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cPanel 10 Tutorial

cPanel is a web based control panel tool, which will help you manage your hosting account through a web interface instead of a console. With cPanel you are able to accomplish your tasks faster and even non-professionals can easily and painlessly operate their website via cPanel.

The cPanel tutorial is part of the rich collection of web hosting tutorials, which SiteGround experts have prepared for everyone. Find out how to start your website, how to promote it, how to deal with cPanel, webmail and FTP.

cPanel offers a rich set of features, ranging from adding an email address to managing sub-domain names. This tutorial will focus on the tasks involved with putting together and maintaining a web site.

CPanel Tutorial includes detailed instructions about:

SiteGround has long experience in providing web space for CPanel managed sites. Our web hosting service is an excellent choice for any website for it offers the richest set of features, cPanel-expertized support team and lots of FREE PHP tools like blogs, galleries, CMS, shopping carts, etc.


cPanel 10 Tutorial: Email Manager

How to Access Your Web Mail?

The Email Manager allows a user to do many different tasks involving email accounts. This includes creating email accounts, removing accounts, forwarding email, and more. The following section of this documentation will familiarize you with using the Email Manager to accomplish the many different tasks that are associated with email accounts, and email account maintenance.

You can use the Mail Menu to access one of the three web mail programs included in cPanel. These programs will allow you to read your email through a browser window without having to make any changes to the computer you are on or leave any email on the computer you are on.

Step 1: To access the Mail Menu, click on the icon above the word Mail on the main screen of your cPanel interface.

Step 2: Click on the words Web Mail to enter a screen where you can select the mail program you wish to use.

Step 3: Click on the icon of the mail program you wish to use. More information on the benefits of each mail program can be found in the web mail section.

Step 4: You will now need to choose the web mail program you wish to use:

  • Neomail (note that you need to fill the required information when accessing the Neomail program for the first time)

  • Horde (note that you need to choose the language interface before logging in)

  • Squirrelmail

NOTE: You can also access web mail through the web using the following URL: http://yourdomain.com/webmail where yourdomain.com is your actual domain name. The full email address should be used as username.

Make sure to log out of web mail when you are done. If you do not log out, it may be possible for another user of the computer you are on to access and read your email.

Please, take a look at our Email tutorial for further details about how to manage your email accounts:


cPanel 10 Tutorial: File Manager

The File Manager allows you to manage your site through HTML, rather than an FTP tool or other third-party application. You can upload, create or delete files, organize files in folders, and change file permissions. While not as sophisticated as most FTP tools, File Manager is free and gives you all the basic functionality necessary to manage your site.

To access the FILE MANAGER, click on the icon above the words File Manager () on the main screen of your cPanel interface.

The FILE MANAGER in the x2 theme appears as follows:

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.

To create a new folder:

Step 1. Navigate to the area in which you will create the new folder.

Step 2. Click on the Create New Folder link.

Step 3. Enter the name of the new folder in the available field in the top-left corner of the window.

Step 4. Click on the Create button. The new folder will appear in the main display area.

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.

To upload files in File Manager:

Step 1. Navigate to the folder where you want to upload your files.

Step 2. Click on the Upload file(s) link.

Step 3. Click on the Browse... button next to one of the top fields.

Step 4. Search for and double-click on the first file to upload.

Step 5. Repeat the above steps for each file you want to upload.

Step 6. Click on the Overwrite existing files tick box if you want to overwrite existing files of the same name.

Step 7. Click on the Upload button when you have finished selecting files. The status of the upload will appear in the top-right corner of your window. The contents of the folder is displayed in the main area, including your uploaded files.

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.

To create a new file:

Step 1. Navigate to the folder where you want to create your text file.

Step 2. Click on the Create New File link.

Step 3. Enter the name of the file to be created in the available field in the top-right corner of your window. You do need to add the file extension to the name, for example script.pl for a Perl script, not just script.

