Monthly Archive October 17, 2018

What is the difference between shared hosting and VPS?

What is the difference between shared hosting and VPS?

What is the difference between shared hosting and VPS?
It is the same difference as between a dedicated server and usual shared hosting.

With a VPS, you receive all the power of dedicated hosting with the ability to have your own set of services and customizable disk space. With shared hosting, you have limited administrative access and can’t customize software configurations, while with a VPS you can perform any actions from your control panel and don’t need to contact technical support with every single request.

Why should I choose VPS hosting?

Why should I choose VPS hosting?Why should I choose VPS hosting?

Virtual Private Server is the right choice for developers, webmasters, resellers and simply for those who run resource-intensive websites. We use KVM and VMware technologies for virtualization, that is why each VPS performs and executes exactly like an independent physical machine and therefore offers security and flexibility for your sites, independence from neighbors, full control over your hosting environment and power of a dedicated server at an affordable price. KVM delivers 133% increase in disk speed performance comparing to XEN technology. Both KVM and VMware VPSs has got their own customers, and we respect all those customers.

 

What is a VPS?

What is a VPS?

What is a VPS?

With a VPS, you open a world of possibilities that would not be possible on shared hosting because of restrictions.

VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. This refers to the partitioning of a physical server into multiple servers. In effect, each one acts just like a dedicated server, you get all the features of a dedicated server but at a lower price. Each VPS has its own operating system, and each can be rebooted separately. These operating systems each receive a specific share of the resources of the physical server, no more and no less, they are isolated from each other so that one cannot interfere with another. If one VPS experiences problems or tries to use too much memory or CPU resources, it has no effect on the others.

There are many advantages to selecting a VPS, it costs less than a fully dedicated server and provides a great deal of freedom and flexibility over the limitations and restrictions of shared hosting. You are limited only by the capabilities of the VPS, so select one powerful enough to meet your needs. You can always upgrade later if you decide it becomes necessary.

As for virtualization technologies we offer KVM VPS servers.

Since you are supposed to manage your VPS yourself, we recommend you have a good understanding of Linux commands and are familiar with the WHM/cPanel control panel. You can get a VPS without WHM/cPanel, but in this case, you would need to have very advanced knowledge of Linux.

If you don’t feel you have the technical expertise necessary to manage your own VPS, there is no need to let that stop you – you can select full management for an additional fee.

You won’t have root access, and it will act much like a shared hosting plan, but you will still make the decisions.

cPanel is required if you choose full management for a VPS.

How to reset WordPress admin password

How to reset WordPress admin password

There are three ways to reset a lost WordPress dashboard password:

Using the Lost Password option
Using Softaculous Apps installer
In the database

Using the Lost Password option

1. Open your WordPress administrative login page – it is usually located in http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin.

2. Click on the Lost your password? option, fill out the username or email address > Get New Password:

How to reset WordPress admin password

How to reset WordPress admin password

3. Log into your email account, which is set as your administrative WordPress contact. You can find the email message with the password reset URL there, click on it:
How to reset WordPress admin password

4. Enter your new strong password twice on the opened page > Reset password:

How to reset WordPress admin password

Using Softaculous Apps installer

In order to change the password for your WordPress admin user, follow next steps:

1. Log into cPanel and navigate to Softaculous Apps Installer menu:

How to reset WordPress admin password

2. In the Softaculous interface find All Installations icon in the top right corner:

How to reset WordPress admin password

3. In this menu you will see Scripts Installations list. Select the one you need to change the admin password for and click on Edit Details (pencil icon) next to it:

How to reset WordPress admin password

4. Next you will see installation details page. Scroll down to Admin Account section. Here you need to enter your current username and the new password in Admin Password field:

How to reset WordPress admin password

5. Once done, scroll down to the bottom of the page and hit Save installation details button:

How to reset WordPress admin password

6. After that you will receive the message about the successful update:

How to reset WordPress admin password

Feel free to log in to WordPress admin panel using the new password.

Reset the password via the database

If Lost your password? confirmation emails do not arrive, or if you have no access to the email account linked to your administrative dashboard, you can reset your password via MySQL database:

1. Log into your cPanel > section Files File manager and navigate to the document root of your WordPress website:

How to reset WordPress admin password

2. To check what database is used for your WordPress website, open the wp-config.php file located in:

How to reset WordPress admin password

3. Go to cPanel > Databases section > phpMyAdmin:

How to reset WordPress admin password

4. Select the database in question, table wp-users and click on Edit next to the admin user:

How to reset WordPress admin password

5. On the next page, type in your new strong password into the user_pass box, select MD5 in the Function column and click Go:

How to reset WordPress admin password

You can now go back to the WordPress dashboard page and try to log in with the new password.

 

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

This article will take you through the process of moving your WordPress website from the subfolderyourdomain.com/wp to the domain root – yourdomain.com:

 

NOTE: Before proceeding with any changes, make sure that you generate a full backup of your website. If you’ve created your site using Softaculous script installer, feel free to refer to this guide as well (step #4 – Backup software).

for cPanel paper_lantern theme:
Re-installation
Redirection
File migration and Database update

 

Re-installation

If you just installed your website and have done no or little development, WordPress re-installation will be the easiest way out.

You just need to go back to cPanel > Exclusive for Namecheap Customers section > Softaculous Apps Installer menu:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder
Create a new one, make sure the In Directory field is empty and proceed with the installation:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

Do not forget to uninstall /subfolder website by hitting the red cross in All Installations menu:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

 

Redirection

If the website is pretty much done and re-installation is not acceptable, you can set up a hidden redirect – the installation will remain in the subfolder, but your website homepage will be yourdomain.com.

Take into account that this redirect will make /subfolder disappear only on the homepage, links will still have it – e.g., yourdomain.com/subfolder/contactus.

