Introduction

Welcome to the WebsitePanel Edition of Newtek’s Windows Server Cookbook. As with version one of the cookbook, which we made available in January, 2010, the intent of this book is to help users get a web server up-and-running as quickly and as easily as possible.

What's different about this edition of the cookbook, however, is the inclusion of WebsitePanel (formally known as DotNetPanel), a powerful, yet easy-to-use hosting control panel.

In version one, we showed you how to manually set up a website in IIS, create FTP users directly in Filezilla, how to set up domains and users in SmarterMail and SmarterStats, and how to manually configure DNS for each domain. What WebsitePanel does is makes these tasks even easier, and gives you the tools to do more with the server without having to remote desktop into the box for every little change.

How should the cookbook be read?

This book should be followed from beginning to end. You can, however, jump ahead or view only the areas you need, but please realize that each chapter builds upon the last and, as such, were not necessarily designed to be referenced independently. For example, chapter 2 covers the installation process for the WebsitePanel software, but chapter 1 covers the SQL 2008 Express installation, which is required in order for the WebsitePanel installation to work.

Who is this cookbook for?

This cookbook is written in a way that anyone, even someone with absolutely zero experience working with servers, can get one or more websites up and running on a web server within a single afternoon. With screen shots for every single step, you could even say we hold your hand through the entire process. However, with that said, you probably already know that configuring and, more importantly, maintaining a web server often takes expertise, along with the ability to trouble shoot problems that are almost certainly bound to occur. While Newtek Provides you with some of the best customer support in the industry, we don’t recommend that this cookbook be a replacement for having a qualified individual manage your web server.

This cookbook may ideal for you if:

  1. You've worked with Windows 2003/IIS6, but you're not all that familiar with IIS7.
  2. You've never installed or set up a SmarterStats or SmarterMail server before.
  3. You're not familiar with WebsitePanel.
  4. You're familiar with web environments, particuallry shared hosting, but not quite up to speed working in a dedicated environment.

What ingredients will I need?

Before you get started, be sure you have the following items ready:
  1. The “Dedicated Server Built” email you received from us after your purchase. This will have your server's included IP addresses.
  2. The SmarterBundle email you received from SmarterTools. This will include the current download locations and license keys for SmarterStats and SmarterMail (as well as SmarterTrack).

What does this cookbook cover?

This edition of the Cookbook will cover the following:

How can I help improve this cookbook?

If you have any questions, feedback, or concerns, please feel free to contact us at support@newtektechnologyservices.com, or at 1.877.323.4678 (International 602.263.0300), option 4.
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