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Web Host Bluehost CPanel
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Cpanel Login
Secure Login
Database Backup Tool
Hot Link
Protection
Page Wizard Password Protect
Folder General Email Tip
To begin with for full disclosure, I use Bluehost for
all my sites right now. I've tried others over the years and though
Bluehost isn't perfect it's been the best one I could find for my
webhosting needs. They usually work with you on any issue you might run
into, and have for me had very stable uptime comparatively speaking,
enough to the point where I think finding a better host would be much more
time consuming than it's worth.
Here's some hopefully useful information you might be
interested in about Bluehost's Control Panel. This information
comes from my own personal experience and right out of Bluehost's
Knowledge Base. Go to
Bluehost,
and click on their Knowledge Base for up-to-date information as you
might want to keep in mind that their setup or policies could have changed
since the time of this writing.
Normal Login to Cpanel
If your domain name is not yet live on Bluehost servers either because it
hasn't been registered yet or because the transfer hasn't been completed,
you can access your control panel within any browser by going to the
Bluehost main page
www.bluehost.com and logging in through the control panel log-in
there.
If your domain is live on their servers, you can access
your control panel within any browser by typing the following in your
browser (replace with your actual domain name):
http://yourdomain/cpanel/
Your login account information is usually sent to you
through email as soon as your account is setup.
Logging into Bluehost Cpanel Securely
1. This comes right out of Bluehost's Knowledg Base.
- To login to Cpanel securely you can do this by entering the following
URL, replacing yourdomain.com with your website address:
https://www.YOURDOMAIN.COM/securecontrolpanel . This encrypts the username
and password so the information cannot be viewed ("sniffed.")
Note: This does display security warnings questioning the validity of the
certificate if you do not have your own SSL Certificate installed for the
domain. This can be ignored and does not diminish the security of the
login process.
How to use the CPanel Backup Tool
Bluehost says
- The Backup area allows you to download the daily, weekly, or monthly
backup file of your entire web site, or a particular MySQL, alias, or
filter backup file. If your computer crashes, or your personal backups are
destroyed, these files allow you to recover your site in
a convenient manner (you could also use FTP to download each file, but it
would take much longer as the files are not compressed).
How often a backup is created is decided by your web host. Contact your
hosting administrator for more details.
Important: You should keep your own backup copy of your web site as well.
Do not rely solely on the backup provided by your web host.
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.
To download a backup file:
1. Click on the Backup button on the home page.
2. Click on the Daily, Weekly, or Monthly backup file to download the
entire system backup for the indicated time, or click on the link
underneath the required area to download an SQL, Alias, or Filter backup
file. Refer to Generating a backup if you need to generate
a backup first before downloading it.
Note: To download any previous stored backups, click on the
Generate/Download a Full Backup link, and click on any backup that is
listed.
3. Save the file to disk.
Note for Windows users: This file is in .tar.gz format (a GZIP archive
file that contains a TAR archive file). This is a common
archive format used on Unix machines, in the same way that .zip is a
common Windows archive format. Most compression utilities
should be able to uncompress a .tar.gz file.
My Note: I use this tool occasionally to back up
my databases. I should probably back up more than I do. Bluehost stopped
allowing large backups straight from the MYSQL phpMyadmin page for
database backups. At least that was the deal the last time I tried it and
talked to their tech support. The backup area is the only way you can do
it. Basically, I think it was to close a security hole. That's my guess
anyway.
How do I password protect a folder on my website?
Bluehost Knowledge Base says
Do not follow the steps below if you are using
FrontPage extensions on your site. Doing so will break your extensions
and will keep you from publishing from FrontPage. If you are creating your
content in FrontPage we recommend you use FrontPage to password protect
folders.
1) Login to the
Bluehost.com Control panel
2) Choose "Password Protect Directories"
3) Click the folder icons to browse into your folders if the folder to be
protected is not on the list
4) Click on the name of the folder to bring up the protection screen.
5) Check the box next to the lock icon and provide a "resource name" (you
can change it later if you would like)
6) Click save
7) Click go back
8) Type in a username and password
9) Click add/modify user
Once you click go back you should see your user under the list of users.
Repeat the last step for any extra usernames you would like to add.
Also any information or links under the folder you password protect will
ask you for the password again.
My note: Again please check the Bluehost
Knowledge base for current up-to-date information for possible changes to
their procedure.
General
On the left side, you'll see your
website account information including your number of sub domains, add-on
domains, databases, disk usage, bandwidth usage, email accounts, email
forwarders, auto responders, mailing lists, email filters, and ftp
accounts. Below that you'll see the server information including
operating system like Linux, apache version, etc.
Here's some the things you'll find
listed in your Bluehost cpanel body that you'll have access to.
HELP, Mail Webmail, Parked Domains,
Addon Domains,
FTP Manager, File Manager, Disk usage
Backup, Password Protect Directories, Error pages
Subdomains, MySQL Databases, PostgreSQL Databases,
SSH/Shell Access, Redirects Frontpage Extensions, Web/FTP Stats,
Raw Access Logs, Raw Log Manager, Error log,
Subdomain Stats, Search Engine Submit, Chatroom, PhpMyChat, Domain Check,
CGI Center, Agora Shopping Cart, Retail Cart, Fantastico,
Cron jobs, Network Tools, MIME Types, Apache Handlers,
Manage OpenPGP Keys, HotLink Protection, Index Manager,
IP Deny Manager, UPDATE Billing Info, Change Password,
SSL Manager, SSL Installer, and Renew Your Account
Email Tip:
Helpful tip about your email. Don't create an email address, and forget
about it. It will get filled with spam, and you'll have to delete your
email at some point before your account completely fills up.
For more information on what Cpanel does
go here.
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