This article is one of the first in the series of articles being written on cPanel to help the newbie and general readers understand what cPanel is, what it’s used for, its purpose and some general functionality.
cPanel is the most commonly used server and web account management ‘C’ontrol ‘Panel’ the web hosting industry makes available today. It’s known for its advanced and user friendly features. Simply put, cPanel is a control panel which is used to manage a server and its resources by an administrator or by a customer to manage his web hosting account. The interface of cPanel is so simple that even the least experienced can comfortably manage and control their web hosting account, the hosting companies also have the option to customize the cPanel to better suit the needs of their customers, but only the top web hosts invest resources for getting a custom cPanel prepared.
cPanel is generally known as a control panel for the end users to control their web hosting accounts but, there is another facet of cPanel which is used by the admins for managing the server’s resources and dividing the same among the customers, this cPanel is known as the WHM or the Web Host Manager. Let me tell you about these two cPanels in detail.
The cPanel
In simple words, cPanel is a control panel designed for the end users or customers of a web hosting company. It allows the users to easily manage their web account by providing all the general functions in one simple user friendly interface. By using the cPanel an end user can easily manage his email accounts, mailing lists, forwards, the database, files, shopping carts, and a lot more. In other words, the cPanel helps an end user or a customer to keep track of the numerous tasks involved in web hosting. For a complete listing of features you’ll have to wait for my guide which will be out soon.
The Web Host Manager
The web host manager is designed for the admins to manage the server and ancillary web hosting resources. The WHM makes web hosting admin tasks such as creating new individual or reseller accounts for customers, system maintenance, managing various services such as, MySQL, FTP, Apache, or creating a DNS very easy to perform. Without WHM such task would be really daunting, it would be similar to passing commands in DOS for managing the server, WHM provides a simple user friendly interface just like in Windows.
Just to clarify things for you, the cPanel is used by the end user or customer for managing their individual websites, while the WHM is used by server administrators for managing the server and ancillary web hosting resources.
Accessing cPanel
cPanel can be accessed anywhere through the web using a web browser. To log into your account you simply have to type: http://yourDomainName.com/cpanel or http://serverIPaddress/cpanel While some web hosts allow their customers to access their cPanels by logging into their accounts from their home page.