mastering your new control panel -...

Your new control panel has been massively improved in all areas and even has some fantastic new improvements that will make managing your web hosting quicker and easier:

Enhanced DNS control

Customer management o Custom hosting templates o New Customer relationship manager o Improved API o More branding options with contemporary templates

Pay with PayPal

New, improved, support site

Mastering your new control panel

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Contents Your new control panel ........................................................................................................................... 2

Domain names ........................................................................................................................................ 2

Advanced DNS ..................................................................................................................................... 2

Notes for UK domain names ............................................................................................................... 2

Useful Articles ..................................................................................................................................... 3

Hosting .................................................................................................................................................... 3

SSL ....................................................................................................................................................... 4

Password Protection ........................................................................................................................... 4

Account level FTP ................................................................................................................................ 4

How do I design my own web hosting packages for my customers? ................................................. 5

Email Hosting ...................................................................................................................................... 7

Useful Articles ..................................................................................................................................... 9

Email ...................................................................................................................................................... 10

Virtual Servers ....................................................................................................................................... 10

Useful Links ....................................................................................................................................... 10

Customer Management ........................................................................................................................ 10

New Customer Relationship manager .............................................................................................. 10

Assigning a package to a specific customer ...................................................................................... 11

Domain contact management .......................................................................................................... 12

Customer Control Panels .................................................................................................................. 16

Useful Links ....................................................................................................................................... 18

Reseller API ....................................................................................................................................... 18

Your Account ......................................................................................................................................... 19

Admin and owner contacts ............................................................................................................... 19

Adding an additional user ................................................................................................................. 19

PayPal ................................................................................................................................................ 22

Useful Links ....................................................................................................................................... 22

Your new support site ........................................................................................................................... 23

Creating a new ticket enquiry ........................................................................................................... 23

Viewing your support tickets ............................................................................................................ 24


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Your new control panel As well as a new support site, your new control panel come with an improved

interface, greater performance, and additional features.

Domain names

Advanced DNS

Your previous control panel allowed you to forward your domain name elsewhere, or

split up your DNS to point your website to an IP address and your email to another.

You new control panel provides you with many more DNS features, allowing you full

control over your domain name records.

Your new control panel allows you to create the following types of records:

A Records

CNAME record

MX Records

TXT Records

AAAA Records

Glue Records

You can also create multiple records (the old control panel only allowed one A record

and one MX record).

Quick tip: Find out more In our article: How do I modify advanced DNS

settings on a domain?

Notes for UK domain names

UK domain names have an associated IPS tag. This tag shows Nominet (the registrar for

.uk domain names) that we are responsible for your domain name.

To help us with the administration of your domain name, when we upgraded your

https://resellers.fasthosts.co.uk/app/answers/detail/a_id/9



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control panel, we also updated your IPS tag from “FASTHOSTS” to “LIVEDOMAINS”.

This will have no effect on the operation of your domain name, but allows us to see

that you are using the newest control panel available.

Transferring uk domain names

Previously, to transfer your uk domain name to Fasthosts you were advised to change

the IPS tag to FASTHOSTS and then add the domain name to your control panel. While

you can still follow this process, this may result in a delay in transferring your domain

name to us. We therefore recommend following the process below:

To transfer a domain name to your upgraded control panel, first, add the domain name

to your control panel then contact your existing supplier and ask them to change the

IPS tag to LIVEDOMAINS. Find out more in our article: How do I transfer my UK domain

to Fasthosts?

Useful Articles

Can I host my domain name in a different Fasthosts control panel?

How can I regain control of a delegated domain name?

Interactive guide - How do I transfer my domain name from another provider?

How do I point my domain to Fasthosts if I'm using external DNS?

What are SPF records?

How can I add a sub-domain to my domain name?

How can I set up website forwarding?

How do I renew my domain name?

How do I change a domain's renewal options?

