set up scheduled tasks and streaming media for your website.
Using these basic tools you can easily build, improve, and maintain your site within the Network Solutions interface. These tools are all very easy to use and there are instructions on screen to guide you every step of the way, so feel free to play around with these website hosting tools and discover what they can do for your site.
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