KnowledgeBase: Web Hosting FAQs, Cpanel Manual, Instructions, and downloads 
Where can I download a free FTP?

There are several FTP clients which you may download and install for free. Click on the "Download" link next to the name of the FTP client you wish to use to be taken to the download page for that FTP client.

Filezilla FTP - Download
Core FTP - Download
Cute FTP - Download
Smart FTP - Download
 
Control Panel (cPanel) Manual

Yes, a manual for cPanel is available. Go to http://www.cpanel.net/support/docs/index.htm to view it.

 
Where do I go to login to my control panel?

Your web hosting control panel (cPanel) is located at http://www.yourdomain.com/cpanel/.
 
How to log into cPanel

If you recently purchased a new web hosting account with Acera Technologies, you should type the following information into the address bar of your browser:

http://YourSitesIPAddress/cpanel
(Example: http://1.2.3.4/cpanel)

If your domain name is already pointing to Acera Technologies, then you can use the domain name to log into cPanel. Here is an example:

http://www.yourdomainname.com/cpanel
or
http://cpanel.yourdomainname.com/

The username and password can be found in your welcome email. If you do not have the correct login, please contact AceraTechnologies via our contact form or email support@aceratechnologies.com for help.
 
Where do I upload my website files?

The public_html folder is the web root for your domain name.

This means that public_html is the folder where you put all website files which you want to appear when someone types your domain (the one you provided when you signed up for hosting).
 
Email Client Setup Instructions

You may download a copy of our email client setup instructions here. Guide provides instructions for Outlook and Outlook Express, but many settings will be similar in other email clients.
 
Webmail Instructions

You may download a copy of our webmail instructions here.
 
Why doesn't my FTP password change when I change my cPanel password?

Please allow 24 hours for your FTP password to sync with your cPanel password. If it does not work within 24 hours, please contact Technical Support.

 
How to log into Webmail?

Webmail is a great feature offered by cPanel. You can access email from any PC connected to the Internet. There are two ways to log into the default webmail supplied with cPanel. Type the following information into the browser.

If the domain name has propagated type:
http://www.yourdomainname.com/webmail

You can also access it by going through the default webmail port number of 2095 as in the following example.

If the domain has propagated type:
http://www.yourdomainname.com:2095

Once you go to the address above, you will be prompted for your user name and password. Be aware, it is not asking you for your cPanel user name and password. All email account user names look just like the email address.

In the user name section, type your full e-mail address. (Example: you@yoursite.com)
In the password section, provide the password which you provided when you created the email account. Then hit enter.

You are now logged into webmail.
 
Why am I not allowed to upload files via FTP?

Make sure you are uploading to the right web directory, which is inside the public_html or www folder. If you're sure you're uploading to the right folder, you are probably out of disk space.
 
Can I password protect directories?

To password protect directory:

  1. Login into your cPanel and click on the Password Protect Directories icon, found under Security.
  2. Choose Web Root (and you may need to select Show Hidden Files)
  3. Click on the name of the directory that you wish to password protect.
  4. Check the box for "Password protect this directory:"
  5. Fill in "Name the protected directory". Actually, this is just the message that will show to visitors when they try to login, and can be anything you like.
  6. Click on Save button below.
  7. Click "Go Back"
  8. Fill in a Username and Password at the bottom of the page, and click "Add/modify authorized user".
  9. You are Done. The directory you selected is now protected by password.
To ensure you directory has been password protected, launch you browser and visit the folder. If the browser prompts you to login, then your directory has been password protected.

Note: At this time you can only protect directories (not individual files) from cPanel. Any file that needs protection should be placed in a protected directory.
 
Application Paths - What is the path to ...?

Here is a list of commonly used paths:

The webroot path is /home/username/public_html

The path to your email is /home/username/mail/domain.name/user's name/

The save session path is /home/username/tmp

The path to AWStats is /home/username/tmp/awstats

The path to cgi is /home/username/public_html/cgi-bin/ or /var/www/cgi-bin

The path to Perl is /usr/local/bin/perl

The local path to Sendmail is /usr/sbin/sendmail

The path to PHP is /usr/bin/php

The path to Zend Optimizer is /usr/local/Zend

The path to MySQL is /var/lib/mysql

The path to Mysqldump is /usr/bin/mysqldump

The path to Pear is /usr/bin/pear

The path to Python is /usr/bin/python

The path to openSSL is /usr/bin/openssl

The FTP root path is /home/username/ (only accessible if using the cPanel login)

The FTP directory path is /public_html/ or just leave blank

The path to Aspell is /usr/bin/aspell

The local path to ImageMagick is /usr/bin/

The local path to convert with ImageMagick is one of the following...

