FAQ

What is S3WaaS?

S3WaaS: Secure, Scalable and Sugamya Website as a Service is a website generating and deployment product hosted on the National Cloud of NIC. It leverages technology to generate secure websites using GIGW compliant templates which are highly customizable and can seamlessly be deployed on a scalable software defined infrastructure.

Who can generate websites through S3WaaS.gov.in?

The District Informatics Officers can directly login and avail the services in consultation and taking consent from the District Administration who is the Website Owner.

How to register with S3WaaS.gov.in?

Registration is not required at S3WaaS. Users can login directly using their official email id ([at]gov[dot]in or [at]nic[dot]in).

What are the guidelines for generating a website at S3WaaS?

Kindly go to the Help Section and see the documents or the help video to kick start.

What are the allowed domains to create a site using S3WaaS?

Only gov.in or nic.in domain names are allowed for entities belonging to Indian Government at all levels right from Central, State/UT, District and Sub-District.

How many such domains or alias can be taken for a single website

One primary domain name and one alias domain name are allowed to host any website using S3WaaS. It’s because more domain names would require more SSL certificates to publish the site in secure layer, which is an expensive affair.

Can the Technical contact and Administrative contact be the same person?

No, technical contact is responsible for generation, deployment, customization and technical maintenance of the website, whereas Administrative Contact is the Owner of the website who is authorised to signs the authorization letter, which is acceptable only if it’s printed, signed and sealed in his/her official letter head only.

Website Owner is responsible for website content and maintaining the accessibility aspect of the website.

Who has to sign the Authorization Letter?

Authorization Letter has to be signed by the head of the District Administration/Department. The administrative contact for the website becomes the signatory i.e. owner of the website.

Authorisation letter can only be downloaded after Administrative Contact details are verified through OTP.

Website Owner is responsible for website content and maintaining the accessibility aspect of the website.

In which format I have to upload signed auth letter?

Authorization Letter has to be printed on the official letter head of the administrative contact or website owner. Signed and stamped authorization letter has to be scanned in PDF format to upload on S3WaaS.

What is the difference between domain name, website name and website URL?

A domain name is the part of a website address which identifies the website belonging to a particular domain such as gov.in or nic.in or .org or .com etc.

A website name is the title of the generated website. Choose this with care as this will be displayed on the browser header, search engines and will be read out by the screen readers.

A URL (Universal Resource Locator) is the global address of your website on the World Wide Web or internet.

Can I mix uppercase and lower case alphabets in website URL?

Though possible it is not recommended.

Can I change the URL of a site once site is created?

Technically YES but to achieve this one has to follow cumbersome process.

But using S3WaaS through Software as Service model it’s not allowed. However, you can only create websites having gov.in or nic.in domains and one more alias is allowed to assign while starting the registration process for website creation.

What is the Maximum number of sites can be made through an account?

Each mail id is linked to only one account and one account can create two websites. Though, there’s a provision to delete/purge a website if not in gone live.

Can I create websites for domain names such as .com, .org, or .net?

No, only gov.in and nic.in domains are permitted.

How can I delete a site once live?

Technical contact cannot delete the site once it is live. A request has to be sent to the support team at s3waas.support[at]gov[dot]in for site deletion.

Can I customize the site once live?

Yes, the site can be customized any time during its lifecycle including theme change.

Can I change the owner details?

Yes, the technical contact and administrative contact (owner) details can be changed anytime during the lifecycle of the website only after verification of the contact details. Before verification of the administrative contact only email and mobile number can be changed and no other details can be changed. This provision is not available for the Technical Contact.

This is primarily if any of these contact persons changed viz. Transferred or Superannuated. A defined process has to be followed for the same.

Is there any helpdesk or support where one can contact in case of any further queries?

24X7 Help Desk can be contacted at 1800111555 and further details is available through the Contact Us link at the bottom of the homepage.

Are the websites generated through S3WaaS automatically certified as GIGW Compliant Website?

Templates provided at S3WaaS are certified by STQC for GIGW Compliant, however once these have been customized and the content has been populated the website needs to be submitted to STQC for a formal certification. Certification process also requires submission of a few documents duly signed by the website owner. Responsibility of initiating the certification process lies with the website owner. You may contact Director General, STQC, Electronics Niketan, MeitY, New Delhi – 3 for details regarding the Website Quality Certification (WQC).

