Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Núna would love to be able to utilize the Icelandic hosting infrastructure to offer its TrueCloud hosting in Iceland. Here's a summary of why we currently do not.

Uptime Institute created the standard Tier Classification System in the mid-1990s as a means to effectively evaluate data center infrastructure in terms of a business’ requirements for system availability. The Tier Classification System provides the data center industry with a consistent method to compare typically unique, customized facilities based on expected site infrastructure performance, or uptime. Furthermore, Tiers enables companies to align their data center infrastructure investment with business goals specific to growth and technology strategies.
Tiers range from I-IV, and are progressive; each Tier incorporates the requirements of all the lower Tiers. Tier I provides basic capacity, while Tier IV provides full fault tolerance. Tier I is significantly less costly than Tier IV, from building to operating and maintaining. Lower Tiers simply allow too much downtime for mission-critical applications.

In order for Núna to offer our 99.999% infrastructure uptime SLA, we require the use of top-tier data centers. Even the latest data center to be built at Korputorg, announced in February 2018, and expected to open in early 2019, is only a Tier III data center. It is interesting that one of the major stated purposes of this data center is handling real-time payments “where there is no tolerance for downtime”. If true, then why not build at least a Tier IV data center? Here’s hoping it goes well for all involved.

“Required”? No. It is, however, highly recommended. Search engines will rank your pages higher in their search results if you have an SSL certificate installed. SSL certificates build trust, and almost everyone expects to see them used on sites where private and sensitive data, such as credit cards (for eCommerce) or banking information, are involved.

Because Núna uses cPanel as one of its technology partners, we are able to offer domain validated (DV) SSL certificates at no additional cost to most of our shared hosting clients. Some exceptions, most notably domain names involving the names of financial institutions, may not be issued an SSL certificate. This is the same as if someone outside of one of those organizations attempted to purchase one. They are not issued for security/trust reasons.

Many other hosting providers are still trying to sell DV SSL certificates to their clients. If your current hosting provider is among them, you should consider changing providers, as you should not have to pay for DV SSL certificates.

No, GDPR cookie compliance has all to do with what you do with cookies, i.e., how you use them and for what purpose. The last time we checked the word 'cookie' was only mentioned once in the official GDPR law text; however, it does specify very clearly how a website has to handle user data and the personal information of its visitors.

No, because Núna does not offer physical servers. The reason is simple: We have no idea what the needs of any given client will be. That means that Núna would be trying to sell what we had, and not necessarily what the client really needs. Ever buy a new car? Most places will try everything they can to get you to buy a car they have on their lot, rather than order one, or bring one in from another location. Núna wants you to have what you really need to properly run your solution. This is another area where Cloud really shines.

Let’s say Núna provisioned a non-Cloud server based on your requirements, and a few months down the road you discover that the server does not have the power you thought. To upgrade it can be a hassle and can take at least several days to resolve, depending on if another server with the needed specifications is available, or has to be built. With Cloud hosting, we simply add additional resources to your current solution. Instantly.

If your server needs really increase, Cloud hosting lets you quickly and easily bring additional resources online or even add a server cluster. Clusters consist of multiple resources all working together towards the goals of your site and are generally used when it makes more sense to spread the work across more than one server. For example, if your database needs are high, but your web traffic is not, Núna can configure a database server and a separate server for your site. The flexibility and scalability are virtually unlimited.

Should you decide you wish to relocate your Cloud instance for some reason, we can quickly move your instance between data centers. This would simply not be possible, except at great expense without Cloud technology.

Let's start by saying that none of the information included here or anywhere else on our site is provided for informational purposes only and should be construed as legal advice on any subject matter. You should not act or refrain from acting on the basis of any content included in this site without seeking legal or other professional advice.

Now to answer the question. There just isn’t a complete, bulletproof solution to GDPR compliance. Your best bet is to consult legal counsel before implementing any solution.

