Introduction
If you are required to manage your domain and hosting and have little or no technical knowledge of it, then cPanel for Beginners Guide or cPanel is the software for you! It is a web-based hosting management tool that is used by almost 90 per cent of websites. The industry-standard software provides a graphical control panel along with automation tools to its users to oversee a portion of the site’s Unix server, thus simplifying the process of website hosting. All the tools make certain that you can easily run and control your website or domain.
cPanel uses a three-tiered structure allowing different levels of access to administrators and end users. Different aspects of the server and the website can be controlled directly through the browser.
Accessing cPanel
For beginners, accessing their cPanel account is the first and foremost step. It can be done in many different ways and can be normally accessed using https on port 2083 or simply by adding “/cpanel” to the end of the host name. Another method is by logging in to your WHM account which we will provide you a link, username, and password after which who have to go to the top left of the page and click on ‘List Accounts’ to see all your domain accounts.
After logging in there are various functions that you can perform using the control panel like:
- Basic Setup
- Install web applications
- Create email accounts
- View and manage files in your space
- Create subdomains
- Create and configure FTP accounts
- Review access logs for your site
- Manage and configure databases
- Plugins and Branding
Navigating cPanel
Once you are logged in, the cPanel home screen appears and offers a plethora of functions. These include; help, logout, trademarks, switch theme, switch account, notices, find, frequently accessed areas, the status menu, the server status page and the preference links.
The latest version of cPanel for 2016 uses a theme called ‘Paper Lanterns’. It is by far the most responsive theme used by cPanel and also the most preferred for its appearance, file manage, trash and upload features. You can also change this theme by going to the ‘Preferences’ section of the homepage near the bottom and click ‘Change Style’.
There is also a Search Bar at the top which is a handy bar that can be used to find functions speedily. On the top right corner of the screen is the navigation bar, with features like Account Management, Notifications and Logout. Also, a Sidebar along the left hand side of your screen has four icons including Home, Statistics, Dashboard and User Management.
Preferences
Whenever you access cPanel for the first time, visit the Preferences section first to update your contact information and change your password. You will be provided with the getting started wizard upon your first login to set basic preferences. Some other features include video tutorials, change style, change language, shortcuts and branding editor.
You can also add a new user if you have a web developer who is going to help you with your website by exploring the ‘User Manager’ icon in this section.
Email Options
This options lets you enable/disable email accounts for users after they have been set up first. You can also set a limit for how much space each account has. This options gives you access to all email accounts, Spam Assassin, Box trapper, mail forwarders, webmail, auto responders, default address, mailing lists, account level filtering, email delivery route, user level filtering, important addresses/forwarders, MX entry, email authentication and additional login methods.
Accessing Files
The files area allows the user to manage, upload and move files. More specifically, users can access backup files, a backup wizard, the file manager, the legacy file manager, web disk, disk space usage, FTP accounts, FTP session control and anonymous FTP.
Then there is Web Disk permissions that should be limited only for top-level admin accounts. The ‘Read-Write’ level access gives the user permission to do almost whatever they want including deleting files while Read-Only only permits reading, downloading and listing files.
Conclusion
Many leading web hosting providers offer cPanel, one of the most popular web interfaces. Thanks to the abundant functions available, newcomers and novices find cPanel very easy to create and maintain a website. Like every technology, cPanel also continues to upgrade itself and expand its horizons. As it does so, the interface is expected to become much more efficient and easier to use.
There are a lot many features and information that you should know if you have to closely work with cPanel. For more information, you should log on to cPanel’s official website.