Last Updated: May 22, 2012

May 18, 2011

User Friendly Control Panels

While there are a select few who are able to build a website with relative ease, the average person is not skilled in the language of scripting necessary to add all the features they would like to include on their site. When it comes to assigning user privileges, uploading files for database administration, setting up email accounts or even setting administrative preferences a control panel module on the server allows even a novice webmaster to quickly and easily negotiate that server. Each server may have a slightly different variation of control panel but most have the same basic functionality.

Assigning User Privileges

If there will be several users accessing the website to upload files such as blog posts it is vitally important to assign user privileges in the control panel. Unsuspecting website owners have had entire sites wiped out by other users who had no reason to be in the main database. Even before actually uploading any files to the database it is a good idea to decide who has admin privileges so that this can be avoided.

Uploading Files and Database Administration

Once user privileges have been established it is time to actually think about the actual database as this will be the backbone of the website. One of the most common database servers would be MySQL that allows for the administration of several databases simultaneously. User friendly control panels enable those with site administer privileges to maintain these databases that are so critical to the performance of a website. Most web hosting companies are well aware of the fact that a majority of their users will be novices so the control panel will almost always provide database servers that are easy to understand and use.

Managing Email Accounts

Of course any web hosting account will also provide a certain number of email accounts as part of the web hosting service. Some web hosting companies provide more email accounts than others but the important point is that all of this can easily be set up and maintained right there in the control panel. Most often the control panel will have email features such as establishing email aliases (accounts), access to webmail, forwarding and auto replies as well as the ability to filter spam and blacklist certain incoming emails. Although each control panel will be slightly different, aliases and webmail are constants that are on most control modules.

Establishing Administrative Preferences

Each control panel will have different features that can be customized to the user’s preferences but the most common features are the ability to set an automatic log off after a certain amount of time idle, as well as setting the user’s default encoding, such as Windows or UNIX. Time zones and date formats are also set via the administrative module of the control panel and many control panels allow for each user to have his or her own profile in case that user’s OS or time zone differs from the site admin’s profile.

Control panels are a vital part of the administration of any website and the more features they contain the easier it is for the web master to setup and maintain a site. For this reason, choosing a web hosting company should begin with a close scrutiny of the features provided on their control panel.

 

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