A huge number of features are available in the First Ideas hosting plans.

control panel
disk space
bandwidth
domains
free internet access
email and webmail
website reporting
web tools
ecommerce
web resources
scripts

control panel

Managing your web hosting account is simplicity itself using our Control Panel. You can setup e-mail accounts, access webmail, FTP accounts, view website statistics, install scripts and software and access your files. It is very simple to use and includes a searchable support section.

Try the demo now

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Disk Space

We offer disk space from from 500mb up to a huge 10 GB to suit the size of your website. This is the amount of space you can use use to store your website files and images. You can upload your files using any FTP software.

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Bandwidth

Every time someone visits your website they will use some of your data transfer allowance. For example if one of your web pages is 10 kilobytes in size (KB) and the images that are on that page are 90 KB then if someone visits your page they will use 100 KB of data. Your data transfer allowance is in megabytes (MB)

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DOMAINS

Domain mapping

You can also have unlimited domain aliases pointing to your website (for example if you want to have multiple domains pointing to the same website)

DOMAIN FORWARDING

You can add extra domain names to point to your website!

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Free Internet Access

Yes, there are plenty of people in the UK who are still out of reach of broadband services, so finding cost-effective dialup can be still a real concern. We have a great free dialup service - you don't need to sign up, there are no forms to fill in and it's really very simple to use. Our features include: fast, free and reliable dialup internet access, pay-as-you-go, no subscription fees or contract, 0845 local call rates paid via your phone bill, up to 56 kbps modem speeds, free and easy to set up, aAnyone can use it, fFree for businesses, home users, students, anyone!

Simply have your computer dial 0845 604 0489

You can specify any username or password you like e.g.

username firstideas and password internet

We even provide a free outgoing mail server for use in programs like Outlook Express - simply point your outgoing mail server to smtp.outitgoes.com

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EMAIL and webmail

email forwarding

Email Forwarding allows you to forward any email address @yourdomain.co.uk to any email address you choose, for example a hotmail or yahoo.com address. You can forward each address to up to ten different addresses.

Catch-All Email Forwarding

Catch-All Email Forwarding allows you to forward ALL email from yourdomain.co.uk to any email address you choose, for example a hotmail or yahoo.com address.

Mail Boxes

Mail boxes allows you to add mail boxes to your account. A mail box stores mail on our server until you download it using an email client like Outlook Express.

Our mail servers support POP3 and IMAP.

Email Mailing Lists

Email Mailing Lists allow you to have a simple form on your website with which your users can subscribe or unsubscribe their email address. You can then send an email to all members of the list using our simple system.

Email Autoresponders

Email Autoresponders allows an email address on your account to automatically respond with a specific message.

Junk Mail Filters

Junk Mail Filters use special technology to strip out junk mail before you receive it. This feature also allows you to set an address to send the junk mail to so that you can check this address to ensure that only junk mail is being caught.

WebMail

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WEBSITE REPORTING

AWStats Graphical Statistics

AWStats is a powerful and fully featured tool that generates advanced graphical web server statistics.

Webalizer Graphical Statistics

Webalizer is a highly powerful and easily configurable web site statistics package that analyses the access log files that we automatically create for your website.

Google Sitemaps Generator

Having your website listed in Google is vital. Google has a special tool called Google Sitemaps which generates a list of all the files on your website and sends them to Google. This allows Google to ensure it finds all of your web pages and files.

The software to generate a Sitemap is quite complicated but we have made it really easy by integrating the software into our eXtend Control Panel. We would recommend everyone generates a Google sitemap and then re-generates it every time their site is updated.

Log File Download

Log File Download allows you to download your server access log as a zip file. You can then manipulate the file locally on your computer to get any specific data you need.

Graphical/Text Access Counter & Hits Logger in One

Graphical/Text Access Counter & Hits Logger in One allows you to add a plain text or graphical counter to your Website. You also get a full set of statistics for the page the counter is on.

Website Submission

Submit your site to 10 search engines including Google, Yahoo and MSN!

Bandwidth Statistics

When someone visits your website they use your bandwidth, our Bandwidth Statistics show you graphs and data on the amount of bandwidth you have used.

TraceWatch

TraceWatch Real Time Web Stats and Traffic Analysis lets you keep track of the visitors to your website in real time, with detailed statistics and deep analysis using an innovative user interface.

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WEB tools

MySQL 5 databases

MySQL is a true multi-user, multi-threaded SQL (Structured Query Language) database server. SQL is the most popular database language in the world. MySQL is a client/server implementation that consists of a server daemon (mysqld) and many different client programs and libraries.

