Understanding how networks work on a basic level (06/13/2009)
... This allows for a better signal and longer length of cable. The cable will then go into an Ethernet port on the computer or server. Once this physical connection has been established the two computers can now talk back and forth. You can also use a device called a router that allows multiple computers to connect up to each other. The router usually will have multiple connection ports coming into it....

There are many roles that a server can occupy (06/12/2009)
... The most common type of server that most people will interact with is a web server. The basic idea behind a web server is that it can give information to any other computers that are requesting it. These servers are usually behind a router and have all requests that come in on port 80 forwarded over to them. When the computer receives a request from an external machine, it sends back the file that the computer is looking for. This is a very simplistic version of how this server will work....

Customer Service Leading the Way in Technology (06/12/2009)
... The second half of the good news is that you don't have to be a technological guru to travel into the internet world. Virtually all things you may want to do on the internet have access to assistance. Although, each customer service link may be set up differently, depending on their hours of business. Sometimes the service departments can be contacted right away for an immediate response using an eight-hundred number, or instant messaging; while others may take a little longer, using the internet e-mail system that they provide for you. When using the internet e-mail, the response time is usually less than twenty- four hours....

Web hosting requirements at a hosting company (09/28/2008)
... • If I pre-pay for a year and then need to cancel my account half-way through the year, how do you handle that? What if I want to upgrade my plan in the middle of this term? Many hosts offer a discount if you pre-pay for a full year of service in advance. The host should always offer to refund any full months of unused service on a pro-rated basis. An example of a pro-rated refund: You buy a year of hosting for 100 USD and have used 3 months and cancel your account, the host should give you back approximately 75 USD (100 USD minus three months of service at 8.33 USD a month, 75.01 USD)....

cPanel web hosting account explained (09/28/2008)
...111:2083/. If you log in securely you will probably receive a warning about the security certificate not matching. This is normal in this case. Accept the certificate and continue with logging in. • Insecurely (non-encrypted connection): http://domain....

cPanel Interface and general hosting account information (09/28/2008)
... 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....

cPanel and its general server information explained (09/28/2008)
... 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....

FTP accounts in your cPanel web hosting account (09/28/2008)
... It is not recommended that you use a web browser to handle FTP to or from your website. • HTML/Website Editing Programs: If you use any sort of website editor that runs off of your computer (like Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe GoLive, Nvu, and so on), it most likely has the ability to upload, download, and synchronize files via FTP. The focus of these sorts of programs is to create web content and the ability to FTP files to your web hosting account is just a convenience. If you plan to only work on your website in one of these sorts of programs, then the FTP features should serve you well. • Stand-alone FTP Clients: This category includes all programs that are designed primarily to work with FTP, though they may handle other types of transfers as well....

Creating and Managing FTP Accounts under cPanel (09/28/2008)
... They were created by cPanel automatically and need to remain as they are. Creating a New FTP Account in cPanel If you would like to create a new FTP account, follow these basic steps: 1. Click Add Account. 2. Choose a name for the new user and enter it in the Login text box....

cPanel File manager and File permissions (09/28/2008)
... Clicking the small folder icon next to a directory will open that directory and show you the contents, where you can upload, download, or work with files there. On the right side of the screen is a sidebar where you can perform basic actions on files or directories you select (like view, edit, change permissions, throw them in the site trash, and so on). A Few Words about File Permissions If you work with files and directories on a Linux server it is important to understand a bit about permissions. In order to make sure that only those people who are supposed to have access to a directory or file can actually do so, Linux has a file and directory permission system. Every file and directory has permissions set for three kinds of users: • User: The owner or creator of the file or directory • Group: A group of users that are permitted to use a directory or file in some way • World: Everyone else who isn't the owner or creator or a member of the correct group (You can think of world as public permissions) For each kind of user, there are three basic categories of permissions: • Read: Any type of user that is allowed read access can do just that, read a file....