Step 4. Select the type of document from the drop-down list. Each type of file adds specific information to the text file:

  • Text Document - No text is added to the file.
  • HTML Document - No text is added to the file.
  • Perl Script - Automatically adds the path to Perl to the top of the file. Make sure to double-check that the path is correct.
  • Shell Script - Automatically adds the path to the Shell executable to the top of the file. Make sure to double-check that the path is correct.

Step 8. Click on the Create button. The file has now been created and the display updated to show the new file.

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 alterations.

To edit a file:

Step 1. Navigate to the folder where the file is located.

Step 2. Click on the name of the file.

Step 3. Click on the Edit File link in the top-right corner of your window. This will open a new window with the contents of the file displayed.

Clicking on the Show File link will display the contents of the file. However, you will not be able to make any changes to the file.

Step 4. Alter the text of the file as you wish.

Step 5. Click on the Save button when you have finished altering the file. The file has been saved and any changes will take effect from now on.


cPanel 10 Tutorial: File permissions

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 other. 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.

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 how you set your permissions.

To change file or folder permissions:

Step 1. Navigate to the file or folder that you need to change.

Step 2. Click on the name of the file or folder.

Step 3. Click on the Change Permissions link in the top-right corner of the window.

Step 4. Click on as many tick boxes as you require to create the right permission. The permission numbers underneath the tick boxes will update automatically.

Step 5. Click on the Change button when you have finished setting the permission. The new permission level has now been saved and the display updated to show the modified file.


cPanel 10 Tutorial: Trash

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.

To restore an item from the Trash please, click on the icon of the item that you want to restore in the Trash area on the bottom-right of the window. The folder or file will be automatically returned to its original location.

Emptying the Trash

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.

To empty the Trash please, click on the Trash button in the Trash area. All of the files in the Trash have now been permanently deleted.


cPanel 10 Tutorial: FTP Manager

The FTP Manager allows a user to do many different tasks involving FTP accounts. This includes creating ftp accounts, removing accounts, anonymous FTP access, FTP session control, and more. The following section of this documentation will familiarize you with using the FTP Manager to accomplish the many different tasks that are associated with FTP accounts, and FTP account maintenance.

Please check our FTP tutorial for more details about using FTP:


cPanel 10 Tutorial: MySQL manager

How to use MySQL Databases

The MySQL Account Maintenance Menu allows you to create MySQL databases and users and to modify databases and access to them. SQL stands for Structured Query Language. SQL is an international standard in querying and retrieving information from databases. MySQL is essentially an SQL server - it responds to requests for information that are written in SQL. You can communicate with MySQL using a wide variety of programming languages (PHP being one of the most common). MySQL is Open Source software and free for use.

Please check our PHP / MySQL tutorial for more details about using MySQL:


cPanel 10 Tutorial: Parked domains

How to use Parked domains

The Parked Domain Maintenance menu allows you to add parked domains to your account. A parked domain allows you to reach your domain when entering the name of the parked domain into a browser. You can use a parked domain to allow multiple spellings of a domain name to access a single domain.

Step 1: To access the Parked Domain Maintenance menu, click on the icon above the words Parked Domains on the main screen of your cPanel interface.

Step 2: To add a parked domain, enter the name of the domain in the blank field next to New Domain Name, and click on Add Domain!

Troubleshooting Tips: Make sure to register the parked domain with a valid domain registrar or else it will not work.

Removing parked domains

The Parked Domain Maintenance menu allows you to remove parked domains to your account. If a parked domain is no longer necessary, you can remove it without removing the main domain.

Step 1: To access the Parked Domain Maintenance menu, click on the icon above the words Parked Domains on the main screen of your cPanel interface.

Step 2: To remove a parked domain, select the domain from the drop box next to Remove Parked Domain, and click on Remove Domain!


cPanel 10 Tutorial: Addon domains

How to use Addon Domains

The Addon Domain Maintenance menu allows you to add addon domains to your account. An addon domain allows you to reach a domain when entering the name of the addon domain into a browser. This means that you can host additional domains from your account.

