Hostess customer FAQs

Domains and hosting with a bit more zip – as simple as that. Ziphosting is a new online service designed for people who know what they want from an online service provider and want it now. You don’t need 24x7 phone support to help you set things up so why pay more for it? You just want reliability and quality that delivers – fast. Ziphosting is the smart choice for anyone who believes that they shouldn’t have to compromise on quality just to get a great price. Ziphosting really is the best of both worlds.

We think this is more than just a simple name change. We’re changing and adding to the range of services available. We’re seeking to more closely meet your needs. You don’t need a Hostess to show you to your seat and help you at every stage. After all, chances are you know what you want and how to use it. You just need to get those products and services with a bit more speed and simplicity – a bit more Zip!

The name and the website may change, but the great prices, excellent service and quality infrastructure will remain exactly the same.

The new Ziphosting website can be found at www.ziphosting.com.au Bookmark it now for quick reference.

If you type hostess.com.au into your web browser, you will automatically be redirected to ziphosting.com.au

Hostess will officially change its name on 8 December 2010. From this date onwards any reference to Hostess will automatically be replaced with Ziphosting. Over the next few weeks, references to Hostess (eg. in the knowledgebase and in the console) will be gradually replaced with the name Ziphosting to reflect the imminent rebrand as we move into the final stages of the relaunch. Don’t be confused. Hostess is Ziphosting and Ziphosting is Hostess.

No. You don’t need to do a thing. Our rebranding has been carefully designed to ensure no interruption to you or your service whatsoever.

If you have any questions or concerns about our name change, or if you have any further questions, just let us know. You can submit a support ticket and a member of our team will be in touch to respond to any question that you may have.

No. All Ziphosting technical services, like those of Hostess before it, are 100% Australian owned and maintained. If you’re not a Ziphosting customer, do you know where your website is being hosted?

Ziphosting’s data centre is located in the state-of-the-art Global Switch complex in Sydney, Australia's largest carrier-neutral facility. This allows Ziphosting to provide customers with the very best in environment, security and back-up systems.

At Ziphosting, we believe that Australian based-staff are the very best way to support our customers at any time of the day or night. That’s why all our staff are based in Ultimo, Sydney NSW to serve you better now, and in the future. If you’re not with Ziphosting where is your customer service team, and will they be there for you when you need them?

As well as a great new look, Ziphosting has the following benefits over Hostess:

• Our new web hosting plans have increased features making them incredible value for money when you consider that Ziphosting is hosted on Netregistry’s cloud hosting infrastructure. By partnering with Australia’s cloud hosting pioneers (since 1999) your service could not be in better hands.
• We have increased the number of products that you can purchase from us. As well as improving our web hosting plans, we now offer a range of new DIY online services that you can manage yourself.
• Ziphosting has a great new look which was designed to appeal to a broad range of our clients. It’s fresh and exciting and we think it’s a great way to provide all the essential information you need to make the most of your service. We hope you like it as much as we do.

All Hostess customers were sent an email on Monday 6 December 2010 to notify them of this change to our brand. A copy of this email can be found here. If you never received this email, perhaps your email address is incorrect in the console. Please be sure to update your Account contact details to ensure that you don’t miss out on important events - here is an article on how to do this in the console.

No. Your console login details remain exactly the same. You can now login here to reach the console.

Nothing has changed. Simply go to the console enter your Account Reference and Password as you always have and you will be presented with the standard console interface.

Hostess will automatically change to Ziphosting, on 8 December 2010 so there is no option but to be included in this rebranding. Rest assured though, while our name is changing and the service we provide to you is expanding, a lot remains the same. Your products will not change as a result of this rebrand. Your prices remain the same* and you can continue to log in and manage the console in the same way you always have.

No. Netregistry owns the Ziphosting brand and was previously the owner of Hostess. There is no change to the ownership of Ziphosting it continues to be a proud member of the Netregistry Group.

When we set out to create the new Ziphosting service, we worked on the premise that things would only get better for Hostess customers.

With that in mind, we’re pleased to say that Ziphosting’s prices are amongst the lowest in Australia, especially for domain names. You can still register a .com.au domain name for $10.48+ a year – that’s the lowest price in Australia!

Our web hosting plans have received a huge boost in terms of specifications, and of course this has necessitated a slight price change.

That said though, your current web hosting subscription pricing will NOT change unless you explicitly opt to upgrade to the new feature plans.

Nothing. Every service that you could previously purchase from Hostess is available for Ziphosting. We’ve added a few new things too, so make sure you have a look around our website for these and upgrade easily via the console now.

No. At this stage, we have decided not to provide a VPS/Dedicated Hosting solution under the Ziphosting brand. We will review the needs of our customers and should we decide to offer these services, we will contact our clients.

