Support for your Hosting Package
On this page you will find help with working with services provided by CompuTech. In particular, you will find help with using the web space and email hosting services that CompuTech provides, including step-by-step instructions on how to set up Microsoft Outlook Express, accessing Webmail and also help with log-in in to your hosting Control Panels. You will also be able to check on the Status of the Hosting services. Also, you will find information about a new security feature that was added on 15 February, 2010.
Live Hosting & Email Server Status
- Using your Hosting Control Panel
- FTP Lock - New security added 15 February, 2010
- Configuring Outlook Express (and others) for your Hosted Email
- Using Webmail to access your Hosted Email on the Web
- Website Visitor Statistics ('Hits') for your website
- Using your Domain Control Panel (use with great care!)
Using your Hosting Control Panel
Throughout this section, the examples that we use make use of a fictitious Domain name called 'thirdsectorhosting.com'. This section has been written to help you learn how to use your own, personal Control Panel in conjunction with your own Domain Name, and therefore you are not expected to actually work with 'thirdsectorhosting.com' in the examples; substitute this with your own Domain Name. Also, due to the small size of the images shown in the following examples, you are not expected to be able to clearly read the images; they are there simply as a rough guide to assist you whilst you are working with your own Control Panel on screen.
To launch your Control Panel, at your web browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, go to:
controlpanel.yourdomain.com
where 'yourdomain.com' is the name of your Domain name. For example, for our fictitious example of 'thirdsectorhosting.com' we would enter 'controlpanel.thirdsectorhosting.com'. NB. Do not enter 'www.controlpanel.... etc' but instead simply enter (without 'www.') 'controlpanel.... etc' - indeed, as shown above.
At the 'Welcome to your Control Panel' page that appears (see the next picture), log in using your Domain Name and Password. For example:
Domain Name: thirdsectorhosting.com (simply like that, in lower case and with no 'www').
Password - the password that you were given by CompuTech when your hosting was first set up (unless it has been changed since?). This is the same password used for FTP, and also for log-in in to your other, more advanced control panel, the Domain Control Panel.
Then click the Log-in Now button.
After successfully log-in in, you will be taken to the main Control Panel page, the top half of which is shown below. You will notice your Domain Name at the top-right, and my company name, CompuTech, at the top-left (and no, that's not me staring out at you from the page!). Back over at the top-right, you also have access to a compilation of detailed, technical Help (some of it which may not be relevant to your particular hosting package), and also the Log Out link (don't forget to log-out when you have finished using the Control Panel).
Over at the right-hand side you will see, amongst other things, a summary of your 'Stats' (statistics) concerning your hosting package. Of particular interest is the amount of Web Space that you've used up and how much is left, how much Bandwidth has been used up this month (i.e., how much data has been uploaded to and downloaded from, your hosting package), and the number of (e)Mail Boxes in use. You will also see your FTP server information, along with the click-to-reveal password, and links to my CompuTech Computing website and email addresses. Remember: this password is the same one that is used to access FTP, the Control Panel and the Domain Control Panel. However, it is not necessarily, and unlikely to be, the same password for accessing your mailboxes or webmail (these particular passwords are set up on a mailbox-to-mailbox basis; see the section on 'Email', below).
We shall now take a look at what are perhaps the more useful features and tools of the Control Panel; there are many other useful features, so do take time to explore them.
Over at the left-hand side, and under Files, you will find File Manager, which can be used for uploading files to your website, and Backup/Restore for making all-important copies (in zip format) of your website files. NB. If you are going to be doing a lot of file uploading (or downloading), then it is much more efficient and faster to use a dedicated FTP programme instead of File Manager. There are some great proprietary FTP software programmes out there, many of them available for free, for example visit the site for Core FTP Lite, a very popular FTP programme.
