Articles - Comstat | Ruthin, North Wales

Free AI website design

by Steve Galloway | Jul 14, 2025

Sitejet - free AI website design generator

Your web hosting account includes free access to Sitejet AI website design generator. Sitejet builds fully functioning websites with as little as your trading name, business sector, and a few other details. Sitejet includes a website design editor so that you or your website designer can customize website elements and introduce special effects.

Sitejet usually costs from $15/mo as a standalone service at time of writing. We are now providing this feature in your cPanel dashboard as standard at no additionalt startup or ongoing cost.

Click on the headers below to find more about Sitejet. Click on images to view at full-sized resolution.

What does Sitejet do?

Sitejet AI is an innovative DIY website builder. By providing your company name, business type, and a few other details, Sitejet AI can generate a professional website that reflects your brand and services using professionally authored website templates. Finshed websites are “mobile responsive”, which means that website content is optimized for PC, laptops, and mobile devices. The process can take seconds to execute.

AI generated website design lowers cost barriers

Sitejet is perfect for business owners who:

do not have IT expertise
who want to establish an online presence
who need to minimize cost
who optionally want a proof-of-concept to minimize conventional development costs

At time of writing, Sitejet Studio costs from $15/mo as a standalone product. As a cPanel user, we are including this utility as standard in your web hosting dashboard for no charge

Sitejet includes Ecwid Shopping Cart. Note that this feature is subject to subscription for more than 5 product listings.

In addition to a customizable template library (about 150 mobile-responsive templates at time of writing), Sitejet includes:

AI text generation and image/video galleries
no-code drag and drop editor for layout editing
AI co-ordinationwith business logos, and
SEO meta and content optimization
SEO reporting/metrics by Xovi Now

Save on Conventional Designer Costs

Hiring a professional web designer can be expensive. With Sitejet AI, you can bypass these costs and still achieve a high-quality website. The AI generator handles the heavy lifting, creating a site that is both functional and visually appealing. This means you can allocate your budget to other important areas of your business.

AI can make big inroads on web design costs. However, templates are often a “proof of concept” and in our experience users tend to want some kind of customization. Sitejet provides a dashboard for dealinng images, fonts, colour themes, and more. Read the next section to understand how you can use Sitejet AI templates to set the scene for your web designer to customize features.

Demonstrate Your Vision to Website Designers

Templates never quite get it right. This is why big business relies on professional help to achieve visual improvements and SEO optimization. So, AI website generation is not a replacement for professional website design at all. Instead, it works bes as a tool to help your website designer target qualitative improvements at a significant savings to you.

If you plan to hire a web designer for more detailed and customized effects, Sitejet AI can be incredibly useful. By generating a basic website as a “proof of concept”, you can clearly demonstrate your vision and requirements for quotations or tender. This saves time and also ensures that the final product better aligns with your expectations.

Summary

Sitejet provides you with no-code drag and drop editor to build your website from the ground up. Use it to design your own website or as a proof of concept to better equip your design team to achieve better results.

Sitejet usually costs about £150+ per annum, so this addition to your cPanel dashboard already brings enormous value to bear, compared to conventional design costs.

Configure SPF, rDNS, DKIM, and DMARC for email

by Steve Galloway | Jul 5, 2025

Introduction

Sending and receiving email should be straightforward, but a lot of background checks happen before your organization’s email is delivered reliably and securely. Use this article to activate SPF, rDNS, DKIM, and DMARC to make sure your email reaches recipients, and protects your email server from crippling outcomes like dropped email and public blacklisting.

“Undeliverable”: What cost a lost email that you never know a recipient has not seen?

Click open the headers below to learn about email deiverability and “trust”. Please read through this entire article before starting to engage individual modifications to your email server. Changes you make are done so at your risk so be sure to contact us for general advice if you are in doubt. Support options are available for professional assistance. Click on images to view at full-sized resolution.

Why do these protocols matter?

If you do not put a stamp on a letter, it probably will not reach its destination, and without a return address you will certainly never know what happened to the letter.

Similarly, without SPF, rDNS, DKIM, and DMARC, email that you send will be erratic and unpredictable. This is because industry tools to assess “trust” are not operational. You may think “it has never been a problem before”. Partly this is because when email does not reach a recipient, you know you sent it but the recipient does not know it was supposed to be received.

Everyone has sent an email that has never reached its target. These protocols are why most failures happen, and in business communications…. it matters. The protocols we cover in this article enable your suppliers’ and customers’ email servers to “trust” your email and its “brand”.

