cPanel and Plesk are two examples of web hosting control panels utilized by many hosting providers. Currently cPanel is only available for use on Linux operating systems, but this is set to change from 2008 when cPanel releases it’s cPanel/WHM 2008 Suite for Windows 2008; Plesk has been available for both Windows and Linux for a while now.

cPanel

cPanel is seen by many as the preferred control panel for Linux operating systems because of its quick loading times which is main due to the fact that the system is based mainly on Perl scripts meaning that it requires little to no database access at most times. cPanel also has greater capabilities than those which Plesk contains, these being that cPanel gives more server side information to the end user which they may need to use at times which can be mission critical in some cases; cPanel is also able to sort add-ons, examples of these include ‘Fantastico’ and ‘RVSkins’ – this add-on functionality also allows developers to build their own custom functions and programs for use within cPanel.

cPanel provides better reseller hosting than Plesk does. This is because cPanel has a specially created control panel included with it called WebHost Manager (WHM for short) which has been designed specifically for the purpose of reselling web hosting services. Plesk is only one control panel and makes setting up reseller account remarkably hard.

cPanel has also made migrating your hosting account to another cPanel hosting provider easy by intergrating a site migration module. This allows people to transfer all their sites and settings without loosing any data. This is something which makes cPanel stand out from the rest as it is something most control panels lack.

Plesk

Plesk is a cross platform control panel which is available in versions for both Windows and Linux. It is seen as the preferred control panel in the Windows hosting industry because its closest rival, HostingController, is remarkably unreliable and has helped give Plesk a big boost in the control panel industry. Plesk is a relatively closed operating system meaning that isn’t open for developers to create their own add-ons, however, it does have intergration for many other programs in different fields such as the ability to allow customers to use SmarterMail in the Windows version of Plesk.

Being a cross platform control panel, Plesk has the advantage over cPanel meaning that companies can run the same control panel on both panels meaning that minimum training is required for technicians as they only have to work out the operations of one control panel – this can save a business both time and money. However, on the security side of things Plesk for Windows doesn’t fair as well as it’s Linux counterpart or competitor do; there have been several holes found within the Plesk software allowing hackers to take control of a Windows server through the Plesk control panel, and the hacker can still gain access a second time after the administrator password on the server has been changed.

Conclusion

If you are after one control panel that suites all then go with Plesk – it can save you both time and money as a business and what you learn can be applied to both systems. However, if you prefer to go with the market leader and are willing to spend some time studying both options (cPanel for Linux, Plesk for Windows) then fo with cPanel as you will be able to customize it more to suite the environment in which you want your customers to control their websites.

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

If you think of all the different types of features and ‘bits and pieces’ you need for a website, you can imagine that it could take ages and an awful lot of technical knowledge to be able to set up, maintain and update the server for your website. However, alot of this can be done in a simple way with a use of a ‘Control Panel’ with an interface such as that in Windows.

The control panel I’m going to briefly outline (there is plenty more information on the net if you want further information) is cPanel. Initially designed for use on Linux based servers, this control panel is now in Beta for Windows servers and should be available in 2008. The interface itself is customisable with different skins being available as well as different themes. Once your domain name is pointed to the correct nameservers, you simply type www.mydomain.com/cpanel and a login prompt will appear. By providing the correct credentials you will then have access to make changes to your account on the hosting server.

In cPanel itself, there are many features allowing for the configuration of email settings including accounts and mailing lists, the restriction and filtering of spam, autoresponders, forwarders and many more. All of this is done through an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) available from any computer with internet and a browser making it widely accessible even to those with little technical knowledge.

Aside from email configurations, there are backup options as well as controls for ftp accounts, easy methods to password protect directories, block IP addresses, hotlink protect (image protection) and integreated links to other programs such as phpMyAdmin. If you ever wanted a CGI counter or countdown on your website (to name just two), it is as simple as clicking on the ‘CGI Center’ and selecting the counter style etc. you want.

