Getting Started With cPanel Control Panel

cPanel is the control panel of choice for many web hosts to allow them to provide their customers with Linux based website hosting solutions, and with the launch of the Windows version, Windows based website hosting solutions. cPanel is well known for its loading speeds, since it is very fast when compared to other control panels that are in the same market as it is; the key to its loading speeds is down to it system architecture - for example unlike other control panels, cPanel doesn’t rely on any databases meaning that it has no database application to slow down it down. cPanel provides many features that can be confusing for people who are new to the concept of web hosting, and who have never used a control panel before to manage any aspect of a website or website hosting package; the main aim which most people have is to get their website online and to get the email services for their website configured to that they can start using their new domain and website hosting package - this might be confusing for some at first since there are several different purposes involved with setting up both features, although on further inspection it can be easy for someone with little technical knowledge to achieve their main aim.

If you are an advanced user with a respectable amount of technical knowledge, then you might want to consider customizing your shared hosting environment as to ensure that your custom applications can run without the need for a more expensive hosting solution such as a VPS Server or a Dedicated Server, both of which carry price tags that can be substantially different than those for basic shared website hosting packages. cPanel provides tools and features that you can utilize to manage your hosting account effectively, since it gives you the ability to manage the contents of your web space online which means that you can easily upload and download files that you host from any internet connected location that allows you to connect to cPanel via the cPanel port.

You are also given the ability to view the amount of visitors that your website has received in any period of time; this can be done via the use of a third party program known as ‘AWStats’ which most web hosts provide as standard with their shared cpanel website hosting accounts, this means that if you want to see if an advertising campaign that you have put into practice is working or not since if it was you should be able to notice an increase the amount of visitors to your website.

Other management tools include ‘PHPMyAdmin’ which you can use to manage the MySQL databases that you have created in your cPanel hosting account; PHPMyAdmin is a web interface that is accessible through cPanel which means that you are able to administer your MySQL databases from any internet connected location without the need for any type of desktop database management program. As standard with most control panels, webmail applications are included to allow you to view and manage your emails from any internet connected location; however, unlike other control panels, cPanel give you a choice since both the Horde and SquirrelMail webmail applications are included to allow you to remotely check your email. Other advanced features of cPanel allow you to create and manage custom email filter rules, meaning that you can easily keep out spam that is being specifically targeted at you and your website; this type of configuration is not normally achievable with other control panels, and cPanel also allows you to create custom SpamAssassin rules to ensure that you receive as little spam as possible.

If you are new to using cPanel, then with the use of this article you will be able to upload your new website and configure it so that visitors can start coming, and will also be able to create and configure email accounts for yourself and your colleagues so that you can start communicating electronically; if you have a dynamic website that is based on PHP, then you will also be able to create a MySQL database from scratch - screenshots have been provided to make the learning process even easier.

The Main cPanel Homepage

When you first login to cPanel, you will reach the main homepage for the control panel that will provide you with all the information that you might need to know about the server for your dynamic applications, as well as with all the different options and categories that you might need to make the most of your new website, domain and hosting package. In most cases, you will be using the new cPanel 11, where the main homepage looks like this:

The main cPanel categories that all the different options have been grouped into to ensure maximum ease are:

• preferences - options in this category are mainly to do with the administration of your actual hosting account, such as the password for it and the main contact email address that you want to use with it
• mail - options in this category are related to the email services for your domain name and website
• files - options grouped under this category are related to the management of files that you have hosted within your web space, as well as the management of FTP accounts
• logs - this group of options is related to visitor statistics for your website
• security - options under this category are related to the security of your website, and allow you to password protect any directories that you have as well as the management of any SSL certificates that you might have
• domains - options under this category are related to the management of domain features for your domain
• databases - these options are related to the creation and management of databases under your hosting account
• software/services - items under this category are related to the advanced customization of your hosting environment
• advanced - these features are related to advanced aspects of your hosting environment, and should only be touched if you know what you are doing.

The cPanel homepage allows you to access all the different features that you have been provided with to manage your new hosting account, meaning that you are able to carry out the actions that you need to without any intervention from your hosting company, although you are normally able to turn to them if you require some sort of support for any cPanel feature. Like most control panels, the homepage is able to provide you with detailed technical information regarding your account such as the amount of disk space you are using out of the total amount that has been assigned to you, as well as the amount of bandwidth that has been used up by your visitors in relation to the amount that has been assigned to your hosting package; you are also able to see how many email accounts you have created out of the number you are allowed to create for your new domain.

Creating a Subdomain

You might want to create new domains under your existing domains to split your website up into more manageable areas; these subs are known as ’subdomains’. They can be easily created through cPanel, and allow you to easily upload content to their folders so that you can start serving content from them as soon as the necessary content has been uploading into your web space. In order to create and manage subdomains through cPanel, you will need to choose the subdomains icon from under the domains category:

You will then be taken to the following screen:

To create a subdomain, you will need to enter the following information into the required text boxes:

• subdomain (circled red) - this is where you enter the actual identity of the subdomain that you want to create
• domain (drop down box - circled green) - you will be required to select the domain that you want the sub to be created under, in the case that you are hosting multiple domains under your cPanel hosting account
• document root (circled blue) - this is where any files that you want to be accessible under the new subdomain will be held, it can be anything you want just as long as it is under your account’s ‘home’ directory - cPanel will automatically make this ‘/public_html/chosensubdomain’ when you place your cursor in the text field.

Once you have clicked ‘Create Subdomain’, you will be redirected to a screen which should hopefully confirm that you have successfully created a new subdomain:

Once you have created your new subdomain, you can then move on to uploading your content into the folder that you have pointed the new subdomain towards so that visitors can start accessing it. In most cases subdomains are used to give products their own unique identity in terms of domains, and search engines will normally favour a website that has used subdomains over one which has uses ordinary directories to order their content; this is because it is easier for a search engine to crawl a subdomain website rather than once which uses directories since in most cases the content is much easier for them to find and use, meaning that it would probably be easy for a human to find and use a website which is utilizing subdomains when compared to one which is using directories.

Creating an Email Account

If you want to start communicating with others electronically using emails, then you will need to create email accounts under your hosting account that you and your colleagues can use to communicate with each other as well as with clients and others. cPanel provides you with many different features in order to help you manage your email accounts and to stop any spam from reaching your account, however the management of these features is very complicated and is for advanced users only really; on the other hand, creating an email account is a very simple task which can be achieved by almost anyone. In order to create an email account, you will need to select the ‘email accounts’ option from the mail category:

You will then be taken to the management panel where you will be able to create and manage any email accounts that you want under your hosting account. In order to create an email account, you will need to provide the following information:

• email (circled red) - this is the identity that you want to give the email address - for example the identity in ‘email@domain.com’ would be ‘email
• domain (circled green) - you will need to choose the domain for which you want the email account to be created for in the case that you are hosting more than one domain in your cPanel web hosting account
• password (circled blue) - you will need to choose a password that you will have to use to gain access to the email account, if you are unable to think of one then cPanel will automatically generate one for you
• quota (circled purple) - if you want to limit the amount of space that is used by an email account, then you should enter the amount which you want to limit the account to - just ensure that you have enough space left in your hosting account.

