Where do I post newbie questions?

[silentflute]

Hi, I recently purchased a reseller account - and am wanting to ask some questions (I'm currently reading the control panel and whm manuals) and I'm hoping you can direct me to the questions or newbie forum.

On a side-note, where can I find all the flash tutorial movies, I've only been able to find a couple - is there a central depository of tutorial movies?

Thanks.

[gtgeorge]

Welcome to HG and perhaps this will help you inyour quest sitemap

And if you are still wanting more demodemo has even more and a google search can reveal even more

[silentflute]

Thank you for your help.

I found the Tutorials (http://www.hostgator.com/tutorials.shtml) I was looking for.

I've got my list of questions ready to roll...

Questions;

1. Starting up
a) When I registered, and started up and read the tutorial it said I *had* to create a package. But it doesn't explain what a "package" is -- what is a package?

b) Why, when creating a package does it always say "yourusername_packagename" can't I have it just saying the package name?

c) I successfully transferred my site over, including Mysql -- but when I created the database and its users, it kept putting my username as a prefix to everything... ie ("username_databasename", etc) --- why does it do this?

d) When creating a site for myself (which is basically all I want to do right now), am I right in thinking, I have to:
i) create a package
ii) create mysql user priveleges incl. username/password
iii) assign amount of disk-space, etc
iv) It says I can create unlimited databases - are these all my customers mysql databases - or just mine?

2. "Managing your DNS zone"
On http://www.hostgator.com/tutorials/x..._xskin_dns.htm it tells you how to manage a DNS zone.

a) I know what a DNS is - but what is a DNS zone?
b) Why would I want to use a DNS Zone for?
c) In the tutorial it lists a load of sample domain names (ie: "asampledomain1.com", "asampledomain2.com", etc) -- where is it getting these domain names from?
d) Why would I want to delete a DNS Zone?
e) What is a "skeleton directory"? Why do I need it? Do I need to set up a skeleton directory for every customer I get?

2. MX Entry

a) What is a MX entry? Why would I need it?
b) What does it mean by "Park or Point a Domain"?

3. Security

a) How do I password protect my phpmyadmin directory? On my last host it used to be "http://www.example.com/phpmyadmin" - but now I have to login, go to control panel and click on mysql, then click on phpmyadmin... is there an easier way of doing this?


5. My first customer

Could someone explain the steps for creating a website for a "first" customer...

1. Buy or Transfer customers URL domain to 123-REG (I can't afford enom at the moment)
2. Make the customers URL domain point to my hosting account.

What do I do from here? How do I make "pick up" the customer's request for me to be their hosting company?

I'm aware you have to create a package, assign space - I think I understand that -- but I want to make sure I'm doing it all right, including setting up the outlook pop mail, etc... unfortuently there isn't a Flash movie that covers a "first" customer creation...

I understand that this particular question may seem very newbie, but I've not had much experience of whm, cpanel or the like -- but I wanted to take a risk, take the opportonity...

Anyhow -- if you can help me out, I'll be most grateful.

Thanks.

[gtgeorge]

I think it would be best to watch the WHM tutorials first which will explain quite a bit of what you are asking. And yes you will need to create a package for yourself and assign it to your domain as you have little bandwidth or space assigned to it at the start....

[amartins]

I'll answer what I know:

1.
a) A package is a hosting package where you define diskspace, bandwidth.. etc for the account. In this case set-up a package for your reseller account and then a few more for what you think your potential customers will need.

When you go to add a new customer you will define what type of package he will get by selecting from the list of packages you have created. APart from this there is also the ability to create features where you can define feature lists to attribute to you packages.

b) Errr I guess its because we are on shared servers and thats the way HG has it set-up. I have been on other hosts where even though we were on shared servers there was not this issue but I guess those were VPS's.

c) Same as above, thats the way HG has it set-up. I guess if you move to a dedicated server you wont have that "limitation".

d)
i) yes
ii) not quite, once you have a package created you will create an account, give it a package (created previously) all of these in WHM. Then you will log-in to that new accounts cPanel and in there access your mysql menu where you can create DB's etc.
iii) No, that is done when you create the package
iv) Unlimited both yours and your customers. The amount of databases you allow your clients to create is up to you... you define that when creating the packages.

