Getting Familiar with Your Control Panel

Though often described with terms such as "intuitive", "user-friendly" and "easy to use", a control panel can be a little difficult to work with in the beginning. This is particularly true for the newcomer who has never run and maintained a website previously. In order to get comfortable with all the intricacies of being a webmaster, you must first become familiar with the all the tools and options provided by your web host and control panel.

The Basics

The basic functionality of a control panel is to provide you with a way to monitor your website and perform various management tasks. Each tool supplied acts as an individual module designed to make it easy to navigate your way through the interface. While features and tools vary from depending on the software, almost all control panels offer common items such as a web-based file manager, an email system, FTP capabilities and user accounts, bandwidth and disk storage stats, domain management and access to the server logs.

Traffic Analysis

If you are interested in knowing more about your website traffic, visitor statistics are something you will certainly want to take a look at. Some hosts offer their own custom tools that while serviceable, are not as comprehensive and informative as others. The good thing is that all the popular and widely used control panels are typically integrated with third-party utilities that take the pain out of traffic analysis. Some of the most common applications you will find bundled into your management software are Webalizer, AwStats and Analog, with OneStat becoming an increasingly popular option. Being able to view these statistics is so important because they allow you to see how your website is expanding and where that growth is coming from. Though often overlooked, these are invaluable tools that can really aid in the success of your web presence.

File and Email Management

The file manager is another common tool that you are likely to put to great use. In our opinion, this is one highly underrated feature for the simple that it contains all the data for your website. When launching the file manager, you can access your web pages, documents, images and other files. With a file management tool, all your files can be upload and maintained right on the server with relative ease.

In addition to file management, the average control panel provides a fully integrated system for managing your email needs. This generally includes a multitude of email accounts, forwarders and aliases, spam filtering and increasingly popular features such as autoresponders. Most control panels also provide webmail applications that allow you to send, receive and manage your messages on the server.

Conclusion

There is a lot more to a control panel aside from what we have covered in this article. Many now feature database administration tools, backup utilities and the ability to create PGP keys for encrypting your communications. Regardless of what control panel you choose, it is vital that you take the time to understand how it works in order to get the best results.