After you order an offshore shared hosting plan, you will receive credentials to access cPanel, which is the web-based control panel to manage your hosting account. Here’s how to get started:

• Locate Your cPanel Login: In your welcome email from Offshore-Servers, find the cPanel URL, username, and password. The URL often looks like https://yourserverIP:2083 or a branded URL like https://offshore-servers.com/cpanel. You can also log into the Offshore-Servers client area, go to your Hosting service, and click “Login to cPanel” if single sign-on is provided.
• Log In to cPanel: Open the cPanel URL in your browser. You’ll see a login page for cPanel. Enter the username and password provided (be careful to copy them exactly, as they are case-sensitive). Click “Log In.” You should now see the cPanel home interface with lots of icons/categories for different management tools.
• Familiarize with cPanel Interface: The cPanel dashboard is typically divided into sections like Files, Databases, Email, Domains, etc. You can quickly search for functions using the search bar at the top. For example, typing “email” will show all email-related options. The left or top may show your account stats (disk usage, bandwidth usage, number of databases, etc.).
• Update Password and Security: One of the first things you might do is update your cPanel password to something you prefer (and secure). Look for the Password & Security option in cPanel (usually under the Preferences section). Also, set up account security like two-factor authentication (2FA) if cPanel offers it, to protect against unauthorized access.
• Add Your Domain (if not already added): If you signed up with a domain, it’s likely already associated with your cPanel. If you want to host additional domains on the same account (addon domains), go to Domains > Addon Domains and add the domain name, pointing it to a folder (cPanel will create a directory for it). Make sure to update that domain’s DNS to point to this host (we cover DNS below).
• Uploading a Placeholder Page: Initially, Offshore-Servers might have a default holding page for your site. You can replace it by uploading your website files (covered in the next section). But just to verify everything is working, you could create a simple test via cPanel’s File Manager (create a file public_html/test.txt and put some text, then try accessing yourdomain.com/test.txt in a browser).

Essentially, getting started in cPanel involves logging in and acquainting yourself with the environment. cPanel is very intuitive: clicking on any icon opens the respective tool. Don’t be afraid to explore options like File Manager, Email Accounts, PHPMyAdmin, etc., which we will go through next. Remember that any changes you make in cPanel (like adding an email or subdomain) are usually effective immediately, with the friendly UI saving you from manual configuration.

Now, let’s dive into specific tasks you’ll want to accomplish in cPanel for your website.