Cpanel Hosting- A web-based control panel

cPANEL HOSTING

cPanel is a control panel available on our Linux-based hosting accounts and servers. It lets you comfortably manage many aspects of your account, including the applications, files and email hosted on your account or server. It provides a graphical interface to simplify web hosting. It also provides automation tools to reduce the process of hosting a web site.

It was initially released on March 21,1996. It operates on Linux, BSD and Windows.

cPanel utilizes a three layer structure that provides facilities for administrators, resellers and end-users to control the various aspects of website. It also helps in controlling the server administration through a standard web browser.

cPanel is designed to function either as a Dedicated Server or Virtual Private Server. The latest version of cPanel supports installation on CloudLinux. Application-based support includes PHP, Apache and MySQL. Email based support includes SMTP and POP3 services. cPanel is obtained via https on port 2083.

History

cPanel was originally devised as Control Panel for Speed Hosting which is now a web hosting company. The original author of cPanel was John Nick Koston. Later Speed Hosting and Webking combined, the new company displaced their servers to Virtual Development Inc.(VDI). Working in accordance with an agreement, cPanel was only available to customers hosted directly at VDI.

cPanel 3 was released in 1999. Its main features were an automatic upgrade in addition with the Web Host Manager(WHM).

Web Host Manager (WHM)

WHM is a web-based tool which is used by server administrators and resellers to manage hosting accounts on a web server. The privileges for resellers are less than that given to root administrators. WHM gives a lot more control and flexibility when it comes to mange a large number of sites. From WHM, the server administrator can compile Apache.

Add-ons

cPanel provides front-ends for a number of common operations, such as management of FTP accounts, mailing lists to the client. cPanel also manages some software packages and apply upgrades to Apache, PHP and MySQL automatically.

Several add-ons exist-

1. Installatron
2. SimpleScripts
3. WHMSonic.

Auto Installers are a group of scripts which automate the installation of web applications such as Drupal, Joomla and WordPress.

Enkompass

There also exists a cPanel version for Microsoft Windows, named Enkompass. It was offered free on 15 October 2011.