If it sounds alright to you, add the following redirect to .htaccess file in the domain web root (replacing yourdomain.com with your actual domain name and subfolder with your subfolder):

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?yourdomain.com$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(/|\.[^/]*)$
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.yourdomain.com/$1/ [L,R=301]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?yourdomain.com$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/subfolder/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /subfolder/$1 

1. Navigate to Files section > File Manager:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

2. Move to the root folder for your WordPress installation – public_html in case it is the main domain for your account.

Once there, make sure that Show Hidden files (dotfiles) option is enabled in Settings menu:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

3. Locate .htaccess file, right-click > Edit:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

4. If there is no .htaccess file located in your File manager, feel free to create a new one using File option:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

You are ready to add the redirect rule and save it.

File migration and Database update

If the option above does not work for you, and you would like to make sure there is no /subfolder on your website, you can go this way.

NOTE: We highly recommend to back up website files and the database before proceeding.

1. File migration

Go to your website folder using FTP or File Manager:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

Select All files > Move them to the domain document root (in our example, from public_html/wp_subfolderto public_html):

How to move WordPress from a subfolder
How to move WordPress from a subfolder

Once done, go back to the domain document root to make sure all files have been moved:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

2. Database update

You can update old URL references with the new ones in the database either using search and replace scripts or using text editors. Below we provide the guidelines using the latter:

1. To begin with, you will need to locate the database associated with your website. Right-click on the file > View or Edit option:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

You will see the database name in this line:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

3. The next steps is to download the backup of the database. It can be done in your cPanel > Files section > Backup menu:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder
How to move WordPress from a subfolder

4. Unzip the downloaded file. Now you can open .sql file with some text editor and update all the URL references.

Hit Ctrl + F and select Replace option. Fill out the corresponding fields, Find – your old domain, Replace – your new domain) and hit Replace All:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

5. Once done, you should get the output like this:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

Make sure that you save the changes.

6. Now you can upload the updated database to your cPanel account. To be on the safe side, we suggest creating a new database (instead of dropping the existing one) and connect it to your WordPress side.

To do so, move to Databases section > MySQL Databases menu:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

7. Follow the steps below to create a new database and user for it:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder
How to move WordPress from a subfolder
How to move WordPress from a subfolder
How to move WordPress from a subfolder
How to move WordPress from a subfolder

Keep these details, you will need to use them a bit later.

8. After that you can upload the database using phpMyAdmin menu in Databases section:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

9. Select the newly created database from the list on the left and use switch to Import tab. There you will need to use Browse option to pick up the database .sql file from your local device:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

NOTE: If your database is more than 50Mb, import the database following the steps in this guide.

10. Once done, you will need to update wp-config.php file in your installation root folder:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

The fields to be changed are:

define ‘DB_NAME’ line – the name of the new database you’ve created in MySQL Databases menu.
define ‘DB_USER’ line – the name of the new user you you’ve created in MySQL Databases menu.
define ‘DB_PASSWORD’ line – the new password you’ve set for database user in MySQL Databases menu.

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

Save the changes and feel free to check your website.

If everything is working fine, you may delete the old database you used for the website.

11. It is also advised to re-generate the permalinks to make sure they have the new URL. You can do it in your WordPress dashboard in Settings menu > Permalinks.

So if you had Post name, you need to switch it to Plain, for instance, save the changes and then revert everything back:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

 

for cPanel x3 theme:

Re-installation
Redirection
File migration and Database update

Re-installation

If you just installed your website and have done no or little development, WordPress re-installation will be the easiest way out.

You just need to go back to cPanel > Software/Services section > Softaculous > WordPress, make sure the In Directory field is empty and proceed with the installation.

Do not forget to uninstall the /wp website in Softaculous once done:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

 

Redirection

If the website is pretty much done and re-installation is not acceptable, you can set up a hidden redirect – the installation will remain in the /wp subfolder, but your website homepage will be yourdomain.com.

Take into account that this redirect will make /wp disappear only on the homepage, links will still have it – e.g., yourdomain.com/wp/contactus.

If it sounds alright to you, add the following redirect to the .htaccess file in the domain web root (replacing yourdomain.com with your actual domain name and wp with your subfolder)

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?yourdomain.com$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(/|\.[^/]*)$
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.yourdomain.com/$1/ [L,R=301]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?yourdomain.com$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/wp/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /wp/$1 

File migration and Database update

If the variants above do not work for you, and you would like to make sure there is no /wp on your website, you can go with this option.

We highly recommend to back up website files and the database before proceeding.

1. File migration

Go to your website folder using FTP or File Manager:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

Select All files > Move them to the domain document root (in our example, from public_html/wp to public_html):

How to move WordPress from a subfolder
How to move WordPress from a subfolder
Once done, go back to the domain document root to make sure all files have been moved:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder
2. Database update

You can update old URL references with the new ones in the database either using search and replace scripts or using text editors.

Below we provide the guidelines using the latter.

  • Check what database is used for your WordPress website. You can check it in the wp-config.php file located in the WordPress installation folder:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

  • Go to cPanel > Databases section > phpMyAdmin.

 

  • Select the database in question and click on Export > Go:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

  • The database will be downloaded to your computer. Now you need to open it and update all yourdomain.com/wp references with yourdomain.com.Once opened, click Ctrl+F and choose the tab Replace. Fill out the fields below correspondingly > Replace All:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

  • Once done, the prompt below will display the result:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

  • Save the updated database and exit the application.
  • Now go back to cPanel > Databases section > phpMyAdmin and select your database.
  • Check all tables using the option below and select Drop from the drop-down menu:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

  • On the next page, confirm the actions by clicking Yes:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

  • Once the old tables are dropped, go back and select the database > Import:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

  • Choose the updated database from your computer files to upload > Go:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

  • You will see a green status bar – this will indicate that the database has been successfully imported. On your right, a database tables tree will appear:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder
Go back to your website and refresh the page to check the results:

How to move WordPress from a subfolder

 

How to install WordPress using Softaculous

How to install WordPress using Softaculous

Once you order hosting service, you can start creating your own website. Using Softaculous automatic app installer you can install WordPress in a few clicks.

