cPanel, What Is It?
by Warren
(NY)
Simply put, cPanel is a graphical user interface designed for use on Unix/Linux Servers. It's graphical user interface or GUI has been one of the best additions to the web hosting arena of late. cPanel's goal is to make the administration of sites as easy as possible by insulating the end user from a Unix command line. With cPanel, the typical web site owner controls most aspects of a site's management from within a simple, easy to use graphical interface.
The setting up of cron jobs, mailing lists, email, and blogs are simplified through cPanel's pictorial interaction between the web server and the user. It's graphical user interface also makes the task of site management easier by providing quick access to sub-domains, CGI scripts, Web site stats, custom error pages and redirects.
cPanel runs on several Linux platforms (RPM-based) via ports 2083 or 2082. Login and authentication is accomplished via a webpage. The logging in and utilization of its various programs is intuitive and easy to navigate. Set ups for a content management system, a php bulletin board, or a blog like the popular Joomla or WordPress blogs, are effortless.
cPanel has now become even better since adding a set of scripts called Fantastico. Fantastico helps to automates a number of tasks including the creation of your MySQL tables.
Although a great product, cPanel is not perfect and there are a couple of things that you should be on the look out for when using it. Due to the fact that it is so widely used, it has become the target of phishers and hackers. The goal of these schemes is the the execution of a script that will manipulate cPanel into setting up illegal/erroneous sub-domains. These sub-domains are then used to collect information illegally from unsuspecting victims. Called phishing, webmasters must constantly be on the lookout for this when running cPanel.
In summary, you should think of cPanel as so much more than just a graphical user interface. Having merged a number of programs and scripts that used to be run separately, it has become extremely popular. Most webmasters now insist on hosting companies that provide cPanel. Aside from the above mentioned drawbacks, cPanel is a great choice for website hosting. It offers the end user everything necessary to be successful in setting up and maintaining a workable web site and it accomplishes it with minimal headache.
