HostMonster Web Hosting Package

As a rule of thumb in web maintenance, website should be back up regularly.

At HostMonster, the backup process is pretty quick-n-easy and will give you peace of mind. Follow these simple steps showed below and then keep all your web files in a safe place. In case of necessary, you might want to store your files in multiple locations.

Image guides for website backup at HostMonster

First, look for the backup button at HostMonster control panel.

Select daily for your backups downloads.

Click ‘Save’ at the prompt out to download all your web files to your local computer.

Select the desired directory you wish to store the web files and press the ‘Save’ button.

Click ‘Close’ whenever the download is completed.

And there, your website backup is successful.

Kinda dummy guide huh? (graphic source from: HostMonster)

Unlike the old cPanel user control, you will need to enable the Awstats features manually in the control panel.

Look for the icon named “Choose Log Program” inside cPanel.

There will be a list of websites when you get into “Choose Log Program” along side with a series of check box. Click on the appropriate box that you wish to track using Awstats or Webalizer. Press save changes, the Awstats (or Webalizer) will start tracking your web stats after then.

Parking your domain at HostMonster is simple.

First, set the nameserver for the domain you wish to park to:

Primary: ns1.hostmonster.com
Secondary: ns2.hostmonster.com

Following next, wait for the domain to be reolved to HostMonster’s server. Normally the process will be done within a day but the official time for the trasnfer is 48 hours.

After the Internet Service Providers had completely pickup on the DNS changes, login to your HostMonster control panel and go to “Parked Domains”. Select the domain you wish to park (if you have many hosted on the account) and park the domain onto your main domain.

At the time of writing, HostMonster runs two versions of MySQL on their servers – MySQL 4 Servers and MySQL 5 Servers. Users may check their control panel to verify which version of MySQL is running on their server.

The MySQL version on my Hostmonster account, for example, is the 5.0.45-community-log version.

How do you check the MySQL version at your server?

When you login to your Hostmonster account, you will notice a sidebar at the left. Scroll down a little and you’ll get a line reads ‘MySQL Version’. That’s where you can check what version of MySQL is running on your web server.

For detail reference, please check print-screen below.

Personally I can’t think of any web hosting user interface better than cPanel. But apparently not everyone has the same opinion as mine.

I read this not long ago from HostMonster forum - a question posted by geocoins-software.

I would like to add a forum to my site. I find that the control panel of Hoster Monster is not to intuitive. I have read all the documentation and help and it just does not make sense. To many pieces in too many areas. I am ready to switch my hosting…. I am just overly frustrated.

AM i Missing something? If so, I shouldn’t be. I need something alittle more user friendly.

To my surprise, someone’s actually thinking that cPanel is not user friendly enough.

On top of that, I can’t believe that someone will consider switching their hosting because of they are being unhappy with the cPanel.

In case you are new about web hosting and thinking to have one, here’s what you need to know first. A web hosting is a place where you host your files for your website. Imagine it as the land where you build your house – the land is the web hosting, your web files are like the wood/metal gate/sofa of your house, and the domain name is your house address.

The control panel at HostMonster (which is cPanel) is actually a user-friendly interface that we used to access and to operate our web host. Most hosting companies (or I would say most good hosting companies) offer cPanel as the control interface. Switching a hosting makes no difference at all as you might as well bump into the same control panel.

Trust me, I’ve had the worst control panel ever (like Gate.com’s) and cPanel is so far the easiest user interface you can work with to host your website. You are hosting a website now, not running another MySpace page nor Blogspot blog!

So kid, buckle up and get ready to ride thru the learning curve. (Need help in cPanel? Find official online tutorial here.)