Hosting As well as updating the control panel, we have also made improvements to our shared

hosting platform, enabling new features and increasing resilience. While your control

panel has been updated, existing websites will continue to operate on the same shared

hosting platform to ensure that there are no changes to any websites performance

during this move.

Any future websites that you add to your control panel will automatically be added to

our new hosting platform. In addition, any change in features to existing websites that

require a server move (Windows to Linux for example) will result in a move to our new

hosting platform.

In most cases, this will not cause a change in behaviour. However there are a few cases

where feature or services will behave differently across both platforms. Notably SSL,



http://resellers.fasthosts.co.uk/app/answers/detail/a_id/1304










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Password protection, and global FTP access.

SSL

While the old hosting platform used separate SSL servers to provide secure space to

your customers, each new webserver on our new platform has SSL space enabled,

allowing you to access your secure files from the same FTP connection as your website.

Our articles and guides explain this in more detail:

How do I setup SSL secure web space?

Changing your hosting platform with SSL

Password Protection

While password protection used to rely upon users and passwords being stored in a

text file within your protected space, users and folders can now be managed within

your control panel. If you are moving a website from a server on our old hosting

platform, onto a server on our new platform you will need to temporarily remove

password protection, then set it back up again within your control panel once your

website is on the new server.

What is SafeZone?

How do I install SafeZone on my Linux domain?

How do I install SafeZone on my Windows domain?

Account level FTP

You old control panel provided you with access to all your customers websites using a

single master (global) FTP account. Your new control panel still supports this feature,

however we recognise that this is not always suitable for all business types. You can

now remove the master (global) FTP account from your control panel at any time.

To remove Global FTP, or change your global FTP

password simply log into your account and select

Global Level FTP from the Branding and tools drop

down menu.


http://help.fasthosts.co.uk/euf/assets/pdf-guides/updating-ssl.pdf





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Then click Disable Global Level

FTP

How do I design my own web hosting packages for my customers?

Fasthosts provides a number of ready made packages that you can brand and advertise to your customers. However, you may want to supply custom templates to match your own imagination and fit in with your business concepts.

You can create any number of hosting packages through your Reseller control panel.

Step 1 Log in to your control panel and select Website Hosting from the Hosting menu.

Note: A complete guide to FTP users is available at: http://resellers.fasthosts.co.uk/euf/assets/pdf-guides/manage-FTP.pdf

http://resellers.fasthosts.co.uk/euf/assets/pdf-guides/manage-FTP.pdf


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Step 2 Click Design a New Package

Step 3 The Design a new package screen has a number of sections to help you configure your

packages as quickly and simply as possible.

Package name and description

These fields allow you to enter a name for your hosting package and a brief description

of the package benefits. Your customer will see this if they are signing up for additional

packages in your control panel, so choose the package name that’s most suitable for

use with your other marketing campaigns.


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Email Hosting

Check the box next to Email Hosting if you would like to add email hosting to your

package. In this section you can also select the different mailbox types that will be

available on your new package.


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Website Hosting

Check the box next to Website Hosting if you would like to add web space to your

package. You also need to select Windows or Linux hosting by checking the

appropriate box at the top of this section.

You can also add and remove features from your package to fit in with your business

model.


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Package Cost Guide

In the top right of the screen is a Package

Cost Guide. This will give you an idea of the

initial charge made to you if you add this

package to a domain name. This price is

based on our current prices, and excludes any

special offers available at the time. If there

are any special offers available when the

package is added, you will be charged the

discounted rates for the associated services.

Once you have checked the features of your new package and are happy with the

Package Cost Guide, click Save for Later to add your new package to your custom

package list, or Save and Install to add the package to your custom template list and

add a domain using this package to your control panel at the same time.

You will see onscreen confirmation that your new package has been created.

Useful Articles

Getting Started with Your New Reseller Account

What is a test domain and how can I use it?

How can I find a website's FTP details?

How do I upload a website using my control panel?

Note: You will not be charged for creating package templates, and can

create as many as you like. We will only charge you when a package is

added to a domain in your account.

