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Often hosting plan features are the type of control panel that is provided with the hosting service. Most people think that a control panel should be part of the package, but in smaller countries outside the USA this is often a ‘luxury’ that is not part of the hosting package! The first essential feature that you should ponder about is searching out whether your hosting server provider offers a control panel to manage your website. It is unacceptable to sign up for a hosting package, if there is no control panel. Common control panels for Linux hosting are: PleskHelmCpanelDirectAdminAll these control panels have their supporters and detractors.Without hesitation I will choose cpanel that provides a lot of a user-friendly interface and functionalities. The following features are available with CPanel hosting:File manager:You can always use the file manager available in CPanel, if you are not comfortable with using an FTP package to upload your files. The file manager enables you to upload files, unzip files on the server.  Apart from that it copies and deletes files.FTP (File Transfer Protocol): If you want to upload your files and manage your website, you should have FTP access to your website. This is essential. Cpanel also permits you to register new FTP accounts. In this way it gives other people access to your website. But don’t bother about this, because you can keep their access under restriction to specific folders on your website.Website statistics:Most hosting providers provide statistics facilities. Some hosting providers think that the statistics programs use too many resources on a shared environment and some of them remove the facility. But when you are planning to set up a website, statistics and the ability to analyze your traffic is required. Make sure a hosting provider that you have selected does offer you access to a web stats package. My personal favourite is AWStats. Redirects:This is very helpful to temporarily or permanently redirect pages to another website or other website pages. Be careful though with using temporary redirects, this might cause problems with the search engines.Backups:This allows you to make a backup of the files on your server, as well as to backup your MySQL database if you have one. This is very useful and should be done regularly. You cannot rely on the backups led by the hosting service provider, as the service provider itself might just get close its doors and you cannot have access to your site.Pre-installed scripts:The Fantastico installer is one of the best features of the CPanel control panel to  help you to quickly and easily install lots of Open Source tools and utilities such as forums, shopping carts, project management tools, WIKIS and much more.Add On Domains and Subdomains:You can add sub domains and even Add On domains. It depends on whether your hosting provider gives you permission for this.Email management:Under email management you can create and delete all your email accounts. You also have access to a Webmail facility so that you can read your email online. You can also forward one email account to another. You also get access to set up simple auto responders. It helps you send an automated reply back if anyone sends an enquiry email to a specific email address.

Here is what you should look for in hosting plan features:

Often hosting plan features are tied into the type of control panel that is provided with the hosting service. Most people take for granted that a control panel should be part of the package, but in smaller countries outside the USA this is often a ‘luxury’ that is not part of the hosting package!

Finding out whether your hosting server provider offer a control panel to manage your website is the first essential feature that you should look for. It is unacceptable to sign up for a hosting package if there is no control panel!

Common control panels for Linux hosting are (my recommendation is to go for Linux hosting and not Windows hosting):

Helm

Plesk

Cpanel

DirectAdmin

All these control panels have their supporters and detractors.

I have to honestly say that my preference is CPanel. Cpanel offers a lot of functionality and a user friendly interface.

The following features are available with CPanel hosting:

~ Email management ~

Under email management you can create and delete all your email accounts. You also have access to a Webmail facility so that you can read your email online (as opposed to linking to your email account with Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express). You can also set up forwarders to forward one email account to another. You also have access to set up simple autoresponders to send an automated reply back if anyone sends an enquiry email to a specific email address.

~ Website statistics ~

Although most hosting providers do provide statistics facilities, it is worthwhile to make sure that they do. Some hosting providers think that the statistics programs consume too many resources on a shared environment and some of them therefore remove the facility. But statistics and the ability to analyze your traffic is essential when you set up a website, so make sure that you select a hosting provider that do provide you access to a web stats package. My personal favourite is AWStats. You can read an article on the different types of statistics programs as well as how to interpret your statistics here : http://www.tm4y.co.za/internet-marketing-tips/website-statistics.html

~ FTP ~

You should have FTP access to your website in order to upload files. This is absolutely essential if you want to manage your website. Cpanel also allows you to register new FTP accounts to give other people access to your website. You can restrict their access to specific folders on your website and specify if they should have read and/or write access.

~ File manager ~

If you are not comfortable with using an FTP package to upload your files, you can always use the file manager available in CPanel. The file manager enables you to upload files, unzip files on the server and to copy and delete files.

~ Backups ~

This allows you to make a backup of the files on your server, as well as to backup your MySQL database if you have one. This is very useful and should be done regularly. You cannot depend on the backups ran by the hosting service provider, since the service provider itself might just close its doors unexpectedly and you might not have access to your site – not to talk of your backups!

