The cPanel Quick Guide

i HOME - use this button to return to the main cPanel entry page (the page you see now) at any time.

i LOGOUT - click this button to log out of your web hosting control panel.

i Shows the domain that this cPanel is in control over (your domain name)

i Shows the IP address of the last system to log into your control panel.

i Use this link to update or add you contact email address. This should be an email address other than one on this domain. Systems administrators will need this information if and when they need to contact you about your web hosting.

i The name of the server that your web site is hosted on. Please include this information with any request for support.

i MAIL - create & manage email accounts, configure forwarders, auto-responders, filtering, Spam Assassin, unrouted email handling and even trace an email address.

i WEBMAIL - access, send, receive and configure your various email accounts using a web browser. There are three interfaces to do this, Neomail, Horde and Squirrel Mail.

i CHANGE PASSWORD - does exactly that. You will be presented with input boxes for your existing password and your chosen new password together with advice on how to chose a good password..

i PARKED DOMAINS - Add or remove parked domains and configure them. Please note - any domains to be parked will need their nameservers set to ours (use those given in your account activation email) and are subject to the usual 24 to 48 hour period of DNS update before they will become visible using a proper URL.

i ADDON DOMAINS - create & configure add on domains. Addon domains differ from sub/parked domains in that they retain the use of a URL with the domain name in. For example, if you added another.com as an add on domain, you would be able to view its pages by using another.com in your browser address bar. You are effectively able to host more than one web site with this feature.

i FTP MANAGER - use this feature to add, remove and control ftp users. You can also set up anonymous ftp access if you wish. We recommend thatyou set up an ftp user account for uploading site files for security - you not then need to enter your main control panel password each time you do so. There is also a session control facility which allows you to terminate any active ftp sessions.

i FILE MANAGER - use this feature to upload and handle files via your web browser. This is a useful alternative to an FTP program and also allows you to edit files from within your browser as well.

i DISK USAGE - see how much disk space you are using and also see a breakdown of usage directory by directory. In fact, there is a wide variety of ways of seeing your disk usage using this feature.

i BACKUP - this section allows you to create and download backups from a complete web site backup to backup of MySQL databases and aliases or filters. You can also restore these backups using this feature.

i PASSWORD PROTECT DIRECTORIES - this section does as it is described. You can add password protection to any directory in your HTML directory (i.e. /public_html/ or /www/ directories. Visitors to any page within those directories are presented with a log in box just as you are when logging into your control panel.

i ERROR PAGES - use this feature to create or edit your own custom error pages for 400, 401, 403,404 and 500 errors. You can merely enter text into the edit box or enter the code of an entire HTML page. Note - all error pages are saved with the .shtml extension. We recommend that you create a site map for use within any error page for the convenience of your site visitors.

i SUBDOMAINS - this feature allows you to add, remove and redirect sub domains. A sub domain is one which uses its own directory in your web site, but also uses a unique URL which includes your domain (i.e. subdomain.yourdomain.com). Sub domains are treated like another web site in that they rely on the internet's root servers to update the DNS so that they can be visible to visitors using the proper URL (like the example above).

i MYSQL DATABASES - this detailed feature allows you to add, remove and manage MySQL databases. You can also add, remove and add users to databases as well as access PHPMyAdmin to access the databases directly and undertake many functions from editing data entries to running SQL Queries from within your web browser.

i REDIRECTS - this feature allows you to add, remove and manage redirections. You can add temporary or permanent redirects to external or internal pages or code. Note: any redirects that are configured here are entered into the .htaccess file located in your public_html directory. This is a useful tool for adding the correct entries for redirection into the ht access file.

i FRONTPAGE EXTENSIONS - allows you to enable, disable and delete Frontpage Extensions. Frontpage is Microsoft's Windows based HTML editor and has its own library of extensions for page effects, etc. If you are not using Frontpage to build and/or publish your web content, we recommend that you disable them, then use the 'Clean Up ...' link to remove any entries in your site.

i WEB/FTP STATS - an absolute gold mine of information. See detailed visitor statistics in a number of statistical analysis programs, including AWStats, Webalizer, Urchin** as well as standard analogue format. You can see detailed site activity including latest visitors, subdomain stats, Bandwidth usage, errors, numbers of unique visitors, page hits, bandwidth and search engine robots to name but a very few.

i RAW ACCESS LOGS - provides links to download your raw access logs. These logs can be analysed within any commercial web statistics analysis software on your desktop rather than using the online analysers..

i RAW LOG MANAGER - this feature provides you with settings for archiving of Raw Access Logs - these can be archived in your home directory at the end of each month. You will also have the facility to download any archived raw access log files. Downloaded log files can be used in any commercial web statistics analysis programs on your desktop, rather than using the online analysis programs.