Once you click ‘create’, you will then be taken to a screen that should hopefully confirm that the email account which you want has been successfully created. You will also notice that on the email management panel that there is a table that contains the email accounts which you have already created; this means that you can easily manage the email account which you have just created, as well as others which you might have already created.

Emails are being increasingly used in todays internet connected society to allow people to communicate with each other almost instantly, this means that you can allow you and your colleagues to communicate with each other and clients electronically almost instantly. cPanel also provides webmail applications to allow you to access your email accounts from any internet connected location, enabling you to check your email from almost anywhere in the world; an automatic Outlook configuration file generator is also provided to allow you to configure your Outlook installation to work with your email account if you don’t have the necessary knowledge or information to do it yourself.

Creating a MySQL Database and MySQL User

If you run a PHP based dynamic website which needs to utilize a database, then you will most likely consider using a MySQL database to store the data which your PHP based application will need to access and use to ensure that it is able to run effectively and efficiently. MySQL is an open source database platform, which means it is free and is one reason why you will find it as part of almost any Linux based website hosting package; it is installed as part of cPanel which means that you will find it included with almost any cPanel based website hosting package.

If you create a MySQL database, then you will need to create a MySQL user so that your PHP applications are able to access your MySQL database so that they are able to delete and add new data to the database. In order to create a MySQL database, you will need to choose the ‘MySQL Databases’ option from the databases category. You will then be taken to the following page:

The only piece of information that you will be required to enter is the name of the database that you want to create. Once you click ‘create’, you will be taken to a page which should confirm that the database has been successfully created. However, once you have created a database, you will want to create a MySQL user to allow your PHP and dynamic web applications to access the database.

In order to create a MySQL database user, you will need to return to the MySQL databases homepage. You will then need to scroll down to the MySQL users section:

You will then be required to enter the following information in order to create the user account:

• username (circled red) - this is the login that will be used in order for your scripts to access the database
• password (circled green) - you should apply a password to the user account, otherwise hackers might be able to find a way into your database.

Once you click ‘create’, you should then be redirected to a page which should hopefully confirm that the user account has been successfully created. In order for the user account to be functional with the MySQL database that you have just created, you will need to scroll down to the section labeled ‘Add User to Database’:

You will need to select the user account that you want to assign, then the database to which you want to assign the user account. Once you have done that, you should then be redirected to a page confirming that the user has been successfully assigned to the database.

With the use of MySQL databases, you should be able to make your website more dynamic in the way that it functions since you will be able to store the content and data that it requires in one central location; this means that users will be able to have a more interactive experience with your website - this means that you are able to provide your website’s visitors with a range of new services based around a database. cPanel allows you to manage any MySQL databases that you create with ease; you can use the web based third party PHPMyAdmin application in order for you to manage your databases via an online interface from any internet connected location, meaning that you are able to manage your cPanel MySQL databases from almost anywhere in the world.

Uploading Your Website

One of the main things that you will be wanting to achieve with your new cpanel website hosting package is the ability to host your website under the domain that you have purchased for your new hosting account. With a website you will be able to show off your business to prospective clients, or provide existing clients with a place where they can manage the account that they have with you; this means that you could easily gain your business an extra source of income with the use of a website to sell your products online.

When uploading your website to your web space, you have the choice to make of how to upload it - you can use the classic method of FTP which means that you connect to your web space via FTP using an FTP account that you have created through cPanel, or you can use the cPanel file manager to upload all your files into your web space although it could take considerably longer.

If you want to upload your website via FTP, you will first need to go to the FTP account manager by select the ‘FTP accounts’ option located under the files category on the cPanel homepage:

To create an FTP account, you should look at the first section of the page which is titled ‘add FTP account’; in this section, you will need to enter the following information:

• login (circled red) - this is the name of the actual FTP account and is what you will use to login into your web space via FTP
• password (circled green) - it is highly recommended that you password your new FTP account for maximum security
• home directory (circled blue) - this is the highest level directory to which you want the account to have access.

You should then be directed to a page which should hopefully confirm that the FTP account has been successfully created. You can then proceed to use your favourite FTP client to upload your website’s files to your web space using the FTP account that you have just created.

If you want to upload your website’s files using the cPanel file manager, then you will need to select the option labeled ‘file manager’ from the file category of the cPanel homepage:

The following box will pop up, and you will need to select ‘web root’ (circled red):

You will then need to navigate to the folder where you want to upload your website’s files to if necessary. You will then need to select the ‘upload’ option from the toolbar of the file manager:

You will then be taken to the following page:

As you can see, you are given three boxes in which you are able to upload files. You are given the option to add additional boxes if needed.

In theory, it is much easier for you as a beginner to upload your files to your cPanel web space via the means of FTP, since you can get more files placed into your web space in one go than is possible with the web based file manager. However, in terms of ease it can be sometimes easier to use the web based file manager since you are able to upload files using it from any internet connected location so long as you have a reasonable connection speed and are able to access your cPanel account. So in practice, if you want to upload your files conveniently and efficiently then you should use FTP to upload your files, but if you don’t have much time on your hands and are in a public place such as an internet cafe that might block the FTP port then you should use the web based file manager.

VPS can be complicated environments that need to be managed effectively to ensure that they are secure against the latest malicious threats which are able to threaten the safety and security of your VPS and the data that it contains. If you do not manage your VPS effectively, then you might find that hackers are gaining access to it and taking advantage by installing malicious programs such as viruses and root kits so that they can then use your VPS as a base to launch attacks on other vulnerable VPS and servers that are openly attackable from the internet.

