Direct Admin End User Series (26)

How to use Installatron in Direct Admin

This demo assumes you’ve already logged in to Direct Admin

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Now let’s learn how to use Installatron

Click the Installatron link here

This is the main page for Installatron

Installatron is an auto-installer program, that allows you to install dozens of free scripts and programs, with just a few clicks

The scripts available for installation are listed on the right side of this page, here

Scroll down to see the complete list of available programs…..

That’s quite a long list! There are currently over 50 programs availabe through Installatron

Let’s install the b2evolution blog…. click here

Now let’s go through an example….. let’s install one of the scripts into our account

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To install b2evolution, click New Install

This is the b2evolution page, and contains information about the script we’re going to install

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Enter an admin password here

Take note that this installation requires a MySQL database, so make sure one is available to you before proceeding

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To agree to the script’s Terms of usage, click this checkbox

Click Install when ready

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Click Configure

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To complete the installation, click GO!

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That’s it! b2evolution has been installed

To begin using b2evolution, you can login by clicking here

Close this window, and return to the Installatron screen

Click Finalize

Click OK

You can also administer your b2evolution installation by clicking here

Click the Home icon here

This is the end of the tutorial. You now know how to use Installatron to install dozens of free scripts into your account. Remember that in most cases, you’ll need to make sure you have 1 available MySQL database for successful script installations

Managing MySQL databases with PHPMyAdmin in Direct Admin

Click the MySQL Management link

This demo assumes you’ve already logged in to Direct Admin

Now let’s learn how to use PHPMyAdmin to manage MySQL databases

Click the phpMyAdmin link

Enter your system username and password

Then click OK

This is the PHPMyAdmin main screen

From this drop-down menu, let’s choose a database to manage

Click the SQL link

There are currently no tables in this database, as indicated here

Click the Import link

You can run SQL queries here, but we’re not going to do that now…..

Then click Browse so we can search for a database to upload

Let’s upload table1.sql from our local computer

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To complete the upload, click Go

Click the table1 link

We’ve successfully uploaded the table called table1.sql to the test.sql database

Click the Export link

On this page you can see all the details of table1 within the database test.sql

Now let’s learn how to save the table1 table to our personal computer

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Select the Save as file check box

Then click Go

Click Save

Click Save

Click Yes to re-write the old table1.sql file

Click Close

We’ve just saved table1 to our computer

Click the Exit button

If at any time you need help with using PHPMyAdmin or MySQL, click on one of these help links

We’ve successfully signed out of PHPMyAdmin

Click the Home icon here

This is the end of the tutorial. You now know how to use PHPMyAdmin to manually manage a MySQL database

How to view your website statistics in Direct Admin

Click the Site Summary / Statistics / Logs link

This demo assumes you’ve already logged in to Direct Admin

Now let’s learn how to view our website statistics

This is the main web stats screen, and has lots of information about this hosting account

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For example….. we’ve used 2.50 MB of bandwidth so far this month, and are allowed a total of 5,000 MB

We’ve also used only 2 of our allowed 50 POP email accounts

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Here you can view how many resources you’ve used in your account (Current Usage), as well as the total amount you’re allowed (Maximum Usage)

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You can change the email address the server (or server administrator) uses to notify you of important messages here

Scroll back up to the top of the page…..

Here is where you can see all the various services in the server, and whether or not they are running

Click the demo1234.com link here

Now let’s take a look at the webalizer stats for our website

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This is the main Webalizer Stats page

To view more detailed statistics, click the month for which you want to view statistics

Click the [Daily Statistics] link

This is the summary stats page for the chosen month. For more detailed stats, select from the available links

Click the [URLs] link

Let’s return to the Direct Admin page

Click the Home icon here

This is the end of the tutorial. You can return to the Site Statistics page at any time to view updated stats about your website

How to use WebMail in Direct Admin

Click the Webmail icon here

This demo assumes you’ve already logged in to Direct Admin

Now let’s learn how to use WebMail for accessing email from within Direct Admin

Login to Webmail using your complete POP email address, and it’s password

This is the main screen of SquirrelMail, and it shows the contents of the main inbox

Click the Options link

Click the Folders link

On this page there are several options for configuring the way your webmail displays for you

Although we won’t do it now, feel free to alter any of these options:

Personal Information

Display Preferences

Message Highlighting

Folder Preferences

Index Order

Let’s create a new folder…. enter the new folder name here

Then click Create

From this page you can create or delete folders and sub-folders, which is a convenient way to help organize your email messages

To see our new folder in the folder’s list, click refresh folder list

Click the Addresses link

There’s the new folder we just created!

You can create as many folders and sub-folders as you like….. whatever makes it easier for you to organize all your emails

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SquirrelMail comes with a Personal Address Book which you can use to store commonly used email addresses

Let’s go ahead and add an email address to the address book

When finished, click the Add address button

Let’s delete an address from the address book…..

The new address has been added to the address book, and can be seen here

Now let’s send an email… click Compose

To choose an address from our address book, click the Addresses button here

Let’s select this address to send a message To

Now fill in the rest of the details

The email address is automatically inserted into the To field

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Click the Send button

Click the INBOX.Sent link to see the message we just sent

The message has been sent!

Now go back to the INBOX

There it is!

Let’s delete this message

Now let’s move this message to the Temp Folder we created earlier

Click Move

Let’s go see if it’s there…. click Temp Folder

The message has been moved to the Temp Folder

When finished with webmail, you should always click the Sign Out link

There it is!

This is the end of the tutorial. You should now have an understanding of how to use Webmail from within Direct Admin

Hosting additional domains in Direct Admin

This demo assumes you’ve already logged in to Direct Admin

Now let’s learn how to host additional domains in our hosting account

Click the Domain Setup link

Then click Add Another Domain

Enter the additional domain name you want hosted here

This is where you add new domain names to be hosted within your main hosting account

Set the bandwidth and disk space allowances for this new domain

When finished, click Create

You can also decide if you want this new domain to have SSL, CGI or PHP privileges

Click the Home icon here

That’s it! The new domain has been setup

Click anothersite.com

Now whenever you click Home, or login to Direct Admin, you’ll have to choose which domain you want to manage

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Click the Home icon

You can always tell which domain you’re managing by looking here

Now click demo1234.com

This is the end of the tutorial. You now know how to setup and host additional domains in your hosting account

How to create an autoresponder in Direct Admin

This demo assumes you’ve already logged in to Direct Admin

Now let’s learn how to create an autoresponder

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Click the Autoresponders link

Click the Create New Autoresponder link

This is the screen where you can create autoresponders for your hosting account

When an email is sent to an autoresponder email address, an automatic message is sent back to the sender of the email. Let’s create an autoresponder message

Enter a new email address for the new autoresponder, keeping in mind that the address you enter cannot already exist as a POP email account, forwarder or mailing list

Then enter your autoresponder message here

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If you want to be notified whenever an autoresponse is sent, click here and enter your email address

When finished, click the Create button

That’s it! The new autoresponder has been created, and is listed here

From this same screen, you can also modify existing autoresponders, or delete them entirely

Let’s go ahead and delete the autoresponder we just created

Click the Delete Selected button

The autoresponder has been deleted

Click the Home icon here

This is the end of the tutorial. You can return to the autoresponder page at any time, to add, modify, or delete autoresponders for your hosting account

How to backup your website in Direct Admin

Click the Create/Restore Backups link

This demo assumes you’ve already logged in to Direct Admin

Now let’s learn how to backup our website/files, and restore them

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This is the main backup screen, where you can select specific portions of your account to backup….. Leave everything checked if you want everything in your account backed up

Let’s go ahead and create a backup of this account….. click Create Backup

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Now let’s download the latest backup to our computer….. click here

The backup file has been created

Click Save

Click Save again

When the download is complete, click Close

Now let’s go take a look at the backups we have stored in our hosting account….. click here

Click the Home icon here

Here is our backup, listed in the Backups folder of File Manager

Go back to Create/Restore Backups

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Select the file you wish to restore from this list

Now let’s learn how to restore files from a backup

Then click here to restore the files

You can choose to restore only part of the account, by unchecking the boxes next to the items you don’t want restored

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Let’s restore the entire account…. click here

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Click here to return to File Manager

The account was successfuly restored

Now let’s restore the backup that we previously saved to our computer

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Click Upload files to current directory

Locate the backup file on your computer

Then click Open

Click Upload Files

That’s it! The backup has been uploaded to the server, and can now be used to restore the account

Click the Home icon here

This is the end of the tutorial. You now know how to backup your account to the server, or to your own computer….. and how to restore previously saved backups from the server, or from your computer

How to create a catch-all email account in Direct Admin

This demo assumes you’ve already logged in to Direct Admin

Now let’s learn how to create a catch-all email account

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Click the Catch-All E-Mail link

Let’s go ahead and set a catch-all email address

You have three (3) choices in how to deal with emails being sent to addresses that don’t exist, or aren’t setup in your hosting account

1) You can have the email returned to the sender…

2) You can have the email dropped (deleted) and completely ignored…

3) Or you can have these emails forwarded to a specific email address, which can be an address within your hosting account, or an unrelated address

Let’s select an email address we already have setup in this hosting account

Then click the Update button

That’s it! The new catch-all email account has been setup

Click the Home icon here

This is the end of the tutorial. You can return to the catch-all email setup screen at any time, to change your catch-all email settings

How to setup a Cron Job in Direct Admin

This demo assumes you’ve already logged in to Direct Admin

Now let’s learn about Cron Jobs and how to set them up in Direct Admin

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Click the Cronjobs link

A Cron Job is a system command that you schedule to occur at a later date/time

For example, if you wanted to run a CGI script every Monday morning, you would set this up as a Cron Job

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This is the main Cron Job page where you can setup new Cron Jobs, or delete existing ones

Let’s setup a Cron Job…..

Enter the path of the script you wish to run

When finished, click Add

In this case, we’re setting up a Cron Job to run the test_script.cgi every morning at 9:00am

To delete the Cron Job, simpy select it here, then click Delete

The Cron Job has been setup, and can be seen here

Scroll up to the top of the page

The Cron Job has been deleted

Click the Home icon here

This is the end of the tutorial. You now know how to setup Cron Jobs in Direct Admin, as well as delete them. For more information on using Cron Jobs, please consult www.site-helper.com/misc.html#cron

How to create additional FTP accounts in Direct Admin

Click the FTP Management link

This demo assumes you’ve already logged in to Direct Admin

Now let’s learn how to create a new FTP account

As you can see here, there is already one FTP account, and it is the main (default) FTP account of this hosting account; this default FTP account cannot be deleted

Let’s go ahead and create a new FTP account…. click here

Enter a new FTP username

Then enter and confirm a password for this new FTP account

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Then click Create

Choose the extent of access you wish to grant this new FTP user

Success! The new FTP account has been setup, and can be seen here

You can change FTP passwords for your FTP accounts from here

Now let’s delete the FTP account we just created

The FTP account has been deleted

Click the Home icon here

This is the end of the tutorial. You now know how to setup additional FTP accounts, change their passwords, and delete them altogether