Getting Started With Server Beach

[anythinghost]

I just signed up yesterday and I am exstreamly disapointed. I do not have a degree in computer programing. I have had a reseller web hosting but decided to move up a step to dedicated. Alot of things that were advertised have not come true. Where is the 24/7 support? There is no knowledge base for anyone that is new just to get started. A newbie is left out in dry. There are so many questions concerning seting up that with out the answers, one is certain to fail before they get started. I have never seen a company without some type of knowledge base to guy new people throught the process of setting up.
Now, my immediate question is: I log into the main/root cpanel and at the top it says; "welcome yourdomain.com" How do I go about using that cpanel as my hosting company and changing the "welcome yourdomain.com" to an actual domain name? I assume that this is what this root cpanel is for.

Thanks

[Tino Didriksen]

A newbie is left out in dry. There are so many questions concerning seting up that with out the answers, one is certain to fail before they get started.ServerBeach sells self-managed dedicated servers. Newbies aren't a target market group for them...hence why it's also so cheap.

Support is there, but it's not meant for lengthy setup questions. Support is for serious problems. You get the 3 free tickets for the initial support, but after using those it's $15 per request.

Keyword: Self-managed.

[anythinghost]

That is very rediculous! This company uses their website to attract newbie and not just high-tech computer webmasters. A company today without any kind of knowledge base or access for setting up (even with the knowledgable people) is a company with out a very good customer relations I am going to have to cancel this adventure and just lose the money. Why? just one little item that they could have set up... KNOWLEDGE BASE!

[anythinghost]

One other thing... as far as the support; I havn't got any reply to my last support ticket yesterday.

[dhigbee]

anythinghost,

I don't know about you, but I read all the details before signing up. It clearly states these are self managed servers. To me, I would not have it any other way.

As for the knowledge base? It's here. Ask questions, I am sure you will get the answer. You can also check the web. There are tons of web sites out there to get answers to your questions. I know I had to learn alot to get my server going, and I am still learning. While a knowledge base is a good idea, don't let the lack of one scare you off. The answers are out there.

Yes, support is slow. But, it is getting better all the time. I have been here a year now and have seen quite a few enhancements and improvements. This forum is quite recent. More improvements are coming.

Welcome to Server Beach.

Don

[anythinghost]

I have set up a server called host1.anythinghost.com. When you go to that url, page can not be displayed. When I login into the root cpanel and at the top it states: welcome to yourdomain.com What do I need to do to have the welcome to yourdomain.com changed to a real domain name. I also installed a trial ssl cert on host1.anythinghost.com and nothing happens. Then there is the resolver issue. There are several answers out there. If someone that is knowlegeable could take a whm setup configuration and make some notes concerning what to put into each step and create a new forum called: "GETTING STARTED" it would be of great help to us that are new and wanting to move up a step. I know that it is a learning process and I am willing to learn but I have never seen anything that has been as confusing and without any coherient statement of "how-to"
I am personally gratefull to all the mentors out there that do share their knowledge freely.

[dhigbee]

I am not a Cpanel user so can not answer your questions on it's use. As for anythinghost.com domain, is it pointing to your new server? If not, I don't believe host1.anythinghost.com will work.

My suggestion to you is to place you question under the Cpanel forum. Your question may be getting lost under this forum.

Don

[anythinghost]

THANKS

[awsolutions]

anythinghost,

These are self managed servers - keyword self!

Here ya go:
http://www.cpanel.net/support/index.htm

A little help! Read it and then read it again, and then repeat steps 1 and 2!

Thats what I always do before adopting ANY new control panels or software!

[Infopro]

@awsolutions,
surely you're joking about going to cpanels forums or using that online help? LOL
Also, how many more people would SB have signing up (even though its "self managed" if they had at least the basics posted?
BTW, I spoke with support here recently and EVERYONE I did, was very nice, and helpful. Not as detailed as i would have liked, but they were nice and I thank them for that.

Without his permission, I'll quote one of the guys who emailed me back recently..
We are working hard to streamline our customer service and support to provide better and quicker resolution. We are also working on documentation to help alleviate problems such as these.




@anythinghost,
I have been going thru the same as you, have read your posts and I'm a bit further into this than you are I think at this time. I was running off a reseller account and moved up to here thinking it was a smart move, it is. But there's lots more to learn yet, and I got a bill for two servers now and so I'm under the gun to get this one done and running.
I have mine working after many days of waiting for support (and then getting it somewhat) and I have my customers moved to the new server and they work.