One of the main steps that most VPS administrators take to ensure that their VPS are easily manageable, as well as safe and secure to ensure that they can’t be compromised is to install root kit hunting software as well as other pieces of anti-virus and normally set them to automatically scan their VPS at least once a day to ensure that their virtual environment doesn’t contain any malicious software - in a commercial environment such as one where you are hosting website design clients, you might want to set your machine to be scanned more than once a day to ensure maximum security for your clients and their data. Other steps that can be easily taken to ensure that you can manage your VPS effectively is to install some sort of control panel to help you manage the different aspects of your VPS; the control panel doesn’t have to be a web hosting related one, such as cPanel, since these are more likely to not be what you want especially if you are wanting to use your VPS for one specific purpose, in this case you should consider a server related control panel such as Webmin. Some server control panels that you should check out include:

• Webmin - http://www.webmin.com/
• HSphere - http://www.psoft.net/hsphere-overview.html

If you are looking to host clients on your VPS, then you should consider a control panel since this will allow you to manage all the people that you have hosted within the environment effectively, in most cases through a web based administration panel that is provided with most hosting control panels; a client control panel is also provided so that your clients can easily manage their hosting account that they have purchased from you. Some web host control panels that you should take a look at include:

• cPanel - http://www.cpanel.net/
• Plesk - http://www.swsoft.com/plesk/

cPanel VPS Hosting

cPanel has released a new version of its control panel product for use specifically on VPS servers, since it has been specially optimized to use a lower amount of memory when it is idle and not being used. cPanel for VPS contains the same features as the standard cPanel, but has certain parts of it tweaked to ensure that the amount of memory that it uses at idle time is reduced by up to 60% in some situations. For web masters and web hosts who are hosting their clients on cPanel based VPS, this will allow them to host more domains per VPS since there will be more memory that will be available for websites which are hosted on VPS, which means that web hosts can cash in on this extra memory so that they can host more customers per VPS. For example, testing with a VPS that has 500MB RAM has shown that with the standard installation of cPanel, the server only has 248MB RAM free at any given time, even when its idle, which means that cPanel is using up 252MB of RAM when it isn’t even being used by anyone; cPanel for VPS was then installed on this VPS to see what the change would be, and it was found that when idle, cPanel for VPS using up a maximum of 90MB RAM leaving at least 495MB of RAM free for use by other programs.

cPanel has managed to optimize its control panel to ensure lower memory usage by tweaking the Apache instance that is installed along with it, which is what serves the websites that are hosted on the VPS to the people who are viewing them; Apache is known to be a bit of a memory hogger on Linux machines, which means that with some tweaking it is able to run at the same speed, but without using so many resources - other programs that are installed alongside the cPanel control panel have also been optimized to reduce the amount of memory which they use. Since the amount of memory used has been reduced, it enables web hosts to provide clients with a more economic hosting solution, since they don’t have to have as many physical machines since they can use VPS which means that they only need to have one physical machine for a certain amount of VPS. cPanel for VPS is still in its EDGE build, which means that there isn’t a stable release of it available for wide use at this moment in time; for now, you should only test cPanel for VPS and should stick with a regular cPanel install in a live environment since the fact that it isn’t stable yet could mean that it would affect the performance of your VPS.

Getting Started with Web Hosting Business

Platform and Control Panel Choice

The platform on which you are going to base your first reseller hosting package or server is an important choice, since it can affect the final choice of prospective customers because of their needs; the control panel which you choose to provide your customers with can also affect your ability to gain customers - this is because some might be more familiar with one control panel which they have used in the past rather than the one that you have chosen to provide them with. In terms of the platform which you choose to base your web hosting packages on, you are limited to two options which are used by most of the main players within the website hosting industry - these are Windows and Linux; Windows is a commercial operating system which you can only use upon the purchase of a license from its manufacturer, Microsoft - Linux on the other hand is an open source operating system which requires no paid for license to allow you to run it, which means you are able to install it on as many computer as you want without the need to pay for any licenses what-so-ever. Platforms and operating systems you should check out include:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and 2008 - http://www.microsoft.com/servers/default.mspx
• CentOS Linux - http://www.centos.org/
• Ubuntu Linux - http://www.ubuntu.org/

There are many different web hosting control panels out there on the market for you to choose from, although your final choice normally boils down to what your web host is able to provide you with since their prices are normally a lot cheaper than if you were to buy a license for a piece of control panel software direct from the supplier; this means that although there may be many different control panels for you to choose from, you are in a sense limited by your web host since they will most likely be unable to provide you with every control panel. When choosing a control panel on which you are going to base your web hosting packages, you should check out all features of the control panels which you are testing - this means that you should always check out the client and reseller panels as well as the administration panel to ensure that you get a good idea of how easy the control panel will be for your customers to use, as well as for the customers of customers to use in terms of resellers; you should also get other people who aren’t so computer ’savvy’ to test out the same control panels as you, since this ensures that the control panel which you choose to base your web hosting packages on is usable for all people. In most cases, the control panel which you choose to base your web hosting packages upon is chosen in relation to the operating system on which you want to base your web hosting packages, since some control panels are only able to work with one operating system whereas others come in multiple versions so that they can be run on most well known operating systems; for example cPanel has been designed for use on Linux distributions only, although a version for Microsoft Windows 2008 is currently in development, and Plesk is a control panel that has been designed for use on both Microsoft Windows and Linux website hosting platforms - this means that you can use the control panel for either operating system. There are many different web hosting control panels on the market, although the main ones which you should take a look at include:

• cPanel - http://www.cpanel.net/
• Parallels (Formally SWSoft) Plesk - http://www.parallels.com/en/products/plesk/
• LXAdmin - http://lxlabs.com/software/lxadmin-sse/

The actual choice of operating system on which you are going to base your web hosting packages can be affected by the skills which you have to administrate a server, in the case that you have opted to go for either a virtual private server or a dedicated server; this is because administering a server can be a complicated task at the best of times, which means that if you don’t have the necessary skills to administrate the server which you have purchased, you might not be able to provide your customers with good service, since it means that if a problem does occur with the server, you won’t be able to fix it. Although your web host might provide support for their virtual private server and dedicated server hosting packages, the support provided might not cover all issues - this might be because it is limited to upgrading third party software that is provided, and that the support staff are not obliged to fix any internal problems with the server; this means that you should try and get your server administration skills up to scratch before embarking on purchasing a hosting package which would provide you with a dedicated environment.

Billing Systems

One of the main components of a successful web hosting business is a web based billing and account management system, so that your customers are able to pay their web hosting bills online and so that you are able to manage and view your customers details as well as packages that they have purchased through a web interface with ease; this means that if you have a numerous amount of customers, you can easily manage them online and contact them quickly and easily as appropriate, if needs be.

Most web host billing systems are not just billing systems, for example some have help desk systems built into them, and as mentioned before, you can also use them to easily manage your customers - even if you happen to have millions of them; this means that you can have an all in one system where you can meet your customers needs in both the areas of support and management. A support help desk system within a billing system allows your customers to open ‘support tickets‘ which are then assigned a unique id so that you are able to manage them easily, and are able to refer to tickets quickly if a customer was to quote you the ticket’s unique id via some other method of communication, such as over the telephone. Most support ticket systems allow correspondence for any ticket via 2 methods - email and a web interface; most systems employ a technology known as ‘email piping‘ which collects the emails from a specified email inbox and them processes them to be displayed within the web interface which should be provided - ticket replies from staff members are emailed back to the email address of the person who opened the ticket and replies from the customer are piped through to the web interface, the web interface itself shows the correspondence between the two parties in order so that you can quickly read through the correspondence if you have the need to.

