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What does it mean to get hacked?

“Hacked” is a term you hear thrown around a lot — especially regarding websites — without much definition.

If your website is hacked, it means a few things:

  • Someone gained access to your account (typically via File Transfer Protocol, a.k.a. FTP). By gaining FTP access, hackers can insert their own code on your site.
  • After gaining access to your site, they put malicious code in it. What the code does depends on the hacker’s objectives.

Because hacking can be extra insidious, sometimes your site can get hacked without you ever realizing it. Other times, hackers will be incredibly ham-fisted and either bring down your site or replace it with an obscene message.

Among the other unpleasant things hackers do to sites:

  • Install viruses on visitor’s computers
  • Redirect visitors to other sites
  • Use your website to attack other websites, bringing them down

Now, unfortunately, there’s no LoJack® for a hijacked website, but there are a few things you can do to make sure you don’t fall victim to a hacker:

  • Use a secure password. This means something better than just tacking a numeral 1 to the end of your first dog’s name. We have information in Keeping Your Hosting/FTP Password Secure.
  • Have your site scanned regularly. A lot of companies offer tools that will go through your site looking for malicious/suspicious-looking code or activity.
  • Update your website’s software. If you use something like WordPress®, keeping your software up-to-date is the difference between your site running smoothly and having a site infested with malware

By being aware of the threat of hackers and taking a few precautions, you can stop your site from harming visitors and other sites around the Internet.

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FileZilla Errors: “The server’s certificate is unknown” & ECONNREFUSED

You might receive the following error when trying to connect to your cPanel shared hosting account with FileZilla (image):

The server’s certificate is unknown. Please carefully examine the certificate to make sure the server can be trusted.

Proceeding past this error will then generate this error (image):

Error: The data connection could not be established: ECONNREFUSED – Connection refused by server

Solutions

To resolve this error, you must either connect via sFTP or disable TLS in FileZilla’s Site Manager.

Connecting via sFTP

Disabling TLS in the Site Manager

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What is my website’s root directory?

The root directory of your website is the content that loads when visitors access your domain name in a Web browser. The most obvious consequence of this is that you need to put your “index file” in your website’s root directory for visitors to see your site at all (more info).

Website-related applications might also need to know your website’s root directory.

Your website’s root directory depends on whether the domain name is your primary domain name or another type (more info).

Your primary domain name‘s root directory is /public_html.

Secondary and subdomain names’ root directories were specified when they were set up. You can find them listed in cPanel.

To Find Secondary (Addon) and Subdomains’ Root Directories

  1. Log in to your IFindHost – CheapDomainRegistration.com account.
  2. Click Hosting.
  3. Next to the account you want to use, click Manage.
  4. In the Domains section, click either Subdomains or Addon Domains, depending on the type of domain you’re using.

The root directory displays in the Document Root field.

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Upload your website files

You can upload your website files directly through cPanel. This will publish your website live on the internet.

 Note: As an alternative to the cPanel File Manager, you can instead upload your files with an FTP client.

Preparing your files

Uploading more than one file? You can save yourself a lot of time by creating a ZIP file on your computer with all of your website files. This is because the file manager in cPanel can only upload one file at a time.

Upload your files

  1. In your cPanel dashboard, under Files, click File Manager.
    1. Not in cPanel? Log in to your IFindHost – CheapDomainRegistration.com account.
    2. Click Web Hosting.
    3. Next to the account you want to use, click Manage.
  2. If an option window displays, select the directory you want to open, and then click Go.

     Note: cPanel uses public_html as the root directory of your primary domain name’s website. If you want to upload your website to the internet, this is where you should start. If you want to upload a website for a secondary or add-on domain, you should first verify your website’s root directory.

  3. Navigate to the directory where you want to upload the file.
  4. Click Choose File, locate the file on your local machine, and then click OK.
  5. After you upload the file you want, click Back to….
  6. Repeat these steps for any other files you want to upload.

Next steps

Now that your website is uploaded, you can visit your website by navigating to your domain in your web browser.

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Back up your website in cPanel

You should always keep backups of your website — there’s no other way to prepare for the unexpected. IFindHost – CheapDomainRegistration.com gives you two options for backups:

Method Additional fee Instructions
Automatic Yes Available through Site Backups
Manual No Use this article

Manual backups in cPanel

  1. From the cPanel home page, in the Files area, click Backups.
  2. In the Download a Home Directory Backup area, click Home Directory.

If you have any databases you should also download a backup of them by clicking the database’s name in the Download a MySQL Database Backup area.

Next step

More info

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Reset your website application (CMS) password

If your website has been compromised, you might need to change the administrator password for your website application (or Content Management System/CMS).

The process for this depends on your application, the situation you’re in, and your familiarity with different website tools. One common method of changing your administrator password that works for every CMS, though, is changing your password through phpMyAdmin (Web & Classic / cPanel / Plesk / Managed WordPress).

WordPress® Resetting Your Password
Joomla!™ How do you recover or reset your admin password?
Drupal™ Recovering the administrator password
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Install WordPress on your Linux-hosted domain using cPanel

If you want to use WordPress to build your website or use it for something like a blog, you have to first install it on your hosting account.

  1. From the cPanel home page, in the Web Applications section, click WordPress blog.
  2. Click Install this application.
  3. Complete the following fields, and then click Install:
    Field What to do…
    Location – Domain Select the domain name you want to use.

     Note: If you want to use a subdomain (e.g. subdomain.coolexample.com), you should add the subdomain to your account.
    Location – Directory (Optional) Enter the directory where you want to install WordPress.

     Warning: If you want to use WordPress as the website for the domain you selected in the Domain field, make sure the Directory field is empty. If you enter a word in the field, that is where WordPress will be installed, and the web address (URL) for the site you create will include the directory name. For example, if you type blog in the Directory field, the web address for your WordPress website will be coolexample.com/blog.
    Version Select the version of WordPress you want to use. We recommend using all of these default settings.
    Settings There are number of options here that are automatically generated for you. It’s important to note them because they include the username and password you will have to use to log in to your WordPress site.

     Warning: It is important to either note or change the Administrator Username and Administrator Password.
    Advanced Select how you want to manage advanced options like database management and backups.

Next step