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Version 1.1 |
Command Matrix™
Hosting Control Panel
User’s Manual
etrinix – command matrix™
User’s Manual
ã Etrinix Corp.
8721 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 521
Los Angeles, CA – 90069-4507, USA
Table of Contents
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Chapter 1 |
A little about what the Command Matrix is.
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he Command Matrix is a web-based remote control
application designed with the shared hosting provider in mind. Ideal for
hosting providers looking for a low-cost scalable solution for clients
interested in Windows™ based hosting solutions; the Command Matrix helps
web-hosts provide clients with considerable amount of control over their
accounts.
The Command Matrix’s ease-of-use makes it the
first choice for dedicated server clients with little or no administrative
experience on Windows™ 2000 based servers. The built-in support for Microsoft®
.NET™ makes it easier for HSPs to deploy hosting solutions based on the latest
technology.
The reseller-level access feature allows
web-hosts to grow their market share by offering scalable reseller accounts.
The Etrinix Mail Matrix software comes bundled
with the Command Matrix with NO ADDITIONAL LICENSE REQUIREMENTS, making the
Command Matrix the only solution of its kind; offering an intuitive web-based
e-mail interface coupled with a solid POP server!
The Etrinix Command Matrix offers 3 levels of administration:
i. Server Admin Level
ii. Reseller Level
iii. Site Admin Level
The Server Admin Level is for the server administrator. Access to this level allows the user to perform the following tasks:
o Complete control over web services running on the server (IIS, FTP, SMTP, etc.)
o Restarting the server
o Creating/Managing reseller plan templates
o Creating/Managing reseller accounts
o Managing DNS records
o Manage Add-ons (ASP, ODBC, FP Extensions, Perl, PHP, MySQL, etc.)
The Reseller Level is for individuals or businesses who purchase bulk hosting from the server owner and resell to their clients. Access to this level allows the user to perform the following tasks:
o Creating/Managing site plan templates
o Creating/Managing hosting accounts
o Manage FTP accounts
o Manage Mail accounts
o Access Web-mail via Etrinix Mail Matrix
o Manage custom errors
o Manage application maps (.html, .asp, .php, .xyz, etc.)
o Manage domain aliases (www.domain.com, xyz.domain.com, etc.)
o Add/Remove available add-ons
o Manage ODBC DSNs (dBase, Excel, MS Access, MS SQL, MySQL, Text, etc.)
The Site Admin Level is for individuals or businesses that subscribe to the hosting services of either the reseller or the server owner. Access to this level allows the user to perform the following tasks:
o Manage FTP accounts
o Manage Mail accounts
o Access Web-mail via Etrinix Mail Matrix
o Manage custom errors
o Manage application maps (.html, .asp, .php, .xyz, etc.)
o Manage domain aliases (www.domain.com, xyz.domain.com, etc.)
o Activate/De-activate available add-ons
o Manage ODBC DSNs (dBase, Excel, MS Access, MS SQL, MySQL, Text, etc.)
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Chapter 2 |
This chapter details basic procedures such as logging in etc.
You can login to your CM using a web browser (1E 6.0 recommended). Simply point the browser to http://yourdomain.tld:port OR http://your-ip:port or simply http://yourdomain.tld/cp.
Example: http://etrinix.com:5590 OR http://10.0.0.1:5590
Once you see the login page, enter your username/password in the designated fields and click the “Submit” button.
In case you forgot your password, you can retrieve it from the database using the “Forgot Password” link. Once there, you can enter your login ID and click “Submit”. Yu will receive the password in an e-mail sent out to the e-mail address you set when editing your contact info.
Once you have successfully logged in, the link to “Preferences” can be found in the navigation to the left. Here you can change your Contact Information and your CM administration password.
You can edit/update your contact info in this section. While editing the contact info, please bear in mind that the e-mail you enter in your contact details is the e-mail address used by the system to contact you. Please ensure that this e-mail does not point to an address on the same server. This would help to avoid and complexities.
The admin password is the password for your main account. Changing this password updates your CM, Email, FTP and FrontPage (if enabled) passwords.
It is essential that you use an alphanumeric password with at least one special character ( ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ? > < : ; ) to ensure security. The length of your password should be at-least six character long. For example, a good password would be: “QP7bc%n9J” (nine characters).
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Chapter 3 |
Create/Manage mail accounts
In order to create a new e-mail account, you must have a certain amount of space free as to set the quota on.
1. The email address’s User ID (user6@domain.com, where user6 is the ID) is to be entered into the tab next to ‘User ID.’
