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cPanel - Overview

cPanel is a Linux-based hosting management control panel. It is used to manage your website and server’s backend working system. It provides graphical user interface for most of the tasks we perform on the website’s server, for example, uploading files, creating emails, setting cron jobs, handling databases, etc.

cPanel Users

cPanel is installed on a Linux system by the server administrator. With the help of the cPanel Software Server, an Administrator can create Virtual Private Servers or it can dedicate the whole server for shared hosting environment. cPanel Shared hosting has three types of user levels.

Server Administrator − This user is the root user of a cPanel Linux Server and has all the permission over the server. Server Admin can create, modify or delete any account from the cPanel Server. The Server Admin has access to cPanel WHM (Web Host Manger), which can be understood as the backend of cPanel.

Reseller Accounts − This user is created by the server administrator and server administrator can choose which type of permissions should be given to reseller accounts. A Reseller account can further create user accounts and has access to all those accounts, which they have created. One reseller account does not have access to the user accounts that were created by another reseller accounts. They also have access to WHM with limited permissions.

User Account − These are normal user accounts, each user who subscribes for a web hosting from a company, is given this type of account. They do not have access to Web Host Manager. User account can host single or multiple websites according to their plans they have purchased from web hosting provider.

https://:2083 

https:///cpanel

If you have already updated your Nameservers for your domain, then you may use your domain for directly accessing cPanel by your domain. You may find cPanel login screen using your domain by typing the following into the address bar −

https://:2083 

https:///cpanel

Once you are redirected to your login screen, you will find the login screen like shown below.

You can enter the Username and Password and press the Log in button to login into the cPanel Dashboard.

cPanel - Changing Password

When you are successfully logged into a cPanel Dashboard, first and foremost, change the password of your cPanel account. This is very important, so that the security of cPanel remains intact. Nobody would want their website to be hacked.

To change your cPanel Password, follow these steps −

Step 1 − In cPanel Home, click username written over the right corner of the dashboard.

Step 2 − Click Password & Security option. You will find Change Password Interface.

Step 3 − Write your old password and in the following fields, write your new password twice.

Step 4 − Enable digest authentication option if you need to access your webdisk via an unencrypted connection in windows machine. This type of connection is unsecured and not recommended.

Step 5 − Click Change your password now! Button to change your current password. If successful, then cPanel will automatically log you out and you will have to login again with your new password.

cPanel - Styles

You can change cPanel’s look and feel using this interface. cPanel has two major interface styles in which you can manage your web hosting. Although this interface is very standard, these can be modified by your server administrator or reseller account admin to change its logo and icons, etc.

To modify your cPanel Style follow these steps −

Step 1 − In cPanel Home click the username written over the right corner of your dashboard.

Step 2 − Click Change Style option. You will find Change Style Interface.

Step 3 − Choose any style option from the available styles, click Apply button which can be found over the top of the style to load the new style.

Step 4 − cPanel will automatically reload to apply the new setting and you will find a new interface according to the one you selected.

cPanel - Contact Information

In this interface of cPanel, you are allowed to change the system email address. It is the email address on which the system can notify you for important updates. You cannot use your system email address or any email address, which is connected with your domain, so that you do not lose any important update, when the system is down.

To update your contact email, follow these steps −

Step 1 − In cPanel Home, click username on the right corner of your dashboard.

Step 2 − Click on Contact Information option. You will find Contact Information Interface.

Step 3 − Enter the email address on which you want the system to contact you for important notifications.

Step 4 − You can enter a second email address on which you can receive the copy of that email sent on your primary email.

Step 5 − You can choose the options of an event on which the system should send you a notification in contact preference. It is recommended that you leave every checkbox selected.

Step 6 − Click the Save button to save your contact preference.

cPanel - Home

Once you are logged into cPanel dashboard, you will see that it has so many options. In this chapter, you will find a quick brief of every option shown in the cPanel dashboard.

Sidebar

You can switch to your accounts’ four main areas of cPanel through this interface, which are −

Home − This is where you can access all the features of cPanel.

Statistics − Displays information about your cPanel account and also the resources it used.

Dashboard − Displays quick links to change styles etc. and overview of your cPanel account.

User manager − Here you can manage the users of your cPanel account.

Navigation Bar

On this toolbar, you will find the cPanel’s logo and a search box in which you can type any function of cPanel to access it quickly. Like your User account name and some quick links, once you click on it. The Notification Icon will show you the recent notifications about your cPanel account. Logout button will end your session (log you out) from the cPanel.

