If you are in the process of adding a domain to your account (and have selected Proceed to hosting setup), or you have had an additional domain added to your account, you will need to setup the domain in Plesk so you can use it to host a website.

However, when you click on the Setup icon, the first page you see will depends on the existing settings for the domain:

• New domain in existing account or hosting setup deleted: You will be shown the selection page where you can decide how you want the server to handle the domain. You have one of three choices - Physical Hosting, Standard Forwarding and Frame Forwarding. See below for further explanations.

• Existing domain already setup, or new account with primary domain installed: All new accounts have their primary domain setup with Physical Hosting as standard, which means that when you click on the Setup icon, like all domains that already have their hosting setup, you will see the configuration page for that type of hosting.

Setup

• First, log onto the Plesk Control Panel (all details can be found in the 'Account Details' e-mail, dispatched to you when your account is activated).
• If you have logged on at the Client Level (this is the default level), please click on the name of the domain you wish to add the e-mail address to. This will load the domain's settings page.
• From the third row of icons (below 'Hosting...') click on Setup.
• If hosting has already been setup, you will receive the configuration page for the type of hosting configured for the domain. Goto the relevant hosting type below for more information on that page.
• If hosting has not yet been setup, you will be presented with one of three options: Physical Hosting (host a normal website), Standard Forwarding (send the browser to another location using the Location command) or Frame Forwarding (use HTML frames to redirect the visitor to another site while hiding the redirect).
• Select the option you wish to use and click on OK. You will be taken to the hosting setup page, so lookup the relevant section below.

Physical Hosting

Physical hosting allows you to use the hard-drive space available with your account to host a website with whatever content you want (subject to our Terms & Conditions). Using the configuration page you can setup access the domain via FTP and Frontpage, as well as switch on/off cgi-bin, mod_perl, Python and PHP support, among others.

• SSL support: Unless you wish to purchase a secure certificate and have agreed with us for use of your own IP address, SSL has no effect. In most cases, or if you are unsure, leave de-selected. If enabled, you can use the option below to set whether you want the same files to be handled by the secure site, or to use a different directory.
• FTP Login: The FTP login is the username and password used to control the domain. Although it only specifies FTP, the same details are used by Plesk to create a Domain User (i.e. a login that only has access to the relevant domain), and if SSH is enabled (contact our Support Team to enable it) the same username and password will by used for that as well.
• Hard disk quota: You can directly adjust the amount of hard-drive space used for this account from here. Note that the Unlimited option will not work unless you have unlimited use of the hard drive. If you select it and click OK it will throw up an error message. Also, you can change quota settings later using the Limits icon.
• Frontpage support: Using this option, you can setup the server to listen for Frontpage commands to upload and modify the site, while also providing some extra functionality. Unless you wish to use Frontpage to manage your website we recommend you leave this disabled. If you wish to use it, then fill out the appropriate settings.
• Services: These options allow you to control what can and cannot run on your website. Select these options as you see fit. If you are unsure on any of the options, it is safe to switch them all on here. They can be disabled and enabled at any time by going back into Setup (though be careful when disabling settings that your site may require).
• Click OK: Once you are happy with all the settings, click OK and the domain will be setup on the system ready for you to upload you files and start hosting a website.

Standard Forwarding

Standard Forwarding uses a Location command to tell the browser that they should go to another domain/URL. The option Destination URL is the base URL for the site.

For example, both the domains, example.net and example.org could be Standard Forwards to www.example.com. If you access just www.example.net, you will be redirected to www.example.com. However, if you access www.example.net/support/, the path after the domain (/support/) will be appended to the redirect (www.example.com), sending you to www.example.com/support/.

To setup Standard Forwarding, enter the Destination URL and click OK.

Frame Forwarding

Frame Forwarding uses the same option as Standard Forwarding above, with Destination URL pointing to the site you wish to redirect visitors too.

However, the difference comes in the way the redirect happens. Rather than just redirecting the browser, the server will use HTML frames to create a frame inside the browser within which it puts the Destination URL. Therefore the site loads up inside the frame and not inside the browser, appearing to 'hide' the redirect.

To setup Frame Forwarding, enter the Destination URL and click OK.