Site
Manager
The Loft Productions 2.0 Site Manager allows you to control your
website from a web browser, and virtually eliminates the need
for novice users to learn and use FTP and SSH. The more
familiar interface of the web browser, combined with point and
click simplicity, makes the Loft Productions Site Manager an extremely
user-friendly web management system.
Note: You will need to use the most current version
of your favorite browser. Older browsers are known to have
problems with various features of the Site Manager so we
highly recommend upgrading your browser.
Logging In
To access the Site Manager simply point your web browser
to:
http://www.your-domain.com/manager/
NOTE: You will need to replace
"your-domain.com" with your domain name.
You will then be asked to enter in your Username and
Password (figure 4.1.1).
NOTE: Your username for your Site Manager will be
username@yourdomain.com (making sure to replace the
"username" and "yourdomain.com" with your
information).
Once you have entered in your Username and Password, you
will be able to begin using your Site Manager.
NOTE: If your Site Manager is inactive for 20
minutes, you will automatically be logged out, and any changes
that you may have been making could be lost.
 Figure 4.1.1 - The
login screen for the Site Manager NOTE: Due to the security requirement of the
administration system you must have your browser set to allow
cookies.
Site
Details
Overview
Site Overview is the first section of your Site Manager
that you see when you log in. The Site Overview section shows
important basic information about your site, figure 4.1.2.
 Figure
4.1.2 - Site Overview example output Description of Site Overview Features:
User Usage
In the User Usage section of your Site Manager, you can
easily access your user account statistics. The E-mail space
used and total available as well as FTP space used and
available, avialable. (figure 4.1.3).
 Figure 4.1.3 - User
Usage example screen.
Statistics
In the Statistics section of your Site Manager, you will
first be shown the Bandwidth Usage History. After viewing
that, if you have Webalizer installed on your account, you can
view the Webalizer statistics by clicking on the Webalizer
link, Figure 4.1.3.
 Figure 4.1.3 -
Bandwidth Usage example screen. After clicking on the Webalizer link, you will be shown
your website stats as generated by Webalizer. There will be
several pages of stats generated that you can browse through.
You can return to Bandwidth Usage screen by clicking on the
link above the Webalizer stats, Figure 4.1.4.
 Figure 4.1.4 -
Webalizer example screen.
E-Mail/FTP
Management
Users
The users section shows all the users you have created for
your domain as well as allows you to add, edit, or delete
them, Figure 4.2.1.
 Figure 4.2.1 - User
List To create a new user, click the "New E-mail/FTP" button
below the existing user list. Choose a User Name, from 1 to 32
characters in length, starting with a letter or a number, and
containing only lower-case letters, numbers, periods, hyphens
or underscores. Then enter a description of the account such
as "Bob's Account" or "FTP Account for Ann". Next select a
password, from 6 to 8 characters, containing only characters
printable in English (only the characters you see on a
standard English keyboard). See Figure 4.2.2.
 Figure 4.2.2 -
User Wizard Step 1 After clicking "Next", you can choose whether or not you
would like to enable this account, the default setting is
"Enabled". You can also choose to limit the e-mail box size of
the account or leave at 0 for unlimited. Lastly you can
automatically install the Auto Responder for this account,
assuming it has already been installed for at least one other
account already. See Figure 4.2.3.
Note: The E-Mail quota is part of your total disk
space. If you have a lot of e-mail accounts set up for your
domain, you could potentially run out of disk space on your
account because of your e-mail users occupying all of it. It
is recommended that you set this to a maximum of
10MB/user.
 Figure 4.2.3 -
User Wizard Step 2 Lastly you can choose FTP properties for the account. You
can choose whether or not to enable FTP for the account, the
default setting is "Disabled". If enabled, you can set a quota
limit for the account or leave it at the default of unlimited.
