Help!
Service Announcements
Announcements regarding service status (e.g. availability of websites) will be posted on our Twitter account, and will be visible on this page and in COLIN our Reminders, Renewals and Helpdesk System.
Existing Hosting & Domain Name Customers
You can access COLIN, our Reminders, Renewals and Helpdesk System, here.
Please remember that you should report any problems via COLIN. We receive text alerts which prompt us to investigate your report. If you send us an email instead, it may not get seen immediately, and it may even be lost in the depths of our Junk Mail folder!
If the problem you are about to report has already appeared in our Twitter announcements, there is no need to log it in COLIN - we already know about it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How big is Goldseal?We are a small business.
We have taken a deliberate decision not to become bigger because we want to remain responsive to our customers, and it keeps overheads low.
It also means that you will be corresponding with a member of staff who actually writes software, not a worker in a call centre.
We do not run our servers directly. They are housed in a data centre and monitored by server technicians. In addition we perform our own monitoring on key services and websites. When our monitoring systems detect a problem, we receive emails and text alerts which allow us to tackle the problem without delay.
You can, but we can't guarantee we'll be able to take your call. The nature of the business means we are often out and about. We always recommend you log any issues via COLIN, our online Helpdesk system. Key staff will receive text alerts as soon as you raise a Log.
You do. We have heard of cases where companies have had websites built, but subsequently found that the domain name they thought was theirs had in fact been registerd in the web designer's name. This is uncommon, but we advise that you do check before you register.
You need to buy a domain name. If you intend to forward all email to your existing email account (e.g.fredbloggs@yahoo.co.uk) you don't need anything else.
If you want to store email on the server, and maybe take advantages of our webmail system (so you can view your emails on any web browser) you will need a hosting package. A 1 Star hosting package will give you 50mB of webspace, which means you can potentially stored 50mB of email on the server.
We manually check all order details, and domain names are normally registered within one working day. We do try to process weekend orders promptly too.
After registration, it normally takes 24 - 48 hours for the information to propagate around the internet, after which point the domain name is useable.
We manually check all order details, and hosting packages are normally set up within one working day. We do try to process weekend orders promptly too.
The hosting package is ready for use as soon as we have configured it. If you have ordered a domain name too, it normally takes 24 - 48 hours for the information to propagate around the internet, after which point the domain name is useable.
Probably. If the site consists of normal HTML pages, javascript and stylesheets, there should be few or no problems.
If the site contains PHP or Perl scripts, and/or uses MySQL databases, the site may need modifications to allow it to work.
If in doubt, please get in touch and we will do our best to help.
Because we have no control over how any software package (other than our own) is written, we would have to look at the published System Requirements for that software. If they were compatible, we would attempt to install the software using the vendor's instructions. We would charge a fee for this (based on the amount of time taken to do the work). Unfortunately we cannot then guarantee the software will actually work, because it is not our software.
Almost certainly.
If the site needs programming work (anything from form-to-email scripts to full eCommerce) your existing hosting package may not contain the facilities we need. Get in touch and we'll advise what is and isn't possible.
For larger projects, we form 'virtual teams' with individuals and other small businesses that we know and trust.
In this way, we can tailor a team to suit the requirements, without the overheads of a large company.
I'm afraid not. We write and maintain software, we don't fix hardware or operating systems.
