Web Hosting Geeks' Blog » cPanel http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog Web Hosting Industry News, Latest Trends, and Analyses. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:38:39 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Control Panel: Advantages & Disadvantageshttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2012/01/06/control-panel-benefits/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2012/01/06/control-panel-benefits/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:26:08 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=4236 To control panel, or not to control panel? It’s a perennial question, and one all conscientious web masters have had to ask at some point during their career. It doesn’t matter what kind, style, or flavor of website you’re hoping to create: Odds are you’ll have to wage the costs and benefits of using a control panel (like cPanel) to manage your media, or going Bear Grylls and relying entirely on the command shell. However, just because the problem is a ubiquitous one does not mean it has to be a hard one. In fact, with a little foreknowledge and just a smidgen of guidance, you might find the decision between graphical front-ends and pure control is simpler than you think. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a short list of some of the pros and cons of using a control panel alongside your website. It’s by no means a complete listing, but if you’re on the fence, it will certainly help you along the right path.

Pros:

1.  No Software Required: We may have just modified a Phil Collins song to meet our needs, but that doesn’t make the point any less valid: If you’re using a control panel, there’s absolutely no need to clutter up your home computer with FTP software of any kind. This, after all, is really the point of having a control panel in the first place. With something like cPanel in place, you can access your site from any location around the globe via browser. From there, you’re free to upload, mangle, and download your system’s files as needed. It’s quick, efficient, and saves you hard drive space in the long run.

2.Easy Stats: Another advantage to using a control panel over the traditional terminal are the various statistical tools available for your perusal. Using these tools, you can stay up to date on a minute-by-minute basis with who has been accessing your site, from where, and when down to the second. Want to know how many of your users have been coming from the Southeast? With a control panel in place, it’s no problem at all to find out. In fact, we might even say it’s easy as pie—especially considering pie charts are a definite possibility.

3.  Ease of Installation: Another benefit to using a control panel is its ease of software installation. Essentially, with a package like cPanel creating a front-end for your site, you’re allowed to add, remove, or modify web applications as you please. Want to add a forum to your site? No problem, assuming you have a control panel! How about shopping carts, bags, help desks, image galleries, billing software, or even a content management software like WordPress? With all of the above, it’s a done deal, assuming you’ve got the control panel to match. Best of all, these installations can be removed just as easily as they’re added, allowing for an unprecedented level of control over your site’s performance.

4.  Know Your Usage: Typically, when a web hosting provider comes stock with a control panel, the panel is capable of tracking your data usage, just like Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T allow users to track their minutes and allowances from the Web. In this way, it’s a cinch to keep a tab on just how much of your plan you’ve been using, allowing you to scale back next month if needed, or ramp up the features, should your site experience a sudden hike in popularity.

Cons:

1.  Big Tasks Suck: However, a control panel isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. In fact, when it comes to certain filing procedures, they can be a right pain in the derriere. For example, let’s imagine you have a directory that’s currently housing something like 5,000 unique files. Now, what if you wanted to move all 5k of these items to a new folder? How about only the files that begin with a specific phrase? Using a graphical control panel, this could take hours of tedious clicking and sorting. However, with the command line, a single string can take care of the whole operation in only seconds. Now that’s power!

2.  Getting Dirty Requires Less: Let’s create another example: Let’s say your server begins acting strangely, and all of your files suddenly change their permission states. With a control panel, sorting out the mess could, again, require hours of manipulation, and even then, privileges are notoriously hard to manage with a graphical front-end. When it comes to such root level functions as modifying folder permissions, visibility, or password protection, using the shell terminal is really the only way to go.

3.  Security is Shell-Oriented: Another notch in the terminals favor is the fact that graphical interfaces are typically far less secure. These control panels rely on a software relationship between the hardware, the shell, and the pretty, eye-candy studded panel you deal with on a daily basis. All of this connectivity adds up to an impressive level of control, but also to a lot of compromised security. Not to mention the fact that cPanel’s popularity makes it a prime target for hackers looking to make a quick steal. The shell terminal, on the other hand, is direct, password encrypted, and one-way. With this in mind, it’s nearly impossible to hijack a shell tunnel, providing an infinitely more secure experience, and at no cost to your overall control.