Under the section Email, you are able to Login to Webmail (but here are instructions for a more direct way to access your Webmail for when you're out and about), and the configuration of Mail Boxes, Forwarding, Catch-All Forwarding, (out-of-office) Autoresponders, Junk Mail Filters, etc. Forwarding is where you intercept emails being sent to a particular address, and have them forwarded on to a different address. This can either be another email address at the same domain, e.g., forward all emails sent to 'john@thirdsectorhosting.com' on to 'jon@thirdsectorhosting.com' (useful for capturing the mis-spelling of Jon's name), or to an external email address, e.g., forward all emails sent to 'secretary@thirdsectorhosting.com' on to 'carolsmith@yahoo.co.uk'. In fact, with this system you can forward emails sent to a single email address on to up to ten different email addresses, which is useful for creating small mailing lists - create a forwarding address for, say, 'managers@thirdsectorhosting.com' configured to forward to up to ten real email addresses. Please note though, that if you wanted to forward onto more than ten recipients in one go, then you will need to create more than one 'list' and send to each of them. For example, lets say that you have sixteen members of staff at your organisation. To send an email to all of them in one go, create two forwarding address 'lists' called, say, 'everyone1@thirdsectorhosting.com' and 'everyone2@thirdsectorhosting.com'. The first one would contain ten of the staff members; the second one would contain six. Then, simply send an email to both of the 'lists' at the same time.
Another useful forwarding option available to you under the section Email, is Catch-all Forwarding. This is particularly useful if you are using a POP3 mail server at your office. For example, many of my clients use the excellent VPOP3, a very popular POP3 mail server programme to download all of their email in one go, by using just a single mailbox username - the Catch-all, and then distribute it around the office to the staff members. If you make use of the catch-all facility, do bear in mind that catch-all works by intercepting all email delivered to the domain with the exception of those emails that are otherwise expressly captured using Mail Boxes or Forwarding. In other words, the mail boxes and forwarding addresses will capture their email first, and the remainder will be captured by the 'Catch-all' (users of POP3 mail servers such as VPOP3, would typically not have individual mail boxes or forwarding addresses set up, but would instead make use of the catch-all address only).
Autoresponders, often called 'out-of-office' messages, is another useful option available under the Email section. Autoresponders are very useful when members of staff go on holiday, or are otherwise away from the office for lengthy periods.
Under Junk Mail Filters, you can opt to filter out Junk Mail/SPAM emails on either a by-email address basis or a by-domain basis (individual email addresses or all email addresses). You can choose to either have suspect junk emails deleted automatically (i.e., immediately), or to have them forwarded on to a specific email address. The later option allows someone to quickly run their eyes down through the intercepted emails after they have received them to see that genuine emails haven't been intercepted as junk/suspect (the wording ***SPAM*** can be optionally added to the subject field of suspect emails so that these emails are clearly identified). After having turned junk mail filtering on, you are able to return to the junk mail options to set up the level of filtering, either Low, Medium or High. No Junk Mail filtering system is fool-proof however, and you will have to accept that some junk mail will still get though and that some genuine email will be identified as junk mail even though it's not; you use this facility at your own risk. Note that back out at the Control Panel and still under Email, there is also an Email Filter Logs utility.
Under the Web Stats & Logs section of the Control Panel, you can choose to have a site map of your website sent to Google (Google Site Map), get your website listed in ten Internet search engines for free (Website Submission) including Google, Yahoo and MSN, and, under Bandwidth Statistics, study detailed statistics about visits to your website (alternatively, here are the instructions for an even easier way to access your website visitor statistics).
It is Under Web Tools that those of you with more technical needs can configure MySQL databases (initially, I provide you with ten; more available, for free, upon request), Sub Domains, FrontPage Extensions, and Website Redirect. Another option available here is Internet Access - providing you with a 'free' Dial-Up, modem connection to the Internet and your email. This is useful if you don't have Broadband at your home or office (please note that, although this service is 'free' in the sense that there is no subscription or contract fees, you will still be paying for low-cost, local rate calls on the phone bill of the phone line that you are connected to).