Adding Addons

The Addon Domain Maintenance menu allows you to add addon domains from your account.

Step 1: To access the Addon Domain Maintenance menu, click on the icon above the words Addon Domains on the main screen of your cPanel interface.

Step 2: Enter the name of the addon domain in the blank field next to New Domain Name:

Step 3: Enter the name of the directory which contains the subdomain that the addon domain will point to in the blank field next to Username/directory/subdomain Name: (This directory will be the location for the addon domain's files, just as public_html is the location for your domain's files.)

Step 4: Type in the password for the new addon domain, and click on Add Domain!

NOTE: You can upload files directly to this addon domain using the username and password for the addon domain to log in through FTP.

Troubleshooting Tips: In order to use a domain name as an addon you need an addon slot. Addon slot is considered an upgrade and costs $30 per year. It can be ordered from your Customer's area.

Addon domains will need to be registered with a valid domain name registrar before they can be added. Make sure that your account has the ability to use Addon domains before attempting to add one.

Please note that Addon slots price does not include the domain name itself. If you need domain names please order them separately. You can order additional domain names for $14.95 per year from your Customer's area.

Removing Addon Domains

The Addon Domain Maintenance menu allows you to remove addon domains from your account.

Step 1: To access the Addon Domain Maintenance menu, click on the icon above the words Addon Domains on the main screen of your cPanel interface.

Step 2: Select the addon domain you wish to remove from the drop box next to Remove Addon Domain.

Step 3: Click on Delete Domain!


cPanel 10 Tutorial: Cron Jobs

How to use Cron Jobs

A cron job allows you to run a certain command at times set by the job. For example, you could set a cron job to delete temporary files every week so that your disk space is not being used up by those files.

To access the Cron Jobs Menu, click on the icon above the words Cron jobs on the main screen of your cPanel interface.

The Cron Jobs Menu in the x2 theme appears as follows:

There are two different modes you can use to add a cron job: Standard and Advanced (UNIX Style)

Standard Cron Jobs Mod

The Standard mode provides a range of pre-set options that you can choose. This is the simplest method and is recommended.

Adding a cron job in standard mode

Step 1: To access the Cron Jobs Menu, click on the icon above the words Cron jobs on the main screen of your cPanel interface.

Step 2: Click on Standard to access the Standard Cron Manager.

Step 3: Enter the email address where the cron output will be sent to in the field:

Step 4: Enter the command you wish the cron job to run in the blank field next to Command to run:

Step 5: Select how often you wish the command to be run by selecting an option in each of the boxes.

Step 6: Click on Save Crontab to save your changes and set up your cron job.

Troubleshooting Tips: The command run by the cron job must be a valid command. Try running the command first from the command line to make sure it works before adding it to a cron job.

Deleting a cron job in standard mode

When a cron job is no longer needed, you should delete it so the command will not continue to run.

Step 1: To access the Cron Jobs Menu, click on the icon above the words Cron jobs on the main screen of your cPanel interface.

Step 2: Click on Standard to access the Standard Cron Manager.

Step 3: Click on next to the cron job you wish to delete.


cPanel 10 Tutorial: Advanced Cron Jobs

How to use Cron Jobs

Advanced (UNIX Style) Cron Jobs Mod

This provides the regular UNIX style cron options. It is recommended only for users, who are used to this method of entering cron entries.

Adding a cron job in advanced mode

Step 1: To access the Cron Jobs Menu, click on the icon above the words Cron jobs on the main screen of your cPanel interface.

Step 2: Click on Advanced (Unix Style) to access the Cron Manager.

Step 3: Enter the email address you wish the output of the command run by the cron job to be sent to in the field:

Step 4: Enter the command you wish the cron job to run in the blank field below Command

Step 5: Select how often you wish the command to be run by placing a number or asterisk (*) in each of the boxes.

Step 6: Click on Save Crontab to save your changes and set up your cron job.

Troubleshooting Tips: An asterisk (*) denotes to run the command at every possible time for that box. For example, a * in the month box would run the command every month.