“Postage stamps” for email

The one question we are posed by clients in 25 years of IT support more than anything else is the plaintive “why aren’t my emails getting through?”. Hopefully, it is only because of a badly spelled email address. Often, though, the answer is that outgoing email is not sending adequately “stamped” emails with “return addresses”.

Protecting your identity – “trust”

Protocols like SPF, rDNS, DKIM, and DMARC are email’s a little bit like postage stamps. When the bar code on a postage stamp is recognized as authentic, the envelope is sent to its destination. Similarly, protocols enable receiving email servers to measure and “trust” the authenticity of your communication. Put another way, these protocols protect your email from being measured as spam or malicious email.

Self serve guides for implementing email protocols

Your web server is optimised for delivering your web pages. If email is included in your package, we have made sure that an email server is enabled with necessary email tools. However, like flat-pack furniture, your email server is minimally configured and the protocols described here need to be aligned with your domain name.

These domain name modifications can only be manually configured by you or your agent. If we look after your domain name, we would configure these modifications within your ongoing support. If we do not have admin privileges for your domain name’s “zone record”, and you have elected against support, then you need to configure your domain name’s zone record.

If you do not have expert in-house IT skills, consider our DNS configuration service and ongoing support plans.

DNS Configuration – Professional support

DNS is awkward technology, even for IT pros. If you purchased your domain before you began using our servers and you want us to manage your domain name records for you, we can still administer your domain name records (DNS) annually for £75, including periodic updates as they are required. Use the PayPal QR code at the bottom of our home page for to send us payment, or contact us to arrange invoicing for our DNS service. This is included in optional support arrangements that you may already subscribe to.

DNS Configuration – self-service option

Use our “self-serve” guides linked below to implement SPF, rDNS, DKIM, and DMARC. There are a few ways to deal with these modifications, and it really depends on how your domain name, and your authoritative nameservers are configured. Read more about deciding where to manage your authoritative nameserver here. So these articles might not be exactly on point for your situations. Again, ask us for advice. Implement the protocols in the order listed:

Tips and tricks

some protocols may take up to 24-72 hours to resolve
read through each guide before starting
monitor email for a week or so before enabling the next protocol
do not make DNS modifications during heavy traffic/important projects
document what you do (e.g. screen shots) so that you have a note of “last known” working state

Bear in mind that changes made to domain names happen in real time, and errors can cause web site and email outages that could take up to 72 hours to restore. If in doubt, contact us first.

Summary

Email is vulnerable to malicious attacks that pose risks to your online identity, reputation, and hijack. Implementing SPF, rDNS, DKIM, and DMARC helps to ensure that your outgoing email reaches recipients.

Implementing these kinds of services is challenging without experience. If you do not have expert in-house IT skills, consider our email configuration service and ongoing support plans. We are glad to quote on request.

How to use cPanel Web Disk

by Steve Galloway | Jun 22, 2025

cPanel Webdisk

Use cPanel Web Disk as a Cloud storage facility for managing and sharing your documents and files. Create Web Disk accounts in cPanel and save connections in your devices as network drives to provide access on your local devices.

Click on the headers below to find out how to use cPanel’s Web Disk module. Click on images to see in full resolution.

Plan a Web Disk folder structure

Web disk is a useful resource for saving files for access from computers and mobile devices that have been configured to connect to Web Disk user profile. Some organizations use the utility for off-site file backup.

Create a folder structure with user accounts

First, plan a folder structure (directory in Linux parlance) that can scale as your needs grow and change. For instance, you might create a user account for Accounting, and a user account for Marketing. This way, you can control how staff connect to the right files. Web Disk may be a useful mechanism for backing up local files, too.

Next, create a “sandbox” account to test account creation and connectivity. Then, you ca establish user accounts in cPanel and download connection scripts which can be installed on desired devices.

Your server can generate cconnection scripts that you can install on devices to create a permanent connection to files from computers and mobile devices.

Secure data transfer

Connections between your web server and connected devices leverage your web server’s SSL certificate. This means that your connected computer can connect to a Web Disk drive so that the Web Disk location appears in Windows File Explorer or Mac OS Finder. If you need to connect to multiple Web Disk accounts, download a script for each account you have privileges to connect to.

File sharing

Modern approaches to file sharing reduce the risk of duplication and version problems that have plagued workgroups in the past. Solutions like Microsoft 365 provide GDPR-compliant utilities to control versions and multi-user editing in real time. Web Disk does not include these kinds of tools.