So there you have it! On the whole, there’s really only one quick question you need to ask yourself when considering the application of a graphical control panel: And that is, “How much ease of use am I really after?” If quickly and simply managing your site is of the utmost importance to you, there’s no better way to do it than with a program like cPanel. Otherwise, for the dedicated and control-based webmaster, the shell truly is king.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2012/01/06/control-panel-benefits/feed/ 0 Using cPanel to Setup Cron Jobshttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/29/cpanel-setup-cron-jobs/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/29/cpanel-setup-cron-jobs/#comments Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:10:21 +0000 Dmitry http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=2542 The “cron job” is one of the basic programming tools that remind you that you can get a lot of function out of learning just a little code.  A “cron job” is simply a command that you instruct your server to perform at regular intervals.  It can literally be any command that you can run normally.

You have the power!

Not only are the advantages of this obvious, but once you realize the power you can get from this in just a few commands, much of what you use control panels for may start to seem frivolous.  You can, for example, in just a single command backup an entire directory once a week and email it to yourself.  Don’t be scared: we are diving a bit into expert stuff here, but only to prove the point.  You can do a lot with very little.

So how do you do it?

cron jobs cpanel

Even by cPanel standards this is one of the easier functions to perform. Scroll down in your cPanel home page.  You’ll probably find “Cron Jobs” in the Advanced section. Click on it and you’ll be asked whether you like it easy or hard.  Personal preferences aside, there’s not much reason to go hard. Click on “Standard” to get to the main cron jobs screen.

You will first enter the email address that the results of the cron job will be sent: if it is not successful, the email will contain the error message, though this may require some debugging on your part.  Next you will enter the command.  One unavoidable technical note: the command must be typed in using the full path.  So if you are running a script that is in your home directory, you must specify the full server path to it.

Get your timing right

Now you need to specify how often you want the cron job to run.  Most of this is self-explanatory, though there is at least one potentially confusing item.  You can specify the days that the job will run both by days of the month and days of the week.  That’s not confusing by itself, but what happens if you choose both?  Let’s look at the combinations.

  • “Days” = “Every Day” and “Week Days” = “Every Week Day”: This will run the cron job on every single day.
  • “Days” = “2″ and “Week Days” = “Every Week Day”: This will run the job on the 2nd day of the month only.
  • “Days” = “Every Day” and “Week Days” = “Tuesday”: This will run the job on every Tuesday.
  • “Days” = “2″ and “Week Days” = “Tuesday”: This will run the job on the 2nd Tuesday of the month only.

That’s it!

Now hit “Save Crontab” and you’re done!  You can then go back to this later and delete or modify the job.  Note that you can also create mulitple cron jobs, even if they use the same commands.  You might want to, say, backup a certain directory every day, and your entire account every month.

Now the only thing you need to do is learn the commands you want to run.  This should make clear that this is worth the effort.  Cron jobs are one of the most useful basic tools for just about any developer, and cPanel makes using them even easier.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/29/cpanel-setup-cron-jobs/feed/ 1 The Ins and Outs of DirectAdminhttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/29/directadmin-control-panel/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/29/directadmin-control-panel/#comments Thu, 29 Sep 2011 07:57:59 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=2530 By just about every measure, cPanel is the #1 web hosting control panel.  In the web hosting world, though, that typically means that there are a gaggle of alternatives that are 2nd best and trying harder.  While not all of them have gained a strong footing among web hosts, one that is climbing the ranks is DirectAdmin.

The first complete version of DirectAdmin was released on Mar 1, 2003.  Reviews of some of its earliest versions circa 2005-6 weren’t so hot.  Lately, however, it’s been gaining traction, as evidenced by the active user support forum for it, and the increasing number of hosts offering it alongside of cPanel.  In fact,  vpsLink, HostPC and SiteValley includes this control panel among their standard hosting options.

So what is the main drawing point for DirectAdmin?

Simple: It’s simple.

DirectAdmin’s main draw is how light it is as a software package.  “Light” means a lot of good things for the user.

First, it means that it is fast to operate, not having cPanel’s heavy overhead.  This is especially critical on shared hosting services, since it might be several dozen users at once using these.  That kind of processing can add up fast if not done right.  Second, it means that it is easy to use and navigate through.  Its interface is also very similar to cPanel, so users crossing over won’t spend a lot of time re-educating themselves.

Third, being a lightweight package means that it is far more reliable and doesn’t crash nearly as much.  When it does crash, the recovery is comparatively pretty quick and clean.  Finally, being a smaller package means that it’s also a cheaper package, resulting in lower price passed on to you, the end user.  A number of free web hosts use DirectAdmin for this reason.