I notice posts about DNS config aroun dherer a lot. Many many people are lost here with this. I would really love to see server beach (or anyone else who knows it all) at least type us up a tutorial for this alone. Get us going and then we can learn the rest as time permits.


I did what some folks suggested here and did a search at google, (you ever notice those that say search the net for an answer, don't have the time to help with a link to what they say is out here?) and got more confused than I was before I started.
I also think that those that know this stuff, dont want to sit down and type up exact step by step because it would be ripped by every hosting co, for their own use. IMHO of course...
( I looked around at a few other places similar to server beach and found little to go on there as well)

I don't know if how mine is setup is 100% correct, but it works, even the nameservers both work if you ping them. LOL That was a lesson in patience truely. i did not use SB DNS tool, as someone posted here somewhere recently, I wanted my own nameservers (to look cool) as he said. LMAO!


I am on a server with cpanel, and my first stop was to work out the nameserver stuff, then I went and setup a reseller account for myself, and moved all of my customers over to here with the move option in the WHM. All of these accounts work, there are no known problems that I can see at this time other than my new server here is blacklisted at spews and i cant email myself from my ISP to my own new server. what a pain this is.

Anyway, to keep from boring everyone here with Q&A feel free to email me and i'll help you out. yes it's new for me too, but I think I'm about 2 weeks ahead of you in learning and after all I went thru I want to extend the offer of helping you where I can.

BTW, I have seen lots of posts around these forums saying use ns1 and ns2 I dont know about that, I use ns and ns1 and mine work. Can you use the others? Not sure about that.

And just so those I mentioned earler dont attack me for leaving without posting a few links of my own..

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/dns4/
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/tcp3/
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/esa3/



My next lesson is to do one of the other things you want to do as well, change this page.
http://infopronetwork.info/ This is the domain I use for my nameservers and hostname.

Where I been so far, that should be a cake walk. ;)

[Dave]

Seting up your DNS i have found is Farly Simple.

This is what i do as simple as i can spell it out.

I login to my domain name Provider then most of them like Godaddy and Directnic have a way to add a Name server do this and point them at your server IP i use NS and NS2 as far as i know it don't mater.

Once pointed at your server it takes about 1 - 2 days for the DNS to fully point to your server, you should go in to Webmin 7 /cPanel 7 this is what i have used, and on the left menu (useing the X Skin) the top link is like server setup i think click that.

Scroll down and you will see space for 3 Name servers or (DNS servers) enter your name servers there that have been pointed at your server and save it.

This should if i remember right set your name servers and you should be able to add domains and have them point to your NEW DNS servers on your cPanel server and after adding the account have it work.

Also i agree read the manules on cPanel thats a good idea although i neaver do LOL i learn all by hands on i get in and start looking arowned and trying to figer it out on my own this took me a few HR's to figer out how to do but after that i setup the NS with the domain provider and 2 days later added them to cPanel and all Worked like a charme.

I'm sorry if i did not give enuff info this time but i have not much time to spare, if you can stik in there and not look at how big a Prob is and just try to figer out how to fix it this helps as well as posting a MSG on a forum like this and asking your Question once you have tryed everything. Me my self i have neaver had to much luck with serching the net and so don't wast my time trying.

As far as the Links Posted in the above post i took one look at the DNS link and Closed the page its just not worth reading all that (TO ME) seeing as it has next to nothing to do with cPanel DNS its talking about Bind this is not the same as useing a Control panel.

Anyway i Hope my 2 cents have helped and i'll try and drop by the forum when i can.

Let me know if this has helped at all. :D

Thanks
Dave
Some Company

P.s. to change the server name its Also on the List (setup Server) on the top left side of webmin you should read thru all what is under setup server there may be stuff you would like to change (BUT BE CARFULL WHAT YOU CHANGE)

[QT]

Unfortunately, many places that offer "24 x 7" support have different definitions than what most people do.
To most of us, 24 x 7 Customer Support, means just that. We have a problem, we call and speak to someone and they immediately look into the problem/situation. We e-mail and someone in Customer Support gets it and checks into it right away. We snail mail (some people still do that, believe it or not) and once received, it's handled right away.

