Getting Familiar with cPanel

cPanel is one of the most useful features in web hosting, a control panel offered by a number of different providers. Despite it’s extremes capability, it is often one of the most overlooked features as well. We will take a minute of your time to overview some of cPanel’s most attractive features so you do not make the mistake of taking them for granted. After learning how easy this program is to use and what it’s capable of, you will understand why this is the most popular control panel on the market.

Getting Started

Logging into the cPanel program is easy. Simply type the following format into your web browser: “your.domain.com/cpanel”. Remember to replace “yourdomain” with the actual name of your website. From there, a pop-up box will display on the screen, prompting you to enter the username and password for your account. If you do not remember the password, refer to the message sent with the confirmation received upon first opening the account. If you deleted the message for some reason, contact your web hosting provider to retrieve it.

After logging into the control panel, you should notice that the interface has a similar look and feel to that of the Microsoft Windows operating system. Since this is your first time using the program, it is recommended that you refer to the “Getting Started Wizard”. Don’t worry about initiating this function as a pop-up box will display asking if you want to use it. If you answer “no”, the Wizard can be accessed at a later time from an easy accessible link on the control panel.

The wizard will guide you through an overview of the features included in your account. It will teach you how to easily drag and drop files from your hard drive into the server of the web host. It also shows you how to set up email accounts, instructs you on using webmail and keeping your contact information up to date. After completing this task, you can then add, delete or modify your email accounts from the “Email Manager” area of the control panel.

From the “Site Management” section you can review the total of amount of bandwidth and storage that has been used, backup your entire website, create, modify or delete databases and even add, edit or remove content from the site.

All of the domains associated with your hosting package can be effectively managed from the “Domains Section”. This includes sub-domains and parked domains. Your additional domains can be distinctively designed and set to function as their own site.

The “Software/Services” section is where the magic truly happens. This is where you will find a number of scripts that can be installed. The Fantastico program is also located in this area, featuring more than 70 scripts and applications that allow you to implement blogs, message boards, guestbooks and much more.

The “Statistics” section gives you access to programs such as AwStats and Webilizer. This is where you can learn just who visited your site and how they found it. You can even learn exactly what keywords were used to find your website.

cPanel includes all of these wonderful features and much more. Designing and maintaining a website seems like a lot of work but is made much easier with this powerful control panel. If you want to control every critical aspect of your site, inquire within a web hosting provider and find out if they offer cPanel.

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