Under Website Help & Diagnostics, amongst other things, a simple Web Space Checker is available to you.
Under Web Resources, you have access to lots of freebies. For example, under Free Software, you will find a lot of software packages, some completely free and some try-before-you-buy versions, for helping you design websites, etc. Under Web Resources, you will also find hundreds of website templates for getting you started with that exciting new website that you've always wanted to create! You will also find Logos, Flash Banners, Banner Templates, Clipart, over 22,000 Photos, Web Art, Handy Links to websites to help you design your website, and a Javascript Maker.
Under the E-commerce section of the Control Panel you will find indispensable tools for setting up online shopping carts, including the excellent Zen Cart, and a facility for taking credit card payments. Please note that many of these tools require a high level of programming expertise.
The CGI Scripts section of the Control Panel contains various tools for adding functionality to your website, including a Guestbook, Weblogs, Photo Galleries, a Form to Email facility, etc. Please note that many of these tools require a high level of programming expertise.
Don't forget to Log Out of the Control Panel after you have finished, by clicking the Log Out link near the top-right corner of the screen.
FTP Lock - New security added 15 February, 2010
You should take note of this section if:
- you or someone acting on your behalf uses FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to upload changes to your website.
You do not need to take note of this section if either:
- I myself make all of the website changes for you;
- you do not currently have a website hosted by CompuTech (but simply either have Domain Name registration only or Email Hosting only with no website); or.....
- you use CompuTech-supplied Website Builder, Website Builder Plus or the File Manager that is located in your Web Hosting Control Panel.
Over the last year there has been a substantial increase in the number of sites on the internet that have been hacked due to viruses that steal FTP credentials from user's computers. The hackers then use these credentials to insert hidden code within the victim's website. Please see www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gumblar for more information on this type of attack.
To reduce the significant threat from these viruses, one solution is to lock FTP when it's not in use, making it much more difficult for hackers to infect a site via this route. On 15 February, 2010, CompuTech increased its security measures to ensure that customer sites hosted by CompuTech will have FTP locked when not is use. When using FTP to upload changes to their website, customers will first of all need to simply log into their hosting control panel and click one button to unlock FTP for a period of time. FTP will then automatically lock again after the time period has expired. This period can be set to either: 1 hour (recommended), 4 hours, 1 day, 7 days (not recommended) or 28 days (not recommended). Considering that some people only ever make changes to their website once in a blue moon, popping into the Control Panel occasionally shouldn't be too much of an inconvenience.
Here is an example of what FTP Lock looks like inside your control panel:
Configuring Outlook Express (and others) for your Hosted Email
Throughout this section, the examples that we use make use of a fictitious Domain name called 'thirdsectorhosting.com'. This section has been written to help you learn how to configure Outlook Express in conjunction with your own Domain Name, and therefore you are not expected to actually work with 'thirdsectorhosting.com' in the examples; substitute this with your own Domain Name.
We shall now take a look at step-by-step instructions for setting up your new hosting email account in Microsoft Outlook Express. NB. The following steps can be applied to other email clients, including Microsoft Outlook, Pegasus Mail and Windows Mail (the Windows Vista replacement for Outlook Express).
First of all, you will need to use the Control Panel, explained above, to create new email addresses complete with Account/User Names and Passwords. If you haven't already done this, then do this now.
Next, assuming that Outlook Express is already open on screen, go to the Tools menu and choose Accounts. See the following picture.
At the Internet Accounts dialogue box that appears, click the Add button and then choose Mail. See the following picture.
At the Your Name dialogue box that appears, enter your 'Display name', for example, 'Aled Evans'. Think carefully about what you should be entering here, as this will appear in the From field for all emails that you send out. For example, you might want to enter your real name, such as 'John Smith', or perhaps your Job Title, such as 'Finance - Third Sector Hosting', etc. Then click the Next button. See the following picture.