2. At-least an 8-letter/digit password is needed for this field, a special character ( ~ ! @ # $ % ^ ? > < : ; ) must also be included in it.
3. Check Catch All to enable the property for this user’s email address.
4. Check Auto Responders to enable Auto Responders for this account. This enables the user to create an auto-responder for the account.
5. Check Mail Forwards to enable the property for this account. This enables the user to create a forwarder for the account.
6. Check Attachments to enable the user to receive/send attachments with e-mails.
7. A certain amount of space must be allotted to the user. This can be at-least 1 and at most XX MB (depending on how much of it is available or has not been allotted yet).
8. Click Update to activate this account; this completes the procedure.
Once an account is created, its properties can be changed according to your wishes. Just click ‘Edit’ next to the account’s address, and set the properties accordingly.
Disk Quota: Modify (in MBs) to effect the available storage space for this account.
Edit Auto-responders: Edit the settings within to change the properties of the auto-responders (if enabled).
Edit Mail Forwarders: Edit these settings to change the properties of the mail forwarders (if enabled).
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Chapter 4 |
The Web-Mail Module for Mail Matrix
In order to log into the web-mail, you must click on the icon labelled ‘WebMail’ at the front page of your CM interface. This will lead you to a login page, where, in the first field you must enter your email address (user@domain.com) and in the second tab goes your password (for user@domain.com). Once this is done, you’ll be taken to the WebMail/Mail Matrix interface.
You can also access the webmail interface via http://server.domain.com/webmail.
Once you’ve logged on successfully to the Mail Matrix, you will immediately see a list of received emails in the folder Inbox. Clicking on any of these messages will open that specific message.
In order to change folders, for example to ‘Trash Can’ or ‘Sent Messages’, you can use the drop down list of folders (top left).
To compose/send an e-mail, click ‘Write Mail’ in the navigation on the top.
1. Write the recipient’s address(es) in the ‘To:’ field. In order to write e-mails to addresses stored in your Address Book, we recommend clicking on Address Book first and selecting the recipients’ addresses. Click OK when done to return to the composing email section.
2. Write down the subject of the message in the ‘Subject:’ field.
3. Compose the body of the message in the space given below.
4. Files can be attached to the message in the following manner:
o Click on any of the ‘Browse’ buttons below the body of the message to select file(s) to be added to the message.
o The file(s) will not be uploaded instantly but will be transmitted directly through your drive once you are ready to send the e-mail message.
o Only 3 files can be attached to the message simultaneously.
5. Click on ‘Save a copy to sent folder’ in order to save a copy of your message to the Sent folder. This can be read or resent at any given time, provided it is not deleted.
6. The Priority field sets the importance of the message, marking it with an exclamation in the recipient’s mailbox so that the importance of the message can be highlighted.
7. Now, if you’re ready to send your mail, press Send. If you change your mind, press Reset to write a new message or Cancel to cancel the composition.
The Address Book can be reached simply by clicking the link labeled ‘Address Book’ in the navigation bar at any time.
Here, you will be able to store e-mail addresses with other relevant information regarding someone. Just follow the instructions on the screen to add a new contact.
Once this is done, you can use the Address Book to simply choose which person your mail will be delivered to. This can be done in any of the three fields, either ‘CC’, ‘BCC’ or ‘To’.
There are no limits as to how many contacts can be stored in your Address Book, but it is recommended that you do not clutter the Book with unnecessary information/contacts.
In order to reach this part of the Mail Matrix, simply click on Manage Folders at any time in the navigation bar.
Once clicked, you will reach a page showing information/stats regarding your current folders. In order to add a new folder, simply write the folder’s name in the bottom-most tab and click New.
Once you have a new/custom folder on your list, you have the options to either remove the folder completely, including all the messages stored in it, or simply empty the folder deleting only the messages stored within and not the folder itself.
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NOTE |
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You can create as many
folders as you want; there are no limits as to how many folders one can create.
If you think some messages in a particular folder are taking up too space,
you can simply delete one message or the other, or delete them all in one go
by selecting ‘empty folder’. |
Your preferences determine how your mail account is customized for your needs.
In order to reach this section, click on Preferences and then “Change Password”.
If you’re uncomfortable with your current mail password, we recommend that you change your password through this section.
The current password (in use) is to be typed in the Current Password field. This step is a security measure taken to ensure and double-check that it is indeed the owner that is changing the password and not someone else.
