Getting Started with Your Account

Within two business days of submitting your request to help@ncsu.edu for an account in the Web hosting environment, you will receive information about your new account.

Please read the following to assist you in getting started: Web Hosting Services Workshop Presentation- http://go.ncsu.edu/whm_slidesThis link will open in a new window.

After approval for a new account:

1. You will receive an e-mail, similar to the following, containing your basic account information; example shown below:

+===================================+
| New Account Info |
+===================================+
| Domain: account-name.wolf.ncsu.edu
| Ip: 152.1.nn.nnn (n)
| UserName: username (not your UnityID)
| PassWord: gobbledygook
| CpanelMod: x3
| HomeRoot: /home
| Quota: 10000 Meg
| Contact e-mail:unityid@ncsu.edu
| Package: Lite 10gb
| Feature List: Lite
| Language: en
+===================================+

2. Items to note:

• domain name: URLs must be approved if they are for a top level domain (xxx.ncsu.edu or www.ncsu.edu/xxx); if you are looking to move an existing site over, we recommend requesting a temporary URL until such time as you are ready to transer the URL to the new site.
• we do not use the requester's unityid as the username; we give a different username. This allows for ownership of an account to easily transfer to someone else in the event the original user is no longer responsible for the hosting account.

3. One of the first things you should do is to change the default password to something different and secure.

To change the default password:

Go to the cPanel at http://go.ncsu.edu/cpanelThis link will open in a new window - accept the security warnings.

Under "Frequently Accessed Areas" select " Change Password" and change your password. If you need assistance, there is an instructional video.

Getting Started Wizard

You may want to use the Getting Started Wizard for an orientation to the cPanel, There is also library of Video Turorials available in the Preferences category.

Note 1: If you use the Getting Started Wizard to set up the Web Disk Accounts,

• when setting up a new Web site, the admin password is limited to 8 characters
• there is not yet an option for Windows 7,
• when entering the requested address (URL), be sure to include the port identification ":2078" at the end. Also, be sure that Port 2078 is not blocked by the firewall.

Note 2: Within each of the cPanel categories (Preferences, Mail, files, etc.) there are icons for various functions. Some of these icons are not functional in our environment.

Note 3: WRAP is available on the cPanel servers. You can setup .htaccess files just like you do in AFS hosting. If you need WRAP authentication modules for PHP software like Drupal and WordPress, those exist but you'll have to install them yourself (Fantastico will not know how to find them).

Note 4: DO NOT use Fantastico to apply updates. Fantastico will only update the basic service. It does not know about, and will not update, modules, themes, templates, etc. Therefore, if you use Fantastico for updating, these will be lost. And, your website may no longer work. Or, it will most likely look different.