Quick tip: Your control panel does not come with any free templates by default. If you want to add hosting packages to your account without any additional services, simply create a new template containing only services that are free of charge.






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Third Party Applications

How can I install Joomla! on my hosting package?

Can I install WordPress on my hosting package?

Can I install osCommerce on my hosting package?

Can I install Mambo on my hosting package?

Can I install phpCOIN on my webserver?

Can I install Zen cart on my webserver?

Email No changes have been made to your email platform, and your email will continue to

operate exactly as before. However, your control panel is now capable of configuring

mailbox settings that were previously only available through the mailbox control panel.

Virtual Servers You now have the ability to provision and configure virtual servers within your reseller

control panel, providing you with an additional product in your portfolio, allowing you

to supply a greater range of products for your customers, or create ad-hoc servers to

match a specific customer requirements.

With a range of real-time analytics available within your control panel, or advanced

server monitoring, allowing you to set up a range of alerts such as web content, port

and resource monitoring, virtual servers provide you complete control over your own

hosting environment.

Virtual servers can be managed directly from your control panel, or through customer

control panels, depending upon your preferred business model.

Useful Links

What is a Virtual Private Server?

How can I add a new Virtual Server to my account?

How do I upgrade my Virtual server?

How can I add Advanced Server Monitoring to a server in my account?

Customer Management

New Customer Relationship manager

Keeping customers’ details up to date is an important part of any business. The












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Fasthosts control panel contains a Customer Relationship Manager which acts as a

central point for monitoring your customers’ needs, allowing you to make changes to

multiple domains and services at the click of a button.

A customer will often have a number of domains and services associated with their

account. When updating your customers contact details, the Customer Relationship

Manager will automatically find the domains and services associated with the

customer and update these contact details to match, saving you time.

The Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) allows you to do the following:

Export your customers’ details to your local machine via a comma separated

spreadsheet or PDF file.

Update and administer your customers contact details.

Contact your customer base with new promotions.

Allow customers direct access to the control panel.

Add and create notes.

View all the products and services associated with a specific customer.

Allow your customers to opt in or out of your marketing emails.

Synchronize your customer contact details with domain contact information.

Set a global .uk opt out for domain registrations

To navigate to the Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) simply log into your

Fasthosts control panel and click Customers.

Assigning a package to a specific customer

Transferring packages from one customer to another can be useful, particularly if one customer is taking control of domain names or services that are assigned to another. Making sure that packages within your account are assigned to the correct customers can be invaluable when using our Customer Relationship Management facility to track your customer activity.

Step 1 Locate the package you would like to assign to a different customer and click Change.

Quick tip: Fasthosts will never contact your customers, or distribute their contact details to anyone.


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Step 2 A full list of your existing customers will be displayed. Select the customer you would like to move the package to, or click New Customer to create a new entry in the list, and click Change Customer.

The package will be immediately transferred to the new customer.

Domain contact management

Every domain name that you register needs to have its owner’s contact details associated with it. This is great, until you need to change your address… on every single domain name you own!

With our great new control panel, you can now synchronise these contact details with your Fasthosts account details. Then, whenever you change your account details, it’s automatically reflected on all the domain names that you have chosen to link to your Fasthosts account details.

This way, if you change your contact details you will only need to update them once.

Other domain contacts using the same details will be automatically updated, saving

you time, and making administering your domain names easier than ever.

How do I update the contact details of a domain name?

https://help.fasthosts.co.uk/app/answers/detail/a_id/481


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Adding a new customer to your Control Panel

You can add new customers to your control panel in a number of ways. The easiest is

just to enter the data directly into the control panel using the new customer form.

On the Manage your customers screen, click the button marked Add Customer.

The Add Customers Details

form will appear.

Enter your customers

details in the text boxes

provided.

Once done, click Save

Customer Details to add

this new customer into

your control panel.


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Editing Existing Customers

Step 1 On the Manage Your Customers screen, select the customer you would like to update.

