A Step-by-Step Guide

This is Step #2 in our Guide > Step 1 is “Signing-up for Hosting“.

This tutorial can be used by everyone but is specifically designed for first time users / clients building their first websites and making use of their first Hosting services offered here at Foxyhare Web Services.

A commonly asked question directed to our Technical Support is “what do I do next?” and that is a very good question to be asking and a very loaded question at that. There are so many different routes a Webmaster can take when building and managing their websites; here we will describe only a few.

Upon completing your Payment, you were sent information to your email account (the email address you used to register with), an email titled “New Account Information” and this will contain all the necessary details to using your Hosting Account at Foxyhare Web Services.

Included in that email will be both your “Login Username” and “Password“, along with temporary Website Access information so you can work on your Website while the domain names propagate.

This temporary Website Access URL / Link will look similar to an IP address, this is the IP address for your site and for the meantime you can use this information and the URL provided to access and work on your website.

Once your domain name has propagated (usually within 24-48 hrs of registration) you will be able to access your website through the domain name you registered using the same information provided within this instructional email.  (Not sure what Domain Propagation is?  Learn more here.)

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Now the fun part. Accessing your cPanel.

The cPanel is where a Webmaster administrates their websites. Here you will find all the necessary tools for building, managing and maintaining your websites on a day-to-day basis and with ease too.

Using your cPanel access provided in the email, login with your Username and Password.

Once you’ve logged into your cPanel you will notice there are many different “icons” and features available to you. Feel free to scroll down and browse the list of items available.

To the left you will notice a side-bar with various account information that flows downwards, while to the right of the side-bar content you will find the main body of our cPanel and which would be the many options available to you.

The left side bar contains Statistics called “Stats” and beneath it is information that pertains to your specific Hosting Services at Foxyhare.com – Looking at these statistics you can see what options are available to your account such as “Disk Space, Bandwidth Usage, Databases, Subdomains, FTP Accounts, Email Accounts, etc.” all which are manageable right from within your cPanel.

Now looking to the right and the body of the cPanel, you will notice a variety of icons, each labeled and categorized accordingly. They all serve different purposes, while not all these tools will be necessarily needed, they are available if you do require them at some point.

To someone building their first website, this may become a little overwhelming to you, “what the heck is all this stuff? Why do I need it?” and this too is a good question; let us try and explain some of their uses and functions.

In order (top of page to bottom when viewing your cPanel page):

Preferences

• Getting Started Wizard:
  First time in cPanel? This is a great place to start. This will give you an in-depth explanation to what Hosting Services provide you and a bit about your cPanel.
• Video Tutorials:
  These tutorials are made available to use in relation to cPanel and its different functions. These are basic tutorials that will break down using features like mySQL databases, changing your cPanel appearance, cPanel shortcuts, creating Subdomains, making Backups, FTP use and much more.
• Change Password:
  The password sent to you upon registration is encouraged to being used as it is a strong encrypted password, however, if you want to change this password at any time you can use this area to do so.
• Update Contact Info:
  Update your Website contact preferences.
• Change Style:
  Change the appearance for your cPanel.
• Branding Editor:
  Is only available to limited accounts. This is a reseller feature.
• Change Language:
  You can edit the cPanel default language to your language if necessary / different.
• Shortcuts:
  Drag and drop shortcut links.
• RVSkin Theme Changer:
  You can change the Theme used on your cPanel.

