Reseller Sharks: Reseller Support Area

Reseller Support Area

We will post basic information related to your reseller account and the server and its setup here. Before you send us mail to ask what, for example, the path to "perl" is, please always check out this page first to see if you find the answer/s here. We have also added a "Tips and Suggestions" section. If you have any suggestions for other resellers, please feel free to e-mail them and we will post them if deemed appropriate:
support@server-1.com

• Plesk Hosting Plans
• cPanel/WHM Hosting Plans
• DirectAdmin Hosting Plans

Plesk Hosting Plans

Where do I go to log into my Web based reseller control panel ?

https://server-1.com:8443/
or at
https://server-2.com:8443/
or at
https://server-4.com:8443/
or at
https://server-7.com:8443/

or at your own domain's 8443 port: https://<YourDomain>:8443/
However, we suggest that both you and your customers use our neutral login screen, because this page has a GeoTrust SSL certificate (no security warning message). You can also create a logon script/form directly on your own Website -- probably the most elegant solution. See "Tips and Suggestions" section below.

Log on with your domain name as the username if accessing the domain level control panel and with your main domain's FTP username (that you gave us during the signup) to access the reseller level control panel. You will be able to log on immediately after we have created an account for you (before your new domain or your domain's DNS change has propagated Internet-wide).

NOTE: Your customers can also log on to their control panel immediately after you created an account for them (before their new domain or their DNS change has propagated Internet-wide). Make sure to allow them access by clicking the DOMAIN USER tab and assigning a password. They will be able to ftp their site immediately, using the shared IP and their FTP username and password. FrontPage can only be used after the domain name has propagated, not with the IP.

Detailed Control Panel Guides:

(a) RESELLER GUIDES
Plesk 10.x - Reseller Control Panel Guide (HTML)
Plesk - Flash Tutorials (Flash)

(b) DOMAIN USER GUIDES for your customers
Plesk 10.x - Domain User's Control Panel Guide (HTML)

DNS settings and Pre-viewing a Domain
If you already own your domain name, you have to change its DNS (Domain Name Server) settings with your domain registrar to the settings we gave you in our welcome message.
Once you make these changes, it will take 12-48 hours for them to propagate Internet-wide, at which time your domain name will start pointing to our servers. If you are registering your domain name with our registrar, then these DNS settings already point to our server (you need to do nothing). Before the DNS has resolved to our servers, you can preview your domain:

To preview your uploaded but not yet resolved domain, please use the "Preview Site" tab in Plesk, or, in below sample link, exchange IP with the server IP (see your welcome letter) and exchange mydomain.com with actual domain name:
http://IP/IP/mydomain.com
for example: http://69.64.32.233/69.64.32.233/test.com

To upload your site before your domain name has propagated, you can use the shared IP instead of your domain name:
69.64.32.233   for server-1 accounts, using your assigned FTP username & password
70.84.173.34   for server-2 accounts, using your assigned FTP username & password
70.84.146.114 for server-4 accounts, using your assigned FTP username & password
70.84.173.42   for server-7 accounts, using your assigned FTP username & password

Most Important Path Info (you need this if installing CGI and other scripts):
What is the path to Perl?
/usr/bin/perl
In most CGI scripts the standard path line is therefore:
#!/usr/bin/perl
And the path(s) to sendmail?
/usr/lib/sendmail
/usr/sbin/sendmail

Where to Do I Upload My Files?
Your Website's HTML and image files go into the httpdocs folder.
(with exception of secure files which go into the secure directory)
The absolute path (if ever needed) is:
/home/httpd/vhosts/YourDomain.com/httpdocs
(This is equivalent to the "public_html" folder on many other servers.)
Your Website's CGI scripts (if any) go into the cgi-bin folder.
PLEASE READ THE "CGI-BIN" ENTRY IN OUR "TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS" SECTION BELOW.
The absolute path is:
/home/httpd/vhosts/YourDomain.com/cgi-bin
In other words, the CGI-BIN folder is outsite the main folder.
PLEASE NOTE: You can execute CGI scripts in any directory, not just the cgi-bin directory !

