Dedicated Server Hosting » cPanel

Master cPanel With This User Guide

Server Junkie — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:08:53 +0000

Looking for a user guide tutorial book to help you master the confusing world of cPanel? You can easily get the most from the control panel juggernaut in the cPanel User Guide and Tutorial book.

From head to toe, this might be one of the best cPanel resources out there today. Inside the pages, you will learn how to control and manage a web site and its resources more effectively.

Get the most from cPanel with this easy to follow guide

Everything you need to manage files, email, and databases using cPanel
Organise your web sites, create subdomains, custom error messages, and password protected areas
Analyse site logs, ensure your site and data remain secure, and learn how to create and restore data back ups
Use advanced features, find powerful cPanel add ons, and install web scripts from within cPanel: osCommerce, Mambo, phpBB, and more.

You will learn so many great things from this book. Go search for cPanel User Guide and Tutorial at your local book store or favorite online shopping spot. You’ll be mastering the cPanel control panel in no time at all.

More Dedicated Web Hosting Help!

How to Disable Direct Root Logins

Server Junkie — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:06:06 +0000

Allowing the root user to login directly is a major security issue, we’ll show you how to disable it so you can still login as root but just not directly, reducing the security issue.

This will force a hacker to have to guess 2 separate passwords to gain root access.(you do have 2 separate passwords for admin and root right?) What happens is you’ll first need to login as your admin user in SSH, then switch to the super user with the su command to get root.

We also will be forcing the use of SSH protocol 2, which is a newer, more secure SSH protocol. Just a couple more ways to help your server stay safe from the bad guys. If you’re using cPanel make sure you add your admin user to the ‘wheel’ group so that you will be able to ‘su -’ to root, otherwise you may lock yourself out of root.

1. SSH into your server as ‘admin’ and gain root access by su

2. Copy and paste this line to edit the file for SSH logins
pico -w /etc/ssh/sshd_config

3. Find the line
Protocol 2, 1

4. Uncomment it and change it to look like
Protocol 2

5. Next, find the line
PermitRootLogin yes

6. Uncomment it and make it look like PermitRootLogin no

7. Save the file Ctrl+X then Y then enter

8. Now you can restart SSH
/etc/rc.d/init.d/sshd restart

Now, no one will be able to login to root with out first loggin in as admin and ‘su -’ to root, and you will be forcing the use of a more secure protocol. Just make sure you remember both passwords!

More Dedicated Web Hosting Help!

Best of the Dedicated Hosting Tutorials

Server Junkie — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:09:32 +0000

I decided to mix things up a little ‘bit today and give you a list of some of the most popular dedicated hosting tutorials we have featured here on the dedicated server hosting blog. Enjoy!

WAP and Dedicated Servers

Does a Dedicated Server package have a WAP feature/server? Just about any dedicated hosting setup will allow WAP. You’ll just need to setup Mime types and DirctoryIndex settings in web server configuration. The following guide mentions settings for both Windows and Linux servers to be setup for WAP.

Remote Access key in WHM

This is how you would setup a remote access key in Web Host Manager (WHM). The first thing you would need to do is login to WHM. From the front page, click on "Cluster/Remote Access". Next, click on "Setup Remote Access Key".

5 Good Server Monitoring Tools

Need a good monitoring tool for your server? There are several services online out there today that will give you the best in performance monitoring, availability monitoring, and traffic monitoring.

How to do a Trace Route?

Need help on doing a trace route to your dedicated hosting setup?

Backup from cPanel

Want to backup your account from cPanel?

The first step in the process would be to login to your cPanel account. Once you are on the front page, then find and click the icon marked “Backup”. This will take you to the cPanel Backup screen.

Found a Bad Dedicated Hosting Review?

We have all done it. We went out to see what reviews we could find on or about the dedicated web hosting we have now or the dedicated web hosting we are interested in picking up? Then you see it. A big, bad and nasty negative review. As your palms get sweaty, you think to yourself, “Should I read it?”. Well, I am here to tell you that you should, but take it with a grain of salt. A healthy dose of skepticism never did any harm.

Want to Run Your Own Blog Network?

Lets say you have a new dedicated hosting account, and now you want to setup your own blog network. Where should you start? I would highly suggest looking into WordPress MU. The MU stands for “multiple users”.

Have another favorite dedicated hosting tutorial you’d like to share?

More Dedicated Web Hosting Help!

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Dedicated Hosting

Server Junkie — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:05:54 +0000

How much do you know about Red Hat as it pertains to dedicated hosting?

Red Hat is one of the largest and most recognized companies in the Open Source community, probably best known for their enterprise-class operating system, Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

The advanced platform really eliminates the costs and complexity of enterprise-class virtualization, high availability and storage management. Here is more about the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 server from the developers:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is available in two variants for servers. A base Red Hat Enterprise Linux server is designed for small deployments while Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Platform is designed for mainstream customers and provides the most cost-effective, flexible, and scalable environment. Both versions are based on common core technology. Both include a comprehensive suite of open source server applications and virtualization capabilities.

