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Technical support

Please find your question in the list of FAQs and tread the answer. We do hope that it will help you. In case of special situation please write to us at and most likely we will be back to you in very same day.

How to upload files to your Server?

Use any of FTP client program. If those already included in your OS package (Windows, Mac) are not convinient (they aren`t), you can find number of free and good programs in the Net. Such as AceFTP, BatchFTP, Leech FTP, CoffeeCup Free FTP and many other.

When you install one of those programs, set it up to work with your website:
FTP server: sparkleserver.net (or your_domain.com)
Login: use main login we supplied you
Password: use your password

All other settings (if any) depends on your Internet connection and personal preferences.

Directory, where you should upload your HTML files and pictures is "public_html".

How to configure your mailing program?

  1. Incoming mail server (POP3): sparkleserver.net (or your_domain.com)
  2. Outgoing mail server (SMTP): sparkleserver.net (or SMTP host of your ISP).
  3. Username: Is the same *User Name that you got when your account was opened* (capital and small letters are not same).
  4. Password: Is the same *password that you got when your account was opened*
  5. Check the option that the mail will be deleted from the server after its been retrieved. Not doing this will cause, that your mail will be kept in the Server and will add up in time, to a file that might consume all of your booked web space with us, which again will lead to that you might get another invoice from us for additional web space. You don`t want that - do you?

If you use sparkleserver.net as the SMTP server you have to follow "SMTP after POP" rule. It means check you email box first and after that only send your outgoing email. Otherwise server will refuse to accept you mails. Check you mail first identifies you as the authorized part of SparkleServer.net. Unfortunately most popular mail client MS Outlook tend to send emails first and than check incoming mail. It may generate error message, but second click on "Send and Receive" will make it work properly.

If you don`t want to bother yourself with this annoying feature, we advise you to use your ISP`s SMTP server. Please refer to the documentation you get when buying Internet packages or Internet connection. Contact your ISP and ask what is their SMTP server if it`s unclear from their documentation.

How to use Telnet to change your password?

Start a "Telnet" program. Normaly it is included in most of OS packages like Windows or Macintosh. In case of Windows you may click "Start" menu, than "Run", type there "telnet sparkleserver.net" and click "OK".

A screen should pop up with the server informations, that looks like a DOS Prompt command. The first prompt says "Login:", type your login name and press "Enter" key. The second prompt says "Password:", type your curent password and press "Enter" key. Note that password normally doesn`t appear on the screen when you type it.

If login and password typed correctly you are authorized to your login session (otherwise start everything over again). There is a prompt which usually looks like "login_name>". You may type your commands and press "Enter" to execute them.

Command to change your password called "passwd". Type it (without quote marks) and press "Enter". The program will ask you for your old password. Type it in and press ENTER. The program will ask you for your new password. Type it in and press ENTER. It will ask you again for the new Password in order to verify it. Type it in again and press ENTER.The program should tell you, that your password has been changed.

In order to close down your Telnet session, execute command "logout".

How to get cgi scripts to use on my Server? Where can I get cgi scripts from?

The easiest and most uncomplicated way is to order us to do this for you. Plese reffer to our script page for more information.

Another possibility for you is, to find pre-written scripts on the Internet by just searching in any search engine for 'cgi scripts' or 'perl scripts' and we are sure, that you will find many sites who offer such for free. The most well known source for this is Matt Wright.

But be aware, that to set these up to work on your server is most tricky. Our help is limited to the paths on the Server, which you will find here. For more assistance please see our script page.

What are the virtual paths on the Server?

The following shows the most needed paths to be used on the Server within scripts and within 'html' to call a script:
Your web page files or PHP scripts have to reside at "public_html" folder or any subfolders inside it.
Send mail: /usr/sbin/sendmail
Perl: /usr/bin/perl
Date: /bin/date
Cgi URL: http://www.domainname.com/cgi-bin
Your cgi scripts have to reside at "cgi-bin" folder or any subfolders inside it.

How to upgrade your account with us?

This is an easy one. All you have to do is write us an E-mail to and tell us what you want. Besides of the scripts, we offer extended web space, which for existing clients is most inexpensive. To add 50MB of web space to your existing account, we only charge US$ 25.00 per year and you may order such from us at . Every additional mailbox cost only US$ 20 one time setup fee.

How to book a new Domain name?

  1. Price is only now $19.95 per year!
  2. Register and Manage your Domain name here
  3. DONE!

Thanks much for using the SparkleServer to host your domain! We sure appreciate your business!

How to setup E-Commerce on my website?

Firstly we should distinguish between "online shop" and "E-commerce". We will consider here "online shop" as just a website with merchandises to sell. Creating "online shop" is the task involved scripting. Please read How to get cgi scripts to use on my Server? to get an idea about this task. Here we consider "E-Commerce" as another financial task of the job. It is not enough to create just an "online shop", you have to resolve question how you can collect money for your goods.