More information on cron jobs can be found by searching Google for: crontab.

Deleting a cron job in advanced mode

When a cron job is no longer needed, you should delete it so the command will not continue to run.

Step 1: To access the Cron Jobs Menu, click on the icon above the words Cron jobs on the main screen of your cPanel interface.

Step 2: Click on Advanced (Unix Style) to access the Cron Manager.

Step 3: Click on next to the cron job you wish to delete.


cPanel 10 Tutorial: Hotlink protection

How to use Hotlink Protection

A cPanel functionality, known as HotLink protection prevents other websites from directly linking to files on your website. This means that when another website is visited, it cannot load pictures from your pages - this is one of the ways for limiting the outbound traffic for your account.

An example of hotlinking would be a different website using HTML code to display an image from your site. In effect, the other website is using up your bandwidth quota.

In order for this to be prevented, please click the Hot link protection icon in the cPanel's main page and follow the instructions. Please include the websites you wish to have access to your files - those may be affiliates or friends, linking to your banners, etc.

In order to allow certain file types to be accessed, please enter their extensions in the space provided - this way you can allow other websites to reach for your images, but disallow video or audio files from being accessed.

cPanel attempts to add all the domain names that you own with SiteGround to the allowed list, still if you have accounts on other servers you may need to have some of those added manually.

Make sure that you include all sites that need to access your protected files in the first bank field or they will not be able to view the files. If you still cannot view a file, try disabling Hotlink Protection to see if it is the cause of the problem.


cPanel 10 Tutorial: Pass protected directories

How to use Hotlink Protection

You can limit access to certain resources of your website by password protecting the directories they are in.

To do that, please select the [Password Protected Directories] icon from your cPanel main page.

A list of the Internet accessible directories on your account will appear.

Select the directory you wish to limit access to. In the new page, please create a username and a password for your user. Select a name that will appear in the login screen and click the Directory requires a password check box to activate the protection.

Please note that you have to create a directory before you enable the password protection for it. Also, using one and the same directory for the purpose of both password protected and FTP storage is nor recommended.

It is also important to add that password-protecting your webroot (the www directory) will lead to inability of your website to be displayed.


cPanel 10 Tutorial: IP deny manager

How to use IP Deny Manager

The IP Deny Manager allows you to prevent an IP address, domain name, or block of IP addresses from accessing your web site. If someone is using a lot of your bandwidth, posting malicious content, or should not be allowed to access your site for another reason, you can preventing them from doing so in the IP Deny Manager.

Deny access to your site from a domain or IP

Step 1: To access the IP Deny Manager, click on the icon above the words IP Deny Manager on the main screen of your cPanel interface.

Step 2: Enter the IP address or domain name you wish to deny access to in the blank field next to IP Address or Domain: (You can enter an IP block such as 1.2.3. also to deny access to all IPs that start with 1.2.3.).

Step 3: Click on Add.

Troubleshooting Tips: Make sure you have entered the IP address or domain in the proper format when adding IPs or domains to deny. IPs should be in the following format 1.2.3.4, and domains should look like domain.com.

Allowing access to denied IP addresses

If you no longer wish to deny access to a specific IP address, you can use the IP Deny Manager to allow access to that IP address.

Step 1: To access the IP Deny Manager, click on the icon above the words IP Deny Manager on the main screen of your cPanel interface.

Step 2: Use the drop box next to Remove to select the IP that you wish to allow access to.

Step 3: Click on Remove

Troubleshooting Tips: Make sure that the IP is removed from the list below Current IP addresses being blocked or else it will still be denied access.


cPanel 10 Tutorial: Fantastico

How to install/uninstall an application using Fantastico

Fantastico is just how the name implies it's fantastic. It's one of the most popular 3rd party add-ons that can be purchased and added to cPanel. Fantastico is probable one of the most advanced script installer we've ever seen. Currently it can install a large amount and array of scripts, ranging from bulletin boards to content management systems. Fantastico comes FREE with each SiteGround web hosting account.

