Hosted Solutions

FAQs

Which Version of SharePoint do you offer?

Currently SharePoint WSS 2.0 (SharePoint 2003)

Can I buy additional storage and user accounts?

Yes. Your SharePoint service inculdes a predefined allocation of storage space and a maximum number of user accounts. If you wish to add storage or users you can do so at any time. The pricing plan is based upon the total number of users and the storage and can be found here.

Does a SharePoint site include search functionality?

Yes. SharePoint Team Services provides a built-in search feature that helps you find documents and information fast. All the information in the documents is automatically indexed as you load them onto your SharePoint site.

How do I invite users to join a Windows SharePoint Services site? Is the site secure?

SharePoint-based websites are password-protected to restrict access to registered users, who are invited to join via email. In addition, the site administrator can restrict certain members' roles by assigning difference permission levels to view, post and edit.

Can I post any kind of document?

You can post documents in many formats, including .doc, .xls, .pdf and .htm. In addition, if you are using Microsoft Office XP, 2003 or 2007, you can save documents directly to your Windows SharePoint Services site.

Can I download information directly from a SharePoint site to a personal digital assistant?

No you cannot. However, you can exchange contact infomation lists with Microsoft Outlook and there are 3rd party applications such as Colligio Reader that provide this service via your laptop or PC.

How can I make my site public? By default, all sites are created private.

If you want your site to be a public website, enable anonymous access for the entire site. You can then give out your URL to anybody via your business card, email or any other marketing material. The URL for your website could be (for example):

http://yoursitename.domainname.com

These websites are ideal for information and knowledge intensive sites and/or sites where you need to have a shared web workspace.

Remember: Under the parent website, you can have as many sub-sites each with unique permissions, settings and security rights.

How do sub-sites work?

You can create a sub-site for various categories. For example:

  • Departments – Finance, Marketing, IT
  • Products – Electrical, Mechanical, Hydraulics
  • Projects – New Product, Sales Campaign, Customer Project
  • Team – Retention team, BPR team
  • Clients – New clients, Old Clients
  • Suppliers – Supplier 1, Supplier 2, Supplier 3
  • Customers – Customer A, Customer B, Customer C
  • Property – Property A, Property B

The URLs for each will be, for example:

http://yoursitename.domainname.com/finance
http://yoursitename.domainname.com/marketing

You can keep track of permissions for each team separately so that access is restricted while maintaining global access to the parent site.

Can I get a domain name for my website?

Yes, you can assign a domain which you own or have registered for use with your SharePoint site.

Does this site support eCommerce and email capability?

No. For eCommerce based websites, we recommend you look at our eStore service which provides a full suite of eCommerce functions.

What are picture libraries?

Picture libraries allow you to access a photo album and view it as a slide show or thumbnail or a film strip. You can have a separate folder for each event, category etc.

What are the advantages of a hosted SharePoint site vs one that is on an in-house server?

  • No hardware investment – lower costs
  • No software to download – ready to start from the word go
  • No IT resources – anyone who has web access can use it
  • Faster deployment
  • Pay as you go, pay as you grow!

Can I ask users outside of my organisation to participate in my Windows SharePoint Services site?

Yes. You can manage this process using the KC web portal. Simply add users and the service.

Are there any IT requirements or downloads required to set up my SharePoint site?

No. You do not need to download any code or plan for any IT support. Simply complete the online signup. Once you have successfully signed up and your site has been provisioned, we will send a confirmation to the email address you provided.

I am located outside of the UK, are there any restrictions or requirements for accessing the Windows SharePoint Services?

No. There are no system or bandwidth limitations for international trial users. Additional language packs have been installed which allow users to set up sub-webs in language other than English. These include: Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finiish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Spanish and Swedish.

Are there any browser recommendations?

Yes. Microsoft recommends using the following browsers for viewing and editing Windows SharePoint Services sites: Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 with Service Pack 2, Internet Explorer 6, Netscape Navigator 6.2 or later and Firefox 2.0 or greater.

Is technical support available during the 30-day trial period?

Yes, you can raise a support ticket via your online control panel. Telephone support is also offered.

Is there an online manual for SharePoint?

Not as such, however there are a number of excellent books in print. Try searching Amazon for SharePoint.

What security levels are assigned to users?

Security levels are assigned by the administrator. There are four levels by default and additional levels can be composed as necessary.

Reader
Has read-only access to the website

Contributor
Can add content to existing document libraries and lists

Web Designer
Can create lists and documents libraries and customise pages in the website

Administrator
Has full control of the website

How secure are your hosted Windows SharePoint Services sites?

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Technical security measures provide firewall protection, intrusion detection and web-publishing rules. Our operations team tests and deploys software updates in order to maintain the highest levels of security and software reliability. Software hot-fixes and service packs are tested and deployed based on their priority and level of risk. Security related hot-fixes are rapidly depolyed into the environment to address current threats. A comprehensive software validation activity ensures software stability through regression testing prior to deployment.

What is the difference between an Internet and an intranet site?

An Internet site is a normal site that anyone on the Internet can access (e.g. www.msn.com. www.microsoft.com). You can set up a site for your company that can be accessed by anyone without any username or password.

What is a workspace?

A site or workspace is when you want a new place for collaborating on web pages, lists and documents libraries. For example, you might create a site to manage a new team or project, collaborate on a document or prepare for a meeting.

Can more than one person use the same login?

If the users sharing the login will have the same permissions and there is no fear of them sharing a password, then yes. Otherwise, this is discouraged.

How customisable is the user-to-user access?

User permissions apply to an entire web, not to documents themselves. However, you can have additional sub-webs that can optionally have their own permissions. Each user can be given any of four default roles. Additional roles can be defined by the administrator.

Can each user have access to their own calendar?

Yes there are 2 ways to do this:

  • by creating a calendar for each user
  • by creating a calendar with a view for each user

Can more than one user have Administrator level controls?

Yes. Through site settings, any number of additional administrators may be added to a site. Additionally, users may be assigned one of the other four default roles and customer roles can also be defined.

How many files can I upload?

There is no restriction in place except the storage limit on your monthly plan. This can be increased at any time.

What type of files can I upload / post to the site?

Most common file types are supported including Microsoft Office, Adobe PDF and images such as JPG/GIF/TIF. We reserve the right to restrict file types at any time. Also, no content that violates the terms of service may be uploaded or posted to the site.

Can SharePoint be linked to an external data source?

SharePoint data can be opened with Access and Excel as an external data source. Thus, SharePoint can be referenced as an external data source. SharePoint itself cannot reference an external data source.

Can SharePoint be linked to a SQL database?

This is possible via a customer application within a standalone environment that we provide (Dedicated SharePoint server), but it is not natively supported by SharePoint or SQL server or within our shared hosting environments.

Can I customise my Windows SharePoint Services site?

Windows SharePoint Services makes updating sites and their content from the browser easier than ever. SharePoint includes tools that let you create custom lists, calendars, page views. You can apply a theme, add a list, survey and document library web parts to a create a page, create personal views, change logos, connect web parts and more.

To fully customise your site, you can use Microsoft FrontPage 2003. Specifically, you can use FrontPage themes and shared borders and also use FrontPage to create photo galleries and top ten lists, utilise standard usage reports and integrate automatic web content.

Can I migrate my site to another ISP or our internal servers without losing any data or content?

You can use Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 to create a local copy of your site that can then be migrated to another provider of Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services or to your internal Windows Server 2003 environment. Note however that some limitations may apply to preserving site structure and user accounts.

Hosted SharePoint services from Kingston Communications