:: Web Hosting Guide::

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Idenfify Your Needs

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Shared Hosting

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Virtual Private Server

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Dedicated Server

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Server Colocation

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Free Web Hosting

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Your Email Hosting

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Hosting Control Panel

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Pre-installed Programs

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Web Hosting - Control Panel

Website control panel is a web-based interface that allows site owners to manage and control all aspects of the web site from within their hosting account. Web host control panels are typically divided into three categories :

1. Web host control manager - for web host administrator
2. End user control panel - for webmaster / enduser
3. Reseller control panel - for web hosting reseller

Only End user Control panel will be discussed in this article as we only concern about our role as a webmaster at this time.

Most Popular Web Host Control Panels

There are many web host control panels in the market. Here I pick four of them which, according to many web sites, are in the top position in terms of ease of use or user friendliness :

• cPanel - only supports Unix / Linux
• Plesk - support Windows and Linux
• DirectAdmin - only support Linux
• HSphere - support Windows and Linux

Generally the following features are found in the control panel:

• Email Management - Create email account, email forwarder, spam filtering, access webmail, create mailing list, create auto responder, etc.
• File Manager - upload, delete files, file backups, create FTP accounts, FTP session control, etc.
• Web statistics and logs - records of bandwidth usage, webalizer, visitor statistics, error logs etc.
• Domain Manager - Add domains, add subdomains, add parked domains, redirect domain / subdomain
• Database manager - MySQL, Postgress, Database administration
• Security Manager - Password protect directory, SSH/Shell access, SSL manager, IP Deny manager, etc.
• Sofwares and Applications - CGI Center, Fantastico, Perl Modules, PHP Configuration, etc.
• Advanced features - Apache handler, MIME types, cron jobs, error pages, Frontpage extension, etc.

Some web hosts provide a demo page for the user control panel and it is worth to try it before you order web hosting plan.