This article explains the steps you should follow after ordering a web hosting account, to quickly get your website up and running.

Shortly after placing your order, you'll receive a "Welcome Email" from us, containing all the information you need to get started (username, password, DNS information, etc). The following steps outline what you should do next:

Step 1 - Domain name setup
Step 2 - Login to CPanel
Step 3 - Setup your email addresses
Step 4 - Upload your website/files

If you already own your domain name, or registered one with another domain registrar, you have to change it's nameserver (or DNS) settings to the ones we give you in your welcome email. For example:

Nameserver 1: ns1.ausinterconnect.com.au  IP: 64.38.23.221 <- Primary
Nameserver 2: ns2.ausinterconnect.com.au  IP: 64.38.23.222

Note: The above assumes you are on our MAIN server. Please consult your welcome email to see which server your account is on, and what your nameservers should be set to.

If you registered your domain name through us, then we will have taken care of this for you... otherwise, you will have to do it yourself through the domain registrar where you registered your domain name. For detailed instructions on changing your domain name's DNS settings, consult your domain name registrar or our extensive list of tutorials for directions. If you have any difficulty with this, please contact our technical support team and they will help you. Once you make these DNS changes, it will take 24-48 hours (1 to 2 days) for them to take effect (for your domain name to propagate), after which time your domain name will start pointing to our servers and your new hosting account.

You'll want to login to your CPanel to do such things as view web stats, setup email addresses, MySQL databases, etc. To access your CPanel, enter the following into your browser:

http://yourcompany.com.au:2082   or   http://yourcompany.com.au/cpanel

... followed by your username and password (which are given to you in your welcome email).

Prior to Domain Name Propagation: The above link will not work until your domain name has fully propagated to our servers (24 - 48 hours after the correct nameserver settings are applied to your domain name, described in step 1). In the meantime, you can login to CPanel using the IP address of your primary nameserver (also given to you in your welcome email) like this:

http://64.38.23.221:2082   or   http://64.38.23.221/cpanel

Note: This assumes your primary nameserver is ns1.ausinterconnect.com.au (as shown above in step 1); be sure to check your welcome email to see which server your account is on, and what your primary nameserver IP address is.

Once you are logged in to your control panel, you'll want to setup at least one email address.

Email Forwarding: If you want to simply "forward" all email to an outside email address (like your ISP email address), then simply set your Default Address (a tool in the Mail Management section of CPanel) to your ISP email address.... or to any email address where you want the emails to automatically be forwarded to. That way, any email sent to 'anything'@yourdomain.com will be automatically (and immediately) sent to you. If you want to forward some emails to one address, and others to other addresses, you can do this with the Email Forwarders tool in your CPanel. Click here for a live tutorial on how to setup an email forwarder in CPanel.

Email Accounts (POP3 Accounts): If you want to create a new email address with it's own account (or email box; this is called a POP3 email account), then use the Add / Del Email Accounts tool in your CPanel. From there you can add POP3 email accounts, assigning each one it's own unique password. You will then want to go to your own email program (like Outlook, Outlook Express, etc.) and configure it to receive the emails sent to the new account you created. Click here for a live tutorial on how to setup a POP3 email account in CPanel.

For example: let's say your new hosting account is yourcompany.com and you created an email address in your control panel called you@yourcompany.com and assigned it a password called yourpass. The details you'll need to setup your email account(s) are as follows:

Account name: you@yourcompany.com
Password: yourpass
Incoming POP3: mail.yourcompany.com
Outgoing SMTP: mail.yourcompany.com

Note: Some ISP's do not allow you to send emails through 3rd-party SMTP servers. If yours doesn't, then you'll have to set your Outgoing SMTP setting to whatever your ISP instructs you to. This will NOT affect the look of emails you send. They'll still be "from" you.

Once your domain name has propagated, you can upload your website and files to your account using a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program like WS_FTP. If you do not have a FTP program, you can download a free version of WS_FTP (one of the most popular FTP programs in use today). Download the free version of WS_FTP now

Microsoft FrontPage: If you are using FrontPage to build your website, then you do not need a FTP program. Instead, use FrontPage's "Publish" feature to publish your website to your hosting account, using the username and password for your account (provided in your welcome email).

Note: In order for FrontPage publishing to work, you'll need the FrontPage Extensions installed in your hosting account. You can do this automatically in one easy step from the FrontPage extensions section of CPanel.

Prior to Domain Propagation: Another way to upload your files to your hosting account is by using the File Manager tool in CPanel. In fact, you can do this prior to your Domain Name propagating, so that your website will be functional prior to your domain name working. For more information on using the File Manager, and other tools in your control panel, check out our CPanel Help Guide.

Viewing your Website/Files Prior to Domain Name Propagation
You may want to view your website prior to your domain name working, to make sure that it looks/works the way it should. You can immediately view your website prior to your domain name propagating by using the following link:

http://IPaddress/~username

Where "IPaddress" is the primary nameserver IP address given to you in your welcome email, and "username" is the username for your hosting account which is also given to you in your welcome email. So for example, if we assigned you the IP address of 12.123.12.123, and a username of "youracct", then you would simply type the following address into your browser:

http://12.123.12.123/~youracct

If you want to view a specific page in your website, say contactus.html, then you would browse to:

http://12.123.12.123/~youracct/contactus.html

Of course, you will first have to upload your website to be able to view the pages.... and you can do that from within CPanel.

Congratulations!!