Tag Archives: cPanel web hosting

While cPanel is one of the most popular and easy to use control panel solutions available online, WordPress enjoys a similar level of fame as a content management system.  What started as a platform for bloggers – it still is, of course – quickly became one of the most popular interfaces for managing a website, to the point where it is estimated 10-12% of all websites are powered by WordPress today.
One characteristic that has driven the popularity of WordPress has been the ease of use and installation that it shares with cPanel.  Webmasters and site owners are increasingly using both in conjunction with each other.  The great thing for these groups is that they lose nothing in the way of ease of use or convenience when doing so; installing WordPress into a cPanel is easy. While cPanel is able to take care of the installation for you, you can always do it yourself in a very short space of time – typically around five minutes.
Getting Ready for WordPress
What do you need to do to ensure that your cPanel is ready to install your WordPress application?
•    The first step is to ensure that your hosting company and your server plan actually supports WordPress.  If you knew that you were going to use WordPress, then chances are you would have made sure of this before signing a hosting deal.  Most hosting companies do support WordPress in the modern day, but it is always worth checking whether there are any parameters that you need to consider.
•    Prepare everything you need ahead of time.  Download the WordPress package, unzip the folder and save it to your computer.  You may be able to download WordPress directly to your web server using ‘wgnt,’ although if you are a inexperienced at carrying out such operations then you might be better going the hard drive route.
Should you download WordPress to your computer, it will extract to another file titled ‘wordpress,’ from which you will find everything you need to move forward.
Database Creation
The next step is to create your database and user configuration; you should follow these steps:

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cPanel is one of the world’s most popular control panel solutions.  Despite its popularity, users have an excellent opportunity to enhance their cPanel experience by using either a paid or a free cPanel theme to brighten up their control panel.
One popular step to take is to pay a developer to create a branded cPanel theme based on our business so that it clearly associates with what you do.  Naturally, branded cPanel themes are all going to be different and specific to the specifications of each business, and may contain images, logos, marketing slogans, or something else relevant to the company.  However, several generic themes are available to give your cPanel account a fresh look and make your site in general easier and more fun to manage.
What are the top 5 cPanel themes for your hosting panel?
Clean Panel
This cPanel theme is one that definitely lives up to its name.  Available in three colors, this theme is simple and to the point, making it easy for cPanel users to find their way around their control panel and make updates as and when they need to do so.
Clean Panel makes use of the space available on the control panel page to make everything stand out, and it is compatible with all third party cPanel add-ons.  At the same time, users can continue to customize their Clean Panel interface however they want to do so, while anyone who also uses cPanel’sWeb Host Manager (WHM) receives the theme for that platform, too.
RVSkin
RVSkin is one of the more advanced examples of cPanel themes, allowing you to fully customize all aspects of your interface.  RVSkin’s own control panel does offer a number of pre-installed themes, however, so you can take advantage of these and upload your logo, a photograph, and other branded assets to feature on your cPanel should you wish to do so.
Although it can give a distinct appearance specific for your brand, it is probably not as good as Clean Panel in terms of smartening up the cPanel interface and really driving the user-friendly aspect of the control panel.  This is definitely better for aesthetics rather than making cPanel easier to use.
Element
This cPanel theme is available from cpskins.com, and is the best of the 13 that they have on offer.  ‘Element’ will give your cPanel interface a complete makeover and give it an intuitive, easy to understand and navigate appearance so that you and other users can find exactly what they need with the minimum of fuss.
For a modern, stylish looking cPanel, this theme is a great choice.
X4
X4 comes from cPanel itself, and is definitely a theme worth considering.  While it will eventually become the front-end cPanel theme, those who already use cPanel will be able to download it and add it into their account.  For those who struggle to find what they are looking for, the built in search function will prove to be a great help, while the way X4 is laid out into three columns with data, icons, and finally news is sensible and ensures that users never miss anything they need to see.
Concise
Another cPanel theme from CPSkins, this one is better for advanced users who do not need to have icons in front of them at all times in order to find what they are looking for.  It does allow users to specify their own quick links, however, so any features that are regularly used can be collated in one place on the main screen.
Your cPanel Theme
cPanel is an excellent control panel solution.  Using a theme, either an updated one from cPanel themselves or a third party one, will help to smarten up your cPanel interface and make the whole service a lot sharper and easier for you and anyone else to use.