Setting Up E-mail:
1. Log in to your account's control panel.
2. Click the 'MAIL' tab.
3. Type the username for this e-mail account in the 'Mailname:' field; click 'ADD' tab.
4. Check 'Mailbox' and enter the password for this e-mail account in both fields.
    Decide if you want to limit the space for this e-mail account (taken from
    the space of your main account).
    For other options, autoresponders etc., please read the Plesk Control Panel Guide.
    Click 'UPDATE' (near bottom) tab.
You can add forwarders etc. later - just click on your e-mail username after having clicked on the 'MAIL' tab.

How to Check Mail via 'Webmail' Interface?
Log on to: http://webmail.<MyDomain.com> -> SAMPLE
Simply insert 'webmail.' before your domain name when typing the URL. Log on using the particular username and password for the email account you want to check.

Outlook, Eudora, and Other POP E-Mail Programs:
The basic settings for these should be:
Mail Server: MyDomain.com or mail.MyDomain.com
SMTP: MyDomain.com or mail.MyDomain.com
...whereby 'MyDomain.com' stands as a placeholder for your actual domain name
Username: <Your e-mail username for this e-mail account>
Password: <Your e-mail password for this e-mail account>

Troubleshooting:
If these settings do not work for you, then the ISP you use to connect to the Internet has most likely blocked Port 25, so you cannot use your own mail server for OUTGOING mail (SMTP) while connected via their network. Some of the ISPs who do this are Earthlink/Mindspring, AOL, USA-Starnet, and MSN. Microsoft, for example, gives an explanation (as regards to their own blocking) and solution:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q302339
The solution is to use your ISP's SMTP settings for outgoing mail (in the case of MSN this is 'smtp.email.msn.com'). BUT MAKE SURE TO KEEP YOUR DOMAIN AS THE MAIL SERVER FOR INCOMING MAIL!

Changing E-mail Passwords:
You can give your e-mail account owners access to a separate e-mail control panel:
From your control panel, click on the MAIL tab, then on the e-mail username, then check "Control panel access." The owner of this e-mail account will then be able to logon (same URL as the control panel logon), using his full email address as LOGIN and his email password as PASSWORD.

Backing Up Your Domain:
To BACK UP your domain data to your PC's hard drive:
(1) click on "Backup" tab (in your control panel)
(2) click on "Make Dump"
(3) check the second option: "do not create domain dump file, only download";
enter a file name in "Dump file name:" field and your comments in "Comments:" field
(4) click on "Back up" tab

To RESTORE your domain data from a backup file on your hard drive:
(1) click on "Backup" tab
(2) click on "Browse.." button to find the backup file on your HD, select it
(3) click "Upload" tab
(4) the uploaded backup file is listed under 'Dump files;' click on the file name, then click on "Restore" tab

Tips • Suggestions • Notes

Plesk LOGIN Scripts: Here some sample login scripts you can put on your sales site for your customers to login to their domain level accounts.

CGI-BIN: On our server CGI scripts can be executed in all directories! The main complaint that users of the PLESK system have always had is that the cgi-bin directory is outside of the main Web directory (httpdocs). Most other system have the cgi-bin folder inside the main folder, and many standard CGI scripts do therefore not work without changing paths in/to these scripts. This can be tiresome. We therefore enabled the server to execute CGI scripts anywhere, in any directory (you still have to set the permissions right, of course ... chmod 755, and so forth). In other words, you can, if you like, create a CGI-BIN folder within the httpdocs folder to store your cgi scripts there. Perl scripts (.pl), on the other hand, can only be executed in the original CGI-BIN folder.
One more point: PSA utilizes Suexec as a CGI wrapper for security. The Suexec wrapper prevents the CGI script from having permissions set over 755. Scripts should run fine with 755 permissions.

Pre-installed cgiemail Script: There is just one pre-installed script. You will find it in the cgi-bin folder: this is "cgiemail" – a script written in C. The cgiemail script is an alternative solution to "FormMail.pl." It is pretty simple to use ... you should be able to use it by just looking at our example: please look at the source code of our own "Contact Us" page. The content of the form is send to a TEXT file, here called "request.txt," by the following line:
<form action="http://www.reseller-sharks.com/cgi-bin/cgiemail/request.txt" method=POST>
The "request.txt" file, however, resides in the "httpdocs" folder! In the first line of this TEXT file you determine to which e-mail address it is send then. Further info and readme text can be found at MIT's site.
Of course, you can also use Matt Wright's popular FormMail script, but ONLY versions 2.18 or later later ... more here ... we will delete all other older versions without warning (!), because of major security problems with those older versions).

