What is CPanel?
CPanel is a fully featured web-based control panel that allows you to manage your domain through a web interface. The idea is to transfer as much of the control and responsibility of managing your web site to you. You have the ability to manage all aspects of e-mail, files, backup, FTP, CGI scripts, and web site statistics.
You need to log on in order to use CPanel to manage your web site.
To log on:
Enter the address of your CPanel in your web browser. The address needs to be in the form of http://www.yourdomain.com:2082 or https://www.yourdomain.com:2083
Enter your user name and password in the User Name and Password fields.
Click on OK button. You will now be logged on to CPanel.
Reading your e-mail You can read your online e-mail using NeoMail, Horde, or SquirrelMail. All of these popular web mail applications allow you to read your e-mail, save them, keep an address book, and perform all of the other basic e-mail functions that you are used to. The main difference between web mail and an offline e-mail applications, such as Eudora or Microsoft Outlook Express, is that all of these functions are performed online, rather than on your own computer, and offline applications generally provide more features.
Web mail is optional. You can still use your favorite offline e-mail applications, if you prefer. You can even use a combination of web mail applications and another tool - you can check your e-mail online, perhaps when you're at work, and download your e-mail to your computer when you get home. You can automatically configure Outlook Express, or manually configure other mail applications to read your e-mail offline.
To read your e-mail online:
-
Click on the Web Mail link in the Mail area to access your default e-mail account, or click on the Add/Remove accounts link and click on the Read Webmail button next to the account that you want to read.
Note: You can also save this link as a bookmark, so that you can access it without having to use CPanel.
-
Click on the web application that you would like to use.
-
You are now in the web mail window for your default e-mail address. Refer to the following links if you need more information about the web mail application you are using:
FTP
The FTP area deals with all the tools relating to setting up and managing FTP accounts, as well as managing FTP sessions. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a method by which you can transfer files between computers, usually using the Internet. There is a huge amount of information stored on FTP servers around the world that can only be accessed by using FTP. When using FTP you use an application called a "client" to connect to a machine called a "server".
There are a large number of FTP software packages available. Some of them are built in to your browser (such as Internet Explorer), others are dedicated applications (such as such as CuteFTP or WS_FTP ), while still others are built into web applications (File Manager in CPanel is one example). Generally speaking, if you are going to spend a lot of time using FTP or have a large amount of files to upload/download, a dedicated FTP client is the way to go.
CPanel allows you to set up FTP accounts so that certain external users can access a restricted part of your system. You can also set up an anonymous FTP account so that anyone can access a restricted part of your system. You can also manage these FTP sessions, cutting them off if they go on for too long.
Warning: FTP, by its very nature, allows external users to modify your web site (albeit a restricted area of your web site). External users can upload, download, and delete files. Keep this in mind when you set up an FTP account.
Web / FTP Stats The Web / FTP Statistics area presents you with a wide variety of information about your web site, from the latest visitors to a detailed monthly summary of hits, as well as providing an error log. Use the Statistics tools to keep track of what pages are being visited most often, and where they are being referred from.
For more information about exactly what these web site statistics mean, refer to the following excellent article: http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/publications/1/p1-256-e.html
|
HOSTING
