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R.E.S.P.E.C.T.- Respect the Panel Now that your domain has propagated and you have secured a hosting company, you're probably eager to get to work. Now, it's time to look at your Control Panel. Most hosting companies provide you with this panel, accessed via your internet browser, to manage your domain. The first rule for the moment is: Respect the panel. Your control panel is your domain foundation. It can be your best friend, or your worst enemy, depending on how you treat it. If you use caution and don't touch anything you aren't familiar with, you will be fine. If you run into this management system and start changing every possible function, you will ruin your web site. At this point, two or three areas in your control panel require attention, no more. First, become familiar with the services available. Learn where the CGI, file manager, and stats (or statistics) are. You will need to learn your “upload” information and the easiest method for putting your files online is generally a process called FTP. Most control panels offer an area where you can browse through files on your computer and manually upload them. This can be far easier for a new webmaster to utilize starting out. Second, click on the stats option. You may find you'll need to enable them before they can begin tracking visitors and hits. Most statistic services such as “AwStats” or “Webalizer” will only update once a day. This is due to the extensive information they provide to the webmaster. Not only are your guests counted, but you'll often see what types of internet browsers your guests have, where they are coming from, their respective countries, their IP numbers, and what referred them. Often, they will provide more information than this. Lastly, explore your file manager. Your web pages will go into the file under “public_html” or some variation thereof. Your public folder should house another folder called, “images,' this is where you will store images used in your web pages. The majority of web sites online are fashioned in this way. The image folder is your “closet space.” It will greatly benefit organization when your web site starts to grow. Your file manager should contain several simple functions. You should have: File upload File move File delete You should be able to upload files from your Control Panel in case there is ever a problem with your publishing software. Likewise, you should be able to move and delete needless files. This will keep your storage needs down and ensure you don't overextend your space limit. Now that you have an idea of what your hosting company provides, it's time for fun! Let's build your virtual home.
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