  • /usr/bin/
  • /usr/local/bin/convert
  • /usr/bin/X11/
The path to the GD2 library is /usr/lib

The path to the GD2 include directory is /usr/include

The path to rsync is /usr/bin/rsync

Path to Exim logs is /var/log/exim_mainlog

Path to Alias files is /etc/valiases/

The path to PHPmyadmin is http://yourdomain.com:2082/3rdparty/phpMyAdmin/index.php

The path for sbin is /usr/sbin - but is not accessable.

The path for cgi-sys is /var/cpanel/cgi-sys

The path to Apache on a Linux server is /usr/local/apache


Notice: You must contact Acera Technologies via phone, our contact form, or email support@aceratechnologies.com and ask us to enable the following commands:

The path to Get is /usr/bin/GET

The path to LYNX is /usr/bin/lynx

The path to WGET is /usr/bin/wget

The path to CURL is /usr/bin/curl
 
What is the server path to my user files?

The webroot path is /home/username/public_html
 
What is the path to perl?

The path to Perl is /usr/local/bin/perl
 
What is the path to curl?

The path to CURL is /usr/bin/curl

Notice: You must contact Acera Technologies via phone, our contact form, or email support@aceratechnologies.com and ask us to enable this command.
 
What is the path to ImageMagick?

The local path to ImageMagick is /usr/bin/
 
What is the path to convert with ImageMagick?

The local path to convert with ImageMagick is one of the following:

  • /usr/bin/
  • /usr/local/bin/convert
  • /usr/bin/X11/

 
What is the path to sendmail?

The local path to Sendmail is /usr/sbin/sendmail
 
How do I create email accounts?

To create an email account:

  1. Login to cPanel and click Email Accounts.
  2. Fill in the name you want and select the domain name from the drop-down.
  3. Type the desired password twice.
  4. Change the quota if you want.
  5. Click Create.
*NOTE: By default you have no email address setup. The main username may look like it is setup as an email, but if you wish to use it, you will need to add it as an email account.

You cannot create emails with a script or SSH.
 
What do I put for both incoming and outgoing mail server?

For incoming mail server, put mail.yourdomain.com.

For outgoing mail server, contact your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and ask for your SMTP server (often mail.isp.com or smtp.isp.com). Also ask if it will require authentication. Most likely you have a base email address included with your internet service and you can use this email username and password for authentication.

The incoming port number is 110.
The outgoing port number is 26.

If you know the IP address or the hostname of the server which you are on, you may use that information instead of mail.yourdomain.com (helpful if you recently changed your domain's DNS).
 
Where do I go to check my emails using my browser?

To check your email using your web browser, go to http://yourdomain.com/webmail/.
You can also go to http://yourdomain.com:2095/.

If you wish to check your email in your web browser securely, go to https://yourdomain.com/webmail/.
You can also go to https://yourdomain.com:2096/.

 
How can I setup webmail to go directly to Horde, SquirrelMail or RoundCube?

  1. Login to the webmail program you prefer. You can get there by going to your-domain.com/webmail. You'll need to login using a username (which is the full email address) and password.
  2. Once you have logged into webmail, click on the webmail program of your choice.
  3. Copy the url in your address bar. It will look something like:

    http://your-domain.com:2095/3rdparty/roundcube/index.php
    http://your-domain.com:2095/horde/login.php
    http://your-domain.com:2095/3rdparty/squirrelmail/src/login.php
    Note: You must replace your-domain.com with your actual domain name in the above examples.
  4. Once you have the URL you'll be wanting to use, login to your cPanel.
  5. In cPanel, setup a subdomain called something like myemail.your-domain.com (you can do this by clicking on the "subdomains" icon in cPanel). Do NOT use mail.your-domain.com as these particular subdomains are already in use on the server and attempting to use them as subdomains can result in conflicts.
  6. After you've setup the subdomain in your cPanel, setup a "redirect" for the subdomain (by clicking on the "subdomains" icon). You will need to setup the redirect so the subdomain goes to the URL of the webmail program of your choice.