At the Internet E-mail Address dialogue box that appears, enter your E-mail address, for example, 'aled@thirdsectorhosting.com'. Then click the Next button. See the following picture.
At the E-mail Server Names dialogue box that appears, set 'My incoming mail server is a.....' to POP3 (only choose IMAP if you understand how IMAP works and want to make use of this).
At both the 'Incoming mail (POP3, IMAP or HTTP) server' and 'Outgoing mail (SMTP) server' fields, enter:
mail.yourdomain.com
where 'yourdomain.com' is the name of your domain. For example, enter 'mail.thirdsectorhosting.com'. After saying all this, it is possible that we should really be entering something different here for the 'Outgoing mail (SMTP) server' field, for example the name of the SMTP server provided by the company that is supplying your (Broadband) Internet connection. We shall consider this later on when we review the settings. In the meantime, make sure that both fields contain your equivalent of 'mail.yourdomain.com' and then click the Next button to go on to the next step. See the following picture.
At the Internet Mail Logon dialogue box that appears, enter your Account name and Password. The account name is actually the email address (in full and in lower case letters) that you set up earlier in your Control Panel, for example, 'aled@thirdsectorhosting.com' (click here for information on using the Control Panel). The password, of course, is the accompanying password that you also set up earlier. Tick the Remember password box, BUT DO NOT TICK THE 'Log on using.....' box. Then click the Next button. See the following picture.
At the Congratulations screen, simply click the Finish button, followed by the Close button at the Internet Accounts dialogue box that appears afterwards. See the next two pictures.
We should now review the settings that we've just made, and consider making some changes.
Assuming that Outlook Express is already open on screen, go to the Tools menu and choose Accounts. See the following picture.
At the Internet Accounts dialogue box that appears, and under either the All or the Mail tab, double-click the account that you've just created earlier. In our example, the account should be called 'mail.thirdsectorhosting.com'. See the following picture.
At the General Page that appears, it's a good idea to change the text in the top-most text field, i.e., the Mail Account field, to read the same as the text in the Name field, i.e., Aled Evans in our example. This is completely optional, as no one other than yourself will actually see the content of the Mail Account field, but it gives a more appropriate title to the account ('Aled Evans' is perhaps a bit more meaningful than 'mail.thirdsectorhosting.com'!). Leave the Organization field blank. Leave the text of the E-mail address text field unchanged - in our example this will be 'aled@thirdsectorhosting.com'. It is highly recommended that you copy this email address down to the Reply address field, as this can help with the sending out of emails. Leave the tick in the 'Include this account.....' field (removing the tick will 'disable' the account in respect of it's ability to be able to receive incoming email, although you could still use the account to send outgoing email). See the following picture to see the changes we've made.
Now lets take a look at the Servers tab page. There are two things that you might need to experiment with here. If, when you first start sending outgoing emails with your new email account, you receive an error message informing you that your email couldn't be sent, then the cause of the problem is quite likely to be due to an inappropriate entry in the Outgoing mail (SMTP) field on the Servers page. Internet Service Providers (ISP's) in particular, and sometimes hosting companies themselves, are becoming more and more particular about whom they allow to send outgoing email through their servers. This general tightening up is one of the measures that Providers are being forced to take to reduce the amount of SMAM emails being sent. If you are indeed having problems at the outset with sending outgoing email with your newly-configured Outlook Express, then experiment with replacing the text in the Outgoing mail (SMTP) field with the SMTP outgoing server provided by your (Broadband) Internet Service Provider (ISP) to see if that makes a difference (you can obtain this information from your ISP). For example, if you are using BT Broadband, then see if replacing 'mail.yourdomain.com' (e.g., 'mail.thirdsectorhosting.com') with 'mail.btconnect.com' in this field fixes the problem (you can always put it back to 'mail.yourdomain.com' if it doesn't make any difference). Remember though, that we are talking about the entry in the 'Outgoing mail (SMTP)' field and not the 'Incoming mail (POP3)' field.
