Website Management Guide
From Site5Wiki
Contents |
How to Manage Your Website
- SiteAdmin Website Control Panel
- is the name of the control panel you will use to control a specific hosting account. SiteAdmin lets you manage things like email, domain pointers/parking, auto-installed scripts, site statistics, password protection and all the other fun stuff that comes standard on our hosting plans.
- Website Files
- Your site's files are stored on a web server and can be accessed in several ways, but the most common and versatile method is via FTP. You can also access your files through the web-based file manager built into SiteAdmin.
Introduction to SiteAdmin
SiteAdmin is the control panel used to manage a web hosting account. It allows you to manage all aspects of a hosting account, including email, FTP, CGI and scripting, your account password, site statistics and access logs and many other features. SiteAdmin also includes a web-based file manager that can serve as a substitute for FTP when performing simple site management tasks.
To get started with SiteAdmin, login to your Site5 Backstage account and click the "SiteAdmin" tab. Select the site that you would like to manage (unless you have a MultiSite™ enabled account, you will probably only have one site listed) and you will be taken to that site's SiteAdmin interface.
Introduction to FTP
FTP is an Internet protocol that allows you to transfer files from one computer to another. In fact, FTP actually stands for File Transfer Protocol. Using FTP, you can move files from your computer to your hosting account and vice versa.
FTP Clients
In order to access your site via FTP, you will need a piece of software called an FTP client. There are numerous FTP clients available, and many of them can be downloaded and used for free.
FTP Settings
Use the following settings to connect to your site via FTP:
- Host/Server Name: yourdomain.tld (or your account's IP address if you haven't transferred your domain name yet)
- Username/Login: The username that was sent in your new account welcome email. Your account username is not the same as your Backstage username. It is usually generated automatically from your domain name, and will be no longer than 8 characters.
- Password: The password associated with this username. This can also be found in your account welcome email. Note that you should change your account password immediately after receiving your welcome email, as email is not a secure method of communication. You can do this through SiteAdmin.
- Port: You should use the standard FTP port: 21. This will probably be the default in your FTP client.
Help Using FTP
There are many resources available that will provide more information on how to use FTP to manage your site. If you need additional help with FTP, try doing a web search for "FTP tutorial".
Setting Up Multiple FTP Accounts/Users
From SiteAdmin, you have the ability to create sub-FTP accounts which can be added from the FTP accounts area of your SiteAdmin control panel. These added FTP accounts are accessed using the same settings as the main account only they must include the domain name in the user name and their own password. For example, if your account's domain is example.com and you add an FTP account named test via the FTP account manager the user name for this account would be test@example.com. You can also specify a main directory for the FTP account when adding it. This provides the ability to allow the FTP user access to only a portion of your site. They will not be able to access any files that are not inside of the directory you configure for them.
These sub-FTP accounts also have their own quotas which are configured when adding the account. This is a limit on how much data in megabytes the account is permitted to upload and download on a per month basis. You can choose allow the FTP account unlimited access by clearing the quota box when adding the account or entering "unlimited" with no quotes. If the account is already added you can change the limit by clicking the QUOTA button in the FTP manager that appears next to the account in the list.
Allowing Other Users to Access Parts of your Account
It's fun to share web hosting, so we've made it easy to share your additional accounts with other users—be them friends, co-workers, family or clients.
FTP Access
Providing someone with FTP access to all or part of your site simply requires that you configure an FTP account through SiteAdmin (as described above) and then provide them with that login information (the sub-account login information, not your main FTP login). With this information, the user can simply login via a normal FTP client. This may be desired for more advanced users or users that need access to files only.
Backstage and SiteAdmin Access
We also allow a secure way to give your websites' additional users Backstage access as well, and give you the option to control what they can and cannot access.
1. In Backstage, go to the Account section.
2. Click on Add New User under Manage Users on the menu on the left.
3. 
Enter the new users’ e-mail address.
4. Fill out the Preferences information—this will allow you to set permissions for the level of access the user will be granted. You can allow them to access any areas of Backstage, or restrict access to just the certain sub-account you desire.
For instance, if they have permission to access a specific website only, no other areas of Backstage will be accessible.
5. 
Hit the Create button and the user will be created. The user will receive an e-mail with a reminder of all their login info.
Return to the Users area at any time to alter privileges or remove users. The direct link is 
https://backstage.site5.com/client/account/contact_list.
NOTE: This method does NOT create an FTP login for the user. If you would like to give someone FTP and SiteAdmin access, you will need to perform both methods 1 and 2.
A Word of Caution
You are responsible for all the content on your account, regardless of who put it there. Also, be aware that if you allow FTP access then someone can upload a script that can impact (change or delete) everything in your account. This includes all pointed domains and subdomains.
CGI Scripts & Autoinstallers
Site5 offers Fantastico as its autoinstaller. Fantastico is the leading auto installer for cPanel servers. With more than 10,000 installations, it provides more than one million end users the ability to quickly install dozens of the leading open source content management systems into their web space.
To access Fantastico under your SiteAdmin Control Panel, click CGI & PHP Scripts, then Fantastico.
Passwords
Password Protected Directories
Your SiteAdmin control panel offers a feature which can password protect directories within your account. To enable password protection on an existing directory, simply log into to your SiteAdmin control panel, click the Web Site Tools option, then click Directory Protection and follow the on-screen directions.
If you are using the cPanel control panel, you will instead click Password Protect Directories and follow the on-screen directions.
If you are using a rvSkin-themed control panel, the option will be labeled as Web Protect in your control panel.
You will find your SiteAdmin or cPanel login information in your welcome email.
Related links: Webmasters' Tools