Managing MySQL or PostgreSQL databases in cpanel (09/28/2008)
... The section below that allows you to create users that will be able to access one or more databases. Next, if your web host permits, you can set up remote access to your databases. Finally, there is a link to phpMyAdmin or phpPgAdmin, web interfaces for advanced work with your databases. Creating a Database Creating databases and users is easy but not the most intuitive process. The first thing you need to do to create a database is actually the last item in the database section....

Redirects and Password Protected Directories in cPanel (09/28/2008)
... To turn this on you need to define: • The list of domains that are permitted to link to your files. cPanel will automatically add any of your own domains to the list of approved domains but feel free to edit these as needed. • The list of file extensions (JPG, MP3, and so on) that you want to protect. cPanel will automatically add a list of common file extensions but feel free to edit these as needed. • A URL to redirect people to if they try to hotlink to your files (typically a page on your site that says Sorry, you can't access this file unless you are a member of my site....

Web Stats and Web Logs under your cPanel hosting (09/28/2008)
... This file can grow to be quite large and very difficult to interpret. The average raw web log contains entries that look something like this: 111.111.111.111 - - [31/Oct/2005:12:22:57 -0500] "GET /gallery/download/1000/movie....

cPanel home directory and database Backups (09/28/2008)
... There are four main backup options: • Full backup • Home directory backup • MySQL database backup • E-mail aliases (forwarders) and filters backup If you want to be able to restore your account files using cPanel's restore feature then you need to use the home, MySQL, and e-mail aliases and filters backup features. Backing up and restoring files via cPanel does not count against your monthly bandwidth limit, so feel free to do it as often as you need to. Home Directory Backup Clicking Download a Home Directory Backup will cause cPanel to compress all the files you see when you log into your account via the main FTP account (including the public_ftp, public_html, and mail directories). Depending on how many files you have in your home directory and how large they are this process can take anywhere from a few second to a minute or more. When the process is complete, you will be prompted to choose a location to save the compressed backup of your home directory on your local computer....

cPanel SSL certificate stands for Secure Socket Layer (09/28/2008)
... There are a wide variety of SSL certificates and certificate providers. Some certificates cost as little as 30 USD a year and some as much as 4,000 USD a year. What makes these certificates different from one another, and which one do you need? These questions and more can be answered at http://whichssl.com/. Your web host may require that you purchase your SSL certificate from them, so you may want to check with them before buying anything....

cPanel Pro and Network Tools Traceroute Tool (09/28/2008)
... If you want to see the route between your current location (perhaps, your home computer) and the destination server, you need to run Traceroute from your current location. On PCs running Windows, you can go to the Start | Run option and then type: tracert domain name or IP address On a Macintosh, running Mac OS X, go to Applications/Utilities and then double-click on Terminal. At the command prompt, type: traceroute domain name or IP address For Linux or Unix, the process is similar to Mac OS X (since Mac OS X is based on OpenBSD), just drop to your favorite shell command line if you aren't there already and type in the same command as above. cPanel Pro Despite the name, cPanel Pro isn't a new or special version of cPanel, though if your web host has activated it, you will likely have access to a few extra features. cPanel Pro is designed to make it easier for third-party developers to add new features to cPanel....

How to increase your websites security (09/28/2008)
... Your domain and perhaps even the entire web server are placed on mail blacklists and you have problems sending legitimate mail to others in the future. In addition, you have to deal with angry requests to stop sending spam and deal with potentially thousands of e-mail bounce messages for mail sent to addresses that do not exist. • A program is uploaded to your website and uses your web server to attack other sites. This can severely slow down all of the websites hosted on your server as well as get your server placed on more blacklists. • The hacker is able to run a secret meeting place for his friends and other hackers right from your website....

