DNS1.IMAGETEXAS.COM   and   DNS2.IMAGETEXAS.COM

If you’re setting up hosting for a .org domain use these instead:

AI-1.ACCURATEIMAGE.ORG  and AI-2.ACCURATEIMAGE.ORG

For example, If you have registered your domain name with godaddy.com, go to the godaddy site and log into your account.  Select the “Manage Domains” option on the left column.  Then click the link on the domain that you want to edit.  At the top of the page of details about that domain, click the “NameServers” button.  Enter the name servers as described above in the pop up window and click OK.  That’s it.  It may take as much as a few hours for the appropriate info to circulate to various servers on the internet.  Once that happens, anyone looking for your domain will be directed to your site on servers at bobsmyhost.com.  Here’s a screen shot of the Godaddy nameserver entry screen (click for a larger view).

GoDaddy DNS Server Entry

I am completely installing WordPress with proper security measures already in place and a number of popular themes and plugins pre-installed.  You just need to log in as an admin and start adding content.  Your wordpress install is in a folder at the root level of your site.  To see the WordPress site the link is http://www.example.com/wordpressfoldername/.  To administer the site go to http://www.example.com/wordpressfoldername/wp-admin.

The attraction of WordPress and similar types of system is the fact that its pages are dynamically generated.  A page is created by the server when it is requested.  There are no pages of static content.  Because the pages are created by the server on the fly, it’s easy to change the parameters of how the page is created and instantly have a site with a completely new look.  A site owner can do much of this with little or no knowledge of the underlying code that makes it all work.

WordPress is very simple for a novice to use but the possibilities for complex expansion are practically endless.  The internet is full of sites devoted to showing creative ways to use WordPress.  Yes, there’s even a “WordPress For Dummies” book… as well as many others.  It’s that ubiquitous.  So go ahead and get started.  WordPress.org

Experiment with WordPress for a while.  If you like the way it works, link to your WordPress content from your main site.  If you want the WordPress content to become your main site, place a 301 redirect at the root level of your site folder with a very simple .htaccess file.  Here’s how.

You can setup an account in Apple Mail with as either POP or IMAP service.  POP is probably the most commonly used. With POP all messages are downloaded to your computer where you can read or edit them at any time.  IMAP leaves the mail on the server until you specifically request that it be downloaded.  Below are screen shots showing the appropriate settings for creating a POP account.  IMAP uses the same server names.  Just substitute your domain name wherever you see bobsmyhost.com in these examples.

Click on the screen shots for a larger view

Apple Mail - basic settings

Incoming Mail - POP Server Settings

The Description field in the screen above and the one below are strictly for your information.  Enter whatever you want there.  If you have more than one mail account or use more than one SMTP server, your description helps you pick them from a list.

SMTP (Outgoing Mail) Server Settings

When you click continue, Apple mail tries to connect to the server as a test.  It will likely fail after a minute or so with this message:

Apple Mail SMTP Server Connection Error

It fails because the default port for connection is blocked by many internet service providers… especially on residential internet lines.  You can specify a custom port later.  Click continue again.  It won’t do the test again.  Even if you passed the connection test, you should still enter the custom port described below.  That will allow you to connect from just about any internet line without a problem.

Next, specify the encryption method:

Apple Mail - Password Encryption

When you click “Continue” above the account will be created.  However you still need to set a custom port for the SMTP server.  Choose “Edit Server List” from the SMTP server list pop-up:

Apple Mail - Edit SMTP Servers

Then click on the advance tab and enter a custom port number 9025

Apple Mail - Advanced SMTP Settings

That should make your account useable.  Here’s an overview of all of the main settings:

Apple Mail - Settings Overview

You may also want to look at the “Mailbox Behaviors” and the “Advanced” tab for settings that might be helpful to you.  Be especially aware of the setting under the advanced tab to remove mail from the server.  If you have a POP mail client that accesses this account from more than one computer you should only instruct your main computer… the one that you want to be sure and hold your entire email archive… to delete messages from the server.  I generally set mine to delete a week after they’ve been retrieved.  That gives me a safety net to retrieve them again if something screws up on my computer.  I keep every other computer set to NOT erase files on the server at all.  That way nothing gets erased until my main computer has had a chance to access the mail.  The archive of mail on that computer is always complete.

We’ve all been there.  A client wants you to email a set of files for a rushed project.  About as often as not a large file gets mangled in the email transfer.  Email simply isn’t an efficient way to get a file to another party.  A better way is to place it on your site for download and them email them a  direct link to the file.  They just click the link and the files… even very large ones… download reliably.  This process is simple and works the same way no matter what system either is using… Mac or PC.  It will take less time to do it than it will to read the description below.

The basic steps…  

1. Collect the files you want to transfer into a single folder
2. Name the folder with an internet friendly name.  Lettters, numbers, dashes and underscores only.  No spaces or special characters.
3. Right click (or optionally control click on a Mac) and select “Compress” (Mac) or “Send To Compressed (Zipped) Folder” (PC).
4. A single compressed file will be created in the same location as the original folder.  The compressed file will have the same name as the folder with the .zip extenstion added.  The extension may not be visible depending on how you have system preferences set.
5. Upload that file to your web site.  If you do this often you might want to create a folder on your site just for this purpose.  Call it “downloads”.  
6. Email the link to that file to your client.  Assuming you started with a folder called “MyFolder” and placed the resulting compressed file into the “downloads” folder at the root level of your site, the link would be:  http://www.example.com/downloads/MyFolder.zip
7. When your client clicks on the link in your email their web browser will launch and the file(s) will begin downloading immediately.  On most systems the compressed file will auto decompress once the download is complete and they will see a folder that looks just like the uncompressed “MyFolder” that you started with on your end.

Screen shots below… click them to view larger:

Right click and select Compress on Mac Systems

Compressed .zip file next to original folder in Mac Finder

Right click and choose send to zipped archive on Windows XP

Use your full email address as your username (you@example.com) to log-in.

The first time you use this service you’ll likely find it useful to visit the Options link.  Check out the Personal Info link and the Display Preferences link.  Setting your preferences in those two panes will make use of the web interface more enjoyable and useful for you.

click the screen shots for a larger view

Log-in screen for web email access

click the images below to see a larger view.

Note: When in doubt, leave the initial folder or initial directory field blank.
That will connect you at the root level of your access from there you’ll see an
obvious folder where your site should go.  On more recently setup sites,
I’ve standardized on using “http-docs” to hold your site.

In most software, if you leave the port number blank, it will use the default.
The default is the correct choice.  FileZilla is an exception.
You must specify port 22 to get an sFTP connection.

SFTP Connection with Fetch

Dreamweaver CS4 basic settings panel

Advanced remote server settings in Dreamweaver

WinSCP sFTP Connection Settings

Your username/password for accessing the web server.

Your email address and the password used to access that account.

And if you use these features:

Your MySQL username,database name and password.

Your WordPress admin username/password.

All of these should have been given to you when your account was setup with BobsMyHost.com. Usually the username/password combo is the same for every service except email. For email, your username is your full email address  (you@example.com). However, you have the ability to change your email, WordPress and MySQL info through various admin interfaces… and may have done so since your account was established. If you have problems figuring out what any of these are, contact me. Write these items down and store them in a secure location for future reference.

On all of the support pages, simply insert your domain name wherever you see “example.com”