cPanel dedicated Overview

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• • 
    Presentation

cPanel is a Linux-based control panel. With a graphical interface that automates settings, cPanel simplifies website hosting. cPanel has 3 main functions, providing access to different levels of use, such as administration and simple website configuration. All these aspects are controlled from a simple web browser.

Security

Set up password-protected directories, rejected IP addresses, SSL / TLS, and configure GnuPG keys to restrict access. Protect your site with HotLink protection, Leech protection and ModSecurity.

Domains

Set up sub-domains, addon domains, alias domains (Parked Domains), and redirect visitors directly to the right directory. Identify your site with Simple DNS Zone Editor and edit advanced DNS zones.

Apps Galore

Take advantage of third-party software for blogs, bulletin boards, guest books, e-commerce and more, to build a dynamic, robust site.

Files

Edit and save files and folders while monitoring your website’s disk space usage.

Databases

Store large amounts of data and limit access using MySQL and PostgreSQL databases.

Logs

Know your audience and track your website’s performance using Webalizer and AWStats.

Cpanel is available exclusively for Linux servers running the :

– Redhat.

– CentOS

– CloudLinux

• • General

Can you eat Cpanel?

As described above, it’s a graphical interface that makes managing your website as easy as possible.

Here’s what a Cpanel interface looks like:

Theme 1: Paper_lantern

Or there’s another theme for your Cpanel interface.

Don’t panic, it’s all a matter of habit:

Theme 2: x3

In the following explanations, I’ll base myself on the Paper_lantern theme, which I find clearer.

you can click and drag menus to highlight the most frequently used ones.

• • Files

It’s a kind of small online FTP client.

This is a very basic little image editor.

Pixlr is a small, high-performance online Photoshop image editor.

Allows you to password-protect folders

Allows you to view the storage space used by your site and the various services linked to your website (logs, MySQL, etc.).

Allows you to create accounts with access to different directories. So you can create accounts for your webmasters and other developers to see who has done what on your website.

Allows you to create FTP accounts only.

Shows current FTP connections.

Allows you to make full, partial or database-only backups

The same as before, but with a little assistant to guide you step by step.

• • Databases

Provides access to SQL tables

Allows you to create your databases and associated users

Allows you to create your databases and associated users, with a small wizard to help you.

Allows you to declare an external SQL server

Wildcard hosts are authorized

• • Domains

Allows you to create sub-domains

Allows you to add Alias domains

an alias domain can be redirected to a specific folder in the same way as a sub-domain.

Allows you to redirect one domain name to another or to a sub-folder

Allows you to edit your DNS zone. (It’s not a good idea to use this one, as you won’t have access to all the entries in your zone, so use the Advanced Zone Editor instead)

Allows you to edit/create/delete entries in your DNS zone.

If you have declared a sub-domain or alias domain, select the desired domain or sub-domain.

• • Emails

Allows you to edit/create/delete MX inputs.

A domain name without MXs will never receive mail!

Allows you to create GnuPG keys for mail encryption.

Once generated find it below the same window:

Here is a link explaining the PGP principle https://sebnet.org/data/prez/crypto_pgp.pdf

• • Metric

Shows the number of visits to your site.

Allows you to view your site’s error logs (very useful for finding out the reason for a failure). Displays only the last 300 errors on your site.

Find out how much traffic your site receives by protocol and date

Are text files containing information about visitors to your website and the content on your website that they have viewed. This feature allows you to download a compressed version of your access log.

Displays interface traffic statistics, compiling information on how users access your website.

Allows you to analyze site traffic.

Compiles and analyzes information about your web traffic.

Compiles and analyzes information on your FTP server

• • Security

SSH (Secure Shell) and Telnet network protocols enable you to connect to another Web server on the Internet via a command line interface (CLI). You can use these network protocols to remotely manage your server, configure CGI scripts, and perform other tasks.
Many modern operating systems, such as Mac® OS X and Linux distributions, include SSH and Telnet. If you’re using Microsoft Windows® to connect to your server, you’ll need to use an SSH client, such as PuTTY, to connect to your server.

