Hardware & Gaming Network

HwGN Info
last updated 10.01.04
Membership Requirements
Before applying for membership to HwGN you need to read the contents of this page.
HwGN gets lots of requests from people wanting HwGN to host their personal or otherwise non-PC related sites. If you do not meet the following site requirements, your site will not be considered for membership to HwGN.
Sites must be PC Hardware, Tech, or PC Gaming sites. If youre not quite sure if your site qualifies as a PC Hardware, Tech, or PC Gaming site, just ask. All HwGN hosted member sites must display the HwGN Header on all pages. Sites can not include any pirated software, warez, adult related materials, or illegal content. No activities that are considered illegal by the laws of the United States or your own country are permitted on sites hosted by HwGN. This includes, but is not limited to, using HwGN provided hosting and/or services for the following activities. Hosting any warez or illegal files on HwGN systems is strictly forbidden. We do not allow spamming with the use of our mail servers. Sites are not allowed to have any vulgar, pornographic, or adult XXX images content. Any of these activities or other illegal activities could result in the immediate suspension of a site. All web pages of HwGN member sites must be in English. There is no minimum number of hits required for sites to be accepted in HwGN. Sites are expected to have content that demonstrates a level of competence and intelligence concerning the subject matter being discussed on their site. Clan sites related to PC gaming are accepted as a PC Gaming Site. If you don't currently have a site available for HwGN to review, provide plenty of info about your proposed site's content. Without it, requests for membership will be rejected and/or disregarded. Member sites are expected to have enough knowledge to be able to setup their own sites. This includes knowing how to set the proper permissions on files. Sites using PHP scripts and MySQL databases should know enough to setup their own scripts be able to work with phpMyAdmin to do their own database setups. Sites can post questions in the HwGN forum or in the Contact HwGN Messages. HwGN committee members or other HwGN member sites will be able to respond to your messages, but remember, HwGN is not a web hosting company with support staff waiting for your support requests. Member sites must at times be patient and realize differences in time zones, work schedules, etc. may delay answers to your questions. Sites not related to PC Hardware, Tech, or PC Gaming do not qualify. So do not bother asking for a site for you and your lover, or a site to provide a place to host pictures for your family and friends to see.

HwGN Committee
The HwGN Committee is a new approach (as of Jul-26-04) being used by HwGN to help promote the community aspect of HwGN. Member sites are selected from those who are willing to serve on the HwGN committee to look over and approve or reject membership requests, help answer questions about HwGN, work with sites to insure that HwGN grows and meets the needs of its member sites, etc. The HwGN Site Info and Contact HwGN Messages are setup such that HwGN committee members can carry out tasks related to setting up accounts for users simply and easily. The Contact HwGN Messages insures that all committee members can see and be aware of responses to sites done by other committee members. Committee members are also encouraged to actively participate in the HwGN forums.

HwGN Header, HwGN Text Exchange, and Banner Ads
HwGN Header	The HwGN Header is run on all pages on all HwGN hosted sites. The header can be run on the left hand side of the page (as is currently done on HwGN), or at the top of the page (as is currently done on the HwGN Forums). The header currently includes the HwGN Text Exchange, banner ads, and the HwGN logo. Content of the header can be updated by HwGN without requiring the sites to make updates to their pages. Sites place the header in their pages by inserting <HWGN_LEFTHEADER> to run the header on the left hand side of the page or <HWGN_TOPHEADER> to run the header on the top of the page. The HwGN Header tag is placed immediately after the HTML <BODY> tag. The HwGN Header is mandatory for all pages on all HwGN hosted sites. Sites not running the HwGN Header on all pages can result in the immediate suspension of the site.
HwGN Text Exchange	The HwGN Text Exchange has replaced the HwGN button exchange and is run on all HwGN hosted member sites through the HwGN Header. The text exchange script extracts your site name and places it in the form of a link at the beginning of the exchange text for your site. It then extracts and appends the exchange text you entered in your site info. The combination of the link to your site and the text entered by you for the exchange, makes up the total content of the exchange text for your site. The exchange runs through the list of HwGN member sites displaying the exchange text for each site. The script running the exchange picks up displaying the exchange text from where it left off when a new page is loaded. This helps insure that each site gets the same number of displays as any other HwGN member site. The text to be run for your site in the exchange is initially entered when you fill out your membership request. You can update the text run for your site on the HwGN Text Exchange by editing your site's exchange text in the HwGN Site Info database. Your site's exchange text will start being displayed in the exchange as soon as your site is accepted as a HwGN member site. You can update it at any time by going to HwGN Site Info and editing the text. The exchange is currently being run at the top left of the HWGN_TOPHEADER and the top of the HWGN_LEFTHEADER. The HwGN Text Exchange provides exposure for your site on all HwGN hosted member sites.
Banner Ads	Banner ads are run in the HwGN Header to help cover the expenses of operating HwGN. The banner ads are included in the HwGN Header that is run on all pages of HwGN hosted sites. Banner ads related to PC hardware, tech, or PC gaming are usually selected to run on HwGN sites.
HwGN Logo	The HwGN logo is included in the HwGN logo. This insures that it is displayed on the pages of all sites.