Below you can find step-by-step guidelines covering the process:

1. Log into your cPanel.
2. Navigate to Exclusive for Namecheap customers section > Softaculous Apps Installer menu:

How to install WordPress using Softaculous
3. On the homepage, click on the WordPress icon:

How to install WordPress using Softaculous

4. Switch to the Install tab to proceed:

How to install WordPress using Softaculous

5. On the next page you will need to fill out the details of your WordPress installation.

  • Choose the domain you wish to install WordPress for
  • In the In Directory field you can specify the root folder for WordPress installation. By default, this field is empty, and it allows installing WordPress on yourdomain.com directly. If you wish to install it to a subfolder, like yourdomain.com/blog, simply type “blog” in this field.
  • Database Name can be left default.
  • Table Prefix can also be left default wp_; however, due to security reasons it is better to change it, e.g., to ncwpsite_ .
  • The Site Settings section should be filled out accordingly to your needs, though you can change it anytime later if required.

Make sure you set up secure and hard-to guess details in the Admin Account section:

How to install WordPress using Softaculous

How to install WordPress using Softaculous

How to install WordPress using Softaculous

6. When ready, scroll down and hit Install.
In a few moments you will see the message that WordPress has been successfully installed:

How to install WordPress using Softaculous

 

You can now go ahead and log into your WordPress Dashboard to start working on your website.

 

 

How to manage WordPress website with iPhone application

How to manage WordPress website with iPhone application

1. In order to be able to manage your WordPress website with an iPhone application, it is required to install the application first. To install the WordPress application, open App Store and go to the Search page. Type ‘WordPress‘ and press Get to install the app:

2. Once it is installed, open the app and press the Log in button:

3. Choose the Log in by entering your site address option:

4. Enter your website’s URL:

5. Next, enter your WordPress admin account access details:

6. On the next page, you will be able to add more WordPress websites or press Continue to proceed.

After pressing the ‘Continue’ button, you will be redirected to the website management page.

By pressing the ‘Stats’ button, you can install JetPack plugin to track your website’s stats. To install Jetpack, press the Set up Jetpack button:

7. To set up JetPack you will need to enter your email address that is used for your account at wordpress.com (it is required for a JetPack). If you don’t have an account at wordpress.com, create one prior to setting up JetPack. Once JetPack is set up, you will be able to check different statistics for your website, such as Latest Posts Summary, Daily stats, Posting Activity and other.

8. Publish part of the app has the following options:

Site Pages menu allows you to:

  • create pages by pressing a “+” sign;
  • check published, drafts, scheduled and trashed pages;
  • search for pages on your website;
  • view or move pages either to Draft or Trash by pressing a “…” sign.

Blog Posts menu allows you to do the same things as in the Site Pages menu but with your posts.
A post can be published by pressing the ‘+’ sign

In Media menu you can upload your media content by pressing the ‘+’ sign or ‘Upload media’ Button. You will be able to choose one of the following options:

  • take a photo or video to upload to your website;
  • choose a photo or video from the library on your phone;
  • upload a photo from other Apps (for example from iCloud).

In Comments menu you will be able to check your comments and:

  • approve a comment;
  • send a comment to trash;
  • mark a comment as spam;
  • edit a comment.

9. Personalize section. Here you will be able to work on your themes and menus:

Themes menu allows to Customize, check Details and upload themes you have. Additionally, you will be able to install new themes. That can be done by pressing the “…” sign.

In the pop-up window you will see the following options:

With the Try & Customize option you can ‘play around’ with the theme, test it out to see how it will look like on the website and activate it right away by pressing the corresponding button.

Activate option activates a theme.

View can be used to preview the theme.

Details to check theme details.

Support is where you can contact the theme support.

10. Configure part of the WordPress application dashboard allows you to:

  • add and manage Sharing Buttons on a website;
  • create new users on a website by pressing the ‘+’ button which is located in the People menu.
  • manage your plugins in the corresponding menu;
  • in the Settings menu, you can:

– change website Title, Tagline, Address, Time Zone in a General section;
– create Categories, Tags, change Post, Date and Time format on the website in the Writing section;
– track space used for Media uploads;
– adjust JetPack settings if you have it installed.

11. In the External part, you can check your website and log in to the actual wp-admin account via a browser on your phone by pressing the corresponding button. The last option ‘Remove Site’ will remove it from the WordPress App on your phone, the website itself will remain untouched.

You can also find the following options in the external part:

    • My Sites. An option that allows you to manage your WordPress websites using this application. If you have more sites added to the app, you will be able to switch between them by pressing the websites’ buttons.

 

  • Reader. By pressing it, you will be able to read some random WordPress articles created by other users.
  • Publish post button allows publishing your posts.
  • In Me menu you can change your profile settings and application settings.
  • Notifications menu allows you to set up notifications that would be sent to your phone from your website.

That’s it!

cPanel control panel overview

cPanel control panel overview

cPanel control panel is designed for managing separate hosting accounts on the server. End users/clients are able to:

  • upload and manage files for their websites
  • edit DNS records for their domains
  • add/remove addon domains and subdomains
  • install CMS using Softaculous script installer
  • create email accounts
  • manage email settings and SPAM protection
  • check website statistics
  • manage databases and backups, etc.

More details about the structure of WHM/cPanel users depending on their permissions can be found in this article.

We have cPanel 11.70 installed on our hosting servers. You can find the latest documentation covering all its functions here.