~ Subdomains and Add On Domains ~

You can add sub domains and even Add On domains (depending on whether your hosting provider allows for this)

~ Redirects ~

This is useful to temporarily or permanently redirect pages to another website or ther website pages. Be careful though with using temporary redirects, this might cause problems with the search engines.

~ Protect directories ~

You can set up password protected directories on your website

~ Pre-installed scripts ~

The Fantastico installer is one of the best features of the Cpanel control panel! This installer helps you to quickly and easily install lots of Open Source (in other words, free to use) tools and utilities, such as shopping carts, forums, project management tools, WIKIS and much more.

The CPanel control panel allows web hosting companies to make a lot of web hosting plan features available to clients who can then easily manage these features themselves.

CPanel should be the first thing you must consider while searching for the web hosting service provider. It is very much essential as it provides the end user with a more convenient and easier way to manage your website.Logging into and using the different programs can be done prove to be straight forwardly. Using cPanel you can easily and quickly setup a blog, a bulletin board made using PHP or a content management system.It works even better when Fantastico scripts are used with it. It sets off a multitude of tasks, like MySQL table creation for different programs, removing the manual importing of scripts created by third-party vendors. Together, cPanel and Fantastico are able to streamline the process for the end user in setting up software and other applications.CPanel has efficiently combined the scripts and programs that which used to operate separately. CPanel was able to standardize these programs and scripts, which made web hosting and setup a uniform package for users.However, there is a disadvantage for using cPanel. Since it is widely used, it has become the method of phishers and hackers that create scripts that run and command it to setup unauthorized sub-domains that will be able to gather information from innocent victims. This method is referred to as phishing, and the user must always look out for signs of these when utilizing the cPanel.Summary about cPanel Hosting – The Most Admired Web Hosting Control PanelCPanel is where you monitor and manage your website; it is a web based client interface. CPanel lets you control your host account environment. It allows users to monitor things like disk space and bandwidth usage. CPanel also allows you to store your data in MySQL databases. Within the CPanel you will usually also has access to PhpMyAdmin, which offers you a feature to store database backups on a file and download a dump of the database.Many hosting providers advertise that you can host unlimited sites, create your own packages and control it all within a slightly more expensive reseller package. This is achieved by using a software add-on to cPanel called WHM. This for the master account URL for the reseller account means that WHM can be opened and from within WHM all the sub-accounts can be viewed and maintained.Fantastico is an excellent web application typically based on cPanel/PHP. The application integrates with cPanel and gives user the ability to install many free application and scripts automatically. These scripts vary widely in their applications from shopping site payment cart systems, to complete web site content management.We like the cPanel Email Account Creator which is the perfect script to setup a web email system to allow your users to signup and start sending emails with your hosting. The cPanel system helps you to set up databases and forces your databases to include a special prefix so that it may distinguish your database.The cPanel features provided by the free web space hosting providers that use it, for example, will vary, but usually they still include at least a file manager for uploading and editing your free web pages online.Some include all the features of paid hosting companies, such as MySQL databases, Fantastico script installer, Cron jobs manager, Add-on domains, Email management tools, AWSTATS and the Webalizer and other website statistics programs, and so on. If they do provide even half of these for free, you have found a great offer.Spam Assassin is available on many cPanel hosting sites. Spam Assassin is a mail filtering system which scans each and every email received under the email accounts hosted from your cPanel account for characteristics which are typical of spam messages.For newbie’s, cPanel is the best control panel with lot of opportunities that are easy to use. CPanel works with most common browsers, such as IE, Opera, Firefox and others.

deepak asked:


Internet users might open ask that what is cPanel hosting, how it is useful and how can it help them so that they will use it. New users might not know about

cPanel services, what they know is that they need to create a website for which they have some purpose.

They don’t know what services do they need or we can say they don’t know the technical terms. This is the article which will help new users to know that what

they can do with cPanel.

What CPanel Does?

1. Easiest option to build a website, very easy to learn for a designer.

2. Startup wizard can help you step by step.

3. It supports your emails, provides easy access to your personal mail account.

4. It does a lot of behind the scene things so you don’t have to worry about the backend complexity.

5. Regular website traffic analysis options available which help you get regular reporting of hits and     page views.

Cpanel hosting will greatly help you to view the traffic to your website and crowd that is interested in your website. Once you bring up your cpanel page,

then it is just a matter of looking for the ‘Awstats’ option.

CPanel is a control panel that makes things easier, especially for the newbies, to manage your website while you learn more about what it take to run a

website. CPanel is a fully featured web-based control panel that allows you to manage your domain through a web interface its really easier, especially for

newbie’s. You have the ability to manage all aspects of e-mail, files, backup, FTP, CGI scripts, and web site statistics. The idea is to transfer as much of

the control and responsibility of managing your web site to you.

Hope this will help you at least a little along your way to become a web master.



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