2.
a) Just a section where dns data for your domain is handled... subdomains.. etc
b) as a newbie you should probably not want to or need to use this.
c) you can create them but do so through the subdomains, parked domains and addon domains in cpanel.. much simpler.
e) The skeleton directory is the directory template used to create all new accounts, any files that are placed in the skeleton directory are automatically copied into new accounts. So.. as the answer to the rest of the question is no.

3. I dont think so, you could bookmark the zone in cpanel and then just go through there one way or another it is already password protected with the cPanels access data.


5.

1-2) With the answers above you should be more or less on your way, when you create the account WHM will give you the DNS data. You then register the domain and insert the nameservers that WHM gave you as primary and secondary nameservers. Then you sit tight and wait for the domain to propagate. Recently these periods have been getting shorter.. in a worst case scenario it will take 48hours to propagate. Meanwhile you/your customer can access the cPanel by IP. http://yourIP/~username

Once in cPanel setting things up will be very easy its all very "point and click" nothing tough to figure out in email account creation etc. Give it a try if you have more specific questions ask again here or from the folks at tech support.


Antonio

[bagel50]

Hey.

Google really is your friend! However, I've got a couple of minutes, so here goes:

You have an account in WHM, and need to create a CPanel account for your primary domain. This has to be a CPanel account with set limits etc, i.e. an example of Cpanel Package "Youruser_Normalsite", for example. so you create the package, that defines space, bandwidth limits etc and then create the CPanel account for your primary domain. The package must be set up first, and it's straightforward - the WHM manual covers it.

You have reseller access to the server, no root access, so your packages have to be yourusername_yourpackagename. This avoids conflicts with multiple "GoldPackage" packages being made by different resellers, I guess, but anyhow it's a feature of WHM. for databases, it always does the same - necessary for probably the same reasons, and you can't get round it.

Question 1.d i) would indicate that you already have some idea of what a package is, d iii) is part of that process. You'll find the option to create a package on the left in WHM... There are no limits on the total no. of databases, and also there needn't be a limit of databases per domain account (yours or any other) - if there is, you put it there.

A DNS Zone file holds all the DNS records for a particular domain. It is used by the nameserver, e.g. ns33.websitewelcome.com, which will respond with the info from that file when queried. e.g. someone's computer asks for home.yourdomain.com, and the DNS server checks the zonefile and sees that the subdomain home for yourdomain.com is hosted on a server somewhere in outer mongolia. Possibly. :P There will be one zonefile automatically created for each cpanel account you create in WHM, and they should have correct settings already. You can edit each one, again look in the menu on the left of WHM. You can also edit the default zonefile from which new ones are created when you create a cpanel account. The individual records within that zonefile are A, CNAME, MX etc, and that's where google can help you best. You don't really need them to start with, but when you know that they can enable you to do, it's very useful. You may have more zonefiles than cpanel accounts, there is one required for each domain that the DNS server handles, be it cpanel account main domain, or addon domain, or parked domain. sometimes there are redundant zonefiles left after a move of account from one server to another, and although the world at large may not see these, an account on the server holding the redundant file might. This can lead to random, puzzling problems, so you can make sure that you don't have redundant ones there to make life easier for yourself in the future.

Just like there are default zonefiles, skeleton directories are a template directory that will be created in all accounts you add.


Login to cpanel for your domain -> mysql databases -> phpmyadmin (near the bottom). when you're in, you can create a bookmark for the URL for easy access. it's password protected by your cpanel password.

When you create a user account, their domain has to point at the nameservers given to you on your welcome email. The account should exist on the server, and that's it, serverside. Their outlook email etc - how they connect to their account is their end. Of course you should give them instructions and access codes, but no extra configuration is required on the server. (except for creating an email account in their CPanel!) For an easy way to give out those instructional emails at account creation, look at WHMAutopilot - a license is given to you with your account here at HG, and their docs cover how to set it up.