You can find cPanel structure overview for cPanel basic style and for cPanel retro style below in this guide.

for cPanel basic style:

Basically cPanel has two vertical sections with different features:

Left column which provides a number of various features that are conveniently structured to specific groups based on the concrete aspect of the web-hosting service and Right column which includes different Statsinformation about the account. Additionally, you can see a header above both sections:

Header and Right Column:

Left Column:

Header and Right Column:
Search  User  Stats

Search: a search bar that allows you to find cPanel features in the quickest way. Just start entering the name of the needed tool to allocate the corresponding menu:

User: this menu provides a number of options related to your cPanel user and account itself – chaning your cPanel password, contact information, style and language as well as resetting all the current account configuration to the default state:

Stats: here you will find the general information related to your cPanel account:

Server Information menu lists hosting account package and additional server-side details, like the IP address assigned to your cPanel account, software installed on the server and the status of the core services:

Statistics column collects cPanel services and quotas as well as the current account resource usage:

  

Left Column:

Exclusive for Namecheap customers
Files  Databases  Email  Domains  Metrics  Security  Software  Advanced  Preferences

Exclusive for Namecheap Customers

 Google Apps: with this tool you will be able to configure Google Apps service for your domain in just a few clicks. Feel free to check this category for more information.
 Namecheap SSL: this menu allows you to use Namecheap SSL cPanel plugin, check this guide for more details.

CodeGuard Backup: this tool was designed to make the backup process as easy as possible. CodeGuard system will constantly monitor the website and keep you informed of any changes, performing full automatic backups of your files to avoid any possible downtime. More information is provided in the following articles:

How to make backups using CodeGuard
How to back up a WordPress site using CodeGuard

 Softaculous Apps Installer: this feature allows you to use Softaculous Script Installer, which includes most popular CMS, such as WordPress/Joomla/Magento etc. It is much faster than other script installers and it installs CMSes in a few clicks. Softaculous application is provided with any cPanel account on all of our shared hosting plans. You can view available scripts and their demo here. You may find these guides useful when working with Softaculous installer:

How to work with scripts in Softaculous
How to install WordPress using Softaculous

 Website Builder: this tool allows you to easily create an entire website using a drag-and-drop editor and without knowing any code or installing special software.
 Contact Support: opens a Live Chat with our customer support team.

 Namecheap Knowledgebase: this button will take you to our Knowledgebase site section.

Files

 File Manager: here you can manage the files stored in your account. These guides can be found helpful while working with this menu:

How to use File Manager in cPanel
How do I upload my site?

 Images: this tool allows you to view and modify images in your account.
 Directory Privacy: allows you to set a requirement for a username and password when users attempt to access your site from the web. It can be used when you need to limit access to a certain part of your site. You can get more details in this guide.

 Disk Usage: in this menu you will be able to check a detailed information about the disk space usage of your account. It shows disk usage totals for your account’s directories and all of its databases, not for individual files or databases. More details about Disk Space usage optimization are provided in this article.

 Web Disk: this feature is a cPanel implementation of the WebDav protocol, which allows you to manage, upload, and download your website’s files as though they were local to your personal computer. More detailed instructions about setting up WebDisk can be found in these articles:

How to set up Web Disk on Windows 7
How to set up Web Disk on Windows 8

 FTP Accounts: this option allows you to create and manage your FTP accounts. In order to create an FTP account, feel free to check this article. For FTP connection instructions, refer to this set of guides:

How to access an account via FTP
How to set up FileZilla
How to set up Cyberduck
How to set up iWeb
How to set up Adobe Muse
How to set up Dreamweaver
How to set up CoreFTP Client
How to set up CuteFTP

 FTP Connections: using this tool you can monitor the users who are currently logged into your site via FTP. Also, it’s possible to terminate an FTP connection from here.

Backup: this feature allows you to download a zipped copy of your entire account or specific parts of it, such as your home directory, databases, email forwarder configuration, or your email filters configuration. More details guidance about how to make backups in cPanel can be found here.

 Backup Wizard: a user-friendly interface for creating a backup of your entire site, a partial backup, or allowing a site restoration from the last backup saved. Note, that Restore option provided in this menu is disabled by default on all our shared servers.

 Inodes Usage: provides the statistics of your account inodes (files) usage.You will find more details about this tool here.

Databases

 phpMyAdmin: it’s the database management tool, which allows you to make different changes to MySQL databases in your account. You can find more information about how to work with databases via phpMyAdmin this guide.

 MySQL Databases: in this menu you can create and manage MySQL databases in cPanel account. You can refer to this guide for more details.

 MySQL Databases Wizard: provides the same functionality as MySQL Databases menu, in a simplified way though.

 PostgreSQL Databases: this option allows you to create and manage PostgreSQL databases in cPanel.

 PostgreSQL Databases Wizard: has the same functionality as PostgreSQL Databases menu, but allows to make all the changes in a simpler way.

 phpPgAdmin: it is the database management tool, which allows you to make different changes to PostgreSQL databases in your account.

MySQL F.A.Q.: this button will take you to the corresponding Knowledgebase section dedicated to MySQL questions.

Email

 Email Accounts: in this menu you can create and manage mailboxes associated with the domain names hosted in your account. In order to create an email account, feel free to check this guidance. More details about setting up a newly created email account with email clients can be found in the set of articles cPanel Email: Client Setup.

 Forwarders: setting up Forwarders feature provides you with an opportunity to send a copy of all emails from one email address to another. For example, you have two different email accounts and you don’t want to check both of them every time, so you could forward emails from test@yourdomain.com to test2@yourdomain2.com. Note, that the original address will still receive the forwarded emails.

 Email Routing: here you can set email routing for the domains hosted in your cPanel account, more details can be found in this guide.

 Autoresponders: this feature allows you to automatically send messages in reply to incoming emails received on a specific email account. This is pretty useful when you are on holidays or unavailable, or if you have any generic messages to send. You will find more information in this guide.

 Default Address: in this menu you can manage an email address, which is used by cPanel to fetch any message sent to email accounts which do not exist at your domain (also known as ‘catch-all address’). More details can be found here.

 Mailing Lists: with this option you can create a single address to send emails, newsletters and other updates to multiple email addresses simultaneously. Feel free to refer to this article to get more information.

 Track Delivery: this menu allows you to monitor emails delivery for your account.

 Global Email Filters: this feature allows you to configure filters of all the emails arriving to your hosted domains.

 Email Filters: with this option you can create filters for each email account for your domain. You can find more details about filtering tools in this article.