All good web host billing systems incorporate a large range of payment gateways, so that you can are able to use the payment gateway of your choice to receive payments from your customers for the web hosting services that they have purchased from you - this process is a lot quicker than having to process old fashioned types of payment such as personal cheque; when looking for billing systems, you might also discover API systems for third part fraud detection systems - these are in place to safe guard the security of both your business, and the potential victims - these systems normally mark certain orders as fraud if they are believed to be fraud.

If you are starting out in the web hosting market, then you should always consider buying a license for a piece of billing software that you are able to pay for on a monthly lease, since this means that you are not loosing any money on your billing system if your web hosting business was to fail for some reason or another - if funds do not allow for a monthly lease then you can easily consider a free alternative, although the features of these can be relatively limited when compared to those of their commercial counterparts. As is the case with control panels, you and others should always test both the client and administration side of any web host billing system before you purchase anything; this is because it will allow you to gain the feedback of others apart from yourself which you can then use to help you make your final decision about which web hosting billing system you are going to use for your new web hosting company. You should also consider the installation service for your chosen application which is most probably provided by the company from which you purchased the application; this is because you can ensure that a full and secure installation of the application concerned has been done, to give you peace of mind - it also means that you can have the application installed for you in the situation that you don’t have the necessary knowledge to carry out the task. Although there are many different web hosting billing systems, the main ones which one should have a look at include:

• WHMCS - http://www.whmcs.com/
• ModernBill - http://www.modernbill.com/
• PHPCoin - http://www.phpcoin.com/

Marketing Your Web Hosting Business

Once you have the basics of your new web hosting business laid out and operational, you need to start promoting it where possible so that you can start receiving new customer sign ups, which in turn will help boost your business’s income and customer base. There are many different ways in which you can market and promote your new business in the beginning - some of these options being ones which you have to pay for, and others which are free but require your hard work and will power to ensure that they produce the results that you want; an example of a paid for method which you could use to help promote and market your new web hosting business would be you buying an SEO package from either your web host or from another specialist to ensure that your business’s website gets listed and indexed by all the major search engines on the internet, an example of a free method would be you optimizing your own website so that search engines will give it a higher page rank, and in turn send more visitors to your website through the use of key word searches.

If you have the necessary funds to do so, then you can consider using certain PPC (pay per click) programs to help get adverts for your new business placed on participating publisher websites; most PPC programs deploy adverts on publisher websites based on keywords which you enter when creating the advert, as well as the category which the webmaster of the publishing site has decided to place their website in - this means that your advert will be targeted at people who are on websites most likely looking for web hosting, which ensures that the right people will be sent to your website and will hopefully in turn purchase a web hosting package off you. SEO can play a big roll in the amount of visitors which you receive to your website, this is because the more SEO friendly your website is, the higher the page rank search engines will give you. A higher page rank means in the terms of most search engines that your website will appear higher in the results for certain key word searches. Main different companies run PPC programs, although the main ones which are used by many include:

• Google Adwords - http://www.google.com/adwords/
• Yahoo Overture - http://www.overture.com/
• AdBrite - http://www.adbrite.com/

Basic SEO involves the editing of content on your website to ensure that it is as keyword rich as possible - the more common key words which you decide to use within your content, the more subjects and searches that search engines will link your website to; other basic SEO techniques including the building up of back links to your website from other websites of a similar subject - this will help since it will mean that people who are looking at web hosting related websites might actually be looking for web hosting - and when they see a link to your website, they will most likely click and if they like the look of your packages and prices, will buy their web hosting off you. In some cases you can also do link exchanging with websites of a similar subject to yours; this process involves the placing of a link to your website on that of another website, and then you will link back to the other website involved. Although you might be tempted to purchase a program or plan from another web host which claims to increase the amount of traffic to your website, you should always be cautious when looking at these plans and should never spend too much money on things such as this; this is because all these plans do in most cases is submit your website to other search engines which it might not already be in - although this may sound good at first, it might not give the increased amount in visitors which it claims to provide. If you don’t have the necessary knowledge for SEO, nor the funds to splash out on a special package then you could always hire a professional who might be able to do it for you at a cut rate.

Conclusion

In conclusion, with the use of the correct domain name you can help make your business’s name memorable for your customers; this in itself can help you out since it means that if your name is memorable, then it will be easier for your customers to refer their friends and colleagues who need web hosting to your business. You should also now know to consider the client side of a control panel when you are testing it and deciding whether to use as part of your web hosting business or not; by putting yourself in the customer’s shoes and getting the opinions of others on certain things can help produce the best results for your business, and can make your customers happier with the service which they are receiving.

Even though you might be putting yourself in the customer’s shoes, you should still consider how usable the administration side of an application or control panel is for you; this is because you will be using the administration panels day in and day out if your business is to be successful, and it is because of this that you should ensure that you can easily familiarize yourself with the applications and control panels which you will be using. Marketing your web hosting business is one of the most important tasks that you will ever carry out; this is because the amount of customer which you receive to your business will depend on how well you market your website, and whether you carry out a good level of SEO - this will mean making sure that your content is keyword rich, and that you have a large amount of back links so that people can find your business from other websites, and so that search engines give you a higher page rank.

Many people want to start a web hosting business in this modern technical age, in most cases because people see it as a cheap and easy way to make a quick bit of money - but for those who want to make a success out of their hosting business in the long term, time, hard work and dedicated are needed to ensure that their business turns out to be the success that they want it to be; however, establishing yourself in the web hosting market these days is becoming ever more difficult since most people have had the same idea and also because the main companies within this market are offering good quality hosting at dirt cheap prices - although this might sound daunting, a more competitive market means that you have the opportunity to make the most of your business by trying to promote it and get it out there in front of the consumer as much as possible. For most people, starting a web hosting business is a process which needn’t require any large amount of money, since most existing web hosts are able to provide cheap reseller package which allow you to resell the web space that you are assigned to your customers; some reseller packages also include useful tools which are there to help you get your web hosting business off the ground - for example your reseller package might include a license for a web hosting billing system so that you are able to bill your customers who have purchased your hosting automatically online without the need for any complicated and frustrating paper work. You should only start a web hosting business if you are dedicated to making your business successful, and are able to provide your customers with the necessary support so that they are satisfied with the experience that they have with you, and not if you are in it purely for the money and plan to just abandon your customers after a certain amount of time; this is because great frustration can be caused to customers if the web host that they have signed up with decides to cease existance after a certain amount of time since in most cases it means that the data they have stored within their shared website hosting space that they have purchased is wiped meaning that they are unlikely to retrieve it - on the other hand, if you want to make your business successful then it is important that you provide your customers with a good level of support since it means that they are then highly likely to refer you to their friends and colleagues who might need hosting, and it is commonly known that ‘word of mouth’ can easily help make a success out of any business. If you are completely new to the world of web hosting and web design, then it is important that you do a good amount of research before embarking on setting up your own web hosting business; this is because you will most likely require server administration skills amongst other skills as your business starts to grow - these skills will most probably not be needed at the establishment of your business since you will probably be using a reseller hosting package, which means that the administration of the server on which you are hosted is taken care of by the trained technicians who are employed by your web host. Website design skills would also be a big bonus for you if you were to start a web hosting business; this is because you will need a website on which you can show case your products, although you can eaily purchase a template to use on your website, these are known to turn customers away from web hosting businesses since they interpret it as saying ‘we can’t be bothered to build our own website, so why should we be bothered with anything else’. In terms of money to start a web hosting business, domains and reseller packages are cheap these days which means that you should be easily able to start a small web hosting business for under $50; although that price only covers the basics such as a domain and a reasonable specification reseller package, free or cheap alternatives of other expensive components of a website hosting business such as a billing system or help desk can be easily picked up.