i ERROR LOG - a very useful feature. See the last 300 errors within your web space. With this, you can determine where problems lie in your web hosting, trace scripting errors and get information including the URLs concerned together with date and time of error, visitors IP address, type of error and details of any files concerned. Please note that only the last 300 errors are shown in reverse order.

i SUBDOMAIN STATS - quite self explanatory. Access web statistics for your added subdomains only through this feature. Links are given for each web stats program you have running on your hosting plan (such as AWStats, Analogue, Webalizer and Urchin). You will see the same level of reporting and statistics as those for your main domain (by using the Web/FTP Stats feature).

i SEARCH ENGINE SUBMIT - once you have your site ready for viewing, you will want to submit it to the major search engines so that they can list it within their search results for your keywords or phrases (words and expressions relating to your content). You can do this for free using this feature - submit your site to alltheweb, directhit, google, hotbot, lycos and mixcat.

i CGI CENTER - this features offers you a number of ready made CGI scripts for use within your web site(s). These widely recognised and used scripts include Simple CGI Wrapper, Random HTML, Simple GuestBook, Advanced GuestBook, Counter, Clock, Countdown, Entropy Search and Entropy Banner.

i SCRIPTS LIBRARY - install ready made (non-cgi) scripts. These currently include two scripts - phpBB (phpBB is a web bulletin board system) and AdvancedGuestBook (Advanced Guestbook is a PHP-based guestbook script).

i AGORA SHOPPING CART - The Agora Shopping Cart is a free shopping cart program and this feature gives you the facility to install, modify and configure your shopping cart. Support is supplied through the agora web site.

i HOTLINK PROTECTION - HotLink protection prevents other websites from directly linking to specified files in your website(s). The end result is that the other websites are stealing your bandwidth. We recommend that you USE THIS WITH CAUTION, as it can prevent some visitors from seeing your content properly (those using proxies may have problems for instance). You can allow specific sites/domains access while disallowing all others. Sites contained within the hosting plan are automatically added to the allowed list, but you can manually add/remove sites.

i INDEX MANAGER - we consider this feature to be very important. When someone types your domain name with any or no directory name only, the system looks for an index file by default, but if it does not find one, it will display the directory's contents unless you disable indexes with this feature. By disabling indexes, visitors will not see your dorectory's contents, thereby protecting your individual files. You can also set indexes to display images or other file types in the absence of an index file.

i IP DENY MANAGER - this excellent feature allows you to easily block access to your site from any single or block of IP addresses. You can also enter a domain name and the system will look up the relevant IP address for you.

i CHANGE LANGUAGE - speak a language other than English? Then this is the feature for you. You can change the language of you web hosting control panel here. Current alternative languages include Romanian, Turkish, Spanish, English, Catalan, French and German.

i FANTASTICO - the infamous Fantastico is accessible through this feature. Fantastico Deluxe is installed on all accounts as standard. Fantastico gives you access to automatic installs for 45 different open source scripts. These allow you to run a multitude of web sites and components within your domain(s). From a blog to a full blown content management system, the scripts currently include b2, b2evolution, Nucleus, pMachine Free, WordPress, Drupal, Geeklog, Mambo Open Source, PHP-Nuke, phpWCMS, phpWebSite, Post-Nuke, Siteframe, Xoops, Crafty Syntax Live Help, Help Center Live, osTicket, PHP Support Tickets, Support Logic Helpdesk, Support Services Manager, Discussion Boards, Invision Board, phpBB2, CubeCart, OS Commerce, F.A.Q., FAQMasterFlex, 4Images Gallery, Coppermine Photo Gallery, Gallery, PHPlist, Advanced Poll, phpESP, PHPSurveyor, dotProject, PHProjekt, PhpWiki, TikiWiki, Moodle, Noahs Classifieds, Open-Realty, phpAdsNew, PHPauction, phpCOIN, phpFormGenerator, phpLinks and webCalendar. Try saying that without breathing!

i Hosting Package - this gives the name of the cheap web hosting plan that you signed up for and are currently on. You can upgrade to any other currently available plan on request, email support for details or to apply.

i Dedicated IP Address - this shows the IP address on which your website(s) are hosted. You can use this IP address when connecting to FTP or before the DNS updates with your domain name (see your account activation email for more on this.

i Subdomains - this shows subdomains are hosted on your web hosting account. Use the Subdomains feature (right) to add, remove and configure forwarding for any of your subdomains. Subdomains are subject to the usual DNS update interval before they are visible on the web.