Feature List

It displays all the features and functions you have in your cPanel. You can click on any function and it will take you over to the desired functions interface.

cPanel - Statistics & Dashboard

In this chapter, we will discuss about the cPanel statistics and the dashboard along with a few examples and screenshots for better understanding.

cPanel Statistics

The statistics interface of cPanel shows quick statistics of your cPanel account. It includes several types of information shown below. To view quick statistics of your cPanel account, click on second icon statistics from sidebar at left. You will find this information in cPanel quick statistics.

General − It will show you the amount of bandwidth allotted to your account and also the amount of bandwidth, which is used by you. It will also show you the FTP accounts available in your cPanel account. It will also show the information of your Home directory and the IP address, from which you logged in last time. You can click on the Server Information to view the detailed information of your server.

Domain Info − In the next box, it will show you the information of main domain and the number of add-on domains, subdomains and aliases you have created.

Mail Info − This section will show the information about your emails. It will tell you how many email accounts, Autoresponder Forwarders and Filters you have created along with the total number of resource allotted.

Disk Space − In this section, the total disk space of your account is shown and also the amount of space used by MySQL database is shown along with total amount of space allotted to your account and MySQL database.

Database − This section shows the info of total number of databases you have created along with the total number of database you can create.

System Information − In this section, the statistics cPanel shows you the information of your system with total CPU usage, virtual and physical memory that is being used. It also displays information of the process you are running, the Input and Output uses and also it displays number of inodes, which means the number of files.

cPanel Dashboard

Through this interface you can see some brief statistics of your cPanel account plus you can change the theme of your cPanel account. To access your dashboard, you can click on the third icon ‘Dashboard’ on the left sidebar.

cPanel - User Manager

This is a new feature introduced in the latest edition of cPanel. Through this user manager section, you can control all the users you have in your cPanel with a single interface. This interface will show you all the user accounts, who have email accounts or FTP accounts that are associated with your domain. You can delete edit those accounts, change passwords and also you can delete them from here. This interface gives you the ability to add new user and associate them to FTP and Email account too.

To Delete an Account

To use user manager and delete user accounts, you can follow these steps −

Step 1 − Open User manager by clicking the last icon in the sidebar on the left side. Once user manager is open, you will see an interface like this −

Step 2 − You can view all the accounts of your cPanel here, which includes your system accounts too. Account having the Inbox icon colored shows that the account has an email address. The accounts having the truck icon colored show that the account has an access to FTP account, whereas the accounts having the disk icon colored shows that the account has access to a webdisk.

Step 3 − Find the account you wish to delete and click on the delete link under the domain.

Step 4 − You will be asked for confirmation, click on the delete button to delete the user account.

To Edit an Account

If you wish to edit an account or to change the password of any account. Follow these steps −

Step 1 − Choose the account you wish to edit or change password of, from the user manager. Click on Edit link or Change Password link under that account. Both of these will take you to the same interface, where you can edit the account.

Step 2 − You can specify the Full name of the user. Or else, you can provide alternate email id for that account.

Step 3 − Scroll down to see the Security Information, you can provide a new password in this interface or whether, you wish to change the password, if not leave it blank.

Step 4 − Choose the services you want to enable for that user account from the services interface.

You can enable or disable email, also you can change the Quota for the email of that account. You can also enable FTP for that account, just move the switch to enable the FTP account.

Step 5 − Click Save for saving the settings for that existing user.

Add a New User

You can also add a new user and give him access to email and FTP. To create a new user, follow these steps −

Step 1 − Click ‘Add User’ Button found on the right side of the user manager interface. And you will see the same screen, which you saw on the Edit user interface.

Step 2 − Provide all necessary information like username and password, you can also provide full name of the user, but it is optional.

Step 3 − Choose services you want to give to that particular user. Enable the services by moving the switch to enable or disable the services.

Step 4 − Click the Create button to create the user and return to the user manager interface or click Create and Add Another to create the user and return to Add user interface to add a new user again.

cPanel - File Manager

cPanel File Manager gives you useful options to quickly manage your files within the cPanel interface. It’s easy to use and it removes the hassles of using FTP. You can create, upload, modify or remove files from this interface. It also gives the feature of moving files to Trash before permanently deleting them, from which it can be recovered later.

To open the file manager, click on File Manager in the Files section.

It will open a new tab and once you are in File Manager, you will see a Dashboard like this.

cPanel File Manager gives you a lot of flexibility for Navigating within your files.

You can use file manager for following tasks.

Searching for a File

To search for a file, use the search bar on top of the File Manager Dashboard. You can search within all your files, public_html or current directory, then write the file name in next input box and click go to search for a file.

