Unix-compatible shell account we provide allows you to do many things that are not possible or convenient with only dial-up access to the Internet. For instance, you can set up and run small to moderate-sized mailing lists, or perhaps run a periodic job which fetches and collates information from the Internet and mails you periodic digests or updates a database held in your filespace.
Standard shells including bash, tcsh and zsh, and networking tools such as FTP, rsync, ssh and telnet are all provided for general use. Available applications include a range of editors, several online mailers, a version control system, a database engine (PostgreSQL), a text-mode web browser, useful web development tools like weblint and ImageMagick, and a huge selection of programming tools including standard libraries, preprocessors (such as cpp and m4), interpreters (such as Perl, Python, Guile and Hugs), and the famous GNU C, C++ and Objective-C compilers.
Other software may be installed on request, although we will generally only install and support Free Software whose source we can check and freely modify as necessary.
Virtual web hosting
Web hosting is the most important service available to shell account users. You can use your home directory to store as many web sites as you like, limited only by your account filespace quota. Full CGI scripting is available, and we actively support a large number of compiled and interpreted languages including C, Perl, Python, Scheme and even Haskell! Other facilities we offer include secure transactions (SSL), Java servlets, server-parsed documents, comprehensive transfer logging and access to a high performance SQL server for creating online databases.
Before you can host a virtual web site, you will need to register a domain name. We will provide the required name servers and configure our web server to handle this domain at no extra cost. If you are hosting a virtual web site, you will probably also want to consider receiving mail sent to an address within the domain.
FTP - file transfer protocol
If your clients want to update their website themselves, we can set up an FTP upload account for them for a nominal charge. This will give them limited access to a specified subdirectory of your filespace, effectively enabling them to alter their own site, although for security reasons they won't be able to upload or modify executables such as CGI scripts.
Mail
Shell users can also host whole mail domains from their account. Mail sent to different addresses in the domain can be delivered to local mailboxes or forwarded to other Internet mail hosts. Before you can do this, you will need to register a domain name.
Additional Mail boxes
We can supply additional independent IMAP/POP3 mail boxes for a nominal charge. These will have a different login name and password from your shell account and so they are ideal for supplying to third parties as part of a value-added package.
