FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions

Your cPanel is essentially the control station for your website - where you can manage all your settings, setup mailing accounts, upload files, monitor site traffic and more.

You can access your cPanel via www.yourdomain.com.au:2083 (where yourdomain is your domain that is linked to your hosting account).

If your domain has not propogated yet or you have not yet setup the correct name servers for your domain you can also access your cPanel via:

https://glanis.instanthosting.com.au:2083/

For people to find your web pages you need to assign the following name servers to your domain:

ns1.instanthosting.com.au
ns2.instanthosting.com.au

There are several ways you can upload your website. You can use cPanel's file manager once you login to cPanel, or you can use a FTP service to upload files many FTP programs on your computer. Many web page design software programs include this FTP feature to quickly upload and update the files on your web host. There are also many dedicated FTP programs that can log onto our servers and work much the same was as Windows Explorer does - allowing to to 'drag and drop' files from your computer to your web host.

Your FTP address will be ftp.yourdomain.com.au - where 'yourdomain.com.au' is your domain linked with your web host, and your user name and password are the same you use for your cPanel.

If your domain has not propogated yet or you have not yet setup the correct name servers for your domain you can also the following FTP address:

glanis.instanthosting.com.au

To setup mailing accounts you first need to log onto your cPanel. Click on the "Email Accounts" link.

From there you simply enter your desire user name and password. Your email user name will determine your new email address, for example, if your new user name is 'fred' your new email address will be 'fred@yourdomain.com.au'.

Once you have created your email account you can click on "Configure Mail Client" to findout how to setup your email program on your computer to access the mailing servers.

Typically these settings will be:

Incoming Mail Server: mail.yourdomain.com.au
Outgoing Mail Server: mail.yourdomain.com.au

Please note some Internet Providers (ISP) can block outgoing mail not directed to their servers. In this case you may need to change your Outgoing Mail Server settings to the settings provided by your ISP (but leave the Incoming Mail Server settings to your domain).

You can also setup email forwarders to forward emails from to another address - available via "Forwarders" on the cPanel main page.

Setting up the default email address (under "Default Address" in cPanel) allows you to 'catch' any mail sent to your domain that may have an invalid email address - for example if somebody mispells your user name (ie. usr@yourdomain.com.au instead of user@yourdomain.com.au).

You can access your email accounts via the cPanel, or via www.yourdomain.com.au/webmail/ - Where your user name and password is the user name and password you used when you created you the email account in your cPanel.

The a several traffic monitor services available in your cPanel under the 'Log' section - such as Webalizer, Analog Stats, and Awstats. Each will display traffic information a little differently (choose one that suits you). Click on the service (you may need to select your domain) and site information should be displayed.

Traffic information from the previous 24 hours may not have completely uploaded at the time of viewing, so for accurate information it is best to give at least 48 hours.

The are many online commerce or online shopping software available for your website. Some are available free, and you will need to pay for under licence. Most will require customisation, initially setup, and on going maintenance (uploading new products, etc).

You are free to organise your own commerce software, and upload it yourself. Our web hosting packages are compatible with most commercial and non-commercial software - we provide MySQL database and SSL support (you may need to purchase and install an SSL certificate at an addition charge).

We can assist you in setting up your desired software and tailor the software to your requirements - quoted on an individual basis.

You can easily install various commerce packages yourself with no charge via the Fantastico service available on your cPanel.

If you are searching for a commerce package or online shopping software you can try OS Commerce or perhaps CubeCart (both available free via your Fantastico option in cPanel). OS Commerce is completely free, where as CubeCart may require licencing or addition costs. Both OS Commerce and CubeCart have extensive add-ons available such as Australia Post connections, and have many tutorials and support information available on the internet (available free and commercially).

An SSL is an important feature you need to consider if you plan on running an online store.

An SSL service helps to encrpyt data transfers between clients (shoppers) and your online store making their shopping a lot more secure. Not only does this reduce the likelyhood of customers details being intercepted smart shoppers now see this as an essential feature in building trust with your website.

Operating an online store without a secure connection such as SSL may deter customers from shopping through your wesbite.

Contact us to discuss the costs of setting up an SSL connection for your requirements.

There is a large pool of addons and additional modules available for OS Commerce available from their website: http://addons.oscommerce.com/

Updates for CubeCart can be found at CubeCarts website: http://www.cubecart.com

Support, tutorials, and userful modifications can also be found at: http://www.cubecartforums.org/

To purchase additional modules or modifications you can try:

http://cubecart.expandingbrain.com/ - Estelle's Mod Store
http://cc3.biz/ - CC3.Biz Mods and skins
http://www.cubecartshop.com/- CubeCart Shop

Additional, contact us and we can tailor make a solution to suit your needs.

The Fantastico service is available directly from your cPanel. Simply click on "Fantastico De Luxe" and it should display a number of available software programs for you to install. Select the program you want to install and follow the on screen instructions.

Take note where you are installing programs - if you already have a webpage or other software install you may want to install them to different directories so that are not conflicting with one another. For example, you can install your shopping cart to www.yourdomain.com.au/shop/ and perhaps a forum to www.yourdomain.com.au/forum/.

You can install OS Commerce through the Fantastico service in your cPanel, or you can download the software from there website (including different versions) www.oscommerce.com and install it manually.

Manual Installation:
If you are installing OS Commerce manually you will need to setup an appropriate database and database user (also available through cPanel, under "MySQL Databases"). Then, upload your OS Commerce files to an appropriate directory (or root folder if you want the store to be accessed directly from your domain). The installation is usually finalised by accessing the installation folder ('install') where you uploaded the files to, for example www.yourdomain.com.au/shop/install (where 'shop' is where you uploaded the files to). Follow the instructions. You will need to delete or rename the 'install' folder once you have completed the installation.

Once you have installed OS Commerce either through Fantastico or manually you will need to configure your shop settings, usually via the 'admin' folder, for example: www.yourdomain.com.au/shop/admin/. Go through all appropriate settings, and add any products you wish. You can find further assistance via OS Commerce's website and other tutorials on the internet.

Changing the appearance of your website may involve editing individuals files of the OS Commerce software. If you require assistance please contact us and we can arrange to tailor your online store to your requirements.

You can install CubeCart through the Fantastico service in your cPanel, or you can download the software from there website (including different versions) www.cubecart.com and install it manually.

Visit CubeCart's website for instructions on setting up CubeCart manually.