i Parked Domains - this shows the amount of domains that are parked to your main domain. The maximum figure is given on the right (so, 5/10 would mean you have 5 domains parked out of 10 allowed). Use the Parked Domains feature (right) to add sub domains.

i Addon Domains - this shows how many Addon Domains are hosted on your web hosting account. Use the Addon Domains feature (right) to add, remove and configure any of your Addon Domains. Addon Domains are subject to the usual DNS update interval before they are visible on the web.

i Addon Domains - this shows how many MySQL Databses you have on your hosting account. Use the MySQL Databases feature (see icon on the right) to add and configure these. Note that most Fantastico scripts use at least one MySQL Database.

i Disk Usage - this shows how much disk space your hosting account has taken up. This does not include MySQL Database usage which is shown below this information. Use the Disk Usage feature (to the right) to see much more detail and what space is used up by which folders, etc.

i SQL Usage - this shows how much disk space your MySQL Databases have taken up in your hosting account. If you have no MySQL Databses, this will show a zero value. Use the MySQL Databases icon to add, remove and administer MySQL Databases.

i Disk Space Available - this shows how much disk space remains in your hosting account. This is less any space taken up by web folders and MySQL Databases. To see how much disk space is used throughout your hsoting account, use the Disk Usage icon (to the right).

i Bandwidth Usage (current month) - this shows us exactly that - how much bandwidth your website(s) have used so far this month. This may not include all non web traffic, such as control panel usage. Your bandwidth limit is indicated in your account activation email.

i Email Accounts - this shows you how many email accounts you have created against how many your web hosting account is allotted. This does not include the default address which is set up on account creation. Use the Email icon (to the right) to add, remove and configure email accounts and settings.

i Email Forewarders - this shows you how many email forwarders you have configured on your account. A forwarder is a setting to forward mail received at one address to another. Use the Email icon (to the right) to add, remove and configure email accounts and settings.

i Autoresponders - this shows you how many email autoresponders you have configured on your account. An autoreponder is a setting which automatically sends a reply to the sender of any email to the address specified. Use the Email icon (to the right) to add and configure autoresponders.

i Mailing Lists - this shows you how many email mailing lists you have configured on your account. Note that mailing lists are not available on all hosting plans. There are ready made mailing list scripts to be found in Fantastico (use the icon on the right and near the bottom).

i Email Filters - this shows you how many email filters that you have configured on your account. Email filters can be set to move, delete or send email to a script or another email account. To add and configure filters, use the Email icon (use the icon on the right and near the top).

i FTP Accounts - this shows you how many FTP user accounts you have configured on your account. This figure does not include the default accounts set up on account activation. We recommend that you use an additional FTP user account to upload site files. To add, remove and configure FTP User Accounts, use the FTP Manager feature (use the icon on the right).

i Operating System - displays the operating system that is installed on the web server that your web site(s) are hosted on. In this case it is a Linux operating system.

i Service Status - the link provided here takes you to the service status page for this web server. The current status of a number of services are shown on that page, including email, web server, CPU, FTP, MySQL, etc.

i Kernel Version - displays the current Kernel version installed on this web server. You may see this change every now and then as the Kernel is updated.

i Apache Version - displays the current version of Apache which is installed on this web server. Apache is one of the most popular web server software packages in use, you may see this version number change every now and then as we update this software.

i PERL Version - shows the version of PERL which is installed ont his web server. This will change from time to time when we update the PERL installation. PERL stands for Practical Extraction and Reporting Language, and is a programming language commonly used to create CGI programs/scripts.

i Path to PERL - this shows the path to the PERL, any programs/scripts written in PERL will look for this path to ensure that they are properly executed. You may need to include this path at the beginning of your PERL scripts.

i Path to Sendmail - shows the path to the sendmail script. Sendmail is used to send email messages using scripts within your web site. You may need to include this path within any scripts that use Sendmail.

i Installed PERL Modules - this link takes you to the page which lists all PERL Modules that are installed on this web server. If you require a particular Module which is not already installed, email support, and we will consider installing it for you.

i PHP Version - displays the current version of the PHP installation on this web server. PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML, it is server parsed, so the code is not visible in a web browser.

i MySQL Version - displays version information for the MySQL installation on this web server. MySQL is a relational database management system and is used to build and administer web based databases.

i cPanel Build - displays the version and build of this cPanel Web Hosting Control Panel. We only use stable builds and you may see this change from time to time as we apply stable updates.

i Theme - this shows the theme version used for the Everyman Hosting Web Hosting Control Panel. The theme is fixed and cannot be changed except by very popular demand.

i Documents - displays the default documentation for our cPanel Web Hosting Control Panel, this is somewhat brief and limited, but may be a useful reference for the more experienced user.