You can access your MySQL database using the web-based phpMyAdmin software.

file manager

Our file manager has a great range of features to help you manage your files and folders online including editing, deleting, moving, copying and uploading files.

Website Password Protection

Website Password Protection allows you to password protect a directory on your website. By keeping the password a secret you can let only people who have the password into this area. You can also edit, add or delete users and passwords.

Change Your Password

Change Your Password allows you to change your password for FTP, FrontPage and SSH.

Backup Your Website

Backup Your Website allows you to download your website as a zip file. You can use this feature to make a regular backup of your website in case you lose any data.

Restore Your Website

Restore Your Website allows you to restore a backup zip file that you have made using eXtend.

Sub Domains

Sub domains allow you to have new web addresses for separate areas of your Website. For example you could have support.yourdomain.co.uk and point this at your yourdomain.co.uk/support/ directory. You can use sub domains in conjunction with additional FTP accounts, creating in effect simple hosting accounts with a sub domain and an additional FTP account.

Additional FTP Accounts

FTP allows you to transfer your website onto our server.

Additional FTP accounts are most commonly used to give others access to an account for the purpose of sharing a web development project, without giving them control over the entire Website. By restricting their access to their home directory, you can ensure they can only modify files within this particular space.

IP Address Blocking

This feature allows you to block certain IP addresses from visiting your website.

Directory Indexing

Directory Indexing allows you to either show the content of your web directories as file listings or show them as a 403 forbidden error.

Web Space Checker

Check how much web space you have used on your whole account or specify a directory within your account to check.

Ping, Trace & Nslookup

Ping, Trace & Nslookup allows you to ping, trace or nslookup an IP address or hostname.

Raw WHOIS

Raw WHOIS allows you to view the full WHOIS output of a domain name.

HTML Tidy

HTML Tidy will try to tidy up the layout of an HTML page.

Javascript Generator

Javascripts are great little tools to drop into your website to make it more interactive.

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E-Commerce

Shared Secure Server (SSL)

This feature allows you to accept data securely via your website using our special URL www.secure-secure.co.uk. Your secure web address will be: https://www.secure-secure.co.uk/yourdomain.co.uk/ This address points to the main folder on your website so you can make any document on your website secure. We offer this free of charge to all hosting clients!

osCommerce, Zen Cart, Cube Cart

osCommerce, Zen Cart and Cube Cart are free shopping cart solutions that includes many features including templates, customer logins and support for Paypal, Worldpay and other popular payment processors.

Web Resources

• Software worth over £300 including Link Evaluator, Site Submitter, Traffic Wizard, Password Manager and 12 other popular titles.
• 50 Premium Website Templates
• 400 Basic Website Templates
• 100 new professional Website Templates 
• 16 Macromedia Flash based Website Templates
• Over 100 company logos
• 50 Flash Banners
• 100 Advert Banner Templates
• Thousands of Clipart Images
• Over 22,000 Photos
• Over 75,000 Web Art Images

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CGI & PHP Scripts

Joomla! 1.5 Content Management System

Joomla! is one of the most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems on the planet. It is used all over the world for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications. Joomla! is easy to install, simple to manage, and reliable.

WordPress Blog

WordPress is a publishing system that allows you to easily create a complex blog, or web log, on your site. Written in PHP and supported by a MySQL database, WordPress offers intuitive administrative tools and sophisticated design features that make it easy to develop and integrate a personal or professional blog on your site.

phpBB 3

phpBB is a high powered, fully scalable, and highly customisable open-source bulletin board package. phpBB has a user-friendly interface, simple and straightforward administration panel, and helpful FAQ.

Openads

Openads is a hugely popular advert server designed for web publishers.

Drupal Content Management System

Drupal is a free software package that allows an individual or a community of users easily to publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. Drupal is easy to install, simple to manage, and reliable.

Coppermine Photo Gallery

Coppermine is an online picture gallery with loads of great features, you can customise Coppermine to fit into your website.

