Plesk Hosting Support

DNS (Domain Name Servers):
Please refer to the DNS settings we listed in our welcome message and update DNS settings accordingly with your domain registrar. These days all registrars have control panels that customers can access to do so by themselves—look for "Manage Your Domain" or "My Account" or similarily named links on your registrar's home page.

Where do I go to log into my Web based RESELLER control panel?
Same as above, only that you enter the FTP LOGIN for your main domain into the "Login" field (not the domain name).

You can also login at your own domain's 8443 port: https://<YourDomain>:8443/
However, we suggest that both you and your customers use our neutral address as control panel login page, 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. Simply use the code for our login form above.

NOTE: Your customers can 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.

How to Create a New Domain Account:
To learn how to create a new domain account, please refer to the short Flash Tutorials. It's easy! (here)
In addition to what you see in these Flash tutorials you may want to click on the "Domain User" tab and enter a password and email address if you wish to allow your customers or coworkers limited access to the domain level control panel. The domain level control panel is accessed using the domain name as LOGIN and the PASSWORD you set up in "Domain User" section (which may or may not be the same as the FTP password, it's your choice).

Where to Upload My Files?
To upload your site before your domain name has propagated, you can use the shared IP instead of your domain name. e.g. 69.64.32.233, using your assigned username and password. For information of what the shared IP is for your account, please see our welcome message. You will find it under Account Details.

Into Which Directories 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. However, if you own your own reseller (multi-domain) account with us, you have the option to create the cgi-bin folder within the httpdocs directory when creating new domain hosting accounts.
PLEASE NOTE: You can execute CGI scripts in any directory, not just the cgi-bin directory !

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

Preview New Websites (whose Domain Registrations or DNS Updates Have not Resolved):
To preview your uploaded but not yet resolved domain, logon to the Plesk control panel and click on "Site Preview." Note that SOME functions, e.g. functions that involve the correct working of databases, might not work in the preview mode. The same is true, of course, for non-relational URL links that include the full domain name of the domain that is being previewed.

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 Guide to the Plesk
    Control Panel.
    Click 'UPDATE' (near bottom) tab.
You can add forwarder etc. later — just click on your e-mail username after havingclicked on the 'MAIL' tab first.
NOTE that you can also enable SpamAssassin in the "Mail" tab. (Check the user guide for details.)

How to Check Mail via 'Webmail' Interface?
Log on to: http://<YourDomain.com>/webmail -> SAMPLE (Squirrelmail)
Simply insert '/webmail' after 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: YourDomain.com or mail.YourDomain.com
SMTP: YourDomain.com or mail.YourDomain.com
...whereby 'YourDomain.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 may change e-mail passwords from your domain control panel, using the MAIL tab. But you may also change email passwords following below links ... a solution that comes in handy if you'd like to give someone control over his/her e-mail account but no access to the domain's 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 at the general logon page (https://server-1.com:8443 etc.), 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

CGI-BIN:
On our server CGI scripts can be executed in all directories -- cgi-bin as well as httpdocs folders.

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" form. The content of the form is send to a TEXT file, here called "request.txt," by the following line:
<form action="http://123-host.me.uk/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 ... more here.

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.

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 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.

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. One of the best places 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. Also try SelfPromotion.com -- it offers 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). 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.