Before we begin, this has taken a long time to plan and I’m excited to share this story, provide all the tech specs and details we geeks love, and blast out pictures and video.

Why the new cage?

Thanks to all our clients over the 15yrs we have continued to grow and demand more space and particularly more power from our data centers. In Atlanta, we had two older cages from yesteryear that began on 110v power and reached their capacity in power long before space. In addition servers have changed alot since those cages were first setup, when we started with towers then but today and for many years every new server has been a new lower power consumption (though much more powerful) rackmount server.

The big objective was to get all our clients updated to our latest colo build, 208v, and specific pdu’s and switches that our staff and systems love and have grown accustom to but also require more capacity. So we found ourselves in the process over years of trying to get rid of old machines, towers, older cpu’s in exchange for the newer ones.

We use two data centers currently in Atlanta, AtlantaNap where we first opened our Atlanta presence and also ColoAT. We found ourselves in a unique situation with AtlantaNap the newest half of the facility received massive injections of upgrades and updates to become a premier health care facility. If you know anything about health care, you know they require all the perks for data. Our data center also needed space in the older area to improve upon its lacking power infrastructure.

So we gave up our older cages in exchange for new ones in the new space and took this chance to get all clients over to the 208v pdu, HP/Cisco routing/switching, and that promised backend we began but has taken a while to build out at all our locations for all clients. This is our project: setup a new cage with all new gear, fix any existing patchwork along the way, physically move all rackmount systems from our older cages to this newer one and to move all clients on a tower based system to a newer rackmount one in the new cage.

What kind of preparation goes into this?

An insane amount of planning has taken place for this from June 2012 up to and including last minute changes in Jan 2013. We have to coordinate with all our vendors to have the cage setup on time, power provided on time, distributed as we want, all our equipment and servers arrive ready to be racked on time, and get into a smooth “grind” of how to move nearly a thousand servers at this one location, from spot A to spot B.

First, what are we moving? We audit all our servers to prepare an accurate accounting of what was where, and where is it now, so throughout the process techs, clients, and NOCC admins can all find what they need. So we build a master list and begin to sort it via VLAN, comparing power draw @110v in the old cage to power @208v in the new cage, which actually runs from private pdu’s @ 3phase 480v. Anyway that’s nerd talk for lots of power. Multiple 100kva pdu’s are needed to fill this cage.

Ok, so when we know how many we are moving, we determine where and what power that will draw. Then we build our power plan on how to reach peek deficiency. This includes a mix of what type of server are we moving, is a small 1 drive 1u, or a mid 8xdrive 2u, or one of these 16 disk systems. Load each cabinet up heaviest and most power hungry at the bottom thinning to the top until we get our peak server per cabinet & power per cabinet usage. The two are designed to be one and the same. i.e. if you fill our cabinets copying the way each looks from purely aesthetics 2u’s, 1u’s you’ll find you can fill the cabinet fully and reach our ideal range of power consumption.

Well we better get rid of some of these really old things in the process, they will likely be the ones to give us problems anyhow. So we tally up how many potential problems we might have on our hands and order our servers, switches, pdu’s, cabinets, colo & power. The project’s tentative start date is set a few months out. This plan will be revised and scrutinized many times over before the start date.

