Add/Remove Accounts:  Use this to add or remove POP3 email accounts. POP3 email accounts are "email boxes" within your hosting account, where your email is stored. When you create a POP3 email account, you will want to also setup your email program (i.e. Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, etc.) to "retrieve" your email messages.

Default Address:  It is good practice to always set a default email address. Doing so will basically tell your hosting account how to handle incoming emails that you have not setup an account for. In other words, if you want several email addresses to all go to the same email box, then you only have to create the one email box (as described above in Add/Remove Accounts), but then set your Default Address to the email address you created above. Then if someone sends an email to an address you have not setup, that message will still get delivered to your POP3 email account.
Alternatively, you can set your Default Address to an email address that does not even exist in your hosting account.... like your main ISP email address.

Auto-Responders:  Auto-responders are email messages that are sent automatically when an email arrives for a specific email account. auto-responders are most commonly used for an "Out of Office" style message to inform your correspondents that you are not available, without you having to reply manually. You can have more than one auto-responder on one account. You can use plain text or include HTML code in the auto-responder, and choose from a wide variety of character sets. 

Block an Email:  You can block an email using spam filters. There are many definitions of spam, but one of the most useful ones is the following:
"Spam: unsolicited email, usually of a commercial nature."
Spam is the electronic version of junk mail, and has been around since the Internet was created. Spam filters are a way of filtering your email to remove unwanted mail based on a variety of criteria. You can block any sort of email, not just mail of a commercial nature. Blocked mail is deleted automatically - it does not even bounce back to the sender. These filters are quite flexible, and very useful if you do not want to receive email from a specific email address.

Forwarders:  Forwarders simply allow you to automatically forward email sent to one account to another account. This is useful when you work at two separate locations, or have gone on holiday.

Mailing Lists:  The control panel includes a popular mailing list script called Mailman. Mailing lists are an ideal tool for communication between far flung participants and can be about anything you want. Mailman allows you to set up a mailing list with a large number of configurable options, such as who is on the list, where mailing lists messages are sent, and whether you include welcoming messages to new subscribers. The Mailman documentation, which is incorporated into its Administration panel, is clear and helpful, and should be referred to for all questions about using the script. For more information about MailMan, please consult their homepage at: http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman.html

Spam Assassin:  Spam Assassin is a mail filter installed on a mail server used to identify spam. It checks for spam using a large number of pre-set rules that check the header, body, and sender of all email messages sent to your domain mailbox. For more information about Spam Assassin, refer to the Spam Assassin website: http://spamassassin.taint.org/index.html

Modify Mail Exchanger (MX Entry):  The control panel manages your email through its own mail server. However, by altering your MX (Mail Exchange Record) Entry you can point your email to another mail server, if this is required.
Note: We  will not be able to manage your email if you change your MX Entry setting.

Note: All email options can be used in conjunction with each other. For example, you could set up an auto-responder on your main account to email an "Out of Office" message, a forwarder to send the email to your uncle's house where you are staying, and a spam filter to reject all email with "credit" in the subject line. This flexibility is what makes email so powerful as a communication medium.

NeoMail or Horde is optional. You can still use your favorite offline email applications, if you prefer. You can even use a combination of NeoMail or Horde and another tool - you can check your e-mail online, perhaps when you're at work, and download your email to your computer when you get home. You can automatically configure Outlook Express, or manually configure other mail applications.

For Example: Let's say you own the business.com and innovation.com domain names. You already have a web site for business.com, but you do not want to create a new website for innovation.com at the moment. By parking innovation.com on top of business.com, all URLs for innovation.com will automatically go to business.com instead.

For example: Let's say you have your hosting account set up as yourcompany.com, but you also own the domain name newsite.com. With the Addon Domain feature you can setup newsite.com to "point" to a sub-directory like yourcompany.com/newsite. You can then build a new website in that sub-directory, and anyone who types www.newsite into their browser would be forwarded to the website you created in yourcompany.com/newsite.

There are a large number of FTP software packages available. Some of them are built in to your browser (such as Internet Explorer), others are dedicated applications (such as such as CuteFTP or WS_FTP), while still others are built into web applications (File Manager in this control panel is one example). Generally speaking, if you are going to spend a lot of time using FTP or have a large amount of files to upload/download, a dedicated FTP client (i.e. CuteFTP or WS_FTP) is a much easier solution.

