AllenHost FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

I just received the email notifying me my domain space is ready. Now what?
How do I get html files onto my server?
I can't log into the control panel. What's up?
I can't download email? What's up?
I can't send email with my SMTP server? Why not?
I moved html files to my server, but they don't show up. Where are they?
What is the default html file name?
Where is my cgi-bin?
I code my own perl stuff. Where is perl? Where is sendmail? What is my absolute path?
How do I get shell access?
How do I allow directory listing?

I just received the email notifying me my domain space is ready. Now what?

Don't panic.

The first thing to do is to log into your control panel. Click the link that was sent to you in the welcome email.

Click the Yes button to accept the certificate.

Click the Login button next to site admin. Enter "admin" for the userid, "yourdomain.com" (substitute your domain, of course) for the domain, and the password that was sent to you via email. Click the Login button.

There! You're in the admin control panel. First things first -- change the admin password.

Click the "Change Administrator" link. Think of a great new password. Enter your new password in the Administrator Password field and again in the Confirm Administrator Password field. Click the Save button.

What's next? There are a host of things you can do from the control panel. You can add new users, each of which will have an email account on your site. You can give each one ftp, telnet, or ssh access. You can add aliases. Aliases are kind of like virtual users. They don't actually have email accounts on your site, but mail sent to the alias will be forwarded to an external account.

How do I get html files onto my server?

One way is to use a file transfer program, commonly abbreviated as ftp. There are many excellent ftp programs available, some of them free. Check TUCOWS for ftp programs. I use WS-FTP and am very happy with it. It's free if you're a student or government worker.

Another way is to use an html publisher like Microsoft Frontpage.

You will need three pieces of information to connect: a userid, a password, and the host name. Your host name is ftp.yourdomain.com. Your system administrator will provide your userid and password. Make sure to use the complete username, which should be something like user@yourdomain.com. Some ftp programs do not like @ signs in the userid. If you have difficulty connecting, try user#yourdomain.com.

Make sure to put your html files in the /var/www/html directory. Some ftp programs allow you to specify a startup directory. For convenience you may want to make /var/www/html your startup directory so you don't have to switch to it every time you connect.

I can't log into the control panel. What's up?

The control panel is the only place you don't use the complete username, i.e. admin#yourdomain.com. Enter "admin" for the userid, your domain (yourdomain.com) in the domain field, and your password in the password field.

I can't download email. What's up?

Make sure your settings are right. Your pop3 server name is mail.yourdomain.com. Your userid is user@yourdomain.com. Some email clients don't like an @ sign in the userid. If you're having problems, try using user#yourdomain.com instead. Make sure you've entered you password correctly. Passwords are case-sensitive.

I can't send email with my SMTP server? Why not?

SMTP on your server requires authentication. First make sure you have the server name right. It should be mail.yourdomain.com. Second, make sure your email package knows the server requires authentication. In Outlook Express, select Accounts from the Tools menu. Go to the Mail tab and double-click the mail account there. Go to the Servers tab. At the bottom of the window check the box next to "My server requires authentication."

I moved html files to my server, but they don't show up. Where are they?

Your html root on the server is /var/www/html. When you upload files, make sure you put them in that directory or in a subdirectory under it.

What is the default html file name?

The apache web server looks in the directory you specify in your web browser for a file to display. If you do not specify a file name apache will look for the following names, in order:

index.html
index.htm
index.shtml
index.cgi
index.php
index.php3
index.php4
index.pl
main.html.

In other words, if you browse to http://yourdomain.com, apache will first try to open http://yourdomain.com/index.html, then http://yourdomain.com/index.htm, etc.

Where is my cgi-bin?

Upload files for your cgi-bin to /var/www/cgi-bin.

I code my own perl stuff. Where is perl? Where is sendmail? What is my absolute path?

Perl is located at /usr/bin/perl. Sendmail is at /usr/sbin/sendmail. The absolute path to your shell root is /home/virtual/yourdomain.com/. The absolute path to your cgi-bin is /home/virtual/yourdomain.com/var/www/cgi-bin. The absolute path to your html root is /home/virtual/yourdomain.com/var/www/html.

How do I get shell access?

You already have it. Use an SSH terminal tool (like Putty, which is free) to connect to your server. The host name is yourdomain.com. You need a userid that is enabled for SSH in the control panel. SSH does not like @ signs in the userid, so replace the @ with #. Log in with a userid like user#yourdomain.com. Enter your password and you should be good to go.

How do I allow directory listing?

Do you want to allow people to see a listing of files in a directory with no default HTML document? If so, all you have to do is create a file called ".htaccess" (make sure to include the period) and put it in the directory where you want to allow listing. In the file put a single line containing the text "Options +Indexes". Make sure to put a space between the s and the +. Do this for each directory where you want to allow browsing.

Once you move the file to the directory you won't see it listed. The period at the front of the filename makes it hidden. You can see if if you use SSH to get shell access to your account to switching to that directory and using
the command "ls -al".