Userguides for our two different Web Hosting Control Panels, allowing users to manage their website hosting and email.
Hosting Support Procedures [ READ THIS FIRST ]
In terms of support, what is FREE, and what do you charge for?
Userguide for the users of the cPanel™ Control Panel?
Userguide for users on our Corporate / Business Class Web Plans?
Hosting Support Procedures [ READ THIS FIRST ]
At Lounge Network, we provide various levels of support for standard hosting related issues only. We do not provide any support for third party software that you have installed on your computer, including your email client, FTP client, or your web design software. We also do not provide support for any third party software applications that are included inside your hosting control panel, such as forums, CMS, shopping carts etc. Clients must seek support for any third party software, from the company they have sourced the software from.
Our servers are monitored 24 / 7, 365 days a year, by professional technicians at the datacentre.
Level 1 support is provided though our instant online KnowledgeBase at //www.knowledgebase.loungenetwork.co.nz/ . This includes answers to hundred of frequently questions, and also has step by step tutorials that show you how to perform common tasks. These common tasks include how to create mailboxes, how to set up FTP, and how to upload your website, etc , for common brands of software. It also provides basic help with some programming, setting up file permissions, how to setup databases etc. Doing a Google search should also be able to help non hosting related issues. Please also refer to your software manufacturers own instructions, or their support systems.
We do also have troubleshooting guides, for troubleshooting common email and webhosting issues. Our troubleshooting guide for webhosting can be found by clicking here. Our troubleshooting guide for email can be found by clicking here. This is essential before contacting us, that you first read their guides, as it is more than likely your issue can be resolved by following the instructions.
Level 2 support, is when you can’t find the answer to your question in our Knowledge Base. In this case you would email us with full details of your question. Emails are answered during normal business hours Monday to Fridays, and there is also limited after hours support in the weekends and after hours. Often emails will be answered within a few hours during normal business hours, however during high demand this maybe longer. All support is best effort and there is no guaranteed response time.
You can contact us by using the support form in your hosting control panel, or going to our support page at www.loungenetwork.co.nz/support/.
If you have an urgent support enquiry during business hours, we do have a special form you can fill in at 'Contact Form - Priority'.
If you have an emergency support request outside normal business hours we do have an emergency support form at 'Contact Form - Emergency'. Please note that charge do apply for priority /emergency support.
Please be sure that the person who emails us, has reasonable knowledge of computers, websites and email etc, and is familiar with all the terms. Usually it is best for the account owner or webmaster to contact us. If you need us to test whether an ftp or email account works, please be sure to include your username and password and the connection addresses your are using, as we don’t keep a record of clients passwords. Please be sure to include as much detail as possible, as we are unable to help if we don’t have full information.
Depending on your question, you may also need to provide us with full step by step instructions, on how to replicate the issue you are having. Also screens shots of any errors you are receiving are essential. You must also provide us with full details of anything you may have done that may have led to the issue. Please note that if you do not provide us with enough details, or fail to disclose something you may have done that cause the issue, we are unable to help you.
Other things you may need to provide us with, depending on the issue you are having are:
- The type of computer your are using and it's age.
- The OS system and version.
- What brand of security software you are using and it's version.
- Whether you are using a software or hardware firewall, or both.
- The ISP you are using, and type of connection (eg dial up, ADSL, CABLE).
- The software you are using, and whether you have recently installed any software that may have led to the issue.
- Any network information we should know, such as if you are running on a network, and whether you are using a router
After testing things from our end, we can usually rule out whether any issue is server related, or an issue with the clients own computer/internet security software, or their ISP.
Level 3 support is when we need to forward the issue to the server administration technicians and/or our upstream providers. They are usually contacted if it is believed to be a server related issue, or a technical problem with an account that Level 2 support can’t solve. They will double test things from their end.
If both Level 2 Support and Level 3 Support testing don't find any issue after testing, and our tests show everything is running fine at the server end, we will refer the issue back to the client to resolve from their end. The client may then need to provide further information and /or contact their ISP or company they have sourced the software from.
Help with non-hosting / server related issues..
If you need personal help with setting up services on your own computer, such as getting an email account to work on your personal computer, we may choose to assist you, however this is provided as a courtesy only and is not an obligation. General help for setting up common tasks, can be found in our KnowledgeBase, and we will usually redirect you to the relevant section in our online KnowledgeBase if you email with a non-hosting or a question that is already covered in our KnowledgeBase. If you need technical help for setting up your own computers, setting up your website, setting up your web design software to work with the server, and you don’t have the technical knowledge, you should contact a company who specialise in these services.
Please note: We will ignore any correspondence that is either hostile, abusive or offensive behavior to our staff. We expect all of our clients to treat us with the same respect, that they would expect us to treat them with. We understand that any computer related issue can be frustrating, but their is never excuse for our staff being subjected to any form of offensive behavior. Any correspondence from a client that we consider to be hostile, abusive or rude to our staff, may result in the clients hosting account being terminated immediately without notice and without refund, as it is a breach of our terms of service.
Why don't you offer phone support?
As with most hosting providers and online only businesses, all of our web hosting and domain registration support is 100% online based. This means that clients must either use the online support system in your control panel, or email us via our website. Clients can also talk to us via our 'Live Chat Facility' for sales and general enquiries. From our experience, email is a far more efficient method for communication, and resolving any technical issues. It also allows us time to discuss solutions to questions with other members, before we reply to you. It is also for security, and we make it very easy for you to email us, as we don't hide our email address in help systems like many providers. We do not offer support for our web hosting or domain registration services via our Live Chat system or Phone, however if your question is more general we may at our discretion reply to it via Live Chat.