There are third party add-on solutions that expand file sharing options for Web Disk to emulate Microsoft 365’s capabilities. Be aware that Web Disk may not be a suitable for you if your organization relies on version control and simultaneous multi user editing.

Create a new Web Disk account

Only the web site owner can create Web Disk Accounts. Log into cPanel using the data sheet we have provided you with and navigate to Files > Web Disk. Click open the utility.

Leave your primary user account alone

When you open Web Disk, you will see that a user account is already established. Leave this primary account alone. Your primary Web Disk account has access to all directories on your web server, including your web site pages and database. Sharing credentials for the primary accounts which poses a catastrophic risks if shared.

Instead, adding accounts makes it is easier to manage and revoke access for individual users without affecting the primary account. Also, creating a hierarcy of accounts helps you track/change/remove users and privileges.

Add an account

Scroll down the Web Disk page and click open Create an Additional Web Disk Account
Fill in the fields, including user name and permissions
Use the recomended directory location
Enable <Digest Authentication> (for Windows users)
Review the account privileges and click <Create>

Edit new and existing accounts under the <Manage Additional Web Disk Accounts> heading

Download and install connection script

Once your account is created you can edit properties, change passwords, and download connection scripts for that account. Distribute connection scripts to users or devices that need connecting to the account.

To install the installation script, click on the downloaded file and follow the prompts. When you enter your login credentials you will need to enter the full syntax for the account (e.g. marketing@my-server-name, not “marketing”). This will connect you to your web disk account on your web server. In future, you will find a link to your Web Disk account in File Manager or Finder.

Your server can generate connection scripts that you can install on devices to create a permanent connection to files from computers and mobile devices.

If you are connecting to multiple folders, download a script for each account. Also, if you are the web site owner, you have automatic privileges to all directories on your server.

Create file links for email

Today, organizations send file attachments using links. Email file attachment links:

reduces email storage costs
reduces bandwidth usage
helps control file version problems
reduces the risk of emails being rejected by recipients who restrict file attachment sizes.

As email users and storage increase over time, organizations of all sizes have to deal with bloat. So it is important to establish a policy to address this looming problem. There are options to do this with Webdisk and add-on software.

Enable file sharing permissions individually

To grant an email recipient access to a linked file, access Webdisk using cPanel File manager, right clicking on a file and changing permissions to 644 and finally right clicking on the file to get a direct link to paste into your email. This is less tricky than it sounds. However, making files publicly accessible over time poses problems over time and may not be suitable for GDPR compliance.

Enable file-sharing permissions at directory level

Files for email attachment can also be stored in a public directory which can be created with 755 permissions. This kind of directory could be called “email attachments” or “shared with everyone. Since sharing permissions are already established, it only remains for a user to get the file link to include in an email. Also, directory contents can be reviewed over time to deal with compliance issues.

Third party add-ons and Webdisk customization

You can use third party apps like Cyberduck to extend Webdisk’s finctionality to include more streamlined file links and more. Also, link expiration policies can be set at server level to control data loss or leakage. Please contact us for help with Webdisk customizations.

Summary

Web Disk provides a simple centralised file management system. Using Linux “user” privileges, you can create a directory hierarchy to manage user or device access to “departmental” files.

Web Disk does not natively provide multi-user real time editing or document version options. You can use add-on software to improve functionality. You may need to develop an in-house system to notify workgroup users when a file they may want to edit is already being edited by another user. As files become more widely shared and/or users need to collaboratively edit documents, consider Microsoft 365 to address workgroup needs.

Web disk might be a good way to back up files stored on premises. However, if Web Disk is your primary file location, be aware that backup remains your responsibility and you should implement a workflow within your GDPR documentation to manage backups.

For expert help about Webdisk, and fully supported management please contact us.

How to back up your web server with cPanel

by Steve Galloway | Jun 17, 2025

Backup vs Backup Wizard

Use our cPanel utilities to backup and restore web site data content, databases, and other data on your web server.

cPanel backup utility provides workflows for backing up and restoring web site and email content

Using cPanel’s Backup utility, you can select from data sets we have already backed up and download the files to your local drives for safekeeping.

Using cPanel’s Backup Wizard utility, you can design your own backups. You can backup some or all or your content. Also, you can backup incremental backups which are useful when you only need to backup minor changes since your last full backup. You can store your files locally, restore them to your server, and you can use the content when migrating to a new server.

Click on the headers below to find out how to use cPanel Backup and Backup Wizard. Click on images to view full size.

Download Backups using cPanel Backup

og into your web server’s control panel – we call it cPanel. You can find how to log into your services from the web server data sheet we have provided you with.