Step 2 A list of your customers contact details are shown in the left hand side of the control

panel. Enter any changes in the text boxes provided and click Save Customer Details to

save the changes.

Quick tip: The Whois register lists details on domain names, providing

information on the domains registrar, expiration date, the date the

domain was registered and the contact details for the domain owner.

If you are an individual registering a .uk domain name for personal use

you may opt out of the whois register. Your domain name will still be

listed, and show details for your domain name, however the owner

contact information will be hidden from public view.

By checking this box any .uk domain names your customer registers will

automatically be opted out of the Whois register.


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View and create Customer notes

Building and maintaining relationships with your customers is good business practice.

The CRM will allow you to store key notes, allowing you to keep information

centralized and relevant.

Once you have navigated to the CRM system, click on your customer’s name to display

their profile.

On the right hand side of the screen is a section marked Customer Notes. Click the

triangle next to this title to maximize the section and view your current notes.

To Add a note, enter your information in the text box provided and click Save Notes.

Quick tip: To view products or services that may also be updated when

changing a customer’s contact details, click View Domain Names &

Hosting Packages in the Products and Services box.

If you do not want to update the contact details of an associated domain

name you can change the domains contact details manually.


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View all the products and services associated with a customer

Your customer may have multiple domain names and packages with you. You are able

to keep track of all the products and packages associated with a specific customer

through your CRM. Once you have navigated to the CRM, click the button marked View

Products just to the right of your customers name.

This will display all domain registrations and hosting services associated with the

customer, together with the date the service was added to your account. You can also

click the CSV or PDF buttons to export the list to your local computer.

Customer Control Panels

While you can keep complete control over your customer’s domains and hosting, the

Fasthosts Control Panel also allows you to delegate direct access for your customers.

This enables customers access to perform basic tasks themselves, freeing up your time

to run your business.

Customer control panels can be branded to match your company’s theme

Branding Customer control panels

Select Customer Control Panel from the Branding menu.

Note: Your customers will be unable to do the following:

Change payment details

View domains and packages not assigned to them


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From this screen you can customise the look and feel of your customer control panels.

Control Panel URL: This is the URL that customers can enter to find their control panels.

Brand Name: Enter your company name in this field, this name will be shown in each customer control panel.

Your contact details: From time to time your customers may want to contact you. Enter your contact details in this text box. This information will be displayed at the foot of your customers control panels.

Enter your company name, logo and corporate colours into the fields provided. Once

complete, click Save Control Panel Settings.

Your customer control panels will now match your corporate branding.

Activating customer control panels

On the Manage Your Customers screen, you will be shown a list of your customers,


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select Activate next to the customer you would like to enable direct access for.

Enter a username for your customer, you will also be asked for a password and

security question that your customer can use to access their control panel.

Once done, click Activate Control Panel.

You will be shown the details needed to access your customers control panel.

Your customer management screen will now show Settings rather than Activate in the

Control Panel column. Click this button to change your customers control panel

username and password.

Useful Links

How do I brand the interfaces my customers will use?

How do I create custom branded nameservers (Personal DNS)?

How do I custom brand SiteBuilder?

How do I custom brand Webmail?

Reseller API

In addition to the branding options listed above, the reseller API has been upgraded,






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making it easier than ever to automate your business.

What is the reseller API?

How do I use the reseller API?

Your Account

Admin and owner contacts

Your account currently allows two different login users, known as the Owner and Admin passwords. The Owner password allows full access to the control panel. The optional Admin password allows access to the control panel and support website, but does not allow access to the Your Account section.

When your account is migrated to our new control panel your Owner login details will be set up as the main access details to your account. If you are using a different Admin password, these login details will be copied across also.

You can set up additional users for your Rise control panel, allowing employees to help administer your customers and their services. There are two types of additional user account available alongside your main account user, and there is no restriction to the number of additional users you can create.

Main Account User: This is your main account, and you have full access to the

entire account through your control panel.

Full access: A full access user has access to all areas of the control panel. They

can add, modify, or remove services, manage customers, and view and update

billing details. A full access user cannot add or manage additional account

users.