We’re going to have to safe and cleanly power down each system one at a time, take it out of the rack, cart it over to the new cage, re-rack and re-wire it there. First, we plan to come in and start prewiring everything the first week.We know some systems won’t come back up on boot, they just won’t. Some systems haven’t had a reboot in 500,800,1100 days, we don’t know what will happen for sure with that. We also know through the years of upgrading systems for clients, ourselves, repairing bad hardware, that we may find other anomalies.
Ok, so we’re in Atlanta, we have only just arrived and we are  informed we will be behind already. They aren’t done preparing the cage which was due to be handed over Jan 1st. We had just a physical cage. 
Day – Zero

They have completed the power runs, cabling trays, most essentials minus the network. We begin to bring in our Dell cabinets, Cisco routers, HP switches, and get to cabling. After a good few days your cage is almost ready, almost.

What other ways does this help the clients?

This expanded power, expanded networking and expanded backend brings more network capacity. We can and did complete the phase to migrate failover systems to the Cloud as a result of this, and semi-dedicateds are being moved now, which will be done in a few weeks. We have managed to get many of our oldest clients on over to all new gear and this new setup without downtime.

And, this takes us to the last phase of a network project aimed at increasing capacity and reducing risk/downtime, adding more diverse carriers. As part of this there is increased backend capacity for offloading all backup processes, combined with the completion of Iderav5 recently, has provided remarkably improved backups.

Which takes us full circle the last bit of projects which include removing the tower systems from our inventory which has been ongoing for some time and will be ongoing for months to come.

JaguarPC has partnered with CloudFlare and implemented Cloud Flare across all of its shared and reseller servers recently. We want to make our users aware of the benefits and the advantages that CloudfFlare can bring to you and your sites. Two of the major benefits at the heart CloudFlare are that it makes your site faster and more secure. They also publish a very informative blog which will keep you updated on their newest features and how you can best use their product.

Climb aboard and get your website signed up and running through a network that has the knowledge you need to protect you and your site from today’s ever emerging threats. CloudFlare can be an important service to add to your blog, website and/or e-commerce site. They serve many major corporations and web hosting companies as well as users like you. While basic CloudFlare services are free many advanced features are available on upgraded plan. When you enable it on your accounts then you won’t be passing on an opportunity to speed up your site while improving its security.

How can you get started with CloudFlare today? JaguarPC makes it easy for you to explore the greater opportunities which CloudFlare provides. Those of you that are on a Shared or a Reseller server will find the CloudFlare icon in your cPanel interface. One easy click helps you begin to experience the benefits of improved website performance and a decrease in spam along with other types of potential attacks.
•    Click on the CloudFlare Icon in cPanel under the Software/services section.
•    Next, enter your email address and accept the EULA.
•    Select the domain you want to enable with cloudflare through the box on the left.
•    The interface will pull up a list of sub-domains where you can enable CloudFlare protection. Click on the grey clouds for the sub-domains you want to enable and wait for them to turn orange.

VPS and Dedicated customers can activate the services by going to cloudflare.com. You only need to sign up for an account. You will then receive your installation instructions.  Should you have issues installing it, then please feel free to contact JaguarPC technical support services by opening a support ticket inside of your account manager. We can then assist you additionally with any plug-in installation issues and properly enable CloudFlare on your server.

The benefits of using this product can be almost immediate for you.  CloudFlare is a product that upholds its commitment to continual improvements and enhancements.  This is a product that will evolve to provide you with solutions to common as well as the constantly emerging issues and threats related to your website, blog or e-commerce site. Don’t delay on you’re your decision to install this free and easy to use service that will improve your website’s performance, speed and security.

JaguarPC is entering a frontier we have never before explored. Black Friday through Cyber Monday Specials have arrived at http://www.jaguarpc.com/blackfriday.
Rush right over to our Black Friday Specials page to discover our phenomenal deals.

We are offering Shared hosting at 50% off,  Linux and Windows VPS packages are 25% off and we are including Reseller Accounts in the special at 40% off. These deals will apply to your first invoice so the more months you buy on a plan the more you can save. Don’t pass on these saving while they are a virtual steal.

What are doing here on our blog still? Accelerate your Black Friday plans and speed over to our special landing page to learn more about this event. Who can say if specials like these will be around like this again until next year, if ever. Take advantage of this Black Friday through Cyber Monday special now.

