Aesthetics plays a big part in making working in front of a computer less tedious. One now has more choices with the type of panel skin on would like to use. Panel skins not only reflect the user’s personality, but it also helps increase the ease of use and lessen eye strain. This is because it can now be customized to the users own level of comfort in terms of color, lay-out, and icon design.

The tutorial below will show you how to change your Control Panel skins from within Plesk:

1. Login to Plesk.

2. From the Domain group, click on the icon that says “Domain Administrator”.

3. This will lead you to the Domain Administrators page where you can change the way Plesk looks by changing the Interface Skin.

4. Scroll the screen down.

5. When you see the box that says “Domain administrator’s interface skin”, click on the drop-down arrow and choose the new interface skin that you would want to use.

6. Now scroll down again.

7. Click on the button that says “OK”.

8. Now you can see that Plesk has changed its looks, colors, and icon but not, in any way, has it changed the way it works. If you want to bring it back the way it was, just click on the icon that says “Domain Administrator” again.

9. Scroll back down.

10. Click on the drop-down arrow of the “Domain administrator’s interface skin”.

11. And choose the previous setting.

12. Scroll down.

13. Click on the button that says “OK” when you are finished.

14. That’s it, the skin has been changed back to the way it was. This is the end of the tutorial. You now know how to change your Control Panel skin in Plesk.

15. Thank you for watching our demo.

November 24, 2011 at 10:22 pm | No comment

Plesk is a web hosting program that allows an administrator to set up accounts, websites, and DNS entries. The tutorial below will show you how to become familiar and navigate around in Plesk, what are the features available and how to navigate the various available pages.

Follow these steps in order to become more familiar around Plesk:

1. Login to Plesk.

2. Click on the icon that says “Desktop” directly above the “Home” icon.

3. This will lead you to the Desktop page which is a new feature in Plesk 8. It contains quick links to commonly used tools in Plesk.

4. Take a look around by scrolling to the right.

5. Next, scroll down.

6. Aside from providing quick links, the Desktop page also provides some quick statistics like disk space usage, traffic limit, etc.

7. Now scroll further down. You can also see a section labeled “Favorites” which provides links to the most recently used tools in the account.

8. Scroll back up and click on the link that says “Home”.

9. The Home page lists a lot of available tools and is therefore divided into several groups.

The Domain group contains tools like Reports, Limits, Domain Aliases, and the Backup Tool.

The Services group contains tools like Mail, DNS, and Databases. Now scroll down.

10. The Hosting group is where you will find tools like “Set Up” of your hosting, creating “Web Users, “Subdomains”, using “File Manager”, and “SSH”. Now scroll down again.

11. At the bottom of the Home page, you can see specific information about this domain like used and allowed disk space. Now click on the link just below the Home link named “Sessions”.

12. The link will lead you to the Sessions Management page where you can see the number of people that are presently logged in to your Plesk account. Now click on the link named “FTP Sessions”.

13. This link will show a list of the people who are using FTP for your domain. Now click on Home link to return to the Home page.

14. This is the end of the tutorial. You should now be more familiar with the various features and tools available in the new Plesk desktop.

15. Thank you for watching our demo.

November 23, 2011 at 9:58 pm | No comment

Password-protecting a directory is a useful tool to limit access to files or folders in your account to allowed users only. Often, this is used by Plesk account holders to give access privileges only to their members.

To use this utility in Plesk, here is a step-by-step guide:

1. Login to your Plesk account.

2. In the main Plesk control panel, click the “Directories” icon under the “Hosting” category.

3. The “Protected Directories” page should appear shortly listing all the currently protected directories in the account. If there are no password-protected directories in the account, the list would simply be empty.

4. To create a password-protected directory, first click the “Add New Directory” icon.

5. Then enter the name of the directory that you wish to protect in the text field labeled “Directory Name.”

6. If the directory that you entered does not exist, Plesk will create this folder and protect it.

7. Then, enter the header text in the “Header Text” field. The “header text” is the message that will display in the title bar whenever users are prompted for their username and password while accessing the said directory.

8. Click the “OK” button when you are done with the previous steps.

9. After the password-protected directory has been successfully created, you should then create at least one user who can access the said location.

10. To do this, click the “Add New User’ icon.

11. Choose a username and password for this user.

12. Confirm the password by re-entering it in the provided text field. This step is necessary to avoid any spelling errors on your part.

13. Click the “OK” button when you are done with the previous steps.

14. The new user has been successfully added if the name of the user appears in the list. This user can then access the files or pages of the directory by simply keying in his/her username and password whenever prompted.

15. You can also add more users who can access the pages or files in the password-protected directory you created. To do so, simply repeat the same process.

16. You can also delete users by selecting the name of the user and clicking the “Remove selected” link. The user is then successfully removed if the name is immediately taken out of the list.

