Room441.com

The People Behind 441

We are a couple of technical support representatives for a company that creates websites. We have years of html, networking and general technical knowledge. Now we've created a server that we're hosting out of our house.

What is 441?

We code html, and wanted a place that we could upload our sites with no fuss, no restrictions, and no ads. That place is Room441.com. We've decided to open it up to the public to allow others to share their websites with the world ad free.

What Makes 441 Special?

With Room441 hosting, you get an account that allows you user permissions to access your own files- any time, and anywhere. (So long as you have an internet connection.) The advantage to using 441 over another hosting provider is that you have complete control. We will not hold your hand through the process, but we also won't restrict what you can do. Room441 offers simple hosting with no fuss of navigating a complicated third-party website, and no restrictions to speak of on what you can do. You simply upload html, php, js, or image files as you please. Room441 hosting assumes you have a general knowledge of html code. Room441 is run from a dedicated linux server, and all file management is done through the webmin portal.

Get in Touch

Should there be any problem with your account, or if you have any questions, feel free to contact me via e-mail, or drop me a voicemail.

A Comprehensive Breakdown

There is a monthly hosting fee of $10.00 USD
  ≫  (This covers server maintenance, internet costs, name server/domain costs and electricity for the server.)

There is an initial setup fee of $15.00 USD
  ≫  (This covers the creation of the records in the VirtualHost to allow your domain to connect to the server, the creation of the user account to access and edit the files, and the creation of the directory to upload the files.)

First month hosting FREE!
  ≫  When you purchase a new account with the set-up fee of $15.00 USD

Sign up Now!

How it All Works

Room441 has a flat monthly fee, and a setup fee, but your first month will be free with the setup fee. We will not automatically bill your account. We will simply place a notification on your account once your payment has passed due, removing it from online. We will not try to contact you to collect. Once your account has been brought up-to-date, we will re-initiate it. There is no need to worry about automatic withdrawals or having money in your account. You can even host a website for a wedding or a party for just a month or two if you'd like. There are no cancellation fees, and all payments are run through a secure paypal server.

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Our Domain Policy

Although it may seem pretty obvious, we are a server that hosts websites. That's pretty much all we do. This means that we will not purchase a domain for you on your behalf. (This is generally a bad idea anyways. You always want control over your own domain.) Not to mention you'll get it at market value, because we won't be acting on the part of a reseller. There are a ton of domain providers out there- just make sure you have one purchased before you try to come to us to get hosting for it.

Backups, Privacy, & Storage

Backups may be kept from time-to-time, but should not be relied upon. The backups on file may not be as up-to-date as you deem necessary. Should an error occur, you are expected to keep copies stored locally for re-upload to our server. Due to the fact that we may keep backups, it should be noted that by uploading your files to our server, (much like sending us the files in any other medium,) you consent that we have the authority to view said files that have been uploaded. No information will be sold to third parties, but if there is any sensitive information that you would rather our small team not see, those files should not be uploaded. If you default on a payment, we reserve the right to deactivate your account, and remove your inactive files from our server to make space for other client's content.

On the topic of data usage, we don't cap your account for data storage, but if you're using excessive data storage, we may request that you lower some images to the appropriate size, or host video elsewhere. If you are concerned about using too much storage space, you are more than welcome to link photos externally to another company that provides free hosting. This capping of data is not expected to occur frequently, but at the moment we're currently running solely off of internal storage space, so if that hard drive starts to reach capacity, and you are the outlier in excessive space, we will place a cap on your space. When more users start to join, we expect predetermined data caps to be the norm.

Don't Break the Law

It should be noted that Room441 observes a laissez-faire principle when it comes to what you post. This should not, however give the user the right to post any content that is in the general sense of the word, illegal. If it conflicts with federal laws, the laws of the state in which you reside, or the laws of the state in which the server resides (California,) your content may be terminated with no prior notice. If I receive any notice of illegal activity on my server, your site will be terminated, you will not be refunded, and your future billing will not be accepted.

Play Nice

Just because you know how to do something, doesn't mean you should. I've restricted permissions in the webmin portal, but if I see anyone attempting to hack, (doing something/attempting to access something that you have not been given express permission to do/access,) your site will be terminated, and no money will be refunded.

Branded Email Accounts

We do not offer any emails with hosting. If there is one thing I've learned at my day job, it's that hosted mail is more trouble than it's worth. You can run your contact information through a standard third party email provider, (like gmail, or yahoo,) or if you would like your domain name in your email, you may go through a third party, like your domain provider, as you see I have done on this site. We apologize for any inconvenience, or extra fee that may result, but I don't want to be held liable should anything go wrong in the email field. I'm going to leave the complicated parts to the big companies.