In the meantime we recommend Netregistry as Australia’s most reliable VPS/Dedicated Hosting provider. Give them a call on 1800 235 396. Find out more by clicking here for VPS Hosting or here for Dedicated Hosting from Netregistry.

No. We may introduce cPanel in the future; however at this stage this service is not currently available from Ziphosting.

Currently outstanding subscription invoices do not require a change of name prior to payment, please pay them as normal. All new invoices will be created within the Ziphosting brand.

Yes. All terms and conditions that we jointly agreed to when you purchased the Hostess service are now in force (and enforceable) by Ziphosting. In other words, we will honour all of our commitments to you as the new Ziphosting, and will require our customers to honour their agreements with us. Just the way it should be.

You can now reach all your knowledgebase articles on support.ziphosting.com.au Unfortunately you may need to update any bookmarks that you have as part of the former Hostess service. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. Our top five articles have been provided here for your convenience:

• What is your phone number?
• I have placed an order, but am yet to receive the setup notification e-mail
• Cancel Addon Products
• I want to transfer my domain to another registrar?
• I want to become a Reseller of your services. Is that possible?

No. If you wish to submit a ticket you can still do that – simply click on the ‘Support Centre’ link on ziphosting.com.au and Submit a Ticket.

You can lodge a support ticket here about:

• Domain Registration
• DNS (Zone, Delegation)
• Email and Hosting Problems
• Accounts and billing issues

All Ziphosting (and Hostess before that) contracts are paid upfront for 1 year, and there’s no ongoing costs to use your Ziphosting service.

You can choose to leave at any time you wish, but per the terms and conditions of your contract with us, we cannot refund money for any unused portion of your service.

No. While we’ve created new nameservers to reflect the new brand name, the original DNS settings will continue to operate as normal. It’s worth noting that all new subscriptions will be configured with the new DNS server names upon setup. But remember you don’t need to do anything to make this happen.

No.

Subscribe here and be kept up-to-date with all service notifications and changes at the same time they are published on our site.

No! Ziphosting’s domain name prices are still as competitive as they were when we were called Hostess. You can register a .com.au domain name for just $10.48 per year (2 year minimum); a .com for $9.95; or .au for only $1! No-one sells domains cheaper than Ziphosting, and anyone who says they do is just crazy!

When your domain name or web hosting is due for renewal, Ziphosting will notify you of such, and renew your domain and/or hosting service in the same way it has always done. There will be no change in this.

No. Netregistry is currently noted on your domain certificate as your registrar and this will remain the same. The rebranding of Hostess to Ziphosting will have no impact on this whatsoever, and as a result no new domain certificates will be issued.

Domain name prices will renew at the same price they would have with Hostess.

Renewing web hosting subscriptions will renew at the same price they would have with Hostess.

If you choose to upgrade to one of our great new web hosting plans, then your service will change to the new price, however you will be upgraded to an even better service, so we think it’s well worth the change. Find out about our new hosting plans here.

Of course, Ziphosting reserves the right to change pricing in the future according to the terms and conditions of our agreement with you.

Yes. There will be no change to your Domain Manager service.

Yes. There will be no change to your DNS.

No. Our web hosting plans are still incredible value for money, and are amongst the most competitively priced services in Australia. When you consider that it’s being hosted on Netregistry’s secure cloud hosting infrastructure (industry pioneers since 1999), it could arguably the best value hosting in Australia. We think it is. If you haven’t already try it for yourself.

• Do I get less data/less mail accounts etc?
• I’m currently utilising ASP hosting what happens now?

No. Ziphosting utilises the same platform therefore your ASP hosting will function as normal. Your current product parameters/features will remain unchanged, unless you explicitly opt to upgrade to a new hosting plan.

No. We have always provided free access to ASP and .NET scripting via Hostess plans, this will remain unchanged on business hosting plans with Ziphosting. If you contact us through our Support Centre we will be able to activate ASP hosting on your account.

Our aim was to be more responsive to the market, Hostess previously gave you the minimum needed at a low cost whereas Ziphosting provides customers with a very generous range of inclusions with plenty of room to grow.

Yes. You are able to upgrade your existing hosting plan through the console. We are pleased to advise that upgrading your plan will result in no downtime of your service.

Our view is that there are two types of customers; customers that need hosting and have the knowhow to build a website from scratch and customers who will require the aid of a website builder. We decided to make the product a step easier and more economical by bundling hosting with the product.

Instead of “hostess.com.au” transactions you make with us on your bank statements will now appear as “Ziphosting” in the descriptor field.

No. Credit card remains the only payment method for services with Ziphosting. You can continue to pay Ziphosting using the exact same payment configuration that you had with Hostess – if billing details are specified in your account, they will continue to be used automatically for payment as normal.

Please be aware that your statements will now show “Ziphosting” in the transaction description instead of “hostess.com.au”.