Allows you to block access to your site for one or more IP addresses or fully qualified domain names (FQDN).

Allow you to generate and manage SSL certificates, signature requests and keys, all of which enhance the security of your website. They are useful for sites that regularly work with sensitive information, such as login details and credit card numbers. Encryption makes it difficult for malicious users to intercept communications between visitors and your website.

It’s a protection against embedding content from your site into another site, and uses your bandwidth to serve the files. You can use this interface to avoid this problem.

When deactivating HotLink, make sure you allow external links to all necessary domains. For example, the sub-domains of your website and the URL you use to access your Panel Account.
If the URL you use to access your Panel Account is not in the list of URLs to which you wish to grant access, you will not be able to view the images embedded in theHTML editor in the File Manager interface(Home >> Files>>File Manager).

The Leech protection interface enables you to detect unusual levels of activity in password-restricted directories on your site. After setting a maximum number of connections within two hours, the system redirects or suspends users who exceed this maximum. This is useful if, for example, someone publishes a user’s credentials on a public site, allowing unauthorized users to access restricted content.

• • Software

If you are having problems with the way your server handles PHP packages, it may be useful to consult the PHP configuration information. Use the PHP configuration interface to view some of the most commonly mentioned configuration options.
You cannot use this interface to change the configuration of your PHP server. To change the way PHP is configured on your server.

Are small programs and extensions to PHP that are written in the PHP scripting language.

To search for and add PEAR packages to your website, click on PHP packages PEAR in your cPanel interface. You can display all available PHP packages, search for a specific type of package, or, if you know its name, add a package immediately.

are programs written in the Perl programming language. CPanel makes it easy to find and add Perl modules from your website’s CPAN repository.

Is a package manager for the Ruby programming language. It provides a self-contained format in which developers can create Ruby programs and libraries.

This feature allows you to automatically compress certain types of content when requested by visitors.
Is an automatic installation platform that boasts over 360 great scripts, 1115 PHP classes and is constantly being added to. It allows users to install applications with just a few mouse clicks.

Allows you to select the PHP version you want (from 4.4 to 5.6 is natively 5.4) and add your modules.

• • Advanced

Are scheduled tasks that take place at predefined times or intervals on the server. Often, a cron job is a series of simple tasks executed from a script file. CPanel offers this screen as a tool for setting up cron tasks.

Be careful when scheduling cron jobs. Scheduling them at too short intervals can slow down your server/hosting.

When accessing a directory (rather than a page) on your site, a visitor will usually see the index page for that directory. If no index page exists, the browser will display a list (or index) of the files in that directory.

Using the index manager, you can define how a specific indexed directory will appear to those accessing it. You can also disable indexing, if you don’t want the contents of a directory to be visible.

Apache Managers control how your site’s Apache web server software handles certain file types and file extensions. Apache is supplied configured to handle CGI scripts and files parsed by the server. Their file extensions include: .cgi, .pl, .plx, .ppl, .perl and .shtml.

You can configure Apache to handle a new file type with an existing handler by manually adding the handler and extension to cPanel. For example, to have files with the extension “.example” treated by the server as CGI files, you’d type “cgi-script” under Handler and “.example” under Extension (s).

The ClamAV® Virus Scanner interface scans the contents of your cPanel account for malware. If the ClamAV® Virus Scanner identifies a potential security threat, the system prompts you to take the appropriate action.

This area of the cPanel interface contains tools for retrieving network information. For example, you can search for an IP address or trace a route from your computer to the computer on which your site is hosted (your Web server).

Error pages inform visitors whenever there is a problem accessing your site. Each problem has its own code (such as 404, 500, etc.) and corresponding error pages.
Basic error pages are provided automatically by the server. However, cPanel allows you to define custom error pages for any HTTP code.

Relays information to the browser on how to handle file extensions. You can add MIME types to enable visitors’ browsers to use new technologies as they emerge. To add new MIME types to your web server, you need to define a name, directory and file extension that correspond to the MIME type.

For further information on Cpanel, please consult our online documentation: