The Main cPanel Interface

If you have successfully logged into your account, you should be presented with the main cPanel interface, shown below:

Your web host may offer more or fewer features than you see in the screenshot. Also, it is possible that your web host uses a different cPanel theme. To see some other cPanel themes, please turn to Chapter 12.

At the extreme top right side of the cPanel interface you will see two links, HOME and LOGOUT. Clicking HOME will bring you back to this main cPanel screen from wherever you are and clicking LOGOUT will end your session in cPanel.

At the top of the screen you will find information about your web hosting account. You are welcomed to your domain (domain.com) and next to that there is the IP address of the last person that last logged into your cPanel account (if this is your first time logging in you should see None Recorded as shown in the previous figure). The IP address display may help you figure out if your account has been compromised or accessed without your permission. If you see an IP address you don’t recognize, you may wish to contact your web host to have them investigate (but please be sure the IP address isn’t yours first).

Note

When someone logs onto your cPanel account using SSL (https://) or via the cPanel proxy, the IP address displayed will be 127.0.0.1.

Under the last login information is a place to change your cPanel account contact address. You can change this as needed by clicking on the word here near where the e-mail address is listed. It is very important that you put a valid e-mail address into this contact area or the server will not be able to contact you if your site is near its bandwidth or disk space limits. Also, your web host might have difficulty contacting you if there are any issues.

General Account Information

To the left side of this screen is a column with a lot of information about the features of your hosting account and the web server your account is located on. From top to bottom:

Hosting Package: This is the hosting plan (or package) that your account is assigned to. It will probably match the name of the hosting plan you signed up for. A hosting plan or package is a collection of features and server resources that you have access to.

Shared/Dedicated IP: The IP address listed here is the one that your website and cPanel account are accessible on. Most likely the IP address is shared with most of the other accounts on this web server. Some hosts will allow you to purchase a dedicated IP address (one used only for your domain). Typically, the only time you would need a dedicated IP address for a domain is if you have purchased an SSL certificate (see Chapter 10 for information on SSL certificates).

Subdomains: This item will list the number of subdomains you currently have created and the maximum your account is allowed. Subdomains are prefixed to the main domain like this, subdomain.domain.com. Subdomains are mostly used to make some part of your website easier to get to or to give a more polished appearance. For example, instead of having visitors go to http://domain.com/store/index.html, you can create a subdomain so that users can visit the easier to remember URL http://store.domain.com/

Parked Domains: Parked domains are other domains you own that are currently pointing to your main domain. Parked domains mirror your main domain’s content. For example, if you park seconddomain.com at your account where domain.com is your main domain name, then any time visitors go to seconddomain.com they will see the same content as domain.com. This is a nice feature if you own an extra domain name but do not want to have a separate website for it.

Add-on Domains: These are similar to parked domains, except that an add-on domain creates a special set of directories in your main web account so that your add-on domain gets treated as if it were separate from your main domain. For example, seconddomain.com would have completely separate content from domain.com. This is great if you own more than one domain name and you want to have different content for each site. Add-on domains still count towards your main account’s disk space and bandwidth limitations.

Resource Usage

Here you can keep an eye on the various resources your account is using:

Databases: This shows the current and maximum number of MySQL (or PostgreSQL) databases in your account. Many PHP and CGI scripts require the use of at least one MySQL database to work properly.

Disk Usage: This is how much disk space on the server your account is using for all features and options. Keep an eye on this to make sure you don’t go over your maximum allowed disk space. If you keep your contact e-mail address up to date in cPanel, you will receive an e-mail before you run out of disk space so you can free up room or contact support for additional disk space.

MySQL Disk Usage: This shows how much disk space your MySQL databases are currently using by themselves. This number is included in the disk usage number.

Disk Space Available: This item displays how much of your allowed disk space on the web server you currently have available for use.

Bandwidth Usage: cPanel keeps track of all traffic to and from your account. Watch this number to make sure you don’t get too close to your account bandwidth limits in any given month. Typically, bandwidth counters are reset at the beginning of every calendar month, regardless of when your hosting plan billing date is. If you have any questions about how bandwidth is calculated you should contact you web host.

