Your account has been migrated to a newer, faster server with significantly-more services now available to you.  These instructions are provided to help you transition to the new services. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Why Change?

We regularly upgrade servers to help ensure hardware reliability and give you better service.  Typically, this is done without your needing to know about it.  In this case, we're switching to a new control panel system that requires you to make some simple changes.

Upgrade Procedure

You will have received an e-mail containing information specific to your account such as domain names, user names, and passwords.  Use that information in conjunction with the information below to transition to using your new services.  The items below that are shown in red underscored italics should be replaced by information that was sent to you by e-mail.

Note that the transition to the new services will begin on the date as indicated in the e-mail you received.  The web pages and other information below may not work before that date.

Control Panel

Your old control panel was accessed as follows:

• Web Page: http://service.yourdomain.com
• Username: yourdomain.com
• Password: was whatever you set it to
• Capabilities: Reading e-mail, managing e-mail accounts, managing e-mail aliases

 Your new control panel is accessed as follows:

• Web Page: https://manage.fatbear.com.   You should no longer use the old control panel.  You can use http://manage.yourdomain.com and you'll be automatically redirected to this secure web page to manage your account.
  • Username: is indicated in the e-mail that was sent to you. In the instructions below, this is your accountID.
  • Password: is indicated in the e-mail that was sent to you
• Capabilities: Managing e-mail accounts, managing e-mail aliases, managing databases, installing scripts, reading logs and reports, and much more.  You can now create your own new domains!  Just visit http://www.supersitename.com and purchase a new domain.  Be sure to set the nameservers to ns1.fatbear.com, ns2.fatbear.com, and ns3.fatbear.com.  Then, using the control panel, click on Create Virtual Server and add your new domain either as a Sub-server (an independent domain) or as an alias of one of your domains.
• Help: Most labels in the control panel are links to pop-up help.  We use the popular Virtualmin control panel and more information can be found at http://www.virtualmin.com.

E-Mail

Once we start the transition for your account, we recommend that you access your e-mail using both methods below until e-mail is no longer being delivered via the old method.  This is necessary due to internet propagation time which can technically be up to 72 hours, but in most cases is much less (frequently a matter of minutes or a few hours at most).  No e-mail will be lost during the transition.

Your old e-mail was accessible in 2 ways:

1. Via download to your computer with the following settings:
   • Incoming (POP3) Server: mail.yourdomain.com
   • Outgoing (SMTP) Server: for fixed-location computers (such as desktop computers in your home or office), use your ISP-provided server.  For mobile devices (including laptop computers, PDAs, and mobile phones), use mail.yourdomain.com, using authentication as shown in the next entries below.  Note that encryption (TLS and SSL) was not supported.
   • Username: was your e-mail address such as This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
   • Password: was whatever you set it to
2. Via the web at http://service.yourdomain.com.  You would use the username and password above to login.

Your new e-mail is accessible in 2 ways:

1. Via download to your computer with the following settings:
   • Incoming (POP3) Server: mail.fatbear.com
   • Outgoing (SMTP) Server: for fixed-location computers (such as desktop computers in your home or office), use your ISP-provided server.  For mobile devices (including laptop computers, PDAs, and mobile phones), use mail.fatbear.com, using the authentication as shown in the next entries below.  Note that you may now use encryption including TLS and SSL.
   • Username: is now a dot-separated name such as pat.accountID as indicated in the e-mail that was sent to you.  In the instructions below, this is your emailID.
   • Password: is indicated in the e-mail that was sent to you and is typically the same password as you had before.  If your previous password was insecure, it will be changed.  Please make your passwords hard for others to guess.
2. Via the secure web page https://mail.fatbear.com .  You can use http://mail.yourdomain.com and you'll be automatically redirected to this secure web page to read your e-mail.  Use the username and password above to login.

Note that e-mail quotas are initially set to 50 MB.  You can change your e-mail quotas by logging into your control panel and:

• Clicking the Edit Mail and FTP Users link on the left side of the page
• Then, clicking the username under the Name column, or click the checkbox in front of the e-mail username and then click the Modify Selected Users button
• Then, clicking the Quota and home directory settings tab to open that section
• Then, either setting the Home directory quota to Unlimited by changing the radio button, or setting the quota to a new limit by entering a new number, possibly changing the units

Similarly, you can view or change your e-mail passwords via the control panel by clicking on Edit Mail and FTP Users and then looking in the Virtual domain user mailbox details section.

Note that you can create e-mail aliases by clicking the Edit Mail Aliases link in your control panel.  Then click the Add an alias to this domain link and fill in the requested information.  Typically, you only need to:

• Enter the new alias in the Name fill-in field (after the radio-box marked Mailbox)
• Check the Forward to other address checkbox
• Enter the destination e-mail addresses that you want e-mail delivered to when sent to your alias

FTP

Your old FTP was accessed as follows:

• FTP Server: ftp.yourdomain.com
• Username: yourdomain.com to access everything except e-mail user areas, or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to access an individual e-mail user's private FTP area
• Password: was whatever you set it to
• Website Home Directory: /www/htdocs

Your new FTP is accessed as follows:

FTP is available for both the account owner and for individual e-mail users.  The connection information is:

• FTP Server: ftp.yourdomain.com
• Username: use your accountID to access everything (without limitation) in your account or an emailID to access just the FTP area for an individual e-mail user.
• Password: is as indicated above in the Control Panel and E-Mail section
• Website Home Directory:
  • For your primary domain name: /public_html
  • For any additional domain names: /domains/yourdomain.com/public_html

We recommend using the superb FTP software FileZilla for Windows.  The Macintosh has FTP built-in and you can also use software such as Classic FTP.

Website

We have migrated your website contents and databases to the new server and have updated any .htaccess files we have found.  If you have path-specific information as part of your website, then it must be changed.  For example, if you have:

• /home/yourdomain.com/site/www/htdocs

then, this must be update to either:

• /home/accountID/public_html
• /home/accountID/domains/yourdomain.com/public_html

according to whether the domain is your primary domain or one of your additional domains.  We have attempted to do this for you; however, you should check to ensure that your website content is correct.

Also note that our new server uses the latest PHP software.  Short tags are no longer recognized and must be replaced by the standard php start tag.  That is, change:

• <?

to:

• <?php

You can do some basic checking of your website via the control panel before the transition by:

• Selecting the domain name you wish to check in the left-side drop down selector
• Then, clicking the Services link at the left
• Then, clicking the View Website via Webmin link at the left