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The cPanel software offers so many options that users have complete control and full customization over their website. The advanced menu within the interface provides a few important features that all website owners should learn and utilize in their website development.

The features in the advanced menu include

• Apache Handlers
• Image Manager
• Index Manager
• Error Pages
• Cron Jobs
• FrontPage Extensions
• Network Tools
• Support Requests
• MIME Types

This option allows you to add and run Apache handlers which control the way the website is managing the Apache web server software’s file types and extensions. The Image Manager provides three tools that help with the management of images on your website. The Index Manager is important as it permits the configuration of the directory index. This is the appearance of the directory to the users while viewing.

Error Pages are some of the most important functions to add to a website. When users receive an error, if your customized page is not displayed, it defaults to the web hosting provider. In turn this confuses the user and may drive them away. This Advanced Menu option allows you to create those customized error pages.

The Cron Jobs option allows you to schedule tasks for a specific time on the server of which cPanel offers two different interfaces for editing. The FrontPage Extension selection is simply to enable or disable this feature. Although Microsoft FrontPage has been phased out, it’s still widely used in the development community.

Network tools are for retrieving network information from the server. The Support Request choice is an easy way to submit support requests as well as change your email address. Finally MIME types allow you to create specific MIME’s which relay information as to how to handle certain file extensions.

The popularity of cPanel is directly attributed to the numerous options and feature-packed nature of their software releases. With so many different options, the user has complete control over the creation and management of every aspect of their website.

As cPanel continues to offer industry-leading software to web hosting providers, their popularity and wide-spread use will continue to increase. Although there are other options available, they don’t offer the same functionality as cPanel software. The advanced menu is not one to be overlooked as it offers many vital options to the success of the website.

These days, it is more important than ever to keep your website current with the latest security measures.  Why so much emphasis on security?  Because hackers are always looking for ways to penetrate servers and websites to thieve sensitive information.  There are is a lot you can do to ensure better website security and the tips in this article should taken very seriously.

1.) Update Your Applications and Scripts

Running outdated web applications and code on your site is liking giving hackers an open invite.  So if you have older versions of WordPress or Joomla installed, it is advisable that you immediately check for and perform the necessary updates.  This goes for any application or programming languages used for your site.  For a knowledgeable hacker, compromising Joomla 1.0 is as easy as uploading a shell script to an insecure form.  If successful, they could end up with complete control of your account.

2.) Create Strong Passwords

A password can be a simple but effective security mechanism.  However, this is only the case when following a strict set of rules.  When securing login sessions and other areas of your site, never apply a password that can be easily guessed by others or is used for other accounts.  If someone knows just one of your passwords, they can keep trying it for each of your accounts until they are successful.  This could not only lead them to the control panel login of your hosting account, but also the financial institution you do your online banking with.

3.) Mask Your Folders

It is always wise to cloak your website files and folders that are stored on the server.  Many security experts suggest keeping a blank index.html file in each of the folders stored in your public directory.  Doing this will ensure that the contents cannot easily be viewed by internet users.  This process is made simple with the cPanel control panel and its Index Manager function.  You can take this one step further by password protecting the administrator folder that contains the scripts you are running.  This is highly recommended as it provides an added layer of security that will make an intruder have to work that much harder.

What If I Still Get Hacked?

As we eluded to earlier, there is a possibility that even after adhering to all of these tips and more, your website can still be compromised by a hacker.  Should your site be successfully exploited, there are a couple of things you should do right away to minimize the damage.  The first step that needs to be taken involves changing all of the passwords associated with your website.  This goes from your control panel and administrative areas to everything else in between.  Next, go through your hosting account to find and update all old applications and plugins as they could easily be the culprits that led to exposure.  Any website can be compromised and if it happens to you, your sensitive information can be used for criminal gain in one way or another.  Prevention is the key so employ all the measures you can to ensure you are protected against the existing and emerging threats.