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Web Hosting Guide

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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

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 a number of ways:

  • http://www.<yourdomain.com>/cpanel/ (note: where <yourdomain.com> is your actual domain name>)

cPanel tutorials 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 utilising 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 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it please refer to this tutorial > http://www.cpanel.net/support/docs/11/cpanel/mail_create_email.html

For all other email tutorials please refer to > http://www.cpanel.net/support/docs/11/cpanel/mail.html

We recommend that you configure your email to use SpamAssassin.

Enable Spam Filtering (SpamAssassin)

To enable SpamAssassin log into the cPanel control panel and then:

  1. Click the Mail icon
  2. Then click SpamAssassin from the list of options.
  3. Read the details provided and then click the Enable SpamAssassin button if you wish to enable. 

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.

A tutorial can be found at > http://www.cpanel.net/support/docs/11/cpanel/mail_spam.html

Configuring your email client

Configuring your email client such as Outlook is straight forward.

Please refer to the tutorial at > http://www.cpanel.net/support/docs/11/cpanel/mail_config.html

If you wish to configure your mail client manually, then please refer to the settings you should use in your welcome email under the Mail Settings section

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.cpanel.net/support/docs/11/cpanel/files_create.html

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

At anytime you can obtain support from the client area, using this link or sending an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

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What Our Customers Say

"I am really pleased with the efficient service offered by Hosting Photography. I'm looking forward to getting all my photo's loaded onto my website."
Lynsey - UK

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