What's Provided

DISK SPACE	Each site will be initially allotted up to 150MB of disk space. More disk space can be provided as your site grows and needs more space.
BANDWIDTH/ DATA TRANSFER	Sites aren't restricted to a certain amount of bandwidth/data transfer per month, but obviously there are limits to the amount of bandwidth that can be provided. The amount of bandwidth used by member sites is tracked via software on the server. The default setup for sites currently alots 3000MB of bandwidth per month. That amount can be increased as your site grows and needs more bandwidth. We do not expect bandwidth to be a problem for any member's site. However, file download areas that get a lot of traffic could cause problems. For that reason, HwGN can host small to medium sized file download areas that don't get large numbers of downloads each month. If heavy bandwidth/data transfer usage becomes a problem, it will be dealt with on a case by case basis. Member sites are expected to co-operate in such cases to correct the heavy bandwidth usage.
FORUMS	HwGN has maintained forums that have been shared by the HwGN member sites. The HwGN forums maintained a reasonable level of activity for a while thanks to the efforts of a few key sites. Some of those key sites left HwGN to strike out on their own and the other members sites at that time were not able to maintain a reasonable level of activity in the forums. This was due in large part to most sites preferring to run and prommote their on forums. New software has been installed for the HwGN forums and HwGN is actively promoting those forums to its old and new member sites. Members sites can have subforums setup under the HwGN forums and link directly to those forums from their site. Members visiting a members subforums can access the HwGN forums and other the subforums of other sites. This allows for more potential traffic to the forums of each participating site.
SERVER FEATURES	CPanel is the control panel used on the HwGN server. CPanel provides access to mail, file management, databases, SSH shell access, site statistics, site info, etc. PHP and MySQL are provided for your scripting and database needs. Sites are currently setup with a default of 2 MySQL databases. phpMyAdmin is accessible through CPanel for working with your MySQL databases. The HwGN Header uses PHP to replace the HwGN Header tags with the appropriate HTML to display the content of the header. It is unable to place the HwGN Header content into pages generated from Perl scripts. For that reason, Perl is not supported for HwGN member sites. Since HwGN is hosted on a Linux server, ASP pages are not offered.
E-MAIL	E-mail accounts are available for each domain hosted, including subdomains. E-Mail accounts are setup through a web based control panel (CPanel). Sites can access their e-mail through NeoMail, Horde, and SquirrelMail. SpamAssassin is provided and can be used to cut down the amount of SPAM recieved through your site.
DOMAINS / SUBDOMAINS	Hardware & Gaming Network can host your domain, or provide you with a subdomain on the hwgn.net domain name. Also, sites can run subdomains of their domains.
SUPPORT	HwGN is not run by any large company. It is designed to be a network of sites cooperating together to create a community of sites while providing a place for you to host and grow your site. As such, HwGN and its member sites provide support to the other member sites out of their own personal time and provide these services as time can be made to do so. Please keep that in mind if a response does not come as soon as you would sometimes expect it to.