Cpanel can certainly be a bit scary for anyone who hasn’t used it before. Technical people pick it up pretty quickly, but non-technical people usually stick to using only the most basic features to avoid confusing themselves.
Log in to your cpanel. You should see something similar to the screenshot below.
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Let’s go over some of the most common things you may need to use it for. First, you can add a domain to your hosting account. After you log into Cpanel, click “Addon Domains.” Where it says “New Domain Name,” enter your domain name with the format yourdomainname.com.
Then add the name of the subdirectory and username you want to use as your FTP login. This will be the directory where your website is stored on the server, and also your FTP username. Use something easy to remember, but not “yourdomainname.”
You don’t want to make it easy for hackers to find out your username. Then simply enter the password you wish to use for FTP and click the button that says “Add Domain!” Now you’ll be able to log in to the FTP account using the username and password you just set up.
Just remember, the domain name won’t resolve until you change the name servers in your domain account to point to the correct name servers. You’ll have to do that by logging in wherever you purchased the domain and finding the name server section for that domain.
Changing The Name Servers
To change name servers for your domain if you purchased through godaddy you will need to login to your account and roll your curser over the menu where it says domains and then click on ‘my domains’ as shown in the screen shot below. You will be taken to your Domain Manager area where all of you can administer all of your domains.
When you are on the screen that shows all of your domains click the check box next to the domain that you want to change and then click the name servers icon at the top.
This will load up the screen where you can change the name servers. It will look something like the screenshot below.
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It should already be on the Custom nameservers screen. All you have to do is fill in the nameserver information your hosting company gave you and then click ok. It can take several hours for the domain name to resolve.
Working With File Manager
To work with your website files you will need to click on the File Manager icon which is located on the second row of icons within cpanel.
Once you have clicked on this you will be taken to a page similar to the one in the sceenshot below.
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All of your website files will be in the public_html folder. Click on the folder icon to access your website files.
The screenshot below shows the public_html folder for one of my websites. As you can see by the files showing I have wordpress installed on this domain.
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The file index.php is the page that loads up for this site when someone types in the domain name in the address bar of their browser. I have included a video on using your cpanel filemanager on the bonus resource page. The files index.html, index.htm or index.php will always be the home page of your website. So if someone types in www.yourwebsitename.com they will be taken to the index page that is in the root directory of that site.
Manually Adding A Database
There may come a time when you need to manually set up a MySQL database. From within Cpanel, click on the icon that reads “MySQL Databases.”
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Enter the name of the database you want to create. If you’re creating a database for WordPress on a domain called HowToMakeCookies.com, you might call it “wphtmc.” Then click on the button that reads, “Create Database.”
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After the database is created, you have to set up the username and password. It will automatically take you back to the page where you can do this, so enter a username and password in the fields and click “Create User”.
Do NOT name your username the same thing as your database. That’s just making it easier for hackers to get into your database.
Make sure to add the user to the database. So many people forget to do this, and then they wonder why their scripts don’t work. You MUST add the user to the database. Use the dropdown boxes to select the username, then the database name. Tick the box to add all privileges for the user. Then click the button that says, “Add User to Db.”
Adding An Email Address
You’ll probably want to set up an email address for your domain. To do this, click “Mail.”
Then click the small link that says, “Add/Remove/Manage Accounts.” Enter the name you wish to use, and then use the dropdown menu to select the domain you wish that email address to be set up for.
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If you want the email address johndoe@yourdomainnname.com, enter johndoe in the email area, and select the proper domain. Next, enter a password that’s hard to guess, but make sure you write it down.
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Leave the quota blank if you want the amount of space the email can take up to be limited only by your web space. That’s it! Your new email is ready to use. There are other options on the Mail Manager Main Menu that you can use.
You can set up and configure Auto-responders and Mailing Lists from this page, as well as enable your spam options.
Backing Up
Backing up with cPanel is very easy. Click on the ‘Backups’ icon in cpanel and you will see the screenshot below.
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From this screen you can backup your home directory, a database or your email. You can also restore each of these by uploading a previously backed up version.
To do a backup all you need to do is click the link below the option you want to backup. For example; if I wanted to backup the wordpress installation that I have on the domain featured in the above screenshot I would click on the ‘wrdp1’ link below ‘Download a MySQL Database Backup’.
A download box would then pop up and I would click ‘Ok’ to download a backup file of my wordpress as shown in the screenshot below. Make sure you remember where you saved it on your hard drive. I have a folder called ‘backups’ just for this particular purpose.
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The same procedure applies for any of the options for backing up offered on this page.
Now, if I were to have a problem with that particular installation of wordpress all I would need to do would be to upload this file by clicking on the ‘Restore a MySQL Database’ ‘Browse’ button, as shown in the screenshot below. I would then navigate to where I keep my back up files and click on the proper file, then click open, the click upload to restore the database.
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FTP Manager
Included in cpanel is a FTP Manager. With this manager you can control your ftp accounts, setup anonymous FTP access, edit your anonymous ftp welcome message and FTP session control.
Click on the ‘FTP Manager’ icon in cpanel and you will be taken to a page similar to the screenshot below.
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Click on the ‘FTP Accounts’ link. You will then be taken to the FTP Account Maintenance page. I can’t show you a full screenshot of this page as it has personal information on it but you should just follow the instructions detailed on this page to set up your ftp accounts.
You can customize the anonymous ftp welcome message for your account by clicking on the corresponding link. You will be taken to a page like the one below.
The last link is the FTP Session Control link. This utility allows you to disconnect users or time out FTP sessions.
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Using Fantastico
Within your cpanel you will find Fantastico. This little beauty will help you install such things as Wordpress, Joomla and Zen Cart just to name a few. With this utility you don’t need to worry about building a website as it does it for you in just a few clicks of the mouse.
To access Fantastico just click on the icon in your cpanel. You will be taken to a screen like the one below.
From here you can install any of the goodies in the list at the left hand side of the screen as shown below.
Wordpress seems to be a favorite installation with internet marketers. It is a fast and flexible content management system and you can have a site up in a very short amount of time.
Other icons in cPanel
As you get comfortable with one feature of cpanel, see what the other icons have to offer. There are many exciting elements, like being able to add a blog, add a forum, and check your web page statistics, to name a few.
Here is a quick overview of some of the other options in cpanel that you may want to use.
You can get a whole lot of information about your site from these icons in the screenshot above. If you click the ‘Web/FTP Stats’ link you can access a lot of information about your websites activity.
The PhpMyChat, Scripts Library and Agora Shopping Cart are cPAddons. You will need to most likely contact your host and ask that they configure cPAddons if you want to use these features. The CGI Center has a long list of options you can use.
The last icon is Cron Jobs. Cron is the name of program that enables unix users to execute commands or scripts (groups of commands) automatically at a specified time/date. To explain this option fully is outside the scope of this report.
The above two icons will let you set up your error pages and add a subdomain to your site. To edit your error pages click on the ‘Error pages’ link and you will be taken to a page like the one in the screenshot below.
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Click on the numbers to be taken to an editing page where you can add in the appropriate information.
Click on the ‘Subdomain’ icon to be taken to the page below where you can add a subdomain to your website.
As you can see cpanel is very easy to use. The directions on each of the pages a fairly easy to follow and once you have played around with things for a while it becomes easier.
(To be continued…)