Also if enabled, you will need to set a home directory for the
account where files that the user uploads will be stored. The
default is "/ftp/pub/username". You can also choose to use an
existing directory such as "/www/htdocs" so that the user can
upload files directly to your website. If you use an existing
directory for their home directory, make sure to check "Use
Existing Directory" or you could potentially overwrite any
existing files you have in that directory. See Figure
4.2.4.
Note: The FTP quota is part of your total disk
space. If you have a lot of ftp accounts set up for your
domain, you could potentially run out of disk space on your
account because of your ftp users occupying all of it. It is
recommended that you set this to a maximum of 10MB/user.
 Figure 4.2.4 -
User Wizard Step 3 To delete a user, simply place a check in the box next to
their name from the user list and click the "Remove Selected
Items" button. You will be asked to verify that you want to do
this, and upon clicking "OK", the selected account(s) will be
removed.
To edit a users' settings, click on the edit icon,  on the same
row as the username you wish to edit. You will be able to go
through the same screens as the add user wizard shown in
Figures 4.2.2, 4.2.3, and 4.2.4, and adjust any settings as
you see appropriate.
Aliases
You can set up various types of e-mail aliases for your
account. When going to the Aliases section, you will be shown
a list of existing aliases from which you can add, edit, or
delete aliases, figure 4.3.1. There are 4 kinds of aliases you
can create:
 Figure 4.3.1 -
Aliases To create your Catch All alias, click "New Alias", then
choose "Catch All" from the list you are presented, figure
4.3.2. Next you need to choose a destination for the e-mail
this applies to. You can either type in an external
destination such as "mydomain@myisp.com", or you can have it
delivered to a local account by typing in just the name in the
destination box, or choose the name from the "Local E-mail"
pull-down menu, figure 4.3.3.
Note: Once you have created a Catch All alias, the
Catch All option will no longer be displayed in this list.
 Figure 4.3.2 -
Catch All alias setup step 1  Figure 4.3.3 -
Catch All alias setup step 2 To create an e-mail alias, click "New Alias", then choose
"E-Mail" from the list you are presented, figure 4.3.4. Next
you need to choose a name for this alias. This name is the
address that e-mail is sent to that this alias will apply to.
Next you need to choose a destination for this alias. You can
either type in an external destination such as
"mydomain@myisp.com", or you can have it delivered to a local
account by typing in just the name in the destination box, or
choose the name from the "Local E-mail" pull-down menu, figure
4.3.5.
 Figure 4.3.4 -
E-Mail alias setup step 1  Figure 4.3.5 -
E-Mail alias setup step 2 To create a distribution list alias, click "New Alias",
then choose "Distribution" from the list you are presented,
figure 4.3.6. Next you need to choose a name for this alias.
This name is the address that e-mail is sent to that this
alias will apply to. Next you need to choose a destination for
this alias. You can choose both local and external addresses
for your distribution list, figure 4.3.7.
 Figure 4.3.6 -
Distribution List alias setup step 1  Figure 4.3.7 -
Distribution List alias setup step 2 To create a Command alias, click "New Alias", then choose
"Command" from the list you are presented, figure 4.3.8. Next
you need to choose a name for this alias. This name is the
address that e-mail is sent to that this alias will apply to.
Finally you will specify the location and file name of the
program you want to run when an e-mail is received at this
address, figure 4.3.9.
 Figure 4.3.8 -
Command alias setup step 1  Figure 4.3.9 -
Command alias setup step 2 Anonymous
FTP
You can enable or disable Anonymous FTP as needed through
this section as well as configure its settings here. The
current values of the settings are automatically displayed
when you choose the Anonymous FTP section, figure 4.4.1.
 Figure 4.4.1 -
Anonymous FTP information To make changes, click the "Edit" button. The first option
is to enable Anonymous FTP access, the default option is
disabled, place a check in the box to enable it. Next is the
directory where Anonymous FTP users will end up in when they
FTP to your server. Next you can Allow Anonymous FTP users to
upload to your server, the defaut option is disabled. If you
do allow them to write to your server, it is HIGHLY
recommended that you set a quota limit for uploads or a
malicious user could fill up your server with junk files and
prevent you from receiving e-mail and possibly disrupt the
functioning of your website.
