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Getting Started

Welcome and thanks for choosing to host with us!

This is a quick getting started guide, we advise everyone to read this in order to get the best from your hosting.
At Host4u we're passionate about web hosting and pride ourselves in our quality of service and level of support, so if there is anything you need - by all means let us know.

If you've completed signup then by now you should have your New Account Information email. This email contains the login details to access your website and it's control panel (known as Directadmin). Please note that your 'My Host4u' client area is different from your Directadmin control panel. Your My Host4u client area is for your billing management and support, where as your Directadmin control panel is to manage all aspects of your site. Each hosting account you purchase will have a new Directadmin control panel.

My Host4u Client Area
The client area can be found by going to https://portal.host-4u.co.uk/clientarea.php Once you login to the client area you can view your invoices, domain names, hosting accounts and support requests.
To login to this area use your email address and password you chose during signup. This will also have been sent to you in an email with the subject "Welcome".You can find specific help on using the client area in the knowledgebase.

Directadmin Control Panel
The Directadmin is where you can manage your website, everything from email address to files.
The login for your Directadmin is different from your My Host4u login. You can find the login details in your 'New Account Information' email.

They will look something like this:
Directadmin Address: www.your-domain.com:2222
Username: xxxxxxxx
Password: xxxxxxxx

Your Directadmin has many options, you probably won't need many of them but they are there if you do.
This guide will cover the fundamentals of getting started and the basics of getting your site online.

To change your Name Servers or DNS records Our name servers are below.
Once you have made the change you may need to wait several hours for the change to propagate. If your registrar only has 2 boxes for name servers then just use ns1 and ns2. You only need to enter the IP addresses in brackets should your registrar have an IP address box next to the name server box, otherwise these can be ignored.

ns1.host-4u.co.uk (178.159.2.94)
ns2.host-4u.co.uk (178.159.2.94)
ns3.host-4u.co.uk (178.159.2.94)
ns4.host-4u.co.uk (178.159.2.94)

Should you wish to only change your sites A records and not your name servers you can find the IP address for the A records in your 'New Account Information' email.

Creating / Uploading your Website
There are 3 main methods to creating your site, these are:

Installing ready made software such as Wordpress or Joomla
Uploading your site from desktop software such as Apple iWeb or Dreamweaver
Uploading your html or PHP files by FTP

1) One Click Software Installs
If you want to install popular software such as Wordpress, Joomla and Magento you can do this quickly and easily using the one click software installs in your Directadmin.
You can choose from hundreds of different softwares. To do this simply log in to your Directadmin and find the 'Softaculous' icon which is in the 'Software / Services' section.
Follow the on screen instructions to install whatever software you need. An important tip - if you wish to install software into the main 'root' of your domain then leave the 'installation directory/folder' box blank when installing the software.

2) Uploading your site from desktop software
You may have created your site in software such as Apple iWeb or Dreamweaver. Although the software is different they all use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to upload your website, so the settings are the same for all.
All of the settings can be found in your 'New Account Information' welcome email. Please see section 3 'Uploading your site via FTP' below for the FTP details you need.

3) Uploading your site via FTP
If you're uploading your site manually by FTP, the details are as follows.
Please ensure you upload into your files public_html folder, otherwise your website won't work.
Remote Server / FTP Address: This can be the server IP address, or your domain name (if your domain is already active)
Username: Your Directadmin/FTP username as mentioned in your New Account Information email
Password: Your Directadmin/FTP password as mentioned in your New Account Information email
Remote Folder / Path: public_html/

Creating Email Accounts
You can create email accounts in your Directadmin under the 'Email Accounts' section.
Email accounts can be created which can be accessed by all desktop software such as Microsoft Outlook and Mac Mail, mobile devices such as iPhone, Android and BlackBerry, as well as webmail.
Email can be synchronised between all devices.

Backups
We take a daily backup of your site and keep 14 days worth of daily backups for you, meaning you can restore any file from any day within the last 14 days.
We also keep 2 x 1 month snapshots, so you can go right back 2 months if you need too. You can access your backups under the 'Create/Restore Backups' option in your Directadmin, or simply ask us to restore a backup for you.

We've made a special effort to put in place as much useful help information in this knowledgebase as possible, but if you find something that isn't covered then drop us a support request via your client area and we'll be happy to help.

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