One of the key features to Fantastico is how easy it makes installing programs and scripts. Simply by selecting a program or script to install and offering a small amount of information for each, a user can have a program or script installed within a matter of minutes and sense the system is designed to update these programs with the newest version on a regular basis, users can be assured they are getting the latest stable version of the software and that it's installed correctly and properly.

To access Fantastico, click on the icon above the word Fantastico on the main screen of your cPanel interface.

Fantastico Extras

Fantastico offers a set of tools that will help you easily manage your scripts. Please, scroll down the list of tools offered and you will find the Extras menu

Language - This option is used to change the default language set by the administrator of the server. Current Languages include: Dutch, English, French, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish

Side Menu Appearance - This option can be used the change the side menu appearance.

Full List - The full list option is normally set as the default and is used to list all the programs that can be installed and used in one long list categorized by the type of program each are.

Drop down menus - The drop down menu option is used to list the three main categories, Navigation, Scripts and Extras. This will display each main category as a drop down menu users can select from and then select go. This is useful for users with a slower connection and do not want to load a large amount of information at once.

Email Notification - Users can submit their email address in this section and the system will email them when a new script or program has been installed, modified, or even updated. If it's been updated it will inform the user so they can login to the system and update the scripts that are currently installed to the newest versions.

Installations Overview - This section will display the current scripts or programs that are installed, there location and version number.

Navigation - This menu has two links, one for the cPanel home page for that account and one for the Fantastico home page for that account. These are normally located at the top of the page.


cPanel 10 Tutorial: Fantastico installations

How to install/uninstall a PHP application using Fantastico

Below we have included a list of the PHP scripts which you can easily install on your website with Fantastico. Each one of these tools does different things and functions in different ways. The thing they have in common is their easy activation on each website hosted with SiteGround.com.

CMS / Portal software; E-learning and Blog tools

Shopping cart / ecommerce software

Forum software

Gallery software


cPanel 10 Tutorial: Website Backup

How to create a backup of your site and restore it?

You can do your backup quite easily. First you would need to know what your web site consist of and thus what should be backed up/restored. Usually sites are composed of files and databases. You must take care of them all if you want to have your site exactly the way it has been before.

How to backup/restore your files?

In order to backup your files, please download all the files from your public_html folder to your computer by using your favorite FTP client.After that you can easily upload back the files to your hosting account and your website will be restored.

How to backup/restore your database?

Once having all the files on your computer, you should make a dump of your MySQL database. Please, click here to learn how to backup/restore your MySQL database

You may also request an affordable backup creation of your whole account by posting a ticket from the Exclusive Professional Services tab inside your Help Desk area.


cPanel 10 Tutorial: Ports

How to check whether the cPanel ports are open?

You may experience issues with the non-standard http ports Cpanel works with. Usually Cpanel can be opened from:

  • https://mydomain.com:2083
  • http://mydomain.com:2082
  • http://cpanel.servername.com

Sometimes local firewalls allow only access to sites on port 80. In such cases, use the last URL. Note that the address "3" is a web based proxy which provides you with the option to access your cPanel via the default http port 80. We have set this extra service for aour Customers which Internet Service Providers blocked ports 2082 and 2082.

You may check if the ports are blocked executing the following commands:

If you are running Windows do the following:

  • Click Start
  • Click Run
  • Type cmd
  • Type telnet mydomain.com 2083
  • Type telnet mydomain.com 2082

If you are running Linux do the following:

  • Start your Linux/Mac OS console terminal
  • Type telnet mydomain.com 2083
  • Type telnet mydomain.com 2082

If the port is not blocked the results should look like the above Trying IP_of_the_server ( 10.10.10.10 for an example )...

Connected to servername.com.
Escape character is '^]'.

Different result will means that the port is blocked and you should use the web proxy link provided above.

Please, feel free to contact us if you have any questions or recommendations about this tutorial at: tutorials 'at' siteground.com