Domains and Business Names

The first thing you need if you are to start a web hosting business is a domain name, so that people are able to find your business and website easily via the use of a search engine; a domain is used so that people can easily access your website from any web browser, at any internet connected location in the world. When choosing a domain that you are planning to use for your web hosting business, you should make sure that it is one which is linked to the subject, so that prospective customers get an idea of the purpose of the business before they actually reach your website; by using a domain name which is relevant to the subject of the actual website, you ensure that customers are able to easily recall your business’s name and its sole purpose - even if they do forget the purpose of the business, they can easily work it out again through the meaning of the name of the business. You should also make the domain which you want to use for your web hosting business short in length, as well as easy to spell; this means that it is easier both clients current and prospective to remember - for example, the sort length means that the word ordering won’t be forgotten easily, and the fact that it is easy to spell means that your current customers can easily refer their friends and colleagues who need web hosting to your business. As is the case with a domain for any purpose, you should always try and make your domain name as individual as possible; this is because it can help your customers prospective and current to remember your website’s address as well as your business’s name - an individual name also means that you are less likely to end up using the name of an existing company or finding that the domain name which you want has been taken for use by somebody else. It is highly important that the name which you have chosen to use for your business is not being used by another person or company which is already in existance, its for this reason that you should always make the necessary checks within your country to ensure that no one else is using the desired name; if someone does find that you have started to trade under their name, and have owned the name or have been trading longer than you, they have the right to sue you to ensure that you stop using the name in question if a dispute over the name does break out or if you refuse the original owners calls t stop using the name or brand. When purchasing a domain from any good domain regsitrar, they will ask the TLD which you want the domain have - the TLD is the ‘Top Level Domain Name’ which in most cases is relevant to the country which you want to aim the website in question towards, for example the TLD for the United Kingdom is ‘.uk’ with variations being ‘.co.uk’ and ‘.me.uk’; you should always ensure that the TLD which you choose to use for your business is relevant to the country at which you want your hosting to be purchased from, if you have no target country in question then you should use the ‘.com’ domain extension. One thing to note is that you can pick up domains cheaply from any good domain registrar on the internet; it is advise that you buy domains from an American registrar since in most cases they work out cheaper than UK based or other foreign domain registrars. Once you have chosen your business name and domain name, as long as it has not already been done so by someone else who is using the same brand, you should register your company name as a trademark to ensure that no one else is allowed to trade under that name; this means that if someone else does try to setup a business which has the same name as yours, they will not be able to since you will be able to sue them since a registered trademark is basically means that you own the name in question and that no one else is able to use it without your prior permission or consent - this is especially important if you are planning to make your business last and if you want to start earning a good income out of your investment - if you don’t then someone could easily come along and start trading roguely under your name, and even ruin your company’s reputation.

Reseller Package, VPS or Dedicated Server

Before you start taking on customers for your web hosting business, you need to have something on which you can host them; there are three choices for you to choose from when you are starting your web hosting business, these are: reseller hosting packages, virtual private servers or dedicated servers. Reseller hosting packages are packages which you buy from an established web host which allow you to sell on the disk space and bandwidth that it assigned to you to your customers - your customers in turn will have their own client accounts which they can then use to manage the domains and websites which they have chosen to host with you; the good thing with reseller packages is that the server administration is taken care of by your web host, which means although you aren’t allowed direct root or administrator access to the server to install the programs that you want to, you don’t have to have any advanced server administration skills since all that work is carried out by the trained technicians who are employed by your web host. Virtual private servers are not real servers in terms of them being physical, but they still provide you with a dedicated environment similar to that which is provided by a dedicated server when you are using it - this means that you can get the same control as you would have with a dedicated server, but at a fraction of the cost; the thing with virtual private servers that sets them apart from dedicated servers is the fact that you are still sharing a server with other people, since there are normally multiple virtual private servers hosted on one physical node - although you are assigned your own guaranteed bandwidth, disk space and RAM, the CPU of the physical node is normally shared between all the VPS hosted on a single node but not equally, but in some cases web hosts will split the CPU between the VPS so that each gets a fair share. Dedicated servers are the most expensive solution for any web host who is starting out in the industry; this is because what you are paying for is a physical server which is not shared with anyone else in any way what-so-ever. Dedicated servers, like virtual private servers provide you with a dedicated environment in which you are able to install any program of your choice, which in turn means that you are able to customize the server to work in the way that you want it to; this means that if you want to focus on a specific type of web hosting which requires for a special program to be installed on the hosting server, then you can - an example of this would be if you wanted to provide ShoutCast radio hosting for your customers via the cPanel control panel, in this case you would have to install ShoutCast and the necessary cPanel add-on which is required to allow your customers to manage their ShoutCast accounts through the cPanel control panel. Your choice of package should reflect which stage you are with your web hosting business; this means that if you are just starting out with your business then you should consider a reseller hosting package since they are fairly cheap and give you lots of room to allow you to expand over time - once you have outgrown your reseller hosting account you can then decide to move up to a virtual private server if you feel the need to and if your funds allow you to, if you have been running your business for a while and have built up a small customer base then you should consider a virtual private server - the same is applicable if you have a large customer base or if you want to provide your customers with a different type of hosting which means that you will need a certain program installed on the server which wouldn’t be available if you had a standard shared or reseller hosting package. If you have a relatively large customer base, but don’t have the funds to purchase either a virtual private server or a dedicated server then you could easily go with a higher end reseller package; this means that as your business starts to grow you can then upgrade through the various reseller plans that are provided by your web host, and as time and money allows you can then upgrade to either a virtual private server or dedicated server as you see fit. If you are starting out with a dedicated server of a virtual private server, then you should consider the resources that have been assigned to you; this is because you might have a server with a large amount of disk space which will allow you to host many websites, but you might not have a high enough specification processor or enough bandwidth to match the amount of disk space that you have been provided with.

