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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.

People who are new to reselling or buying web space may find themselves asking: Why is cPanel reseller hosting so popular? There’s got to be a reason why of all the web management programs in the market, cPanel is the one that has managed to gain the most coverage. It may as well have its own fan club among dedicated cPanel enthusiasts!

As a matter of fact, a person who’s new to the concept of buying and selling web space may think there’s only one kind of web hosting reseller available – the cPanel reseller hosting account. That’s how popular cPanel hosting has become over time. This is not to say that cPanel has cornered a monopoly, certainly nothing that extreme! But when you buy a small amount of web space for the first time, chances are you’ll end up with a cPanel account; that is how popular it is.

This just means more web hosts install cPanel by choice. As website management software, cPanel is certainly quite versatile, able to operate smoothly with a variety of features. Over time many features have been added to the basic cPanel bundle… and more and more features are still being added. The development of this program has proven to be continuous: a plus when you consider the dynamic nature of web programming. The latest build of cPanel can be expected to comply with the most up-to-date standards of excellence in the web hosting industry.

This software is proprietary, which means it requires licensing before it can be used. But you only need to pay once for a cPanel license per server, which makes it a truly economical choice for many web hosts. The program was originally intended to be used by web hosts, so if an individual – or a reseller – would like to purchase a license, there are no provisions in the pricing for personal use. However, charities and educational institutions may formally write the creators of the software at cpanel.net, requesting for a free license.

If you’re the kind of person who automatically shies away from what’s “in” or “hot,” thinking it’s overrated, you may be missing out on a lot by not giving cPanel reseller hosting a go. There’s a “people’s choice” award for various things for a reason, and that’s because the choice of the masses deserves acclaim. Given the status of cPanel as a “people’s choice awardee,” it would be a great place to start your research.

CPanel Hosting has become an industry standard for the administration and management of websites. It has not only taken a piece from the market it has pretty much stolen the whole cake. How has this happened in such a competitive market with so many other providers of this complex service?You will find the reason is because this control panel offers a reliable and easy to use platform that allows even the most inexperienced of users to manage his website with ease. It also comes loaded with applications and extras that will make your life online that little bit simpler.We will briefly look into its uploading services, its email capabilities, its backup system, and a great application called Fantastico that is included.Uploading capabilities. One of the most important features of a good website administration system is to provide easy and reliable uploading options.Email. Nowadays nearly every webpage is also a email server. For instance if Andrew has a website called www.languagevox he should also have an email setup as “Andrew@languagevox.com”. It is simply expected. With this piece of software creating a POP3, IMAP & SMTP email is a breeze. You can manage multiple websites and their corresponding emails from one simple to use window.Email options. Most websites now work as email servers also. For instance if a writer has a portfolio at a certain website customers are going to expect he has an email that uses his website address. For example if Bob has an online bookstore called openbooks.com you would expect Bob’s business email to be bob@openbooks.com. With this program you can manage all your emails and websites from one easy to use screen.Fantastico is one of my favorite CPanel features. It is a simple to use application installer that can have some of the internet’s most popular programs up and running in seconds. This is a great extra when you manage a few websites as it can save you a lot of time.Security. This a must for any webmaster management application and CPanel delivers a complete packet that protects your content and bandwith from abuse. It also provides Hotlink protection, IP deny and a SSL Manager.If you are new to webmaster tools or you have never used CPanel Hosting before you are in for a treat. There are of course things that could be improved but it is the control panel used by all the top hosting companies for a reason.