 
Email returned, Blacklisted or Rejected by Recipient

Note: We can only fix this if the block is against the entire server. If the block is specifically against your email address, then the receiver is blocking your emails purposefully and we cannot remove the block.

If you get a bounce back error that you cannot figure out, please visit this link so that you can enable the full headers of the email. (Full headers are required so that we can solve your problem.)

http://www.haltabuse.org/help/headers

Once the headers have been exposed, please email the full headers and bounce back error to:
support@aceratechnologies.com  and note if it is a NON-blacklist issue or a BLACKLIST issue.

If you're not sure which it is, please contact us via phone or our contact form.
 
How to create/delete an E-Mail forwarder

A forwarder is important when you want a copy of an email to be sent to another e-mail address upon receipt. To create e-mail forwarders, please do the following:

  1. Log into cPanel
  2. Click on the "Forwarders" icon.
  3. Click on "Add Forwarder."
  4. In the first box, provide the beginning extension for the email address you wish to set up to froward email from.
  5. In the drop down menu to the right of the “@” sign, select a domain for which the email address is associated with.
  6. Next, you must choose the destination of the new forwarding email. You will be given three options.
    • "Forward to an email address" is the default option. Select this if you wish to send emails to a specific email address.
    • Discard with error to sender (at SMTP time). Choose this option if you wish for the E-mails to bounce back to the sender with an error message. You may choose the failure message that is given.
    • The "Pipe to a program" option will send the email to a script of your choice. When piping to a program, you should enter a path relative to your home directory. If the script requires an interpreter such as perl or php, you should omit the "/usr/bin/perl" or "/usr/bin/php" portion. Make sure that your script is executable and has the appropriate Hashbang at the top of the script. If you do not know how to add the Hashbang, just make sure to name your script file with the correct extension and you will be prompted to have the Hashbang added automatically.
  7. Now click on "Add Forwarder" to complete the creation of your new forwarder.
You have now just created a forwarder. When someone sends you and email to the email address specified a copy will also be sent to the email address provided. Please be aware, It will leave a copy of the email on the sever as well. This means that eventually, the email box will fill and will stop forwarding messages.

To avoid this issue, you can create a forwarder for an email box that currently does not exist. If you do this, there will be no email box for a copy of the message to be saved in before the message is forwarded off of the server.

 
How to change the password of an e-mail account

We recommend to change your password at least once a month. To do so, please do the following:
  1. Click Mail
  2. Click Add/Remove/Manage Accounts
  3. Click the Password button to the right of an email address for which you would like to change the email password for.
  4. In the box to the right of New Password, type the new password for the email address
  5. Click Change button
You have now successfully changed your email password.
 
None of my cgi scripts are working on the server. How do I get them to work?

First, make sure the script files are in the cgi-bin folder.

Second, make sure the file permissions are set to 755.
 
How do I create databases and manage them?

Create: If you are using any type of PHP software or keeping a collection of records which need to be accessed in some way, you will need to create a database. Below will show you how to create a MySQL database in cpanel.
  1. Click MySQL Databases
  2. In the box to the right of New Database, please provide a name for the database. Please note cPanel will create the full name of the database as cpaneluser_databasename
  3. Click Create Database Button
You have now successfully add the database, You will now need to create a user to access the database.

Create User: Whenever you have any type of MySQL database, you will need to assign a user to be able to access the database. If you would like to create a user and give them access to the database, please do the following:
  1. Click MySQL Databases
  2. Scroll down until you see the Current Users section
  3. Under this section and to the right of User name, please provide a user name for a database
  4. Please note that that full database user will be cpaneluser_databaseuser
  5. To the right of Password, please type the password for which you would like to create for this database user.
  6. Click Create User
You have now created a database user. You can manage it from PhpMyAdmin, found in the Databases section in cPanel.

You now need to give the user privileges for your specified database.
  1. In the drop down menu to the right of User, please sect the user for which you would like give privileges to.
  2. To the right of Database, please select a database for which you would like the user to have privileges to.
  3. Under privileges please choose what type of privileges you would like the user to have.
  4. Click Add User To Database button You have now created a new database with a privileged user. You can now input the information into a php script or another script to access it locally
You have now just gave a user permissions to a database.

Delete: If you are deleting a script or would like to restart a new database, the first step is to delete the old MySQL database. To do so, please do the following:
  1. Click MySQL Databases
  2. Under Current Databases, you will find the names of all your current databases.
  3. Click Delete next to the name of the database you would like to delete.
You have now deleted a MySQL Database.