Secure your site with a RapidSSL Certificate from JaguarPC with our two day only 50% off promotion.* This offer is valid through Friday November 9, 2012 until 5 PM CST.

SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Certificates are one of the best ways to encrypt your website’s form submission data, ecommerce transactions and secure login pages. If you accept payments online then major credit card companies require SSL Certificates. Do you need to know more about SSL Certificates? Click Here

Order your RapidSSL Certificate during this remarkable promotion by simply contacting our customer service team by e-mail: sales@jaguarpc.com or submit a customer service support ticket by logging into your account at:

https://secure.jaguarpc.com/clients

Please be aware that SSL Certificates each secure one domain. If you don’t already have a dedicated IP account for each domain and you would like to secure it with a SSLCertificate then you will need to have a separate dedicated IP for each certificate.

SSL Certificate secured sites improve consumer confidence and attract more visitors. This tremendous two day 50% off RapidSSL Certificates is an outstanding opportunity for you to improve your site security and enhance sales as well as consumer confidence. Contact us so that you can start enjoying the benefits today.

*Dedicated IP addresses cost $2/month. If you renew your SSL Certificate more then 30 days out, time will not be carried over to the new certificate.

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To login to Nixcore for account updates or to contact us please use the following address: https://secure.jaguarpc.com/clients/

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All VPS Plus, Pro and Business plans are eligible for this unheard of offer. Enterprise VPS plan users can take advantage of the offer and upgrade to a Hybrid for 50% off**.

JaguarPC is giving you the opportunity to beef up your specs. at half the normal cost. When you place an order to upgrade your VPS Linux or Windows plan then we will give you 50% off.*

Simply, Submit a ticket to our Customer Service Department within the next 48 Hours
to take advantage of this offer. Make the easy choice and upgrade your VPS plan.

Act now! Upgrade your VPS Linux or Windows plan and enjoy 50% savings* for the next 48 Hours Only!

*Account cancels or downgrades within 60 days will cause the discount to be lost.

*50% off reflects the difference in plan prices

**Hybrid upgrade is only available to current Enterprise level customers

The Internet provides every business with an opportunity to reach new customers. However, the opportunity creates a competitive business environment that makes holding the attention of your visitors difficult. Although a visitor may have found your website and be interested in the things you offer, there are sure to be hundreds, or even thousands of other websites that provide similar services. And an error on your website is a guaranteed way to lose business.

Website errors come in a number of different types. The most common error is a “page not found” error, referred to as error code “404.” If you have outdated links on your website, customers can hit a dead end, where the resource you directed them to is no longer available. Even if you spend time searching your website for broken links, how can you account for other websites that may have accidentally sent traffic to a non-existent page on your website?

Many webmasters do nothing to identify and correct errors. As a result, the impact on customer experience and usability is significant. To help, cPanel web hosting features a tool called Error Log.

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A Message from Greg Landis, CEO, JaguarPC      

One of the most painful aspects of web hosting that I regularly come across is the prevalence of many clients who don’t make regular backups of their own sites. If you are relying strictly on your most recent updates being available on your hosting plan’s server than you are doing yourself a disservice and setting yourself up for potential disaster.

Backups are, in my mind, the most important element you should know about and pay attention to after purchasing your hosting plan and uploading your website. You never know what can happen to a server. Machines can fail. You would not believe some of the instances I have seen over the years. But, when machines fail you can prevail with your backups.

The files and the associated files that make up your existing website should be backed up to a remote location. JaguarPC offers backup services through its data lockbox services which are available for a nominal monthly cost. You can’t afford to lose your data. Our backup services will leave you assured that your data will always be on hand for a quick and easy restore.

I also recommend that you add some redundancy to your back up plans. Use more than one service or method for taking backups. While one backup copy is a good plan you will want to have multiple backup copies from different sources in order to have a sound contingency plan.

Don’t think you are immune to data loss. I urge you to find a process, service or method that works well and is easy for you to perform. Make it a regular habit to backup your site and the databases that are associated with your site. You won’t know the true agony of data loss until you experience it.