 Figure 4.4.2 - Edit
Anonymous FTP settings Settings
You can define how big e-mails can be as well as how many
people they can be sent to for e-mail being sent from your
account, figure 4.5.1. For the Maximum number of recipients,
you can leave it at 0 for unlimited, or set to the maximum
number that you want to ba able to send to at one time. For
Maximum content length, this allows you to define how big both
incoming and outgoing e-mail messages can be. Recommended is
5000KB (5MB), but you could potentially need to send or
recieve larger messages so set this to suit your needs.
Remember that for recieving e-mail, the message must be able
to fit into both the recipients mailbox and within the amount
of space you have on your account. I.e, if your account has
5MB free, and the recieving mailbox has a 10MB maximum size
with 8MB free, then a 6MB e-mail would not get sent to the
recipient because there was not enough room on the account for
it.
 Figure 4.5.1 -
E-Mail settings
Site
Management
The Site Management section can be used to backup your site
as well as set various option of account, including IP
filtering to allow or disallow certain groups of IP addresses
to your site. Also included is a File Manager which allows you
to completely manage your site from your browser without
having to FTP or SSH into your account.
Utilities
The utilities section is where you can backup or restore
your files and enter your file manager, figure 4.6.1.
 Figure 4.6.1 -
Utilities Backup & Restore can be used to make backups of your
site at any time you wish. This is useful if you are planning
on making changes to your website, but aren't sure if they
will work right, so you can backup your site, try your
changes, and if they don't work or you don't like them, you
can immediately restore your site to just prior to the changes
you made.
To enter into the Site Backup and Restore utility, first
choose whether you would like to Backup or Restore files, then
click on "Login". You will be prompted to enter a username and
password, which will be the same username and password as the
one used to access your Site Manager with. You will then be
presented with all the options you have available to you for
backing up your site or restoring it.
For backing up your site, figure 4.6.2, you will need to
first give the backup a name. Make the name descriptive, such
as the date when it is being made. If no name is given it will
default to "Untitled". Next choose what you would like to back
up. Then choose the timeframe you would like files to be back
up for, this is to back up files that have been changed within
the timeframe specified so it is like an incremental back up
of your site or of the selection instead of a full back up.
Finally you will need to choose a password for the backup
file. This can be as short or as long as you like, but cannot
be blank. After you have set all your backup options, click
"Start Backup". Once the backup process has started, you will
see a screen similar to figure 4.6.3. When the backup file is
complete, you will be prompted to download it to your
computer, if you wish to cancel the backup then click cancel
on the file download window, otherwise choose a location to
save the file to. Once the file has been saved to your
computer, the backup window will close itself.
 Figure 4.6.2 - Backup
options  Figure 4.6.3 -
Backup creation To restore a backup to your site, chose the "Restore files
and directories" option and click "Login". You will need to
enter your Site Manager username and password again to access
this. You will then be presented with a list of backups that
the Restore utility has a record of making, figure 4.6.4. From
here you can choose to either restore a backup that you have
made, or delete the record of a backup in the Restore utility.
To delete a backup record, just click on "delete" for the
appropriate entry after which you will need to confirm that
you want to delete the backup entry. If you delete an entry,
you will no longer be able to use the Restore utility to
restore your backup file from your computer. To restore files
from a backup, select the backup file you want to use, then
enter the password for the backup file you are going to use to
restore from and click "Next".
 Figure 4.6.4 -
Backup File list On the next screen, you need to choose the files you want
to restore from the backup file. Place a check in the
directories you would like to restore. Depending on the backup
type and files that were backed up, you can choose to restore
subdirectories as well by choosing "Tree View" from the "List
View" pull-down menu. After choosing the directories you want
to restore, click the ">>" button to add them to your
restore list. You can add files to the restore list as long as
you want to. Once you have added all the files you wish to
restore to your list, click "Next", figure 4.6.5.
