When something isn’t working, you probably don’t care how impressive the support system looks.
You want the problem understood, useful information communicated clearly, and somebody to help get things working again.
That’s what NameStand support is supposed to do.
Need help?
For normal technical support, start with email:
Not a customer yet, or have questions about NameStand services?
Tell us what’s happening, what you’re trying to accomplish, and what you’ve already tried.
We’ll start there.
Why email?
Email is our preferred starting point for normal support requests.
Written support gives everyone a useful record of the problem, the troubleshooting already performed, configuration details, error messages, and whatever solution we eventually arrive at.
It also avoids the technological marvel known as trying to remember everything discussed during a 30-minute telephone conversation three days later.
When contacting support, include as much useful information as practical:
- What you’re trying to do.
- What isn’t working.
- The affected domain or website.
- Any error message you’re seeing.
- Approximately when the problem started.
- Anything that changed shortly before the problem began.
- Troubleshooting you’ve already tried.
Please don’t send passwords by ordinary email.
If credentials or other sensitive information are required, we’ll arrange an appropriate way to handle them.
Support tickets are coming
As the NameStand customer system is developed, existing customers will be able to use support tickets through the client area.
The goal isn’t to make you fill out a form just so a database can assign your problem a number.
A ticket system gives both sides a persistent record of the request, responses, troubleshooting, and resolution.
Until that system is fully in place, email remains the primary support channel.
What’s included?
If the problem involves a NameStand service and that service isn’t working the way it should, helping determine what’s wrong is part of providing the service.
Examples may include issues involving:
- NameStand web hosting
- NameStand-provided email
- DNS configuration we’re managing
- Websites or applications we’re maintaining
- Services we’ve configured for you
We’ll investigate the problem and explain what we find.
Sometimes the problem will be ours.
Sometimes it won’t.
Either way, knowing which one you’re dealing with is a useful first step.
When support becomes technical assistance
Not every technical problem is part of ordinary hosting support.
Sometimes troubleshooting starts with a NameStand service and eventually discovers the actual problem lives somewhere else.
Maybe the domain is registered elsewhere.
Maybe another company operates the email system.
Maybe third-party software is failing.
Maybe the website has accumulated years of plugins, extensions, custom code, abandoned configuration, and decisions whose original witnesses are no longer available for questioning.
We can often still help.
At that point, however, the work may become paid technical assistance or consulting rather than support included with a hosting service.
We’ll make that distinction clear rather than quietly starting a meter and surprising you later.
Telephone support
Some problems are easier to discuss than type.
Telephone support is included with selected premium service plans.
For customers whose plans don’t include telephone support, scheduled telephone assistance may be available for a nominal fee.
That lets us provide phone support when it is genuinely useful without building the price of telephone availability into every hosting account whether the customer wants it or not.
If email or a support ticket can solve the problem efficiently, that’s normally where we’ll start.
If the problem really needs a conversation, we’ll have one.
Emergency and after-hours assistance
Sometimes waiting until the next normal opportunity isn’t practical.
Emergency and after-hours assistance may be available for an additional fee, subject to availability.
This is intended for genuinely urgent situations requiring priority attention.
We don’t advertise a fictional 24-hour call center staffed by an army of technicians waiting beside blinking telephones.
If we can help with an emergency, we’ll tell you.
If we can’t respond within the timeframe you need, we’ll tell you that too.
An honest answer is more useful than an impressive promise nobody can keep.
Security problems
Security incidents deserve direct communication and careful handling.
If you believe a NameStand-hosted website or service has been compromised, report it as soon as practical and explain what you’ve observed.
Don’t worry about proving the entire incident before contacting us.
Useful information might include unexpected website changes, security warnings, unfamiliar files, unusual login activity, or other behavior that caused concern.
We’ll approach the problem as a technical issue to investigate, not an opportunity to sell fear.
The technical experience behind NameStand includes decades of work with computers, networking, systems administration, information security, web development, and hosting.
That background includes four years of penetration testing at U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Defense sites, formerly holding the OSCP, and more than 20 years as an active CISSP, now recognized with CISSP Emeritus status (CISSP #60945).
That doesn’t mean any system is magically immune to compromise.
No responsible provider can honestly promise that.
Security is about understanding risk, reducing unnecessary exposure, maintaining systems responsibly, investigating problems carefully, and communicating honestly about what we find.
Moving to NameStand?
We’ll help with that.
Website migrations may involve files, databases, DNS, email, certificates, application configuration, redirects, and other pieces that need to move in the right order.
We’ll look at what you actually have and determine what assistance the migration requires.
Some migration work may be included with a service or promotion. More involved migrations may require paid technical assistance.
We’ll make that clear before the work begins.
Moving away from NameStand?
We’ll help with that too.
If another provider is a better fit for you, we’re not going to suddenly forget how your account works because you’ve decided to leave.
We’ll provide reasonable cooperation and information needed to move your website or services elsewhere.
Additional migration work or consulting may involve a fee depending on what’s required, but we will not deliberately make leaving difficult just to keep an account.
We’d rather lose your business honestly than keep it through inconvenience.
Using another provider?
That’s fine.
NameStand services are intentionally available à la carte.
Your website might be here while your domain is registered somewhere else.
Your email might be here while your website isn’t.
You might hire us to develop or troubleshoot something hosted entirely by another provider.
You can even hire NameStand to help evaluate or coordinate a move from Provider A to Provider B when neither provider is NameStand.
You’re hiring us for the service or expertise you need, not surrendering the rest of your technology stack.
Sales and pre-sales questions
Not sure whether NameStand offers what you need?
Ask before you buy anything.
Email:
Tell us what you’re trying to accomplish and what you already have.
If NameStand has a service that makes sense, we’ll explain the options.
If you only need one piece of what we offer, use that piece.
And if what you already have is working well, we’re not going to manufacture a reason for you to replace it.
Supporting Southeast Mississippi
NameStand has called Southeast Mississippi home since January 2019.
We’re especially interested in helping local businesses, nonprofits, churches, clubs, associations, community groups, families, and individuals who may not have an IT department available when something technical goes sideways.
Sometimes you know exactly what the problem is.
Sometimes all you know is:
It worked yesterday.
That’s still a perfectly reasonable place to start.
Our services aren’t limited to Southeast Mississippi, but this is home.
What support doesn’t mean
Support doesn’t mean every technical problem everywhere automatically becomes part of a hosting subscription.
It also doesn’t mean we’re going to respond to every question by finding something new to sell you.
Sometimes the right answer is fixing a NameStand service.
Sometimes it’s paid consulting.
Sometimes it’s telling you that another provider needs to fix something.
And sometimes the most useful thing we can do is explain what we found so you know who needs to handle the next step.
The objective is to solve the problem, not win custody of it.
Start here
For technical support:
For sales and pre-sales questions:
Once the NameStand customer system is fully in place, support tickets will provide the preferred structured channel for existing customers.
Telephone support is included with selected premium plans, with scheduled telephone assistance available separately when appropriate.
Emergency and after-hours assistance may be available for an additional fee, subject to availability.
No mystery support tiers.
No promises we can’t keep.
Just tell us what’s broken. We’ll start there.