Restricted access: A restricted user will not be able to access the billing section

of the control panel or manage additional account users. They can manage

services, domains, and customers. If you have specified an Admin password for

your account, a restricted access user will be automatically created for you

during the control panel migration process.

Adding an additional user

Note: If you have an Admin user in your account it will be migrated to the new control panel as a Restricted User. The username will be preceded with “_admin”. For example, if you login with the username “ralph”, your Admin username will change to “ralph_admin”.




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You can add additional users from your control panel.

Step 1 Log in to your control panel and click on My Account at the top of the page.

Step 2 Additional account users are listed under the Main Account User contact details. Click

Add New User.

Step 3 Enter the First Name and Last Name of your new user.

Step 4 Enter and confirm the email address that the user will use to login to the account with.

Choose and confirm the login password.

Step 5 Enter the address details of the user.

Note: You will be unable to create or manage additional user accounts if you are logged in as an additional user. You must be logged in as the Main Account User to manage additional user accounts.

Note: The user can change the password at any time once they have logged in to the control panel.


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Step 6 Enter telephone and fax contact details.

Step 7 In the Account Settings section, choose the Access Type for this user. Full access users have full control over the account and services and customers within it. The Restricted user is unable to access the billing area of the control panel, and therefore cannot modify payment details or view invoices.

Choose the preferred method we should use if we need to contact the user for any reason.

Step 8 Choose a Security Question and enter the Answer. This will be used to verify this user if they forget their login details and need to login to the account or contact our support team.

Click Save Contact Details when you are ready.

Note: You can change the access type for any additional user at any time from your control panel.


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You will receive on-screen confirmation that the user has been created, and the new user account will be activated immediately.

PayPal

You can now pay for your services using your PayPal Account. It’s quick and easy to set

up and allows you to pay for all purchases and renewals automatically through PayPal.

What is a PayPal billing agreement?

Can I pay for my account using PayPal?

Useful Links

How do I update my Fasthosts control panel login details?

How do I update my contact details?

How do I view and export paid invoices?

How do I view forthcoming recurring payments?

Note: There are some differences for additional users when requesting support. See the chapter Creating a new ticket enquiry on page 23 for more information.








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Your new support site

To support your new control panel we have a new support site, with guides to your

new panel and new features that you may find useful.

To access our great new support site, simple click the "Support" tab at the top of every

page of your control panel, or log in directly at http://help.fasthosts.co.uk.

Your new support site has a large

number of articles and guides

designed to help with any queries

that you may have. Simply enter

your question into the search box

provided to see a list of articles

that may be useful to you.

Quick tip: If the article is not quite what you are looking for you can find a

short list of related articles, and articles other customers have found useful

at the bottom of each page.

Creating a new ticket enquiry

You no longer need to remember your

support PIN to contact us. With our new

ticket tracking system, contacting us is

easier than ever.

Email enquiries allow us to deal with

any queries in the most efficient way.

To send an enquiry to our customer

service team simply click the Contact us

tab at the top of the screen, and enter

your enquiry in the text boxes provided.

Quick Tip: To ensure your ticket is answered fully first time, please include

as much information as possible, including any details of how we can

replicate any errors.

http://help.fasthosts.co.uk/


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You will be provided with a reference number and can view the progress on your

enquiry, or edit your ticket from the My Support section of your website.

Viewing your support tickets

As well as a wide range of articles and guides, your new support site allows you to

track the progress of any enquiries you have. To view a ticket, click the My Support tab

at the top of the screen.

From this screen, you can monitor the progress of existing enquiries, or reply to any

ticket updates created by our customer support team.

Simply click on a ticket in this screen to view its progress, note any replies, or to reply

to a ticket yourself.

Note: Additional users will not be able to email our support or billing teams. Only the owner of the account can email us directly for support. Any email enquiries should be submitted through the Contact Us tab of the support website.

mastering your new control panel -...

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