Well, if you look at it like that...we do infact get 24 x 7 support. Because we're able to call, e-mail, and write *any* time we want, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, that doesn't mean that there are people sitting there anxiously awaiting and handling each problem and/or situation just as soon as it arrives.

While ServerBeach is working on their Support issues, I don't think they're staffed enough to have a 24 x 7 call center type of support. I'm sure they take each situation in the order it comes in. They've been taking all their steps in the right direction and this is pretty much their final step to solve the one major issue they have.

Regardless of how frustrating it can be for customers, it's just as frustrating for a company. The customers want their support A.S.A.P and the companies want to be able to give that support A.S.A.P. Everything takes time, patience, and money. But until ServerBeach solves this problem, there are wonderful resources out there to help while we're waiting and a lot of helpful people on this forum. :)

[anythinghost]

Thank you for your comments but I am so discouraged. I am and will hang in there but let me give you my run down of immediate problems.
Support had to reformat my server after they finally discovered that what I had been complaining about is true. It was a matter of someone taking the time to actually look rather than just sending back some two liner emails and then waiting days for replys.
During all of the wasted time I finally got ahold of someone by phone and he was very helpful and going down the list of problems. As a result, they had to switch me over to another server. He agreed that there were alot of problems with the previous server.
Now, so far the only problem that I see with the new server is that I can not run cgi scripts. For some reason when I chmod the directories to 777 they go back to 755 It is very fustrating because with out the scripts ...well you know that they make the web site. Therefore, I am basically shut down because I can not transfer any customers over it things don't work. Having pretty picture on a html page is not enough.
Then, if you call and get sales ( wont mention the name) it is like talking to a teenager. We got your money...! The I don't care additude. It has been three weeks now and I can not get things functional to operate as a business

[OOagent137]

This probably doesn't help much, but I'll try.

You mentioned your scripts turning back into 755. Well, I know on Plesk, it uses something called suexec to handle cgi scripts. 755 is the max permission setting available, which means you should be able to execute the scripts.

Of course, I don't really know that much about this sort of thing, so I might just be way off.

[anythinghost]

This is what support has told me. I use several cgi scripts for various features on the web site. Example: "recommend this site" "maillist autoresponder" "banner rotator" ect. I even have some programs in php that reguire that the directories are set at 777. Usually the directories are at 777 and the cgi files are at 755. Support is saying that the scripts are lasy put together. However, you go to any website that sells scripts and you will see that directories are 777

[awsolutions]

Hello,

What errors are you getting with your cgi scripts? Look at your error log this can tell you a great deal of info! Just so you know, cgi scripts not running are usually 99% of the time - the users fault ;-)

Working for tech support you'd be suprised at how many times customers complain - your servers at fault and then I go in and chmod one file or directory and they say "Sorry - It was mine"

Give us a print out of the directorys and files (ls -al) and maybe then we can help you a little better.....just complaining something doesn't work won't get you far!

[awsolutions]

Also, thought I might add - since I was typing this during your last post - support is probably right - alot of cgi programmers (especially bad ones) are being lazy and just telling customers to put 777 permissions on everything when this is not the case. Now with new security features in place (suexec and such) alot of times the script will not run unless it has the "true" permissions. Not just the lazy 777 that they tell you to set it at.

[anythinghost]

What is wrong is that I have brought several scripts that require that the directories are chmod to 777. Example: HostAdmin from dreamcost.com is a subscription portal for web hoster written in php. It requires that the main directory is 777 Many other scripts that deal with maillist auto-responders, recommend this site, dymanic content, link to us, banner rotators, and many more reguire that the main directories are 777 and the cgi files are 755.

When I go to install the scripts with 777 chmod they work great but then the chmod goes back to 755. When that does that I get a browser page stating internal server error.

I have scripts from several different vendors and have even look around at many more and I have not found any that does not directories at 777

I dont know what to do to get them to work.

[anythinghost]

Please understand that I am new to cPanel. I got an email from on of the author's of the scripts that I use. It states that the directories need to be only at 755 and the cgi files at 755. What I did was to put the scripts in the scgi-bin and they work. I am new to cPanel and did not understand cgi wrapper. When I had put the scripts in the cgi-bin they would not work without the 777 directories. Am I to conclude that all scripts using a user name need to be in the scgi-bin and not cgi-bin?