To learn more about Red Hat as a dedicated hosting OS of choice, be sure to check out this link:

http://www.redhat.com/rhel/server/

For dedicated hosting needs, Red Hat is one of the best of the best.

More Dedicated Web Hosting Help!

CentOS 101

Server Junkie — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:08:24 +0000

One popular choice when it comes to Linux-based operating systems out there on your dedicated hosting server is CentOS.

What is it? CentOS is well known for being an enterprise level Linux distribution and this freely provided across the Web. The entire thing is managed by a network of developers, system administrators, network administrators, and core Linux contributors and enthusiasts from around the globe.

Where can you go for CentOS support?

CentOS 2, 3, 4 and 5 are built from publicly available open source SRPMS provided by a prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor. CentOS conforms fully with the upstream vendors redistribution policies and aims to be 100% binary compatible. (CentOS mainly changes packages to remove upstream vendor branding and artwork).

Hope this look into CentOS is helpful!

More Dedicated Web Hosting Help!

When is it Time to Go Dedicated?

Server Junkie — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:35:23 +0000

What time is the best time to move to a dedicated hosting account?

It is not hard to manage dedicated server without a lot of experience, if you purchase control panel for it. If you have experience with cPanel on the shared plan, I would recommend purchasing this control panel for your dedicated server as well. cPanel gets installed on most dedicated servers with similar setup like our shared ones have.

As for when to switch to the dedicated server, there can be two reasons. First is you need some component that can’t be installed on the shared server. Second is resource consumption by your site that overgrows the allowed limits for shared plan. The most important limits are CPU, memory and MySQL connection utilization.

If you don’t have access to the resource stats for your site and you can ask the support to provide them from time to time to see, if you are near to or in the the red line. However, my recommendation would be upgrading to the dedicated server before when you are expecting traffic and client amounts increase to avoid possible downtime or hurry with site switch to the new server.

More Dedicated Web Hosting Help!

Moving from Shared to Dedicated Hosting

Server Junkie — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:14:01 +0000

How difficult is it to move from shared to dedicated web hosting?

Unfortunately, you don’t have access to the resource stats for your site and you can ask the support to provide them from time to time to see, if you are near to or in the the red line. However, my recommendation would be upgrading to the dedicated server before when you are expecting traffic and client amounts increase to avoid possible downtime or hurry with site switch to the new server.

More Dedicated Web Hosting Help!

How to Demo WHM and cPanel?

Server Junkie — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:17:07 +0000

Want to see what WHM (Web Host Manager) and cPanel look like before you buy you next dedicated hosting account? You can check out the demos for both on cPanel’s own web site:

http://www.cpanel.net/products/cpwhm/try_cp_whm.htm

Just plug the correct user name and login into the right demo, and you are all set. This is perfect for those out there who have never used eitehr – and want to see what they look like and feel like before they sink the money into them.

Also, it is worth taking note that not all cPanel themes (or WHM themes) will be alike. So you should ask your dedicated hosting provider that you have or you would like to have if their cPanel and WHM look like the ones on cPanel’s official web site.

More Dedicated Web Hosting Help!

Remote Access key in WHM

Server Junkie — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:55:15 +0000

This is how you would setup a remote access key in Web Host Manager (WHM).

The first thing you would need to do is login to WHM. From the front page, click on "Cluster/Remote Access". Next, click on "Setup Remote Access Key".

If you are incorporating an external script that automates account creation and management, it will ask you for a remote access key. WHM automatically creates the encrypted code for you. Simply generate the key, copy and paste into your script. To generate the new key, hit the button marked "Generate New Key" button.

After doing so, you will be able to setup a remote access key in WHM.

More Dedicated Web Hosting Help!

Backup from cPanel

Server Junkie — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:00:44 +0000

Want to backup your account from cPanel?

The first step in the process would be to login to your cPanel account. Once you are on the front page, then find and click the icon marked “Backup”. This will take you to the cPanel Backup screen.

Full Backups

The full backups are backups of your entire web site and everything in it except for MySQL databases. To generate a full back, click on the link at the top of the page that reads, “Generate/Download a Full Backup”.

To do a normal backup generation, just select from the Backup Destination drop down menu, “Home Directory”. Next, put in your e-mail address in the second box and skip over the remote settings. Click on the button that reads, “Generate Backup” and you should be e-mailed once the backup is ready to download. When it is, you can come back and get it. To download your backup, login to cPanel and click on “Backup”. From there, under full backups click on the text link the reads, “Download a home directory backup”.

Backup Your MySQL Databases

To backup your MySQL databases, login to cPanel. Once you are on the front page, then find and click the icon marked “Backup”. This will take you to the cPanel Backup screen. Near the bottom of this page, you should see a section titled, “Download a MySQL Database Backup” with your databases listed under it.

Click on your database name, and then save the backup to your own computer.