The other option that you might need to experiment with is 'My server requires authentication'. Try ticking and un-ticking this box to see if it makes any difference with the sending off of your email. Please note though, that if you set your Outgoing mail (SMTP) server to mail.yourdomain.com, then you MUST tick the 'My server requires authentication' box. Generally speaking, whilst sometimes you will most certainly be required to tick the box, you will do no harm if you tick it when it isn't required, i.e., it will be ignored if it is not required. See the following picture.
Finally, we move over to the Advanced tab page and look at one very useful option. At the bottom of this dialogue box, under Delivery, there is the option of 'Leave a copy of messages on server'. This is particularly useful when used in conjunction with your Webmail (see 'Using Webmail to access your Hosted Email on the Web', below). By ticking the box and therefore leaving a copy of your emails out on the server on the Internet, it is still possible to read these emails directly on the server by using Webmail (alternatively, you could access them again on a different computer running, say, Outlook Express, which has also been set to 'Leave a copy of messages on server'. If, on the other hand, you don't tick this box (which is the default setting when setting up a new Outlook Express account), then Outlook Express will download the emails from the server, deleting the originals in the process, therefore making them unavailable to Webmail or any other programme.
If you do select 'Leave a copy of messages on server', then it is advisable to also select 'Remove from server after.......days', set to something like 30 days. Selecting this will start the process of deleting emails, one at a time, a set number of days after they have been downloaded by Outlook Express. This will help prevent your mail box on the server becoming completely full, which would otherwise result in you not being able to receive any more email from people.
After you have made the changes you want, click the OK button followed by the Close button at the Internet Accounts dialogue box that appears afterwards. See the next two pictures.
Using Webmail to access your Hosted Email on the Web
If you want to access your email directly on the Internet, you can use Webmail. This is particularly useful if you are out and about away from your usual office-based computer that is running, for example, Microsoft Outlook Express. Please note however, that if you have Outlook Express or any other email client programme set to (what is usually the default of) downloading the emails from the hosting server and then deleting the originals out on the server, then you will not be able to see the same emails later on whilst you are accessing Webmail. If you do want to be able to access your emails using both Outlook Express (or whatever email programme you are using) and via Webmail, then you must follow the instructions detailed a few paragraphs ago concerning leaving a copy of the messages on the server.
Furthermore, you need to make sure that the emails in your Webmail folders do not between them exceed the (current) storage limit of 400Mb, which would otherwise result in you not being able to receive any more email from people. Fortuntately, as you will see shortly, there is facility in Webmail that reminds you how much you are using.
Throughout this section, the examples that we use make use of a fictitious Domain name called 'thirdsectorhosting.com'. This section has been written to help you learn how to use your own, personal Webmail in conjunction with your own Domain Name, and therefore you are not expected to actually work with 'thirdsectorhosting.com' in the examples; substitute this with your own Domain Name. Also, due to the small size of the images shown in the following examples, you are not expected to be able to clearly read the images; they are there simply as a rough guide to assist you whilst you are working with your own Webmail on screen.
To access Webmail, at your web browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, go to:
www.yourdomain.com/webmail
where 'yourdomain.com' is the name of your Domain name. For example, for our fictitious example of 'thirdsectorhosting.com' we would enter 'www.thirdsectorhosting.com/webmail' (notice the 'forward slash' character before the word 'webmail').
At the Welcome to RoundCube Webmail screen, enter as your Username just the part of your email address before the '@' symbol. For example, enter just 'aled' if your email address is 'aled@thirdsectorhosting.com'. Obviously, you need to provide your password as well. See the following picture.