 Authentication: this tool will help you to prevent spam. Setting up DKIM and SPF records for your account equip email messages with verifiable information so that your server can automatically detect the nature of incoming and outgoing messages. The detailed guidance about using this feature can be found here.

 Address Importer: this menu allows you to use two types of files (.xls and .csv) for importing data in order to simultaneously create multiple email address or email forwarders for your account.

 Spam Filters: it is a user-friendly email utility which examines incoming mail for different spam characteristics. It uses various network tests and spam filtering to get an overall score in order to decide whether the mail should be considered as spam or not. SpamAssassin tool is provided by default with all our shared and reseller hosting plans. These articles can be found useful for setting up SpamAssasin feature:

SpamAssassin FAQs
How to configure SpamAssassin in cPanel

Encryption: this option allows you to set up GnuPG, which is a publicly-available encryption scheme that uses the public key approach. This system uses a public key to encrypt messages and you can decrypt them with the private key, which the intended recipient of the message retains.

 BoxTrapper: this tool can protect your Inbox from spam by requiring all email senders not on your Whitelist reply to a verification email before you can receive their mail.

 Calendars and Contacts: this menu helps to configure your client to connect to CalDAV for calendars and CardDAV for contacts in order to access them on your personal devices. The detailed instructions can be found in this guidance.

Email Disk Usage: this utility allows you to recover disk space by deleting old messages from your mailbox.

Professional Spam Filter: this menu allows you to configure SpamExperts, a user-friendly email filtering solution that allows to protect your account from both incoming and outgoing spam. More information about this feature is provided in this article.

 E-mail F.A.Q.: this button will take you to the corresponding Knowledgebase section dedicated to email questions.

 E-mail Client Setup: this button will take you to the corresponding Knowledgebase section dedicated to email account setup with different email clients and devices.

Domains

Site Publisher: you can use this interface to quickly create a website from a set of available templates. This allows visitors to see some basic information while you continue to develop your website.
 Addon Domains: with the help of this menu you can add more domains to the hosting account. Addon domains have the same functionality as the main domain assigned to your hosting account. More details about adding domains to cPanel are provided here.

 Subdomains: in this menu you can create subdomains and point them to different sections of your website or other IPs. Detailed instructions about this menu can be found in this article.

 Aliases: this feature allows you to ‘park’ additional domain names to your existing hosting account. They display the same website as your primary domain and share web statistics as well. You can refer to this guide when setting up a new parked domain.

 Redirects: here you can create a redirect for a specific domain/page to another domain/page and display the contents of the latter. More details can be found here.

 Zone Editor: allows you to edit the DNS zone of the domain(s) in your cPanel account. The following records can be added: A, AAAA, CNAME, SRV, TXT, MX. Feel free to check this article to get more information about setting up DNS records in cPanel.

 Domains F.A.Q.: this button will take you to the corresponding Knowledgebase section dedicated to domains’ management questions.

Metrics

 Visitors: the access log of your account provided in a table view.

 Errors: here you can check the error log for your account, showing the latest 300 lines of content related to the errors generated by any website hosted in your account.

 Bandwidth: provides you with the detailed information the bandwidth used by your account.

 Raw Access: the RAW access log for your account.

 Awstats: this tool provides you with an opportunity to monitor the access indexes on your account – users, robots, accessed pages and many, many more. You will find a more detailed explanation in this article.

 CPU and Concurrent Connection Usage: shows information on the resources consumed by your account. You can find some additional information on resource usage in this guide.

Security

 SSH Access: here you can generate an access key for your account in order to connect using SSH keys. More details about setting up SSH keys can be found in this article.

 IP Blocker: with the help of this tool you can block a range of IP addresses to prevent them from accessing your site. Feel free to refer to this guide on the matter.

 SSL/TLS: this tool will help you to install and manage your SSL Certificates. You will find a more detailed guide here.

 Hotlink Protection: in this menu you can enable hotlink protection for your website (that is to prevent someone from direct linking of your images to another website and, as a result, consuming your hosting account bandwidth). Feel free to check this guidance for additional information.

 Leech Protection: allows you to control whether users can give out or publicly post their passwords for restricted areas of your site. It can be used to redirect compromised accounts to the URL of your choice, or suspend them.

 SSL/TLS Status: use this interface to view the SSL status of your domains.

 Two-Factor Authentication: this tool lets you enable 2FA, an improved security measure that requires two forms of identification: your password and a generated security code. When 2FA is enabled, an app on your smartphone supplies a code you must enter with your password to log in. You can learn more about enabling 2FA here.

Software 

 PHP: here you can check PHP configuration settings. They cannot be customized via this menu. The system displays them for your reference only. In case you need to change PHP settings, feel free to check following articles:

How to edit php.ini on shared servers
How to change PHP version on shared servers
How to change PHP version on business servers (for older servers)
How to change PHP version on business servers (for newer servers)

 PHP PEAR Packages: this options allows you to install and maintain PHP PEAR packages for your hosting account.

 Perl Modules: here you can manage Perl modules available for your account. A Perl module is a discrete component of software for the Perl programming language. Perl is supported on all of our shared/reseller servers. This article will provide you with more details about this feature.

 RubyGems: in this menu you will find the set of functions that allow you to perform tasks in Ruby. It’s needed to install a Gem before you can use it inside a Ruby program.

 Ruby on Rails: with this menu you can use Ruby on Rails features. Ruby on Rails is a free web application framework for the Ruby programming language. It is often referred to as ‘Rails’ or ‘RoR’. We support RoR with our Stellar Plus, Stellar Business and Reseller packages (and old ProfessionalUltimateBusiness SSD, Reseller packages). The following versions are working on our servers: Ruby – 1.8.7, Rails – 2.3.18. More information can be found in this guide.

 Optimize Website: this feature allows you to enable/disable and configure the compression of your website by tweaking the way Apache handles requests, which can increase the performance of your website.

 Select PHP Version: here you can change PHP version applied to your cPanel account. You can find more information in this article.

