Today we would like to give you some basic usage hints about our webspace packages. First of all, our webspace offers are based on cPanel which is well known and under active development. However, we would like to explain some points and present the most important features. In this post, we will refer to the YouTube playlist of the cPanelTV channel which contains many tutorials directly provided by the producer. You may also find it at the end of our explanations, so you do not have to search for the videos.
Concerning webspace packages there are a few basic topics to be considered:
- Make sure you use safe passwords. cPanel provides the option to generate a password according to chosen criteria and gives feedback on the security level of your password.
- Installing updates: We maintain the hardware - and software your webspace is based on but do not have access to your website. Therefore it is always important to keep the used CMS (content management system) up-to-date. Not only the visitors of your websites will thank you for not becoming a victim of possible attacks, but also us, as the risk of spamming via a hacked CMS can be minimized.
- Commensurability: Our goal is to provide you with a lot of resources at a low price. Yet, you should consider whether a webspace is the best product for the intended purpose. A large online shop containing many products on a webspace is, for example, not recommendable. In case you are planning to host such a large online shop, kindly contact our customer support department and we will gladly assist you in finding the best hosting solution for your needs.
If you have other inquiries, our support will be at hand at regular times as well. Just contact us!
But now we continue with the original topic of this tutorial, namely presenting some important and basic elements to operate cPanel.
Passwords
Earlier we mentioned safe passwords are important, unfortunately, even more will come with a webspace and add to your long list of already existing passwords. It is quite tempting to use the same password for all services, but this is not recommendable. An example: An attacker gets to know your administrator password using a security breach of your CMS. This password is also used for the login to cPanel, your email account, as a database password, and for FTP access. Therefore, the attacker will have access to all those services and will be able to send emails using your name, delete your data, or upload illegal content. Unfortunately, this example is not hypothetical but rather common. Consequently, our advice is: to always use individual and secure passwords. Further examples are provided by cPanel in the video "cPanel Tutorials: How to change your password", where you will also find a tutorial on how to change an existing password.
File manager
After your order has been completed, you receive an email with all required information and login details, including a URL to cPanel. After you log into the system the question you probably ask yourself is "How can I upload my website?". We can inform you that there are multiple ways to proceed:
- The most common way is using FTP(S), which stands for "File Transfer Protocol (over SSL)" and is a standardized protocol to transfer files, the letter "S" is for securing the connection by using SSL. We always recommend using FTPS, since this guarantees that the file transfer is encrypted, which is not the case if you use plain FTP. More details on how you can create an FTP account can be found in the video tutorial "cPanel Tutorials: FTP".
- The file manager included in cPanel: This is the easiest way and should work from nearly all sources, in addition, the file manager provides the possibility to edit files or check out the content. A video guide is available, too. It is called "cPanel Tutorials: File Manager".
- Another option uses the so-called "Web Disk" which uses WebDAV for file transfer and can mount the webspace as a drive within the local PC. Please check out the video "cPanel Tutorials: Web Disk" for more details.
MySQL and PHPMyAdmin
The two points MySQL and PHPMyAdmin need to be mentioned together, PHPMyAdmin is the software part that provides you with access to the databases with the login credentials you set. After you log into PHPMyAdmin you are free to check the databases, delete records, or perform any changes. In addition, you can upload or create a database backup using PHPMyAdmin, too. MySQL is the database server installed by us. Nowadays nearly all content management systems require a database to save the information which should be shown on your website. A guide on how you can create a database and a user is shown within the video "cPanel Tutorials: MySQL Databases".
Domains
A web space requires a default domain, which needs to be provided during the order process to create the account and provide you with the login details. But of course, additional domains can be added to your webspace. There are different ways to do so:
- You can always order new domains from us, for details please consult our website.
- You can transfer a domain from another provider to us using the auth code which needs to be provided by the current provider.
- You can register domains at another provider and use them together with the webspace, but please keep in mind, that this requires that the nameservers are changed to the ones shown within the customer control panel and a DNS zone needs to be created. A few more details:
Under the menu item "DNS Zone Management" in your customer control panel, you can create an unlimited number of DNS zones for your domains free of charge. Your domains can be registered by third-party providers as well. The DNS zones are stored on our nameservers, and within these DNS zones, you can define multiple DNS records such as the "A record", which makes a domain point to a certain IP address. You do not need to specify the DNS records individually when creating a DNS zone; just choose the correct target IP address, working DNS records will be set automatically. After the creation of a proper DNS zone and once our nameservers are assigned to your domain, you can use the domain on your webspace package in a very secure way. Please note that only the present domain provider can change the assigned nameservers, thus you will have to contact the domain provider directly, or optionally use an administration panel from your domain provider if there is any available. After all, you need to add the domain in your webspace package using cPanel. You can choose between adding it as an "Alias" (also known as "Parked Domain") or as an "Addon Domain".
An "Addon Domain" will have its subfolder in your public_html directory. It will also have its own rights such as an independent FTP login and the option to administer email addresses for the new domain.
An "Alias", on the other hand, has no own subfolder, it is linked to the main folder. Creating redirections and email addresses is also possible with "Aliases", of course.
Most likely a webspace is used for email purposes, too. There is one major point that should always be kept in mind: Webspace plans are not designed to send masses of emails. The option "Email" offers quite a lot of different functions and we unfortunately cannot discuss them in detail, but most of them are explained within the cPanelTV videos linked below.
Please note, that the videos may include options that are not offered by us or are not available with all packages. In addition, it is unfortunately not possible to install additional PHP modules upon request. Should you require special modules, we recommend checking out our VPS and Dedicated Server offers.
Check out How to Log in to cPanel.
