Getting Started with cPanel

Internet Ministries is pleased to offer cPanel access to all websites we host. This article will introduce you to the basics of using cPanel. As a note, cPanel released a new theme in 2022 that changed the way this looks. If you're used to a different layout, take a few minutes to re-familiarize yourself with the tools.

cPanel vs CMS

The first thing we want to explain is the difference between cPanel and your CMS. 

cPanel is used to manage the space and settings for your web hosting package. There are some great tools within cPanel, but you may rarely, if ever, need to access them. Most of the time, you will instead be using your Content Management System (CMS). Your CMS is where you will add and edit pages and other content to your website. You may be using Evolution CMS or WordPress or another software as your CMS.

Logging into your cPanel

To get started with cPanel, you will login to vm01.goarch.org:2083 using the credentials sent to you when your account was first set up. If you do not have these credentials, contact us at [email protected].

Once logged in, your page should look similar to the following graphic:

cPanel main screen

 

You will see a number of options now available to you. If this is overwhelming for you, don't worry! We will break this down for you and focus you in on a handful of useful tools that you can use:

Files

  • File Manager - upload and manage files. This is similar to a web-based FTP client
  • Disk Usage - find out how much storage you are using. This is helpful if we need to research any storage issues with your site
  • Backup & Backup Wizard - manually back up your website. Learn more here »

Database

  • phpMyAdmin - a web-based tool for accessing your database (Advanced Users Only!)

Domains

  • Several tools for adding additional domains and websites to your account (Advanced Users Only!)

Metrics

  • Bandwidth - find out how much bandwidth you are using. This is helpful if we need to research any resource utilization issues with your site
  • Awstats - server based tool for analyzing traffic to your website. This is useful in conjunction with Google Analytics (GA) as they provide you with different information. GA needs to be set up on your site manually, whereas Awstats comes built in to all sites using cPanel.

Security

  • SSL/TLS Status - check the status of the automatically installed SSL Certificate on your website.

Software, Softaculous, & Apps

  • A set of tools for installing and managing software on your site. If you are running WordPress, there is software to integrate WordPress with cPanel

Advanced

  • Terminal - a web-based terminal-based access to your hosting space. Connect via SSH to your site to perform command line functions (Advanced Users Only!)

Preferences

  • Password & Security - to change your account password