Can I create a website in a language other than English?

The S3WaaS generated website is bilingual. English is the default language; however interface terms in the template can be in one of the regional languages available for selecting in the technical contact details form. The website will be generated with the selected language as the second language.

If a language of your choice is not available in the dropdown please hold on going forward and try to create a website only after your required language is incorporated.

For languages those are not available currently; the website owner will have to translate the interface elements and static content and the list in XLS file is available for download after login by the Technical Contact. The Technical Contact has to send the translated content to S3WaaS Support for integration at the backend.

If Language of our state is not given in drop down menu ?

If a language of your choice is not available in the dropdown please hold on going forward and try to create a website only after your required language is incorporated.

Who verify the uploaded authorization letter?

It’s a self declaration and self regulation mechanism.

Remember, Authorisation letter can only be downloaded after Administrative Contact details are verified through OTP.

However, once the Technical Contact uploads the authorization letter; it would only be seen by the S3WaaS Administrator w.r.t. the auto generated letter being printed on the Letter Head before being Signed and Stamped by the Administrative Contact (Owner). But the responsibility for ensuring the authenticity and genuineness lies solely with the Administrative Contact (Owner).

When my website can go live?

After submitting the DNS registration form to DNS Team for making the CNAME entry, user (Technical Contact) can make the site live by clicking on 'Make Site Live' button on the dashboard to make the available for public.

Where my site will be hosted?

S3WaaS takes care of your site hosting; you need to select a data centre from the list of available data centres while filling the technical contact details form.

Is there any defined time period for making a site live?

Yes, the Technical Contact and the Administrative Contact are responsible for making the temporary sites live within a period of 45 days from the date/time of its generation.

What will happen to sites if not made live in 45 days site live period?

Temporary sites would automatically be purged from the dashboard immediately after 45 days period allotted for making a site live.

When a site is available for customization?

User (technical contact) can customize and add content in the created Site immediately after creation. The temporary site would be live with an auto-generated URL which can be accessed through the dashboard. This can be made public after making CNAME entry in the DNS Server.

How can I customize my site?

Once your site is created, it will appear on the Dashboard with a customize site button. Choose customize site, you will be directed to your site. Here you can customize your site components and content with edit & customize options. Help section at https://s3waas.gov.in can be referred to customize a website.

After entering Mobile Number for Technical Details OTP has not been received, tried several times.

Raise a support ticket with Service Desk by providing all requisite details so that your site can be identified by the S3WaaS Support. Support team would respond you back soon. However, to continue the process, enter the OTP received on your email.

Please give me S3WaaS Support Phone no. So that I can call and report the issue.

You can call at Service Desk number 1800111555.

PIN code error, while entering PIN code at the time of filling Technical Details or Administrative Details.

If any such issue comes up please hold on going forward and try to create a website only after your PIN Code is incorporated.

Send a mail to s3waas[dot]support[at]gov[dot].in so that your site can be identified by the S3WaaS Support. Support team would respond you back soon.

The authorization letter generated has some mistakes. So we want to again edit the owner and technical contact details. What is the procedure?

Ensure valid name and contact details are provided while going through the registration process. In case any such issue pointed out after website generation, immediately please mail at s3waas.support[at]nic[dot]in. Your site has to purged so that you can create the site with correct contact details.

What are the guidelines for the district websites which are already hosted on cloud?

Yes, you can generate a new website through S3WaaS and migrate content and go live with the new generated website with existing website URL.

I entered the wrong URL, need to update the same.

You can register again with correct URL and mail at s3waas.support[at]nic[dot]in to delete wrong URL.

District Nodal Web Officer can be a Site Owner or only a District Magistrate is authorized for same?

Only District Magistrate or District Collector can be the Website Owner.

What service levels may one expect from S3WaaS?

S3WaaS assures of service levels in the following areas:

Security – Automated process for audits & certification
Scalability – Assured scaling as per number of visitors
Technology Updates – Periodic upgrades & patches
Disaster Recovery – Read-only version of website instantly available
Certification – Digital process, seamlessly integrated & actionable through a dashboard