If you do want to do slightly more complicated tasks, cPanel allows you to control ‘Cron Jobs’ (commands that run at a set time), create customised error pages and frontpage extensions to name just a few. It should you the full service status of the server it is running on including which services are running etc.

One of the more interesting and helpful programs for new hosting customers is an addon from netenberg.com call Fantastico. This program integrated into cPanel and allows you to install a vast range of programs at with just a few clicks. These programs include forums, blogs, photo galleries, billing systems, e-commerce engines etc. etc. etc. making a possibly daunting installation of a forum a breeze and allowing far more choice for people with limited technical knowldege.

Although this is only a brief overview, more information is available on the official cpanel website at www.cpanel.net. CPanel is one of the most stable and widely used control panels in the hosting industry and with all of its features, it isn’t difficult to see why.

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

One of the most important task if you are a webmaster or a business website owner is to constantly update the website as well as perform routine tasks. Certain tasks such as running scripts, sending e-mails to a mailing list, or updating a database involve daily attention. However, there are times when you may fail to perform the task on hand at the right time. At time, some tasks may be too difficult for you to handle that they might take up a lot of your time and effort. You certainly can’t afford to miss performing certain tasks on time if you own a website that has a considerable number of visitors or subscribers consequences of which may result in loss and damaged company reputation for inability to deliver services on time.

You have a forum on your website and you wish to have a setting on it which should automatically delete account holders that have not been active for say last 100 days. Instead of manually sending a notification to each and every member, why not use a cron to make the task much more easier for you? With a cron job, you can easily monitor the inactive accounts and who among your members will automatically receive an e-mail reminder after exactly 100 days.

Cron jobs are automated programs created for Unix and Linux platforms. Their job is to complete the tasks by following the particular commands a web developer has assigned them to execute at the exact time and given date. For example, if you wish to send a group e-mail every morning at 7.00 or on the 3rd day of every month. With the help of Cron Job, you don’t have to to wake up yourself at 7.00 just to write the content of the group e-mail and send it to all members. All you need to do is set the time and date of the message delivery using the crontab.

A crontab is the file where cron settings are found. It contains the following fields: commands, minutes, hours, days, months, and weekdays. You can fill these fields with the information that will suit your needs or preferences. In case one option is not applicable like the minutes field, all you need to do is place an asterisk (*) instead. The actual crontab is presented through a text file that will require you to write complex codes or syntax. To make it more convenient to use, most web hosting providers nowadays offer a user-friendly version of a crontab. It’s now in the form of a web control panel that is fairly easy to configure.

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

To restart cPanel, login via SSH and run the following command:

/etc/init.d/cpanel restart

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

Do you find that your Cheap VPS Hosting or dedicated hosting machine is regularly running out of memory because of cPanel? The following tutorial will help you overcome this, and help you to make your machine run faster.

Stopping SpamAssassin

This program isn’t overly important to the stopping of spam. To turn it off do the following:

Go to WHM > Server Configuration > Tweak Settings > Disable Spamd

And:

Go to WHM > Service Manager > Disable Spamd

Stopping Mailman

If you or none of your customers aren’t running any mail listings through cPanel, it would be a good idea to disable Mailman.

Go to WHM > Server Configuration > Tweak Settings > Disable Mailman

Never Use Tomcat on a VPS

Never run TomCat on a VPS because of it’s high RAM needs.

Disable CatchAll

If you’re undergoing a mail attack, catch all can use up many resources + storage. To disable do the following:

Go to WHM > Server Configuration > Tweak Settings > Change to :fail:

Tweak Apache

Apache can be quite a memory consuming monster on it’s own. To tweak, do the following:

vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

(Press ‘shift’ and ‘i’ to enable inserting/editing.)

Change the following settings:

MinSpareServers 2
MaxSpareServers 5

StartServers 3

Save the file by pressing ‘esc’, then type ‘:wq:’, then hit return.

After that, restart Apache: /etc/init.d/httpd restart

All that should reduce your memory useage by a large amount.

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts