Frequently Asked Questions

Your email accounts run from a different physical server (computer), to your website. Occasionally there can be a problem which prevents emails from working, usually it is a temporary blip and they will be back up and running quickly. Sometimes it can take a little longer. We use the same email servers so we are aware of any issues as soon as they happen.

All internet traffic, like traffic on our roads, is controlled by signage. When you type in a domain name, or website address, such as www.designtoo.com, your computer looks for the nearest signpost to tell it where to go. These signposts are called DNS (Domain Name System), servers. The DNS servers convert your human readable name into a machine address, which is used by the computers. The DNS servers keep records of which domains are paired with which machine address and then directs traffic accordingly.

When you update your domain name, for example if you choose to move your hosting to us, the DNS servers need to be updated to reflect the new pairings. Because there are lots of DNS servers all around the world (you can imagine the chaos if there was only one, it would be really easy to take down the whole internet), it takes time to all the DNS servers to update.

What this means in practical terms, is that if you are migrating services from one hosting company to another, it takes a little time to happen. Usually 48 hours or under, but in rare cases a little bit longer. We recommend that if you are moving hosting companies, for email services to continue smoothly, you should have both old and new accounts collecting email for the duration of the DNS updates.

Yes you can.

We manage your email accounts for you, so just contact us and tell us what you need and we will set it up for you. We also have our Client Online control panel from which you can order new mail accounts and view settings for existing accounts.

There is no fixed total size, however each email is limited to a maximum size of 20Mb. If you try to send or receive files larger than this they may fail. If you need to send or receive larger files, do let us know and we will help you do this.

We recommend that you download your emails to your computer rather than storing them online as there is a fair usage policy in place. If your email box gets too large you may be asked to remove some emails. The small print means that too much email stored on the server could result in emails being auto-deleted to preserve space. If you have any concerns about this, or need to store large quantities of emails online, please talk to us first - we can suggest ways which will work for you.

We can arrange printing for you, or work with you so that you can use your own print company.

When we design artwork to be printed, it is always produced to the specification provided by the print company. We will discuss with you, and your print company, the specification required, then produce the artwork to that specification. We can manage the process for you, or we can provide artwork directly to you so you can arrange printing with a printer.

If you are wishing to use our hosting services you will need to update the nameservers on your domain to point at:

dns.uk.webtapestry.net (217.151.96.2)
dns.nl.webtapestry.net (217.151.103.2)

If you would like us to manage your domain for you, when transferring a .uk domain names to our control, you should request the current Tagholder to transfer the domain name to the WEBTAPESTRY tag.

You may be able to do this via a control panel with your existing host or they may request a direct email. Please contact us if you have any queries.

We prefer all photos to be supplied in their original format. In the case of digital cameras, a RAW file or a high resolution JPEG is great. In the case of scanned material, high resolution artwork is preferred, TIFF or JPG formats are best.

Please avoid, where possible, sending photos inside a Microsoft Word or other Office document format. These programs tend to alter the quality of the original file.

If you have any doubts or questions please ask us.

Our Outgoing (SMTP) mail server requires some kind of authentication of who you are, to ensure only authorised users can use our mail server. This error message means you have not authenticated. There are two ways of authenticating.

1. When you download mail, you then have a window of a few minutes to send e-mail using our SMTP server provided you do not disconnect from the internet in between. In Outlook Express, the "Send and Receive" button does this the other way around. However, if you then click "Send and Receive" again, it should work OK.

2. In Outlook Express, select the 'Accounts...' option from the 'Tools' menu. Click the 'Mail' tab, select your Web Tapestry mail account and click the 'Properties' button. Choose the 'Servers' tab and ensure the box labelled "My server requires authentication" is ticked. Click 'OK'. Click 'Close'.

This should also work for users of Outlook. Entourage for Mac has a similar setting.

Our POP3 (Incoming) mail server is mail.designtoo.com and our SMTP (Outgoing) mail server is also mail.designtoo.com

Some ISPs (internet Service Providers), may block access to third party SMTP servers, so if you have problems you can bypass this by changing the SMTP server port in your mail software from port 25 to port 587. This can be found under the Advanced tab in Outlook and Outlook Express. It is also usually a good idea to tick the my server requires authentication box.

You can only use our email servers if you have a POP3 account with us, which means you are using email with one or more of your domain names as part of our hosting package.

Sadly, yes. We choose not to have the email server filter out spam email, for the simple reason that a computer can't always tell what is spam and what is not.

What the computer might consider spam, you might not and we prefer to leave the choice to you. By employing the spam filter on any good email client, you can filter out virtually all spam with little effort. There are also various third party applications which will not only learn what you consider spam, but like AntiVirus software, is updated regularly to combat the latest spam trends.

