Webhosting For Newbies – Working with cPanel

Of all the options for web hosting control panels, cPanel is by far the most popular, and the most user-friendly. It’s also the most well known version of web hosting panels available on the market today.

While this program is useful and can really do wonders for your website, most newbies are not familiar with how to use it, and so it often goes to waste for those new to Internet Marketing or web development. It can sometimes take hours or even days to figure out how to use a cPanel account, and some people even have difficulty logging in just to use it! Fortunately, there are some tips and tricks to get into the cPanel control and use it to the best of its and your ability.

In order to manage and update your website, you must first be able to log into cPanel. The first thing you’ll need to do is enter the address of your cPanel account into your web browser, as if you were going to visit a website.

This is information you should have received when you first signed up for your webhosting account. If you have lost that information, you should contact their technical support and get it asap.

For example, if your domain is mygreatdomain.com, you’d need to enter it in this format: http://www.mygreatdomain.com/cpanel. Sometimes you are given a user access ID number or something similar to notify cPanel that this is an official account, and that it’s your account. In cases like this, you’d enter: http://www.mygreatdomain.com:9088 if your user ID number was 9088. This is just an example of course, but it gives you an idea of how to get to the log in screen or prompt quickly.

Once you enter the cPanel domain name into the browser, a prompt screen will pop up that asks for your user ID and password. Like this:

Simply enter your user ID and password into the corresponding fields. This should allow you access into the cPanel account that you have set up. Once you’ve logged in, there are a plethora of options to choose from that allow you to manage your website, emails, and much more. For example, there is an option to manage all of the domain related email accounts you have set up. This will allow you to add and remove email accounts, set up web mail, create an auto responder, and filter out emails and email content. There is also an option to create email lists and manage them, as well as use Spam filters to prevent the spread of viruses both to you and from your customers or other contacts.

(click on the image to the right for a larger view)

Another great feature of cPanel is the ability to manage your site with just a few basic commands such as the FTP manager, a simple password change tool, sub domains and domain management, creating backup, and managing IP addresses. In other words, you will be able to block certain IP addresses from accessing your website, and you can also use the web protect tool as well. There is an error log which comes in handy for troubleshooting in the event your website runs into any problems. A bandwidth checking tool allows you to see how much is being used, if you’ve gone over your limit, or how the website’s bandwidth usage has progressed over time.

If you’re into watching who visits your website, cPanel also has a log that shows all visitors, as well as highlights the visitors or IP addresses that visit your website the most. This can really come in handy when it comes to tracking customer bases or finding out where most of your business is coming from if you operate an e-commerce website.

For scripts, there are tons of options with cPanel. The web master can manage Apache, Cron jobs, FTP transfers, Java and CGI, as well as shopping cart software. There are also mods for language and themes, so the web designer can alter or edit these as much as they see fit.

The index manager allows you to determine how the web indexes are used. In other words, you can control how the information in each index is displayed to the visitor or viewer, and you can also control whether or not this information is displayed at all. With the Web Protect feature, you can password protect different directories. This means that only you and certain other people can access the websites’ directories and they must be accessed using a private password.

Another excellent feature of cPanel is the custom error pages option. You can change the error message to customize your needs so that visitors can get a more detailed idea of what is going on with the website. For example, if you’re taking the site down due to maintenance or upgrades, the error customization tool allows you to tell this to your visitors in your own words. It makes for a much more personalized and personable experience and it can also give visitors an idea of when the website will be back up and running so they will return. Instead of the old “404 error-Page Not Found” message, they will see your own words and updates, giving them a sense of confidence that someone is working to bring the website back up as soon as possible.

I’ll be back in the next couple of days with more on cPanel, but for now, check out the videos here:

Til then,

Here’s To YOUR Online Successes!

Ron

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