Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Register a domain name; Núna can help you with this process, or do it for you


2. Design and build your website; Núna can help you as little or as much as you want


3. Arrange for secure and reliable website hosting; Núna can help you with this as well and will recommend the best option for your specific situation, even if it is a solution we do not offer or can not provide (Hey, it might happen!)

Núna would love to be able to utilize the Icelandic hosting infrastructure and thus offer website hosting in Iceland. Unfortunately, no major cloud provider currently offers an Icelandic datacenter as an option. As Núna is headquartered in Iceland, we would love to see that change. If any major cloud providers add Iceland as a location for VPS hosting, we will do our best to add that option to our list of over 20 datacenter locations where you can launch a server.

“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.

All Virtual Private Servers (VPS) utilize the Let’s Encrypt technology. Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated, and open certificate authority (CA), run for the public’s benefit. It is a service provided by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG). Let’s Encrypt gives people the digital certificates they need in order to enable HTTPS (SSL/TLS) for websites, for free, in the most user-friendly way possible. We do this because we want to create a more secure and privacy-respecting Web.

Many other hosting providers are still trying to sell domain-validated (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. These DV certificates not only cost you money, but they are also completely unnecessary.

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.

When users launch their managed VPS, they have the option to choose from several different applications to install. Users can choose the amount of RAM, number of CPU cores, etc. If the needed resources are not known, it is best to start with fewer resources and scale the server up, if needed.

When launching a server the user must select one application to install. Additional apps can be installed after the server is launched. In fact, there is no limit on the number of apps a server can handle, except the server resources. As of the time this content was written, the available applications are:

• WordPress version 5.8


• WordPress Multisite version 5.8


• WordPress version 5.8 Clean (no optimizations)


• WooCommerce version 5.5.2 installed with WordPress version 5.8


• PHP (designed for any content not provided by the other options)


• Laravel version 8.26.1


• Magento version 2.4.3 (with Elasticsearch)

If the server needs increase, cloud hosting lets users 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 a site and are generally used when it makes more sense to spread the work across more than one server. For example, if database needs are high, but web traffic is not, Núna can configure a database server and a separate server for the site. The flexibility and scalability are virtually unlimited.

Should users wish to relocate their cloud server instance for some reason, say from Los Angeles to London, the server instance can be moved between datacenters in minutes. Without cloud technology, moving a server like this would be impossible without major downtime and at great expense.

Let’s start by saying that none of the information included here or anywhere else on our site, or any suggestions by our staff, 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 or discussions with our staff or support personnel without seeking legal or other professional advice.

Now to answer the question. There just isn’t a complete, bulletproof solution to GDPR compliance. You are advised to consult your legal counsel before implementing any solution. Núna does not offer such servcies.

For select themes or plugins, Núna recommends letting us purchase and manage them 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. Please note that some plugins require monitoring and additional tweaking after installation, and in these cases, there might be a nominal fee for such work. These fees are generally included in the price you pay Núna for the plugin.

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 an exception rather than the norm these days.

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 a fully managed VPS cloud server, which includes 1 CPU core, 1GB RAM, 32GB SSD or NVMe storage, and 1TB transfer starts at $10 per month. In the middle of the pricing spectrum, a fully managed VPS which includes 12 CPU cores, 48GB RAM, 768GB SSD or NVMe storage, and 8TB transfer is about $321 per month. At the higher end, a fully managed VPS which includes 96 CPU cores, 384GB RAM, 20GB SSD or NVMe storage, and 2TB transfer is about $3.600 per month. On these higher-end servers, which are from Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Compute Engine (GCE), disk size is configurable and bandwidth is billed on a pay-as-you-go basis.

All VPS services are billed by the hour with a monthly maximum so there are no unexpected charges. Hourly billing allows users to launch servers for specific tests, then delete them when done. If you only use a server for 38 hours, you will only be billed for 38 hours, and not for the full month.

The simple facts are that Núna takes its hosting very seriously, and has created a hosting environment that reflects this. Our managed VPS hosting uses enterprise-grade SSD or NVMe for lightning-fast storage.

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 always 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 website and any other hosted content.

No. If Núna installs a GDPR (etc.) plugin for you, we typically leave all settings at their default values. While we might change color and other styling values, only your own legal counsel can advise you regarding any specific text to include or exclude.

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 what they classify as 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 email 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 they have connectivity issues and need to access their 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 every email. 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.

Absolutely! Núna has many clients that utilize Microsoft’s (or other) email solutions and can host your website completely independent of your email hosting. In fact, Núna recommends hosting your email separately from your website to avoid problems with accessing email should your website experience troubles.

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 Núna 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:

Kennitala: 520603-2040
Account number: 0101-26-010651

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

Owner: Núna ehf.
Kennitala: 520603-2040
Account number: 0101-26-010651
IBAN: IS94 0101 2601 0651 5206 0320 40
SWIFT (BIC): NBIIISRE