We can turn spam filtering on for your email accounts, but it is possible that you will find emails deleted which you wanted. Ultimately there will be no way of knowing if an email is treated as spam and removed, therefore we tend to recommend software on your computer. Do contact us to talk about this in more detail.

We currently charge £120.00* a year for hosting which includes hosting for 1 domain and as many email accounts as you would like for that domain.

For additional domains pointing at the same website (e.g. www.designtoo.co.uk pointing at www.designtoo.com) there is a £20.00* a year Alias Hosting charge.

For domains which are owned by you, but are not in use / or where you use the email, but have no web, there is a £20.00* a year Parked Hosting charge.

There is a separate charge for the domain ownership which is paid to the domain registrar, which we manage on your behalf.

* All prices exclude VAT.

Our VAT number is: 931 8880 96

Yes, you can log into your Control Panel and view your invoices and also your project status.

No, we don't. We do accept electronic and BACS transfer, please contact your bank for details. All of our account details can be found at the bottom of your invoice. We also accept cheques or cash. Please note that any early settlement discounts we offer apply only to cleared electronic funds.

Email from our hosted accounts can be managed on a smart phone.

You will need to update your account settings on the Blackberry website to allow push notifications to be sent to your device. The settings we have sent you for your email account will be the details you will require.

For the iPhone you can set up the details directly on the phone.

If you want your emails to be collected on a phone, and also on your computer, then you need to ensure that the 'Leave a copy of mail on the server' setting is selected on either device, normally the computer.  We normally suggest for a period of 5 - 10 days. This will give time for both devices to pick up the email. If you want your outgoing email sent from your phone to also appear on your computer, you need to CC the email to yourself. There are usually settings to do this automatically.

If you have lost your email account details, please log into your Control Panel or contact us.

Whichever one you like best, but do be aware that there are differences.

Firefox is generally the most web compliant (i.e. it is least likely to have issues in showing you a web page). It is the only browser which is fully colour compliant, which helps you see colours as the designer intended. It has a wide range of add-ons you can download and use free of charge.

Chrome from Google is the newest arrival. It is sleek and easy to use, it is based on the 'Webkit' engine which also features in Apple's Safari browser.

Internet Explorer from Microsoft is still the most widely used browser, largely because there are three versions still in use: 6, 7 and 8. Version 6 is now very out of date, and while it is used widely in many corporate environments, it should never be the browser you choose to use. There are lots of issues with IE6 and while we do code websites to work in IE6, this can make your development costs more expensive. IE7 is a bit better and IE8 better still.

Safari from Apple is widely in use on Apple Mac computers, but is also available for PC. It uses the 'Webkit' engine (see above for Chrome). It is partially colour compliant so some colours will display accurately. Firefox on the Mac is a better option for colour accuracy.

Our golden rule for web browsers is that they must be kept up to date. Because of the nature of the internet, browser software is continually modified to prevent problems. Some browsers are better than others at keeping themselves up to date, but all are updated on a regular basis.

We would urge, where possible, that you avoid Internet Explorer 6. It's now very old and very creaky, and besides which, you're missing out on some wonderful things on the internet that you just can't see with IE6.

Our current favourite in the designtoo office is Firefox, which is available from www.firefox.com.

No. We operate a very relaxed 'open doors' policy with our customers, imposing as few restrictions as possible. The basic rule is that if all your invoices are paid then you are free to move at any time and we will help you do so.

Hosting fees are paid in advance for a year and are non-refundable should you move during that time. We pride ourselves on the fact that very few customers ever move away from us. Although they are safe in the knowledge that they can move away if they want to, we try to ensure that they enjoy working with us.

There are several ways in which a website can be updated:

Websites can either be managed at a technical level (code / content / etc.) in which case we manage them for you, or it is possible for your website to have a CMS (Content Management System), where you can manage your website very simply with no technical knowledge at all. We offer a system we have produced ourselves specifically for you, called Flarebox, why not visit the Flarebox website: www.flarebox.com

Flarebox, our powerful, yet simple CMS system has its own website at: www.flarebox.com why not visit that to find out more, or do contact us to talk about how it can help your organisation online.

Yes we do, there are several ways in which we work with clients who already have a website:

Tweaking:
If you need changes made to an existing website then as long as we can gain access to the code, we can tweak and adjust what we find. While this is not necessarily the optimum way to manage a website, it can be a very cheap option for you and we are happy to do it.

Refreshing:
Sometimes clients wish to keep their brand but update or refresh their website. This is not a problem, we will discuss with you what you want and ensure that we do what is required to breathe new life into your website, but keep the familiar identity.