 Figure 4.6.5 -
Select files to restore Finally you will choose the location of the specified file
so that it can be restored, figure 4.6.6. If you choose the
wrong file, you will be displayed an error and must either go
back to the file selection screen, or choose cancel to stop
the file restore process. Once the restore process has been
completed, you will be informed
 Figure 4.6.6 -
Select file to restore from Figure 4.6.7 -
Select file to restore from
Site
Parameters
In the Site Parameters section, you can change the password
for your Site Manager. It must be between 6 and 8 characters
in length and contain only printable ASCII characters of the
English alphabet. In general this means that all characters
you see on a standard English keyboard can be used as part of
your password. You must enter the password twice for
verification, then click on "Update" to apply the change, see
figure 4.7.1.
 Figure 4.7.1 -
Change your password
File
Locations
In the File Locations sections, you can define where your
web logs are located in your account. You can edit these
locations if necessary, but they should be left in their
default locations. You can also change the Administrator's
e-mail address. This is the address that will be displayed on
various error pages from the webserver. See figures 4.8.1,
4.8.2, and 4.8.3.
 Figure 4.8.1 - File
Locations  Figure 4.8.2 - Edit
File & Directory Locations  Figure 4.8.3 - Edit
Adminsitrator's E-Mail address
IP
Filtering
IP Filtering is a great way for limiting access to your
site for specific groups of IP addresses. For example, if you
had a malicious user attacking your site, you could add a
filter to prevent all access to your site from a single IP
address or to a block of IP addresses. Alternatively, if you
are still developing your site, you could allow access to only
your IP address so that only you could see it while you are
finishing your site.
To create a new rule, click on "New IP Rule". You will then
define the IP address or IP address block that you want to
apply this rule to, and then choose the services you would
like to allow or disallow for this IP range, see figure
4.9.1.
 Figure 4.9.1 - IP
Filtering setup Here are a few examples of ways to use this:
Be careful with the restrictions that you place as you
could inadvertantly prevent access to your site for
yourself.
Site
Applications
Click here to
go to our Site Applications section of our Manual.
Domain
Management
The Domain Management section allows you to edit various
aspects of your domain information.
Domains
In Domains, you you can add and remove additional domains
to your account and even point them to subdirectories of your
primary domain, figure 4.10.1.
 Figure 4.10.1 -
Domain list To add a new domain, click "New". For the name, enter the
domain name you would like to add to your account. You can
choose whether or not to use the local mail server, useful if
you are only doing the web hosting for the domain name while
e-mail is handled elsewhere. Then choose the web root of the
account where all the html files for the account will be
stored and displayed from. You can choose to use the current
directory which means that going to the new domain will be
exactly like going to the original domain. See figure
4.10.2.
 Figure 4.10.2 -
Domain Setup To delete existing domains from your account, other than
the original domain, place a check in the box next to its name
and click "Remove Selected Items".
Web
Aliases
Web Aliases allow you to map directories to other locations
within your account. You can create two types of aliases:
- Alias: This is an alias mapping one directory to
another. It does not allow execution of scripts.
- Script Alias: This is an alias mapping one
directory to another with the added ability of being able to
execute the scripts contained in the aliased to directory.
By aliasing directories, you can help prevent visitors to
your site from getting a 404 error or missing page on a
commonly misspelled directory by aliasing common misspellings
to the proper location. You can also use this to share
directories common to several domains without having the same
files installed multiple times. The same applies for a script
alias which will allow you to share one cgi-bin across
multiple domains.