The control panel allows you to set up FTP accounts so that certain external users can access a restricted part of your hosting account. You can also set up an anonymous FTP account so that anyone can access a restricted part of your system. You can also manage these FTP sessions, cutting them off if they go on for too long.

Following is a list of the features available to you in the FTP Manager:

FTP Accounts:  With the FTP account utility you can control FTP accounts for your users or if your account has sub domain support you can add FTP accounts for your sub domain(s).

Anonymous FTP Controls:  Here you can change how anonymous FTP users should be treated and change the anonymous upload policy as well.

Anonymous FTP Message:  You can edit the anonymous FTP welcome message that users will see when they login to your FTP site.

FTP Session Control:  This utility allows you to disconnect users or time out FTP sessions.

Warning:  FTP, by its very nature, allows external users to modify your web site (albeit a restricted area of your web site). External users can upload, download, and delete files. Keep this in mind when you set up an FTP account.

Creating a new folder:  Folders are a very useful way of adding organization and structure to your web site. They make maintenance of the site much easier, as you can easily see what files are in which folder. Most web sites include at least an /image folder to keep all the image files separate from the HTML files.

Uploading files in File Manager:  You can use File Manager to upload files to your web site, up to 12 files in one go. Although useful, a third-party FTP client has many more features and does not limit you to the number of files you can upload at one time.

Creating a new file:  For small text files it can be easier to create them online, rather than on your home computer and uploading the file. You can create text files, such as HTML, PHP, or plain TXT, but not binary files.

Editing a file:  Editing a pre-existing file through File Manager allows you to make immediate changes to your web site, without having to upload a new version of the file. This is useful for small changes, but would be inefficient for large amounts of coding.

Renaming a file or folder:  You can quickly rename a file or folder if you originally labeled a file or folder with the wrong name, or if the name needs to be updated. This is useful if a small number of files need to be changed, since you do not need to upload any files for the changes to take effect, but inefficient if you needed to rename your entire site.

Changing file/folder permissions:  All files on UNIX (including Linux and other UNIX variants) machines have access permissions. These tell the operating system how to deal with requests to access these files. There are three types of access:

Read - Denoted as r, files with read access can be displayed to the user.

Write - Denoted as w, files with write access can be modified by the user.

Execute - Denoted as x, files with execute access can be executed as programs by the user.

Access types are set for three types of user group:

User - the owner of the file.

Group - other files which are in the same folder or group.

World - everyone else.

The web server needs to be able to read your web pages in order to be able to display them in a browser. The following permissions need to be set in order for your web site to function properly.

All HTML files and images need to be readable by others. The setting for this is 644 (readable by User, Group, and World, and writable by User), and is set automatically when you upload files.

All folders need to be executable by others. The setting for this is 755 (readable by User, Group, and World, writable by User, executable by User, Group, and World), and is set automatically when you create a folder.

All CGI files (all files in the cgi-bin folder) need to be executable by others. The setting for this is 755 (readable by User, Group, and World, writable by User, executable by User, Group, and World), and is not set automatically when you upload files. You need to change file permissions manually. Refer to the Introduction to CGI topic for more information.

Warning: It is important that none of your files or folders are writable by anyone else. Any file or folder which is writable by others can be erased by them. Generally there is no problem, just be careful in how you set your permissions.

Deleting a file or folder:  The control panel includes a Trash folder, which operates the same way as the Windows Recycle Bin. All deleted files are automatically placed in the Trash folder and can be restored to their original positions by a simple click. However, once you empty the Trash folder, the files are permanently deleted. Refer to Emptying the Trash for more information.

Restoring an item from the trash:  You can easily restore a deleted file from the Trash by moving it from the Trash to another folder. Restored folders are automatically moved back to their original location. However, you will not be able to restore the item if you have emptied the Trash since deleting it - it has been permanently destroyed.

Emptying the trash:  Warning: Make sure you do not need any of the files or folders in the Trash before you empty it, because the files are deleted permanently once the Trash is emptied.

If you want more functionality and ease of use, you may want to consider using a 3rd party FTP program like WS_FTP. We have put together a series of tutorials designed to help you learn how to use WS_FTP.

Important:  You should keep your own backup copy of your web site as well. Do not rely solely on the backup provided here. Having multiple backups in different locations provides security against permanently losing information.

Note:  A complete web site backup file includes everything - from web pages to images to scripts to access logs. A large site will have a large backup file, and will take some time to download.