Núna recommends letting us purchase and manage all themes or plugins for WordPress for you. Núna does not charge extra for this service, we simply pass along the actual purchase price of the theme or plugin to you.

The primary advantage of allowing Núna to handle these transactions is that we track all purchase codes so that if your staff changes, there is no need to purchase themes or plugins again. It happens more often than you might think it does.

Once a theme is properly installed and configured, updating it is a breeze. If you have not actually purchased the theme (maybe you got a copy of the theme files from a friend) then you will likely not be able to get updates for the theme since you cannot activate the theme on your WordPress site. Most paid themes allow activation on only one site at a time.

No. The word “secure” generally refers to the encryption level, or how secure an SSL certificate is, regarding the encryption of data between the user and the server. Almost all certificates for sale today have similar levels of encryption, so you should be secure using any of them.

The word “trust” refers to the level of trust the certificate should instill in site visitors. A Domain Validation (DV) certificate simply means that someone—and that could be ANYONE—registered a domain name, created a website and underwent a basic validation process indicating nothing more than a website linked to that domain name exists. DV certificates are almost always used only to encrypt data between the server and user. There should not be a high level of “trust” when it comes to DV certificates, because you really never know who is behind that domain name and SSL certificate.

Moving up the ladder of trust to an Organization Validation (OV) SSL certificate, additional validation is involved, and the level of trust is increased. OV certificates list the name of the organization in the certificate, providing additional trust that both the company and the website are reputable. OV certificates are commonly found when corporations, governments, and other entities want to provide an extra layer of confidence to site visitors.

At the top of the ladder, and potentially providing the highest level of trust, are Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates. These certificates used to trigger the browser’s address bar, or at least a portion of it, to turn green, and display the organization’s name to the left of the website’s address. This provided users an immediate visual verification that the organization whose name appears in the browser has successfully passed the extensive validation process to receive an EV SSL certificate.

Over the years, however, the EV certificates have become less important for a number of reasons. In the end, it was decided to be more important for a website to have some type of SSL certificate, versus none at all. Most web browsers now alert users when a website does not have an SSL certificate.

Almost anything can be turned into a scam, so always ask questions about anything you do not fully understand. Generally speaking, all SSL certificates have the same levels of security. In other words, all data is encrypted with equally strong encryption methods. Some exceptions are possible, depending on several factors. If you are ever unsure, there are a number of websites that offer a free evaluation of the health of your current SSL environment. You can easily find them using your favorite search engine.

Some people consider EV (extended validation) SSL certificates to be more secure. As noted above they are not more secure, although they are considered to have achieved the highest level of consumer trust. This is because anyone seeking to obtain an EV SSL certificate goes through the strictest authentication standards of any SSL certificate. EV verification standards require multiple VERIFIABLE pieces of information, including basic proof that the entity exists. The verification process often takes a number of days to complete. Sites with EV certificates used to get special recognition by turning the address bar green in many browsers; however, that is no longer the case.

Most likely, no. It is important to understand exactly what you are buying when purchasing a commercial or paid theme. Almost all such themes include premium (paid) plugins. These plugins are typically not owned by the theme author, and almost always require an additional purchase for each premium plugin bundled with the theme in order to receive updates and/or support for those plugins.

Plugins are typically distributed in one of two ways. Available as either a free or premium version, and almost always with support provided by the plugin author, with or without defined time limits, or as a bundled premium version included as part of a theme. Bundled versions usually never include support from the plugin author, although support from the theme author might be included.

If you purchase a theme, you certainly expect support for anything related to that theme. You will probably get support for the theme, but not for the plugin. Confused? You’re not alone!

Let’s examine this a bit more to try and clear up any confusion. First, say we buy a nice theme from Thememaker. Thememaker built a beautiful theme we’ll call TheTheme using three premium plugins. Let’s call these plugins Builder, Slider, and Grid. Thememaker did not license full versions of these plugins, they probably only purchased/licensed (for a relatively small price) the right to bundle these plugins with TheTheme.

