Control Panels

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When you sign up for a web-hosting plan with a control panel, you will have a great deal of control over your hosting experience. On your web server you will be able to control and monitor applications, and will have some administrative functions. Changes and updates to your website can be made using the control panel. This article will discuss some of the features and applications your control panel may include.

Using your control panel, you can set up email accounts and your email preferences. This includes setting up mail forwarding and spam features. You can also view statistics and logs through your site panel. In doing so you can see who the most recent visitors there were to your site and the amount of bandwidth your site has used. Some statistics are very detailed. You may be able to see the last few websites a visitor viewed before your own as well as how visitors were directed to your site.

Through your control panel you can usually manage multiple FTP accounts. You can add, remove and change passwords for these accounts. If you have someone helping you with your website, you may want to set up a separate FTP account for them to use so that they do not need your password and access information. Normally, you will also be able to enable and disable anonymous FTP access using your control panel.

Users can edit and create error messages using their control panel. You can also set up redirects on your website through your control panel. Many control panels now include marketing functions. This will help you to easily promote your website once it is up and running. You will be able to submit your website address to search engines and may have other marketing options as well.

Your control panel provides pre-installed ASP or CGI scripts. If you are not a very experienced webmaster, you can deploy the scripts through the control pane. This will save you from needing to configure scripts on your own. Some pre-installed scripts that you will often be provided with are: on-line chat applications, bulletin boards, a guest book, secure online form applications to name a few. If you have a more sophisticated control panel, you can edit MIME types that the server can deliver. You will also be able to edit Apache handlers.

If you need a database for your website, you will access this system through your control panel. You can change, add and modify passwords for your database accounts. Having easy access to these systems will help you if databases are an important part of your website.

You can use your control panel to access a knowledge base, support panel and FAQ’s section. This provides a great resource if you have questions about your control panel or web hosting features. It can allow you to find information and answers to your own questions without having to directly contact your web hosting company.

Using your control panel, you can also access your hosts support ticket system if they offer this. This will save you time if you need technical support because you will not need to visit your providers website to access this information.

This article is just a small overview of the features and benefits that may be included with your control panel. They can vary from host to host depending on what control panels and features they offer. You may want to look for a host offering a good deal of control panel features. These features can save you time and make your hosting experience easier.

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