The new password goes in the New Password field, which is confirmed once again in the next field - Retype New Password.
We recommend that the passwords always be complex ones, with at least 1 special character and random use of capital letters. Once again, this is completely up to you.
This section can be reached by clicking “Preferences”, then “Change User Info”.
This section lets you manage your personal information stored for your personal email account. This information is completely confidential.
Just fill out the form following the on-screen instructions. Click Save when done.
This section can be reached by clicking on Preferences, then Mail Preferences.
This section is concerned with the general settings of your e-mail account; what name appears on your message, saving sent messages, etc.
From Name: By changing this field, you will be changing the name that appears on the bottom of your sent messages.
Save Sent Messages: By selecting ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in this field, you will determining whether to save your sent messages in a folder, or not. This is entirely up to you, as are all the settings in this section.
Messages per Page: By changing this field, you will be changing the number of messages shown in a folder in a single page. The higher the number of pages, the longer it takes to load that page.
View Screen Width: Changing this field determines the width of the lines that display your e-mail message (its body). The minimum for this field is 40.
Compose Screen Width: This field determines the width of the lines that display the composing field when you’re writing a message to someone. The minimum for this field is 40.
Signature: This field determines what message/caption is attached to the bottom of every sent message. This is, once again, to be written and used by you; therefore it is completely up to you. The maximum number of characters to be used for this is 500.
Auto-Responder: Whatever is written in this field will be sent to everyone and anyone who sends you an e-mail message, as a confirmation that you have indeed received their e-mail. This should be concise and the maximum number of characters to be used for this field is 200.
Forwarding Email: If you decide to have a copy of every message received on your e-mail account, you must enter the new email account’s address here. Every single message received thereon will be forwarded to that account.
Save you settings once done modifying these fields.
In order to reach this section you must first click on Preferences and then on Mail Preferences.
Auto Responders can be set by simply filling up the space given here to your liking with messages like: ‘Your message has been received. We/I will get in touch as soon as possible, Thank you.’
You must fill the field that follows with e-mail addresses if you wish you enable Auto Responders for only a few, chosen e-mail addresses. Separating the addresses with comas enables you to set the auto-responder up so that it responds to mail from multiple email addresses. For example: “user1@lycos.com, user2@yahoo.com, user3@fictional.com”
In order to enable Auto Responders for every message received, simply leave this field blank. Your Auto Responders are now working, provided you remembered to click “Save”.
In order to reach this section, you must click on Preferences in the navigation bar, and then Mail Preferences.
There is only one field that needs to be filled here. Write down the e-mail address of the account you want all your mail forwarded to, and then save your settings. You can choose to check “Forward as copy” if you wish to save copies of every message forwarded to you.
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NOTE |
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Only the messages that are
received after modifying this field will be forwarded and not before that. |
In order to reach this section, click on Preferences in the navigation bar, then “User/Domain Filters”.
This option is enabled in order to filter messages, whether malicious or otherwise, and to either save them to another folder (other than the Inbox) or to simply delete them when they are received.
Just type the address or the domain of your choice in the tab here and select what you want to do with every message received from this side. You can either move it directly to Trash or any other folder of your choice.
If a domain is entered in this field, the requested action will be done on every email received from that domain. For example, if you type in hotmail.com, every message from the domain “hotmail.com” (user@hotmail.com, user8888@hotmail.com, etc) will be sent to the folder of your choice.
If you want only specific addresses to be blocked, simply type in the exact address of the sender in this field and choose your desired action. For example, if spam@spammer.com is entered here, every message received from this address will be sent to the folder you chose.
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Chapter 5 |
Website Administration Tasks – Controling FTP, Databases and General Web-Options
Databases are used for archiving, sharing, distributing or simple and easy access of data. For example, an online CD store using MySQL databases to store customer information, the delivery dates, credit card information, etc. However, databases are not restricted to this purpose alone.
The Command Matrix system supports 6 kinds of database engines.
1. Microsoft Access
2. Microsoft SQL Server
3. MySQL
4. Dbase
5. Microsoft Excel
6. Microsoft Text
Currently, the CM only supports DSN based connections. This is by design. Although DSN-less connections sometimes seem to work, they would be very un-reliable and we recommend that you create a system DSN for your entire database needs. In order to add a database/DSN, simply click the Add link right next to that relevant database.
The following steps are to be completed before the availability of a database or DSN:
1. DSN Name: Here you type the name of your choice for this database engine.
2. Database User ID (optional): This ID can be anything you want. Normally, the ID Admin is used since the person creating this database is actually the Admin of the database. However, you can still use your personal IDs here. Filling this tab is optional; you may or may not do it.