Simple isn’t all good … is it?

The downside of this easier approach means that DirectAdmin doesn’t quite have the full rainbow of options that cPanel has.

Or does it?  In multiple reviews online comparing cPanel to DirectAdmin I found users talking about the advanced administrator tasks that you can only do in cPanel.  However, when pressed to name what those tasks were, I did not see a single specific one listed.

This doesn’t mean that they don’t exist.  With a package as established and worked over as cPanel, its probably a sure thing that there are some cPanel wizard tricks that you cannot do, or do easily with DirectAdmin.  On top of that, even if there isn’t that much in direct functionality that’s different, cPanel has a larger set of tutorials, FAQs, and current users ready to share their knowledge of the product.

Less popular because it’s less popular?

One web site suggests that the preference towards cPanel in the hosting world might be little more than momentum.  If that’s true, then considering the fact that DirectAdmin is also largely considered to be the more secure of the two control panels (again, for reasons of programming simplicity), this might not be the case forever.

Whatever the reason, DirectAdmin is clearly rising in the web hosting world as a respected control panel package.  If your host offers this, you might consider looking into it.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/29/directadmin-control-panel/feed/ 0 What’s A Preinstalled Script, And Do I Need It?http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/25/what%e2%80%99s-a-preinstalled-script-and-do-i-need-it/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/25/what%e2%80%99s-a-preinstalled-script-and-do-i-need-it/#comments Sun, 25 Sep 2011 09:47:55 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=2481 When setting up your next website, you will inevitably come across a need for dynamic web applications. These are things that your users can work with, adding their own content, viewing yours in a quick manner, and even manipulating it to a fine-edge. From a server-side perspective, having dynamic web apps allows you to create media in a speedy way, and then get it out to all of your various end-game sites in a pinch.

With this in mind, many current web hosts provide preinstalled scripts of varying types. These are applications that are often times built into the cPanel, or can be installed with a mere click of a button. Think of how many hosts you’ve seen offering WordPress at the get-go: Seems like most of them, right? In fact, everything from Joomla to Magento to MediaWiki can be yours, depending on the provider.

Long story short, when creating a new website, should you be taking advantage of these preinstalled script offerings to flesh out your site with dynamic content?

Short answer in long form: Yes! Here’s why, too!

These Scripts Are Safe

Because your provider knows its servers, and because they’ve become intimately acquainted with the software they’re looking to install, you can be almost absolutely positive they’ll have the thing locked down. This doesn’t mean your new system will be hacker-proof, but it’s certainly better off than if you had installed it yourself on an unfamiliar server you don’t even have direct access too. All in all, it’s their basket, and they have an eye on it. If you’re looking to keep your server as secure as possible, leave the app installation to the provider, and use what they’re offering.

It’s Easy Like Apple Pie

Even better, relying on preinstalled dynamic web apps takes a huge load off of you. You don’t have to worry about uploading code to the server, installing it properly, locking it down with better security protection, and managing it as problems arise. Better yet, when problems do occur—and trust us, they will—it’s up to your provider to help you sort them out. With an automatically installed script, the host takes care of the installation, manages the script once placed, and brings the content to you hassle free. It’s like being given a Christmas gift that unwraps itself, plays without stopping, and fixes any tears that appear.

If that’s not a win, we don’t know what is!

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/25/what%e2%80%99s-a-preinstalled-script-and-do-i-need-it/feed/ 0 What To Remember When Moving To A New Control Panelhttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/25/moving-to-new-control-panel/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/25/moving-to-new-control-panel/#comments Sun, 25 Sep 2011 04:47:06 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=2479 Very rarely will you have to move your website to a new control panel interface, especially if you’re using shared hosting. Most web hosting providers will not give you the choice of several different offerings, or even the option to migrate to a new base. However, if you’re using VPS or dedicated hosting, you may be looking at a totally different animal. The control panel at work is under your thumb, and should you get a wild hair to swap from cPanel to Plesk, it’s your prerogative.

With that in mind, there are several things that need to be kept in mind when deciding to migrate from one control panel to another. It’s not an easy task, and considering the benefits, you may want to reconsider.  So, here’s our quick thoughts on what you need to know before swapping to a different control panel.