Mail Management

• Email Accounts:
  Manage your email accounts.
• Box Trapper:
  A method of Spam Protection.
• Spam Assassin:
  Another method of Spam Protection.
• Forwarders:
  Create email Forwards. Anything sent to one email is forwarded to another.
• Auto Responders:
  Going on Vacation? Set an away response. Create confirmation messages and etc.
• Default Address:
  Is your “Catch-All” email account for this website.
• Mailing Lists:
  Create mailing lists with Subscriptions and Subscribers.
• User Level Filtering:
  Manage email account filters. Useful for those giving out email accounts.
• Account Level Filtering:
  Manage the filters for your main account.
• Email Delivery Route:
  Allows you to track how an email is delivered. Useful for correcting issues.
• Import Addresses / Forwarders:
  This feature allows you to use 2 types of files to create multiple email address or email forwarders for your account simultaneously.
• Email Authentication:
  Is the effort to equip messages of the email transport system with enough verifiable information so recipients can recognize the nature of each incoming message automatically. Enabling email authentication will help fight the spread of spam.
• MX Entry Maintenance:
  An MX (Mail Exchanger) entry tells a client which server receives mail sent to a domain name.

Files and Management

• Backups:
  This is where you would create and restore backups. This is an important area.
• Backup Wizard: Will automatically generate a Backup for your website with a step by step process.
• File Manager:
  Is where you manage the server files directly. Something you will use often unless you make use of one of the various FTP programs available online (free or paid).
• Legacy File Manager:
  An alternative File Manager to the previously mentioned. In some aspects better than the first, although each serves the same purpose and that is to edit, upload, download and manage your website contents.
• Web Disk Accounts:
  The Web Disk allows you to easily drag and drop files to your hosting account. You can create a Web Disk login and access with this feature.
• Disk Space Usage:
  This will give you a breakdown of which folders are being used and how much space they are occupying. It will not show you the disk space taken by individual files, but rather directories and folders themselves.
• FTP Accounts:
  This is for managing your FTP accounts for yourself and others (Learn more about FTP from our Blog).
• FTP Session Control:
  See who is logged in through FTP access, manage, edit and disconnect connections.

Logs

• Latest Visitors:
  View detailed information about your latest visitors.
• Bandwidth:
  Monitor your Bandwidth usage.
• Raw Access Logs:
  Monitor your Access Logs.
• Error Logs:
  Monitor your website errors.
• Choose Log Programs:
  Available only to specific accounts.
• Awstats:
  In-depth detail about visitors coming and leaving your websites.

Security

• Password Protect Directories:
  Protect the various Website Directories with Password security.
• IP Deny Manager:
  Deny a specific IP address from accessing your websites.
• SSL / TLS Manager:
  Only available by request. SSL certificates are required for this feature.
• Hotlink Protection:
  Stop others from stealing your images.
• Leech Protect:
  Protect directories from Leeching.
• GnuPG Keys:
  Is a publicly available encryptions scheme that uses the “Public Key” approach. With GnuPG, messages are encrypted using a public key however, they can only be decrypted by a “private key”, which is retained by the intended recipient of the message.

Domains

• Subdomains:
  Are URLs for different sections of your website. They use your main domain name and a prefix (example is sub.yourdomain.com) – Here is where you would create and manage your Subdomains.
• Addon Domains:
  Here you can manage your Addon Domains. This allows you to host multiple domains within your one hosting account. A very useful feature for those who manage multiple websites and do not wish to pay for multiple hosting accounts.
• Parked Domains:
  Do you have a domain that re-directs to another website? Perhaps you own a variety of the domain TLD’s (Top Level Domains, example: .com, .net, .ca, .org, etc) and wish for them all to direct to one website URL, this is how you’d do it. You can also “park domains” waiting to be designed / created.
• Redirects:
  Create Redirections for your websites. If you want a page to redirect to a specific area within your website or even outside your website, this is where you’d manage these features.
• Simple DNS Zone Editor:
  If necessary, you can edit your DNS Zones. Thread lightly within this area it is suggested you’re experienced with this before editing these settings.

Databases

• MySQL Databases:
  Here is where you would create, manage and maintain your Databases and Users.
• MySQL Database Wizard:
  This is a fantastic help-wizard for setting up and understanding your Databases.
• phpMyAdmin:
  Used in managing your Database tables.
• Remote MySQL:
  Setup a remote SQL connection with the server.