3. Admin Password (optional): Simply the password you will use to access the database driver. This step is optional; you may or may not do it.
4. DBQ (Database Path): In this field goes the path of the directory you will be placing the relevant databases accessible by the driver. This can be anything of your choice. Although is recommended that you keep it short. If you uploaded a database to the folder “databases” created on your FTP-root, you would enter here, “databases\dbname.mdb”.
It is recommended that you do not upload your databases under the ‘www’ DIR or they can be downloaded over the world wide web.
Once these steps are completed, simply click Update to enable the database driver.
If you have been allowed the Add-On for MySQL, this section will enable you to perform general administration tasks, for your database, via PHPMyAdmin.
You can also use this section to access the documentation for PHPMyAdmin.
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, an intrinsic protocol used for file transfer across machines the world over. There are programs like CuteFTP™, WS_FTP™, etc. that enable one to make efficient use of this protocol (FTP).
Clicking “FTP Options” takes you to the section that enables you to manage access to your account via FTP. You can perform the following tasks while in this section:
In order to allow certain user(s) to be able to store files on your domain/server, they will require access to an FTP server (File Transfer Protocol).
To create a new FTP account, follow these simple steps:
1. User ID: This is where the account’s username is given, for example user2, xyz or anything you wish.
2. Password: This is where the account’s password is created, allowing the user to access his FTP account. Same rules for the password apply (Alpha-numeric, at least six characters and at least one special character).
3. Retype Password: Simply retype the password entered in step (2).
4. Disk Quota: In order to restrict a user to a certain amount of disk storage, the disk quota system is used. Simply fill this field with the amount of quota (in MBs) you want allocated for use in this account, depending on how much free space you have at your disposal.
5. Click Update when done entering the required information.
This creates the FTP account immediately for instant access. The account created in this step can be edited later on.
Clicking “Edit” next to the username for any FTP account created lets you edit its properties such as FTP quota etc.
Simply apply the knowledge already discussed in the Creating a New FTP User part of this document.
This section enables you to perform general maintenance tasks for your account. You can perform the following while in this section:
Here, you can either enable or disable the add-ons working on/for your site. Following are the add-ons currently supported by the CM, but may/may not be available to you. This is at the discretion of your server administrator.
1. ASP: This add-on is required to render web pages written in Asp/VBScript.
2. ASP.NET: This add-on enables support for Microsoft’s ASP.NET.
3. FrontPage Server Extensions: This add-on enables support for Microsoft’s FrontPage Server Extensions, enabling you to update your website using FrontPage as your editor.
4. ODBC: This add-on enables you to support databases for your website.
5. MySQL: This add-on enables you to utilize the MySQL server for database creation. The tool used to manage your databases on the MySQL server is PHPMyAdmin.
6. PERL: This add-on supports the usage of PERL scripts on the websites.
7. PHP: This add-on enables the PHP extension.
8. Webalizer: This popular web-stats program lets you see the daily website usage stats for your account.
This option has been provided so that you can lend extensions such as ftp., db., etc. to the sites under your administration. Simply type the extension/alias you want to have for the website in the field given and click the button marked “Update”.
These aliases should not be confused with sub-domains. Although they can be used as sub-domains are used (with the help of a tiny bit of code included in your main asp/php/pl page), they cannot be considered true sub-domains as no virtual directories are created under IIS for these domains. This is by design.
In order to reach this section, simply click on Web Options in the navigation bar, and then click “Custom Errors”.
Error details are provided in order to specify what kind of errors a person visiting your website encounters. This helps in diagnosing problems such as invalid http links, corrupt links, etc. A comprehensive list of the codes used to denote such errors can be found via a link on the same page.
In order to customize the error pages provided, simply create a page with the relevant/customized message and place it in a folder. Define the path to this folder in the tabs mentioned in the relevant rows. For example, if you place the new error (400) page in the path /www/errors, simply enter ‘/www/errors/400.html’ in the field that follows “400:*”. When done, click “Save”.
This procedure can be repeated for every modified/customized error page.
This section allows you to customize the mapped extensions for certain applications. For example, the extension that maps ASP is normally .asp; you can change this to .xyz or anything of your choice. Please remember that any such changes can cause disruption in the services offered, provided you do not change or apply the same changes to the pages using the extensions.
Once the changes are made, click “Save” to apply them.