How to get your site online

Name Servers

Name servers are the things that tell your domain provider where we are on the internet. It's another way of reading the IP address of our server. You can think of the IP address as GPS coordinates, and the Name Servers as an address. Something a little easier to remember- that tells your domain provider where to send people who type your domain name into their browser looking for your site. Now there are two ways to host with Room441.

Important Information:

Due to the fact that Room441 is a small operation, I don't have a large scale business internet package. This means that I do not have a static IP address guaranteed to me. I do however have a Dynamic DNS configured through a third party. In order to take advantage of this, you will need to modify the NS records to the ones listed below.

The bad thing about name servers is that whoever you change your name servers to, has complete control over all of your DNS settings. The alternative to this is to set up an A record for hosting only. This will not be a static IP however, and although unlikely, and assumed to be infrequent, it may change from time-to-time. The new address will be kept up-to-date on this page, and if there is a change, I will email everyone the new A record immediately. (Please make sure that the email address that you are providing is up-to-date and current, so that your site is not down for an extended period of time.

If you'd like to host with a NS record instead, I can assure you your site won't go down due to a change in IP, but you won't have easy access to your DNS records. You'll have to send me an email whenever you want something updated.

NS Records

You've opted for an NS Record. That's smart. That means that you don't have to check your email for an update from me that your A record needs changing, or hear from a friend that it's not online. You can rest at ease knowing that if my ISP changes the IP on me, nothing on your end will be disrupted. That's why you've opted for an NS record, or 'Name Server'. This is actually how most companies do it.

You can find independent articles online via a quick Google search about how to change the individual DNS records for your specific domain provider. The important thing is what exactly our third party's DNS records are, so that you can put that in the NS record field of your domain provider.

A Record

You've opted for an A Record. That's smart. That means that you can update DNS however often you want. Not only do I not want that responsibility, but it's not necessary. You should be able to update your MX records on a whim if you so please. That's why you've opted for an A record, or 'Address Record'. This means that I'll only have control over one thing; the hosting. DNS servers stay with your domain provider, and I won't even appear in a WhoIs lookup.

You can find independent articles online via a quick Google search about how to change the individual DNS records for your specific domain provider. The important thing is what exactly our IP address is here, so you can put that in the A record field for hosting.

Once you plug that into your domain settings, it will take no more than 48 hours to switch over to us. (A max of about 15 minutes of average.) Assuming everything is ready on our end, your site will then be live. It may not be a bad idea to set up the account before-hand however, so that you can have time to get all the files on the server. That way when you switch over your site won't ever have been offline.

It should be noted that your one month of service will only start once the files have been manually created on our end to allow you to access the server. If I'm a day late on my end, you get an extra day of service.

How to make custom error pages

Make a Custom 404 or 403 page

Want to make a custom 404 or 403 page? I'll briefly go over what's required to do it. Overall it's a pretty simple process once you understand how it works.

The .htaccess File - Explained

Our Apache server looks to what's called an .htaccess file. I highly recommend you look further into what that is before you continue here. That's how you can make the custom 404 pages, hide the .html file extension in the address bar, make redirects from pages on your domain to other pages on your domain, or even other sites, and even how you can make a mobile optimized site automatically detect and redirect you to the mobile version when you visit on your phone. That's how you are going to add your custom 404 page.

404 Error - File Not Found

Now, I already have a .htaccess file on the server. That's why you won't have to make a second one to reap the benefits of not having to make all your page links end in '.html'. If you add a second one in your personal directory though, then any of that information will overwrite mine. That doesn't mean you should have to worry about duplicating anything over, but if any of your information conflicts directly with mine, yours wins. That's how you can, say- direct to your own 404 page instead of mine. All you will need to do is make your page at yourdomain.com/404.html, or wherever you want to put it, and add the following information to your .htaccess file.

403 Error - Access Forbidden

Because we also support file hosting, I didn't want to restrict access to any directories by default, in case you want people being able to get in there to download things. Instead- a pretty simple work-around is to create the default index.html file inside the directory you want to block access to. This way the server grabs onto the index.html file instead of showing your visitors the contents of the folder.

It can be as simple as a blank file, but you can also style it however you'd like. If you just want a simple 403 file to block access, without requiring it to be branded to your site, you can download one by clicking here.