Mail and FTP Information

In this section, you can see quick stats concerning e-mail and FTP:

E-mail Accounts: How many e-mail accounts you have created versus how many you are allowed to have. The first e-mail address in your account will beyourcpanelusername@domain.com and this doesn’t count against your maximum number of e-mail accounts allowed. This main e-mail account also cannot be deleted or renamed. Every e-mail account you create uses disk space on your server and contributes to the total amount of disk space you are using for your account.

Forwarders: This item will show you how many e-mail forwarders you currently have set up. You can think of forwarders as e-mail aliases. They are e-mail addresses you create (aliasname@domain.com) that aren’t full e-mail accounts that can send and receive e-mail.

Forwarders do just that—forward any mail sent to the forwarding address to a different e-mail address (or multiple addresses).

Note

You can forward mail from your domain to any e-mail address, even if you don’t own the domain you are forwarding e-mail to.

Auto?Responders: The number of auto?responders you have set up will be shown here. Auto?responders are special rules you set up so that whenever someone sends an e-mail to a specified e-mail address or that matches certain other criteria, a response is automatically sent with a bit of canned (prepared) text. This feature can be used to set up on vacation or out-of-the-office auto responses. You can also use auto-responders to send directions or other common information to someone automatically when they send you an e-mail.

Mailing Lists: This item lists the current number of active mailing lists versus the total number you are allowed to have. If you want to send out regular updates, newsletters, or special offers to a large group of people via e-mail, then a mailing list is what you need. cPanel includes special mailing list software called, appropriately, Mailman, http://list.org/. See Chapter 4 for more information about mailing lists.

E-mail Filters: Here you see the number of e-mail filters you have set up. E-mail filters can help to block SPAM or keep unwanted messages from getting delivered to any e-mail account. Filters can also help sort e-mails into different locations or mark them based on certain criteria you set.

FTP Accounts: The number of File Transfer Protocol accounts you currently have set up versus the maximum you can have will be shown here. FTP is a method of transferring files from your computer to or from your server. You will probably use FTP to upload web pages to your hosting account.

General Server Information

This is followed by information about the server your account is on:

Operating System: This is the operating system that the server your account is on is running. Probably this will be Linux.

Server Status: Clicking this link will tell you if all of the web server’s various features are up and running OK. Green is good, yellow means a service is busy or nearly full (in the case of partition disk space) and red means that service is either very busy, full, or down right now.

Kernel Version: This is the version of the core of the operating system. This way you can monitor the server to make sure it has all the latest security patches, and so on.

Machine Type: This is the type of processor(s) your server uses. For example, i686 is an Intel brand processor (as opposed to an AMD processor).

Apache Version: This is the version of the web page serving software that is running.

Programming Language and Database Information

If you use any scripts on your website, this section has some important information concerning the programming languages and databases installed on the server:

Perl Version: This is the version of Perl programming language that is currently installed on the server.

Path to Perl: This lists the path to Perl on your server, needed for some Perl scripts.

Path to Sendmail: This is where sendmail, the process that handles sending mail is.

Perl Modules: Perl’s functionality can be enhanced by various modules. If you click this link you can see exactly what modules are currently installed.

PHP Version: This is the version of the PHP programming language that is currently installed on the server.

MySQL Version: This is the version of MySQL database software that is currently installed.

cPanel Information

Finally, here we have some information about cPanel itself:

cPanel Build: Every time the developers modify cPanel a new build (minor version) is created. New builds may fix bugs, add new features, or improve reliability.

cPanel Theme: This is how the cPanel interface will look. Different themes not only give cPanel a new look, but may also add or remove features. The screenshots in this book show the XSkin theme. You can see what some other themes look like in Chapter 12.

Documentation: Click the link you see here to view a copy of the cPanel documentation maintained by cPanel Inc.

cPanel Pro: Not all web hosts offer cPanel Pro. cPanel Pro allows third-party developers to add new features to cPanel. cPanel has a few sample features that demonstrate what cPanel Pro is capable of. Any items that have icons with a gray background are cPanel Pro features.