cPanel Restore and Verify All Data and Secure Site (09/28/2008)
... Your host will likely do this anyway, since it is in their own best interest, but it's always good to ask just to be safe. It is important to learn from any hacking experience so that you do everything in your power not to fall prey to the same kind of attack again. Hopefully, this will never happen to you, but if it does it is always helpful to be prepared. Step Two: Restore and Verify All Data and Secure Site Once the hacker has been locked out of your account and your site returns to your control you should change any site or account passwords so you can be sure that hackers will not have access to anything in your account. Then it is time to assess the damage and try to restore your files....

cPanel themes and third party addons for cPanel (09/28/2008)
... Blue Lagoon Blue Lagoon looks similar to the various Xskin themes except that it uses fewer graphics and so will load faster than XSkin. It supports cPanel Pro and many third-party add-ons. Each major section of features has a single graphic followed by a plain text link to each feature. Blue Lagoon has been around for many years, though it used to look very different in the past. For example, the header of this theme used to be similar to the one that was used by XSkin....

Fantastico The Original Script Autoinstaller and cPanel (09/28/2008)
... To learn more about Fantastico visit http://netenberg.com/fantastico.php. Please note that while Fantastico does offer the ability to upgrade a current Fantastico-installed version of a script to a newer version (when a new version of the script is added to Fantastico) it will remove any custom modifications you may have made to the script (although all settings will be preserved). If you don't want to lose your special modifications, visit the website of the people who maintain the script you want to update (not Netenberg's website) and look for an upgrade from your current version to whatever the latest version is....

MailScanner cPanel Front End explained (09/28/2008)
... This screen may look a little intimidating at first, but once you take the time to explore, you'll find that it is quite easy to use. Exploring MailScanner Front End's Many Features At the top of the screen, you will see a numerical legend that is used in the tables here. Just below that are the links to the e-mail black/white list and other settings. Just below those links are the current MailScanner settings for your domain(s) and subdomains. If you do nothing, e-mail will be scanned for viruses by default and any messages with viruses will be immediately deleted without being delivered....

MailScanner scans all incoming mail under cPanel (09/28/2008)
... You should be very careful with these attachments since very few viruses can be successfully cleaned out of attachments. • The message is scanned by MailScanner and then SpamAssassin to determine if it is spam (if that feature is turned on for the receiving domain). • Depending on the SpamAssassin score, the message is processed and tagged according to the domain's settings. • MailScanner looks for evidence of phishing attacks, web bugs, external message bodies, banned attachment types, and other dangerous content based on your web host's settings. • MailScanner can look for links that claim to point to one destination while actually taking the user to another site....

All terms you need to know used in your cPanel account (09/28/2008)
... Backup: The process of copying important data in case the original data becomes damaged or goes missing for some reason. Used as a noun it refers to the data that has been backed up. Bandwidth: A measure of how much data is transferred to or from your website, e-mail, or FTP hosting account. Typically, this is measured in computer gigabytes (1 GB = 1,024 MB). Bounced E-mail: E-mail messages that get returned to the sender because there was some sort of problem and the e-mail could not be delivered....

Decide on a registrar for your domain name (09/26/2008)
... This opened up the Web to all kinds of people selling domain names. Before you decide on a registrar for your domain name, take a minute to see whether the registrar is accredited by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers the international governing body for domain names) or is reselling for an official ICANN-accredited registrar. (You’ll have to ask who they register with.) The Accredited Registrar Directory is updated constantly. Domain parking Suppose that you’ve come up with a brilliant name for your site and you get really big and famous....

How to choose a Web hosting company (09/26/2008)
... Is the company’s Web site professional looking? Or does it look like your neighbor’s kid designed it? Does the company look like it has enough money to stay in business? You wouldn’t want it disappearing mysteriously with your money. - Who are some of their other clients? Poke around to see whether you can find links to sites of other clients. Take a look at who else is doing business with them and analyze the sites. Visit several of their client sites. Do the pages and links come up quickly? Do all the images appear in a timely manner? Web sites that load quickly are a good sign....