This guide will show you the key steps you need to take in order to get the most from your hosting account. Please refer to each of the following sections to get started:
Account Details
- The cPanel Control Panel
- The Client Area
First Things To Do
- Configure your domain name
- Create and email account
- Enable Spam Filtering (SpamAssassin)
- Configuring your email client
- Create an FTP account
- Upload your website files
Getting Support
Also check out our video tutorials at http://www.hostingphotography.com/support/video-tutorials/ which contain valuable help on using the cPanel Control Panel, Configuring Email, FTP, our Client Area and information about web hosting in general.
Account Details
Your welcome email will have contained your login details that will be needed to manage your account, pay invoices and obtain support.
If you are registering, transferring, or pointing an existing domain name to your new hosting package please keep in mind that your domain name may not be visible on the internet between 24 and 72 hours. This is due to DNS propagation. Until your domain has propagated your website and email will not function.
cPanel Control Panel
The cPanel control panel is used to control all aspects of your hosting account. It provides a vast amount of functionality, which for most users will not be needed. We have called out the most important aspects in this guide to help you get started quickly.
You can access your control panel by visiting http://www.<yourdomain.com>/cpanel/ (note: where <yourdomain.com> is your actual domain name>)
You can view our video tutorials at http://www.hostingphotography.com/support/video-tutorials/
For more explanation you may want to refer to the official cPanel Documentation which can be found at > http://www.cpanel.net/support/docs/11/cpanel/index.html
Client Area
The client area is not the same as the cPanel control panel The username and password will differ from your cPanel login.
The client is your one stop point for all support and billing matters. Within the client area you are able to view and pay invoices, raise and view support tickets along with maintaining your personal details.
The client area is located at https://www.hostingphotography.com/clients/
First Things To Do
To get the most out of your new hosting account we have provided a short guide to ensure that you get your website up and running and start utilizing your email account. Below are what we consider to be the first steps anyone should take when setting up their hosting.
Configure your domain name
If you have registered a new domain name during ordering then you do not need to perform any configuration. If you are using an existing domain name with our Linux hosting then you need to change the name servers for your domain in order to point it to our servers.
Instructions are provided in your welcome email for which name servers to use, which varies depending on which server your account is created upon.
For any queries please do not hesitate to contact support.
Create an email account
By default your account does not have any email accounts created. You need to do this manually using the cPanel control panel.
To create an email account, such as firstname.lastname@yourdomain.com please refer to the cPanel tutorials at http://www.hostingphotography.com/support/video-tutorials/#cpanel
We recommend that you configure your email to use SpamAssassin.
Enable Spam Filtering (SpamAssassin)
SpamAssassin is enabled by default. To enable/disable SpamAssassin log into the cPanel control panel and then:
- Click the Mail icon
- Then click SpamAssassin from the list of options.
- Read the details provided and then click the Enable/Disable SpamAssassin button to toggle.
You may want to consider also using Spam Box so that mails identified as Spam are not deleted but moved to a Spam folder. To enable Spam Box click the Enable Spam Box button on the same page below the SpamAssassin options.
Configuring your email client
Configuring your email client such as Outlook is straight forward.
Please refer to the tutorial at > http://www.hostingphotography.com/support/video-tutorials/#email
Create an FTP account
Before you can upload files to your hosting space you first need to create an FTP account. To do this you will use the cPanel control panel. Using this newly created FTP account username and password you can then upload files using any FTP program.
A tutorial for creating an FTP account can be found at > http://www.hostingphotography.com/support/video-tutorials/#ftp
Upload your website files
Please be sure to upload your website files to the public_html folder on your hosting space so it is visible on the internet. To replace our default parking / placeholder page upload a file named index.html (all lowercase letters).
We recommend using FileZilla (http://filezilla-project.org/) which is free for personal and non educational use.
Getting Support
Also check out our video tutorials at http://www.hostingphotography.com/support/video-tutorials/ which contain valuable help on using the cPanel Control Panel, FTP, our Client Area and information about web hosting in general.
At any time you can obtain support from the client area, using this link or sending an email to