If you are using FrontPage to build your website, and therefore have the FrontPage server extensions installed in your hosting account, you should not use this Password Protection feature. Instead, FrontPage has it's own unique way of allowing you to password protect directories. To learn more about this, please consult your FrontPage documentation, or visit http://www.microsoft.com/.

400  -  Bad Request

401  -  Authorization Required

403  -  Forbidden

404  -  Wrong Page

500  -  Internal Server Error

Practically, a subdomain is a sub folder within the public_http level of your account that has it's own cgi-bin directory. The "timber" example above creates a new top-level folder called timber, with a cgi-bin sub-folder. Upload your files for the subdomain to this location, including a separate home file (such as index.htm). You can then access this "new site" in one of two ways:

http://www.hardware.com/timber

http://timber.hardware.com

Additionally, you can setup separate FTP accounts for people so they only have access to the subdomain, and not the rest of your hosting account.

Complete instructions/tools on creating and maintaining a MySQL database can be found in the MySQL Database section of the control panel. There you will also find PHPMyAdmin which is a great tool that can be used to administrate your MySQL databases in a web based environment. 

To learn more about using MySQL, you should visit the following websites:

http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/programming/php/tutorials/tutorial4.html

http://www.mysql.com

For example:  Let's say your hosting account is setup for your domain name, yourcompany.com. Now let's say you have a file (or webpage) in your account called products.htm (accessed like this: www.yourcompany.com/products.htm). At some point in the future you may decide to rename your products page, or move the information on that page to a new page.... let's say store.htm. However, there may be people who visited your website in the past, and perhaps bookmarked that old products.htm page. To make sure they do not find a dead page or dead link, yo ucan create the following redirect:

http://www.yourcompany.com/products.htm   -->   http://www.yourcompany.com/store.htm

However, the FrontPage extensions can occasionally become corrupted, and need reinstalling. If that happens, you can use this feature to uninstall and then reinstall Frontpage Extensions whenever required.

The FrontPage extensions take up approximately 300 KB (or 0.3 MB) of storage space in your hosting account. This amount is negligible compared to the amount of storage space you have in your account.

Analog:  Analog produces a simple summary of all the people who have visited your site. It is fast and provides great lightweight statistics.

Webalizer:  Webalizer is a more complex stats program that produces a nice variety of charts and graphs about who has visited your site. This is probably the most popular stats engine available today.

Subdomain Stats:  This will show statistics for the subdomains on your account.

Latest Visitors:  This will show you the last 300 visitors who came to your site and some interesting information about them.

Bandwidth:  This will show how many bytes your account has transferred.

Error Log:  This will show errors in your site, images not loading, missing files, etc. This is very useful for debugging CGI scripts.

For more information about exactly what these web site statistics actually mean, refer to the following excellent articles:

Measuring Website Usage

How the Web Works

This is not a guaranteed way of becoming registered by these search engines, as some may charge a registering fee. It is always best to check each search engine site individually to see what their registration policy currently is.

It may take several weeks (4-8 weeks is common) before your web site will appear on a search engine. 

Do not submit your site multiple times to the same search engine within a short period of time, as the search engine may ban you from its list.

CGI Chat:  This is a very simple CGI script written in Perl. It is very easy to install.

PhpMyChat Room:  This is a very nice PHP script. You will need one available MySQL database to install it. It is very customizable!

Java Chat:  If you would prefer a java chat, just place the link below in any of your pages:
http://yourdomain.com/cgi-sys/mchat.cgi?channel=yourdomain.com
Replace both instances of "yourdomain.com" with your own account's domain name.

Note: We highly recommend installing only one of these chat scripts, to prevent your account from using excessive server resources and bandwidth. If you do not need/want a chat room, then please do not install one.

Note 1:  Keep in mind that each separate installation of phpBB forum takes up approximately 2.7MB, and will grow in size with the popularity of the forum.

Note 2:  Also keep in mind that installing an phpBB Forum in your account will use 1 MySQL database. You can install the phpBB Forum directly from within the control panel.

Simple CGI Wrapper:  The CGI Wrapper script creates a scgi-bin folder at the public_html level of your web site. This allows you to run scripts with your own user ID. The advantage of this is that you can run scripts that have the same permissions that you do - you can write, edit, and delete files as you normally do. In a regular cgi-bin folder, you can only do this if you set your directory permissions to 777 (world access) and file permissions to 666, both of which are quite dangerous as anyone can now modify your web site. The disadvantage of this is that if there is a security breach in your script that another person can exploit, they have access to your site in the same manner that you do - they can do anything. However, as long as the scripts you run in the scgi-bin directory are secure, you have nothing to worry about. Be sure to read the CGI Wrap user guide for more detailed information on using CGI Wrap. For a more detailed description of the distinction between normal and wrapped cgi, refer to this article.