 It’s In The Matrix, Neo:

First off the bat, we’d like to remind you that not all control panels are wired the same. Each interface achieves its goals in completely different ways. We aren’t just talking about a scripting language here, either. Who knows if the underlying code of your new system won’t be completely different from the one before it? Not to mention the fact that your new panel may not play well with the various packages and applications you’d like to use.

As an example, your control panel may be hard-wired to run with Apache HTTP. By swapping to a server panel that’s not, you run the risk of losing all of your existing scripts, your hard-won applications, and perhaps even some of your content. At the least, be aware of the fact that different panel’s may use very different coding structures. If at all possible, do some research, and get to know your new neighborhood.

Moving Out Is Hard To Do:

Because structures may be so completely different, you may yet have a bear of a time transferring all of your data to the new panel. Imagine all those scripts and applications you have laying about. Will they all work with a new panel? If they don’t, can you find a ported version of the same item to match your new system? Not to mention, are you capable of coding for the new platform you have in mind?

Moving one whole site to a new panel isn’t too big a pain in the derriere. But if you have many multiple servers and sites, imagine moving them all to a new structure.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/25/moving-to-new-control-panel/feed/ 0 CloudLinux 6.1 Launcheshttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/17/cloudlinux-6-1-launches/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/17/cloudlinux-6-1-launches/#comments Sat, 17 Sep 2011 18:17:10 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=2369 A couple days ago CloudLinux, the cloud-based operating system developer, released the 6.1 edition of their flagship product—an hunk of code appropriately titled “CloudLinux 6.1.”

Obvious pieces of information aside, what is CloudLinux 6.1 and why the bloody hell should I care? Well, for starters, the operating system is designed for web hosts, and is built upon the 2.6.32 kernel, which provides updated security, stability, and compatibility. On the subject of compatibility, CloudLinux is fully ready to roll with Red Hat and CentOS, as well as almost every control panel you can name. This includes cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, and a choice few others.

If you’re concerned (or even just interested) in making the swap to CloudLinux, the company promises it can be done in under ten minutes without any damage to your existing systems. Not only that, but until October 15, the company will even provide you with free installation or conversion.

But still, what’s so great about CloudLinux? Well, not only is it the sole commercially-supported (think better tech-support) Linux OS made specifically for shared hosting, but it also comes with a unique feature set. The service brands each user account with a dedicated Lightweight Virtual Environment (that’s an LVE for those with the savoir faire). Each virtual environment allows the superuser—that’d be you, web hosters—to limit the CPU, memory, and concurrent connections allowed for each tenant.

Essentially, this eliminates any negative feelings between neighbors, or bad vibes between you and your tenants. Never again will one of your delinquent users suck up all the bandwidth, or use more than their fair share of the server’s CPU. With total control over your consumers, you might actually start to feel like the virtual slumlord you are.

Not to mention that CloudLinux offers MySQL Governor for further control over available database resources. The developer will also soon release the first virtualized file system available for shared hosters. This system, titled CageFS, will take some large steps towards ensuring your consumers’ files can only be accessed by them, or their associates.

All in all, CloudLinux is shaping up to be quite the Linux-based operating system. If you’re looking to swap, now is the time, what with the free installation and conversion. If you’d like more information, feel free to shoot the developer a message here. They’ll answer your questions, and of course, try to hook you even harder than we just did.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/17/cloudlinux-6-1-launches/feed/ 0 Using cPanel to Change File Permissions: How and Why?http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/16/cpanel-change-file-permissions/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/16/cpanel-change-file-permissions/#comments Fri, 16 Sep 2011 09:44:57 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=2354 One option that you might have seen when exploring cPanel is the ability to change your file permissions.  You may know that setting file permissions is important to security, but you may have been overwhelmed by the number of options.  So let’s take a quick refresher course on this topic, because you are right: it is important.

First, let’s make sure everyone is up to speed.  To set a file’s permissions, first go to the File Manager, click the name of the file (or directory) that you want to adjust, and on the top menu on the File Permissions page you’ll see a link that says “Change Permissions”.  Click on it and let’s get started.

Three user levels

There are three user types.  First the user called “User,” which is whoever is listed as the owner of the file.  Skipping the second for a moment, the third is “World,” meaning anyone who might have the ability to access this file: other users on your server, server applications, or external users if the file is a web page being accessed across the web.

The second, “Group,” takes some explanation.  Sometimes you want to restrict certain types of access to only certain people.  For these people, you create a “group.”  Each file already belongs to some group by default.  Whatever group it does belong to, any users listed as part of that group have the access rights that you afford to them, which can be different from those associated with either “User” or “World.”