When you view the Web Aliases page, you will be shown a
list of your current domains and subdomains, as well as a list
of aliases for the currently selected domain, figure 1. To see
aliases for other domains, click on the domain in the list and
the current aliases will be displayed. If you add a sub-domain
or a second domain to your account, there will not be any
additional aliases created. By default, the domain aliases
created for the main domain will apply to all domains and
subdomains. If you create an alias that is the same as an
existing alias, the alias specific to the domain will take
precedence.
 Figure 1 - Web
Alias list To add an alias to a (sub)domain, first click on the
(sub)domain you wish to add it to and then click on the "New
Alias" button. You will then need to choose whether to add an
Alias or Script Alias and provide the aliased name and the
path that it points to, figure 2. The path must exist prior to
creating the alias or it will not work.
 Figure 2 - Add Web
Alias
DNS Header
DNS Headers settings allow you to modify the information in
your DNS records. It is not recommended that you change any of
these values. See figure 4.12.1. To edit this, click the
"Edit" button and adjust the existing values as
appropriate.
 Figure 4.12.1 -
DNS Header information
DNS
Records
The DNS Records section allows you to add and remove DNS
records to your account as well as edit any existing records
that you may currently have. WARNING: Do NOT
change anything in this section unless you are confident you
know what you are doing, or have been instructed to make a
specific change by Loft Productions. If you make a mistake, you could
potentially prevent access to your website, e-mail or ftp. The
list of current records is shown by default, figure
4.13.1.
 Figure 4.13.1 -
DNS Record List The Main MX record can be changed to point somewhere else
besides your server. You could also choose to have your MX
record secondary'd (backed up) by your ISP or other provider
so that in case your account is inaccessible for a period of
time, your e-mail will be backed up somewhere and will start
receiving those backed up messages as soon as your account is
accessible again. To make these changes, click the "Main MX
Record" button. The configuration screen will then show up
where you can enter additional mail servers. The lower the
number, the higher the precedence, so a 10 would be delivered
to before attempting to deliver to 20. If you want to change
the order, click in the cell with the MX record you would like
to move, then click the up and down arrows to move its order
up or down. Figure 4.14.1.
 Figure 4.13.2 -
Main MX Record To create a new DNS record, click on the "New DNS Record"
button. You will then be presented with the 4 record types you
can create, figure 4.13.3.
 Figure 4.13.3 -
Create DNS Record An address record points a sub-domain to a specific IP
address, also known as an "A Record". To set this up, first
specify a name or domain name that you are creating, figure
4.13.4. Then specify the IP address you are assigning it to.
This is generally used to point sub domains off of your
Loft Productions account, but can be used to point back to your
account, or other accounts you may have with Loft Productions as
well.
 Figure 4.13.4 -
Address Record An alias record points a subdomain to an existing "A
Record". These are commonly referred to as aliases, but are
properly called "CNAME Records". These are used to point
common names for your domain to the primary domain name.
Common examples you will find as CNAMEs are www, ftp and mail.
If you want to add others, choose "Alias Domain" from the
list. Then enter the sub domain name you are aliasing, and
finally choose the "A record" you are pointing it at, figure
4.13.5. If you have not specified any additional "A Records",
the only option available will be "@" which refers the alias
back to the primary domain.
 Figure 4.13.5 -
Alias Domain An NS record specifies the name server responsible for a
given zone or domain. By default there are only name servers
defined for your domain name, but you may find a need to set
name servers for additional zones such as corp.mydomain.com.
To set these, type in the subdomain name, then type in at
least 2 name servers for this zone, figure 4.13.6
 Figure 4.13.6 -
Sub Domains An MX record specifies where e-mail goes when sent to the
domain the MX records applies to. This MX record is different
from the main MX record in that you can tie it in with the NS
record you created above to have e-mail sent to
bob@corp.mydomain.com to go to your corporate mail server
instead of coming to your Loft Productions account. To set it up,
enter in the MX name, then the mail servers you want mail sent
to that domain to go to., figure 4.13.7.
 Figure 4.13.7 -
Mail
Exchanger | 