Spam Protection: Please note that we have MAPS Spam protection software installed on all servers, accessing ORDB.org's anti-spam database. There is no way to completely eliminate spam ... as with virus scanning, anti-spam protection is by no means perfect, but it still should dramatically reduce the amount of spam you and your customers would otherwise receive.
SpamAssassin: SpamAssassin is the most efficient anti-Spam tool available. You have to activate SpamAssassin for your domain/s from yor Plesk control panel. You can then decide what to do with SPAM messages ... e.g. to have Eudora or Outlook filter them out, or to simply ignore them.

Virus Scanning: All servers have Dr.Web ant-Virus installed. The program updates itself every 4 hours with the latest virus database. But you will need to enable Dr.Web from within Plesk for each email account.

Advertising Your Site: You'll find tons of info about this issue on the Web, and you may know more about this than we do. Here just the very basics:
Yes, it makes a difference if you submit your site to search engines and directories like Yahoo! or if you don't. We strongly suggest to either buy a license for the program WebPosition Gold or to use a service that uses it - it is simply the best. But by now more and more search engines and directories, certainly all the big ones, are charging to list your site. According to our experiences it does pay out very well to invest a decent amount. The place to go is looksmart.com (covering several search engines that together make up for 70% of all searches) - click on "Submit a Site." Before you submit your site you want to make sure that all the HTML tags in the header are just right. Use mentioned WebPosition Gold or a free service offered by Scrubtheweb (go to the VERY bottom of that page and enter your URL). Also try SelfPromotion.com -- offering plenty of webmaster tools to promote your site for free.
In addition to search engine and directory listings you should get listed in a couple of Web hosting directories ... ad banners, however, generate little income, although they are useful to create brand name recognition.

Billing Your Customers: You may already have your own system set up ... if not, by far the best, easiest and fastest (immediate) solution is 2CheckOut.com which integrates a shopping cart with a credit card processing system in one package. Except for a one time $49 setup fee there are no further monthly fees (quite different from almost all other billing services). A similar solution is available from PaySystems. Those with much of their customer base in Europe may want to check out WorldPay.com and BIBIT.com. Also consider to add PayPal with low fees, but do not rely on PayPal alone - you might then loose prospective customers. QuickCommerce offers e-commerce solutions that make use of the popular Authorize.Net software to bill your customers and arranges a merchant account for you. You can use their shopping cart systems and easily integrate it into your Web site.

cPanel Hosting Plans

Below, please find all of the basic info about your account — as well as some special "Tips and Suggestions." But most issues are very well explained in these two guides:

• cPanel Support Manual: please always consult this manual first. The manual is especially helpful because it gives a graphical representation of exactly what you have to do to perform the most popular tasks in cPanel.

• WebHost Manager (WHM) Manual: the WHM interface is the reseller's tool to create and update cPanel domain accounts.

DNS settings
If you already own your domain name, you have to change its DNS (Domain Name Server) settings with your domain registrar to the settings we gave you in our welcome message.
Once you make these changes, it will take 12-48 hours for them to propagate Internet-wide, at which time your domain name will start pointing to our servers.

How to access my WHM Reseller control panel?
To login to WebHost Manager (WHM) to set up new domain accounts or to adjust existing settings, please go to:

      https://66.98.142.89/whm    (U.S. server-3)
      https://67.19.20.82/whm     (U.S. server-9)
      https://70.84.173.130/whm    (U.S. server-12)
      https://212.72.165.66/whm   (German eu-server)
      (NOTE: After the DNS of your main domain for this account has resolved
      you can substitute the IP with your domain name, if you prefer.)

How to access my domain level control panel?
You'll want to login to cPanel to do such things as view web stats, setup email addresses, MySQL databases, etc. To login to cPanel (after the DNS has resolved), go to:

http://yourdomain.com/cpanel/
(substitute your actual domain name for *yourdomain.com*)

Then enter your username and password (given to you in our welcome email). This will not work until your domain name has fully propagated to our servers. But prior to this, you can login to cPanel using the Primary Nameserver IP number, like this: http://70.84.173.130/cpanel; be sure to check our welcome email to see what the shared IP for your account is.