 PHP F.A.Q.: this button will take you to our Knowledgebase site section dedicated to PHP-related questions.

Advanced

 Cron Jobs: here you can set up scripts running on a scheduled basis. For more details about setting up CronJobs refer to this guidance.

 Track DNS: using this tool you can check DNS information about any domain, or to trace the route from the server your site is on to the computer you are accessing cPanel from.

 Indexes: in this menu you can customize the way in which visitors can view a directory on the web.

 Error Pages: this feature allows you to edit the code for the default errors pages your website can display.

 Apache Handlers: here you can configure different Apache handlers for dealing with certain file formats.

 MIME Types: provides you with the information about the system predefined MIME types and the option to add a MIME Type on your own.

 Virus Scanner: this tool will allow you to scan your account for viruses with ClamAV virus scanner. ClamAV is an open source (GPL) anti-virus engine used in a variety of situations including email scanning, web scanning, and end point security. It provides a number of utilities including a flexible and scalable multi-threaded daemon, a command line scanner and an advanced tool for automatic database updates.

Preferences

 Password and Security: this menu allows you to change your cPanel main password if know the original one. Otherwise, you can reset the password following the steps in this guide.

 Change Language: this feature provides you with an opportunity to change your cPanel interface language.

 Change style: here you can change the overall look and feel of the interface by selecting one of the several preinstalled styles.

 Contact Information: in this menu you can specify an email address that will receive system email notifications.

 User Manager: allows you to manage your Subaccounts. Subaccounts use the same login and password information for email, FTP, and Web Disk.

for cPanel retro style:

Basically cPanel has two vertical sections with different features:

Left column which includes different Stats information about the account, the possibility to switch cPanel theme, the search bar and frequently accessed menus and Right column which provides a number of various features that are conveniently structured to specific groups based on the concrete aspect of the web hosting service.

    

Below you can find a list of each menu for your convenience:

Left Column:

Right Column:

Left Column

In this column you will find following options:

Find: it is a search bar that allows to find cPanel features in the quickest way. Just start entering the name of the needed tool to allocate the corresponding menu:

Stats: here you will find all the information related to the statistics of your hosting account. At the bottom of this section you will find Expand Stats button, which allows you to review the full statistics:

If you see the expanded stats menu, you will find Collapse Stats button at the bottom of this section in order to switch to the short menu version:

Here is an overview of all indexes:

  • Main Domain: the primary domain name associated with your hosting account.
  • Home Directory: the path the home directory of your account on the server where your websites’ folders and files reside.
  • Last Login: the last IP address your cPanel has been accessed from.
  • Disk Usage: the amount of server disk space provided with your cPanel account. This index displays disk space used by your websites’ content, databases, emails, etc.
  • File Usage: the current number of files (inodes) and your cPanel account’s inode limit.
  • Addon Domains: the current number of already added addon domains and the total number allowed for your cPanel account.
  • MySQL Databases: the current number of MySQL or MariaDB databases created your cPanel account.
  • Subdomains: the current number of already created subdomains and the total number allowed for your cPanel account.
  • Email Accounts: the current number of already created email accounts and the total number of email accounts allowed for your cPanel account.
  • FTP Accounts: the current number of already created FTP accounts and the total number allowed for your cPanel account.
  • MySQL Disk Usage: the amount of disk space used by your MySQL or MariaDB databases.
  • PostgreSQL Disk Usage: the amount of disk space used by your PostgreSQL databases.
  • Bandwidth: the current amount of data transferred to and from your cPanel account for the month and the total amount of your cPanel account’s monthly bandwidth limit.
  • Aliases: the current number of already created alias domains and the total number allowed for your cPanel account.
  • Mailing Lists: the current number of already created mailing lists and the total number allowed for your cPanel account.
  • Autoresponders: the current number of created email autoresponders and the maximum number allowed.
  • Forwarders: the amount of email forwarders created and the maximum number allowed.
  • Email filters: the number of email filters created vs. the maximum number allowed.
  • PostgreSQL Databases: the current number of PostgreSQL databases created in your cPanel account.
  • CPU Usage: this value specifies how much of the allocated CPU resources you are currently using. The amount of CPU resources we provide to each account is the percentage of the server’s resources.
  • Entry Processes: this is the number of processes that enter your account. For example, every PHP page that is accessed by a user will usually generate a single entry process.
  • Physical Memory Usage: the actual memory allocated for your account. Virtual memory is usually a file on a disk drive that the operating system uses to store information (swap-to-from) when the real memory becomes full, for instance the page (swap) file on a Linux system. Therefore, if you try to publish a big post, it might take all physical memory to do so, but after some time it will be normalized.
  • I/O Usage: this index represents how much I/O (or disk activity) your account is using. Any task which makes use of the servers disk drive (such as reading or writing to the server) will consume I/O. More details about resource limits can be found here.
  • Number of Processes: this limit is similar to the above but includes all the processes generated by the account rather than the specific PHP, SSH or cron jobs.

 

Right Column

Preferences

This group of features provides you with the general information on cPanel management and allows you to make basic changes to your cPanel account.

 Password & Security: this menu allows you to change your cPanel main password if know the original one. Otherwise, you can reset the password following the steps in this guide.
 Change Language: this feature provides you with an opportunity to change your cPanel interface language.
 Change style: here you can change the overall look and feel of the interface by selecting one of the several preinstalled styles.

 Contact Information: in this menu you can specify an email address that will receive system email notifications.

 User Manager: allows you to manage your Subaccounts. Subaccounts use the same login and password information for email, FTP, and Web Disk.

Email

This group of features allows you to create email accounts for your domain names and manage email settings.