Random HTML:  This simple script allows you to insert random pieces of text into your web page. This is useful for daily quotes, helpful hints, or any other place where random text is useful.

Simple Guestbook:  This is a simple guestbook script that allows you to create a guestbook that your visitors can sign. You can modify the appearance of the guestbook, and view and manage guestbook entries.

Advanced Guestbook:  This is a more advanced guestbook written in PHP and MySQL. It requires the use of 1 MySQL database. There are many more features available in the Advanced Guestbook, than the Simple Guestbook.

Counter:  You can create a counter to count and show how many visitors have been to your site.

Clock:  The Java Clock Maker allows you to create a real-time, dynamic clock, that counts the time just like a digital wrist watch.

Countdown:  You can create a countdown box to countdown to a specified date.

CGI EMail:  CGI EMail is a simple, easy-to-use script that takes the results of any form and sends them to you via email. Because it is already installed, minimal configuration is required to successfully use the script. Be sure to read the CGI user guide for detailed instructions on using CGI EMail.

FormMail Clone:  One of the most popular form to e-mail scripts available is FormMail, by Matt Wright. The script can be setup very quickly, and provides a number of customization options. This FormMail Clone script operates in the same manner as the original. Be sure to read the FormMail documentation for more information about customizing the FormMail clone script.

Entropy Search:  This script enables a nice, quick search engine that can help your visitors find information that they are interested in more easily. The larger the site, the more important the search engine becomes. Warning: This search engine searches all of the ASCII (text) files on your site. This includes HTML, PERL, plain text files, etc. Since there is no way to limit the search engine, if any of these files contain sensitive information, either encrypt the files or remove them from your site. This is a smart move anyway - you should not store sensitive information on your web site without encryption.

Entropy Banner:  The Entropy Banner script allows you to create a set of revolving banner images, normally used for advertising. You can upload and delete files, set priority on the images, and set URLs to which each image points.

www.scriptarchive.com

www.cgi-resources.com

www.bignosebird.com

www.perlmasters.com

Interchange Shopping Cart:  The Interchange Shopping Cart is a fully-featured shopping cart that can be installed with the click of a button. The product is fully documented at the Interchange website - please refer to this site if you have any questions about using the shopping cart. Please note that installing the Interchange Shopping Cart will take up approximately 5 MB of storage space in your hosting account.

Agora Shopping Cart:  The Agora Shopping Cart is a fully-featured shopping cart that can be installed with the click of a button. The product is fully documented at the Agora website - please refer to the Agora web site if you have any questions about using the shopping cart.

Domain Lookup:  The Domain Lookup tool allows you to look up information about a particular domain. It does this by using a DNS (Domain Name System) lookup, which is a general-purpose replicated, data query service used for translating hostnames into Internet addresses. DNS details are published for public use.

Trace Route:  The Trace Route tool allows you to trace the IP (Internet Protocol) route taken by your server to reach your current ISP (Internet Service Provider).

There are a number of free sites that offer similar functions. One of the most popular is http://www.network-tools.com/.

Warning: Make sure you check the list of pre-existing Mime types before adding new ones. Check with our support staff before adding a Mime type, as they can easily alter the correct functioning of your web site.

Note: People often get confused as to the difference between Mime types and Apache handlers. Basically, Mime types tell your browser how to handle files, while Apache handlers tell the server how to handle files.

General documentation and comprehensive user guides are available at the GNU Privacy Guard site.

Refer to this article for more information on hotlinking.

The control panel can prevent hotlinking by only allowing named sites (such as your own web site) to access files on your site.

Default System Setting:  Use the system setting for your hosting machine. This is set for all directories by default.

No Indexes:  Do not use any indexes. Any browser that accesses this directory will see a list of all files in the directory.

Standard Indexing (text only):  Prevents browsers from viewing the contents of this directory. The browser receives a 403 (Forbidden) error. This option should be used for directories that do not contain image files.

Fancying Indexing (graphics):  Prevents browsers from viewing the contents of this directory. The browser receives a 403 (Forbidden) error. This option should be used for directories that do contain image files.

Note: We  will not be able to manage your email if you change your MX Entry setting.