Managed Windows Hosting
Helm is a ‘control panel’ that greatly simplifies the management of Internet Information Services (IIS).
In short yes. You must use Helm to at least create any domains. Once created You can enable stats and create FTP and mail users from within Helm. If you have manually created a domain using IIS manager, you will be unable to install stats or create any FTP users therefore it is essential that you create any domains (web sites) using Helm.
We recommend that you use the helm control panel to do as many tasks as possible. This helps to ensure consistency, improves security and reduces the chance of human error. However, some advanced tasks are not possible via Helm, these include setting NTFS permissions and creating virtual directories outside the root of the website, therefore in these instances using the IIS manager is recommended.
The free domain can be used in a number of useful ways. For example a company called Zen Cars would receive a domain something like zencarw01.hosting.zen.co.uk with their managed server. The domain has a wild card record already specified so requests for anything in this domain will be resolved to their server. So ‘rdp.zencarw01.hosting.zen.co.uk’, ‘dev.zencarw01.hosting.zen.co.uk’, ‘south.zencarw01.hosting.zen.co.uk’ would all resolve to the primary address of the server. Not only does this provide you with an easy to remember name to connect to your server but means you can also use variations on the above as host headers for domains on your server.
See what is the best practice for naming domains in helm
See I have a website I wish to move to my server but don’t want any down time!.
Zen hosting recommends that you create domains in helm using the domain name that they will be publicly addressable by. In the above example you would use www.zencars.co.uk . This sets up the domain on the server and puts in place all the necessary host headers.
The simplest method is to login to Helm using your reseller user. From the main screen select reports from here there are a number of standard reports that are available for use including ‘customer bandwidth usage’ .
In this instance Zen Hosting recommends creating your domain again using the same publicly addressable name e.g. www.zencars.co.uk . Then, using your free domain, setup a domain alias (host header) for the site. E.g. new-site.zencarw01.hosting.zen.co.uk . You can now test the site using the host header you specified to connect to the web site . Once you are happy that the site is working simply change the ‘A’ record for www.zencars.co.uk to point to your new servers IP address. After a few days all traffic should be directed to your new server / site. Once this has been confirmed you can close your old site down.
Zen Hosting strongly advises that all frontage installs are initiated through the Helm control panel. The FrontPage extensions option can be found under the domain menu for your domain. To install FP just click install, then note down the username and change the password to something familiar. Please note that the username created by Helm will only allow you to publish to the web site and not administer the site in anyway.
To configure FrontPage server extensions on virtual directories you will first of all need to connect to the FrontPage administration site. http://{servername}:8899/fpadmin.dll?page=fpadmin.htm replacing the servername with the actual name of the server. The username for the main administration site and your domain administration site is ‘FrontpageAdmin’, the password will be in your information pack.
The current design doesn’t allow executables to run, you will need to notify Zen Hosting of the relative path to the executable so an exception can be added. Once done, simply schedule the task in the normal way.
It is possible to secure folders using both Helm and Windows. However, the two deployments are configured separately and are in no way connected. Helm based secure folders are a simple yet effective way of creating a secure area within a site. Simply enable the feature from within Helm and add in all the necessary users and groups. However this method has its limitations, it is not possible to specify permissions for users they either have access or they do not. If you wish to create secure folders and specify permissions for the users then Zen Hosting recommends setting NTFS permissions on the site in the normal way.
Zen’s FTP server is a centralised server that handles all FTP connections for our customers. By utilizing a central FTP server the load on your server is reduced along with reducing the number of open ports or ‘attack footprint’. Zen’s FTP server is:
ftp.hosting.zen.co.uk Simply specify the username and password as specified in Helm.
Under the domain menu within Helm, click the statistics option and then click enable, once Livestats are enabled you can view your stats in more detail by following the link below.
We ask that you notify us of any major works that are being carried out on your server. We constantly monitor your server and should you stop a service (i.e. IIS or SQL) we will be notified and our engineers will respond immediately. In order to prevent this and the ensuing confusion simply send us an email to hosting@zen.co.uk detailing any scheduled maintenance times.
For security reasons all non-essential services are disabled (incl SMTP and Task Scheduler). If you require a service starting simply contact us and we’ll enable it for you.
Windows Developer Hosting
Helm is a ‘control panel’ that greatly simplifies the management of Internet Information Services (IIS).
In short yes. You must use Helm to create any domains. Once created you can enable stats and create FTP and mail users from within Helm. We do not provide RDP access to the server for our shared customers. If you require this kind of access why not consider one of our dedicated servers.
Every shared hosting account will receive a free domain which will point to the shared server on which your account was created, the domain format is {account name}.zenwebhosting.com. You can use this domain straight away and if you purchase your own domain name at a later date, the new domain can be an alias to the free domain.