Three access types

The access types are a little more well known.  “Read” means just that: you (“you” meaning whoever is trying to access the file) can see the file and its contents.  “Write” means you can alter the file’s contents.  “Execute” means that you can run the file as a program.

Three times three equals … a lot of questions

A file thus has nine (3 times 3) total permissions that it can turn on or off.  Your goal in deciding which of these to set how is to make sure that everyone you want to access the file can, and everyone you don’t can’t.  How do you?

This one area in which you are going to want to contact your service provider.  Your files are often not just accessed by web surfers, but also by a host of on-server resources, and sometimes some of them will break if your files aren’t set the way they should be.  One example is as follows; If you have a directory in which logs of hits to your web site are kept, and you set the directory to give no one but you any permissions, then the server might not be able to send your your logs each night.

When in doubt, make it read-only

A good rule of thumb is that you want to make sure that you always have full permissions, but hold the group and world access levels to read-only.  This reduces the chance that anyone can fool around with your site, but still leaves it accessible to anyone who truly just needs to read its contents.

Nonetheless, check your cPanel web host online documentation as they will often have information listed about which files and directories need which settings.  If you don’t see what you’re looking for there, ask them.  Trust me, bad file settings can potentially be just as much of a headache for them as it could be for you.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/16/cpanel-change-file-permissions/feed/ 0 Choosing Between cPanel and Pleskhttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/13/choosing-between-cpanel-and-plesk/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/13/choosing-between-cpanel-and-plesk/#comments Tue, 13 Sep 2011 12:27:02 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=2280 If you’ve been into web hosting long, you may know of all the different control panels. You know their nuances and differences, as well as the strengths of each:

But the sad truth is, we often forget these things, and wind up using the same control panel out of habit. If that’s you, then take this refresher on the two most popular panels around, cPanel and Plesk. We’ll dive into both, and get right down to the nitty gritty competitive nature of each.

What is cPanel And Plesk, Anyway?

For those more familiar with the business, you’ll already know that cPanel is the most popular platform for managing a server. What you may not know is that cPanel has been around since the mid-1990s and is more or less only compatible with Unix and Linux systems. This means it plays along nicely with Red Hat and CentOS.

Plesk, on the other hand, is a relative newcomer to the scene, arriving in the early 2000s. The difference with it is—you guessed it—it supports both Unix and Windows. So who’s got a real leg up on who? To answer, we’ll need to take a look at the strengths of each. We’ll start with the heavyweight, cPanel:

cPanel is The Windows Of Server Systems

What we mean by this is, because cPanel is so widely used, if you have a problem you can more than likely find a solution. There’s a very large group of people using the software, and because cPanel enjoys such a large support basis, its been studied to death. It also sports an easier to learn interface than Plesk, meaning it plays nicer with the masses, and makes it easier to get into web hosting. In essence, cPanel web hosting is as Ubuntu is to Linux—Please don’t shoot me Tux nerds: I’m just creating analogies!

Plesk Is Bi-server-ual

Plesk, on the other hand, handles multiple servers and operating systems like a champ. The interface is a bit more complicated, and has a slightly steeper learning curve, but in return it supports both Unix and Windows. It also handles multiple commands better than cPanel.

At the end of the day, as most quality hosting options give you a choice between both services, your real conundrum is this: Do you want ease of use with a Unix face, or do you want a multi-server Windows machine?

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/13/choosing-between-cpanel-and-plesk/feed/ 0 The Control Panel B Team – A World Beyond cPanelhttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/07/control-panel-world-beyond-cpanel/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/07/control-panel-world-beyond-cpanel/#comments Wed, 07 Sep 2011 11:10:19 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=2187 The popularity of cPanel can mask the fact that it is far from the only control panel option out there.  It is also not the only good one.  Dozens of well-supported feature-rich control panels exist, and as not every host even uses cPanel, the beginner who is facing the question of choosing a new web host might want to know whether or not the control panel system that they use adds value to their web hosting package or not.

So let’s do a brief rundown of some of the other common web hosting control panels out there, so you know how much you should smile when you see that your host offers it.

Plesk

Short for Parallels Plesk Control Panel, Plesk has gone through many revisions, and is considered by some to be even more stable than cPanel.  Also, if you are going with a Windows-based host, then Plesk’s support for it is several years older, meaning that it’s going to be even more stable (and secure: a Windows-based control panel is a double-whammy of potential security holes).  It also has extensive module support, and can be used in multiple speaking languages.  On the negative side, a number of users have complained that Version 10 is too overloaded and slow.