Typo3

TYPO3 is a free Open Source content management system for enterprise purposes on the web and in intranets. It offers full flexibility and extendability while featuring an accomplished set of ready-made interfaces, functions and modules

Crafty Syntax Live Help

Crafty Syntax Live Help (CSLH) is an open source live support solution that helps customer support with live help functionality that can be proactively pushed to visitors to your site or requested by the consumer. Crafty Syntax includes a large range of features to allow multiple operators, multiple departments and multiple languages to be used.

phpCOIN

phpCOIN is a client managment and accounting platform, originally designed for web-hosting resellers to handle clients, orders, invoices, notes and helpdesk, but no longer limited to hosting resellers. It is also used by designers, lawyers, accountants and anyone who wants to manage their clients online.

dotProject

dotProject is a web-based project management application, designed to provide project layout and control functions.

osTicket

osTicket is a widely-used open source support ticket system. It seamlessly integrates inquiries created via email and web-based forms into a simple easy to use multi-user web interface. Easily manage, organize and archive all your support requests and responses in one place while providing your clients with accountability and responsiveness they deserve.

RoundCube

RoundCube Webmail is a browser-based multilingual IMAP client with an application-like user interface. It provides full functionality you expect from an e-mail client, including MIME support, address book, folder manipulation, message searching and spell checking.

Gallery

Share your pictures with others or view them over the internet. Upload your pictures while on holiday so you can take more. Create groups of people who can see different sets of pictures eg you might let your football team see pictures from matches etc.

MediaWiki

A collaborative technology for organizing information on Web sites. Work with others to maintain information. For example if you run a business you can share information with your colleagues at the same time as documenting it for yourself.

SugarCRM

A Customer Relationship Management application - This application lets a business keep track of its relationships with its customers. Users can manage customer accounts, contacts, sales leads, calls, meetings etc. A dashboard showing the most successful leads, the sales pipeline, and the month-by-month outcomes for opportunities in the pipeline can be displayed.

Locked Area Lite

Locked Area Lite is a sophisticated password protection and membership management system that gives your users access to a password protected members area. Locked Area Lite manages the users login details and allows the webmaster to email and manage users from a simple web interface.

Geeklog - The Ultimate Weblog System

Geeklog is a 'blog', otherwise known as a Weblog. It allows you to create your own virtual community area, complete with user administration, story posting, messaging, comments, polls, calendar, weblinks, and more!

Nucleus Weblog

Nucleus offers you the building blocks you need to create a web presence. Whether you want to create a personal blog, a family page, or an online business site, Nucleus CMS can help you achieve your goals.

Mambo CMS

Mambo is a full-featured content management system that can be used for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications.

phpBB

phpBB is a high powered, fully scalable, and highly customisable open-source bulletin board package. phpBB has a user-friendly interface, simple and straightforward administration panel, and helpful FAQ.

Form to Email

This feature allows you to implement forms on your website and receive the results via email.

Free For All Links Page

This feature allows visitors to your site to add a link back to their website.

Website Search

This feature allows you to have a search box on your website to help visitors find the web page that they need.

Guestbook

This feature allows your visitors to leave their name, email address and some comments about your website.

E-Blah Discussion Board

E-Blah is one of the best discussion forums available, it has hundreds of options and is a great feature for any website.

Web Postcards

This feature is a great traffic booster, it simply allows your visitors to send their friends a personalised postcard from your website.

Web Auction

Interested in running a website like Ebay? Start the simple way with this powerful Auction system.

Domain Name Checker

This feature allows your website visitors to check the availability of a domain name.

404/500 Error Page

Our file not found and server error pages can be configured to email you when an error occurs.

Banner Advert Manager

Install a powerful banner advertising program to allow you to run banner adverts on your website, and includes statistics and reports on the success of your banners.

Java Clock

This feature enables you to install a Java clock for use on your website.

Web Calendar

Web Calendar is a web-based calendaring and scheduling system for managing personal, group and corporate events over the internet. It is a fully featured online application that allows you to keep track of your personal appointments, group projects and company meetings.

Web Survey

This feature allows you to have a survey on your web page, once a visitor has voted they may see the results of the survey so far.

Internet Countdown

This feature allows you to have a countdown to a specific date on your web page.

Random Text Displayer

This feature allows different pieces of text to be displayed each time a web page is loaded.

Random Images Displayer

This feature allows you to show a random image in any web page from a store of images you specify.

Tell-A-Friend

Our tell-a-friend feature allows people visiting your website to fill in a simple four-field form and have a link to that page of the website emailed to their friend.

Web Ring

A Web Ring is a great way of getting more traffic to your website. It allows webmasters of similar sites to your own to add their link to the ring then each webmaster displays the ring (a system of links) on their site.

Trouble Ticket Express

This feature is great for helping you to deal with your customers' requests in a streamlined and efficient manner.

Classified Adverts

This feature allows you to run classified adverts on your site, which allows your visitors to advertise goods or services they have for sale.

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