At your cPanel dashboard, either search for Backup or scroll to the section called Files and click on the optin called Backup.

About cPanel Backup

cPanel BAckup lists backups that are already made and stored on your web server. These are available in a pulldown list, including full and partial backups, that you can download. The list includes backups that we have executed as we deal with daily mantenance. You can download these backups,

Export backup from server

We recommend that you download backups to your local drives, and you can find help for copying backups at datacneter speeds to Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc. Also, to conserve space and improve web page delivery speeds, not that we rotate backups so that (at time of writing we only maintain the two latest backups.

About Restore

In cPanel Backup, there is an option to restore backups. If you are resroting full and partial backups, be aware that you should restore data sets in date order, starting with the earliest date stamp.

Create backups and restore with Backup Wizard

Use cPanel Backup Wizard to create and download backups. Also, you can restore backups using this option.

Backup Wizard – more options

Backup Wizard offiers more granularity, giving you the option to select individual data sets, like your WordPress site, or your MySQL database which attaches to your WordPress site, or your email. Also, you can execute partial backups if changes that you have made to your web site are minimal.

Using Backup Wizard you can create your own backup profile. Downloading files that we have created may limit what you are able to do.

Summary

cPanel’s backup utilities have proven to be reliable, however a lot of things can go wrong with backups. Your server might backup files accurately, but the data could be corrupted as it is saved because of a power brownout. Or, data might be damaged in transit as the data set is transferred elsewhere. So, although we take “snapshots” of your web site, they are not guaranteed, and we only keep update that are current over the last 2-4 weeks.

Therefore, you should only rely on our working backups as part of your risk management. Professionals use an array of tools to provide duplication and/or availability. In some case, professionals mirror two or more geographically remote servers to cover a primary server failure. In some cases, this is economical and we can implement these kinds of services.

You can protect against a single point of failure failure by developing a strategy which covers two or more methods to secure data. For instance, your web designer may keep backups. Usually these conserve work in progress so that there is a “last known working state”. You might need to maintain a longer history of backups.

Your web designer will be glad to discuss backup strategies with you because you might mutually and economically share utilities and avoid extra cost. Also, we are always glad to help if you do not have a professional developer but need advise about strategy and products.

Microsoft Outlook Categories

by Steve Galloway | May 28, 2025

Microsoft Outlook's "Categories" Feature

Use Microsoft 365 Categories to organize and manage your Outlook email, calendar, contacts, and tasks.

Tag your Outlook content with Categories to visually distinguish projects and priorities with colour-coded tags to visually differentiate content at-a-glance.

Find things fast with Categories

Categories help you visually target important content in your ever-growing email folders, calendars, and more. Also, you can search across Outlook for emails, events, and tasks that are tagged with the same category. Used in a well planned scheme, you can use categories to filter an Inbox to create virtual folders on demand. This avoids duplicated content in unwieldy folder structures which leads to broken email threads and lost attachments.

Click on the headers below to find out how to create and customize your categories. Click or tap on images to see in full screen.

What are categories for?

Outlook Categories help you organize and manage email, contacts, calendar events, and tasks. For instance, instead of moving or copying emails to folders, you can keep emails in your Inbox and tag emails with categories. This way, you can filter your Inbox on demand to show one or more categories.

Categories reduce confusion

In situations where an email is saved in two folders which might lead to multiple email threads for the same message, it is more efficient to keep the original email in your Inbox and assign two categories to that email.

Using tags you can:

create category names and colours
tag and group related emails
organize your calendar events by type, such as meetings, personal appointments, or deadlines
group your contacts as family, friends, colleagues, or clients
organize your tasks by project, priority, or status

Enter the name of a category you want to filter in “search” and turn your Inbox into a dynamically generated folder which lists activty associated with the tag. e.g all items tagged with “Brian” in this screenshot.

Categories are usually used at an individual level. However A shared email account would rely on categories established for that account. Uniform categories can be established at an organizational level. This requires adminstrator-level knowledge.

How to create and manage tags

Use this workflow to start creating and customizing your tags:

create a new email in Outlook
click open the <Categories> dropdown list.

Outlook always lists a few categories. These are intended as a starting point. In the illustration below notice that there are user-defined categories instead of the defaults. This means Outlook’s original categories have been customized, and new categories added to the user’s library. Notice towards towards the bottom of the list the options for creating, edit, and showing categories. Click on <New category> to create a new category.

Use <all categories> to view categories. You can use the <search> field at the top of the dropdown box to pinpoint categories. Once you create a category, the same tag can be used in Email, Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks.