Kloxo

Formerly known as Lxadmin, Kloxo is an open-source control panel for CentOS and Red Hat Linux servers.  It had a troubled history to get where it is now, including a number of security holes, but users now report their satisfaction with using it.  One drawback to it is that support is only available via community forums, though word is that the software is growing enough in popularity that paid consultants are stepping up to the plate.

H-sphere

For a software package available on multiple platforms (Unix, Linux and Windows), H-sphere gets its share of mixed reviews.  Some of the negative points are elements that the end user won’t see: it is expensive for a host to purchase and it’s described as difficult to install.  There are also complaints about its ease of use.  On the other hand, its help documentation is extensive, and it has multi-lingual support in 10(!) languages.  It certainly has its devotees: in one online poll 15% of users listed it as their favorite control panel.

Interworx

Interworx is a control panel that’s quickly growing in popularity, though it’s more for backend purposes.  It supports load balancing and server clustering, and uses real-time graphs; what this means for you as the end user is greater stability both with the panel and on the server.  It’s described as not only being easy to use but also being very command-line friendly, something that doesn’t always get much control support.  It includes a module called ScriptWorx that is described as letting the user install just about any third-party software package.

There is a lot of energy being put into making competing control panel software packages.  So when you go to a new web host and see a name there that isn’t cPanel, don’t panic.  Many of these packages are high quality, and some would argue are better.  Take a close look at the plus and minuses, but definitely don’t just write them off. If cPanel is still your choice check best cPanel hosting providers.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/07/control-panel-world-beyond-cpanel/feed/ 0 Performing IP Filtering Through cPanel – A Brief Tutorialhttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/06/ip-filtering-through-cpanel/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/06/ip-filtering-through-cpanel/#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2011 10:00:01 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=2157 Security is something that nearly every webmaster has the need for, but not every webmaster knows how to pursue effectively the appropriate security measures.  Given the craftiness of the hacker world, it can seem to the novice an unwinnable fight where they just have to accept a certain amount of break-ins as a sort of collateral damage.

While it is good to understand that it’s impossible to make a lock that can’t be picked, this doesn’t mean that you should take frequent security breaches as the norm.  With just a little bit of education and effort, the untrained webmaster can lock down their site to levels that it would take extreme efforts to break.  This brief tutorial will focus specifically on how to use cPanel to filter the IP addresses that can access your web site, a step that, by itself, can keep a large percentage of attacks from even making it to your site.

IP Filtering – easy to do…

To filter an IP address or block of IP addresses from accessing your site using cPanel is simple.  In the Security section near the bottom of your cPanel main page you will see an icon labeled “IP Deny Manager”.  Click on it and you’ll be at a page where you can add new restrictions, see your current ones, and remove any existing ones.  The page lists the appropriate formats (don’t bother with the CIDR format: it doesn’t do anything you can’t do any easier way).

Now, if you know how to block IP addresses, a more important question comes: what addresses to you block?  If you are getting a wave of attacks from a single IP address, the choice of course is simple.  But what do you do if they are coming from a number of IP addresses?  The short answer is this: block a range if it feels right, but don’t go overboard.

Let’s say that you are getting attacks from 212.56.24.X, where X is variable, and nothing else from that class C (an IP address format is Class A.Class B.Class C.Class D).  Then, blocking everything from 212.56.24 should be safe.  But let’s say they are all from 212.56.  You do some research and see that this is a university Class B and there are plenty of safe hits from those addresses.  Of course, a college is going to have a few bored hackers.  Taking down all of those addresses is overkill and will negatively impact your traffic.

Find the right middle ground

It’s rare that you are going to want to restrict anything more than a Class C.  In general, you’re not going to want to restrict anything more than you have to.  Use trial and error: block what you need to and, if the site continues to get hammered, modify and expand your rules.  Then, once it feels like you might have scared them away, remove the blocks, keeping a close eye for 24-72 hours afterwards to make sure that they don’t start up again.  Also, be sure to let your web host know if the attack is particularly vicious: they might want to filter the bad IP addresses on a network level.

IP Filtering by itself will not solve all of your security problems: no one method will.  But it will ensure the bulk of the worst attacks will be filtered away from you so you can focus more on other things.

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