It turns out that TheTheme is REALLY popular and was sold to 100,000 buyers. While Thememaker got a lot of money, the authors of the three plugins did not see any of that money. So if you (or any of the other 99.999% of TheTheme buyers) want updates and support from the plugin authors, you must purchase the plugins to receive updates and support. Otherwise, these authors would not be able to afford to create and support their plugins.

While researching themes for your WordPress site, it is important to consider which–and how many–premium plugins are bundled with a theme, because at some point you are going to need to purchase these plugins to get updates. Even if you never actually need help from the authors. Server technology changes constantly, and without updating your themes and plugins, your site will eventually encounter errors.

We’re happy to do so. The monthly price for an unmanaged Cloud server, which includes a guaranteed minimum of 1 CPU core, 512 MB RAM, 100 GB transfer, and 10 GB SSD storage, is about $10 per month. On the other end of the spectrum, the monthly price for a managed Cloud server, which includes a guaranteed minimum of 24 CPU cores, 96 GB RAM, 1920 GB SSD storage, and 40 TB transfer, is around $2,000 per month. This is for Linux operating systems. There is an extra charge if you want a Windows operating system and/or for WHM/cPanel or other commercial control panels.

Núna does not offer Cloud services billed by the hour. Our Cloud instances are intended to be operated continuously and so our pricing is monthly, quarterly, etc.

The simple facts are that Núna takes its hosting very seriously, and has created a hosting environment that reflects this. Our TrueCloud™ hosting always uses enterprise-grade SSDs for lightning-fast storage, CloudLinux to eliminate the possibilities of any given account interfering in any way with any other accounts on the server, and completely redundant networking and storage infrastructure, which is backed by our 99.999% infrastructure uptime SLA.

Some hosting providers claim they offer unlimited storage space, although we have never found one that actually offers “unlimited” storage space. One need only check their terms and conditions to quickly learn there are limitations. If there weren’t, Núna could use one of those '$2.95 per month for unlimited everything' accounts, and then resell hundreds or thousands of sub-accounts each for $1.95 per month. The performance would be poor, and we could not guarantee much, but price points like that are certainly appealing to many people.

Núna does not offer—and has never offered—that type of service, although lots of others do. If that type of service is what interests you, then you should pick the one you like and give them a try. Make sure to ALWAYS have a backup of everything, because most of these types of providers offer no meaningful backup services, and their fine print usually states that in the event of catastrophic failure, i.e., the entire server fails, their responsibility is limited only to recreating the server environment. You would be on your own when it comes to restoring your hosted content.

No.

Absolutely not! With non-Cloud hosting, whether shared or dedicated, one or more accounts are hosted on a single set of resources, e.g., CPU, RAM, file storage, etc., on one physical server (similar to you using a single computer at home). This means that if there is a failure in that server (the same if your home computer fails), then all accounts (data) on it would be affected. Again, think of your computer at home. If the power supply fails, for example, it would have to be fixed before the computer could be used again.

Some providers offer Cloud hosting, yet their ‘Cloud’ exists on only one physical server. This type of Cloud hosting is subject to the same limitations as non-Cloud hosting and is very misleading.

Núna ehf. has been offering only true Cloud hosting since 2013. True Cloud space exists on a virtual partition, which draws its resources from an extensive network of underlying physical servers. This means that if your account becomes unresponsive, it immediately restarts using a different set of resources.

In simpler terms, think of your home computer again. As a non-Cloud device, if it becomes unresponsive, you reboot it and wait for it to become ready. If your home computer were like our Cloud environment, your computer would immediately be replaced with a new one, already booted and running. Pretty cool, huh?

This is one of the most important decisions you will make regarding your email accounts. Failure to understand the difference between the POP3 and IMAP protocols could result in the permanent loss of emails!

When you set up an email client to check your emails, you will need to decide if you want to set it up as POP3 or IMAP. Both of them are ways to connect to the mail server so you can read your emails through an email client. Neither is “better” than the other, they just work differently.

