Welcome... now what's next?
Okay, you've just signed up for an account at PureIdeasPlus.com.
Now you have several options. We're going to assume that you have
little experience with the process of web site hosting. The point
of this document is to give you guidance on what you should do first
with your new account, not necessarily how to do it. Much of the
how to’s are available in the control
panel manual.
The Control Panel
Let's start with you account management tool, the Control Panel.
The Control Panel is a simple web based interface between you and
your account features. The welcome letter explained how to get onto
the Control Panel (http://Your-domain/menu) and the online documentation
tells you how to use each feature. Let's discuss about where to
begin.
Documentation
First off, we've put together a fairly in-depth set of
instruction manuals to help you find answers quickly. This manual
will take you through our Control Panel tools with step by step
instructions. Please investigate our entire help section.
Changing Your Control Panel Password
Within the welcome letter was a computer-generated password. It
might be a good idea to change the password to something a little
easier to remember. Use the Change
Password icon in the Control Panel to make this change.
It is important to make your password as secure as possible by
choosing a password that is impossible to guess. The weakest link
in any security system is the people using it. People tend to choose
passwords that can be guessed, or they write them down near the
computer. Then they're surprised that a hacker intent on breaking
into and tresspassing on their system would stoop so low as to steal
this information. Here are some guidelines to follow.
Choose a password that:
- is at least 6 to 8 characters long
- is not a word in the dictionary (a favorite hacker tool)
- is not a name
- has numbers or symbols as well as letters in it
- has cap and lower case characters for extra security
Creating Your First Email Box
When you first sign up for PureIdeasPlus.com, it includes
several email boxes that you can set up and use. In order to download
the email you have to do two things; 1) Create the email box on
the server using the Mail Manager tool, and 2) create an email account
in your email software on your computer to download the email from
your new email box.
You can add email boxes using the Mail
Manager icon in your Control Panel. Due to the many different
email programs out there we cannot document how to install each
one, but we do include the information that you'll need to set up
your email in the welcome letter and a brief tutorial on setting
up email in our help section.
Your First Web Page
Included in each account is a very basic WebSite
Builder tool. This tool will allow even the most novice user
to create a multi page web site. You can upload your logo and edit
the copy to market your company. If you have the need for a more
professional looking web site with more features than available
with this tool there are a variety of web page design tools on the
market that will work with our servers. A great tool that we offer
for professional results is SiteXpress.
If you need advanced services and features, you can use any commercial
web design software such as Microsoft FrontPage, NetObjects Fusion,
Macromedia Dreamweaver or Flash, etc.
Once you’ve created your site, you can upload it to our server
using the software your page was designed in. A note of caution,
make sure your site is uploaded ot the www directory or it will
not show up on the internet. Also, never delete any files or directories
that you find in your account. Our system has many automated features
that utilize these directories. Here's
more information on our directories.
Your Account Info
The Account Management
and Billing tools in the Control Panel will keep you informed on
your billing and enable you to keep us up-to-date on your contact
information. It's always a good idea to periodically confirm that
the information within these two sections are up to date and accurate.
If there are any problems or questions that you have, please let
us know so that we can correct this information for you.
What Next?
That about wraps up the beginning of your online to do list.
You should check out our How To Guides and
Tutorials. There is a lot of information on some important topics
that should interest you.
Depending on which package you've signed up for, there are many
items within your Control Panel that you can discover. We truly
hope that you will continue to explore and enjoy the hosting services
which we provide. If you have any questions, please drop line:
Ask A Question.
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