 Email Accounts: in this menu you can create and manage mailboxes associated with the domain names hosted in your account. In order to create an email account, feel free to check this guidance. More details about setting up a newly created email account with email clients can be found in the set of articles cPanel Email: Client Setup.
 Forwarders: setting up Forwarders feature provides you with an opportunity to send a copy of all emails from one email address to another. For example, you have two different email accounts and you don’t want to check both of them every time, so you could forward emails from test@yourdomain.com to test2@yourdomain2.com. Note, that the original address will still receive the forwarded emails.
 Email Routing: here you can set email routing for the domains hosted in your cPanel account, more details can be found in this guide.
 Autoresponders: this feature allows you to automatically send messages in reply to incoming emails received on a specific email account. This is pretty useful when you are on holidays or unavailable, or if you have any generic messages to send. You will find more information in this guide.

 

 Default Address: in this menu you can manage an email address, which is used by cPanel to fetch any message sent to email accounts which do not exist at your domain (also known as ‘catch-all address’). More details can be found here.
 Mailing Lists: with this option you can create a single address to send emails, newsletters and other updates to multiple email addresses simultaneously. Feel free to refer to this article to get more information.
 Track Delivery: this menu allows you to monitor emails delivery for your account.
 Global Email Filters: this feature allows you to configure filters of all the emails arriving to your hosted domains.
 Email Filters: with this option you can create filters for each email account for your domain. You can find more details about filtering tools in this article.
 Authentication: this tool will help you to prevent spam. Setting up DKIM and SPF records for your account equip email messages with verifiable information so that your server can automatically detect the nature of incoming and outgoing messages. The detailed guidance about using this feature can be found here.

 

 Address Importer: this menu allows you to use two types of files (.xls and .csv) for importing data in order to simultaneously create multiple email address or email forwarders for your account.
 Spam Filters: it is a user-friendly email utility which examines incoming mail for different spam characteristics. It uses various network tests and spam filtering to get an overall score in order to decide whether the mail should be considered as spam or not. SpamAssassin tool is provided by default with all our shared and reseller hosting plans. These articles can be found useful for setting up SpamAssasin feature:

SpamAssassin FAQs
How to configure SpamAssassin in cPanel

Encryption: this option allows you to set up GnuPG, which is a publicly-available encryption scheme that uses the public key approach. This system uses a public key to encrypt messages and you can decrypt them with the private key, which the intended recipient of the message retains.
BoxTrapper: this tool can protect your Inbox from spam by requiring all email senders not on your Whitelist reply to a verification email before you can receive their mail.
 Calendars and Contacts: this menu helps to configure your client to connect to CalDAV for calendars and CardDAV for contacts in order to access them on your personal devices. The detailed instructions can be found in this guidance.
Email Disk Usage: this utility allows you to recover disk space by deleting old messages from your mailbox.

 Professional Spam Filter: this menu allows you to configure SpamExperts, a user-friendly email filtering solution that allows to protect your account from both incoming and outgoing spam. More information about this feature is provided in this article.

 E-mail F.A.Q.: this button will take you to the corresponding Knowledgebase section dedicated to email questions.
 E-mail Client Setup: this button will take you to the corresponding Knowledgebase section dedicated to email account setup with different email clients and devices.

Domains

 Site Publisher: you can use this interface to quickly create a website from a set of available templates. This allows visitors to see some basic information while you continue to develop your website.
Addon Domains: with the help of this menu you can add more domains to the hosting account. Addon domains have the same functionality as the main domain assigned to your hosting account. More details about adding domains to cPanel are provided here.

 Subdomains: in this menu you can create subdomains and point them to different sections of your website or other IPs. Detailed instructions about this menu can be found in this article.

 Aliases: this feature allows you to ‘park’ additional domain names to your existing hosting account. They display the same website as your primary domain and share web statistics as well. You can refer to this guide when setting up a new parked domain.

 Redirects: here you can create a redirect for a specific domain/page to another domain/page and display the contents of the latter. More details can be found here.

 Zone Editor: allows you to edit the DNS zone of the domain(s) in your cPanel account. The following records can be added: A record, AAAA record, CNAME record, SRV record, TXT record. Feel free to check this article to get more information about setting up DNS records in cPanel.
 Domains F.A.Q.: this button will take you to the corresponding Knowledgebase section dedicated to domains’ management questions.

 

Files

 File Manager: here you can manage the files stored in your account. These guides can be found helpful while working with this menu:

How to use File Manager in cPanel
How do I upload my site?

Images: this tool allows you to view and modify images in your account.
 Directory Privacy: allows you to set a requirement for a username and password when users attempt to access your site from the web. It can be used when you need to limit access to a certain part of your site. You can get more details in this guide.
 Disk Usage: in this menu you will be able to check a detailed information about the disk space usage of your account. It shows disk usage totals for your account’s directories and all of its databases, not for individual files or databases. More details about Disk Space usage optimization are provided in this article.
 Web Disk: this feature is a cPanel implementation of the WebDav protocol, which allows you to manage, upload, and download your website’s files as though they were local to your personal computer. More detailed instructions about setting up WebDisk can be found in these articles:

How to set up Web Disk on Windows 7
How to set up Web Disk on Windows 8

 FTP Accounts: this option allows you to create and manage your FTP accounts. In order to create an FTP account, feel free to check this article. For FTP connection instructions, refer to this set of guides:

How to access an account via FTP
How to set up FileZilla
How to set up Cyberduck
How to set up iWeb
How to set up Adobe Muse
How to set up Dreamweaver
How to set up CoreFTP Client
How to set up CuteFTP

 FTP Connections: using this tool you can monitor the users who are currently logged into your site via FTP. Also, it’s possible to terminate an FTP connection from here.
 Backup: this feature allows you to download a zipped copy of your entire account or specific parts of it, such as your home directory, databases, email forwarder configuration, or your email filters configuration. More details guidance about how to make backups in cPanel can be found here.

 Backup Wizard: a user-friendly interface for creating a backup of your entire site, a partial backup, or allowing a site restoration from the last backup saved. Note, that Restore option provided in this menu is disabled by default on all our shared servers.

 Inodes Usage: provides the statistics of your account inodes (files) usage.You will find more details about this tool here.

Metrics

 Visitors: the access log of your account provided in a table view.
 Errors: here you can check the error log for your account, showing the latest 300 lines of content related to the errors generated by any website hosted in your account.
 Bandwidth: provides you with the detailed information the bandwidth used by your account.