POP3 is short for Post Office Protocol. With POP3, the email messages do not remain on the server, they are downloaded to the device, e.g., computer, phone, tablet, etc. that retrieves mail using POP3. Any device using POP3 to retrieve emails will cause the emails it retrieves to be permanently deleted from the server and stored on that device.

IMAP is short for Internet Message Access Protocol. With IMAP, the email messages do not remain on the local device, such as a computer, they remain on the server. This allows users to check their emails from multiple devices, e.g., computer, phone, tablet, webmail via a browser, etc.

POP3 is generally used when someone uses only one device, or if you have connectivity issues and need to access your emails offline. IMAP is generally used when emails need to be accessed by more than one person, or on more than one device.

While IMAP tends to suit the needs of most people it is important to understand that your active mailbox is not intended for the long-term storage of lots of emails. Emails that are no longer needed should either be deleted or at least moved to an email account intended for archive purposes. A separate Gmail account is perfect for this purpose. Otherwise, these emails and any attachments eat up storage space in your web hosting account.

For this example we assume you are using the default email app.

Step 1: Touch the icon for the email app.

Step 2: Touch the navigation menu icon.

Step 3: Touch the gear (settings) icon.

Step 4: Touch + Add account.

Step 5: Touch the Other icon.

Step 6: Input the email address and touch Sign in.

Step 7: Touch IMAP account.

Step 8: Ensure your username is your FULL email address.

Step 9: Under Incoming server ensure the entry for IMAP server is “mail.yourdomainname.com”.

Step 10: Under the Security type dropdown, select SSL (Accept all certificates) and touch Accept.

Step 11: Under Outgoing server ensure the SMTP server name is “mail.yourdomainname.com”.

Step 12: Under the Security type dropdown, select TLS.

Step 13: Ensure the Require authentication to send emails option is enabled.

Step 14: Ensure the User name and Password fields match the information you were provided.

Step 15: Touch Sign in.

Congratulations! Your email account should now be ready to use. If you see a message like Couldn't verify account, please check all entries and then try again.

For this example we assume you are using the default email app.

Step 1: Touch the icon for the email app.

Step 2: Touch the navigation menu icon.

Step 3: Touch the gear (settings) icon.

Step 4: Touch + Add account.

Step 5: Touch the Other icon.

Step 6: Input the email address and password you were provided and then touch Sign in.

Step 7: Touch IMAP account.

Step 8: Ensure your username is your FULL email address.

Step 9: Under Incoming server ensure the entry for IMAP server is “mail.yourdomainname.com”.

Step 10: Under the Security type dropdown, select SSL (Accept all certificates) and touch Accept.

Step 11: Under Outgoing server ensure the SMTP server name matches the information you were provided.

Step 12: Under the Security type dropdown, select TLS.

Step 13: Ensure the Require authentication to send emails option is enabled.

Step 14: Ensure the User name and Password fields match the information you were provided.

Step 15: Touch Sign in.

Congratulations! Your email account should now be ready to use. If you see a message like Couldn't verify account, please check all entries and try again.

Yes! Núna has many clients that utilize Microsoft's email solutions and can host your website completely independent of your email needs. Our staff requires only those settings unique to your Microsoft account to direct all email their servers.

No one at Núna has the ability to recover any of your passwords. When passwords are initially created they use a one-way process to encrypt the password. This means the actual password entered at the time an action was taken has been encrypted and thus cannot be recovered.

Although your password can never be recovered by our staff, in most cases they can help you reset your password.

Some passwords, such as admin and/or user passwords for content management systems, e.g., WordPress, Joomla!, etc., have the ability to email password reset links to assist users in this regard. If a client needs help resetting one or more passwords in one of these or others types of applications, our technical team might be able to accomplish this for a fee.

The following information should be used to transfer funds to Núna ehf. from Icelandic bank accounts:

The following information should be used to transfer funds to Núna ehf. from international bank accounts: