How to use File Manager in Direct Admin

How to use File Manager in Direct Admin

Click the File Manager link

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

Now let’s learn how to use File Manager in Direct Admin, to manage the files in our hosting account

Let’s go there now….. click public_html

This is File Manager, and it’s here that you can upload files to your account, rename them, delete them, change their permissions, create new folders, and many other functions

Your website files are located in the public_html folder

Let’s create a new folder….. scroll down…

Now we see the files and folders located within the public_html folder

Enter the name of the new folder here

Then click Create

Scroll down…..

Now let’s rename this folder…. click Rename here

The new folder has been created, and can be seen here

Enter the new name of this folder

Then click Rename

Scroll down…..

Now let’s delete the folder altogether… check this box

The folder has been renamed

Scroll down…..

Then click Delete

Click OK to confirm you wish to delete the folder

We want to upload a file to the cgi-bin folder, so click cgi-bin here

Now let’s learn how to upload files to the hosting account

The folder has been deleted

Scroll down…..

Click Upload files to current directory

Now use the browse button to locate a file for uploading, on your computer

Select test_scriptl.cgi

Then click Open

Once you’ve selected all files you want to upload, click Upload Files

Click here to go back

Success! The file has been uploaded to our hosting account

Now let’s change the permissions of the test_scriptl.cgi file….. click here to select the file

Enter the new permissions here

Then click Set Permission

Now let’s delete this file… select it again by checking here

The permissions have been changed, as you can see here

Then click Delete

Confirm the deletion by clicking OK

The file has been deleted

Click the Home icon here

This is the end of the tutorial. You should now be more familiar with using File Manager to upload files, create new folders, renaming files or folders, and setting file permissions

Becoming Familiar and Navigating around in Direct Admin

Becoming familiar and Navigating around in Direct Admin

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

Now let’s familiarize ourselves with Direct Admin

Across the top of the main Direct Admin screen, there are icons available for easy access to the most popular tools

The Webmail icon will take you directly to your webmail application…..

The Password icon is a quick link to where you can change or reset your account password…..

The Help icon will take you to complete documentation on using Direct Admin…..

The Files icon takes you directly to File Manager

Let’s go take a look at the available Help documentation….. click the Help icon

… and the Logout icon is what you click when you are finished with Direct Admin. You should always logout when you are finished

Click the editing HTML link here

This is the main Help page, and it has dozens of helpful links for learning how to use Direct Admin

We get taken to a page that explains exactly how to edit HTML pages, complete with additional links you can click to get more information

Now click the Creating e-mail accounts link

Here’s a page that explain how to create email accounts

This help page is a terrific source of information on using Direct Admin

On the right of the screen is some general account information

You can see how much disk space you’ve used, and how much you have available to you…..

….. and same with Bandwidth (or data transfer), E-mails, FTP accounts and MySQL Databases

Scroll down…

Now back at the main Direct Admin page…..

Click the Server Information link here

… and if we scroll down…

Here we can see detailed information about the server…..

Scroll back to the top of the page…..

We can see if all the services in the server (Exim, MySQL, Apache, etc) are running properly

Click the Home icon

Now let’s take a look at the Installed Perl Modules….. click here

This page lists every Perl module that’s installed in the server. You may need to consult this page if you’re installing a script that needs a certain Perl module, and you’re unsure if it’s installed

Scroll down…

This list is very long…..

Click the Home icon here

This is the end of the tutorial. You should now be more familiar with navigating around in Direct Admin. To learn more about the various features of Direct Admin, you can return to the Help link on this main page

How to use Installatron in Direct Admin

How to use Installatron in Direct Admin

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

Scroll down…

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

Scroll down…

To install b2evolution, click New Install

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

Scroll down…

Enter an admin password here

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

Scroll down…

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

Click Install when ready

Scroll down…

Click Configure

Scroll down…

To complete the installation, click GO!

Scroll down…

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

How to create a Domain Pointer in Direct Admin

How to create a Domain Pointer in Direct Admin

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

Now let’s learn how to setup domain pointers

Scroll down…

Click the Domain Pointers link

This is the main Domain Pointers screen

A domain pointer allows you to point another domain name to your main account domain name, so that both domain names resolve to the same website

You can setup as many domain pointers as your account plan will allow, resulting in many domain names all pointing to the same website

Let’s setup a domain pointer now…. enter a domain name to be redirected to this account

Click the Add button

The domain name you enter must have it’s nameserver (or DNS) settings changed to the same DNS settings your main domain is set to….. this is done through your domain registrar

Now let’s delete the domain pointer we just created….. click here

The new domain pointer has been setup!

Then click Delete

The domain pointer has been deleted

Click the Home icon here

This is the end of the tutorial. You can return to this section and setup as many additional parked domains as your account plan will allow

Managing MySQL databases with phpMyAdmin in Direct Admin

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

Scroll down a little….

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

Scroll down…..

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 create a POP email account in Direct Admin

How to create a POP email account in Direct Admin

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

Now let’s create a new POP email account

Scroll down…

Click the E-Mail Accounts link

There is already a POP email account listed… it is the main POP account that every hosting account comes with (username@domainname.com)

But we’re not going to use that account…. we’re going to create a new POP email account

Click the Create mail account link here

Here’s where you create a new POP email account

Enter the new email address you want to create here

Give the new account a password

Re-enter your password

If you want to put a size (or storage space) limit on this email account, enter it here

When finished, click the Create button

That’s it! The new POP email account has been created

Scroll down…

Click here when finished

Details of the new account are listed here. Be sure to pass this information on to whoever will be using this email account, so they can properly setup their email program to access it

Click the Home icon here

This screen shows all the POP email accounts in your hosting account, including the account we just created

From this screen you can create additional POP email accounts, delete existing ones, or change their passwords

This is the end of the tutorial. Don’t forget to setup your new POP email account in your favorite email program (i.e. Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, etc.)

How to view website statistics in Direct Admin

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

Scroll down…

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

Scroll down…

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)

Scroll down…

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

Scroll down…

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 password protect a directory in Direct Admin

How to password protect a directory in Direct Admin

Click Password Protected Directories

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

Now let’s learn how to password protect a directory in our hosting account

There are currently no directories in this account, that are password protected

Let’s locate a directory to protect…. click here

Let’s password protect the Members directory in this hosting account… click the Protect link for the Members directory

Enter the Prompt for the login box that will appear when someone tries to access this directory

enter a username…

… and password

Then re-enter the password here

Click the Protection Enabled box to enable password protection for this directory

Click Save when finished

That’s it! The Member’s directory is now protected in that visitors will be prompted for a username and password before they can enter

Click the Home icon here

Click the Password Protected Directories link again

This link represents the directory we just protected. Let’s click the link to manage it

Scroll down…

… and here we see a list of users that have been created and given password access to this directory

We can update an existing user’s password by entering the username here, followed by the new password…..

… and we can also add new users to this directory by entering new usernames and assigning them passwords as well

Finally, we can delete existing users from having access to this directory by selecting them here and clicking delete

Here we can see that this directory has password protection enabled

This is the end of the tutorial. You now know how to password protect a directory in your hosting account, such that people will have to enter a username and password to enter it

How to use webmail in Direct Admin

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

Scroll down…

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

Scroll down…

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

How to change your password in Direct Admin

How to change your password in Direct Admin

Click the Change Password link

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

Now let’s learn how to change our Direct Admin password

In order to change your Direct Admin password, you first must enter your existing password here

This is the Change Password main screen

Then enter your new password here

….. and again here

When finished, click Submit

That’s all there is to it! The password has been changed, and you now must use your new password when logging in to Direct Admin

Click the Home icon here

This is the end of the tutorial. You now know how to change your Direct Admin password. Remember that for security reasons, it’s a good idea to change your password often

Hosting additional domains in 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

Scroll down…

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 spam filters in Direct Admin

How to create spam filters in Direct Admin

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

Now let’s learn how to create Spam Filters in Direct Admin

Scroll down…

Click the SPAM Filters link

Let’s go ahead and block email from a specific address

This is the main E-mail Filter (or spam filter) screen, where you can enter several different kinds of filters

You can block email from specific email addresses, from an entire domain, or emails containing specific words

You can also block emails that are too large, and/or enable the adult email filter which will block emails containing common adult phrases

Now let’s block email from an entire domain

The email address badguy@msn.com has been blocked

Now let’s enable the Adult Filter….. click here

The Adult Filter has been enabled

For any emails that match our filter criteria, let’s choose to send those emails to a spambox

Then click Save

Let’s remove the filters we just created…..

From this E-Mail Filters screen, we can also remove existing spam filters

Click the Home icon here

This is the end of the tutorial. You now know how to create email filters from Direct Admin, as well as remove them

How to create an autoresponder in Direct Admin

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

Scroll down…

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

Scroll down…

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 install an SSL certificate in Direct Admin

How to install an SSL certificate in Direct Admin

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

Now let’s learn how to install an SSL certificate in Direct Admin

Scroll down…

Click the SSL Certificates link

Scroll down…

Keep in mind that you can only install an SSL certificate into an account that uses a dedicated IP address; if this account did not have a dedicated IP address, then this page would have returned an error

Let’s start by creating a certificate request

To install an SSL certificate, we first have to create a certificate request, then take that request to an SSL certificate vendor to purchase a certificate

Enter the details of your company for the certificate

Scroll down…

When finished, click Save

The certificate request has been generated, and is located here; you must copy this request and use it in your SSL certificate vendor’s order form when purchasing your certificate

Once you’ve purchased your new SSL certificate, return to the SSL certificates screen

Scroll down…

We now have to paste our newly bought certificate below the Private Key shown below…. click here

Paste the new SSL cetificate here

Scroll up…..

You would then click the Save button to install the new SSL certificate

Click the Home icon here

This is the end of the tutorial. Remember that your account must be setup with a dedicated IP address in order for you to be able to install a dedicated SSL certificate for your domain

How to backup your website in Direct Admin

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

Scroll down…

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

Scroll down…

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

Scroll down…

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

Scroll down…

Let’s restore the entire account…. click here

Scroll down…

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

Scroll down…

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 subdomain in Direct Admin

How to create a subdomain in Direct Admin

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

Now let’s learn how to create a subdomain

Click the Subdomain Management link here

Enter the prefix of the new subdomain here

The is the subdomain page where you can setup and remove subdomains for your hosting account

Let’s go ahead and create a new subdomain

Then click the Create button

To delete the subdomain, click this box here…

Success! The new subdoman has been created, and a folder of the same name has also been setup in your public_html directory… which is where you would upload your subdomain files

From this page, you can check your subdomain stats, and bandwidth usage, as well as view it’s usage logs and error logs

… and click this box if you also want the newly created folder and it’s contents removed…

Then click the Delete Selected button

The subdomain has been removed from the hosting account

Click the Home icon here

This is the end of the tutorial. You now know how to setup new subdomains and view their usage stats, as well as how to remove subdomains from your account

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

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

Scroll down…

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 manage URL redirects in Direct Admin

How to manage URL redirects in Direct Admin

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

Now let’s learn how to create URL redirects from Direct Admin

Scroll down…

Click the Site Redirection link

Type in the URL of the page you want to redirect away from

This is the main redirect page, where you can create and delete URL redirects

Then enter the destination URL, or the page you want visitors to be redirected to

Click Save

Now let’s delete the URL redirect we just setup

That’s it! The URL redirect has been setup….. and is now listed here

Click the Home icon here

The URL redirect has just been deleted

This is the end of the tutorial. You now know how to setup URL redirects, and delete them, from your Direct Admin control panel

How to setup a Cron Job in Direct Admin

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

Scroll down…

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

Scroll down…

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 vacation messages in Direct Admin

How to create vacation messages in Direct Admin

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

Now let’s learn how to setup a vacation message

Scroll down…

Click the Vacation Messages link here

Click the Set Vacation Message link here

There are currently no vacation messages setup… let’s set one up now

Scroll down…

Choose the email address for which you want this vacation message setup

Type your vacation message in this box

Then set the Start and End dates, between which this vacation message will be active

When finished, click the Create button

Let’s delete the vacation message we just setup… click this check box

That’s it! The vacation message has been setup, and will be sent automatically to anyone who sends an email to this address during the vacation time

You can return to this screen at any time to modify existing vacation messages, create new ones, or delete them altogether

Then click the Delete Selected button

The vacation message has been deleted

Click the Home icon here

This is the end of the tutorial. You now know how to setup vacation messages so people who email you while you’re on vacation will be notified automatically