Note − public_html is folder in cPanel, all the files which are accessible from the frontend of your website are stored in this directory. Index.html or index.php found in this folder loads first, when somebody accesses your website from frontend by your URL.

File Manager Settings

To access cPanel File Manager Preferences, click setting buttons from the top of the Dashboard. You will see a Prompt as shown below.

• By default, cPanel File manager opens the Home Directory of your account, when opening the cPanel. But, we can override this by choosing it with Web Root, which is public_html folder of Public FTP root or with a Document root of your domain or any subdomain you create.
• In Linux, hidden files have a single Dot (.) in front of them. The default cPanel File Manager does not display them, but you can choose to show hidden files by enabling Show Hidden Files (dotfiles) option.
• When we open a text file, which may be HTML, PHP or Plain Text file, cPanel opens a dialog to check the character encoding of the file, to ensure maximum compatibility, when editing the file. You can disable this feature by selecting – Disable Character Encoding Verification Dialogs.

Working with File Manager

Creating a File

To create a new File, navigate to the directory, where the file needs to be created and then click New File from the Dashboard. A prompt opens and asks you the file name. Enter it accordingly with the extension of file and Path, where the file will be created. Finally, click Create New File and a new file will be created.

Creating a Folder

To create a new Folder or Directory, navigate to the directory in which you want to create the folder. Click on New Folder from the Dashboard. A Prompt will be opened to ask you name of your New Folder. Enter your desired Folder name and Click Create New Folder. Your new folder will be created.

Copying

You can copy a single file or folder or even multiple files or folders. To copy a single file or folder select what you want to copy with a single mouse click over the it and Click Copy. You will be asked the file path where you wish to copy the file or folder to, enter the Path accordingly and click Copy File(s).

To copy multiple files or folders, single click on the desired files or folders by holding down the ctrl key to select multiple files or folder and then click on copy. Enter the desired location and Click to Copy File(s) button to copy multiple files.

Moving

You can move a single file or folder or multiple ones. To move a single file or folder, select the one that you want to move with a single mouse click over it and Click on Move. You will be asked the file path where you wish to move the file or folder to, enter the Path accordingly and click on Move File(s).

To move multiple files or folders, single click on the desired files or folders by holding down the ctrl key to select multiple files or folder and then click on move. Enter the desired location and Click to Move File(s) button to move multiple files.

Uploading a File

To upload a file from the cPanel File Manager Interface, navigate to the directory in which you wish to upload and then, click Upload. You will find the interface shown below.

You can Drag and Drop the file to upload or you can select the file from Select File button. If you want the File Manager to automatically overwrite the files with same name, you can select – Overwrite existing files checkbox.

Downloading a File

To download a file from the cPanel File Manager, you can select the single file or multiple files with single click on file name, and click over Download to download the files.

Deleting a File or Folder

To delete Single or Multiple file or folder just select the files with single mouse click and click on Delete button. You will get a prompt for sending the files into Trash, if you want to permanently delete the files then select Skip the Trash checkbox. If the check box is not selected, files are moved to Trash Folder from where you can recover them later.

Renaming a File or Folder

To rename a File or Folder, select the file or folder with a single mouse click and Click on rename. You will get a prompt to enter new file or folder name. Enter file or folder name accordingly and click on Rename File button to save. You can also double click on Name of any File or Folder to rename the file.

Text Editor

To edit any text file with simple text editor, select the file and click on Edit button. You will get a prompt with Encoding check if enabled, then click on Edit in prompt to edit the file. Text editor will open in a new tab, where you can edit the file. You can also switch to Code editor from here. When you have finished editing, click Save to save the File.

Code Editor

Code editor makes it easy to edit those files, which contains code in them. It differentiates color between codes, which makes it easy to edit those files.

Extracting a File

To extract a File which are compressed, select the file you wish to extract and click on Extract Button. You will get a prompt to enter the path where you wish to extract the files, if you enter a path which is not existing, cPanel File Manager will create the directory and extract the file in it.

Note − cPanel File Manager can only extract files which are in Zip, GZip and BZip2 type of compression.

Compressing a File or Folder

To compress a folder or a single or multiple files, select the files and click on Compress. You will get a prompt, select the compression method where you can choose from Zip, Gzip or Bzip2. It will ask you to enter the file name, enter file name accordingly and click Compress File(s). After compression, the result will be shown to you.

Viewing a File

This option helps you to view the content of known file types within cPanel Interface. Select the file you wish to view and click on View. It will open a new tab and the content of file will be shown to you.