Although we would love to offer top quality phone based support, in order to do this up to the high level we expect, where you are speaking one on one to quality New Zealand based server technicians, it would dramatically increase our prices. This would effectively price us out of the market, so we know that providing high quality NZ based phone support is not sustainable for a top quality long term hosting provider like us.
We also don't believe in cutting corners, and providing poor quality phone support. Problems with poor quality phone support include long hold times over 30 minutes, answering machines and automated phone systems, poorly trained support staff with limited technical knowledge, or using overseas based customer support call centres where you can hardly understand what they are saying. There are also occasions where the person you are speaking to is rude and unhelpful. This type of support creates a poor overall experience, and we know how frustrating it is to deal with poor quality telephone support.
Some other hosting providers may offer very limited support via the phone, if you can actually get through to them. However it is often very limited and very often suffers from the above problems. They are also often employing low wage non-technical call centre representatives, who are often only following a flow chart, and thus can often only help with the most basic things. For issues that are more technical in nature, they will often refer you to open a support ticket online, or will have to escalate it to a technical person to email you back, so phoning them can often be a waste of time. We know this from personal experience with dealing with other hosting providers, so we know how frustrating it is trying to explain something technical to someone who is non-technical.
The other major problem with phone support, is that you often only need phone support if there is a hosting problem, and often when there is a hosting problem, it affects everyone hosted on the servers. So when there is a problem of this nature, you will never be able to get through on the phone to the hosting provider, as everyone will be trying to phone a handful of support staff at the same time.
As we don’t provide phone support, when you email us, you are instead communicating directly with a technical person, so we can deal with any issue as quickly and efficiently as possible, without mucking you around.
Due to not providing phone support, we are also able to pass the cost savings onto our clients with affordably priced hosting plans and domain registration, as well as run a long term sustainable company that has been operating since 2001.
In terms of support, what is FREE, and what do you charge for?
For paying Web Hosting Client, some examples of support we provide for FREE are:
- We provide clients with hosting/email and domain control panels so you can manage all aspects of your day to day running of your web hosting, email, and domain names. This means at all times our clients are under full control of their hosting and domains. This is a self service system.
- We provide a comprehensive Knowledge base, with hundreds of answers to frequently asked questions. Depending on the hosting plan you are on, there are also video tutorials and/or step by step tutorials, showing how to use commonly used features.
- Investigate issues with the hosting network, and confirm whether there are issues or not on our network. These are posted on our Network Status page.
- Basic testing that an email account is working, by logging in from our end
- Investigate and resolve DNS issues
- We reply to all common support questions through our online support system using email. This does however have a reasonable usage policy, where we don’t expect clients to bombard us with questions that are already answered in our online knowledge base. If you need additional help for achieving tasks that can already be done in the control panel, such as setting up email addresses, we can do this, but it will be charged out. Our free support only covers web hosting and email issues, and does not extend to web design and scripting problems. We do expect all our clients to have at least basic web design, email and FTP knowledge to use our services.
Support that will cost from $20 +GST
- Manually updating clients domain name contact details with the registry.
- Clients are however able to do this themselves free inside our domain manager.
- Setup a single email address/pop3 account for you in your control panel and email you the connection details. Clients however can set these up for free inside their control panel.
- Up to 10 minutes of providing typed step by step instructions for a client.
Support that will cost from $50+GST
- DNS and namerserver updates to servers other than our own.
- Custom domain template setups and A RECORD, CNAME MX changes.
- Website transfer if using CPanel. Our tech's will download and restore your CPanel backup from your old host, up to our servers.
Most other work is charged out at $10 + GST per 6 minute interval. The minimum charge is $50 for half an hours work.
Server Backup Restoration Fees
Restoration of data for clients on our Premium CPanel Web Hosting plans, is $100 + GST for a single restoration during normal business hours of 9am to 5pm. After hours backup restoration is $195 + GST.
For clients on our Corporate and Business Class hosting plans on our NZ Based network, we will need to quote this on a case by case basis, as we use different technicians to perform this. Data restoration from our 14 days of backups will start from $120 + GST per half hour during normal business hours of 9am to 5pm. After hours and public holidays, backup restoration will be $260 + GST per half hour.
All payments must be paid in advance by credit card before a backup can be restored. We don't guarantee the integrity of any backup data, and that it will restore the website back to the way you intended..
Clients are reminded that they must make their own backups too, and the backups our upstream providers do should never be relied upon as per our terms of service.
Web design and support work from $10 +GST
We can provide web design, graphics work and support from $10+GST per 6 minute interval. The minimum charge is $50 for half an hours work. More info can be found at our Web Design Website at www.designlounge.co.nz
Userguide for the users of the cPanel™ Control Panel?
You can also access the CPanel userguides at https://docs.cpanel.net/cpanel/ . Up to date documentation for the cPanel™ Control Panel can also be found inside your hosting control panel. Your control panel also has some basic video tutorials showing you how to perform common tasks.
Userguide for users on our Corporate / Business Class Web Plans?
Documentation and tutorials for our Corporate / Business Class Web Plans, can be accessed by clicking here.