cPanel provides many advanced features that you can use to help improve your website from a technical aspect as well as from a functionality aspect if you choose to use certain features. Some of the advanced features can help you choose how the installed web server processes requests for files of a certain extension from your website; this means that you are able to choose specific programs that are installed on the shared hosting server on which you are hosted to process requests for certain file extensions which a user or website visitor might enter into their web browser under the domain name or website which you own - in basic this means that you can choose how the web server that is installed on your server, in most cases Apache, deals with some of the files that you have hosted within your web space. A Frontpage Extension manager is provided built-in to cPanel to allow you to manage the extensions which will affect how some of your files that you have created within Microsoft’s now defunct Frontpage web page creator are handled by the server; this feature can be quite important for some people since if they don’t have the Frontpage Extension options for their domain configured correctly then the web pages which they have spent time creating within Frontpage will not function within their shared cPanel website hosting space, which in turn might mean that they will have to move web hosts to ensure that they can find one at which their website will actually function correctly. Other features provided with cPanel allow you to manage custom error pages for your domain, in the case that you have this option enabled; this means that if an error does happen to occur on your website then you can still keep up the graphical identity of your website by carrying on your website’s design into the error pages, in turn meaning that your logo and design will still be displayed to your visitors even if your website does happen to go down due to an error with either your website and its code or on the actual server on which your website resides. Some people also use scheduled tasks to ensure that the important functions of their website are run automatically without the need for any manual intervention; this enables them to ensure that important tasks such as invoicing can be carried out automatically at any time of the day without the need for anyone to be there to run the task automatically - tasks which are run automatically are normally ones which are of the utmost importance and require for the tasks which they carry out to be done at a regular interval otherwise major problems could be caused. Another feature allows you to find out any information about a domain in terms of the technical side of things; this means that if you are trying to link some part of your site up to that of another website then you can use this feature to find out the technical information which you might need to ensure that you can carry out the task which you need to.

Within this article the ability to configure the web server on your hosting server to handle certain file extensions which might be individual to your website will be discussed; this means that you can tell the web server how you want certain parts of your website to be handled by the website by defining what program is used to handle requests for certain file extensions that are contained within your website. Image features unique to cPanel will also be discussed within this article; this means that you will be given the ability to change the size of images which are contained within your website as well as be able to generate thumbnails of images contained within your website which you can then place within your web pages as links to the larger images which can then decrease the loading time of your web pages if larger versions of th images concerned were being used beforehand, you will also be given the ability to change the format of a picture if needed with the use of cPanel - this means that you might be able to gain a higher quality picture of a lower size picture which can help decrease the use of the disk space within your account which you can then assign to more useful tasks. Other features allow you to set up custom error pages for your website and domain name that you have chosen to host under your shared cPanel website hosting account; this means that you can still present your visitors with web pages branded with your design, even if an error does happen to occur with either your website or with the website hosting server on which you are hosted. The ability to schedule scripts and tasks to execute when you want will also be discussed; this means that you will then be able to make the important tasks of your website run automatically without the need for you to be at a computer to execute the script or task concerned manually, it also means that you can almost ensure that the task will be run on time and when needed which is one thing that a human can’t guarantee because of time accuracy and the fact that someone might not be able to get to get a computer to execute the necessary task or script when it needs to be done. The ability to configure the necessary extensions to ensure that your dynamic web pages which have been created with the use of Microsoft Frontpage will also work and function correctly as needed within your shared hosting environment; this means that you can build near dynamic websites for use within a shared hosting environment without the need for any technical work such as the use of databases and file permissions. If you face a problem with either your hosting account or the server that you are hosted on, then there is a cPanel feature that will allow for you to contact your web host to report the problem if your web host does not provide an external help desk for customers who face problems with the services that they have chosen to purchase from the web host that they have chosen. If you need to find out certain information about a domain, then there is a feature built into cPanel that you can use to find out the necessary technical information; this means that if you need to know certain information about a domain which is live on the internet then you can do certain lookups to find out the necessary information if you are in the situation that you need to use it for a specific reason. The option to define certain mime types for file types which you might have hosted within your shared cPanel website hosting account is also discussed; this means that you can tell the web browser of a visitor how to handle a particular file which the visitor is trying to access - this is good for you if you have chosen to use files on your website that have their own unique file extension for some reason or another - you can also use this feature if you want serve web pages to mobile phones that are based on the WAP technology, this is because some web servers don’t have the necessary mime types set to allow WAP browsers view websites properly, which means that you have to configure the correct mime type in your web hosting account if your host doesn’t have them set to allow you to start serving pages to WAP devices almost immediately.

Apache Handlers

The Apache Handlers feature of cPanel allows you to control how Apache handles requests for files of a certain type or extension from search engines and visitors; this means that you can choose how Apache handles files that you have contained within your shared cPanel website hosting space, and how they are handled when search engines come crawling or when people come to visit your website through their web browser. This feature gives you the ability to be able to run files with custom extensions from within your shared cPanel website hosting space; this is because you are able to specify the program or action that you want Apache to use when a request for a file of the extension concerned is made - this can help you in terms of security since it means that if you specify a custom file extension when configuring the required Apache handlers, hackers will not be able to distinguish the server side language that your website has been created in, which means that without this information they can’t make an accurate attack on your website because their attacks can only be done if they know what language the pages have been written in, since they can only find script or page vulnerabilities with this information. You can also use this feature to help give it a unique identity in terms of the technical side of it; this is because your website will look more professional in the eyes of a specialist such as a programmer or website designer, since the use of a custom file extension throughout your website makes it look like that the person who has created it or maintains it is very knowledgable in terms of technology - when in fact a basic cPanel feature has been used to ensure that a certain program has been used to execute files which take the file extension concerned. As well as being able to create your own Apache handlers to allow Apache to handle files which have a custom file type by using a particular program, you can also use this feature to see Apache handlers which have been automatically set up by cPanel when it was installed as well as custom ones which your web host might have set up to be used by all the occupants who have their website hosted on the same server as yourself; this means that you might not have to create custom Apache handlers since there might be server wide rules already in place for the particular extension which you want to tell Apache how to handle. The good thing with this feature is that any rules which you create yourself will only affect the files and websites that you have hosted under your shared cPanel website hosting account; this means that those custom rules which have been created by people with accounts who are hosted on the same server as you are not going to affect your websites or files which you host within your web space, nor will the custom rules that you create affect your ‘neighbours’ who are hosted on the same website hosting server as you are - but system wide rules will affect all websites and accounts that are hosted on the server concerned.