Redesigning:
Sometimes the best option is to consider a new start, either for sections of the website, or even the whole website. We are very flexible and can work on the areas we identify together which move your company and website forward. This might mean changing the website, or brand, content, or even the way in which you interact with your customers on your website.

It is usually best to have an initial meeting to discuss what you want, so why not contact us?

When a domain name that you have registered with us, or transferred to us, comes up for renewal, our computers will send you a couple of emails informing you of the date of renewal. The first email is sent 4 weeks prior to the renewal date, the second 2 weeks before.

You don't need to do anything if you wish to carry on as normal as our systems will automatically renew your domain. These emails are an opportunity for you to cancel the domain should you no longer need it. You can do this by following the instructions in the email (click on the link), and then confirming your decision on the web.

If you do nothing, the domain will be renewed automatically and our computer will then send you an electronic invoice for the cost of the renewal. (Please see the Hosting Fees FAQ for costs).

If you choose not to renew your domain the registration will lapse and shortly thereafter is available for sale to the public.

If your domain is hosted with another registrar the renewal is handled by that registrar and not by us. If you are using our hosting services via DNS pointing, we will only invoice you for hosting costs.

We will happily work with you however you wish to work. Once a website has gone live, or you have received your printed items we are still there if you have questions or thoughts. If any anomalies appear we sort them out quickly. If in using your website you have new ideas for content or things it can do, we can fit that in and continue to expand what the website offers. For many of our clients we operate as an outsourced department, so we are always here and happy to help, we don't abandon you once the site is up and live.

No, we don't have maintenance contracts, because we believe that they are never good value for the client. For us to ensure that we don't lose money on a maintenance contract we have to charge enough to cover any eventuality, and a bit more, costing you more; or average the cost across all clients, which means that those who don't use the contract (our best clients) are subsidising those who do - not ideal.

Instead, our philosophy is:
- You only pay for what you need - so we charge our usual hourly rate and you can ask for small or large changes secure in the knowledge that you are not over-paying.
- By having no contract you are not tied in - this gives you far greater flexibility. We like our clients to continue using us but above all we want our clients to be able to choose how their websites / work continues to develop and we don't force you into any particular direction.

For more details of what happens once your website goes live, please see our after sales servcies FAQ.

We won't charge you for releasing a domain name, however any outstanding invoices you have with us should be fully settled prior to our releasing a domain. If there are any third party fees charged to us for the transfer (e.g. registrar fees) which can happen, then we will pass those costs onto you. By requesting a domain release or transfer you agree to pay those fees. If such fees are charged they are usually around £30 + VAT.

We won't proof read content that provided to us as part of a website or print project, unless we are asked to do so. If we spot something amiss in the content during the course of a project we will query this with the client, but generally we advise our clients to proof and proof again before going live, or sending a project to print.

If you have the opportunity, it is always worth getting a completely fresh pair of eyes to proof your content as a final check. We can offer professional proof-reading as a service, we use a third-party to avoid situations where we / you have been looking at the content for so long that we don't spot mistakes. Let us know if you would like to use this service.

Generally we like to leave a minimum of two weeks for printing of business cards, business stationary and general print. Printing of flyers we can normally turn around in 5 working days. For other bespoke items such as brochures times can vary depending on requirements. This includes delivery.

If you have a deadline that you need print materials to have arrived with you by, we strongly recommend you allow a minimum of two weeks for printing. Please note that this does not include design time.

This is always a difficult question to answer, if we were selling a standard product (i.e. a book / CD / etc.) then we could easily say it will cost £xx. However, with business advice / websites / print / etc. no two jobs are identical, for one customer a 5 page website might only take 2 hours, for another it could take 5 hours, or 10 hours - the difference being that one is more organised than the other, or that for one their data is more complex to present, or perhaps they need a more complex design - all factors that can influence the time taken. When we provide you with an estimate we will lay out our thinking and explain what would be included, however in the last 4 years in c. 1,000 projects only 2 have had no changes from start to finish - so you may find the time needed going up or down - but we will talk it through with you during the project.

Our current price (as of 1st September 2010) is £75 + VAT p/h, however we do offer you a 10% reduction on hourly work for prompt payment (details on the invoice) and we are currently running an offer to 'pay the VAT' for those who are not registered (£75 inc. VAT p/h = £63.83 + VAT p/h).

So what are some typical prices? A business card will probably take around 1/2 an hour of design; a small - medium size static website we would normally say budget £500 - £750; an initial business consultancy session is normally 2 - 4 hours, so £150 - £300, and a lot can be achieved in that time. Costs for Flarebox (our CMS) are static for the modules, and then artworking costs on top - have a look at the website for more detail.

So hopefully that gives you a flavour of how we work - why not let us know what you are interested in and we can give you a good indication of cost.