17. Next, click the “Protected Directories” link at the upper left-hand corner of the right column. You will then be directed to the “Protected Directories” main page where you can also remove the password protection of a specified directory.

18. Just select the name of the directory and click the “Remove Selected” link.

19. Confirm the removal.

20. Then click the “OK” button to proceed with the action. Remember that by removing the protection of any directory does not remove the directory itself.

November 22, 2011 at 12:57 am | No comment

Plesk has the “PHPmyAdmin” utility that provides users a wide range of operations in managing their “MySQL.” With this tool, users can manage databases, tables, indexes, relations, fields, users, permissions and a lot more.

To use this tool in Plesk, simply follow these steps:

1. Login to your Plesk account.

2. In your Plesk control panel, click the “Databases” link under the “Services” section.

3. The main “Databases” page should appear onscreen. This is the same page that you need to visit whenever you want to manage databases in your Plesk account.

4. To manage a specific database, first click its name on the list. Database tools should then appear shortly.

5. Click on the “DB WebAdmin” tool icon to enter the “PHPmyAdmin.”

6. You will then be directed to the “PHPmyAdmin” main page where you can manage your “MySQL Databases.”

7. Click on the name of the “MySQL Database” that you wish to manage at the left column.

8. Upon loading, a tool should appear shortly, providing you options of creating or adding new tables to your database. Just skip this part by clicking the “SQL” link.

9. Then, import an existing table by clicking the “Browse” button.

10. Choose the filename that contains the table that you wish to import and select the “Open” button to access it.

11. Click the “Go” button to proceed with the previous actions.

12. A short notice should then appear onscreen stating that the SQL query has been executed if you have successfully imported the recently selected table.

13. To export this table, click the “Export” tab at the uppermost corner of the right column. Then scroll down and select the “Save as file” check box.

14. Then click “Go” to continue with the recently selected actions.

15. Select the location or folder where you wish the table to be exported to and click the “OK” button when you are done.

16. You have successfully saved the recently exported table if the file appears in the location or folder that you recently provided.

17. If at any time you need help with using the “PHPMyAdmin” or “MySQL,” simply click the “?” or the “SQL” icons at the uppermost part of the left column. Clicking these icons would pull up help guides that can come handy whenever you are managing your “MySQL” databases with “PHPmyAdmin” in Plesk.

18. If you are done managing you “MySQL” database, you can return to the main “PHPmyAdmin” page by clicking the home icon at the uppermost part of the left column.

19. You can also exit the your “PHPmyAdmin” by simply closing the currently active browser window.

20. Thank you for watching and reading our tutorial if you have any questions please leave them below.

November 21, 2011 at 12:48 am | No comment

Mailing Lists are essential tools for building rapport with your customers and expanding your business.

Here is an easy, step-by-step guide for you to follow when creating a mailing list in Plesk:

1. Login to your Plesk account.

2. Under the “Services” section of your control panel, click the “Mail” icon.

3. The “Mail Names” page should appear shortly. This is the page that you would have to access if you wish modify or create mailboxes, mail redirects, mail groups and autoresponders. In the same page, you can also create mailing lists in Plesk.

4. Click the “Mailing Lists” tab.

5. The list should be empty if no mailing lists are currently set up in your Plesk account. To set up one, first click the “Add New Mailing List” icon.

6. Then, enter a name for the new mailing list in the text field labeled “Mailing list name.”

7. Enter and confirm a password in the proceeding fields provided.

8. Then, provide an email address that will serve as the administrator of the mailing list.

9. Click the “OK” button after you are done with the previous steps.

10. The page for the recently created mailing list should then appear onscreen. You should then add email addresses of subscribers to the list.

11. To do this, click the “Add New Member” icon on the same mailing list page.

12. Then, enter the email address of the member in the field provided and click “OK” when you are done.

13. The recently added email address of a member or subscriber should then be listed in the “Mailing List Members” section. You can add as many email addresses in this mailing list as you want by simply repeating the same procedures.

14. Then, go back to the main mailing list page by clicking the “Mailing Lists” link at the upper left hand corner of the right column.

15. This will then bring you back to the page where you can edit existing “Mailing lists” in your Plesk account. To do this, just click on the selected mailing list and modify the properties.

16. You can also add more mailing lists, by simply clicking the “Add New Mailing List” icon on this page and following the same procedures.

17. To delete an existing mailing list, first select the name of the list that you wish to delete. Then click the “Remove Selected” link in the Mailing Lists sub-menu categories.

18. Confirm the removal of the list and click the “OK” button when you are done.

19. The mailing list is successfully removed if it no longer appears in the list of “Mailing Lists.” You can remove more mailing lists by doing the same procedures.

November 20, 2011 at 12:29 am | No comment