Welcome and thanks for choosing to host with us! This is a quick getting started guide, we advise everyone to read this in order to get the best from your hosting. We're passionate about web hosting and pride ourselves in our quality of service and level of support, so if there is anything you need - by all means let us know.
If you've completed signup then by now you should have your New Account Information email. This email contains the login details to access your website and it's control panel (known as cPanel). Please note that your client area is different from your cPanel control panel. Your client area is for your billing management and support, where as your cPanel control panel is to manage all aspects of your site. Each hosting account you purchase will have a new cPanel control panel.
Your Client Area
Your client area can be found by going to
https://ecohosting.co.uk/my/ Once you login to your client area you can view your invoices, domain names, hosting accounts and support requests.
To login to this area use your email address and password you chose during signup. This will also have been sent to you in an email with the subject "Welcome".
You can find specific help on using your client area in the
help centre.
cPanel Control Panel
The cPanel is where you can manage your website, everything from email address to files. The login for your cPanel is different from your Hosting account login. You can find the login details in your 'New Account Information' email. They will look something like this:
- cPanel Address: www.your-domain.com/cpanel
- Username: xxxxxxxx
- Password: xxxxxxxx
Your cPanel as many options, you probably won't need many of them but they are there if you do. This guide will cover the fundamentals of getting started and the basics of getting your site online.
Your Domain Name
If you purchased your domain name from us
If you purchased a domain name through us then it will automatically be registered and setup for you so it works with your hosting. Domains can take a few hours to activate and update on the world wide web, so please be patient of your domain name isn't working as soon as you have placed your order.
If you chose to transfer your domain name
If you are transferring your domain name this can take a little longer and does require some action on your part.
For a .uk domain transfer (.co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk etc)
You need to contact your current provider and ask them to change the IPS Tag of the domain to 'ENIXLTD' - this will transfer the domain to us instantly and we will activate it on your account for you. After a few hours it will work with your hosting without you needing to do anything further.
For other domains (.com, .net, .org etc)
During checkout you should have provided an EPP Authorisation Key from your registrar, if not then you need to contact us with this to start your domain transfer. If you did then you need to wait until you receive an email asking you to allow authorisation of the domain name to be transferred to us. Transfer can take up to 10 days but is usually quicker. Please ensure to follow the link to authorise the transfer otherwise it will fail. Please also ensure the domain is unlocked at your current registrar.
If you wish to change your Name Servers or DNS records only
Our name servers are below. Once you have made the change you may need to wait several hours for the change to propagate. If your registrar only has 2 boxes for name servers then just use ns1 and ns2. You only need to enter the IP addresses in brackets should your registrar have an IP address box next to the name server box, otherwise these can be ignored.
- ns1.enixns.com (91.238.160.2)
- ns2.enixns.com (91.238.161.2)
- ns3.enixns.com (91.238.162.2)
- ns4.enixns.com (91.238.163.2)
Should you wish to only change your sites A records and not your name servers you can find the IP address for the A records in your 'New Account Information' email.
How domain names work in cPanel
Your cPanel account has one 'Main Domain' which is what you signed up with. Depending on the package you have chosen you have the ability to add more domain names later, known as 'Addon Domains', information about this can be found in the Help Centre article:
Adding Domains
If you wish to test your website before your domain is pointing to your hosting to us, you can do this by modifying your computer's hosts file with the IP of your hosting. You can find your IP address in your 'New Account Information' welcome email. Simply follow this guide here to setup your hosts file:
Testing with the Hosts File
Creating / Uploading your Website
There are 4 main methods to creating your site, these are:
- Using the site builder
- Installing ready made software such as Wordpress or Joomla
- Uploading your site from desktop software such as Apple iWeb or Dreamweaver
- Uploading your html or PHP files by FTP
1) Using the Site Builder
Our site builder allows you to build a website quickly and easily based on one of hundreds of templates. To find the site builder log into your cPanel and go to the 'RVSiteBuilder' icon. This will take you to the site builder software and you can get going.
Should you need help with the site builder you can view our
Site Builder Help.
2) One Click Software Installs
If you want to install popular software such as Wordpress, Joomla and Magento you can do this quickly and easily using the one click software installs in your cPanel. You can choose from hundreds of different softwares. To do this simply log in to your cPanel and find the 'Softaculous' icon which is in the 'Software / Services' section. Follow the on screen instructions to install whatever software you need. An important tip - if you wish to install software into the main 'root' of your domain then leave the 'installation directory/folder' box blank when installing the software.
For a walk through on installing software via Softaculous see the Help Centre article
Softaculous
3) Uploading your site from desktop software
You may have created your site in software such as Apple iWeb or Dreamweaver. Although the software is different they all use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to upload your website, so the settings are the same for all. All of the settings can be found in your 'New Account Information' welcome email. Please see section 4 'Uploading your site via FTP' below for the FTP details you need.
4) Uploading your site via FTP
If you're uploading your site manually by FTP, the details are as follows. Please ensure you upload into your files public_html folder, otherwise your website won't work.
- Remote Server / FTP Address: This can be the server IP address, or your domain name (if your domain is already active)
- Username: Your cPanel/FTP username as mentioned in your New Account Information email
- Password: Your cPanel/FTP password as mentioned in your New Account Information email
- Remote Folder / Path: public_html/
For an in depth guide on using FTP see the help centre article
How to upload your site using FTP
Creating Email Accounts
You can create email accounts in your cPanel under the 'Email Accounts' section. Email accounts can be created which can be accessed by all desktop software such as Microsoft Outlook and Mac Mail, mobile devices such as iPhone, Android and BlackBerry, as well as webmail. Email can be synchronised between all devices.
For help setting up email accounts and software please see the help centre's
Email Accounts section.
Backups
We take a daily backup of your site and keep 14 days worth of daily backups for you, meaning you can restore any file from any day within the last 14 days. We also keep 6 x 1 month snapshots, so you can go right back 6 months if you need to. You can access your backups under the 'R1Soft Backups' option in your cPanel, or simply ask us to restore a backup for you.
Common Problems
I can't login to the client area
Please see help centre article:
here.
I can't load cPanel
Please see help centre article:
here.
I can't login to cPanel
Please see help centre article:
here.
I've been blocked from the server
Please see help centre article
here.
Getting Help
We've made a special effort to put in place as much useful help information in this support centre as possible, but if you find something that isn't covered then drop us a support request via your client area and we'll be happy to help.