Shared SSL Certificate
For signup pages, online billing gateways, and other eCommerce projects you might want to have an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) site to encrypt transmission of your customers' data. We have created a shared SSL certificate (GeoTrust) solution that is compatible with over 98% of all Web browsers - you don't need to purchase your own cert.
Upload all the files that should be accessed as SSL secured pages to the public_html folder (where all other HTML files go as well), and access them at the following https://... address:
      https://secure.server-3.com/~myusername/filename     (U.S. server)
      https://secure.server-9.com/~myusername/filename     (U.S. server)
      https://secure.server-12.com/~myusername/filename   (U.S. server)
      https://secure.eu-server.net/~myusername/filename   (German server)
      (myusername stands as placeholder for your actual cPanel domain username;
      filename stands as placeholder for the actual HTML or ASP file)
TIP: Your reseller WHM control panel allows you (in "Modify an Account") to change the usernames for your domain accounts. E.g., rather than "Carl" or "Erica" etc. you might want to assign a username such as "sales-k" or "acct3") to make the https URL look more professional.

Outlook, Eudora, and Other POP E-Mail Programs:
The basic settings for these should be:
Mail Server: MyDomain.com or mail.MyDomain.com
SMTP: MyDomain.com or mail.MyDomain.com
          ...whereby 'MyDomain.com' stands as a placeholder for your actual domain
Username: <Your e-mail username for this e-mail account>
Password: <Your e-mail password for this e-mail account>

FTP
Use the following information with your FTP program:
Host name: yourdomain.com [your actual domain name!]
Username: Same as control panel
Password: Same as control panel

Paths
Your Perl path is: /usr/bin/perl
The first line in cgi and perl scripts should therefore be:
#!/usr/bin/perl
Sendmail: /usr/lib/sendmail or /usr/sbin/sendmail
Serverpath: /home/username/public_html/cgi-bin
Root path: /home/username/ puts you in the root of your account Domain
directory: /home/username/public_html puts you in your www directory
cgi-bin path: /home/username/public_html/cgi-bin/filename puts you in your cgi-bin

Tips • Suggestions • Notes

Pre-view New Domains: You may preview your uploaded but not yet resolved domain (DNS update with domain registrar is necessary) via your cPanel username at:
      http://www.server-3.com/~myusername/   (U.S. server)
      http://www.server-9.com/~myusername/   (U.S. server)
      http://www.server-12.com/~myusername/ (U.S. server)
      http://www.eu-server.net/~myusername/   (Amsterdam server)
      (myusername stands as placeholder for your actual cPanel domain username)

Virus Scanning: All cPanel servers are running running Exiscan and ClamAV anti-Virus programs. These programs detect any known computer virus that is attached to an incoming message and deletes the infected message immediately. The program updates itself every 4 hours with the latest virus database.

Spam Protection: Please note that you will have to activate "SpamAssassin" from the cPanel control panel to enable Spam protection. Each domain owner can enable or disable SpamAssassin on a per email account basis.

Billing Your Customers: You may already have your own system set up ... if not, by far the best, easiest and fastest (immediate) solution is 2CheckOut.com which integrates a shopping cart with a credit card processing system in one package. Except for a one time $49 setup fee there are no further monthly fees (quite different from almost all other billing services). Those with much of their customer base in Europe may want to check out WorldPay.com and BIBIT.com. Also consider to add PayPal with low fees, but do not rely on PayPal alone - you might then loose prospective customers. QuickCommerce offers e-commerce solutions that make use of the popular Authorize.Net software to bill your customers and arranges a merchant account for you. You can use their shopping cart systems and easily integrate it into your Web site.

DirectAdmin Hosting Plans

For DirectAdmin reseller level documentation, see:
http://reseller.site-helper.com
Domain level documentation is here:
http://www.site-helper.com

Very helpful are also the DirectAdmin forums at:
http://directadmin.com/forum/

Login to your DirectAdmin domain or reseller level control panel at:
http://<Your Server's Main IP>:2222/
USERNAME: <Your Username>
PASSWORD: <Your Password>

MORE QUESTIONS ARE DISCUSSED HERE.... (FAQ)