Tag Archive 'fantastico'

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.


The Beauty of cPanel

Throughout your search for a reliable web hosting provider, it is important to learn what features a company supplies, which ultimately boils down to what control panel they use. While there are quite a few to choose from, cPanel is often considered the very best. cPanel, short for control panel, is a sophisticated program that comes in the form of an intuitive GUI (Graphical User Interface). cPanel adds convenience to the tasks of designing and managing your website from publishing web pages to handling important administrative functions. cPanel includes a number of programs which enable you to easily increase the functionality of your site. Through the interaction of the web server, you, the webmaster can implement various features such as mailing lists, email accounts, message boards and blogs.

cPanel Platform and Benefits

The cPanel program functions on various Linux platforms along with a variety of other Unix-like environments. This control panel was designed with security in mind as the authentication logins of your individual programs can be accessed on different web pages. It also includes the Spam Assassin, a reliable anti-spam program that will drastically reduce the number of unsolicited emails showing up in your inbox.

As a standard in the web hosting industry, cPanel is even more efficient with the Fantastico script installer. If you need a blog or message board, Fantastico allows you to include them into your website with a single click, eliminating the task of manually importing third-party applications which can be a challenge for beginners. Together, cPanel and Fantastico make for a powerful web hosting solution, allowing you to streamline a number of great features from a centralized location.

cPanel effectively combines numerous scripts and web-based applications that have the ability to function well on their own. It standardizes these additional features which allows companies to provide their clients with a uniformed web hosting package, usually at a reasonable price For this reason, cPanel is the preferred choice for many web hosting companies and end-users as well.

While this program offers endless benefits, the capability and intuitiveness of cPanel has also made it a prime target for malicious attackers. Because of it’s popularity, several unscrupulous individuals have used this control panel as a platform to manipulate programming scripts and command them to set up unauthorized sub-domains. This is primarily done to lure unknowing victims into compromised sites designed to thieve sensitive information, an attack more commonly termed as phishing. These exploits are certainly on the rise, a reason why you should make the most out of the spam filter included within cPanel, as the majority of these exploits originate via email.

cPanel - The Bottom Line

Despite the malicious programmers on the prowl, cPanel still offers a variety of benefits that overshadow the negative by far. This program combines convenience and ease of use with a number of add-on programs that enable you to create a dynamic website. While there are other control panels on the market that work just as well, you simply can’t go wrong with cPanel. This program provides you with all the tools needed to make the most out of your web hosting package.


An Introduction to the Many Features of cPanel

These days, owning a website has become an obtainable goal to those with low-level designing skills, and minimal budgets as well. This is all made possible due to the current prevalence of the web hosting industry, along with the great features provided by individual companies. Even if you have no experience with programming scripts or designing a website, a good web hosting control panel can produce quality results that will make you look like a seasoned webmaster. While the type of control panel varies, cPanel is the most widely used and the preferred choice for many web hosts.

cPanel is a web-based application that allows you to control every aspect of your website. This program is now considered a standard due to its ease of use and extreme functionality. cPanel is highly compatible and works well on various Unix-like platforms along with popular web browsers such as Internet Explorer, FireFox and Opera.

Every feature provided by a web host can be accessed and administered within cPanel, giving you the ability to create a vibrant, interactive setting for family and friends to view or an e-commerce site to power your online business. Here is a brief overview of the amazing features included within cPanel.

Backup Facility

It’s easy to become so involved in running and promoting your business that critical aspects, such as data security, are overlooked. When using a web host equipped with cPanel, this will be something you no longer have to worry about. This control panel allows you to store backups of images, text and other essential content from your website, enabling you to recover quickly if an unlikely disaster happens to strike.

Email Management

Most web hosting companies provide their clients with multiple email accounts. Through cPanel, you can assign domains to your email accounts and also create autoresponders to enhance the level of customer service. cPanel also includes a spam filter to keep unsolicited messages of your inbox.

Statistics

You can actually measure the status of your website with useful tools such as Webalizer. This utility allows you to view the statistics of your site including the latest visitors, how long they stayed and how they found you. A powerful marketing tool, this handy component gives you the ability to analyze the amount of traffic on your site and make adjustments where needed.