 Raw Access: the RAW access log for your account

 Awstats: this tool provides you with an opportunity to monitor the access indexes on your account – users, robots, accessed pages and many, many more. You will find a more detailed explanation in this article.

 CPU and Concurrent Connection Usage: shows information on the resources consumed by your account.

Security

 SSH Access: here you can generate an access key for your account in order to connect using SSH keys. More details about setting up SSH keys can be found in this article.
IP Blocker: with the help of this tool you can block a range of IP addresses to prevent them from accessing your site. Feel free to refer to this guide on the matter.
 SSL/TLS: this tool will help you to install and manage your SSL Certificates. You will find a more detailed guide here.
 Hotlink Protection: in this menu you can enable hotlink protection for your website (that is to prevent someone from direct linking of your images to another website and, as a result, consuming your hosting account bandwidth). Feel free to check this guidance for additional information.
 Leech Protection: allows you to control whether users can give out or publicly post their passwords for restricted areas of your site. It can be used to redirect compromised accounts to the URL of your choice, or suspend them.
SSL/TLS Status: use this interface to view the SSL status of your domains.

 Two-Factor Authentication: this tool lets you enable 2FA, an improved security measure that requires two forms of identification: your password and a generated security code. When 2FA is enabled, an app on your smartphone supplies a code you must enter with your password to log in. You can learn more about enabling 2FA here.

Databases

 phpMyAdmin: the database management tool, which allows you to make different changes to MySQL databases in your account. You can find more information about how to work with databases via phpMyAdmin this guide.
 MySQL Databases: in this menu you can create and manage MySQL databases in cPanel account.

 MySQL Databases Wizard: provides the same functionality as MySQL Databases menu, in a simplified way though. More details about how to use both menus can be found here.

 PostgreSQL Databases: this option allows you to create and manage PostgreSQL databases in cPanel.
 PostgreSQL Databases Wizard: has the same functionality as PostgreSQL Databases menu, but allows to make all the changes in a simpler way.
 phpPgAdmin: the database management tool, which allows you to make different changes to PostgreSQL databases in your account.
MySQL F.A.Q.: this button will take you to the corresponding Knowledgebase section dedicated to MySQL questions.

Software and Services

 PHP: here you can check PHP configuration settings. They cannot be customized via this menu. The system displays them for your reference only. In case you need to change PHP settings, feel free to check following articles:

How to edit php.ini on shared servers
How to change PHP version on shared servers
How to change PHP version on business servers (for older servers)

 PHP PEAR Packages: this options allows you to install and maintain PHP PEAR packages for your hosting account.

 Perl Modules: here you can manage Perl modules available for your account. A Perl module is a discrete component of software for the Perl programming language. Perl is supported on all of our shared/reseller servers. This article will provide you with more details about this feature.

 RubyGems: in this menu you will find the set of functions that allow you to perform tasks in Ruby. It’s needed to install a Gem before you can use it inside a Ruby program.

 Ruby on Rails: with this menu you can use Ruby on Rails features. Ruby on Rails is a free web application framework for the Ruby programming language. It is often referred to as ‘Rails’ or ‘RoR’. We support RoR with our Stellar Plus, Stellar Business and Reseller packages (and old ProfessionalUltimateBusiness SSD, Reseller packages). The following versions are working on our servers: Ruby – 1.8.7, Rails – 2.3.18. More information can be found in this guide.
 Optimize Website: this feature allows you to enable/disable and configure the compression of your website by tweaking the way Apache handles requests, which can increase the performance of your website.
 Select PHP Version: here you can change PHP version applied to your cPanel account. You can find more information in this article.
 PHP F.A.Q.: this button will take you to our Knowledgebase site section dedicated to PHP-related questions.

 

Advanced

 Cron Jobs: here you can set up scripts running on a scheduled basis. For more details about setting up CronJobs refer to this guidance.
Track DNS: using this tool you can check DNS information about any domain, or to trace the route from the server your site is on to the computer you are accessing cPanel from.
 Indexes: in this menu you can customize the way in which visitors can view a directory on the web.
 Error Pages: this feature allows you to edit the code for the default errors pages your website can display.

 Apache Handlers: here you can configure different Apache handlers for dealing with certain file formats.

 MIME Types: provides you with the information about the system predefined MIME types and the option to add a MIME Type on your own.

 Virus Scanner: this tool will allow you to scan your account for viruses with ClamAV virus scanner. ClamAV is an open source (GPL) anti-virus engine used in a variety of situations including email scanning, web scanning, and endpoint security. It provides a number of utilities including a flexible and scalable multi-threaded daemon, a command line scanner and an advanced tool for automatic database updates.

Exclusive for Namecheap Customers

 Google Apps: with this tool you will be able to configure Google Apps service for your domain in just a few clicks. Feel free to check this category for more information.

 Namecheap SSL: this menu allows you to use Namecheap SSL cPanel plugin, check this guide for more details.

 CodeGuard Backup: this tool was designed to make the backup process as easy as possible. CodeGuard system will constantly monitor the website and keep you informed of any changes, performing full automatic backups of your files to avoid any possible downtime. More information is provided in the following articles:

How to make backups using CodeGuard
How to back up a WordPress site using CodeGuard

  Softaculous Apps Installer: this feature allows you to use Softaculous Script Installer, which includes most popular CMS, such as WordPress/Joomla/Magento etc. It is much faster than other script installers and it installs CMSes in a few clicks. Softaculous application is provided with any cPanel account on all of our shared hosting plans. You can view available scripts and their demo here. You may find these guides useful when working with Softaculous installer:

How to work with scripts in Softaculous
How to install WordPress using Softaculous

 Website Builder: this tool allows you to easily create an entire website using a drag-and-drop editor and without knowing any code or installing special software.
 Contact Support: opens a Live Chat with our customer support team.

 Namecheap Knowledgebase: this button will take you to our Knowledgebase site section.