You could find out a lot from places like wht, and doing specific google searches for the info you want. Of course you can ask here too, but for some of the questions you asked, you could have got an answer quicker by searching. The information's out there! Good luck to you.
Hope it helps,

Olly.

[bagel50]

hehe, someone beat me to it :P

Olly

[silentflute]

Hey, thanks alot!

Frankly, I was a bit scared of asking because people always say "RTFM" and "find it on google" -- but the answers I get are always too technical and don't explain "why I'd want to use it", "what its for" or explain "the benefits of feature x,y"....

The tutorial videos are really good and was one of the principal reasons why I joined hostgator - but when I watch them I always see things and have questions - for example, in one tutorial video it showed a list of domain names (as stated in my previous thread) - but I couldn't understand where it was getting these domain names from.

Another example was the MX records - on the video it said "You can create MX records" - but it never explained what they were, or what they do, it just jumped from "you can create MX records" to "you can also delete MX records"...

I'm intending to spend a couple of days or a week reading the cpanel and whm documentation and learn a little bit more - but I'm feeling a lot more confident now that I've had some replies (before I was really down because it seemed to have too many features and I felt like I was way in over my head).

I'm still interested in a list of things to do (walk-through) of a "my first customer" tutorial.

For example, lets say you have a customer who just wants a website. To create a website is easy enough, but I'm finding it difficult to find a step-through that says "okay, you need to do step 1: domain names, 2: account setup, 3: email setup, 4:ftp settings, 5:something else"...

I know this might take some time to write, but could somebody write a step-through like this? That way I can understand it a little more thoroughly.

Thanks again.

[bagel50]

no time to write it now, but you could practice. if you have a domain spare, create an account for it on the server, and get it working with every kind of access available. You'll soon learn what you don't know how to do, and can write down the steps you take as you do it, to make sure you retain the lessons from the experience.

Olly.

[amartins]

Hi again,

Like Olly said the best you can do is set up an account for yourself to play around with either with a spare domain or even without one just through the IP access menthod I mentioned. It's the best way to learn.

Antonio.

[silentflute]

okay, thanks for all your help - this weekend I will be reading the WHM/Cpanel manual - oh joy!

Thanks again!

[whoahorse]

Hello!

Welcome to HG!

WHM may seem hard - but its real easy after you create your first account

Weezy

[silentflute]

General cPanel questions

I've been playing around with some testing on cpanel, and I have some questions - which I hope you can help.

FTP

I've noticed that when you create an account, the FTP client puts you onto the root directory and you have to click on "public_html" -- I know you can set the FTP client to be directed to a specific folder - but I don't really want to give my potential customers access to anything above the "public_html" folder.

How does one ensure that no-one (besides me or other admin people) can see above the public_html folder? I just want to make sure that the customer only see's their website and doesn't get confused by all the folders, etc.

Cron

On cPanel there is a section called cron - there is also a section called backup. I would like cron to run the backup procedure on a daily basis and then send me an email when it's done, but I don't know if just typing in "backup" will work or not - does it?

PhpMyAdmin

I don't know why, but I don't feel comfortable with the fact that my phpmyadmin is accessible if you happen to "hack" the main cpanel password -- is it possible to password protect the phpmyadmin area? I'm thinking of setting up a .htaccess "http://www.example.com/phpmyadmin" where a password protection pop-up (powered by htaccess) -- but I'm wondering, has anybody done this before with hostgator?

That's all for now... thank you for all your help.

[amartins]

Hi

FTP
I dont think so, just make sure you tell them to set their FTP software up with home directory (remote path) as /www/ or /public_html/

Cron
Nope that won't do the trick, after you read up on WHM and cPanel read up on this link: http://www.worldcommunity.com/openso...ql_backup.html

PhpMyAdmin
I would be more worried with someone getting access to the whole cPanel rather than just phpmyadmin... anyway on HG's system I don't see a workaround unless you want to install phpmyadmin yourself and I don't know if that is an option available to you/us on shared/reseller solutions.

Antonio.