Software / Services

• CGI Center:
  This is a collection of “Pre-Installed CGI scripts” available for your use.
• Site Software:
  Activate whether or not you want to be informed of software upgrades and updates.
• Perl Modules:
  More for experienced users. Perl modules are collections of functions that allow you to perform tasks in Perl. You will need to install a Perl module before you can use it inside a Perl program.
• PHP PEAR Packages:
  More for experienced users. PEAR packages are collections of functions that allow you to perform tasks in PHP. You will need to install a PEAR package before you can use it inside a PHP program.
• PHP Configuration:
  For the experienced users, here are some available PHP configurations. If required you can contact Support for additional information.
• RV Site Builder:
  This is our Premium Website Builder program that can assist you in designing your websites. You can find more information about this program using the “Features” menu, or clicking here. Included with this website builder is over 700+ pre-installed and ready to use Website Templates.
• Softaculous:
  Is a program that contains over 160+ Pre-Installed scripts readily available for your use at anytime. It makes installing programs and applications like WordPress, Joomla, majority of all major CMS’s (Content Management Systems) an ease. It can be done with just a few steps and your off and running within minutes. You can learn more about this under “Features” or by clicking here.
• Fantastico De Luxe:
  Much like Softaculous, although an alternative pre-installer as some of our clients prefer this over the other. Although by choice, both offer amazing pre-installed scripts readily available for your use. You can learn more about Fantastico De Luxe under our “Features” or by clicking here.
• Master Reseller CP:
  This is only available for certain hosting plans (ie, Reseller accounts).

Advanced

• Apache Handlers:
  For the experienced crowd. These will allow you to control what Apache will do with certain file types. When Apache sees a file, it has an action built in for that file type, and will perform that action. If you wish Apache to do a different action, you will need to make a handler telling Apache how to handle and perform that action.
• Image Manager:
  The image manager will allow you to view and modify the images in your account. You can change the size of your images, convert their file type, or just view them with the Image Manager and make the according edits if necessary.
• Index Manager:
  The index manager allows you to customize the way a directory will be viewed on the web. You can select between a default style, no indexes, or two types of indexing. If you do not wish people to be able to see files in your directory, choose the now indexing feature.
• Error Pages:
  This gives you the ability to create Custom Error Pages (view our Blog for more HTTP Error Codes). An error page informs a visitor when there is a problem accessing your website. Each type of problem has its own code. For example, a visitor who enteres a nonexistent URL will see a 404 error, while an unauthorized user trying to access a restricted area of your site will see a 401 error page.
• Cron Jobs:
  For the more advanced users, Cron jobs allow you to automate certain commands or scripts on your site. You can set a command or script to run at a specific time every day, week, etc. For example, you could set a cron job to delete temporary files every week so that your disk space is not being used up by those files.
• Front Page Extensions:
  Frontpage extensions allow you to publish your site directly from FrontPage application. This means that you will not have to upload files through FTP or any other method.
• Network Tools:
  This allows a user to find out information about any domain, or to trace the route from the server your site is on to the computer you are accessing cPanel from. Finding out information about the domain can be useful in making sure your DNS is setup properly as you will find out information about your IP address as well as your DNS.
• Submit a Support Request:
  This is an alternative method of submitting a request for support, while at the same time you can also visit our Clients Area and submit your support tickets there.
• Virus Scanner:
  Our servers do come with high security and this is not a necessary task for you, but if you believe there was something missed and perhaps a virus is contained within your website files, this is a great place to start your searches as it will scan the directories selected to see if there are any conflicts or viruses.
• MIME Types:
  For the more experienced clients, MIME types tell browsers how to handle specific extensions. For example, the text/html MIME text equates to .htm, .html, and .shtml extensions on most servers, and this tells your browser to interpret all files with those extensions as HTML files.

Now that you’re somewhat familiar with your cPanel and its features, its time you start constructing your website. Now as mentioned above, the Webmaster has many options available and its impossible for us to list all the methods in which you can use in creating your websites. However, we can suggest a few options that could be helpful for you in designing your websites and these will be discussed in our next Step-by-Step Guide to be published soon.

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