Following reccomendations are for the small-to-medium businesses. We assume you don`t have your own Merchandise Account. If you do, please contact us for custom tailored solution.

First step is to find a billing company, which will be processing credit card charges for you. Billing companies will consider your business location and your merchandise. Your should consider their setup and processing rates. Most famous billing companies are PayPal, iBill, ccNow. If you located out of USA and EU, most likely your application will be not accepted by those three. You may look for your local billing company. Contact us if you are based in Thailand we have E-Commerce solution for you. Contact us if you failed to find any suitable billing company, we may give some advises.

Second step is to merge your online shop with the payment system of the billing company. It involves custom made scripting to join two different programs. You have to figure out yourself how to do it according to the documentation of both. Or you may outsource this task to us.

When these two steps are done your website is fully E-commercial and ready to work.

How to get additional POP3 E-mail accounts?

Write us an E-mail to and let us know the name of the email like 'peter@mydomain.com'.

We thereafter will configure this new separate E-mail account of yours accordingly and let you know, when everything is done. Charges for each account are US$ 20 and are charged only once in a lifetime (not yearly charges).

Why we must charge for this? We must configure your actual E-mail account, which includes everything@yourdomainname.com as your one for all Email accounts, to exclude this specific name from your ALL mails. Thereafter we must configure this to seperately store that particular mail on your server with a separate login and password. After this is done, your extra POP3 account will function for life.

Such might be useful, if you want to give an E-mail to other employees in your company as their unique E-mail account or if you wish to make a present to your friend or family members.

Please note, that Passwords given for such an account cannot be changed by yourself by Telnet. Such a change in configuration must be done by our Administrator.

How to prevent spam?

Protection against spam is not a trivial task. There is no one program or project which can provide absolute protection. Learning this problem we found two solutions close to the best: SpamCop and MailWasher. The first collects your emails and filters them for you. The second is a program with heuristic algorithm to be installed on your computer.

In fact one can live without any anti-spam programs (and expenses) if follows simple spam-safety rules. They are similar to VD-safety.

The main rule: do not broadcast your email address on website, forums, classifieds. Main source of spam lists are broadcasted addresses. Special email harvesting robots or programs crawl over all websites and collect emails for spammers.

When you need to publish contact to you on public website use some twists:

  • You may dissmiss main attribute of email sign "@". Instead of peter@mydomain.com write peter(at)mydomain.com or in other similar way. Human being will understand easy what it means and put the sign "@" back to contact you. Spam robot most likely will not recognize peter(at)mydomain.com as email and leave it out.
  • Add some symbols to your email. Instead of peter@mydomain.com write peter@mydomain.com-no-spam-please. Again human (if he is not dumb) will cut unnecessary letters and contact you. But spam robots will collect whole string and will be using it instead of your correct address.
  • Simple but neat way to protect your email address may be using code @ instead of sign "@". (i.e. peter@mydomain.com) In many cases this code string automatically turns to sign "@" on the screen. But spam robot still sees it as peter@mydomain.com and ignores. This method is not an absolute protection, some spam robot creators may already found this trick. This metod may also not work in some public forums and not automatically turns to sign "@". Try it first.
  • SparkleServer offers a free script to use on your website which uses JavaScript to make spammers life a bit more difficult. Whenever you need to put email on webpage write the following:
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/stat/antibotemail.php?left=peter"></script>
    On the visitor`s screen this line will turn to peter@mydomain.com but spam robot will see just odd string and ignore it. Here "mydomain.com" is your actual domain which will be detected automatically. You may also try other parameters for this script (see instruction). Here we use our email to show how it works:
    Source code: <script type="text/javascript" src="/stat/antibotemail.php?left=help"></script>
    Result:

When you need to publish your email in printed media or send a personal email, do it simply without any tricks. Risk of getting spam from such publication is very low.

When you sign up to certain websites you have to provide you correct email. Do it, as there is no other choice. In worse case this company may sell you address to couple spammers, but it is still better than hundreds of spam robots which collect your address from public sources.

If you follow these rules you won`t receive more than couple spam emails a day. But what should you do if you already have hundreds spam messages a day?

Apart using SpamCop or MailWasher there is another radical solution: change all your addresses. Instead of peter@mydomain.com use peter_pan@mydomain.com. The old address peter@mydomain.com we will block for you. Main negative part of this solution that all your old correspondents will lose contact with you. But sometimes spam problem may be so dramatic, that there is no other way but rid of "infected" addresses. You may contact all or most of your correspondents and inform them of your change. We may help you and setup special message to the old blocked addresses (i.e. "Address peter@mydomain.com is discontinued. Please use peter_pan(at)mydomain.com"). This message is safe, people who are looking to contact you will read it, other spam robots will ignore it.

Important! When you changed your emails do mind "safe publishing" recommendations described above. Otherwise in certain time you will face spam problem again.