After clicking the Login button, you will be presented with the Webmail screen, complete with Inbox, etc. I am sure that you are familiar with the sort of email layout that you are now presented with, so I'll leave you to experiment with using the options available to you. Don't forget to Logout after you have finished, by clicking the Logout button near the top-right corner of the screen.
Please note the following points:
- RoundCube Webmail will automatically check for new email every 60 seconds, so there's no need for you to click a 'Send and Receive'-type button. Furthermore, this regular automatic checking is the very mechanism that ensures that RoundCube Webmail is continuously being used (active), so that there are no long periods of inactivity which might otherwise result in you being loged out due to being timed out.
- The maximum attachment size that you can send in one email is 2Mb. If you need to send bigger files, then please use Outlook or your regular email programme. Remember: Webmail was originally never meant to be used as ones primary email system.
- To add or remove folders, go to Settings / Folders.
- A neat facility is the 'Disk usage' indicator shown at the bottom of the RoundCube Webmail screen - all CompuTech-provided mail boxes are limited to 400Mb - plenty enough for most people!
- By default, the height-adjustable Preview Pane window is shown below your list of emails. If you wish, you can turn the Preview Pane window off and therefore see a 'taller' list of emails - you do this under Settings / Preferences / Mailbox View. Alternatively, simply decrease the height of the Preview Pane.
- RoundCube Webmail can be used in any one of 65 different languages: go to Settings / Preferences / User Interface to change the language.
Website Visitor Statistics ('Hits') for your website
You can view Usage Statistics for your website by entering the following into your web browser, such as Internet Explorer or Firefox:
www.yourdomain.com/stats
where 'yourdomain.com' is the name of your Domain name. For example, if your Domain name was 'thirdsectorhosting.com', then you would enter 'www.thirdsectorhosting.com/stats'.
Usage Statistics shows the number of visits to your website. Perhaps the most useful information can be obtained from the two yellow columns displayed in the Summary by Month table, namely 'Daily Avg - Visits' and 'Monthly Totals - Visits' (the daily average number of visits to your website this month so far, and the total number of visits this month so far, respectively).
Using your Domain Control Panel (use with great care!)
The Domain Control Panel is for the advanced configuration of your domain, and includes options such as DNS Management, Change Nameservers, Change Contacts, Domain Locking and Domain Auth(orization) Code. WARNING: The Domain Control Panel should only be used if you genuinely have a need to do so, and you have advanced Domain management skills, as misuse could very easily result in your website and/or email not functioning!
Throughout this section, the examples that we use make use of a fictitious Domain name called 'thirdsectorhosting.com'. This section has been written to help you learn how to use your own, personal Domain Control Panel in conjunction with your own Domain Name, and therefore you are not expected to actually work with 'thirdsectorhosting.com' in the examples; substitute this with your own Domain Name. Also, due to the small size of the images shown in the following examples, you are not expected to be able to clearly read the images; they are there simply as a rough guide to assist you whilst you are working with your own Domain Control Panel on screen.
To launch your Domain Control Panel, at your web browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, go to:
domaincontrolpanel.yourdomain.com
where 'yourdomain.com' is the name of your Domain name. For example, for our fictitious example of 'thirdsectorhosting.com' we would enter 'domaincontrolpanel.thirdsectorhosting.com'. NB. Do not enter 'www.domaincontrolpanel.... etc' but instead simply enter (without 'www.') 'domaincontrolpanel.... etc' - indeed, as shown above.
At the 'Manage Domain Name' page that appears (see the next picture), log in using your Domain Name and Password. For example:
Domain name: thirdsectorhosting.com
as simple as that, in lower case and with no 'www'.
Password - the password that you were given by CompuTech when your hosting was set up (unless it has been changed since?). This is the same password used for FTP, and also for log-in in to your more general Control Panel.
Then click the Log-in Now! button.
You are then presented with the Domain Control Panel, as show in the following picture.
Don't forget to Log Out of the Control Panel after you have finished, by clicking the Log Out link near the top-right corner of the screen.