Image Tools

The image tools feature of cPanel allows you to carry out many actions on any image which you have hosted within your shared cPanel website hosting account; this means that you can carry out necessary image editing without having to be at a computer with which you have the necessary tools installed to edit the images that you have edited within your web hosting space, instead you can do the necessary editing on the fly from any internet connected computer from which you can access cPanel. Within this cPanel feature you are able to create thumbnails of images that you have hosted within your shared cPanel website hosting account; this means that you can create smaller versions of larger images for displaying within standard web pages - this means that you are able to create fast loading web pages which still contain the images that you want - one thing to note is that thumbnails are usually used as a link to the full sized image so that visitors can still see the image that they have come to see on your website. Another feature within the image tools feature of cPanel allows you to change the size of images which you have hosted within your shared cPanel website hosting account; this means that if an image which you have located within a web page is taking up too much space on the page, or is too big for its purpose then you can easily resize it to a smaller size on the fly through cPanel without the need for any specialist photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Fireworks - both of which can cost hundreds of pounds - you should consider resizing as many images that you have hosted within your shared cPanel website hosting account as possible, this is because the bigger the dimensions of the image, the bigger its file size, which means that images could be taking up unnecessary disk space that you have assigned to your shared cPanel website hosting account. The third and final feature of the cPanel image tools feature is an image file format converter; this convenient feature allows you to change the file extension of images from one type (e.g. .jpg) to another (e.g. .bmp) - this feature can be handy in saving the amount of disk space which is used by some images that you have hosted within your shared cPanel website hosting account, this is because images of one format can take more space than those of which possess a different file extension since the type of file extension used normally links back to the quality of the image concerned - one thing to note about this tool is the fact that by converting images to a file format such as Bitmap (.bmp) could result in a loss of quality from the image concerned. You should always be careful when using the image tools that cPanel provides you with to manage and edit images that you have contained within your shared cPanel website hosting account effectively; this is because the changes you make are in most cases irreversible, which means that if you are doing the managing or editing from a remote location when you don’t have an original copy of the image you are editing, and you end up making an incorrect edit then you won’t be able to replace the edited image with the original which could cause some inconvenience and annoyance for both you and your website’s visitors.

Index Manager

The index manager feature of cPanel allows you to customize the way in which a directory appears to a passing website visitor when there isn’t any default page within the directory to be shown to visitors; this means that if a visitor does happen to stumble across an open directory within your website with no default/index page, they will still be shown the index which has been styled to ensure that it looks the way you want it to look - this is a big plus for cPanel since many other control panels do not give you the ability to do this. When using the index manager, you are presented with several different options; you are able to specify whether you want indexing for certain directories that you have hosted within your shared cPanel website hosting allowed or not - if you have indexing disabled then visitors and search engine spiders will be presented with a 403 error page, which will say that they are forbidden from being able to access the directory concerned - files within the directory will still be directly accessible, it just means that the actual index page showing all the files which are hosted within the directory concerned is not displayed. If you have indexing for certain directories that are contained within your web space enabled, then visitors will be openly able to browse the directory concerned and will have the ability to see all the files that the directory concerned holds within itself, meaning that the security of certain files can be easily compromised; however, unlike directories which forbid external access, search engine spiders will be able to crawl open directories which means that any files that you have contained within the directories which you have left open for people to browse will be accessible directly from search engines if a user was to enter keywords that are linked to files that might be hosted within the directories concerned that are contained within your shared cPanel website hosting account. There are also two other options that you can choose from when using the index manager feature of cPanel; those two options are text-only indexing as well as graphical and text indexing. Text only indexing means that the index page which is shown is only text based; this means that the file list will still be displayed, but will only have basic formatting when displayed - this feature can be handy for you if you are to have open directories that are going to be accessed by many people, since this type of index page will not use up much bandwidth since it won’t contain any images. Graphic and text index pages will be slightly more bandwidth heavy than their text based counterparts; this is because images can use up slightly more bandwidth and just plain text based pages, graphics and text based index pages should only be used in the situation where you are going to have a small amount of people accessing the directory concerned, because of the reason of bandwidth usage in relation to the amount of graphics that the actual index page contains.

Error Pages

The error pages feature of cPanel allows you to configure Apache to display custom error pages that you have created for display when your website suffers some sort of error or problem; this means that if your website endures a problem, an informative error page will be shown to the visitor containing your website’s design, meaning that your website can still retain its corporate identity even during a problem whether it be with the website’s code or one with the server on which the website is hosted. Custom error pages mean that you can display a custom message to visitors when a problem occurs with your website or the server that it is hosted on; this means that you can display an informative message to your users which you have written yourself, and not an uninformative message which has been generated automatically by the server which you are hosted on - automatically generated error messages are normally very technical and are usually of no use to the visitor or the person who is viewing the message unless they either have a sufficient amount of technical knowledge to understand the server, or if you are the server administrator who can then take the necessary action to rectify the problem if it is within a script that is hosted within your web space, or contact your web host with information of the problem if it happens to be a server side one which you are unable to fix yourself since you are on shared hosting, therefore meaning that you have no root or administrator access to the hosting server. cPanel allows you to setup custom error pages for five of the most common website and server side errors which could occur with either your website and the code that has been used to create it, or with the main host node on which your shared cPanel website hosting account is hosted; the error codes which can have custom error pages are 400, 401, 403, 404 and 500 - a 400 error normally refers to a bad gateway which means that a connection can’t be established to the server on which your website is hosted, a 401 error is one which will ask somebody for login details in order for them to be able to access either a password protected directory or file which you have hosted within your shared cPanel website hosting account, a 403 error will be displayed when someone has tried to gain access to either a protected directory or file to which they are not allowed access, a 404 error page will be shown when a visitor tries to reach a directory or file under your domain name that doesn’t exist and a 500 error page will be displayed when there is an internal problem with either the code in which a page has been produced with or with the server itself which means that the directory, page or file that is trying to be accessed can’t be processed and in turn displayed properly because of either a code or server problem.