You can retrieve this information by clicking on the ‘website settings’ icon located on the ‘domain menu’ .
We recommend that you create domains in Helm using the domain names that they will be publicly addressable by. For example, www.zencars.co.uk . This sets up the domain on the server and puts in place all the necessary host headers.
In this instance we recommend creating your domain again using the same publicly addressable name e.g. www.zencars.co.uk . Then, using your free domain, setup a domain alias (host header) for the site, e.g. new-site.{account name}.zenwebhosting.com. You can now test the site using the above free domain you specified; to connect to the web site. Once you are happy that the site is working simply change the ‘A’ record for www.zencars.co.uk to point to your new servers IP address. After a few days all traffic should be directed to your new server / site. Once this has been confirmed you can close your old site down.
Log into the Helm Control Panel and select your domain, within your domain there is a FrontPage Extensions option. To install FP just click install, then note down the username and change the password to something familiar. Please note that the username created by Helm will only allow you to publish to the web site and not administer the site in anyway.
It is possible to secure folders within the Helm control panel. They are a simple yet effective way of creating a secure area within a site. Simply enable the feature from within Helm and add in all the necessary users and groups. It is not possible to specify read and write permissions for users, they either have access or they do not.
Zen’s FTP server is a centralised server that handles all FTP connections for our customers. Customers can either use Internet Explorer or an FTP program to transfer files to their webspace.
Zen’s FTP server is:
ftp.hosting.zen.co.uk Simply enter the username and password as specified in Helm.
Under the domain menu within Helm, click the statistics option and then click enable, once LiveStats are enabled you can view your stats in more detail by following the link below.
The shared SSL service allows you to secure your domain without having to purchase an SSL certificate. To install Shared SSL click on the SSL icon within the domain menu and click install. After the installation is complete the exact SSL url that you need to redirect your pages to will be displayed. Finally, place the pages you wish to be secured in the folder ‘SSL’ which is created above the root of your site. In order to utilise the SSL encryption you will need to redirect any links to the URL displayed at the end of the installation.
Thousands of web site templates provided by ‘templatemonster.com’ can be purchased from within the helm control panel. Simply login and at the home screen click on the ‘WebSite Templates’ icon. For support with these templates please visit
http://www.templatemonster.co.uk/support If you delete your hosting package then you will need to call Zen technical support on 08450 058 9009. Please have your Helm username and support password ready.
- If you delete your LiveStats username then you will need to call Zen technical support on 0845 058 9009. Please have your Helm username and support password ready.
- if you have forgot your LiveStats password then it can be found on the email you received from LiveStats when you enabled the service. If you have changed your original password and then forgot it then you will need to call Zen technical support on 0845 058 9009. Please have your Helm username and support password ready.
The IUSR for all web hosting accounts have read acccess to the wwwroot and all subfolders by default. If you require write access to subfolders then you will need to contact hosting via email. Please note that you will need to be a contact on the account and you will also need to specify your support password.
All web hosting accounts are provided with a db folder which already has the correct permissions applied. For increased security this folder is not publically browseable.
- Active Server Pages version 6.0.3790.2684
- Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1.4322
- Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.50727
- Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions 1.0.61025.0
Linux Hosting
cPanel hosting is advanced, yet easy to use, control panel that allows you to control all aspects of your website (shared virtual server), from adding/removing e-mail accounts to administering your MySQL databases.
Zen’s cPanel hosting platform is a “virtual” server. This means that several domains can all be hosted on one machine and one or more of these domains can be managed within a single login (or domain e.g. myaccount.myzen.co.uk). Each “virtual server” then operates as though it was it’s own independent web, e-mail or FTP server.
Every cPanel account is provided with a myzen.co.uk sub-domain, i.e. myaccount.myzen.co.uk (where myaccount is your chosen by you). After this you can point or park numerous domains to this space for you to administer.
Yes however, if your domain isn’t hosted with Zen you will not obtain the full features of cPanel, such as E-mail virus scanning.For further details of how to park a domain with your cPanel account please see the following Knowledgebase
article.
Using any web browser, navigate to your myzen.co.uk sub-domain and go to the cPanel directory.
http://myaccount.myzen.co.uk/cpanel/
http://mydomain/cpanel/
If you would like to watch a video tutorial of how to login, please see the Tutorials section.
From as little as 92p a week, with full control over 10 e-mail & FTP accounts.
Full lists of video tutorials are available when you are logged into the cPanel admin page. If you like to print out guides, knowledgebase articles are on listed on the Zen Support website.
Additional cPanel Information A complete Knowledgebase of articles regarding all aspects of the Cobalt RaQ features can be found on the Zen Support web site:
http://www.zensupport.co.uk/knowledgebase.