Editing and managing categories

You can edit existing tags to change names and colours. In any email composition and calendar event windows, pull down the <categories> dropdown menu and click open <Manage categories>. Her you can “fave” categories, and you can click on the pencil icon to edit category properties. In the image below, clicking on the pencil in the DNS/web row would open the properties for that category.

Planning Categories

Exit strategies matter. Plan a structure for your categories to avoid duplication and confusion. Unchecked, category libraries can become so large that users forget what categories they already have.

For instance, if you are tagging customers, it might makes sense to have a category for “customer”, but also a drill-down or sub-heading category called “customer”-“customer surname-initials”. For example, a <heading>-<sub-heading> category might look like:

customer-smith-a

This way “customer” is a global header, and the other fields are sub heading. Organising a strategy for categories helps you manage your list as it grows. This can be likened to departments, which is a common feature in charts of accounts.

Summary

Outlook Categories add a flexible and visual way to keep your Outlook items organized, making it easier to manage and search your communications and schedules as your database grows.

Categories are intended for individual use, but organizations might opt to have individual users follow a common colour-coding theme and defined list defined by a manager to adopt in their own instance of Outlook. Categories can be established at organizational level. This requires administrator level implementation.

How to backup your Microsoft 365 Authenticator credentials

by Steve Galloway | May 9, 2025

Backup Microsoft Authenticator settings

Backup and restore your Microsoft 365 multi-factor authentication (MFA) credentials to restore access to 365 dashboards in the event of a lost or stolen mobile phone.

This option is especially useful for 365 tenancy owners/global administrators. For example, if you are a 365 tenancy owner/Global Administrator (global Admin) then you cannot turn to a higher authority to re-establish credentials if your credentials are lost.

Click on the headers below to find out how to backup Microsoft Authenticator on Apple and Android mobile phones.

Why backup has to be configured

Microsoft Authenticator data is not included in iCloud and Android mobile phone backups because the security keys are critically sensitive. Instead, you can organize Authenticator data backups in Microsoft Authenticator app settings. Authenticator backups can then be saved to Google Drive/iCloud, however you have to be verify identity against a Microsoft account to validate your identity when restoring credentials.

Microsoft Account vs Microsoft 365 account

You need a Microsoft account to backup and restore Microsoft Authenticator credentials. A Microsoft account and a Microsoft 365 account are two different entities. Without a Microsoft account you cannot back up your 365 credentials.

If you have a Microsoft account, but you have fogotten your credentials, you may need to establish a new Microsoft account. Do not lose the credentials to your Microsoft account. If you forget these credentials, you will not be able to connect Microsoft Authenticator on a new mobile phone to restore your settings. This would be catastrophic, so be sure to document your Microsoft Account credentials.

How to backup Microsoft Authenticator

Use the steps below to configure backup in Microsoft Authenticator settings. The process may vary from notes here because Microsoft updates its processes periodically. Also, the process might vary depending on your mobile phone hardware and operating system. Either way, prompts are not difficult to follow. These tips will steer you in the right direction:

Open Microsoft Authenticator on your mobile phone
Access Settings: Tap the three vertical dots at the top right corner and select <Settings>
Enable <Backup>*
Depending on your hardware, provide your Microsoft Account credentials if/when asked**

* Apple users will need to be sure Authenticator is logged in to iCloud.

** In some cases, users may already be logged in to existing Microsoft Accounts, however the backup process will direct you to provide credentials as necessary.

Recovery & Summary

To recover your credentials, install Microsoft Authenticator on your new mobile phone. Usually, the <Welcome> screen offers an option to <Begin Recovery>. This option depends on your hardware and software versions. The process is a little different for Apple and Android users, and is easily executed provided you have the credentials for iCloud/Google account, and your Microsoft Account.

You should periodically check Authenticator backup settings to verify backups are current. Authenticator app settings will confirm when your credentials were last backed up.

Authenticator offers options in settings to override Android or Apple screen-lock defaults. Also, some Apple and Android versions may need Authenticator enabling to run in the background. This can be checked in Authenticator settings.

Summary

Tenancy owners and global admins do not have scope to resort to a higher authority to restore access to a 365 dashboard if their mobile phone is lost or destroyed. Therefore it is crucial to your organization’s IT continuity to protect your access settings to 365 Admin. Microsoft Authenticator enables you to restore existing credentials which cannot otherwise be found in Android and Apple backups.

For help, contact us using WhatsApp via our web site, or by phone.

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