[hairybusdriver2]

I am new to Cpanel. I have been exploring it lately and watching some tutorial videos to learn how to use it. There is one thing I cannot figure out though. I know this is probably a newb question but that is what I am as far as cpanel goes. I have a template that I want to upload so that I can use it as my website. I don't know how to do that. Also, how do you actually finalize everything so the public can visit your website. Whenever I type in my domain in the address bar I don't even get "site is under construction" display. It seems as the domain is non existent. Plus I put some html files in the public_html folder but I cant view those from my browser either. Any advice would be great, as I am paying monthly for this and I want to utilize it as much as I can.

[JiminSA]

I know that many hosts invite you to use their Control Panel to do all your FTP (File Terminal Processing) uploading. However I find that using Filezilla as my FTP handler is very straightforward and it is a dependable Free Open Source piece of software which is widely used. (Just Google "filezilla download" and get a hold of it).
Incidentally, you said

Plus I put some html files in the public_html folder but I cant view those from my browser either

Was this achieved by using the Host's FTP handler in the Control Panel?

The FTP Hostname; Username and password you'll need, should already have been sent to you by your host in an introductory email. If not, take a look around in the control panel info or your user login to the host's page info...

Anyway to answer your prime question if you have an active website (i.e. the host has propagated the DNS (Domain Name System) through the Internet) and you type in the http://... URL for your domain's root directory, your browser will pick up the first file it finds with the name "index" (followed by it's file type extension - .html .php .asp etc.,), unless you specify otherwise - e.g. http://www.mydomain.com/welcome.html.

Hope this helps, but if your still stuck shout out and we'll help some more...

[hairybusdriver2]

Thank you for your response, it has been kind of frustrating. To answer your question I did in fact use the ftp handler in the control panel. I uploaded some files to the public_html/cgi-bin directory. I actually uploaded a compressed template that I downloaded from a website. I then uncompressed the files and it contained an index.php file a long with images and many other file types. I used the temporary URL that was given to me to see if It made a difference but it did not. I don't know if I am doing something wrong or not. By the way I just installed filezilla, I am checking it out now. Thanks for the recommendation.

[hairybusdriver2]

Hey guess what, I think I found out what the problem might be. I used a different template, and it loaded just fine. Quite strange really. It had an index.htm file instead of a index.php file. wonder if that had anything to do with it. anyways, I will continue to try different things.

[JiminSA]

Aha! I'm glad it's starting to make sense... Just a hint... the cgi-bin is not the root folder in your site, public_html is...
Incidentally are do you really drive a bus?