Note: You may also need to delete the user who is accessing the database as well, if you would like not to have any further traces of the that database lingering.
 
What version of php are you using?

We are running PHP 5 installed on our servers. The current version is 5.2.9
 
What version of perl are you using?

We are using version 5.8.8.
 
What version of MySQL are you using?

We are using version 5.1.30
 
What version of cPanel are you using?

Our servers automatically stay up to date with the most recent stable Cpanel version. The current version for cPanel is 11.24.x

 
I'm want to purchase my own SSL, what do I need to know?

On our cPanel servers, we are using Apache and Mod SSL. When you order your new SSL certificate, you will need to know this information. You will be unable to install your own SSL certificates because the installation of a SSL certificate requires ROOT access to the server. Also, each SSL certificate requires that a dedicated IP address is installed so the SSL may function. The dedicated IP address incurs an additonal monthly fee of $2.00.

Anytime you need an SSL certificate installed, you cannot install it yourself, you must have our administrators install it for you for a $30.00 one time installation fee.

To have an SSL installed, you must follow these directions:

  1. We require the following information to create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR): Email First Name, Last Name, Address, City, State, Zip, Country, Organization, Company Name, and the domain with which you want to access the SSL.
    **Please note that all information on the CSR page MUST match the whois for that domain or the SSL will not get issued.
  2. Once you received the CSR results from our administrators, give the results to your current SSL certificate provider. The SSL provider will generate and give back an SSL Certificate as well as an SSL CA Certificate (Trusted Authority). These two pieces of information will be encrypted text documents. Typically they will be provided via email as compressed (zipped) attachments.
  3. Now that you have the SSL certificate and the SSL CA certificate, you need to email them to us along with the RSA PRIVATE KEY. We will use this information to complete the installation of your SSL. This email also tells us that you authorize the $30.00 installation fee and the $2.00 per month dedicated IP fee.
 
How do I transfer a SSL?

Every place that sells SSLs has a different transfer procedure. You will need to ask the supplier you purchased it from.
 
Please read before creating a subdomain.

When you create a subdomain in cPanel, you will be asked to choose the name of the subdomain, the domain the subdomain is for and the location from which the new subdomain will load its content. MAKE SURE the subdomain name you give it doesn't have a folder already named that name. If it does the sub will not work. Example: I want to create the subdomain test.yourdomain.com so my sub name is going to be test. If I already have a folder in my public_html directory named test, I need to delete it or rename it to something different before I create the subdomain with the test name from cPanel.

Note: Some subdomain names are reserved: mail, www, ftp, cpanel, whm, webmail, webdisk. You can use any name except these.

How do I create a subdomain?

  1. Log into cPanel and click on the "Subdomains" icon.
  2. In the "Subdomain" field, please select the name of the subdomain which you wish to use, for example, you might choose "blog". If you choose blog, then your subdomain will look like "blog.example.com".
  3. Next, select the desired domain you wish to create this subdomain for from the drop down menu to the right of the "Subdomain" field. You may create a subdomain for any addon, parked or subdomain that already exists in your cPanel.
  4. When you click on the "Document Root" field, it should automatically populate with a cPanel suggested location from which the subdomain will load it's content. For instance, if you chose "blog" as your new subdomain, then the "Document Root" field will populate with "/public_html/blog". This means that the new subdomain will load it's content from the folder named "blog" from within the "public_html" directory.
  5. Once all three fields are set the way you prefer, simply click on the "Create" button to complete the creation of your new subdomain.

 
What is a subdomain name? How do I create and delete one?

A subdomain is a second website, with its own unique content, but there is no new domain name. Instead, you use an existing domain name and change the www to another name. The subdomain name looks like forums.domain.com, help.domain.com, help2.domain.com (assuming you already host domain.com).

To create a subdomain, please do the following:

  1. Login to cPanel and click Subdomains.
  2. In the drop-down, choose the domain.
  3. In the box before the domain, type the subdomain name you want.
  4. Click inside the "Document Root" box and it will auto-fill.
  5. Hit the Create button.

To delete a subdomain, please do the following:
  1. Login to cPanel and click Subdomains.
  2. At the bottom, under Actions, click Remove.

 

 
 

We are here to help you.

Custom Website Design

Web Hosting

SEO

Mods/Upgrades/Portals and More

MOTO/INTERNET Accounts