Domains

Multiple domains is a great luxury offered by many web hosting companies. This feature allows you to create numerous web sites and manage them from a single interface - cPanel. For instance, you may want to separate the novels you’re selling from the web promotion services you offer. This is easy with cPanel as each of your services can be individually managed and designed with their own domain names.

Fantastico

One of cPanel’s best features is a dynamic utility called Fantastico. Fantastico works as an installer that allows you to implement a variety of programs such as Wordpress blogging software, and several content management systems likes Mambo and Joomla, increasing the functionality of your site with a simple click of the mouse.

Conclusion

The possibilities are endless when building a website with cPanel. This program is user-friendly on all levels with capabilities that exceed the norm. If you want complete control of your site, inquire within a web host to find if they offer cPanel.


Fantastico - cPanel Tutorial Ch.5

Fantastico is known as a popular library for commercial scripts.  It is commonly used as a third party add-on that works with cPanel.  It was designed to automatically install applications into a website and eliminate the need to upload files through FTP.  These scripts are executed from the administrative area of your website.  Websites running Fantastico scripts are said to be installed by over 10, 000 servers.  With millions of users on a global scale it is easily the most used product of its kind.

Fantastico is generally used at the creation of a new website or when new applications are added.
These scripts are able to create tables within a database, install other software and modify the configuration files of the web server.  It also acts an installation program for scripts in a primary domain, add-on domain, subdomain or even a directory.  This provides users with the ability to install a variety of different scripts.  

Fantastico is an open source software that welcomes many different components.  Some of the most frequently used scripts available for installation are listed below:

- Blog Scripts: Wordpress, Nucleaus, b2evolution
- Content Management Systems: Drupal, Joomla, Mambo, PHP Nuke, Post Nuke Siteframe and more.
- Customer Support: PHP support tickets, Help Center Live, Support Logic Helpdesk, Support
 Service Manager.
- Discussion Boards: PHPBB2, SMF
- E-commmerce: Zen Cart, OS Commerce, CubeCart
- FAQ: FaqMasterFlex
- Guestbooks: Viper Guestbook
- Hosting Billing: PHP Coin, Account Lab Plus
- Image Galleries: 4images Gallery, Coppermine Photo Gallery
- Mailing List: - PHPlist
- Surveys and Polls: PHP Surveyor, Advanced Poll
- Project Management: PHP Projekt, dotProject
- Site Builders: Templates Express
- Wiki: TikiWike, PHP Wiki

MORE SCRIPTS

Moodle, Noah’s Classifieds, Open-Reality, PHP Auction, PHP Form Generator, PHPAds New and Web Calender.

Fantastico integrates smoothly with well over 50 web applications, enabling you to take full control of your website. 

INSTALLING FANTASTICO ON CPANEL 

The installation of Fantastico does not require the download of any files.  After opening your server type in the following command:

cd /usr/local/cpanel/whostmgr/docroot 
rm -Rf fantastico* 
wget -N http://netenberg.com/files/free/fantasticoinstaller.tgz 
tar xzpf fantasticoinstaller.tgz 
rm -f fantasticoinstaller.tgz 

After logging into the cPanel you should notice an icon for the latest version of Fantastico.  By clicking the icon you will be taken to a new page.  Find the install tab and click it.  You will then follow these installation steps:

- Select the version of Fantastico you wish to install onto the cPanel.
- Leave your theme area set to default unless you already have one in mind.
- Check all your scripts as active
- Keep the wget binary path unless you plan to make adjustments.  Leaving it this way is typically suitable for most users.
- Select the appropriate drive for disk space
- Make adjustments to CRON notifications.  You can leave them off unless you plan receive them in your email.
- Choose to receive automatic updates on Fantastico on a daily basis.

After these settings have been made you find the “install” tab and click it.  Installation may take a few minutes before all files are processed.  When installation is complete you will activate Fantastico via the “Features Manager” in cPanel.  After checking the box next to Fantastico you simply click “save” and the application is activated.