Take my words of advice, avoid the misery of data loss and find a backup solution today.

Greg Landis
CEO

JaguarPC’s Veteran Customer Support Representative
Larry has been a highly valued employee of the customer service department at JaguarPC for a number of years. You might think that his nerves could be wearing thin by now but Larry continues to enjoy all aspects of his job. You will find Larry passing along the lower level tickets and forging ahead on the more difficult aspects of customer service. At the end of the day, Larry’s larger aspiration as a CSR is to make sure that the clients are happy and satisfied.

Are you Protecting your Website Visitors and Their Secure Information with an SSL Certificate?
The security of your site and the need to secure the information that your visitors enter and transmit through your website is greater than ever. Hacking and identity theft is an ever growing problem. Keep information safe with a 124 bit encryption and even safer with a 256 bit encryption. Have a look at our recent blog post to gain a better understanding of why you should have an SSL certificate on your server.

Our July Employees of the Month
Each month a Customer Service and a Technical Support representative are selected by their peers at JaguarPC. This month JaguarPC congratulates Misty, or top customer service representative of the month and Jay, our staff’s pick for the most helpful and productive member of our technical support team. Send us your feedback once your tickets and livechats are complete so that JaguarPC can know who is working hard to make your web hosting experience the best experience.

Attracta in cPanel for SEO
Do you need high quality SEO (search engine optimization) services for your website but don’t even know where to begin? cPanel launched the Attracta plugin a few months ago. Attracta understands that the world of SEO can be confusing and tedious. The cPanel plugin can simplify your SEO tasks and create a SEO campaign that can produce the results that you desire. Additionally, Attracta offers you valuable tips as well as in depth videos which can help you better understand the value that SEO can bring to you and your website.

Did You Know?
Every year over 100 million hard drives fail. While JaguarPC takes every precaution to ensure that your data is safe we still strongly encourage you to keep an offsite backup copy. You can easily obtain backup protection services from JaguarPC. Our backup services won’t let you down when tragic events destroy your data. Your data can be your income or the sum total of years of efforts. The prompt recovery of your information can be priceless. Let us help you find a method that will preserve your efforts and hard work. Contact our sales team today to learn more about what options are available to you.
Need Extra Cash?
Would you like to enjoy some of the biggest affiliate payouts in the industry? Simply join our affiliate program and refer your clients, friends, family and business associates to start earning handsome rewards. Learn more about our affiliate program.
Network Down?

Down time can happen even when JaguarPC puts the best forethought and technology into preventing these events. Should our network experience an outage then you can consult our Twitter feed, our Facebook page or our backup blog for the latest updates.

When you log into cPanel you may have noticed “FREE Search Engine (SEO) Optimization Tools”, or an icon that implies SEO tools, and wondered what it referenced. The SEO tool is called Attracta. It is bundled with cPanel and WHM. The SEO tools are included by default but you must opt-in to gain access and use. The feature can provide you with automated SEO tools which can increase your site traffic. An included crawler can also crawl your websites, and create as well as submit your XML sitemaps directly to Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Ask. An SEO report will also be generated.

If you want to get started with this program then you only need to first open cPanel and then scroll down to Free Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tools.  Once you click on the SEO tools icon and read as well as agree to the terms of service, Attracta will then gather your domain name, email address and create an account. A robots.txt files will also be updated.  You will then have access to the services and the product lines which are offered by Attracta through cPanel and WHM. You only need to click on the SEO icons in cPanel or WHM.

Attracta is considered to be one of the world’s most popular SEO tools. Some users claim that their website’s traffic doubled over the course of six months. In addition to XML Sitemap submission, Attracta’s Free SEO Tools include a Google blacklist check, link building tools, social networking tools, SEO tips and tutorials as well as many other useful features to improve your SEO and make your website more successful.

Enable Attracta today to begin adding the necessary SEO elements that you need for your website to succeed in today’s competitive market for information and products.