Mime Types

The mime types feature of cPanel allows you to set up certain settings that will tell the browsers of visitors to your website how to handle specific file extensions which users might be trying to access. This means that if you are using custom file extensions within your website for whatever reason, you can use this feature to tell your visitor’s browsers how to handle the files with custom extensions, and with another feature you can configure the server to run a specific program for files of a certain custom extension that are hosted within your shared cPanel website hosting account. The main idea of mime types if to help you as the account holder to make use of new web technologies as they become available, even if your web host doesn’t - one thing to note though is that some technologies might require some server side work in order for them to function, and not just the simple adding or modification of mime types within your web hosting account; for example when WAP technology started to enter the world of web development, many web hosts did not have their servers setup correctly to allow WAP browsers to visit and view pages which people have designed for WAP compatible devices and have chosen to host within their shared cPanel website hosting account. For the most common file extensions which you and other people who are hosted on the same server as you will most probably using, the mime types have already been setup and correctly installed for use by everyone who is hosted on the server; this means that if you are new to the concept of web hosting and want to get your website started up trouble free and are not planning on using any complicated technologies within your website, then shared cPanel based website hosting is the right type of hosting for you since with the mime types being already installed, you needn’t alter anything complicated within your shared website hosting account. As mentioned previously, if you have the necessary knowledge and want use your website a custom way in relation to the server, then you can use the mime types feature to set up custom mime types for the files which you might have hosted within your shared website hosting account; the good thing with this feature is that any custom mime types that you set up within your shared website hosting account will not affect any other websites or hosting accounts that are hosted on the same web hosting server as you, and any custom mime types which other people who are hosted on the same server as you will not have any effect on the files which you have hosted within your shared cPanel website hosting account. Also, most of the main mime types have been set up by either cPanel or your web host which means that the most basic files can be run without the need for any custom mime types.

Cron Jobs

The cron jobs feature of CPanel allows you to setup certain scripts that you might have running under your website to be run automatically at a certain time to carry out certain tasks which they have been designed for. The most common use of cron jobs (sometimes referred to as ‘Cron Jobs’ in terms of Linux website hosting) is to carry out tasks which need to be carried out on a regular basis without manual intervention; an example of a cron job in use would be in a web host billing system, where invoices for customers need to be generated at the beginning of the day without any manual intervention. You might also find cron jobs running in the situation where notifications of some sort need to be sent out to website visitors on a regular basis to ensure that they are aware of the latest information or of a new update in their account which they need to be made aware of. When setting up a cron job within CPanel, you are given the option to enter the full command for the script to ensure that it is executed correctly so that you don’t have to come and run the script manually to make it carry out its assigned task correctly. You can also choose the exact time for the script to be run by CPanel automatically - right down to the last minute, you can also choose for scripts to be run every minute of the day but this isn’t recommended since it could easily use up many server resources, and if you are on shared website hosting, could lead to your CPanel shared website hosting account being suspended because of server resource hogging as it is known. You can also choose for CPanel to send you an email notification to tell you whether the cron job has been executed successfully by the server that you are hosted on. You can also select the priority of the task which means that if it is of a high priority, it will be executed before other tasks which might be of a lower priority but still being executed at the same time as yours. You can also specify extra arguments for the execution of the task which you have not specified in the text box labeled for the command. Cron jobs can be incredibly handy in the situation where you need to run a script or task on your website at a certain time or at a certain period and aren’t able to be at your computer to run these tasks or scripts yourself when you need to during the day; this is because the cPanel cron jobs feature gives you the ability to schedule tasks or scripts related to your website to run at any time of the day and at regular periods if it is really necessary for the running of your website.

Frontpage Extensions

Frontpage extensions are the extensions that web hosts install on their servers to allow people who have built their websites in Microsoft’s now defunct WYSIWYG editor, Frontpage, to run correctly if special Frontpage functions have been used during the development of the website. Frontpage provides website builders with many different functions that they can insert into their website to help make it more appealing to their visitors; addable functions include ones which can display the weather for a certain location on the same day that someone visits your website, as well as a visitor counter so that your visitors can see how many people have visited your website since you first put the counter on display. You can also add a guestbook to your website that visitors can then sign when they visit your website; you can allow them to comment on anything including the design and layout of your website - you can even use the guestbook as a source of feedback when you are looking to give your website a makeover or an upgrade of some sort in the future. The Frontpage extension manager that is built into CPanel allows you to configure certain preferences regarding the sending of email from web pages which have been designed and configured in Microsoft Frontpage; this means that Frontpage web pages have are able to have the same dynamics as their server side equivalents, but have no need for the use of databases or the setting of permissions to ensure that they are able to function correctly. Access to the Frontpage web admin is also provided so that you are able to manage and configure other features that may play a part in the running of your web pages that you have designed in Frontpage and then uploaded to your shared CPanel website hosting account space. You are also able to setup extra Frontpage management accounts with many configurable preferences including the amount of disk space that they are allowed to use. If you are new to the concept of website design and scripting then you should try and build your first web pages in Frontpage; this is because Frontpage provides you with many components and add-ins for your website which you can use to expand its interactivity since you could add a guestbook, for example, to allow your visitors to comment on your website as well as the content and design of it.

Conclusion

In conclusion, cPanel provides you with many advanced features that can help you advance your website in terms of the technology that you have used to build it and to allow it to function correctly; some of the advanced features that cPanel provides you with are unique to it as a control panel, meaning that some of the features would only be achievable in a dedicated environment such as that which is provided by both VPS and dedicated server hosting since no other website hosting control panel is able to provide you with the same features at such a high level. We have discussed the fact that you can use certain features from the advanced section of cPanel to help you use your own file extensions within your website, to help aid its technical identity which website designers and internet professionals might take a look at - the use of custom file extensions can also be used as a security measure to help deter hackers and other malicious attackers from attacking your website in any way; you can also tell a visitor’s internet browser how to handle a file of a certain extension which you might have hosted within your shared cPanel website hosting account. The use of custom error pages has also been discussed within the context of this article; this means that if an error was to occur with your website, you can use custom error pages which will ensure that the graphical/design identity of your website will still be displayed, even if there does happen to be a problem with it - you can also take advantage of this feature to assure your website’s visitors that you are working your hardest to try and fix the problem as quickly and as  efficiently as possible. Another advanced feature of cPanel can also be used to schedule tasks to automatically run, meaning that the most important tasks required for your website to run efficiently will still take place, but automatically meaning that you don’t have to be sitting at your computer to ensure that the task or script that you want to run at certain times of the day is run successfully and efficiently. Another advanced feature of cPanel allows you to configure and run the settings that are needed to ensure that you can run web pages which you have designed within Microsoft Frontpage, and then uploaded to your cPanel web space from your desktop so that they can be viewed by your website visitors; this means that you can easily design feature rich web pages from within Microsoft Frontpage and utilize the the advanced components that it supplied, safe in the knowledge that any web pages that you create using it will run and display with ease from within the context of your shared website hosting space. Another feature built into cPanel allows you to edit any pictures or images that you have contained within your website hosting account on the fly; this means that you can carry out complicated operations on images from any internet connected computer as long as you can access cPanel without the need for any expensive desktop image editing packages. You are also able to set how unprotected directories with no default/index page in them are displayed; you are given a range of options which means that you can choose whether to save on the amount of bandwidth used or not by unprotected directories that have no default web page contained within them.